A New Hokage! A New Beginning!

The next day, there is no school. Instead, is the inauguration of the 8th Hokage, Sarada Uchiha. All Jonin and Anbu are atop the Hokage mansion, as well as Naruto and Sarada. Since the woman who made Naruto's cloak has long since passed, they had to find someone else to make Sarada's...the woman's great granddaughter. The making of the cloak went very well, and now for the ceremony. All of the village begin to gather at the bottom of the Hokage mansion. Some on the ground, some on balconies, and some even of roofs; Genin, of course. Shortly after everyone is gathered, Naruto walks up to the edge of the roof, facing the people, and begins to speak.

"Attention, citizens of the Hidden Leaf. Today, we start the dawn of a new era; one with a new Hokage."

Sarada begins to walk up behind Naruto, and toward the edge of the roof to stand beside him as he continues his speech.

"On this day, I will step down as your Hokage, and someone new shall take my place as the 8th Hokage. The ninja stepping up and taking on the mantle of Hokage is Sarada Uchiha. Not only has she shown impecable skill as a ninja, but she has also proven to be the best choice to take my place. I shall now make Sarada's inauguration official, by placing the Hokage hat on her head."

Naruto takes the Hokage hat of of his head, and turns to Sarada. She turns to him, and the both bow to each other before Naruto places the hat on her head. Naruto turns to the people and begins speaking again.

"Your new Hokage!"

The people cheer as Naruto turns back to Sarada.

"Would you like to say a few words?"

Sarada nods and faces the people, herself, before beginning to speak.

"As a child, I met Naruto and dreamed of this day. I fought hard to earn this title, and now that I have it, I plan to protect this village until the very end of my reign. From this point out, you are all my people, and I will try to protect and serve to the best of my ability. We just had a new group of Academy students get promoted to Genin, and every one of them shows incredible skill and promise. I have no doubts that they, along with their superiors, will be able to fight by my side, and defend the Hidden Leaf with little to no effort. As Lord 7th stated, this is the beginning of a brand new era, and I will ride out this era with all of you. There hasn't been a single complication that we have not withstood and recovered from, and I won't let there be a first."

The citizens of the Leaf all cheer at Sarada's words, before everyone is dismissed. Naruto turns to Sarada one more time, and places a hand on her shoulder.

"Good luck, Sarada. I know Sasuke's proud. He may not have been here, that you know of, but I know he definitely would have been."

Sarada gives Naruto a confused look.

"That I know of? What do you mean?"

Naruto just gives her a wink and a chuckle before quietly walking away. Sarada hears a voice behind her, and she turns around to be greeted by Boruto.

"So, we missed it, huh? What a shame. We wanted to see your inauguration."

Suddenly, there's a hand placed on Sarada's shoulder from behind. She turns around, once again, but to be greeted by Sasuke. She immediately hugs him.

"Glad you made it."

Sasuke chuckles.

"I was late, but I wouldn't have missed this day for the world."

Boruto gags in the background.

"Gross! Expressed emotions. Hahahaha."

Sarada just turns and gives Boruto an empty stare before speaing in a threatening tone.

"It isn't wrong for the Hokage to express emotion, now is it? Also, you're probably the reason behind you two being so dilatory."

Boruto gives Sarada a confused look.

"Dila-huh?"

Sasuke chimes in.

"It means unpunctual, or to put in into terms you can understand, late. Also, Sarada's right. You are the reason. You wanted to perfect your Super Vanishing Rasengan."

Sarada, now, looks more ticked than before, as she turns to Boruto.

"Since you're here. I guess I may as well assign you a mission."

Boruto doesn't even have time to react before Sarada has a scroll in his face.

"In this scroll, are all of the details of your mission. Read it very carefully. Dismissed."

Boruto sighs as he opens the scroll, reads it, then heads out with Sasuke not far behind. Sarada turns to the nearby stairway.

"You can come out, now, Namaru."

Namaru, slowly, pokes his head around the corner, and slowly walks closer to Sarada. Once he feels he is close enough, he questions her.

"Who was that man with Grandpa?"

Sarada turns toward the direction the two left in as she responds.

"That was Boruto Uzumaki. He's Naruto's son, and Daichi's father. You met him, once before, but you were very young. He's been a friend of mine since childhood, but we've always has this rivalry going to see who can stay on top. I guess he doesn't know he can't ever become stronger than me...at least not stay that way if he does. But, no matter what, he'll always be my friend."

Namaru gives her an understanding nod before speaking, once more.

"So, you're the Hokage, now, huh? How does that feel?"

Sarada looks down at her youngest son as she responds.

"It feels great. I've wanted this for so long, and now I finally have it. Don't let it go to your head, though. Just because you're the son of the new Hokage, doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want."

Namaru chuckles as he scratches the back of his head, similar to how Naruto did when he was young.

"Don't worry, I won't. I'm not Daichi, ya know."

Sarada gets down on one knee as she gives Namaru a more somber look and begins speaking.

"I have to let you know, and you have to understand, that I'll be away from home a lot, from now on. Being the Hokage means taking on a ton of responsibility. It's not just fighting to defend the village, it's paperwork and phone calls, too. I will probably be in my office for 80% of my day. That other 20% will be at home, asleep. I just want to make sure you understand this, and, since your father is always out on missions, and your Grandma is constantly at the hospital, I'll have your brother home more often, and you'll need to listen to him...when you're not out on your own missions, of course. After all, you're a Genin."

