This is my first fanfiction and I hope you'll all enjoy it. Please review, I'd be happy to know how you liked it, what you prefered, didn't like, etc.

Of course, Naruto doesn't belong to me. All rights for the characters to Masashi Kishimoto.

CAN YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED?

Chapter 1 : A new beginning

The sun was shining brightly over the fully rebuilt Hidden Leaf Village. On this hot summer day, all the inhabitants of Konoha, shinobis and civilians alike, were participating in festivities that were being held each years at that time since 7 years now: it was the celebration of the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

However, this year was even more special, especially for a certain blond ninja, as Naruto was finally going to be officially presented as the Rokudaime Hokage.

After the war, Naruto had been granted the title of Chuunin, as he played a major role in the victory of the Shinobi Allied Forces. The year after, Tsunade-sama had named him as her successor, and he began to learn the job with her. He had a small desk in the Godaime's office, and even though he only was her assistant, he actually ran the village while the Slug Princess was too drunk, or too hangover to do it herself...

2 years ago, he even passed the jounin exam, with the rest of his teammates. He was the first surprised of this outcome, has he had prepared himself a long time ago to become the first genin Hokage.

Now, Naruto was 23 years old, he had matured and now thought before he acted. He was definitely no more the knucklehead prankster he once was, even though he still had his stubbornness he was known for.

Over the years, he had earned the villagers respect, not only as the Hero of the Leaf, but as a hero of war, a leader, and now a Hokage. For the past weeks, the blond ninja had had trouble to sleep well, since he was so eager to finally see his dream come true.

On this sunny morning, he was terribly excited, but since the ceremony wasn't before late this evening, he figured he should relax a bit and enjoy the celebrations being held all day long, though he still had something to attend to before noon. He then slowly headed for the memorial stone, as he had for the past 7 years...

When the blond ninja arrived, Hinata and Shino were already there. "Why am I not surprised..." he thought, "she was always early when we dated..."

Naruto and the Hyuga heiress had dated for a couple month after the war. They had lived some intense emotional moments during it, not to mention during Pain's attack, which had drew them closer to one another. However, they realised after some time that they weren't meant for each other, and the lavender eyed girl concluded that her childhood crush wasn't the man of her life. However, they stayed very close friends, and Naruto had been so happy for her when she married Shino 3 years ago.

"How are you two lovebirds?" Naruto asked with a grin on his face.

"Feeling as well as one can while standing in this sad place", said the Aburame man, with his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Hello Naruto", said Hinata, with evident tear marks under her eyes. "You look... handsome in your new outfit." She stared at him, as he wore his new orange long-sleeve shirt and black pants.

"Thank you, but it'll be even better when I'll put my Hokage cloak as well tonight. What about your little joy?" He glanced at her big and round stomach. "When will we see her gorgeous little face?"

"Shizune-san said in 5 weeks." She rubbed her belly tenderly before she felt a little kick. "Ouch, she seems to have a lot of energy, just like her godfather", Hinata said looking again towards Naruto, who scratched the back of his lead with a silent laugh.

"Hey there!" shouted a voice behind them. As they turned, they saw Ino running towards them alongside Sai, Sasuke and Sakura. "You left the ANBU HQ so quickly, Shino..."

Shino, Ino and Sasuke had become ANBU 2 years ago, and with Sai, who was also the chief of the Intel department, they formed the best ANBU team of the Leaf. On the other hand, Sakura had been made assistant director of the Konoha hospital 4 years ago, while just 19 years old. With her, Shizune and the Godaime, it was now the best hospital of the Shinobi world.

Sasuke, who had returned to the Leaf after the war, had a more difficult time in the last few years. First, he was condemned to stay a genin all his life and had to stay in jail for a whole year. Then, he was released, but couldn't leave the village and be a shinobi for 3 more years. After this time, he hadn't get in any trouble and was permitted to become again a normal shinobi, and now, he was the first genin to become ANBU.

During those tough times, what had helped him to pull through had been the presence of his friends Naruto and Sakura. He had had 4 complete years to rethink about them and their bond, and he had managed to clear his mind and become the Sasuke he had been when he was younger. He opened his eyes as well on the pink kunoichi and on the care she gave him throughout those 4 years. Now, they had been married for 2 years.

Just after them came in Kiba, Lee and Tenten. The 3 of them were now forming a great team and had recently completed multiple S-rank missions, one after the other.

Finally, Chouji and Shikamaru arrived, late as always. For the last 5 years, the Nara man was assigned as the Leaf emissary in the Hidden Sand village, and Chouji had always traveled with him, as his best friend and body guard.

Since they hadn't been all together at the same time for a long while, they greeted each other, exchanged news, discussed a bit before getting to the point. They all turned towards the memorial stone and shut their mouth. It was quiet enough to hear a needle drop. The emotions were massive and strong, pressuring on their shoulders.

Shikamaru and Ino had managed, over the years, to develop a neutral face and were able to hide their feelings to their teammates, as they read over and over their fathers names on the stone. However, it wasn't as easy for Hinata and Tenten, the latest even had to hold on to Lee not to fall to her knees. Neji did miss to everyone present, but Tenten had lost a friend, a teammate and her first love. Even though she had never admitted it, to him nor to anyone else, she still suffered a lot from his death, still after 7 years.

After they washed away their tears, they split up, as lunch time was approaching. Most returned home but Naruto headed towards a certain ramen stand, and no one was surprised...

The evening breeze cooled the temperature enough to have everyone comfortable as the ceremony was about to begin. On top of the Hokage mansion stood Tsunade-sama, the Godaime, as well as Shizune and Sakura, and Naruto of course. Below them were the Leaf shinobis and villagers.

