A note regarding Toneri and the rest of the Ōtsutsuki clan: I could have included them and dragged out the story, but I decided against it. I did briefly consider having Toneri show up in the epilogue in some way, but, if I recall correctly, Toneri's motivation to launch his attack was that mankind abused chakra. Now, with the changes that are made, I thought that it was pointless to bring him up, and chose to focus on other things.

As for the rest of the Ōtsutsuki clan: I do not ignore their existence as a whole, but considering how only one of them showed up in over a thousand years Naruto would not see them as an immediate threat. Aside from that in-universe logic, I admit that I simply consider the whole Boruto spin-off very underwhelming, and decided against including that plot into my story.

But enough of my ramblings! I hope you enjoy the final scenes of Asunder!

Asunder

Epilogue

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

― Mahatma Gandhi

You who seek peace… do you understand the word? How would you define the concept of peace? Would you presume that an absolute peace could exist? If yes, answer me this: does the taller tree live in peace with the smaller ones that grow around it? No. It puts them in the shadow, while its roots dig deeper and drink with greater thirst. The world at large is filled with a never-ending competition for resources, resources that will always be limited. Mankind is no different from any other animal or plant. Every form of life competes for the right to exist. Peace, the utopia in which there is no conflict, remains an impossibility, an illusion, simply because humans always desire. It is wishful thinking, a fantasy, but reality shows us that in order to feed, to reproduce, to protect- like any other animal the human feeds on the energy it takes from other life forms.

And yet there is no other species that is capable of such excessive cruelty as ours. In our unnatural desire for peace, we commit acts which go against any reason or necessity. Our striving for peace leads to violence, as one always comes to the point where the other 'stands in the way' of their idea of peace. Opposing views on how the peaceful world should be have always led to wars.

All because we refused to accept our own natures, all due to our own ignorance, we continued this unending cycle of hatred where one act of violence gave birth to the next. The irony of this cycle is that the desire for peace did not slow the cycle, but instead kept it flowing. Peace only came to be when groups gathered and prepared for the next act of violence. It was merely temporary, because the hunger always continued. Our children need to be fed, our houses need to be paid, our cattle need to roam, all in the image of how we think we had to act. Our view on what is ours, what our rights are, our duty, our beliefs; this is the social construction we call 'reality'.

The perception of the individual is always limited. Looking only at our own needs, or those of the people closest to us, eventually always leads to a sense of animosity as there is always someone else who competes for the same things. Two men desiring the same woman, two farmers desiring the same fertile ground, two merchants desiring the same supplies, two countries claiming the same territory; there will always be conflict.

That does not imply that conflict is wrong. No, conflict is part of life, and there will be no growth without conflict. The muscle will only grow stronger when repeatedly pushed to its limits. The mind will not expand if not challenged with new questions. Without conflict, only a world of decay would remain. It would create a dead world, devoid of desires or dreams, where people would not need to feed or have to compete for any resource. It is why the longing for absolute peace creates a tension that inevitably leads to the next violent outburst.

Of course, a greater supply of resources would allow for a period where conflict wasn't needed, but eventually mankind would, as any other species, reproduce to the point where its population once again reached a limit. We need to accept that resources are always finite, just as the world has a limited amount of surface, sustaining only a limited amount of life. Eventually the number of humans would grow to a point where competition would once again become prevalent, until it reached a point where the competition once again leads to conflict.

This is the exact same thing as what the trees around you do.

If there would be more water, there would be more trees to drink it. But the amount of water that irrigates the grounds would place a certain limit on how many trees could exist from it. Increasing the amount of water would give the chance for more trees to drink, whereas a decrease would increase the competition to the point where only the strongest survived- or the luckiest.

Is that any reason to despair? No. No man or woman should despair at the face of reality. Accepting reality and learning the lessons it teaches might be difficult, yet it forms the only viable path to progress. Though, one should never be deluded in the belief that one can fully comprehend reality. Accepting reality, by itself, is already difficult enough to do. For that to happen, one first needs to challenge it- just like the child challenges the parent- in order to explore his or her place in this world. After all, if our perception is limited, how could we ever hope to gain wisdom by merely accepting what we see, without any critical thought?

No, we needed change. Our world, our kind, has seen wars for too long. Each conflict only increased the hatred and sorrow. Should we have accepted that? My wife and I could have ignored the world and left it the way it was, retreated ourselves from the cycle of hatred and left mankind to its fate while we enjoyed our lives in peace. Such selfish things… we have power beyond any other, and as such we felt like we also carried the responsibility for making a choice: a choice only we could make, as none were foolish enough to challenge either of us, knowing the power we possessed.

