Hi guys. Essentials first: Sorry for the late chapter, sorry for the rotten chapter.

For those of you looking forward to the politics in this story... uh... I am a 15 year old girl who has lived most of her life wrapped up in Harry Potter, yaoi, art, kicking other people, and sometimes science. I am not interested in war, or power plays, or politics. I am good with A meets B, and then everything going downhill from there. Especially the latter- that just happens by itself.

I was hoping to keep this purely romance- so it wouldn't get complicated- but somewhere in the process I started throwing in mental disorders and war and politics and weird twisty plots when all I had wanted was to create a decent KakaNaru story you could read without flinching- you probably do flinch, anyway, so never mind. Shoo. This is a bad story.

Being away for 6 months has also taken its toll on me- I've forgotten a lot about this story- where the plot was going, what kind of style I was using for it, etc.

Oh, whatever. Enjoy, or something. If you did, you have Stephen King to thank- I was reading a book of his and I was scared witless, so I came to work on ff to get my mind of his latest monsters. This is probably filled with typos and mistakes- but I'm so tired and impatient, and I want reviews to cheer me up in the morning. My final exams have just ended. I need a pick-me-up. (Agh, don't worry. I'll correct them Sunday or Monday. Or sometime.

Chapter VIII

Summary so far: Three months after the Akatsuki extermination, Namikaze Naruto, soon-to-be Rokudaime Hokage, enters the ANBU corps with the intention of 'fixing up' ANBU Squad 15- composed of Wolf/Hatake Kakashi (undergoing mental deterioration), Cobra/Hyuuga Chizu (anger issues), Beagle/Shiranui Genma (depression over dead lover), Leopard, and Red Owl. He quickly finds out that it's not going to be as easy as it sounds. Meanwhile, Itachi returns. Ame, presumably under the unseen rule of Konan- who has survived- has declared war.

Naruto felt sharp anger burning in his gut. "You never told me the situation was getting worse!"

The Hokage held up his hands in an appeasing fashion. "I received no warning either, Naruto. The nobles were squabbling among themselves, the people were too disorganized to muster up a proper war effort... but it seems that something has changed."
Naruto frowned.

"The nobles suddenly stopped their power struggles and agreed to war. The minority who refused simply disappeared. The people wholeheartedly support it- amazing, considering how- may I use a rude term here?- piss poor their living conditions are. The document they sent me tells us nothing about what has changed."

Sandaime didn't say, however, that he hadn't surmised what had happened at Ame from other things.

"I killed Pein." Naruto said. "I know I did. He's the first one I went for, I remember doing it."

Sandaime remained silent.

Naruto's frown deepened.

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched his student, imagining his thought processes. He'll make a fine Hokage, he thought. But he's not ready. He is too young, and I am too old. Ah, Minato, if only you had let me...

"Konan. It's Konan, isn't it." Naruto said.

"Our contacts in Ame tell us that rumors of 'God's Angel' are circulating." the Hokage said as an affirmative. "She is a less formidable opponent than Pein."

Naruto thought about that. "But..." he said, and stopped uneasily. "Ah."

Sandaime nodded in approval. "Yes."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"But you thought it."

Naruto shrugged.

"You could take them down, all of them." Sandaime said. "But the other countries will not take this display of power kindly. I fear that one of our enemies will use it to accuse Fire Country of annexing Ame territory."

"So we have to wait until they attack." Naruto's frown deepened. "Attack Konoha."

Sandaime smiled wearily. "Yes. I am very tempted to appoint you Godaime right now and leave you to deal with this mess- but I am not that heartless." he paused- "I hope to make this war short."

Naruto nodded grimly. "How the fuck did she survive?" he said aloud. Sandaime let the profanity slide. "I blew up the entire place!"

"Sheer dumb luck." Sandaime thought aloud. "That is my guess, but really, I can't say."

"I should ask her." Naruto said musingly. "When we meet... It might reveal a weakness of mine when I'm in that state."

