By: Belcris

Summary: The 3rd remembers his life as he sinks into death. How things were and the regrets he will carry with him into the afterlife.

Naruto was created by Masashi Kishimoto

I do not own these characters and I do not seek to profit from this story. I only wish to pay tribute to a great author.

Category: AU.

Pairing: You'll See

With Hiruzen Sarutobi

"I'm so sorry, Naruto," were the final words Hiruzen Sarutobi would ever speak.

As he lay dying, looking up into a grey and stormy sky he remembered everything that had led him to this moment. It had all started five years ago on the night after Naruto's failed graduation test. Naruto had managed to sneak into the Hokage Tower and steal the Forbidden Scroll, all without anyone else but himself knowing it. Then, just to make things worse, Naruto had managed to defeat the aged Hokage with a deceptively childish technique that had left the old man feeling foolish and weak. Still, even the shame of loosing to a mere Genin was not the worst that would happen that night.

After several hours of searching, Naruto had been found in the forest outside the village by his Academy instructor, Iruka Umino. As it turned out, Naruto had been tricked into stealing the scroll by another of his instructors, Mizuki Touji. Mizuki had intended to use Naruto to steal the scroll, killing the boy after it was done, but his plans had been ruined. Still, even that traitorous action was not the worst of Mizuki's betrayals that night. No, the traitorous fool had told Naruto of the heavy burden the boy carried, and it had destroyed them all.

Naruto, normally a happy-go-lucky child had flat out snapped. Hearing that the Kyuubi, no Youko, the dreaded Nine Tailed Demon Fox that had almost destroyed their village was sealed inside him was not the cause of the rage the boy suddenly felt, although it probably didn't help matters. No, what set Naruto off was the realization that everyone he knew had lied to him for his entire life. Hiruzen wanted to deny that fact, but it was the truth. Every time the boy had asked why his own village hated him he had been lied to when they said they had no idea. Then to find out the reason and to hear from a traitor that everyone he knew was fully aware of this secret save the children his age, that was the final straw.

When ANBU finally arrived on scene it was a gruesome sight to behold. What little remained of Mizuki was spread out over almost a square mile of forest. Iruka was clutching his forehead protector in his hands and weeping uncontrollably. He would later explain to the Hokage that Naruto had created "more shadow clones than there were leaves in all the trees around us," before the enraged young boy had literally destroyed Mizuki with his bare hands. When it was over and Naruto had seemed to calm down slightly, Iruka had tried to give the boy his forehead protector as a sign that he had passed his Genin exam, but the boy had rejected it.

"He said 'No,'" Iruka told the old Hokage. "His eyes were to dead looking as he handed it back to me. I asked him why and he said, 'you lied to me. You all lied to me, every single gods damned one of you. I asked why I was hated, and you lied to me. I asked why I was beaten, and you lied to me. I asked why I was starved, and you lied to me. Each and every one of you lied to me. You, the Hokage, old man Teuchi, and probably even Ayame. You all lied to me, and now you want me to wear that fucking piece of tin? Well you can take it and every lie you've ever spoken to me and you can shine it up real nice and shiny before shoving it right where the sun will never shine.'"

And that was it. Naruto had walked off into the forest leaving a shocked and injured Iruka behind him. Hiruzen had sent out even more ANBU to find the boy after that, but it was all in vain. Naruto had vanished like a ghost in the night. The only lead they ever got about his location was from a bridge builder in Wave country that told them a blonde boy had been responsible for saving their country from an evil shipping tycoon. The boy had summoned up an immense number of copies of himself before attacking the tycoon's base of operations. When it was all over and done with the boy had left nothing but burnt buildings and rotting corpses behind him. The next day the village had discovered a large pile of gold and gems piled high in the center of it, but there was no sign of the boy. They had named the bridge after their hero, calling it the "Bridge of the Golden Legion."

That was the last time anyone ever saw or heard of the boy. Not even Hiruzen's student, Jiraiya the Toad Sage, had been able to find the boy. Hiruzen called in every favor he was owed, even going so far as to contact the disgraced Itachi Uchiha in the hopes he would have some news, but even that failed to turn up any information. Sadly, the world would not allow any further time to find the boy as within months of his disappearance it seemed everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

First there had been been the attack by the Hiruzen's other former student, Orochimaru. The traitorous snake had formed his own hidden village and with the aid of Suna, Konoha's former ally, he had attacked the village causing much death and destruction. Huruzen himself would have been a casualty of that war if it had not been for Jiraiya saving him at the last moment. Unfortunately, a rampaging Jinchuuriki from Suna by the name of Gaara had managed to destroy over half of Konoha before being killed by Kakashi Hatake with the man's one and only original techniques. Though it cost him his own life, Kakashi had killed Gaara just before the boy was able to attack the shelters the civilians were hiding in. His was a valiant sacrifice, and as a fitting tribute to the man they had made sure his body was two hours late to his own funeral.

