Nindō 0009: Talking over Sake

Once they were done with dinner, Sakura sent Sarada to bed, which the girl reluctantly agreed to, not wanting to leave a bad impression on her future sensei. She seemed to have already decided that she was going to become a chunin and with the promotion become Naruto's apprentice.

"What's going on, Naruto?" Sakura asked as Naruto leaned back on the couch in the living room after having eaten his fill. She sat demurely on the couch beside him while giving him an imploring look. "I thought that you were going to wait for a couple more years before grooming someone to take your position."

"Circumstances changed, Sakura-chan," Naruto said as Sakura saw an unfamiliar sharpness in his eyes, one that made her feel a sense of apprehension. "With those circumstances, my plans have also changed." She wasn't sure what to say when Naruto asked her, "Do you have any hard alcohol? Some sake, or whiskey maybe?"

Sakura understood what kind of talk was coming and nodded before standing up, "I still have a bottle from the set that the Land of Water's daimyo sent when I cured his cousin." Bringing two cups alongside a bottle, Sakura sat back down in her previous spot. She poured some for both Naruto and herself. Just as he was about to grab his cup, she grabbed his arm, "Talk, what's going on? And first off, tell me, is this a clone or the real you? Because if this is the real you, then you and I are going to have a problem." She raised her fist threateningly.

Sakura's threat worked wonders in reminding Naruto of how hot-headed this pink-haired kunoichi was, "You don't need to worry. The real me is at home, spending time with his family, leaving all of the stressful and dirty work to us shadow clones."

"Hm," Sakura nodded, freeing his arm and letting him grab the cup, "That's good. So, what's the deal? What changed? What plans?"

"Sasuke is coming back," Naruto said. "And he's bringing some pretty bad news."

Sakura didn't respond for a few seconds, "Dickhead," She cursed, "couldn't even tell me that he's coming back."

Naruto decided not to meddle in their marital spat and continued, "I'll tell you what kind of bad news once the situation is clearer, but I need to fix the administration system of the village if I'm to go about any of that."

"You're going after the civilian council," Sakura didn't need any more information to come up with a conclusion.

"Exactly. It's high time that the Hokage's position gained power beyond just public prestige," Naruto said, finishing his second cup and pouring a third for himself. "Do you know, Sakura-chan … I had a whole plan when I became the Hokage. I wanted to develop the shinobi culture in the village. Expand the academy. Strengthen Konoha as a whole to become an unshakable village. But all that's been executed are the plans that were put forward by the civilian council. Why? All because most of the elders of the shinobi side are apprehensive about giving me too much influence and power. Cars, trains, fucking ninja technology, and shit."

"Slow down, Naruto …" Sakura said after Naruto poured himself his fifth glass.

"It's fine, Sakura-chan," He smiled a weak smile at her. "My tolerance is pretty high. I never got to keep my promise with Nagato." He abruptly changed the topic as his eyes got filled with a look of self-loathing, "Amegakure is still an unmanaged slum of a hidden village with warlords and profiteers taking advantage of the entire village and its people. Every single proposal relating to Ame that I've put forward in the past two years has been rejected by the elders. Even when I try to play my part in Konoha's own development, they use flowery words and promises to show their support on the surface and then nothing. No budgets, no movements, no nothing."

Sakura hadn't even finished her first cup of sake and Naruto was already on the seventh. She could notice some light slurring in his speech and felt concerned about him. Still, she didn't stop him, letting him vent his frustrations.

"I'm the strongest fucking shinobi in the world bar Sasuke and these elders think that they can control me using politics and the village," A dark look passed through Naruto's expression. "Well, I'll show them control. My first target will be the civilian council. They should've never received any say over shinobi matters. Kakashi sensei should've learned when they leaked the location of the village after the fourth war."

"What are you saying?" Sakura frowned. "Our village's location was found leaked by one of the other villages, which caused the first few tumultuous years right after the war, creating tensions between the villages."

"That's the story that the elders convinced Kakashi sensei to spit out," Naruto growled. "Those old fools almost destroyed the relations between the five villages the moment they were formed and for what? For a paltry sum of money from the daimyo's relatives. Money that they told Kakashi-sensei would go to Konoha's development. I've seen the accounts, Sakura-chan. Not a single ryo came out of those elders' pockets."

