Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Absolutely nothing.

A special thanks to everyone who read and/or reviewed/or both the last chapter. You guys are the best!

AN: There is one thing that I want to address in this chapter. Someone who reviewed mentioned Sasuke. Yes, I know I've been slow getting around to him, but don't worry he will show up soon. Please be patient. And with that, enjoy the next chapter!

The Lessons a Hokage Needs to Know

Chapter Nine Part One-A lot of information divulged

The day after his first clan party found Naruto working in the private gardens of the Hokage, to, in Tsunade's words 'learn how to take care of the trees that keep the village safe.'

Naruto scoffed under his breath as he struggled to pull another tough weed out of the ground

He tossed the plant onto a growing pile to his side and mumbled, "learn how to take care of trees my ass, she's just too lazy to weed this stupid garden herself."

He continued to grumble insults under his breath as he pulled at another stubborn root and landed on his butt as it finally came free from the ground. Naruto glared at the muddy thing in his hand in disgust before it too was tossed onto the pile.

Naruto looked around the garden, then to the highest level of the red building in front of him before getting back on his hands and knees.

'Stupid Obaa-chan.'

The 'Obaa-chan' in question, Tsunade, looked down upon a sweaty Naruto from the top floor with a fond smile before reluctantly turning her attention back to the dispatch that she had just gotten from Jiraiya via a team of black ops ANBU.

Tsunade looked at the note with widening eyes, scanned it again just for clarity, dropped it onto her desk and then started flipping through a weeks worth of similar reports from the various countries before sighing and calling one of her secretaries into the room. It was time to do something about this.

Naruto looked around the office that he had been pulled into about five minutes earlier and glanced around at the other people that had been pulled into the office for the mission that he supposed they were all going to get.

He sidled up behind an unusually distracted Hinata and squeezed her shoulder lightly. Hinata glanced up to his taller frame, her white pupil-less eyes narrowed in thought. Naruto frowned and wrapped his arm around her shoulder before bending down to her ear and whispering.

"Hinata, what has you so distracted?"

"Hmm?" She looked into Naruto's eyes. "Oh, nothing Naruto, just thinking about something that I heard the other day, that's all."

Naruto tilted his head to the side and his frown deepened, but he didn't push the topic further. He pecked her lightly on the forehead.

"If you're sure…" he trailed off uncertainly, still looking at his dark-haired girlfriend.

This time Hinata gave him a large smile and squeezed his hand.

"I'm sure Naruto."

Naruto resisted the urge to kiss her senseless because they were currently in a room full of known gossipers, so instead he just wrapped his arms around her and drew her as close to him as possible.

He swore that he could hear the ahs from all the girls present in the room at his gesture.

He certainly heard it from the doorway and turned his head to look at Tsunade and Shizune, who had just entered the room, giving the entangled couple an amused look. Naruto scowled at them but didn't let go of Hinata.

Ignoring the two, Tsunade swept into the room and started rummaging though her desk before finding two mission folders and handing them to Kurenai and Kakashi. They each had the same stamped symbols on them, which caused the two team leaders to glance at each other; they were rarely given assignments together.

Tsunade, seeing the curious looks on the assembled Ninja's faces sat down in her chair and gestured for silence. She beckoned to Shizune, who was holding a box, to come out of the corner she was standing in, and to distribute it contents. Soon, the assembled Ninja were holding guidebooks embossed with the Land of Earth's symbol.

All the shinobi again turned to look at the Hokage. She smiled pleasantly at them for a minute before gesturing to the giant stack of papers on the edge of her desk.

She picked up the one on top and waved it in the air slightly as she spoke.

"We just got this intelligence report from Jiraiya in earlier."

"Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked with curiosity in his voice, before seeing the glare that Shizune was shooting him from behind the Hokage's back, and gulping nervously.

Hinata, picking up on the mood quickly looked back and forth between the two before tuning back into what Tsunade was saying.

"… both teams will therefore be dispatched to Iwagakure to assist him." Tsunade said, obviously finished laying out the mission background.

She nodded to the door in dismissal.

