Several weeks later-

Sarutobi sat in the uncomfortable chair behind the desk as his shinobi entered the tent that had been pitched on the roof top across from where the body of one of their ninja, Hayate Gekko had been found earlier. His dark eyes looking from one grim face to another. Everyone was here. Even Kyuubi stood hidden in the shadows wearing his sunglasses and black turtle neck shirt with the black cargo pants. Beside him his young daughter Naru, the new head of the Hyuuga family stood with her eyes down cast.

The poor child had been out for a stroll late last night and had smelled Hayates blood and gone to investigate. She had come up on the man as he lay dying, and had been forced to wait for his killer to leave before she could act. Hayates killer had been recognised as one of the Sand nin jounin who's team was taking part in the chunin exams. She had been forced to watch the jounin murder Hayate then leave.

She had reached him just as he took his last breath and had done everything that she could to save him, but it had been too late and the damage to his body had been too great to heal with a simple medical jutsu. She hadn't spoken a word to him since the Anbu had released her from one of the prison cells when they had found her cradling Hayates body in her arms and crying. They had thought that she had killed the poor man, and had even let several of the dead man's Anbu freinds beat her.

The bruises and broken bones had healed easily enough but now many people were suspicious of her. He sighed as he watched Iruka come into the tent and stop right beside her and look her over, his face pale.

"Naru, are you alright?" He asked gently as he reached out and took one of her small wrists in his hand and examined it, there were strange markings on her skin where the chakra restraints had been put around her wrists. She looked up at him and the man was suprised by the amount of anger and bitterness in her pretty eyes. But she quickly covered it up. She wasn't mad about the beating, or even being arrested and accused of murder. She was angry because she had watched another person die just so that she could collect information on the jutsu the killer used.

"I'm fine." Naru said in a soft scratchy voice. Her throat was sore from all of the crying she had done. Kyuubi reached over and trailed his fingertips along the marks that the chakra restraints had left on her neck, his lips peeling away from his teeth as he growled softly. He would get someone for treating his kit so badly, he could taste the blood in his mouth now.

Sarutobi started the meeting after Zabuza, Haku and Sakura appeared. "I know that you all know of what happened last night to Hayate, but what you don't know is that one of our genin came across the murder while it was taking place and had to forgo helping Hayate in lieu of gathering information. Naru, will you please step forward and tell us what you saw."

Naru looked up at him, her eyes flashing with temper. Sarutobi had to keep himself from squirming under the unwavering gaze as she stepped forward and bowed to him, to show respect then turned to face the crowd and begain to speak. He cocked his head, she had'nt show respect for his title in forever and a day. She must still be feeling numb from last nights events.

Once she was done speaking Sarutobi stood up and made his way to her side and put his hand on her shoulder, worried. He had never seen her look so defeated while everyone in the room considered what she had just said. Many of them knew the girl's prior exploits and knew deep down that she had had nothing to do with Hayates death, but some didn't beleive that to be true.

Kakashi looked at his student and wanted to stand up and wrap his arms around her, and comfort her. It must have broken her heart to witness the demise of one of their own. He had witnessed his fair share of death and knew that it was'nt an easy thing to take.

Sarutobi looked from one face to another and felt guilty. He had had a feeling that something like this would happen when Orochimaru had been spotted in the village during the second test. He had'nt shared any of the information with anyone but Kyuubi, whom he had asked to help try and capture the rogue sanin. I should have told them. If I had... He squeezed his eyes closed as the sorrow of Hayates death hit him like a ton of bricks. If he had told then the man might still be alive and well.

Hayates death was'nt Naru's burden to bear, it was his own. He had to tell them what he knew and send someone after Orochimaru to stop him. "I have some news of my own. Please forgive me for what I'm about to tell you all." Sarutobi said as everyone looked at him in silent alarm.

"Orochimaru is in the village. I'm afraid that I with held this information to keep the public from finding out and causing a panic. It would seem that Orochimaru has come to the village to extract his revenge, and to collect more of our shinobi to suit his purposes. I have already assigned someone to capture him, but sop far we have no leads." There was startled yells and cries of alarm from everyone in the tent.

