Day 1: The Elders' Suggestion

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"Hokage-sama..."

No answer.

"Hokage-sama, you have guests.."

...

"DOBE! HELLO!" 23 year old Uchiha Sasuke yelled at the Hidden Leaf's hero. The Uchiha was pissed. Actually right now he wasn't just pissed, he was get in my way and I'll chidori your butt pissed. He glared at his best friend, who was snoring too loudly at his desk. Of all the days for the Hokage to take a nap, he had to choose this one, the day the village elders arrived in Naruto's office for a meeting. Sasuke, being the head of the ANBU Blackops, had to make sure the meeting went down smoothly, but so far it wasn't going too smooth at all.

"Mmmhh.. Such good ramen! " Naruto the seventh Hokage muttered in his sleep with a stupid smile on his face. Sasuke tensed nervously, looking at the elders and approached the idiot. When he reached Naruto, he leaned down next to the Hokage's ear. "Hey, Naruto. The elders are here for a meeting." Sasuke hissed.

"Oh man... This is the best Ichiraku ramen ever! I can almost kiss you, Teuchi!" Naruto said dreamily and began to close the gap between him and Sasuke, trying to put his lips on his best friend's. Sasuke's anger was boiling and he was about to chidori the Hokage in the face, but decided that punching the idiot would probably not lead to banishment and would bring the same amount of satisfaction to the Uchiha.

Sasuke punched Naruto in the jaw, waking the Hokage in the process. "WAH? Sasuke-teme! What the heck was that for?"

The Sharingan user coughed, moving his head in the direction of the elders, while Naruto rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. He stretched his arms and asked,"So what's up gramps and granny?" He looked at the two elders with his bright blue eyes.

"We must discuss an issue we have been noticing in our Hokage." Mitokado Homura stated strictly as Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, you have been very messy lately." Utatane Koharu pointed out to Naruto's disdain. The ramen lover slowly looked around his office, finally noticing the empty ramen cups littering the floor, and the pieces of crumbled up paper.

"Well my elderly friends, I'm not that messy. Sure I'm unorganized and I leave my trash on the ground, but I'm not a slob or anything." Naruto said while laughing nervously and continued,"I just use all my time on my paperwork and mission assignments and..." Naruto paused to think of another excuse."eh... I've got nothing.."

Sasuke internally slapped himself on the forehead. The dobe really had a way with words. But most of all, Sasuke was afraid that the elders will think he's not fit to be Hokage when in reality, Naruto is just being the messy dobe he was.

"Uzumaki Naruto. If you continue to perform such incompetent actions, we will consider moving you down from the Hokage's seat for a period of time." Homura stated with seriousness in his tone. This guy's not joking around, Naruto thought with a small feeling of panic deep within himself. He worked way too hard for this to let it get away from him because of his uncleanliness.

"Yes, Naruto-kun. You are the Hokage, and untidiness is a warning of how you will be leading our village." Koharu stated while Naruto gulped.

"So, what do you suggest I do? I can get a trash can in here or something. Maybe a ninja maid?" Naruto offered. If anything, he had to act like he will fix his mistake even if he won't.

"We were thinking of something more permanent." Koharu said with the same squinty eyed look on her face. Naruto always wondered why she had to scrunch her face all the time. She needed to lighten up a bit.

"What do you mean by permanent." Naruto asked being unaware of where this was going. He looked at the two with suspicion in his eyes.

"We both think that it is time for you to get married, Naruto-kun." Koharu clarified.

Naruto's eyes widened. Marriage? Was he even ready to commit his life to someone? He wasn't even ready to commit his time to clean himself up. How was this going to work out? He didn't even like reading the icha icha trilogy. To be completely honest, Uzumaki Naruto probably didn't even know what the definition of romance was. "M-marriage?" He repeated her words.

"Yes. We thought that it is only fair to let you pick your bride." Homura said while pulling out a paper of names on it, probably all kunoichi Naruto guessed.

"We will list out the names and you can pick which kunoichi you would like to marry." Koharu declared and began to read the names.

"Haruno Sakura."

Sasuke eyes shot at the old woman when he heard his girlfriend's name. No freakin way was he going to let her be taken away. But knowing the dobe, he knew there wasn't anything to worry about.

"No thanks, baachan. Sakura-chan is a sister to me, and besides, her and Sasuke-teme are currently in the process of reconstructing the Uchiha clan." Naruto said snickering as Sasuke blushed and glared out the window.

"Yamanaka Ino."

Naruto waved his hands and said,"Oh. No thanks.. Shikamaru would probably kill me in the most well-thought out and torturous way. No one would even try to mess around with Ino when he's with her."

"Tenten"

"I don't want to mess with Neji's ghost. I'd rather not be haunted by something right now." Naruto muttered and the elders continued down the list.

