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For all his bluster and strength, Darui wasn’t the kind of man to slam a door, especially when he was in a good mood. He closed it behind him with a quiet click, following Gaara and Mei down to the dining room. That left Naruto and Kurotsuchi as the only two Kage in the chamber.
“I’m telling you, it’s not that simple,” Kurotsuchi told Naruto. “Trade concessions are one thing, but I need something I can use to keep the populace on board. You know how important symbolic victories are, and relations between our villages have always been rocky.”
Naruto tried not to laugh – he was sure the pun was accidental, and it wouldn’t do for Kurotsuchi to think he was amused by her problems – and wracked his brains for a solution. The treaty was essentially complete, and every other Kage had agreed to sign, but a few irregularities along the Konoha-Iwa border were taking up the bulk of the summit’s time. Calling what he and Kurotsuchi were up to ‘diplomacy’ would be overly polite; it was more akin to haggling over fish at a market, and he was getting by far the worst of it.
“We’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t have any reasonable ideas for what would count as a symbolic victory,” he pointed out, sighing. “So far you’ve asked a lot of questions but not suggested anything.”
Kurotsuchi stretched now that they were alone, then settled back into her chair. Naruto had the gloomy feeling that she was ready to stay all night. If she thought she would outlast him, though, she was about to be unpleasantly surprised.
After a moment’s thought she shrugged. “Border concessions. Either Konoha stops patrolling within a mile of the border, or it hands over a few square miles of empty land.”
“That might give you a symbolic victory but at that point I’ll struggle to justify it back home. It’s very much a symbolic loss for me.” Neither of them pretended there was any real military risk. The last ten years had been the beginning of the aptly-named ‘Age of Peace’, and border patrols had turned from a critical part of national security into an expensive vanity project.
Naruto glanced out the window at the setting sun. He’d been stuck in meetings all day, and the various delegations were due to leave tomorrow, so this last sticking point was a race against the clock. There was a farewell meal tonight but by the looks of things he was going to miss it, which was a shame.
“I don’t suppose there’s anyone waiting for you?” he asked, hoping against hope that the Tsuchikage had family or a partner that would be expecting her. She shook her head and he resigned himself to another long, dull evening doing the legwork that kept Konohagakure running.
Kurotsuchi ran her fingers through her short black hair, clearly almost as frustrated as Naruto was. “You’re also not here with anyone, I suppose?”
Naruto snorted. “Not unless Gaara counts. The downside of all my friends being strong ninja is that they can’t often be spared for things like this. And I won’t settle down with a partner until I can make her my number one priority. Right now that priority is the village,” he indicated the Hokage’s hat set down on the meeting table beside him, “and so I’m all alone.”
The role of Hokage was fundamentally different to that of the Daimyo. Naruto was the leader of a military institution, and as a result he had the kind of authority over the village that most rulers could only dream of. The flipside, of course, was that he was responsible for every aspect of daily life of those under his care. And since all authority flowed from the office of the Hokage, even when he delegated to his subordinates he still needed to approve their initiatives and audit their actions.
“Meetings like this are the only chance we have to talk to people who understand,” Kurotsuchi commiserated.
They shared a sad smile across the table. At the end of the day they weren’t so different, Naruto realised, and with that he hit upon an idea.
“I know how we can finish off this treaty and get to the meal before they serve the dessert,” he told Kurotsuchi, grinning. “It’s a bit tricky but I think you’ll like it.”
“Please enlighten me,” she said, a sparkle in her eyes.
Naruto stood up, grabbed a map of the Konoha-Iwa border out of his bag, and walked around the table to Kurotsuchi’s side. He spread it out in front of her and picked up a brush.
“The border’s really messy here, right? There were a whole bunch of border disputes a century ago and now the boundary between our countries looks like a four-year-old went crazy with a box of crayons.”
Kurotsuchi winced at the phrasing, but she didn’t disagree outright. “Hundreds of soldiers died taking the Elephant’s Pass, and hundreds more in the attempted defence of Red Hill River,” she pointed out. “Land concessions aren’t going to be particularly popular back home, for either of us.”
“Yeah, but nobody lives there now, it’s just got a handful of military bases to keep away outlaws. Let’s just shuffle some of the land around,” Naruto suggested. He grew more confident as he continued. “You get this Leaf outpost on the border and a few square miles around it, and then you can tell everyone how you tricked me into giving up a key military advantage. Meanwhile I go back to the Leaf and tell them we’re no longer having to station troops in the arse end of nowhere because it’s now Stone’s job to keep the area bandit free. If anyone complains I can point out that the new border is more defensible, and we gain access to the Red Hill River below the rapids, which opens up trading opportunities in the long term.”