We grew up in a world filled with pain and sadness, and while it made us strong, we also wished for no other to experience the same life. At first, the mightiest of our species desired peace, only to end in failure after failure. Our predecessors have explored several paths to make the world a more peaceful place, and failed. We learned from those failures. We realized how unnatural the desire for absolute peace was. Yet, at the same time war is an affront to nature just as well. Conflict is inevitable, yet our hatred escalated to the point where we aimed for the complete extermination of our enemies. No other species knows such cruelty. So… we offer you our wisdom. We gathered those who can guide you. We cannot bring peace, yet we can impose restrictions on the conflicts in the world.

To weed out the excesses of our cruelty, we need your help. To carry on our legacy, we founded this school. To sustain the peace, you, the future sages of this world, we offer you this record of our past. The keys to the truth. We can tell you about the past. About the Shinju, Kaguya, Zetsu, the Rikudō Sennin, about all these figures of myth and legend that have all dabbled with powers beyond their comprehension. No matter how vast their might became, they failed to understand how insignificant they still remained. They failed to comprehend their limitations. Nature itself is beyond the comprehension of any individual. The world is too vast for a singular being to understand it. And our planet is just one of many.

In truth, we are merely humble parts of the endless renewal of energy, the cycle of life and death, a temporal form of solidified energy, nothing more. But to you, our dear students, we offer this key to a door to a greater view. Use it to reach out to nature, so that you may learn from it, and transcend the barbaric origins of our kind. Use it to evolve beyond what we are.

Learn from the past, gain true awareness of the present, so that you may give birth to a better future.

"I'm impressed," Ajisai smiled with barely contained pride. "It seems I married not just the world's strongest shinobi, but also a philosopher," she teased.

"A woman as beautiful and wise as you deserves nothing but the best," he grinned cheekily. "Though I expect that I'll be rewriting it many times before I'm truly satisfied with the text."

Naruto had given her the scroll that he had been working on for a while. It was the first of several scrolls, this one being the introductory material, but other ones detailing the information they had on Kaguya, the Rikudō Sennin, the accounts of the history of mankind, and much more. There was even one on what little they knew about the Ōtsutsuki clan, although that one was not supposed to be shared with more than a handful of people.

"And you are still working on the scrolls that contain the training program that you and Kurama developed along with the toads?"

"Skill in senjutsu seems to be a minimal requirement, yes, but that is hard to put it into words," Naruto nodded. "Senjutsu isn't easily understood. Still, there has to be a way in which to offer them a way to see the world as we do. Your rinnegan cannot be passed on, not after how we brought the Gedō Mazō back to the moon. But I have good hopes that my power can be taught, especially now that the Toads have finally agreed to play their part in our little school."

"Gamamaru finally sent word?" Ajisai raised a brow. "Well, after nearly ten years…"

"Yeah," Naruto sighed. "That old geezer really should try to keep focused on things. Oh well, we already had Fukasaku and Shima who regularly help us."

It was hard to imagine that almost ten years had passed since the last open war.

Ten years ago, the world had been at the brink of destruction. They had only narrowly prevented Ōtsutsuki Kaguya from rising again. Since that day, they had worked tirelessly. Ajisai had learned to wield the rinnegan as proficiently as Nagato had before her, and because her body was more attuned to the legendary dōjutsu she was perhaps even better than her predecessor. Naruto, the wielder of the mokuton kekkei genkai, the one who mastered senjutsu, had led the nine bijū after he had liberated them. Together, they had guided, and at times forced, the shinobi villages to accept a new reality: that wars and conflicts were now settled through diplomacy.

Since that day, none of the hidden villages had openly borne arms against the others. Sure, there were disputes- more than Naruto and Ajisai wished to count- but none had evolved into the large-scale conflicts of the past. Then again, none of the villages were able to defy the Uzumaki couple. Especially after the Shinju, the God Tree, had stolen chakra from every living shinobi, the collective power of the hidden villages had diminished permanently.

