A/N: Chapter 3 will probably be the last chapter. Just a reminder that I said this would be relatively short. I broke this up from being a long one-shot because there were some good cliffhangers to take advantage of.
Words were exchanged. Their argument went on for several minutes.
"I can't believe you!" Sakura screams at the Hokage. "What makes you think I'd go along with this!?"
Her body feels stabbed of betrayal. How could he possibly expect her to be okay with this? What in the hell is he thinking?
Her mind flickers to a memory of a snowy night in the Land of Iron. She's already tried to manipulate Naruto once and she has to live with that regret. Why would she want to do that again?
Jinchūriki only really became a normal thing when the system of ninja villages started. Their entire point was to serve as deterrents for war because the scale of battle increased from the Warring Clans era. They shouldn't be needed anymore in the peaceful world that things are moving towards thanks to Naruto's actions and the ongoing diplomatic efforts that he has been involved in. Why does Kakashi want to go back to that?
"You," Sakura distantly realizes and her body goes slack in disbelief, "you don't believe in Naruto. I can't believe this is happening. You really don't believe in him. You don't want this as a protection measure. You want the military power it represents. This isn't about being scared it'll attack. You're afraid it's going to leave!"
"If you do not accept this, we will find another to assign it to," Kakashi reveals.
Her voice turns sharp enough to cut steel. "What?"
"I'm offering you the chance to complete this with minimal incident. This mission is too important to pass on. If you do not accept we will find another way."
Her body moves up to the Hokage's desk of its own accord and Sakura slams her fist into it in a protective rage. The table shatters into thousands of splinters. "Don't you dare," she growls out, the vision of death itself embodied within her.
She storms out before he has the chance to respond. The door to his office breaks off its hinges when she slams it shut.
Naruto can't sleep.
For the first time in his life, he feels uncomfortable with the way Sakura's body rests against his in their bed. The way her arm drapes over him now feels unnatural.
With the moon still high in the sky, Naruto slowly slips Sakura off of him and slides out of bed, feeling the urge to just get away from it all. He looks for anything to distract him. Anything.
He's not hungry. He's not thirsty. He doesn't have any reports to look over at home.
Feeling claustrophobic in his own house, he slides open the glass door to a small patio outside and sits on a bench they had installed. There's no one in sight and nothing around to look at to pull his thoughts away from the dark path they've started taking. As the cool night air settles around him, he puts his head in his hands and wonders what in the hell he's doing.
"Everything okay?" comes a certain voice from the door.
With the way his luck has been going for the past 24 hours, Naruto thinks he shouldn't be surprised that trouble followed him out. Keeping his head in his hands to avoid looking at her, he takes deep breaths as the sound of soft footsteps get closer.
It would be so easy. All he has to do is ask the words, "Were you paid to fall in love with me?"
It would be so damn easy.
But he's older now. Wiser. He's learned that what takes years to build only takes seconds to destroy.
The few notes off the mission report that hadn't been removed indicated that Sakura refused the mission. It indicated she was interfering with others who were assigned. It made it sound like the birth of his son was merely a coincidence and not the intended result.
Naruto looks up from his seat to see his beautiful wife who is standing in front of him, looking down with honest concern in her eyes. He sees no deception, sees no ulterior motive.
No. There's no possible chance that Sakura was manipulating him. He doesn't believe it.
Hesitantly, he reaches out and grasps one of her hands. "Can you stay?" he asks in a far weaker voice than he hoped for.
"Sure." She immediately takes her place beside him, unsure how to help. "Did something happen today?" she softly asks.
He nods. "I'm not ready to talk about it yet."
Sakura accepts this easily and wraps one of her arms around him.
Leaning against each other, Naruto and Sakura fall asleep under the stars.
There's something wrong with Naruto's replacement arm. It's nothing too serious, but after some complaints about pain during training, it was discovered that the bonding process with the Hashirama cells had gone slightly wrong in a couple places. Surgery would be needed to fix it.
Surgery with Naruto can be pretty hit and miss. As he's grown older and more powerful, his body has simply become more and more resistant to being put to sleep under anesthetic (sleep genjutsus have a complicated history in the medical practice). Consequently, he's sometimes awake during the process. Highly delusional and in a happy high, but awake. It's usually not an issue since the staff has gotten good at making sure he's secure and can't move around.
Unfortunately, that doesn't keep him from talking. Listening to Naruto babble for three hours straight about how pretty he thinks Sakura's hair is can be enough to drive her out of Konoha in embarrassment. The nurses helping her with the operation that keep giggling during the whole ordeal do not help.