Sarada stands up looking more like her usual self.

"Speaking of which, you're squad is waiting for you at the gate. Shikadai has a mission scroll. They're only waiting on their final team member, and let's just say, this mission might allow you to use that team attack with Chino."

Namaru looks confused, but Sarada quickly fills him in.

"It's a recon mission. You're all going to be surveying the Land of Fire, looking out for dangers. So, if you encounter anyone dangerous, prepare to fight."

Namaru nods, and heads toward the village gate to meet up with his squad. Upon arriving, he sees his squad...and a member of the Anbu Black Ops, and a young one at that. He walks up and Shikadai begins giving him the rundown.

"I'm sure Lady Sarada gave you the basic details of the mission."

Namaru nods with a response.

"She did, but she never mentioned a member of the Anbu."

Shikadai smirks as he replies.

"Chino and Daichi were surprised, as well. She appointed a member of the Anbu to aid us on this mission. She added that it was imperative that he join. She gave no further details."

Namaru just shrugs before retorting.

"Fine, but not like we'll need him, anyway."

The Anbu member looks taken aback at Namaru's response. It seems he has something to say, himself.

"I guarantee I'll be of more use than you think. Trust me on that."

Namaru just smirks as they all head out. Not long after they left, Namaru breaks the total silence that had ensued.

"So. Anbu. What do they call you?"

The Anbu remains silent for a moment before replying.

"Not like the Uchiha prodigy cares, but since you asked, my codename is Raion."

Namaru chuckles and responds.

"The mask would explain that."

The, still mysterious, Anbu looks back and retorts.

"Then why did you ask?"

Silence befalls the team for a remainder of time. A few mere moments later, Shikadai notices a glint between two nearby trees, and stops the team in their tracks. Daichi is the first to say anything.

"Why did you stop us?"

Namaru and Chino both shake their heads. They give each other a glance, and Namaru takes the reigns.

"You moron. There's a wire there, and I would imagine there are a couple explosive tags attached to them."

Shikadai stands up from his inspection, seeming somewhat shocked.

"You're right, Namaru. How did you know?"

Namaru shrugs as he responds.

"Simple. Process of elimination. What else would it be? We would notice smoke bomb pouches hanging. Same with Shuriken and Kunai. The only effective way to be able to take us out would be an explosion. Which reminds me, we need to step back in approximately 2.5 seconds."

Namaru takes a few steps back while everyone else stand there looking puzzled. By the time they go to follow suit, it's too late. 3 rogue Rock Ninja spring up out of the ground trying to grab a member each. Two fail to catch their targets: Chino and the Anbu. The 3rd one, however, is able to grapple Daichi. Namaru turns around, full Sharingan, and traps the guy in a Genjutsu, causing him to let Daichi go. The Anbu traps the 3 men in Ice before screaming.

"Namaru! Chino! Now!"

Almost in unison, Namaru and Chino jump into the air weaving the same hand seals, and cast the same jutsu at the same time, while screaming.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

The twin techniques make contact with the men. Once the smoke dissipates, there is a giant rock wall in front of the trio. The wall recedes back into the ground, showing the trio still completely in tact. Namaru is angered by this.

"So, that's how we're playing it, huh?"

He weaves a series of 3 hand seals, and lightning begins to coat his hand.

"Stand back everyone!"

Everyone takes several steps back, and Namaru lunges forward at blinding speed. 2 of the 3 men are frozen in place with fear. The one in the middle, the leader, snaps them back into it. Together, they for another rock wall, which Namaru smirks and busts right through, piercing the leader rght through the heart, and sreaming.

"Lightning Blade!"

His technique instantly kills the leader, and the other two start running. Namaru fully smiles.

"Where do you two think you're going?"

Namaru weaves a few hand seals, and wood erupts out of the ground and wraps around the 2 stopping them in their place.

"It's safe. These two are bound by Wood Style. Don't worry about that first guy either. He's dead."

Namaru approaches the Anbu member, and puts him under a very brief Genjutsu. The young Anbu is now on a different plane of existence, with Namaru standing in front of him. Namaru says something.

"I know who you are...Osawa."

The Genjutsu immediately fades away, and he's back in reality. The jutsu was so brief, he didn't even have time to fall, so no one else noticed anything. Namaru speaks out loud, now.

"Your secret is safe with me."

He winks and walks away. Chino walks up and lightly slugs Osawa in the shoulder as he adds to Namaru's previous statement.

"Me too."

Chino winks and walks away. The team finishes the rest of their patrol with no issues, and heads back to the Village where they immediately report to Lady Sarada. She gets the details of what happened, and dismisses Shikadai and Daichi. She orders the last 3 to stay. Once the other 2 are gone, she begins speaking.

"I'm certain you're all acquainted with each other now?"

Namaru nods before stating.

"You could have told him to forget he ever knew us. He knew exactly who we were, and even said our names out loud. It would have been different if he called Chino by his real name instead of his nickname. You could have shown him out files, but only Chino's friends call him Chino. He really gave himself away."

Sarada shakes her head and sighs with a smirk.

"You could have tried to make it less obvious, Osawa. Chino's nickname isn't even on record. Either way, no one else is to know Raion's real name. If anyone else finds out, I'm coming for all 3 of you. Dismissed.

The trio nod and all head out of the office before returning home to sleep the night away until the next day, and to prepare for the years to come.