It was all over, the war was finally over. After two years of intense fighting Madara was finally dead, and his army decimated. Kabuto had fled after Madara's base had been taken over, and he had been killed inside of one of Orochimaru's old bases by one of the juggernaut teams "Shinobi" had made. Anko had been rescued from near death after a few months of searching, however in the first year Yamato was killed due to him becoming fused with Madara's Zetsu creator.
Konoha's 11 had all, miraculously, survived the war. However there were still drastic injuries within them.
Due to Choji having to use the Akimichi red pill again to save his squad he was unable to recover like his previous time. His chakra coils had been overloaded due to the amount of chakra, and the left over damage from the last time he took the pill years prior. Due to his injuries he had to retire as a ninja. However when learned of his inability to be a ninja anymore he only smiled sadly and said "Guess its time to go into my families other business"
Shikamaru had gotten off lightly as he had only acquired a scar upon his right cheek when he was blindsided by one of the re-incarnated Jinchuuriki, Han.
Kiba had been struck in the side by an encounter with Tsunade's re-incarnated lover, Dan, and suffered a deep gash. The gash had healed over, however the pain was to never truly go away and neither was the scar that came with it. Akamaru however had luckily come out unscathed.
Shino had no bodily injuries, however most of his hive had died, forcing him to take on a new hive in its place. Making him have to restart with synching with his hive, and thus depleting his skills by over half.
Tenten had been on a team that had been ambushed one year into the war. Show was the only one to escape with her life, however she has also almost been bisected and barely survived escaping, as well as healing properly. Tenten said after that the scar will always remind her of hos close to death she had been, and how glad she was to be alive.
All of the others had come out relatively fine besides the occasional flesh wound. Sakura had been able to heal everyone well enough so most of them had not left scars.
Over half of the entire "Shinobi" joint army had been killed in the war, along with many more crippled or just taken out of commission.
Naruto himself had been the main fighter in the war, after he had finally been told by Gaara that a war had begun, he and Killer Bee had gone out to the front lines and decimated many of Madara's Zetsu clones with their fully controlled Bijuu powers, including Killer Bee destroying Zetsu's black half.
Near the end of the war Naruto had finally seen Sasuke once more. However Naruto's hope for his friend had vanished when he saw that Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan looked like a merged version of his own and Itachi's. Seeing his friend in blind revenge borderline madness had driven out all hope he had of ever having the old Sasuke back.
The fight between Naruto and Sasuke had not been viewed by anyone. The only thing that was known was that Sasuke had been killed by Naruto's hand, and that Naruto himself had barely survived since he had been found covered in the chakra of the Kyuubi trying to extinguish the flames of Amaterasu that threatened to burn him alive.
Not even a month later Madara has appeared before Naruto glaring menacingly with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and the Rinnegan that he had stolen from Nagato, declaring that he would extract the Kyuubi that day.
Naruto had fought against Madara with all of his powers, all the way past exhaustion. Madara had revealed that he could use part of the other sealed Bijuu's powers and unleashed it all upon Naruto, forcing him into an almost permanent defensive position. However once Madara had used most of his chakra to control the Bijuu chakra, the chakra eventually overwhelmed him, forcing him to release the power back into the statue. Madara soon saw that without the extra demonic chakra, he would never be ale to get passed a stalemate with Naruto. With anger boiling within him, Madara did the unthinkable, and absorbed all of the Demonic chakra of the Ichibi through Shichibi.
Madara had clearly overestimated himself, for once all of the chakra had been absorbed, Madara's body had begun breaking down due to the poison within the demonic chakra. At the overload point, he tried to force all of the energy towards Naruto. However he was unable to due to Naruto using a giant Rasengan to launch him spinning many miles into the sky, only to explode about three miles upwards.
Current Time
Naruto looked up at the explosion that had just claimed Madara's life, amazed that the worlds greatest enemy had just become a giant firework in the sky.
All around every countries ninja looked up to see the giant fireball ignite the sky, wondering if it meant something important.
