Naruto couldn't help the smile that grew on his face when he appeared in his living room, only to spot Anko curled up on the couch. He hadn't expected her to stay up for him, and usually when he found her like this there were a lot more empty bottles of sake strewn around. He tested his side again and only felt a minor twinge, so he felt safe enough to gently pick her up and started carrying her upstairs. She hated it when he flashed around the house with her; said it made her nauseous. It seemed his efforts were for naught though as she gently stirred while he was climbing the stairs.
"Hey you," she mumbled, shifting to get more comfortable. "You were gone for a while."
"I came back though."
Anko just smiled sleepily, lifting her head as best she could for a kiss; Naruto met her halfway.
"You always do."
"There was just something I needed to do."
He almost laughed at her sleepy attempt to look quizzical. "You get it done?"
"I hope so."
"Good." She nodded like a child who had been told the monsters had been cleared from the closet. "Dun' like it when your gone."
Naruto could only sigh at that, still smiling. "Me neither."
"Can you believe we're going to be parents?" She suddenly said as he moved into their room. "Me 'n' you?"
"Believe it?" He asked with a chuckle. "No way." He quickly leaned down before she could reply. "Ecstatic about it?" He stole a quick kiss, leaving Anko pouting when he pulled away. "Absolutely."
She smiled at that, mewling adorably when he set her down on the bed. She immediately grabbed his arm and dragged him down with her before he could move away. "I love you."
It was Naruto's turn to smile as she kissed him, still looking barely awake.
He realised something, lying there with Anko at his side, her purple hair messily falling over her face and just the faintest hints of drool at the corner of her lip. It something he'd thought a thousand – a hundred thousand times before, and every time he'd meant it, honestly. But just then, in the weak moonlight streaking through the blinds, with him covered in bruises, and her an overly large tee-shirt, that he'd never thought it quite like this.
"Marry me."
Anko just chuckled in that sleepy way. "Sure."
Naruto's smile grew; she wasn't taking him seriously. "No really, marry me."
She languidly shifted her neck, bringing her face level with his, but something about the way he was looking at her must have alerted her as she was suddenly very much awake. "You're serious."
"Never more so in my life." And even he was surprised by just how much he meant that. "I did a lot today, but all of it just reminded me that life is short; for shinobi, shorter. I love you. I could never imagine myself not loving you." He smiled, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her until they were flush, this close he could only see her eyes, the eyes that always reminded him of chocolate from the first day he met her. "So, marry me."
"This isn't because..." He saw her eyes glance down to her stomach.
"No, this…" he lightly tickled her belly, making her squirm in his grip "…was because I love you. And this…" He lifted her chin until they were eye to eye again, capturing her lips and prolonging the kiss until they were forced to come up for air "…is because I love you." This time he just wrapped his arms around her, letting her nestle her head into the crook of his arm. "I'm asking you to marry me, because I want to marry you. I don't need another reason."
He heard a faint sniff and when he looked down Anko was doing an admirable job of not letting herself cry, smirking playfully up at him. "Yeah, then where's my ring?"
The redhead looked up thoughtfully for a moment before grinning, reaching down and gripping her hand lightly, thumb and index finger over her ring finger. Anko felt a tingle and watched as a small, thin hiraishin shiki wrapped around the base of her finger.
"I'm sure I can come up with something better, but until then how's-"
He never got the chance to finish as Anko stopped admiring her new accessory and quickly turned to capture his lips. When she finally released him, he noticed and all-too familiar gleam enter her eye.
"You woke me up."
"Well, I'm sure there's something I can do to make it up to you."
"Oh, I have some ideas."
However, when she suddenly reversed their positions, straddling him with the hungry glint only growing stronger, Naruto winced. The pain in his side suddenly flared up; Sakura was good, but she wasn't a miracle worker. Anko immediately noticed his discomfort, and its source. A frown swiftly replaced her smirk.
"But first, maybe you want to tell me what exactly you've been doing?"
The redhead could only grin sheepishly.
"Funny story that."
