Climax

A knock at a door rang out, Temari ,knowing the visitor's presence far before they decided to announce it, but appreciating the politeness, walked over, twisting the knob, and opening.

"Hey, Temari." Said the other blond, his whiskered cheeks and sunny smile nostalgic to her. She smiled back, motioning for him to come in, noticing how much bigger he had gotten. He was taller than her now, and much wider, muscles clear as day under his white cloth scarf and black and brown ninja uniform which signalled him as a part of Suna's military, though a distinguished general instead of the common foot soldier.

Walking further into her flat, she fell into a seat on her couch, patting the cushions to signal Naruto to sit next to her. "Come. I saw you at the ceremony earlier, but I haven't gotten to speak to you yet."

The jinjuriki (Though one could argue he didn't count as one anymore, what with the ego death of the tailed beast inside) complied, and the two stared at each other, an awkward tension between them as neither summoned the courage to talk. Naruto, ever brash, started first, saying "So…"

"So?"

"Are we still a thing?"

Temari looked at him, with her deep and beautiful turquoise eyes, ones which he swore he could get lost in forever. "Of course, cutie."

The man shook his head. "I'm not cute."

"You are to me." Temari stated, leaning her body into him, resting on his shoulder.

Naruto wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight and close, and so they laid for a while. Temari caressed his face, looking into his deep blue eyes. "Naruto, could you let me see your real eyes?"

He laughed "These are my real eyes."

She pouted, and Naruto sighed, dispelling the genjutsu that covered them. Instead of blue, they were now purple and orange, a rinnegan in one, and Itachi's Amaterasu in the other. "Happy?"

She leaned up to him and caught his lips in a kiss. "I love you."

"I know. I love you too."

For that moment, they rested.

Before war.

…

Sakura hated being hokage. She hated the work and the hassle and the constant management of responsibility, and how much of it had to be hers. Despite it, she continued at the job, because she was damn well good at it.

Success rate of missions was the highest it had ever been, training workshops and team combinations furthering the potential of each recruit by what seemed like miles. Her own strength and that of the Konoha 10 had blossomed over the past year, until it seemed like they were all close to breaching that barrier of S rank, with a few of them like herself and Neji already being squarely inside that bracket.

But she mostly hated being hokage because she knew despite all of the training she did, Naruto was still stronger than her. Whilst she was scrambling and worrying about whatever bullshit Itachi would be doing that week, Naruto had killed him, and Sasuke, and Kakashi, all in a month. That level of progression and mastery was unheard of since the founding of the leaf village, and Sakura didn't like her chances against the first hokage (or for that matter Madara).

The 6th she was, and the 6th she will stay, but Naruto will be the seventh if she lets him fight her. So, she won't. That was the outline of her plan, pretty much, one which had been planned with Shikamaru for the better part of a month.

See, it wasn't that hard to figure out Suna was gearing up for war. With the Leaf, it was obvious, and with how Naruto had been getting more and more confident, him staying hidden for so long could only mean he was in Suna (that and her spies were either dead or gone to ground, which in either case was fucked). And so their plan would be to use Naruto as a bulwark who would take revenge on whoever he felt wronged him in his delusion fuelled facsimile of a brain, including her, let Suna take the rest of the village, and crown himself new "'okage 'ttebeyo!"

So, Sakura couldn't let that happen, and so she made a plan, and a counter plan, and a plan after that, effectively ensuring that out of every given situation, she would win something. But she knew it would require sacrifice. A lot of it.

…

The offensive had been going on for a few days. Offensive was a strong word, Naruto felt, as the systematic moving of camps and resetting every day felt more like an approach. They had yet to see a single Leaf nin, which meant either they were very good at hiding or had all killed themselves out of fear. Naruto knew they had been spotted though. It was inevitable. Their plan actually hinged upon it. Naruto had such a huge amount of chakra that any Yamanaka or Hyuuga in a country wide radius would know where he is. They would come, he would kill them quickly and brutally, and that would be that.

Yet none of that was happening. Their sensors hadn't picked anything up, and so they had setup and taken down an FOB 3 separate times, making progress each time. Baki, another general like he, had stated in the command tent that this was good, that each day without attack they made into fire country territory, was a week without war, and a month of food and resources saved. It made Naruto uneasy though. What was that pink haired bitch thinking.

Then, a group appeared, though they weren't moving. Naruto had inherited the 9 tail's propensity for sensing chakra, and to him it seemed like they were simply sat down in a clearing, as if they were waiting for him.

He told Garaa who was by his side, who told a soldier to get baki and to stop the army, and soon the other head general had joined them.

"Naruto, Baki, we go and investigate. It might be the Leaf has come to us to surrender."

"And if it's a trap?" The jonin asked.

