A/N(2): Well, it's been revised. Still not as happy as I would like, but it's much better than it was. Kami-sama, I love English-major betas (or at least betas who should be betas). Please enjoy this new version.

-Rhys

Sakura's Age: 16

Year of Reign: 1

Genre: Drama

Vocab:

-Oto – Sound

-Tsuinin – ratification/confirmation

Appointment

Utatane Koharu struggled to regain her breath as the shinobi began trickling in, some alone, others in groups, none unscathed. Homura, sitting beside her, was as weakened as she, nursing a fatal gut wound. He wouldn't survive until nightfall. When their genin team had first been placed under the Nidaime's charge, she had never dreamed that she'd be the last of the three to die.

Koharu felt her hope slowly dwindling as the shinobi finally stopped coming in. The future their numbers painted was bleak indeed, if this was all they would have to work with. So many were not there... Where was Raidou, and Kurenai, Tobitake Tonbo and Tatami Iwashi? Where were the rest of the ANBU members, where were the Inuzuka? Too many were gone, too many had died.

Homura straightened with a grunt, and pulled on her sleeve. "Look," he groaned, and lifted a wavering hand to point at the door. Koharu followed with her eyes, and felt her jaw drop.

Their numbers reduced – Rock Lee was conspicuous in his absence, there was no sign of Kiba or the giant Akamaru, and the loudmouthed Kyuubi vessel was no where to be seen – the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had just entered, most of them as beaten as the rest of the room. Akimichi Chouji looked dazed – the back of his head was half-caved in – and his hitai-ate and right arm below the elbow were missing. Yamanaka Ino's head had been shaved, the edge doing the shaving taking some of the scalp with it, and her right arm dangled uselessly at her side. But she could keep her feet, and lent her left arm to Hinata.

The young Hyuuga limped beside her, the victim of a brutal beating that had left her bruised and broken from head to toe with the sole exception of her legs. With both eyes blackened and drifting, she relied on the taller woman to lead her to a seat. Aburame Shino's coat was missing, displaying the thousands of kikai bugs swarming over, under, and through his skin as they mended his wounds and set him to rights. Tenten's flesh had been shredded by what seemed to have been an acid-coated whip, and her shattered legs meant that she be carried in by her remaining teammate.

But it was not their wounds that had every ninja in the room gaping at them. It was the three remaining 'Rookies.'

Hyuuga Neji's hair had been raggedly cropped to ear length; his hitai-ate dangled around his neck. He looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion, though his arms were clinging tightly to his crippled teammate, but he was untouched; the blood soaking his clothes belonged to Tenten.

Nara Shikamaru's clothes had been shredded and the skin revealed showed minor bruising, but he too was otherwise unmarked, and hovered over his teammates as they found seats in the back.

Haruno Sakura was pale, drawn, and gaunt, but though her tattered clothes had been dyed blood-red, she was uninjured – most likely due to her own miraculous healing abilities. She was trailed by a Hyuuga Hanabi that nursed broken ribs and cradled a splinted left arm to her chest, blood splattered over her trembling form. Koharu absently suspected that she'd already been tended to by the medic-nin.

The room was silent as the chuunins and jounin settled themselves in the – compared to the rest of the village – undamaged conference room, and remained so until Koharu cleared her throat loudly, still trying to catch her breath. She smiled grimly when it took several seconds for the shinobi to tear their gazes away from the unbelievably unscathed Rookies and give her their attention.

"I'm not going to mince words," she croaked hoarsely, her punctured lung protesting. "Regardless of the fact that we chased them off, this is the most crushing defeat we've ever suffered. I count a hundred and twenty-one people in this room, including myself. I've no earthly idea what the civilian numbers are like, but I think they're worse – Oto showed no mercy whatsoever.

"This isn't like last time, people, and we can't afford to wait a couple of weeks for Jiraiya to bring us a Sannin for our Hokage – as far as I know, there are no more Sannin, for one. Unless there are still stragglers out there, we are it. There's no way we can begin to pull ourselves back together without someone in the hot seat, and we need to pick that someone now."

Sarutobi Asuma, as beaten and bloody as most of the rest of the room, raised his twisted hand briefly. "If I may make a suggestion? We need someone the civilians can have faith in, someone who can give a strong image to our enemies and allies alike."

Koharu suspected she knew where he was headed, and didn't blame him in the least. "We'll also need someone who has enough smarts to see us through this."

