"Naruto-kun, please let it be anything except this. I cannot simply compromise on the team configurations, even if you're the one asking," Hiruzen sighed, tiredly setting down his hat on yet another stack of paperwork while sitting at his desk.

Hiruzen realised he could not look Naruto in the eye like this -- he was unable to see the blond past the pile of messy papers before him.

With a cough, he stood and shuffled his chair next to the desk. His sagely and wise veneer was lost as he sat down once more, attempting to block any thoughts on the paperwork at the edges of his vision out of his mind with sheer willpower. Forcing a tight smile at Naruto, Hiruzen's fingers twitched at the thought of having even more documents to sign and change.

Naruto grinned cheekily at the aged Hokage.

"If I tell you the secret behind defeating paperwork, will you do me a favour and assign me, Sasuke and Shikamaru to the same team?" Naruto asked slyly.

Hiruzen's eyes brightened as they shone with a vitality that was lost the first time he faced the paperwork swamp that was the Hokage's Office. He was excited by the very notion of finally putting an end to the days of slaving away at documents whether trivial or crucial. It was to the extent that, not to mention just changing the genin team assignments, Hiruzen was even willing to give Naruto a fair position in ANBU.

"Certainly. Sasuke-kun and Shikamaru-kun, you said? I will allow it," Hiruzen permitted with a genial smile, writing it down on a paper.

Naruto borrowed the Sandaime Hokage's brush and wrote but one phrase on a blank sheet in broad strokes:

影分身の術

Hiruzen gasped in understanding, a self-mocking laugh escaping him.

"I see. Those are the only clones capable of conveying information to the user upon dispelling," Hiruzen murmured, already doing the required hand seals and moulding the necessary chakra.

"I will trust Hokage-jiji to keep his end of the deal!" Naruto shouted over his shoulder as he ran out through the window.

Hiruzen was no longer paying attention.

"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! All of you, let us clear this table of paperwork once and for all!"

A resounding battle cry could be heard from the Hokage's Office on this fine morning as all of Hiruzen's duplicates attacked the documents with vigour.

~♡~

"Of course innate talent matters," Shikamaru scoffed. "Have you seen any dumb civilian child enter the Academy and leave it as the Rookie of the Year?"

Sasuke rebutted, "That would be possible if the civilian child had absurdly large chakra reserves. What matters here isn't the intelligence or background."

Shikamaru laughed in incredulity. "And where do you expect to find such a child? Besides, if the child in question is stupid, he or she would never be able to graduate anyway."

"A loser can defeat a genius if he works hard enough," Sasuke argued passionately as if speaking from experience.

Well, a certain someone would be able to testify that that really was the case.

Shikamaru countered, "Sure, but that is only if the so-called loser had potential. How many kids have you seen work hard for a goal and yet never achieve it? Of course effort matters, but it is no magical elixir that can give someone Kage-level chakra reserves. It wouldn't make a difference if someone without talent trains like their life depends on it. The loser must have been a genius in his own right, even if not a child prodigy."

Sasuke huffed stubbornly, "And so what if there's a kid good with taijutsu, shurikenjutsu and the like? No matter how talented, it wouldn't matter if the kid can't use chakra. One's ownership of chakra is still the most important of all. It doesn't matter if the person in question can't manipulate it consciously -- it's what makes a shinobi stronger than ordinary people."

The heated debate thus ended in a tie, both sides breathing heavily from the intense discussion.

Shikamaru turned to stare at that certain someone.

Naruto continued to read for a while before finally relenting and setting down his book.

"What was it?" he asked the Nara.

Sasuke peered at the contents of the book Naruto was so deeply transfixed by and was surprised to see that it could not be considered a text at all.

Bound together were leaves of a variation of chakra paper that could no longer be found in the market in modern times. The tome seemed to be ancient, and it was protected by a fūinjutsu barrier to prevent it from being ruined by chakra. Rather than kanji, hiragana or katakana, there were illustrations of some kind in the book. Beautiful yet strange scribbles unlike anything found in this world were painted on the page, indistinctive even compared to the languages that were used by the ancients. Sasuke could not be certain whether they were writings or drawings -- the lines on the paper were enchanting in a way that could not quite be described. He felt as though he could see a faint trace of significance in them, but the true meaning eluded him.

Shikamaru, too, took a glance at it and rubbed his eyes with a frown.

"That isn't fūinjutsu. It certainly compels an observer to continue looking at it, but it consumes considerable mental energy when I attempt to make sense of it. This probably wasn't written by humans?" Shikamaru shrewdly analysed the peculiar book.

Naruto picked the book up and closed it, snapping Sasuke out of his reverie.

The Uchiha found his eyelids drooping slightly, tiredness washing over him.