Naruto, confidence on display with crossed arms, proclaimed "We'll win. The Leaf doesn't have anyone good at sealing to seal all 3 of us, and I have good enough vision and speed to stop them before they do anything."

The Kazekage nodded. "Then let's move." And the 3 vanished from sight, body flickering into the clearing.

And they were greeted by the sight of Sakura and the Konoha 10, waiting. Nearly instantly Naruto neared, further than where either group could reach him, fury evident on his face.

"Sakura. Have you come to die?"

She smirked, dismissive. "Perhaps. I know surrendering to you would be a death sentence."

Naruto nearly confirmed her thoughts, but with Garaa and Baki next to him, it was a risk. They would lose trust in him if he killed her before they sued for peace, yet somehow he knew Sakura wouldn't give up this easily.

"So what do you want, huh? To gloat about being Hokage and then die by my hand anyway?"

Sakura smiled, almost sad, as she motioned to the rest of the gathering of ninja. Naruto's former friends all. "You kill me, you'll have to kill them. That's the problem here, Naruto. You're trying to destroy your trauma and pain that this village caused you and the only thing it will do is cause more pain for more people. Your friends, the people who care about you, are you really willing to kill them to get a worthless title?"

The plan was one of sacrifice. Naruto would either decide not to kill his former friends and have to surrender and go back home, or he would slaughter them in front of Garaa, who would soon betray him out of fear and resentment, with Naruto destroying everything and losing more than he had started with. So, Sakura reasoned that if he was thinking straight he would have to retreat, bringing the army back home and letting them be.

"So, Naruto, and the Kazegage, you have a choice. Either you can kill your former friends, or you can have peace and live how you want. We won't chase you, hell, we'll even retract our kill order on you, Naruto. We want peace, not death. Don't you?"

Naruto stood silent for a moment, as Garaa motioned to him. "Naruto. Strictly speaking, this is the best outcome for us. Less dead, you still profit from it. And most of all, I don't want you to become a monster. I don't want you to have to kill your frien-"

Then Naruto vanished, appearing a distance away with his hand in the gut of Hinata. For a moment, nobody moved, yet as the Hyuuga's body dropped to the ground, limp, the jinjuriki spoke.

"None of this is real. All a deception. All fake."

Garaa spoke, incensed and shocked. "What do you mean Uzumaki? Those were your friends!"

Shaking his head, Naruto grasped onto the corpse's face, and pulled, the skin falling off easily and revealing a brown haired kunoichi instead. "None of them acted like my friends. All fake facsimiles, none speaking because their roles weren't well put together enough."

He sighed, ripping his arm out the body and throwing it to the floor, where the rest of the ANBU disguised as ninja were stood, kunai outstretched. "Pathetic, Sakura, really. Relying on cheap tricks and nonsense to try and trick Garaa into fearing me?"

He turned to Sakura, closer and closer, until he was right next to her placid expression. "So what is it? Will you surrender, or do I get the chance to kill you."

She smiled again. "You always were hopelessly brash."

"Taunts?" He spoke, placing an unsealed kunai against her neck, close, pressure building up. "Surrender now, Hokage!"

Sakura held her hands to the side, opening pink lips calmly, as if the most powerful shinobi in he elemental nations wasn't currently threatening her. "Please, even if you slit my throat I'd live. I get your meaning though, Naruto. If my first plan failed, the second was such. If I died, a seal would go off and alert the rest of the Leaf and the alliance we made with waterfall, and they would swarm this position, and though you would win, both Suna and the village you tend to inherit would be in ruins. If-Not if, when- the other nations saw this weakness and attacked, the nation would be too weakened to defend, and both villages would be destroyed. I have set this up so that if that happened, no decisive victory would allow you to win, and eventually, you would die, not due to a lack of power, but to decay."

Garaa spoke, angered. "You'd let that happen to your people?"

"She hates me, just like everyone else in the Leaf hates me. It doesn't matter though. I'll show you, I'll rule over you."

Sakura laughed, grim and weak, but a promise of her position. "You see, Kazekage, what I stand to lose. This is a gamble. If he takes my life just like he tried all those years ago, can you imagine who else he would kill? Everyone who had ever looked at him wrong, everyone who had ever seen a problem with him. Soon, the village would be embroiled in civil war after civil war, with this fool the sole victor each time because of power alone."

Naruto pushed his kunai close enough to draw blood, the pressure bending into the woman's skin. "I'll make them bow with power alone!"

"You'll lose. I'm just guaranteeing it. Or, there is another choice."

When silence reigned and nobody answered, Sakura continued. "An agreement. You keep me alive, and you promise to be trained to be Hokage like I was, and I'll name you my successor here and now, and give you the hat."

Naruto looked incredulously at her. "What? Why would you give up the hat?"