He finally falls asleep shortly after finishing as they wheel him into a private room to rest. When she's the only one left in the room, Sakura sits in a nearby chair and debates the moral implications of what she wants to do.
It was two weeks ago that she had her argument with Kakashi and stormed out of the mission. His lingering mention that it would be reassigned is something that Sakura cannot accept. She cannot let it happen. But she also can't let Naruto know.
The problem: Her efforts to protect him from what the Hokage wants to do have hit a bit of a snag. Namely, she can't always be with him. She's not there for every mission and demanding she go along with every single one would raise too many obvious red flags with the Hokage. If he somehow wasn't already aware of what she was doing, he would be then.
The proposed solution: Sakura needs the help of someone who will always be there when she can't be. She wants to request assistance directly from the Nine Tails.
Decision made, the medic gets up and stands next to Naruto, channeling some healing chakra into his system. Only enough to wake him up for a few moments. Her efforts are rewarded a few seconds later when her teammate's eyes begin to flutter. "Saaaaakuraa?" he drawls out slowly with a small amount of drool falling from his mouth, still heavily drugged.
She kneels down next to him and quietly asks, "I need to talk to Kurama. Can you do that, Naruto?"
"Whazzat? Sleeeeepy."
Sakura taps him on the head a few times and flicks his forehead, "Stay awake for a moment. I need to talk to Kurama."
It doesn't work. Seconds later, Naruto is already snoring. "Raaammeeennn," he mutters in sleep, clearly dreaming of his favorite food.
Her eye twitches. Sakura moves her hands to try and wake him up again when suddenly the beast in question literally walks out of Naruto's stomach of its own accord.
Faintly, she realizes she had forgotten that the seal holding the beast back had long ago been fully opened.
Standing next to her was the immensely powerful beast that was a focal point in the Fourth Shinobi War. He's not full size – the hospital wouldn't be standing if he was – but rather he's somewhat smaller. About a few times Akamaru's size if she had to guess. His presence is still the most imposing thing she's ever felt and she immediately races to the doors and windows to lock and close the blinds so that no one sees. Kurama merely stands there with one eye lazily closed, but the other still carries mild interest.
"Speak," he says. His deep voice rumbling slightly. The burnt orange color of his fur is dulled a little in the darkness of the room, but the nine individual tails still sway back and forth.
Taking a moment to calm her nerves over how bad this conversation could potentially go, Sakura begins with, "I need your help to protect Naruto, but he can't know. Can he hear us?"
Kurama glances to Naruto for just a moment, "It's taken care of. He will not wake."
"Okay," she says before pausing to choose her words. Given what she knows about the fox, keeping things straightforward and making no deception would be best. It would know if she was lying. "During the war, Naruto mentioned that you have the ability to sense negative emotions and the feelings of people around you."
The fox remains motionless and silent, giving nothing away. Sakura continues, "The Hokage is trying to have someone seduce Naruto and make sure that the Uzumaki line continues so that there are more viable jinchūriki candidates. I don't agree with using him like that."
A low, deep, rumbling hum escapes Kurama for a moment. "This would explain your recent behavior," he muses. The fox almost seems thoughtful, seemingly uncaring about the threat to his future that she revealed. Or perhaps confident that it won't matter.
Internally, Sakura wonders how she should feel about the fact that the most powerful living creature in the world has been paying attention to her.
"Why do this?" the beast asks, watching her intently.
A conversation with Yamato from years ago flashes to her mind. "The things I can do for Naruto have always been so small," Sakura explains. "But I can do this. I've made enough mistakes with him."
The beast sniffs the air, as if literally smelling her emotions off of her. It seems content with what it finds. The eye that was previously closed is now open and is also focused on her. "How did you learn this?" Kurama questions.
"The Hokage tried to assign it to me."
And unlike every possible response Sakura could have expected, Kurama begins to laugh. A long, deep laugh. The fox moves in closer and begins to circle around her, speaking, "Amusing. So very, very amusing that you were not forced to be with the Uchiha. Perhaps I should be honored that your village is more worried about me than continuing on their precious Sharingan or ensuring his loyalty."
He stops and looks up directly into her face. "Very well. I will go along with this."
Relief floods her. "I don't know who it might be. It could be anyone," she advises while nodding.
Kurama slightly tilts his head in what she thinks is a mocking curiosity. "Even you?" he challenges.
She takes the leap.
"Even me."
Naruto Uzumaki glosses over a report detailing the status of an exchange program he's testing with the Mizukage. It's turning out to be relatively successful. Enough, at least, for some of the other Kages to catch wind of it. The Raikage has expressed some interest and a few letters from some smaller villages have come in about it. Noting some particular points of interest, the Hokage circles a few items and pens a few notes in the margins, then sets the paper aside in a basket used for later review in meetings.
