Peerless Wanderer

The tragedy of our Ninja World

Kakashi is a veteran of two wars. A shinobi since the age of five, he is a consonant warrior, an experienced killer, and one of the most talented ninjas alive.

One does not become a bonified S-Rank ninja without developing a keen danger sense. A gut reaction and feeling for a situation. In actuality it is a combination of hyper vigilance, a deep ability for pattern recognition and no small amount of deductive reasoning. Regardless of the details Kakashi felt one emotion overwhelmingly.

Dread.

His internal anxiety was interrupted by a distinctly external stimuli, Sakura had awoken.

"Good, your awake" Kakashi said, his voice cool and level, no indication of his internal anxiety showing.

"What happened?" came the confused and mildly pain laden question from Sakura.

"Sasuke knocked you unconscious with a Genjutsu, him and Naruto and having what seems to be the final battle of the war." His reply brought a wave of panic to Sakura that showed on her face, her eyes widening.

"We have to stop them" Sakura said with a panicked tone.

"going there while their fighting would only serve to get us both killed. They're in a whole league of their own now." Kakashi replied with a resigned tone.

"But…" Sakura argued.

"Sakura! You are the strongest kunoichi in the leaf village, and one of living people not caught in in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Your life is more precious then you can possibly imagine" came Kakashi's swift rebuke, his tone and eyes softening as he ended his sentence.

Kakashi wanted with all his heart to stop this madness between his students, No. Sasuke's madness but he was powerless. Nearly out of chakra and completely out classes all he could do was wait.

The sounds of battle could be heard all the way from the valley of then end. The giant constructs towering as a mountain. The energy exciting their senses to near overwhelming proportions. Kakashi felt as if at any moment he might suffocate from the sheer volume of power radiating form the Valley of the End.

Just as that thought ran through his head it happened. The explosion from the clash of Indra's Arrow and Naruto's senjutsu enhanced Bijuudama Rasenshuriken Barrage.

The World shook. The shockwave near swept Kakashi and Sakura off their feet from over 200 kilometers away. With the blast Kakashi's feeling of dread returned tenfold. He couldn't sense the overwhelming presence of the two chakra monsters anymore.

Immediately his sense of guilt slammed into him with a force matching the previous explosion. He had failed everyone. Literally every single person in the world. Before his anguish could sweep him away he hardened his heart to figure out what must be done. He could feel his emotions slip away as he shifted his awareness into the current moment. Far from being perfectly ok but at least functional he took stock of the situation. The last thought not related to the hear and now that filtered through his head was a queer sort of comfort. At least after he had done all he could the tip of his tanto would provide all the relief he needed.

Kakashi took stock of the situation, he could not feel their chakra but that did not necessarily mean they were dead. This was far beyond his range if they had expended most of their power. His cool eyes relayed the skyline. The bijuu were still floating in the sky. Sasuke was definitely still alive.

Immediately grasping the implications of Sasuke still being alive Kakashi further centered himself. Like a cool cloth on a fevered forehead Kakashi wrapped his heart in hatred and killing intent. Suffocating his affections for his wayward student Kakashi resolved himself. If Naruto was dead Kakashi would have to kill the Uchiha. Or die trying.

All of these musings took less than a second on the part of Kakashi he smoothly sprung up from his seated position on the ground ignoring the pain that wracked his body like he had so many times before. The Hatake was no stranger to chakra exhaustion.

"Sakura lets go. I can no longer feel either of their chakra. Sasuke is alive. If the worst has come you know what we must do." Kakashi's voice was ice cold and chilled Sakura to the bone.

"But Kakashi sensei we can't attack Sasuke! He's our comrade" Sakura's voice neared on hysterics as she pleaded.

"If Sasuke has killed Naruto there can be no other way." His voice sounded weary to himself, but he knew how talented he was at covering emotions. To Sakura he sounded every bit the stone cold killer he ought to be.

"Hai sensei" came the broken reply of Sakura's.

"Suppress your chakra as much as you are able."

"Hai."

Kakashi centered himself and with a small flair of chakra initially he folded his chakra into itself to suppress detection. A master of this art, with no strain on their coils could fold their chakra in on itself ten times making it appear to be only that of a civilian to all but the greatest of sensors and dojutsu users. When fresh Kakashi could fold his Kage level reserves into themselves seven times. Now, with his coils suffering from the incredible strain of the more than an entire day of fighting, several chakra infusions, the ripping out of his eye, the healing of his eye, and the battle with Kaguya he was far from his peak.

That had never stopped him before. With a focus of his spirit and mind he folded Once, Easy. Twice, with effort. Three times, pain. Four, agony. Five, his insides boiled. With a herculean effort he tried for six and the pain that shot through him near unwound the entirety of his chakra all in one go. But he held.

