A group of boys, about ten years old, passed by, laughing in sunny voices from the bottoms of their stomachs. Behind them, a man in his thirties with a grim look on his face hurried along to somewhere. The children were probably going to the academy, the man to work. In front of an early-opening deli tucked in a corner of the road, a number of women who appeared to be housewives were chatting animatedly.
The usual morning, the usual scene.
Shikamaru walked through the peaceful early village toward the Hokage’s office. The main road led from the A-un main gates—the entryway to the village—straight to the Hokage Residence. The road ended square at the Residence, behind which was the monument with the faces of the Hokage carved into it.
Shikamaru, however, was not going to the Hokage Residence.
A shinobi who has been given a mission would normally slip out of the village through the A-un main gates. It wasn’t a rule per se; it just naturally happened that way. However, the Anbu were different. Given that the members of the Anbu were frequently assigned top-secret missions, they used the back gates, in a corner of the monument behind the Hokage Residence, so that they could leave without being spotted by the people of the village.
Shikamaru was headed toward those back gates. His current mission was a secret from the villagers. Kakashi and a few top-level people were the only ones who knew about it, besides Shikamaru himself, and Ro and Soku, who he was taking with him.
He left it to Kakashi to deal with things after he was gone from the village. The Hokage would tell the villagers he had gone out on some alliance business. He would leave without anyone knowing, and he would return the same way. That was the idea.
“Hmm?” Shikamaru’s eyes caught something as he hurried toward the back gates.
A yellow-haired man.
Who also noticed Shikamaru.
“Hey! It’s Shikamaru! Where’re you going in such a hurry, huh?” The man raced over to Shikamaru, a smile spreading across his lips so childish it was hard to believe they were the same age. Three lines on either cheek, crystal-clear blue eyes.
“I could say the same thing to you. What’re you up to so early, Naruto?” Shikamaru called the man by name.
Uzumaki Naruto.
The hero who guided the last Great War to an end, the son of the fourth Hokage. Not long after he was born, Nine Tails had been sealed inside his body, and from the time he was a small boy, he had been viewed with prejudice. Despite this, the boy had had his sights set on becoming Hokage and had never once faltered from that path. And now, Naruto was at the top of the list of candidates to be the Hokage after Kakashi.
“I couldn’t really sleep last night, y’know? And I woke up early, so I went and had some ramen at Ichiraku. Just on my way home now.”
“Are they even open this early?”
“They’re open twenty-four hours now,” Naruto said, gleefully.
“That doesn’t mean you have to go and eat ramen, of all things, first thing in the morning.”
“I could eat ramen breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
“That’s not something to brag about, y’know.”
“Half my body’s made of ramen,” Naruto noted proudly, with a straight face.
A sigh naturally slipped out of Shikamaru’s mouth. “You know, you’re the hero who ended the Great War now. Think about your health for five seconds.”
“The hero thing’s the hero thing; ramen is ramen!”
“I don’t get that logic at all.”
“Heh heh heh!”
The figure before him, laughing as he rubbed at his nose, hadn’t changed in the slightest from their days at the academy. Naruto lived in a straightforward way, as genuine as ever. His forthrightness had changed the people around him and had changed his own self. Naruto, the black sheep of the village, gradually earned more and more friends via his pure heart, and in the end even saved his close friend Uchiha Sasuke, after that friend had fallen to the depths of darkness and cursed everything in this world.
All this was no mean feat. Or rather, it was a stunt no one other than Naruto could pull off.
Upfront and honest, Naruto had cherished since childhood the dream of one day becoming Hokage. From the time when no one would have anything to do with him, back when he was all attention-seeking mischief, he had insisted and continued to insist that he was going to be Hokage. In the beginning, no one believed him. But now, everyone in the village thought the next Hokage could be no one other than Naruto.
Naruto was the sun. In his body, he housed an inexhaustible flame, a blinding, shining sun. Anyone bathed in that passion opened their heart and became his friend.
Shikamaru was certain Naruto would keep pushing ahead, just like he always had. And it would actually happen. Someday, he would become Hokage, and his light would grow and grow, bathed in the confidence of the villagers.
But because of its light, the sun did not know the shadows. On more than one occasion along the way, Naruto had fought people held prisoner by the darkness, but it had never bent him. Naruto fought with the belief that no matter how far a person might have fallen, their heart would inevitably seek the light. Shikamaru had seen this unwavering faith change any number of enemies.
Whatever darkness he found himself in, he never lost his light. Which was why, in the truest sense, Naruto did not know the shadows.