After the failed invasion came the disappearance of Kakashi's final remaining student. Originally Hiruzen was going to put Naruto on Kakashi's team, but with the boy vanishing into thin air he had been forced to use another student named Sai. Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Sai had been a highly dysfunctional team from the very moment they were formed, but over time they had seemed to grow a little closer. However when the Suna Jinchuuriki went on his rampage, Sasuke had tried to stop him. Haruno and Sai had followed the last loyal Uchiha in an attempt to stop him, but it had been in vain. Gaara killed Sasuke and Sakura with little or no difficulty, leaving Sai critically wounded. Several days later Sai just vanished from his hospital room, leaving no trace of where he went or how he had escaped.

Just as things were settling down came the news that Hiruzen's third student, Tsunade Senju and her apprentice Shizune were killed in Tea Country. Jiraiya rushed to the site, not for a moment believing it to be true, but he was proven wrong. What he discovered were the bodies of his long time love and her charge. They had been discovered laying in an empty field by a traveling boarder patrol. The reports from the patrol stated that Shizune was discovered first, her body seemingly untouched. It was only after careful examination by a healer that revealed her heart had been destroyed by some strange technique that left no outward sign of the attack. Tsunade's body was found a short distance away. Laying between two piles of ash, the headless body of Hiruzen's final student had been pierced through the heart by two swords, one from the front and one from the back. Jiraiya never found her head, though Hiruzen wondered if in the man's grief he had really been in any shape to look for it. It was a moot point as Jiraiya vanished after returning Tsunade's body to the village. Hiruzen had tried to stop him, but Jiraiya had used his contract with the Toads to have himself reverse summoned to the Toad Summoning Realm, far beyond the reach of any attempt the aged Hokage could make to contact him.

This tragedy was quickly followed by a string of failed missions and several strange murders. An actress famous for her roles in the Princess Fuin movies was killed in Snow country. Then there was a string of political assassinations all over the Elemental Countries. Turmoil and anarchy raged across the land with one country after another falling into darkness at an alarming rate. The only bright spot during that entire time was the announcement that a Priestess from Demon Country had managed to defeat and seal a demon named Mouryou with the help of a mysterious figure she called only "her knight in golden armor." Hiruzen had his suspicions as to whom her mysterious knight was, but he never got a chance to ask her as she vanished from her temple one night and no one had seen her since.

Three years passed like this with one catastrophe after another. What information they could get out of the remnants Jiraiya's spy network all pointed at the fact that a shadowy organization was attempting to get their hands on the Jinchuuriki spread across the Elemental Nations. Sadly reports had shown that all the Jinchuuriki had been captured before Hiruzen could even think of anything to do about the situation. Thankfully the death of Gaara and the disappearance of Naruto had upset the mysterious organizations plans, but just the fact they had the number of Bijuu they did was worrisome.

The four your anniversary of Naruto leaving the village had been marked with the appearance of a dying Itachi Uchiha in Hiruzen's office. The dying ninja warned Hiruzen that a great evil was about to be unleashed upon the Elemental countries, but before he could say what that evil entailed Itachi lost the fight to his injuries and died. Within a week his warning was proven too late as Konoha was once again attacked by a vast army being led by a man dressed in a black cloak with red clouds on it. The strange man wore a strange orange mask with a spiral design on it and demanded that the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki be turned over to him. Hiruzen refused to tell the man anything, but his former friend Danzo ignored the Hokage's orders and freely told their attacker that Naruto had long since abandoned the village. This news was not well received if Danzo's mutilated corpse was anything to go by. Thus began the Fourth Great Shinobi war and the destruction of Konoha.

Hiruzen had done everything he could to save as many as he could, but in the end only one in ten citizens of Konoha managed to survive the siege that followed the attack from the unnamed man. For a year Hiruzen had managed to lead the survivors on a long trek through the wilderness of the Elemental countries. He had sought refuge among Konoha's former allies, but it seemed no one wished to anger Konoha's enemies and one after another turned their backs on the beleaguered refugees. Eventually the survivors began to either sneak away in the night, hoping that by separating from the remnants of Konoha they might find some measure of safety in anonymity, or they were killed off in the never ending battles they were forced to fight. The year ended with only a handful of survivors left, none of the civillians were left now, only the shinobi. Hiruzen led the last of his people to Whirlpool Country, hoping to find refuge in the ruins of the old Uzumaki compound there, but even that was ruined with the disappearance of the last Hyuuga in their group, young Hinata and Hanabi Hyuuga. The two girls had been barely hanging on for a long time now, but Hinata had kept her little sister safe. Hiruzen often heard the older girl saying she would be strong or "him," and he could only assume that the girl had promised her father to keep her sister safe before the man died. Not that it really mattered now. The girls, along with one of his few remaining shinobi were gone now, and there was nothing Hiruzen could do about it.