"So, let me get this straight," Kakashi drawled, spread out over one of the couches to the side of the Hokage's office, "you managed to fight a Kage, winning mind you; end a potential war before it really picks up; got engaged to your long-time girlfriend, after finding out she's pregnant; and you get thrown in the doghouse… all in the same day?"
Naruto wasn't sure why he was allowing Kakashi to mock him like this, aside for some residual respect for him as an ANBU captain; that particular well was very quickly drying up.
"Same evening actually," he replied, as thought they were talking about an old mission instead of the day before.
Kakashi whistled a long note. "Damn, you really do work fast, don't you?"
Naruto gave the man a level stare. "Don't you have, I don't know… missions, or training or something?"
Kakashi put his hands up in mock-surrender, the eye-smile giving away his insincerity. "Well, I mean, if you really insist Hokage-sama."
Naruto bit back a groan; people had been jibing him like that all day. "Don't call me that, it's not official yet."
"As good as I'm afraid my boy," Hiruzen said as he walked into the room, "word of your actions yesterday have spread remarkably fast." His eyes crinkled with mirth. "I believe the Hyuuga are actually rather upset with you for ending the war before too much Kumo blood could be spilt." He glanced around the room quickly, noting the singular Naruto behind what was increasingly the Namikaze's desk, instead of his own. "No shadow clones today?"
"What's the point?" The redhead lamented. "It's not like I have anywhere to be in a hurry, Anko will hold this grudge for a few days yet, so I might as well give all of this…" He motioned somewhat morosely to the stacks of documents lining every inch of the desk "…my full attention."
Hiruzen merely smiled as he sank into a particularly plush chair to the other side of the office from Kakashi. "Spoken like a true Kage."
At that point, Naruto had simply had enough and allowed his head to fall forward, smacking into the desk with a rather satisfying thump. "Not you too," he mumbled from somewhere between a C-rank mission report, and a stack of requisition forms.
"Comes with the territory my boy." The elder Hokage jibed without a hint of remorse, nursing his pipe with a malicious grin.
Naruto sighed as he sat back up, pulling a sheet of paper from where it had stuck to his forehead. He gave it a quick glance and frowned, it would likely belong in a pile that was beginning to grow worryingly large. Many reports from the Grass region that spoke of unusual movements from the Iwa side of things. As they trickled in from border scouts in the area they were painting an increasingly depressing picture.
Iwa was mobilising.
"What do you make of these?" Naruto asked, passing one of the more worrying reports, of an incursion by Iwa scouts into Hi no Kuni itself, over to the older man.
Hiruzen barely had to give it a cursory glance before exhaling a large cloud of smoke, his features quickly losing their amused edge. "I suspected something like this, although I maintained hope that Oonoki would live up to his title and be a bit more cautious." He stood up and placed the report back in its appropriate pile, choosing instead to stand by the window; one of his preferred vantage points to look out over what, for the longest time, he had considered his village. "I think that as my old rival grows older, younger, more energetic voices begin to hold sway in Iwa."
He took another puff of his pipe, the brief pause allowing him to collect his thoughts. "The grudges from the old wars run deep, many having lost fathers, mothers, husbands and wives. They've smelt the blood in the water and, while I hoped Kumogakure's withdrawal back to their borders would stem any rash actions from our northern cousins, it seems opportunism has won out." Another pause. "I'm afraid if Oonoki has been swayed to another invasion, it will take a little more than a duel to push back thatparticular tide."
Naruto winced at the subtle jab at his own rash actions before sobering as he examined another report; Iwa weren't even trying to hide their intentions, banking on Konoha's northern border still being stretched thin from the joint assault from their smaller neighbours. With Grass locked in skirmishing actions in the northern towns it would be all too easy for Iwa to sweep in, en-mass, and bypass the old killing-grounds of the Ame region. To redraw their forces against such an assault would leave them open to a counter attack from Orochimaru, and even though Taki had essentially backed off since the capture of their Jinchuuriki, they couldn't exactly trust their disloyal former allies to play nice in the meantime.
Konoha was running short on men, and even shorter on a far more precious resource: friends.
