A/N: sorry for the late upload it's been Hectic here
kinda waffled with this one? idk how I feel abt it but oh well on with the show
Traditionally, the title of Kage is bestowed upon the strongest person in the village.
Historically, the title tends to be passed down teacher-to-student.
Privately, Sakura wonders if this is why the system has always been so broken.
Initially, it would've made sense that the leader of the Village be the strongest. In times of war - during the Foundation especially - being the strongest implied surviving countless battles and accruing the sort of leadership and technical proficiency necessary to keep your soldiers alive. Being the strongest also meant taking on only those students who displayed talent that would've been wasted under anybody else's tutelage.
The problem begins when the hat stays only within that unbroken line. The strongest teach the most talented, who then have a greater chance of survival; they grow stronger, take over as leaders, and then accept the next generation of geniuses to prime them for candidacy.
Places like Suna don't bother trying to hide it. The Kage hat has passed from father to son since its inception and would have continued that way if the war never happened. Konoha, though, likes to pretend. That their system is the most just. That anybody can become Hokage if they train hard enough. That equal opportunities exist for all.
Hashirama died before taking on a student. Tobirama taught Hiruzen, who taught Jiraiya and Tsunade; though Jiraiya never showed any interest in Kageship, he went on to teach Minato, who taught Kakashi and fathered Naruto. Tsunade ascended, and had their era not been smothered out alongside the original Will of Fire, there's no doubt Naruto would have been next.
Equal opportunities. What a joke. A civilian nobody like Haruno Sakura wouldn't have made anybody blink twice if she hadn't clawed her way to the top under Tsunade's tutelage, spelling her name out in Sasori's poisonous blood for the world to see. Everything about her has always been because of her. She's book-smart because she works hard, not because she's a Nara. She's powerful because she broke her bones until they calcified into something more reliable than armour, not because she was born into a clan with massive chakra reserves. She's kind because she knows what it is to hate and be hated.
And yet, even in this timeline, where all people know is that she's a powerful kunoichi with medical prowess bordering on inhuman, she knows she will never be up for the hat.
Not when Madara has it.
"Is there something wrong?"
Sakura blinks. "What?"
"You've been staring and haven't blinked in about five minutes. Is there something wrong?" Madara repeats slowly.
"No, just…" she trails off, staring out the window in the hopes of finding an excuse in the clouds.
The new (old?) Hokage Tower is one of three or four fully completed buildings in Konoha. Hashirama wasted no time in erecting it smack dab in the middle of the Village, ignoring Tobirama's complaints about security vulnerabilities the whole time. Madara kept quiet and let the brothers duke it out, only occasionally turning to Sakura to ask how close the current setup was to the one from her time. Any deviations, no matter how slight, were adjusted accordingly.
So now, Sakura sits behind a desk that is both hers and isn't, looks out at a Village that is both hers and isn't, and wonders when she'll be able to reconcile this world and everything in it as belonging to her.
Then again, it's not like she belongs to it so maybe she has to prove something to the world for it to deem her worthy yet again.
After a couple minutes pass and she's positive he's wrapped up in all sorts of legal babble, Sakura peeks at him out of the corner of her eye once more. Madara's a surprisingly decent Hokage; knowing what she does of his atrocities, she can never, in good conscience, say he's a good Hokage, but Sakura's pride is neither as inflated nor fragile as Sasuke's or Naruto's so she will grudgingly admit he's decent.
Paperwork is organized, completed, and filed daily. Complaints are handled as soon as they arrive. He doesn't play bullshit politics and has no problem tongue-lashing sneaky Elders back into their corners. When Hashirama and Tobirama offer their advice, he listens - and then makes sure to ask her for her opinion. He's quiet, diligent, and doesn't do small talk.
It's disconcerting how the megalomaniac who slaughtered thousands in under two minutes back in her time has turned into the world's most perfect pencil pusher overnight.
Madara drops his brush on the desk and crosses his arms over his chest. "I won't ask again: is something wrong."