Sandaime laughed, a bit weakly, trying (and failing) to associate the word 'weakness' with the Kyuubi, caged it might have been. "I'm convinced it was luck."

"So am I, but it doesn't hurt to be careful." Naruto said absently- he was thinking about the Ame situation. "Well, do you have any orders for me, Hokage-sama?-"

"I want to negotiate with them."

Naruto considered his options to this. Saying 'Are you frickin' stupid?' was one, as was the paraphrased 'Hokage-sama, have you been taking your pills lately?'- but he discarded these. He settled for a noncommittal hum, his face expressing nothing.

Sandaime saw through it and straight to the heart of his skepticism. "There is always hope." he said grandly. "Ame might be persuaded..."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Behind his placid mask, his mind was racing.

"What do you want me to do?" he said, and realized that it had been a mistake a split second later. Sandaime raised an eyebrow, disapproving shadows etched at the corners of his eyes. "Right, right, sorry. My choices and all. But you're still my boss, you should be giving me orders."

Sandaime raised his other eyebrow. "Yes. Indeed." he seemed to consult piece of parchment, but his eyes did not move. "Tell me, what would you do, in my place? And I assure you that there is a great chance that this question will not be hypothetical."

Naruto scowled. "You're not resigning yet."

The aged Hokage spread his hands, and shrugged. "Your answer?"

It took a bit for him to answer. "I'd... Outwardly, I would try to drag on the negotiation for as long as I could. But I'd be concentrating on breaking Konan's rule. Ame's people follow Konan like a god, so it would be faster to assassinate or incapacitate her than discrediting her. However, it would have to be done in a way so that it would look like Konoha had nothing to do with it."

He paused, thinking some more. "Which would be nearly impossible... So if we sent people out to put her under a genjutsu and make her call the whole thing off, that would work. Or just kill her and masquerade as her, with the same results. Her security will be formidable, however, and Konan herself is no lightweight- so, that too would be difficult. Unless..."

Sandaime had a small smile on his face as he watched Naruto. "Unless....?"

"It was me doing it?" Naruto said, frowning. "Sir, in all honesty, it would be very difficult for me to bring Konan down in the way that circumstances would demand. Kyuubi's power is neither subtle nor swift, and without it I can't guarantee success. Not because I am weaker, but because I have to end it in one blow, and I... I'm not very sure I can do that."

Sandaime nodded briskly. "Any more ideas?" he encouraged.

"I can think of plenty of ideas to use in actual war, but very little else I can do to prevent one beforehand." Naruto said after a minute. "You, sir?"

The Hokage shrugged, finally reaching down to retrieve his fallen hat. He didn't put it on again, and just turned it over and over in his hands, looking thoughtful. "Really, I have no say in this." he said. "I have a feeling that it will not be my war, soon."

With one deft flick of his wrist, the hat sailed onto Naruto's own blond mane. Naruto tensed, but didn't move as the large hat settled over his head. It was oddly heavy, and felt a bit loose on his head. Naruto knew without looking that it would have obscured his face into shadow. He hesitated before taking it off again, looking at the Sandaime strangely.

He was smiling. "I just wanted to see how it would look on you, Naruto-kun."

"You're acting very strange today." Naruto commented, and gave the hat back. "I hope this doesn't mean you'll be shoving all the paperwork to me soon, sir. I hope to have you guide me through this crisis, at least."

"Hah, I as well." the Hokage said mirthlessly.

There was a pause. Distant birdsong rang outside the tower. The Sandaime turned, robes swirling, to his desk again. "This war is up to you. I'm just going to advise you."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Are you serious? No, of course you are. Stupid question. Unofficially, or did that hat thing really mean something?"

"Unofficially. I think the Council would panic if you took over so soon." Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled. "Think of this as a... a test. I want to see if you can really handle a crisis."

Hell, Naruto thought. A war. A real war, and he's turning this into a test. Hell.

"Incidentally," the Hokage was saying calmly, absently sorting through a pile of paper on his desk, "The hat looked very nice on you."

