Naruto watched as the Samurai and ninja from several nations all collided on the battlefield. It was awe-inspiring and heart-wrenching at the same time. The sheer number of people fighting off the overwhelming number of creatures that seemed to flow onto the battlefield like a tide was impressive, but so many people were sacrificing their lives. How could they so easily throw their lives away for him? He clenched his fist, digging his nails into his own flesh until he drew blood from his palms. The Hokage made him promise not to join the battle. This battle was about him, over him and for him. He watched as many of his childhood friends were carried in on litters, either mortally wounded or already on the verge of death. His eyes misted with tears he swore he would not shed till this was all over. An ANBU landed next to him, handed him a scroll, and then disappeared back into the fray. The scroll was crumpled, tattered at the edges and stained with blood, old and fresh. He already knew what this was. Fresh tears began to stream down his face as he crumpled the scroll in his bloody palm. He looked out at the battlefield again before he wiped his eyes, broke the seal on the scroll and began reading.

My best Friend: Naruto

If you are reading this, and I am not standing with you, then I have surely fallen in battle. I do not regret asking for a front-line assignment. This war is about protecting you and I would gladly give my life to do that. I have lived my life with many regrets. I regret not being strong enough to walk with you through life. I regret that I couldn't help you convince Sasuke to come home. I regret treating you so bad when we were younger. But mostly I regret not taking our relationship as friends to the next level. But if I know you at all, you don't want to hear about my regrets, so I will tell you what I do not regret.

I do NOT regret being put on team 7. I do NOT regret becoming your friend. Most importantly, I WILL NOT regret dying for you. I can do this because of another regret I do not have. I do NOT regret ever falling in love with you. Yes Naruto-kun, I said it. I love you. More than you will ever know. It was my wish to be by your side after all of this was over, but this is a shinobi life and things don't always go as we planned them. I do know that I am at peace now, and I am glad that I worked on my patience as we grew up. Because I know you aren't going to die for a long, long time. So that means I am just going to have to sit and wait until you get here. Don't get in a rush to join me. I'll be patient and wait for you. Until I see you again, live life to its fullest, and be sure to always stick to your nindo.

Loving you into eternity,

Sakura-chan.

Naruto carefully rolled up the scroll and tucked it into a pocket inside his jacket. Calmness spread throughout him as he now knew what he had to do. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his father's trademark special kunai and spun it around his finger before stopping it in his palm. He looked back to the command tent. Kakashi, Tsunade and Shizune were all there speaking with the other kages and various tacticians. Tsunade looked up and their eyes locked. Kakashi and Shizune noticed their Hokage's attention had been diverted and looked up as well to see what had pulled her attention. They all looked at Naruto. He looked back at each of them in turn and gave the biggest grin he could muster. A tear rolled down Tsunade's cheek as she knew what he was about to do. She only hoped that he wouldn't get himself killed. She knew he wouldn't obey her order to stay uninvolved for long. She nodded an unspoken farewell. Naruto turned and threw the kunai in the air.

"Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Thousands of three pronged kunai clouded the sky. Naruto closed his eyes.

It was morning. Naruto got up and started getting dressed for another shift at the fire station. He was groggy. He was tired and his head pounded as if he had gotten into a brawl with a few thousand drunks downtown. In short… He felt like a bag of smashed assholes. This had been his routine for the last few days since the Kyuubi pulled him into his own mindscape. There was another issue he was still trying to contend with in aside his recurring dream. Naruto lifted his shirt to inspect the new tattoo on his stomach. Kyuubi called it a 'Gate.' It was supposed to be like a conduit to Naruto's new inner strength and power. Kyuubi said that he had been containing the power deep within his ancestor's bloodline, waiting for a time when he sensed it was needed. Naruto grabbed the last of his things and slid down the pole from the third floor down to the second. Kakashi was already getting breakfast ready for the rest of the crew at the station. Kakashi saw Naruto enter the kitchen and waved.

"Good morning Naruto, did you sleep well?"

