What it takes to be Hokage

Chapter 1

Prologue

"Madara . . . what have you done?" Naruto whispered to himself, knees going weak as he realised just what was happening. "What happened to our dream? What happened to everything we were working towards? Hashirama, me and you. We worked so hard only for you to go and do this? Why?"

"Naruto-kun?" Minato asked, his tone conveying his concern. "Do you know what this is?"

Naruto schooled his features. Yes, he knew exactly what it was because he, roughly sixty years ago, had been the one to put it there. Instead of saying so, he turned to his Otou-san, a man that shouldn't be alive just as Naruto shouldn't be there at all, and replied, "No. I don't but whatever it was, someone didn't want it getting out, and probably for a very good reason."

A very, very good reason. After all, a tailed beast was nothing to laugh at.

Chapter 1

Naruto grumbled under his breath as he walked out of the Hokage's office. Well, what was left of the Hokage's office . . . Which wasn't actually anything at all.

Letting go of the tent flap Naruto glared at the semi-self-appointed Sixth Hokage. How he hated this man. This, this . . . Danzo.

Who the hell did he think he was?! Making Sasuke a missing nin. Well he'd just have to be acquainted with Uzumaki Naruto that was for sure. But for now, Naruto would just have to retreat and strike later, when he had a better opportunity. Something about this Danzo made him want to shiver with distaste. He was a creep, that was for sure, and not the friendly kind like ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei. And he had the nerve to threaten Naruto. Naruto would never become his weapon. Never!

He was also arrogant. He'd placed his stupid tent exactly where the Hokage's tower should have been, with his stupid ROOT guarding it from all sides. Well on second thought, Naruto just might have done that too.

Grumbling more to himself, Naruto kicked a rock, sending it tumbling over the ground before smacking into the pile of rubble that was supposed to be the Hokage tower and causing a small rubble avalanche to crash to the ground. Since the ROOT members were wearing masks, Naruto couldn't be certain, but he was pretty damn sure that they were glaring at him.

Weren't those morons supposed to be emotionless? Who the hell even cares?!

Naruto sighed heavily as he walked over to the rubble he'd caused to fall over. All of his anger dissipated at the sight of the rubble. It was such a heart wrenching sight, his home lying in nothing but piles of rubble. If only he'd gotten here moments before. He might have been able to do something, anything really.

The blond sighed as he stared at the mess that was his village. So much work stood before him but like his Otou-san had said, the village could always be rebuilt; it was the people that made the village what it was.

Naruto blinked at the wooden cylinder he spotted poking out from under a particularly large piece of rubble. That was odd. Glancing behind him at the ROOT members, Naruto conceded that they were ignoring him and proceeded to carefully pull the cylinder out.

It looked like it was the same size as a normal scroll and a little banged up, but that was to be expected considering where he found it. Glancing at the ROOT again, Naruto decided not to chance it and tucked it away in his pocket, the same one that held the tiny shattered shards of the First Hokage's necklace. The shards that he'd painstakingly searched for and gathered. It actually helped that he'd been fighting Pein at the time, and had been standing still when it had shattered. It meant that the shards were all in the same sort of area. Sort of.

However, the moment the wooden cylinder touched the blue crystal Naruto blacked out, not even entirely sure why his head was hitting the floor in the first place.