Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Naruto, or any of its characters.

This is the second draft of the first chapter, no major changes though, just a word here and there. Thank you all for your reviews and corrections. Please feel free to send any more so I can further polish the story. A special thanks to rikarudo for the question, it really got me thinking further ahead.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are a few advantages to being a ninja. One is getting to places that very few others can get to, for example, the top of a hundred and fifty foot tall tree. Another is that it's very easy to hide from others. On the other hand, being a ninja now seemed to be pretty pointless in Naruto's mind. Peace had finally come. After years of bloody conflict, where ninja skills were absolutely necessary, things had been resolved. What was a ninja to do now? Settle down and start a family would be the answer that many of his comrade's had come up with...but how was he supposed to do that?

"Oy Naruto! Get your ass out of that tree before I knock it over!" Naruto sighed. That was the problem with living in this village; you weren't the only ninja in it. It was harder to hide.

"What do you want Sakura?" Naruto appeared next to the loud girl. "You're not here to tell me we have a mission, and I figured you'd be spending all your time with your wonderfully sweet, silent dumb-ass."

"You bastard, you know what Sasuke went through!"

"Yeah, I know. That's why didn't kill him."

Sakura's eyes blazed. "You son of a bitch, who do you think you are?" She pulled back her fist to punch the dumb blonde with her signature punch, but before she could even think about taking the swing, Naruto jumped forward, locked his arm around her elbow and threw her to the ground holding her arm behind her back. He also wasn't gentle about it.

"I'm the son of a bitch who never gave up on him. I'm the son of a bitch who brought him back. I'm the son of a bitch that made this mother fucking peace possible!" He wrenched her arm further and she winced. If he pushed any more her shoulder would dislocate. "So you listen to me! I'm tired of you trying to hit me when I give you the truth, I'm tired of people hating me when I defended them with everything I had, and I'm getting damned sick of this village!" He let go of her arm and vanished once again, perched on the branch he had been on.

Sakura got off the ground, wincing as she tried to get feeling back into her shoulder. "I was just going to tell you that the Hokage wanted to talk to you." She retreated back home as quickly as she could looking over her shoulder in fear.

Naruto sighed. Maybe he'd get lucky and there would be a mission, get out of Konaha. He stood up and started leaping through the tree's back to the village, barely paying attention. He'd done this so often, his hands and feet were so sure of where to go that his mind was able to wander.

Peace had come back to Konaha, it had come back to the whole land. That was the problem! Things had gone right back to the way they were when he was six. Everyone looked at him like a monster again, like a freak. Sure when they needed him to fight, oh he could do that just fine with no arguments from them!

Back in Konaha, he started leaping across the rooftops. He was better at fighting than anyone else in the village, and he had proved it! But he had been learning how to fight for so long, become such a weapon that he never realized how little he understood how to actually relate with people in a peaceful world.

His foot broke tiles on a rooftop as he made one final jump up to the Hokage's office, perching on her window.

Tsunade was in the same place he expected; sleeping with her head on her desk, drool ruining the documents that were doubling as her pillow right now.

"You wanted to see me?"

The Hokage snorted and pulled herself off her makeshift bed, one of her makeshift pillows sticking to her face. "Huh? Oh, Naruto, yes, I wanted to speak with you." Pulling the paper off her face, Naruto could see how tired her eyes looked. She was the perfect Hokage during a war, but in peace time, the politicking was too much for her, that much was obvious.

"What's up Tsunade?" She winced when he used her name. He hadn't called her baa-chan for years.

"Have a seat Naruto, this might take a while." He shrugged and jumped into the room, twisting his body in the air so that he landed perfectly in one of the two chairs sitting across from her desk. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, trying to wake up fully.

"So, how have you been –"

"Please get to the point Hokage-san."

Again, her face winced. "Naruto, what happened to your smile?"

Naruto shrugged. "I guess I lost it sometime between beating the crap out of my 'closest' friend and ending the war."