"It is a book from the beginning of creation. The material it is made from has the same source as the Shinju. I was gifted this by the trees that have guarded it since their birth," Naruto revealed, tracing the iridescent marks on the cover. "The writings shift with the changes in the world's fate itself. The plants tell me it is supposed to hold all of the secrets of the universe."

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and only managed to view it briefly before having to quickly turn away.

"It's... like a black hole. It's an insanely compressed large energy mass that sucks in all energies that come into its vicinity," Sasuke gasped in horror, forced to deactivate his Sharingan.

"That was why I had to seal it," Naruto stated, shrugging heedlessly. "The only power it does not absorb is natural energy. Before I realised it, the only energy source I have left in my body is natural."

Sasuke gawked at him numbly.

"I have read somewhere that a human who absorbs too much natural energy will be petrified," Shikamaru commented, his eyes wide.

"That is because of an imbalance between spiritual, physical and natural energies. In reality, the chakra we use is not connected to our spiritual or physical energies. It was originally the blessing of the Rikudō Sennin that gave humans the power to use Ninshu. Obviously, this power can just as easily be taken away," Naruto explained simply.

"You can't use chakra anymore?" Sasuke questioned in disbelief.

As sons of the Rikudō Sennin, they were the only ones left in this world who had innate chakra that was not bequeathed by their father.

"I could technically regenerate it, but not as long as I am in contact with this thing. Surprisingly, it does not affect bijū chakra," Naruto elaborated slightly, moulding natural energy into a ball. "I can control it well enough, but I don't know how I'm supposed to utilise it. It is not anything like chakra -- I can't use the conventional nature transformations with it. The mechanics behind the shape transformation is simple enough to grasp, however different from chakra it might be, but I can't use even my primary elemental affinity, Fūton."

Sasuke did not know what to say to comfort his brother, he felt aghast at the idea of losing his chakra -- he could not even begin to imagine how hopeless Naruto must be feeling inside...

"Anyway, enough about that. I'm staying this way until I figure out how to use natural energy. If it works out, I'll consider staying like this. If I can't solve this dilemma, I will leave the book in their care once more and regain my ability to use chakra. That would be a pity -- I'm quite interested in learning more from this book," Naruto said dismissively. "So, what did you want to ask me?"

It took the two a while to return to their senses.

Their previous conversation just felt so long ago.

"Who do you think is right? Is innate talent more important or is chakra more important?" asked Shikamaru.

Naruto frowned, finding the topic peculiar indeed.

"Chakra and innate talent are interlinked. Having a propensity for chakra control is due to one's innate talent and having innate talent would enable one to overcome the limits of one's chakra," Naruto spelt out the relationship between the two arguments. "In other words, today, for one to have the ability to use chakra is essentially part of one's innate talent. Both of you are right, but I would think Shikamaru's concept more accurately depicts the truth."

The gears turning in Shikamaru's brain were almost visible.

The pineapple-head face-palmed as he realised that they have been getting worked up over nothing. They were arguing their points but it seemed like they had similar understandings on the matter. Rather than pushing for their thoughts to be heard, they should have shared their opinions with cool-headedness.

"Now, I should be headed back to gardening," Naruto announced, standing up and stretching out his protesting joints.

"We can train together at Naruto's," Sasuke offered Shikamaru.

The Nara grumbled out, "How troublesome."

He followed Sasuke out anyway.

"Ah, before that," Naruto stopped the two dark-haired students, "take this little stalker of mine with you."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, sincerely baffled by this abrupt request.

Before Sasuke could refuse, Naruto herded a flustered Hinata between the two other boys.

With a careless wave, Naruto slipped away.

~♡~

Naruto -- the real one -- reappeared without a word in his home one month later. In this time, his plant clone covered for him by attending lessons at the Academy in Naruto's stead. Sasuke even sacrificed his last semblance of pride to ask the trees planted in the compound to pass a message to Naruto. He was not sure if they heard him. Even if they did, he doubted that they would understand his words. Based on what Naruto told him about them, that was quite probable.

Upon sighting Shikamaru, who has taken to staying there after school, Naruto grabbed the Nara and swept him off to who-knows-where.

"Naruto, you've unravelled the mystery that is natural energy?" said Shikamaru in shock.

He deduced as much simply because Naruto managed to move so elusively. Moreover, he could gather that they were no longer in the same place. Or rather, he could not think of a place within Konoha's vicinity with such large trees.

These trees were just so massive. Shikamaru estimated that they would dwarf the Hokage Monument back in Konohagakure, considering their absurd size. He surmised that this place had to be the source of Naruto's dangerous book.

"No, but I'm more attuned with the world now. Anyway, I've had enough of living in seclusion as a hermit. I can freely summon and control the winds and plants now," Naruto elucidated, changing the direction of airflow in the forest clearing.