The flash of interest that passed over Kurotsuchi’s face meant she agreed in principle. After that, the rest was just haggling over where exactly to draw the new border, in some cases down to a shift of a few meters. Naruto was grinning as they both signed the draft agreement and added it to the pile of paper that was the main treaty.
“Shall we try to make it in time for the tail-end of dinner?” Naruto asked once they were done. He was already halfway to the door before Kurotsuchi answered him, and the hesitation in her voice gave him pause.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said, and how we’re both alone here,” she answered slowly. “You’re right, you know – the village has to come first, and it’s not fair for me to have a partner who puts me as a priority when I can’t do the same for him.”
Again, he saw his own emotions mirrored in her eyes. Loneliness, frustration, but also a steady resolve that meant she would never compromise her principles. “If you want to get drunk and complain about our lives, we can do that,” he offered, and found he meant it.
“I actually had something more practical in mind,” she said. “We understand each other, don’t we? And I like to think there’s some mutual respect, since – not to flatter myself too much – we’re both clever people, and pretty strong besides.”
Naruto nodded, not sure where this was going. “That’s true, yeah.”
“And,” Kurotsuchi continued, voice halting, “we’re both young and attractive. At least I find you handsome enough.”
Despite a bit of fumbling around before he became Hokage, Naruto wasn’t all that experienced with the fairer sex. Even so, he could feel the undercurrents in the room, and he liked the way they were going. “You’re gorgeous,” he told the Tsuchikage, meaning it.
“Perhaps we can be a little later to dinner, then,” she said. At some point in the last few minutes she’d loosened her top, he noticed. A sliver of creamy skin was visible between the buttons of her blouse and his fingers itched to undo the garment and explore what was underneath.
Naruto walked over to the door and locked it. “I appear to have lost my appetite,” he said, grinning.
If the Konohagakure and Iwagakure delegations were surprised at the very cordial goodbyes their respective leaders gave the next morning, they were too diplomatically-minded to say anything.
“I mean it, I can’t talk about it,” Naruto said, exasperated. It was no use, though.
Sakura jabbed him in the side – her fingers were freakishly sharp – and asked him again. “What’s her name? Where did you meet her?”
“Leave him alone,” Sasuke interrupted. “Our Hokage has said he can’t talk about it.”
He hunched over opposite Naruto, doing his best to look brooding in the corner of the tea house. Brow furrowed, hands clasped, he threw his head back and launched into a monologue.
“I’m the Hokage and that means, unlike every other Hokage, I can’t meet any nice girls ever. Somehow despite this one of them managed to get me into bed, but now her mere existence is a state secret. When she walks around Konohagakure I have a crack team of genjutsu experts trail her, in order to apply a pixelation illusion to her face. Also I sent one of the ANBU to buy condoms and need to bury the expense report so that there’s no paperwork trail proving I got laid. Woe is me, for my life is full of suffering. If only I were hideous instead of drop-dead gorgeous!”
By the end of it, Sakura was laughing so hard she fell out of her chair. Naruto pouted. “I’m gonna see if that qualifies as treason, you know,” he said. “And if it’s not, well, I’m the Hokage, I can write new laws.”
Between gasps of air, Sakura got out most of a sentence. “If it’s treason maybe that explains why Sasuke’s so good at it.” Naruto laughed as Sasuke pelted Sakura with fragments of biscuit, the Uchiha’s expression somewhere between horrified and amused.
At last the topic of conversation shifted away from the politically dangerous topic of Kurotsuchi’s smooth thighs and– Naruto cut his trail of thought off and took another sip of tea. Anyway, it was good to be home.
Before he could enjoy the relaxed camaraderie any more, though, an ANBU agent slipped him a scroll. He glanced at the inscription and said some quick goodbyes before leaving to deal with the latest problem, laughing guiltily at the cries of ‘Betrayal! Betrayal!’ from Sakura and Sasuke.
Shikamaru had reorganised the patrol routes near the border with Grass to make better use of the available manpower, and one of the results was that there were more Aburame stationed in that sector. The clan head had lodged a formal complaint on the behalf of two of her ninja, who felt unfairly targeted. Naruto shook his head as he made his way into the Hokage Tower, wishing he could still punch his way through his problems.
