A/N: I admit I did this solely because I am a dick.

Don't own Naruto, characters, blah blah, Kishomoto is a hack.

Sakura entered the small office of the Hokage with some trepidation, biting her lip as she did so. "You summoned me, Hokage-sama?"

Danzo stood looking out over the windows of the Hokage Tower, at the still rebuilding Village in the Leaves. The upper floors of the new tower were almost ready, and soon the 'real' offices of the Hokage would be opened. Danzo rather liked this smaller office, though, and since he did not plan to hang on to the stupid looking hat any longer than necessary, resolved he would stay here.

As such, the once austere room had been refurbished a bit – wood-planked floors now covered with thin black tatami mats edged in fuin symbols, and more intricate and expensive maps on the walls. A collection of blades took up one wall, while a scroll and book filled shelf dominated another.

Danzo sat down heavily, his good eye fixed on the slender form of Sakura. The pink-haired girl was truly the key to his future plans, if he could handle this correctly and Fu Yamanaka's gradual tinkering with the girl's head had gone according to plan.

In the six weeks since the destruction of Sasuke Uchiha and his superior, the Madara-imposter, it became apparent that other figures were involved. Now they were dealing with the remains of Orochimaru's Oto forces, commanded by the former ROOT spy Kabuto, who had thrown in with Atasuki and whoever was commanding it now.

What made them dangerous was that somehow, S-rank missing nins known to be dead – several of the Seven Swordsmen, for example – had been resurrected and pressed into service. Kumo reported several incursions in attempting to assail them and get at the Eight-Tailed Beast.

Some of the Council suggested hiding Naruto away, or at least sending him out of the village as to not make it a target, but Danzo disagreed. The more Naruto was in the village, the more upset and malleable he was. Around his friends in the rest of the Elemental Nations, his resentment would fade, his naturally sunny disposition reasserting itself.

Danzo was not quite ready for that to happen yet.

And yet, if hesitated to do anything, Naruto might still slip away. Since the death of Sasuke, the boy had been moody and troubled. Despite his cold declarations of being alright, the death of his closest friend still hurt him. The little Hyuuga girl had not given up either, trying to engage Naruto in conversation wherever she could.

What worried Danzo the most, however, was that Naruto was growing weary of Kohona. He needed something to distract and ground him, while at the same time re-cementing his loyalty to Kohona. Danzo decided that now was the time to enact such a plan.

Thus, instead of having Shizune give the weekly status report on Tsunade, he instead dispatched her to assist with the regeneration of the Raikage's arm and called upon Haruno to report instead.

He gave Hiruzen's kind smile and gestured to the seat in front of the desk. "Have a seat, Chunin Haruno." With a touch of his hand he triggered the privacy seals off the office, a faint blue sheen covering the floor, walls and ceiling.

Sakura took a calming breath. Seeing the privacy seals go off let her know this was likely to be a messy conversation. She smiled when the temporary Hokage used more fuuinjutsu to summon a tea service, complete with hot tea. "Will you partake?"

Drawing on the scraps of etiquette she'd picked up from Ino's family, she inclined her head. "I would be honored, Danzo-sama, although I regret I am not skilled enough to serve."

His smile edged into wryness as he gave a grave nod. "So few understand their own limits are reflections of what one believes and pursues, chunin." He poured two cups, and with a delicate clink of china set a cup in front of her with effortless and slow grace.

Pouring his own, he began moving chakra to his covered eye, even as he spoke. "How is Tsunade-sama this week?"

Sakura winced, sighing. "Unchanged, Danzo-sama. While there are brief periods of consciousness, she has not been able to remain conscious for more than fifteen minutes at a time in the past week. Gien that she has only had three such episode, there is little to no improvement. While there is no muscle atrophy due to the medical support jutsus, her caloric intake is still not high enough and the chakra burns on her coils are not healing. I am not sure when she will be able to at least maintain consciousness normally, but I would estimate several months at best."

Danzo finished pouring his own cup, setting the service to one side and considering the finely worked china for a moment before glancing at her. "And if you were forced to give an estimate of her chances of full recovery? And of being able to take up her position again?"

Sakura grimaced. "Low, Danzo-sama."

Danzo sighed. "Unfortunate."

