FMS: Wow. It's been forever since I've been here. So long, in fact, that I seem to have lost my touch at openings. Anyway, this is a short little drabble based on The Iron Threads Universe of Naruto fandom. For those of you that are confused, (ie, all of you) Iron Threads is a story written by my close friend and fellow author Ambiechan. Together, we form the Densetsu no Nichosha (Legenday Two Authors, yes I looked up how to day authors in Japanese. I'm the more dramatic of the two.) Anyway, I do not own Naruto, blah blah blah, Naruto belongs to, blah blah blah, I don't make any money off this so don't sue 'cause you'll be wasting everybody's time. Anyway, this story actually takes place a year before Iron Threads begins, so you don't really have to read Iron Threads to understand it. (But you should read it anyway!) Please Enjoy!

The Return

It was a quiet day in Konoha. It was an unusually quiet day, but this was common the day after a celebration. The village was recovering from the celebration following the inauguration of the Nanadaime – the Seventh Hokage. Well, everyone except the Nanadaime himself, that is. Uzumaki Naruto sat in his new office in the Hokage's tower, and while still in the afterglow of his new position, of his lifelong dream finally realized, he found himself overwhelmed with all the paperwork required of a Hokage. Bills to be approved or vetoed, assigning shinobi teams missions, records to be constantly reviewed and revised, it was nerve-wracking. He threw all the papers into the air in frustration.

"Ahh!" Naruto shouted. "This is insane! This isn't what a Hokage is supposed to be doing! How am I supposed to make sure everybody remembers that I'm the village's number-one ninja if I'm stuck behind a desk all day doing lame paperwork!" A small vein began to bulge in Konohamaru's forehead. Naruto's old friend had gladly and willfully taken up the position of the Hokage's assistant, and was already beginning to regret it.

"Naruto-niichan, you must remember that a Hokage is not only the village's greatest ninja, but also the village leader," the Jounin reprimanded. "These are tasks required of a Hokage to keep Konohagakure no Sato in the position of power that it has maintained for many years. It's your duty as Hokage to keep the village organized, and this paperwork is how you do it. You've been whining all afternoon and it's time for you to…" Naruto let his head drop on the desk in the middle of all the papers and sighed. A large sweatdrop rolled down his head as he endured Konohamaru's lecture.

But I'm only twenty-three, Naruto thought, tuning out Konohamaru's words. Hokage or not, I shouldn't have to do all this by myself. It's totally bogus! Believe it!

"ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!" Konohamaru shouted, abruptly snapping Naruto out of his thoughts. The startled Hokage shouted and leaned back, the chair in which he sat leaning back and falling over, taking him with it. Konohamaru leaned over the desk, looking at Naruto's disheveled form.

"Are you okay, Naruto-…" He started, but was cut off as Naruto pointed to the doorway leading out of the office.

"Go…bring me ramen…NOW!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Konohamaru replied, Naruto's shouting having put him into an obedient panic. He gave Naruto a quick, unceremonious salute and dashed out of the office. Naruto rubbed a large bump that was beginning to form on the back of his head from the fall. He sighed with exasperation as he lay in the pile of papers. He loved Konohamaru. He thought of the young Jounin as a little brother, but just like any little brother, he could be a serious pain in the ass.

"Hey," said a familiarly nonchalant voice. "You're not laying down on the job are you?" Naruto looked up into the face, actually into the eye of his former teacher.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cheered. "You came to visit me!"

"Something like that," Kakashi replied, barely taking his eyes off of his latest book, Icha Icha Warfare. "It looks like you weren't quite prepared for everything that being Hokage would throw at you." Naruto grimaced at his old sensei, who very well may have been right.

"You know, Kakashi-sensei, you probably could have been Hokage after the Rokudaime was killed," Naruto said. "Then you could have warned me about all the boring stuff. Obviously Tsunade no baa-chan wouldn't mention it, just for the sake of seeing me squirm. "

"I don't think so," Kakashi replied, turning the page. "I don't have the stamina, chakra capacity, or the desire to be Hokage. My motto is 'teamwork,' not 'hard work.' You want Gai for that." That remark put another grimace on Naruto's face.

Gekimayu-sensei as Hokage…?

"Well, well, what about Ero-shishou? Wasn't he once requested to be the Godaime? He would have made sure I was prepared." A sweatdrop ran down Kakashi's forehead.

"You know, I don't think Jiraiya-sama appreciates you calling him "Perverted master" any more than he did you calling him "Perverted hermit," the silver-haired ninja droned. "Besides, anyone who took the title of Hokage ahead of you at this point would have to deal with Kiba, Shino, Tenten and Ino. They've been complaining that you've been taking every ANBU mission that you could get your hands on."

"Yeah, but still! But still…!"

"Hokage-sama!" someone from outside Naruto's office shouted. The man sounded rather panicked. "There's…there's someone here to see you!"

"Tell them to go away!" Naruto shouted back. "I'm busy to be bothered!"

"Well if he doesn't want visitors, I'll have to see myself in."
Naruto gasped as he heard the voice. His eyes went wide as saucers. As the man walked into the office, Kakashi dropped his book in shock. The man looked so different, yet so much like he did years ago. He was taller; not quite at Naruto's six feet, but a centimeter or two taller than Kakashi. His jet black hair was tied back in a long ponytail. He wore a long black cloak and a bandana that was skewed over his right eye. Despite all the changes, his face was still the same, his smug, superior-looking smile unmistakable, and his voice…

"It's been a long time…dobe."

