Bridging the Gap

The Deadly Chakra Disease

Naruto knew that becoming the hokage would make him busy. But he never imagined it would make him this drained. He spent day after day behind his desk dealing with complex political matters. Even small decisions like how to celebrate holidays as a village were left up to him. Not to mention assigning missions, figuring out the chunin exams, picking leaders for genin teams, filing mission paperwork... It was too much for one person to handle all on their own.

Thankfully, Shikamaru was his advisor and helped him go about his work in the most logistic way possible. 

But every task had a deadline. And every deadline came faster than he thought it would. The first few days, he had enough time to go home and eat dinner thanks to Kakashi's hard work. But as the documents started piling up, he started coming home later. And later. And eventually, he felt like he had to sleep at the office.

To make matters worse, the jonin kept coming to him and saying that the work he was demanding of them was ridiculous. If they were helping an old lady cross the road on their days off, what were they supposed to do when they saw a thief over their shoulder stealing from a store?

So Naruto began creating clones to deal with smaller tasks like helping the villagers go about their daily lives. He created clones to take requests from them to understand what he could do better. Clones to help him with paperwork. And by the end of the day when all of his clones came back to him, he was swimming in a pile of exhaustion and confusion from mental overload. 

Shikamaru discouraged him, saying he shouldn't push himself after just becoming Hokage. But Naruto was determined to get used to this amount of work in time. Just like training, it seemed impossible at first. But slowly and surely, the impossible would become possible. And he'd be the best Hokage there ever was. 

Little did he know, there was a disease slowly eating away at him every time he used chakra. And one day, he had a spasm. His vision got blurry, and he crouched over his desk, shadow clones immediately disappearing. 

One disappeared while carrying an old lady... The other disappeared in the middle of an important conversation with Gaara about trade negotiations between the leaf and the sand, another with Chojuro about the rebuilding of the Hidden Mist. The timing couldn't have been worse. 

He sat up, a sharp pain tugging at his chest.

Shikamaru opened the door. "Oi! Naruto, what happened, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he muttered, looking down at his paperwork. "More importantly... Can you call Gaara and tell him I'll talk to the stubborn old folks who are refusing trade and call down the feudal lords to make a deal? I've gotta get back on the phone with Chojuro..."

"...Don't push yourself. After this, you need to go home and rest. How many days has it been since you've gotten a good night's sleep?"

"I slept yesterday for about thirty minutes," he panted, trying to stand up but losing his balance. "I'll manage."

Shikamaru sighed. Just before stepping out of the office, he paused. "I'll be back to escort you home."

"Heh... Thanks, Shikamaru..."

.  .  .

Naruto thought that was the last of the strange pains in his chest. But as it turned out, his chakra supply was running thin. Kurama had to lend him some chakra just to make enough clones to send on village patrol. 

"Oi, Naruto, lend me a few minutes."

"...Kurama?" Another sharp pain shot through his chest. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is you. I didn't want to think this was possible... But it seems like you have the same sickness as the Sage of Six Paths. It's a deadly chakra disease... And if you don't do something about it soon, you could die."