A/N: More info at the end of this chapter. But hello! Welcome back to this marvelous world. Sorry I haven't updated in forever (again more info on this at the end). Some warnings right off the gate: This is rated M. There will be dark moments, character deaths, fights, cursing (although not to the point where it is literally every word said), etc… Nothing too lemony, no outright bloody gore. With that being said, please enjoy the story of how I would write after Naruto Shippuden in this universe.

Italics are for thoughts of characters.

Underline + Italics are for the setting.

Bold words are various forms of Techniques, or anything I feel important to highlight at the end of the chapter. You can find the translations of the techniques at the end of the chapter, right before the author notes.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Naruto, however, I do not. Kishimoto is a based dude. This work is fictitious and any resemblance to anything outside of these chapters or the Naruto Universe is purely coincidental.

A New Leaf

Chapter I

Training Ground #3, Konohagakure, 1 Year After the Fourth Great Shinobi War

A crackle of thunder and the appearance of lightning erupted from a point in the grassy area of the training ground. Two silhouettes of men could be seen standing nearby, one taller than the other. The taller one, with spiky hair, held out his right hand, which was supported by his left, and called upon the forces of chakra to shape into lightning.

Naruto Uzumaki could barely contain the enormous smile as he watched his sensei, Kakashi, perform another round of his newly crafted Jutsu, Shiden. A mastercrafted jutsu to combat the inefficiencies of the Raikiri. The Shiden, now a purple variant of lightning, could be used as a ranged Jutsu, and did not have the drawbacks of tunnel vision that the Raikiri had.

As Kakashi motioned his hand to perform the new Jutsu, waves of purple lightning came over his right hand as he pushed it out towards a lone tree, an arch of lightning spliced a nearby tree in half.

"Well… I think it works, for now. I might be able to modify it for different combat scenarios for future use, like what Sasuke did with his Chidori," Kakashi held for a moment, and sighed, "What do you think, Naruto?"

"Kakashi-sensei, that was great! You developed this Jutsu in only 3 months, soon you won't even need to use both hands!"

"Mah, let's not get ahead of ourselves. There is still a long time for perfection," Kakashi stuck his hands in his pockets and raised his brows, "would you like to spar?"

A creeping smile came on Naruto's lips. It wasn't everyday that his sensei offered to spar with him, especially since Kakashi had lost his Sharingan. He looked the older shinobi in the eyes and gave a boldful nod.

"Let's set some ground rules, Naruto. First—"
"I know, I know, no use of Kurama's chakra cloak, or sage mode. I have been practicing with more Jutsu too, you know! The rasengan may be powerful, but I need more weapons in my arsenal if I want to be Hokage!"

"You're starting to think like an actual shinobi, Naruto. What made you switch to that?"

Naruto paused. It's not like he wanted to only use the rasengan, it was just that it was super powerful and useful. It even got more useful when I combined it with my wind affinity. But a Hokage needs to learn all types of Jutsu, like Ojīsan Sandaime, Naruto thought to himself.

"I need to be able to use a ton of techniques before becoming Hokage, right? That's why I am learning more and more jutsu, becoming Hokage and protecting my people!"

Looking over towards the heart of the training ground they were standing in, Naruto reminisced back to the days of Genin Team 7. The infamous bell test that his sensei had administered taught him how to make teamwork work, even if it still took years for him to finally realize it.

All of a sudden, Naruto was by himself, alone, in the midst of the training grounds. Kunai came speeding towards him from the trees to his left, while a giant shuriken came at him from the right. Naruto reacted quickly, forming three hand seals, Dog, Horse, and finally, Bird, he took in a deep breath and called out to his wind affinity.

"Fūton: Toppa"

A gust of wind came before him, surrounding the blonde teen, and threw the projectiles to the ground before they were able to hit Naruto.

"You're going to have to try harder than that, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, as he formed his signature move with a cross seal. Two shadow clones now stood besides Naruto, and they quickly dispersed throughout the grounds.

Kakashi analyzed the move. His own shadow clones were behind the trees, however, he only had a couple active, and they wouldn't last as long as Naruto's, since he didn't use them as much as Naruto did. However, the lack of a Sharingan always active in his left eye meant that he had more chakra than what he was normally allocated.