After the invasion trust with Suna was thin at best; the smaller villages had made their opinions of Konoha all-too clear; Kumo was now in a tentative position Naruto wouldn't dare begin to rock, and Kiri… well, despite their re-emergence into the world since their bloody civil war, nobody really knew what Kiri's intentions were. For all Naruto knew they would be the next to try and take a bite out of Fire country.
"You have some time yet to think on this Naruto," Hiruzen reminded him, "Oonoki is slow to make decisions and if he has decided on invading it will take him time to organise; he knows he only has one avenue to invade through since Ame closed its borders and there's little love lost between Iwa and Grass."
"That's if Grass doesn't turn around and reinforce Iwa's invasion." Naruto argued.
He was surprised at the ferocity in Hiruzen's eyes when the older man turned. "Then we make them pay for it tenfold." He walked over to the map table Naruto had meticulously restored, with a few improvements of his own – it was now a great deal easier to quickly update as information changed. "Iwa is not the most fertile country, relying a great deal on food imports from the Land of stone, fangs, birds and valleys to the south." He ran a ringer along the line of smaller countries that formed a wedge between Kaze no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni.
"In any prolonged war Iwa knows we'll cut that supply off by any means necessary. The village itself can survive, but only by taxing food from surrounding towns; eventually the Daimyo of Earth will intervene and veto their war the moment it becomes too costly for the country." He shook his head. "No, Oonoki knows a protracted war with Konoha, when we are more than capable of feeding ourselves as long as necessary, would be ill-advised." Another puff from the pipe. "He will put everything into his initial offensive and try to cut as large a section of our land out as he can, likely hoping to use that to grow food for any further actions he takes in the war."
He outlined the rough area that was currently a hotbed of guerrilla warfare with Grass shinobi. "We rebuff that first offensive and Oonoki will be forced to back off."
Naruto frowned, Konoha was already weakened and Iwa would have the advantage of first-move. "That will be costly."
Hiruzen nodded sadly. "As all wars ultimately are."
Naruto walked around and scrutinised the map. "There must be another way, maybe a counter-offensive that relies on some advantage we have in the territory, or a pre-emptive strike."
"I wouldn't worry yourself over it too much today my boy; I'm still around to pick up the slack, for now," Hiruzen consoled, scrutinising the map himself, mind going through similar loops as his young successor. "As I understand it we may be very busy in the coming months; I would take the opportunity to enjoy the relative peace while we still can."
Naruto nodded idly, not sure how he could possibly slack off now of all times. "I'll try." He didn't sound all that committed to it.
Hiruzen sighed, knowing what the younger man was thinking; he had been in the same position many times before. He glanced up, noting that Kakashi had left early into the conversation; talk about war with Iwa must have been uncomfortable considering what he lost in their last conflict. He patted the redhead on the shoulder before moving over to a stack of reports; there was a time to allow Naruto to learn the ins and outs of the position, and there was a time to provide everything he could to help, as was a Konoha shinobi's duty.
"We'll think of something, Godaime-dono." He was glad to see the small, bemused smile that briefly lifted the redhead's lips.
He wasn't sure why his feet pulled him in the direction of the Uchiha compound that night as he made his way home. A part of him knew it was probably just procrastination, to put off dealing with a grouchy, vindictive Anko – although coming back late probably wouldn't help the situation. A different part of him supposed it was habit. He often used to come here, in better days, before Shisui died, before Itachi…
Back then it was a comforting place, where he could work off frustration with a good spar, where he could talk through his problems where he knew a receptive ear was waiting. He didn't share everything with Anko back then; some things just had to stay between guys. Nowadays; well, he couldn't quite recall the last time he had been here.
The old sturdy gate was just how he remembered it, although the fact that he could just push it open was different. It used to take knocking very loud just to get a passing Uchiha on the other side to come open it up. Inside the compound was disconcerting, so empty compared to his memories of a bustling little community with kids, and shops and packs of mothers gossiping about their children's stories from the academy.
Despite how long it had been his feet knew the way easily and he was outside of the Uchiha clan-heads house before he really knew what he was doing, giving the door a soft rap. A small, rebellious part of his mind hoped nobody answered, but eventually the door slid open. He hadn't even heard footsteps on the other side; even decades of retirement couldn't take away such ingrained skills.