Their power had decreased even more due to the fact that there were no longer any jinchūriki. The nine creatures now were free, though they were still, to some extent, attached to Naruto. With Ajisai's help, even Kurama was now able to roam the outside world freely, though he left a considerable chunk of his chakra in Naruto's seal. He, as well as the other bijū, had no desire to kill the person who had liberated them. Even Chōmei, who arguably had the greatest grudge against the Uzumaki due to the death of Fū, agreed to, and put his trust in, the plans forged by the last jinchūriki and Kurama.

Granted, in spite of their newfound freedom the nine were still cautious, and preferred to stick close. Though 'close' was a relative concept, considering how this area spanned both the former nation of Takigakure, parts of Otogakure, and the desolate wilderness around the Sangaku no Hakaba (Mountains' Graveyard) that lay in between. The area was vast enough for the nine to be able to live quietly. That meant that they could keep their distances from each other. Shukaku, for instance, could not stand Kurama. Likewise, Chōmei and Isobu had such conflicting personalities that they usually ended up squabbling just as much as the fox and the tanuki- squabbles that tended to lead to the destruction of many acres of land at a time.

'Siblings…' Naruto shook his head as he thought about the rambunctious nine. Then thinking of disorderly children, "Aji-chan, where did Jiraiya-chan run off to?"

"Hm?" After reading through the scrolls that Naruto had compiled, she had returned to her own hobby. Ajisai usually spent a significant portion of her limited spare time on improving her skill in drawing and painting. Naruto had his hobby of redecorating landscapes, and spawning new buildings, and she had her drawings and paintings.

"Jiraiya-chan," Naruto repeated himself, idly wiping a spot of red paint from his wife's cheek.

"Oh, he's playing with Chōmei again," Ajisai smiled happily.

Usually parents would be more concerned when their four year old son went on his little expedition, but… well, they weren't exactly normal people. Chōmei, for some reason the being refused to explain, had taken a liking to their little purple-haired ball of energy. While extremely carefree in his regular behavior, Chōmei was very protective of little Jiraiya. Overprotective, one might even say.

'Butterfly-chan', as the boy called the enormous creature, once even used a bijūdama when a swarm of wasps had come too close to the child. Overkill had not even come close to being the right word to describe that situation. Still, little Jiraiya had loved the 'pretty fireworks' and Naruto had loved the chance at designing a new forest from the crater.

Alas, Ajisai had been less amused by Chōmei's actions. She, and every sane mother with her, didn't think it was a good idea for the tailed beast to throw around landscape-altering bijūdama when a three year old stood right next to it. Hence the reason why they trusted Chōmei with their son's safety: Chōmei knew better than to risk the rinnegan bearer's wrath ever again.

"Shouldn't you use a darker shade of purple for Jiraiya-chan's hair?" Naruto laid his chin on Ajisai's shoulder, looking at the portrait she made of her son.

"It's not finished yet," the orange-haired woman swatted Naruto with her paintbrush, giving her husband a purple nose (albeit still a lighter shade of purple than their son's hair). She giggled when he got back at her by wiping off his painted nose at her cheek. "Shouldn't you be going out now?"

"Eh?"

Ajisai nodded at the calendar.

"Oh, right. I was wondering why it had gotten so busy in the past hour," he absentmindedly rubbed his nose, what only caused the paint to spread further. "I thought it would be another problem that had to be settled, never knew it was already this time of year."

"Four times a year, and still you manage to forget about it," the orange-haired woman sighed. "Kurama is right, you are a scatterbrain."

"Awww not you too," Naruto whined. "What did I do wrong to deserve such a harsh treatment?"

"Blame it on the hormones," she smirked. "And you're to blame for that."

"Hey, it's not like you didn't enjoy every second of it," he smirked, gently rubbing over the bloated belly of his pregnant wife. "You're still planning on asking Konan?"

"Well, she did seem to be a bit jealous of Tsunade when we asked her to be Jiraiya-chan's godmother, even if she'd never say such a thing out loud, so yes."

"Ino and Suiren are both going to blow a fuse once they find out that we're having a girl," he shook his head, already wondering why he was so much more concerned than he was when Ajisai was pregnant with the baby they had named in honor of the man who had, in their opinion, truly rescued the world.

The Toad Sage's spirit had been liberated from the belly of the Shinigami, and they had vowed that his sacrifice would never be forgotten. In fact, next to the accounts written by historians, Daimyo, kage, or the various temples spread through the nations, Naruto had made the story of Jiraiya's life part of the study material for their yet-to-be-opened academy for senjutsu. The tale of Jiraiya the Gallant would live on, and show the future generations how much a noble heart could change the world.

