Silent Night

by Foy the Snooze Button

Not a sound. Not a flicker in the blackness of the void. Ame lost its Ghost and Darkness gained a Leader, a shinobi that the Leaf dares not cross. The People of the Dark, suffering under tyranny and ravaged by a civil war, look up to the Ghost for redemption. The Silent Night will be the one to show the enemies of the Dark the way to the quiet insanity of the void. Leader!Naruto

34. Chapter 34

Ssssssssssup ya'll

What's good?

COLOSSAL shout out to darkwolfz, anthonym3, TheKing91, LeviDragon, firetemplar415, Yamajiji, David Ezequiel, DragoFae24, Ishimaru Taiki, KakeruPB, shinobinoyami16, Saiyan prince1, 777torn777, paulagustin101, lord 7th, bill12, Primarx, layettejean, BJJF691, TigrezzTail, zerkses, Darkwave20, russom696, lordshuvra, Tohka123, ericjr1411 and Lokitazz0. You're all marvellous people :)

I've had so much fun writing this story and I'm really glad to see how much others enjoy reading my stories. I appreciate it, you guys :D

Before you head into this chapter, I want to remind you guys that Naruto is forty and much, much more powerful than he was when he was seventeen. And seeing as the first and only time he used Silent Night was when he was seventeen, that technique would be way more powerful now than it was then. Way more powerful.

I'm not kidding.

The start of the chapter might be confusing at points but I assure you, it'll make sense soon. I tried not to make the explanation of Silent Night too long.

Finally this chapter is pretty long.

Ya ready?

Enjoy…

CHAPTER 34

Naruto bowed his head.

Blackness bathed his body and his clothes, easily mistaken for smoke, leaving only his paper pale upper face. His spikey hair rose up and changed to white lightning, crackling dangerously as the veins coming from the corners of his white eyes smoothed over and disappeared. White outlined the soles of his sandals, his palms and the line tattoos running down both of his arms to the tips of his fingers.

He looked like midnight incarnate.

Spiny lightning broke out of his back, spanning over twenty feet wide and were gradually covered by leathery-like smoke, though still showing the lightning skeletons of his demonic wings. A seal drew itself on his left chest, over his heart, and it glowed an ominous red, thrumming. The seal read Heart.

Pulsing.

Two more of those seals appeared on the palms of his hands, this time reading Hands in the same ultra-complex stack of seals as the one on Naruto's heart.

The last change Naruto's body underwent, one that hadn't been present when he was a teenager, was a pair of grey horns cracked out of his temple, curving upwards till they were two feet long.

A strange quiet came over Mito's Wasteland.

A chilling silence.

Madara's shadow clones backtracked, even the real one, and readied themselves.

The white eyed demon shuffled his right leg back a little, emotionlessly staring up at his undead opponent, at the gleeful expression on the Uchiha's face, and he muttered, speaking to his summons in a voice not unlike a breezy whisper. "Take the one behind me."

Referring to the fully powered Madara clone and its Susanno, the summons couldn't squeal any louder, pleased with the order.

Meanwhile, Naruto flapped his wings twice and his feet barely lifted of the summons back before he simply blipped out of existence.

Madara blinked frantically, searching for the Ghost, until he found the lightning haired Leader hovering hundreds of miles above him, roughly in the middle of the assembled meteors.

The words came to him, as if they had been in his mind for decades.

He opened his arms and the red seals on his palms burned harshly, smoking.

"Anti-Chakra: Black Hole."

Those meteors that spotted the sky, pressing down hard on Dark country's barrier seals with the intention of crushing the country into oblivion, warped and were sucked towards the flying demons palms, changing size to that of a pebble as Naruto brought his palms closer together. The frantically whirring black pebble of all fifteen of the meteors that spun between Naruto's hands shivered and a vacuum sucked them into the seal on Naruto's chest.

The whole continent seemed to both sigh in relief and tremble in horror at what had happened.

One moment, they saw extinction hanging over Darkness and a colossal shockwave of dust on impact that would no doubt wipe out most of the continent, and the next moment was a black dot in the heavens that gathered the massive rocks together and sealed it into himself with the ease of a god.

Madara grit his teeth and his grin became painful, staring up at Naruto.

He was sure Dark country's Supreme Leader had turned into a demon.

The white haired demon's eyes never wavered as he mentally decided not to seal his undead opponent into the void of his black hole, for Madara's sharingan and rinnegan could end up being too troublesome to contain.

Naruto dove down and he vanished once again, so quick that Madara couldn't possibly keep track of him, and when he reappeared again, Naruto was inside the Uchiha's Susanno.

The Ghost was too close to be dodged.

The white haired thing's wings clapped closed, bending around its target and then all the air left Madara's lungs as a pair of feet were planted onto his chest, slamming him mercilessly into the lightning veins of the wings covering him, bursting out of the ensnaring wings and breaking out through the back of his ethereal blue Susanno, shattering the chakra construct like glass.

Like smashing through an electrified fence made out of barbed obsidian iron while sopping wet, Madara's very soul curled inwards like an electrocuted insect.

Every nerve ending, every cell and every single drop of chakra in his body screamed in pure agony.

The Uchiha didn't even have the time to orient himself on the speed boost his formerly blonde opponent had undergone before being brutally electrocuted and crash landing into the ground, digging a deep depression with his back.

Leaping out of the pit, Madara's open rinnegan eye widened as he saw his demonic opponent shoot through each clone with his body and, as if they were being teleported with a kamui, they turned within themselves and flew into the red spiral seal on Naruto's chest, leaving only the clone his summons was chomping on.

The Ghost of the Uchiha clan wondered, in that moment, whether or not he was now outclassed.

Before his rinnegan eye, he saw an invisible vacuum of chakra swirl around and into the red seal on Naruto chest, eternally sucking in life from the environment and drag in anything that was within five feet of the black demon. The red seals on Naruto's palms, though bearing smaller vortexes into the void of space inside of Naruto, served to squeeze the clone Susanno's into a funnel and directed it into the swirl on Naruto's heart, the very centre of Naruto's chakra coils.

Naruto was a black hole.

The void.

But that was just a small portion of what the demonically winged, lightning haired hair had become.

The speed he displayed was five times White Noise, far faster than the speed of light, and the worst part was that there was no expulsion of chakra for when Naruto used that deadly speed, for the blonde merely vanished from sight and the next moment, he had peppered Madara's body with fifty swift blows to the torso, starting with punches to the black haired mans lower abdomen and rising up to his chest, ripping a flaming uppercut into the Uchiha's neck, one that very nearly tore his head clear off his shoulders, rearing back and rushing back to Madara with a knee to his abdomen, cracked a fist across Madara's face, spinning around the dazed Uchiha and delivering a sharp liver jab. He bounced his knuckles on the back of Madara's head, drove his elbow into the nape of the undead shinobis neck, pivoted around the sharingan user and finished it off with four fingered jab to his neck, jamming his fingers into the Uchiha's throat.

There was no falter in his steps.

Naruto was leagues ahead of his opponent.

Madara's rinnegan was virtually unable to keep track of the speed demon after the knee to his gut.

He saw a sea of white eyed, lightning haired demons surround him and his body was too slow, too sluggish, to even lift a finger in self-defence.

The Leader of Darkness back tracked a step, his feet hardly touching the ground and his wings flapping a gale of toxic air, before he returned with a Spartan kick to Madara's chin, lifting him clear off his feet and soaring over the volcano Naruto had previously fashioned from his chakra.

GOOOOOOMMMMMM!

For five seconds, Madara Uchiha forgot where he was.

The Uchiha crash landed with a hard thud, feeling more of his undead bones snap and crack from the previous sequence of blows. Jagged lines formed on his chin and his neck, from where Naruto had kicked him, and his rinnegan wavered violently from being in the same proximity of the Anti-Chakra being man.

He ground his teeth and his rinnegan glowed with power, levitating off the ground and lifting off into the sky towards the darkness swaddled, lightning haired demon.

'I am not beaten.'

With the sky blocked by the evil black storm clouds and the sounds of thunder shaking the earth, Naruto rolled his left wrist and Night terror materialized in his red ringed palm, closing his hand to grip the handle of the blade and spinning it on his palm once.

Naruto pointed his ninjato down to Madara.

Electricity hummed as the Anti-Chakra user tore through the air, down to Madara with his ninjato burning angrily in his hand. The rinnegan holder drew his dual chained scythes and the two men clashed in a mighty shower of sparks and fire.

Madara came upon a realization, just about the same time he understood he was desperately on the defensive.

He was beaten.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Somewhere under the Valley of End

Kabuto Yakushi wasn't an Uchiha.

Far from it, actually.

The silver haired medic had not been born with the innate superiority complex of the Uchiha clan that came from them bearing their sharingan eyes.

He wasn't so consciously naïve as to think that by birth right he was far superior to any person on the planet, not like Obito and very much not like Madara.

Kabuto was smart.

At least, that was what he liked to think.

Against his two pursuers, Kabuto fled, running and not turning back, so much so that it almost felt like his heels were touching the back of his head.

That was what made him smart.

He positively identified one of the two ninjas doggedly chasing him, from a quick glance over his shoulder as the two of them entered the secret underground cave, as he had already began running away. He caught her blaringly white hair and her deep, chilling red eyes.

Orochimaru had written about the woman in one of his journals, a separate one from the one about Naruto.