He hasn't been particularly productive today. Despite him coming to the conclusion that his wife did nothing wrong and that their relationship is real, the strange mission keeps pestering him in the back of his mind.
It really boils down to a single question: If Sakura wasn't paid to fall in love with him, then what the hell happened?
It's not one that he has an answer for and he has few leads. He's not going to approach his wife about it. Tapping his pen rhythmically on his desk, Naruto decides he might have to take it up with Kakashi.
He's interrupted from his thoughts by a knock at the door and Shizune steps in the room. "Ehh? They got you running errands again, Shizune?" he asks.
The woman shrugs as she approaches the desk, her hands full of fresh paperwork to hand off. "I'm helping Sakura catch up on some things. She wants to take off early tomorrow," she explains.
Suddenly, she leans in and glares at Naruto suspiciously. "You do remember that Sakura's birthday is tomorrow, right? You haven't forgotten?"
He resists a flinch. He hasn't exactly forgotten. He's just been rather preoccupied with, well, recent events. Naruto waves off the concern, "I remember. She doesn't want a big party this-"
The Hokage cuts himself off as the words "birthday" and "party" roll around in his mind, making vague connections and new speculations. Ignoring Shizune for a moment, Naruto reaches over to a drawer where he was keeping the mysterious mission that's been on his mind and checks the dates that were left in the notes.
October 10th.
His birthday.
The notes indicate that Sakura did something that day. Something big enough that her loyalty to the village was a huge concern.
The year isn't listed on the mission notes, but Naruto knows one major event that happened on one of his birthdays: the attempted assassination of the Sixth Hokage. It's quite a huge stretch, but...
Naruto doesn't remember much of that night. The end of the Fourth Shinobi War happens to coincide with his birthday so when the third anniversary of the end of the war came around, his friends threw together a massive party at some new bar that Kakashi had recommended. Over half of them had passed out drunk. Truthfully, he doesn't even remember leaving, but he certainly recalls the massive headache when he woke up and his shock at the news that his teacher had been attacked in the night.
He snaps out of his thoughts to find that Shizune has been asking him questions and he hadn't been listening to a single bit of it. Hoping that she doesn't mind the rudeness and abrupt change, Naruto asks, "You were Kakashi's assistant when he was attacked, right? I took over after he recovered. Did you ever find out who it was?"
Taken aback at the random question, the woman grimaces a little and shakes her head. "No. They wouldn't tell me a thing. I wasn't even allowed to help heal him. Only Lady Tsunade was allowed to see him in a hidden facility, I think."
Tsunade... Naruto allows himself a moment to chew on this new information as he thinks about it. "Alright. I'm going to go pay her a visit," he decides as he grabs his cloak and hat.
Shizune holds out the documents she had for him which he had completely forgotten about and waves them in his face. "Don't try and get out of this now, mister."
Embarrassed, he waves his hands helplessly and points at his desk, "Just, uh, leave it on the pile. I'll get to it." The Seventh immediately flees the room before he has to deal with her wrath.
Several months pass.
With no leads on who the mission to take advantage of Naruto could possibly be reassigned to, Sakura finds herself spending as much time as possible with him to keep an eye out. Lunch? Sure. Training? Always nice to get stronger. Studying some materials for becoming Hokage? She's good with that. She'll bring some tea and some medical journals to catch up on.
Naruto never even bats an eye at some of the absurd excuses she gives for wanting to be near him.
When rumors begin circulating that a "pink-haired terror" is scaring away all of Naruto's fans with deadly glares, some of them begin assuming that she's the hero's girlfriend. With a bright smile, Naruto never corrects the villagers when they say it. If they were still younger, Sakura would find his easy acceptance of this annoying, but it's too convenient to pass up and makes her job easier.
Despite the constant and extreme stress of analyzing virtually everyone she meets with Naruto as a possible threat, Sakura finds herself strangely happy. She's perpetually exhausted and tired, but when she looks at herself in the mirror, there's always a faint smile.
"You look like you got laid," Tsunade bluntly calls Sakura out one night.
Being retired has been good to the Fifth Hokage and she's in better spirits than she's been in for decades. Many others might not see it that way though. Now that she no longer has massive piles of work, she spends much of her time drinking and planning various "Girls Nights". Almost all of them involve alcohol.
The bright side to this is that she's at least a happy drunk now instead of a stressed or angry one.
"Haven't you heard the rumors, Lady Tsunade? She's dating Naruto now," Ino teases and drawls out Naruto's name.
Tsunade takes a drink and nods as if this entirely aligns with her worldview. "You had sex with Naruto then? Good for you. About time."