Of course, Jiraiya would also long be remembered for another franchise of novels that remained as popular as it had ever been…

"They probably will, but you can worry about that at a later time. If you don't leave now you'll be late for your meeting, so shoo," Ajisai grinned, jokingly making hand gestures to chase her husband away. Her other hand was gently rested on her belly, atop of the girl whom she wished to carry her long lost sister's name.

"And, and, and thennn, then the mean stingies went all BOOOOM," a little boy with unruly and spiky purple hair told his story, with an enthusiasm that brought a smile to the face of the godmother who held the four-year-old in her arms. "Kaa-chan was a bit angry at Butterfly-chan for using a damsel, though."

"Really now, so he used a damsel?" Tsunade raised a single brow, her brown eyes shifting to gaze at the compressed fur of the Seven-Tailed bijū. She knew very well what the boy meant: a dama- bijūdama.

"I might have gone overboard a little," the bug-like creature admitted awkwardly. While little Jiraiya was happily oblivious to it, Chōmei felt the full brunt of Tsunade's deadly glare. "Ajisai-sama already admonished me for it, in fact."

"I'm sure she did," Konan chimed in with her usual dry tone of voice, though she was visibly amused by the quiver in the bijū's voice. Apparently the young woman had made a firm impression on the usually happy-go-lucky creature.

"Erm, if you don't mind me asking, Tsunade-sama: why are you at this meeting?" Kurotsuchi, the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure no Sato asked hesitantly.

"Escorting the Hokage, of course," Tsunade had her eyes glued on her godson again, but answered the question nonetheless. "Also, I'm moving over to this place now that Asuma is completely adjusted to his new job.

"I was 'adjusted' to my job three years ago," the Rokudaime Hokage muttered indignantly. The Godaime just kept treating him like a kid, even if he had passed the age of forty and had two kids with Kurenai.

"Baa-chan is going to live with us?" before Tsunade could respond to Asuma's grumbling, a certain starry-eyed boy demanded her full attention. "Really?"

"Really really?"

"Really really."

"Really really rea-"

"I think she's clear enough, Jiraiya-chan."

"Tou-chan!" slippery like an eel, the four-year-old boy got out of Tsunade's grip and jumped into his father's open arms. Naruto, who had just risen from the ground like it was a completely ordinary thing to do, just laughed as he caught the enthusiastic child, ignoring the slightly pouting Tsunade. Tenten, who had gone along in order to guard her Hokage, giggled.

"So. did you and Chōmei blow up something today?"

"Nuh-uh," the purple-haired kid smiled mischievously. "We only teased 'Yuki-san a little."

"Not with the cattle-prod again, I hope?" Naruto felt a few drops of cold sweat in his neck when he saw his son nod happily. Gyūki, the Hachibi, did not like that particular item. And worse, he blamed Naruto for giving the boy such an 'instrument of torture'- even though Naruto had no clue how the boy had gotten his hands on the infernal thing. He had locked away the old scroll that once belonged to his son's namesake, fearing that his son had somehow gotten that prod out of it- and he certainly did not want his son to accidentally stumble upon the stash of porn the old perv had gathered.

Unfortunately for Naruto, little Jiraiya nodded happily.

"Oh well, I guess that means he'll be sulking for the next few months. Again. I thought we told you not to do that, Jiraiya-chan."

"Ehhhhm, I forgot?"

"You are not a very convincing liar," Naruto ruffled through his son's hair. "Chōmei, why don't you and Jiraiya-chan go seek out Kokuō? Kokuō's one of the few who can convince Gyūki to stop sulking."

"Ajisai-sama or yourself could talk to him as well," Chōmei proposed, knowing full-well that Naruto wouldn't involve his wife in this. She, too, blamed Naruto for the cattle prod.

"No can do," Naruto nodded at the assembled shinobi, who looked at the exchange with badly hidden glee. None doubted Naruto's power, yet there were a happy few who truly knew the man. And these people regularly met him. They knew that his son could literally get away with everything; all the child needed were his big innocent eyes and a slight pout, and Naruto lost.

"But Tou-chan…"

"Nope," Naruto put down his son, and gave him a gentle nudge. "Go play outside, 'kay?"

"Hmpf, fine," little Jiraiya grumped. No one fell for the act, though. In fact, the boy dropped the 'sad' act even before he reached the doors, and happily skipped away with the small form of Chōmei in tow.