Ketsueki Sakenomi was the product of two pureblood Sakenomi; she was from the Sakenomi branch family of the Chui-Inku clan, one of the seven clans of Dark country and a majority of who were able to use their clan based kekkai genkai, the Demon Ink bloodline. She had complete mastery of her Vampire Blood bloodline, a ninjutsu specialist that was also well-versed in hand-to-hand and the use of weaponized medical needles of varying lengths, and finally she was the student of Orochimaru's former student, Naruto.

The last part alone was enough to dissuade any future aggressor, for Naruto was already a remarkably powerful shinobi.

Blood, the Vampire Empress, as she was infamously called, was deathly loyal to her teacher and on numerous occasions Orochimaru had observed, from afar, that Ketsueki's devotion to Naruto was so strong he suspected it was a severe mental condition.

For the second person, the one that was using his long tongue to follow him, Kabuto had no idea but needless to say, any person that accompanied Bat on a mission was also capable in their own right.

Run.

It was all Kabuto could do.

A stray question floated into his head.

Is he going to run forever?

Run until Madara defeated Naruto?

But when was that going to happen?

Within his heart, Kabuto honestly didn't believe Madara Uchiha was able to defeat the man that led Dark country, Naruto.

Naruto was the bogeyman.

The phantom that stalked the night, haunting those unfortunate enough to cross its path. The person parents warned their children of to keep them in line, scaring them into thinking the blue eyed monster lurked under their beds, or hid in their wardrobes, ever patient and ever waiting for sweet nightfall to steal the souls of bad children.

During his time in the orphanage, Kabuto had been exposed to these Ghost stories, and even though learning under Orochimaru had dispersed some of those made-up stories, the silver haired teen was still rightly afraid of the Ghost.

Quite frankly, Naruto cut a more intimidating image than Madara.

…Not that Kabuto could ever say that to Madara's face…or to Madara's back…or within a fifty mile radius of Madara Uchiha.

His legs were burning and his lungs were on fire, heaving for precious air as he pelted full tilt down another corridor and turned into a corner, barely dodging a hail of blood senbon aimed at his back, ones that honed after him as if they had a single-minded goal of skewering him. Until the medic leaped through another trap door, slamming the door shut behind him and feeling a short sliver of relief as the blood senbon clinked against the metal door, racing away yet again.

His pursuers, one wearing the Bat mask and the other a Lizard mask, might have already guessed where he was hoping to escape to, from the direction in which he was running.

Grass country.

Orochimaru had a lab there he could use; hunker down and hide or utilize the excess corpses in the cold storage there to raise more shinobi to his side.

Yes.

Only a few more miles.

'I can make it.'

Kabuto repeated this in his head, uttering his mantra with half of his focus while the other half went to escaping the Valley of End.

…His stamina was failing him…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Clover Mountain

Hidden Mountain

Seated on a log in front of his and Tsume's house, Minato cast a solemn eye down at his right hand, when he began losing feeling in it.

The tips of his ring finger and pinkie were a deep shade of grey, solidified and stony, just like his feet and his knees.

The bearded blonde sighed and closed his eyes.

Fugaku roared.

A ghastly bellow of demented rage as he ran to Clover Mountain, where the person he was looking for was seated at the front gate.

He saw the repulsion on Minato's face.

Fugaku was less man and more snake; his lower body was more or less the same, besides his black pants being tattered at the knees and his shoes no more than shreds of material on his clawed feet, while his whole upper body was a writhing, wiggling mass of black scaled, red eyed snakes.

The former Uchiha clan head looked to have come straight out of a horror story.

The snakes, too many to count, all opened their maws and wailed in unison, a sound that was a startling mix of agony, sadness and fury.

Minato gripped the single Hirashin kunai in his hand tighter and his expressionless mask cracked a little to show his horror at the creature his former friend had become.

"This is your fault, Minato!" Fugaku said in a warbling voice, the multitude of snakes that made up his upper body hissed, their tones different but the words the same. "This is all your fault!"

"…I didn't do this to you, Fugaku." Minato said, the fingers of his free hand twitching. "You did this to yourself."

The Uchiha's feet stumble forward a step and the snakes cried, as if they had not heard what Minato had said. "You've taken everything from me! My wife! My child! My friends! My CLAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Minato was even sure if it was really Fugaku that was speaking anymore, or if it was a darker reflection of the Uchiha had taken over while the man's soul was lost to the grim reaper.

What Minato did know for certain was that Fugaku was suffering from Nature Chakra Possession, and from the looks of the thousands of red eyed snakes the Uchiha had for an upper body, it was nature chakra from snake summons.

Though instead of outright turning into a reptilian statue, he turned into a demented snake monster that infected anyone and anything around it with unstable nature chakra, turning them into stone. The travelling circus ringmaster that had warned him of the incoming Uchiha group said there were about twenty of them, and now only Fugaku stood before him.

Minato could hazard a guess on the fate of those that followed Uchiha Fugaku.

Leaving Fugaku as he was would affect the people of Clover Mountain, and protecting them was the sole reason Minato stayed behind instead of going to the Fire capital with his expecting girlfriend; the people had done nothing to him, they didn't deserve to be brought into his own problems.

Sayeko, the girl that had been helping him sell firewood for him, and her family didn't deserve to be brought into his problems.

Maybe having a relatively normal life made him soft.

UWOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!

The snake man's pain riddled bellow cut into Minato's mind and the bearded Namikaze shook his head. "You must be in pain. I'll put you out of your misery."

The trap seal beneath Fugaku released a blizzard of ropes that bound the snake creature and another seal, a complex one that had been drawn under the trap seal, forcefully dragged in Fugaku's chakra.

Unfortunately, Minato didn't anticipate that his old friend would come at him riddled with volatile snake summons nature chakra, so the Chakra Drain seal only took the Uchiha's chakra and not the nature chakra.

This made the snake creature even more feral, convincing Minato that the Fugaku was now long gone.

The collection of nature chakra inside of Fugaku's body became more uncontrollable.

The snake man fell down onto his front and thrashed violently, shaking and roaring madly.

UUWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!

A tidal wave of nature chakra rushed out of Fugaku, threatening to overrun Clover Mountain.

It washed over Minato, then both Fugaku and Minato disappeared in a yellow flash.

Minato had kicked Fugaku into his and Tsume's house and hastily raised a barrier around.

The nature chakra bomb went off with a heavy thud and nothing more.

The windows of his and Tsume's house had been shattered and the wooden house inflated somewhat at the immense pressure of nature chakra pushing out, as well as the immense dome of chakra that contained it.

Minato had gotten far away from the barrier and in a way that distance saved him.

But apparently not enough, as the fingers of his right hand to his knuckles turned to stone, creeping up at a notably sluggish pace.

Minato's head dipped. 'So this is how I go out, huh.'

He could flash all the way to the Fire capital and spend his last moments with his girlfriend, but he didn't want to put Tsume into that kind of pain. He also didn't know if his girlfriend, and by connection their unborn child, would get infected from him.

Minato wasn't a sage, nor did he have the toad summons anymore; moments after the Konoha Bloodbath, the toads struck his name out of their summoning contract. Even if he did still have the summoning contract, he didn't know Sage mode like Jiraiya.

Two people, one person wearing a Rabbit mask and the other a Fox mask, marched before him and the latter person, a noticeably feminine person with a slender build, knelt before him on one knee and peered up into Minato's eyes.

Fox turned to his team captain. "He's still alive."

Minato slowly raised his head and the man wearing the Fox mask got back to his feet and Rabbit lifted an eyebrow from under her mask. She stated, plainly. "Nature chakra poisoning, your right hand and your legs were closer to Fugaku."

The blonde lumberjack scoffed a little and scratched his cheek with his non-statue hand. "I can see that."

Monkey and Chipmunk were walking around Minato and Tsume's humble cottage, still covered in the barrier. Chipmunk was taking pictures and Monkey was checking for life inside the house, while still not prodding the barrier.

"I am Captain Rabbit and this is Deputy Captain Fox," the effeminate Fox masked shinobi nodded to Minato when Rabbit gestured to him. "And we were charged to come and ensure your safety by Lord Naruto of Dark country. Tsume Inuzuka and Konan are safely in Fire country with the Fire Daimyo, Lady Wakono. There is no more Akatsuki."

"…Nice to meet you." Minato rumbled, briefly looking down as half of the back of his hand turned to stone. "I'm sorry; it seems this mission is a failure." The seal master turned lumberjack then smiled wanly, a regretful look in his eyes. "Tell your master that he has my eternal thanks…for keeping Tsume safe. Thank Konan too, if you can. I…I don't know what I did to make her help me but she will always have my thanks."

Being professionals, Rabbit and Fox didn't show their remorse for not getting to Minato faster. Fox bobbed his head. "They'll know."

They watched as the lumberjack's right hand turned to stone.

The two high ranked ninjas didn't know what to do.

Minato Namikaze was turning into a statue.

They were at least glad he wasn't in pain.

To Minato, there wasn't any real pain, more like the existential, out of body sensation of gradually losing functionality of his extremities, starting from the tips of the fingers of his right hand and the toes of both his feet and reaching his wrist and just under his knees.

It was the knowledge that soon he would find out whether death by nature chakra poisoning would result in an eternity of being petrified or if there was actual death at the end the agonizingly slow build-up to his stony solidification.

Minato chuckled to himself, a quiet, mysterious sound that piqued Rabbit's interest.

He made dying seem so boring.

