Prologue

Red. The color of blood, of death, and fire. Naruto Uzumaki hated that color. How it shone in his enemies eyes, the eyes that had murdered all but the three that stood before him.

To his right stood Sasuke Uchiha, first of the last two Uchiha on the planet, he was charred all over. His akatsuki robes had been burnt off, the only remnant of them was a piece of black fabric clinging to his wrists. What was left of his shirt hung over his short black pants, which was barley touching his ankles, leaving the wounds he had received easily visible.

Tall and scrawny, Rock Lee stood to his left. His appearance was less then ideal, for he had been the one to fight their enemy hand to hand. His clothes that were once a green jumpsuit, the top of which was covered in the customary flak jacket of the hidden leaf village, completed with orange leg-warmers, were no more. The flack jacket and leg warmers were gone, either destroyed or discarded. What was once a green jumpsuit was now tattered and charred. He was breathing heavily, and was bruised to the point of half of his body being blue.

The last of the small group stood behind them, for he was easily the worst off. Kakashi Hatake, former anbu captain to the now crumbling leaf village, knelt in nothing but his black under-armor, the rest of his clothes had been burnt off due to their enemy's love of fire attacks. The rest of his body had been bruised and bloodied beyond repair. His sharingan eye was wide open, waiting to be used.

Naruto looked around himself and his living comrades, and saw the corpses of all of his friends. The man in front of him had killed them all, but they had not gone down without a fight. Naruto smirked as he took in his enemy's appearance.

Madara Uchiha had completely lost the use of his left arm, courtesy of Hinata and Neji Hyuga. It was almost as if they alternated blows when they attacked, things had gotten so much better between them... Naruto shook himself, now was not the time to dwell on the past. Madara's mask, which he seemed to prize, had been snapped straight down the middle with a huge chunk missing. That was just like Sakura, to go out with a bang, literally in this case. Tenten, Ino, Choji, Kiba and Shikamaru had caused the most damage to his body, constantly attacking it without relent, while, unknown to everyone else, Shino had been draining him with his bugs the entire time. But there was another flaw to his person that annoyed Naruto the most.

He was still breathing.

It had become Naruto's purpose to correct that flaw, a purpose that he intended to see through, but how to do it?

As if on cue, a memory flashed through his head.

"Alright Naruto, there are five different elements of chakra; Wind, lightning, earth, water, and fire." Kakashi and Naruto were seated on the grass in training ground 39 for some open space while Kakashi was giving Naruto a lesson on chakra elements.

"Each element has a strength and weakness. Your chakra is wind, which is very convenient if you're going to fight Sasuke. The wind element cancels out lightning, which Sasuke uses, but never use this jutsu against one of his fire jutsu, it will only make it stronger."

"It's like were made for each other." Said the blonde with a sad smile. Kakashi gave him a confused look,

"Because wind cancels out lighting?" he asked

"No, because only my wind element can make his fire stronger..."

The blonde's eyes widened at the revelation, this could work! He whipped around and started barking out orders,

"Lee! I need you to distract him for as long as you can, keep him focused on you and only you!" The taijutsu specialist nodded and charged forward. Naruto turned to Sasuke,

"Sasuke, I need you to create the biggest fireball you can, and don't stop for anything!" Sasuke raised a questioning eyebrow, but complied all the same, launching the fireball straight at Madara.

Naruto took a deep breath, preparing himself, and summoned two shadow clones. The three Naruto's slowly started pumping chakra into the original's hand, creating the blonde's most powerful technique, Wind Style: Rasenshurikan. Hoping against hope, he threw the jutsu straight into the flames yelling for Lee to run.

The effect was instantaneous. Where there was once a small stream of flames now there was a blast of fire, at least two stories high. The force of the attack sent Naruto and Kakashi flying backwards into a mound of rubble that absorbed most of the impact.

When Naruto stood and righted himself, he discovered the jutsu had dissipated, leaving a long trail of ash. At the start, there stood Lee supporting a panting and reasonably charred Sasuke. Naruto saw them and smiled, and as they returned the gesture, Naruto felt a huge burden lift from his shoulders; He could thing of only one thing. It was finally over, all of his troubles.

"No..." The last ninja of the leaf, turned to stare at a figure, standing in the middle of the charred landscape. "I wont..." the figure stopped and started to cough, releasing a large amount of blood from his mouth. The blackened form that was once Madara Uchiha flew through a set of hand seals, ending on the rat seal. "I'll go back... become... stronger... back... in time."

A large crack of lightning, and a black vortex appeared behind him, and with a sadistic smile, he jumped through. Though the vortex lingered behind, and Naruto realized what that vortex meant for him. Naruto ran forward ignoring his friend's calls, until something caught his shoulder. He whipped around to see the charred face of none other than Sasuke Uchiha, his face screwed up in determination.

" Where are you going?" He asked with curiosity in his voice. In answer Naruto gave Sasuke a swift kick, sending him sliding backwards.

"If this thing really does take you back in time, I could save all my friends! That includes you Sasuke!" At this Sasuke furiously attempted to run after the blonde, but was held back by Lee. Lee gave his nod of approval to Naruto, who, with one final glance at his friends, jumped into the ever-shrinking darkness.

Naruto knew what it would mean to jump into the portal, but it still was gnawing at his conscience. He had, theoretically, killed the Lee, Kakashi, and Sasuke from his time. And they couldn't come back...