Some time passed after that.
Konoha's Hokage situation had grown a little strange. On Kage Rock, where the faces of past Hokage were carved, the most recently completed portrait was of a woman.
Her sharp, deep-set features belonged to Uchiha Satsuki, the Sixth and the first Uchiha Hokage.
Yet the person sitting in the Hokage Office, wearing the Hokage's hat and a God Robe embroidered with flames, was a blond, blue-eyed young man.
Naruto had become Hokage after all.
He was only the Acting Hokage, and his official position was still listed as "Hokage Assistant," but he had gone back on his word. He had once refused the position. In the end, personal feelings had put him in that chair.
If Jiraiya had asked him to become Hokage before stepping down, Naruto would have said no. But with Satsuki sitting there, carrying two unborn children, refusing was never an option.
Naruto—or rather, Naruto's Shadow Clone—did exactly what they had planned. Every day, he sent a Shadow Clone to the Hokage Office to approve mission requests, calculate payments, and review construction plans.
His real body stayed home to care for Satsuki. When the Shadow Clone finished the paperwork, it vanished in a puff of white smoke, and its fatigue washed back over his real body like a tide.
For a Hokage, his days were exhausting and dull.
Just as before, piles of construction proposals and mission documents awaited his review every day. The village was expanding, streets were being renovated, Ninja were being trained, and supplies were being allocated. Every matter needed the Hokage's seal.
There was no crisis that required him to step in as Hokage. His daily work was to sign, stamp, review, and approve documents, then move the next stack from the left side of his desk to