Chapter Three

Spring welcomed him with streams of golden light poured through the blossoming sakura trees onto his face free of filth. Birds soared in a blue sky free of the pollution that dominated Konoha, and for the first time in a long time, Naruto thought clearly. A forgotten joy erupted in his soul as the optimistic boy that believed in the world returned. He stretched out limbs that were free from the usual aches that came with the sanitary life of a Hokage. Grass softer than silk tickled his naked form.

Naruto climbed to his feet and stared out over the rolling green hills that raced under a golden sun towards a sapphire sea. Unable to contain his excitement, he ran and sang until tiredness forced him down by a cool stream shaded by willows. He dipped his feet into the water and leaned back to stare at the majestic clouds climbing. The coming of another came with the soft crunching of fallen leaves. He sat up upon his elbows and froze as the robed form of Kushina knelt on the other side of the creek.

"Do not fear me," the voice did not belong to that of his mother despite coming from her lips. "I am not here to hurt you."

"Am I dead?"

"Death does not exist here. This is a land of eternal spring." The woman, for he knew her not to be Kushina, smiled at him and stepped over the creek to sit next to him. "Do you know who I am?"

"We have met before." Naruto flinched as she placed her hand on his arm. "In my dreams."

The woman nodded and smiled. "That we have."

"You are not my mother. Why do you wear her shape?"

"For my ability to take the form of humanity is rather limited. There are only a few humans I know well enough to walk as." The woman leaned forward and plucked a dandelion from the grass. "Why do you wish to be Hokage? Those you swore to protect only looked down upon you in your time of need."

Naruto flinched at the memory of the crowd gathered around him and how they ignored his pleas for help. He shook his head. "Who are you?"

"You did not answer my question," she smirked at him and rubbed the dandelion on his arm to leave behind a yellow mark. "I already told you who I am. You already said my name."

His eyes widened in a competition of joy and anger. "Kurama?"

"The one and only." Kurama frowned for a moment. "Thought, I much prefer Ama. It is closer to the name I awoke to."

Naruto's world shattered as he stared at the kitsune. Every night of suffering came from the being he wanted to return to his life. He felt rage and the desire to strike her build in every fiber of his being. She ruined his life and took everything away. Sensing his anger, the woman rested a hand on his forehead.

"Nothing we did was against your will." The simple statement took the winds from his sail. She was right. While the dreams started with Hinata or Kushina upon him, he could have pushed them off. The words spoken from his mouth belonged to him. "I reached out, and you answered."

"Why?" Thick tears rolled down his face as Ama stood up. He tried to be angry again but found only confusion and frustration. "Why would you make me dream such things?"

"When your marriage to Hinata was happy, why did you wish to lay with her?" Ama disappeared into the bushes on the far side of the bank. "I felt you suffering and came to soothe you like I always have."

"You ruined my marriage!" The anger surfaced once more but fizzled upon Ama's laughter. The statement was ridiculous, and they both knew that his marriage to Hinata was coming to an end long before the dreams began. "I ruined my marriage."

"Neither of you ruined the marriage," Ama corrected with a gently chiding tone. "At the end of the day, you and Hinata wanted different things in life. Why must you put the blame on anyone? She did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong."

Naruto stared at the stream with tears still flowing down his face. "Is this all a dream? An attempt by my subconscious to make me feel better?"

"Someone has been talking to Ino a little too much lately." Ama chuckled. "This is my dream. This is your future."

"My future?" Naruto wandered into the nearby forest in search of the kitsune. "Why is my future your dream?"

"I remember your first heartbeat."

"I remember your first thought."

"I remember your first breath."

"I remember your first words."

"I am the end of all things."

"We are the new beginning."

Naruto laid his head on the desk and closed his eyes. The remnants of his migraine faded thanks to large amounts of coffee. However, his ass-chewing courtesy of his ANBU and Shizune made him wish for the pain to return. How long had it been since anyone cared enough to lecture in such a manner? Hinata never criticized him until the final days of her marriage. He and Iruka did not really speak much since the divorce, with his former teacher expressing extreme disappointment in the handling of Boruto.

"Honestly, Naruto. Drunk? It was the absolute worse time to send Flamingo away." Tenten slammed her palms onto his desk. "Are you even listening to me? You were found in an alleyway by the police. Thank the gods that an assassin didn't discover you!"

According to Tenten and the others, the police brought him back home and called for the ANBU along with a medic. He awoke early in the morning to a furious Tenten that showed him the mercy of allowing him to recover before beginning the verbal beating. Shizune, who had left Ichiraku shortly after he did, spent all night running around the business district looking for him before an officer informed her that he was alright. Luckily, Lee had yet to return and could not explain how 'unyouthful' his actions were.

