Disclaimer: I don't own anything in Naruto.

AN : So far, I doubt there will be any pairings in this story...but well, we'll see how it goes. I aim to explore a very different Naruto - one who has been tempered by countless years. Essentially, a cool, calm and collected all-round BAMF. Enjoy and please leave feedback.

Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites…your encouragements are truly heartfelt.

AN 2: Some people have been kind enough to point out discrepancies in my story…please, any feedback is very much welcome. In addition, Kotochi asked about Naruto's back history. I will admit that my approach to this story was designed to skirt around actually creating the scenario under which Naruto would ascend to his present status, but I gave it a try anyway. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

Naruto watched the sun rise from the top of the Yondaime's head. Taking in such clean air and listening to the birds sing in the morning always invoked feelings of nostalgia in him. Contrary to what they say, the world for him had ended, and began, not on a stormy night, but on such a peaceful morning. Now, as he gazed over the slowly awakening village, his mind recalled a time far in the past, hopefully never in the future, when Konoha was just a blackened spot on the map, and where the resurrected Uchiha Madara had finally captured him.

Naruto fought and struggled against the chakra bonds that held him in place. He screamed and raged as Madara finished extracting the Hachibi and dropped the rapidly cooling body of his friend, mentor and brother in arms. He turned his gaze away from the corpse, and the approaching Madara, to watch the remnants of the Shinobi Allied Forces standing – helplessly – outside the barrier that Madara had set up. When they had first arrived, intending to rescue Killer Bee and Naruto, they had thrown everything they had at the barrier, only to watch in horror as the chakra fueling their rescue attempts was absorbed by the barrier; strengthening it further. Madara had just scoffed disdainfully and turned to begin the extraction.

Now he stood before Naruto and started weaving the hand seals that would begin the tug of war between Naruto and the Gedo Mazo, where defeat was certain death. Smiling in anticipation of possessing the Kyuubi and finally remaking the Juubi, Madara completed the hand signs and began the procedure. The moment the questing hand of purple chakra touched Naruto, his body, his world, his very reality became pain.

The scream that was wrenched from his throat was so soul searing that it sapped the strength from Tsunade's bones, leaving her to slump in sorrow and anguish as she watched the last thing that still mattered to her get his soul shredded to sate a madman's thirst for power.

Through the haze of pain, Naruto became aware of the chakra bindings failing under the force of the chakra being exerted. With his reconnection to his chakra, the very thing that was being ripped out of him, his pain increased tenfold, a hundred fold, a thousand fold even. He felt his very soul being pulled apart as the Gedo Mazo attempted to remove the Kyuubi, only to discover that the two beings were too tightly bound – one would go nowhere without the other.

When the Yondaime had sealed the Kyuubi in Naruto, he had invoked the power of a being outside mortal comprehension. The act of sealing a half of the Kyuubi inside the belly of the Shinigami killed two birds with one stone; he was able to lock away a portion of the Kyuubi's power forever, but he was also able to bring the Death God forth to attempt what no man had ever attempted before – to utilize a portion of a god's essence to shackle an immortal creature to a mortal child's soul. Indeed, people lauded the genius of the Yondaime while only being aware of less than half of what he had accomplished that night. Even when Jiraiya and the Sandaime had examined the seal on Naruto, they were unable to see beyond the admittedly complex surface design of the seal. Thus, they missed the part of the seal that held a portion of the Shinigami's power, which held the main containment seal together and bound the Kyuubi's soul more tightly to Naruto's own.

So, when Madara attempted to extract the Kyuubi from Naruto, he was attempting to separate two souls that had been bound as one by the power of a Being that existed in the space between spaces, in the moments between seconds. Madara, for all his vaunted power and legendary status, was as a child playing with forces beyond his limited human understanding. The chakra of the Gedo Mazo had latched onto the Kyuubi and begun to pull. Naruto's soul obviously resisted the extraction, much like one would resist another's attempt to pull off one's arm. Somehow, Naruto was able to finally fight through the world devouring pain he was in and pull back against the force behind the extraction process. The knowledge that his life was not the only thing at stake gave him an inner strength that was beyond any he had ever possessed. Madara felt the resistance and panicked. The surrounding Shinobi dared to hope as they watched Madara flare his chakra as though he were fighting against a steady force. And indeed, that was what he was doing; noticing that the progress of the extraction process had slowed to a crawl, he joined his chakra to the statue hoping to boost it.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he felt the strength behind the opposite pull increase tremendously. Because he had been fighting for so long, he was at less than half strength. Knowing that very soon his current strength would fail against the combined might of Madara and the other eight Bijuu powering the Gedo Mazo, he attempted something that he had only theorized about all those years ago when he had learned to utilize Natural energy.