The outside of his face showed not a single bit of his discomfort. If not for loosing the feeling of her sensei's chakra Sakura would have never known he did anything at all.

Sakura on the other hand has perfect chakra control. If ever there was an impetus for her to learn suppressing her chakra to such a degree would be trivial. As it was, she folded her chakra five times not having the expertise to go further.

Both of the S-Ranked Shinobi started to what they knew would be life changing one way or another. At speeds an average Jonin would have trouble keeping at all they travelled in stealth. The destiny of the shinobi world in front of them.

Kakashi and Sakura arrived at the precipice of what was now a large Canyon. Both marveling at the damage caused. The Canyon was at least fifty kilometers wide and they could now feel both of their teammate's chakra faintly.

Hope renewed in both of them Sakura un-suppressing he chakra and taking off at top speed.

"Sakura Wait! Damn it!" came the shout of Kakashi. Infuriated at his students brashness and lack of foresight.

Sakura made it approximately ten kilometers in, Kakashi hot on her heels before they both felt it. One large explosion of chakra and a blue blip on the horizon. After that nothing. They felt no chakra from either of the young men.

Panic again set in Kakashi's chakra unfolding itself as he abandoned all pretense of stealth and went full speed ahead towards the two shinobi. Easily Catching up with Sakura and overtaking her slightly he noticed with great trepidation that bijuu were falling.

They arrived to a shocking scene both Naruto laying on the ground, chakra faint, too faint infront of Sasuke. Or, as they noticed with horror, what was left of him.

"SASUKE-KUN!" the panicked shout of Sakura propagated through the blanket of silence. There before her was what was clearly the corpse of the love of her life. The entirety of his right arm gone along with a significant portion of his upper chest and the lower piece of his neck.

She sprinted towards him, desperately feeling for signs of life. There were none.

Kakashi noted with growing concern that Sakura was ignoring Naruto, who was clearly alive and in danger if the shallow rise and fall of his chest was any indication, for the clearly dead Sasuke. Emotion started to rear its head but Kakashi clamped it down viciously. The mission. Save Naruto. Save the Shinobi World.

"Sakura! Treat Naruto! The urgency in Kakashi's voice leaking through clearly for Sakura to hear.

This seemed to knock her out of her stupor. Her eyes having turned glassy as all of the parts of her mind that did not directly relate to iryojutsu shut down in her shock and grief.

Robotically Sakura became her inspection of Naruto's still body. Hands lighting up effortlessly in the signature green hue of the mystic palm technique. Methodically she ran her hands over Naruto's body.

Fractured vertebrosternal ribs 1, 3, and 4 on the right side, Minor lacerations among the chest and arms, superficial damage to the epidermis corresponding to all 361 Tenketsu. Ah there it is. If Sakura hadn't almost entirely shut down satisfaction would have coursed through her now it was more the dull indication of success. The Tenketsu of Naruto's right hand had been partially petrified through the destabilization of a nature chakra when his own reserves became to low to balance the proportions.

As the chakra was being expelled through the use of the Rasengan the nature chakra did not petrify Naruto completely, rather the nature chakra eviscerated the left side of Sasuk…

With that though the damn on Sakura's emotions nearly broke, her jutsu flickering with her lack of concentration. She chastised herself and refocused. Had she lost that kind of concentration during the healing process grave mistakes could have been made.

As she refocused herself, she realized all she needed to do was to repair the damage to the coils in Naruto's hand to restart the flow of chakra circulation. His natural healing would do the rest.

You see chakra networked worked like a circuit. The entirely of the connection must be had or the flow stops. Normally it is almost impossible to shut down the flow of chakra through a single point because damage that would completely destroy the coils normally killed someone through the shock alone. Even shutting down the Tenketsu merely reduced the flow to be unusable for shinobi techniques.

Easy to say this situation was very unique and would be an almost impossible task to ask any medical ninja to fix the petrification of chakra coils. But Sakura was the foremost expert on Chakra flow in the world. Already being the second greatest medical ninja and having further studied the workings of chakra coils specifically in a hope to save Naruto should his bijuu be extracted. Combined with the fact that Naruto's coils are new, having been almost completely repaired through six paths senjutsu after having had Kurama extracted. It should be a simple task to cut the connection of the petrified coils and reconnect the supply coils of Naruto anew.

But, a dark thought flew through Sakura's mind. Naruto's hand took Sasuke's life. No one, not even Tsunade new the extent of Sakura's healing expertise in this particular area. No one new the supple state of Naruto's coils as Sakura is the only one to examine him. Without these two acts this would be an impossible task.

