The warmth of your embrace

Melts my frostbitten spirit

You speak the truth and I hear it

The words are I love you

And I have to believe in you

- 'Red Sam' by Flyleaf

"Naruto," Tsunade said, smiling at him as he shuffled over to sit in the armchair, "I've got something for you." Her little brother- family by heart, if not by blood- tilted his head, and Tsunade felt tears burn behind her eyelids at how terribly thin he was, his arms looking as fragile as the bones of a bird's wing, how sad and quiet his struggle was to live.

"You do? Is it ramen?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes at Shizune, watching as her assistant hid her grin behind her hand. "No, brat, it's not ramen. You're so one-dimensional sometimes, you know?" She struggled for levity, for something, anything, to forget the looming shadow above them all. Floundering, without words to speak-

"Tsunade?"

She blinked, broken from her reverie. "Oh, yeah. Thanks, Shizune."

Shizune grinned impishly, "Okay, Naruto, close your eyes." His brow wrinkled as he crossed his arms over his chest, glancing from one to the other.

"No funny business?"

"No funny business," Tsunade promised, motioning for Shizune to get the Hokage hat and robes from the closet behind her desk. She got up and crossed the room, taking the pyramidal hat from Shizune and settling it on Naruto's head before swirling the robe around him and buttoning up the front. Naruto tensed under her fingers, fine tremors skittering up and down his limbs, and she was reminded all over again of just how damaged he was, damage that even she, perhaps the greatest medical shinobi in the world, couldn't heal.

Shizune handed her the mirror, and she placed it in Naruto's hand, brushing the palm of her hand across his spiky blond hair that stuck out around the hat, feeling the soft texture slide across her skin. There was a lump in her throat, and she swallowed, her lungs suddenly unable to move, confronted with this vision from the past, as if the painful twenty years had only been a dream, and Yondaime was here again, drowsing in the midday sunlight.

"Open your eyes," she said softly. The vision shattered. Naruto's eyelids flickered, and he opened his eyes, staring into the mirror. He swallowed, tried to speak, couldn't.

"Tsunade-" the word hissed out in the barest of breaths, questioning. She knelt before him, her hands on his, staring into his blue, blue eyes.

"This decision," she whispered, "is not one that I made lightly. I have many years left in me, but I'm tired, Naruto. I'm tired of ruling this village and trying to love everyone here, of trying to see the worth in every human being. I simply can't do it."

"But you can. You possess the most wonderful soul I have ever seen, the largest heart, the endless capacity for forgiveness that no Hokage has had, but each one has needed. You can look at the friends I can't forgive, and still remember your love for them. You can look at the demon sealed inside you, and forgive him his trespasses. I've watched you, these seven years, and you know what they made me realize?" Naruto tried to speak, but she held up a hand, forestalling him,

"I was, and still am, weak. I cared so much for you, for the worth and the life of one person, that I would have butchered the world to keep you from pain. I would have sacrificed those years to keep you from pain, I would have borne the sorrow for you, I would have died in battle against that fox, all for you."

"But you," she smiled, wiped away a tear, "you are my hope. You are Sandaime's legacy, Yondaime's legacy, my legacy. You are Konoha, because you love this village enough to bear the worst pain anyone can suffer for it, for these people who have made your life a living hell."

"And that is what makes you the living embodiment of a Hokage." Naruto almost looked like he was choking on the air. Tsunade squeezed his hands, stood, and took the mirror, placing it back on her desk before turning back to him and offering a hand.

"Rise, Rokudaime Hokage." Naruto looked at her hand, then at her. His mouth opened and closed, and finally he took her hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet.

"I-" he broke off, trying to gather his thoughts, "I don't know how to thank you." Tsunade embraced him, closing her eyes and trying to memorize the feel of him in her arms. She might never get the chance again.

"Live," she said simply.

Kakashi looked down at the note, written in Naruto's chicken-scratch scrawl. 'The demons are starting to break free. Come,' a pause, as if he had been unsure of what to write, and then, in tiny, pained letters, 'please?' He rose from his seat on the porch swing and went inside to find Gaara.

He found him hunched on the end of the couch, staring at his open hands, sand stirring in restless tendrils in the air, forming arcane symbols without meaning.

"I can feel them," Gaara said in answer to the unasked question. He laughed, a dry, hoarse sound. "It never really left me then. I can feel Shukaku." He breathed out a long sigh, looking at once tired and relieved.

"Naruto wants us," Kakashi said. Gaara looked up, and one side of his mouth quirked upward. "I want to be there." Kakashi offered Gaara a hand up, and then closed his eyes as sand surrounded them both.

They came back to themselves in front of the Hokage's offices. The ANBU flinched, exchanging wary glances as they saw Gaara. The former vessel didn't flinch, but walked past them without stopping. It made sense, Kakashi reflected, that he could ignore it. That he had seen that half-ashamed glance of fear and hate so many times that it had ceased to scar outwardly.

He followed Gaara down the hallway to the room where the sound of noise and terror overrode everything else, and entered into chaos.

