Dreams
"Well then, good luck to tomorrow, Yuusou." said Naru, while walking home, to the brown haired boy that she had just saved.
"She has grown, hasn't she?" said a cool voice behind Naruto, who stood atop a house roof, watching the scene.
"Yeah, she has. So has Hideki. And Sakuya. Don't you think, Sasuke?" said Naruto, turning to the voice's source. Behind him stood the raven-haired ANBU that earlier that day tried to catch the runaway Hokage. He removed the snake-like mask and Naruto caught himself looking into intense onyx eyes.
"Aa." replied Sasuke with a thin smile. It was always like this with him. He rarely smiled, and when he did, he only did it to Sakura, Sakuya or Naruto. Everybody found the ANBU Commander a quiet cool bastard, who never smiled or laughed, but Naruto knew better. After all, they were best friends. "Tomorrow they will be taking the genin exams and soon they will be just like us, twenty or so years ago. I miss those times."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." replied Naruto. "Especially before those damned Chuunin Exams. It was just me, you, Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei. Those were the days." Naruto grined with all the flashbacks that were running through his mind.
"But out of us, you were the one that changed less, Naruto." continued Sasuke and, surprising Naruto, put his arms around Naruto's waist, embracing him. "What the hell is wrong with you, anyway? You have the same face of when you were what? Eighteen? Nineteen?" He smiled, although you could catch a bit of jealousy in his words.
Naruto was surprised for a second, but then his face softened. "Well, Kyuubi said it would be like this till I was fourty or so..."
Sasuke stared at Naruto. For a moment it looked like he was going to say something, but he quickly shut before Naruto could notice. Then he put himself at Naruto's side and watched the sunset with his long-time friend.
"Is it really Ok, to go home like this without finishing your work?" started Sasuke. "There was actually a big pile of sheets to fill in." He smirked, without taking his eyes of the horizon.
"Yeah, it's Ok. I left a kage bunshin taking care of it." replied Naruto. "Sometimes a Hokage has gotta do what a Hokage has gotta do. But today, I just wanna go home, with my family. Tomorrow is a busy day, so I'll need rest, and I wanna be with my kids before the exams. Well, that and... we're having ramen tonight." grined sheepishly the blonde-haired shinobi.
"I have no idea what Sakura is up to today. Maybe Sakuya's favorite dish. Tomorrow is a big day, after all." finished Sasuke.
At these words, Naruto turned to him. "Hey, so, how's Sakura-chan doing?"
Sasuke flinched a bit, his smile faded for an instance but quickly returned. "Come on, Naruto. It's my wife you're talking about."
Naruto laughed at this, putting his hand behind his head. "Hehe, sorry. Strong habits are hard to break. So, how's Sakura?"
"She's fine." answered Sasuke. "That damned hospital is too much of a hassle, I told her not to quit ANBU, but with Sakuya growing up and that proposal for Chairlady of Konoha Hospital, she couldn't refuse. It's better that way. It's enough that only one of us is in constant danger."
"But all the countries are in peace now." said Naruto. "The Water Country has recovered its Hidden Village and has elected a new Mizukage, the Wind Country has been our ally for many years, there are no more ninjas in the Earth Country and the Thunder Country, although they are not allies, they haven't attacked or shown any kind of offensive intention to us for almost thirty years. The minor countries and respective hidden villages are also at peace and even the Sound, and that damned Oto village, is at peace since we killed Orochimaru. What danger are you talking about?"
"Come on, Naruto, are you stupid? That's precisely why I spoke of danger. There has never been such peaceful times. God knows what the Hidden Village of Oto is preparing right now, and I always distrusted the Thunder Country. And that thing about the Earth Country not having anymore ninjas, sounds too weird to me." afirmed Sasuke with a serious tone.
"Maybe. But there's nothing we can do beside keep patrolling at the borders. And I rather trust others to do good then trust them to do evil. That's just how I am, hehe." Naruto smirked.
"I just hope your trusts don't disappoint any of us." finished Sasuke. "Well, I gotta go. I still have to report to, er... your kage bunshin and collect some stuff at my office. See you, good luck to Naru and Hideki." said Sasuke, putting on his mask and jumping from the roof they were on to another one.
"See ya! Good luck to Sakuya also. Give my regards to Sakura-chan! Oops, sorry!" waved Naruto at his friend, disappearing from the rooftop, only a flicker left.
-------------------------
It was early morning. A fine day, as good as the previous one. Although it wasn't even 8 o'clock, the streets were already crowded and the shopstands were already opening. There was a particular one that would always be the last to close and the first to open. Ichiraku Ramen. Managed by a lovely lady named Ayame, who inherited it from her father, who unfortunately had already passed away, if anyone would want to see the Hokage in any other place than his office (mostly he wasn't there, but at those times, not even the ANBU could find him), that was the place to look for. But this time he was not alone.
"Mmmm, Ichiraku's ramen is the best, as always!" moaned a blonde-haired girl in satisfaction. "Isn't that right, Hide-chan?" She said, turning to her right, to her younger twin brother.
