Hokage

"Pervy-sage, what makes a good Hokage?"

Jiraya ignored the frustration building at the continuous use of the, whilst admittedly accurate, embarrassing nickname, because the brat had asked a pretty pertinent question.

"Well, you have to have smarts. You can't be a ruler without them."

She was good at tests at least, never didn't finish in the top 3 in the academy.

"And you need people to like you. Tsunade likes you kid, so that's a plus." He said, with a grin.

But that only made Naruto more uneasy, because she liked Sakura too.

"But none of that matters if you aren't strong, and if you don't want it. Me and Orochimaru were headers in that race once, and I'm a foolish drunk who perves more than he spies, and Oro-chan is one of the most hated men in the elemental nations. We were both so strong it didn't matter."

And there it was, the thing that made him better than Sakura, his strength! Day by day the gap was widening, she was getting further and further away, so far Naruto stopped seeing her as weaker, started seeing her as useless. He wondered why they were ever on the same team in the first place.

"Scary thing is, if Orochimaru came back wanting to be hokage instead, I'm not sure everyone would have said no. Oro is a mean bastard, but the 3rd was too, I have the scars from training to make me remember. The older ninja, and the younger ones who don't remember him could have welcomed him back, and he would have had a civil war for the top instead of an invasion. He didn't though, wanted destruction, not to be Hokage anymore. I guess people change, huh?"

"He would have been welcomed back after his crimes?"

"Forgive and forget! Even the most vicious people will get power if they fit the position. Show strength, unfortunately people tend to bend to you. Have followers, and more still. Eventually it snowballs into owning a nation. At least that's how most of the modern nations were made."

So all he would have to do is beat Sakura.

Jiraya poked Naruto, firm, in the chest.

"Promise me you won't become one of those ninja who uses power to just, take what you want from everyone else!"

Naruto just looked up at him, blank.

"Agh, whatever, you probably don't get what I am saying anyway."

And in the end Naruto didn't promise anything.

…

Naruto got one of his old ramen pots, the ones he bought in bulk with the large amount of money the 3rd gave him back when he was simply a student rather than a ninja, boiled some water in a pot, prepared to add the water to the noodles, before thinking better of it.

Instead, he got some chicken out, breast, slicing the meat into small chunks, adding the water to the pot but then putting the pot ramen, and some other vegetables, into a pan where he fried the chicken too.

It wasn't Ichirakus, but it was his own cooking, and that made it taste nearly as good.

What made a friend though? He thought to himself.

Is it being there for you? No. His plants, his apartment, the air was always there for him, but could never comfort him, couldn't mean anything more than appreciation.

Someone you have a response to then, a relationship with them, goes both ways and changes on how they perceive you. The cats he met walking around fit the bill, though they tended to shriek and walk away from him, like everyone else. The rookie 9 though, they talked to him. They respected him.

But were they true friends? Close friends? Haku was, he thought. The kind of person that understood him.

That was it then. A true friend is one that understands your soul completely. That can look at you and know what you are, what you represent. And that was what he was missing. A peer.

Did he want that? To stand peerless against the world? To have nobody else to fight?

Did he want someone good enough to match him?

He didn't know yet. All he knew was the chicken tasted good.

A knock came at his door. Naruto's ears perked up, confused. Who would come for him at this time? Was it from the hokage?

But when he opened the door it was Ino. She had a smile, closed eyes, like she was struggling with something that should be simple.

"Hey Naruto. Um, could I come in to speak with you?"

She shuffled around a bit, awkward. Naruto let her inside, following behind her to his couch.

Then they sat, silent, the rising awkwardness almost overwhelming now.

Then Ino blurted out, "I think I like you!", then covering her mouth like she had said something wrong.

Naruto felt a warmth in his chest though, a feeling he could only describe as right, and maybe if it was the him of before, who chased his heart no matter what maybe he would have jumped up and down like a fool and hugged her, but he forced himself to think.

Did he like Ino? She was a lot like Sakura, nicer, sure, but the problems he had with Sakura weren't just her temper, were they? She was obsessed, vapid, rude, mean, and a lot of these applied to Ino. She liked to dress well, she liked to pine over boys, wasn't too nice to everyone. That didn't mean she was a bad person, no.

But was he ready to be in a relationship with someone?

"I-I… I like you too, but as a friend Ino. Don't be offended please, but I don't know if I am ready for that kind of thing."

She looked at him then, teal eyes looking so vulnerable and sad, looked to the side. She looked like she understood something. Him, maybe.

"I get it. I'm sorry. Have a nice day Naruto."

Then she rushed out the door. Naruto's heart fell. He might have seen her crying. He didn't quite remember. He finished his chicken ramen. It tasted ok.

…

Another B rank, Naruto Uzumaki thought, another shitty team who didn't care.

They didn't hate him, but it was hard for them to not think of his position as chunin to not be favouritism. He brings back the hokage, and gets a shiny new promotion. Look at the wiz kid, woop de fucking doo.

