Clouds hung low in the still, grim sky, blanketing the world above in a mantle of grey and stealing the sun before it reached the ground. No wind blew across the land. No wildlife made a sound. Bright flashes reflected off the surrounding landscape, booms and crashes tearing at the unmoving air. Goku turned away from the angry waves of dust and dirt that barreled toward him, shielding the food with his body as best he could. Shifting his grip, he continued up the hill. Reaching the top, he scanned his surroundings.

Before him lay a vast field of soft earth. Once, it had probably been a beautiful stretch of land perfect for picnics and lazy afternoons, but now almost no grass remained. Hundreds of craters pick pocketed the field, many of them smoking and filling with falling dust. Shattered rocks, splintered trees, and other debris littered the landscape.

Across the land raged a small, bright-orange army. Dozens of Narutos blazed at each other, crashing and blasting and punching and screaming in an endless storm of fury. As Goku watched, a group of Narutos were struck down by one wielding a gigantic shuriken of wind, only for twice as many to take their place and destroy the attacker. Through the chaos, as he searched for the real Naruto, Goku noticed that they all bore red, raw eyes.

"Hey, Naruto!" Goku called. Almost instantly, all the Narutos stopped and glared in his direction. "Are you hungry? I brought lunch!" He held up a pair of covered Saiyan-sized ramen bowls to prove it.

The Narutos hesitated for a moment. Then they began dissipating. One by one, each shadow clone vanished in a cloud of smoke, until only the real Naruto remained in the distance, covered in dirt and grime, dried blood surrounding his mouth and numerous other small wounds on his body.

"Hey, Goku." Naruto jogged over. "Thanks." Joylessly, Naruto accepted the bowl and sat down on the side of the hill. Goku joined him. Together they opened their bowls and began eating.

For a long moment, they ate in silence. Then, Goku glanced over at Naruto. "Looks like your training's going good."

"Thanks," Naruto said quietly, avoiding his gaze. "I've been working almost non-stop for awhile now." He hesitated. "How… how is everybody doing?"

"Oh, they're fine. Chi-Chi's doing alright, Vegeta's being grumpy and short, same as always, and Pan… wow, you should see how big she's gotten. Pretty soon she'll be able to lift me!"

"Glad to hear it." Naruto ground his knuckle into his eye as if trying to rub out a speck of dust, but his finger glistened as he lowered it.

Goku studied him. "So what's this all about? Everybody in the village says you're upset about something. What's going on?"

Naruto stayed silent for a minute. Then: "I screwed up, Goku. Worse than I ever did before. And there isn't a damn thing I can do to fix it."

Goku froze. "Naruto…"

Naruto raised his head, his eyes focusing on a jagged piece of wood a few meters away. "I'm guessing Grandma Tsunade told you what's been going on around here?"

"Just that there's a war going on now. Still can't believe how lucky you guys are." Naruto's eyes tightened sharply. Goku winced inwardly and looked away. "Sorry."

"Yeah, there's a war going on. Fourth Shinobi World War, if you can believe it. And we're lucky enough to be in the middle of it. It's been a little quiet around here, so Grandma Tsunade managed to get a lot of us sent back here. We're supposed to be protecting this area, but really we're just resting. At least for now."

Naruto sucked in a breath. "It all started awhile back. Remember Sasuke, the guy I told you about?"

"Yeah, Tsunade talked about him, too."

"Well, he never stopped causing trouble. He kept killing people, breaking all hell loose, you name it. But that's where I screwed up the first time: I didn't stop him while I could. I kept trying to bring him back and get him to turn good again, but it didn't work. Pretty soon, he got so strong nobody could touch him. He wouldn't even fight me anymore. He decided he was so far above me, fighting me would just be a waste of his time.

"Awhile after that, some crazy guy named Madara showed up and kept making noise and going on about how he wanted to make world peace. He turned out to be even worse than Sasuke. And since we didn't stop him, he got Sasuke to work with him. Everything got so bad that all the kages met at the 5 Kage Summit, but they attacked that, too. Sasuke even set the Raikage's whole body on fire with black flame that you can't put out."