“It’s good to see you again,” Naruto whispered into his lover’s ear. She shivered and laid a warm hand on his chest, pressing him back and peering up into his face.
The door behind them was closed but not locked, but still she placed a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth. Her wide smile promised more would be coming later. “I hope you’ve been keeping in shape, cause tonight I’m going to–”
The door opened and they adjusted instantly, pulling apart and falling into the stances of a pair of friendly but professional coworkers. “–have that final draft for you by tomorrow morning,” Kurotsuchi seamlessly corrected herself. An aide entered with an updated schedule for minor arbitration matters due to be addressed the next day.
“I’d hate to have to wait for it,” Naruto replied with a tiny waggle of his eyebrows.
The conference was dull but necessary, and god but wasn’t that a perfect summary of the last year? Naruto found he kept stealing glances at Kurotsuchi throughout the proceedings, just like during the summit in Mist, or when he’d led a trade delegation to Stone, or… he caught her eyes and lost his train of thought.
That night, after they were finished with each others’ company, Naruto found himself lingering by her bedside. Her eyes were large and dark in the half-light, and even after he was dressed again he couldn’t quite tear himself away.
“We can’t spend the whole night together,” he said when Kurotsuchi raised a questioning eyebrow. “It would raise too many suspicions.”
“Speaking of suspicions,” she replied, forcing the words out of her mouth, “there are already plenty of curious ninja who suspect something is going on. We’ve been subtle, yes, but hardly discreet. If this came out, we would both face claims that we’re being seduced by our opposite number.”
She was right, Naruto knew. They’d hidden their affair as best they could, but as long as they met up regularly there was always an element of risk. “What do you suggest?” he asked. Deep inside, he already knew the answer.
That didn’t make it hurt less when she told him, though. “We’re going to have to call this off. It’s getting out of hand.”
“Fewer, shorter visits, and not every time we meet,” Naruto agreed. “We’ll start by keeping away from each other for the rest of the week.”
Kurotsuchi turned her face away. “That’s not what I meant. This,” she gestured between them, “it has to end. I don’t want to talk about the whys, or have a big scene, or make it more painful than it has to be. This was purely physical, and now it’s over.”
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Naruto knew he couldn’t dawdle here any longer. The sheets were still damp with their sweat, the room smelled of Kurotsuchi and him in equal measure, and while Naruto was dressed again, his lover was wrapped only in a blanket. A dozen answers fought on the tip of his tongue, but in the end his training as a ninja won out. He nodded, forced the whole mess of emotions down to be dealt with in private, and slipped his ninja sandals on. “It has been a pleasure making your closer acquaintance,” he said, offering a polite bow.
“I’ll see you at the Sand-Leaf-Rock Trade Confederation talks in two weeks?” the Tsuchikage asked hesitantly.
Naruto took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m looking forward to it,” he lied.
Konohagakure was beautiful at every time of year, or so Naruto found himself telling diplomat after diplomat at the various tedious dinners he attended, but privately, he wasn’t too impressed by its autumn weather. Most days were windy, rainy, foggy, or some combination thereof – and just generally unpleasant.
Today, though, was sunny and warm. There was a nice breeze, refreshing but not overly so, and the streets were full of the sounds of children laughing. Happy couples wandered from shop to stall to cafe, and old men and women sat on benches in the park and fed the pigeons.
Naruto watched it all from the Hokage Tower and scowled. Truly, autumn was a bitch. The one occasion where a bit of gloom and misery would have matched his mood, and instead it delivered this .
“Your face is going to wind up stuck that way if you’re not careful,” Neji said from behind him.
He stuck his middle finger out at the village, knowing Neji’s Byakugan would see it. “It’s not like it matters.”
Neji pulled up a chair and sank into it with a sigh. “Replacing those dreadful old wooden things with plush armchairs is, with all due respect, the single best decision you’ve made since becoming Hokage. These are downright sinful.”
“I’m glad at least someone approves of something I’ve done,” Naruto said. He knew he sounded bitter, but he didn’t care. Neji hurled an ice cream at his head and Naruto caught it out of reflex. “I don’t need to be buttered up with sweets. If you want to ask me something, you can just spit it out.”
Despite that, Naruto undid the wrapper and gave it an experimental lick. Strawberry, his favourite. Damn his talent for picking competent and observant subordinates!
His own ice cream in his hand, Neji fixed Naruto with a stern look. “Something’s eating you up and you’re not talking to Sakura or Sasuke about it.”
“I keep telling them to mind their own business, and then they don’t,” Naruto grumbled, but his heart wasn’t in it.