"It's more than that Naruto. You were always so happy, always smiling. You enjoyed trying to become the best."

"Honestly Tsunade; being the best isn't all it's cracked up to be."

A familiar half smile crossed the Hokage's face. "You're a cocky little bastard Naruto. You think you could kick my ass? I am the Hokage after all. I'm the strongest in the village."

A similar smile crossed Naruto's face, very unlike his old one that went ear to ear."I'm not being cocky Tsunade, just honest. I'm the strongest ninja in this village, and everyone knows it." He added a sinister twist to the smile. "But if you need me to prove it by kicking your ass, you only have to give me a location."

The smiles disappeared in the room. Tsunade looked at Naruto, realizing how much he had changed. It wasn't like he hadn't ever threatened her before; it was how they met after all. But he had never fought for something like that. He had always fought for something else, something larger, because she knew without a doubt that if she asked, he would fight her for no greater reason than to prove that he was stronger. He never would have done that before.

She got out of her chair and looked out the window. "No Naruto, you're right. I do know that you're the strongest in the village. That's why I'm stepping down as Hogake."

"What are you talking about Tsunade?"

She looked back at Naruto, hope in her eyes. "You're going to be the next Hokage. I want to you take my place." Please, oh please smile again Naruto.

"I refuse."

Shock replaced hope. "You refuse? It's your dream!"

"Not anymore Hokage-san. You'll need to find someone else."

Tsunade jumped over her desk. Her fist balled back and fired forward into the back of Naruto's chair half an inch from his face. Even though the back of the chair flew off leaving only a stool, he didn't flinch. "What happened to my Naruto!"

The door flew open and three ninja's wearing animal masks jumped into the room, knives in hand. They surrounded Naruto and the blades were at his neck before the broken chair back hit the floor. "Hokage-san! What did this beast do?"

For the first time since Naruto entered the office, his eyes showed emotion. Anger...no, not anger. Rage. Cold hard rage that made his blue eyes, that usually were the same colour as a summer sky, change to ice. Tsunade, looking right at him couldn't help but take a step back. Strongest ninja indeed!

Slowly Naruto got to his feet, ignoring the knives that followed him.

"Sit back down you son of a bitch before we-" The Anbu never got the chance to finish the sentence. Naruto ducked down, swept his leg in a full circle taking the elite-ninja guard off their feet before they knew what was happening and throwing the remains of the chair into the air. Not even close to finished yet though, he grabbed two legs of the chair and by the time he was done, he was holding only the broken legs of the chair, and the unconscious bodies of the Anbu were leaning against the walls.

Naruto tossed the legs at Tsunade's feet and looked at her, right into her eyes. The ice blazed, and there wasn't even a hint of the nine tails. This was all Naruto. When he spoke though, his voice was level, almost calm.

"Tsunade, your Naruto barely ever existed. He wore a mask, a happy go-lucky mask that allowed him to talk with people, allowed him to relate with people, allowing him to belong. Then your Naruto went through the war. Then your Naruto had to kill, had to maim, had to do terrible, horrible things for the sake of this village, for the sake of its people so that we could survive. Somewhere among that carnage, he lost his mask."

Walking slowly, he moved closer and closer to the Hokage, the supposed strongest ninja in the village, who couldn't stop her legs from trembling.

"That mask was the only thing that let your Naruto interact with people, with the villagers that he was supposed to protect. He never had a family. He never really had any friends either. He was never loved by a mother or father, and his friends, his friends were all ninja's, soldiers that fought alongside him in the war."

He was now nose to nose with Tsunade, and she could almost feel the cold radiate from his blazing eyes. "Where are those friends now Hokage-san? They all have families, loving caring families. And those friends try and keep their families as far away from me as they can! Who in this village doesn't think of me as a monster, as a beast." He spit the words out, not caring that spittle landed on her face, and motioned towards the guards.

