Eighteen years later.
Konoha, the Hokage Office.
Minato Namikaze slumped over a mountain of documents, feeling as though he would merge with the paper and ascend to enlightenment at any moment. The golden hair he was so proud of now looked like a bird's nest.
Knock, knock, knock-
"Come in." Minato sounded drained. He could barely be bothered to lift his eyelids.
"Minato, haven't worked yourself to death yet? Thanks for all your hard work."
That voice...
Minato jolted and snapped his head up. Standing in the doorway was Tsunade, who had barely changed in eighteen years, and beside her, Uchiha Shinichi, yawning as though he might fall asleep on his feet at any moment.
"Lady Tsunade! Shinichi-sensei!" Minato nearly knocked over his ink bottle in his excitement and hurried to his feet. "You... what brings you back?"
"Oh, just came back for a look." Tsunade surveyed the office she had once occupied herself and smiled. "Same as ever. Enough paperwork to bury someone."
Minato pointed at the freshly piled mountain on his desk, caught between laughter and tears. "This is more than ten times as exhausting as I imagined. Now I finally understand why you refused to take this job no matter what, Shinichi-sensei."
"Huh?" Shinichi yawned again and rubbed his eyes. "I just thought deciding what to have for lunch was much more important than figuring out how to negotiate with the Raikage."
"By the way, where are Uchiha Shin and Uchiha Tsuki?" Minato quickly changed the subject before it gave him a heart attack.
"That boy Uchiha Shin is the Anbu Captain now. Goes around with a stern face all day, just like me back when I was your teacher." Tsunade's pride was impossible to hide as she spoke of her children. "Uchiha Tsuki is in the