He completely forgot to ask the Sandaime about Hatake Kakashi. He never got the chance to do it either, because he was bundled off to the Konoha-Ame border for the negotiations the very next day. Itachi volunteered to come along, but Sandaime had gently discouraged the idea. He seemed to think that it was cheating. Naruto smiled a bit grimly at the idea that bringing Itachi along in a diplomatic situation would be helpful, in any meaning of the word.

"The best attack is swift, silent, and most of all, completely unexpected." Itachi said when Naruto entered the kitchen, ready to leave. "Make the right choice."

Naruto rubbed at his eyes and decided that it was too early in the morning for this crap. "Whatever." he muttered.

Itachi frowned pointedly. "You are wearing orange."

Naruto looked down at his shirt. "It's not a mission, Itachi. And black gets boring."

"But you are wearing orange."

Itachi's stare was very intent. Naruto twitched with annoyance, pulling up the zipper of his dark brown vest to cover the shirt. "Do you have anything against orange?"

Itachi smiled. It was a very unusual expression on him. "No.

Naruto sighed, and dragged his palm over his eyes. "Ye gods... if I become Hokage I'm leaving everything up to the diplomats."

"Indeed." Itachi said. He laced his fingers. "It rather surprises me that Sarutobi-sama is letting you go off on this mission without training."

"We all get lessons on negotiation-"

"Actual diplomacy."

"I'm not diplomatic?"

"Your thinking is too linear for a diplomat."

"I'm not subtle enough?"

"Ninja subtle and diplomat subtle are different."

Naruto gave a frustrated sigh that turned into a yawn. He shifted the strap of his bag to a more comfortable position on his shoulder, and edged around a chair to get to the door. He could feel Itachi's sharp stare digging in between his shoulderblades.

"That bag is not diplomatic."

Naruto rolled his eyes and stepped out, clutching his faded tangerine-colored bag. "Sempai, you can hardly see it."

"That shade could open a blind man's eyes."

Annoyingly enough, the cluster of Council elders who had been elected to tag along shared the same opinion. They were all old and had stern faces, and Naruto had a feeling that this trip was going to be extremely boring.

"The bag needs to go." Naruto labeled the speaker in his mind as the Withered Old Hag.

"It has sentimental value." Naruto explained politely. "No one's going to see it, anyway. We'll be leaving behind all of our stu- things at the camp."

"That shirt is too ostentatious." This one, Naruto decided with his typical morning charity, was going to be the Ancient Tranny. He had the Hyuuga hair- but instead of looking graceful like Neji's or Hiashi's, it just looked... brittle. Age had turned his gender indistinguishable in his face.

"I'll change."

"Young shinobi these days." Withered Old Hag sniffed.

Naruto looked at the two who hadn't spoken yet. All right, he thought, which one is going to become the Wrinkled Prune?

"No respect for elders at all."

Ah, that one.

With the elders, the trip was less than swift. It took four whole days to the Ame-Konoha border. It was amazingly fast by civilian standards, but if it had been a shinobi-only journey, traversing half of Fire Country would have taken far less. Naruto bought a black outfit and changed into it just to escape the elders' nagging.

He missed orange. Orange symbolized freedom. Freedom from this stiff, orderly life. The black he was wearing right now, he thought, was like a room with no windows that smelled of Ancient Tranny's flowers-gone-bad hair ointment. Orange was the opposite. It was a wide, wide field in the autumn, just when the leaves were crisp enough to make just the right rustling sounds when the wind shook them. And a homemade bento box, eaten hurriedly on the ground. Or ramen. Yeah, ramen. Miso ramen. Or mendaiko? What kind of ramen was the right shade of orange?

Naruto cut off his wandering thoughts sharply and returned his gaze to the sullen black of his current outfit.

He sighed.

They reached the border right on time, the day before the negotiations. Missing home, ramen, orange, and Itachi, Naruto went to sleep with a vague sense of unease, as if he had forgotten something important.

Naruto woke up with a not-quite headache.