"These are the people you want me to lead, to protect, to serve? You honestly expect that?"

"My Naruto could have done it," Tsunade whispered.

"Your Naruto never even existed." Naruto vanished, and Tsunade dropped to the floor weeping into her hands.

The ninja world is filled with horrible and terrible things. Poisons that kill slowly, knives sharper than the finest razor, abilities that can inspire absolute terror to any who view them. Yet in all the ninja world, few horrors could compare to the angry, pink haired, woman that paced around her living room, raging at her husband. Luckily, her husband was one of the only ninja's in the world that could face this horror without flinching.

"I'm going to kill him. I'm going to open him up and do things with his insides. Then I'm going to cut him up and feed him to the beasts!"

"Calm down Sakura, he didn't do anything –"

"He attacked me!"

"You attacked him first."

"He said he was going to kill you!"

"No he didn't. He said many things about me, all of which were true, and then he answered your question."

Sakura glared at Sasuke who was lazing on a couch, and he met her eyes without fear. "Why doesn't this bother you?"

Now Sasuke's eyes faltered and looked away. "Because there are other things about Naruto that bother me much more."

Sakura sat next to him, clearly not understanding. "What are you talking about?"

"Naruto knocked three of my men unconscious today."

Anger blazed brighter in her eyes. "Do you honestly believe that will make me less angry at-" Sasuke's finger closed moved to her lips, silencing her.

"Let me tell the whole story. Naruto went to the Hogake's office, and they got into a fight. At least that's what my men thought. They ran inside, and they assumed that Naruto had attacked Tsunade. One of them called Naruto a..." Sasuke spit the word out "Beast. Naruto didn't respond kindly, but I can understand why he did it."

Sakura became thoughtful. "Why were they fighting?"

'I just told you, he called him –"

She shook her head. "No, not Naruto and the Anbu. Naruto and the Hokage. What were they fighting about?"

Sasuke's expression became more worried. "Tsunade asked Naruto to become the next Hokage."

She started laughing. "Well that must have made the baka pretty happy!"

"He refused."

Both of them were silent for a long time. Sasuke was deep in thought, and Sakura, well she was just shocked. "He...he refused?"

Sasuke only nodded.

"But...but it's been his dream since...since...forever! Why would he turn it down?"

"All I could get out of Tsunade was 'He's not my Naruto anymore. I don't know what I can do.' I've never seen her so upset."

Sakura leapt to her feet and charged towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to kick that baka's ass! How could he do that to Tsunade! She's practically his mother!"

"Sakura, you already tried that, and I get the feeling that if you tried again, you would end up in the hospital."

"Stop defending him!"

Sasuke finally got off the couch and went over to the window. His eyes were looking outside, but truly, he was deep in thought. "Sakura, when was the last time we saw Naruto?"

"Just this morning when the animal –"

Sasuke shook his head. "That's not what I mean. When was the last time we spent time with him, talked to him, he's supposed to be one of us!"

She only stared at Sasuke. "What are you getting at Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura, and she saw pain in his eyes. "Naruto is...was our friend. Why are we shunning him?"

"We're not shunning him, we've just been so busy. You're captain of the Anbu, and being head of the hospital has crappy hours. We just haven't had the –"

"I don't just mean you and me!" Sasuke almost never shouted. Not anymore. He had changed over the past few years, just like everyone else, but Sasuke's transformation was one of the most radical. He was kinder now, approachable. His smile that was once so rare, now came often and easily. He even told jokes. He almost never shouted, but he was shouting now.

"The whole village has shunned him Sakura! Why is that? He saved us! He saved us so many times! He should be a hero, he should be Hokage! Why isn't he?"

Sakura looked down in shame. Everything that Sasuke said was true. "I don't know Sasuke."

Sasuke barked out a laugh, an angry bitter sound, and Sakura was reminded of how he was, a long time ago. "I know why. I know exactly why! We're afraid of him."