At that moment, his clone to the left was found by Naruto's shadow clone. Kakashi's clone jumped back and with absurd speed formed the Snake hand seal, followed by Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, and Tiger. Oil formed in the clone's mouth, as he released it as a bullet, which erupted into flames. The Katon: Endan, was something he learned from Jiraiya, but he didn't have the luxury of a toad summon— summons! My ninken is something that Naruto would have to forcibly retreat from,Kakashi planned.

However, in a bundle of smoke, Kakashi's left clone dispersed, and the thoughts went back to the original Kakashi. The last thing the clone saw, according to it's memories, were Naruto using his fingers to transmit a slashing blade of wind. Ah, the Kaze no Yaiba, one he must've learned while he was in Suna.

Realizing that it was only a matter of time before the real Kakashi was found, he bit his thumb and placed it on the ground, the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, formed a seal on the ground, which summoned the all too familiar scent of his ninken.

"What's up boss?" Pakkun questioned.

Kakashi held up his hand and formed a symbol that stood for silence, and formed another symbol for training.

The ninken all saw, and nodded their heads. They knew that Kakashi was taking this 'training' seriously, and that he must've been doing it with someone powerful, powerful enough to warrant their boss' attention.

Kakashi signaled to disperse and await further instructions, but requested Pakkun stay with him. He would need a fast traveler that could burrow underground to transmit orders.

The fire to his left was still burning, and he was sure Naruto had retracted his clone from that area. He focused his attention to his right clone, observing what was happening over there.

Kakashi's clone kicked Naruto up into the air, and appeared directly behind, causing Naruto's eyes to widen. The clone then grabbed Naruto's ankles, wrapped his legs around his waist, and plummeted to the ground. A technique which mimicked the Front Lotus.

Both 'bodies' disappeared, and a cloud of smoke emerged from both of them. I won't win this with shadow clones. And Naruto did use a powerful wind Jutsu to slice my shadow clone…

Kakashi quickly told Pakkun to go to where his other ninken were and strike out at Naruto's legs. With that, he thought, I can trap the real Naruto and potentially end this training session.

Naruto stood in the middle of the training ground. He knew that Kakashi wasn't going to just jump out into the open to attack him, and he used that as his advantage. His shadow clones were able to go and cover places that Kakashi could have been hiding, and in fact, that's exactly what they did, all while Naruto had his eyes around the entire training ground.

Exactly in the amount of time it took for Naruto to identify where Kakashi had to be, in revelation that the weapons thrown at him in the beginning were provided by clones, four dogs..."not dogs— ninken,"Naruto said to himself, attached themselves to his feet and legs, making Naruto unable to move. Once more, Naruto's eyes widened as Kakashi came into the clearing, his right hand had purple lightning attached to it.

"Give up, Naruto," the only words that Kakashi uttered.

Naruto chuckled, and responded back to his teacher, "Kakashi-sensei, once again you outsmarted me. But I can't just give up!"

Kakashi sighed, and thought to himself, Naruto can heal quickly, this won't kill him.

Kakashi lunged forth his hand, and his lightning sprung forward towards where Naruto was held. There was a crack, and something was burning, and smelled like… smelled like burning wood?

A log replaced the body of Naruto who was just immobilized, the lightning cracked against it, tore off a chunk, and left half of the log sizzled.

Kakashi sighed, Outsmarted by Naruto, and then he started to chuckle at that fact.

Naruto appeared quickly behind him, with a kunai to his throat.

"Kakashi-sensei, give up," Naruto playfully mocked his teacher.

"Well, no need to continue, you clearly won this time."

Claps were heard in the distance, and both shinobi turned towards to sound. Sakura and Hinata were watching the session.

"Well Hinata, Naruto sure has grown stronger without the need for Sage mode or Kurama's chakra," Sakura said and playfully tapped Hinata's shoulder.

Hinata blushed, her face now pink.

"I am sure Naruto-kun has grown quite stronger," but that just made Hinata's face deepen color.

Sakura laughed, and waved over to her sensei and friend.

"Why don't you two come join us for some lunch?" Sakura asked.

Naruto's eyes, for a third time this morning, widened. He looked towards Kakashi, almost pleading him to tag along. His eyes piercing into the dark exterior of Kakashi's face.

"Fine, fine, I'll come too," and as soon as he said that, he almost regretted it as Naruto nearly stepped on his feet by bouncing around sporadically.