Sakura realized with an increasingly dark progression of thoughts that she could take Naruto's hand and no one would be the wiser of her revenge.

"I have to take his hand off. His chakra coils are petrified." Came Sakura's robotic intonation.

Normally Hatake Kakashi would have spotted the lie in Sakura's tone in an instant. But, having just fought for more than 24 hours straight, killed his childhood best friend, lived through two ten-tails jinchuriki, the revival of his long dead sensei, the "deaths" and subsequent revival of his two male students, the near death and miraculous survival of his best friend, having his eye ripped out, combat against a literal Goddess, and now the death of his first Protégé Kakashi wasn't exactly at his best and the lie slipped through.

"Do it. Do whatever it takes." The desperation wasn't even hidden now.

Green chakra alighted Sakura's hand and hummed with a high frequency she cut through Naruto's hand at the midway point of his forearm with a swift squelch. Quickly noting together the tissue of his chakra coils first.

Once the coils had closed the last bit all of Sakura's medical ninjutsu become un-needed. The returned flow of Naruto and kumara's perfectly synced chakra flew through his coils. Quickly all of Naruto's cells divided into stems cells completely bypassing his Hayflick limit and mending the comparatively superficial wounds in less than a minute.

A single minute later Naruto had returned to consciousness with a start.

"Sasuke!?" came the surprised shout. Quickly turning to the corpse of his friend Naruto's expression quickly deflated. All of the memories of his fight flooding back.

"Naruto." Came Sakura's bland voice. Her eyes shadowed as her head was dipped. "What happened?" he voice was flat. Cold.

"He. He wouldn't listen." Narutos voice shook on the reply. "We clashed. And. And. He lost." Tears nearly broke but he suppressed them.

"oh." Came her blank reply. Her from shaking gently, eyes still shadowed.

Kakashi's heart broke at the scene. He could see the crushing burden Naruto carried on his shoulders. He could see the anguish in Sakura's heart. His own feelings surpassed in favor of focusing on his students. Then a thought filtered through his head. The Infinite Tsukuyomi. How were they to lift it with Sasuke's death?

Kakashi pushed away the thoughts of his and his students' sorrow. Grieving was for later. The world and all its inhabitants was left in the balance. Shinobi must endure and Kakashi wasn't anything if not a consonant shinobi.

"Naruto. We must save everyone." Came Kakashi's reply. A new calm in his voice had settled.

"eh!? Shit! How are we going to do it?! DAMN IT. DAMN IT! DAMN IT! Every ones going do die and its all my faults! Its all-"

"Kit. You have to take the Uchiha's eye." came the smooth baritone of the Kurama interrupting Naruto's panic.

"What!? I can't just take Sasuke's eye. I mean I already killed him." The thought brought Naruto up short. The realization of the death of his best friend well sand truly sinking in. Emotion flooding his mind as a storm surges the shore. Turmoil encompassing. The inner peace he had worked so hard to achieve at risk of tearing asunder.

Naruto's Respiration elevated, the rapid shallow intake of breath quickly flowed into full blown hyper ventilation. His vision swam and the warmth in his head became and unbearable heat that leaked from his eyes in the form of tears. Mucus building in his nose and throat already so viscous he could hardly breath.

A sudden surge and Naruto was in this mindscape. A cool escape from the physical symptoms of his panic attack but nothing having been done for his purely mental duress.

That was until a warm chakra swam over him like a blanket. A single drop of sunlight fallen to illuminate his darkness.

The visage of the Kyuubi no Kitsune towards above him its chakra a clear unmistakable tendril connecting the shroud of warmth comforting Naruto to the Kurama.

"Naruto. You must focus yourself. Everyone of your precious ningens lives are in the balance. You and you alone may save them. You have failed to convince and turn back that Uchiha from his darkness. Do not fail anyone else." The voice of the Kyuubi intoned with all of the resonance of a force of nature. A power worthy of the strongest of the ten tails progeny.

The shocked expression on Naruto's face was unmistakable. As was the hurt at the Kurama's blunt declaration.

But slowly, ever so slowly, a look of determination made its way onto the blonde's face.

This was no longer the look of absolute confident determination that once adorned his face. A look that told the world he could accomplish anything. That he would drag the entire world to his ideals with a zeal unmatched. That told all the woes of the world could not bring him down for he was above the fray, he was the child of prophecy, the chosen one. That in the end he would prevail because he was right.

No. This was not that look at all.

Sadly, for the shinobi world as a whole, that Naruto died with Sasuke.

This was the look of resigned determination. Of one who had been tested and been found wanting yet was still the only one who had ever come close. This was a look that showed a world weary-ness and profound sadness, a pit that had swallowed some of him whole. A look that showed that despite all of these feelings he would do his duty. For only he could.

