i don't own naruto, and if you think I do then a raccoon named jerry will jump in your window while you are sleeping and have a death match on your bed with the evil monkey who lives in your closet. Well maybe not but wouldn't it be funny if that really happened? what ever, just as long as you realize that i don't own naruto in any way shape or form.

Hiashi Hyuga walked into the meeting twenty minutes late. He bowed low and said, "I humbly apologize for being late but I was at the hospital visiting my wife after she was injured in the recent attack on my clan and I lost track of time."

This was of course a lie, he had known exactly what time it was while he was at the hospital, but nobody could call him on it. His real reason for being late was so that he could give his excuse and in doing so remind the council that the attack hadn't only injured Naruto, and in fact had nearly claimed Hinali's life. They wouldn't be able to write off the attack now that they were officially aware of exactly who had been injured in it. The Hokage spoke up before anyone would have a chance to call his bluff.

"Considering the circumstances you will be forgiven this time, just don't make a habit of it."

Hiashi bowed again. "Thank-you Hokage-sama" He took his seat between the Aburame and Akimichi representatives.

Sarutobi got back to the business at hand. "Now that Hiashi has arrived we can begin. The first order of business will be the creation of a new clan within Konoha, the man has recently separated from his clan and has sufficiently demonstrated his own unique style which can be developed into numerous clan fighting techniques with the right support. But before he can join the council he will need a sponsorship from a clan in good standing with the council. Are there any volunteers?"

Already knowing whom it was that the Hokage was speaking of, Hiashi raised his hand at once. Next to him, Shibi Aburame raised his hand and asked, "Shouldn't we know who it is we are accepting before anyone agrees to sponsor him?"

The Hokage nodded and said, "Yes you should, I just wanted to be sure that we got the sponsorship out of the way first since the young man has a controversial backstory. I'll bring him in now."

He nodded to the ANBU standing by the door and it was opened to reveal none other than Itachi Uchiha, now known as Itachi Mamoru. That was when all hell broke loose, or rather the idiot Uchiha broke loose.

"You can't be serious sarutobi! This boy is a traitor who was banished from our clan for attacking the clan head. He is not fit to even mop the floors of the council chamber, let alone actually join the council. Besides you can't have two clans with the sharingan, it just doesn't make sense!" The new Uchiha clan head shouted at him.

But the Hokage wasn't paying attention to the man at all. He was watching Itachi who for some reason was staring at the Inuzuka clan head, or more specifically the space behind the clan head, where her daughter was sitting in on the meeting, presumably in preparation of taking over as clan head. Not an unusual occurrence since the girl was the current heir and needed to be trained in the more mundane aspects of the position. What was even more interesting was that the girl was staring right back at him, it was as if they were both in some kind of trance.

Before long the trance was broken by the Hokage yelling back at the Uchiha, "Baishū Uchiha! If you do not calm down this instant then I will have you forcibly removed from the council room!"

This shut the man up as quick as he had begun his tirade.

The Hokage then looked around the room, "Are there any more objections to Itachi's taking a seat on this council?"

When nobody spoke up the Hokage smiled in triumph, "Very well then, Itachi Mamoru you have been granted clan status in Konohagakure, take a seat next to the Inuzuka representatives." As Itachi did so the Hokage moved on. "Now that we have that little piece of business settled, we can move on to other, more pressing matters."

He nodded to Hiashi who stood up and said in a calm voice. "Hokage-sama, I would like to request that reparations be made regarding the attack on my clan that nearly took the lives of my wife, daughter, nephew and several branch family members. The attack by Fugaku Uchiha was unfounded and unprovoked, and it not only caused physical and mental scarring on the children involved but forced me to reveal to Naruto the exact nature of his condition. Because of this I believe that reparations in the amount of twenty million ryu will be sufficient. Both for repairs to the house and grounds and for the hardship that the attack has caused my family."

The Hokage sighed, pretending not to enjoy this in any way, which was a complete and utter farce, if anything he believed that the repercussions should be worse than what Hiashi was requesting.

"Very well then Hiashi, all in favor of awarding the Hyuga clan reparations for the attack instigated by Fugaku Uchiha?"

Nearly every hand went up.

"All opposed?"

Only Baishū Uchiha raised his hand.

