Chapter 1

He stood alone in a wasteland that seemed to stretch on for miles. Acre upon acre of land, as far as his eyes could see, was completely devoid of life. The landscape would have looked like a desert, had it not been for the murky gray sky. And yet, the scene was an improvement. The world had been crying for him for the past two weeks, and today was the first time that it showed even a shred of restraint.

No one wanted to see him go. The people worshiped him like a God, and were claiming that they would forever and always cherish his guidance. His sons both loved him and claimed that they weren't fit to keep the peace because neither held even an inkling of his power. His connection to nature was pristine, and his was the power to control all of the known elements.

But on the inside, he was growing weary. He had come to terms with the fact that he would die a long time ago and, if he was to be honest with himself, couldn't wait until the day came. Yet there came a point in his life where he simply stopped feeling the effects of aging. His body stopped responding to the natural course of life and maintained the same appearance for decades to come. Luckily, his mind also remained unmarked by the touch of time. With age came wisdom, and with wisdom came a clearer view of the way the world worked.

He saw the way that his people, his students, and even his sons looked at him. They saw him as their ruler, not as their teacher. He wanted future generations to remember how he spread peace through his teachings, not through his will. He was a peacemaker above all else.

His purpose in life was nearly complete and his vision for a better world was within the reach of his fingertips. But he knew, deep within that he was now at the most critical stage of the entire design. His actions within the coming moments would determine the course that mankind would take for millennia to come.

Humankind was closer to true peace than it had ever been before, and yet his heart was at a crossroads. He knew that if he continued to rule as he had in the past, that humanity would prosper and grow as never before. The quality of life would continue to improve dramatically, and his children would flourish. His victory would be guaranteed. But he would be the sole engineer of this state, and he would forever be in the position of puppet master. His vision would be complete, but only to the extent that he remained involved as a crutch.

But he had faith in his children. He knew what they were capable of and the tools that lay at their disposal. They had learned much from him and his teachings over the years. Each man, woman, and child had his or her own shortcomings, but overall he was proud to call them his own. He knew that without his supervision, they were capable of many terrifying and evil things. But their potential for good was far too great to ignore. On their own, they could beckon in a true Golden Age for humanity.

Such an opportunity was simply too great to ignore. And so, the old Sage realized, without a moment of hesitation, what he must do.

With his resolve set, he would finally be able to achieve peace with the one being that he could never fully convert- himself. With more than a hundred-and-fifty years of experience under his belt, he knew quite well the pain of loss and the terrors of war. He had started out his quest in his early twenties, during a time when war was the only constant. With the power of the Rinnegan at his disposal, he was able to set his once childish dreams into motion.

With his eyes, he saw everything. He could see the intricate workings of the human body and how and why nature acted the way it did. He saw into peoples' minds, into their deepest fears, ambitions, and desires, and he saw through their motives. He knew if another was being dishonest, or if someone was going to die soon. He could see past the realm of the living and into the depths of space, where beings that even he could not comprehend resided. Sometimes, he even caught glimpses of the distant past or the far future.

But all of those things paled in comparison to the Rinnegan's greatest power- the power of creation. There were surprisingly few things that the Rinnegan wouldn't allow him to do. In a world filled with war, he created peace. When he was in need of a way to make his teachings desirable and interesting to the scattered remnants of society, he created jutsu. When he was still under the impression that peace could be forced upon others, he forged contracts with the heavens, and signed them in his own blood, just to crush those who spat upon his ideals.

Any other man would have thought himself divine.

The Sage did not.

He knew that the peace that he built so far was fragile and could easily be broken, but he also knew that his students would do everything in their power to spread his teachings far and wide to the coming generations. The type of peace that he would create had much more potential to last than a peace that was created through an iron fist.

Despite how much he wanted to believe that his peace was permanent, he knew deep down inside that somewhere down the line someone was going to screw up. Humanity was synonymous with change, with growth. He knew quite well that human beings were capable of doing very great and very evil things. Eventually, his era of peace would end, and his greatest hope was for it to evolve into something greater than before and not into a continuation of the pointless warfare that plagued the planet before his arrival.

And that was when he was finally able to catch up with his thoughts.

He observed the wasteland in front of him with a deep-rooted sadness. He hated to resort to something so drastic to further his goals, but it needed to be done.

One of his greatest fears was for his work to be undone after his death and for the world to be plunged back into darkness. He wasn't sure when, or even if, he would die, but he knew that he wasn't up to testing those limits. It always bothered him knowing that his strength only seemed to increase with his age, despite the fact that he was over a century old.

But that would soon end.

The foundation for his plans on this world was already laid out, and now all he needed was a failsafe for future generations. He had mulled over what he should do for a long while until he came up with the perfect way to watch over his children years after his death.

His heartbeat began to pick up as pure power began to flow through his chakra coils. He closed his eyes, savoring the soothing rush for what was perhaps his last time. It took him all of ten seconds to channel enough chakra to tear a normal human's body asunder. He didn't feel the slightest discomfort.

It was several minutes later that he began to feel himself reaching his limit. He ignored his body's protests to stop and instead focused on the circular seal drawn over his sternum. After some mental prodding, the seal gave away and wave after wave of chakra swept through him once more. His body, not being able to handle so much chakra at once, began to leak the energy until it literally began to seep through his skin and form into the shape of a tremendous dome.

When he finally finished, he raised both arms to the sky above him and slowly began to close his hands into fists. The more his hands closed, the more the chakra surrounding him compressed and returned back into his body. By the time he was finished collecting all of the ambient chakra, his fists were shaking from the effort that it took to compress such an enormous amount of power. He didn't relent though, and he held the chakra in check for several more seconds in order to position for the upcoming technique.

A single tear fell from his eyes as he whispered two words that echoed throughout the land.

"Chibaku Tensei."

And then, the world exploded.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- 0-0

As always, Naruto isn't my creation and I own nothing associated with it.

Here's another short chapter that I managed to write in a short amount of time. It might be a little while before I update again because I want to figure out the details of where I want this story to go.

Let me know what you think!