Daiki begins to walk with Naruto to the Hokage tower, "I saw you disguise yourself as Sasuke to talk to Sakura. I must admit, while I am a bit impressed, I am also very disappointed, while I don't believe you were trying to get a kiss out of the deal, you didn't do a thing to stop it and it was only your stomach issues that kept you from making that mistake. While I understand that this was a bit of youthful indiscretion here, that does not change the fact that what you did was wrong. The disguise of Sasuke itself was A+ work, however, you would have blown the disguise by not acting like Sasuke, but this did show that you could with the right training have the capabilities to pull off an infiltration mission. Tonight, you will work on an sincere letter of apology to both Sakura and Sasuke, you will read their letter out loud in front of your teammates, their teammates and of course both me and Kurenai."

Naruto looks at him, "But sensei, I only wanted to find out what Sakura-Chan thought of me. Why do I have to apologize anyway?"

Daiki sighs, "Naruto, the first step to being a good leader is admitting and owning up to your mistakes, not simply trying to justify them or brush them off. There is so much to being the Hokage that you have to learn. The path is a hard one and if I am honest, you will struggle a lot with it, along the way, you may dream a different dream."

Naruto shakes his head, "You're not even a well-known Jounin, like you know what it takes to be the Hokage."

Daiki smiles lightly, "That's why I gave up that dream." He comments, earning a gasp from Naruto who can't believe that someone who would want to be the Hokage would give it up.

Naruto decides to ask, "Sensei, what is the ideal path to being the Hokage?"

Daiki thinks for a second, "Historically, everyone of the four Hokage's were formed by war, truthfully, all the potential 5th Hokage candidates have also been formed by war. Tsunade Senju in one of them, she has the heritage within the village as granddaughter of the First Hokage and grandniece of the Second Hokage, however she has several personal issues including severe depression, which has led to her abandoning the Village and her duty to it as a ninja decades ago. She is now rumored to roam from town-to-town drinking and gambling. It is only the Third Hokage's affection for her and her Sennin traveling rights that keep her from being labeled as a Missing-Nin. I know her story and personally, it's time she got the hell over it, grew up and return to her village to serve it. She lost her little brother and her lover during the war, they were both ninja and it happens, she should know that as a ninja and as the world's greatest medical ninja better than anyone. Anyway, to answer your question, while there isn't just one path, ideally, you'd become a chunin, teach at the academy for a few years while training and getting your skillset up to jounin level, then you become a jounin, after that, you become a jounin instructor, then you rise through the ranks to try to become the jounin commander. Anbu, while it is an honor to be one, it is the last thing you should want to do if you ever want to become Hokage. Then with all of that, you could very well put your name in as the Hokage. The Hokage job itself is boring, it is a lot of day-to-day paperwork, hearing the villagers complain about this and that, having the council shove its big ugly nose into business that over half of them don't even understand. Finally, it's about deciding to send out ninjas, what missions to send them on, the risk and everything. To be a good Hokage, you must love your village, love the ninja that serve the village, and if and when war comes, because war always comes kiddo, don't think that it doesn't. You'll have to kill the very thing that you love to protect the village. Sometimes during war, ninjas were knowingly sent on suicide missions, that is just part of what happens. Could you be Hokage today, and then tomorrow, you have to send out someone like Hinata or Sakura on a suicide mission for the good of the village?"

Naruto looks down, "Is that what it really means to be the Hokage? All of it? And can you really become the Hokage if you wanted to Daiki-Sensei?"

Daiki smiles, "Unfortunately kid, that is the truth, it's a hard truth, but one that you must accept, even the Old Man has sent ninja on suicide missions to win the war, that's one of the reasons that Tsunade left the village and is so spiteful, she found out that her lover Dan was sent on one of those suicide. The list for potential Hokage replacements are really in this order, there is Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi Hatake, Shikaku Nara, and then me. It is a short list, and I am at the bottom of it sure, but I am still on the list. Truthfully, the only one fit for the position other than me is Shikaku Nara, Jiraiya is a massive pervert who runs the village's spy network, so it is too important to be on the move, that and the kunoichi of the village found out that we ever let him be Hokage would lynch us all. Tsunade has to get over herself. Kakashi is a little better, he may be a slight pervert, but he respects his fellow kunoichi's and only reads Icha Icha series, like Tsunade, he has depression to get over that he struggles with, well that and guilt. I understand him a lot more than I do Tsunade, I respect him more than I do Tsunade, because if there is one Shinobi whose loyalty I would never doubt to this village other than your own, it would be Kakashi's."

