Every time, there is a war, the events that follow often scar the people that participate in it the most. The Konoha 11 too were object to such a change. Shikaku, Inochi died during the war. This came down hard on Shikamaru and the yamanaka heiress.
Shikamaru started becoming a chain-smoker and it took a year for Ino to fully-recover from her loss courtesy of one pink-haired girl. Hatake Kakashi soon lost the battle against his terminal illness which he contracted soon after the war. His untimely death was taken hard by most people who knew him, but Shizune was most affected by it, who he was supposedly seeing. Tsunade gave her an indefinite hiatus from work so that she can get some closure. Shizune soon left for which the couple wanted to visit after the war was over.
Everyone faced the horrors of the war that took place that nearly wiped out all of humanity but the pain that was inflicted was more so on one specific shinobi, one Naruto Uzumaki.
The love of his life, Hinata Hyuga was made the to engage prince yakushi (son of the water Daimyo) by her father who wanted to help protect the peace between the villages. Hinata initially protested but then saw that the marriage was doing greater good and relented to help supplement the cause.
That night, when the Hyuga princess called off the relationship with Naruto, was the same night he wanted to cherish her forever by proposing her marriage. But fate played its cruel hand, Naruto was broken. The orange shinobi understood her dilemma but could never come in terms with it. Since that day Naruto became completely shut down. He saw no reason whatsoever to stay in konoha.
He fulfilled his end of the deal by making Sasuke return back to konoha. But unlike last time, the teme reciprocated his feelings for the pink-haired girl. He always knew Sakura to have a thing for Sasuke but sincerely hoped that she would recognize his unabashed love for her and accept him. But life wasn't that easy.
With both the girl's gone, his parent's dead, his godfather and sensei dead he felt alone. He always felt lonely but it was either his pal's or kurama that cheered him back on. But for the first time he felt empty. He loathed his life completely and utterly. His dream was never to become the hokage , it actually was to make people recognize him and then cherish a family-life. He wanted a place he can turn back to; he wanted a place he can call home.
Very shortly Naruto was crowned the heir-apparent to being the next hokage. But, he felt no joy. Only emptiness. That title held no importance to him anymore. He soon joined the Anbu corps as a tribute to his former sensei. He jumped ranks that would make Itachi cover in shame. He soon had a own team called the "Tane katsu" which answered only to the hokage. He soon took up mission's that were utterly and completely hopeless and yet yielded outstanding results. His talent in accomplishing missions outshone most his peers and predecessors. This was six years ago.