When it came to influencing the elements with natural energy, it became less like emulating natural phenomena and more akin to moving nature itself. It was not only as if he no longer used an intermediary to achieve the same results, but also like he lacked the limitations of some concept like chakra capacity. Natural energy is abundant on Earth -- all of this was available to him. It was all a part of his natural energy reserves. Moreover, the energy he uses does not end up being consumed the way chakra is used up. He sometimes felt as though he was simply a conduit for the expression of nature's might.

"So... Anemokinesis and phytokinesis? You said you control them -- can you cause a storm up on Kumogakure?" Shikamaru inquired, eyes gleaming with interest.

"I haven't found a way to connect with water yet, so no. Technically, I should be able to move humid air to drier climates to induce rain. However, that would be... inefficient," replied Naruto, idly spinning the air above his hand into a cyclone.

"You have a bad habit of fiddling with other things when you speak," Shikamaru observed with a note of intrigue.

Naruto coughed, chastened, and changed the topic, "I wished to seek your opinion regarding this matter that has been bothering me."

"Is this related to you being unable to use the other elements still? If so, I haven't the slightest inkling. Knowing you, you would be able to get it with more practice," Shikamaru guessed.

Naruto chuckled, "I might have asked what you thought might be limiting me from using them, now that you mention it, Shika."

Shikamaru looked down at him, unimpressed.

Naruto held back his amusement out of politeness, then finally addressed the matter he had alluded to, "I have encountered a mystical... contract of unfathomable origin. This was after I managed to enter a variation of Sage Mode with pure natural energy. I suddenly see a contract through my mind's eye, something related to the chakra-eating antique I have in my possession. Do you think it is dangerous?"

Shikamaru was completely mind-boggled.

Why was Naruto constantly achieving things beyond his comprehension?

Anyway, if it was a contract with that book, it should not matter as long as it is not malicious. It was not like the blond would be foolish enough to go ahead and sign a contract with an obscure purpose. It will not make a difference if Naruto just ignored it... but what did he mean by "mind's eye"?

"Does it seem to hold malicious intent towards you? I think you should know that better than I will. I'm just curious -- what is a mind's eye?" Shikamaru responded, ponderingly.

Naruto closed his eyes briefly, as though taking a peek at the thing he saw with his "mind's eye".

Shikamaru waited patiently, not interrupting whatever process Naruto was going through.

"My mindscape. It's a place in your consciousness that holds your personality and isolates any outside influences. Memories and thoughts are accessible from there, and a jinchūriki is naturally able to enter that space. Other people can find and construct their mindscapes via meditation. My mind has always been a little different from others. It would reflect whatever goes on in the world around me. I think that whatever force wanted me to see the contract, it chose to contact me through my mindscape due to this peculiar trait of mine," explicated Naruto, fighting the urge to fidget around with something or another.

"Before that, how did you reach this place from your residence?" Shikamaru queried.

He was inquisitive about what kind of ability it would be, to have granted a skill that was so similar to teleportation.

"I travelled with the wind. Natural energy is a strange power that is connected to the world itself. Where there is air, there can be wind -- as long as I will it. Unless there is a vacuum or the medium is water in the place to which I want to travel, the wind can bring me there," Naruto explained, his fingers dancing as he weaved natural energy into an invisible fabric.

Naruto, abashed, let go of his creation and allowed it to dissipate as he met Shikamaru's dull stare.

"You can continue," the Nara sighed. "I don't care that much."

Naruto lowered his hands and clasped them together behind his back.

"So, what do you think about the contract?" Naruto asked, expectant.

Shikamaru frowned thoughtfully, then said, "I don't think it's malicious, so it should not harm you. I don't think you should concern yourself too much with it unless something changes?"

Naruto nodded, accepting the black-haired boy's advice.

"Very well. Anyway, I would like to offer you the chance to become a jinchūriki. You would receive a big boost to your chakra reserves and genjutsu immunity. Except for having to share your mindscape with a new roommate, you have nothing to lose," Naruto promoted his foster sibling's services, urging Shikamaru to accept with sparkling eyes.

"Alright?" Shikamaru agreed without thinking, pressured by Naruto's anticipatory look.

Naruto beamed at him, and Shikamaru realised then what he had agreed to.

"Which one?" he asked in resignation.

Naruto answered brightly, "Hachibi. His name is Gyūki. You don't have to worry too much -- he's an agreeable fellow."

"I see. I take that you will wait until you regain your chakra to seal the Hachibi into me?" Shikamaru said expectantly.

Naruto tilted his head to the side in bewilderment.

Shikamaru was left even more muddled with Naruto's next words.

"Why wait? Fūinjutsu can be powered by any form of energy if you are creative enough. If my seals weren't able to use natural energy, I would never have been able to create such a large network of seals."

Shikamaru gaped stupidly at the revelation, not at all resembling a descendant of the clan of intelligence.

