AFTER THE PAIN.
Naruto bounced from tree to tree, his strong legs worked tirelessly. The leaf-nin wasn't in any real hurry. He was on more of an errand then a mission.
Tsunade had gotten tiered of him asking when she was going to retire and appoint him as Hokage. To the young man it seemed pointless to wait; he was twenty two and one of the top Jonin of Konoha. He had served six years as an ANBU and the last year and a half as Tsunade's right hand. He knew everything there was to know about being the Hokage. But still Tsunade insisted the time wasn't right for him to take her place.
Uzumaki knew of course what she was waiting for.
The Hokage felt he needed to settle down and raise a family.
But Naruto knew what the old lady refused to accept. There wasn't a woman in Konoha that would accept him as a suitor, not since the truth about the nine tailed demon fox inside of him became public knowledge.
Before the announcement Naruto had dated Hyuga Hinata for a time, but the two of them quickly realized that they were more friends then anything else.
And they still were, even though Hinata was now married to her old teammate Shino.
Most of his old class mates accepted him regardless of the demon inside of him.
But being friends and lovers were two very different things.
'I wonder when Granny Tsunade is going to figure that out.' the blonde mused.
Sure, Naruto had his share of female fans. Not unlike the ones his best friend Sasuke used to have. But they were more interested in have sex with him for the bragging rights then to have an actual relationship.
In the beginning the young man had enjoyed the attention but he quickly realized that none of the girls he dated were interested in more then just a quick fling. So now he ignored them completely.
Realizing he was dwelling on a pointless topic, Naruto changed his train of thought to something a little less personal.
Like why the hell Tsunade had sent him to retrieve some crop reports from the far side of the land of fire when there really was no hurry for them.
FLASH BACK
"There really is no hurry Naruto-kun, take your time. I just prefer you be the one to retrieve those reports for me." Tsunade explained to her frustrated apprentice.
The truth was the Hokage didn't need the reports at all, but she needed to get the boy out from under foot for a wile.
She hoped that with a little time to think about it she could come up with a way to talk her blonde haired protégé into finding a nice girl to settle down with.
The dear boy was far to work orientated in her opinion. And up till now he had shown no interest in having a family of his own.
She sighed heavily and Naruto raised an eyebrow at her.
"Don't the reports usually come with the farmers that bring us grain every year?" He asked. Completely oblivious to the thoughts running threw the Hokage's mind.
'The boy learns to fast.' Tsunade mused, but luckily she had been expecting the question.
"There is a possibility that we will not be receiving any product from the towns in that area this season. So I want to make sure we get the report regardless"
She smiled as Naruto shook his head and opened his mouth to protest.
Raising a hand she cut him off.
