Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters
'Thinking.'
"Talking."
"Kyūbi/Jutsu."
Chapter 24: Revisiting Old Bonds
"Godaime Hokage?!" exclaimed Naruto from her seat in the bar. She, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune were at the table with her, the same table in the same bar where the former two had discovered the women a few days ago. After the long and exhausting battle the previous day, the group had returned to the inn they were staying at to rest up before making their way to Konoha. To finish the fight, Tsunade had used the jutsu she had been building up for a number of years at the cost of what little chakra she had left, most of which had thankfully been recovered after a long night's rest. As for Jiraiya, the last of the poison the female Sannin had slipped into his drink had disappeared, leaving him at almost 100%, more than enough for the group to comfortably start their journey. "She's actually the new Hokage, starting today…" the girl mumbled.
"What's wrong, Naruto? You look disheartened by that," inquired Jiraiya. Due to the poison, he hadn't been able to do much against Orochimaru during the fight except for momentarily distracting him. Even his summoning of Gamabunta was only really used to counter attacks from Manda, Orochimaru's giant summon. It was Tsunade that had eventually forced the snake Sannin and his assistant to retreat with a brutal beating that even Jiraiya almost had to feel pity for the man. Almost.
"Well if you compare her to the Sandaime there's something that's just kinda… off," replied the blonde, closing her eyes and raising a hand to rub her chin like she was in deep thought. Knowing that the only deep thoughts the girl ever seemed to have was how many toppings she wanted on her ramen, Jiraiya smirked when he realised; she was using the tactic Tsunade used against her when they first met. "I mean she's rude, selfish, really bad with money and not nearly as smart as he was. I just don't know how long the village will last before it all goes up in flames," the Uzumaki crossed her arms and leaned back against the booth's seat when she finished.
Shizune, fearing for the life her mentor had greatly risked herself to save the day before, attempted to deescalate the situation. "Ah, Tsuande-sama, would you like me to order some more sake? Your bottle is looking a little-"
"Moreover, how can the village trust a 50-year-old woman that uses a jutsu to make herself appear half that? I'd be surprised if she wasn't laughed out of the next Five Kage Summit," Naruto interrupted the brunette, lifting her head and sighing in mock disappointment. Jiraiya covered his mouth with his hand as the older blonde in question stood up and leaned across the table which squeaked under the sudden weight. Looking down at her fists, the Gama Sennin silently giggled when he saw a faint outline of chakra, likely the cause of the table's protests.
"That's it. You and me, outside. Now."
"Just like before: one finger. That's all I'll need, brat."
"Hey! Don't call me a brat! One day I'm gonna be stronger than both you and all the other Kage that have ever walked this earth, remember that!" exclaimed the jinchūriki with a determined grin on her face, thrusting her fist out in front of her.
Tsunade gently smiled as she watched Naruto's newly acquired necklace sway with the blonde's movements, joyfully recalling how she got it from the older woman.
Flashback
With Kabuto laying still and no longer an immediate threat the medical ninja got to work, using a small chakra scalpel to cut the girl's t-shirt in order to reach her chest. Tsunade quickly formed the hand seal she had made thousands of times over, feeling the warmth her green healing chakra emitted momentarily before carefully placing hands on Naruto's chest, right above where her heart would be. Tsunade frowned, noting the extensive damage to the girl's heart muscles.
'Kabuto really wanted her out of this fight and probably assumed that once I was out of the way it would just be a simple matter of healing Naruto enough so she wouldn't die. Risky, but I suppose that's what happens when you're cocky like that,' the woman thought and she slowly restored the heart, sighing in relief when she could feel it start to beat at a normal rate. Now that Naruto was no longer teetering on the edge between life and death, Tsunade explored the girl's chakra network more, confirming what she already knew. 'So, he did mark her. What a disgusting, vile little… snake!'
Between her and Jiraiya, she was the first one to cut her connection to Orochimaru when he betrayed the village while Jiraiya, for a number of years, tried to reason with him and convince him to come back. Even before that she had never truly trusted Orochimaru like she grew to trust her other male teammate, always believing that one day he would cross a line. How unfortunate that she was right, and even to this day he still persistently meddles with her life and the lives of those she cares about.
Feeling a light tugging from around her neck, Tsunade looked down, surprised to see the girl awake already. "This… this is mine," she said wearily, hand barely strong enough to wrap her fingers around the green crystal. The Senju smiled, bringing her own hands up to cover Naruto's and heal the wound made by Kabuto's kunai. From that moment, the Senju's mind was made up. For one last time, she would bet on someone else.