Naruto looks at him, "You truthfully think so much of me to actually consider me a shinobi?"

Daiki chuckles, "Kid, I'll be honest with you, the test is just a formality with you guys. I will be using the test to impart some life lesson whether you actually pass the test on your own or not. I may not like or give a shit about what the council has to say, I will be training you guys my way, but the council would lynch me if I failed the Uchiha. Make no mistake though, Sasuke will be a ninja on my terms, those would include attending therapy sessions with Inochi for two weeks until he gets over himself. He may not want it, he may hate me for it. But I'll deal with that, he is a talented shinobi with much promise, he will just have to learn that not everything is about him and his family and not everything is going to go his way simply by bitching enough about how bitterly unfair his life is. You never do that and that is why I am honored to teach you. I know you burden Naruto and once you become Chunin, I'll tell you about your father. I promise."

With that, they walk into the Hokage tower and go inside, and he opens the door and he smiles, "Hey old man."

Sarutobi looks at him, "Daiki, haven't I told you not to encourage the bad habits of shinobi of my village and actually respect their superiors?"

Daiki grins, "Why old man, you already know that I respect you, I am hurt by your accusation really. After all, if you get called by a title all the time, you will end up put on a pedestal, and if you are regarded so highly, then you may lose what makes you human in the first place and keeps you from making mistakes. That's the thing I hate most about class rankings, the Rookie of the Year is put on a pedestal and it is a pointless one really." He glances at Naruto, "With the exception of the 4th Hokage, I don't know of a single Rookie of the Year that measured up."

Sarutobi looks at him, "Why are you here?"

Daiki shakes his head, still grinning, "Old man, you were watching us through your crystal ball the entire time, you know why we are here."

Sarutobi sighs, "I suspect the reasons, but I don't know for sure, can't you give me a straight answer Daiki? For once?"

Daiki smirks, "I gave you a straight answer when explaining why the original team rankings would not work didn't I?"

Sarutobi smiles, "Yes, I guess you did."

Naruto finally speaks up, having felt ignored, "Old man, I have some questions and I hope you will answer them."

Daiki slaps Naruto on the back of the head, "Watch it kiddo, even though you said the last part a bit politely, you'd be better off changing what you said, to not make it a demand, but more of a favor, remember, a Hokage must know how to be polite in a political environment, an insult, actually given or just perceived can start a war."

Naruto sighs and thinks for a few minutes and looks at the 3rd Hokage, "Old man, I wish to know a few things, can you please answer my questions?"

Sarutobi had to wonder how Daiki did that so easily, but he smiles lightly, "Of course Naruto-Kun, feel free to ask away and I will do my best to answer them."

Naruto swallows lightly, "What does it mean to be Hokage?"

Sarutobi looks at him and then looks out to the village, he gets up and wraps an arm around Naruto's shoulder and guides him over to the window, "It means to love the village and everyone in it, every blade of grass, every animal, every person. All of them hold value to a variable degree to you, but you must love them all the same. Yet, in times, a Hokage must place the needs of many over the needs of one. The 4th Hokage did that when he sealed the Kyuubi into you Naruto-Kun. He placed the survival of the village, cursing you with a hard life in the process and sending himself into the stomach of the Death God for all eternity of torture. He sacrificed your life and his own spiritual needs. Sacred duty demands that we have to make hard choices in life, including killing some of the very people that we love to save the village and the people as a whole. You can't save everyone, not as a ninja, not as a Hokage. You can never save everyone. Tell me, if you had a choice to save a group of say, a dozen civilians on one building dangling from their death and the life of a fellow ninja on the other, who do you save?"

Naruto thinks about that for a minute before asking, "But, by saving the ninja, can't that ninja go on to save more lives and possibly end a conflict in the future?"

Sarutobi smiles, "While that is true and I am glad you thought of that, you thought of the long-term repercussions, but no matter what, the people would never forget that you let five civilians that had nothing to do with the situation that they were in die, when they trusted you to protect them. The ninja knows that death is a risk, the life of a civilian, will always come before the life of a ninja, because our job is to give our lives and possibly die or even let our teammates die for the sake of the village, but you may be lucky, you may find yourself never having to make that choice. There is no cut and dry answer there, there never is, the world is black and white to children, but to shinobi, it is all just one big shade of grey. It's time you realized that Naruto-Kun. We won't stop you from working toward your dream, we won't stop you from trying to achieve it, but we want you to know what your dream fully means. Because if you get it and then find out after that, you can't just simply quit."

Daiki smiles, "Here is where I take my leave, I got to plan for tomorrow, good night, Naruto. I will see you when I see you in the morning."