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This is what the average day looks like for the Rokudaime Hokage.
At an ungodly time in the morning before the sun has even begun entertaining the thought of rising over the horizon, Mirai will begin fussing. Kurenai will stumble out of the bed that is too big for her and then soothe, feed, clean, whatever as necessary. Afterwards, she will rock Mirai in her arms until her precious daughter, the light and bane of her existence, falls asleep again.
Then, she will carefully place Mirai back in one of the baby beds that the Sarutobi have been passing down for generations and, unable to keep from smiling as her heart nearly bursts with the amount of love she has for this absurdly delicate, tiny creature, she will lean down and brush a very gentle kiss to Mirai's tiny forehead.
After that, she usually goes back to bed. If Mirai wakes again between then and dawn, Kurenai has no idea. That's the nursemaid's problem.
It's not that Kurenai doesn't love her daughter to hell and back. It's just that she's a single working mother in charge of an entire goddamn village now, and the two of them are lucky that Asuma was from an established clan with unofficial, but well-oiled set of childcare protocols. Not that they call them that. It's just part of the clan culture to raise children together, to help each other out. There's even a whole clan career branch for it, with mentors and ranks and tests. Kurenai is almost one hundred percent certain the genin-chuunin-jounin system had been ripped off of it.
She's also relatively certain that any one of the sweet old ladies who oversees that program could take on Orochimaru and win if it meant keeping the children under their care safe. The Sarutobi clan do not fuck around when it comes to protecting their next generation. It's startling to see in action, though she'd heard about it when Ebisu was first apprenticed to Mariko-san.
Her (future) mother-in-law had mentioned it once too, over tea.
"Hindsight packs quite the wallop sometimes, don't you think?" Biwako had mused, trailing a finger across the intricate patterns of her cup absently, looking out into the courtyard as Sarutobi clan children caterwauled and tackled each other playfully. Her hands, once the steadiest among the field medic-nin corp, shake ever so slightly.
"Sorry?" Kurenai had asked politely, trying not to break into a cold sweat. This was her first time being alone with Asuma's mother, and she could practically feel herself breaking out in hives from the nerves. By then, her father had deigned to grant her the Yuuhi clan name and a place on the clan grounds. He had called it a reward for surviving long enough to make chuunin, even if it had taken her sixteen years. It had only taken thirteen and nine years for his legitimate children to die. Kurenai resented him, even if it made her sick that she was also grateful to finally have more resources than what she could scrimp and save on her own.
She could not shake the fear that the only reason Asuma had finally brought her to meet his family, that the only reason Sarutobi Hiruzen and Biwako would allow her to step foot in their home, was because of the Yuuhi name. This, along with Asuma's own issues, was one of many reasons why there was a long period they didn't see or speak to each other at all.
"My husband made history for being the first Hokage that was not of the Senju clan," Biwako mused, almost like she had forgotten Kurenai was there at all. "All of Konoha celebrated it as a sign that the Senju had been true to their word, that they never intended to be our kings. However, those born and raised in a clan cannot help but be influenced by them." She fell silent for a long time. She inhaled deeply, and said on the slow exhale, "Sometimes I cannot help but wonder if the Sarutobi children run free here because my husband sends the children of others to their death out there."
To speak against the Hokage was, and still is, treason. "Ummm," Kurenai had managed.
Biwako had blinked then, and then seemed to remember that Kurenai was there. "Oh dear," she'd said, setting down her tea cup and covering her mouth. "I've put you in quite the spot, haven't I? I apologize for saying such things on such a lovely day. Let me call someone to bring us some sweets that Hiruzen picked up on his last diplomatic mission, they are just wonderful..."
It was not too long after that the official Hokage residence had been built. Kurenai had always wondered if that was why.
At seven, Mariko-san comes to take Mirai. "Hokage-sama," the old woman greets sleep-rumpled Kurenai, and bows her way out of her rooms with Mirai tucked safely in her arms, still sleeping.
At seven-thirty, Kurenai goes to get her ass kicked by the most elite and experienced jounin of Konoha.
"Ugh," she says from the ground. Raidou's face, grinning, blocks the sun from shining right in her eyes
"Another round, Hokage-sama?"
"Ugh," she says again, emphatically, but accepts the hand he holds out to her.