"The matter is settled then, the Uchiha are hereby ordered to pay reparations to the Hyūga clan in the amount of two hundred million ryu for the malicious attack that took place yesterday and their blatant use of this council in aiding the attack."

Thankfully this time the Uchiha who was present decided to bear this perceived insult in silence. That amount was rather large but still paled in comparison to how much was really in the Uchiha treasury. Years of skimming off the top of police budgets had made them quite rich, and since only Uchihas were allowed on the police force nobody was the wiser. Still he vowed to himself that this insult would not go unpunished in the long run. The Hokage smiled at him, as if knowing exactly what he was thinking. The old man paused before going on to his final piece of business for the day.

"I have decided that the time has come for me to step down as Hokage." the Sandaime said. "This is my second term and I feel that I am getting too old to do this job in the extent to which it requires. I have decided to chose Itachi Mamoru as my replacement. Providing he is approved by this council I will step down in two years time when he reaches the age of nineteen."

That was the moment when utter chaos decided to rear it's ugly head in the council room.

Naruto peaked through a crack in the door to Hinali's room. He had to know why she had done it, why she had been willing to die to protect him. He wasn't even her son! He wasn't even a true Hyūga! He spoke up in a timid voice.

"Aunt Hinali? Can I ask you a question?"

Hinali wasn't surprised to see him there, she knew how most of the villagers treated him. She had comforted Hinata many times as she cried over the treatment her crush received at the hands of random villagers, thankfully his learning to defend himself early in life (before he was ever allowed outside the compound on his own or with Hinata) had precluded any attacks on him by vengeful villagers looking to get rid of the 'demon child'.

"Sure Naruto what is it?" she asked.

There were tears in his eyes as he asked, "Why did you do it? Why did you protect me? You didn't have to, you could have run away, or just given me to him without a fight. You didn't need to get hurt to protect me. I'm not worth it, if you had just let him kill me then all of this would be over and none of you would be hurting because of me." He said sadly.

Hinali looked at him in consternation. "Naruto I thought that I had already explained all this to you before I fought Fugaku! I love you Naruto, it doesn't matter whether you are really related to me or not. I love you like a son and I protected you like it. Besides if you had died then Hinata would have been devastated, and so would I and most of our clan too. The branch members know what it's like to be affected by a seal that they have no control over, so they don't care about your tenant. And they really do care about you. Besides if I hadn't done it then Hinata would have."

Just then Naruto was tackled to the ground by said girl and pinned down. " Naru-chan I already told you, we don't care about any stupid seal or what's contained in it! So stop being an idiot and just accept that we love you!" she shouted.

Then realizing what she had just said, she proceeded to turn three colors of red before fainting dead away. Hinali just laughed when she saw it. Hinata had just declared her love for Naruto, too bad he was so dense that he didn't realize that. She would have to have a talk with Hinata later about this.

Naruto looked rather relieved to hear this from them. He made a decision then, one that would affect the course of his entire life from that point forward. He looked Hinali straight in the eye as he said, "I promise never to let you get hurt for me again, not if I can stop it. In fact I'm going to protect everyone from harm. I won't let any of my precious people get hurt while I'm around to keep them safe."

Hinali smiled, "And how are you going to do that Naruto?"

A look of determination came into his eyes as he answered her in a clear and confident voice, "I'm going to become the Hokage! That way I can protect everyone!"

Hinali smiled at him, she knew that he would succeed in this endeavor, or die trying.

"QUIET!!!!!!!!!!"

Everyone in the room froze in astonishment at the Hokage's shout. Who knew that the old man had such powerful lungs? He glared at them all.

"Everybody sit down and shut up."

As soon as everyone had complied he continued. "Now, one at a time you will tell me your objections to Itachi becoming Hokage."

Danzo stood up. "The boy is too young and inexperienced."

The Hokage smirked, apparently the Uchiha's allies had returned to their side for this battle.

"Are you sure you don't just want the position yourself?" He asked smugly, knowing it was true.

When it became apparent that danzo had no retort to give the next person stood up, he was a civilian, and about to demonstrate his naivete whenever it comes to the Uchiha clan.

"How can we be sure that he won't betray us like he did the Uchiha clan?" He asked.

The Hokage looked at him pointedly. "Because he didn't betray the Uchiha clan." He said firmly. "The Uchiha clan betrayed him by disowning him for doing his duty and protecting innocent civilians from harm, and they betrayed the village by attacking those civilians in the first place."