"Hehe, yes, 'nee-chan." replied Hideki, still slurping some noodles. "Dad's ramen is pretty good, but Ayame-baa-san's ramen is even better!"
"Ara, Naruto-kun, I see your kids are as charming as you were at their age." chuckled Ayame, turning to Naruto, while Naru and Hideki kept slurping the noodles, wide grins plastered on their faces.
"Ahaha, 'nee-chan, it's not charm, it's honesty!" said Naruto, amused. "This was always the best ramen stand, your father was always a great cook and, truth be told, the apprentice outran the master ehehe!"
"By the way, Naru-chan, Hideki-chan, isn't today the day of the genin exams at the academy?" asked Ayame, turning to both Naru and Hideki who had just finished their bowls.
"Hai!" replied loudly Naru. "We're going to show them who the Uzumakis are, right Hide-chan! This one is so cleared!" Naru was lively as always, but this morning she was just super excited. Although Hideki wasn't, as was never, as excited as his sister, he himself was a bit nervous. "I just hope everything goes well. It shouldn't be difficult, but you never know, right?"
"Aw, come on, Hide-chan! You're always like that. Be more positive! You're an Uzumaki, dammit! You're the Hokage's son, be proud of it!" replied Naru, a bit annoyed. "But 'nee-chan..." and they kept arguing.
Ayame looked happily to the children. She was so glad that Naruto had such wonderful kids, he sure deserved it. Ever since Hinata's death, giving birth to Hideki and Naru, Naruto would have surely been down if it wasn't his love for his children. Ayame knew Naruto, but mostly the children, were missing a woman to run things in their house. She then turned to Naruto and watched him slurp the noodles in satisfaction. She giggled. It has always been like this. This 'boy' was 33 years old, he was Hokage and to many, the strongest shinobi they knew, if not in the world, but to her, he would always be the boy who was shuned by everybody and would come to Ichiraku to dry his tears in warm ramen. She then walked off, to attend another customer.
Naruto had finished his bowl of ramen and was now watching his clock, to see how long they had before the start of the exams. It was not much, so he turned to his kids and broke their argument. Naru and Hideki looked at their father and listened atentively.
"Now, you will start a new period in your lives. You will no longer be immature children, but ninjas. That is, of course, if you pass the exam, which I'm totally confident you will." He then let a smile go. "So that's why I have to tell you this. It's more of a question than anything, but it's Ok if you don't have an answer. At your age, I already had the answer, but few have and I'll understand if you don't. What I'm trying to ask is: do you have a dream?" He then paused to see the reactions of the kids. They just looked wide-eyed at Naruto, Naru opened her mouth for an instant, but nothing came. Then they looked down.
Naruto laughed heartedly at this and continued. "Hey, come on, don't look so down. It's very common for children like you not to know what you want to do or be in the future. It's just sometimes kids already know what to do." Naru and Hideki then looked back at their father and saw the face of someone who was trully happy. "You know, a dream is the most important thing, not only for a ninja, but also for any person. Dreams comand life and if you have a dream, your life will gain significance and you will always strive and do best and will overcome any obstacle in order to achieve that goal. So this is what I say to you: Find a dream, protect your precious persons and live fully, for that's how a ninja should live. With no regrets." Naruto finished, looking smily to his son and daughter, filling their hearts with newly and renovated will.
Flashback
Continuously adjusting his forehead protector, Naruto turned to Kakashi "My dream is to become Hokage!" leaving a wide-eyed Sakura and an interested Sasuke.
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"You want to be Hokage? At your current state, that's just a stupid ambition." sneered Kiba to a beat up Naruto who was lying on the ground. "If you want a Hokage, I'll be Hokage for you!"
-
Naruto got up from Tsunade's finger thrust, stared daringly at her and answered to her question. "Because Hokage is my dream."
-
"Now die!" A beat up Orochimaru thrusted his sword, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, into Naruto's chest, leaving the teenager wide-eyed. He was helping Sasuke, so he was not expecting someone to attack, much less Orochimaru, who was supposed to be fighting Jiraiya. He fell and the blood coming from his chest was just too much. He was going to die.
"Kukuku" Orochimaru let an evil chuckle go. "Now, Naruto-kun, you will die and with you dies the hope of Konoha. Now I will be able to take over Sasuke-kun's body, destroy Konoha and even stop the Akatsuki's intention." Orochimaru turned away, laughing madly. But stopped almost immediately when he felt a tremendous chakra rising from nowhere. Never had he sensed such chakra, not even when fighting the Sandaime. He turned backwards and looked dumbfouded to Naruto.