"No!"
"Then why do you keep staring?"
"I…" Sakura flounders for a second before pointing out the massive bay window. "We should be out there."
"We have work to do. This Village won't run itself no matter what the idiots in your era led you to believe."
"Our era," Sakura grits out, refusing to take the bait. "And Tsunade-shishou would run circles around you. No, I meant we should be out there helping with construction."
"Why?" Madara inquires, "The craftsmen craft, and the shinobi do their work. Simple as that."
"We're two of the strongest people in the village and we're currently working on…" Sakura's brow raises as she scans the document on her desk. "Tax breaks. We don't even have a tax system set up yet, why do we need tax breaks?"
"The Sarutobi have been trying to get it approved since last week. Ignore it."
The paper finds itself slipped into the bottom of the pile to her right. "Consider it ignored. But the point I'm trying to make is...it doesn't matter that we're not construction workers by trade. You're the Hokage and these are your people. You should be out there mingling with them, showing them that you care."
"I do care. That's why we're doing all this." Madara gestures between their desks and the stacks of paperwork between them. Sakura picks up one of the scratch sheets, balls it up, and lobs it at his head. It falls short by about two feet.
"They don't care that you're passing legislation to benefit them and neither do I. All they care about is that the guy who went from mass murdering their relatives to leading them is currently holed up in the prettiest building in the Village doing god-knows-what and living lavishly while they're not!" she snaps, slamming her fist into the desk. His eyes flicker to her hand, following the cracks radiating outward like spiderwebs. Panting ever so slightly, Sakura forces herself to relax and lean back in her seat.
Madara watches her silently as the aftermath of her outburst melts into an awkwardness in the air that borders on smothering. Sakura quickly averts her gaze and picks up her brush, determined to make this oak wood requisition the most detailed, thorough piece of paperwork to cross her desk.
"All you care about is that I'm here."
Fifty logs? Who is this guy kidding? What's he trying to put flooring in, the fucking Fire Temple?
"I know you're not pleased about this arrangement, especially given our particular circumstances."
Wait, the hospital? Is this guy crazy? We need tiles in there!
"But don't make the mistake of thinking that I don't care about this Village, Sakura. I care enough to die for it."
"And who will take over when you're gone?" Sakura shoots back, glaring at him so fiercely it's a miracle he doesn't catch fire. "Who's going to become Hokage then? Hashirama? Tobirama? Will they make their students Hokage? Of course they will. Only the strongest, right?"
Madara blinks at her owlishly. "You will."
Sakura, brilliantly, responds, "Huh?"
"You will. If I die before you, you will be the Niidaime."
"And if I die before you?"
"You won't," he says confidently, "I won't let you."
The tiny bits of Inner Sakura still floating around her psyche piece together long enough for her to think, you don't get to tell me if I die or not, only I do! Thankfully, ignoring Inner is somewhat of a special talent at this point, so Sakura manages to swallow down that retort before it really gets her into trouble.
"Why?"
"Why won't I let you die?"
"No, why would I be Niidaime?" Sakura demands, trying her hardest to keep her heart from beating out of her chest. She knows this feeling all too well - it's the same dizzying gratification that would leave her giddy for days when Tsunade-shishou praised her, or when Kakashi would use her as an example for the boys back when they were genin. It's downright embarrassing how starved she is for the absolute bare minimum of acknowledgement if getting it from Madara the maniac makes her blush.
To her surprise, he looks taken aback, as if he himself has no idea why she would be named his successor.
"In our time, Tobirama was Niidaime. Why not try and merge timelines as much as possible? You've gone so far as to make sure the furniture arrangement in the Tower is identical to what I remember. Why not keep the line of succession the same?"
"Because you're the best candidate, and because I don't want to repeat history," he replies simply, staring at her with those guileless eyes of his that, when not Sharingan red or dark with madness, are a shockingly calm sea of grey.
"But it's inevitable that we will. I'll take on a student, or you will, and they'll grow so powerful that the title will go to them and their students and we're back to where we started."
