Naruto slammed the door of his apartment shut behind him. He barely made it to his bed where he collapsed, sobs raking over his now completely vulnerable form. The face of his mother ran through his mind, then his father, then Kakashi's.
Kakashi. A tear slid down his face as he remembered just how he had died, and how Naruto had been unable to save him. The words he had spoken as he did so, the soft smile he offered in thanks for all he believed his students had given him. And finally, the unspeakable pain he had left in his absence.
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"Don't worry so much Naruto, Kakashi will be fine." Sasuke promised the worried boy. Naruto nodded but the worry that creased his features never lessened.
"Yeah. . . yeah I know. I just have a bad feeling." he said.
"He wasn't named Hokage for being weak. Besides it's just a scouting mission, nothing he can't handle." the Uchiha reassured.
Naruto didn't feel reassured in the least, but he didn't want Sasuke to worry for him. He forced his face to smooth out into a wary smile. Always a smile. "I'm sure you're right, I just need to clear my head." he walked off in the direction of a private clearing not far into the woods where he liked to train. It had just rained and the forest floor was all muddy but Naruto paid it no mind as he cleared the small distance in no more than five minutes. He picked a rather dry patch of ground under a tree and settled down there.
In the silence without even meaning to, Naruto slipped into Sage Mode, collecting the gentle energy of nature into himself out of nothing less than habit. Suddenly his senses were enhanced and was like he could hear and feel everything. It was like nothing was out of his reach. The birds sang for him as they nested in his hair and the deer by his feet. He enjoyed the calm sense of awareness he got while in this state. To pass the time he counted off each shinobi that resided at the camp he had been left in charge of by his Hokage and teacher. He took peace from their temporary safety.
But then he noticed something; a small flicker just on the edge of his senses lessened before it completely disappeared. It was Kakashi's chakra. He knew it as well as he knew his own.
Alarm blossomed in his belly like a morbidly colored flower. He tried to reach further but it was simply not there anymore. Without a moment of thought, Naruto rushed back to their camp, not even taking caution for the slippery mud that coated the ground. He spotted Sasuke and Sakura talking to the medical unit outside a tent near the edge of the camp and rushed to them. They both took a step back in surprise. Sakura waved the medical team off before looking to Naruto questioningly.
The blonde was nearly hyperventilating as he tried to tell them what was happening before they even asked. "I was - the clearing - then Sage Mode - Kakashi-Sensei." he rushed to get it out, the morbid, blossoming panic not allowing full sentences past his lips.
"Naruto slow down. What happened?" asked Sakura.
Naruto took a deep breath and calmed his nerves. "It's Kakashi-Sensei. I was in Sage Mode when I noticed his chakra disappear."
"What do you mean disappear?"
"I mean it's gone! I can't sense him anymore and that only happens when someone dies or their chakra is near depletion making their signature too weak to pick up. We have to go now!" Naruto rushed urgently. Without waiting for approval from his friends he turned around and searched the faces of the watching crowd before settling on one.
"You! Karui! Get an attack team together and get to Kakashi's company's last known position. Shizune, I want you to prepare a medical unit to go with them and then make room for possible injured!" he ordered and everyone obeyed immediately, the crowd of shinobi dispersing orderly.
"An attack team? Do you really think that's necessary?" asked Sasuke.
"Yes. I just got a gut feeling about this okay? Now lets go." he grabbed Sakura and entered Tailed Beast Mode and he ran as fast as he could to where he could sense Kakashi's company fighting, their numbers dropping. He left Sasuke to simply follow behind since he was fast enough on his own, but nonetheless the Uchiha strayed a little behind since he was never quite able to match Naruto's speed.
The sounds of fighting rang in their ears as they quickly approached their destination. Naruto made clones to take care of the Zetsu that were littered around. When they broke through the trees they saw the ground was littered with the bodies of both the white Zetsu and their allies. Doing a quick scan of the bodies Naruto was relieved to not see Kakashi's among them. His relief however was short lived.
As he looked up he made eye contact with the Sixth Hokage who was locked in battle with no other than Obito Uchiha himself. Obito followed the eyes of his former friend and saw Naruto standing there with Sakura still in his arms and Sasuke by his side. He smirked at them. No, he smirked at him. Then he drove his sword right through Kakashi's torso. Naruto could see even from that distance, that it had hit a vital artery.
The next moments were a blur for Naruto as he fought and somehow finally killed the nightmare of a man. He remembered vaguely wondering why Madara and the Ten-Tails weren't with him but those thoughts were deemed unimportant as his gaze rested on his teacher dying on the ground amongst the mud and bloodied bodies.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura." called out a weak voice.
"Sensei. . ." Sakura had tears in her green eyes. She kneeled down and tried to use medical ninjutsu to heal his wounds to no avail. The blade had indeed punctured a vital artery and he was bleeding out, the life fading from him with every drop. "No Sensei, you can't die now." she sobbed helplessly, her hands already covered in the warm, thick, crimson liquid.
