My Wife Became the Hokage! (2/3) [NaruSaku]
,Ore no Tsuma Wa Hokage Ni Natta Dattebayo! Chapter 2/3: To Everything There Is A SeasonUzumaki Sakura takes step after step down the long staircase exiting the Hokage's office as a cold gust kicks up the auburn leafs at the foot of the stairs. Once again the autum of the year oversees the dying of bloom and petal in Konohagakure. She clings to her red coat and braces herself for the cold. I can perceive tension on her face, which is almost hidden underneath the red head piece with the long white veils. To the outside world this garment signifies who and what she is - the Hokage of Konohagakure. She takes a few steps outside and inhales the fresh evening air, waiting to be attended to. When the Hokage of Konohagakure walks through the streets of the village, she is always accompanied by the Gohei Shoutai, the elite guards shielding her from potential threats to her life. Konohagakure is a peaceful place now, after all this time of fighting and warfare. Yet, everlasting peace and harmony soon proved to be unfeasable. Extremist groups like the "Tsuki no Me no Suhai" have already assaulted many of those, whom they deem responsible for the failure of Uchiha Madara's plans during the Shinobi World War. Uzumaki Sakura is one of those people, which is why, as soon as she exits the building, her trusted friends Yamanaka Ino and Sai are by her side immediately, forming this generation's Gohei Shoutai. After surviving the war, these two had continued to serve the interests of Konohagakure under Kakashi-sensei's leadership. The post-war world had been in need of creative solutions, and a man whose ninjutsu allowed him to create tangible constructs out of drawn pictures and a woman whose sensory perception allowed her to probe people's minds proved to be essential to Hokage Kakashi's plan of stabilizing the region. Both had grown so much in the process. Sakura looks from one face to the other and manages to nod and smile at them, as she bids them to follow her home. Both shinobi reply likewise. Even Sai, who has always had a tough time grasping the concept of emotions, emotes something akin to warmth and trust. Sakura touches Ino's arm and you can just feel the bond that has always connected the two of them through the years, from rivals, to friends, to close personal confidantes. While Sakura turns around to leave, my gaze remains on Sai and Ino a little longer. With Sakura's turning the smiles vanish from the faces of the young gohei shoutai shinobi. Ino leans over to Sai to whisper something as they both slowly follow in the appropriate distance from their Hokage. "It is that day, today." Ino says to her partner. Sai looks at her and walks on without a comment to make. "Man, it must be so hard on her. I wish I could do something. It is not fair. It's just..." Ino wipes sudden glistening tears from her eyes as she's choking up. Sakura is not supposed to notice that everybody feels for her, on this specific day in particular. As I look closer at Sai, I spy his hands clenched into fists, expressing emotion in his own way. He has always been so different from Ino in regards to this. She tends to openly express her emotions, trying to be true to herself at all times, allowing for vulnerability to show. Being around someone like Ino for so long has changed him a lot from the cold, emotionless operative for the Anbu that Sai had once been turned into as a child. His fists unfold and he gently puts a hand on Ino's shoulder, giving her the soft and steadfast emotional support she needs. His cool level-headedness always keeps her grounded in situations like this. Through the years these two have been through a lot together and seen a lot of stuff going down. But in spite of the odds, in spite of them being completely different from one another, in spite of the darkness they had to face, they formed their own bond that is intimate and true. As horrible and devastating as this world always proves itself to be, as much as humans have the great potential for cruelty and suffering, bonds like this are what illuminate the human potential, making the whole struggle all worth while. This is something that I still believe in from the bottom of my heart, even after everything that happened. I hope to be able to convey to you, what that really means. Suddenly feeling like an intruder in this tender moment between my two friends, I focus again on my wife walking gracefully and ahead in the distance, bravely heading towards home.Haruno Sakura and I had been the first couple of our peers to get married. It was during a strange time of calm after the storm. After all of that complicated Madara, Obito, Kagura business was done with, we all returned to the comforts beyond the hidden leafs of home. Even Sasuke stayed for a short while, although he needed