"The brat is just as foolish as you were," Chōmei's brother chuckled with his deep voice. Just like his brethren, Kurama had gained the ability to compress his chakra and control the size of his body. How Ajisai had managed to do it was something not even the bijū themselves knew, but the fact remained that she changed an aspect of their chakra, and that this change enabled the nine to change the sizes of their bodies.

Well, Shukaku had been a unique case in this contrast, as Ajisai didn't need to change anything about his body. She merely needed to threaten him so that he used less sand to create his own body. Why? Well, Ajisai and Naruto had both been rather displeased that the One-Tailed bijū had trashed their flower garden, so Naruto couldn't say that Shukaku didn't deserve that scolding. Naruto suspected that Shukaku had shrunken down out of pure fear for his wife.

In an odd way, and in spite of the huge difference in age, Naruto and Ajisai somewhat functioned as the parents of the bijū.

"I suppose it would be hard to deny that I once acted like a four-year-old," Naruto grinned. "But thankfully I grew up into the amazing shinobi you see today."

"Tsk, big-mouthed fool," Kurama muttered. "These years of peace have made you airheaded again."

"I thought that you were happy about the lack of war, Kurama-san," the Mizukage, Mei Terumi, smiled.

"Me and my brethren are as much a cause of that peace as the bipedal is," the man-size fox huffed. "But let's start with the meeting. That tin-can from Tetsu no Kuni (Land of Iron) is here too, so everyone's ready."

"As you command, o' furry one," Naruto gave a mock-solute. He chuckled when the fox fumed, before switching to a more serious expression. "So, how are the Hyūga doing, Hokage-dono?"

"Unhappy," Asuma smirked. "But the entire caged bird system has been dismantled without further incident. Although, I think it would have taken a lot more time if you had not intervened."

"You should thank Baa-chan for that one. She's the one who trained Hanabi-chan and sent her to this village. Those stupid Hyūga elders trying to use the seal in order to force her into a marriage she didn't want, even though she was already living here, was just the excuse I needed to involve myself."

"They violated your neutrality by assaulting someone that fell under your protection," Temari agreed that his actions had been justified. "I bet Neji and Hinata are overjoyed."

"Hiashi stepped down as soon as the clan's laws changed, and happily made Neji his successor. Hinata still didn't want the position. But I'm sure Shikamaru already told you about that already," Asuma winked at the Kazekage.

"By that logic, Suiren should have told me about Neji-san," Konan remarked calmly, much to the embarrassment of her guard.

"Oh… great… that's going to be another problem with the Hyūga," Asuma deadpanned. "And here I just heard that Hanabi elected to stay here, rather than going home?" he turned to look at Naruto.

"Yes, she has quite the fascination with cats, it seems. She and Matatabi are getting along surprisingly well," Naruto nodded. It was quite surprising, as Matatabi, much like Chōmei and Gyūki, had held a strong bond with her jinchūriki. While Chōmei was rather easygoing, Matatabi and Gyūki needed more time to deal with their losses. In fact, Gyūki still only barely tolerated humans, claiming that they reminded him too much of his time with Bee. So yes, when Matatabi had begrudgingly tolerated the inquisitive young woman, Naruto and the others had been surprised.

'Perhaps… perhaps now that the Hyūga thing is solved, I could truly begin teaching Hanabi.' Naruto frowned a little at the thought. The younger Hyūga reminded him of her sister Hinata in many ways, but she was more confident and outgoing. Beyond that, she had already shown that she was able to break out of her clan's dogma, so her mind was flexible enough. If he told her what he had in mind…

"You didn't learn to properly master senjutsu when you were a kid either, Naruto," Kurama chimed in. While he had a manifestation in the 'outside world', he and Naruto were still linked.

'Yeah, it's worth a shot. I'll ask Matatabi if she's willing to cooperate, later on. Without her, Hanabi would never have the necessary chakra reserves to gather enough natural energy.'

"Don't forget that the toads need to agree as well."

'Gamamaru might offer some insights, but it'll probably take another decade for him to realize I asked a question. Oh well, I could ask Fukasaku and Shima for their opinions about Hanabi. I already intended to ask them when it would be wise to begin instructing Jiraiya-chan about natural energy.'

"Naruto?" Tsunade waved a hand in front of the dazed Uzumaki. "Earth to Naruto?"

"Sorry, I kinda drifted off."