And that led Hiruzen to the state he was in. Three days after Hinata Hyuga vanished from their camp, they had been surrounded by their unnamed adversaries armies. Hiruzen and his six remaining shinobi faced off against a veritable sea of enemies. Hiruzen offered his surrender which was surprisingly accepted, but it was only a false end to the battle as the unnamed man ordered the six remaining Konoha ninja to be executed while Hiruzen watched. On his order, seven Bijuu surrounded the six terrified captives and unleashed a hellish combination of power upon them. Their deaths were instantaneous at least.

With the last of his shinobi dead, Hiruzen listened to his insane adversary explain that he planned on collecting the last of the Bijuu as soon as possible and using their combined powers to make himself a God. He rambled on about his plan for so long that Hiruzen began hoping for a quick death, but that was not to be either. Just as Hiruzen was debating biting his own tongue off and bleeding to death the seven Bijuu suddenly went berserk. The unnamed man screamed and raged as he tried to regain control of them, but it was all for not as the seven great tailed beasts devastated his army.

Once the last of the man's army was destroyed, the seven beasts turned their fury upon him. The old Hokage watched as the seven beasts attacked the man one after the other. None of them seemed to be able to defeat him, but neither could the man seem to escape or defeat them. It was only then that Hiruzen realized that something must have trapped the man in the old ruins, preventing him from fleeing. It also surprisingly enough kept Hiruzen from being injured. Finally in an attack that seemed to drain every last shred of chakra the beasts conatined, killing them in the process, the beasts attacked the man all at once. At first Hiruzen thought they had failed to kill the man even as the last of them faded into nothingness, but then the man screamed and crumbled into dust.

And that was the end of the war. Hiruzen was the only survivor laying on a charred and destroyed island in the middle of the sea, watching as the ground around him slowly crumbled into the waters around it. The shock was too much for his heart and it finally gave out on him. Now, dying, he looked up into the sky and could only say one final thing.

"I'm so sorry, Naruto."

With Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto Uzumaki lay on the beach smiling serenely to himself. It had been 6 hears since he left Konoha and he could not be happier. Sure, his new life had started off rather badly with the discovery of the massive betrayal by his former home, but things had quickly gotten better. Oddly, he was rather grateful for for it now.

After learning that everyone he had ever trusted had been lying to him, Naruto had abandoned his former home without a hint of regret. He was in Wave country before he remembered he still had the Forbidden Scroll still strapped to his back. He had hidden out near a small village for several days studying the scroll before he realized just how valuable the scroll really was. Not only did it contain the villages most prized techniques, but it also contained just about every training method and technique they ever possessed. In three days he learned more than he had in his entire time at the Academy. That's not even including the seals the scroll had, each containing even more information. It was the very last seal though that truly convinced Naruto that he had made the right decision in leaving the village.

Releasing the seal Naruto was surprised to find a bundle of papers that each seamed to contain yet another damning piece of evidence against his former home. The first was a copy of his birth certificate containing the names of his parents, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze. Naruto recognized the names from several techniques contained in the scroll and raged that the Hokage had lied to him all along about not knowing who his parents were. The fact that his own father had been the one to seal the demon inside him was nothing compared to what Naruto saw as the greatest betrayal of all by the old man. Add to that the fact that the other pieces of paper in the seal seemed to be deeds to numerous properties and bank accounts, all in Naruto's name, just added to the rage Naruto was feeling. Just to make it worse was the sole picture of his parents that was contained in the seal.

Naruto raged and screamed in his hiding spot for hours before collapsing to the ground and weeping as he clutched the photo to his chest until he finally fell asleep. When he woke the next morning Naruto was determined to never let anyone lie to him again. Gather up all the papers and resealing them in the scroll, Naruto made his way to the nearby village hoping there would be a bank there he could visit in order to collect his inheritance. Unfortunately the village was a more of a forced labor camp than a village. Using his shadow clones to gather information, he had learned the true use for the clones as he read through the scroll, Naruto quickly realized that a tycoon by the name of Gato was crushing the village under his boot, and that did not set well with the young boy.

Infuriated that anyone would treat these people as he had been treated, Naruto created two thousand clones and instructed them to destroy Gato and his men. Knowing that this action would draw the attention of Konoha, Naruto booked passage on a small boat and left the area as fast as possible. The next morning he woke up with the memories of his clones destroying Gato's base and taking all his money and jewels for the villagers. Of course that was not all they had done. After killing Gato the clones had read over all his business holdings and forged the corrupt man's signature on all of them, transferring everything he owned into Naruto's name. Then, using the man's personal telephone the clone had called the Fire Nation Bank and ordered all his properties and holdings be converted into gold as soon as possible, with the intention of moving the money to a new bank. This had evidently caused a huge uproar at the bank, but a generous "tip" had the Bank President quickly signing off on the transactions. Naruto only had to send a clone to collect the gold in the next few days and then he would be completely free of Konoha and the Fire Nation, forever.