"Uh, hey." He cursed himself internally at the rather lame greeting, but rewarded all the same by a soft, if slightly surprised smile from Mikoto.
"Oh, Naruto-kun, what an unexpected pleasure."
The redhead nearly winced; he knew the woman was only being sincere – he had known her long enough to know she barely had an unkind bone in her body, and it was no wonder she hadn't found the shinobi lifestyle to her liking – but it still felt like a stab to the chest to be reminded how much he had been avoiding this exact meeting.
"Yeah, I'm… I'm sorry for not coming around before." Or anywhere nearly as much as he owed her, the rebellious voice piped in. "I suppose…" He paused right there before he could make a mistake, "No, I really don't have an excuse… I guess I've kind of been avoiding this."
Mikoto just smiled sadly, glancing back into the house. "We all deal with tragedies in our own ways." She brightened up slightly as she stepped aside, motioning for him to come in. "What's important is you're here; I assume you came for Sasuke? He's in his room." She bit her lip as they walked further into the house; it was furnished differently than Naruto remembered. He supposed neither of them wanted too many reminders of what happened. "Sasuke's been rather upset since coming back from his last mission; I get the feeling he's beating himself up over what happened."
Naruto had read the report and was more inclined to blame the Hyuuga heir if he was honest with himself; although he knew that was just protectiveness over his students. Nobody was really 'to blame' over what happened and he knew Sasuke had done the best he could, given the situation.
"I'll talk to him."
Mikoto smiled fondly. "I remember you saying the same thing when Itachi…" She trailed off, glancing at a nearby photo of the four of them, Sasuke, Itachi, Mikoto and Fugaku. She bit her lip again and took a deep breath. "You were always such a good friend to him and… I wanted to thank you."
"You don't have to thank me for that, Itachi was just as much a friend to me as I was to him… for as long as it lasted." He was beginning to grow uncomfortable with the old emotions being dredged up here.
"No, not for that; I could see how happy the three of you and that girl, Anko, were together." She smiled fondly. "I heard you two are engaged now, congratulations."
Naruto returned the smile. "News really does travel fast in this village."
"Yes well, shinobi go on missions and wives gossip, it's the way of things." There was some humour in her voice as she said it, he was glad for that at least. "But no, I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for Sasuke." Naruto grew a little confused at that; he really didn't think he'd done anything more than any sensei would for their student, but Mikoto quickly explained. "We were both in a very dark place after the… incident. I… I tried my best to be there for him, but I was grieving myself for the longest time. When I finally felt ready to be a mother again, to be the support he needed… in a way it was too late. He had already started walking a dark road."
She ripped her gaze away from the picture but her eyes were no less sad. "I thought I might have lost both my sons that night, and no matter how hard I tried to be there for him – maybe I let him get away with too much, maybe I wasn't strict enough with him, I don't know – he just kept pushing me further away." She managed a small smile as she looked up at the redhead. "Until you."
"I don't-"
Mikoto held up a hand to cut him off. "It must have been… oh, a month or so after he joined your team, after that mission to Nami. He came back in, sat down at the table and for the first time in so long he began to talk to me about his day." She smiled fondly. "He couldn't stop talking about how exciting the mission had been, at how surprised with his teammates he was, and how far he had to go to catch up with his sensei… not because he wanted to kill his brother, but because he'd found someone genuinely strong to look up to."
She looked around and Naruto was surprised to find tears percolating at the edge of her eyes. "In some ways I got my son back that day and… I don't know if it was you, or his teammates, or maybe he just needed time; but I wanted to thank you all the same." She continued to surprise him by moving forward and briefly wrapping her arms around the stunned teen; and, just for a moment, Naruto nearly felt tears of his own gather as, despite how much time passed, despite the difference in height between them… he couldn't help but be reminded of how his mother used to hold him.
He was almost a little sorry when she finally stepped back, although he'd managed to get his expression back under control before she could see, wearing a wide but genuine smile. "Always happy to help."