There was, however, a darkness in people that could never be eradicated. No leader could ever save everyone. However large the hand that lifted them up, some would always slip through the gaps between the fingers. There were certain things in this world no one could change.
But Naruto didn’t think so. No matter how impossible the situation might appear, he never gave up on his quest to save everyone. Naruto was that kind of man.
And Shikamaru thought that was the man Naruto should be. Genuine and straightforward in the face of any and everything, Naruto should continue to be the sun.
When the light is strong, the shadows are also strong. Someone had to bear the burden of those shadows.
Shikamaru felt like that was his role. There was really no one more perfect for the job, given that his own specialty was manipulating shadows.
Naruto would be the Hokage, and Shikamaru would be Naruto’s officer. That was Shikamaru’s dream: to always be by Naruto’s side, to pick up the shadows slipping through the gaps in Naruto’s light.
Once his thoughts got to this point, everything came together for him. Why was he so insistent on volunteering to go to the Land of Silence himself?
For Naruto’s sake.
If the Land of Silence became any stronger than it already was, Naruto would definitely suffer. The Land of Silence would emerge as Naruto’s greatest nemesis. So, best to nip it while it was still in the bud. And since Shikamaru had decided to be responsible for Naruto’s shadows, it was only natural that he be the one to nip the bud of that obstacle.
“What’re you doing?” Naruto asked.
“Taking a walk.”
“So early in the morning?”
“I think a walk’s way more morning than eating ramen.”
“True.”
They both laughed.
“You got the day off?” Shikamaru asked, after a while.
“As if. Someone somewhere always comes along with some annoying mission. I haven’t had a day off in six months. I’m out on another mission this afternoon.”
“Someone somewhere” was Shikamaru.
“I get those missions for your own sake. Quit all your grumbling and just do them.”
“I just want a little time off at least.”
“You’re a candidate for the next Hokage. People are watching you. This is the most important time in your life. Have some self-awareness.”
“I know, I know. But, you know.”
“No buts,” Shikamaru said, as if speaking to a sulking child. “Everyone in the village recognizes your ability now. Which is exactly why you need to perform as many missions as you can and make them all think, ‘Yeah, it’s Naruto or no one.’ It’s been almost two years since the Great War. If you think they’re going to approve you just because you’re the hero who ended the war, think again.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Naruto pursed his lips before opening his mouth wide in a yawn. “My belly’s full now. Maybe I’ll go home and sleep a bit again.”
“Don’t oversleep.”
“Yup.” Naruto grinned broadly, eyes narrowing, and walked past Shikamaru.
“Hey! Naruto!” Shikamaru called over his shoulder.
“Hmm?” Naruto said, absently, turning around.
“You’re gonna be Hokage. Don’t forget.”
“I never stopped saying it. That’s my ninja path.”
“You mean our ninja path.”
“Yeah.”
Waving his right arm in broad sweeps, Naruto turned and started walking again. After taking a moment to watch his friend’s back move away from him, Shikamaru started walking too.
“I’ll make you Hokage.”
Shikamaru promised not to stop saying it either; he was determined.
∞
“Sorry to make you wait,” he said to Ro and Soku in front of him. Their mission now was to infiltrate the village and assassinate the target, a job that couldn’t be carried out with covert activities alone, so neither of them were wearing their masks. “Get intel on the actual situation in the Land of Silence. Find Sai and the members of the Anbu we’ve lost contact with. But our top priority is to assassinate Gengo.”
Both shinobi nodded silently.
No one was there to see them off, not even Kakashi. It was just the three of them standing at the deserted rear gate, with its grove of trees at the base of the monument, damp and gloomy even in the daytime.
“We’re doing an assassination, so exsssamination is unnecessary, hm,” Ro said, with excessive emphasis on “examination,” as he flared the large nostrils in his eagle’s beak of a nose.
Shikamaru stared, perplexed, completely missing whatever Ro was trying to say.
“You bomb so badly, like, it’s almost funny,” Soku said, almost apologetically, and Ro grew flustered. Sweat sprang up around the corners of his eyes. Soku shifted her gaze from her awkward partner over to Shikamaru. “This old guy meant examination like reconnaissance. He basically tried to force a pun between assassination and examination. Sometimes, he gets all weird with wordplay. You gotta, like, watch out.”
Shikamaru swallowed the question of what exactly he was supposed to watch out for and cleared his throat. He pulled himself together and spoke to the pair once more. “Run without stopping when you’re out the gates. Got it?”
“Like, got it,” Soku replied, somewhat gleefully, while next to her, Ro nodded, cheeks blazing red.
“Okay, let’s go then,” Shikamaru said, and yanked open the gate, so small it would just barely allow two people walking abreast to pass through.