Mistaking Tsunade's reminiscence to mean she was distracted; Naruto quickly threw a kunai at the woman while also charging at her. The older blonde smirked and prepared to deflect it with her finger but her overconfidence was short-lived when the surprisingly well-hidden smokeball attached to the flying projectile set off, creating a medium-sized cloud of pale-yellow smoke. Expecting an attack from around the edges of the cloud, Tsunade's eyes darted all over, waiting for the jinchūriki to reveal herself. Suddenly two clones appeared from both the left and right sides of the cloud, one wielding a black bow and the other just another kunai. At the same time, the two clones sent their attacks at the woman, however she was simply too fast. Using her finger, the Sannin grabbed the kunai by the loop just before it reached her, twirled it around and made a horizontal slash with it, slicing the incoming arrow right down the middle. This, of course, left her open to an attack which was exactly what the Uzumaki was counting on.
The original appeared from the smoke, gauntlet on her right arm but no special chakra coating it this time, likely because she no longer wanted to hurt the older blonde. With a cry, Naruto brought her fist towards Tsunade's stomach, so close to finally landing a hit against her, but once again she proved why the title of Sannin was given to her.
Using her newly acquired kunai, Tsunade brought it back faster than Naruto could blink and lodged it in the space between Naruto's covered thumb and index finger. With just her natural physical strength, the Senju pushed Naruto's fist away, leaving the girl off-balance and unable to defend herself from the next attack.
'Shit, she's gonna flick my forehead again!' thought the Uzumaki in a panic, quickly closing her eye and praying that it wouldn't hurt that badly, but the pain never came. Instead she felt a gentle hold on her chin and a pair of soft, warm lips on her forehead. Opening her eye, she was shocked to see Tsunade bent over and kissing her head. Like a mother would, she supposed.
"Naruto," she almost whispered, pulling back from the girl before placing her hand on her chest, where her heart would be, "become a strong kunoichi."
The Uzumaki took an involuntary step back, redness creeping up her face from embarrassment, but the good kind of embarrassment. Closing her eye and throwing her arms behind her head, she replied, "Yeah!" with a shaky voice, not at all used to this kind of close comfort. Tsunade chuckled, a warm smile on her face which also made Shizune smile as it had been quite some time since she last saw such genuine happiness on her mentor's face.
"All right, time to head back home!" exclaimed Jiraiya as gave everyone a thumbs up. He laughed when Naruto immediately began to protest as she "hasn't had anything to eat yet" but his mind wandered, thinking back to some of the things his ex-teammate had said to him the previous day.
Flashback
"You taught her the Rasengan, Jiraiya? I suppose I should thank you, then. Naruto-chan will make an excellent host," commented the notorious missing-ninja, the corner of his mouth curling up into a smirk.
"If you really think you'll be sinking your fangs into her, you'd be sorely mistaken. I would fight a thousand battles before letting you take her," replied the Gama Sennin, crossing his arms and hoping that if he glared hard enough, Orochimaru would combust.
"Then it's a good thing you don't really have any choice in the matter, hm? Naruto-chan will come to me eventually, she seeks power that only I can give her. You don't actually think she wants to be confined to the village, do you? Have you seen the way they treat her? What they did to her? I'm rather surprised she hasn't gone on a rampage and recreated the day of her birth," Orochimaru chuckled when Jiraiya furrowed his brow in sadness. So he did know.
"Naruto isn't like you; she isn't so desperate to fall into your hands like that. She knows I can train her myself. I was the sensei of Konoha's Yondaime Hokage, the Yellow fucking Flash. What have you done, Orochimaru? Created some new pets? Broke some more shinobi ethics laws?"
"Which summon has she allied herself with, hm? Seems to me she's already one foot in my court," the missing-ninja grinned, knowing he was right.
Jiraiya's lips curled into a snarl, now on the defensive. "That had nothing to do with you, you bastard! If you must know, Naruto is very close to one your failed experiments who has nothing but complete, and utter hatred for you. Naruto signed the contract because of her, not you. Never you," the man didn't actually consider Anko a 'failed experiment', he just wanted to get under his ex-teammate's skin and mentioning the Mitarashi thankfully did just that.
"Well then Jiraiya, if you truly believe that Naruto-chan will never come to me of her own volition, then maybe I will have to simply take her. Try and stop me, if you can!" suddenly the snake Sannin jumped off the snake, his body gliding down its back, and the fight continued.