There were even some visitors from other countries. Naruto recognized Gaara, accompanied by his fiancé Matsuri, Kankuro and Temari. He saw Killer Bee there as well as Ay, and even old man Tsuchikage, with Akatsuchi and Kurotsushi.

As the ceremony begun, the Slug Princess started to talk first. "Good evening everyone. I'm glad to see so many familiar faces gathered here tonight. On this day we celebrate the end of one of the deadliest conflict in our history. We all know a friend, a parent, a loved-one who has died in this deadly war, and even after those years, the pain doesn't go away. Let's take a minute of silence in their memories." The village muted at her words, the silence only broken by the sounds of some people crying and sobbing.

"However, we are gathered here tonight for a more joyful reason" Tsunade continued. "A new Hokage has been named." The crowd screamed and whistle loudly. "It is not a surprise to anyone, as he had been chosen for some years now. However, starting at this minute, I present you the Rokudaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto!"

The crowd was hysterical. As Naruto put on the red and white cloak once worn by his father, he saw the inhabitants of the village, of HIS village, bursting with joy and happiness, and couldn't prevent but to let a tear out of his eyes. He walked forward and started his speech.

"Thank you everyone for all of this. Thank you." The crowd calmed down to let him talk. "I have dreamt of this day for as long as I can remember. I don't know what to say beside thank you for trusting me, moreover, for accepting me. It has not always been easy, and I think that the struggles I faced made me stronger. And as of this day, I promise all of you that I will give my life for this village, for all of its inhabitants, and to keep the peaceful times that the Shinobi world lives in as of this day."

The crowd roared as he barely finished his sentence. Might Guy and Lee jumped on top of the Hokage mansion and lifted him on their shoulders. He couldn't help and burst out laughing as he now enjoyed the moment he had imagined all his life.

The next morning, Naruto was feeling top of the world. He had woke up early, had time to take a quick shower and eat some instant noodles for breakfast before heading to his office in the Hokage mansion. He hadn't moved from his old apartment yet, so he left a couple minutes earlier to get there in time.

Slowly, he looked at the missions he would need to assign today, and picked the best teams to succeed them. Everything was now in order and he was ready to receive the teams in his office... but he hadn't realised in which state they'd come in!

As Tenten's team entered, Naruto quickly realised that they weren't in their best form. Kiba and Lee were very tired, as they had seemed to celebrate all night long the nomination of their friend as Hokage. On top of that, Tenten presented all the sign of a hangover: she wasn't standing very straight, seemed to have a headache and every slightly loud sound made her cringe.

"It's true, after the commemoration, she always drowns her pain in sake", Naruto thought to himself. He quickly reviewed his assignments list and then spoke.

"You guys don't seem to be in very good shape. As for today, I understand why and I will give you an easy mission. You will patrol the western frontier of the village, in the forest." He handed the kunoichi their mission assignment on a small scroll. "It's only a C-rank mission, but I better never see you again in this state on duty. Is that clear?"

Naruto surprised himself as he heard those words come out of his mouth. He never would have believed to say those words. Maybe hear them, but not say them... "Be careful" he added as they left.

"Yeah, it's alright, Hokage-sama", said Kiba with a voice that had always annoyed the blond shinobi. "It's just a C-rank mission after all" added Lee as they left his office.

"Those guys will never learn..." Naruto thought as he remembered his first C-rank mission in the Land of Waves. He then asked Kotetsu to bring in the next team in, and hoped they would be more ready for a day of work...

Around 11:00, he had finished assigning the missions, and took a couple minutes to relax a little. It wasn't the first time he had done so, considering the multiple drinking nights the Godaime had had the past years. However, it felt different today. And it felt good.

As he was about to leave for a quick lunch at Ichiraku's, Kotetsu entered his office. "Hokage-sama, Hatake Kakashi wishes to speak with you."

"Alright, let him in. And please, call me Naruto, like you used to, Kotetsu."

"Yes Hoka... I mean Naruto." He left as the copy-ninja entered the room.

"Hey there Naruto. How does it feel to be officially the Hokage?" Kakashi asked.

"It's pretty cool", answered Naruto. "But why do the ANBU chief leaves his office to come and speak to me in person?"

"We have received some disturbing infos from Ino and Shino. It seems that there are some unknown shinobis coming from the Land of Rivers that are heading towards Konoha. There has been mention of attacks as well in the Land of Rivers and along our mutual borders. I first sent a small squad to follow them, but I have not received any news from them."

"This doesn't sound good" Naruto replied. "I sent Tenten's team on patrol there, but they were not in an optimal shape. I better send them some backups, right?" As he spoke, a small cloud of bugs buzzed at Kakashi's ear, and then his face turned to a worried expression.

"I think we'll need more than backups! I sent, myself, Shino and Ino on the field to investigate, and this is their reports. They found Lee and Kiba passed out in the forest, with no sign of Tenten."

"Damn it. Where are Sasuke and Sai right now?" Naruto shouted as he got up to take his cloak.

"They're at the HQ. Why do you ask? Do you mean to..." He couldn't finish that Naruto had cut him mid-sentence.

"Yes. I'll go get Sakura. We're leaving in 10 minutes." He barely had time to finish that he was already outside the office and running towards the hospital.

"If those two were crushed, even in their bad state, it means we're not facing the usual thugs. What a first day!" Naruto thought, as he jumped from roof to roof to get to the medic-kunoichi.

TO BE CONTINUED...

This is it for the first chapter. The second one is almost ready and should be online in a couple days max. Please review. I want to know how others fell about it.