Sakura frowned. Like most shinobi of the Leaf, she long suspected Danzo to be after the office of the Hokage. His rapid acquisition of power and brutal regimens for security and training had made the village more warlike, and many disliked his path.

He had been tolerated only due to the fact that Naruto seemed to back him up, and to a lesser degree because he had destroyed Sasuke utterly in combat. Sakura swallowed past the feeling as she remembered hearing Sasuke was dead, a mix of sorrow, pain, anger, and relief.

Glancing up, the pinkette sipped her tea as politely as she could. "I would think you would be pleased that Tsunade was unable to return to the office, as it gives you a free hand to become the Hokage."

Danzo snorted. "I see you are like Naruto-san in misunderstanding me. Despite our disagreements about the nature of the world, and my personal disappointment in how Tsunade chose to live her life for years, she overcame her shortcomings in the end to stand and fight as a Senju. She was willing to sacrifice her life for the village." His eye narrowed. "I of all people would not disparage that, in a time when all too few understand the price of the peace and freedoms we have in Kohona. And she is the last of the Sannin – to lose such power for the village weakens it."

He picked up his tea and sipped. "Finally, I do neither need nor want a 'free hand' to become the next Hokage. As I remarked to Naruto, the hat is stupid looking. If she recovers enough to take the job, she's welcome to the paperwork."

Sakura set her cup down, eyes hardening. "…you do not wish to be Hokage?"

Danzo gave a nonchalant shrug. "I am too old for such a position, and there are many who disagree with my policies. And if I came to the post by fiat instead of acclaim and selection of the Council, there are many who would feel my rule was … fraudulent. There is little need for me to reach out to take a position that will chain me down without giving me the freedom to act as I feel best."

Sakura thought about this answer. Naruto had already told her Danzo didn't want to be Hokage, but to hear it was something else again. "I don't think I understand, Danzo-sama. You disagree with Tsunade-shisou's policies, but you don't want to be Hokage in order to change them? I would think you would do so in the face of any opposition."

Danzo chuckled, surprising Sakura, and then sipped his own tea, his motions practiced yet languid. "You will find, young Haruno, that the things we want and the things we can obtain are often not in alignment. I would indeed like to change the outlook of the village." He placed his tea down.

"But the Third's philosophy has … infected this village far too much for me to rule in the way Kohona needs. To act now would simply divide us when we must be unified and strong. I cannot be the Hokage in such an environment. There is simply too much weakness, and not enough willingness to sacrifice."

His gaze met hers squarely. "And of course, those who have sacrificed the most are the most poorly treated. I have lost my eye, my arm, my wife, my sons, and my siblings. My best friend is dead, defending this village. My parents died defending it. Yet I am held as some sort of war-mongering boogeyman."

He smiled. "Those who have sacrificed even more than I … are treated, perhaps, even more cruelly."

She frowned at that. "You're talking about Naruto-kun."

He nodded. "I am." He paused to sip at his tea again before continuing. "The other reason why I do not attempt to pursue the position of Hokage is that I believe Naruto is suited to it. He is strong, capable of taking out multiple S-class opponents, one of which overcame the entire village. He is surprisingly capable when it comes to interactions with other Hidden Villages. His blood is that of not only a Hokage, but a linage of Hokage's and princes, the Uzumaki and Senju. Trained by the Fourth's student, apprenticed to the Fourth's sensei, and savior of the Leaf Village, his qualifications are impeccable."

He gazed calmly at her. "For all of that, however, Naruto is not loyal to the village."

Sakura scowled blackly. "How can you say that? He sacrificed so much for this village, these people who spat on him and hated him! He put up with it even as they despised him, even when they – " She broke off as he held up a hand.

"I do not disagree with you that he has sacrificed a great deal – his linage, his proper place in society, his very body and soul. I disagree with you in the target of his loyalties." His voice hardened. "For various reasons, the Third Hokage attempted to reinforce Naruto's loyalty to the Leaf through various ham-handed methods. He failed, miserably, in taking care of Naruto, and yet used this lack of care to attempt to reinforce a situation known in ANBU circles as the Touch of a Few."

Danzo's voice was dry and academic. "Touch of a Few is a method to break and condition a certain kind of subject. The subject is usually a hated outcast – perhaps a missing-nin, perhaps merely disgraced. It is built using a handful of friendly triggers and people who treat the subject kindly in the face of massive psychological attack ."

