Nindō: Dominion

After dropping Himawari off at the Academy, Naruto went up to his office before summoning Shikamaru.

"How's life going without your wife at home?" Naruto asked teasingly.

"Living the dream," Shikamaru said with his usual dead tone. "I feel like a bachelor again. Just one with a kid whom I had to cook breakfast for. If it was just me, I'd have made do with instant ramen."

"Don't cry so much," Naruto said. "How about we go out for drinks tonight? Guys night. I'll call Chōji to see if he's free as well."

"Are you going to be free?" Shikamaru asked with a pointed look.

"I'll make do. Things have been a little hectic after the loss of our beloved elders, but the extra stuff has pretty much been taken care of at this point."

"That reminds me," Shikamaru said. "About Sai's replacement, Sixth-sama should be arriving to meet with you today. And have you thought about who you want to put in the position that the daimyo appointed? We will need to introduce them at the next meeting at the end of the month."

"One thing at a time, Shikamaru," Naruto said with a sigh. "First off, Temari's status. We encountered some resistance during the journey, as expected, and Temari got incapacitated."

Shikamaru frowned, "That puts a damper on our plans. What happened? I doubt whether any Suna-nin team would be daring enough to attack the Hokage of Konoha. Unless they got unlucky and never did any homework on the politics of the villages."

"We ran into Urashiki," Naruto said. "He was able to use that fishing rod of his to hook Temari's chakra before retreating. She is suffering from severe chakra deprivation and is unconscious right now."

"Has your clone reached the safe house where Sai and the Anbu agents are staying?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "It relayed the information to me from the resting area where Temari is sleeping."

"Hope she wakes up soon," Shikamaru said. "Otherwise, the plan will become much more difficult. Not to mention your sleep deprivation. Everything relies on your clone staying in Suna as a nuclear deterrent."

"I'll be fine," Naruto smiled. "As long as I can have a conversation with the leader of the rebellion, I will be able to resolve the entire situation."

Shikamaru nodded. "What about the daimyo's proxy in the council? Have you thought of anyone?"

"Well, for one, we can't just put anyone into the position. They have to be reputed and respected among the shinobi of Konoha. Especially for the daimyo to take them seriously, it's best if they have some solid background," Naruto said. "Sadly, that narrows us down to the older jōnin ninja and S-rank shinobi. Most of whom are already in clans."

"I have an idea of who you're thinking of … She will be the second retired ninja whom you call back," Shikamaru raised his brow.

"Granny Tsunade is the best option," Naruto said, laughing lightly as if thinking of an internal joke. "Not only is she widely respected due to her past position as the Fifth Hokage, but she is also one of the Sannin. Not to mention that with the blood of one of the founding clans that runs through her, she's the perfect person for the job."

"She won't come back," Shikamaru said. "Considering how she's freely enjoying retirement, it will be impossible to call her back."

"It's fine, I'll make her retirement a little less free," Naruto had a mischievous look in his eyes. "It's going to take her mere days to come back to Konoha and agree to become the daimyo's proxy."

"Whatever you say," Shikamaru said, "Let me know if you need anything else. I'll be in my office."

"Don't forget about tonight. We're getting drinks, you, me, and Chōji. It's been so long since we've hung out at all."

"You bet."

…

Naruto did his duties for the rest of the day, taking a break for lunch, where he took Himawari home and teased his wife a little about her state in the morning. He then returned to the Hokage's office to resume his work before his lovely disciple dragged herself into his office, not even knocking before she entered.

"Your training seems to have been fruitful, I see," Naruto smiled at Sarada as the young kunoichi groaned tiredly and flopped face-first down on the couch. "I'll be with you in a few minutes," Naruto said as the girl released another groan, this one muffled by the couch's cushion. She raised her arm in Naruto's direction as if pleading for her to come with her.

Naruto laughed lightly, shaking his head as he finished his current document before coming up to Sarada. Pulling her head on his thigh, he asked her, "Happy now."

"A lot~" She mumbled happily as she turned around and buried her face in his stomach. She could already feel herself recovering at an unholy pace. "This training is so tiresome … but also effective"

"Is it?" Naruto smiled. "Are you keeping your Sharingan active throughout the session?" He asked her.