“If you can’t talk to them, then talk to me,” Neji said.
“I can’t–”
“If it’s about risk, well, I’m the head of your ANBU. If the information’s sensitive, you already know about myself and Kiba because I was vetted for the job, so we’re level in that regard. You have no excuse, or no good excuse, so just spit it out like you’re clearly dying to.” Neji’s voice never lost its conversational tone, but by the end of his statement Naruto found he had nothing left to answer with. Nothing except the truth.
“I had an affair with Kurotsuchi,” he admitted. “And it was supposed to just be physical, but we have so much in common that we started wanting to spend time together. I mean outside of…” he trailed off, determined not to blush.
“Ah, and you realised it was getting out of hand and broke up before it could blow up in your face. Because you realised what a bad idea it was to get emotionally entangled with the leader of a foreign nation.” Neji nodded as if it all made sense.
“Well,” Naruto corrected, “it was more her idea to bring things to a close. And it was out of fear of getting caught, rather than anything else.”
Neji frowned. “At least one of you did the sensible thing.”
“I’m tired of being sensible,” Naruto admitted. “Every day I have to walk with a measured pace so that I project wisdom and gravitas, rather than running like I want to. I take stock of every word before it leaves my lips, and while it works , it doesn’t feel like I can ever be honest and uninhibited. It’s like I’m trapped in a cage of my own making. With Kurotsuchi, at least there was someone who felt the same bars pressing against her skin.”
“It sounds like your problems aren’t just to do with your relationship.”
Unfortunately, Naruto didn’t have an answer for that. They finished their food in silence.
He loved being Hokage, despite all the hardships that came with it. The problems his work caused were a small price to pay in exchange for seeing the village prosper. At the end of the day, though, there was a price, even if he tried to ignore it.
It had been an uncomfortable few weeks for Kurotsuchi since she broke off her secret trysts with the Hokage. Sometimes she found herself distracted by a flash of blond hair, or a speck of orange in the otherwise-monotone streets of Iwagakure, and realised she missed her one-time lover. At other moments she was angry with herself for having come to care for him.
If things had stayed purely physical, they could have made it work. That much she was sure of. Kurotsuchi had had affairs before, before she rose to lead her village. But that damned ball of guile and sunshine (and how did he manage to combine ninja cunning with the sheer optimism he displayed?) had captured her heart. What was more dangerous by far, however, was that Kurotsuchi could see he was falling for her as well.
There was no future where the Hokage and the Tsuchikage could be together, not while they were supposed to fight each other tooth and nail over every treaty and every bit of diplomatic leverage.
Of course, breaking up hadn’t fixed things. Kurotsuchi chewed the end of her pencil instead of finishing the directive for re-digging the wells in west Iwagakure, which had shown a tendency to fill with silt. The latest news out of Konohagakure was worrying.
One of the jounin, a grandson of the Third Hokage, had given a series of orders about the Academy’s teaching positions. Control of ninja training was one of the most closely-guarded rights of the Kage, as it ensured the next generation of soldiers would be loyal to the leader of the village. Often a breakdown there was a precursor to a coup.
As if that wasn’t worrying enough, a different jounin was rumoured to be behind the overhaul in the gate levy imposed on grain merchants. Food supply, as a critical part of ensuring stability, was another duty of the Kage that reinforced their control over their village.
It was with some relief that Kurotsuchi welcomed Gaara half an hour later. The Kazekage had even better intelligence on the goings-on in the Leaf village, and was willing to share non-critical details under the right conditions. His idea of sharing, though, tended towards the cryptic.
“Can I interest you in a selection of Rock delicacies?” Kurotsuchi offered as he took his seat by her side, ready for the inaugural meeting of the Sand-Leaf-Rock Trade Confederation.
Gaara smiled as her attendants brought out two trays of sweets, hands already moving to collect his favourites. The Kazekage enjoyed candied pears and chocolate-dipped dried apricots most of all, but his sweet tooth was famous and often indiscriminate. After stuffing a few choice morsels into his mouth he nodded to her.
“Given the royal welcome, I am left wondering what you might desire of me,” he prodded in that ever-so-formal mode of address that was fashionable in Sunagakure.
Kurotsuchi sighed. “The third member of this trade initiative appears to have made some changes lately, and I’m left wondering at the meaning,” she replied.