"What could he want form our shinobi Lord Hokage?" Someone yelled as everyone quieted down again. They wanted to know what Orochimaru was after too. Sarutobi sighed again. This was such a pain.

It was obvious what the sanin wanted. Sasuke Uchiha. And Uzumaki Uzu were two of the most promising genin in the village. But Orochimaru had probably never heard of Uzu as anything more than the Kyuubi kid. Which was why she was one of the best people ot send out looking for him. He would'nt expect her to be able to go head to head with him and walk away.

As for Sasuke...it would seem that Kyuubi had taken a bit of a liking to him and had decided to keep the raven locked away where no one could find him. Which was perfect for them since it threw a monkey wrench in the sanin's plans.

"Naru, I want you to choose a team of people, and I want you to hunt down and kill Orochimaru." Sarutobi said as he looked at the blond. She jerked her head up to glare at him and gave him a cold smile. No problem there.

"Sure. Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Haku, Hinata, Zabuza, Neji and you with the red hair. Your my team. Sakura and I will engage the snake in combat the rest of you will split into teams of two and lay a few traps and wait for him, just in case he gets past us. Gai, Asuma, Koga, and Lee will be team two. I want three medical teams standing by. Will this work for you?" Naru asked as she looked at the old man. Sarutobi's jaw dropped.

She had already come up with a plan! He nodded mutely then regained his composure then asked. "How many medical nins do you think you might need?"

"Six in all. Two to supply chakra. Two to take care of small wounds, like simple cuts and bruises. And two surgeons per team, just in case someone needs to have a limb reattched and such." Naru said. Sarutobi nodded and blurted out.

"I'll be stepping down as Hokage." Everyone in the room turned their heads to look at him. He even had Naru's undevided attention.

Naru raised a brow at him and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I'm getting too old for this. After this mission is finished, I'm going to step down as the Hokage. Naru you are everything that a Hokage should be. You will be the Hokage when I step down." Sarutobi said as he took the blonds hand and showed his respect for her by pressing her knuckles to his forehead as he bowed over it.

Everyone in the room gasped. Some in shock, some in anger. Others in happiness. Iruka looked at Kakashi who looked at Zabuza who looked at-well no one since there was nothing but a wall beside him. Still it was just slightly shocking, even he had to admit that he had never seen that one coming.

Naru looked around the room nervously, she wasn't sure if she was ready to become the hokage yet. But once Sarutobi made up his mind about something you could kick and scream all you wanted but the man was going to get his way. So she smiled and said the traditional words, binding her to her new station. "You honor me with your choice. I will strive to be the leader that my people need."

Sarutobi raised his head and smiled at her as everyone in the room bowed to her to show their respect before she snapped her fingers and headed for the door. The people she had chosen to be her teams following close behind her. Sarutobi chuckled. They were in for some interesting times ahead. He mused before he walked out the back of the tent and looked around before taking off running as fast as he could yelling.

"I'm free! I'm free! No more paper work for me!"

Naru pulled on the breast plate of an Anbu uniform that the old man had given her for her last birthday and fastened the buckles under her arms. It may not look like much but the light weight armor was very strong and durable. It would come in handy if Orochimaru tried to pierce her heart. She looked over at Sakura and Hinata both of whom had theirs in place then glanced over at the men and snickered when Zabuza and Jiraiya started complaining.

"Gods I hate these damn things." Jiraiya hissed as he pulled his on over his mesh shirt.

"I'm getting a rash just looking at this thing."

"I want to take it off."

"Seriously, how does she expect us to fight in these when-is that a hive?" Zabuza almost screamed as he looked down at his chest.

"Ha, ha! Your allergic to leather. Sucks to be a gay man in a homophobes world." Jiraiya laughed as he pointed at the bigger man. Zabuza growled at the sage.

Sakura shook her head as Haku smacked both men in the back of the head and told them to shut the fuck up. "Are you sure we should take them with us?" She asked as she loked at the blond. Naru looked up from lacing her combat boots and shook her head. Actually no she wasn't so sure about taking them on this mission with them now.

