But nothing was ever simple when there was free will involved-

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Two days after her last mission to save the Dynamo's grand son, Naru lay in her bed alternating between sleep and studying for her genin exam which was coming up in another...four years. Give or take a few months. And she was just looking over her material to check and make sure that she had her jutsu's down.

Not that she should have worried since she knew more jutsu than even the late Hokage had been aware of. Speaking of... She sat up in her bed and glanced at the calender on her bedside table and cringed. Damn. She needed to get up and get ready for her next task before the appointed time rolled around or there would be hell to pay.

She rolled out of bed and grabbed the small neatly folded pile of clothes on the small dresser across from her bathroom door and headed to the bathroom and shut herself inside and set the clothes aside so that she could take a quick shower, shedding her clothes and tossing them into the dirty clothes hamper then climbed into her bathtub and turned on the tap, not really caring if she got hot water of not.

She could stand the cold water long enough to soap herself up and wash her hair, it wasn't a big deal. The water hit her so suddenly that she jumped back with a yelp as the cold water hit the top of her head. Okay, maybe it wasn't such a small thing after all, that water was positively frigid.

She waited several seconds to see if it would warm up any and swore when it didn't and went ahead and threw herself into her task and tried to ignore the fact that she was probably going to freeze to death as soon as she climbed out of the shower. And wouldn't that be funny if her team showed up looking for her later on? She could see them grabbing some hair dryers and using some choice fire jutsu's just to thaw out the Kitsune Popsicle.

She snickered at her own musings and stuck her soapy head under the spray and hissed as if she were in pain as the cold water ran down her head and back and chest. Dear god, she could already feel herself going numb. She gritted her teeth and finished rinsing herself off and hopped out of the shower, not really caring that there was still soap on her skin or in her shoulder legnth blond hair, and grabbed a towel and started to vigurously rub her arms and legs with the towel to regain some of the feeling in them before she even bothered to try drying her hair.

After a few minutes of dry herself off she grabbed the brush on the bathroom counter and ran it through her hair until it was all neatly brushed back from her face and grabbed her clothes and quickly pulled them on and rushed out of the bathroom and slipped on her shoes and grabbed the large straw hat and the white silk robe laying on the dresser and slipped them on too then used a transformation jutsu to changer herself into the late Third Hokage and then picked up the files with the papers that she needed to look over today and used a transformation jutsu to leave her apartment and reappeared just outside of the Hokage's office and hesitated.

She didn't feel right about going inside, she hadn't felt right about going into the office since the night the old man had died and she had been forced to take his place. She wasn't sure how long she was standing there, nor did she realise how stupid that she looked until someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and looked at the worried expression on one of the Jounin that worked in the tower mission room, just down the hall.

"Hokage-sama, are you okay?" The man asked, concern coloring his tone as he reached out and took the files from her and grasped her upper arm and gently manuvered her over to one of the chairs in the hall and pushed her down in it. She blinked several times and looked around.

"Ganma-san, how long have I been-"

"Ten minutes. Do you feel ill or faint. Do you need a doctor?" The Jounin asked as he reached down and took her wrist in his hand and took her pulse, obviously worried that she might have had a stroke or something.

She stared up at him with a blank expression on her face, feeling the intense need to point out that she was much too young to suffer from such things as heart attacks and strokes, yet said nothing for fear that she might give herself away as a fake Hokage. Genma held onto her wrist for another minute or so before finally letting it go and frowning at her. "Lord Hokage?"

She wondered what he wanted now, and realised that she hadn't answered him yet. "I'm fine Genma-san. I'm just not looking forward to my next meeting with the council elders." She said honestly and the Jounin sighed and gave her a wane smile.

"Well, thats understandable considering all the things they have been up to lately." Genma said, referring to all of the plots to get rid of and kill her. She cocked her head to the side and considered the man for a second, finding it just a bit odd that he would know about those things.

"Genma has someone from the council contacted you about a job?" She asked in a low dangerous tone. The man looked at her and nodded his head curtly.

"Yeah, they've contacted me about assassinating the Uzumaki kid several times. But sir, I always turn them down." Because he didn't think badly of the kid. It was hard to think badly of someone that he felt a certain kinship too.

She nodded her head and stood up and took the files from him and gave him a tight lipped smile and reached out and patted his cheek with her palm. "Just make sure that you keep turning them down."

Genma nodded his head soberly as she turned and started walking down the hall towards the council room, knowing that the council was probably already there waiting for her to show.