After collecting his money a few weeks later, the banker informed Naruto that he had gotten lucky he sold his properties when he did. After a consortium of civilian council members from Konoha bought the properties, about a dozen in total, for an outrageous amount of money there had been an attack on the village that destroyed all of the properties. The civilian council members were bankrupted and were currently trying to get their money back, but it was too late since Naruto was currently on his way out of the country. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, Naruto hired two teams of shinobi, one from Iwa and the other from Kumo, to transport the gold for him. The two countries were more than happy to do this considering Naruto paid twice the going rate for an S ranked mission. Not a single gold bar was missing when they arrived at the dock were Naruto was waiting for them, which is why he tipped each team with an additional A rank worth of gold, just for them and under the counter, so to speak. Needless to say, both Kumo and Iwa were more than happy to work for him any time he called upon them.

It was while he was sailing around the Elemental countries studying from the Forbidden Scroll and his holdings that Naruto discovered one Tsunade Senju owed him an incredible sum of money. After sending out a request to Kumo to find the woman in question, Naruto was notified that she was currently to be found in Tea Country. Setting off with an escort of Kumo shinobi, including a very attractive young woman named Samui, Naruto made his way to Tea Country to confront the rather infamous "Legendary Sucker." Imagine his surprise when she turned out to be a former Konoha shinobi.

The two ended up having a rather long conversation in which each voiced their dislike of Konoha and the desire to never step foot there again. Naruto quickly offered Tsunade a job as his personal healer and trainer in exchange for wiping out her debt to him. Tsunade was floored by the offer, she did owe the young man a lot of money after all, but quickly accepted after telling him about a slight complication. It turned out that her former teammate Orochimaru had been injured during his failed invasion of Konoha and needed Tsunade's help in healing him. She explained that he had offered her the resurrection of her brother and dead lover in exchange for her services. This immediately set warning bells off in Naruto's mind as he had just recently read about a technique that did just that. Showing Tsunade the technique and all it entailed, she instantly realized that although her loved ones might be brought back to life, they would be only tools to be used against her once Orochimaru was healed.

The two of them planned for two days what to do until finally coming up with a plan, or as Naruto thought of it, "The Prank." As Tsunade knew she would never find peace so long as Orochimaru knew she was alive, not to mention Konoha eventually forcing her to return to Konoha, she needed to fake her own death. Her apprentice was rather worried about the plan, but eventually agreed to follow Tsunade wherever she might lead the young girl. So, using the bodies of two homeless people they found in the local morgue, Tsunade used her advanced skills in healing to transform the bodies into replicas of herself and Shizune. Then using her perfect chakra control and another technique from the Forbidden Scroll, they had the clones meet with Orochimaru.

Watching the encounter from a secret hiding spot, Tsunade controlled her doppelgänger and used it to heal Orochimaru while secretly sealing a capsule of nerve toxin into his wounds. While that was happening, Shizune was controlling her doppelgänger and using it to distract Orochimaru's henchman, Kabuto. When the healing was done, Orochimaru proceeded to "resurrect" Tsunade's brother and lover. It took all her willpower for the real Tsunade to not run out and hug them both. It was a good thing she didn't because the moment her double approached them they both stabbed the double through it's heart from the front and back, "killing" it instantly. A moment later and "Shizune" was killed by Kabuto.

Tsunade watched as her brother and lover suddenly looked up at the real her, winking, before returning to dust. She cried when she saw that they had known their victim was not really her and that they had saved her the only way they knew how. It was a touching moment and one that greatly affected Naruto and Shizune as well, for if the dead could know what was going on in the real world, then they must be watching over them even now. It was a warm feeling to know that the dead were not really gone forever, just for now.

After Orochimaru left, Naruto and the two women approached their body doubles and made to remove any sign that they were not the real thing. Tsunade was forced to remove the head of her double as she was sure Jiraiya would eventually investigate the bodies and would recognize that the body was missing her advanced chakra storage seals. Then she forced as much chakra as she could into the body so it would contain traces of her chakra for weeks. Shizune did the same to her "body" and then they left.

"Do you feel bad about tricking Jiraiya-sama?" asked Shizune later when they were alone in their room on Naruto's boat.

Tsunade thought about it for a moment then sighed before answering. "Part of me loves that silly pervert, though I would never tell him that, but he abandoned his duties to Naruto. He left that poor boy to suffer in that damned village. Jiraiya may not have lied to Naruto directly, but by his very absence he condoned it. I just can't forgive that and I know if I confronted him about it, Jiraiya would defend that damned village and the old fool no matter what I might say to him."