Sakura wants to die.
Flustered beyond words and her face the same color as her hair, she yells out, "I did not! And I'm not dating Naruto!"
"Come on," Ino presses, "I heard about how possessive you are with him at least four times today. Don't deny it."
This wasn't exactly a side effect she considered when she undertook her self-imposed mission. It's one thing for random people she's never met to think she's in a relationship with her teammate. Her friends though, that's a whole different thing. But it's not like she can tell them what's really going on.
Ino herself represents a complicated question. Sakura could easily identify that it was her handwriting on Naruto's report, but it's unknown how much she actually knows. Is Ino aware of the mission? Sakura doesn't think so. Frankly, she thinks that Ino may be an unwitting pawn.
"I heard you're with him every waking moment," Shizune says as she cuts in. "I had to argue with you just to get you to come here with us."
Tsunade doesn't seem to understand Sakura's reaction. "You're not? But you're so-" she waves a hand in the pink-haired medic's direction, as if it should explain everything. Infuriatingly, Shizune and Ino are nodding along with her. Sakura wonders what the others see.
"What other conclusion are we supposed to make?" Ino jumps in again. "You're spending tons of time with Naruto. If you're not dating him, what are you so happy about?"
"Huh? What? What are you talking-"
Sakura's brain immediately reaches a critical error and jumps off a cliff as she comprehends what they're saying. She quickly reviews her memories of the time she's been spending with him and begins piecing together the implication that she really like-likes Naruto. And that it might be true.
And it's same guy whose heart she knows she's broken multiple times.
And she told the Nine Tails itself to treat her like a possible threat.
"Oh shit," she mumbles out.
Tsunade laughs.
Surprisingly, the hardest part of the job for Naruto to get used to was everyone calling him "Lord Hokage". He had spent his whole life being so familiar and casual with everyone that not being called by name threw him for a loop. To deal with this, he makes a notable effort to keep his work as Hokage separate from his personal life. His policy is simple: If he's wearing the cloak designating him as the Seventh Hokage of Konoha, then he's acting in his official capacity. If he's not, then he'd rather just be called "Naruto".
That's perhaps why Tsunade Senju is surprised to see a stern-faced Uzumaki fully dressed for his station at her door. They rarely chat about anything official since he took office. It's usually family talk and arranging for her to babysit his kids when needed (which she always grumbles about, but they both know she's simply faking).
Realizing that she's probably not going to like whatever conversation is about to be held, the retired Kage grumbles and allows him in while she heads over to her well-stocked cabinet of sake to grab a bottle and cup. She sits down on a couch in her home and pours herself a drink while Naruto stands impassively nearby.
"Shizune was Kakashi-sensei's assistant back before the attempt on his life. She said that only you were allowed to heal and help him recover," he begins with.
She nods and shrugs a bit, "That's simplifying it a little, but it's right."
"How much do you know?" Naruto asks as he crosses his arms over his chest.
Tsunade spares him a brief glance and takes a sip of her sake. "Enough that your teacher asked me not to look into it. I've had enough political bullshit in my life after dealing with Danzo and cleaning up Hiruzen's messes."
The implication that even the Fifth doesn't know everything hints that maybe he's on the right track after all. Why such an extensive cover-up? When it becomes apparent that she isn't going to volunteer any additional information, Naruto sits down across from her and ventures his guess on what happened, "The assassination attempt... That was Sakura, wasn't it."
The retired woman closes her eyes and lets out a deep sigh as she leans her head back to review her options. "Officially, I don't know. Unofficially, remnants of my student's chakra were still floating through him and his injuries matched how she does things."
Naruto cocks an eyebrow at that comment which makes her let out a snort. "She broke every single bone in his body."
Weirdly, a part of him is proud to hear that. By being in the shadow of Sasuke and himself, many tend to forget just how powerful his wife truly is. The fact that she was able to so decisively defeat a Kage in single combat speaks volumes.
"Do you know why?" he asks quietly.
"A little."
Tsunade takes a much larger gulp of her sake and sets the cup down. "Those elders came to talk to him while he was recovering in the secure room. I overheard a few things. From what I understand, Kakashi gave Sakura a mission that she objected to and refused. When he told her that they would assign it to someone else, she apparently threatened him."
Naruto's eyes are wide. This might be what he's looking for. "She threatened to kill him over a mission? What exactly was it?"
"I don't know." The woman's gaze is distant. "From what I heard them say, she knocked out whoever they reassigned the mission to and was seen dragging whoever it was to Ino's home. That's all I know."
Naruto nods and runs a hand through his hair. "Okay, thanks," he mutters, thinking of his next step.