It was the feeling you got when you'd been stressed and thinking too much with little sleep. There was a sort of weight on your forehead, and you felt warm all over, not feverish, but just... warm. Not overly unpleasant, but it made you want to go back to sleep and forget everything all over again. And dream of better days. In a properly darkened room.

Naruto sighed and crawled out of the tent, shivering as he did so.

Mist pooled in the valleys. The dark green pine trees faded away into the distance. The sky was a mass of gray fog, the air felt heavy. Everything seemed to have been bleached- or darkened, rather- into shades of black, dark green, and gray.

It was cold. It kept him awake, because it was the kind of cold that seared into your bones.

He breathed in, and exhaled- his sigh billowed out. He almost couldn't tell when it dissipated, the mist was that heavy.

"Food." he mumbled, and then reluctantly remembered the specifics of the day's schedule. "Dammit."

He would meet with the Ame Council of Nobles after breakfast, because Naruto didn't feel up to handling negotiating with civilian snobs without some food in his stomach. They were on the other side of the thin stream that marked the Konoha-Ame border. Naruto could see their colorless tents from here if he squinted and did some strange things with his eyes to see through the mist, along with their gloomy flags, hanging flaccid from their poles.

He ripped apart his last pack of emergency ramen, heated it with a combination of water and fire jutsu, and ravenously gulped it down in the safety of his tent, where the elders couldn't see his bad 'table' manners. When he sauntered out again, he was in a much better mood.

But not that much better.

He only half-listened to the elders' last minute advice on handling the negotiations and tried to think optimistically. (He failed. He'd been staying around Itachi for far too long- but he tried, anyway.)

Even if I screw up it wouldn't be all my fault because they want to declare war anyway and no matter how nicely I pass around the sandwiches or drink my tea or tie my obi they still want to kill me kill Konoha fight us dammit Konan-

He sighed. This was all Itachi's fault.

With effort, he could turn just about everything gone wrong in his life right now to point to Itachi.

A smile tugged at his lips.

Okay, so there was the negotiation. The situation with Ame. Which was because he killed Pein. Or rather, because Konan survived. Yep, that was Itachi's fault, he should have been covering the ones who got away, not cringing behind a hefty boulder to avoid the sizzling, poisonous chakra he had been radiating at the moment. And there was the matter of his ANBU team, which Itachi tried to sabotage every ti-

Goddamnit, Kakashi!

...I can't believe that I forgot.

He stared blankly ahead, and realized that they were nearly at the river. Why did he have to go and realize _now?

Block it out. Concentrate. Narrow your focus. Deep breaths, ignore, ignore. Your duty. Control. Control.

This focusing technique is recommended only in times of great stress. Overuse can interfere with the workings of various sections of the brain; most prominently the posterior parietal cortex and the amygdala. Extreme overuse can often damage the mind beyond repair...

I don't overuseit, Naruto told himself, the part of him less given to denial cursing his excellent memory. So I'm _not going to end up like Kakashi, whose problem partially stemmed from this. Hah. So there, Itachi-sempai.

He sighed, and did it anyway.

The technique had started with simple meditation. Monks had developed it. Masters could sharpen their minds to a pinpoint of utter brilliance, concentrate nearly all of their brainpower for a brief time, but they died. Ninja learned it to defend themselves from their own thoughts. Genin learned it as the second leaf exercise. Chuunin learned how to 'block things out'. They were told not to go too far with it. Some did. They died or went mad. But the ones who went too far and still stayed the same- a polished human blade of concentration and ruthlessness... they were priceless shinobi. Devoted and unbreakable.

Of course, until they broke.

This was a depression subject to think about when he was trying to distract himself from the beady eyes of the Ame Council. And he was _here, really here, looking at the not-so-distant faces of his soon-to-be-enemies. He carefully outstretched his hands in a sign of peace, trying to remember everything he could about Ame customs as he carefully flopped down onto the ground- a stance that wasn't submissive, just neutral.

He clapped his hands to the ground. They dirt was damp- his fingers unconsciously curled around them, and he relaxed fractionally. Earth. Forward. Energy, down, across, pull.