"You will have two days to get to the border of the Land of Earth; I suggest that you move quickly." The assembled shinobi all bowed to their commander before exiting the room.

"So Hinata…" Naruto trailed off as he saw the beautiful Kunoichi in front of him was once again drifting off into thought. He put his hand on her arm and shook it lightly.

"Hinata?" Still no response. He shook her arm more forcefully.

"Hinata?" Nothing

Naruto, with growing concern, maneuvered himself so that he was walking face to face with his girlfriend, and he grabbed both her shoulders firmly.

"Hinata!" That seemed to do it as the surprised Hyuuga bumped into him and it was only Naruto's quick reflexes that prevented her from an uncomfortable meeting with the floor.

Startled pupil-less eyes looked at Naruto from their spot suspended between arms and floor and they just stood that way a minute or two before Hinata started to get a cramp in her back.

"Uh…Naruto?" She shifted slightly in his arms to relieve the pressure on her spine. "Will you let me down?" Hinata ventured quietly.

Naruto just gave her one of his infamous foxy (not to mention handsome) grins before throwing her over his shoulder kidnapper style.

"Nope." And with that Naruto proceeded to carry Hinata down the stairs and out of the tower, but not before Kakashi shouted after them that they had both better be out by the west gate by two P.M. for the mission.

Kakashi sighed as the only response he got back was a half-hearted response from Hinata that was partially lost on the wind.

He turned to the other adults assembled in the hall.

"Any chance were going to see them again today?"

Everyone in the hallway shook their heads no.

"Thought not." Kakashi said with a defeated sigh.

Naruto set down his Hyuuga bundle as soon as he was sure that they were out of spying range of most ordinary Ninja and civilians.

Hinata sat down on a bench that was conveniently located nearby, and Naruto plopped down beside her and looked at her expectantly.

"What's wrong Hinata?" Hinata looked down at the bench and started fiddling with her fingers. A nervous habit that she hadn't quite been able to get rid of, even after all these years.

Naruto impatiently grabbed both her hands (he sincerely hated when she did that) and pulled her over to him until she was draped over his lap.

"Hinata?" He gently prodded her again.

Hinata chewed on her lip for a moment before turning and looking Naruto straight in the eye.

"Sakura told me what you've been doing lately." She blurted out and watched his eyes widen in extreme panic at her words.

Naruto leapt from the bench as though he had been scalded, dumping the Kunoichi out of his lap in his agitation.

"She...She did?" He asked in an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice. "You mean she knows?" Hinata looked Naruto up and down. He looked like he was hyperventilating.

Naruto started pacing before the bench. Hinata opened her mouth to answer him but before she could get the words out, Naruto turned back to her, grabbed her around her upper arms and shook her.

"How many other people know?" He asked rather harshly.

Hinata shrugged out of his hard grip and stood up. "As…as far as I know everyone from our graduating class."

He looked at her in shock. "You mean they all know I'm going to be Hokage already? How come they didn't tell me?" He ran his hand through his messy blond locks. "It's been hard enough keeping it secret as it was, they could have saved me the trouble."He muttered resentfully.

Hinata put her hand to her mouth in shock as she finally registered exactly what her boyfriend had said. "Hokage?" she whispered softly, tears streaming down her face.

Naruto stopped in his tracks and looked fully at the woman before him for the first time since they had started the conversation.

"You…you didn't know?" Hinata shook her head.

Naruto sat back down on the bench. Hard.

"Shit."

Boy was he in trouble now.

The last thing that Tsunade expected to see less than an hour after dismissing Naruto for a mission was his panicked form dragging a shell-shocked Hyuuga back through her office door.

The Hokage put down the saucer of Sake that she had been enjoying and looked between the two rumpled young adults before raising one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows in curiosity.

"Yes?" She asked. "Do you need something?"

Naruto nonchalantly went and pulled out two folding chairs from the perpetual stack in the corner and sat down in one, while depositing Hinata gently into other.

Naruto gestured to Hinata tiredly. "I…" He cleared his voice. "I may have told Hinata about being the next Hokage."

Tsunade stared hard at him.