"Not to mention someone who didn't get pounded bad enough that they'll be spending their days in the hospital rather than the Tower, where we're gonna need them," grunted a badly burned chuunin near the back.

The three Rookies were growing wary, and the Sandaime's teammate chuckled mentally. "So. Someone who's not easily beaten, has brains, and is relatively strong, with preference to someone who isn't currently in bad shape. Now is the time to make your nominations, if you have one. We'll do this open-session."

Asuma's hand rose again. She nodded to him, and he smirked painfully. "I nominate Haruno Sakura."

The medic twitched, blinking rapidly. "Say again?"

Koharu ignored her, instead nodding at another jounin across the room. "Yes, Tsuinin-san?"

"I'll second the nomination."

Sakura's face clearly asked 'Are you braindead?' "Why?" she demanded.

The jounin tilted his head gently. "Nara-san is brainier than you are, yes, but though he gets the job done, he's also one of the laziest people I've ever seen. Hyuuga-san is a genius as a ninja, not as a leader. You're brilliant; you've been trained by Sharingan no Kakashi and a Sannin, who herself was no less than the Hokage; you're able to prioritize and delegate; and you generally show all the signs of a capable leader – you've simply never been put in a position requiring those skills before."

She looked taken aback at such a complementary judgment of her abilities from a jounin she'd never met before. "I'm sixteen," she pointed out.

"At this point," Homura grunted, hand wrapped tightly around his abdomen, "age isn't a factor. And by the time it is, you'll be old enough for it not to matter. Most of our survivors, from what I saw, are either very old or very young, so if someone does challenge you, they'll either be in the same boat or have death by old age hanging over their shoulder, and any support they may be able to raise won't be enough to get past the shinobis' solid support of you."

"I'm flattered that you think me capable, really I am. But I have to disagree. I have no desire for the job whatsoever, and it wouldn't be fair to subject the village to that after everything it's been through. I'd much rather give the position to Naruto – he's the one that's been aiming for it ever since he knew what it was."

"And were he here, we'd offer it to him, Kyuubi or no," Koharu said firmly. "But he's not. In case you misunderstood, Haruno-sama," Sakura blinked at the formal address, "we're all that's left – anyone who's not here by now is most likely dead. And that includes Uzumaki Naruto and Hatake-san as well."

Sakura looked startled, and scanned the room quickly. She found no sign of Kakashi's silver hair – hadn't she known he'd not been there? Koharu winced inwardly when she saw the pink-haired girl gulp quietly. If she hadn't been lonely before, she certainly was now, and the old kunoichi mentally noted to appoint advisors who would also be or were already friends. She would need all the support she could get.

She licked her lips. "I'm only a chunnin-" she began, but stopped when she saw Homura shake his head.

"It's not a factor – legally, we'd be able to appoint a genin Hokage, though we'd have to have some incredible support from the civilians and shinobi alike to swing it. At the moment, the only thing standing in the way of your appointment is your own objection."

He broke off his explanation and coughed harshly, blood spewing from his lips. Sakura tensed and moved to assist him, but he waved her off. "Don't waste your strength – I won't make it through the night. We need to settle this issue now, Haruno-sama, so we can begin to rebuild without worrying about who will lead us. You've been nominated and seconded, no one save you has protested, and I will almost guarantee that any show of hands will give you a unanimous vote."

The pink-haired kunoichi worried at her lip, and glanced around the room with a gaze that was likely more calculating than she realized. Koharu could almost see the powerful brain behind those startling emerald orbs turning over factors and likely reactions, churning out possibilities and alternatives, playing devil's advocate with herself. "May I have a show in any case?"

It was a last, desperate move that she had to know wouldn't change the situation – Koharu could see the resignation in her eyes. Nonetheless, she humored the reluctant nominee and motioned for the gathered shinobi to do as she requested.

Homura smirked when every hand in the room except Sakura's went up.

Sakura smiled resignedly when the female advisor cocked an eyebrow at her. "It's unanimous, Haruno-sama. Allow me to complete the formalities. Haruno Sakura, would you please honor us by serving as our Hokage?"

Sakura glanced a final time around the room, smiled weakly at the tired amusement in her fellows' faces, took one last breath of freedom, and nodded.

"Very well," Haruno Sakura, Rokudaime Hokage no Konohagakure no Sato, said, determination bright in her gemstone-hard eyes. "I will do all in my power to serve this village, even should it claim my life."

-owari-