There was no cure to nature chakra poisoning, and quite honestly he was glad to be able to have some coherent thought and consciousness before his inevitable demise. Most people were washed over with the deadly natural chakra, dunked in a galaxy of pain and torment before they turned to stone not more than five seconds later.

Minato was fortunate to not have that fate.

Probably because he used to have the Toad summoning contract, albeit without the benefit of being a sage.

His regret was that he didn't have any paper to write his last words to his dear girlfriend, Tsume, telling her that he loved her more than she could ever know and that he carried the guilt of dying to the very end, unable to be a truly honourable man and stay to raise their child.

He would tell her that if he was privileged to ever meet her again in heaven or in the next life, he would treasure every waking moment in his existence, every single second he had with her and capture every single moment in his mind.

Minato closed his eyes, recalling his happily pregnant girlfriend's sunny smile, and he smiled as well under his thick, grizzly yellow beard.

She was the one that gave him stability and sanity.

He was happy she was safe, with Konan and with Wakono.

Knowing that his girlfriend and his child would have the best life made Minato content.

Monkey jogged up to them, saying. "Do you mind if I check for something?" Minato furrowed his eyebrows and Monkey showed the older man his hands. "I'm a touch sensor, like you."

Minato's wane smile went up a little. "That's nice. In my whole life, you're the only other one I've met."

Monkey allowed some shock come to his eyes. "Really?"

"Yes. Touch sensors are very rare."

Rabbit coughed into her fist, preventing the two touch sensors from entering a full-blown conversation on their rare ability. "What did you want to check, Monkey?"

"Oh yeah." Monkey tentatively asked Minato permission to touch his stony right hand and his human right elbow. The 'True Kohai' hummed and closed his eyes, something that made Minato chuckle, for he remembered when he was much younger and had to concentrate extremely hard as well.

The people that Naruto had sent wore animal masks, just like Konoha's ANBU. So, making a rough guess, these people were members of a sub-organization of Dark country's elite ninjas. Monkey sounded like he was still in his teenage years but Darkness, though a Hermit Nation, was renowned to have highly experienced shinobi, no matter the rank.

Darkness had its own benchmarks for being an elite shinobi, and Minato was perfectly fine with not knowing.

Monkey could be fourteen but that didn't take anything away from him being an elite shinobi.

"The nature chakra is spreading." He saw from his three superiors-Rabbit, Fox and Minato-that his statement couldn't get any more obvious, so he clarified with a sweat drop. "It's possible that he won't get turned into a statue if…"

He trailed off and the first person to get what he was saying was Minato.

Monkey took his hands off Minato's right hand and right elbow, quickly saying. "I don't want you to think this is just about the mission-"

"Leader Naruto ordered us to make sure you are alive and safe." Fox interrupted, before Monkey could blurt out Darkness's high mission success rate, for that wasn't important at that moment. "At the end of the day, the decision is up to you."

They heard the faint clicks of Chipmunk taking pictures in the background. Rabbit spoke up. "Speaking informally," she said. "We were briefed about you before we went on this mission. We all have families back home that we would do anything for and you, Mister Minato. I don't want to sound forceful and I don't want to make it seem like you don't have any other option, but so that you make it back to Tsume and your child, you would have to amputate now before it becomes too late."

Amputation.

Minato mulled it over in his head.

Cutting the problem areas off before they spread even more.

It wasn't ever going to be an easy decision, not for a man like him.

Minato Namikaze was the Yellow Flash-

He shook his head.

He was a lowly lumberjack.

He was Tsume Inuzuka's boyfriend.

He was going to be a father.

"I hear…Suna is the world leader in medical technology." Minato proposed, readying his mind. "Do you think…I'll have to wait long to get their prosthetics…?"

Having a Kemuri clan head husband that benefited greatly from Suna's Prosthetics, Rabbit promised. "They have the best technology."

Asura Kemuri-clan head-had lost his legs from the knee down during the civil war, when the Royal clan chopped them off so that he wouldn't run away while they killed his parents before him. Darkness's alliance with Suna brought about a rapid exchange of ideas, among which was well made artificial limbs. There was a sizable discount for former shinobi, of which Minato wouldn't have a problem.

Fox said, hesitant. "I know having them would never replace what you lost-"

Minato smiled brighter. "…I get to see my girl and I get to be here for when my child is born…given my predicament, that's more than I can ever ask for."

He held up his stony right hand and Rabbit whipped out her tanto from over her shoulder, about to slice off the hand.

Then they all turned when they heard a burst of wind come towards Clover Mountain from Darkness, followed closely by a sporadic crackle of lightning and tremor causing thunder. There were more black thunder clouds in the air, directly over a particular area over Darkness, and from where the five ninjas were, the clouds looked almost like a soccer ball sized of blackness on a grimly orange sky, threaded with white electricity.

"I was wondering what happened to those meteors."

Goosebumps rippled up Minato's arms.

"…Must be Naruto…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

In a sense, Silent Night was a technique that gave Naruto absolute control over space and time.

He could instantaneously remove the distance between himself and his target by simply erasing that space, making it seem like he had either run to his destination or he teleported there but in reality he merely cancelled the distance all together.

Though that in on itself would pose as a problem, since cancelling the distance between himself and his target would actually reduce the size of the universe, or in an even worst case scenario it would result in the creation in large tears in reality.

Which essentially meant black holes smack dab on the earth.

So to prevent the collapse of the universe and to ensure earth wasn't sucked into a black hole, Naruto recreated and replaced the distance he had erased behind him, thereby completing the image of him teleporting or running the distance. Any person or anything caught in the erasing process was quickly and easily recreated and replaced a split second later, even if it was a person.

It would look like Naruto was using a Yin-Yang release jutsu but Silent Night was more than that.

Much more.

Unleashing the full capacity of this single technique could mean erasing up to half of the universe in the blink of an eye, and if Naruto didn't take care he could also accidentally erase half of the universes in the multiverse.

Silent Night could manipulate space and time, which would affect reality all together.

To enter this technique, Naruto simultaneously did six things no normal man should do, health-wise and ability-wise; first and the closest thing to normal for humanity was that Naruto vibrated his cells and his chakra at two times the speed of light. For speedsters like him, vibrating one's own existence at the speed of light was difficult-the speed of sound being the highest most could reach without dying-. Vibrating his cells reduced drag and air resistance, and the reduced air resistance made him faster.

Second, he mixed his black-white chakra with atmospheric nature chakra, something he did when he used his White Noise technique. For Naruto, who had trained long and hard to master both his chakra and high altitude chakra, it wasn't too dangerous, no matter how long he used it.

Third, he reversed the flow of the mixed chakra.

This was the beginning of the inhuman part.

Human chakra, or basically chakra from living things-even trees and the sort-were made to move forward along their coils and out of their reserves.

Only forward.

Never backwards.

It wasn't that there was any unspoken shinobi law that proclaimed no chakra to roll backwards; rather it was a Law of Nature, specifically Human Nature.

It was physically and mentally impossible.

Yet for someone like Naruto, impossible was merely a weak suggestion.

He had spent months meditating in an underwater cave at the bottom of the ocean, mastering his chakra. This was after he had created the White Noise technique. Naruto gave himself the challenge of reversing the flow of his chakra, and he did this by breaking down his chakra pathways bit by bit, inch by inch and mending them back together in such a way that allowed him to maintain the normal flow of his chakra while still giving him room to reverse it. But just reversing the flow would accumulate chakra in the centre of his chakra coil, enlarging his body mass and would result in him bursting like a bubble. The young him decided to reverse his chakra because he assumed using a higher form than White Noise would burn a lot of his chakra, and he was right, what he didn't know was that flipping around the flow of his chakra also sucked in the chakra of the environment, as well as nearby living creatures-humans and animals alike-, contributing to the weight gain and resulting bloody explosion.

He also didn't know but that process of shattering his chakra coils and refashioning it contributed to why the colour of his chakra changed from a peaceful shade of blue to a lethal tint white-black.

Young Naruto kept the reversal of his chakra aside for only dire situations.

The fifth non-recommended thing Naruto did was that he used an advanced breathing technique on the ground, instead of using it at the peak of the highest mountain, where it was supposed to be used. Gut breathing was meant to capture tiny trickles of oxygen, prevent the brain from shutting down from lack of air as well as slow down the heart, accustoming and strengthening the body against the deficient air. On the ground, there was plenty of breathable air, therefore Gut Breathing would result in too much air in the system too quickly and the lungs would burst like overinflated balloons in little to no time at all.

Naruto did Gut Breathing on the ground when he was using White Noise, as he needed to breathe from his gut due to his chakra being mixed with nature chakra from high in the sky, recreating the feeling of climbing up a steep mountain with no tools and no guide.

The sixth ill-advised thing Naruto did was that he combined all of these things together.

It was why Yuma Nakamura, the Leader's Family Doctor, hailed Naruto as being the pinnacle of human achievement.

Reversing his black-white, nature chakra mixed chakra created something called Anti-Chakra.

It was still widely unknown what exactly Anti-Chakra was, as it had never been seen nor in-depthly studied before, only assumed and theorized about by scientists.

In simple words, Anti-Chakra was present in the void of space.

In fact, Anti-Chakra was space itself.

Black holes, entire solar systems, stars, asteroids, meteors and even the millions of other universes aside from his own.

Naruto was hyperaware of all of this and more.