The dirt surged forward from either sides of the land, condensing into a dark-colored stone bridge. Naruto remembered to form little ridges at the sides when he was just finishing the formation, so it looked like brick. It wasn't too bad. Naruto didn't bother to test the strength as he walked across confidently, his eyes burning into the huddled crowd of representatives.

Concentration.

There were fourteen of them. It was the rules, the smaller the country, the larger the number of representatives. It was a great deal more complicated than that, of course, but it was a fairly simple way of putting it.

Naruto felt outnumbered.

He stared at them. They were very diverse- it seemed like what remained of the highest nobles of Ame had all come to the border. There were three men and two women who could be labeled as extremely old, another four who wavered between middle aged and old, three who looked to be in their early forties, and the last two were young. One was very young. She was about his age.

She interested him- not only because of her age, but her clothes. She was wearing a good kimono. Everyone was wearing a good kimono, but hers just screamed 'I've been handed down for generations and generations and generations and before that I was made by an extremely famous craftsman who is now legendary and used cloth making techniques that are now lost to man'. It was exquisite, and radiated old style. She wasn't wearing any jewelry except for her earrings; small glinting dots of blue pinned in her earlobes.

She was the only one whose smile looked halfway genuine.

Naruto turned his gaze away and searched the others. None of them were Konan. Not that he'd expected her to show up, but he admitted that it had been one of his... fears? No, he hadn't been afraid, just nervous about meeting someone who hated him enough to want to destroy his country in a place where he was supposed to stop that very thing from happening.

"Greetings." he said, and said the formal string of lilting syllables that was the traditional greeting from one stranger to another in a potentially hostile situation in Ame. They weren't expecting that, from the looks on their faces.

"Er." One of them murmured, and said the correct answer. Naruto smiled his best nice smile, and opened his mouth to say something-

Someone tapped his shoulder lightly.

It was the aged Hyuuga, his pearl colored eyes narrowed into a rheumy stare. "Our introductions." he said.

"Of course." Naruto said politely, and turned to the Ame nobles. "May I introduce-" he said, and for a split moment all that came to his mind were the derogatory nicknames he'd thought up for the Council elders- 'Ancient Tranny, Wrinkled Prune, Withered Old Hag-' "Hyuuga Koromu, Tsui..."

The names flowed out. Naruto fixed a warm, but not too warm smile on his face as he was invited to sit down at the table. It was a large enough table, but with only two chairs. The Konoha elders looked displeased at this, so Naruto flashed them a charming smile and touched the ground with one hand, signalling with the other the Ame sign for- well, one way reconciliation, one way apology, one way permission. The dirt rose up, condensed, and became makeshift blocks. They didn't make very good chairs- that had been slightly intentional on Naruto's part- but the elders look mollified.

A little.

Naruto concentrated. Thirteen similar blocks rose up from the ground on the other side. The Ame nobles murmured their thanks and made to sat down, rather slowly and suspiciously. The leader- Ame no Ikemaru, Naruto thought, remembering his picture. The eldest son of what had been the highest noble family in Ame before Pein took over. He wasn't the oldest of the nobles present, but he had the hardest eyes. The father wasn't there- perhaps he was dead. From most accounts, a strong, fair individual.

...From Jiraiya: 'A traditionalist pig-headed bastard with an overrated sense of justice.'

Naruto smiled, being careful not to show his teeth. "Sir."

The respectful term didn't seem to soften his face. In fact, it seemed to harden as Ikemaru stared at his... opponent. "Namikaze Naruto... san."

Naruto let the corners of his mouth twitch, and sat down.

He practically felt the eyebrows rise. There were no whispers, but he could feel the tension. He didn't concentrate, but he knew that if had he could have smelled the tension of the Konoha elders behind him, in the scent of sweat and other subtle odors... hormones, he'd always thought. Emotion-triggered hormones. Or maybe even demonic intuition...

