Prologue

With the sealing finally finished, Naruto fell to his knees, palms on the ground, and breathed heavily. Sasuke looked winded as well, but continued to eye the Sage of Six Paths. The sealing of Kaguya and black Zetsu used almost all of the chakra that the Sage provided them, as well as nearly all the available chakra that could have been pulled from the tailed beasts.

"It is finished", said Hagoromo. "The location of the heavenly bodies have provided a suitable array to seal her once and for all. For her to be released from the seal, one would have to wait through millions of eras before the same formation took place. My earlier mistake was to only include the Sun, Moon and this planet in the array. This new one shall also use local as well as relatively far ones."

"But we're not done!", said Naruto. "We need to free everyone and use that technique I saw Nagato use before to revive the dead!"

Sasuke shot an inquisitive look at Naruto. "Is that even possible with the chakra we have now?"

"But we have to! We can't just leave Neji and the others dead like this!"

The Sage intervened. "With my chakra, it is still possible to revive a large number of your Shinobi force and a select few others. However, with this mass revival requires a large sacrifice to satisfy the Shinigami. Besides losing my gifts to you two, there would be substantial chakra to compensate."

"Which we currently do not have without killing more people", added Sasuke.

Naruto looked pensive, his face growing longer with each passing second, before he spoke up: "Wait guys! There is one way…without taking lives. This one myth Iruka tested us on back in the Academy…the one about the Shodaime giving life to the Land of Fire with his Mokuton jutsus. We could use that chakra."

"And you gathering the natural chakra and storing it inside of you?", inquired Sasuke.

"The land has more than enough. However, will you two be willing to relinquish the gifts that I bestowed upon you two?", the Sage mused, then asked.

"Yes", said both Naruto and Sasuke in a heartbeat. They looked at each other and looked back at the Sage.

"Let us begin".

With the resurrection and freeing of all the people trapped by Madara completed, people began picking themselves up – some still in disbelief that they were alive.

The survivors trapped by Madara were immediately given treatment, and soon after, each of the village began to leave back to their homes and rebuild them from the ashes of the war. There were formalities done by the Kages, but not so strict as each wanted to return. The previous Hokages looked on before leaving. The Shodaime, Nidaime and Sandaime returned to ashes and peace. The Yondaime, on the other hand, declined a full revival from the Heavenly Samsara as he wished to finally be at peace with his wife, having escaped the Shinigami's stomach. Naruto cried as he watched his dad disappear into the wind, but felt happy that his parents were finally reunited and at peace. However, with the passing of his family, Naruto, then and there, felt truly and utterly alone.

The trek back to Konoha was long and tedious. Without the Sage of Six Paths chakra flowing in him, Naruto felt weighed down. Especially after gathering so much natural energy and expending them in one giant push. He had to concentrate very hard not to tip the balance of such amounts of chakra in his body and turn to stone.

"Naruto!"

Naruto turned his head and saw Kakashi and Sakura bounding towards him. Throughout the whole revival ordeal, he never got a chance to meet with his teammate and sensei. Only a couple hours before, when things were finally over, he wanted to talk to them, but he saw that they were already happily talking to Sasuke, who was bearing the smallest, but surely growing, of smiles. He didn't want to intrude upon the reunion, especially now that Sakura smiled like she had never before – and Kakashi gave a genuine eye-smile.

"We have a problem! Naruto!"

Broken from his thoughts, he quickly responded: "What's the problem?"

"The captured victims of Madara, they've lost part of their memory!", Kakashi exclaimed.

Naruto blanched. "What? What do you mean?"

Sakura filled him in. "The tree was leeching chakra off of them, life chakra at that! That chakra seemed to be tied to their memory. They've regained their chakra, but now it's a jumble and they can't remember certain things. I've diagnosed a few cases. Some people have forgotten small things such as their bank account passwords, while others have entire years of memory missing!"

"So I guess we couldn't walk away from this war without a reminder. Grr…DAMN YOU MADARA!", shouted Naruto.

"Easy there, Naruto. There's no point in being angry now. Conserve your energy. We need to rebuild the village." Said Kakashi.