"I'm suprised that their still alive today once you consider how disorginaised they are." She said as she stood up and tested her shoes out. She doubted that Orochimaru would stop trying to kill her if she had to tie her shoes during the fight.

"Your right about that, the dummies." Haku growled in irritation as he walked past them. The girls exchanged a funny look and followed him out while Zabuza watched them leave before moving to stand close to Kakashi.

"Are you going to tell her how you feel?" He asked as Kakashi fastened his Anbu regulation Capri pants and looked up at him.

"That is non of your buisness." He said as he tugged his shirt on over his head and fished around in his things for his dog tags.

Zabuza snorted. Like hell it wasn't his business, he had walked in on the man whacking off to Naru's genin picture enough to believe it was his business. He had been traumatised by the sight of Kakashi's junk after all.

"If you don't tell her, Hatake. Haku will take her from you." Kakashi leveled an I'll-kill-you look as the man smirked at the silver haired jounin and continued to dig his own grave.

"Haku really does like her. He even cries out her name during sex. And he's always comenting on how cute and charming she is-" Zabuza was slammed up against the wall by his neck. Kakashi's face a mere hairs breath from his own, his mis matched eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I will kill you if you don't back the fuck off. And keep your kid away from my girl."

The hunt for Orochimaru was going well thanks to Naru's uncanny ability to track people from a distance. She had sensed Orochimaru heading outside the village which is where she and Sakura found him, seaking with his spy after they had split from the other teams. Sakura looked at Naru and whispered.

"If we live through this whats the first thing your going to do?" Naru looked at Sakura as she pondered her question and thought that maybe she would act on her growing feelings for their sensei. Even she had to admit that once you got past the pervert thing, he was actually very cute.

"Fuck Kakashi-sensei's brains out. You?" Sakura blinked, turned red and looked at her like, uh-huh.

"Go to shinobi land amusment park, and I'm taking Lee-kun with me. And then after your done with sensei, I'll kill him and help you raise your little silver and blond haired babies together with our mutual wife Hina."

"Sweet." Naru said absentmindedly as she quieted down and kept her eyes on Orochimaru. He knew that they were there. She had hoped that he would'nt notice them, but she could see him glancing in their direction out of the corner of his eyes. He must be dying to turn his head and look at them, his right shoulder was starting to twitch spasmically. She tapped Sakura on the shoulder and pointed up into the tree branches.

Sakura nodded and followed her back a few dozen feet and then up into the trees, landing on a branch next to Naru several hundred feet up and wondered what the blond was thinking when she noticed that Orochimaru had created a clone and switched places with it. Naru scanned the tree limbs above them, to the sides and grabbed Sakura and threw herself back off of the tree limb as something slammed into the branch and shattered it with explosive force as she landed on a limb a little ways down from the former position, her arms still wrapped around Sakura.

"What have we here? Two little lost kittens." Orochimaru said from behind them, Naru stiffened for a second and threw Sakura away as something sharp pierced her shoulder dangerously close to her heart and she was dragged into the trees by the sanin.

"Naru!" Sakura screamed as she touched down and used the momentum from being thrown to leap higher as she followed Naru and the mad man up into the trees.

Orochimaru wrapped his tongue around the kittens throat as he reached out lazily and pulled the katana blade from her shoulder. She did'nt move or make a sound. Had she passed out already? What a weak little kitten. He thought as he started to drop her when her hand shot out and grasped his ankle and yanked his leg out from under him as she swung herself up and onto the branch and kicked him in the face before he could react.

Naru smirked nastily at the snake as she kicked him in the face, the sound of bones breaking as blood spattered the tree leaves made her very happy. She lifted him up in the air as he moaned and bitched about his pretty face being hurt and nailed him in the stomach as he opened his mouth and shot a broad sword at her head. She side stepped the blade as it saled toward her and was rewarded by a small cut on her cheek as Sakura attacked him from below.