"Accidently." He finished quietly, looking at the floor tiles.

Tsunade snorted as she stood up to stand in front of her desk.

"Now, why do I seriously doubt that?" She asked rhetorically to the room at large before pinning the Kunoichi under her golden gaze.

"So, what do you think about this Hinata?" Tsunade asked curiously.

Hinata actually pondered the question for a minute before looking at Naruto and smiling softly.

"I think its great Hokage-Sama. It's nice to know that people can achieve their dreams." Naruto gave his girlfriend a blinding smile at her vocal support.

Tsunade looked at Hinata before breaking into a smile of her own.

"It is." She agreed while walking over to a table nestled in the farthest corner and pouring two cups of tea for her unexpected guests.

She handed filled cups to the two Ninja and sat down on the edge of her desk to look at the couple properly. After a minute of staring she addressed Hinata again.

"Now, Hinata." The older woman started. The Kunoichi looked up from her drink. "First off, I must ask you not to divulge the information that you have learned about Naruto to anyone. As of this moment you may consider it an S-class secret." Tsunade warned gently. When Hinata nodded her compliance Tsunade sat back and let silence envelope the area before saying out of the blue, "Naruto, we never told you that Hinata's father was the one who put your name in for consideration as the Rokudaime in the first place did we?" She looked at him questioningly.

Tsunade held back her laughter as both adults choked on their tea simultaneously. The moment was priceless.

Almost as priceless as when the two adults then looked up at her with equally wide eyes and chorused together. "What?"

This time Tsunade couldn't stop her snickers. It really was funny. They couldn't have done that better if they'd rehearsed it.

The two looked at her resentfully after a minute or so, so she took a deep breath and continued talking. She grinned at a dumbstruck Naruto.

"Naruto, I don't what you've done, or how you've done it, but if I didn't know better, I'd almost say that Hiashi-Sama liked you."

"He…" Hinata stopped talking as she tried to wrap her mind around the thought. "My father…MY father was the one who made this possible?"

Tsunade nodded. "Yes."

Hinata had a stunned look on her face, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing

'Well,' Tsunade thought. 'It is a little unbelievable at that.'

She sighed aloud. "You see, we haven't told anybody yet but I'm planning on retiring in the next year or so, and when that was brought to the council's attention they started picking out potential candidates for my position. They originally had someone else in mind, but Hiashi-Sama basically told them to shove-it, as it were. He stood up to all the members of the council and put his foot down about it. He actually threatened to move the Hyuuga clan out of Konoha if he didn't get his way."

Hinata ducked her head. 'Yep, that sounds like my dad.'

She looked around as Naruto muttered, "But…that was even before I…"

"What's that Naruto?" Tsunade said

Naruto's visibly brought himself back into the room and blushed bright red.

"Nothing." He mumbled.

"Hmm." Tsunade stood up and opened one of her office doors and gestured for them to leave. "In any case, I vaguely remember giving you both a mission for today if I'm not mistaken, you had better be going or you're going to be late."

They stood up, clearly noticing the dismissal. "So were not in trouble?" Naruto questioned hopefully.

Tsunade shook her head. "No. But make sure you don't tell anybody else accidently either." She warned, pointing a finger at him. Naruto nodded and he and Hinata proceeded down the stairs.

"Oh, and Naruto?" She called after him.

Naruto looked up at her from his position on the stairs.

"Be sure to thank Hiashi-Sama won't you?"

And she closed the door and walked reluctantly over to her paperwork.

Naruto made a bee-line for his apartment after dropping his girlfriend off at her compound. He couldn't believe it. Hiashi Hyuuga of all people had nominated him for the title of Hokage.

As he threw another set of clothes into his mission pack he pondered what this meant. He thought back to the day that he had fist met Hiashi. He had requested a meeting at the Hokage's tower to ask Hiashi's permission to date Hinata at all of his friend's insistence. The clan leader had been less than pleased by it.

Flashback

You could hear the clock ticking in the background as the two figures sized each other up over the wood of the table. The silence was near the breaking point before it was broken.