The lightning haired demon had a galaxy in the centre of his chakra coils, where the chakra reversal dumped outside chakra as well as items he sent there, like Madara's Extinction meteors and the Uchiha's Shadow clones. This galaxy was separate from the one he was presently in and at the same time it was the same size, expanding at the same rate and his due to the influx of more chakra by the second. The two Hand Vortex seals on his palms and the Heart Vortex seal on his heart came about on their own; the ones on his palms served to absorb life and chakra from the outside world and neatly assimilate them into Naruto's body-his bones, organs and muscles-, while the Heart Vortex seal absorbed life and chakra, animate and inanimate objects, and sealed them into the galaxy in the centre of Naruto's chakra coil.

They had been present when Naruto was seventeen but not to this extent.

Naruto was hyperaware of his own existence, more so than any human was allowed to be, and the first time he used Silent Night exposed the blonde to the sheer size and magnitude of the universe, the presence of other universes as well as the existence of other creatures that shared the same power as him.

From the very beginning, Naruto knew everything and told no one.

For if the rinnegan could fall into the wrong hands, then what was to say Silent Night couldn't.

True to Naruto's Doctor's words, there were downsides to that technique.

Vibrating his cells at light speed require an intense amount of brain activity, self-awareness and hyperawareness. The strain was able to tear a mind apart and end all brain function, which was why Naruto limited himself to a mere whisper under the speed of light. That was still dangerous but Naruto's brain was well-adept in handling that kind of pressure. Reversing the flow of his mixed chakra also ate away at his body, particularly at any external soft tissue-that is hair, skin and muscle-.

There was also the possibility of Naruto dropping dead when he ended the technique.

Naruto was resigned to die.

He couldn't see the future but he was certain it wasn't going to end well for him.

Somehow they found their feet on the ground.

Madara's left eye, his rinnegan, thrummed strongly as more and more solid afterimages flooded around him, wading through each one to counter or block the real Naruto.

The Uchiha guided a blow away from his face with the chain of his dual scythes, wise enough to not outright use his already battered arm to fully block it, and he shifted aside from a liver jab from the other hand, shifting back to the other side as Naruto followed the motion of his immediate last attack into an earth shattering spinning elbow.

The elbow was narrowly missed and the lightning spine-d wings slammed into the chest of a fully formed Susanno, caving it in. The Dark Leader phased out from in front of the chest and appeared inside again, erasing and replacing the space immediately, following through with a palm thrust to the Uchiha's face, which the man ducked, rising up with an uppercut to Naruto's chin. Madara's eyes bugged out as his fist wafted through the Ghost's head, and yet the power he had put into the uppercut lifted his feet off the ground a little, allowing the speed demon more than enough time to cross his forearms, load his chakra up his shoulders and through his arms, drag his arm back and then release a catastrophic straight punch into Madara's sternum.

Madara exploded out of his Susanno in a crack of light and the people of Darkness had to cover their eyes at the terrible glare from afar.

The undead Uchiha crashed into the ground. His back skipped on the ground thrice before the rolled onto his feet-

Only for Naruto's knee to dig into his face.

The lightning haired Ghost flickered behind the airborne Uchiha and rapped his fist into the man's lower back twice, both stopping the hard speed his opponent was flying in and also softening up the man's freshly healed spine, whipping around the man and at the same time tearing a thick line in his side with Night terror, somehow making it seem like the blade had been in his hands all this time.

Naruto slashed upwards, diagonally, and caught his blade with the other hand, crossing it down Madara's front again, forming a bloody 'X' on the man's chest and stomach.

The Ghost then flashed into a sequence of slices and cuts, switching hands with each tear, almost as if he had more than a hundred hands working Madara down into sizeable chunks.

Hashirama Senjutsu chakra worked to mend the Uchiha up as fast as possible.

"Almighty Push!"

Naruto, now some three feet from Madara, crossed Night terror over his chest and faced the wave of gravity head on.

Madara felt dread when he saw his demonic opponent push the tsunami of gravity back, skip forward half a step and slash it out of existence with a clean cut from his ninjato.

The rinnegan integrated into Night terror's fledgling chakra network pulsed as its owner cut through the chain of Madara's dual scythes, bending an overhead swing and slicing the Uchiha's right calf, scraping the bone.

The man back flipped and Naruto batted the overhead kick aside with the flat side of his ninjato, making the Uchiha stumble on his one good leg.

In a last ditch effort, the undead Uchiha pushed a colossal amount of chakra into his arm and threw his fist forward, and Naruto charged the blow, slamming his horned forehead into Madara's knuckles.

GOOOOOOMMMMM!

The Uchiha yanked his hand back with a muted shout, his eye bugging out at the mangled state of his fingers.

Naruto watched the man silently, as Madara's mind reeled and he stumbled back again on his one leg, heaving for precious air as his Sage mode flickered off.

The corners of the Dark Leader's eyes turned up and he twirled Night terror in his left hand once. "Was that supposed to hurt?" he smirked easily and shrugged. "I barely felt that."

"Hah!" Madara exclaimed, looking up to his opponent with both of his eyes wide open and thrown into mental turmoil as his body refused to gather more Senjutsu chakra to return to Sage mode. His gnarly fingers, twisted and turned in grotesque, unnatural directions, cracked. More cracks appeared on his face and he gasped again horrified. "Whuh!"

"Tell me if you feel this."

He pointed his ninjato to the quacking heavens and swiped it down.

"Night Light."

An arc of blazing white lightning came down on the centre of Madara's head and the shockwave on impact destroyed what semblance of hope Mito's Wasteland had to ever sustain life, rippling through the earth and violently rankling the foundations of the planet, shaking it down to the core. The brunt of the power went downwards, not outwards, but that didn't stop the solid ground from trembling in agony.

Gravity doubled for a split second and the earth threatened to roll out orbit.

Naruto flapped his wings, clearing up the dust.

He saw Madara on his knees, the right side of his face had a deep cut, running through the top of his head, through his former sharingan eye and stopping at his cheek.

The lightning haired Ghost stood over his opponent's weak form and the Uchiha saw his death.

A smoky black effigy warped behind Naruto, a hulking mass of darkness that wore a widely grinning Oni mask.

The Shinigami chuckled ominously, a vision only Madara could see.

Death placed its right hand over the upper left part of Madara's face and the undead shinobi swallowed when he realized that it was Naruto.

The Ghost had becomeDeath.

"I'll be taking this." Naruto said under his breath.

Madara's rinnegan flowed into the Hand Vortex seal on Death's right palm.

The hand left his face and his eye socket was hollow.

Death straightened up and his horns buzzed minutely, unnoticeably; Madara heard screaming.

Foul sounds of torment and despair, rending through the air and weighing down his very being. His sanity cracked and tears ran down his eyehole, weakly crying in heaving pants.

The demon before him rumbled with laughter as a vortex of invisible air spun over the seal on his heart, elongating and covering the kneeling shinobi. Madara wailed as icy hands gripped his body, dragging him closer to his former opponent. The lightning haired phantoms voice became menacing, dark.

"Do you hear them?"

The insistent chattering, whispering of the damned.

Those that rose up against Darkness and failed.

Those that had fallen to Naruto's hands.

They whispered in the Uchiha's ears, some insistent chattering and others screaming hauntingly.

Madara's knees scraped the ground as he was slowly pulled closer, weeping for mercy.

"N-No! I don't want to die! Not again!"

His plan.

Godhood.

Immortality.

He had nothing.

He was nothing.

"Not again!"

"Do not fear death," the demon known as Death said in a deep voice, sending cold tendrils of panic into Madara's soul, shattering what little sanity he had left. Death tittered with a wide eye smile and what looked like a gleeful black light ringed his head. "Fear me."

Those words followed Madara Uchiha as he tumbled head first into the universe in the centre of Naruto's chakra coil.

The black clouds shrank into themselves and shrivelled out of sight, merging with the genially blue sky and the bright orange light of the sun.

The blackness on Naruto's body flew off, like feathers from a bird, and his wings flapped once more before they folded onto his back, bursting into nature chakra that escaped his body. Naruto's horns crept back into his skull and his white eyes flicked off, almost like a light switch, leaving behind his cerulean orbs.

Naruto blinked and looked around, his blue eyes dimming and becoming a far lighter shade of white, ghostly similar to the whiteness of his eyes. With a magnificent poof, the salamander that had formerly been gnawing on the chest area of a Madara clone was sent back to the summoning realm.

His ears thumped as his blood rushed, reminiscent to the sounds of the ocean crashing into itself, washing onto the shore and only splashing a light shower on his face.

The familiar scent of Sueki's prized white rice, spicy curry and pot roast, and the man closed his eyes with a faint smile, bathing himself in the smell of his first students cooking, immersed in the sounds of the ocean and the feeling of being rocked on a boat that easily flowed downstream.

"I'm…I'm tired." He whispered almost soundlessly, coming out breathlessly. He took his time sitting down and leaning back into a slanting slab of earth, from the crater formed when he hit Madara with his last bolt of lightning. The hole wasn't that deep, not so deep as to not be able to see Dark Ninjas scrambling into the battle zone, wearing gas masks as they rushed through the chakra polluted area. The gas masks had a single, thin looking canister of sealed up air on the right side of the mouth area, which contained several hours of sealed air from a combination of exactly ten seals filled with clean air.

Naruto smacked his lips and his shoulders sagged, feeling so tired that his very soul was heavy.

"J-Just…Just five minutes…" he whispered, out of breath.

He realized, with his eyes tiredly closed, that he had stopped breathing, but he didn't mind.

