Just like every other time, Naruto flew out of Ichiraku holding a bowl of ramen. “Master Kakashi! Master Kakashi!”
Kakashi had absolutely no desire to see Naruto. He pretended to be totally absorbed in the book he had just picked up—his favorite, Make-Out Tactics, and in particular the riveting third chapter “Shut up and Follow Me,” which had the highest level of make-outedness in the entire series—and tried to wait out the storm. And yet Naruto had almost no concept of other people’s feelings.
“Master Kakashi! Come on, I’ve been calling your name for ages now, you know. You’re not old enough to be going deaf yet.”
“Hm? Oh, Naruto.” Kakashi sighed in his heart. “Sorry, excuse me. I was completely immersed in this book, I didn’t realize. Oh! Your prosthetic arm’s finished?”
“Yeah, but I still haven’t got the hang of it yet,” he said, clumsily opening and closing the chopsticks he held in his right hand. “Well, guess I can’t really complain.”
“I guess not.”
“Anyway, Master Kakashi, you still haven’t undertaken the inauguration ceremony?”
“What?” See? Here we go. “Hmm, well, I’m not too good at that sort of thing.”
Lately, wherever he went, someone was asking him this question. Kakashi was a little disconcerted by it.
He had indeed resolved to become the Hokage. But he personally thought he wasn’t the Hokage vessel, after all. If he went through with the inauguration ceremony, he really wouldn’t be able to turn back. He even thought from time to time that now that the Fourth Great Ninja War was at an end, there was no real need to be in such a rush to be the Hokage.
“The Hokage Monument’s already done, you know.” Naruto clumsily used his new right hand to shovel ramen noodles into his mouth between sentences. “I mean, everyone’s kinda concerned here. First off, if we don’t make it totally clear who the Hokage is, we won’t have any control over the other villages. That’s what the ceremony’s for, right?”
“Lady Tsunade is still very much in good health, so I don’t really—”
“Granny Tsunade’s already done, I’m telling you,” Naruto dared to state what loomed large. “Ever since she almost died in the war before, she hasn’t been putting herself into her work, you know?”
“…She hasn’t?”
“She starts drinking in the middle of the day, and just when you notice she’s suddenly gone, she’s getting into a huge fight at some gambling den. It’s maybe, like, in that war, she got a real feel for the fact that she’s old, you think?” Naruto laughed heartily. “And I mean, if you gotta go, go big, right?”
But Kakashi was in no position to laugh along with his student. He had detected no ordinary black bloodlust coming from behind Naruto, but rather a huge and boiling wave of wrath.
“But, you know, Granny Tsunade’s getting up there. Makes sense that she wants to retire already and enjoy her golden years.”
“Uh, umm, is that so?” The bloodlust lurking just over Naruto’s shoulder, growing ever more intense, flustered Kakashi. “I think Lady Tsunade is still very young, yes, that is exactly what I think!”
“How?! Maybe you can’t tell from far away, but when you look at her up close, her face is just covered in tiny wrinkles.”
“Aaah!” I’m begging you, shut your mouth already! “You! Don’t say things like that so loudly.”
Each time Naruto tossed off one of these remarks, the bloodlust growled and became even greater.
“What’re you getting so upset about, Master Kakashi?” Naruto was oblivious to the pair of glittering eyes shining behind him. “I won’t say it too loud, but lately, she’s been in some kind of temper. And she forgets stuff everywhere.”
He’s dead.
Kakashi closed his eyes, so he didn’t see Tsunade sink her clenched fist into Naruto’s head. However, he couldn’t stop the very unfunny sound of the sharp crack from reaching his ears.
“Just who is forgetting things everywhere?” Tsunade’s angry roar rang out. “And the reason I’m in a temper is because you are always making me angry!”
Closing his eyes, an enormous bump growing on his head, Naruto prostrated himself on the ground.
“Kakashi!”
“Y-yes ma’am!” With Tsunade glaring fiercely at him, Kakashi’s voice was turned inside out. “I-I was just saying you’re plenty young, Lady—”
“Have you still not decided on a day for the inauguration?”
Kakashi averted his eyes.
“I well understand your hesitation.” Tsunade’s face softened. “I was like that too.”
“You were…?”
“Once you become Hokage, you can no longer live in your own way as you have to this point.” She indicated the prostrate Naruto with her chin. “You won’t be able to spend much time with this idiot anymore, either.”
Kakashi stayed silent and listened.
“You are the only one who can be the sixth,” Tsunade said. “Naruto has indeed grown stronger, but as you can see, he is still not a vessel for the Hokage. And at the time of the Five Kage Summit, you were firm in your resolve to become Hokage, were you not?”
“At the time, I still had the sharingan eye. But losing the sharingan means that I lost the Lightning Blade. Lightning Blade was a jutsu I could complete precisely because I had the dynamic vision of the sharingan. And I thought that with such a jutsu, I’d be able to protect Konoha somehow if I became Hokage.”
“Kakashi…”
“I’m sorry, Lady Tsunade. Please wait to discuss this until your current term is finished.”
“You must be the sixth Hokage, Kakashi.” Obito’s voice came back to life in his ears. And then Obito gave me the sharingan.
What am I hesitating for? Kakashi admonished himself. Right from the start, the sharingan was a loan with an expiration date, wasn’t it? Aah, I probably relied on it too much.
“You were guarding the Tobishachimaru.” Tsunade changed the subject. “Were there enough people on hand?”
“Just barely. This year, it’s our turn with Hozuki Castle, so Team Guy and Shikamaru’s Team Ten are going all out there.”
“Hozuki Castle… I do wish a new castle master would be decided on soon.”
“It’s not going to be that easy to find a master on Mui’s level.”
In the joint tactical operation some years earlier carried out by Konohagakure and Kumogakure, Hozuki Castle had been destroyed. Although the castle itself had since been rebuilt, the castle master Mui, who controlled the prisoners using a technique called Celestial Prison, had lost his life. Ever since, Konoha, Suna, Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri had deployed guards in rotating months-long shifts.
“We need Naruto here protecting the village, so I’ll take a group of jonin with me. It’s just a ceremonial guard, though; there shouldn’t be any problems. Once the boat’s up in the air, my role there is done anyway.”
“That reminds me, Guy said he wants you to let him do that job. Surprising that he’d say something like that with that leg of his.”
“Guy just wants to see a ship flying,” Kakashi said. “He might be able to go out to the Land of Waves in his wheelchair on that.”
“A boat that flies… Truly incredible. Right now, the existence of the Tobishachimaru is a secret from the other countries, but…”
“They’ll find out about it soon enough. When they do, all the countries will likely get together and ask their hidden villages to try and steal Tobishachimaru’s lighter-than-air technology from the Land of Waves.”
In other words, Kakashi added in his heart. For the right to the skies, shinobi would start to deceive and kill each other once again.