"Karin of the Uzumaki"

"Umm.. She's basically a close relative of mine? So that's an automatic no. Plus that fish water dude would cut me in two." Naruto cringed at the thought.

Some time had passed and still the elders continued with no success.

"Miturashi Anko"

"Okay this is just getting plain weird. I'm not a fan of older woman." Naruto stated while twirling a kunai on the desk. This was more boring than his paperwork. He let out a long, dramatic sigh saying,"I think we all know now that this isn't going to work out."

The elders looked at one another with concern. Until the Uchiha spoke,"I think Hyuuga Hinata would be a good match with the idiot." As he said this, the Hokage turned with his back facing the elders and ANBU leader. Naruto was gazing out the window, not replying to Sasuke's suggestion.

"Naruto-kun. I do think that the Hyuuga heiress would be quite fine with you." Koharu said, trying to break the boy's daze.

"Give me time to think about it." Naruto muttered still not facing them.

"Naruto-kun, you have until next week to decide, or else you will be dismissed from the Hokage's chair." Homura ordered and with that, the two elders left the Hokage's office, leaving the two former team 7 members alone.

"What was that all about, teme." Naruto asked still not facing Sasuke. He sounded almost angry, but Sasuke didn't understand why. The Uzumaki has had a thing for the Hyuuga ever since the middle of the war when they held hands. What was up with him?

"I don't know, dobe. Just tried to help is all." Sasuke muttered, not taking his eyes off the bright blonde man. "I don't get what the big deal is."

"This is marriage we are talking about, Sasuke. Not just a one time thing or even dating. It's permanent." Naruto explained, and Sasuke detected the small a hint of stress in his voice. He never knew that Naruto could be serious about this.

"What's the matter, idiot. Why are you getting worked up about this." Sasuke asked not sympathetically, but with an accepting voice. Something that Naruto liked about his best friend.

"I don't know. You and I know that I'm the biggest fool when it comes to love." Naruto let out a small laughed that resulted in Sasuke raising his eyebrow in suspicion. Then he continued,"I.. I haven't talked to Hinata about my feelings. I actually haven't talked to her in quite a while." He looked down with guilt,"So if she was forced to marry me.. It wouldn't feel right. Sorry that doesn't even make sense." He said trying to pull off his best smile while turning his head toward Sasuke.

"Are you an idiot? She loves you. Why can't you accept that? You accepted everyone else's love. Why can't you accept her's?" Sasuke asked becoming frustrated at his friend's stupidity.

"Sasuke-teme. Remember the day you finally realized your feelings for Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked his friend looking at him in the eyes.

"Yeah. So? What about it?" Sasuke stated with irritation clear in his voice. He didn't know why the subject changed to him and Sakura, and he didn't like talking about his confusion or his feelings .

"And remember when you came knocking on my door, asking for help, and telling me that you didn't feel good enough for her because you left her alone and caused her all this pain?" Naruto asked and Sasuke understood now why he had brought him into the picture. He finally understood how Naruto felt.

He felt guilt. And unworthiness. Sasuke didn't know the Hyuuga well, but he knew that she never held anything against Naruto. She was a kindhearted kunoichi. "Naruto." Sasuke began,"Hinata.. Admires you. She doesn't hold anything against you."

"When she first confessed to me, she almost got herself killed by Pain.. For me.. And I avoided talking to her about it afterwards. I didn't know what to say? What do you say to a girl who confesses her love to you and almost dies? Then she was willing to die for me during the war when the ten tail's released its jutsu. And Neji had died.. It was then I realized my feelings for her, but I thought it was too late. Too much damage had been done that could not be healed." Naruto looked down and clenched his fists. Sasuke looked at his friend's face and all his anger vanished. He saw how much pain Naruto was in while remembering when he had felt the same way but with Sakura. He understood him completely.

"Dobe.. Just talk to her." Sasuke said looking at his friend. He knew what was best in this situation and Naruto knew that. But he couldn't get himself to face the dark haired beauty. "Naruto. It will only get worse if you don't act now."

Naruto contemplated and finally murmured,"Fine. Just give me time."

"Naruto you always say that. And then you never do it." Sasuke remembered his missions as a genin with team 7. Naruto would always mess around. This was different from his vows and nindo he always kept. This was just an excuse to get out of it. "It's your choice, but I'm just trying to help." Sasuke said. He never revealed his caring side to anyone but Naruto and Sakura.

"I'm leaving now." Sasuke announced on his way out the door,"just don't do anything stupid, dobe." What was up with the usual ambitious, run into danger with a smile, guy he was?

"I won't... Sasuke."

End. Thanks for reading! I wonder what Naruto will do? Haha just kidding I planned this out! Anyway, thanks for reading! Reviews are greatly appreciated! :)