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“I’m not taking you with, Sarada.” Naruto stated firmly, eyeing the determined Uchiha girl before him. He knew she wouldn’t take that for an answer, she was too much like her mother sometimes.
“Why not?” She demanded crossly, hands balanced delicately on her hips, again something her mother likely passed down to her.
Naruto sighed and slide a pile of looming documents to the side of his desk. Shikamaru gave him a weary look but he waved his hand, trying to keep his assistant’s snide comments at bay.
“Because your mother would probably castrate me if I took you out of the village.” Naruto explained calmly. He had seen Sakura’s anger far too often to even think about doing something behind her back and especially something as drastic as taking her only child with him out of the village. He shuddered just thinking about her hard fists slamming into his body once he returned with the woman’s precious baby.
“Mama is in the hospital.” Sarada offered as an excuse. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
“I’m not worried about her being hurt!” Naruto practically cried. He saw Shikamaru roll his eyes, the bastard. He didn’t understand the position Naruto was in as the Hokage, Sakura’s friend, and Sarada’s precious uncle.
“I want to meet him, Hokage-sama.” Sarada’s posture had straightened, her black eyes completely trained on him and Naruto now understood this as a request to the Hokage, not her uncle. “He’s my father.”
Naruto straightened in his chair. An official request by Sarada! He knew he had to take this serious now. In many ways, Sarada resembled her mother, her mannerisms and quarky attitude were exactly that of Sakura. However, Sarada also had a determined glow in her eyes, a hardness that Naruto recognized straight away. It was coldly familiar to him and it scared him honestly. It was the same stony resolution that her father had at that age. Naruto knew that if he did not grant this girl’s request, she would simply leave on her own and seek out her father. That, he could not allow.
Naruto took a long and dramatic sigh, rubbing his temples and feeling a headache fast approaching. He was going to regret this. He just knew it.
“Fine.” Naruto amended, his blue eyes staring straight into Sarada’s black ones. He would not let her look away. She had to understand the severity of this situation and what he was agreeing to. “I will allow you to accompany me to meet with Sasuke.”
A small smile formed on Sarada’s lips. “Thank you, Hokage-sama.”
“Wait! There is one condition.” Naruto nearly shouted when the girl was about to dismiss herself.
Sarada stared at the man, bewildered but eagerly awaiting his condition.
“The condition is….that you never call me Hokage-sama agian! It’s far too formal!”
Shikamaru groaned and Sarada gave an enthusiastic ‘yes sir!’.