"Because I hate it. Because the work is hard, and the people are mean, and the choices I have to make are so incredibly hard, and most of all, I care. I care about everyone in the village, about my mother and father and every damn ninja that works under me. And as much as I hate giving the hat to a man who tried to kill me, I have to, because otherwise you'll kill us all."

"And all I have to do is not kill you?"

"That's the only thing you have to prove, is that you're willing to sacrifice that objective that has been with you ever since you escaped the village. 'Kill Sakura Haruno'. As addicting that thought might have been, the one sacrifice you'll have to make is to let me live."

Despite her words, Naruto didn't move the kunai. He kept it still, as still as his body which simply refused to let her out of his grasp.

"How do I know you aren't lying?"

Ignoring his grip again, the pink haired kunoichi continued. "You'll have me if they decide to fight back. Without their leader, not only will moral be in pieces, so will plans. I am a pretty strong shinobi after all, and as a medic, our losses would be much higher. Losing me would make losing against you much easier, and so surrendering myself here would be moronic if I wanted to actually win. If all I need to do is kill anything you could control, it'll be fine."

Stillness came back, as did the underlying tension brimming under Naruto's skin. He wanted so desperately to win, but on her terms? There had to be another way, he knew.

Almost forgotten beneath the will of the two leaf born nin, Garaa spoke. "Let her go Naruto. We take her into the village, we'll see if she is telling the truth."

Yet despite his command, Naruto kept his blade to her throat.

"Naruto. Let her go."

Scowling, Naruto stated "I will decide what I will do Garaa."

One step too far, the Kazekage decided. "No. I will not sacrifice my people for revenge alone. An ally, maybe, in power, but if you kill her we are done! Let her go."

A moment where he kept her close still. Her face was stone, and his was red.

"Naruto!"

Then with a yell he dropped her to the ground, sheathing his kunai. Garaa and Baki both let out held breaths, whilst Naruto looked at the downed kunoichi with contempt.

"I do this for them, for me, not for you."

Sakura laughed, tragic almost. "You think I ever wanted your help?"

He stilled, then walked away, past his allies, away from the ANBU. "We move in 5. Get her in cuffs."

…

The parade through Konoha was eventful, with contempt, fear, and awe spelled across the faces of the invaded citizens. No raids were made, no property was stolen, but Suna troops walking through the middle of Konoha, allowed by order of the Hokage was devastating to the citizen perception of Konoha's strength.

The speech was even more impactful, consisting of the 6th Hokage decrying the unjust treatment of Naruto by the hands of the villagers and her, that her position as Hokage is undeserving, and that her successor will be the jinjuriki.

All it took then was a conversation between Sakura, the wind damaiyo, the fire damaiyo, Garaa and Naruto, to corroborate that Sakura had framed Naruto, that her Hokageship was based on faulty and biased assessments, and that the Leaf had decided to make Naruto their new hokage.

And so, Naruto sat, on top of the newly carved face of the seventh hokage, feeling sorry for himself.

He was strong. He was hokage. He had killed Sasuke and become the most renown and feared shinobi in the lands, and everyone in the village respected him one way or another, but his friends feared him. Over time, Sakura had managed to convince everyone that Naruto had attacked her, and it wasn't that hard because it was the truth. They stayed away from him, loyal either because of knowledge that at any time he could kill them, or a resolution that they would fight for the village no matter who controlled it, but no personal affection. Even Hinata, who he knew had a crush on him since he could remember, looked at him like he was a different person entirely, and he guessed he was.

He was happy though, or at least happier. He had the hat, had his wife, and had a big home in a place he never thought he would return to.

But he never beat Sakura. The one person he thought could never be Hokage, took it from him perhaps because he was too hasty in hating her. She improved the village, new technology and tactics and innovations. She even gifted him the village back.

And he so wanted to kill her, but he knew he couldn't. To be a shinobi means to endure, and endure he had to. He wanted to punish her in every way he could imagine. Imprisonment? Stripping her rank? Exile? But none of them would keep him safe, and most of all, sate him. Instead, he kept her as a ninja, a jonin even. She lead a squad, and fought for him, did missions for him, and she was his harness. His first choice, if he ever broke, would be to kill her, he realised. If he ever failed in protecting his village (Not his out of loyalty, but out of possession) because of his lack of sacrifice, it would be her he killed first. So, whenever he wanted her dead, he reeled himself back.

Somehow it worked, and he had his power, and his crown, and his land, and his wife.

So why did he feel so hollow?

Back then, in that fight with Itachi, that was the happiest he had ever been. The hate of Sakura, of Sasuke, of the village never gave him anything but rage. The only things he loved in life, was the pursuit of power, and Temari.

And so, Naruto Uzumaki, seventh Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves, friend of the kazekage, jinjuriki, god of shinobi, and the darkness that dwelled within, lived the rest of his life feeling cheated.

Yet he had won.

THE END