A team of Shinobi, which included Hinata, Shikamaru and Neji stood in front of the reserve Zetsu creator. Shikamaru nodded to the others and they went about planting exploding tags all around the machine. Three minutes later they were seen running out of the base with said base igniting a few seconds later.
All around the elemental nations the Zetsu clones began to disintegrate due to having the stored chakra within the creator gone. The Shinobi forces fighting them stopped to see their enemies basically vanish in front of them.
Naruto looked down to his hands and released Kyuubi Mode, he silently said to himself "Its finally over"
He turned to see a team led by Gaara coming towards him. He smiled at the Kage he knew so well, his true brother.
Indeed the war was finally over.
Three Months Later
Naruto was not feeling good, he had thought that after having achieved Jounin status he would just have a congratulatory party filled with countless bowls of Ramen. However he was currently outside the Hokage's Tower where dreamed party was actually happening, standing with Hinata and Sakura in front of him.
"So which one of us is it?" Sakura asked
"W-which one of us do you really l-love?" Hinata asked after
Naruto started sweating, he had not expected this to happen to him. He had never thought that he would have to pick between his two friends which one he wanted to have a relationship with.
"I...I need a little time to think...okay?" Naruto said
Hinata just nodded and walked away while Sakura said "better hurry" and went back inside
*sigh*"To quote Shikamaru...this is troublesome" Naruto said to himself
He soon started walking to his favorite place to be besides Ichiraku's, which he couldn't go to due t them being at the party. He sighed to himself as he knew they would have been able to help.
He soon arrived on top of the Yondaime, his father's head, and sat down. He thought about which one of them he should choose: Sakura, whom he had had feelings for ever since the academy. Or Hinata, whom had saved his life and confessed to him during Pain's invasion.
He sighed once more, now hoping that he could see his parents one more time, so he could ask what they thought.
He soon just stared out into the starry night sky and began to remember his times with both of the girls
Flashback: Sakura
"Sasuke-kun, when we get back to the village...do you want to go out on a date?" Sakura asked as team 7 walked over the newly dubbed "Great Naruto Bridge"
"No" Sasuke coldly replied, leaving Sakura to freeze and look down sadly
"Sakura-chan, I'll go out on a date with you!" Naruto enthusiastically said
"What? That was a private conversation Baka!" Sakura yelled, taking her feeling out on Naruto and decking him off the side of the bridge, into the chilly waters below
XXXXX
"Naruto...please...bring Sasuke-kun back to me" Sakura said crying
Naruto's eyes widened, then he put on his fake smile and said "We'll bring him back, that's a promise of a lifetime!"
XXXXX
Naruto and Kakashi stood face to face with Naruto's face in shock, and Kakashi's looking fully serious
"T-that can't be, s-she didn't..."
"She never really looked at you like you had hoped. I overheard her thanking Sasuke for saving her from Gaara. Sasuke told her right then that he didn't save her, and that you did Naruto...however...she just put it aside as him trying to help you out, and gave him all the credit. To this day she still believes that Sasuke saved her from Gaara" Kakashi said
"...so she never thought I was strong, never good enough to compare to him" Naruto said sadly
"I'm sorry Naruto" Kakashi only said back
XXXXX
"I'm telling you I love you Naruto" Sakura said
Naruto scrunched up his face, then basically yelled at Sakura, "I hate people that lie to themselves!"
Flashback Over
Naruto looked down and said to himself "From then, to even now, she never saw me as a potential love. She only saw me as a friend, or someone to fall back on when he was gone"
Naruto looked up once more to the stars and began remembering his time with Hinata
Flashback: Hinata
"Leave her alone!" A young Naruto said as he charged a bunch of bullies picking on a little girl
"Look what we have here, the Demon of Konoha. Let's get him instead guys!" the bullies' leader said
Naruto then landed on the ground from a shove, and proceeded to try and survive the beating he got.
Hinata, who was sitting a few feet away, was scared for the boy who had come to save her. She tried to help, only for Naruto to yell for her to run and get to safety.