some serious convincing. Him, Sakura and me had been the last line of defense when the Tsuki no Me Keikaku plan went into action and everyone else was spirited away to a world of endless dream and illusion created by the Mugen Tsukuyomi genjutsu. The three of us, the original Team 7, were there when the immortal Kaguya unveiled her true malignant power. While everybody else had drifted away under the genjutsu of the everlasting Eye of the Moon, the trust and love between us had kept us fighting till the end, until we managed to take down even an almost divine power such as Kaguya. The genjutsu was undone, the illusion broken and the three of us, exhausted beyond any conceivable limit, lay next to each other on the rocky ground, still warm in the afterglow of the grand battle. I remember looking over at Sakura, reaching out to hold her hand with the little chakra I still managed to stir. I felt the tender touch of her hand as she held mine, both us of beaming in the joy of having overcome this impossible obstacle. As I reared my head around to look for Sasuke, however, I realized that he was in the act of getting up to leave. Under the strain of his body, he could only move very slowly, shaking while standing up to slip away into the shadows once again. Unable to move myself, I looked back at Sakura and we both nodded at each other. She got up and went after him. What was spoken there, I cannot say, but she succeeded in convincing him to come back home, back to that place that had meant so much suffering to him in the past, but that could mean so much more to him in the future, back where he belonged. And he stayed. For a couple of years, in fact.Hatake Kakashi-sensei, our former instructor, commander and dear friend, had become the Hokage, succeeding Tsunade's reign. After the tribulations of the shinobi world war, the old lady in the young body had set her eyes on new goals, travelling the Shinobi Godaikoku with her trusted confidant Shizune, to research new healing jutsu and help rebuilding trust everywhere. As I told you earlier, under Kakashi-sensei's usual calm and collected leadership, Konohagakure became one of (if not the) strongest proponents of diplomacy and reconstruction of trust between the shinobi nations, setting the stage for a much more peaceful, much more balanced world for everyone. Still, as there are until this day, there was violent opposition back then to this plan, posed by people who admired jerks like Madara or Orochimaru, people who endangered this project of peace in our time. During those years it was us, Sakura, Sasuke and me, Team 7, that managed to bust those who would endanger the innocent and break the peace that so many had had to die for. We soon became the most famous faces in the village, rising in the shinobi ranks quickly (not that we needed more fame, really, defeating Kaguya had already made us kinda infamous). It was after a specifically difficult mission in the midsts of a hot summer, in which we had to protect a small town near the border to Kaminari no Kuni and where Sakura's planning and skill had ensured that there were no casualties on either side, that Hokage Kakashi unexpectedly called us to him. Everybody was there, as the Hokage honored Sakura with special accolades that only few medical shinobi from our village had ever received. I remember everybody being proud, clapping thunderous applause as Sakura, in her own unique way, was blushingly trying to wave it off. I also remember looking to the side, seeing Sasuke standing further back in the crowd, sticking out of the merry group in his usual, not-too-happy not-too-conglaturatory state of mind. He had still been a grumpy dude, even though his new life in Konohagakure had softened him up immensely. But on that day he seemed different, I felt. The way he looked at the cheerful crowd with the beaming Sakura in the middle, accepting the honors, felt strange to me. He seemed at once content, but also unruly, as if something suddenly had come to him, something that was inevitable, something that he just had to accept. I was taken out of those observations, however, by an overjoyed Sakura, who came over to hug me as I promised to have her out for dinner tonight, to celebrate. Giving my girlfriend my complete attention now, I turned around one last time to see that Sasuke had vanished from the great hall.,It was already night-time when I arrived at the ramen place. I remember how the full moon looked down on me accusingly. I had done so much to get together with the girl I loved and now I kept her waiting on such an important day! I entered the premises and paid my respects to the chef. From the corner of my eye I could see that Sakura was already seated, so I rushed over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, before taking seat right next to her. I