Chapter 4:

Only Time Can Help


"Surely you can't be serious!? Is a head of a clan even allowed to be Hokage at the same time?"Sakura asked in disbelief.

"Though it is not recommended due to the amount of responsibility, it has been done before. The first Hokage was head of the Senju and leader, and the third as well, respectively." Shikamaru replied, not bothering to look at any of his fellow shinobi's confused faces.

"Yeah but, and no offense Hinata," Sakura spoke up, avoiding the Hyuuga's eyes, "but she is nowhere near as strong and capable to run a village and a clan as Hashirama and his predecessors!"

"That may be," Shikamaru said, "but the law states that whomever the previous Hokage appoints to be a new leader, then it shall be. And Naruto specifically signed and filed the proper paperwork to make her a temporary Hokage until she finds someone whom she sees fit. He trusts her judgment, and we should too."

The rest of the original Rookie looked around nervously, conflicted emotions running through their heads. This problem was not just Hinata's—it was everyone's. And they couldn't let her do all of this by herself.

"I say we help out Hinata the best we could, at least until we find a suitable replacement!" Rock Lee chimed in, fist in the air.

"Yeah that's a good idea!"

"I like that."

"Sounds good to me."

Everyone exclaimed in agreement except Hinata. Lee looked over at the sullen girl. "Hinata! You should be celebrating! There is no need to be so sad when all of your friends are here to help!"

Hinata remained in her seat, letting the cigarette's ash land on the floor. Her nostrils were flared and her eyes were lowered and glossy from all the crying in the last couple of days. She had been staying at the Hokage office, locked away, drinking and smoking and not eating and crying. Her face was pale, her hair greasy and she had worn the same outfit for several days.

All missions and meetings had been on hiatus, and as much as everyone needed time off, the Rookies all decided two weeks was enough and life had to go on. So they all gathered at the Hokage tower, regardless of Hinata's silent protest to participate.

She noticed the Uchiha sitting in the corner of the room. She glared briefly at him, and he glared back and for a second there was severe tension in the air until Sasuke broke off the staring contest and headed out the door.

Everyone sighed in relief that there wasn't another incident, and Hinata grabbed a bottle of Sake from under her desk, along with a glass. Just as she was about to pour it, Shikamaru snatched it out of her hands.

"You need to stop this."

"Give it back…"she pleaded with a small voice.

"No. You're already smoking almost a pack a day—I'm not letting you start drinking at noon too."

"But—"

"None of this is going to make the pain go away. Only time can help. Now, get up, go shower and brush your hair, put on some nice new clothes and get ready for the meeting with the elders this evening. Remember, never-"

"Never lose sight of your responsibilities. I know."

He gave her a nod of agreement, and she looked over everyone's concerned eyes. Hinata knew that they were in just as much pain as she was; after all, a fellow comrade just threw everything away. She also knew that she wasn't in this alone, and for that she was glad. Giving everyone a half-hearted smile, she got up with the help of Ino, who interlocked their arms.

"C'mon hon, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. All of us." Ino reassured her, and Hinata leaned her head on her shoulder as they headed home.

Shikamaru watched the pair of girls leave and wondered briefly how fast time has flown by. Here they were, all of them in the Hokage office, because they were the most able shinobi in all of Konoha. It seemed like yesterday that they were all in the academy, running around in the playground, the sunshine beaming down on them, not a care in the world. They had adults that told them what to do and what not to do, and now they were the adults that decided on that. They had their whole lives ahead of them, but life played them a cruel hand when they were all sent to war at such a young age. Having to experience that trauma so early had calloused everyone—here in this room today stood eight ninja who knew world peace, but never peace of mind. When Naruto was off finding himself, they were all stuck here picking up the pieces he left behind—a whole village, stubborn elders and an ex-traitor. They are all left with so much that none of them will have the privilege of finding themselves.

But maybe, one day their bruises will start to fade and they will find something together.

Only time can help.


Despite the heaviness in her chest, Hinata managed to keep her head high, wearing her best kimono and having her hair brushed until it shone. The strong lavender perfume she dotted along her neck and wrists kept the smell of tobacco and alcohol hidden among both groups of elders whom she had non-stop meetings with in the past few days. She rarely had time to think about Naruto's absence, nevertheless Sasuke.

So she was quite startled when the raven haired man came up to the Hokage tower one afternoon. He had the usual impassive look in his eyes when he dropped a folder on her desk. She opened it and read it over quickly, not bothering to look at him. "This is a mission report," she mean to say it as a statement, but it came out more like a question. "This was due over a week ago."

"Yeah, well if you don't recall, some things happened that refrained me from coming here." He spoke with a bored tone, even though he could feel the tension his remark brought out. He heard Hinata take a shallow breath as she closed the folder and balled up her fist, knuckles whitening. "Thank you for bringing it," she said politely, but he could see it was through clenched teeth.

He found this amusing.

"You're still upset with me." He noted. She finally looked up and gaped, at a loss for words.

"You want to punch me in the face," he noted again. He started at the wreck of a woman behind the desk. She needs to let out some of this tension and anger building up inside her, and it had been a while since Sasuke had a good brawl now that Naruto was gone. "Get up," he ordered.

"E-excuse me?"

"You want to fight me, right? For what I said before? So get up and let's go to the training grounds."