Hinata just sat there crying for her savior, until one of the Hyuuga servants came over and broke up the fight. He pulled away Hinata from Naruto, who was screaming at him to help him. Only for the servant, Kori, to say to leave that Thing be.
XXXXX
"N-Naruto-kun, you c-can copy my a-answers i-if you want" Hinata said to a silently panicking Naruto.
Naruto turned to her in surprise, then smiled and said, "I don't want to get you and your team kicked out, I'll beat this test for sure"
Hinata just smiled and turned back to her test
XXXXX
"Naruto and Hinata will be the last team, along with Bull because he's the loudest of the bunch" Kakashi said as a large bulldog walked up to Naruto and Hinata
"L-let's do our best Naruto-kun" Hinata said
"Yeah!" Naruto said with a true smile, the first true smile he's had for a while
XXXXX
"I wanted to always be by your side, because...I love you Naruto-kun" Hinata said facing Pain
Naruto's eyes widened at what he heard, and his heart stopped when he saw Hinata fall and Pain stab her.
An explosion of power later and a six-tailed Naruto glared at Pain, all with anger for killing Hinata.
Flashback Over
"That was the first time I had ever been so angry. I had never even gone straight to four-tails, let alone six and later eight. When I saw him stab Hinata...I thought my world had just ended. I just wanted my revenge on Pain for killing someone so pure as her..."
"Sakura...I might have liked her for a long time...but what if that changed...she never really saw me as someone she could like...when she confessed to me...I felt angry that she was lying...do I still like her at all?"
Naruto gazed upon the vanishing stars, and he could have sworn he saw two shooting stars side by side, one colored a bright orange, and the other a light lavender. He blinked and tried to find them again, but was stopped by the rising sun coming over the horizon.
"...I know who to choose"
xxxxx
Naruto once again stood with Hinata and Sakura standing in front of him, even he could see that both of them were either nervous or anxious as to who he would choose.
Naruto looked at the two, knowing that they were waiting for his answer. He took a calming breath and said "...Sakura"
"Let's go then Naruto" Sakura said only slightly happy as she began to walk away, expecting him to follow.
Naruto looked at Hinata only to see her looking down and trying to stop tears from breaking free.
He looked back at Sakura only to say "...I'm sorry" as he began to walk towards Hinata
Sakura froze in place and turned in shock "...what did you say?"
"I'm sorry Sakura" Naruto repeated as he reached Hinata and gently lifted up her head.
Hinata was looking at Naruto in shock. She had expected him to follow Sakura without batting an eye to her. However here he was, looking straight at her with a real smile on his face.
"I can't choose you Sakura. I don't feel that way anymore" Naruto said not even looking at her
Sakura stared in shock for a few seconds. Only to turn and charge off in an anger fit for losing her last teammate.
Naruto never even turned to look, for he was too entranced by Hinata's face looking at him with happiness and surprise.
"Hinata" He said gently, "I can't completely say that I love you" Hinata's face fell hearing that, who was she to think that he would love her.
"But" Hinata perked up at this, "If I get to know you better. If we go out on dates, I can see if I love you or not. How's that?"
Hinata started gently crying and said, "Even if its just a chance, I would love to stay with you until you know"
Two Years Later
"Do you, Hinata Hyuuga, take Naruto as your husband?" Tsunade asked, donned in her full Hokage's uniform
"I do" Hinata immediately said, crying tears of joy
"Do you, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, Take Hinata as your wife?" Tsunade asked
Naruto just smiled and said "You know it dattebayo"
Authors Notes: Yes I know I've been gone for a long time. I've just been hit with a huge case of writers block. I have parts of new chapters done, however I just can't find the right rhythm to write them with.
If you guys can/want to check out the cross-over fic I'm co-writing Meeting The Other Side. I'm feeling concerned at how little views and reviews its gotten. If I can get some feed-back on it me and Panda can figure out what we've done wrong and what we can improve
I will try to update my other stories as soon as I can, however I wouldn't get your hopes up. I'm most likely going to post one-shots until I can get my edge back
Try to hold on until then
Tenshi Namikaze