The gasps around the civilian side of the council were quite humorous given the situation. They had obviously believed the Uchiha's cover story that the 'demon brat' had instigated the attack on the Hyūga clan, just like they always did when anything bad happened they were trying to blame Naruto. They couldn't do it in this case because the one who was attacked was the one they wanted to blame. Hopefully Itachi would be able to control the council better than he had these last few years.

He cleared his throat. "The time for argument is over, it is now time to put it to a vote." The Hokage said firmly.

Once the ballots were cast the decision was final, in two years time Itachi Mamoru would be the Godaime Hokage. And his opponents couldn't even challenge it on the basis of fair play because he was chosen even though only the opposition had been given a chance to speak so if anything the vote was unfair because those who wanted Itachi as Hokage hadn't been given a chance to speak at all. And yet he still got the job.

After the meeting Hiashi pulled the Sandaime aside and said in an amused tone. "Two hundred million ryu? I only asked for twenty!"

The Hokage chuckled. "Did you? I could have sworn I heard you say two hundred. Maybe I should get my ears checked. Oh well, at least they'll think twice next time before trying to get to Naruto again."

Hiashi laughed at the joke. "You won't mind if I give most of the money to Itachi do you? I'm not exactly hurting for money and Naruto won't be either. Itachi is the one who really needs it, I was going to give the whole twenty million to him in the first place."

The Hokage smiled, "As long as the council doesn't find out I don't see why not."

"Thankyou Hokage-sama" Hiashi said before he bowed and left.

Itachi was sitting with his back against a tree in his favorite training ground. He was contemplating just what it would be like to be Hokage, and wondering how things would change because of this new development. The Uchiha clan would certainly be a problem at some point in the near future. Their arrogance knew no bounds and might just cause them to try something stupid like a coup d'etat in order to take over the village and feed their already giant egos even more. Sometimes he wondered whether there was an insanity gene inherent in his old clan, but the only mental trait they seemed to posess was a false sense of superiority. there was a shuffling behind him, indicating that someone was approaching from the direction of the village.

He turned to see the Inuzuka girl from the council meeting standing right behind him. He looked her straight in the eye and asked, "What are you doing here?"

She smiled at him. "You looked like you needed someone to talk to after the meeting so I followed you." She said quietly before coming over and sitting down next to him.

When he didn't say anything for awhile she leaned over to him and whispered in his ear. "I'll be right here when you want to talk to me. You can't keep all of this bottled up inside you know, doing that will drive you crazy."

When he still didn't say anything she tried another tactic. "So you're gonna be the next Hokage huh? I bet that's gonna be a real pain in the butt. Still...somebody has to do it. And I'd rather have it be you than that Danzo character, at least with you we won't get in any superfluous wars."

Itachi turned his head to look at her. She could see the worry in his eyes.

"What if I make a mistake? What if someone dies because of me?" He asked in a soft tone, only his eyes seemed to convey the worry that he was feeling at the moment.

She gave him a stern look. "Then you make a mistake. You're only human, and despite what people seem to think, the Hokage is not infallible or omniscient in any way shape or form. You are allowed to make mistakes Itachi. What matters is what you do once that happens. Do you curl up in a ball and cry? Or do you fix it as best you can and move on? I can tell you right now that the best leaders are those who don't worry about past mistakes, instead they look to the future and try to make sure it doesn't happen again." She said.

Itachi gave her a grateful look and said in a small voice, "Thank-you, you're helping me and I don't even know your name. I've seen you around but never bothered to ask for it." She smiled again. "My name is Hana Inuzuka, and I'd be delighted to help you any time you need it. But next time you have to buy me dinner first."

Itachi smiled at the joke. Perhaps the future wasn't as frightening as he had come to believe after all.

A/N: well there you go. next we have a couple of slight time skips to make it to graduation day and their first missions. it seems like i'm making updates about once a week so i think i'll keep that trend going for awhile, it fits into my schedule pretty well and people won't get mad at me for not updating. but if i finish a chapter early then i will be sure to upload it as soon as i'm done proofreading it and such.

p.s. i think you guys will love where Naruto goes for his first c-rank mission, and no it isn't the wave mission. It's something even better, at least in my humble opinion.