Hiya! I'm glad that you liked the chapter and stuff. Hopefully this one will be somewhat as good. Oh, and I'd like to say, to the 1318 people who read this, but didn't review. Shame on you, really. And to the 55 people who did, this chapter is for you.
Late Night Ruminations
- - -Recap- - -
Naruto wins all the spars, and Sasuke and Itachi have a flashback war, revealing the reason behind the nail polish.
- - - End Recap - - -
- - - Start Fic - - -
Sometimes, things happen that are truly unexpected. Naruto becoming Hokage was always considered one of these things. The fact that it happened was causing quite a stir in Konoha. The girls, who had started to notice Naruto, were thrilled.
After all, now that they had hit the years of teenage rebellion, Naruto's newfound appearance mattered far more than what their parents said, and since Naruto's appearance had greatly improved, his short blonde hair had lengthened to his shoulders, and no matter who it was on, long hair was hot. His eyes, which used to be hidden with his mock smile, were now open with a clear cerulean that was filled with laughter. His smile, once to big, and almost blinding in it's intensity, was now a wide, true smile of genuine happiness, which called an answering smile from every face, even those who had hated the boy for as long as anyone could remember.
No one could quite pinpoint the change to any specific time, although many of the girls swore that only a few days after, the familiar Sasuke Shop, in the back rooms of a well-travelled book store, suddenly became filled with a new blonde face, and the pictures in highest demand were of yaoi, not just a solitary figure.
The rest of Konoha's population had very mixed feelings on the matter, on one hand, he had been the White Wolf for the past few years, and in that role he had kept the village as safe, or safer, than they could have hoped. But on the other, he was the Kyuubi deamon, and had been that all his life, not just the last few years. And that had destroyed their town, and ruined their families.
But they had started new ones, and they had moved on, towards a brighter future, a future that the boy they had always hated strived to protect. Many parents still had their doubts about this boy, this infamous whirlwind of mischief. At one point, Sakura's mother had asked her, out of concern for her daughter, if she was alright working with they boy. If he ever hurt her, or did anything to frighten her.
The result had not been exactly the result that she had expected. In fact, her daughter had come very close to screaming at her. He was not that boy he had a name, Naruto, and he was her team-mate! How dare she assume that he was cruel for a reason he had had no control over, and would not change if he had.
She had explained in less than polite terms that Naruto was in no way the Kyuubi. He was the container that held him at bay. She could no more say that the plastic bag holding her lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
This conversation had been heard all over Konoha, and had been the topic under discussion for many days, whether the girl had a point or not. Maybe the deamon had converted her to his deamon ways, brainwashed her or something like it. But others, the kind, sweet one, the ones like Iruka, who would give people a chance no matter what or who they were, they said that as far as they could see, the boy, who was just a child really, had done nothing to warrant their hatred and would it kill them to be little nice to the boy?
A few of them had tried, and they had been rewarded by the brightest smile they had ever seen. About a week before Naruto's duel, a few of the people had started to accept the boy, although they kept this a secret. Until the fight that is, when they felt that now was as good a time as any to say so. After all, the safety of their village mattered more than their pride or their old fashioned prejudices. It had only taken a blonde by not even 20 to teach them that.
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"What are they fighting about this time?" Kyuubi asked, coming over to stand next to Itachi, who was watching his brother and his brothers boy friend spar with interest.
"Something about chocolates. Those two must look for an excuse to spar." Itachi laughed then glanced over to see Kyuubi looking a bit sheepish.
"Heh heh, they wouldn't happen to be fighting over the chocolates on the counter, would they?"
"Um, yeah, those are the ones. Why?"
"Um, I ate them." Kyuubi admitted, Itachi grinned.
"Did you save me any?" he asked. Kyuubi grinned in response., reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few half melted pieces of chocolate. The chocolate was fantastic. They just hoped that the two boys would enjoy sparring so much they would forget about the reason they had been sparring in the first place.
Maybe.