Shinobi of all ranks rushed back and forth under Tsunade's heavy gaze, radios blaring static from every corner. Papers swirled in the dim yellow light of the sunset, everyone struggling for attention, to be the loudest, to understand, to avert this crisis that came on with the implacability of a glacier.

"-evacuation of Kaminari has failed!"

"Iwa's started to crumble-"

In the center of it all, they found Naruto, swimming in the blankets Shizune had covered him with, fidgeting, blue eyes flickering over the room like a stone skipped across a pond.

When he saw them, he- even here, at the end of all things, with the deaths of a million people on the horizon- he smiled, stood up, and came to them, a mirage of normality in the midst of insanity.

"Gaara, did you eat? There was some oatmeal left over in the refrigerator if you wanted it. Oh, Kakashi, I forgot to ask if the book on the living room table was yours. I accidentally spilled some coffee on it." Kakashi felt the telltale burn behind his eyes once more; he had felt that more in the last month than he had in all the years previous.

Even here, Naruto sought to care for the ones he loved, to take solace in the mundane, to forget, if only for a moment, the looming specter above them all. Naruto went back to his couch in the corner, pulling them with him, and pushed them onto the couch.

"If we have to listen to bad news for the next hour, we can at least be comfortable while we do it." His smile trembled. "Naruto," Kakashi said gently, "You don't have to be brave for us." Gaara nodded in agreement, stole a part of the blanket wrapped around Naruto's shoulders, and wedged himself in between Naruto and the edge of the couch, taking Naruto's hand in both of his own.

"You have been brave all your life. You can stop, if only for a little while." Naruto shuddered, a bone-deep quake, and leaned against them both, his eyes closing, as in the midst of screaming and planning and frantic curses rushing to and fro, he found a sort of terrible peace, tears seeping out from beneath his closed eyelids.

As the first report droned in over the radio, the voice terribly flat over the roar of flames and the screaming of dying men in the background, the room fell absolutely silent. ' Silent as the grave,' Kakashi thought.

"Gobi has escaped. Iwa has fallen. Approximately thirty-thousand casualties." Naruto's breath hitched, his hand tightening on Kakashi's, his other white-knuckled around Gaara's. Kakashi bore the creaking of his bones without a flinch, listening with half an ear to the droning reports coming in over the radio.

"Rokubi is out. Kiri has fallen."

"Hachibi is out. Oto has fallen. Approximately ten-thousand casualties." A ragged cheer went up at the thought of Orochimaru's death, consumed from within by the demon that had given him such power. Sasuke would have wanted to hear that, Kakashi thought dimly.

"Shichibi is out. Kaminari has fallen, casualties approximately twenty-thousand." Naruto's closed eyelids flickered, and Kakashi wondered what he saw, if he sensed the containers dying in blood and screams, if he saw their lives flickering and dying as if extinguished by some dark wing-

"The lamps are going out," Naruto said in anguish, "All over the land, and they will not be lit again in our lifetime."

Naruto leaned on the edge of Tsunade's desk, studying the map of the continent. Gaara peered over his shoulder.

"I think Shukaku's on the border of the desert right now," he pointed at a dry lake bed. Gaara shook his head. "No. It would never go near anything involving water unless it had to." He felt Gaara's frail frame lean against him in tired resignation, at the knowledge that he knew where Shukaku was, that he still had a link, however tenuous, to the terrible thing that had brought such pain into his life.

"It's there," Gaara said, stealing a sip of Naruto's coffee. He took the pencil and slashed an 'X' across an flat swath of desert. "The Empty Quarter." His lips twisted in a sneer. "It was its favorite place."

"Okay," Naruto propped his chin on a fist and waved Kakashi over, "so if it's there, and it moves about-"

"Sixty miles per hour at top speed," Gaara interjected.

"Then it should reach Konoha in two days," Kakashi said, taking the pencil and drawing a sweeping arc, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto tilted his head back and grinned at him, hooking an arm around Gaara's waist, staring at this wonderful man who had done so much for him, who had held him and forced him awake when he wanted nothing more than to sleep, who had lain on the couch with him and Gaara in the mornings, watching terrible movies and stuffing their faces with cereal-

Who he loved. He leaned back and pushed his hair off his forehead, sighing. "So, if they all travel at top speed, they should reach here in two days." His throat felt dry, his tongue thick and swollen in his mouth. His stomach twisted within him like a snake writhing upon the fangs of a mountain cat. Kakashi felt his fear, knew it- he always did- and squeezed his shoulder in a silent attempt to comfort.

"We work well together, don't we?" He stared, sightless, at the map, listening to his words hang in the air like a leaf on the wind, a mask for something much greater. Gaara- still smaller than him, still fragile- sighed, and he looked over to see the former vessel's quicksilver smile flash in the gloom, more valuable than gold.

"Yes. We do."

Warmth bubbled up in the bottom of his belly like the best ramen in the universe, like learning a new jutsu or pulling off a successful gamble. Kakashi's hand settled heavily on his head, carding through his hair.

"Yes." The voice was wondering, testing, "We really do work well together, don't we?"

And that was all that could be said.