In his mind, he was seated on a dining table and having dinner with Sueki and Kushina. The red head was holding their child in her arms and the vampire was regaling them with a story, he couldn't hear her very well but he couldn't stop smiling, more so when Kushina added her voice, hinting that it had to do with something they had experienced together.

Naruto bathed himself in the warmth of their company, even though he knew they were projections from his mind as his soul drifted out of his body. At least his mind and his heart were in agreement.

He wanted the last thing he sees to be his family.

A short distance away, Kushina climbed up a rock face and looked around at the wreckage of earth and fire. She opened her mouth and shouted. "Uncle!" her purple eyes flicked around for any signs of life, any flicker of motion, and she forced down the urge to tear off her gasmask. The visors were limiting her sight and the mask prevented her from smelling the outside world, but she was wise enough to know that jinchuriki regeneration or not, her lungs would dissolve if she inhaled that brutal air. The red haired wife of the Leader cupped her mouth and yelled. "Uncle Ruto!"

Her sensory ability was all over the place; the very air of Mito's Wasteland was ruining her positioning.

With her limited sight under the gasmask, she saw other shinobi calling for their Leader, wading through the wreckage. Some used light Earth release jutsus to gently lift the ground up and there were medics scouring every corner of the wasteland.

"Uncle Ruto!"

She slid down the rock face she was perched on and ran around a geyser as it sprayed a light red shower of scolding hot blood water.

Those blood spraying geysers were everywhere.

Their misty eruptions tilted sensors like Kushina off even more, making their ability unreliable and more of a hindrance.

Kushina summoned dozens of golden chains from her shoulders and back and used them to push aside massive slabs of rock, digging into the soil and feeling for life.

"Uncle!"

Their skin sizzled, their Leader's thinned out chakra irritated their skin and the less resilient were ordered to leave, for any longer and rashes would form and after that Naruto's chakra would eat their flesh down to the bone. Those ordered to leave tried to put on a bold face, defiant to not go until they had secured the life of their precious Leader, but their superiors roared at them to leave for safety, ignoring their own reddening flesh.

Kushina felt her regeneration war with Naruto's chakra when the skin of her wrists to her elbows turned pink.

She shook off the pain and clambered onto a pile of soil, desperately calling out.

"Uncle Ruto!"

Far to her right, someone shouted. "He's here!"

Her legs couldn't move any faster, and feeling as if they were insufficient, her chains lifted her off the ground and carried her to the source of the person's voice, straining her ears to the limit and avoiding the blood geysers hot vapour.

She slid down the face of an uprooted rock and arrived as a male medic apologized profusely to Naruto's form as he gently took off his magnificent Leader's glasses and half mask, refusing to curl away at the grotesque maw underneath and placing an oxygen mask over Naruto's lower face.

Kushina's husband was pale by nature, so pale that Sueki often joked that he was paler than her, a vampire, but the state at which the Uzumaki's man was in jostled her heart in her chest.

He had lost colour and his eyes were shut.

"Uncle!" she cried and scrambled to him, until three pairs of arms tackled her to a standstill and pushed her back, grunting as they held the hysterical woman away. Kushina didn't see the faces of the three people restraining her and she struggled for freedom, thrashing restlessly. The tears came down on their own. "Uncle!"

Another male medic joined the first one, bending on his knee and muttering a hasty permission to Naruto's unresponsive body as he took checked for a pulse.

No pulse.

The first medic unsealed a stretcher and the two men, as quickly and as softly as they possibly could, placed their Leader on top so as to give him a level place to lie down. The second one flipped through numerous hand seals and placed his glowing green hands on Naruto's chest.

"No internal bleeding."

A female medic skidded down the same rock Kushina had come from, passing the panic-stricken wife. She was holding a Dark Medic Field Kit, an emergency requirement for every Dark country medical team to possess while they were out on missions. She joined her medic teammates, dropping the machine close to Naruto and going through her own hands signs, placing her hands on both sides of her Leader after a frantic apology.

"No brain activity."

The second medic unzipped Naruto's flak jacket, ever mumbling his apologies, freeing Naruto's chest to allow him to breathe easier. The first medic replaced the female by putting his hands on either side of Naruto's head, the second medic secured Naruto's oxygen mask over the blondes gnarly lower face.

There were ninjas at the top of the crater that were peering down at them with bated breath, watching the medics as they tried to revive Naruto. No other medic approached, for if there were too many then they would disrupt the flow of the first responders.

The female opened the Medic Kit and took out a syringe, already filled with a mysterious looking yellow liquid. She found a vein and slowly slid the needle into Naruto's left wrist.

"Adrenaline has been administered." The woman stated and the man at Naruto's head, the second medic, shook his head.

"Still no brain activity."

The other man who had his hands on the centre of Naruto's chest, the first medic, nodded. "There's a pulse. His lungs are functioning."

"We need to get him out of here." The second medic said curtly. "The nearest hospital is ten miles east of here."

"Dark Capital General Hospital." The female bobbed her head, confirming her teammate's words, and put the needle back into the pack. All medics of their country were expected to know the exact location of the nearest medical facility, be it a pharmacy, clinic or a hospital, whenever they were in the country or in allied nations. This was simply procedure. She fastened Naruto onto the stretcher with three black straps and she took her place at Naruto's feet. The second medic took hold of the hand grips by Naruto's head.

There was a sense of hurried panic going through the medics and running through the people as they watched them heft their Leader's limp body out of the hole, yet they couldn't make that dread allow them to make a mistake.

Kushina jogged beside Naruto all the way, sitting by him as he was alighted into a closed roof carriage that had specifically made to cater to Naruto's needs, though the Dark Leader never used it, as he was more fond of walking than riding a carriage. Yuma Nakamura was in the carriage as well, seeing as he had been present for Naruto's fight against Madara since the very beginning.

People assembled outside of the hospital in the tens of thousands.

Dark country stood still.

Held its breath.

The Leader's Doctor directed the medics into the Emergency Ward, allowing in only two other doctors-one a brain surgeon and the other a heart doctor-and slammed the door shut before Kushina to push inside, right about the same time the adrenaline in Naruto's system ran out and he stopped living.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A few hours later, Dark country's Network News chimed on the televisions of the thousands of homes that hadn't been destroyed by the Planetary Devastation and on the large screens of the underground bunkers, where people who had lost their homes were staying for the time being until their places were restored.

The camera panned to the Dark born Kiri newscaster's solemn face as she looked up, visibly trying to bear a neutral expression as a sad, worried gaze flitted over her eyes. She cleared her throat and spoke.

"Good evening, Dark country. Some hours ago, Lord Naruto was rushed into the Emergency ward and is still currently under operation from an undisclosed complication during his fight with Madara Uchiha. The Leader's Tower is silent on the details but has said that the doctors are trying their best to re-revive…"she paused and briefly looked away, clearing her throat and continuing. "Revive Lord Naruto. Due to the successful efforts of Lord Naruto, he was able to limit most of the battle in Mito's Grassland, and as such there is no loss of life." The woman swallowed and sniffed unnoticeably. The producer behind the camera rolled his wrist for her to continue; he was man enough to admit that he wouldn't be able to do any better than the newscaster in delivering the terrible news. Ani Kaguya shuffled the papers on her desk, almost as if she was trying to distract herself while the news aired live all over Darkness and also all over the continent, pinging straight to the televisions of Citizens of the Dark in allied and non-allied nations. "In response to Lord Naruto's critical condition, The Leader's Tower has said that Lord Naruto had long since created protocols to ensure the safety and stability of the country in the event of his incapacitation or demise. The country will be placed in a State of Emergency and Lady Ketsueki Sakenomi, Lord Naruto's first wife, is to take over office as the Temporary Leader until Lord Naruto has fully recovered or is confirmed…" Ani coughed again. "Confirmed to have passed. The Dark country Council will proceed as they have always been and Lord Naruto has written that he wishes them to support Lady Ketsueki with all their might."

Then a video of Sueki came up on the screen of her walking through the wreckage of a town in the Western region, ordering her ninjas with an even, controlled expression. Naruto's first student had been torn between the responsibility Naruto's placed on her to keep Darkness stable and staying by his side, but she took the weight in stride and the Ninjas of the Dark fell in line.

There was no light way to say that Leader of Dark country, Naruto, was a dictator, though the difference between him and most other Leader's was that he had the clear admiration of every member of his country and all his allies, so it wasn't too difficult to accept Sueki as the temporary boss, seeing as the woman too was a capable Kunoichi in her own right.

Emboldened by his death and the thought that Kurono might not be enough to keep his country united, about the same time Kushina became a jounin, Naruto set in place plans that were aimed to maintain the stability of his country, evolve the military, elevate the standard of living, as well as sustain allied relations for eons to come. Four essential things Naruto had been working on from the very beginning, and the things those that followed him continued without fail.

Naruto began the groundwork to further develop Darkness for the next five years after his death or incapacitation, serving to legitimize the power and authority of his future successors and to unify his people hopefully to the end of time.

Naruto's efforts worked.

In the future, Darkness never once fractured.

The vampire was presently leading an effort to clear the roads and pathways of the country, and she was in constant communication with the members of her council as they too led restoration efforts in other parts of the country.