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"Ok, now it's war." Naruto exclaimed when he saw the eaten box of chocolates that he had worked so hard to win. Well, actually the two of them had tied over it, but nothing, not even facts, could stir Naruto from his righteous indignation. So the only possible response to this horrible crime was to play matchmaker to the people responsible.
Sasuke couldn't really see how making the two happier constituted as revenge. Naruto had just shrugged, and suggested maybe if they embarrassed both of them in the process. Sasuke had pondered this for a moment, than decided that this would be fair enough.
So they had planned, and plotted for quite a while, watching the two they were plotting about sit there calmly talking about, completely unaware.
"Maybe they don't need a big shove, maybe they just need a push." Sasuke said, after they had sufficiently killed each others plots.
"Hm. . ."
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"I bet that you're all wondering why I called you here today." Tsunade said, to the resounding cheer of the audience.
"Well, I'm here to officially make Naruto the Rokudaime."
"WHAT!" Naruto yelled. "I thought that wasn't until next week."
Tsunade looked a bit sheepish as she replied "Well, heh, it was, until I saw, ur."
She was interrupted by Shizune running onto the stage. "What the HELL are you doing? Trying to push your paperwork onto him!" she pointed a finger at the blond, who was now trying to stifle his laughter, while trying to decide how he should be reacting to this new information. Deciding that there really wasn't a way to answer this, he instead walked onto the stage and took a paper from the large stack in Shizune's arms. He glanced at the date then looked back at the Hokage, his eyebrow raised.
"Baa-chan, this is from December third. Last year." he said. Tsunade gave a sheepish laugh. Naruto shook his head. "Maybe it is better if we make me Hokage as soon as possible." he grinned.
"No! Hokage-sama, you can't be serious!" yelled a voice from the crowd. Tsunade looked out,
"Who said that?" she asked. One of her advisers stood up. Tsunade raised her eyebrows. Some people just never accepted defeat. "Anyone else have a problem with my choice of successor?" at those words, a few more of her advisors stood up. She rolled her eyes.
"Ok. It's clear that you will be unable to work with Naruto as your Hokage. So you won't have to." she said. A look of hope bloomed on their faces.
"You mean. . ." asked one, his face lighting up.
"Yes. You're all fired." she stated calmly. The delighted expression vanished.
"What! But, there's no one to replace us!"
"Nonsense. Of course there is. You." she pointed to Shian. "You have his job."
"Eh? What? Me?" he asked. "O-Ok."
"You." Tsunade pointed at Iruka. "You're hired to."
"WHAT? But I can't, I'm just, you don't-"
"You put up with that brat for years, you're the best choice for this."
"But! I, you, they-"
"Shhhhh." Kakashi said. "Just go up there." he gave Iruka a small shove. Tsunade fixed the remaining advisors.
"Now, do the rest of you have a problem with Naruto?" she asked. They shook their heads. "Good. Now if we may proceed?" They each nodded their head, apparently trying to make up for anything she might call them on by he shear force of their nods.
"Ok. Um, there's just one small problem. I don't know haw to make anyone Hokage. What happened to me was my old team-mate and his gaki student showed up 'Oh, hi, how are you, nice to see you again, oh by the way, you're the Hokage." Tsunade said with a pointed look at Jiraiya and Naruto, the team mate and gaki in question, who had the grace to look at least a bit sheepish. "So does anyone know how to make someone Hokage?' she asked. There was a mutual shaking of heads through out the crowd as they gave a small laugh. SO that was how they has ended up with her as the Hokage.
"Ok then I'm just going to wing it." she shrugged. "Naruto, get up here."
Naruto blinked, before walking up the stage, his face a mixture of shock and happiness.
"Ok, Uzumaki Naruto, in honour of your heroic act in defending this village, and the, some what forced, will of the villagers to make you their leader, you are now the Hokage." she opened the box in her arms that had been attracting curious looks since the beginning. It was quite lovely, a deep mahogany, with gold trimmed edges.