Tsunade looked out over the three hundred people crammed into the meeting hall in front of her, the youngest genin sulking under the watchful eyes of their jounin sensei, while all the other ranks sat on the long benches. The ANBU stood, dark, watchful shadows, in the back. She could feel Sasuke's Sharingan-red gaze boring into her from within their ranks. The Hunters thronged in a circle around her on the stage. She looked down, shuffled her notes, and began.

"Recently it came to my attention that a member of our ANBU corps sacrificed himself for Konoha." A ripple went through the room, most of the assembled shinobi appearing confused. They would have known of the death of an ANBU, and there had not been any for a long time. Tsunade spared a smile for their confusion, and continued,

"He sacrificed himself for seven years to protect Konoha, alone in his struggle. But more than that, he did this to protect the entire world. He stood alone between the human race and our extinction. For two thousand, five hundred and fifty-five nights, he faced death and the worst kind of pain a person can know, to save a benighted world and a people who would never know of the man who held our species in his hands.

But I did not decide to step down and give my position to him for this reason alone." She held up a hand to forestall the mounting commotion, "If the Hokage position went to anyone who saved the world, then we would have had twenty or more Hokages by now.

I chose him for a special reason, something that no other has demonstrated as fully. We are all shinobi, tools of death. To be a shinobi is to be in love with death. And as people who walk with death, forgiveness is not in our nature. Most would say that forgiveness is a weakness, instead.

But he has a capacity to forgive that makes him remarkable. He forgave Haruno Sakura for hurting him with years of neglect and contempt; He forgave Uchiha Sasuke for attempting to kill him; he forgave his father for consigning him to a life of torment; he forgave this entire nation for destroying him so fully that he felt that he deserved every blow." Her voice was a whisper,

"He forgave this world." The older shinobi were all staring at her in shock, in terror, as if absolutely unable to comprehend what she was saying. "And it is because of that capacity to forgive, something we lack as a species, that I chose him to be my successor. It is because that he voluntarily bore the weight of our sins and our hatred, that I chose him. It is because he loves this village and this people so much that he sacrificed himself two thousand, five hundred and fifty-five times, that I chose him. It is because he will do it again." She smirked. "May I present to you your Rokudaime Hokage, son of Yondaime, leader of ANBU Squad Eleven:

Uzumaki Naruto."

Sasuke felt as if he had been punched in the gut. The world swam before his eyes. ' What?' The room was so quiet that the sound of Naruto's quiet steps on the stage as he made his lonely way to the podium sounded like the rolling of thunder in the distance. Naruto wasn't even dressed in the Hokage robes, but in his ANBU uniform. His eyes were unimaginably old and sad. Grieving, when he should have been screaming for joy, now that he had achieved his dream.

"Uh, hi." He tried to grin, succeeded halfway. "I'm sure all of you are wondering just what sacrifice Tsunade was referring to, and I suppose I'll have to tell you." Sasuke closed his eyes. 'Don't say it. Please, please-,' his throat felt swollen shut, '- don't say it, dobe, just don't say it.'

"Basically the Kyuubi's been raping me for the past seven years," Naruto said flatly. "I got him to sign a contract where I got all of his chakra in return for me. I needed his chakra, because he was going to use it to summon the other eight demons and end the world with them.

Due to… unforeseen circumstances," his steady gaze flickered, "the contract was broken. He summoned the eight demons and they'll be here the day after tomorrow. But I've got a plan, so don't start writing your wills just yet.

I sent a summon to steal a scroll from Akatsuki's hideout. Without going into all sorts of technical jargon, the scroll will allow me to take the form of Kyuubi, steal all of his chakra, and use it to destroy Akatsuki and the demons." His shoulders slumped as he smiled, exhausted.

"The chances of my survival are two percent." Distantly, Sasuke could hear Hinata's sobs jerk upward in volume. "But the reason I needed everyone here was to tell you what to do in case the jutsu fails. I'll be able to destroy the demons either way, but there is a slight chance that if I live, the Kyuubi will take me over." His voice was calm,

"If that happens, I'll need all of you to gang up and kill me." There was a short, abortive cry of protest- Lee. " But if you all do need to do that, the chances are that some of you, maybe most of you, will die. So I've only got one official order for you as the Hokage.

Go home. Eat your favorite food. Get drunk. Go party. Watch your favorite show. Tell someone you love them. Make love to your precious person. It might be the last chance you get." Sasuke glanced at Kakashi and Gaara. His former teacher's arms were folded on Gaara's chest, holding him against Kakashi's chest. Gaara's hand rested on Kakashi's arms.

Their faces were totally blank. Accepting. It was terrifying.

"So yeah," Naruto smiled crookedly, "the Hokage's just pretty much given you permission to go out and get totally plastered for the next forty-eight hours. Enjoy it, you probably won't ever see this happen again!" Sasuke blinked, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand, forcing away tears as he saw the last shard of Naruto gleam through the tattered, condemned shell that was now his best friend's body.

The gleaming shard flickered, wavered, and went out.

'The lamps are going out all over the land, and they will not be lit again in our lifetime.' – An allusion to a remark made by Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary at the beginning of World War One.

'A leaf on the wind.' – An allusion to a famous line from Joss Whedon's movie Serenity and television series Firefly.