"So, if you're ready, shall we get started?" Naruto proposed with zestful cheer.

"There's no point in delaying it," concurred Shikamaru.

Naruto whipped out an exquisite brush from someplace undetectable to human perception. Shikamaru thought that this blond Uzumaki was formidable even without his newfound supernatural abilities. He always defied common sense.

Naruto noticed a branch sneaking over to lift Shikamaru's shirt and hurriedly stopped the overexcited tree from excessive (?) actions. It would be ruinous to disrespect a colleague so blatantly, even more so when this was a Nara who was willing to ally with them for no personal benefit. He was not obtuse enough to disregard the step of obtaining a person's consent before proceeding with the next step. Anyway, it would have made for a... strange sight for plants to hold Shikamaru down and strip him before Naruto.

"Umm... I will need you to take off your shirt. I will be leaving the seal on your abdomen," he told Shikamaru awkwardly, secretly shooing a vine's offending tendril away.

"Oh, sure," Shikamaru casually complied, none the wiser of the close call he had so narrowly evaded.

Naruto beckoned at a giant tree to lower its bough and told the boy, "You can sit down..." Naruto paused, then corrected, "well, lie down here. It would make it easier for me to write."

The ancient trees, that were practically living fossils, were fighting amongst themselves for the opportunity to be of assistance. It was to the extent that Naruto had to intervene, and he ended up getting them to work together by cooperating to make a somewhat comfortable wooden platform. Their ceaseless bickering was migraine-inducing, so Naruto had to change the plan by having Shikamaru lay flat. It would not affect his work anyhow, so he would pretend that this was all according to keikaku.

He drew a helical seal in black ink. The elegant kanji were neatly arranged in a spiral shape, creating a seal that offered the utmost freedom to the entity it would house. At the same time, this made it quite difficult -- almost impossible even -- for a bijū sealed in it to escape. Due to its structure, this simple swirl is a self-sustaining seal. It would not weaken over time and, despite not restricting the chakra of the bijū, it did not have any flaws that could be easily exploited from within or without. However, this would magnify any influence from the bijū on the jinchūriki.

Of course, this was of benefit when the bijū and jinchūriki were in harmony.

'Gyūki-nii-san, could you please take care of Shika?' Naruto implored the Ushi-oni.

Naruto activated the seal, causing it to glow white, and nicked his thumb to smear some blood on the open end of the spiral. With his blood as the medium, Naruto transferred the chakra of Gyūki from his seal -- an altered Hakke no Fūin Shiki -- and into the seal that he had drawn up. Due to the cooperation of the bijū, the process was both smooth and swift.

When the last trickle of Gyūki's chakra was leaving Naruto's body, he heard Gyūki's gruff reply.

"Rest assured, 'Sura. I'll protect him for you."

Naruto chuckled fondly at the familiar form of address.

In the eyes of his foster siblings, he was probably the same as ever.

"Shika, let's head back home."

The last word rolled off Naruto's tongue with a bittersweet feeling.

He... would not be able to continue returning to that place soon.

Naruto closed his eyes and leaned his head back, sunlight filtering through the leaves overhead and warming his eyelids.

Shikamaru took no notice of Naruto's unusual mood. He shrugged his shirt back on and stood, searchingly examining the platform of interwoven branches. He wondered how the trees moved on their own without the assistance of organs such as muscles and joints -- the mechanism was likely something that defied logic.

"I'll enjoy it while it lasts," he murmured under his breath.

Shikamaru barely caught the whisper that was almost inaudible within the still forest clearing.

He turned around to look at Naruto with a question on his lips when the urge to ask died as he saw a trace of water on the blond's eyelashes.

The breeze returned, carrying away the glistening droplets, as Naruto opened his eyes once more.

"Let's go home," Naruto repeated himself, ignoring the ache in his chest.

These pleasant days were just so peaceful that he was not yet ready to let go of them.

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed softly, filing away the scene he had witnessed in the depths of his mind.

Naruto smiled gently at Shikamaru, and they were whisked away by the wind.

The deserted clearing concealed within the ancient trees was slowly engulfed once more by the behemoths that calmly surrounded Shikamaru and Naruto before, the sea of treetops no longer allowing even a speck of the sun's rays to pass through. The calm and peaceful place where Nara Shikamaru had beheld the insecurities that Naruto usually kept tightly concealed was no more. It was once again a dark and unforgiving place, barring any trespassers from wandering into its midst.

If Shikamaru observed this change occur before him, he might have wondered -- how did Naruto manage to enter this forbidden grove during his travels anyway?

~♡~

Sasuke stumbled down the stairs at dawn, expecting the wooden clone of his brother who was only similar to Naruto in appearance and barely skimmed over the scene in the dining area.

"There's no need to pretend in the house," he told the blond dismissively, ignoring the hearty breakfast enticingly set out on the table.