Naruto knew there was more to the question than just the question itself. Naruto thought back to the dreams and memories that were not his own. He thought about the Kakashi he knew from another life in another time. He found it almost humorous how similar this Kakashi and the other Kakashi were. Kakashi, though he pretended to not know what was going on around him, was very sharp and didn't miss anything. Naruto was almost one hundred percent positive that Kakashi knew about the mark on his stomach and the 'presence' that has been residing inside of him. But Kakashi was also a very good friend and Naruto knew that he wouldn't press him for information. Kakashi would just wait until Naruto felt comfortable enough to talk to him about whatever was on his mind.

Naruto smiled at his longtime friend and father figure.

"Yeah Captain, I slept ok. Breakfast sure smells good!" he said with a grin.

Sakura stepped out of her apartment complex into the heat of summer. It was late afternoon though and the sun would be setting soon. She decided that she needed to get out of her stuffy apartment and get some fresh air for once. She walked across the street to the park. Once she found a suitable bench that was unoccupied, she took a seat and let the warm summer blow across her skin. The breeze blew a few errant strands of pink hair into her face. Reflexively, she tucked the unruly locks behind her ear. Her mind wandered to her encounter with the man in the alleyway a few weeks ago. She remembered the feeling of her fist colliding with his jaw and the sickening crunch she heard when it crumbled under the force of it. Even though it was her that had hit the man, the whole situation had a dream-like feel to it, almost as if she were a spectator to her own actions than the aggressor. She looked down to her hand, opening and closing it. The strength she felt then wasn't present right now, but she could still feel it, hidden, almost as if it were just waiting behind a veil, ready to be released when it was needed. Then there were the occurrences at the hospital.

*Flashback*

She had been filling in for one of the other doctors the last couple of weeks. This doctor was in charge of geriatrics and coma patients. Sakura's curious nature led her to try and see if she could heal some of these patients like she had the boy's broken arm. It started with a patient who had been admitted from the E.R. The patient had a stroke, but had not regained consciousness. The patient had been in the coma ward for almost two months and had displayed no signs of waking up. At first she just stared at the old man. He seemed so frail, yet he wasn't so old that his life should be cut short due to some freak occurrence. She looked out the window on the door to see if anyone was watching, then quickly pulled the curtain closed to the room. She didn't want anyone seeing her. It would be really hard to explain glowing green hands to your co-workers.

At first, she wasn't sure what to do or even how to start it. She waved her hands over the body as if she were smoothing out a blanket.

"Healing Hands!" she said.

Nothing happened.

'Of course nothing happened idiot; what is this, a comic book story where you have to shout something ridiculous to activate a super power?'

Sakura mentally slapped herself at her silly actions. She decided to try another approach. This time she placed her hands on either side of the old man's face. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate. She focused on her knowledge of human anatomy; the make-up of the skull, brain, nervous system all of it. She started to see an image. She saw a brain, but more specifically she saw, blood vessels. She could clearly see blood pumping through them as if she were looking at it with her own eyes. She looked closer and noticed a dark spot on the lower rear section of the brain. This section was not getting blood flow. The section was so small Sakura had almost missed it.

'How had this escaped a CT scan?' she wondered.

She concentrated on the spot, enlarging her field of vision until she could see the blood vessels that were supposed to be providing the much needed oxygen rich blood to the brain cells in this area. Sakura noticed that just above a branch in the artery, there was a dark discoloration.

'A blood clot!'

Sakura's eyes shot open, her hands had the same warm sensation she had felt when she healed the boy's arm. She closed her eyes again and pictured herself removing the clot. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she focused hard on the clot. In her mind she removed the clot and focused the green energy on the dark portion of the old man's brain.

When she opened her eyes she was greeted with an unexpected sight. The old man also had his eyes open. He was squinting and brought his hand up to shield his eyes from the bright light of the hospital room. Sakura gasped and immediately ran to turn off the light in the room. Just as fast, she ran to the wall and pressed the alert switch for the nurses' station. Within minutes the room was filled with nurses hovering over various medical devices. Sakura stepped back and out of the way. She couldn't believe it. She had brought that man out of a coma, and not by any conventional means known to man. She realized her hand was still clenched shut. She opened her hand to reveal a tiny spec in the center of her palm. She brought it closer to her face. It was the blood clot from the man's brain. She closed her fist tight over it and walked out of the room, her mind a flurry of questions.