Danzo sipped his tea again, his expression cool, as Sakura listened. "The use of a few 'kindly faces' to counteract the isolation of many others reinforces those bonds. Over time, the outcast is allowed to slowly seem to be 'winning people over'. Eventually, they transfer their loyalties to those few people who have accepted them."

Danzo smiled thinly. "Hiruzen's gambit failed, mostly because Naruto adapted a mask of a happy, carefree idiot and because it was not a coordinated campaign. Inside, Naruto hates this village. He hates it because it never, ever accepted him, even when he outperformed even some of our greatest heroes. He hates it more now because of the outpouring of false acceptance, which has turned his long cherished dream of proving everyone wrong … into a nightmare."

Sakura nodded even as she winced inside. Danzo was very much on target in his assessment. But that didn't mean her Naruto-kun hated the village. "But he still wants to be Hokage! He … no matter what others have done, he has friends here! People he cares about!"

Danzo looked at her and prepared his eye. "Haruno, you were said to be highly intelligent. There is no purpose in lying to yourself. Naruto is loyal to one and only one person in this village and that is you. You were the only one to accept him for what he is, once you learned of the Kyuubi. You were why he tried so hard to continue to fight. You were and are his anchor. His sacrifices were for you."

She closed her eyes. "I … I know that."

Danzo's smile became cruel. "Then you must understand that sometimes sacrifices must be made for the cold reasons of politics. I made a critical error when informing the village of his true lineage as the son of the Fourth. I assumed, based on the sketchy reports and brief conversations that I had with Naruto, that you and he were romantically involved. I had expected him to marry you in the aftermath of the announcement, allowing the re-establishment of the Uzumaki Clan and preventing any … opportunistic offers of marriage from nobles, clans, or outside parties."

Sakura flushed hotly and stammered. "W-we aren't … "

Danzo nodded, his smile now sour. "Indeed. Instead you were infatuated with the now-dead Uchiha traitor. As such, I have been forced to look at other alternatives for a good match for Naruto, ones that will hopefully tie him to this village. So far, the most promising seems to be that of the heir to the Hyuuga, one Hinata."

He laughed inside as the young woman across from him trembled in rage. Fu had gone inside the girl's head without her realizing it, tinkering here and there. Before her view of Naruto had been strictly that of a brother-figure. Her own predilections were for slender men with dark hair and delicate features – he found it hilarious that she also was attracted to his agent Sai.

But she did love the Uzumaki boy a great deal, almost pathologically. She was mentally broken inside, according to Fu, and the shifts he'd made to her thinking had rendered her increasingly confused in the past few weeks.

A pathological and irrational dislike of other women making passes at Naruto.

A vindictive, unreasonable possessiveness towards the boy.

Increasing her libido and hormonal levels to almost nine times their baselines.

Most importantly, weakening the urges and memories she had of her infatuation with Sasuke and attaching a few of those to memories of Naruto.

Given enough time and with patience, Fu could have rewritten the girl to chase after Naruto. But that wouldn't be good enough for what he wanted. Emotions were a weapon, and he planned to use them as such.

He leaned back. "In fact, given that the girl is willing to not only sacrifice her position in the clan to marry young Uzumaki, but to sacrifice her life to protect him, she may be the best choice after all. She is, after all, a noble."

Sakura forced herself to breathe. "With all due respect, Danzo-sama, I doubt Hinata is the best choice -"

Danzo shrugged, and smiled. "To be blunt, Haruno, you have shown no interest – and what exactly have you sacrificed for him? Nothing."

He triggered the eye. "The only way to show you care is to sacrifice your wishes for his happiness." He shuddered as he felt the eye drain his chakra, and watched Sakura sway dizzily for a moment. He smiled and finished his tea.

"In any event, Haruno… I merely wished to make you aware of the situation, since your acceptance of whoever is chosen to be his wife will be critical in convincing him to go along with it, and your own impact on his happiness cannot be understated."

He stood, and she did as well, shaking her head as if dizzy. "I….I understand, Danzo-sama. I … I need to think. May I be excused?"

He nodded. "Of course, Chunnin Haruno. Tell Naruto-kun I said hello."

The girl half stumbled, half staggered out of his office, and Danzo waited a good thirty seconds before chuckling and sitting back down.

If Hiruzen could play with emotions and ties to the village, so could he.