At nine, she goes to her office to get her ass kicked by Shizune and Shikamaru, but with paperwork. Every ten to fifteen minutes, she curses Kakashi in her mind. She misses her daughter. She misses her bed. She misses Asuma.
At nine-thirty, she comes up with a genius idea and scribbled it down, hands it to Tonton to deliver to two different people. Geniuses deserve genius ideas.
("I'm delegating," she explains to a grumpy Tonton and judgmental Shikamaru. Shizune genuinely thinks it's a good idea or possibly just loves seeing Kakashi suffer.)
Mischief managed, she settles back into work. Asuma would be proud, or he would be horrified. He always did hate paperwork.
At noon, she goes to kick the asses of the new jounin before lunch.
"Ugh," Shikamaru says from the ground, and takes her offered hand. Once he's on his feet, he says, "I'm taking an extra hour after lunch."
Any other day, Kurenai would say no, but any other day Shikamaru wouldn't ask. The diplomatic delegation from Suna here today and talks to establish a permanent Suna presence in Konoha will begin tomorrow. He and Temari have not seen each other in three months, unless Shikamaru has somehow managed to literally create time and sneak off without everyone in the village knowing about it.
"Okay," she says, "but if you're late, I'm not protecting you from Shizune." Shizune is terrifying.
Shikamaru blanches. "Noted," he says, and scurries off. Kurenai watches him go, a smile forming lopsidedly on her face, almost like Asuma has possessed her for a moment. She knows he would be just as proud and happy for Shikamaru as she feels right now.
At three, Kakashi manages to show up as per her request so she can assign him to his new position.
"I don't think I'm going to be what the women expect," Kakashi tries. She scoffs. He'll do what she says. He'd better, since this Hokage crap is his fault. She sends him on a couple errands for her, just so she doesn't have to listen to him complain any more.
Mariko-san enters the room just as he returns with a package of diapers. "You called for me, Hokage-sama?"
"Please teach Kakashi everything you know about childcare," Kurenai says. She ignores the way he boggles at her. "He'll need it."
Mariko-san blinks at him, then looks at Kurenai. "Ah. Your idea for the village childcare division?" She hands Mirai to Kurenai as she goes to inspect Kakashi critically. Mirai burbles happily in Kurenai's arms and giggles. The tension of the day melts clean out of her shoulders and Kurenai bounces Mirai in her arms to hear her squeal. She's so big already. Kurenai sighs.
Somewhere in the periphery of her awareness, Kakashi is saying, "Ow. Hey! Ow!" Kurenai manages to school her expression before she looks up to watch the show.
Finally, Mariko-san announces, "He'll do." Then, "Thank goodness, I thought you were going to choose the perverted Ebisu boy."
"I'm a pervert," Kakashi says hopefully.
Mariko-san shrugs. "The Maito boy will keep you in line. Come."
She marches out of the office, clearly expecting Kakashi to follow. He does not. He turns to look imploringly at Kurenai.
"You don't want to keep her waiting," Kurenai says mildly, and waves one of Mirai's hands at him.
When he darts out, she feels an incredible sense of satisfaction. Geniuses deserve genius ideas!
Shizune comes back in with a new pile of papers. "Oh, baby Mirai!" she exclaims, which effectively distracts her, which has been an efficient strategy in keeping Shizune from getting too intense about paperwork. Mirai gets to play with Tonton and Shizune for an hour or so while Kurenai sorts through what needs to be done when. Nothing is too pressing, so she puts them into piles and declares the day over at four. The biggest pile is for Shikamaru, who will deal with it whenever he comes back, hopefully before Shizune notices he isn't there.
"Time to party!" Kurenai announces. She's not going to protect him, but she can at least try to give him a head start.
Shizune is on the floor, balancing Tonton on her feet while Mirai sits on his back and pretends to be riding a flying pig. "Foosh!" Mirai replies, delighted. Kurenai grins.
The party is really more of a potluck. It started during the rebuilding after Pain's attack as a way to pool resources and rebuild the community as they grieved, but Kurenai made it an official function about a month after being elected Hokage. Both civilians and shinobi show up in droves for this event, unless they're assigned to missions or to watch duty. It's an incredibly popular event and Kurenai is currently turning a watchful but blind eye to the black market trading of watch duty shifts.