He made a beeline for the refrigerator and grabbed a plump red tomato.

He heard a faint sound of humour that the plant that bore Naruto's appearance should not have been able to imitate and froze.

"It's me, aniue," Naruto said, snickering.

The archaic form of address that Naruto so easily uttered gave the greeting a nostalgic nuance.

"You..." Sasuke trailed off, closing the cooling cabinet and turning to inspect Naruto more closely.

The sentence he wanted to say would not leave his mouth. It was as if something was stuck in his throat, blocking the words from being voiced. It almost hurt, physically.

'...have not called me that since we started fighting.'

Sasuke knew that Naruto did not mind their previous conflict and that he never blamed Indra for being so weak -- for succumbing to Zetsu's machinations.

He knew that he should have known better than to let his frustration control him. However much his father's appreciation for Asura felt like condescension towards him, he should never have vented his feelings on his brother. Indra had never been a sore loser -- it was due to Zetsu's influence that he lost his senses, but he should have respected his most exalted father's decision from the beginning.

And so, he did not deserve to say those words. He had no right to sound accusatory or hurt. Though it had been his job as the older brother to take care of Asura, he had failed this obligation. Even then, Asura told him that they were equally responsible for their actions over the past millennium. Indra had felt relief but hated himself more for it. He was incompetent, appallingly so.

Indra did not have any right to be called that by Asura.

Naruto laughed sheepishly, snapping Sasuke out of his trance.

"I'm sorry for disappearing for a month, Sasuke. I must have worried you," Naruto apologised, readily admitting to his wrongs.

Sasuke felt fond exasperation well up within him, dulling the ache in his chest.

Against his imperious brother, conciliatory Asura was always quick to voluntarily take the blame.

As Indra or Madara, he had never noticed this. He was not sure if he ever did, but he now realised that the one being spoiled was him. It was not as if he never cared before -- he was just blind to the indulgence of his brother. He always failed to perceive Asura's lack of ill-will towards him.

Their thousand-year battle felt so silly, in hindsight.

Sasuke flicked Naruto on the forehead, then hugged the blond tightly.

Naruto, trapped in the raven-haired boy's suffocating embrace, hesitatingly hugged back.

This reaction was... a bit misplaced? His brother was never one for openly displaying affection. Even when it came to Izuna, Madara did not show his love for him so blatantly. Madara doted on Izuna, as his last surviving sibling, but he was never one for excessive physical contact. It was strange indeed, that Sasuke seemed to be in a cuddly mood. It was hard enough for the other to begin tolerating Hashirama's lack of concept of personal space before.

"Aniue?" Naruto called out tentatively.

Was this little honorific what had set him off?

"Don't..." Sasuke mumbled something unintelligible into the silky, sunshine-like tresses.

"Does it discomfort you when I refer to you that way? I will not use it again if that is the case," Naruto placated.

Sasuke squeezed harder, the force just shy of breaking Naruto's ribs again.

"You don't have to let me win in everything," Sasuke said hoarsely. "Call me whatever you'd like -- I don't have the right to tell you what to do."

Naruto's brows furrowed in concern.

He somehow escaped the arms that locked him in, grabbing Sasuke's head and pressing their foreheads together.

It felt cool -- the Uchiha's temperature was lower than his own.

"You don't have a fever, but are you feeling unwell anywhere?" Naruto fretted, lamenting his choice to postpone the recovery of his chakra.

Natural energy and chakra systems did not mesh well. If he poured too much of it into one part of the human body, it will start to petrify. While this process is reversible, it was not something he wanted to risk when it came to treating a patient.

Sasuke's fair cheeks were squished comically, but Naruto was not in a mood to tease the other about it.

Sasuke blinked, batted away the offending hands and clung onto Naruto once more.

"I'm not sick," Sasuke muttered.

Naruto did not believe him.

"Come now, Indra. Tell me what's wrong," he coaxed patiently.

"I..." Sasuke faltered, then pushed on, "am sorry. I wasn't good to you. I was a sorry excuse of a brother."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, a distinct expression of bafflement on his face.

"You are still my aniue, right? Some errant soul didn't latch onto Sasuke?" Naruto interrogated with a probing gaze.

Sasuke felt his eye twitch spontaneously.

Ah, this was probably why he always misunderstood Asura's intentions.

This insufferable attitude of his was the most likely cause.

Sasuke whacked Naruto upside his head in a single fluid motion -- it was something he was yet to do since his childhood during his life as Madara but not anymore.

Naruto heaved a sigh of relief.

"It is you. So, Sasuke, what's up with you all of a sudden?" Naruto said with a quizzical once-over of the Uchiha.

Sasuke took a deep breath, then answered truthfully, "I don't deserve the respectful title of aniue. I was only ever mean to you."

Naruto blinked owlishly, cocking his head to the other side.