expected some emotional reaction from her, since such public showing's of affection were still a thing that she was getting used to. Yet, my cheeky little kiss didn't seem to stir her much. In fact, I realized that my girlfriend didn't react to my being here at all, just staring into thin air, not even looking at me. She seemed really mad about the lateness of the hour. I gulped and readied my best defense case: "Hey, I know you're angry that I'm late, and yes, you have every right to be, and I apologize, but you see, I..." My words fell flat to the floor and the flow of my ramblings stopped when I took another closer look at her. In the pale moonlight I once again saw what a beautiful young woman Haruno Sakura had become, a serene otherworldy beauty that lit up the darkness around her. Yet in her eyes, which were focusing on nothing particular on the floor in front her her, I saw that the light was dimming. "Oh, no, you're okay, it's fine..." she mumbled, still gazing into the nothingness to her feet. Her countenance betrayed her consoling words as I saw the old familiar sadness reappear - that old familiar sadness that I had vowed to drive away forever. I immediately understood. "Sasuke's gone." I said, asking and confirming at the same time. "Yes. He is. Went away a couple of hours ago. Didn't say goodbye to anyone," she uttered calmly, "of course." In a second I was on my feet, my eyes blazing: "Then there's still time! If we pack our things now we can still get to him!" She finally turned her head to look at me and for the first time in a long while I was unable to read those deep emerald eyes of hers. "Come on, we have no time to lose!" I exlcaimed, puzzled by her calm demeanour. I turned and was already on my way out, when I felt something grip my wrist firmly from behind. Confused, I looked over my shoulder and there she was. Sakura looked straight at me, the green of her iris illuminated by the moon, now emitting true conviction, all the sadness suddenly washed away from her face into the moonlit night. Her grip around my wrist tightened, preventing me from taking off once more. She was not going to go.,The warmth of this comfortable summer night mixed with the heat rising in my cheeks. "What are you doing, Sakura-chan?! I don't understand! You know how he is, you know he doesn't mean it! We have to go and..." She layed her right index finger on my mouth and stopped my yapping. I was completely taken aback, as the serene moonlight unveiled a calm and collected smile on that beautiful face so close to mine. "No, we don't." she said, not a trace of insecurity in her voice. "No, we don't. Sasuke is being Sasuke. It is time we stop forcing him to be someone else." My eyes grew wide with confusion. "But... But you always said that...!" "I know. But I am making a choice right here, right now. I am my own person, and I am making a choice." The words came out of her as if she had practiced this speech a million times before in her head. "You see, in the past years with you I found out a lot about myself, about what I think I want my life to be. And... And I I choose your kindness, your unfaltering loyalty, your passion, your goofiness, your incredible stubbornness, your clumsiness. Your heart." Her finger softly slid away from my lips, down my cheeks, which were burning red with the realization of what was happening. "Say... Why don't we get married?" whispered Sakura, as if it was the most normal, most everyday thing anybody has ever spoken. In the background of the restaurant, the ramen chef dropped his spoon to the floor in silent amazement, breathlessly waiting for how this would play out. My mouth gaped wide open for a moment, until my brain could understand what was happening. It seemed as if all those little instances in time, from my earliest youth to our common training together, to the hardships we went through together, all those things, had led her and me here, to this point. It just made sense. I brought my jumbled faculties in order so that I was able to answer: "Yeah... Why don't we?","I don't want to!!!" booms the voice of the young girl with the bright blue eyes, the soft rose hair and curious, fox-like markings on her face. Uzumaki Sakura, the Hokage of Konohagakure, is standing in the doorway of her own home, against the backdrop of the red and brown trees in the evening glow behind her. She is calmly listening to the clamour coming from the second floor of her residence. "Please, excuse me, Hokage-sama, the young Ojou-chan will be down in a minute!" Sakura nods at the apparently stressed maid, who emerges from upstairs, just to vanish again in an instant. Iruka-sensei stands next to her, the man who single-handedly raised me, the lonely orphan boy whom everybody else ignored or even feared. He waves his hand apologetically "Shion-chan's in