"As I was saying," the Senju said pointedly. "I decided to move to your village. While I trust Hanabi's skill as a medic, I want Ajisai to have the best doctors available."

"Why don't you just admit you wanted to be closer to your godson, Tsunade-sama?" Omoi, the Godaime Raikage, chuckled. "Or is it that you are on the run from debtors again? I heard that some even hired bounty hunters… would coming here mean that Konoha can't handle them? Is the balance of powers disrupted? Are we going to have another world war again?"

"Raikage-sama… your imagination is running rampant again," Kurotsuchi shook her head. The lollipop-chewing Raikage was undeniably an intelligent man, but his thoughts were still an odd thing to listen to- and usually utterly impossible to follow. Normally, Karui would be around to smack him back to his senses, but for some reason she hadn't been in his guard detail this time. Omoi seemed happier than usual, and Naruto knew that smile all too well. It was the one he had now that Ajisai was pregnant.

"We're happy to have you join our little village, Baa-chan. Jiraiya-chan will be ecstatic," Naruto smiled after clearing his throat. "But are you sure Ino and Shizune will agree?"

"Pff, they've got their own lives now!" the busty Senju huffed. "Ino is practically in charge of the village whenever Asuma isn't around, bullying around her poor husband, while Shizune runs a tight ship in Konoha's hospital. No, I'm no longer needed there."

"I'm quite sure neither would agree with that, Tsunade-sama," Tenten frowned. The bandaged blade on the young woman's back squirmed in agreement. "See, even Same-chan knows you're lying. Little Jiraiya has done what his namesake could never do," the sword wielder quipped.

"She's always welcome," Naruto chuckled. "I'm still not going to let you set up your own gambling den here, though."

The small village that Naruto created stood near the remnants of Takigakure, although after the rampage of the Jūbi there wasn't much left to recall that former village. Before Naruto or Ajisai had been able to come up with a name, the two had heard how their newly found village had been referred to as Uzushiogakure, and they had let that name stick. Not only because Naruto felt like it was a good way to honor his fallen ancestors, but also because it served as a reminder of why this neutral village was created.

This village housed the central court where the disputes between nations or villages were settled, where emerging conflicts were solved before they reached the point of unnecessary slaughter: unnecessary slaughter such as the fall of the original Uzushiogakure no Sato, or the Uchiha massacre.

Tired of war, crippled by losses, and even further brought down by the chakra that every shinobi lost to the Shinju, the hidden villages had agreed. Not that they were happy, especially the older generations, but they had cooperated and joined Naruto and Ajisai in the creation of a set of laws which were designed to loosely maintain the current status quo.

It was no perfect peace, as there were still quite a few conflicts around the world, but it was easily better than how they had used to live. Of course, when these laws had been set in motion there had been an influx of missing nin who opted for violence rather than peace, but in general it was nothing the hidden villages themselves couldn't handle. Even a feeble attempt to set up a new hidden village had been shot down with ease. And whenever things threatened to get out of hand, Naruto and Ajisai were easily capable of crushing whatever threat there was.

This was how Naruto hoped that his future senjutsu students, the future generations of sages, would maintain the peace. The bijū had all the might necessary, but they would easily lose the fragile connection to mankind. Their centuries of experience and their completely different physiology meant that they often had trouble understanding the issues of the short-living humans. The sages would mediate between the bijū and mankind, just as much as they would mediate between the many factions and nations of humans.

Those who listened to the voice of nature would come to play a vital role, and Naruto hoped that Hanabi and little Jiraiya would be the first students to prove that point; and he had yet to start searching for promising students in the other nations.

"It has been two years since the last incident, one might almost grow complacent," Mei said jokingly. "It seems that my generation, the one that fought wars and civil wars, that has witnessed and committed atrocities of many kinds, should take a step back. It is no secret to any of you that I have been grooming my successor for several years now. And now… now it feels like the right time to make Chōjūrō the Rokudaime Mizukage."

"Why are you putting this forward in this meeting?" Temari raised a single eyebrow, surprised that the most experienced kage amongst them would step down. "The laws we established stated that we each may appoint our own leaders."

"I am aware that it is, technically, an internal matter, Kazekage-sama, but still I felt like it was the proper thing to do," Mei smiled. "Is there any amongst you who would oppose Chōjūrō's appointment?"

None spoke up, so Naruto spoke up: "It seems none of us disagree. I honestly had not expected that anyone would, I admit. Chōjūrō's strength already made him a suitable candidate, and his calm personality only makes him more suited to take a leading role in the peaceful world we envision."