Ichiraku Ramen Shop, Konohagakure

The jingle of bells sounded as Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Kakashi entered Ichiraku Ramen, a place held in high esteem ever since Naruto rose to fame. It is unrecognisable from it's previous appearances. The fame made it grow, and with it's and the village's growth, has transformed the little shop into a bustling restaurant.

An older man wearing a white chef's hat, with a grey apron was standing not too far off from the entrance behind the counter. His face had dark, defined wrinkles, and his hair that was visible was brown with a hint of grey seeping in.

Teuchi looked at where the bells were chiming at, his mouth lifted into a smile at the sight of yellow hair and an orange track jacket. The person who was always at his shop, Naruto Uzumaki, once again, was wandering inside.

"Naruto! Welcome back. How many today?" Teuchi asked.

The famous yellow haired ninja replied, "Ah, Ojīsan, there's myself, Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, and Kakashi-sensei."

"Great, Ayame will get you seated shortly."

The four were seated at a booth in the back, reserved for the highest esteemed patrons, although they all thought it wasn't necessary, Ayame insisted. Naruto and Hinata sat in the left section of the booth while Kakashi and Sakura sat themselves in the right section. The booths themselves were quite comfortable, and Hinata commented that their luxurious table seemed like mahogany wood.

Ayame came back over to their table to get their order of drinks. Hinata and Sakura both ordered water, while Naruto requested for lemonade, and Kakashi coffee. They were all smiling, enjoying the quality time spent. It had been ages since the war, but the effects that lingered were visible. Civilians were more wary of shinobi, the villages were still rebuilding, and the missions were dwindling.

But as time passed on, the group didn't worry about those issues. They were in the moment, and were being hysterical with one another. Better to leave those problems with the political higher-ups.

Sakura chimed in after a round of laughter subsided from a joke Naruto made.

"So, Hinata and Naruto, are you guys… together?"

Hinata looked down, hiding her flushed red face, and stealthily glanced towards Naruto, whose face was scrunched up quizzically as if trying to answer a quantum mechanics question.

After a momentary silence, Naruto responded.

"Well…" Naruto began, "we are sitting next together, if that's what you mean."

Kakashi, Hinata, and Sakura's faces all deadpanned, if only for an instance, because Sakura's fist barely reached Naruto's face before Kakashi stopped her.

"Woah, Sakura-chan. I was just joking," Naruto laughed, and sheepishly rubbed his head, "This will be our third date."

Sakura sighed and brought her fist back, "Naruto, if you weren't such a fool I wouldn't have almost punched you!"

"Now Sakura, I am sure Naruto was just in the mood to make jokes, no need to get worked up on it," Kakashi added.

Hinata, feeling the courage to speak up, said, "Kakashi-sensei is right. Naruto-kun was just being… Naruto-kun."

And with that statement, everyone laughed, including Sakura.

"Say, Sakura-chan, when is Sasuke coming back from his 'atonement,'" Naruto made a disgruntled face at that word, "trip?"

"I haven't heard anything. Not even a single letter," Sakura looked to the side, "but I have hope that he will be back soon."

"I hope so too, Sakura-chan."

Village Entrance, Konohagakure

Shikamaru Nara walked along a path in the forest outside of Konohagakure. Springtime? Shikamaru thought, as he walked through a stone path. Has it already been a year? A brisk wind grew, and Shikamaru noticed something fall to the ground. A new leaf? Plucked out of a nearby tree? The wind… what a pain. The genius shinobi let out a deep sigh, and continued walking towards the main gate of the village he called home. Wind, Shikamaru chuckled, and I thought I left her in Suna.

"Hey!" Izumo shouted, "it's Shikamaru," greeted the village gate guards, Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, the inseparable shinobi.

"Oh? Kotetsu, Izumo, hey," Shikamaru replied back.

"How was your stay in Suna," Izumo asked.

"Oh... nothing bad in particular. The Kazekage is planning on enhancing the villages technology, making trade deals, the boring tidbits. It is troublesome, really. Almost all work, no time for relaxation."

Shikamaru stepped into his village after passing the enormous gates for the first time in little under a year. Being the ambassador to Sunagakure made him realize how much he missed the refreshing grass and air that Konoha offered.

