He saw red. The tinge in his vision, the blood, the sunset. And through it all, Hinata's crumpling form. Stained with red. Panic gripped his entire body, scrambling his thoughts. It filled his ears with a deafening pulse and drowned out even the madness of war. He watched in horror as a crimson flower bloomed on her chest. It grew larger as she turned paler, spilling onto the parched ground.

"N-Naruto." his name was barely a whisper, but with that voice it was more than enough to bring him to his knees.

"It's okay Hinata. It'll be okay. I'll take you to Sakura right now and she'll fix you up good as new…" Naruto trailed off, realizing the foolishness in his words.

Even if he could move Hinata in her state, Sakura wouldn't be able to help her. Sakura was dead. She had sacrificed her own life to bring half of Konoha's shinobi back from the brink of death. There wasn't a more honorable way to die, Naruto knew that. Nevertheless, he couldn't help thinking that if he'd been a better leader, she would still be standing there beside him. It nearly broke Naruto. If Hinata was to die, he would be right behind her.

"Naruto…" Hinata drew in a ragged breath, "I love you. I've… always loved you. Since I could remember."

"I know! I mean, I love you too. That's why you're not going to die on me, okay?" He rambled, stumbling over the words, "I'm just an idiot. I don't—I'm hopeless without you, so you can't leave me." The tears were flowing freely now, tracing lines through the grime on his face.

"Don't… cry." Hinata's made a move as if to brush them away, then stopped halfway. She didn't have the energy. Naruto grasped her hand in his and squeezed it as hard as he dared. "Take care of the kids… Don't eat too much ramen…" She forced out. Every word was excruciating.

"Please."

"I know you will make things right again… I believe in you…"

Her lips curved into one last beautiful, brilliant, wonderful smile and she was still.

Naruto stared in disbelief. No, this couldn't be happening. Not Hinata. Not sweet, quiet Hinata who didn't have a mean bone in her body. She didn't deserve any of this. He was the one who should have been the one hit by the jutsu. Not her. He held his wife's limp form and yelled. Letting all of his grief, all his frustration pour out. Who cared who saw? Who cared he was on a battlefield? He'd had enough. To hell with the Fifth Great Shinobi War.

It wasn't just him, but Konoha as well had suffered too much. All that pain and loss was supposed to end after the five nations united to thwart Infinite Tsukuyomi. That was it. Naruto and Hinata, along with their friends were ready to pass on their will of fire, set the stage for a new generation. They would have watched proudly as their children grew to replace them as the unbreakable pillars that supported Konoha. In time, those very children would have kids of their own, guide them down their path, and the cycle would repeat itself. Peace, love, end of story. So how did they end up here? Dead, injured and broken. If only they'd noticed the corruption sooner.

Naruto trembled, realizing he would never see Hinata smile again. Her soft, pure laugh, her warm touch. All of her many good parts, even the few bad parts that he had come to love. They were gone forever. Because he was too incompetent to notice the deadly shards of rock aimed at his heart, she had to do it for him. Because he was helpless, Hinata died to save a useless, pathetic excuse of a man.

A large hand fell onto Naruto's shoulder. He stiffened slightly but didn't turn to see who it was. If they were an enemy, he would be dead by now. If it was a friend, they should have known to leave him to his grief.

"Nanadaime. Please stand up." A deep, rough voice.

It seemed almost familia and at the same time, very off. Who was this person? Couldn't they see he wanted to be left alone?

"You are the nine-tails jinchuriki, savior of the shinobi world, reincarnation of Asura. Stand up."

Meaningless. Those titles wouldn't bring his friends back. Whoever it was, they were very close to losing that hand. And everything attached to it.

"What if I told you that there is a way for you to be reunited with your friends?" The voice said, as if reading his mind.

Naruto carefully placed Hinata's body on the ground. What was he trying to say? Edo-tensei? Dangerously tempting, but deep down he knew the dead were dead and nothing he did would change that. This person had to be crazy to suggest otherwise. Crazy and up to no good.

"We can change it. We can change everything."

He turned to see the face of the lunatic,

"Do it right this time."

Naruto barely managed to glimpse a brown cloak before the world was turned upside down. Left was right, here was there, and then neither was neither because everything began swirling together. Naruto would have leaned over to throw up but there wasn't anything to lean over to. The world had somehow turned into an enormous kaleidoscope and he was trapped in it. A tiny voice of reason told him he was under a genjutsu. He hadn't felt genjutsu this disorientating since Sasuke and he was dead. Naruto cursed himself for not killing the stranger sooner, now he would be killed instead. Oh well, he supposed it wasn't too bad. He could see Hinata again.

The medley of colours and shapes zoomed past him. Naruto thought he caught a few familiar faces though it must have been his imagination because those people were long gone. Black started slowly creeping in from the edges. Time to join them. Then, just before the darkness became absolute, something completely out of place caught his eye.

Was that… A ramen poster?

Afterthoughts...

So that was it. My first fanfic ever! This stuff takes longer to write than I thought.

I guess this chapter was a little depressing, but don't worry, it'll get happier because I don't like sad stories. Actually the plot is so half-baked I'm not really sure what's going to happen myself. I know it's a cliched concept but I just love these kind of stories so much that I couldn't help myself.

I'm also a bit of an action nerd (I'm super excited to write those badass Naruto scenes).

But I'll admit I can really use all the help I can get. Constructive criticism, suggestions for the story and general feedback. I know my writing isn't great so if you guys have any complaints about it, you are more than welcome to share. Don't worry, I can take the heat.