"I never wanted to do that, but I had no choice. Konoha was on the brink of war. The death of the Fourth Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki had caused a chain reaction, and the other nations' spies had been able to get their hands on information that leaked from Konoha's higher operations. They knew someone was now the Jinchurriki of the Kyubbi, so I created a 'false' trail as far as anyone knew. By announcing that Naruko was the Jinchurriki, the other villages weren't sure if that was an actual truth or a lie. It bought us precious time. Time that I used to allow Danzo to send out Root Shinobi to have the villages turn on each other. Iwagakure was fed information on the weak borders of Kirigakure. Sunagakure was fed information on potential weaknesses on the various A-class Shinobi in Kumogakure."
"I had hoped that the civilians and the village would eventually recognize Naruko as her own person, and had hoped that my shinobi would help them connect the dots on how Naruko's yellow hair and her last name Uzumaki would allow them to slowly learn about Naruko's parentage naturally. Minato Namikaze was very much respected and adored by both the civilians and the shinobi, a Clanless Orphan that had rose to the top using Fuinjutsu that the world had not seen since the Second Hokage."
Hiruzen scowled, his own bitterness and rage against his own village now out in the open.
"I was wrong. The civilians never fucking opened their eyes. My shinobi closed their eyes to the obvious and buried their heads in the sand on how Naruko was being treated. As far as they were concerned, Naruko wasn't a Hero. She was a Bad Omen. A representation of Konoha's Downfall from grace. Worse, they had grown arrogant and failed to keep an eye on internal security, to the point that the Hyuga Clan had nearly caused a war in and of themselves with the events of the Kumogakure Treaty. The diplomat should've been caught and tortured into a confession, not summarily executed. Without any evidence, I was forced to give Kumogakure some semblance of what they wanted, and caused Konoha to look weak on the international stage because, even now, we still haven't recovered from what we lost."
"I left Naruko alone in the apartment, but I had ANBU guards on watch around her 24/7. I couldn't make them like her, but I wouldn't allow them to abuse her physically either. I had given up hope on the adults, but I had made it a Law to not speak of the Kyubbi to Naruko nor anyone else her age. I wanted her to have a chance with those of her peers, those of her age. Once again, I was wrong. The parents whispered and ostracized Naruko so thoroughly that the children copied the parents even without knowing why. The money I gave her should have been more than enough, but the civilians started price-gouging her. I was horrified when I had found out several years later that most of her inheritance, which should've lasted several times over her lifetime, was almost gone. Because of them."
The desk exploded apart as Hiruzen roared in absolute fury, a sharp strong blow from his hands blasting the wood apart only for it to vanish rather than having the wood chunks flying everywhere.
"If I wasn't Hokage, I would've taken Naruko from Konoha myself. If I wasn't so focused on ensuring Naruko at least had a physically safe childhood, there would be no Konoha civilians alive. I would've butchered them all. Every. Single. One. When Naruko looked terrified and shaking like a leaf, pale and whimpering, because the Uchiha Clan had taken to abusing their roles as the police of the village to try and 'toughen' her up, using subtle Genjutsu from the Sharingan, I stepped in."
A dark gleam of sadistic joy and a cold smile appeared on Hiruzen's face.
"I killed the police force the night of the Massacre. I killed them all, torturing them as I tore out their eyes one by one. I gave them the eyes of old Konoha shinobi, regular eyes that held no Dojutsu, because I wanted their last living moments to be filled with absolute suffering and horror at how I defiled them, at how I made them feel helpless and terrified, just like how they had made Naruko feel. I wanted their last things they ever saw was my hands and my wrath. The main police force never stood a chance."
"I confiscated back Naruko's inheritance from the civilians, and those shops never opened again, because they weren't alive to open them again. When Kumogakure threatened war several years later after the Hyuga Diplomat Affair, I had Danzo pretend to be me for a few weeks, and I left my office. Those weeks were some of the best weeks I've had in years, slaughtering and butchering every Kumogakure shinobi I came across, and I entered Kumogakure to deliver my response in person."
The cold smile widened.
"I told A that if he didn't back down, I would use the Forbidden Jutsu to bring back the Third Raikage and have him slaughter everyone in Kumo. Every. Last. One. I told him with a smile on my face that I'd remove Orochimaru's Missing Shinobi status, and tell her that she would be more than welcome to do all the experiments and test subjects she could ever want, in Kumogakure. After all, when your surrounded by mountains, it makes the best prisons as well as defense posts."
The cold smile disappeared, a sigh of exhaustion escaping him.