Forgetting Shikamaru (yes, fucking Shikamaru) got promoted before him. He wasn't strong enough, determined enough, or decisive to be one, but they had made him one anyway. But when are you ever ready? Naruto wondered.

The Nara looked more tired as of late even. He doesn't look like the lazy bum from before, but work had run him down. He doesn't slouch because he is bored anymore, he slouches because he is exhausted.

In the wake of sound's bullshit a number of missions had to be taken to reduce their influence, and that put a lot of pressure on the newly made chunin. He could see it in their eyes whenever they met at choji's to have dinner.

But when he looked in the mirror his own eyes looked full of energy. Of power.

His team was rushing through the trees. Demolition detail, routine he guessed now. He was excited the first time he got to set the explosive notes down, but you wait so long for them to go off that you barely hear the thing from having escaped so far.

Once again, he and his team set the notes down across the makeshift camp's outskirts, piece by piece, delicate and specific. They didn't need to infiltrate the base, that was the purview of the 'ever-prestigious' ANBU, but they got to layer the outsides. The idea, always, was to blow up several sides at once. Would make the soldiers within think it was an attack on all sides, and then rush out to meet them, letting the ANBU infiltrate, escape with intel, and trap the insides.

Most sound bases were tunnels too, so they tended to flow them up, cave them in. Trap anyone inside, create chaos for all those outside.

This time though, the jonin leading us was distracted. Maybe it was his rash on his neck, or the full moon, or he was tired. Or it was the fox child. Either way, he was meant to be keeping watch, and he didn't.

A blade cut through his chest in one clean stab, back to front, the jonin able to see the tip before dying himself. He choked on his own blood, unable to breath with the steel inside his body. He was dead, he realised, before it had actually happened. His eyes closed, dead, body still upright.

The rest of them mobilised, Naruto spawning half a dozen clones to protect his other 3 teammates before charging in. The sound nin ripped the sword out, pushing the body into Naruto, who deftly dodged to the side, boots scuffing against the floor. The sword whistled through the air, just about to hit Naruto, but he stepped to the side again, shifting the blade with both his hands, palms on the flat side like how Jiraya had taught him, wrenching it out of his grip, then running up to his throat with an elbow strike. His mind told him to rasengan the man, but it would be too loud, his mission would fail, so he took out a kunai, instead, slashing down at the man's legs, dropping him to his knees, before turning around him, behind, stabbing the weapon into the back of his neck.

Then he was dead. His first kill. He felt a little numb. Like he didn't know what to expect. Like it didn't feel real. He knew why he did this, it was to protect people, but why had he even become a ninja, why did he-

Then a clone popped, 7 o clock, there!

He threw the kunai, sailing through the air, puncturing the sound nin's lungs from the back, dropping him to the floor, saving his ally.

Another sought to take advantage of the situation, trying to tackle Naruto from the side, but in his grip was only wood, a log replacement revealing itself just as Naruto came from above, his fist smashing skull into bark, breaking it open in one blow, debris scattering everywhere.

He then body flickered to another, a single kick to the leg crushing it from the side, then another side kick to his nose fracturing it, a stomp to his skull finally killing the man in a threefold strike delivered in an instant. Naruto turned to the enemy's former assailant, who was stunned, on the floor, big surprised, almost frightened eyes.

This man had never respected Naruto before, but now he did. He saw his strength, his power. He saw his ability.

His grasped onto Naruto's outstretched arm, as they both rushed to set the explosives fuse off, Naruto lighting a small flame to ignite the entire, thing, but seeing the chaos already, his teammates still fighting foes off, he left a clone instead.

"Follow me!"

The man did as he said, Naruto summoning yet more clones, the able bodied doppelgängers slaughtering the enemy, his team linking up with him, them escaping into the night.

He came upon another foe, ducking underneath a reverse round house, seeing an opening just on his chest, a swirling blue ball of chakra, ribbons of slicing hurting blades materialising in his hand. He drilled the rasengan into her with a scream, the ball ripping apart her torso, before taking her in the air, the explosion destroying her completely, her cries of pain followed by a deep powerful bang. He didn't need clones anymore, not after his training.

He flickered then, slicing through the neck of one, stabbing into the skull of another, then caving in the chest of the final one with a powerful drop kick. He turned then, towards the camp, towards the black sky twinkling with stars. He saw it all.

Then he saw fire, as the clone lit the explosives, and a massive explosion shook the forest, leaves bouncing about because of the rapid winds of the detonation.

Naruto looked at the explosion this time. It was pretty.

…

After the mission, he could tell they all feared him. But it was him, not the 9 tails, not that beast inside. He was gonna be known as Naruto Uzumaki damn it, even if he had to kill to do it. That was his ninja way.

And he was gonna be the Hokage too.

Just not the way he thought.

…

A/N To the people saying Sakura wouldn't be a good hokage, yeah, thas da point. I'm gonna do some weird shit so if this plot goes in a weird way don't worry. I basically have to do all of this stuff to justify all the bloodline stuff that happens later. So yeah, have fun.

Also for those who read my normal stuff and are confused, that is the point. Cya.