Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
It is a well known fact that shinobi have scars. It is impossible to go through what they go through without consequences. Physical scars are the most apparent, grisly reminders of missions that almost cost limb or life, blunders that are unacceptable but unavoidable. The mental scars are the ones that are impossible to see. They are wounds that never really heal and even the most hardened shinobi has dreams.
Naruto does not tell anyone but he dreams of life, life that isn't washed in blood and pain. Naruto does not tell anyone he dreams of death, the lives he has taken haunt him. He dreams of Sasuke, he dreams of Jiraya, he dreams of Kakashi. He dreams of Konoha as he wants it to be and how it is. He dreams of a faceless comfort, a quiet voice that in his weakest moments gives him strength. He dreams of warmth and sunlight and the smell of lavender and when he wakes to find himself alone he wishes he could dream forever.
Naruto has friends, he even has what could be called family, and now, years after he graduated he has a village. People who know him not as a monster but as a protector. He smiles, waves and stumbles through the village watching faces that used to scorn him smile back. His life is changing and now the village needs rebuilding.
The destruction he could not prevent but blames himself for. The lives that he could not save walk through his dreams at night. He works tirelessly even when he is tired, forces himself to work until everyone else collapses. He helps people home smiling and laughing and silently crying, tears of shame and rage and pain. He has his answer, he is stronger than his hatred, but he is not stronger than his pain.
He has people who worry about him, tell him to go home and rest and finally drag him home for a shower and food. He falls into bed and even exhaustion cannot keep the spirits away. The moment he closes his eyes he hears them crying, screaming and raging. He fights through the black of his nightmares into a sundrenched crater looking up at a monument of all those that came before him and he tries to justify to them, tries to explain why he has to suffer, why he has to keep working. They never answer and it is the hardest thing to walk away and back into that darkness again.
Naruto is desperate for salvation, for absolution for a sin he did not commit and when Tsunade names him her successor with her last breath he cannot bring himself to be happy. He weeps for hours on top of the monument and can't find the answer. The council sends him word of their approval and the date of his coronation if he wishes to take the position and it comes in the form of a shy Hyuga. She has not spoken to him in the months since her brush with death, since her confession.
Naruto finds himself falling, crumbling before her and letting go in a way he hasn't with anyone else. She does not speak but kneels down to wrap her arms around him. Naruto is desperate for salvation and with her arms around him he dreams of sunlight and hope. He dreams of happiness and peace.