a really bad mood today," he laughs at Sakura "but it is understandable, I mean..." His voice grows quiet. "I am sure she is aware of what day it is today." Sakura gives Iruka-sensei a gentle smile, making further excuses unneccessary. I am so glad that Sakura has somebody to help her with little Shion. And she couldn't have found anyone better for the job. This man has been through a lot of trouble with his own little troublemaker (yeah, me) so he has some idea of how to handle cases like this.The maid's harried voice can be heard again from the young girl's room upstairs: "Ojou-chan, your honorable Okaa-san is waiting downstairs, you need to get ready." "I don't want to go! I don't want to see him today, she should go and look at him herself!" cries the child. Iruka-sensei tries to make a step forward, trying to support the maid in this battle of wits, but my wife puts a hand on his shoulder, holding him back. "Shion-chan." She speaks not with the voice of a Hokage, but with the voice of a mother, loud enough so that it can be heard upstairs. "Please. It is very important for me that we go there today. Please, do it for me." says Uzumaki Sakura and I can feel her putting all of her gentleness and care for our daughter into these words. For a moment, upstairs is silent. Maybe the girl recognizes the severe plea in her mother's voice or maybe she is just afraid to anger her (she can be very scary if triggered, I speak from experience). Either way, after a couple of minutes in which the maid helps her slip into her best formal dress, Uzumaki Shion comes down the stairs, shyly smiling at the impressive Hokage waiting for her. Sakura squats down to look her in the eye, a gentle hand to the young girl's cheek, her green eyes glowing with warmth and care. "Better to put a coat on, dear, it's getting chilly outside."Shion-chan has grown into quite a rascal of a six-year-old. And I love her for that. Even at her young age it is clear that she is a free spirit who does not conform to any set notions or ideas and fights for what she deems the better way. The good thing is that she also inherited her mother's common sense, so that Iruka-sensei doesn't need quite as much patience this time as when he brought me to my senses back in the day. I am immeasurably grateful that he agreed to help when Sakura came to her wit's end with raising this kid alone. The memory of it always chokes me up. All things considered, I think they are managing quite well, even though it is an obvious strain on Sakura to be a Hokage and a mother at the same time.But I don't want you to think that my daughter is a monster! She is quite far from it, in fact. When she's not playing pranks or being a rebellious whirlwind, this young girl with her father's eyes and her mother's hair, her mother's intelligence and her father's wickedness, is the sweetest thing you can imagine, believe me. I wish I could meet her. Can you understand that?,When Sakura first told me that she was pregnant I literally fell off a tree. Sakura and I had been married for years then, living together as well as working together closely. People saw the two of us as the next generation of Konoha's Kiiroi Senko and Akai Chishio no Habanero, in honor of my parents, the former famous power couple, Minato and Kushina. Similar to them, our affection for each other helped us push our boundaries even further, leading to our public fame as the most promising shinobi for the future. The team we formed with our trusted friends Ino and Sai spearheaded Kakashi-sensei's course of action against all of the newly appearing threats in our time of reorganization of peace. The Tsuki No Me No Suhai were founded to bring back the illusionary world of the Mugen Tsukuyomi that people all over the world had witnessed, to forget about the harshness of reality and live on in a perfect dream forever. They performed assaults on established leaders of the shinobi world they deemed enemies to their cause. Representatives of this cult travelled from place to place, trying to pick up new followers with the promises of everlasting happiness in dream and falsehood. Because of their fanaticism, this often led to violent outbursts, the taking over of villages and towns, forcing people to support their ways. It seemed as if they were looking for something, as we often found intel about their representatives breaking into scroll archives, working through old genjutsu techniques. It was our assumption they were trying to recreate Madara's Tsukuyomi or to resurrect Kaguya. It was early in spring, during a scouting session for a hideout of this extremist terror group, when I learned about my wife's condition. In typical Sakura fashion she had fidgeted around all day without telling me what was up. Her secretive behaviour worried me, but there was the mission to focus