"In related news, not too long after Lord Naruto's hospitalization, Shinobi of Uzushiogakure docked on the shores of Darkness with Lady Uzukage to provide relief and support to those who had lost their homes. Lord Mizukage and Kiri too arrived some minutes later to lend a hand in cleaning up the country and restoring whatever had been destroyed. Lord Sabaku no Rasa, Kazekage of Sunagakure, and Lord Kawasatoru of River country personally came with relief in the form of shinobi to assist in watching Darkness's border in case of a surprise invasion, capable cooks to lessen the need for Darkness to use its own emergency rations and builders to reconstruct houses and roads that had been damaged in the battle." Ani Kaguya gave the viewers at home and abroad an invisible smile as she delivered more good news. "Lady Amara Chui-Inku, Director of the Dark country Central Bank, has said that with the timely and much needed assistance of Darkness's allies, there has been less and less need for citizens to request for emergency funds, as Uzushio, Kiri, Suna and River not only came with capable hands but also with financial support. Though, Lady Amara has also said that any person that still needs this money should not hesitate to come to the bank or any of the bank's branches. Lady Amara has also said that the economy has not taken a hit from this present disaster and that business as usual will return as soon as sunrise tomorrow."

Uzushio and Kiri had been unable to come as soon as the battle began because the ocean had been unfavourable for travel, given that the jutsus Naruto and Madara threw around not only affected Mito's Wasteland but also the whole world.

The four Leaders of Dark country's allies came in person to lend a hand, to do whatever they could to help, and Sueki couldn't be any more appreciative. The vampire had even proposed to Sabaku no Rasa that she had no problem slashing the money Suna owed them in half but the Kazekage declined. This was the exact opposite of what the Kazekage did to Konoha.

None of the allies asked for payment in return for their help.

"Lady Ketsueki did not have the time for an interview but she wanted us to tell our people in the country and outside that everything is under control. 'Remain calm, do not succumb to panic and do not allow doubt to creep into your minds. Darkness is as strong as it has ever been and it will only grow stronger. Over a hundred houses have already been rebuilt and are in the process of being refurnished, life it's returning to normalcy. Naruto-sensei once told me that he did Darkness was never a country that would take fate lying down.' Network News would like to add our voice in saying that there is no country like Dark country. As we hope for Lord Naruto's quick recovery, we make this country greater than it has ever been. Those presently not in the country should not worry; the situation is perfectly under control."

Normally, when authorities say that the situation was graver than they could ever hope for, but the people the newscaster was speaking to didn't have a doubt in their minds that that was the truth.

Truth.

Wherever they were, whether they were sitting in their homes in Snow country, in a bar in Iron country or listening to the radio in Hidden Salt Water, the Citizens of the Dark felt their souls ignite and their eyes steel over.

Darkness's position as the Second Wealthiest Nation wouldn't waver, not even after the previous devastation.

In this time, Dark country had many enemies and in a ballsy show of strength, non-allies that had access to a good television were also allowed to watch Dark country's Network News, at a cost, of course. Those enemies knew that Darkness might be in a vulnerable position but no enemy dare attacked.

History proved that Darkness could never die.

They could not be certain that if they rallied all their armies and all their allies, that they could destroy Naruto's country in one fell swoop, and they rightly should squish Darkness in one attack or else…

The retaliatory strike would cripple if not drive that country into extinction.

"In other news, sources in Fire country have said that Lady Wakono still intends to have peaceful relations with Darkness, even if it doesn't result in an alliance at any point in the future…"

The news buzzed on and the country recovered.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Four years later

Children's Park

Dark capital

Dark country

A yellow haired boy hopped into a small puddle and giggled at the equally small splash. His plastic rain boots deflected the water from touching his socked feet and the light drizzle of rain dropping over the capital was warded off by the child's yellow rain coat and a light blue umbrella that perfectly fitted the four year old boys size.

The child readied himself again and leaped with both feet into another puddle, laughing at the backsplash. The boy whirled around and his vulpine orange eyes sparkled with joy as he called to the man sitting on a bench a mere stone throw away.

"Daddy! Daddy! Look at the puddles! Look at the puddles!" he huffed and landed into another puddle, laughing with the humour only a child his age could muster. "Splash! Splash! Splash!"

The man, equally bearing blonde hair to his son, chuckled with an upward turn of the corners of his eyes. "That's amazing! Can you make an even bigger splash?"

"Yes!" the boy bent down low and his eyes zeroed in on another puddle. He jumped forward and landed in the puddle with a slightly bigger splash than normal. "Daddy, Daddy, I splash!"

The father clapped and the boy beamed proudly. "Well done, Benny."

Naruto didn't mind the rain much but Sueki had insisted he too go with an umbrella, which he propped up over his head to block the light downpour. The blonde man was in a black overcoat with the collar covering the back of his neck, a pair of black pants and light blue, waterproof sneakers. Underneath his trench coat, he had on a warm grey shirt. His iris were a much lighter shade of blue than four years ago, so light that it nearly merged with the whites of his eyes, but his rectangular, black rimmed glasses essentially prevented him from being blind.

The man's half mask was slightly altered; there was a one inch thin canister on the right side of the mask, reminiscent to the gasmasks worn by his shinobi those years ago when they were searching for him, except that there wasn't a visor and it was more sophisticated, serving to push air into his lungs and nose as well as take out carbon dioxide. The canister didn't just contain normal air, it contained air from the highest point on the continent, and Naruto was utilizing Gut Breathing rather than breathing normally.

It was one of the side effects of not dying, as strange as that sounded.

Naruto was unable to breathe normal, ground level air and he also couldn't use the usual breathing techniques every human was knowledgeable of. Naruto's brain refused to work without that high altitude air.

The other side effect was that his sight deteriorated drastically, to the extent that a different pair of glasses had to be prescribed to him by an eye doctor Yuma Nakamura recommended. Naruto was blind as a bat without it and no matter how many times he told Kushina and Sueki that he still had his other senses, they refused to let up, forcing him to have at least three spare pairs of glasses sealed on his person at all times. His glasses were among the things they drilled him on before he left their general vicinity.

Naruto knew they did it because they loved him and they didn't want anything to happen to him.

Naruto loved his wives and he made sure to tell them that every single day.

The blonde could be alive because of the Rinnegan's power running through his body or it could be a freak luck of the draw that he wasn't dead, but Naruto decided not to question it.

His yellow hair had a few grey streaks running through it, and Yuma Nakamura said that it had been caused by stress from after the battle.

Naruto applauded his son as the child stomped in the rain, keeping a rapt eye on Benimaru. The children's park wasn't so populated now, mainly because of the light shower, but Naruto felt like spending a rainy day with his son.

Three years earlier, when he had regained consciousness, Naruto formally handed over power to Sueki, making the Sakenomi vampire the Second Leader of Darkness. He had been encouraged to do so, surprisingly by Sueki herself and Kushina. The Dark Council backed the then temporary Leader in their insistence that Naruto retire, saying that Darkness was in a better place now due to his past efforts and also due to his trust that Sueki would be a capable Leader, which she very well was.

The next group of people to voice their concerns over Naruto's health and him resuming duty were his people, the entire population of Dark country, his allies and the Leaders of his allies.

Naruto had done enough.

It was time for him to rest.

The forty four year old man was enjoying retirement.

Every day he woke up, he didn't have to worry about getting to the office in time to finish the work that unfailingly waited for him on his desk and he certainly didn't have to think about maintaining relations with the countries and villages around Darkness.

Naruto had more time to spend with his the women in his life, he could play with his son and take the boy to kindergarten every weekday, he could visit his friends inside and outside of the country, though either of his wives always accompanied him 'for his own safety', they said. They all had nights out, where they had dinner together in a cozy restaurant, he could go on more dates with his wives and he took part in a enjoyable get together of house husbands that showed off their children.

The retiree chuckled to himself.

He was also getting into brunch, and that was especially wonderful if he had company.

The Citizens of the Dark and Allies of the Dark were likewise helping the aging former shinobi ease further into his retirement, greeting him whenever they saw him in town, probably with his son or with his wives, and conversing with them. Naruto didn't mind talking to them; he learnt more about his people and it made him feel accomplished that he had impacted their lives so gratifyingly.

Naruto appreciated life more than he ever had, now that he was retired.

Sueki had called him five minutes ago and said that she was putting the last few finishing touches on her paperwork, then she would come over to chat with him as they watched over their son. Kushina too for that matter, and neither women were ever late when it came to meeting and having a nice talk with their husband.

Sueki was pregnant.

Oddly at the same time as Kushina, who was expecting another baby.

Naruto's wives were two months in and the greying former shinobi had to impose his will on them, telling them to take it easy. Kushina was still on active duty for another half a month before her mandatory, paid maternal leave was to take place and Sueki was relegating some duties to her Council, like Naruto had done so many times when he was swamped with his duties.

An ultrasound told them that Sueki was expecting twins.

The white haired vampire couldn't express her joy enough.

In Naruto's eyes, his first wife was shining and his second wife was glowing.

Naruto loved his life.

Looking at Benimaru, as the boy was hopping in place and enjoying his time splashing about on the puddle under his rain booted feet. Naruto was happy that the boy was having a good childhood; the man didn't expect for Benimaru to be a genius but he knew for certain that his son, and his descendants, was going to do great things.

It sounded obnoxious and cocky when he said it, but it was just a feeling.

His ears twitched and he turned his head to the right. His pale eyes lit up when he recognized the man approaching him, holding a yellow haired girl that was about the same age as Benimaru. The Kazekage wore a dark red, rain poncho, blue pants and rain boots. He carried the blonde child in his right arm wore matching clothes and in his other hand was an umbrella. The girl's hair was very short and styled into four pigtails and she had teal green eyes that glimmered as she saw him sitting by himself on the bench.