"Kurama was with me. She wouldn't let anyone near me that meant harm."

Tenten's glare softened a degree. She knew how much he missed his former tenant. The disappearance of Kurama changed Naruto, removing much of the goofy boy in favor of a more somber man. Most of his friends marked that as the turning point in his life when the optimism faded. He couldn't argue that his life got a lot less bright without the fox. "The Nine-Tails is not in the village. We would have detected him the second that he crossed the barrier. You were running a fever last night and hallucinated."

None of the Tailed-Beasts had been seen in the Elemental Nations in over a decade, with even the Eight-Tailed disappearing shortly after Killer B's accident. It hurt Naruto to lose Kurama, who had just become one of his best friends, but he knew the fox craved the freedom to explore the world without fear of being contained again. So it was best he did not bring up his latest dream.

"You're probably right." Naruto sighed and sipped his coffee. "Any word from Lee?"

Tenten took a seat in one of the chairs and crossed her arms. "None. I sent three squads out this morning to look for him. You're not the only one trying to make me go grey early."

"You would look cute with grey buns." Naruto offered a weak smile that earned him a sharp glare. He forgot that his boyish charms never worked on Tenten. "What about Hanae? Hinata seemed nervous last night when I mentioned the name."

"Don't think changing the topic will save your behind, Mister Hokage." Tenten puffed her cheeks out. She removed a small scroll from her pocket and unsealed it on the table to reveal a history book. "My men did find something."

Naruto flipped through the book. It looked dry and extremely outdated, with Hiruzen listed as the current Hokage. "Don't tell me reading this is my punishment."

"As fun as that would be, I took the liberty of marking the relevant passages. Turn to page five-thirty-three." Naruto did as instructed and groaned at the lack of pictures. It was a long, tedious passage about the history of the Senju Clan's relationship with the Uzumaki. Tenten reached across the table and pointed at a paragraph. "Read here to the bottom."

"Blah, blah, blah. Whirlpools. Blah, blah, blah. Seals." People always assumed that he was curious about his mother's clan. In reality, he could care less about it and found most of the records about them full of obvious embellishments. His eyes stopped upon seeing the name 'Hanae Hyūga.'

According to the book, Hanae resulted from an illicit love affair between a Hyūga male and an outsider that caused her to have blonde hair. She managed to rise through the ranks of the Hyūga thanks to her shrewd business sense and cunning diplomatic abilities that earned the clan much wealth. Her name, however, would be stricken from records after she sold the secrets of the Land of Whirlpools' defense seal array to an enemy nation and tried to murder the wife of the First Hokage. By the time of her execution, she was little more than a raving lunatic consumed with insanity.

"No wonder Hinata seemed nervous." Naruto scratched his cheek. "Still does not explain our lady that talked to Father Yayoi."

"True, but that is not all there is to Hanae. What if I told you that she was not executed?" Tenten smiled as Naruto raised an eyebrow. She placed a scroll on the desk. "This is from the mission archive room in the library. All mission reports automatically become public records unless classified. Turns out that the Third Hokage sent a group of hunter-nin out in search of a blonde woman with white eyes spotted in the Land of Grass. Pretty interesting, eh?"

Naruto glanced at the mission scroll. The assignment ended in failure, with one of the shinobi reported dead and the remaining three needing medical care upon arrival to the village. Old Man Sarutobi's signature was undeniable. "Odd, but that does not mean anything. Even if she didn't have her head chopped off, she would've been dead by now."

"You're not wrong." Tenten sat down and frowned. "There is a good chance that this woman is a nobody ninja who wanted to make a quick buck by plucking Sasuke's eyes out. However, I do find the coincidences odd."

Shizune entered the office with a tray of tea and a red carry-out box. She smiled at Tenten and glared at Naruto. "I figured you would like a cup of tea. Don't you even think about putting sake in it this time. I have given Tenten permission to smack you silly if so much as a drop is added."

"What you're telling me is to drink my sake straight." Naruto smiled as the women in the room glared at him. He held up his hand. "I promise not to drink any sake."

"Excellent! Kurenai and I decided to come in before you got here and cleared out your bottles. You should have seen Lady Tsunade's face when we dropped the box off."

"Oh, come on! Why did you have to give it to Granny? She drinks more than I do!"

"Last time I checked, Lady Tsunade isn't Hokage." Shizune smiled sweetly and put the takeout container on the desk. "I packed your second bowl up for you last night. Figured you would want it for breakfast."

Naruto dipped his head in thanks. "Smart thinking! I am starving!" He waited until Shizune left the room before dumping the entire thing into the waste bin.

