The Hokage Remembers

Konoha as a village, was widely known as the first to accept dozens of other clans as part of itself. From the Sarutobi's and Hatake's, to the Hyuuga's. The widely known names of the Uchiha and Senju Clan's being united had given them no other choice but to either form their own village or join them; the choice had been easy.

… And thus Konoha's population always gave rise to many questions.

Although there were rarely any attempts at counting the total amount of people living inside it, the last few statistics suggested the total population definitely neared fifty thousand.

Back when the village was first created by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the population barely exceeded two thousand or so mainly from clan members and the occasional traveler who wanted to settle; a century later and it was rivaling even some big cities in the Fire Nation.

Due to the always rising number of people who thought the village was safe enough to settle in The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi was always a busy man, something he could relate to for the last couple of decades.

And now, you could find the man who was dubbed as the "Professor" and one of the strongest shinobis in the history of the village, staring in terror at the stack of paperwork laying in front and on top of his desk.

''You'll be a great Hokage!' they said, 'It's not that hard of a job, don't worry!' they said…'

Hiruzen grimaced as he circled around his deck and promptly sat on his comfortable seat. He removed the Hokage hat which he was required to wear when outside the office most of the time and put it on the desk. He proceeded to inhale through his tabaco pipe and close his eyes, letting a comfortable yawn.

Back when he had appointed Minato as his successor, he had been immensely happy. His source of it was not just the fact that he couldn't have found a better man to take the hat from him, but also due to the fact that he could spent the remaining years of life in peace with his family.

Biwako, his wife, had left life early and then not much later one of his two sons had also died, leaving him with a nephew and a son. In a matter of two years he was forced to retake the hat, lest Danzo pounced at the opportunity to get his desired dream.

The Daimyo was many things; A politician, a ruler, a great thinker, a friend.

What he was not however, was a man who understood how the world of the shinobis worked and as such he could not be trusted with giving someone the role of the Hokage, a person like his old friend and rival.

Hiruzen had made many mistakes during his reign of many decades. Allowing the genocide of the Uchiha Clan being one of the largest and that was simply a side-effect of him giving Danzo as much power as he had desired.

'To think that in one point in life all I wanted to do is read Icha-Icha in secret and give up on this life of misery… Tobirama-sensei why have you brought me this nightmare. I wish I never spoke out that night.'

His wrinkled hands reached for one of the papers filled with ink. He was getting too old for this.

'Perhaps I could convince Jiraiya to take over. No… The man is too stubborn for his own good and he's already busy with his spy network. The info he gives us over the other hidden villages is too valuable to simply abandon just like that.

'Tsunade's too wasted to even be called for duty. Her phobia of blood, habit of drinking too much, attachments to the past all point to a very bad decision.

But if not her, then who can take up the hat. Kakashi would've made for a fine choice at one point in time. It's a shame his life had to take such a bad turn…'

As much as Hiruzen loved his two students – Orochimaru put aside – he did not think either would do a good job as Hokage. Tsunade might work if she just decided to put her past aside and somehow overcame her phobia, but that was highly unlikely.

"I guess I'm stuck with this job for a little bit longer."

Hiruzen stood up and put the paper on the desk. He walked towards the windows of the office and looked at the village. Despite all the pent-up stress he had, he somehow managed to squeeze a smile out.

"It's all for the sake of the village…"

Hiruzen walked back to his desk and opened a drawer. Inside it there was a scroll tied by a red string with the mark of a red shadow in the shape of fire.

"Cat, give this scroll to the secretary, she'll know what to do with it.'

A whirl of leaves could be heard and Hiruzen only saw purple before it vanished entirely, but he knew Cat was already on her way with his scroll which was no longer in his hand.

"Konoha has stagnated for enough already, I shall not allow the old hawk and my old friends to hinder its development any longer."

He had already made too many mistakes. He swore on his old bones and decaying body that he would not let this continue any longer, lest he became the shame of all the Hokages.

'And I need to organize a meeting between Anko and whoever told me being a Hokage would be easy'

~~

"Alright class, today we will be examining your kunai and shuriken abilities. Meet me at the academy's training ground."

Iruka seemed to be more tired than normal today, his usually energetic entrance never came. Ren raised his head up with his eyebrows knitted against each other. 'There is definitely something odd about this.'

He saw Naruto practically launch himself outside the classroom, seemingly in a hurry to be the first one outside. The last ones to leave the classroom were him and Shikamaru. This came out as a bit of a surprise to him since he normally was accompanied by his Akimichi friend.

"Morning."

That was as close to a greeting as you could get from Shikamaru who looked like he had just woken up from slumber.

"Good morning to you as well, had trouble sleeping last night?"

Shikamaru grimaced at his words. "Women are troublesome. My mother found out that I barely passed the last exam Iruka-sensei gave us and made sure to scold me until it was very late. Father didn't even dare to interrupt her."

Ren could not find a proper expression to react to his words, but he just patted his shoulder in sympathy. While he could not relate, it did sound very… nightmare-ish.

Soon, both of them found their way to their destination. It was a wide field, clear of most grass with a few wooden targets. Just a few meters away from the targets, close to the group of students were two boxes, one filled with shurikens and another with kunais.

Naruto had already taken a few of each out and was playing with them. Sasuke had his own supply of weaponry so he merely checked out the quality. Just a bit away from him was his group of fangirls with Ino and Sakura leading it.

He just shook his head at the antics of the group which if he didn't know any better definitely looked like civilians who had no hopes of becoming kunoichis – which they didn't.

If Ren didn't know any better, he'd think Sasuke enjoyed the attention they brought on him. But that couldn't be any further from the truth, in fact he utterly detested them and well he enjoyed teasing him about it.

Ren separated from Shikamaru and made his way to the boxes and took a few as well. Iruka made sure to look over them properly, just in case they messed up with how they handled the equipment.

'This is going to be a walk into the park even if I have to hold back.'

Some might wonder, why exactly was he holding back?

Well, when the team selections happened, he was pretty sure they'd never allow two people with the highest grades to be in the same team. In fact, he hoped to pull both Naruto and Sasuke into a team.

How would he deal with the highly inconsistent personalities and conflict the two had with each other?

He'd just have to beat them at their own game. He'd just need to make them look beyond the wall. Restricting yourself simply because you do not get along with someone will not help you improve as a shinobi!

"Ren Uzumaki-Senju, you're first."

Iruka spoke out in a calm tone.

'Let's do this.'

Ren took out a few kunais and took a stance. His eyes never left the wooden target which had multiple red marks.

With precise aim he threw them straight at the targets.

7/10.