He sighed. Now that I am home on leave, it seems I might be bored. What a pain.

Shikamaru's boredom, however, was put on hold. His jaw slightly dropped, as he saw that Konoha had easily surpassed Suna in its attempt to enhance itself technologically. Off in the distance, he easily spotted the Hokage Rock, and behind it, tall skyscraper-like structures were on their way to being built, modeled after scaffoldings in their absence.

Shikamaru laughed, It seems like the Godaime really stepped up while I was gone, or maybe it's because she had some inspiration. Speaking of Tsunade-sama, I should report to her that I have arrived back.

Shikamaru knocked on a large door, covered by artwork of fire. The Hokage's office had certainly improved since the last visit he had, which included the door frame destroyed by a punching blow Tsunade gave before he entered. This time, however, it seems even Tsunade wouldn't destroy this symbol.

Through the large door and thick walls, he heard a frightening scream-like command.

"Come in," the piercing voice called out.

Shikamaru instantly recognised the voice as the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-sama. He entered the office, preparing mentally everything that was about to go down. She will ask what took so long. What more did I learn about them. What was Suna's reaction. What do we do about him...

"Welcome back, Shikamaru," the blonde Sannin gestured for Shikamaru to take a seat in front of her desk.

"Good afternoon, Godaime-sama," Shikamaru bowed, "here is my report on Sunagakure technological and economic advancements in the last year."

"Good, thank you," Tsunade replied, "Shikamaru, did you like your assignment to Suna?"

"Well," Shikamaru started, "it got to be a little boring after a few months. Without anything too problematic, the shinobi world doesn't have that many incentives anymore."

"A lot of people, especially in Konoha, would consider that a good thing, Shikamaru."

"I know, I think it's good too, but our lives are based around being shinobi. It will be difficult to live without any high class missions and money. Raising prices on our lower tier missions will only result in fewer being submitted," Shikamaru sighed, "at the current rate, it shouldn't be that bad, but in the future, we might be really dry."

Tsunade laid her hands on the table. She smiled at Shikamaru, which caught the Nara boy off guard.

"Your insight is phenomenal, Shikamaru, and because of that, I would like to extend the offer of being one of my personal advisors to the Hokage office, and the Jōnin Commander."

Shikamaru was visibly stunned. His mouth went gaped, but he quickly closed it before his superior could see it.

"Hokage-sama, as my father was the Chief Strategist of the Allied Shinobi Alliance, serving as the Hokage's advisor seems to be the best tribute to him. I fully accept these positions."

"Excellent, we are still rebuilding and reconstructing most things around here, and as my new advisor, I would like you to set up a meeting with the clan leaders and Jōnin. We have many things to discuss about the future of this village."

"Understood, Hokage-sama. Anything else?"

"One more thing. The Torture and Interrogation Unit has a captured… person, in their cells. I would like for you and your former partner, Ino Yamanaka, to interrogate this prisoner and extract every detail from them. More information can be found in this scroll," Tsunade picked up a scroll laying on her desk and extended her arm to hand it to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru scanned the white scroll in front of him, the contents darkened with black ink. After two minutes of reading through the report, he looked up to see the aging amber eyes of the Godaime Hokage. The Nara clan leader could see the afternoon backdrop surrounding the office.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru stated as he slumped back down in the seat that sat in front of the Hokage's desk.

"By these calculations and from the statistics reported from the Allied Headquarters, it seems like Kusagakure has assembled quite a force in the last year or so," Shikamaru narrowed his eyes as he continued, "and it looks like they have been recruiting missing-nin and criminals at the very least."

"What could this mean," Tsunade questioned with a hint of sadness at the memory of the previous wars she has been in.

"I can't make anything from it at this point," Shikamaru hesitated, "to amass such a force in a small amount of time would require the work of a genius, with incredible influence. Only a small set of people are still left in this world to fit that description."

Tsunade sighed, and took a deep breath a moment afterwards.

"Have you read the casualty reports made by the Alliance?" Tsunade asked.