Naruto sat on the head of the Yondaime, carved on the rocky outcrop behind Konoha. The last few months had been less than enjoyable. While the citizens of Konoha, or those who hadn't decide to move away, completely stopped glaring at Naruto as if he were the Kyuubi, they began to give Naruto space – as if he were some sort of death god that opened the plains of hell and brought back many warriors. They were wary of him doing so again, and plunging Konoha into yet another conflict. The balance of power across the Elemental Nations was tipped severely to the Land of Fire after all. While the major hidden villages regained their warriors, they did not gain the biju. Only last week, Naruto freed most of them, excluding Kurama, and Hagoromo, before he finally left, offered them a seal that would make them containers of their own power, effectively masking their powers from sensors and allowing them a chance to live among humans, or undisturbed in the wilderness. Kurama, on the other hand, opted to stay, citing the luxury of not having to constantly hunt and find a safe home if set free. It warmed Naruto's heart for a bit, but soon after, Tsunady had to come in to discuss her successor as Hokage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flashback ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto, Sasuke and a couple of high-ranking jonins entered the Hokage's office. At this point, Tsunade turned her chair so she could face them. Ten whole seconds passed before Tsunade spoke.

"I want to retire. And I need a successor. Naturally, I would ask you, Naruto, as you have done so much for this country, no…the entire Elemental Nations. You have proven yourself as a leader to the people. Will you accept the mantle?"

And in Naruto's heart, he wanted to say 'yes', but bit back and instead said: "No."

The temperature fell by a couple of degrees. Everyone turned to stare at Naruto. Time froze. Tsunade, still sober, calmly demanded: "Explain."

"I nominate Sasuke Uchiha as the next Hokage. He is a strong leader who prevailed in eliminating threats to Konoha. Despite his previous action, his quest has led him to his current state of repentance. I think it's time that an Uchiha to take the title of Hokage. As well, with me as the Hokage, the balance of power would be ruined. If not for the power, the fame of being this "saviour" would redirect missions to Konoha from the other hidden villages. The unrest would create yet another conflict. No, I feel like I need to leave."

Tsunade looked like she was ready to protest, but Sasuke intervened by bowing to Naruto and saying "Thank you". The double shock stopped the Hokage from saying anything.

Naruto, either unaware or uncaring, continued on: "And this shall be my other request. I would like to be sent off to the Eastern Waters. I trust that you all will take care of Konoha without me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flashback End ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps Naruto wouldn't have chosen to leave. But circumstances brought upon this sort of thinking. At this point, Naruto had only Kurama as a companion. In the rebuilding of the village, Kakashi had to be called back to service in ANBU. Sakura was healing villagers caught in the fight in the Land of Fire and Sasuke was being groomed for the position of Hokage. It wasn't easy at first, with many people against his ascension. But with the backing from Naruto, certain blood oaths and compulsory community service, the village came to accept the fact that Sasuke would lead the village. There was no talk of any revival of the Uchiha clan, but Naruto was sure that Sasuke would eventually decide to settle down. Eventually. With Sakura.

It pained him to see Sakura return to Sasuke's side once more, but he had already accepted that fact. His promise of bringing back Sasuke was completed. But he already felt more isolated. It didn't help to hear from Hinata that she retracted her offer as well. The memory jumbling somehow redirected her love for Naruto to Kiba. She still admired Naruto, but more as a hero and less as a companion. In fact, she profusely apologized to Naruto for making that bold statement while she took a blow for Naruto. Just thinking about that moment brought the taste of bile to Naruto's mouth. The biggest blow to Naruto, however, was the lack of Jiraiya's appearance. Naruto wanted to see his sensei again, as well as have Tsunade and Jiraiya finally come together. The revival worked, assured Hagoromo, but Jiraiya was still nowhere to be found. Fukushima hypothesized that Jiraiya's body was probably far away, taken by the current to some unknown land or water. It would be impossible to track down Jiraiya. Especially now that his name had disappeared from the Toad summoning scroll.

Kurama, finally awake after several days of rest, suddenly addressed Naruto: "Naruto, you have changed."

"In what way?"

"In profound ways. I see that you have finally and fully matured. Tell me, with your childhood dreams now more or less completed, what will you do?"

"I plan to leave the Elemental Nations. I don't know why, but home just doesn't feel like home anymore."

"It's a hard choice but not necessarily wise. Do what you want. But do not jeopardize yourself needlessly."

"Thanks Kurama."

The send-off was more crowded than expected. Thousands of people and ninja alike came to the docks of a large port in Water Country. By contrast, Naruto stood beside his small dinghy, which could fit a couple of people, but was instead filled with supplies. The send-off took much longer than expected as well, as many people gave speeches of Naruto's greatness. Among the front of the crowd were his teammates and friends from Konoha. To Naruto, the support of this many people meant a great deal to him. He was acknowledged now.