"I apologise for that. You have put up with me for so long..." Sasuke tried to cling to Naruto again, but the attempt was thwarted when he dodged.

"Wait, wait, wait! I think there's something wrong with how you are remembering our past..." Naruto said hurriedly, his mind buzzing.

What did Sasuke encounter to suddenly bring up ancient history? A biased recollection of it, too. It was quite inexplicable when he gave it some thought.

"You never relied on me as your aniue. You just give in to my whims, and I took it all for granted," Sasuke replied, his eyes reddening.

Naruto was dumbstruck.

"So it was about that? It doesn't matter what relationships between the brothers of other families are like. That's just how we were. I've never minded the fact that you weren't some dependable brother figure. You don't have to get so hung up over that. Continue obsessing over Itachi-san -- you don't need to overthink such matters long past," Naruto informed, keeping the other at arm's length.

He did not want to be squished again.

Even if he can heal it, broken ribs are not fun.

"You... Have you been thinking of how differently I treated you compared to Izuna and Itachi?" Sasuke asked, suddenly racing down a tangent.

Naruto blanked out.

"You must have thought: If Indra could be a good brother now, why couldn't he have been better then?" Sasuke cried out forlornly. "I will not blame you -- it was aniue's fault."

Naruto covered Sasuke's mouth before he continued raving over their lack of brotherly bond and further skewing the atmosphere. It was weird enough. He did not have to let the reincarnation of Indra continue his emotional tirade against himself. If not for the subject at hand, Sasuke might have sounded like a jilted lover.

It was not as if Naruto would ever cast him aside regardless of how lacking Indra was as an older brother. He loved his brother despite all of his flaws. Naruto knew that Indra was not the best sibling that one could ask for, but Indra was Asura's brother and nothing in the world could change that.

Naruto decided to say those thoughts aloud.

It was the truth anyway, and would probably distract Sasuke enough to drop the matter.

"I won't throw you away, Sasuke. You don't have to act like a jilted lover," Naruto stated, bracing himself for the eruption to come.

Instead of angering him, those words made Sasuke chuckle. "You say such things on purpose, don't you? I... You will never forgive me?"

Naruto stared at him the way one would look at an alien.

"I... forgive you, for all it's worth. I've never blamed you for it, so I'm not sure if it makes a difference," he uttered after a long pause.

Sasuke smiled faintly.

"Quick to forgive, as always," he murmured, fondly.

Naruto did not know how he should respond to that and remained silent.

"You haven't regained your ability to use chakra yet?" Sasuke noticed at last.

"Ah, I'm fine without it for now," Naruto answered, scratching his cheek awkwardly.

Naruto suddenly remembered what he overlooked due to Sasuke's abnormal behaviour.

"Sasuke, would you take in Son Goku and Kokuō? They have been removed from their respective jinchūriki and are currently in need of a host," Naruto inquired, hopefully.

Sasuke sighed, "You know how the bijū feel about me, Naruto."

'Goku-nii-chan, aneki, what do you say? Can you accept having aniue as your jinchūriki?' Naruto sought out the opinions of the said pair of bijū.

"We would tolerate him if that's your wish, Asura," said Kokuō.

Son Goku chimed in, "We might not get along with Indra, but we'll cooperate with him."

"They're fine with it," Naruto interpreted, using the puppy-eyes no jutsu on Sasuke.

It certainly worked on Shikamaru -- he had no reason to deem it ineffective.

Sasuke resolutely averted his gaze and replied curtly, "No."

This was not completely out of his expectations, but...

"Aniue, please? They don't have anywhere to go right now. I can't shelter them forever -- people will notice the excess of bijū chakra within my seal," Naruto openly begged, tugging on Sasuke's sleeve.

"You will have to think of another way, Asura. My chakra lacks the boundless nature of the Uzumaki clan. Yōton and Futton would seep into my chakra if I became a jinchūriki. That is not something that I can easily explain to others as Konoha's last Uchiha," Sasuke reminded, patting Naruto lightly on the head.

Naruto withdrew regretfully, mumbling something inaudible under his breath as he vanished from sight.

Sasuke was left in the lifeless dining area, the piping hot food preserved by the special seals engraved on the tableware the sole evidence of Naruto's recent departure.

"I might have to show displeasure, next time," he muttered. "Otherwise, I'll be left behind again."

~♡~

On the other side, Naruto reappeared in the middle of a ruin.

The field of scattered rubble, largely reduced to dust, was all that remained of Uzushiogakure's great legacy.