She pulled out a long piece of fabric, which she shook out. The crowd gave a collective gasp as she held it up for everyone to see it. It was a pure white cloak, with red flames brushing up the bottom and red kanji running up the spine. The cloak of the Yondaime.
"Naruto. You're father wanted you to have this." Tsunade said as she settled it on his shoulders. The word father spread through the crowd like wildfire. Whispered over and over, shocked. Kids tugged on their mothers skirts. What did it mean? What was the big deal, who's father? Who's cloak was that, it was cool, could they have one like that? The parents, still to shocked to be able to respond properly, told them to hush.
Tsunade, breaking away from her 'moment' with Naruto, suddenly seemed to realize that they had an audience who hadn't missed the father comment. She gave a nervous laugh.
"Oh, didn't anyone ever tell you. Naruto here is the son of the Yondaime." there were more shocked gasps and now even the children turned to look at him with new comprehension dawning in their eyes. In the silence, only one voice was heard.
"Wait a sec. NARUTO is the YONDAIME'S SON! WHAT THE HELL?" Sakura screeched. Only her team mates, who were used to her sudden shrieks, and Tsunade, who had taught her how to yell louder, didn't flinch.
"What, Sarutobi-sensei never mentioned it?" she asked innocently.
"NO!"
"Well, now you know." She gave an impish grin. "I can see that you all need time to deal with this. In the mean time, we'll be leaving. Bye." she tugged Naruto down off stage. The crowd was still to shocked to even comment as Tsunade led the new Rokudaime off the stage. When they got down, she gave him a small shove in Sasuke's direction. "Go on Naruto, they'll be here tomorrow, you should celebrate now."
"Oh god no! I did more than enough of that last week. I never want to see Kiba that drunk again!" Naruto laughed. Sasuke, who had over heard this comment, got a slightly horrified look on his face.
"No, you really don't. There will be no celebrating. Ever."
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"Look at them, it's driving me crazy!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke glanced over to where the blonde was pointing.
"Naruto, their playing chess. Again."
"Yeah, but watch for a second. See, every time Itachi pauses to think, Kyuubi will watch him. And vice versa. That's why they play so much. To watch each other."
"What ever you say Naruto, what ever you say."
"Ok fine, you don't believe me, let me tell you about the first time they met."
- - -Flashback- - -
"Truce! Truce! I surrender!" Naruto laughed as Kyuubi tickled him mercilessly. "You. Cheated." Naruto said as he regained his breath. "You know where I'm ticklish from living in my body for 15 years."
Kyuubi shrugged, clearly not caring in the slightest. He opened his mouth to say something, probably not very polite about him not caring, but was interrupted by the door bell.
"Stay here." Naruto said. "I don't remember anyone coming over today." he got up and strode towards the door. Kyuubi sat on the carpet, where he heard a muffled exclamation, then Naruto reappeared in the door way, followed by a man wearing dark sunglasses, a black hoodie and a black scarf, successfully hiding all of his face.
"Ok, it's time for you two to meet. Kyuu, this is Uchiha Itachi. Itachi, lose the mask, this isn't the mob." Naruto grinned. Kyuubi, who's first instinct was to fight at the name of the man who had been trying to kill him for 3 years, before he remembered what Naruto had told him about the man's double life.
That didn't still mean that he wasn't going to try and kill him. He really hoped that Naruto knew what he was doing. Itachi pulled off the hood, scarf and glasses. Kyuubi felt his breath catch in his throat. It was amazing how much different someone looked when they weren't trying to kill you. Interesting. But that wasn't exact the thoughts circulating around in his head. The first thought actually was
"He's hot." or something to that effect. Naruto, who still shared the metal link with the kitsune, caught the edge of Kyuubi's thoughts and grinned.
Itachi's eyes flickered across Kyuubi where he was lying on the floor, to Naruto, who's shirt was rumpled and was still trying to catch his breath.
"Are you two. . . ?" he asked trailing off in a way that could only mean one thing. Kyuubi leapt to his feet.
"No! God no! Ew! I'm Kyuubi No Kitsune." he stuck out his hand, while wondering why it was such a big deal that Itachi know the truth.