"Should - should you be telling me this?" Sakura asked, unsure if she should be privy to this kind of inside information.

"It's fine," Naruto said as a light, almost silly smile made its way onto his face. "I've already talked to my Hinata about my frustration with the village's administration. She's just the best, isn't she? She patiently listened to everything I had to say and even did her best to satisfy me that night. It was one of the few times I've been able to get her to kneel —"

"Not another word Naruto, or I'm going to bash your face in," Sakura threatened. "I don't want to hear about your marital sex life."

"Ah, yeah," Naruto made an understanding expression, "sorry."

"What the fuck do you mean by sorry?" Sakura got defensive, "I'm very satisfied with my life."

"I didn't say anything," Naruto's speech had a light slurry as he gulped his tenth cup. Deciding to change the subject, Naruto spoke further, "So, about Sarada …"

"Yes," Sakura said, "what exactly do you plan with her?"

"A lot of things," Naruto said. "For one, she desperately needs some specialized training. I've seen her mission reports and old academy results. She would flourish as long as someone takes the time to guide her in the shinobi way. Konohamaru is just stumbling along with being a teacher without giving her the specialized guidance that she needs. Consider it my way of repaying Sasuke for everything he's done for the village."

"Okay," Sakura nodded, "so you appreciate her talent. I can understand that. But there's more, isn't there? You wouldn't have vented all your frustrations about your position to me overwise."

"Yes," Naruto nodded, "I do. Regardless, without Boruto running for Hokage, Sarada is the only viable candidate. The others from their generation are not fit for the role. So, I've decided to expose her to the position early on so that she doesn't end up making the same mistakes as myself."

"Aren't you fixing those political problems?" Sakura asked, "I don't think she will need to deal with as much stuff as you."

"It's never that simple, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, shaking his head. "Especially when it comes to the Hokage position. If Kakashi-sensei or Granny Tsunade had taught me the actual process of being Hokage, I wouldn't have wasted all these years fumbling around." He suddenly shook his head again after finishing the eleventh cup. He put both hands in his hair and pulled them backward before letting out an audible breath. "Enough complaining about my predecessors. What I want you to know is that I don't want Sarada to be stuck in the same quagmire that I got stuck in when I first became Hokage. And who knows, if she gets good enough in a few years, we might have the youngest Hokage in the history of the village."

Sakura didn't know what to make of Naruto's words but understood that his offer was for Sadada's own good. Not only would her daughter get to study under her idol, but that idol was also the strongest person in Konoha. "You have my permission as Sarada's mother, Naruto. You can train her and groom her to take over your position once she's ready." Sakura said, seeing nothing but benefits for her daughter.

"Thanks," Naruto nodded after finishing his twelfth cup and resting it on the table, "I should get going. There's still some paperwork left at the office. I should finish it before I get dispelled when the main sleeps. He'll nag at me if I don't finish my work."

"Guess I should count myself lucky that I got one of your more emotional clones, huh, Naruto?" Sakura said. "The real you would be all defensive about your frustrations and never would've given me the real picture behind the situation that my daughter is about to become a part of."

Naruto smiled at her, "You should know," He said, "whether it's a clone or the original, I won't let her come to harm."

"Of course, I know," Sakura nodded. "Even if you'd have dodged the situation and given me a simple brief, I would've agreed nonetheless."

"Okay," Naruto nodded and stood up, "time to get going." As Sakura stood up with him, he extended his arm and gave her a longer-than-usual hug before stepping back, "Good night Sakura-chan."

"Try not to overwork yourself to death," She joked, "what if you go poof in the middle of signing a document."

"That's for the original to deal with," Naruto smiled cheekily before leaving.

Outside Sakura's home, the slightly goofy, drunk expression that Naruto had on his face disappeared completely, normalizing into an almost flat expression as if the alcohol had no effect on him in the first place.

'Well, my work here is done,' The clone thought to himself before making a hand sigh. With a poof, he disappeared from the empty street, his memories transferring to the original body that was in his home.

***

Some constructive criticism would be helpful. Please let me know if I made any mistakes, and I'll fix them. I'm only human, I make mistakes.

If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.

www.patrèon.com/addyctive

(Replace the è with e)