*End Flashback*

The sun had set while Sakura was lost in her thoughts.

'How long have I been sitting here?'

She stood and stretched her limbs. She turned to head back upstairs to her apartment when she caught a head of blonde hair walking by on the other side of the park.

"Naruto?" she called out.

Sasuke had been poring over any information he could find on Naruto. So far all he could find was some basic information on his home address and an article about his parents who apparently died in a car accident. He didn't like it one bit. He didn't like having an opponent that was a complete and total mystery. He decided that it would just be easier to eliminate him than trying to find information on him. Anyone who could stand on equal ground with him was a threat and the Uchiha only dealt with threats in one manner… by eliminating them from the equation entirely.

"Here is ten thousand dollars-" a hand passes an envelope out of the rear window of a Mercedes to a man wearing blue jeans and a black sleeveless shirt. The shirt had a hood which was pulled up over his head. "-and another ten thousand after the job is done." The voice from inside the car said. "I want it to look like a mugging."

The man shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. As long as I get paid, it makes no difference to me."

The man stood and watched as the Mercedes drove off. The custom license plate read, "Uchiha" as it drove out of view.

The sun was setting and Naruto decided he was going to go out for a walk and get some air. He walked across the street from the fire station and started making his way across Ryan Park. He was heading down to the Shell station on Broad St, when he heard a familiar voice call out his name.

"Naruto!"

Naruto turned to see Sakura standing on the other side of the small park. He waved to the pinkette and she ran over to greet him.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto's grin was splayed wide across his face.

Sakura smiled right back. The few times she had seen this man smile at her it was infectious. She couldn't help but smile back. She didn't know him as well as her best friend Ino, but she couldn't help but feel some strange connection to this man, as if he was connected to her distantly somehow.

She returned her attention to the conversation the blonde started.

"You just getting off work?" She asked?

"Nah I've been off all day actually."

"Oh, how come I see you at the fire station every day? I thought you guys only worked every third day."

Naruto shifted his gaze to the ground.

'Great Naruto, what do you tell her now? She is already out of your league, being a doctor, and now you have to tell her your home IS the fire station? Someone like her is not going to go for an underpaid homeless fire fighter.'

Naruto was at a loss as to what he should tell her. He didn't want to lie to her, since she already has trust issues with men as it is, but he really didn't want to embarrass himself either.

'Don't doubt yourself Kit. I sense a kind spirit in her. She won't look down on you. Give her a chance.'

Naruto scratched the back of his head.

Sakura noticed the look of apprehension on his face.

"Sorry, I'm too curious for my own good. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Naruto waved his hands in front of him.

"No it's ok, I was just thinking about something." He looked down at the ground. "You see… I live at the fire station. It's a long story really. Let's just say circumstances haven't always been so favorable for me when I was growing up."

A moment of awkward silence followed as both stood there, not knowing what to say. Finally, it was Naruto that broke the silence first.

"I was on my way to the gas station to grab a quick snack." He started to blush as he chose his next words. "You could, uh- join me if you want. I mean… that is… if you feel like walking with me."

"Actually Naruto-"

'I knew it, there was no way she could possibly be interested in me. I should have known bett-"

"-I'm pretty hungry. Wanna go have some dinner with me instead?"

To say Naruto was shocked was an understatement and his stomach betrayed his hunger with a loud growl.

"That settles it." She slipped her arm into Naruto's and tugged him toward Dauphin St. "We are going to get some dinner in that belly of yours before it complains anymore." She looked up at him and smiled. Ino was right; she did have to make the first move, but she was completely sure it was the right move.

The night passed rather quickly. Naruto and Sakura found that they really enjoyed each other's company. They passed most of the night talking about their jobs, hobbies, things they liked, things they disliked. Sakura was very surprised to hear that Naruto was into landscaping. He had told her that since the fire fighters don't really get paid much and they have two days off between each shift, that most of them have side jobs.