"Oh." a sound of slightly confused relief ran through his voice, as if he himself was unsure what it was doing there. "Ok, that makes more sense." he reached his hand to take Kyuubi's.
Kyuubi felt a jolt ripple through him as the other's callused hand touched his. He gave it a quick shake, his eyes meeting the red ones over the space between them, which seemed to shrink a bit as he felt another shock go through him. He let go. Why did his face feel so hot?
- - - End flashback- - -
"Ok fine, maybe they do like each other. But what are we going to do about that?" Sasuke asked.
"Oh, don't worry about that. I have an idea." and with that, and a smirk, Naruto turned and walked over to where the two they were discussing.
"Itachi, Kyuubi, stand up." Naruto said. They both gave him a curious look, but did as he asked anyway.
"Ok, you two obviously like each other. And are equally obviously never going to do something about it without a push." so, with those final words, he gave Kyuubi a small push in the small of the back. Right into Itachi's lips. Sasuke resisted the urge to bang his head on the table.
"You know Naruto, when I said 'push' I didn't mean it literally." he said.
Naruto shrugged. Suddenly, Kyuubi and Itachi both pulled away, before they rounded on Naruto, their eyes furious.
"NARUTO! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" Itachi yelled, his calm physique flying out the window, his face looking like someone could make s'mores on it. Not waiting for an answer, he fled the room, his angry footsteps echoing behind him. Kyuubi stared as the tip of the long cloak rounded the corner, a slightly depressed look on his face. Naruto at least had the grace to look sheepish.
"Yeah, it worked great Naruto." Sasuke said sarcastically. Naruto turned to him and raised an eyebrow.
"You don't know Kyuu like I do."
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"Was kissing me really that bad, Itachi?" Kyuubi almost whispered later. Naruto had conveniently dragged Sasuke from the house earlier. Itachi's head snapped up, taking in the flushed kitsune before him. For once, the golden eyes weren't flickering with mischief, and there was no smile hinting at his mouth.
Itachi found himself blushing slightly, and had no idea what to say. Kyuubi continued, seemingly unaware of the heated gaze he was under.
"Because, I didn't think it was that bad." his face was now red enough to rival his hair and win.
Itachi's own blush deepened. Kyuubi had. . . Liked it? What could this mean. His mouth opened of it's own accord.
"Do you want to. . . Try it again?"
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"See, I told you it'd work, didn't I?" he looked pointedly to where Kyuubi and Itachi were making out.
"I'm not sure whether to be grossed out or not."
"Why would you be?"
"That's my older brother."
"I see your point. Oh well, lets leave them to it then."
"Why, doesn't it bother you. After all, Kyuubi did live in your stomach for 17 years."
"Believe me Sasuke, after some of the dreams Kyuubi so delightfully shared, with me, nothing will ever gross me out again"
Sasuke decided that he really didn't want to know.
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"Did you know about this? You did didn't you! And it never occurred to you that I might want to know that my favourite student was the Yondaimes SON!" Iruka demanded of his lover.
"I thought I was your favourite student." he said with a perverted grin. Iruka turned a fascinating shade of red and punched Kakashi not so lightly on the arm.
"Quite joking around. You knew." Iruka said again. Kakashi gave a semi sheepish grin, although it was hard to tell under the layer of fabric that hid his face from view.
"Well, I had a theory, but I think that I was the only one who even thought about it. But after all, Naruto has been my student for almost 5 years now and the Yondaime was my sensei for just as long. And I knew that his wife was pregnant at just the right time for it to be Naruto. Plus the resemblance is uncanny."
" . . .You do know that not only is that not helping, it's making it worse."
"Want me to kiss it better?"
"Baka Hentai!" This was followed by a sharp thwaking sound and an exclimation of pain.
- - - To Be Continued.- - -
Yes, it's short. I'm sorry, I'd write more, but I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow and wanted to get this up before I left. Oh, and unless I get at least 7 of the readers to review, no chapter. So review, got that?