Mikoto nodded, patting him gently on the cheek. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"
"Well, I like to think I've gotten more handsome," he shot back cheekily, happy to elicit a small laugh from the older woman.
"Well, I can't deny you inherited your father's looks." Mikoto admitted with a roll of her eyes; the moment was interrupted though by a soft padding of feet down the stairs.
"Sensei? What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, understandably confused considering Naruto hadn't so much as stepped foot within the Uchiha compound since their team had formed.
"I'll just leave you too it then," Mikoto said. "I'll make some tea, if you're staying?" She looked to Naruto, only for the redhead to shake his head.
"Not for long most likely, this was sort of spur of the moment and I still need to get back to Anko."
Mikoto nodded understandingly and shut the door behind her, leaving Sasuke standing there uncertainly on the stairs.
"Sensei, if this is about Ami…"
Naruto quickly put a hand up, cutting him off. "Actually, no." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I understand you did everything you could, those Kumo-nin were more experienced, you were outclassed and outnumbered and-"
"But I shouldn't have been!" Sasuke cut in heatedly, shaking his head a moment later. "We shouldn't have been. I should never have let Hinata run off like that, I should have retreated the moment we knew something was off, I should never have let Ami…" He trailed off, fist clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. He nearly jumped when Naruto put a hand on his shoulder.
"Sasuke, you can't beat yourself up over this. Being in a position of command… things can't always go the way you plan and sometimes, no matter how much we might hate it, or wish that it went differently… things go wrong."
"They wouldn't have, if it was you there instead of me." Sasuke muttered darkly. Naruto had to bite back a wince; Sasuke didn't know quite how deeply that stung, even if it was supposed to be praise. "I'm still not strong enough, not for Itachi, and not for Ami…"
Naruto just squeezed his shoulder. "Like I said, you can't think like that." He smiled, although it was a little forced. "Besides, it's not like we've given up on Ami, she's strong, you and I know that best." He was surprised to see Sasuke smile slightly.
"She… she really surprised me you know. All through the academy she was always dead last in everything, just another one of those useless, fawning girls I didn't expect to make it past the first year. But she clung on, even making it to my team. I thought she'd be a dead weight there to, and it irritated me when you said you would treat us all equally. The idea that you could bring her up to my level… to any kind of level. But then she grew so quickly, catching up to me so fast that I actually felt threatened… threatened by the dead last."
The dark-haired teen sighed, looking up at his old teacher with searching eyes. "How did you do that? How did you see that potential?"
Naruto chuckled slightly motioning for the Uchiha to follow him as they made their way outside. "You say that as if I have some special gift or something. There's potential in everyone Sasuke, things that some people are better at than others. Can you honestly say you could ever be as good a medic as Sakura?" Sasuke shrugged, there was a lot of memorisation involved with medical jutsu, but at the same time a situational creativity that was so uniquely… Sakura.
"So, what… it's just about seeing the best in everyone?" This time it was Naruto's turn to shrug. Sasuke's gaze quickly turned dark. "What if it isn't there?" His expression lost his intensity when Naruto tripped him slightly, sighing tiredly.
"I didn't come here to discuss your brother Sasuke, you know that line of thought leads nowhere."
That seemed to remind Sasuke of what he'd said before. "What did you come here for? I thought… I thought this place had bad memories for you too."
Naruto looked around, spotting a vacant shop that he remembered as one of Shisui's favourites because the owner would sometimes sell him fireworks on the sly. "There's a lot of good memories here too, but I'm not here to talk about the past, or even dwell on it." He chuckled, still uncertain of what he was about to ask. "Quite the opposite actually." They had reached the gates of the compound so Naruto turned, biting his lip slightly.
"I… don't have a lot of guy friends. I mean, Kakashi was my captain and Tenzo's my subordinate… and I don't really know Azuma, or Genma and them… kinda missed that chance in ANBU."
"Sensei, you're rambling," Sasuke deadpanned.
"Right." He chuckled sheepishly. "Well… I don't know if you heard, but I asked Anko to marry me and… well, it's funny." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as Sasuke nodded. "I always kind of imagined Shisui and Itachi would be there for me when the day finally came and… well, obviously…" he slumped over, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Kami I'm bad at this."