The main principle behind successfully molding Natural energy was keeping a steady balance of natural, physical and spiritual energy in the core of the individual. This requirement of constant balance is what limited the amount of sage chakra that could be molded at any a given time – the amount of physical and spiritual energy the individual possessed determined how much natural energy they could mold to keep the balance. For someone with obscene amounts of chakra, like Naruto, the amount of sage chakra he could mold at a time could boggle the mind. However, after a few years of using shadow clones to mold sage chakra and then transfer said chakra to him when he ran out, he set out to find a better method. His determination led to him learning how to mold sage chakra while in motion – it was however not the solution he had originally envisioned. Natural energy was the energy of the earth, the chakra of life itself, and as such, Naruto believed that it was as close to infinite as one could ever get. This notion arose from the fact that it was practically impossible to use up that much chakra before more was regenerated. With that in mind, he came up with a theory: If he could absorb enough natural energy to create a stable balance and then begin to absorb, in a steady amount, more natural energy while simultaneously utilizing the same amounts of natural energy from his core, he could take advantage of the infinite nature of natural energy. Essentially, he would be using up the natural energy in his core just as fast as he would be replenishing it, while keeping the mixture of three energies in perfect balance. He believed that natural energy, being neutral, could be controlled to do things normal chakra couldn't such as resisting the attempted theft of one's soul. He had never tested his theory, but here, with his soul being torn asunder, it was as good a time as any.

Fighting through the haze of pain he was in, Naruto began to draw on the natural energy around him – energy that had always been in a relatively surplus amount in Fire country, owing to the numerous trees and animals littering the land. Madara roared in anger as he felt the pull on the Kyuubi reverse direction. Turning his attention to Naruto, he found a calm young man with a serene look on his face, where before there had been a body thrashing in the grasp of unfathomable pain. He was just about to force out even more of his chakra when he glanced up in momentary surprise, causing his concentration to flicker for an instant before he recovered his focus.

Tsunade had been watching from her position slumped on the floor, watching as her combination son and little brother in all but blood got his very soul torn apart. She stirred from the tempest of anguish and loss that had ensnared her when she noticed the change in the mood around her. A glance revealed what the matter was as she noticed the peace and calm on Naruto's face. When the pulling motion of the chakra hand originating from the Gedo Mazo slowed to a stop, she rose to her feet. When the pull actually began to reverse, she took a step forward – hope and wonder beginning to shine on her face. When she noticed Madara about to act in retaliation for whatever Naruto was doing, she made up her mind. Knowing that she was about to gamble, and quite probably lose, she sprang forward with her clenched fist blazing with chakra. With the roar of an enraged mother bear she punched the barrier, producing a deep sound much like striking a gong. As the barrier's chakra absorption ability kicked in and attempted to absorb the chakra in her punch, she released the chakra in one burst just as she normally did for her super punches. When the Shinobi forces had first attempted to break the barrier, she noticed that the absorption of chakra happened at a gradual pace. What she had done was try to force feed it more than it could handle in such a short time.

The barrier flickered…

Madara glanced up in surprise…

The chakra feedback from her stunt blasted Tsunade away, with fatal wounds…

Madara's concentration faltered for a heartbeat…

It was enough…

Naruto gave an almighty pull…

The Gedo Mazo lost…

Nothing was ever the same.

The moment Naruto felt Madara hesitate, he pulled with everything he had and like an elastic band, the portion of his soul in the grasp of the Gedo Mazo snapped back inside his body – but his soul was not the only thing that came back. He had neglected the fact that the Gedo Mazo had a firm hold on his soul, so when he dragged the Kyuubi back in, the chakra of the Gedo Mazo – and the eight Bijuu with it – came along for the ride. Naruto had just unknowingly done what Madara had intended to do to himself.

Everyone watched in dawning horror as the last of the Gedo Mazo's chakra disappeared into Naruto. All was still as though the entire world had just taken in a deep breath. Then the stillness was shattered as Naruto threw his head back and howled. As the chakra of the nine Bijuu and the Gedo Mazo merged inside his core, the balance of natural energy and body chakra was thrown out of whack and so, Naruto subconsciously compensated and began to take in more natural energy. He absorbed increasingly larger amounts of natural energy until he had enough to match the raging chakra in his core. The problem with this was that when the chakra in his core combined, it resulted in chakra equivalent to a primordial Being – the Juubi. Often called the Ten Tailed God, the Juubi was credited with creating the world and all life in it. So, when Naruto tried to balance out that chakra with natural energy, he had to absorb everything the world could give; essentially absorbing the equivalent of two godly beings.