Naruto and her loyalty have been on his mind ever since. He had once threated his teammate and lifelong friend with death should she ever betray the village, but could he ever do that to Naruto? If she did leave and betray the village, who would he have to blame? He could spend hours going over the hatred the Uzumaki has experienced in her life, picking out names of the worst offenders and writing up a hitlist, however he couldn't help but always drift back to his own. He should've done something, should've been there for her. Logically, he knew that would not have been possible due the constant attention his spy network required, hence why he spends almost all of his time outside the village and travelling all over the continent, but there was that forever present nagging in his heart that just screamed "you could have helped her!"
"Oi, Ero-Sennin!" a shout pulled Jiraiya from his thoughts. Looking up, he saw the three kunoichi already walking away with their bags, waving at him to hurry up.
'Must've been thinking longer than I was aware of…' the man thought, grinning at his companions before quickly catching up to them. The four ninjas then started on a brisk walk, wanting to get back to the village as soon as possible, all for their own reasons. It took the white-haired man a few moments before he realised… "Hey! I thought I told you to stop calling me that!"
A Couple Days Later…
"I'm sorry everyone, but class is over for the rest of the day," Konohamaru perked up at the mention of a free day, as did many of the other students in the class if the cheers of joy were anything to go by. After putting his pencil back in his pocket, the Sarutobi stood up from his desk and tucked his chair in. "The assignment will instead be given as homework for next week," added Iruka just before leaving the room, chuckling to himself at the immediate change in attitude in the room. Konohamaru tuned it out, however, and instead made his way out the classroom through the door at the back, his friends following closely behind him. After leaving the academy building, Konohamaru walked the usual route home which always took him past the Hokage tower, but this time something felt off to him. Stopping suddenly, Udon and Moegi almost walked right into him, their small talk now left unfinished as they stared at their friend in confusion.
"Konohamaru-kun!" called Moegi as the young boy broke into a sprint towards the tower, but he didn't stop. Running up the steps, he made it to about step 100 before being forced to stop. Coming down from the top of the tower were Izumo and Kotetsu, perhaps two of Konohagakure's most famous chūnin, carrying items that belonged to the late Sandaime Hokage.
Clenching his fists, Konohamaru stepped directly in front of them to block their path. "Where the hell do you think you're taking my grandfather's things, huh? Put them back!" he yelled, gritting his teeth.
"Ah, Omago-sama…" [1] Kotetsu trailed off, looking down sheepishly at the objects in his hands. "Well, they are no longer being used and so we're taking them into storage. The Godaime doesn't smoke, so-"
"Godaime?! No…" Konohamaru swallowed the lump in his throat. "No! It's too soon!" he yelled, roughly pushing past the two chūnin to go continue up the tower. Once a little further up, the boy turned to go through the door but was stopped by a strong, yet oddly soft and warm, barrier. Looking up, he was mortified to see that he had run face-first into the cleavage of a tall (and very beautiful) woman. Jumping back in shock, he pointed a finger at her and tried to cover up his embarrassment. "What are you doing here?!"
"What am I doing here? I should be asking you, you little pervert!" the woman shouted back, hands against her hips in a similar way as a teacher scolding their young student.
His face growing redder by the second, the Sarutobi pulled his hand back and made a fist. "I dare you to say that again!"
"Oh? You want me to say it again?" asked the woman, a smug look on her face. "Lit-tle per-vert," she enunciated, much to the annoyance of the boy.
"Don't call me that!" demanded Konohamaru as he stepped closer to her, now raising his other fist, but before the woman could reply someone else caught their attention.
"Tsunade-sama!" a young woman in a black kimono and carrying a small pig came from around the corner. "The elders are waiting, we should hurry."
"Yes, I suppose it can't be helped," the woman, now identified as 'Tsunade', turned to face the newcomer. Gently poking Konohamaru on the forehead, she smiled and said, "Be more careful next time, little boy."
Konohamaru watched as the two women left, rubbing the spot that Tsunade had poked before throwing his hands in the air. "I'm not a little boy!" he yelled, ready to chase after her and get right back to their little argument before something hit him from the side, taking him off his feet and sending him on his ass. "Oh, what the hell is it this time?!"
Naruto rubbed the spot on her head that had made impact with the floor, both because of the physical injury and the Kyūbi's boisterous laughter rattling in her mind. "Who the fu-" started Naruto before she looked up, her eye widening at the sight of the Sandaime's grandson. "Konohamaru?"