He dragged his mind back to the subject again. Ikemaru was still standing, still glaring. It was customary in Ame- and in old Konoha as well, Naruto thought, but that had long since died out in his homeland- for the elder to sit down first. Having displayed proper knowledge of Ame customs already, Naruto's actions must have seemed to be frightfully contradictory. Naruto let them figure it out...

I'm willing to be polite. I'm willing to compromise. But I am the more powerful. Keep that in mind.

...Naruto smiled, his expression subtly changing to send a new message.

Be nice as well, and maybe we can get through this safely.

Ikemaru sat down, finally. "Namikaze Naruto-san." he repeated, rapping the table. A noble- no, not a noble, Naruto realized, taking a closer look at the kimono, which was made of rougher material and had small pale yellow flowers embroidered in the sleeves- a sort of secretary. She pulled a few crisp files from her robe. Naruto hadn't noticed the bulge, and reprimanded himself for inattention. Ikemaru took the files and opened the first one.

Instead of reading from the file- a list of his sins, Naruto had thought drolly- as he had expected, Ikemaru directly addressed him. "You are new at this." he said stiffly. "And I know from your reputation that you do not enjoy diplomacy. You are a ninja, ninja are not, by nature, diplomatic."

He was being patronizing. And Naruto could already see where he was going at, because instead of the indignity one might expect from people whose representative had just been insulted by an enemy, the Konoha elders were radiating satisfaction and smugness. The Hyuuga, in particular...

So, this was another power-play thingy. Sandaime had been testing his skills in the political field, trying to see how he'd react, having the carpet pulled from beneath him.

Naruto had no idea what the Sandaime wanted, truly. But to hell with it, Naruto thought. I'm here to stop a war. That's what my father would have said, by all accounts. I'm not my father, but...

It'll make a damn good excuse when Sarutobi-sensei asks me about it.

He met Ikemaru's eyes squarely, and curled his lip into a quarter of a half-smile.

"No."

And it sort of went downhill from there.

Schedule.

Arrive.

Talk.

Talk some more.

End the war.

Return home.

The next page would reveal the serious version of Naruto's schedule for the next five... (four by now) days. That is- decoded.

Arrive.

Day 1- Preliminary negotiations. (Don't talk about Pein yet.)

Day 2- Acquaint myself with the lesser nobles. Win over the pretty girls.

Day 3- Start talking in earnest about the war. Apologize fully for Pein's unfortunate demise (note to self: delete sarcasm) and offer payment. Offer economical assistance. Casually mention poor, starving people. (nts: Resist hinting that Pein could have done a better job with that...) Mention Hanzou's legacy, because they're nobles and they still haven't forgotten the old days. Etc.

Day 4a- Hopefully they've accepted the treaty. Now, settle the details. Reparation cost. Borderlines, if they start picking at that _again. Scouts. Etc.

Day 4b- If they flatly refused to make peace, go cold. Be frigidly polite, start hinting- (nts: Don't bother to be subtle) that they'd lose. Miserably. Guilt them about their poor economical situation.

Day 5a- Depart on good terms.

Day 5b- Grandly forgive their dithering yesterday. Accept treaty. Become nice again.

Day 5c- Worst case scenario... they refuse, again, again. Go home. Send signal on the way. Backtrack, and go after Konan myself... (refer to pg 52 for definite plans. Code F, variation number 3.)

Naruto sighed at the slender notebook and thumped his head against the desk. He crossed out the page with two diagonal angry black lines, and turned to page 54 and wrote-

Day 1- Preliminary negotiations: Snub Konoha elders, be rude to the Ame nobles. Practically rub it in their faces about their weak resources and decadent leadership. (nts: One pretty girl present...)

He stared. The single line didn't contain a quarter of what had really transpired. Good gods.

He turned to the page that held his original schedule and crossed out Day 5c. He hadn't really been thinking well when he'd written that down, because he'd never thought 5c would happen. Now it seemed that it would, only as Day 2. Blast!

Anger surged forward, and his abdomen seared.

Naruto gritted his teeth and said a string of very rude things to Kyuubi.