on first and foremost. We needed to find out what they were planning. We were already circling in on the target, hidden in the trees surrounding the Tsuki ni Me No Suhai's camp, listening in to what the extremists were scheming. "Do you have sight on their leader?" I whispered over the Chakra Transmission Communication Device that connected me to my comrades. Sai and Ino were on the ground, hiding in the bushes close to the extremists' tents. "Not yet," came Ino's voice from the speaker in our ears. Sakura and I were high up in the branches of the trees, surveilling the situation. It was easy to hide behind the fresh green leafs and the newly sprouting blossoms, with only few buds yet unopened. I was worried about my wife's odd behaviour during the day, so I looked over just to find her showing her usual fierce determination. Two men of the Tsuki No Me No Suhai met underneath the tree we hid on, so we masked our chakra as best as we could. One of them looked very sad in a way, having walked away from the camp and the others. As he looked into the distance, past the tree we were hiding upon, I could see that he was rather young and haggard, with dark rings under his eyes. Then the other man joined him, apparently trying to cheer him up. This one was more stout and obviously older, with a grizzly beard. The older man put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll have the scroll soon. Kaguya-sama will make sure you see your family again." The young man looked up to him, with a melancholy in his eyes that I could feel stemmed from a lifetime of grief. "You're right. I tell myself that every day. As soon as the Mugen Tsukuyomi is done, I will be able to go back to that world. The war will never have happened and they... they will be there..." He looked into the distance again, longing for days long past and people long lost. Once again I was reminded of the fact that even the noblest of causes can be corrupted by the wrong means. I didn't agree with the man, but I understood his reasoning. Here I was, spying on this enemy of ours, someone who would drown the world in Kaguya's chaos, even if for his own noble cause. "Have I ever told you what I'm gonna dream of once the eye of the moon opens again?" laughed the other man, trying to cheer his comrade up. "Only a million times," said his melancholic friend and smiled, "and I'll tell you again, it's not something to brag about!" The other didn't pay him no mind and continued: "I'm gonna be the harem king of the whole Shinobi Godaikoku! All of these beautiful kunoichi will lie at my feet and I will choose my bride, first and foremost..." The melancholic man sighed: "I know... that former Hokage woman with the big..." "Indeed!" He laughed heartily and pantomimed the act of squeezing... well... let's say pantomiming something obscene. They trodded back to their campsite together, laughing, both full of their own dreams and I sighed. Not so noble, that other guy. Sakura's fingers touched my arm. "Yeah, that guy's the worst, isn't he?" I whispered. I turned my head slowly and saw her clear green eyes looking at me with sincerity. She signaled to Sai and Ino that we would be signing off our coms for a second. "Hey," she whispered close to my ear, "have you ever thought about... what you would have dreamed of under the Mugen Tsukuyomi genjutsu?" I was taken aback. That question came out of left field, I never really thought about it. In Kaguya's twisted dream world anything you wanted had been possible. I remember hearing from my friends what they had seen. I remember Kiba telling me he saw himself as the Hokage of Konohagakure. "Not a harem world, I assure you." I said, not really knowing how else to answer her. Her lips parted into a little smile. "Probably a world in which you're Hokage, huh? The thing you always wanted the most." I thought about it for a second but couldn't answer. I thought about how I had laughed when Kiba told me. What Sakura said made the most sense, I guessed. I would have probably dreamed of a world in which I was the respectable Hokage of Konohagakure. "Well, here's the thing..." she looked away into the trees, now blushing for some reason. "I have thought about it for a long time now. I think... I think I would have dreamed about a world in which we all could live happily together. In which we wouldn't be alone. In which we were allowed to have hope for a better tomorrow." My ears tingled, it seemed as if my wife wanted to say something important that had been on her mind for a long time. "I would have dreamed of a family... with you and me and... and..." she stopped, blushing even harder, unable to speak further." After a short interval of nothing, she started again: "I've been wanting to tell you, I..." "Don't tell me you want Sasuke moving in with us after all?!" I joked in deadpan