"I just happened to pick a side job I liked." He had told her.

He was careful to avoid bringing up anything regarding Kyuubi and the strange marking that was now inscribed on his stomach. The last thing he needed was to scare her off with the weird occurrences that had been the make-up of his day to day routines lately.

Sakura was also careful not to mention anything regarding her talk with her inner self, her strange manifestation of supernatural healing abilities, or the unexpected display of super-human strength from the other day.

The bill finally came and Sakura insisted that they split the bill, but Naruto would hear none of this.

"Don't you know Sakura? A gentleman always pays for his date" Naruto immediately slapped his hand over his mouth, as if the act could keep the spoken words in his mouth and out of Sakura's ears. "What I meant was-"

Sakura smirked at his actions, she decided that the night had passed by too peacefully and a little fun was in order.

"Date? And just what gave you the idea this was a date?" She placed her hands on her hips and tried to give him the most serious look she could muster without betraying her humor.

Now Naruto's face was beet red as he floundered for something to say. After a few minutes of intelligible mumbling from him, Sakura finally cracked. She laughed as loud and as long as she ever remembered.

"I'm just kidding Naruto, sheesh. Lighten up." She gave him a playful punch to his arm.

They left the restaurant and walked back in the direction of the fire station in companionable silence. Occasionally Sakura's hand would brush against Naruto's and her face would heat up at the contact. The contact didn't go unnoticed by the blonde either. He would glance over at her from the corner of his vision. To him, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. The light from the moon played off her pale pink hair, giving her the image of an angel in the night. She walked with a light step and grace that only added to that image.

Sakura would notice Naruto occasionally glance over at her. The attention was nice. Naruto was nice. Even before tonight, Sakura would find her thoughts would wander to the blonde or be consumed by him completely.

They finally reached the fire station and Naruto turned to the pinkette.

"Do you mind if I walk you home?"

Sakura giggled at his chivalry. "It's only across the street Naruto, I think I can manage."

Naruto visibly deflated and Sakura immediately regretted saying her words. She recovered quickly though.

"I would love it if you walked me home, Naruto."

Naruto's smile instantly returned as Sakura grabbed his hand in hers and they walked across the park to her apartment complex.

Naruto was now completely aware of his hand firmly attached to Sakura's. This was unexpected, but quite nice he thought.

Once they reached the main entrance, Sakura turned to Naruto.

"Well, this is it. Thank you for making sure I got home safe. I had a good time tonight, Naruto. Thanks for that too."

Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his head.

"Heh heh, sure thing Sakura. Anytime."

The two stood there for several minutes, before Naruto spoke again.

"Well it's time I got home. See you again sometime?"

"Sure." She smiled and leaned forward. Naruto immediately noticed what she was doing and tensed up. Sakura placed a chaste kiss on his cheek before pulling back, blushing furiously.

"Good night Naruto."

"Aww how cute." Came a voice from behind them.

They both turned to meet the scruffy, unshaven face of a man wearing blue jeans and a black sleeveless shirt. The man had a hood pulled over his head obscuring his eyes from view. The man pulled something shiny out of his pocket, and Naruto immediately recognized it as a gun. Naruto moved defensively in front of Sakura.

"Look man, we don't want any trouble." Naruto said, keeping his hands up, trying to not make himself a threat to the armed man.

"You are right; you DON'T want any trouble from me. Too bad trouble found you. Now give me your wallet!"

"Alright man, just take it easy. I'll get it right now." Naruto went to reach into his back pocket. Nothing.

'Shit' he thought.

"Look man, I must have left it at the restaurant. It's not in my pocket.

"Don't give me that horseshit. I'm not a fucking idiot. Now, hand over the wallet or I'm gunna shoot your stupid ass for not giving it to me from the start." The man grinned evilly.

"Look man I'm tellin' ya I don't have my wal-" two gunshots rang out and Naruto fell to the ground.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed.

Naruto's vision went black and he knew no more.