If one looked close enough, if one felt deep enough, if one could understand him as deeply as Sasuke had in their final class they would see in that look the most powerful yet, most hidden emotion of them all.

A deep, dark, cold, loneliness.

"You're right, Kurama. I have failed." Replied Naruto, breaking the silence as an axe breaks wood. "But not again."

His vision swam again as the world slowly came into focus. He could tell that only an instant, a single breath, had past since the beginning of his breakdown. The sudden calm jarring to his body. Even more so to Kakashi.

Sakura continued her glassy eyed stare at the last of the now extinct Uchiha.

"Kakashi sensei, Sakura. Look away." Naruto's voice held no inflection. None.

The mention of their names had caused both Kakashi and Sakura to look towards and focus on Naruto. Kakashi's gaze full of concern. Sakura's dead.

Before they had a chance to so much as draw a breath Naruto calmly raised his left had to his left eye.

An ideal though passed through his head, a brief acknowledgment really, as one would notice the sun is shining or that a person has brown eyes, that his hand was gone. The thought passed as quickly as it came, not having stopped or even slowed his movement down.

And he ripped his left eye from its socket.

The Gasps could be heard from both Kakashi and Sakura. Kakashi shocked at the suddenness of the action, the grisly reality of the situation quickly apparent to him.

Sakura's gasp was different: shocked yes, but the thought that ran through her head unbidden, while holding no hate, was very casual in its cruelty.

"Good."

Naruto discarded his blue orb to the side with no fan fair or hesitation. With sure steps he strode over to the corpse of his friend. A passing thought of revulsion at himself and sadness at the corpse both weaseled their way into his head before he crushed them mercilessly.

All together the entire process took around ten seconds.

He removed the Uchiha's Rinnegan with as much reverence and care as possible. Quickly inserting the eye into his own socket. A flash of six paths senjutsu chakra gathered into his hand. With it he understood all of the physical and spiritual components of nature intrinsically. If Asked to explain how he did it he would not be able to describe it. Naruto reached into himself and with a flash of his hand had integrated the Rinnegan into orbital. The blood vessels and optic nerve mending together seamlessly. With but a thought he connected the chakra paths of the eye and his own and integrated the Rinnegan into his own network as to not be rejected.

The world exploded into clarity. All the predictive power of the Sharingan and the clarity of the Rinnegan swarmed across his vision briefly overwhelming him.

With his first blink he could see the ebb and flow of the chakra of his comrades.

With the second he see and predict the ebb and flow of every particle in his visions.

With the third blind he gained the quasi precognition the eye granted. He could see deeply the intrinsic connection between all of the movements of he world and make predictions based on a plethora of past information unconsciously connecting it all into a model of the future with startling accuracy.

With the fourth blink he became away of the nature chakra permiating everything. Specifically the lack of Nature chakra in this area relative to the distant ones.

With the fifth blink he understood the powers the Rinnegan possessed and had an intrinsic grasp on their use.

With the sixth blink he had internalized and fully integrated the full power of the Uchiha's eye.

With this seventh and final blink in the adjustment process he realized how deeply alone his perceptions of the world and the death of Sasuke had left him. Gaining the sight of the intrinsic forces he could already perceive through his chakra gave Naruto of an intimate understanding of the perspective him and Sasuke shared. The perception of Madara's limbo being the best example of their shared elevation.

"Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomie, Gyuki, and Kurama. Please lend me some of your chakra. I want to end this nightmare. Naruto said tapping into the mental connection that all bijuu shared.

"Hai" came the firm responses of the Bijuu simultaneously. They understood his pain.

The chakra of The Nine flowed into him. He balanced their chakra and converted it into his own, keeping only a shard of each of their unique chakra locked deep away in his spirit. The conversion of such a massive amount of chakra unto his own allowed him to gather his six paths senjutsu.

The Tattoo of a the sun and moon circling each other appear on his left hand. All of nature seemed to stand still to him as he fully gathered his six paths senjutsu. Naruto formed a one handed tiger seal. Focusing all of his chakra as he gazed at the moon.

Mix matched blue and purple eyes shone indifferently at the moon. The power that gathered was anything but passive as it swirled and folded in his hand.

Naruto spoke and the world responded.

"Kai."

The infinite Tsukuyomi shattered like glass.

AN: It may seem like Naruto is overpowered. That's because in short he is anymore with those kind of abilities would be.

Despite how overpowered he is this is not to be a story devoid of all conflict, struggle, or even physical danger to Naruto.

There will be challenges to overcome. Some physical others not. There will be failure and flawed characters, intrigue and duplicity, and affection and cheer. I hope to explore all the things that make Naruto and real life so impacting and profound.