Almost a year passed before Naruto stepped foot back in the Elemental Countries. A messenger from the High Priestess of Demon Country approached them saying that the Priestess was in dire need of their assistance. Oddly, the messenger did not even know Naruto's name, only that a boy matching his description would be at their currently location on that specific day and that it was imperative that he come see the Priestess immediately. After consulting with Tsunade and getting some background about the Priestesses from her, Naruto agreed to go. After changing their appearances just enough not to be recognized the three set off for Demon Country. Naruto was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Priestess, Shion, was a pretty girl about his age rather than the old crone he had imagined her to be. Sure, she was a bit of a bitch at first, but they quickly became friends after she explained her abilities and the fact that she had received a vision showing her own death unless Naruto helped her to defeat the ancient demon. Mouryou.

The adventure that followed was rather scary at times, but Naruto had not been sitting idly by during his time traveling. Between what he had learned from the Forbidden Scroll and Tsunade's teaching, Naruto was a formidable shinobi now. So, after a rather chaotic battle between themselves and the minions of the demon, Naruto and Shion managed to combine their abilities into an attack that destroyed the demon, finally. Of course that led to a rather embarrassing moment for Naruto when Shion asked if he would help her pass on her abilities to the next Priestess. He might be young, but having a legendary healer as a teacher for the last year had made him painfully aware of the difference between men and women, including when a woman was attracted to a man.

"W-well," he stuttered, "aren't we a little young for that right now? I mean you're really great, don't get me wrong, but I'm not staying here for long and I don't think I'm ready for that yet."

"That's okay," Shion replied. "My last vision showed me traveling with you from now on, so I don't think that's an issue anymore."

"What about your people?" asked the rather confused boy.

Shion just smiled at him before leaning over and kissing his cheek. "The last of the demon threats to this country are over. My job now is to help you face 'your' demon, and all the ones like it."

What could he say to that? Naruto just blushed and nodded as Tsunade and Shizune laughed their asses off. They all returned back to Shion's temple where she quickly announced the defeat of the demon thanks to her "knight in golden armor" before she gathered up all her most prized possessions, which surprisingly weren't very many other than some photos. Two days later, the four of them snuck out of the temple and returned to Naruto's boat. Shion loved living on the boat and spent the majority of her time running around deck in a very small bathing suit she made out of one of Naruto's old t-shirts. Needless to say, Naruto loved the outfit.

It was also around this time they discovered the final fate of Orochimaru and his henchman, Kabuto. The capsule of nerve toxin that Tsunade implanted in his wounds was designed to breakdown over time, releasing the toxin a little at a time until reaching a lethal level. The toxin was completely undetectable and would over time rob the victim of the use of their chakra, followed by damaging their brain and nervous system, effectively turning them into nothing more than a drooling idiot before finally killing them. Such had been Orochimaru's fate. By the time the fool realized something was wrong, it was already too late and according to Tsunade's sources, Orochimaru had died in his sleep several weeks after their encounter with him.

This had led directly to Kabuto's fate. Thinking that Orochimaru had died from an undiagnosed complication due to one of the techniques he used to extend his life, Kabuto decided to implant some of his master's tissue into his own body in order for his master to live on through him. Big mistake on the part of the traitorous medic as the toxin was still present in the tissue and quickly killed him the same way it had killed his master. Naruto spent a week making snide comments about how having Orochimaru inside him must not have been to Kabuto's liking, until Tsunade finally hit him over the head with her fist, thus ending he enjoyment of the situation.

Almost five years after leaving Konoha, Naruto and his group were exploring the ruins of the Uzumaki Compound in Whirlpool Country when they detected the presence of Konoha Shinobi. Naruto was aware of the chaos that had been happening in the Elemental Countries over the last year, which was the main reason that he and the others had avoided the place at all cost. The war had forced Naruto to liquidate all his holdings in the Elemental Countries, selling everything he owned there except for the largest of his ships. The ship, really an ocean liner, was more like a small village on the sea. With just around nine hundred crew members and able to handle nearly two thousand passengers, the Golden Haven as it was called was a magnificent ship. With the outbreak of war, most of those passengers were currently the families of the crew, not to mention a large number of shinobi from various villages.

It was odd how Naruto seemed to collect shinobi After the capture of Kumo's two Jinchuuriki and the outbreak of war, the Raikage had asked a favor of Naruto, who he was aware was making plans to leave the Elemental Countries till after the end of the war. Curious as to what the powerful leader could want, Naruto was surprised when the Raikage asked him to take his deceased brother's team with him. Familiar with them, especially Samui whom he had a small crush on after first meeting her, Naruto quickly agreed. The three young shinobi were at first upset at being sent away, at least until the Raikage explained that he felt he had failed to protect his brother, but he would not fail to protect his brother's students.