"Naruto!" he shouted excitedly, immediately jumping up and onto his feet, the Uzumaki following suit. "Long time no see!"
"Yeah, yeah… Hey, you haven't seen a scary old lady with big, uh… 'features', have you?" the girl asked, borrowing Jiraiya's word. "Well, I guess she's actually young, but only on the outside. Keep that in mind."
Konohamaru scoffed, crossing his arms. "I saw her, all right. Who is she?"
"Damn it, it doesn't matter who she is, it's where she's meant to be. She promised she would heal Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei as soon as she got back, but of course that was a lie. I need to get back to training! Never trust anyone that lies about their age." Pacing a few steps up and down the corridor, she mumbled, "I mean come on, surely her first act as Hokage should be to tend to her citizens, right?"
"H… Hokage?" Konohamaru asked frightfully, hoping he had simply misheard the girl.
Stopping her pacing, Naruto turned to face him again. "Yeah, she's the Godaime Hokage," she replied, not realising how significantly that could impact the boy. She continued her pacing while mumbling to herself.
"You're lying…" the Sarutobi whispered, getting Naruto's attention again. "I don't believe you! You have to be lying!" he shouted before sprinting back down the steps, Naruto poking her head out the doorway to watch him leave, confusion evident on her face.
About 30 Minutes Later…
"Oh man, Shizune I'm exhausted. Have a bottle of sake prepared on my desk for me, won't you?" Tsunade requested, Shizune nodding in acknowledgment. Her meeting with the village elders was as boring as she had anticipated and now, she was in desperate need for some relaxation. That was, unfortunately, not to be.
"You!" came a voice from behind her as she exited through the same doorway Konohamaru had earlier. Stood to the side of it was Uzumaki Naruto, her finger pointing at the woman's face like an accusation. Tsunade's eyebrow ticked, wondering why there was a sudden trend of young people pointing their fingers in her face. "You're gonna skip the sake today, you still have stuff to do."
"Oh? Like what?" she asked, her arms folded in her long sleeves.
"You still need to get to the hospital and heal Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and Lee, like you promised," Naruto huffed, angry at the woman's forgetfulness.
"Ohhh, yes, I did promise. Very well then. Shizune, Naruto, let's go," Tsunade waved her hand towards the two and they continued down the tower, heading towards the hospital. On the way down they encountered Shikamaru and his father. Stopping to chat for a bit, Shikamaru of course was bothered by the fact that the new Hokage was a woman. A troublesome woman, if anything Naruto just told him was true. There were a lot of those around lately, he thought.
Haruno Sakura fiddled with the white orchid in her hands, gently tugging at the green leaves on the stem. Like most recent days she was sat at the bedside of her teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, at Konoha's hospital. Ever since he was brought back by Gai she had been bringing the boy flowers and some fruit snacks, just in case he would suddenly wake up, but alas another day went by without his miraculous recovery. The kunoichi had heard from another ninja that her other teammate, Uzumaki Naruto, had left with one of the great Sannin, Jiraiya, to go find another Sannin, this one was supposedly the greatest medical ninja in the world. Senju Tsunade. She just hoped she would be able to help not only Sasuke but her sensei and sort-of-friend, Lee.
Speaking of the Sannin, however, she began to wonder how someone like Jiraiya and Tsunade could have ever been on the same team as someone as vile as Orochimaru. What went wrong with him? The sound of the door opening brought the girl out of her thoughts. Putting the flower back in the vase and standing up to greet whoever it was, the Haruno almost gasped at the sight of the visitor.
"Who… who are you?" she asked, a puzzled expression on her face. 'She's so beautiful…' Before the woman could answer, her blonde teammate entered the room, followed by a woman with medium-length black hair. "Ah, Naruto-chan!" she called, a smile appearing on her face and a brightness in her eyes, which did not go unnoticed by the older blonde woman. The newcomer almost completely forgotten about; Sakura barely noticed her step past to stand by Sasuke's side. "You're back! How was your trip?"
"Successful. She's gonna heal Sasuke," replied Naruto as she went to casually lean against the foot of Sasuke's bed.
"She is?" asked Sakura, wondering why this woman was healing him and not the Sannin she heard about.
"Yeah. I suppose you don't get much better than her."
Putting two and two together, the Haruno gasped. "Wait, she's Senju Tsunade? But she's so young!" When her teammate chuckled, Sakura's hands flew to cover her mouth as she realised how rude that could have sounded.