Naruto was floating in mid air, his bangs covering his eyes and his head lowered so one couldn't see his face. A powerful red chakra enveloped him and nine chakra tails sprouted from Naruto's back and started swinging. Long chakra ears sprouted from Naruto's head and started waving. Claws grew where once his nails were and the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, still carved in his chest, exploded to million pieces as the wound started healing. The soil was trembling and the buildings started to crumble. Every shinobi stopped fighting and looked astonished to the scene. Orochimaru was walking back, wide-eyed in fear, and Naruto was returning to the ground. As his feet touched the ground, he lifted his head. His whisker-like birthmarks were now thick and dark, his teeth were now fangs, his canines almost sabre-tooth-like and his eyes were gleating a raging red with a dark slit instead of his pupil. One simple look to Orochimaru paralyzed the snake sannin completely. The killing intent was just too much.
Naruto then lifted his arm towards Orochimaru and a claw of chakra bursted out and pierced through Orochimaru's torso, reaping him completely apart. The sannin fell as Naruto started approaching him.
When Naruto got near him, he looked down, still in his demonic form and he received a raged look from Orochimaru, but his enemy could do nothing more than that. "No you won't" said Naruto as if he was replying to Orochimaru's previous statements. "I won't let you. Sasuke is my best friend, Kyuubi won't leave me even if the Nine try to take it from me, and Konoha is my precious village. I won't let you destroy it. Because if you destroy it, you destroy my dream. And no one will ever do that!" He finished with another murderous look.
"Sarutobi-sensei..." was the only thing Orochimaru could say before giving his last breath.
-
"Hinata! Hinata answer me!" shouted a crying Naruto, stroking lightly his wife's face.
"Naruto... You're still there..." answered the woman, catching her husband's hand, and sighing weakly in relief.
"Yeah, I'm here, everything's gonna be fine, love." Said the blond man, still crying, with a weak smile on his face.
Hinata smiled again, and coughed. There was blood coming out of her mouth.
"What the hell are the doctors doing?" Yelled Naruto, turning to every side, the nurses and medic-nins running around, trying to find out what to do. "Hurry up! I'm going to make all of you go back to the academy once I'm Hokage if you don't hurry!" He was desperate.
"Naruto, how are the children?"
"Huh, the children?... Oh... Yeah, they're fine... the girl, she... They were both born fine and healthy, the doctor said so..." Naruto took his eyes away from Hinata for a moment. Then spoke again as a nurse was intubating the white-eyed maiden "Hinata, I... I don't want to lose you... You're everything to me... Please stay... I don't know if I can go on without you..."
Hinata coughed again twice, two streams of blood dripping from each side of her mouth, and took her husband's hand in her own. "Of course you can... you're Naruto... my Naruto. More than me, this village needs you. Our children... they will need their father once their mother won't be here to take care of them..."
"Don't say that! You're not going to die, you're not!"
"Sshh... You'll be fine. You have your friends... and you'll have our babies... Please be happy... Become Hokage... Fulfill your dream... I've already fulfilled mine..."
"I will do all that, Hinata, but you'll be watching by my side!"
"I will be watching, you're right on that..."
Hinata coughed again, releasing a great amount of blood, triggering all the health alarms in the hospital room. The medic-nins became even more desperate, trying to bring her back... in vain.
"HINATA!"
End of Flashback
"Now, go there and make me proud!" He said, giving them both a wide foxy grin, trying to hide his reminiscing sadness, which they responded with one of their one. "You bet dad! See you later, I'll have you first handed assisting my debut as a ninja!" said Naru, while standing up and running towards the academy. "Yeah, me too, dad. You're the best and we want and will make you proud! See you later!" finished Hideki. Naruto looked to them until they arrived a corner and turned left.
"Cute, aren't they?" Naruto turned to see whom belonged the voice. A tall ninja with wild silver hair, a mask covering almost his entire face and with a lazy eye, the other one was covered by his head-protector, stood leaning against the wall, looking to the direction the kids had gone. Then he turned to Naruto. "Yoh."
"Kakashi-sensei!" yelled happily Naruto. "What brings you here?"
Kakashi entered the ramen stand and sat beside Naruto. "Hokage-sama, you shouldn't call me that. I was your sensei, but now you outrank me, seriously, it's been 9 years." chuckled Kakashi, closing amusingly his lazy eye.
Naruto chuckled too and replied "Well, you were my sensei, so I have respect for you. There's nothing wrong with calling you sensei, is there Kakashi-sensei? Besides, I thought I told you before to stop calling me 'Hokage-sama'. I'm Naruto dammit! I know I'm Hokage, I don't need anyone remembering it to me, because I wake up every morning proud of that." Naruto smiled.
"Yeah, whatever, Naruto-SAMA" said sarcasticaly Kakashi receiving an annoyed look by Naruto. "I came to tell you that we already chose all the jounin instructors. You might wanna get acquainted with the list when you get to the Hokage Tower. I think you will find it funny that there are some... characters that I bet you won't believe until you see the list for yourself." said the Hokage's councelor.
"Also" he continued, now turning his fully gaze to Naruto "I've been talking to Udon. It seems like the rookies this year will be great. Looks like a new breed of great shinobis is coming up."
"Yeah" said Naruto, his sapphire eyes looking to the direction where his kids went. "It seems so."