The New Otokage

“Sorry for my intrusion, Lady Hokage, but there are urgent news from the Sound!” the Anbu bowed and handed over a sealed scroll to the irritated Godaime.

The masked Anbu had materialized himself in front of the woman as she was just taking a nap on top of piles of documents on her desk… and Tsunade was never happy about being disturbed when she was napping.

“Give it to me,” she growled and looked around her desk to find something to throw at the Anbu. As she couldn’t find anything heavy enough, she decided to let it go and carefully break the seal on the scroll.

Her eyes widened as she read the lines over.

“I’ll be damned… !” she whispered and made the Anbu stare at her in wonder.

“Lady Hokage?”

“Thank you…dismiss! ” she ordered before calling out to Shizune as the Anbu left in a cloud of smoke.

“I want you to call Shikimaru, Neji and Hinata and make them meet me here tonight, at 19.00 hours oh and call the elders together….. there has been a change of leadership in the Sound!”

~ # ~

The consoling chamber was buzzing as the town elders and politicians where discussing the information they had just received from their Hokage.

“The sole survivor of the Uchiha clan has killed Orochimaru?” said the Aburame in disbelief
“We have tried to kill that man for ages and the boy did it all by himself? Ha… I can’t believe that!”

“And he has clamed the title as Otokage for himself ?” The Inuzuka barked.

“I wonder if this is an improvement ?Maybe the Uchiha kid pose a more dangerous threat than Orochimaru” the Hyuuga elder replied angrily.

The Hyuuga-clan and the Uchiha-clan had never been on friendly terms and that the treacherous survivor of the clan had dared to become a Kage before and Hyuuga was not helping.

“And why does he want the Kyuubi no Kitsune container to attend at the meeting?” was the strategic question from the Nara clan.

“Silence!” the Hokage ordered in a firm voice.

“We don’t know how Uchiha Sasuke has managed to become the new Otokage or why he has made the request for Uzumaki Naruto to be present…. what we know, is that we would all benefit greatly from a peace treaty with the Sound… especially because we are familiar with the Uchiha clans abilities and Sasuke´s many talents.” Tsunade crossed her arms over her voluminous bosom as she looked at the elders with a great deal of seriousness, she hated when the elders only referred to her favorite blonde as a monster container.

“But Hokage-sama…. how do we deal with the fact that the Kyuubi container has been a missing-nin for more than a year?,” the Akimichi asked in wonder, his voice friendly and caring.

The blonde had, in fact, been missing for more than 18 month since the one of the blonde’s subordinates was nearly killed during an A-mission that ended in a fight against Itachi and Kisame. The blonde blamed himself because of his bad temper, even though neither the wounded shinobi nor Tsunade held the blonde responsible for it.

Fighting the Akatsuki was always dangerous and the older Uchiha had a way of messing with his opponents heads. During the battle the sharingan-user had told the blonde about the blue-eyed male’s link to the Yondaime and had mocked the blonde; telling him that he would never become Hokage like his father before him.

Naruto had lost his temper and ended up killing Kisame and wounding Itachi severely…. but not before Itachi had stabbed the youngest team member and caught him in a genjutsu… much similar to the one used on Kakashi years before.

“Well… I have two teams searching for him right now,” she explained “Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino who are leading the two shinobi teams, are doing all the can, to find any lead of Naruto-kun as we speak!”

“In the meanwhile I will send Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata as or ambassadors with Kakashi sensei as back-up to sign the treaty and apologize on Uzumaki-san´s behalf for his absence with a cover story … hopefully the Otokage will accept this and become our allied” She continued, not quite sure, she believed that Sasuke would accept the story they had put together to explain the blondes absence.

~ # ~

“You want us to tell him that Naruto is on an important mission to the Sand to protect the Kazekage and won’t be able to attend… is that right! Hokage-sama?” Neji was not happy with telling a lie… especially when they had to lie to a sharingan user.

“What if he sees right through us and end up declaring war?”

“Oh don’t be such a nuisance Neji-san,” Tsunade growled “Sasuke knows, that Naruto lives a busy life…. if it becomes to dangerous… just tell him that… the blonde is off training on his own and he doesn’t want to be disturbed… that should do the trick …. for now.”

“Hokage-sama….. you… really…. haven‘t heard from him… have you?” Hinata asked. She was still a bit shy… but it was only amongst those who knew her, that she allowed herself to become insecure.
With others she always appeared strong and self-assured and she had to be, she was the official ambassador of the hidden city of Konoha just like her (secret) lover Neji and had too show the other hidden cities that Konoha was strong.

“No Hinata-san I haven’t… but I think, I know where he would be sure to turn up eventually,” the Hokage answered the Hyuuga girl. “And we got Konoha´s best nose on the case…!.”

~ # ~

Gaara leaned lazily against the metal fence on the roof of his home and looked at the rising red sun.

“Beautiful isn’t it! Everyone rarely looks at it, but I think It´s the most fabulous thing in the world?” he asked the taller cloaked figure that stood beside him.

“Yeah, guess your right Kazekage-sama,” the male replied softly.

“Please… Gaara will do…… so..?... why are you here?” the red head asked as he turned his face to look at his sudden guest.

“……!”

“It´s not like it’s my business to be nosy … but Tsunade and your friends are missing you…. how long have you been gone?” The Sand leader pulled the cloak back, revealing an unruly mass of golden locks and a tanned face that was graced with two bright blue eyes.

“You are right…. it’s not…. gomen Gaara… I.”