"It's all right, I get that a lot," Tsunade said, the first words that had come out of her mouth since she entered the room. Sakura watched intently as a glowing green chakra surrounded the Sannin's hand before it was placed on Sasuke's forehead, the boy's eyes screwing shut tightly. After a few moments, the glow stopped and Tsunade removed her hand just as a groan escaped Sasuke's mouth, his eyes now fluttering open.
"Sasuke…" whispered Sakura, her hand falling from her mouth in relief. Slowly, he sat up and let the bed covers pool at his waist, a blank look in his eyes like he had just been woken from a long, long sleep. I suppose, in a way, he did. "Sasuke!" the Haruno cried, throwing her arm around his neck in a hug. After watching her teammate, and friend, lay still for days knowing he was likely in a great amount of pain had made her miss him dearly.
The Senju watched the reunion with a warm smile on her face, recognising a valued friendship between comrades when she saw one. Turning to look at the younger blonde in the room, the corner of her mouth almost turned up even more when she noticed what was perhaps… jealousy? Whatever the emotion was, it was gone within a second as the jinchūriki pushed herself away from the bed and left the room, only to stick her hand back in and make a 'follow me' motion. After wishing the boy a successful recovery, Tsunade followed Naruto out of the room, Shizune in tow as always.
"How pitiful, eh Kakashi? Taken down so badly by just two enemy ninjas?" the Senju made a 'tsk' sound, her arms folding across her chest. She had just finished healing the man up and he had awoken in the same way as Sasuke did: a blank look in his visible eye.
"I apologise, Tsunade-sama," he replied, not realising the woman was merely teasing him.
"Is he going to be okay?" asked the man currently sitting next to Kakashi's bed, opposite from Tsunade. He was holding the masked ninja's hand, something that Naruto hadn't realised before now.
"Wait, hold on… Iruka-sensei, are you and Kakashi-sensei together?" she asked, her eyebrows raised in surprise. "How come I didn't know this sooner?"
"Oh… yes, we are. We have been for… three years now?" Kakashi nodded, so the chūnin continued. "We just don't tend to publicise it because… well…"
The Uzumaki looked at her old sensei in confusion. "I don't get it. Is it because you're both men? I mean homosexuality has been normalised for quite some time now so-"
"Ah! No, no that's not it," the man interrupted, waving his hand. "It's just that Kakashi is such an infamous ninja, he has many enemies that wouldn't hesitate to target me if it meant hurting him. We don't exactly hide our relationship, but let's just say you wouldn't see us walking through the streets while holding hands, you know?"
At that, Kakashi coughed, not because he was physically ill but to get the attention of the room. "Iruka, you said something about getting ramen with Naruto when she got back, right? You should do that now."
"Kakashi, no, you just got better-"
"And you have been at my side almost twenty-four hours a day, every day. You deserve a break. Please," insisted Kakashi, squeezing Iruka's hand. "I'll be fine here, I've got the best care anyone could ever ask for," he said, gesturing to the Sannin.
"I… okay, you're right. Naruto?" Iruka turned to look at the girl who just nodded her head. After promising the Hatake that he would bring him back some ramen, the chūnin left with his ex-student, leaving just the two medical ninja, Kakashi and Gai. Speaking of Gai…
Tsunade glanced at the man currently nervously tugging on the curtain that was used to surround the bed and give the occupant some privacy. She knew him to be Maito Gai, jōnin sensei to Rock Lee, the next patient on her list.
"All right, now that Kakashi has been ticked off I can now go see-"
"Yes, yes please! Please hurry and look at my student, Lee!" the green jumpsuit wearing man threw the curtain back and almost jumped in the air, ignoring the way the woman glared at him for cutting her off. Tsunade sighed and signalled for him to lead the way.
"Thanks for waiting!" exclaimed Teuchi as he placed a large bowl of miso ramen, extra pork toppings, in front of the hungry kunoichi. Picking up and breaking apart a pair of chopsticks, Naruto eagerly dug into the meal, almost like she had been starved for the last few days. Iruka loved how ramen never failed to bring at least a semblance of the old Naruto back.
"Naruto," he said, getting her attention. She would've asked what he wanted but she was currently chewing away at a big mouthful of noodles and could only 'hm?' in response. "You've really come a long way since the times you desperately wanted this, huh?" Iruka asked as he fiddled with his headband. The Uzumaki looked down at her own tied around her waist. Sometimes she forgot it was there, already used to its weight. It was a symbol of belonging, or so she was told. Belonging to a village, to a people, a way of life. The girl was still unsure how she felt about that.