"You have every right to judge me for failing Naruko. I did, I absolutely failed her in all the things that mattered. But never doubt that I didn't care for her. I am a terrible Hokage. I am a terrible one because I never wanted to be Hokage, something that Danzo, to this day, doesn't understand. I'm Hokage because my sensei chose to die and let us live. I'm Hokage because I volunteered to sacrifice my life, because I would rather die than return to a village with the loss of my team, whom I considered my real family because my actual family was full of self-obsessed idiots with delusions of grandeur, with the exception of my father. I'm Hokage, because back then, we didn't have any other options. I'm Hokage, so I can let Naruko live long enough that when she's strong enough, I can let her decide the fate of this fucking disgrace of a village."
Hiruzen gave a dark chuckle, raising his arms in a 'what can you do' gesture. "I am not Hashirama. I am not Tobirama-sensei. I could never put my love for the village over the love of the individual people in it that I cared about more. Orochimaru took advantage of that. Danzo took advantage of that. And yet, despite that, Konoha has survived two out of the three Shinobi Wars. Not bad for a guy who never wanted to be Hokage. You can send me to hell now."
Gojo Satoru shook his head, a frown on his face. "No. I won't do that. You've had to make some tough choices, and frankly I don't agree with a lot of the 'public' decisions you've made, especially in regards to having everyone think they can get away with things, even if you make them pay for it later in private. However, I am going to clean up your mess, and you'll be a Hokage in name only, as I've already turned Danzo into one of mine. This village has some serious cracks in it's infrastructure, and I plan on shaking things up."
"How?"
A wide smile crossed the Honored One's face. "Watch and learn, old man, watch and learn. This world will never be the same once I'm done with it. Now, you can go back to finishing your lunch."
Naruko wanted to disappear. She wished she could vanish into the ground or just be invisible. Anything else was better than this.
"What's wrong? You look gorgeous!" Shikamaru's chipper voice was not helping, at all!
"Stop! I feel ridiculous! I feel so exposed!" She complained. The dress was nice, but it was still way too expensive, and Shikamaru had 'accidentally' tore up her jumpsuit when she had asked for him to give it back so she could get dressed and not pay for the dress. It felt so soft, and comfortable, and it even had pockets! But it was still so expensive and she felt like it showed too much of her skin, her shoulders exposed.
Okay, so maybe she was overreacting, but she didn't like wearing this out in public! The civilians' glares made her very uncomfortable even when she was wearing something as practical as her jumpsuit. Let alone in a dress without her kunai and shuriken pouches.
"You're fine, Naruko. Besides, my parents will be especially pleased that you went out of the way to look good for them. It shows you care about what my family thinks, even if they won't judge for things you can't control. It's the emotional investment of the thing that matters." Shikamaru said confidently, and Naruko wanted to just punch him and hug him at the same time. The butterflies in her stomach weren't helping with that either!
"Of course I care about them! I want to make a good impression!" She was never, ever, going to admit out loud that she was scared to death his parents would tell him to never bring her over or that they weren't allowed to date each other. The idea of Shikamaru standing up for her against his family made her feeling all warm and tingly inside only to turn ice cold at the devastated look on Shikamaru's face as they strip him of the Nara name and inheritance because of her. The very thought made her chest hurt so much that she wanted to cry. She couldn't do that to him! She wouldn't!
"You'll see. The fact that I actually went shopping with you will probably make mom jealous as hell. Watch." Shikamaru promised, and Naruko felt her head spin.
Does Shikamaru do anything at home other than cloud watching, shogi, and sleeping? Why is he doing all this for me? I'm not that special.
"You are absolutely that special, and I'm doing this because making you happy, and flustered, I love that blushed face you get when you get flustered by the way, makes me happy. That's all there is to it." Shikamaru had turned around and held her in his arms, making her squeak as his eyes seemed to pin her down as she couldn't look away or do much more than squirm because she must've said the last part out loud by accident.
Her face felt like it was on fire, and she was hugging him as he hugged her against his chest, and why the fuck did he get to be so tall, that wasn't fair, and she didn't know what she was thinking anymore. Because Shikamaru was kissing her gently and, she moaned at the light kiss that made her want more only for him to step back and wink at her as, yep, her face felt like it was even more on fire as she pouted at him.
"Stupid, sexy, bastard." She grumbled as they continued on back to her apartment so she could get changed, and...
Wait, this was the wrong way to her apartment!
"Where are we going?! The apartment is that way!" She gestured with confusion and a slowly growing pit of terror in her stomach that swallowed up the butterflies as Shikamaru's soft smile took on a vicious grin.
"You didn't think you wouldn't be heading over to my place early, didn't you? I mean, since you insisted I couldn't buy you a housewarming gift for us at home, I figured us stopping by early and you chatting for a couple hours with my mom would be a nice sort of housewarming gift of it's own, no?"
Mean Shikamaru! Evil Shikamaru! Betrayer of girlfriends!
She inwardly cried out in terror as they arrived at a house with the Nara Clan symbol next to a fenced area filled with forests and a 'Warning: Deer.' sign on the fence.