To prevent their attackers from looting the magnificent buildings that held the Uzumaki clan's secrets, the remaining defenders of Uzushio self-destructed on their last stand against the coalition of Kiri, Iwa and Kumo. From afar, the structures appear to retain their shape. However, these remnants crumbled into dust upon contact. The detonation of the unnamed seals not only disintegrate the village hidden in the whirlpools but also decimated the combined forces of the three villages that stood against them. It was telling, that the hidden villages involved never bragged about their accomplishment of bringing destruction to the unsurpassable masters of fūinjutsu. They won nothing in the war that they started with undue cause, attracting the hatred of Seal Masters across the world. This was on top of eradicating the people that they wished to enslave and losing three armies while they were at it.

This loss was a bitter pill that the Kiri-Iwa-Kumo coalition had no choice but to swallow.

The scattered Uzumaki survivors were in hiding, and their excellent fūinjutsu ability meant that no one would be able to find them unless they were willing to be discovered.

Inheriting the pacifistic nature of the ancestor they shared with the Senju clan, the descendants that still roam the continent never thought of seeking revenge for the devastation they suffered.

"A sad story," acknowledged Kurama. "That is why I have always called you foolish, Asura."

'Their love for peace and tranquillity is not wrong. It is only right for humans to not seek strife. It is the world that has let the Uzumaki clan down. I should have left my descendants a world in which they can freely be themselves, where their nonviolent tendencies would be accepted and not misconstrued as complacency,' thought Naruto as he bowed his head to the only building to survive the tragedy -- the Uzumaki ancestral shrine.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get there in time to help in your time of need," he spoke to the shrine.

Not as Asura or Naruto, but as Hashirama.

He failed to leave behind a Konohagakure capable of protecting their sister village. The treaty he signed with the fellow clan leader was one of mutual assistance. He searched through the records after Hiruzen granted him access to the Hokage's library. Uzushio called out to Konoha then, and only delayed the coalition's troops as they awaited Konoha's aid that some thought would never come. In the end, Konoha was one step too late and bore witness to Uzushiogakure's fall.

He wondered what it must have felt like to be there, whether as a member of the forces sent to support Uzushio or as an Uzumaki on his last stand against the combined armies of three hidden villages fighting a losing war.

Faced with an endless wave of enemies, did the Uzumaki clan patriarch -- Mito's father -- ever regret placing his faith in Hashirama and the Konohagakure he had built?

Unless Naruto selfishly dragged the man back from the Pure World where he had been laid to eternal rest, he would never know the true answer. Even so, he would like to believe that his then father-in-law never resented him. For making the man's daughter the jailor of a bijū and then his granddaughter as well, he knew that there was no reason for the man to not despise him.

He merely wished to continue to deceive himself.

This was why he sought after the elusive goal of peace. The world has been this way for as long as he has known it and, like Indra, Asura had known of their grandmother's iron-fisted rule that maintained the balance of the realm through power. However, he knew that such a reality was false. The peace held through the realm during the reign of that great Usagi no Megami was illusory, one that faded as soon as she was out of the picture.

True peace within a realm is only achieved when there was harmony between its inhabitants, or so Asura was taught by his father the Rikudō Sennin.

Over the years, he was forced to learn the importance of power.

Without it, one had no sway over the people.

No one would listen to him, much less stop fighting one another long enough to make alliances. It was a sad truth, that humans were already used to following the rule of a higher power. He had agonised over this issue during the brief respites he has had between reincarnations. It never occurred to him that his and Indra's methods could be integrated until the end of Uchiha Madara's life.

They would unite the shinobi world against a common enemy, then ensure that permanent bonds are formed during the alliance. They will only know for sure whether such a peace could last through the ages in time, but it was the best they had. With their current understanding of human nature, it should not go wrong.

Time is the healer of all necessary evils, he knew someone who used to say.

While Naruto knew that this was not necessarily always the case, it was true that all wounds take time to heal.

A light breeze picked up in the stagnant, barren ruins where time seemed to have been stopped.

"Rest. You have fought well."

The winds scattered the dust that have been held together by an unseen force, causing the ruins to begin to crumble and sink as Uzushio became a broad plain. The powdery substance that lined the earth settled, like the ashes of the fallen civilisation. Only the intact shrine was left standing, a large tombstone to mark the mass grave of Uzushiogakure.

Beautiful white lilies and chrysanthemums bloomed into existence, held aloft by the air currents in a magical scene that would cause one to doubt one's own eyes. The multitude of white flowers was conjured from nothing, as though grown by invisible seeds within the air itself. They cropped up, multiple appearing at a time, and scattered across the flat dusty plain of colourful earth.

Soon, all colour on the island was blotted out by the pristine flower petals.

"This land shall rise again," Naruto spoke into the flurry of flowers, bowing his head with a palm over his heart. "I'll breathe life into this ruin that has been forsaken by the world. The descendants of this clan shall be allowed to take root once more within the haven I'm creating. I have but one request -- shelter my kin. The bijū with nowhere to go and, perhaps, the jinchūriki that they are bound to... I only ask for them to be allowed solace in one place in the world, and I believe the peaceful lands of the Uzumaki clan would be the only place I can rest assured in entrusting them. I hope that you would not be against this, Patriarch. Your people deserved so much more."