Orochimaru was caught off guard by Sakura's first few attacks as she threw several kunai at him and used her latest jutsu to enhance her speed and get behind him and attached a paper bomb to his torso as Naru let her chakra flair and grinned when he screamed and went up in flames. Sakura stood beside her watching him writh and scream before he shot the broad sword at Naru again, Naru pushed Sakura back behind her and grabbed one of her kunai and used it to cut the organ off and grasp the heavy blade in her hand. Time to end it.

She took a flying leap and raised the blade up over her head and brought it down on the top of his burning head, splitting his body in half all the way down. Both halves dropped the the ground burning until she released the genjutsu she had placed n him when she had kicked him in the face and took out her radio.

"The snake is down. I repeat, the snake is down. Lets wrap it up and go home." Naru said as Both teams converged on thier spot and soon stood in a circle around the dead man's body.

"I don't believe it. You two actually did it." Kakashi muttered in shock as he stared down at the two halves. Was it really Orochimaru? It was too odd to think of him as being dead so he still felt he was alive.

"You did know that he could change bodies right?" Asuma asked as he looked at Naru. The blond grinned at him. Of course she knew that, she had placed a seal on his body that instantly changed his fake self with his real self once the fake was mortally wounded. She had done it while his tongue had been wrapped around her neck, by forcing so much of her chakra into his body and air drawing the formulas where he could'nt see her hand moving.

"Do a DNA test on him. I don't want to have to do this again." Naru said as she pressed her hand to her bleeding shoulder and started healing it while everyone all looked her over in amazment and awe. Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Those two really were the most supriseing ninja's he had ever come across.

Zabuza sighed and looked down at his chest, he was covered in itchy hives now for nothing. Everyone patted one another on the back as Kyuubi put his hand on Naru's head and ruffled her hair affectionately. Just two more weeks, and he would be no more. He looked at his daughter and smiled sadly as Sakura and Hinata hugged her once she was done healing her shoulder. This may be the last time she saw him as the father who raised her. He shrugged off the feelings of sadness and smiled happily at his little girl. His kit was going to be the Hokage soon. And he would be around long enough to see it happen.

Minito, you would be so damn proud of her.

Naru was at the top of the world. No literally, she was at the top...of the world, looking down over the faces in the village streets below. It had been over a week since Orochimaru's defeat, and Sarutobi had finally managed to plan out the ceremony swearing her in as the Hokage. She looked over her shoulder and glared at the flimsy white silk material keeping her from seeing her father, her team, her clan and her friends all standing behind her.

This was annoying. "Do you, Uzumaki Naru swear that you will protect this village, it's people, and such from any and all dangers with your life?" Do you swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth so help you god? I need to stop watching Law and Order SVU. Naru thought as she said her vow to take care of her people. Sarutobi smiled at her.

Good girl. She turned to face the villagers again and pulled the large straw hat off of her head and threw it up in the air as a loud cheer rang out from the sea of faces below. She looked down again and couldn't help but feel slightly overwhelmed. Or maybe she just felt nauseous because she was so high up. It was actually very hard to say. Kyubbi walked up behind her and wrapped an arm around her as Sakura and Haku came running up and nearly knocked her and Kyubbi both over as they tried ot hug her and congratulate her.

"Oh my god, your the Hokage! Eekk!" Eekk, was right, she was dreading the paper work already. She gave Sakura and nervous smile, she suddenly felt kind of faint. Must be the stress from the past week finally catching up to her.

"Wow, I'm on th same team as the new Hokage." Kakashi said as he appeared just a few feet away from her, his blue eye shining with amusement. He might not be so amused when she threw up on him since she was feeling a bit queasy.

She nodded her head and gave him a tight lipped smile then tried to take a step and was vaiguly aware of her vision fading in and out as her legs buckled and she started to fall, alarming everyone standing there. Kyubbi reached out and grabbed her before she could hit the ground and screamed.

"Medic!"

(-)

Naru was laying in the office, on one of the lounge chairs when she woke up with a groan. "Oh god. Don't tell me I actually fainted." Haku and Sakura grinned at her. Yup, she had fainted. And thanks to the fact that she was the Hokage now, they were'nt going to let her get away with it.