She swallowed the noodles. "Yeah, I guess I have," she replied before putting the bowl down on the counter. "I've gotten really strong, eh?"
The chūnin grinned, happy to hear that. "Hey now, don't get so cocky, you've still got a long way to go!" the man teased, picking a vegetable out of his own ramen and eating it. After a few moments, he swallowed it and turned to look at the Hokage Rock, specifically the faces of the Sandaime and Yondaime Hokages. "Remember when you would always say that one day your face would be up there?"
Naruto paused and turned around to see what her sensei was talking about. When she saw the monument, her face turned to a frown. The girl hummed in acknowledgement before turning back to her food, finishing the last of the noodles before drinking the broth.
"Do you think you still want to be up there?" the man asked, also turning back.
"Nah, not really. I mean once upon a time it seemed like a good idea. If I'm Hokage there would be no way that others would be allowed to treat me like shit, but it's an unrealistic dream. No one would want me to do it."
"If that's the only reason why you wouldn't do it, then I say you should still go for it. You have no idea how the village's view on you will change within the next, let's say, ten years. For all you know, you could become the next hero of Konoha!"
Naruto laughed at that, setting her chopsticks down. "What, like the Yondaime? He was one of the main reasons why Konoha won so many battles during the war, right? That's why he was named the next Hokage?"
Iruka nodded. "Yes, that's correct. He quickly became a hero and was warmly welcomed, despite coming from basically nothing. It was because of his war effort that he gained recognition, and I believe you can do that too."
The Uzumaki pondered his words for a few moments. This man had been with her for about half of her life and was always the first one to believe in her, despite the hell she put him through with her pranks and other shenanigans conducted with some of the boys from her class. Sometimes she wished she could tell him how she truly felt, how she has wanted an escape from this place for so long. Becoming the leader of this village had become the exact opposite of what she wanted, but she feared telling him would cause a rift between the two. 'Also, I'd probably get put on a "Potential Rogue Ninja" watchlist…'
"Thanks, Iruka-sensei. Who knows, maybe I'll think about it," satisfied by her response, the man finished his bowl and ordered another two for the both of them.
"Hey, listen Naruto," he placed his bowl inside Naruto's and put them on the higher counter for Ayame to clear away. "The village is in a serious spot right now. With the Sandaime's death and the loss of many talented ninjas, the village is starting to look weak in the eyes of our enemies, and they're not entirely wrong. We're at about half of what our strength used to be, but despite that we have to continue to carry out our missions."
"Huh? Why is that? If the village is lacking so many ninjas, why keep sending them out? Shouldn't we keep them here?"
The chūnin shook his head. "If we start turning down missions that will only be a confirmation to our enemies that we are weak and vulnerable to further attack, even Kakashi will be sent out on missions soon."
"I see… that's rough, Iruka-sensei," the Uzumaki, looking unbothered by this revelation, just accepted the new bowl of ramen and continued to eat.
"Hey, this concerns you too!" he exclaimed, also accepting his bowl. "You need to keep playing your role and accepting new missions as they come, to help Tsunade-sama in keeping the village running. She has a really difficult job ahead of her, you know. Becoming Hokage is one thing, but becoming Hokage right after a major attack that resulted in the death of the previous Hokage? I don't even want to think about all the paperwork that's ahead of her."
Naruto just nodded, whether in actual agreement or just a way to get him to stop talking, Iruka didn't know. "And I'll do that… right after this!" she declared before wolfing down the food.
Iruka laughed, greatly amused by the girl's behaviour. "That's just like you, Naruto. Always thinking with your stomach, hm?" the man reached over, placing his hand on her shoulder and squeezing. "Just remember to keep doing your best, yeah? Do that, and you'll never go wrong."
The Uzumaki looked up at him, the person she had considered a close mentor and almost like… a father. This time when she nodded, she made sure to smile. A real, and very genuine, smile.
A/N: Hello, I'm back. Sorry for the long wait, but it's been one heck of a year. I started writing this chapter a few weeks back but ya know, a pandemic happened. Oof.
I was really planning on getting this posted a few days ago but there was a bit of a corona scare within my family and my time was taken up, but it was fortunately just a rough cold so here we go! I should have more free time soon so expect another chapter out within a week or so.
In the next chapter we'll see Sasuke and Naruto's famous rooftop battle, something that I'm very excited for because I'll get to showcase a bunch of Naruto's new abilities all in one fight. She hasn't been doing just nothing over the last few weeks, after all.
[1] Omago-sama – 'Honourable Grandson'