"Rasa, how's it going?"

The eyes of the turban swaddled man lifted slightly. "Different thing every day." He grunted as he sat down heavily next to his old friend and helped the blonde girl onto his lap, patting her head as she faced Naruto, who gave the girl and her father a friendly smile. "How are you, Naruto?"

"I'm fine." he bent a little and gave the girl a playful look, tapping her nose. "And who is this?"

The girl giggled and grabbed his finger in her tiny hands. Rasa laughed as well, more so when his daughter introduced herself. "I'm Temari! I'm four!"

"Oh, so you're the famous Temari your father keeps telling me about." Rasa scoffed at that and rolled his eyes, placing a soft hand on his daughters head and the girl bounced on his lap, apparently proud that her father spoke about her. "My name is Naruto and I'm your godfather."

The girl covered her mouth and tittered. "I know that! Daddy said I should call you uncle."

Naruto chuckled with his eyes closed, facing his friend. "You've got a smart kid, Rasa."

"Thank you." He waved to Naruto's son and the boy waved back, wearing a larger than life grin. "I'm sorry, Akiko couldn't be here. She said she was feeling unwell so she stayed back in the hotel."

"I don't mind. I'm glad she's not pushing herself too hard."

Rasa's wife was pregnant for their second child and they wanted Naruto to be the godfather again. Similar to how Rasa was Benimaru's godfather.

This was the first time Naruto was meeting Temari in person, Naruto idly thought as he caught his son as the boy ran to him with a big hug, hefting the boy onto his lap.

"Benny, this is Temari." Naruto said as he took his son's umbrella and folded it, keeping it on his other side next to his own umbrella. Neither him nor his son minded the rain and, seeing the Kazekage fold his umbrella as well, neither did the Suna shinobi. At that point it was more or a thin shower, if anything.

"Hi." The boy said quietly, a bit withdrawn from meeting a kid his age.

Naruto ruffled the boy's blonde hair. "He's just shy." The boy blushed in acknowledgment of the statement.

Temari looked up to Naruto with an inquisitively furrowed forehead. "Daddy said I couldn't come see you cuz you were sick."

The girl's father exclaimed. "Temari, that was rude."

The retired Leader patted Rasa's shoulder genially. "Its fine, old friend." looking at the blonde girl, he said. "I wasn't sick, I was injured."

"Injured? Who injured you?"

Benimaru was busily playing with his father's large hand, comparing his pudgy hands to Naruto's remarkably soft hands, cheerily swinging his tiny feet. "I injured myself when I was fighting a really bad man."

Temari bounced in Rasa's lap, so much so that the Kazekage almost struggled to contain her. "Did you win?"

Naruto smiled widely. "I'd like to think I won."

"Is it why you're eyes are weird-"

"Temari!" Rasa shouted, outraged.

"Haha~ Come now, Rasa. She's only a child; if she didn't ask about it then I'd be worried."

"Daddy's eyes are cool!" Benimaru shouted, defending his father's honour.

"You're eyes are weird." Temari snorted, hiding her mouth as she laughed at Benimaru's Kyuubi eyes.

"My eyes are cool. Daddy said so." The boy mumbled, becoming self-conscious, until she felt his father tickle his side lightly.

"Temari, that was out of line." Rasa commanded. "You have to apologize."

"But-But why?!" she looked up at her father, tears threatening to well up in her eyes. The man didn't fall for the pampered girls tricks.

"Would you like it if Benimaru made fun of your eyes?"

The girl huffed, puffing out her cheeks. "…No."

Rasa waited. "Then…?"

Temari faced Benimaru, who was now momentarily distracted by pushing away his father's tickling fingers. "…I'm sorry…"

"What do you say back?" Naruto told his son.

"…I'm sorry I shouted at you."

"Now, why don't you two go and find a pile of worms. They have to be around here somewhere." Naruto helped his son down and so did Rasa, allowing Temari's booted feet to touch the wet ground and unsealing a kid's umbrella as Naruto gave Benimaru his own.

"Make sure you don't eat them, ok?" Rasa warned the two.

"Ok, Daddy." Temari said and dragged the other child further into the park, in search of earthworms in the muck and mud.

Watching the two four year's olds tramp off, the men could now talk about other things.

"I hope the rain isn't making Akiko feel unwell. She might not be used to it." Naruto apologized.

"I came with my family yesterday and she was feeling alright when we were unpacking. It might be the rain that's dampening her mood but don't worry about that, it's not her first time experiencing this weather."

"What did you come to do?"

"I came to speak with Sueki about extending the responsibility of the Dark-Sand Joint Taskforce, to protect the pockets of gas we discovered underwater and also to guard the iron ore mines along that coast. The divers and the workers are getting concerned and since some of them come from your country; they feel more secured if Dark-Sand assist my shinobi in guarding them. The Wind Daimyo is making trouble; he says you duped him by purposefully buying that land knowing full well that there was gas in the ocean and that you neglected to tell him about it."

Naruto rolled his eyes and sat back in the bench. Him and Rasa had agreed to buy that small part of Wind country, mainly a small part of the coastal area and a portion of the waters, and he ceded ownership to Suna at the agreed price of a seventy million Dark ryu increase in the Suna Debt, this was the lowest Naruto could get Rasa to agree to, for the Kazekage staunchly refused the notion of owing an ally as reliable as Naruto, even though in later years he would absolutely refuse for payment for Suna's relief efforts after the Naruto-Madara battle. Sueki secretly paid this unknown debt by increasing Darkness's investments into Suna's Medical Research, and it made the two Leader's-Rasa and Sueki-laugh heartily as the latter found out. This deal, buying the small coastal region of Wind country, came after the Kurama clan were liberated from Konoha some four years and ten months ago.

Previously, some of Rasa's ninjas had scouted the land and confirmed the presence of gas underwater as well as a few iron ore sites along the coast, strangely enough. The Wind Daimyo had no idea about it and there were little to no real settlements on that land, as that place was prone to flash flooding. Wanting the added resources and money from extracting those resources, Suna requested Darkness to use its influence and money to convince the Wind Daimyo to sell that piece of land to him. Darkness bought that land for one billion Dark ryu and handed the deeds to Suna, and Suna split ownership of the resources of that property in half between itself and Dark country.

They began operations to acquire the gas and the iron ore long ago and only recently-exactly a month ago-had the Wind Daimyo found out.

"He's a spineless idiot. The contract is legal and binding. I wasn't under any obligation to tell him why I as buying the land and he never asked. He was more interested in the money." Naruto scoffed, rubbing the fingers of his right hand together to symbolize the one billion ryu he paid the Wind Daimyo for that land. His shoulders lifted airily, asking. "How is Sueki handling the issue?"

"It's not an issue, really. Your country is stronger than Wind country-militarily and economically-and they know they can't coerce me to squeeze her arm because our alliance is too tightly knit. That Daimyo can't do anything."

Suna was in a much better place now; they had paid back in full the loan they collected from Darkness that had been used to form the Suna Farm and they could also keep up with the regular payments to the Dark Central Bank in relation to Suna using Dark ryu in their economy.

The desert oasis was developed and the standard of living was high, so much so that they copied the early exploits of their Dark country ally by making it so that no person was homeless or without gainful employment of some kind.

The same could be said about Kiri.

"Well, if you need my advice, forget about that Daimyo and focus on more important matters. Like excavating that iron ore and processing it."

"Suna deals with the excavation and Darkness processes it, same as with the oil, gas and coal. Not much has changed." Rasa shrugged freely; it was an honest weight off his shoulders that his village didn't do everything. Having an influential, capable ally like Darkness had its perks and one of it was that Dark country could handle their own half of the twenty eight year old Suna-Darkness Alliance. "Sueki has agreed to split the bill on Dark-Sands gear and training them on underwater combat. Recruitment is difficult though on my side."

"Sand shinobi can't swim?"

"Ha, yes. We aren't…adept at swimming." The Kazekage smiled as Naruto tumbled back into a deep belly laugh. "Some of our older generation have taught the younger ones that there's no need to learn how to swim."

"But there are swimming pools and water parks in Suna now." Naruto correctly stated.

"It's a work in progress. Both schools in Suna," Civilian and Shinobi Academies. "Have to have Gym and Swimming classes in their curriculum."

"That's a nice step forward."

"I spoke with one of your clan heads, Lady Umara Kurama," Clan head. "And she is thinking of pitching an idea to Sueki this evening about a Dark country Air Force."

"Ah, yes, she told me the same thing. She has been funding the Inventions Department for years now and she said that the engineers in her clan have a detailed blueprint of something called a 'Sky Jet'"

"It's a very big dream." The Kazekage admitted. "Suna might have the money but we still need some time before we can get there."

What Rasa meant by this was that Dark country had officially been classified as a developed nation a year into Sueki's time as Leader. They had a staggeringly powerful military, they had an explosively booming economy, the literacy levels of an average Dark Citizen was near ninety seven percent, the value of their currency was at the top of the listings, the quality of their goods and services were unbeatable and their network of connections ran deep into the heart of the continent.

Just last year, Snow country stepped back and Darkness came forward as the First Wealthiest Nation. Doton put up an admirable fight to keep his country's relevance and position in the Wealth Nation listing but it wasn't enough against the support and approval of the other Wealth Nations and the Major Hidden Villages allied to Darkness.