"You're saying the title of Hokage needs more protection," he guesses.
"I'm saying we need to redefine what it means to be Hokage. Being the strongest means nothing if you don't know how politics work, or how to file paperwork, or...you're just not a people person. This job is about trust. How do you trust someone you're too scared to say hi to?" Sakura's breath hitches when his lips quirk up for the briefest second. A smile. Uchiha Madara can smile without a hint of malice and she has no idea what to do with this information other than gawk.
"Back in our era, when we did this for the first time, I used to walk around Konoha with Hashirama. More than once, a child burst into tears at the sight of me."
Sakura snorts. No surprise there. From what she can remember (and her greatest curse and blessing all in one is that she remembers everything perfectly), Madara's initial appearance before the Alliance had full-grown jounin weeping and praying to the very same goddess that would later signal their demise, and she shouldn't find this nearly as funny as she does but they live in an upside-down world so she laughs anyway.
Madara gets up and takes a second to stretch, wincing with every creak and crack. When his back snaps its last, he slips off his robes, drapes them over the back of his chair, and raises his eyebrows at her.
"Well? Are you coming?"
"Coming…?"
"You were the one who suggested we go help."
She blinks for all of two seconds before scrambling out of her seat and scurrying out the door. Madara falls into step behind her, so close her skin prickles. Sakura's always been hyperaware of his presence but it's like her wires have been crossed as of late. The rush of adrenaline and anxiety have mellowed out to something more subtle, just enough to let her know he's there, watching her, thinking of her, but not enough to force her to run like she should. That she has to do herself, putting a foot between them that does nothing to help.
"We'll add a written test," Madara announces suddenly, nearly running some poor messenger over as they both turn the corner. Sakura mouths him an apology as Madara carries on, totally unaware of the fact that he shaved about ten years off the kid's life.
"A written test would be a good start, but what else? Clan kids will always have the advantage when it comes to strength gains and politics because they were basically bred into it, and before you know it, becoming Hokage turns into some sort of...Clan bragging right," Sakura points out, squinting as they exit the building right into the midday sun. September heat is always unbearable but the recent heatwave has made it borderline impossible to stay out for longer than five minutes at a time without stroking out.
God, she misses ceiling fans. When did they invent those again?
Madara pauses in the middle of the road, expression totally blank. "Sakura, no system will ever be perfect. We can't make concessions to national security just to be fair to civilian potentials. If they refuse to put in the work to stand out then that's not my problem."
"You think I don't know that?" she snaps, "You think I haven't spent countless nights trying to figure out what works best? I know nothing will ever be perfect, but it doesn't hurt to try. I've seen so many civilian born shinobi get shafted because they were put on dead-end teams or just used to fill the missing member for Clan dominant units. I'm not saying make concessions later on, I'm saying level the playing field so we don't have to."
"Fine. Draft a proposal for ascension requirements and if I like it, we'll present it to the Council," Madara responds, walking off without waiting for her to pick her jaw up off the ground.
"Wait, what?" she yelps, jogging up beside him and punching him in the arm lightly. They both stare at her fist; her in absolute horror because she just hit the world's most infamous war criminal without the intention of breaking him in two, and him in utter bewilderment.
Sakura recovers quickly. "Just like that? You'd let me just come up with rules for something so important just like that?"
"I stabbed you as you tried to punch me once. A foolish course of action," Madara's condescending tone is at odds with the weird light in his eyes - if she didn't know any better, she'd label it fondness. "But one that, coupled with just now, tells me everything I need to know about you. Our goals are the same: a safe, prosperous Konoha. I already know you'd die for it, so, yes, I will let you come up with the rules of ascension. You don't have to prove anything to me."
"Now," he huffs, frowning at the half-built storefronts and pushing his sleeves up to his elbows. "I will hold you accountable if I have a heat stroke doing this."
a/n: I have many thoughts abt madara and they mostly go "madara is the itachi blueprint" idc what people say he is nothing like sasuke lmfao