"Mhm," She nodded. "It helps me make sure that I'm doing your chakra enhancement training without making any mistakes. I'm still not perfect, but I am usually able to fix my mistakes as they come."

"That's good," Naruto nodded. "How long is the duration you are able to keep it active while also training your chakra?"

"I finally crossed the ten-minute mark today, and that's with keeping my chakra engaged in all sorts of things. I can probably keep it active for upwards of twenty minutes. Once my Sharingan was deactivated, I started on the secondary exercises that you told me about."

"That's good." Naruto nodded, quieting down while caressing her hair as she recovered herself.

"What about you, master?" She looked up at him with a curious gaze. "What did you do today?"

Naruto smiled. "Suna is going through a rebellion right now. I'm focused on doing damage control while also trying to come to a middle ground with them."

"That's because the Kazekage is in a coma, right? He's incapacitated and is still at the hospital in a secure ward."

"Mhm," Naruto nodded and continued telling her about the day before she brought up the topic of her missions.

"We haven't had any mission that needs us to leave the village beyond a certain perimeter for a while," She said, "Can you give us a higher-rank mission? One that will allow me to truly put my new training to effect?"

Naruto hummed, "I guess I did receive a request about a mission where you will have to go to Hōzuki Castle. I was going to look for a chūnin cell to go on that mission, but I guess I could assign it to Konohamaru instead."

"What is it about?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"Konohamaru will tell you tomorrow," Naruto said. "It is up to the discretion of the jōnin sensei how he delegates the mission."

"Please~" She widened her eyes, fluttering her lashes as she grabbed his arm and shook it lightly. "Tell me, master~"

Naruto sighed, unable to resist his disciple's puppy eyes, "Just don't try this look when you go for subterfuge … It won't work on an enemy," He didn't want to set a bad example. "As for the mission, it's about extracting a certain individual from the Mujina bandits from the prison. He has agreed to share invaluable information about the other branches of the gang and their associates. Your job is to extract the prisoner and bring him to Konoha."

The master-disciple duo spent a little more time conversing about their days as Sarada recovered fully within around fifteen minutes. She even stood up and stretched a little to crack her joints. Then the two moved to Naruto's desk, where he put her Sharingan to work, making her go through his documents as quickly as possible. In the middle, Shikamaru came in.

"I'm going to clock out for the day," He told Naruto before turning to Sarada, smiling. "Little Sarada. I see you're hard at work helping your master."

"Y-yes, Advisor-sama," She was about to stand up, but Naruto patted her knee, shaking his head at her.

"Yeah, you can get going, I'll meet you at the new bar in the square. I want to check the place out," Naruto told him.

"You talk to Chōji?" Shikamaru asked.

"I did. He agreed, but you will need to go get him. He can't get out of there by himself."

"Is he stuck somewhere?"

"He's at home," Naruto's words prompted a laugh out of Shikamaru.

"I guess we're all whipped in one way or the other. I'll meet you with Chōji in that case," The man nodded at Sarada, who was feeling a little awkward about her presence, before leaving.

"Are you going out today, master?" She asked curiously.

"Don't try to be too nosy, Sarada," Naruto said, patting her head. "But yes, I am going out for drinks with my friends. I would've invited you if you were of legal drinking age, which is sixteen."

"I hear somewhere that it was enacted as a law only when you became the Hokage. I would've been able to drink otherwise," She said.

"Alcohol can harm young growing children. Now that we can focus on the village instead of defending ourselves from external threats, we can take actions for the betterment of life in the village itself …"

The two didn't even realize how much time had passed before Sarada jumped up, realizing that she was half an hour late. Still, they had gotten a lot of work done, clearing more than twice as many documents as Naruto had gone through in the entire day within the span of a total of two hours. At this point, the young kunoichi left Naruto's office with a skippy gait.

The Hokage then stood up from his seat as well, "I should get going, they are probably waiting for me," He spoke while stretching before he created a clone that would go and let Hinata know that he was going out with Shikamaru and Chōji and would return late in the night.

"Aren't you going to invite me for drinks?" A voice reached Naruto's ear, and he raised a brow.

"Late as always, Kakashi-sensei. You were supposed to come and meet me during the day," Naruto said with a wide smile as a white-haired man with a mask appeared in his office out of nowhere.

***

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