A lot of people fail to understand that buying the Talents doesn't mean you're automatically at the best of those with that particular skill, it worked as an experience multiplier and amplifier. It was also why Naruko was currently losing her mind out of terror of fucking up her first official date, well, if it could be called an official first date when said first date was also meeting the parents of the person you were dating for dinner.
As amusing as it was, a part of me also felt really sad for her, since a lot of the major subconscious stress from this was because she was so utterly convinced that this was her 'make it or break it' moment. The idea of first impressions being absolutely everything, likely stemmed from the fact that everyone around her judged her for her Jinchurriki status, or her pranks, or her clothes. They didn't see Naruko, they just saw an annoyance, a nuisance, a loser, an orphan, and a bad omen, all rolled in one.
Which is why I knew that it didn't matter how often I told her that my mom was already excited to meet her, that my parents wouldn't judge her for circumstances outside of her control, because Naruko had no reference for that. Everything she knows in her life was based on how everyone around her treated her, and that meant she just couldn't process the idea that not everyone else was like the civilians and the occasional resentful shinobi. She just couldn't process that someone, anyone, would try to actually see her without her trying to force them to acknowledge her in some way first.
In a way, Naruko, like Naruto, was a broken person. While outwardly boisterous, always seeming to be unaffected by the circumstances of her birth and those who treated her like garbage, in reality, her psyche was an absolute mess. She clung to the dream of being Hokage like a lifeline, because it was one. It was the only lifeline she had where she actually saw everyone else actually give acknowledgement and respect to someone else without back-talking them or deciding they weren't worth their time. To Naruko, being Hokage was the only way she'd ever feel like she was accepted by the village populace.
Whether or not that was true, didn't matter, because that's how fucked up Naruko's mindset was. Her mind was absolutely holding itself together using duck tape and ramen, desperately trying to form some normalcy and stability and companionship with something, anything. Trying to bind to anyone willing to give her the slightest bit of positive attention. Textbook child neglect, emotional and mental abuse.
In a way, if the Kyubbi had patiently explained to Naruko what had happened the night of her birth, that he held no grudge against her because they were in reality both prisoners inside a village that both wanted to use them when convenient and throw them away when it wasn't, and that what he wanted was just to be free, to be able to stretch his legs and visit the siblings he hadn't seen in centuries, Naruko would've torn off the seal herself in seconds. Had he actually showed an ounce of actually wanting to leave, an ounce of actual cunning that all Foxes were supposed to portray, he would've freed himself. Well, until Minato showed up. Not that he knew that.
Because Naruko wasn't inherently selfless. She had her moments of selfishness. No, Naruko's selflessness stemmed from her insecurity and belief that if she wasn't being there helping all her friends, trying her hardest to be the rock for someone else, than she was worthless. Naruko's selflessness stemmed from her belief that she was nothing on her own.
It was why Naruto would go on to do everything to bring Sasuke back. Not because he understood Sasuke, he truly didn't, there was a chasm of misunderstandings there between the two, but because he desperately wanted to be the hero who kept his promises, who saw Sasuke's absence as the reason for everyone being so torn up inside and not the fact that Sasuke had betrayed them. Obito's latter attempts to try and bring Naruto over to his side failed, not because of the fact that Obito's viewpoint was wrong, though it is wrong for a variety of reasons, but because Naruto couldn't understand Obito at all.
Where Obito mistook the forests, and the grasslands, and the planet, for the trees, Naruto was so hyperfocused on one tree with a dying leaf alone that he only could understand the one tree, and believed that all the other trees would be 'saved' if he kept that one leaf from dying. Naruto's mindset was so fixed on one thing that he couldn't truly learn to see the bigger picture, because to him, the bigger picture just didn't matter to him at all.
Naruko was less a person right now than she was the cobbled together traits of what she thought was needed to achieve her goals. In a way, she was very much like Sasuke after the death of Itachi this early on in her character arc, an empty canvas that was malleable to whoever could paint the right colors at the right moment, a whisper of the right things to say to nudge her in a direction they wanted.
The problem was that I refused to paint that canvas. I wanted Naruko to have the moment she never got to have in canon, to be able to choose and decide for herself how she wants to grow, what she wants to do. Letting her figure out her clothes for the 'date', really it's more of an informal dinner so that way my parents could actually see her for themselves rather than the rumors that neither of them actually believed in, was one of the first steps on that road.
And, if Naruko decided that the village was in the wrong, if she decided she wanted to force the higher ups to address her grievances, I wouldn't stop her. Sayuri would no doubt want her pound of flesh from Danzo, and I wouldn't deny it of her. It was easy to give them what they wanted when what they wanted was fairly simple compared to the bigger headaches I was dealing with, like the destruction of the daimyo/shinobi system. That and the higher ups truly had a lot to answer for that they sidestepped in canon.