This wealth enormously eclipsed Snow's, so much so that smaller hidden villages and countries accepted Darkness as not just the First Wealthiest Nation but also the First Greatest Hidden Country, shoving Kumo to second, Suna to third, Kiri to fourth, Iwa to fifth and Konoha to sixth.

Though this was unofficial, the sheer magnitude of Dark country's wealth seemed to unsettle the members of the Hidden Village rankings, or at least those that weren't allied to Naruto's country already, namely Kumo, Iwa and Konoha.

They had attempted to gang up together and strong hand Sueki into breaking down Darkness's power and money, thereby reducing the power and influence of the country. They threatened to whittle down the Hermit Nation by barring entry to traders and ninjas as well as convincing their allies to turn away from Sueki's country, unless the red eyed woman listened to their demands.

It was the first time in history Konoha, Iwa and Kumo were on the same page.

They had done this during the Chunin Exams hosted in Konoha, now which was participated by every nation of the continent.

Sueki masterfully took control of the situation and returned fire; there was no logical way any of the three threatening villages' allies would comply to their demands and not only would blocking entry into their villages cripple their economies but it would also kill their way of life. The white haired lady took Iwa as an example, staring down Oonoki as she said that her having mercy on them and allowing trade to go between their shinobi settlements lifted the terrible situation in the Rock village ten times anything they did by themselves or with their allies. She had no problem taking away that mercy.

Oonoki knew to keep his mouth shut and he slinked back, despite the Raikage, Ay, barking at him to not submit.

Sueki turned to Tsunade and told her that she didn't even recognize Konoha as any sort of threat; they had no reliable allies and no strong connections. The Hokage's threats were baseless. All it took for Ay to sit back down was to mention the neutrality born from the mutual respect between Cee and Naruto, her husband. She did not bear that same respect for Ay and that the neutrality meant nothing if he kept pushing her. Sueki apologized to Yagura, the Mizukage, and Rasa on disturbing the match viewing experience.

Naruto watched all this in a spectator's booth, sniggering.

Yeah.

Darkness was that powerful.

It didn't help that Darkness also won that Chunin Exams.

"Your wife is really something, Naruto." Rasa said out of nowhere. He then laughed. "She had them by the balls."

"Pahaha~ My Su is an amazing woman."

"What about me, Naruto?" Kushina said as she came up behind her husband. She went around the bench and sat down on Naruto's other side, leaning into him and holding his shirt.

"Oh, Nana. You know you're my wonderful lady too." She placed a small kiss on his cheek in response and contently nestled into her husband's side as she watched her son play with Temari. Sueki arrived a few minutes later and Rasa was about to shift a little down the bench to give her room to sit next to her man but the vampire politely shook her head and took her place on Naruto's lap, slinging the retired shinobi's arm around her.

The Kazekage chuckled and shook his head in exasperation; the Dark Leader became a completely different person when she was with her husband. She wasn't even this free around him, and he knew her about as long as he knew Naruto.

"You're a lucky man, Naruto." He confessed shamelessly.

Naruto drew Kushina closer and sighed as Sueki nestled her head under his chin, not much minding the light shower of rain falling on them.

The man was content.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto lived to the age of one hundred and twenty nine.

The old man lived long enough to see his children, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren.

He lived to see Kushina become the Third Leader of Darkness, after Sueki stepped down, saying that as an immortal vampire she could hold onto power for the rest of eternity but wanted the transition of power to continue.

He lived to see his first son, Benimaru, succeed his mother and become the Fourth Leader of Darkness.

He lived to see his second daughter's first son, Hachitsu, become Fifth Leader. The Leader's Family had their own way of deciding who succeeded the former Leader and that process involved being accepted by Night terror, which became a half-sentient ninjato. This was accepted because it was widely agreed that Night terror bore the First Leader's approval.

He bore witness to the technological revolution that ran through his beloved country. Security became more digitally refined and communication was far easier than when Naruto first became Leader, though the people never lost their way.

He was present to see generation after generation of Dark People succeed their elders and take part in developing their precious country. Directors, Clan Heads and Heads of Departments and Dark country Councillors.

He was alive when the members of the Dark Council during his and Sueki's time as Leader passed on, one by one, due to old age and medical complications. He saw young ninjas that had promise lose their lives on the field and he saw at least a dozen uprisings from the three disgruntled Major Hidden Villages, squashed not too long after they realized that they were toothless in their demands and vastly outnumbered.

He was there to bestow his blessing on those that were to succeed their parents to become clan heads, members of the Dark Council.

He was there when his descendants spread out over the country and over the whole world; making their own reputations and creating their own legends, always coming back home at least twice a year to see their aging 'Gramps'.

He was able to hear the stories of conquest of his many descendants, overcoming armies that rose up against their 'Gramps', their country and their people, and he also heard their stories of the lands and people they had discovered during their travels.

Lying on his deathbed, Naruto took his time looking at his family and friends, sorrowfully looking at his weak form and waiting for him to speak.

Konan was there with Kisame. The man had lost use of his legs but was still able to have two children with the Paper Angel, who were both in the large room now. Konan and Kisame weren't married but they had been together for a very long time and it didn't look like they were separating any time soon.

Minato and Tsume were with him. Darkness had now reached an extent of safety that they relaxed their Entry/Exit Laws a little to allow trusted people from non-allied nations into the country, though the process was strict. Minato and Tsume had access to Darkness during Kushina's time, and they had a holiday home in the southern region, where they celebrated events with their children and grandchildren, who were all present now.

Carrot and Onion were there. They didn't have any spouses to speak of but Onion had a long string of boyfriends, and even though Naruto kept telling the Kurama man to settle down with a man he loved, Onion always said that he didn't believe in the ridiculous concept of love. One night stands were enough for him, though Carrot was going out of way, attending mixers and dances to find the perfect person for her. Naruto was at least happy they were happy. Neither of them were exactly in that age demographic for partying or blind dating but theirs was a generation that couldn't be held back or stopped.

Rasa's children and grandchildren were there. Gaara, the immediate former Godaime Kazekage, Kankuro and Temari, stood by his bed with their children. The son of the eldest Sand Sibling had married a Konoha shinobi named Aburame Shino, and even though Shino could not be present because he was too sick to travel. Kankuro married a Kumo Kunoichi named Karui, and Gaara, much to Naruto's open amusement, married and had children with his student, vaguely similar to what Naruto had done.

An elderly Sueki sat on the edge of his bed; the vampire kept her vow when she said that she was going to age along with her husband. She would pass on a week after Naruto. The white haired lady had a gentle hand placed on his upper thigh, which was covered by a thick blanket. Kushina too was on Naruto's other side, holding his left hand. Naruto was propped up on two fluffy pillows, so that he would still be lying down comfortably but also that he could clearly see the multitude of people he had brought together, assembled in the room to be with him in his last moments.

The sagely old man's dim eyes turned up as he inhaled shakily, his hidden mouth drawing air into his lungs.

Naruto taught his children a great many things; he taught them to not throw their trust about them without caution, to not use their heritage to impose their will on anyone, to cherish their loved ones every day of their lives, to not limit their views on life and existence as a whole on what others tell them, to constantly ask and to constantly question, to never submit to defeat or believe in fate, and finally he taught them to always be honest.

He was glad to see that his children carried his teachings with them, passed them down to their own children and never once allowed his voice to die, no matter how many years passed.

The honoured Father of Dark country smiled.

"Live free…live happy…" he said in a tired, raspy voice.

Sueki's lips trembled and she fought the urge to not look away from her husband and mentor. Kushina though was freely crying, doing so as quietly as she could so as not to drown out her husband's last words. Her second born, a ninety one year old woman that inherited her mother's Uzumaki heritage and bearing the roguish looks of a lady in her late sixties, placed a comforting hand on her mother's shoulder and sniffed, hiding her sadness and raptly listening to her father speak.

"Impossible…is just a suggestion…" Naruto exhaled, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he once again looked around the whole room, taking in the mournful faces of his friends and family. "Don't be sad…please…. This moment…right here…is what I've always dreamed of." he inhaled shakily and breathed out again. "Everyone's…together…I'm…I'm so happy…"

Naruto died on the first day of the twelfth month.

Against his wishes, Dark country had a National Funeral for the great man and great Leader, the man that had united them in their worst moment and led them through to the point they were in now.

Darkness and its allies weren't alone in their mourning, as the whole world seemed to lose its life at the loss of the greatest Shinobi in history.

The measure of a man is not how he is remembered when he is alive, but how he is revered even in death.

Those were the words written on his mausoleum, etched into the white marble by Sueki as her husband's body was laid to rest inside.

They rang true.

Naruto was never forgotten.

~THE END~

Authors note

I know I've been saying this from the very start of this story and I'm sure some of you are tired of hearing this, but thank you all so much for sticking with me on this fantastic adventure. I wouldn't have been able to finish this story without all the love and all the support. I'm not a very confident person but the reviews and messages have boosted my morale so much. I appreciate every single one of you for this.

THANK YOU!

This is the part of the story where a young Kushina is beat boxing and a young Sueki is performing a choreographed dance routine with Naruto, likely breakdancing XD

I will mark this story as complete but there might be an epilogue, depending on whether or not there's anyone interested on reading it. It'll tell us how Minato's Vault became haunted and the fate of Naruto's descendants, starting from Benimaru to decades (maybe centuries) later. So, who wants an epilogue?

How did I do with this chapter?

How did I do with this story?

Let me know what you think, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.

Foy.