The sounds of fighting around them died out as the last of the Zetsu were defeated by the clones of Naruto. All shinobi were watching helplessly as their commander said his last words. Naruto knelt on Kakashi's other side as tears spilled from his usually bright blue eyes. He couldn't even use six paths mode to heal him. He had just used it in a battle a few days before and it needed at least a week to recharge before he could use it again.
"You can't leave me too. Not after everything I've lost." Naruto pleaded. He took Kakashi's hand and grasped it tightly the two of his as if that alone could save the man. "Please stay." he whispered quietly, almost inaudibly. Kakashi looked at his students with affection and pride swimming in his coal-coloured eyes.
"I'm so proud of you. All of you. Sakura," the kunoichi couldn't look up at him, her whole being bent on healing his wound. He put his free hand over hers. "That's enough now. We both know that there is nothing anyone could do now."
Her tears were now a constant stream. "Don't say that that Sensei, I won't give up on you." she promised and her flow of medical chakra intensified in her desperation.
"Please." he said. She finally met his eyes and slowly - very reluctantly - ceased her efforts and removed her hands from his chest. He smiled at her with blood staining his mask. "You've become a strong kunoichi Sakura, you have far surpassed even Tsunade. Don't live with regrets. Promise me." Kakashi knew she would most likely blame herself for not being able to save him and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
Sakura nodded. "I promise." she knew that was not a promise she would ever be able to keep, but if it gave him closure in his last moments she would have promised anything.
Kakashi smiled again. "Good. Now Sasuke. I must apologize to you. I feel I have failed as your sensei, I was not able to keep you from the path of vengeance and I'm sorry." Kakashi's voice was getting weaker and his eyes were coming in and out of focus.
Sasuke was speechless for a moment as Kakashi's words processed through his raging grief, but once they did his head shook sharply. "No. It was my own arrogance that led me down that path." even the Uchiha had teary eyes. He slowly sank to his knees by Kakashi's head. "It wasn't your fault." he insisted in a wobbling voice uncharacteristic of the normally broody teen.
Kakashi's smile was softer this time. "Either way I'm glad you came back, and I'm proud of the man you've become. Always stand by your comrades, they will be your light when all you see is darkness. Naruto is going to need your strength in the future so stay by him okay?" Sasuke couldn't bring himself to speak so he just nodded.
"It was already decided by the council that should I ever fall in battle you would become the next Hokage. My only regret is that I couldn't be there to see it happen. You've become like a little brother to me over the years so I couldn't think of another who I would better trust my nation to. Lead well, I will always believe in you Naruto, no death could change that." Kakashi said with sincerity in every word. These were the ones that held the most pride, and the ones that would be played over and over in the head of the one they were spoken to until death.
"Thank you. . . for everything." Naruto choked and was unable to say more than those four words. Kakashi offered one more smile to the world before he closed his eyes for the last time.
It was so silent even the birds stopped chirping. Tears were in every pair of eyes except one.
"Well wasn't that. . ." at this point the speaker had to pause as he coughed up blood. "Sweet?" finished a harsh gravelly voice filled as it always was by spite for the world.
Naruto looked at the figure of a weakened Obito. The Uchiha's manic laughter filled the air. Naruto let out a pained yell that expressed all the frustration, all the loss he held, not just from the death of the one that lie before him, but also for the death of every one of his precious people whos lives had been taken by this most unholy of wars, and for the death of any other who had been lost by it.
"YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!!! DEATH IS THE ONLY THING YOU DESERVE!!" he shouted so loud it echoed for miles. He then charged up a rasen-shurikan and threw it at Obito's defenseless form. All the other shinobi jumped out of the way. He threw another one and another and another. He kept going until his chakra ran out and even then he kept going until he collapsed on the blood coated ground and felt his consciousness fail him.
"Sensei." he whispered through tears before darkness greeted him.
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In the following months Naruto never rested. He was either fighting on the front lines, in command, or training by pushing his body past its limits. No pleading from Sakura made him rest and even when he tried, sleep wouldn't come. He became even faster and even stronger. He was named the new Commander in Chief of the Allied Shinobi Forces, but nothing could bring back what he had lost.
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Minato knocked on the wooden door, he got no response. He listened and heard no sound from the other side. He thought about leaving but ruled against it in his worry. He used his super ninja skills to pick the lock and soundlessly opened door. He stepped into the familiar kitchen that he had waited in this morning and crept to the other side where the bedroom door lay open. He peeked inside and saw a sleeping blonde on the bed on top of the covers.
Seeing his sleep Minato relaxed and approached the figure. It was clear the boy had cried himself to sleep because of his red puffy eyes and dried tear marks on his scarred cheeks. Where as before he had always thought the teen looked older than his age - Minato found that in sleep, he in fact, looked much younger.
In an urge that he would only later place as parental instinct, Minato pulled the covers over Naruto before walking out and leaving the blondes apartment.
It was only once he saw Naruto's peaceful face in sleep that Minato noticed how much pain had been behind the blonde's blue eyes. What happened to you, Minato thought.
And just like that, in less than a day, Minato felt complete trust for the Uzumaki. That did not however, mean that he was without questions.