Mirai runs around the special play area with her potluck friends, an eclectic mix of clan and civilian children under the supervision of three civilian mothers and one civilian grandmother, as well as two of Mariko-san's deputies. Kurenai joins them for about a hour, which doubles as a time for civilians and shinobi to approach her about anything they want to talk to her about. Originally she thought she'd get serious topics, but mostly she hears a lot of neighborhood gossip and questions that she has to politely respond to by reminding people that the hospital was the first thing rebuilt.
The next couple hours are spent eating and greeting people, and for whatever reason it is the time that the Council always chooses to badger her about things. It's practically a public forum where people boo or cheer as their discussions get more and more heated until Kurenai or the Council finally cave or they find some kind of acceptable middle ground for both of them.
Kurenai thinks it's probably better than working entirely in the shadows. She does wish that Naruto would be quieter in his heckling, and that Shizune wouldn't encourage him.
Which reminds her, she needs to figure out how to mentor him to take the hat. Ugh.
She tables that thought for another day.
At seven, Kurenai heads back to the Sarutobi complex to hand an exhausted and sleeping Mirai to the evening shift nursemaid. There is no Hokage residence yet, and Kurenai is still wondering whether or not she wants one. She tables that thought too.
She spends an hour just puttering around her room and watching Mirai sleep. She indulges herself by thinking about how wonderful her daughter is and how chuffed Asuma would be to see how angelic she looks asleep.
At eight, she goes to get her ass kicked by the Godaime.
"Ugh," she says to the sky.
Tsunade ("Better drop the -sama now that you're a motherfucking kage. Polite bitches don't get shit.") cackles. "Whoo! Nothing like a spar to get your blood pumping!" She takes a swig from her sake bottle. Kurenai hopes, uncharitably, that Mariko-san destroys Kakashi's soul with her training regimen.
A second sake bottle is dangled in front of her face. Kurenai looks at it for a long time, then says, "Fuck it." Without getting up, she takes it and swallows two big mouthfuls.
"A woman after my own heart," Tsunade says, and flops down next to her. "How's the hat?"
"Ugly," Kurenai says. Tsunade sputters out sake in her laughter.
"You're much more fun than the brat," she says, wiping her face with her sleeve. "I'm glad he suckered you into this shit."
"Sometimes I think I'm drowning," Kurenai says, and then eyes the sake. Did Tsunade put some kind of truth serum in it?
"That's the job for you," Tsunade agrees, and Kurenai takes another swig. Whatever. Probably not. Tsunade is more likely to beat it out of her. For approximately thirty minutes, Kurenai had been sure that was what Tsunade was trying to do. Kurenai's probably just tired. "Exhausting. Unrelenting. Every day is like a thousand years of shoveling shit with an eternity of bullshit just waiting to collapse on your head, and I didn't have a kid on top of all that. I'm so glad all I have to do is run the hospital now."
She says that in a tone that's derisive, but there's a small smile on her face and a kind of satisfaction that settles into the relaxed, confident set to her shoulders. The village, the Council, and Kurenai had been sure that her retirement would mean that she'd go back to wandering and random gambling establishments, but instead she'd shown up at the front doors of the hospital and demanded reforms from top to bottom. The staff and the medic-nin had all looked at each other and graciously put her in charge.
Kurenai had been so grateful when Tsunade'd shown up at some point after that with an offer to help. If only she'd known it would entail getting her ass handed to her by the Godaime most days. At least Tsunade brings the sake herself and isn't precious about sharing.
"I'm sure everyone at the hospital appreciates it," Kurenai says, ignoring the fact that she gets complaints from ANBU once a week about her bedside manner. The ANBU just hate being told when they've been reckless. If Tsunade had been around during Kakashi's most self-destructive period, the Sandaime probably would have kicked him out of ANBU earlier just to spare himself the complaining about how Tsunade tied him to the bed to until he made a full recovery from the many, many times he got hit with chakra exhaustion.
Tsunade's tendency to take the bull by the horns is something Kurenai is still struggling to learn. Her strengths are misdirection and infiltration; getting her way using brute force isn't something that comes naturally to her.
There are some things that make Kurenai the right leader for this new Konoha. Creating a genjutsu is not unlike building (or rebuilding) a village. For both, you need to understand what people want and what they are willing to believe in to get it, and then you give them the dream that aligns with that. The difference is that a village requires taking into account a huge number of dreamers instead of just one or two.
But some of the dreamers are trapped in nightmares that they don't know how to escape. Some of them can be coaxed out of the darkness. Some need to be thrown out.
