“Talk to Ikkyu one more time,” Shikamaru said to Naruto, who was sitting in the Hokage’s chair.
“What’s this about? I just talked to him, didn’t I?” His blue eyes wide open, Naruto had a strange look on his face. He sighed as he leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk. “You’ve been weird lately.”
“You can think I’m as weird as you want. Just get in touch with Ikkyu right away.”
“And what exactly am I supposed to talk to him about?”
“About the Land of Earth.” Shikamaru glared at him, a fight in his eyes.
Naruto took this in calmly. “We talked that out at the meeting the other day,” he said slowly. “I got a firm promise from Lord Ikkyu that he would start working on the Land of Earth. There’s no need to go to the Land of Fire and meet with him again.”
“The situation’s different now,” Shikamaru insisted.
“You mean because of the abduction?” His blond eyebrows raised, and the Hokage’s previously kind eyes took on a hard edge. “Shikamaru, you knew Lord Tento’d be abducted, didn’t you? You deliberately let Shojoji and them flop around so they would take Lord Tento and then you could save him.”
It was in the past now. It would have been a hassle if Naruto had known beforehand, but him knowing now couldn’t change anything. Shikamaru nodded calmly. “I was the one who gave the order to say nothing to you.”
“So you could make Lord Ikkyu owe us one, I guess?” As Hokage, Naruto had also learned to consider tactics of manipulation like this. But he never wanted to resort to these darker methods for leverage. That was fine. Shikamaru didn’t want him to either. Naruto had to remain the light. He would take on the shadows himself.
Giving a deliberate snort of laughter, Shikamaru shrugged. “If you understand that, then you can figure out the point of meeting again yourself.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Naruto protested. “I’m saying you’ve been weird lately! Using your Shadow Possession to threaten the Five Kages, overseeing the abduction of Lord Tento…”
“I didn’t oversee it,” he replied. “I was monitoring it very closely. Even if Boruto’s team hadn’t rescued him, Tento would have been returned to Ikkyu without a scratch.”
“And what did you plan to do if the worst happened and Lord Tento was killed?!” the Hokage snapped. “Were you going to take responsibility for that? I can’t just let this go. I mean, using a child as a hostage for negotiation?”
“I’ve always known that you hate this sort of thing. That’s why I did it, isn’t it?”
“Shikamaru!” Naruto stood up, walked around his desk, and grabbed his friend by the collar. “You always keep every little thing to yourself. You have to trust me more.”
Shikamaru didn’t flinch at the sudden rough handling. “It’s precisely because you’re the Hokage that I can do this sort of thing. I was able to do what I needed to do at the meeting of the Five Kages and with Tento because I have faith in you.”
“So what’s so important that you’d get Lord Ikkyu in our debt?”
“A meeting of the daimyo of the five great nations.”
“You…” Naruto released Shikamaru’s collar.
“We’re not going to get anywhere at this point with ninja talking to ninja,” he said coolly, rubbing his neck. “We’re at a standstill now unless the daimyo get together and talk this out.”
Sighing, Naruto closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m racking my brains here, too, okay? Even I know that we won’t get anywhere like this. We can’t have war ever again. But I can’t see a way forward, however much we might want to make a move here. I thought about going to Iwagakure and talking with Kurotsuchi one-on-one, but I don’t know if that’d do anything to improve the situation.”
“That’s not like you.”
Naruto looked at Shikamaru with wide eyes.
“Think it and do it,” he said to his sworn friend of so many years, smiling faintly. “That used to be who you were. If you had time to worry, you’d rather get moving. You’ve always forged your path forward like that.”
“I guess so,” Naruto said sadly, staring at his open hands. “When you grow up, though, you have so much more responsibility. A whole lot of hassle. It weighs you down. Believe it. Responsibility hangs so heavy on your neck, you can’t take a single step. And then you just get stuck in this thought loop, like maybe you should have done it the other way. Or like, no, this is the right way. It just never stops.”
Naruto wasn’t usually one to complain. As Hokage, he stood out front to lead the village of Konohagakure with an unflaggingly positive attitude. But he struggled. He worried and got weighed down. The burden he bore was greater than anyone in the village; he was responsible for so much, he couldn’t exactly go running off however he pleased.