“It´s okay… you don’t have to tell me anything, if you don’t want to… my friend” the Kazekage smiled softly at the blonde and patted his shoulder.

“I… I´m the son of the fourth Hokage… I found out just before I left,” Naruto said with a whisper, looking into the pale eyes of the red-headed male.

“Oh I see… I to thought that you always looked a lot like the Yondaime anyway… is that the reason then?”

“Yes and no…. I had to figure some thing out for myself…. so I thought I would be better of alone for a while.”

“That’s understandable Naruto-kun…,”Gaara tilted his head a bit and looked at the blonde, as if he wanted to ask a question.

“Yes?,” the blonde asked as he sat down, his legs dangling over the edge of the roof.
“You know you can ask me anything” the blonde grinned.

“Um… I hope you want to stay here for a few days… as my um… personal guest” the red-head slowly managed to ask before dropping to the ground to sit next to the slightly taller male.

Hesitating, he moved closer and rested his head against the blonde’s broad shoulder, afraid that the man would move away at the close contact. But Naruto did no such thing… he just returned the comforting touch, and let his head come to rest on the red-curled head of the Sand leader.

“Sure, if you really want me to!” the blue eyed male whispered as he slid his arm around the older males shoulder.

They just sat there… together…. resting against each other with a small hidden smile on their lips.

“You still have problems sleeping, Gaara-san?” he said after several minutes of silence between them.

“Hmmm… even though I have full control over the Shukaku by now, I´m still not able to sleep more that 30 minutes tops…old habits a hard to get rid of I guess!”

“Yeah…. I know… I´m still depending to much on the Kyuubi, when I´m in danger…. I guess, I´m to bold in battle because of that…..,” the blonde signed

“I was responsible for almost getting Konohamaru killed on my last mission… . because I lost my temper… as Itachi told me about my lineage… I got reckless and…… oh god Gaara…. He was caught in a genjutsu… one of the really painful ones… 72 hours of pain… or something like that!.”

Gaara looked at his blonde friend in disbelief “But you always think of others before yourself Naruto-kun”

“Yeah…. But…. He… .he almost died… Gaara… and it was my fault… I feel so bad about it!”

“Don’t be… I´m sure Tsunade understands,” the red-head embraced his friend, drawing his strong body closer to his own slender frame.

“I know…. she told me…. Hell, she even hit me… but… I still have to live with it…. I was an idiot!” tears began to run freely down his whiskered cheeks as he hugged the Kazekage back sobbing deeply into the soft red treads.

“Just let it out…. you will feel better… I promise!” Gaara nuzzled into the blonde locks… hoping the blonde wouldn’t be noticing his flushing cheeks, as he “accidentally” brushed his lips against the soft tanned skin on the blondes neck.

~ # ~

6 month later:

“Otokage-sama they are all here and ready for you.”

“Hnn… very well… thank you Kira-san” the young Otokage muttered as he turned away from the window in the new Otokage tower. It was starting to resemble the Hokage tower of Konoha a bit, the Uchiha told himself with a sad smile. He missed his old home…. A home he would never be able to return to as a citizen anymore. He longed to see his old friends… Sakura, Kakashi and the loud and hot tempered blonde…. his Dobe.

The blonde girl in front of him tilted her head as she usually did, when she was worried about him.
“Are you alright Sasuke-sama?!” She looked so much like him, Sasuke thought as he gave the young woman a little smile. The spiky blonde hair, the pretty blue eyes and her almost golden brown skin

He had all he could ever wish for, except, what he wanted the most…. Sasuke signed deeply as he remembered a soul warming smile and azure blue-eyes that shimmered with the light of happiness.

Sasuke had always hated to live in the underground tunnels and had his ninjas to start building a great city in the deepest part of the forest near the border to the fire country.

The constructions were proceeding smoothly and the Sound was a village in progress.
Even though he had only been the leader of the sound in a little more than 13 month now.

He hadn’t been able to get any information about the blonde’s condition.

Was the rumors of his death real?…no he wouldn’t believe it…he somehow knew, deep down inside, that his favorite Dobe was still alive somewhere…he had to be.

“Is he with them Kira-san?” he firmly asked the young woman.

“Not as far as I can tell my Lord,… I didn’t see anyone that would match your description of him at all…. but there is a blonde woman… she’s from The Sand though!”

“…. Ok… thank you…I’ll be right there.” Sasuke wondered why they wouldn’t bring him along as requested, this was an important treaty that would benefit all the involved parties.

“The Dobe is probably to busy with a mission or he simply refuses to see me.” He signed and put on the official robes.

All Sasuke really wanted, was to see the blonde smile at him and feel his strong arms around him… embracing him. He felt his body react at the images of the fox boy in his mind making his pale cheeks blush.

“Remember the diplomatic training and everything will go smoothly!” he reminded himself, regaining his self-control before leaving his living quarters.

He had put himself through a lot of personality training to be able to, at least to sound a bit friendlier towards guest of the hidden city of The Sound as it would be expected from a leader.

He didn’t feel like being forthcoming, because he just wasn’t a very social type who actually liked his solitude…. and if he finally wanted some company… Sasuke only wished to be around a selected few individuals… like Kira or the blonde. All he really wanted right now was to run out and search for him…but it was too important to get that treaty signed…so the reunion had to wait for later.

He drew in a deep breath. This wasn’t the time to think of the past, he had to secure the safety of his village and the best way to do that was to sign a peace treaty with the other 4 hidden shinobi villages.