"No, he's gotten control of the fox, he's had control for a long time now. It's how he was able to win!" Sakura stammered, trying to find an answer.

"Sakura, we're not afraid of the fox, we're now afraid of him!" He sighed, and went back to the couch, sitting down with his face in his hands. "I haven't seen him Sakura because he reminds me of what I was. He reminds me of the monster, the animal, the beast that I was! He had to beat it out of me, but every time I see him, I'm reminded of what I did." Looking up, Sakura was shocked to see tears in his eyes. "I remember abandoning the village, abandoning you, for revenge. For hate! I'm not the only one who remembers the bad!

"Before, Naruto was hated because he carried the fox. It didn't matter if the demon was safely stored away, it still existed. It existed as a symbol of the time that came before, a time when people did bad things, terrible things, because they had to. It reminded them of what they lost. Now...now it's even worse because the fox isn't the symbol, Naruto is. He's the symbol of the war. He's the symbol that makes us all remember what we did, what we're all so ashamed of, what we lost."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"I do."

"So what're we supposed to do about it?" Sakura raged.

His head slumped down in defeat. "I don't know Sakura."

Sakura was about to start yelling again about how that was complete crap, and how that baka didn't deserve that kind of pity, but she was interrupted by a knock at the door. Both of them jumped at the sound, but recovering faster, Sasuke walked over to the door and opened it.

"Tsunade! Come in, please come in." He led the Hokage into the living room and sat her down on the couch.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Sakura asked? "We have some Sake from the party we had last week."

"No, thank you, water is fine," Tsunade croaked. Sasuke and Sakura exchanged glances. Tsunade... turning down alcohol? "I'll...I'll be right back." Sakura half ran into the kitchen.

"Tsunade, if you don't mind me saying, you look like something ran over you." He tried to make a joke, but Tsunade only smiled a sad smile. Her face was puffed up, eyes red from crying, and her clothes were a mess.

"I know...but I had to talk to someone about...you know." She couldn't even say his name.

"We were just talking about him ourselves."

"You should have heard Sasuke's psychobabble before Tsunade." Sakura tried her best to keep the mood light and handed the Hokage a glass of water.

"Sakura! It's not psychobabble, it's the cold hard truth." Sasuke growled. He was right, he knew he was, and not even his wife would tell him otherwise. Terror of the ninja world or not.

"Well then what do you suggest we do about it Mr. Therapist?"

"If I knew that, then I would do it!"

"What truth?" Tsunade looked up at the arguing couple. "What were you saying about N-N-Naruto?" Hiccupping on his name, she drank some of the water.

Sasuke went over his thoughts of Naruto being a symbol, and Tsunade became contemplative. "You're right Sasuke. You're absolutely right."

"Don't encourage him Tsunade, I don't want him thinking that he can start mentally dissecting everything –"

"Sakura, shut up!" Tsunade roared. While Sakura could be terrifying when angry, the Hokage made you see your own death when she was. "This is about Naruto, and we're trying to figure out how to help him! Why can't you can't shut your trap for one second and realize he needs help! You're supposed to be one of his closest friends! If only...if only...THATS IT!"

Tsunade shot off, the cup of water spilling out of her hands and onto the floor. Sasuke chased after her but Sakura was too terrified to move. She had just seen her own death after all. "Tsunade! What's it? What are you talking about?"

"We need someone who can look past what Naruto has done; look past the symbol! We need someone who can see Naruto! The real Naruto! MY Naruto!"

"Tsunade, we're all terrified of him, myself included, as much as I hate to say it. Who could do that?"

"Oh I have the perfect person in mind for this mission."

Sasuke was confused. "Mission?"

Tsunade laughed, a deep loud belly laugh that came from a place of hope, of happiness. "Oh yes Sasuke; An A class mission, one that could decide the future of this entire village!" With that Tsunade jumped out the door, the laugh echoing through the woods.