Yes, the future generations of sages would play a pivotal role in the world, but so did the leaders of the hidden villages and the various Daimyo. Everything would go so much smoother if they, or at least the majority of them, cooperated.

He smiled as he saw his wife talk with an uncharacteristically bashful Konan. By the looks of it, the leader of Amegakure had not expected to be asked to become the godmother of the yet-to-be-born daughter of Ajisai and Naruto. The woman was so taken aback that Suiren and Tenten began teasing her.

Sitting atop the head of the Jūichimen Kan'on, Naruto momentarily closed his eyes and extended his senses. The Kan'on always had an inexplicable affinity for suffering, one that Naruto had first thought to have stemmed from Kurama's chakra. Kurama had denied that, although even the fox was uncertain. The two of them had eventually come to the hypothesis, even if it was impossible to properly test said hypothesis, that the Jūichimen Kan'on, just as Hashirama's Senju Kan'on, had somehow had its origins in the natural energy that had to be used to form the statue.

From his elevated position, he could look down upon the village he and Ajisai had created. It was peaceful and quiet, inhabited by around a hundred souls, but more importantly: it was home. After everything they had gone through, this oasis of peace was everything they could ever wish for. It was a perfect place to raise their children, as well as a perfect place to establish their academy. Plus, he could live here without the stupendous amounts of paperwork he would have had if he had become a kage. He didn't even have a Daimyo to whom he needed to answer.

A loud yawn resounded. Next to the massive wooden statue lay the uncompressed form of the infamous Kyūbi no Yōko. When he didn't need to be inside buildings, Kurama generally preferred to be his gigantic self. This was actually fine with Naruto and Ajisai, considering how the lazy bijū slept most of the time, causing far less havoc than his brethren.

Kurama, the being who was able to sense negative emotions, and Naruto, standing atop a statue that heard the voices of the suffering; they made an unusual combination. However, the true peculiarity was the fact that they both could extend their senses and feel at ease. Sure, the murmur of suffering and hatred remained, and would likely always continue, but the world had grown far more silent to their senses. There were countless reasons for suffering, after all. From common illness to heartache, from a child with a hurt knee to the victims of war, there were more causes than Naruto could bother to think about.

Still, the fact that the world had grown a bit more silent made him proud to the point that he reveled in this relative silence for a prolonged time.

One eye cracked open, and Kurama moved his arm to budge the wooden statue at his side. While the force behind the 'nudge' could easily have taken down a regular building, it did little more than shake up the Kan'on a little. It was enough for Naruto to pay attention to his surroundings.

"I see, it must be time," Naruto smiled.

Not even moving a single finger, Naruto mentally ordered the Jūichimen Kan'on to sink back into the ground. Just in time to catch the little messenger in his arms.

"Toouuuu-chan," Jiraiya whined, the boy's blue eyes sparkling. "Baa-chan is going to live doornext!"

"It is pronounced 'next door', Jiraiya-chan," the blond chuckled. "And yes, Baa-chan is going to stay with us."

"And Kaa-chan has foodsies."

"…you're not even trying to say it right, are you?"

"But Butterfly-chan said it's called foodsies," the boy tilted his head slightly. "And I am hungry!"

"Then we shouldn't let Kaa-chan waiting, should we?"

"RAMEN!"

The warcry of the two ramen-addicted Uzumaki made Kurama grimace. Why couldn't they just let him sleep? Naruto teasingly flipped him off. The world was perfect, his life was perfect, and no lazy fox was going to tell him otherwise!

Author's notes

Honestly, I do not know whether to feel proud or saddened now that I managed to end this story. This all started as I wanted to write something that was a bit easier to deal with, as I was writing my Master's thesis at the time and my other fics consumed too much time and energy. Oddly, 'Asunder' grew out into a rather complex and weird story despite my initial intention to keep things simple.

Still, in spite of how unusual the story turned out to be, it is a story I greatly enjoyed writing. I hope you have enjoyed reading it just as much! At this point I can only say thanks. Thank you, who have read this story. Thank you, who have left reviews. Thank you all for your encouragements and feedback. Thank you Illuminated, for all your effort in polishing this story. And thank you Fuyuriku for exposing those last few typos that managed to slip through. All that remains now, at least for those who don't follow my other stories, is for me to write those dreadful last two final words:

The end.

-Ziltoid-