Hey guys, it's me, SpeakerofNaught. If you don't recognized the name, I've written 'Reflections of the Past, Illusions of the Future'. It's been a fairly big success, but I've hit a brick wall and can't get around it. I'm seeing if this story will help jump-start my mind into the proper thinking order it needs to dig me out of the hole I dug on that story. Any suggestions you have for either story would be greatly appreciated and a simple review wouldn't be half-bad either.

As for this story, I wrote this story (just the prologue) while just experimenting on different plots and ended up deciding on Reflections/Illusions. While I expect Reflections/Illusions to be far more popular than this one, Herin may appeal to a different audience. What I mean is, the Rookie Nine will be in this fic. Sadly, I couldn't fit Lee, Neji, or Tenten into here. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that they never fit into any of my stories.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any related characters, locations, etc...)

Prologue

In northern Fire Country stood a field that would forever be marked in history as the final, if not greatest battle of the Third Great Shinobi War. Out of the hundreds of shinobi that participated in the war, only a handful remained. Crouching over in the middle of the remarkably emptier battlefield – littered with hundreds of dead bodies, kunai, steaming gouges and craters left over from various jutsu – knelled the bloodstained Hokage and vassal of the infamous Kyuubi No Kitsune, Uzumaki Naruto. In his arms, he held the woman he promised to marry, Hyuga Hinata. A kunai wound carved deep into her stomach.

"Hinata please, please answer me!" pleaded the blond. "Please say something!"

"Na-Naruto-kun?" she asked weakly.

"Yes, yes I'm here!" he said with sudden hope in his voice as he gently wiped a small line of blood from the corner of her lips.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked slowly. "I'm so happy to see you. I don't think I'm going to make it though."

"Don't say that!" he screamed, "Don't you ever give up, you hear me! Your strong, you can make it through this. I know you can."

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but I can't. It hurts to much." she said as her eyes started to grow heavy.

"Hinata! You're the strongest person I know. You can't let this beat you." he begged "You can't leave me alone. Hinata, I love you." he stated quietly.

"And I love you too, Naruto-kun. I'm sorry." she said as her eyes closed for the last time. Her face set in a content fashion only the dead can accomplish.

Hinata wasn't the only friend Naruto had lost today, there were many of his closest companions lying dead throughout the field. Although Naruto knew of his lost friends, none of them had devastated him like the loss of Hinata. A Kiri-nin had assassinated Shikamaru while on the back lines. He was in charge of tactics and one of Naruto's closest friends. Shino was next to fall; he was killed in battle while fighting off a small clan of Kumo-nin that had a blood limit that allowed them to send small electric shocks across their bodies. His beetles were not able to attach onto the enemy without frying themselves, effectively making the bugs useless. He went down shortly after coldly killing each of the clan members with his bare hands and a couple kunai.

Ino had possessed a enemy genin and was infiltrating the enemy ranks looking for a weak point in their defenses with Chouji protecting her. When Chouji had resorted to using the Red Akamichi Food Pill to keep from being overwhelmed, he charged into the enemy ranks, determined to take out as many as possible to buy Ino enough time to do what needed to be done so she could get away. With Chouji distracted and Ino in another body, Sasuke appeared, decapitated her, then turned his blade toward the dieing Akamichi clan head.

Kiba was next to be killed when Akamaru was dieing after being hit by a katon jutsu. While Kiba was mourning over his dying dog, a sound jounin approached from behind and stabbed Kiba in the back. While Sakura was busy trying to bring back the dead Kiba, Sasuke approached her and bid her farewell before killing her without any second thoughts.

Tsunade had decided that she had grown too old to effectively defend the village one year ago and relinquished her title (and paperwork) to Naruto, then left the village again to pursue the more quite life of high risk gambling. It's rumored that she left the continent and headed west, and since all shinobi wars had to happen in silence, they were not able to send a message asking for help. Jaraiya sadly, died in an epic fight with Orochimaru. He had been poisoned by a small snake that Orochimaru had slipped into his clothes during their fight, but not before taking out the proverbial Snake and his summon Manda, who had killed Gamabunta in an earlier fight by pouring his very life essence into a supercharged Rasengan.

Kakashi had died from chakra exhaustion after he crossed paths with the Rock Nin that was personally responsible for the rock slide that killed Obito. The Rock Nin created several bushins of himself and surrounded each of them with an incredibly dense outer shell. Kakashi was forced to use nine Rikari's in a row, until he found the original. Though he didn't die immediately, he rushed headfirst into the enemy ranks until his body became too exhausted to live.

One of the town's newest couples, Iruka and Shizune, had faced down three large snake summon that threatened to demolish the academy filled with students in a surprise attack. They were only able to kill one of the snakes, but were able to buy enough time for the academy students to get to a safe underground bunker before the other two serpents crushed them both.