Hinata stood up and followed him without really thinking. Perhaps his authoritative tone subconsciously was reminiscent of her father or Neji, so she complied almost like an instinct. It wasn't until halfway through their spar that she snapped out of it. He had been going easy on her, just like Neji had back in the day, but still managed to push her limits. This brought out a bittersweet feeling, but it was soon forgotten as she stared into black eyes instead of gray.

He hadn't even used his Sharingan in the fight.

She jumped to the side, gasping for breath and held up her hand signaling the need for a break.

"Why aren't you using your Sharingan?" She asked, but immediately realized she answered her own question.

He stood over her, small beads of sweat forming on his forehead, but only because of the Summer heat. "Why are you trying to help me?" She looked up and he was blocking the sun because he was a giant, towering over her and Hinata felt small under his scrutiny.

"I'm not," was his simple answer. He reached out a hand and she hesitated a bit before she grabbed it and he pulled her up with too much force. He let go of her and watched her stumble around until she found her balance. It was another thing he began to find amusing about this Hyugga girl; this and the fact that she lost herself during their spar. Her eyes looked deep in thought and she did not fight him as aggressively as he thought she would.

She fumbled a bit awkwardly, the nice kimono she was wearing had crumpled at the bottom and the sleeves had torn a bit on the edges. Her hair had lost its shine and was now sticking to her face from the sweat. The only thing that hadn't changed, Sasuke noticed, was the strong scent of lavender that lingered on her skin. Still she took shallow breaths and her shoulders remained tense. He wondered if this spar had helped the woman at all. "Hinata," he addressed her.
She looked up, her face bunched up in a scowl. "Yes?"

"You need to relax."

Hinata sat on the ground "well, " she started, "what's your secret?"

He watched her fiddle with the ripped edges of her kimono before he decided to join her. "After you've watched your whole family die it's hard to feel nervous about anything anymore. You just learn not to care and go with the flow of the world."

She glanced at his profile as he finished talking. His eyes were distant and dark, staring off into the horizon and his nose outlined, perfectly pointed and straight. Hinata had the sudden urge to trace her fingers against it. "I'm sorry," she said with genuine remorse, even if she still was not too happy with the man. "That all sounds horrible."

"I don't need your sympathy." He narrowed his eyes. "I don't need anything."

They didn't talk anymore that afternoon; not after they got caught in the rain, and not even after Sasuke had walked her home.


The rest of the week had gone uneventful as usual, and beside the fact that Hinata was the Hokage, everything seemed to go back to normal. Hinata had been doing a decent job, and she liked the work overload because it kept her distracted from uneasy thoughts. Shiakamaru and Ino had been very helpful as well, as she had appointed Ino as her personal assistant and had Shikamaru attend meetings with the elders when she was unavailable for clan duty. Rock Lee was appointed the job of mission assignments, preferably those of Genin and some Chunnin ones, as he was always overly-enthusiastic and positive and it was definitely what these kids needed. Sakura, of course, remained as Head Medic Nin and in fact Hinata let her have full reign over all medical and hospital decisions.

The elders had not been too fond of Hinata's new leadership, as the splinting of all the powers seemed a bit too liberal and contemporary in their eyes. This breaking of traditions was very risky at first, even to the Rookies.

But after a month, they all ate their words.

The village had become a democracy, and even the non-nin civilians took notice and began to have their voices heard. Hinata, taking a hand right out of the old Hyuuga meetings, held a public forum where anyone could come and chime in their concerns about the village. Then she would assign someone in charge of this problem. This eventually led to the creation of four branches, or as Shikamaru named them, the Four Limbs of the Hokage. The first two, whom he referred to as the Legs, were the Unit of Health and Well Being and the Unit of Fiscality and Economics. They were the legs, because they were also the foundation, for without them, the village would not be.

The other two, the Arms, were the Military and Protection Unit and the Judicial Unit. There two would be used as the fighting force, but not without the support of the Legs, for first you need healthy and able shinobi as well as proper funding.

Each unit had its own sub-units, each of whom had its own person appointed, Shinobi or not. For example, the Fiscal and Economic unit had an old Bank owner, as he knew much more about taxing and distribution of the wealth than any of the Shinobi. In fact many of the sub-units became part of the Village government, something that has not existed for hundreds of years. There was finally a sense of equality between all the classes.

"Young children would begin to dream of more than just becoming ninja, and those who never had the chakra talent would happily dream of a bright future, instead of thinking less of themselves," Ino's speech would echo across the village at the annual Winter festival. " One day, women and men of both spectrum, civilians and nins and anything in between, will marry and love and create and unite with one another! We will chose our leader, instead of having him chosen for us! Who's with me?!"

Everyone cheered.

"I said, who's with me?!"

Everyone cheered even louder. Whistling and clapping was heard all around as Ino bowed and jumped off stage. She was smart, capable and very beautiful and if there was someone who deserved to be Konoha's spokesperson, it was definitely her.

It was a new and innovative system, and word of it began to spread across the five nations. Hinata, being her humble self of course, would refuse to take all the credit. At the festival, she did not want to enter the stage alone, as she felt that she did not deserve the all the cheering. Instead she called up all of the Rookies. They climbed up with her, everyone carrying beer mugs and dango and cotton candy and laughter and warmth, and the crowd roared with applause and they all toasted "To Konoha!" and it felt like home.

Naruto's departure was starting to seem like a distant memory; in fact, everything was looking better than before.

And for the fist time in six months, Hinata genuinely smiled.


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