Naruto only spoke of these anxieties to Shikamaru, and then only occasionally. Shikamaru was the only one who knew this vulnerable side of Naruto.
“You wanna go up to the roof for a sec?”
“Smoke?” Naruto raised an eyebrow.
Shikamaru grinned and nodded.
“Fine. If you have to.” Naruto followed him out of the office.
When they came out onto the roof, Shikamaru pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He let the smoke roll into his lungs before gently exhaling. The wispy trails of gray melted into the dazzling blue sky.
As he looked up at the clouds drifting from west to east, Shikamaru turned to his close friend. “Growing up, having a family, it’s all a huge struggle. Sometimes, I want to just throw it all away and be by myself.”
“I’ve never been happier than I am now,” Naruto replied.
“You only say role model stuff now.” Shikamaru sighed. “You used to be more honest with yourself, you know.”
“Maybe.”
They laughed, and then Shikamaru took a drag on the cigarette, which was now half ash.
“For all that I’m weighed down now, thinking about all these exhausting and annoying hassles, I’m way better at strategizing than I used to be. I think up new tactics and plans that would never have occurred to me before. It’s not like I get scared and freeze up. I’ve lived more life so now I can see and play the best moves.”
“When you talk so confidently, I can almost believe you’re right about anything,” Naruto remarked.
“At the very least, I think I’m right.” He crushed the cigarette and dropped it into the circular ashtray. Even after he was done smoking, however, neither man moved to leave the roof.
“Hey, Naruto,” he said. “I’m absolutely not giving up. We have to avoid a war above all else.”
“I’m right here with you on that.” The Hokage nodded.
“It’s a delicate road, like walking across thin ice. We can’t worry about how things look. And some of this stuff is bound to mess us up. You might have to play a couple cards you hate. Even so, you have to trust me. I’m not giving up on peace, right up until the bitter end. I don’t want Boruto and Shikadai to have to go through the stuff of Asuma and Neji’s time.”
“Got it.”
Shikamaru felt a warm hand on his back.
“I trust you.”
“You turned out to be a real Hokage,” Shikamaru said and put another cigarette in his mouth. He quickly lit it and exhaled smoke.
“You’re smoking more.” Naruto pursed his lips as he waved the smoke away from his face.
Pretending not to notice, Shikamaru replied with a grin, “It’s a celebration cigarette for getting that hassle crossed off the list, you know?”
“Wait, whoa.” Naruto waved his hands in protest. “You actually put more hassles on that list, though.”
“So this is just ’cause we got more hassles then.”
“That’s not even an excuse.”
“Guess not.” Smiling, he finished the second cigarette. And then he started a counterattack. “Here you are giving me flak for smoking, but aren’t you going for ramen a lot more than before you got married?”
“Hngh…”
“You’re using late night work as an exccuse to go to Ichiraku, like, every day. You gotta face facts, friend. We’re both getting to the age where you get a belly. And a fat Hokage, that’s not a great look.”
“I-I’m still training,” Naruto protested. “Believe it. I make sure to burn off what I eat in ramen, so it’s all good.”
“Really?”
“P-probably…”
“You’re hopeless.” Shikamaru laughed. In his hand, a third cigarette.
“I just told you you’re smoking too much!”
“Shut up. This from the gluttonous Lord Seventh.”
“You’re the one who needs to shut up!”
“I’m just telling it like it is.”
They laughed briefly before settling down again. They looked down on the village of Konohagakure spread out beneath them.
“I’ll go to the Land of Fire’s daimyo,” Naruto said, finally. “You’ll come too, yeah?”
“Of course.”
“A summit for the daimyo of the five great nations. Gotta make it happen.”
“Really leverage that debt he owes us for saving Tento,” Shikamaru told him. “If it’s hard for you to say, I can do it.”
“I know you’re ready for that. I’ll try a bit harder, too.”
“I’m counting on you, Lord Hokage.”
“When you call me ‘lord,’ it feels patronizing.”
“It’s all in your head. Just your imagination running wild.” He patted Naruto on the back twice, tossed his cigarette in the ashtray, and turned around. “About time to get to work.”
“We’re not done talking here!”
The voice of the Hokage at his back sounded innocent in a way that reminded him of when they were kids.
Shikamaru’s face tightened sternly in preparation for their next battle.