"Is he okay?" Goku asked, slurping a noodle.

"Fortunately, he was able to run super fast and use the friction to burn off the top layer of his skin. He's fine, but that's where the good part ends. Madara declared war on the whole world, announcing that he was going to completely beat down everybody everywhere. And when there was nobody left to challenge him in the whole shinobi world, he was finally going to bring about world peace, whatever that means.

"Soon after that, the war started. The Pale Army exploded everywhere, backed up by the Deathless Legion, a small army of ninja that have been brought back from the dead under Madara's control. When the Pale Army kills somebody from our side that they like, they steal the body and resurrect it as another one of their soldiers."

"That's awful!"

Naruto nodded, picking up a piece of chicken with his chopsticks. "I was supposed to be sent off someplace where they couldn't get to me, but Kakashi-sensei got them to let me fight alongside everyone else.

"Anyway, Sasuke kept showing up on the battlefields and slaughtering our guys. Everybody said he had to die, but I wouldn't listen. I swore over and over that he was my friend, and that I wouldn't give up on him. Everyone told me I was wrong, and that they wouldn't help me. Even though I said that Sasuke was our comrade, and we couldn't abandon him, every one of them turned away from me. Everyone… except Hinata."

Goku searched his memory. "Hinata… that's Neji's sister, right?"

"Cousin, yeah." Naruto turned away, his bowl forgotten. "Hinata approached me when everybody else was gone. I still remember what she said to me on that day: 'I'll fight for you, Naruto. No matter what it takes, I'm going to stand by your side.'" Naruto's voice caught. The next day we set out to find Sasuke.

"Weeks passed. I dragged us all over the Nations looking for him. Over mountains, through storms, across oceans of corpses… I didn't care, as long as we could get to him. And through it all, Hinata never complained, not even once. And I never asked if she was tired, or miserable, or anything. Then, right when I was starting to lose hope, we found him.

"He was standing at the base of a pile of bodies he had made, watching it burn in that black fire I mentioned. Me and Hinata… we shouted at him that we were there to bring him back. But Sasuke just smirked at us. He looked at Hinata and said 'Looks like your pet got tired of stalking you from the sidelines.'

"We tried to convince him to come peacefully, but no matter what we said, he wouldn't listen. That's when I got desperate. I tried to force him to come back with us. And that's when all hell broke loose.

"We fought as hard as we could for longer than I can remember. I pulled out more Wind Rasenshuriken than I knew I could make, and I threw them all right in his face. Hinata… she gave it everything. In the middle of the fight, she did that flaming-lion-fist thing, the one that's her most powerful attack. She blasted Sasuke with it for a full minute, punching him so hard her arms were a blur.

"But he didn't even flinch. The whole time, he just stood there while she punched his chest over and over again, still wearing that damn smirk. Then when she was too tired to keep going, he just reached out and pushed her, and she went flying.

"I lost track of how long he kept screwing with us. But finally it happened.

"We were both finished, so exhausted we could barely stand. But Sasuke was still as strong as ever. The bastard moved in, still smirking. Hinata tried to raise her hand to hit him, but he just knocked it away. He moved behind her and grabbed her hair, forcing her head back. With his free hand he made a chidori. Hinata starting crying out to me, I can still see the tears streaming down her face. I begged Sasuke to stop, but he just looked at me and said 'After all this time, you still don't see how pathetic you are. You've failed everyone else. And now you've failed her.' My eyes met Hinata's. And as I watched, Sasuke tightened his grip, raised his hand, and…"

Naruto made a sobbing, choking noise, his body lurching uncontrollably. The ramen bowl on his lap fell to the ground and spilled. "I don't know how long I sat there holding her body, begging her to come back. But no matter how much I…" Naruto wiped his eyes and tried to compose himself. "Somehow I made it home with her body across my shoulders. And when I got there…

"The way everyone looked at me… I don't even know how to describe it. Neji was the worst. He glared at me like he wanted to skin me alive, but when I found him later, he was crying his eyes out where he thought no one would see him. And everyone else… it's like I wasn't even human anymore. And they all kept talking like I was missing something, but I didn't know what it was. And it was only later that learned the truth.