He gazed over the flower-strewn plain for a moment longer, then disappeared without a trace.

~♡~

"This contract..."

Kurama opened one eye and yawned, "Asura, I really don't recommend whatever it is you're planning to do. You don't even know what that is. Even I can't sense it."

The corners of Naruto's lips quirked upwards as he teased, "Oh? Anigo, is that concern I hear?"

"I don't want to see you doing something you'd regret, brat," huffed Kurama.

Naruto chuckled. "Tsundere."

Kurama rolled his eyes, turning his back on the blond.

A calm silence hung between them for several beats.

"I don't think it means to harm me. Shikamaru thought so too," Naruto said abruptly.

"Do whatever you believe is right," Kurama sighed, sounding bored. "You're too stubborn to listen to what I'd tell you anyway, Asura."

Naruto chortled, the merry sound ringing throughout his mindscape.

"Aniue was just saying otherwise," he remarked.

Kurama regarded the reincarnation of Asura briefly before replying, "Don't you treat him quite differently? You would not give in when it matters, but you do indulge Indra most of the time."

Naruto glared at the Kitsune in deterrence.

"It is a bit dubious," sneered Kurama, "who between you two was supposed to be older again?"

"That's too much," he reprimanded the bijū. "It doesn't matter what the dynamic between us brothers is like. He's my aniue and nothing will change that."

Kurama scoffed, "As always, you defend that prude without regard for the consequences."

"Continue insulting Sasuke and I'll kick you out to join your fourth and fifth brothers. I would bet that they will be glad to have one more to help with the fields," threatened Naruto.

Kurama surrendered and made a zipping motion across his mouth.

With one last menacing look at Kurama, Naruto marched towards the contract yet untouched in his mindscape.

"And yet you call Sasuke a bro-con."

That snarky jab, although heard, was ignored.

Naruto laid his eyes upon the existence that he instinctively identified as a contract that hovered on the edge of his mindscape.

He reached out to it.

~♡~

Sasuke noticed the bright pink at the corner of his vision.

He searched through his memory for the identities of his classmates and arrived at a civilian-born girl's name.

Haruno Sakura.

Sasuke was unfamiliar with her, but it was not like he never noticed her among the crowd of admirers who pined after him. It was the first time he had noticed anyone who dared to stalk him. It was... unlikely that there was a student with the skill to evade his keen senses.

This reminded him -- Naruto seemed to have chucked his stalker at them the other time before disappearing for a month.

"I ought to give Naruto a taste of his own medicine," he decided.

To Sakura, Sasuke seemed to disappear from her sights right then.

By the time she managed to react to this realisation, Sasuke -- who moved too fast for her to perceive the movement -- was behind her.

He picked the pink-haired girl up by the fabric on the back of her collar and, with a shunshin, arrived on the spot on the Shinobi Academy's roof closest to the tree where Naruto lounged reading his book.

"I'm going back to train," Sasuke said mildly to the distracted blond.

Naruto hummed in assent, not quite paying enough attention to his surroundings.

"Since I'm busy... Do take care of my stalker," Sasuke declared triumphantly, tossing Sakura onto Naruto's lap and dashing off before the unwanted cargo could be shipped back.

Naruto was left behind with a red-faced Sakura who was still gushing over how cool Sasuke was.

He did not understand, at first, but soon realised that this was revenge for his earlier action of pushing Hinata onto the two boys.

He laughed bemusedly.

"Vindictive much?"

He looked down at Sakura, who was only just realising the person she was now in such close proximity with.

He plugged his ears.

This turned out to be a very wise move indeed.

The high pitched shriek that pierced through the Academy grounds would have ruptured his eardrums if he was just a second slower.

~♡~

"Team Seven, on the roof!" Kakashi called out.

He had been exhorted by Hiruzen on the importance of the team under his care.

He was permitted to fail them, if necessary, but showing a poor example for the luxurious lineup consisting of Uchiha, Uzumaki and Nara was forbidden. This was especially so considering how all three were clan heirs, with the first two being the last legitimate members of their respective clans. The status of Uzumaki Naruto as the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi most certainly did not help his case.

After nagging at Kakashi for a full hour, the Sandaime Hokage directly dragged him to the main entrance of the Academy before the watchful eyes of his fellow jōnin.

Thus, Kakashi was the first to get to the classroom.

For the first time since the loss of his teammates during the final leg of the Third Shinobi World War, Kakashi arrived early for an event.

Admittedly involuntarily, but there was still progress.

"Umm... Team 8," Kurenai said falteringly, looking at the three young kunoichis who did not seem to have anything in common. "Follow me."

Due to a bit of a mixup, the fangirl (stalker) team was thus born.