Kyubbi sighed, that had taken nearly a hundred years off of his life. "Yes, yes you did." Haku said with a grin.

"Pathetically, feminine of you to faint after becomeing the Hokage." Hinata said teasingly. Sakura snickered at Naru's horrified expresssion. Naru buried her face in her hands and felt the insane need to start crying, god she was stupid.

She had been so busy putting things in order for the Hyuga clan, and some other things, she had been so busy since killing Orochimaru that she had'nt even been sleeping. And she still had'nt asked Kakashi out on a date!

And now that she was the Hokage, freeing up her time was going to be even more difficult. She made an irritated sound and dropped her hands from her face.

"Is everything okay?" Sakura asked as she dropped to her knees in front of Naru. Her sister gave her a dark look making her smile as she lay her head on Naru's knee and let her thread her fingers through her soft pink hair as she tried to work her problem out mentally.

"I need you to throw everyone out of here except for..." Sakura looked at her, grinned and turned and whistled at Haku who gave her a strange look as she mouthed the words, Get everyone out.

He smirked and grabbed the nearest people and cheerfully dragged them out the door saying, "Okay everyone time to go."

Sakura grabbed Kyubbi and Sarutobi, "Nothing to see here people. Let the girl work!" Kyubbi said nothing as the pinkette dragged him and the former Hokage from the room, he may be a demon, but he wanted to live what little time he had left without spending it in the hospital in tracktion. He doubted that Iruka would visit him if he did.

Naru remained quiet until everyone was gone from the room ecxept for her and Kakashi, who was looking a little uncomfortable as she stared at him. "Kakashi..."

He looked at her, curious to see what she had to say, and why she had'nt wanted anyone else privy to their conversation. Naru looked at her shoes for a second and started to figit, jesus fucking christ, why did this have to feel so hard? The words were simply enough.

'I like you-no scratch that, I love you, will you be my boyfriend?' She made a distressed sound and ran her fingers through her hair. "Is everything okay?" Kakashi asked curiously.

She looked at him, gave him a nervous laugh and then looked away. Spit it out girl. He thought in irritation. He had never seen the little spit fire look so out of sorts before. "Kakashi...I-I l-l-l-lo-" Naru stuttered as he raised an eye brow at her and smiled.

Ah so that's what she was trying to say. No wonder she was having such trouble speaking to him. It was never easy to confess one's feelings for the one that they loved. He let her continue on for a few more minutes to see how far she would get before she started to squirm before he finally sighed and yanked down his mask and dropped to one knee in front of her and watched her expression as she caught sight of his face, shocking her into silence. But only for a second before she started to speak again.

"Oh my god Kakashi, is that really you? Your hot! Like really, really, really hot. Someone should get a fire extinguisher and put you out. Your that hot." He gave her a slow smile as his shoulders shook in silent laughter. Did the stupid girl think that he would look like an ogre under his mask or something?

"Then will you kiss me?" He asked softly as she reached out to run her finger tips along his scared cheek and smiled as she leaned in and pressed her lips against his in a tender kiss. He closed his eye and sighed as he framed her face in his hands and licked along her bottom lip until she parted her lips for him and let him deepen the kiss as the office door opened and Sakura, Haku and Zabuza peeked in.

Zabuza's jaw dropped. Haku blushed and Sakura smirked and quickly called out,

"Ride him until he breaks!" Then closed the door as the two pulled away form each other and Naru's face turned red and she started to stutter as Kakashi looked at the closed door then back at her with a comical expression.

"Did she just say what I think she said?"

"Kill her dead. Yes, yes she did. And it sounds like such a nice plan." Naru said after a second or so. Kakashi laughed and wrapped his arms around her.

"Need help killing her?"

(-)

okay people, this is what's going on, i have decided to continue this story until i can't write any more. please be sure to contact caliko and tell her how happy you all are and i will update this as soon as i have an idea of what to do. I would like to pick up the story with a part two that starts around the time sauske defects.

please review and tell me what you think.