It was too much power for a single human soul to contain and as Naruto's very existence threatened to burn out, the Shinigami got involved. The chakra present inside Naruto was trying to negate his existence, trying to cast his very soul into oblivion. Yet, that very soul had been touched by the essence of Death; a Being for whom oblivion does not exist. Contradictions could not be allowed in reality and so Naruto had to be removed from existence without his existence being compromised. Only one solution presented itself and thus Naruto became more than human, more than merely mortal; he became the Eternal Sage.

The actual process of transcending his mortal limits happened both in an instant and for an eternity. Since the laws of the reality Naruto existed in demanded that a mortal soul be unable to exist with so much power contained in it, the essence of the Shinigami dragged Naruto somewhere where such laws held no sway – into the space between spaces, and the moment between seconds, into the place where the Death God ruled. There, Naruto experienced eternity as the powers he had absorbed integrated themselves inside him, bonding to his very essence. Under the onslaught of so much raw power, all that he was, all that he had ever been was erased – Uzumaki Naruto died, for the Eternal Sage to live.

After The Sage had acclimated to the influx of power and the shared experiences contained in the essences of the Bijuu, he departed from the place of his rebirth and as though taking a step, he was suddenly standing at the spot where he had previously laid.

All this had happened in the time it took to blink – in an instant everything had changed.

Madara took a few moments to take in what he was seeing. Just moments ago, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had absorbed the newly made Juubi – his Juubi – and was in the process of burning out, quite literally. Now, the meddlesome, child, was standing there looking at him as though he were a particularly fascinating insect. He was UCHIHA MADARA and he would not be trifled with.

Madara locked hate filled eyes with the otherworldly blue gaze of his adversary and spat out, "Amaterasu".

The Sage blinked at the roaring black flames bearing down on him and they simply ceased to be.

Madara refused to allow himself to stop to consider what just happened, he clapped his hands and a forest burst from the ground, reaching forward to destroy his opponent.

The Sage tilted his head at the incoming trees and they turned to dust, dispersed on the wind.

Enraged beyond any measure, Madara summoned Susanao and wove three hand seals then screamed out, "Tengai Shinsei!"

Knowing what the jutsu did, the remnants of the Shinobi Allied Forces glanced at the skies in time to see three meteorites breach the atmosphere, one after another. Many began to panic as the first meteorite rapidly descended to the spot where they stood.

The Sage stood still as the meteorite got closer and closer, and when it was seconds away from impact, he merely raised his hand and extended his finger. Jaws dropped as the meteorite stopped abruptly, with the other two stacking on top of the first. With a sigh, the Sage flicked his finger and with a sonic boom, the meteorites exited the planet's atmosphere.

Suddenly, the Sage was standing in front of Madara, but before he could react he found his throat in an unyielding grip. Madara tried and failed to access his chakra and escape. He struggled in the grip of the Being in front of him, much like Naruto had struggled in his chakra bonds earlier on. Madara paused in his struggles as he felt a stirring in the depths of his body. His eyes widened as the source of the feeling became clear. Once more, the remnants of the Shinobi Alliance Forces watched in stunned shock as Madara began to scream, much like Naruto had been screaming when the Gedo Mazo attempted to extract his soul. Quickly connecting the dots, they watched as Madara eventually stilled and his resurrected body crumbled to dust without his soul to inhabit it.

The Sage turned and many avoided his gaze, unable to meet the eyes of the newly born primordial being before him. His eyes finally settled on the barely breathing body of Senju Tsunade and in a blink, he was kneeling next to her. Something faint within him told him that the human lying before him was important to him, and he decided to heed it and simply touched her cheek. Before the disbelieving eyes of everyone present, Tsunade's wounds healed up and even her chakra levels were restored. Looking at the man beside her in relief and deep fondness, she asked,

"Naruto? Is…is that you Naruto? Are you really Naruto?"

The Sage wondered if Naruto was his name. Yes, he thought to himself, Naruto…Uzumaki Naruto…no, Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto…yes, that was it, he was Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto.

And with that, the Sage remembered.

Smiling softly at her he replied, "Heh, you shouldn't be pulling such dangerous stunts at your age, Baa-chan."

Laughing, with tears flowing freely from her eyes, she grabbed him in a hug and just like that, it finally dawned on everyone watching that the eight year long war had just ended. Cheers erupted everywhere as people grabbed their comrades in hugs, crying tears of joy and relief tinged with sadness.

It took years, but the world eventually recovered – not completely, but enough. Throughout that time the Sage lived on, not aging, until time had run its course and turned everything he knew into dust. After finally learning how to navigate the paths between realities, the Eternal Sage moved on, replacing any of his counterparts who had been lost to the flow of time for one reason or the other, with Time becoming his only companion.

Naruto was startled out of his memories by the dispersal of one of his clones. Shaking his head to get rid of lingering memories, he stood up, dusted his shorts and gazed once more at the peaceful village laid out before him. Smiling to himself, he vanished in the direction of the academy for his team assignments; let the games begin.

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