Next came a request from Iwa. The Tsuchikage, Oonoki, was a crotchety old fart, but Naruto rather liked him. The two had sat down one night and discussed their mutual dislike of Konoha and Naruto's history. Surprisingly, the old man barely batted an eye at finding out that Naruto was his old enemy's son, going so far as to admit that he had suspected it the first time they met. Still, as far as Oonoki was concerned Naruto was a hell of a customer where his shinobi were concerned, and a refreshingly blunt young man. So when the request by Oonoki came to take his granddaughter's team along with him, Naruto was only moderately surprised.

That wasn't counting all the other shinobi Naruto had gathered over time. Though a few stood out for one reason or another. One was Karin, formerly an Oto shinobi. One moment she was the best damned researcher and sensor anyone had ever seen, and the next she was a complete fangirl towards Naruto. It was a little creepy sometimes, but she was a good person once you got past her odd behavior. Next was Konan. She was a former member of the group that had been hunting down the Bijuu before the war. It seemed she had only been trying to bring peace, following her lifelong friend as he tried to make that dream a reality. Unfortunately her friend had been killed shortly before the war began and she had been hunted until finally being rescued by Naruto, quite by accident. Since then she had kept pretty much to herself, except for spending time with Naruto and his close friends.

Right after the war began Naruto rescued three other shinobi without even meaning to. While sailing past Kiri, Naruto spotted a small boat drifting nearby. Sending out a recon team to investigate they found three survivors out of six. Two were former Kiri shinobi and the last was a former Konoha shinobi. The Kiri shinobi were Mei Terumi and Ao, her personal bodyguard. They had been part of the resistance movement trying to overthrow the Mizukage. As it turned out, the Mizukage was a Jinchuuriki and that had brought the enemy forces to their doorstep. Just as the resistance thought they had won, the enemy forces had stepped in and crushed both sides of the conflict. Mei and Ao were all that now remained of the resistance forces and needed a place to hide until they could regroup and retake their home. Naruto didn't have a problem with that, so invited them to join his group as they headed south.

The Konoha shinobi was an altogether interesting young woman. Not only did she have the fashion sense of an exhibitionist, but she was also an outcast in Konoha. Anko Mitrashi was the woman's name, and pain was her game, especially if it was someone else's pain. After explaining about the destruction of Konoha and her being drugged and left behind by the survivors, Naruto welcomed her aboard and pointed her in the direction of the sunbathing area. Much to his shock, when he checked on her later he found Mei, Shion, Samui, and Anko were all wearing tiny little bikinis made out of his t-shirts.

"Do I even have any t-shirts left after this?" he asked after picking his jaw up off the deck.

"One or two," replied Shion. "You might want to get some more the next chance you get, you're running a little low."

"Get some mesh ones," added Anko, who had forgone the bikini altogether and was laying naked on her belly.

"I'm too young for this shit," muttered Naruto as he walked away.

"He's fifteen, right?" asked Mei after Naruto left.

Shion and Samui nodded, then Samui said, "He's trying not to be a pervert."

"Fuck that," groused Anko. "He's cute and he's going to eventually be hot as hell, so I think we might want him to be at least a little perverted. After all, fifteen goes into twenty-five a lot more than thirty-five goes into twenty-five."

Each of the girls got a knowing smirk at that comment, each wondering what doing "division" with Naruto would be like.

With that settled, Naruto gave the order to set out for the southern boundary. It took them several weeks to reach their destination, but at least they were safe and at peace, so that made up for it. The Golden Haven and its crew spent nearly a year exploring past the southern boundary, having several rather interesting adventures and making a few new friends along the way. In fact, it was with a heavy heart that Naruto gave the order to return to the Elemental Countries. They needed to know what was going on there, not to mention restocking their supplies from the hidden supply dump Naruto arranged for in Whirlpool Country.

Naruto had arranged several well hidden supply dumps across the Elemental Countries. There was one in Wave, another in Tea, the third in Kumo, and the final and largest here in Whirlpool. Tsunade was the one who suggested it originally and Naruto had run with the idea. However now that they had setup and begun construction of a permanent base on the southern continent, Naruto intended to collect all the supplies he had here in the Elemental Countries and then leave forever. The Southern Continent was much larger than the Elemental Countries and contained traces of a much more advanced civilization. Sadly it also contained a madman bent on world conquest, or at least it had before Naruto and his group destroyed the man and freed his victims.

"You really want to create a new life here," asked Shion one night before they set sail for the Elemental Countries.

Naruto nodded and smiled at his longtime friend, sort of girlfriend. "As long as I have ties to the Elemental Countries I'm never going to feel like I'm free. I know that sounds stupid, but it's how I feel. As long as that place has a hold on me, I don't feel like can really live. It's like the mere knowledge that they might come after me somedays keeps me separated from the life I want to life."