An enraged Naruto had just killed Sasuke along with every other enemy in the field, (With his demonic prisoner enjoying every second of it) when a sound jounin that had been faking death, jumped up and tried to stab Naruto with a kunai. Hinata, the only other remaining rookie nine member, blocked the path of the flying dagger. This resulted in her fatal wound.

Naruto went into battle knowing that one or more of his friends would likely be killed on this dark day, but nobody knew, or even expected, that the opposing force's numbers would even come close to the total number it was. Konaha has usual population of around 600,000 people, military personal included. The entire enemy forces were estimated to be between 100-10,000.

Only after they came face-to-face with the opposing forces, they realized that the combined number was at least 500,000. Even though the majority of them were only genin level or so weak that they were no more of a threat that a mere foot soldier, there were still a lot of them. What made it worse is that there were so many different Hidden Villages there; there was no way to tell if the foreign Nin standing next to you was an alley or enemy. Many were saved from lethal attacks just so they could be killed by the savior.

At first, there was only Oto to fight, then Ame-nins started attacking only to be matched by the Leafs only trustworthy alley, the Suna. With the Kazekage on the front lines teamed with the Hokage, both powerful Jinchuriki, they were able to launch an impressive counter-strike against the other villages. Soon after the counter-strike begun, Naruto got word that Kumo-nins had attacked the under-guarded Konaha from the south. The Leaf-nins were forced to split their forces to both support Sand and help their defenseless village. This gave the Sound and Rain the edge they needed to press forward and slowly take out their crippled victims.

Although Kumo-nins are few in number, they make up with their cunning movements and vicious attacks, while just the opposite can be said about Sound. Leaf-nins are somewhere in the middle of the two. They tend to use well trained teams with versatile attacks to overcome obstacles in their way, and are known for its peaceful nature and forgiving people, whereas the other two are not. Another thing Leaf-nins are known for is that once they sets their mind to a goal, they accomplish that goal regardless of the odds.

One particular blond-haired shinobi had set a goal in his life that would seem nearly unattainable by any stretch of the word, let-alone if you're the most hated being in the village. Nevertheless, he stuck to his dream and through endless hours of training and sacrifice, he accomplished his goal. His goal was to be Hokage, the leader of Konaha.

Another example of this trait, called the 'Will of Fire' by one rambling old man, was Hyuga Hinata. Having to battle against her shy and quite nature, the single most powerful clan in Konaha, and the steel plated, five-inch thick skull of Uzumaki Naruto, she eventually recognized her dream of getting a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed, teenage boy to notice her.

However, no village is invincible; a good example of this took place 18 years ago, during the golden age of Konaha. The village was prosperous, vast, kind-hearted, and under the control of a strong benevolent leader. But as powerful as it was, they were not prepared for the attack of the giant Nine-Tailed Fox, the Kyuubi No Kitsune.

In order for the village to survive, the Forth Hokage used a self-sacrificing jutsu to forever seal away the demon into his newborn son. This left his son an orphan... A constantly abused orphan. After six years of being beaten in an orphanage, the Sandaime moved Naruto into a small apartment to keep him safe. As much as the Third tried to give Naruto a normal childhood, he couldn't always look after him due to his demanding job of being the village leader. This is where the term 'When the cat's away, the mice will play' came into effect.

During his childhood, Naruto had dealt with many disappointments and few happy moments. Though the happy moments would have mad an average child laugh at how minuet they compared to their own, they were the only thing that kept him legally sane. However, being alone in the field surrounded by the bodies of his closest friends, instantly made Naruto's life worthless.

"Kyuubi!" yelled Naruto in his mind. The Kyuubi had been alive for eons, surly he would know how to save Hinata. "Do you know how to save her!?"

"Kt, I'm sorry. Believe me I know what it's like to lose loved ones, but not even I can stop the death of a mortal."

Tears were now falling from his eyes in an endless cascade. "But you've been alive for basically forever. You have to know a jutsu or place I can take her that can fix her!

"Listen here Kit, I've been around for awhile and I've seen many things in my life that only I have been privileged to see. I've studied every art and science I could find, but nothing I know could heal that wound that she has and even if I did, I couldn't bring her back to---" he paused.. After several seconds, he let out a long mental sigh. "If this works, even in the afterlife, he'll never let me 'live' this down." it thought.

"But you gotta help her, if she's gone--" he started.

"SILENCE!" it demanded. "Kit, follow my instructions carefully, don't ask questions, just do it." he said calmly.

(AN: That was it. The next chapter will probably be appearing sometime within the next... 3 hours. I just have to maw over it for a second and make a few corrections. Remember, Review, Review, and Review. If its any incentive, I try to answer most of my reviewers questions and comment on their statements at the end of each chapter. It's not a guarantee that I will, but I try too.)