A/N – This is, like, a fan fiction. So there's gonna be spoilers, yeah? This is supposed to stand alone, but I might make this a story with a progression of short, self-contained chapters...If I ever feel like it! :D

Uchiha Madara barely had time to see the clone in front of him disperse from the backlash of his technique before pain unlike any he'd ever felt in all his long life blinded him to the world.

The sun seemed to burn white, and when his vision slowly returned to normal he saw the blond brat crouching down across him, studying the face beneath the mask.

"How..." he barely managed to breathe out, "My eyes..."

"Old man." the blond brat growled at him as the shroud of power dispersed from his body, "Your eyes are useless. It wasn't the rinnegan that gave The Sage his power."

"Then what?" Madara screamed before coughing violently. He wasn't surprised to see blood.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Says the idiot."

"Yeah," the blond brat laughed bitterly and looked down "If I were smarter then maybe... But I can't change that now."

"Are you...Why are you crying, idiot? You've won haven't you?"

"Someone like you," the blond brat said, raising his arm out of Madara's field of vision, "would never understand just how much I've lost today."

Marara's eyes widened as he saw the brat's hand come back down, bringing a spiraling ball of energy with it. Then he didn't see anything else.

Naruto tore through the trees, ignorant of everything around him. There was only the movement that came as easy to him now as walking. In the back of his mind, he was aware that his team was shouting at him, but he didn't hear it.

When he felt a hand on his arm and chest firmly stopping his movement, he didn't even think. In less than a single eyeblink, he had a kunai out and pressed against his assailants throat. It took much longer to focus on who had stopped him, and he turned beet red when he noticed Kakashi staring down at him. He hadn't even been aware enough to notice his old teacher cutting in front of him.

"Sorry, sensei." Naruto mumbled, dropping his arm. "What's wrong?"

"Don't you think it's time to stop for today?" Kakashi asked gently, squeezing Naruto's arm.

"Taichou," another ninja said dropping onto the branch with them. Sai. "It will be dusk shortly."

Naruto looked around him. When had it gotten so dark?

"Alright," he said with a sigh. He jumped down onto the ground, and within seconds he was surrounded by two dozen ninja. Most of them were ANBU, but there were a few familiar faces both with masks and without. He noticed that just about all of them were showing signs of fatigue. Even Rock Lee was having a hard time catching a breath.

'What kind of leader am I? Do I have to fail at everything?'

"Yamato-sensei," he called out, "Please set up a shelter for everyone. We're stopping for the night."

"Yes, taichou."

"Congratulations, Naruto."

Naruto turned around and leaned against the balcony of the hastily constructed barracks. The cool night wind blew at his bangs. Naruto's eyes widened a bit as he studied Kakashi. When had he gotten taller than his sensei?

"Congratulations for what, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Well," Kakashi said, nervously scratching at his temple, "perhaps I'm a little late in saying this, but you've surpassed me in almost every way. There isn't much left for me to teach you, Naruto."

Naruto turned back around and gripped the balcony and let out a slight growl of frustration.

"I'm nothing but a screw-up."

"Yeah," Kakashi agreed brightly, and Naruto felt his sensei walk up beside him, "I'm a bit of a screw-up myself."

Naruto's head snapped to his sensei to see him looking at him in that inexplicable single-eyed expression of his. How annoying. Naruto held back a smirk at the thought that, hey, at least Kakashi couldn't look down on him anymore.

"That's not making me feel much better, sensei," he said happily.

"No?" Naruto could barely see the faint outline of a smile through the mask, but he couldn't hear it in his voice, "Do you remember the first thing I taught you?"

"Ninja who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash." Naruto intoned automatically.

Kakashi gave a nod, "I had just become a jounin when my closest friend died. He died because I was trash worse than trash. By following the rules before my comrades, Obito was killed. In his honor, I tried to get stronger and protect the people close to me, but it didn't help. One by one, I lost all of them. No matter how strong and famous I got, I was still a failure as a ninja."

"Sensei.."' Kakashi was pointedly not looking at Naruto now. All he could see was the side of his face, the eye closest to him covered up by his forehead protector.

"After my sensei, your father, finally died, there was nothing left for me. I was went through the motions. I did my missions. I failed any team the Third tried to give me. And then came team seven. As your sensei, I couldn't really show it, but I fell in love with all of you almost immediately. And there was you, my sensei's son. I had something to live for, but once again I screwed everything up and team seven fell apart."

"That wasn't your fault."

"Sasuke left," Kakashi continued, ignoring his student, "and both you and Sakura found teachers that were better than I could ever be. It was for a long time after that that I considered suicide; not for the first time" Naruto's eyes grew like saucers.

"WHAT?"

Kakashi finally tuned back to Naruto, and he was smiling.

"Runs in the family, I guess. When you came back, things changed."

"What changed?"

"I saw the man you were becoming, the woman Sakura was becoming." he shrugged, "I was so proud of you both. It's true, I couldn't take credit for much. I helped teach you a couple good techniques that any sensei could have done and that's it. Most of the really important stuff that you've learned, the stuff that define who you are as a ninja, came from Jiraiya. Sakura has Tsunade to thank. The most important thing I had to teach you was in that first lesson. But when I saw you two working together again, I saw that it was enough. It makes all of my failures and screw-ups worthwhile that the two of you took that lesson to heart. Especially you, Naruto."

Naruto couldn't help but look away again at the praise. The feeling of failure was hitting him hard.

"Why me?"

"Today you went against everything you believe in to kill Madara. I saw you struggle against the very things that make you unique, the rules that define your ninja way. You feel like trash? Maybe you should."

Naruto shot him a glare.

"If everyone felt about killing like you do, Jiraiya's peace might actually be possible. It's natural and right for you to feel like trash. That makes you human. I wouldn't want to even talk to you if you didn't. But I have to wonder about something."

"What?" Naruto barked out bitterly.

"How would you have felt if you didn't kill Madara, knowing that you could have, and he succeeded in destroying the lives of everyone you care for?"

Kakashi studied his student's stunned expression for a moment before nodding.

"You see? When I said you surpassed me, I wasn't talking about chakra or techniques. You could have beaten me, or even Tsunade in a fight long ago. But I think now you finally have some understanding of what it means to be Hokage. More than anyone, you can protect those people who are important to you. There really isn't anything else I can teach you."

"Kakashi." Naruto stopped his sensei as he was walking back inside. The man turned around to see his student grinning at him and showing plenty of sharp teeth. "I bet you'll think of something, sensei."