"And what kind of life is that?" asked Shion, hoping it might involve her.

Naruto looked out over the railing of his ship at the sunset before him and smiled. "I want a life filled with love, family, and peace. I want a life where I don't have to be afraid to tell someone that I love them because they might be taken from me at any moment. I want a life where I'm surrounded by friends and family when I die, and not enemies and traitors."

Of course Shion quickly spread Naruto's words through the crew. It didn't take long for everyone to agree that he had the right idea, they all needed a place to start a new life. So, leaving behind a group to start construction on his new base, Naruto and his crew set out for one last visit to the Elemental Countries. Which brings us to meeting the two Hyuuga girls for the first time.

Naruto was just sifting through ruble when he heard a girl scream. Being the noble fool that he is, Naruto was running towards the sound before his mind even considered it could be a trap. Thankfully it wasn't, but what it turned out to be was maybe a little worse. There in front of him was the sight of one unconscious little girl, she looked to have been hit over the back of the head if the bleeding wound there was any indication. The other girl was struggling on the ground under the weight of dirty and disgusting man. It was clear what the man intended to do and that was just not going to fly with Naruto, especially since he recognized the girl from the Academy in Konoha. She was Hinata Hyuuga, one of the only people that never treated him badly or lied to him back in Konoha, therefore she was damned near his best friend in comparison to the anyone else there. Not wasting an instant, Naruto kicked the attacker off the girl, caving the man's chest in and killing him instantly.

Thus began one of the strangest reunions Naruto would ever experience. The instant that Hinata saw who her rescuer was, she leapt at him wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head in his chest. The sobbing girl refused to let him go no matter what he did. Finally all he could do was wrap his arms around her and rock her back and forth until she calmed down a little. He was able to make a shadow clone to check on the other girl, who looked a lot like Hinata, thought with brown hair rather than Hinata's indigo. Thankfully the girl just seemed knocked out, not seriously injured.

"Are you ok, Hinata-chan?" he asked once he thought she had finished crying.

"Mm MmmMm mm mm mm, ," mumbled the girl, still having her head firmly pressed against Naruto's chest.

"Say what?"

"Zzzzzzzzzzzz..." responded a now sleeping Hinata.

"She says she feeling much better now," answered the other girl, revealing that she was finally awake. "She must trust you because she's asleep now. Obviously you two know each other, and I'm guessing by the blue eyes, blonde hair, and whiskers that you are her often spoken of 'Naruto-kun?'"

"That's my name," admitted Naruto, a little surprised that Hinata would talk about him. "What's your name?"

"I'm Hanabi," answered the girl. "We're all that's left of our family since we killed my father six months ago."

"You killed your father?" asked a stunned Naruto.

Hanabi nodded with an angry gleam in her eyes. "Old fucker decided to try and sell Hinata and I to Kumo. He hoped they would give him enough money that he could get out of the warzone. Of course that would have left Hinata and I screwed over, literally, but he didn't care so long as he made it out alive. So, when Hinata and I found out, we killed him in his sleep and made it look like another raid by the enemy forces."

Naruto frowned, asking, "Let me get this straight, your own father was going to sell you to Kumo, turning you into whores or worse, just to save his own ass?"

Hanabi nodded, and Naruto made up his mind. "How do you two feel about big ships and beachfront property?"

Hinata and Hanabi were currently being attended by Tsunade in the medical ward, but would be fine in a few days. Naruto had moved the Golden Haven further out away from Whirlpool the moment his crew finished loading he last of their supply dump. As a last precaution he had several of the shinobi cast invisibility techniques over the ship, leaving it protected under nearly twenty layers of chakra. Naruto timed it just right as the island was surrounded by enemy ships just a few hours later.

"The old fool is there," Tsunade said as she walked up to where Naruto was observing the island. "It's just him and a few left."

"Oh well," replied Naruto. "He's not my problem anymore. What I'm worried about is this new enemy they've picked up, my clones say he calls himself Tobi. That crazy fucker scares the shit out of me, no lie. Now he's here in Whirlpool, my clan's home, and I think I may have a way to defeat him once and for all."

Naruto had found the Siege Seals around the island still intact during his original exploration. Of course there had been no reason to activate them originally, but with the arrival of Tobi and his army, Naruto had a reason. The siege seals were the ultimate Uzumaki defense, at least so long as there was an Uzumaki alive with enough chakra to maintain them. Fortunately, Naruto was just such an Uzumaki.

Just as Tobi was ordering the Bijuu to attack the last of the Konoha shinobi, Naruto remembered another seal that he had learned about, a seal that prevented someone from controlling another entity. That in mind, Naruto sent off seven clones to place the seals on the Bijuu before he personally activated the Siege Seals that would negate any chakra source that tried to pass through them. Minutes later he heard the first Bijuu attack Tobi, which was quickly followed by them all attacking him. Naruto watched from the safety of an emergency Uzumaki shelter as Tobi survived one attack after another. It seemed while the madman couldn't escape the island, he could escape the attacks.