Gaara’s smile grew wider and he waved forward one of his bodyguards. Kurotsuchi suppressed a frown as she recognised the Kazekage’s brother, and wondered why he would have been dragged all the way to her home for talks that didn’t concern him. He was too important to use merely as ceremonial muscle. A quick look at Gaara didn’t help; his attention had drifted back to the sweets, as though his brother was answer enough to her question.
Their conversation over for the moment, Kurotsuchi tried to puzzle out what was going on. Her confusion deepened when, moments later, the Leaf delegation arrived. Naruto was there, wearing the hat and robes of his station, but at his side stood that pink-haired teammate of his that was such a terror with her fists. She wore similar robes, albeit with a smaller ‘Fire’ kanji stamped on her breast and no hat to go with it.
A coup seemed increasingly unlikely – who would dare to capture a Kage and then send them, almost unaccompanied, to meet with two allied heads of state? – but a second later, Kurotsuchi scowled as she put two and two together. Both the Hokage and the Kazekage had brought highly-respected ninja with them, which was often a show of force used to get concessions in negotiations. ‘Kunai diplomacy’ was frowned on and in her own village, Kurotsuchi couldn’t afford to even appear to back down in the face of threats. What were they thinking?
Naruto, for his part, just grinned as he walked into the meeting room and met her gaze. “I would like to introduce Konohagakure’s Foreign Minister, Sakura Haruno,” he announced to the room. “She will sit with Sunagakure’s Foreign Minister, Kankurou, in an observer capacity for this meeting. After that she will take over from me, with full authority to treat in Konohagakure’s name.”
That… that kind of authority was not lightly given. The first half-hour of the meeting was courtesies and formalities, and Kurotsuchi let the empty words fall from her lips without a smidgeon of attention. She was too busy processing the fundamental shift in Konohagakure’s politics. What on earth was Naruto up to?
The first chance she got, she pulled the Hokage aside. Quite literally – during the first break, she grabbed his collar on the way to the restroom and dragged him into an empty chamber.
“Can we talk?”
He gestured at the room, and the closed door behind them. “We seem to be in the right setting for it.”
“What the fuck are you thinking?” Kurotsuchi said.
Naruto scratched the back of his head. “I was thinking that a lot of talent was being wasted due to me having the final say on everything in Konohagakure. So I hired a bunch of people I trusted, and who will do a good job, to take over parts of the work. If one of them does poorly, I can always replace them.”
“How many times in our blood-stained history has a powerful ninja put a trusted subordinate into a position of power, only to be betrayed? It doesn’t work ,” she hissed. “You’re going to get yourself killed, you fool!”
“That’s the beauty of it,” Naruto said. For once he was entirely serious. “A single ninja trusted with that kind of power is a risk. But I’ve split that authority across around a dozen men and women that I trust. If one of them, or even two or three, tried to oust me they’d face opposition from the rest, who fear their own power bases being eroded. And if more than half are willing to try to force me from power, well – a Hokage that unpopular wouldn’t last long anyway.”
All else aside, Kurotsuchi could appreciate the fascinating insight she was getting into Naruto's character. He was more concerned with results than any sort of personal power or prestige. For a man many considered to be the strongest ninja in the world, it was a remarkable display of humility.
"In short, you've broken your crown and handed its pieces out to those around you," she summarised, and while Naruto frowned he didn't contradict her. "So how did you do it? What have you fashioned the shards into?"
"To start with, each minister has a limited budget and I've kept control of the treasury. They have a lot of freedom but I can still call them to heel if they mess up. The Education Minister is in charge of the Academy and civilian schools, the Trade Minister is in charge of everything relating to merchants, the Health Minister is in charge of the hospitals." Naruto paused and gave her a gentle look. "The Foreign Minister is in charge of all diplomacy. We won't be negotiating with each other ever again. Perhaps at these conferences, instead of sitting opposite one another, we can sit side by side."
“Just promise me one thing,” Kurotsuchi asked, pleaded. He had painted a wonderful future and already she found herself considering whether Iwagakure would flourish under a similar system. There was just one fear she had, that this was all a great mistake made out of recklessness and desire. “Tell me it wasn’t for love.”
Tell me this wasn’t for me.
“It was love,” Naruto disagreed. “It was love for my village, and love for my friends. And, very importantly, it was love for myself. I didn’t want to be Hokage so I could have power and hold it. If I had kept going on as before, I was going to wake up in ten years and hate the village and myself. This is better.”
“Why is it better?” she asked, both hoping for and fearing the answer.
“It’s better because I really can have it all.” Naruto set the Hokage’s hat aside and winked at her. “The job and the girl.”