Like the Third Hokage effectively abandoning Naruko to figuring out how rent and food worked at age 6, while barely giving her the money to make ends meet. Like the Fourth Hokage, who knowingly sealed the Kyubbi into Naruko out of some prophecy bullshit and the idea of the Leaf needing a Jinchurriki. Like, yes, Kushina Uzumaki letting her husband go along with the horrible fucking plan by creating the chakra barrier to keep out the Third Hokage and the rest while letting Minato do his thing. When the right thing to do would have been to repress the Kyubbi and the Fourth Hokage until the Third got there in time to use the Reaper Death Seal to either reseal the Kyubbi back into Kushina, which would've allowed her to potentially survive, though the jury was out on that one, or split the Kyubbi in half like before, and seal half in Kushina and the other half in Naruko, thereby ensuring either way they would either have two Jinchurriki or one with a powerful parent that could at least stand up for Naruko against the village's biased idiots!
Oh yes, I wasn't in a forgiving mood, not even to her parents, because they abandoned her to her fate, because of some god damn words out of a fucking Toad's mouth.
I took a deep breath, calming down as my hands clenched, the table and the kitchen shaking slightly as my own negative emotions poured briefly into the world around me through my Cursed Energy.
Naruko stared at me, looking worried. "You okay, Shika?" She asked with some worry and concern in her face.
I nodded slowly. "I will be. I'm just remembering some things that got me angry, nothing to do with you, so I needed to calm myself down." Naruko looked relieved, but still worried.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked quietly. I snorted, smiling briefly.
"Nah, too much of a drag. So, why haven't you asked me to take you out shopping for a dress or something?" I asked in response, amused as Naruko's face flushed hard.
[sub]"I didn't want to make you spend money on me. It's embarrassing."/sub] Naruko's whisper was barely audible, but I heard it anyway. My smile turned into a leering grin, making Naruko's eyes narrow.
"What boyfriend doesn't enjoy having his girlfriend model for him? Dresses, bikinis, skirts, stockings, so many things to make my sexy as hell woman even sexier, how could I ever choose?" I spoke lowly, slowly looking her up and down, licking my lips in obvious enjoyment of the sight. Normally I'd be more subtle, but Naruko definitely didn't do subtle, so I was much more blatant.
To Naruko's credit, she didn't back down, her face flushing almost red hot as she looked away. "Pervert. Fine, you can take me to grab a dress for the dinner, as long as it's not too expensive." She grumbled. [sub]"I like that you look at me like that. It's hot, feeling wanted. Stupid, sexy, Shikamaru."/sub]
I had to withhold my cackling laughter. It appears I've caught myself a Tsundere.
[Hiruzen Sarutobi. Signed and Sealed Capture. 60.]
And a currently living Hokage.
On the outside, I was taking Naruko out to go grab a dress, smiling with amusement as she continued to half-heartedly protest and thank me in equal measure while trying to not freak out over how I wasn't outwardly giving a shit about the glares from the civilians looking at us.
On the inside, a very different event was happening.
The air was still, and the entire world felt frozen in time, as if holding it's breath. The sun was gone, and the stars never came. The moon was there, but it's soft light never touched the surface. The people were all gone, as if sucked out of existence in an instance. Hiruzen Sarutobi felt as if something was very wrong, as if reality was now contorting in on itself. He hadn't felt like this since the initial Contract with the Shinigami.
"Apologies for interrupting your lunch, old man. However, we have a lot to talk about, and some things for you to clarify for me." His gaze was drawn from the frozen world to the man that sat across from his desk. Except, he wasn't in his desk. He was sitting across from his desk, and the man in the desk was the True Hokage, the Leader of All That Never Was.
Gojo Satoru, the Honored One, the Fate Breaker, The One Who Defied Heaven. Whose blue eyes seemed uninfluenced by the events of the frozen world, pinning him down as he gave a small cold grin.
"Explain to me why someone who proclaims himself to be Hokage, decides to abandon one of his own, against the wishes of their parents. Explain to me why you pretended to be friendly with Naruko, and yet abandon her to the tender mercies of your village. And make no mistake, if I don't like what I hear, there won't be an afterlife for you. I will ensure you never see your reality's wife, ever again."
For a brief moment, Gojo Satoru had shed his skin, and Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to scream in terror at the Thing He Could Not Unsee, the Thing That Should Not Be, and felt his soul briefly try to flee his body in an attempt to die rather than remain here for one moment longer, only for the Otherness to easily reach out and forcefully tie his soul into his body, unable to escape, unable to flee.
"I believe part of the Contract was 'in life and in death'. Even the Shinigami cannot free you from my grasp. Now, start talking."