So Ino might know something?
The door to Ino Yamanaka's home slams open in a rage and Sakura steps in, her eyes the definition of cold fury. She glances across the room and spots Sai sitting on the couch with Ino straddling him, kissing him. Under better circumstances, Sakura thinks she might have snickered at how out of his element Sai looks. They're thankfully still wearing clothes.
"Out," she demands to Sai as she points her thumb behind her.
"I'm a little busy here, Forehead," Ino growls back, extremely displeased at the disturbance. The alcohol from Naruto's birthday party is still circulating through her and she was looking forward to using the liquid courage to make a move on her boyfriend. Sai wasn't allowed to go to the party because he was stuck on a patrol duty that didn't end until after it was over so this was the first chance she'd gotten to see him in a while.
What neither Sai nor Ino had seen however was what Sakura was carrying. Lifting the weight off her shoulder, she dumps the body of a woman onto Ino's floor. The blond doesn't know who she is, but thinks she looks vaguely familiar.
Sai, however, seems to have more to say. Lifting Ino off of him and setting her down, he leans closer to get a look before shifting his head toward Sakura. "You are carrying a former Root ninja," he observes.
Sakura's eyes briefly widen at the new information before hardening again. "Get out. You don't want to be part of this," she demands again.
Seeing as Ino is too stunned to react, Sai proceeds to do exactly that. When the door gently closes behind him, Ino shoots up from the couch and jabs a finger at Sakura. "This had better be good. I had plans tonight that you've ruined," she vents loudly.
"Find out who sent her."
"Is this even legal? You heard Sai. She's part of Konoha. Root all retired or were integrated into normal service."
"I need you to find out who sent her," Sakura repeats herself. "Please. It's important."
Hesitantly, Ino crouches down beside the unconscious woman on the floor. She looks back up to the medic for a moment uncertainly, not sure what she's getting into. "Okay, fine," she mumbles to herself.
It's a little difficult in her slightly tipsy state of mind, but Ino places both hands on the woman's forehead and begins to use the mind technique that her family is known for. Two minutes later, she falls backwards and scrambles for something to lean on.
"What? Wh-What did I just see? What the hell is going on?" she demands of her friend.
Sakura strides over and crouches down in front of her, trying to comfort her, but she's still too furious for it to come off as sincere. "I refused a mission. I need to know if they reassigned it to her," she allows.
Ino isn't paying attention though. She's already drawing her own conclusions. "This is why the Hokage wanted me to write psych reports on you and Naruto. Oh my god. What have I done?" she mumbles to herself in disbelief as things begin to dawn on her. The blond had heard of missions like this before, but she'd never had a first hand case of one in front of her. She'd never even seen evidence they exist!
Looking back over to the face of the unknown woman, she continues, "That's where I saw her before. She was the bartender at the party. I saw a memory of her putting something in Naruto's drinks."
"I've checked him. It looks like whatever it was blocked his access to Kurama and most of his own chakra," Sakura explains.
The use of former Root members makes sense to Sakura now. Kurama may not have noticed any ill intention because Root ninja usually had their emotions trained out of them. The woman must have been an excellent actor. The only reason Sakura was even mildly concerned that something was wrong was because she didn't like the way Naruto was staggering back home drunk. Usually the beast sealed inside of him would burn it away quickly. She carried him home, put him to bed, then hung around outside for a little while. An hour later, she saw the bartender from the party trying to sneak into his home with a collection of drugs and substances that she hasn't had the chance to identify yet.
Using an emotionless Root and specialized poisons specifically as a way to get around Kurama. She has really underestimated Kakashi.
"She was going to pretend to be you after getting inside," Ino mutely reveals.
"Please," Sakura nearly begs. "Please just tell me who sent her."
Ino slowly looks back up, finding eye contact a little difficult and feeling far too guilty about her own unintentional involvement with the reports about her friends. "Those two old advisors did most of the talking, but," she stops for a moment and finally looks Sakura in the eyes, "the Sixth was there."
Sakura freezes, her fists clenching unconsciously with the confirmation of what she suspected. Ever so slowly, she stands up. "I told him," she mutters darkly. "I told him. I told him that I wouldn't stand for this."
Visible chakra begins to flicker in and out of existence around her hands out of sheer rage. Quickly, she turns around and takes long strides towards the door.
"Wait," Ino tries to stop her before she does anything too rash. "What are you going to do?"
There's a long moment of silence as she is suddenly reminded of the fact that Sakura is a top contender for being the most powerful kunoichi in Konoha.
"I'm going to kill the Hokage."
Fifteen minutes later, in the dead of night, the top floor of the Hokage's office explodes.