"Hey, now!" Tenten looked at the discarded ramen with a massive frown. "Isn't that the new flavor? I've been wanting to try that since it came out! Why throw it away?"

"Don't." Naruto opened his laptop to begin the day's work. "Stuff is fucking disgusting."

Tenten placed her panda mask on. "Given your devotion, I'll take your word for it." She was about to take a position in her usual spot when Shizune rushed into the office.

"Lee is in the hospital!"

"A coma?"

"Yeah. His wounds are pretty bad." Naruto closed his eyes and allowed the sandalwood smoke to ease his troubled mind. He focused on the sound of Ino's pencil moving across her notepad. "With Sakura out of commission right now, he'll be out of service for the foreseeable future. I feel horrible about it."

Ino lowered her pad and shook her head. "Lee is a shinobi. Missions are always filled with risks."

"I made the decision to send him alone." Naruto's fingers curled into fists that slammed against the sides of the couch. "His welfare is my responsibility, and I failed him. How can I be Hokage if I let one of my best friends get so fucked up?"

"Remember your mantra."

Deep breath. Count to three. Exhale.

"This is how our world works, Naruto." Ino placed her pad on the table. "People go on missions and sometimes don't come back. Remember Asuma-Sensei and Jiraiya? You had no way of knowing that he would get attacked." She hesitated. "Did…he retrieve Sasuke's belongings?"

"Who gives a fuck about that?" Naruto flinched as he saw a look of hurt pass over Ino's face. "Apologies. I shouldn't have yelled."

"It's okay. You're dealing with a lot at the moment."

"Still doesn't excuse my actions." Naruto sighed and rubbed his face. "No. They did not find anything belonging to Sasuke. Someone looted and then dumped him in a ditch. Probably thought he was already dead. Once we find whoever did this, I will rip them limb from limb."

"Mantra."

Deep breath. Count to three. Exhale.

"Naruto," Ino smiled and reached for his hand. "I want to try a new type of therapy. Remember last time I mentioned how Sai and I joined a mediation group? They've really helped Sai with some of his trauma from his ROOT days. It was a fresh start for him."

"I appreciate the offer, but I've had my fill of mediation during my sage training."

"This isn't like that, knucklehead." Ino walked to her desk to retrieve a colorful pamphlet labeled 'Church of the Red Queen.' "Take a look."

"Religion?" Naruto stared at Ino with a dry look. "I don't really do that kind of stuff. No offense."

Ino chuckled and shook her head. "It's more of a way of life. They are a great group that recently built a new church right here in Konoha."

"Looks fancy." The building on the pamphlet looked like a stone cathedral from the Western Lands, complete with crimson stain-glass windows depicting people dancing. The following pages showed happy families together in worship and meditation, along with holy passages declaring the coming of a new goddess that will save all humanity. It all seemed like fairly standard evangelical stuff to attract people in with hopes of a better life. During his travels, he saw plenty of little groups try to start the next big religion. A small ramen bowl logo on the bottom of the last page gave him pause. "Ichiraku is a sponsor?"

"Sure is. Ayame converted some years ago and funded the construction of the new church here near the Senju Park. I heard a rumor that she donates most of the wealth from Ichiraku to the mother church in the capital. Her faith is really inspiring."

"She should have stuck to cooking ramen," Naruto frowned and tossed the pamphlet on the table. "I'll pass, but thanks for the invitation."

"Keep it in mind." Ino returned the pamphlet to her desk and looked at the clock. "Time's up! Next week?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll have Shizune make the arrangements." Naruto exited the office to begin the long walk back to the Hokage Tower. While he could have taken to the rooftops, he enjoyed the time to think. His thoughts, however, came to a sudden halt as someone slapped his back.

"Heya, boss!" Konohamaru placed an arm around his shoulder in a brotherly hug. "Want to grab some food? I wouldn't mind some ramen."

"Let's grab some BBQ. I've been craving some grilled meat lately, ya know?" Naruto looked around for Team Seven. "Where're the kids?"

"Off. Sarada and Boruto are helping set up a festival for tonight. Poor girl has been through a lot, so I didn't protest her request too much." He smiled a bit and rubbed his head. "Your son has stepped up and been a good shoulder for her to cry on."

That was the first good news he had received in a long time. The fact that it was Boruto, of all people, almost gave him a heart attack. If his son was preparing to date, he would need to give the 'Talk'…or make Hinata do it. Yeah, that sounded much better. "Good. Maybe he is finally growing up. What sort of festival?"

"Don't know. Those things aren't my type of thing. How's work going? Ready to give me the hat?"

"Almost," Naruto chuckled and punched his student. "If things don't slow down, I might go into early retirement."

AN

Thank you for the kind reviews of late. It has meant a lot to me when working with an experimental type of story.