"So, Naruto Uzumaki, you wish to date my daughter?" Hiashi Hyuuga looked at Naruto over his folded hands. A twenty year old Naruto stopped himself from twitching and fidgeting under the particularly harsh gaze of the Hyuuga leader and nodded, not trusting himself to talk.

Hiashi let out harsh, mocking laughter.

"Do you really think that I would let you date MY daughter? The Heir to the Hyuuga clan? Do you think that I would let a monster like you anywhere near my family? "

Naruto had been (in his opinion) doing a terrific job of holding in his temper throughout this meeting but hearing the pompous man say that got his blood boiling.

Naruto gnashed his teeth and was about say something he knew he would probably regret but the Hyuuga leader beat him to the punch.

"But I have been overruled. The Hokage has already spoken to me about your relationship with my daughter and asked me not to interfere. Therefore," Hiashi stopped as if gathering his strength for what he was about to say next. "Therefore, I will not give my permission or approval, but" Hiashi took a breath. "You will be allowed to date my daughter."

Naruto stood rooted to the spot in the small and stifling conference room in the Hokage tower, trying to keep down the happiness welling up inside of him at the news.

Hiashi stood up and pushed the chair back with a harsh scrape across the floor.

"But know this Naruto Uzumaki." White Byakugan eyes locked onto his lanky frame. "I will make sure you fail."

And with those words Hiashi Hyuuga swept out of the room.

End Flashback

Naruto shrugged himself into the backpack and headed out the door, chuckling. My how things had changed. 'In fact' he considered 'maybe that was why Hiashi had…'Naruto heard a clock chiming in the background and cursed under his breath, his metal contemplations would have to wait; he was going to be late.

Naruto met the others at the west gate after a five minute all out dash across Konoha. Sakura looked at him from where she was leaning against one of the gate posts and let out an exasperated breath.

"Naruto, do us a favor and don't pick up any more of kakashi-sensei's habits then necessary will you?"

Naruto looked at his teammate indignantly. "Hey! I'm only five minutes late! I could never be as bad as that lazy…"

BAM! An object collided with Naruto's head, interrupting him mid-sentence.

Naruto rolled his eyes upwards to see his sensei getting ready to smack him again. He ducked just in time to avoid being hit with one of Kakashi's favorite books.

Naruto let out a triumphant laugh at his narrow escape, only to have a vice-like grip wrap around his arm and hold him in place. He looked to his left and saw his girlfriend's team leader looking at him with a warning edge in her eye.

Naruto gave her an awkward smile. "He he. Hello Kurenai sensei."

The genjutsu master let go of the blond and glanced around before turning to her students.

"Where's Hinata?"

Kurenai's question caused all those by the gate to look around in confusion, and Naruto frowned. Just where WAS Hinata anyway?

He was about to volunteer to go and search for the missing Kunoichi when she appeared, running, over the horizon. She stopped in front of the group and put her hands on her knees in an attempt to calm down her erratic breathing.

"Sorr…Sorry I'm late Kurenai-sensei, kakashi-sensei."

The girl stood up and attempted to straighten her disheveled clothes. Kurenai frowned at her worriedly.

"Something wrong Hinata?" It was out of character for the Hyuuga heiress to be late.

Hinata shook her head before running her fingers through her hair to detangle it.

"Nothing." The dark-haired girl assured her mentor.

Kurenai took a last appraising look at her pupil before evaluating the two assembled teams and after a moment of idleness began re-summarizing the mission for clarity.

"Our goal will be to get to the border of fire country by sunset today. From there we will stick with a westerly direction until we hit the border of the country of Earth, from there it will hopefully be a straight shot towards Iwagakure and our appointed meeting spot with Jiraiya-Sama." Everyone nodded understanding at her words, Kurenai continued. "As we have only recently completed a mission in that land my team will take point and act as the forward scouts, and Team Kakashi will act as the rear guard and back-up if needed.

The group all nodded their acceptance of this plan and soon the two teams were bounding away over the tree-tops of their country, intent on reaching the border.

And that's part one of this chapter done. Part two will be up in the next two weeks. Thanks for reading. Please review and let me know what you think. KG