Kurenai doesn't know where that line is yet.
"You've got your thinking face on, kid," Tsunade says. "Better drink more sake."
By nine o'clock, the Rokudaime and the Godaime are crawling through the hospital window as they noisily shush each other. Kurenai trips over the windowsill and lands on her face. Tsunade laughs so hard she knocks over a plant.
Haruno Sakura from Kakashi's super chaotic Team Seven just groans, "Not again." She shoos away the shell-shocked nurses out of this tiny, mostly empty staff room on the far side of the hospital. ("No one will be there during the night shift!" Tsunade says every time; so far she has been right zero times, but far be it for Kurenai to correct her predecessor.)
"Yo!" Kurenai says, because Kakashi doesn't own that word! It's public domain! Also, she's the Hokage, she does what she wants.
Sakura says, very sternly, "If you get Gai-sensei too excited again, Kakashi-sensei is going to sulk for weeks."
"Gai's awake?" Kurenai asks, perking up.
Gai is indeed awake! He takes one look at them and begins cackling. "Such esteemed guests!" he cries, grinning from ear to ear. "What have I done to deserve this honor?"
"Shh, we brought sake," Tsunade says conspiratorially.
Gai's eyes widen. "Alcohol is not in my recovery diet plan."
"Pish posh, I'm the head medic here and I say it's fine," Tsunade says, waving the bottles, which seem to have multiplied. Kurenai has no idea where they came from. She squints.
"I'm in charge of his case," Sakura says from behind them, aggrieved.
Tsunade pauses. "She's the Hokage," she says, pointing at Kurenai.
Kurenai says, "Yeah, that's me." She flashes a peace sign.
Sakura wavers. "Three cups, max," she says. Gai lights up. Sakura glares. "If you even try to get out of that bed, I will tie you down."
Tsunade says, mistily, "That's my girl," and hands Sakura a mostly full bottle. The heaving noises probably mean that Gai has burst into sobs at witnessing the beautiful Springtime of Sakura's Youth.
He sniffles loudly and announces, "I would expect nothing less, young Sakura!"
"I'm on shift!" Sakura complains, but takes the bottle, grumbling, and leaves them to it.
"Kurenai," Tsunade says, struck by sudden genius. "We'd better tie him down first."
"What?" Gai says, but Kurenai has already found the rope.
By ten o'clock, Kurenai is back at the Sarutobi complex. She has tucked Tsunade into bed and managed to remember to go back to untie a sake-sleepy Gai.
Before she left again, Gai caught her hand. Quietly, he said, "I miss Asuma too."
Kurenai had held his hand tightly for a moment, heart in her throat. She had lost Asuma, nearly lost nearly everyone else. She did not lose a student. She did not lose a leg. She did not lose Gai or Ebisu, the closest things she has to brothers. There is no way to measure or compare the losses of war and come out even, but when she looked Gai in the eyes, she understood that he knew that as well as she did and was offering only compassion.
She had leaned in and kissed his cheek in thanks.
As she left (through the door), she said, "Tell Kakashi I'll kick his ass if he doesn't get his head out of it fast enough to make an honest man out of you," and cackled at the sputtering she heard behind her.
She sobers up on the walk back, plotting ways to make time to hang out with her students. She washes up with the help of one of the bathhouse attendants. When she gets back to her room, Mirai is awake and wants to play. The nursemaid takes a break as Kurenai plays with blocks with her daughter until she starts to tire. She convinces her daughter to take a bath. Once they're both in pajamas, Kurenai reads her a story, and another, and another until Mirai is dozing off in her lap.
"Time for bed," Kurenai says, and lays her daughter back to sleep. Unable to keep from smiling as her heart nearly bursts with the amount of love she has for this absurdly delicate, tiny creature, she will lean down and brush a very gentle kiss to Mirai's tiny forehead, despite the fact that every once in a while it inspires a tantrum that cannot be calmed for hours. Today, Mirai allows it. She snuffles, squirms until she's situated comfortably, and is asleep in the next moment.
Kurenai will watch her for a few more minutes before going to bed herself. She's going to need as much sleep as she can get before the next day starts.
Despite herself, she finds herself staring blankly up at the ceiling of the bedroom she should have been sharing with the love of her life.
"Good night," Kurenai says quietly to nobody, and closes her eyes.