The man seemed to fade in and out of reality with each attack, but Tsunade had the solution for that. Using one of her own personal poisons and a quickly improvised dart gun, Tsunade waited until the last attack began to fade, then hit Tobi with the dart. The poison was another neuro toxin that would cut the man off from his chakra. The sound of the dart traveling through the air was hidden by the dying sound of the attack and so it hit its mark perfectly, instantly spreading through the man's body. With a final scream the man surprisingly crumbled into dust leaving nothing behind but his mask.

Naruto and Tsunade discovered the surprisingly intact body of Hiruzen laying just outside the crater left by the Bijuu attack and laid the man to rest. They may have disliked him for his betrayal, but no one deserved to rot in the sun, so they laid him to rest where he lay and returned to the Golden Haven. A quick meeting was held to decide on whether to see if the Elemental Countries had survived the war or just leave and return to the southern continent. By unanimous decision it was agreed that it was time for everyone to start a new life away from the Elemental Countries. Setting sail that night, Naruto and his people returned "home."

That was a year ago now and things couldn't be better. Their new home on the Southern continent had spawned the building of a rather large village, city really, around it. With the help of the inhabitants of the Southern continent they had quickly begun rebuilding the continents prior civilization. Many had suggested that Naruto take the position of King, but he turned it down in favor of Tsunade's leadership. Yes, he did serve as the financial backer for most of their efforts, but that was enough for him.

Setting up ship yards around the area, Naruto soon commanded a rather fleet of ships thanks to the ingenuity of their new friends here on the Southern continent. Shipping became a huge industry for them, not to mention metal working and medicine. Shizune was teaching everything she could about medicine to large numbers of eager students. Then there was Samui and her team teaching people how to make electrical generators using lightning techniques to provide power for everyone. Mei and Ao were doing similar to help build water treatment plants across the continent in order to provide safe drinking water. Oh, and lets not forget Anko that was training the police force. All in all it was working out really well for everyone.

And what was Naruto doing most days? Simple, after sending numerous shadow clones to run his business, Naruto spent the majority of his days on the beach surrounded by numerous young women wearing tiny little bikinis fashioned from his t-shirts. Oddly when he suggested they start using other materials to make their swimsuits, all of the women declined. So, Naruto spent a lot of money on buying t-shirts and his days admiring the beautiful women around him. No, he wasn't "officially" dating any of them, but there was never a night that went by where he didn't share his bed with at least one of the women. Shion and Hinata were his most frequent bedmates, but that didn't mean that Samui and Anko didn't spend a great deal of time with him as well.

As he looked around, he smiled at seeing Shion and Hinata laying beside him. Shion was just now starting to show the presence of the newest Priestess to carry on her line and Hinata would probably start to show in a few more weeks. Yes, Naruto was going to be a father and if several of the other young women he knew had their way, it would be a frequent event over the next few years. All in all, it was a good life and Naruto couldn't have been happier.

Author's Notes:

This story came to me one night as I was reading a Naruto FanFiction and just could not understand how Naruto could just forgive everyone around him for lying to him his entire life. So, with that in mind I started thinking about what I thought he might do in a more realistic setting. That of course lead to thinking about what would change if Naruto wasn't around or did not follow the same path that he did in the manga. Twenty-four hours later we have this story, my first for Naruto, though probably not the last.

Some of you may wonder why he seems so smart compared to the manga or what happened to mentioning the Kyuubi, well here is your answer. Of course Naruto is smarter than in the manga, he had to be in order to survive. He had all the knowledge contained in the Forbidden Scroll, a nifty plot device that I think was never really explored enough, combined with the advice of Tsunade as a positive adult figure. As for the Kyuubi, without Jiraiya there to push him towards using the demons power, Naruto just relied on his own abilities. There were no cliffs to fall off of, forcing a confrontation between the two, so no need for Naruto to ever discover how to talk to the beast. In this story the Kyuubi will just eventually die with Naruto, alone and forgotten by everyone.

I also added a harem element to the story, and why shouldn't I? Seriously, Naruto had women throwing themselves at him right and left in the manga, so with a little maturity and confidence, my Naruto actually started taking advantage of the fact. No he's not a womanizer, but neither is he a celibate little shinobi wandering around the world clueless as to the beauty of the female mind and form. And honestly, considering how he tends to charm every woman he crosses paths with, except for Sakura whom I think is a total bitch though I refrained from bashing her in the story, can you see any of them really complaining about sharing him? Really? You can? Well I couldn't and since I wrote it, I included it.

Anyway, I'm of to shampoo the cat, so have fun, thanks for reading, and leave me a message if you want.

Later,

Chris :)