"I took the liberty to read the report in Sunagakure. The markup remained similar in our version. The war took a lot of lives. High calculations were around 65,000 casualties last time I checked, 40,000 in one day too, thanks to Madara Uchiha's Tengai Shinsei, and the other reincarnatedshinobi. Roughly 40% of those figures were fatalities. Which leaves the Alliance with 39,000 either out of commision or still pretty injured. From my time there, I know that Sunagakure put those who were injured on leave, and they haven't been put back on duty. I theorize that the other nations have also done the same."
Shikamaru took a breath and resumed, "Thanks to Naruto's efforts, Academy students and Genin were not fighting in the war, but they are still not fit to be in any conflict with another village. All in all," Shikamaru sighed, "it leaves us with approximately 2,000 Chūnin, 500 Tokubetsu Jōnin, 250 ANBU, and 250 Jōnin still available for duty. Approximately 50 Shinobi can retire by the year's end."

"Exactly. We can't afford to do this alone, even if most of Kusa's forces are just common criminals and thugs." Tsunade stood up from the chair behind the Hokage desk, her hands flat against the wooden surface.

"Send the ravens to the other Great Nations. I want to call a Kage Summit to address the situation."

"The new Headquarters is in the Land of Iron, we will need to put together a team to escort you," Shikamaru remarked with his brows raised.

"Understood, I will address this with the meeting of clan leaders and Jōnin."

"Before you leave, Shikamaru," Tsunade said as she took out a bottle of sake and a cigar from her desk drawer, "how about a light?"

-Shiden

Purple Lightning

-Raikiri

Lightning Blade

-Chidori

One Thousand Birds

-Fūton: Toppa

Wind Release: Breakthrough

-Katon: Endan

Fire Release: Flame Bullet

-Kaze no Yaiba

Blade of Wind

-Kuchiyose no Jutsu

Summoning Jutsu

-Tengai Shinsei

Shattered Heaven

A/N: WOW. I am back, with a rewrite to the first few chapters of a fanfic I started half a year ago. I always struggle with releasing something, and then telling myself it isn't perfect, so I scrap the idea, or I try really hard to fix it. The same thing happened with this story, but I feel much more confident now. The next couple of chapters will be rewrites of "A New Leaf" and will be venturing more into that world. One of my gripes with my original few chapters was that they were very short, and reading it could be a breeze and that made me feel like I had to redo them, so I stopped making new chapters and tried to focus on reforming the first few chapters.

My writing style, I feel like, is something akin to a fantasy-realistic (probably just made that up) type. I like to give characters a sensible approach (unless that character is someone like Naruto), to most things, while keeping the 'Naruto universe' feel to it. I kind of hate fanfics that overemphasize people being stupid, harsh, dumb, godlike, etc… Which brings me to a point that I find myself asking all the time: "Why don't I just make a fanfiction so I can put everything I like into one story?" Because, after searching through FFN for awhile now, there aren't that many top tier fics that I extremely like. There are some out there, but I find the majority of fanfics unrealistic, off putting (anything that bashes characters, creates hardcore killer freaks, doesn't have good spelling/grammar (in before I mistyped or failed at English on a sentence)), etc… Maybe I just have high standards, but that's just me :).

I would like to warn you all that I have some very 'nasty' (or great depending on who you are) ideas coming up for this fanfic, which is why it is rated M. (This does not mean lemons, gore, or any of that, HOWEVER, there will be a few character deaths that might shock you. Honestly, I think character deaths, done in meaningful ways (like Jiraiya) is very healthy for a series, contributes to character growth, and makes the viewer shocked and interested to find out what happens next, even if we like that character).

Some people may ask the following: "How will you deal with the power levels of Sasuke and Naruto?"

I think I have a very good solution to that, and you'll have to keep reading to find out :).

"Pairings?" Well, I previously stated that I dislike the Sasuke-Sakura pairing. I found it pretty abusive and unrealistic. So I don't think that will happen in this world. Sasuke has too much baggage, and has treated Sakura like dirt. However, this will all be played out in the future. (Although I did read a fanfic that is probably in my highest tier of favorite fanfics that had an absolute heart breaking chapter of having Sasuke go to Naruto and Sakura's wedding and had the reader able to read his thoughts and feelings. It made me feel really bad for him, even when figuring in all the terrible stuff he has done.)

As for Naruto, well, you already know that Hinata and him have been dating (at least three times!). After that, they are pretty much similar to the OG Naruto Universe. However, I will make Kakashi find someone!

I am still pretty new to publishing and responding on FFN, so if you have anything you would like to ask, please PM me!