"Are you asking me to… be your best man?" Sasuke asked, eyes-wide in genuine astonishment.
"Well, yeah. I mean, not that you're some replacement for your brother or anything, I don't mean that at all and… I'll just shut up now," he finished as he saw Sasuke's eyes narrow slightly.
"Why me?"
At that Naruto found he could finally smile genuinely. "Because you're my precious student, and I want you to be there for me." He could see Sasuke was confused by the offer and waved a hand absently. "Just ah, think on it maybe?"
He was about to turn and leave when an ANBU dropped into the compound, usually frowned upon by clans unless the news was urgent. "Taichou, news from the hospital."
The redhead just glanced at the operative, finding him vaguely familiar; one of the newer recruits towards the end of his tenure. "Go on."
"It's your student sir… she's back."
At that all thoughts of weddings and questions fled from both Naruto and Sasuke's minds as the redhead gave a quick glance at the Uchiha, nodded, placed his hand on the younger teen shoulder and teleported them both in a flash.
It was a few hours before Sakura cleared Ami as well enough to be debriefed in the presence of her team, her sister, and the Sandaime. The girl had been confused when she came through the gates, sprinting back to Konoha from wherever she had been, like a woman on a mission. She couldn't even tell anyone why, just that she'd had an overwhelming urge to get back to Konoha as fast as possible, to Sakura's chagrin. The girl had managed to loosen her carefully wrapped bandages in her haste and Sakura was keeping her in the hospital until she was sure she hadn't worsened any internal injuries.
She was equally vague about just how she'd gotten away from the Kumo shinobi. She recounted everything right up to the moment she jumped from the cliff, a moment that had everyone from her team wanting to simultaneously throttle and comfort her. But details from after that to the moment she stopped outside the massive reinforced gates of the village were vague and disjointed at best. Even when Sakura pointed out that the bandages she was wrapped in weren't the standard issue given out to chuunin teams, meaning somebody must have cared for her, she had no good answers.
She looked visibly pained when she tried to think about what happened, nearly causing Sakura to ask everyone to leave. Naruto and Hiruzen were the most disturbed as the signs pointed to a powerful genjutsu and external influence. But if this was another village, Kumo being the most likely, why would they simply return Ami to Konoha? Was it the deal with the Raikage? But then why the Genjutsu? Hiruzen thanked the girl for the report and left with a troubled look, and after it became clear Ami wasn't in much condition to hold a conversation Sasuke followed him.
However, he surprised everyone when he paused in front of Ami's bed, reaching down awkwardly for a stiff, stilted hug before hurrying from the room. Sakura followed him out with a bemused expression, have already made her feelings on Ami's return clear during the time she was treating the girl. Naruto was about to leave too, to let Ami and Yugao talk, when she croaked from the bed.
"I did as you trained me sensei, didn't I?"
He paused, coming back to side on the side of the bed and rest his hand in her hair, ruffling it gently in the way she hated so much. "Yeah, you did, and you did amazingly, more than I could ever have asked."
The girl gave a tired smile, already feeling the effect of the anaesthetic Sakura gave her. There was a commotion from the hallway before Anko, with Haya peeking over her shoulder, came bursting into the room, clearly about to announce herself exuberantly. With both Naruto's and Yugao's hands over her mouth it came out more as a muffled jumble. The spectacle still managed to draw a chuckle from the girl though, especially when Haya jumped from Anko's back to land on the side of her bed, looking down at her with big watery eyes.
"Is Ami neechan okay?"
Ami was clearly struggling to stay awake at this point, but managed to smile brilliantly for the younger girl. "Nothing some rest can't fix." She motioned with her arms and Haya took the cue, crawling up next to the violette as Ami drifted off to sleep, huddled in tight.
"Strong kid," Anko remarked, unable to do anything but smile at the adorable scene.
"That she is," Naruto agreed, hiding his concerns for now.
"She'll be just fine," Yugao finished as all three adults shared a look, before settling down in a comfy spot to watch over the two young girls; it would be a long night.