Goku held his breath as he watched helplessly.

"She loved me, Goku," Naruto finally managed. "That's why she agreed to go with me. From the first day we met, she loved me. That's why she was always following me. That's why she always fainted when I was around. That's why she was always so nice to me when no one else was. Why didn't I see it before?" Not caring if Goku saw, Naruto buried his face in his hands.

Goku looked for a way to help. Hesitantly, he reached toward his friend, but stopped and awkwardly pulled his arm back, fighting the sense of helplessness that came with it.

Naruto reached into a pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Without turning, he held it over his shoulder, and Goku wordlessly accepted it. "Hinata's sister found this in her room." Goku opened the paper. Staring back at him was a remarkably well-drawn picture signed "Hinata Hyuuga" in the lower right corner. In the picture, Goku beheld what appeared to be older versions of Naruto and Hinata, smiling happily. With them were two small children. "Boruto. Himawari. She had already named our children. She was hoping that someday we'd get married and start a family and nothing would ever be wrong again…" Naruto's body convulsed as another sobbing, choking sound escaped him. After a minute he mumbled something too low for Goku to hear.

"What?"

"I said Neji was right," Naruto finally got out, trying in vain to stop. "I don't know if you know, but Neji's a big believer in fate. Years ago, during the Chunin exams, he told me how we were all doomed to an escapable fate from the moment we're born. I thought he'd gotten over it, but it never went away. He believes he's always going to be held back by his fate, and someday he's going to die because of it, no matter how much of that do-not-go-gently stuff he does. And when I brought back Hinata's body, he told me that he had always believed it would be her fate to die because of her devotion to me. And I could see it in his eyes: he wasn't lying.

"It's all my fault, Goku. The one person who ever really loved me is gone because of me."

Goku sat in stunned silence, not fighting the pressure he felt building behind his eyes. Unsure of what else to do, he moved closer and wrapped his arms around Naruto in a bear hug. Naruto hugged back, continuing to cry into Goku's shoulder without caring who might be watching.

"I wish I could do something," Goku whispered. "If I could bring her back, I'd do it in a second." He stopped himself from adding, But I already talked to Dende. Whatever this place is, it's not part of my world. The dragons have no power here. "I've made my own mistakes in battle before, so I know what it's like." At least you never healed a powerful enemy and made your son fight him. "So I'm here for you, always. You're my friend, Naruto, and no matter what happens, you'll always be my friend."

For a time, Naruto cried without restraint. Goku remained motionless as his friend released all of the sorrow he had been holding in. Eventually, Naruto got himself under control and disengaged from Goku. "I know Sasuke has to be stopped. I know that nothing is going to bring him back. But I can't beat him. He's too powerful, and there's nothing I can do to stop him from hurting everyone else I care about. If only I'd taken him down when I had the chance…"

Goku listened in silence. Slowly, he pulled his arms away from Naruto. Sucking in a breath, he clapped his friend on the shoulders as his face twisted into a glare. "I'll take care of him."

Naruto blinked away some tears. "What?"

"Go get yourself cleaned up. I'm putting an end to Sasuke's rampage. Today."

"Really? You'd do that?"

Goku pressed his own uneaten bowl of ramen into Naruto's hands. "I didn't know Hinata very well, but I'm not going to let Sasuke get away with hurting her or anyone else." Goku stood up. "So finish that ramen and go get some rest. It's my turn." Goku clenched his fists, savoring the cracking sound that came from his knuckles.

Naruto stared up at the Saiyan towering over him. "Goku, I…"

"Just one thing." Goku placed two fingers on his forehead. "I need to borrow your forehead."

"Huh?"

"You've been around Sasuke a lot, right? I need to search your mind for what his chakra feels like so I can find it."

"Oh, okay." Naruto let Goku place a hand on his forehead.

Goku searched for a moment. "Got it. Now go take care of yourself. It's time I met Sasuke." Without waiting for a reply, he adjusted his fingers, bowed his head, and vanished.