Naruto's words caught in his throat. His hands balled into tight fists and his eyes were squinting hard to fight back tears, but he couldn't look away from the man's face.

"But I suppose 'Hokage-sama' would be the appropriate way to address you now, wouldn't it?"

Naruto's fists were balled so tight that his palms were starting to bleed. He finally managed to force himself to open his hands, and began to focus his chakra into his right palm. Within seconds, he had a powerful, tightly-packed Rasengan focused in his hand.

"Aren't you going to welcome me home after all this time?"

And Naruto gave the man his welcome. With a burst of speed that even Kakashi couldn't have followed, Naruto charged over his desk at the young man, Rasengan first.

"TEME!"

Haruno Sakura, now the leader of Konoha's medical squad, enjoyed a quiet stroll thru the village with Tsunade, the former Godiame Hokage. Sakura was known for taking long walks thru the village every now and then, and she had invited her former master with her to take in the quiet after the celebration. Of course, it would be a lot quieter if Tsunade wasn't constantly complaining about there being no bars being open at this time of day.

"The worst part is," Tsunade prattled, "that with as much sake as everybody went thru yesterday, there probably won't be much left when they open. Damn that Naruto. This happened when I became Hokage, too. "

"Uh, Tsunade-sama, about that..." Sakura questioned. "I'm not entirely sure Naruto is ready to be Hokage. I mean, skill-wise, he's obviously qualified, but I don't think he's mature enough. You could have easily resumed your position as the Fifth after the Sixth died. Are you sure he'll be okay?"

"If I wanted to be Hokage again, I wouldn't have retired in the first place," Tsunade replied irately. "Besides, Naruto will be fine. I knew from when I first met him that he would be Hokage one day. It's not like he's going to destroy the village or something." No sooner than the moment that sentence passed Tsunade's lips, the two medic ninja heard a large explosion coming from the center of the village. When the two got close enough to see the source of the explosion, they saw a large hole in the Hokage's tower. Sakura gave Tsunade a "told you so" look, which the former Hokage was doing her best to ignore.

Uchiha Sasuke lay in a heap on the ground, somewhat dazed. Perfectly understandable, seeing as Naruto had just blasted him out of the building with his Rasengan. As he struggled to rise to his feet, he chuckled to no one in particular.

This was pretty much the way I expected him to react.

Sasuke had little time to think, however, as Naruto's fist seemed to fly out of nowhere and catch him in the gut. He doubled over from the punch, his face presenting a perfect target for Naruto's foot, which spiraled into his left temple, knocking him right back to the ground. Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the front of his cloak and lifted him off the ground and swung him around a few times before tossing him into the wall of a nearby building. Sasuke barely had time to register what had happened to him before Naruto had him by the throat, lifting him off his feet with his left hand and a Rasengan in his right. Sasuke could see the rage in Naruto's eyes; the red, demonic-looking orbs that he stared into conveyed nothing but hurt and anger.

"Why did you come back!" the Hokage demanded. Sasuke's eyes widened. He thought Naruto was too far gone to do anything but beat on him, a beating which he had to admit he deserved, but he certainly hadn't expected Naruto to ask him that.

"You meant so much to us! To ME! You were my best friend and you just turned your back on everything! How dare you show your face here!"

"My actions have no purpose," Sasuke chuckled, "because I have no purpose. Since I was eight years old, my only purpose was to kill my brother; to avenge my clan. I thought that once I killed Itachi, I would finally have peace, but all it's left me with is this feeling of emptiness, meaninglessness. Tell me, Naruto, what does an avenger do when his mission is over, and he's paid for it with flesh?" Sasuke ripped off the bandana that was covering his eye, and Naruto released him in shock. The bandana that Sasuke had been wearing was covering…nothing. Sasuke's final battle with Itachi had cost him his right eye. Naruto's eyes slowly reverted to their natural blue, the Rasengan in his hand fading away. He sighed and turned his back to Sasuke.

"A long time ago, you said that your ambition was not only to kill Itachi, but also to restore your clan," Naruto said. "Make that your new purpose."

"That's not enough!" Sasuke shouted. "That can't be my only reason to exist!" Naruto reached into his back pocket and pulled out an object that Sasuke couldn't fully make out.

"If that's the case," Naruto said somberly, "then I have something that still belongs to you." He tossed the object over his shoulder, right into Sasuke's hands. Sasuke was speechless.

"You… kept it? After all these years?"

"Your new purpose, along with restoring your clan, will be to serve this village; to go anywhere, do anything, and lay down your life, if necessary, as a Konoha shinobi."

Sasuke clutched his old forehead protector tightly in is hand. Live life as an ordinary ninja? After all he had seen and done? After he had raged and rampaged across the continent, all to fulfill a single goal? He wasn't sure that was possible.

"I thought nukenin were forbidden from returning to their villages."

"You let me worry about that," Naruto replied. "Besides, it seems like you've already bypassed that problem with no difficulty. You've had your own torments to bear for a long time. I know it's been a hard pain to live with, but to be perfectly honest…I'm just glad you're back."

Sasuke smiled. Naruto was a truly unbelievable person. Just like that, the person he had hurt the most had forgiven him. Sasuke had made a lot of mistakes in the past and caused the people who cared about him a great deal of pain, and there were still many uncertainties about his future, but he knew one thing for certain: his clan may be gone, but he still had a family, and he would never fail them again.