I need to party more [P]

Kaede placed his glasses on his desk and rubbed his eyes with a yawn. One could tell that the man was not his usual self, that much was obvious. The stress of being a Village Leader had taken its toll. His appearance, something that he used to pride himself in, was noticeably...different. His wild hair that had a sort of strange styling to it now lay flat, his fringe falling over his eyes. That was actually a good thing, it helped hide the visible dark bags that had developed from one too many all-nighters. It was not only his appearance that had changed. The people that had spoken to him recently could attest to this. Recently he had become irritable, his old personality seemingly swallowed up by the negative one that he had today. Kaede knew that he couldn't keep doing this forever. When he had first taken the leader spot, he had great things planned. However those plans were quickly shifted out of thought, the day to day running of the village taking priority. Over the past few months Kaede had been focusing on two things in particular. Making sure that the village had enough funds run on, something which he personally made sure of by donating to it. The second one being the far more stressful one, the setting up of the storm circle. It had taken quite awhile to get all the things sorted out. The circle had been functioning without issue for the last few months now however, so Kaede felt like he was done.

He had sent a messenger to call for Naoki. Now was as good a time as ever for this to happen. Though actually now that Kaede thought about it, it would've been a good idea for this to happen before he had let the stress get the best of him. Oh well, one cannot change the past now.

Naoki was undergoing a routine check-up of the seals responsible for the defensive storm barrier that surrounded the village. Being Kaede's unofficial second-in-command for a while now, he clearly understood the priority of this system. Standing at the last seal he quickly scribed reports from other fuuinjutsu specialist about the remaining seals. According to his people all five seals performed perfectly, but he had gone ahead and double checked them anyways, and was now making the final assessment. In all this time not a single issue had arose and they had teams running checks nearly hourly, on top of couple teams ready to fix any damaged seal at a moment notice. Honestly, Naoki felt this defense was nearly impenetrable.

The rest of the specialist were already let go, so the Uchiha immediately noted the approaching chakra and his eyes met the messenger as soon as no obstacle stood between them. Nodding at the man Naoki gestured to speak. Apparently Kaede had requested his presence, which did not happen often. Honestly, Naoki intended to have somebody else deliver this report and probably not today, as he wanted to note a couple ways past this defense, but now it seems he could do it in person, on top of whatever reason he was called for. Thanking the messenger with a pat on the shoulder, the Jounin left the station and headed for the Leader's office.

In a minute he would be there and knock on the door, entering only if allowed.

Waiting proved to be something that Kaede had difficulty with. It seemed the tiredness was getting to him far more than he originally thought. He was awoken by knocking on the door. Shooting into an upright position he rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. Placing his glasses on he took a moment to collect himself before speaking. "Come in." He would wait for whoever it was to enter the room. Upon which he would smile slightly, recognising the person as Naoki. "Ah. I'm glad you could come so soon." Gesturing with one of his hands towards one of the few seats scattered around the room he took the time to put some of the stacks of papers away in his draw. In hindsight getting an assistant would have likely been a good option from the get go. Too late now though.

Naoki soon noted Kaede's state - the man appeared mighty tired. Understanding the gesture as an offer to sit, Naoki took one of the chair in the room and after putting it in front of Kaede's desk sat down. While doing that, Kaede's actions did not evade him and the Uchiha's left eyebrow slightly rose to the state of the office. It looked much better the last time he was here. It would probably be appropriate for him to offer his help, such thought would cross his mind as he put his report face down on the desk in front of him. But first let's hear why Kaede summoned me, he thought.

With his desk now in a somewhat tidier state now he leant back in his chair. Kaede watched as Naoki sat down, and waited for a moment or two before speaking. "I'll get straight to the point." He said, taking yet another moment to think of how he should word what he said next. He really needed to nap, but that could come later. "The village is in a stable way at the moment. The storm circle is functioning without fault and the village has enough funds to go off of for awhile." Kaede paused in order to take a breath, "With that in mind I plan on retiring from the leader position. Considering how you did well enough running the place in my absence, it's only natural that you shall be the one that will take the spot." Well that went far better than he thought it would have. The only problem would be if Naoki didn't want the leadership spot. That would be quite a dilemma indeed.

Naoki remained silent, that hit him out of nowhere. His black eyes would slowly move up and down as he thought intensely, analyzing his own feelings. His reputation within the village was fine enough and while he did not actually seek power in this way, he had no problem with running the village out of respect for the man in front of him and out of the need to protect his people. He found himself capable of taking up the mantle, if that was really needed, it's not like he hadn't been a temporary leader before. And still...

"Are you sure this is what you want? If you need rest, I could take the burden off for some time..." He needed to make sure there wasn't another way.

Kaede gave a slight shake of the head in response. "I've done all I needed to do as leader." With that he stood up, arching his back and stretching his arms into the air. "I won't be leaving the village or anything, this place his far too nice to not be my retirement home." He sounded a bit like an old man didn't he? He was pretty sure that even for a shinobi, retiring at his current age is still somewhat early. But, his entire goal had been completed. He had made Shimagakure a place where his family would all want to stay, so there was nothing else to do. "Hm, there will probably need to be a public announcement or a ceremony or something. That'd be a good excuse for a party." Despite Naoki not actually accepting the position verbally yet, Kaede already felt like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Oh, you should probably start importing these things called snow cones by the way. They're surprisingly delicious."

After hearing the man's response Naoki observed him stand up and all that followed. For a moment his head went down, as if he admitted defeat. He took that moment to accept this for himself, to actually accept it. Then he would stand up, his eyes now carrying both a new shadow and a new light, like he had aged a decade in a minute. Naoki would offer his right hand to the man who was getting more lively each second. "If you will stick around, then we will likely meet again, but nevertheless I want to tell you that you hold my highest respect and I will always consider you my leader." If the rest did not relay it, then his expression would surely explain that the Uchiha accepted.

Kaede noticed the man standing and turned his attention to him. One look and Kaede could tell the man was accepting the role, something which made Kaede smile. Taking the man's hand and shaking it he took the time to look around the room. "I look forward to see how the village will progress under your leadership." Kaede said before making his way towards the exit. He was sure that the one who would be most affected by this would be the receptionist. Poor girl would probably be distraught. Maybe he'd take her out to cheer her up. "If ya need me, you'll find me at one of the bar's." He said to Naoki, opening the door and making his way towards the reception. It was time for the good times to begin.

[Exit]

After the handshake, Kaede left. And Naoki was left in now his office. His eyes darted at the desk in front of him and his own report, which was now one of his worries, seeing as it brought not only good news. And it was up to him to come up with a way to defend against any intrusions, most likely by setting up a spacetime barrier, or at least that was the idea he intended to put in that report.

Honestly, he will go through all of this later, have somebody filter the actually important stuff. Now was the time to prepare for the party that Kaede mentioned.

[Exit
725 w. towards Transfer through World of Emptiness
Claiming Leader rank]