bad taste. She rightfully punched me on the arm for that: "No, you moron, I'm... I'm pregnant with your child! There's... there's no doubt about it." I froze, my whole system coming to a standstill. Everything around us seemed to white out, the birds seemingly stopped their chirping, the leafs stopped the whistling of their endless song of spring. For a moment the ongoing narrative of this blue planet of ours held its breath. I just stared at her for a long and longer moment, when I suddenly realized that my grip on the tree was slipping. The surprise of her revelation had made me forget to focus my chakra! I slipped completely and fell, now totally blowing our cover. As I was noisily crashing down into the middle of the enemy camp with all those dangerous fanatics turning towards me, I could only hear Sakura's voice angrily shouting after me: "What kind of reaction is that?!" After Sai and Ino rushed in to help us, we quickly managed to clean the mess up, defeating and taking the Tsuki no Me no Suhai in for later questioning. I looked after them, as our support group led them away. The young haggard man with the tired eyes fixated me in a vitriolic stare as he was taken away. I made a note to talk to him at a later point. It felt weird, crushing his dream in favour of my own. That thought made me remember the cause for the chaotic escalation of this recon mission, what Sakura and I had discussed before, or rather, what she had told me. I looked at my wife, who was standing with her back to me, taking notes for a report on the incident. She seemed surprisingly small, suddenly, lost in the woods again. It had probably taken her quite an effort to come up with the right words to tell me and I had screwed everything up. My surprise and the ensuing mayhem had left her all alone in that vulnerable position she had put herself in. What was I supposed to do now? I had totally ruined the intimate moment of the happy celebration we were supposed to have and now it would be weird to suddenly break out in cheering. Or would it? A deep feeling of responsibility rushed over me, like an electric shock, I took a deep breath and I let go of all childish insecurities. I grabbed my wife by the arm and turned her to face me. The scroll she was scribbling on fell to the ground as I kissed her surprised lips and exclaimed: "I couldn't be happier, this is amazing news!" Sakura was flabbergasted to be suddenly plucked out of her work mode, but then smiled wryly: "You could have done that an hour ago, now you're... kinda late." Her eyes darted to the side for a second, then came back to face mine. I could feel tension in the air. She wasn't sure whether or not I really meant it or not. Falling off a tree was apparently not the most reassuring reaction to the news. "Are you kidding?!" I laughed and pulled her close and held her. "You see, I've only just begun!" I gently whirled her around. "I'm going to sing our little bundle of joy's praises till the end of days!" "What are you saying?" Sakura whispered, smiling with tears in her eyes. "I'm saying that I'm going to be there for the two of you every step of the way, this I solemnly swear!" We came to a stop, looking into each other's eyes closely. "Last time I heard you speak that kind of stuff with such conviction was when you first proclaimed to become Hokage..." I was taken aback by her words, but then shook my head: "I've never been as serious about anything as I am about this now! Let's see, here...!" I fell to my knees, putting my ear to her belly: "Is it a boy? Is it a girl?" Sakura laughed out loud, the tension completely falling in pieces to the soft forest floor. "No way, silly, you can't tell yet at this point!",It was the beginning of what should have been a happy family life for me, my love and our child.________________________________________________________________________ Short Disclaimer: All characters from the Naruto series are the property of Kishimoto Masashi and Shounen Jump. This work is a result of my deep frustration with the original manga's ending. The point is not to tell anybody what would have been better or what they should think to be right, but just what I in my innermost core would have liked to see!I have no idea what happens in Boruto, so everything that happens post Kaguya in this story is completely made up. The redesigns for their grown-up selfs were designed by myself. Let me know if you like these strange versions of our favourite characters, like long-hair Sakura, classic kunoichi Ino, shaggy Sai or bewhiskered Naruto.Uzumaki Shion is a character I created from scratch. Her name is based on the Japanese word for the flower Aster Tataricus, a soft purple flower which in Japanese tradition implies "remembrance of things past".
MikeOnHighway61
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