You're being an idiot, Namikaze. A rather disgruntled demon growled into his mind. I could handle this for you. Just let me out for a while. A few minutes. I can tear them down, every single one of them, and then I can take you to Ame- to Konan- in a flash.

Track down Konan. Kill her.

"Back to unsubtle tactics, Cube." Naruto said, his anger subsiding. The truth was that he hadbeen placated- marginally, marginally! he defended himself- by Kyuubi's offer. It was the easy way out, and not the possible one.

His resident bijuu snarled. He hated being called Cube.

He twirled his pen. A ninja could have done that. Not the killing-the-diplomats part, but the hunting-Konan-down-myself part. He was not a ninja. He was a...

Not yet, but he would be...

Hokage.

And a Hokage didn't do things like that.

(No, a Hokage stayed at his big tower and dealt with paperwork all day when he wasn't going on strolls and accidentally meeting up with promising genin or chuunin to give random, inspiring speeches)

"Right." Naruto said at last, after deciding not to throw his pen across the space inside the tent. "Eff off for a moment so I can figure out what went wrong."

Kyuubi obeyed, reluctantly. It was like having a sulky thunderstorm withdraw from the sky. Naruto let out a small sigh of relief and clasped his pen again, turned to a fresh page, and wrote-

'Stuff that went wrong today'

Well... everything, really.

'The elders interfered'

He brooded for a while over that, and added 'But I should have dealt with that.'

'Ikemaru didn't think me a worthy negotiatior'

He connected his 'But I should have dealt with that' to his third sentence with an arrow. For a good measure, he connected it to the ends of all the other lines in his notebook as well. To be prepared.

He sighed.

Remorse after the mission, Naruto.He could imagine the Hokage standing sternly in front of him, and in this memory he was looking up into the man's stern, shadowed face because he'd been ten years old and short for his age. Find out how to fix it and then beat yourself up about it. But not before.

Naruto frowned. That wasn't how Sarutobi Hiruzen had phrased it, but it was probably how he would tell it to his students- if he got any, of course. After this mission, he thought it wasn't likely-

He crossed out the thought in his mind and then thought, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere anyway. It wasn't something that had gone wrong, exactly, but...

What could he have done? He frowned. Gracefully handled the elders. Bring Ikemaru around. Yes? No. Certainly not. This was an impossible situation, he couldn't rule out the possibility Sandaime had sent him in here as a big fat test.

But not an impossible test, he could have done better...

Well, he'd alienated the Ame people. Or so he thought- he hadn't been rude, actually, just very firm that Konoha wouldn't be backing off. And of course they didn't like that. They'd brought up charges. Pein and so on. Naruto responded that Pein had been about to kill him. And had already killed several other jinchuuriki. At that point he found out that they weren't really aware about the jinchuuriki situation. And didn't care, either. They were prejudiced, he found that out then. They didn't like demon vessels.

Sandaime had to have known that.

And he'd snubbed the elders all the while, that wasn't good. He could only hope they'd die soon before they could make trouble for him. If he ever became Hokage at all, that was-

He sighed. Right, then. The really worrying thing was that Konan hadn't made her move, and he had used up most of his cards. And he had really no idea what to do.

Of course if they went to war they would win, but that wasn't the point...

He consoled himself by thinking that he hadn't made any really major mistakes- he just hadn't done anything well.

Which was just saying the same as incompetent.

...Konan hadn't made her move...

If I was Konan...

The only reason I wouldn't be present at the negotiation would be if...

She was scared of me....

If she had something better to do...

Like chat up to Iwa or Kumo or all those villages who don't really like Konoha, oh no, not at all.

But Sandaime had to know that- stop thinking about Sandaime, you have to stop thinking this doesn't matter because it's just a test-

He ground his teeth- this was impossible.

He made three clones, who looked very unhappy and cross when he told them they were to think about what to do on the following day- he usually didn't abuse his clones like this, after all, they were sort of him, not machines to order around- but right now he didn't care. He went to sleep.

I am aware that this isn't a terribly satisfying chapter.