Chapter 1

From the moment Naruto had heard of the grand exploits of the Fourth Hokage, he knew he was destined to surpass them.

It was more than the idle dream of a child. It was more than a wish for greatness and glory. It was a feeling that permeated every fiber of his being. Naruto knew with complete certitude; he would surpass the Fourth, he would become the greatest ninja that had and would ever live.

Of course, he'd had a rough start. He was a scruffy kid that, for whatever reason, nobody could tolerate. No one would teach him and his early life consisted of mostly barely concealed glares and an all-consuming coldness that radiated from the villagers like heat from the sun.

The deck was stacked against Naruto from the beginning. He had neither a clan nor a family. He had no friends and no loved ones. What he did have was guts. He had the kind of single-minded determination known only to mules and men who didn't know when to stop. Life knocked Naruto down and he got back up and blew a raspberry in life's face. Naruto had failed the ninja exam twice before he passed; both those times he refused to acknowledge his failure for more than a few hours before he was back at the training ground, throwing kunai at posts and attempting (and failing) to make the thrice damned clone that was his downfall every time.

By the time he was thirteen, Naruto had made a name for himself amongst the promising ninja of his generation. He'd survived a confrontation against an A-ranked ninja, he'd defended the village from Gaara, and he'd managed to learn one of the Fourth's signature techniques, the Rasengan. When he left on his journey with Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, he was on the fast track to accomplishing his dream. More than getting a date with his precious Sakura, more than bringing back Sasuke, and even more than becoming Hokage, his dream of surpassing the Fourth was in reach, he could almost taste the satisfaction.

And then came the training trip. By the time Naruto returned from the three year trip, he was so certain in his own ability, he'd be willing to take on Orochimaru himself. He was disappointed when he realized that while he was off with the old pervert, his enemies had been training too. Naruto's return to the village was met with a myriad of new and dangerous enemies.

The Akatsuki who were determined to take the demon sealed inside of him by the Fourth himself. He was hounded by them for the most part of a year. Each battle escalated in intensity as did his training. By the time the final battle with Pain, the leader, rolled around, Naruto was a sage in his own right, following in the steps of his sensei before him. He'd defeated Pain and saved the village. He was loved unanimously and he felt content. Naruto knew that if he hadn't outright surpassed the Fourth, he had to at least have reached equal footing.

And then everything he knew, all of his hard work, determination, and training was put to the test with the beginning of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. He'd been sequestered away at the beginning, he'd been taught to harness the power of the Kyuubi and he'd become more powerful than ever before. Naruto had reached his dream, his destiny, of surpassing the Fourth, but he still wasn't the best. That title was apparently held by the masked man, the one who called himself Tobi.

Tobi, who had raised an army of the dead to fight for him. Tobi, a man who by himself knew more space-time techniques and a sheer number of jutsu than Naruto even knew existed. Tobi was better than him and, to top it off, he was threatening Naruto's friends. This was it. Naruto had surpassed the Fourth, this much had been told to him by the man himself in the Seal, now all that was left was to beat this man, this villain, and he would be the best. There would remain no doubt that he was the best ninja alive.

When Naruto had finally fought his way through the army of the dead and the Zetsu clones that accompanied them, he was met with Tobi and the fight of his life.

The result was a blistering loss.

It seemed the masked man had an answer for every trick in Naruto's arsenal. When faced with the combined might of Naruto and the Kyuubi, Tobi didn't flinch. He was slippery as a buttered bar of soap and hit like a truck, to boot. When death was all but certain, Naruto was only saved by the timely intervention of the remaining Kage, Gai, and Rock Lee. It was a blow to his pride as a ninja and an affirmation that his raw power and brute strength would not be enough to defeat this foe.

Over the next year Naruto kicked his training regimen up several notches. He'd started to train in taijutsu with Gai and Rock Lee, even adopting their weight training program of wearing an absurd amount of weight on themselves at all times. He'd trained his jutsu and tactics with Kakashi and had learned to truly look underneath the underneath. He'd pestered Shikamaru until he'd finally agreed to help learn to set the traps within traps within traps that Shikamaru could orchestrate on the fly. And he had sparred with the Kage, no holds barred, in an effort to cram as much experience into himself as he could before he confronted Tobi again.

That's not to say Tobi was silent during this time. His army of the dead had been sealed away, one of his main sources for new soldiers in Kabuto had been killed, but he still had Zetsu and he made liberal use of his clones to raid small villages and cities alike in an attempt to draw Naruto out. He was driven back most of the time considering he had no interest in holding an actual city and his army needed no resources. He was content to stick to hit and run tactics until his prey reared his head.

And the day finally came. One year after their first confrontation, Naruto was allowed to respond personally to another of Tobi's raids. The Kages had decided Naruto was ready. His training had been grueling, and he was at his peak.

The battle that followed shook mountains. It was unlike any fight seen by the ninja that witnessed it. The immense power of Naruto, his sage training, and his partnership with the Kyuubi faced off against the awe-inspiring might of the Rinnegan and Sharingan combination. It lasted a full twelve hours, Naruto using every new jutsu, every new trick, and every iota of his vast power to try to destroy Tobi, and Tobi himself using every time-space trick he knew to escape harm while using his Rinnegan and Sharingan to throw immensely powerful bloodline techniques at his opponent.

In the end it had been extremely close, but Naruto's power, stamina, and sheer determination had won out. Tobi had grown tired and sloppy and had taken an Odama Rasengan head-on. And so it was that Naruto stood above his dying adversary, victorious. A sense of triumph filled him in that moment. A feeling of sheer elation. He'd done it. He was the best, the strongest, the top dog. He'd protected his village, his world, and had proven himself the most accomplished ninja the world would likely ever see.

At that moment a single thought entered his mind, "I'm so awesome!"

But it seemed like Tobi wasn't done. He needed to get his final word in. He took off his mask revealing a face that Naruto had only seen once before, in a picture Kakashi had shown him of his old team. Back when he was still a lowly genin.

Uchiha Obito was alive, it seemed. Alive for as long as it took him to succumb to his wounds. And he had something to say.

"You've done well to defeat me Naruto. I never thought my end would come at the hands of a child. And the son of my old sensei, no less." He chuckled, followed closely by a bloody cough.

"I've hated this world for a long time. It took Rin from me and it took my dreams. My plan, our plan, was so simple. We would cast the image of the Sharingan on the moon, we would cast a perfect illusion, make a perfect world. No war, no strife, we could all be with our loved ones again. I could be with Rin and Kakashi, you could be with your mother and father. A world of infinite happiness."

"A world built on a lie!" Countered Naruto, who had taken a seat on a nearby pile of rubble to catch his breath after the lengthy fight.

"What's a lie if it makes the lives of those you love better? I was offering a world of peace, of happiness, a world where no child would ever have to go hungry, no boy would ever have to murder his whole family at the behest of his superiors... where I wouldn't have to see the woman I loved killed by my best friend in front of my own eyes..." Tobi trailed off, a look of melancholy on his face.

"But these things happen! That's life!" Exclaimed Naruto. "My parents died and I had a demon sealed in my gut, the village hated me for most of my life, but I didn't complain. I worked hard and took my happiness!"

"And what of the children that never had the chances you did?" Tobi asked. His breath was becoming shallower and the adrenalin that had kept him going as long as he had seemed to be winding down. "Those children, those who never had a chance, they couldn't take their happiness, they didn't have the strength and the world certainly wasn't doing them any favors. I envisioned a world where everyone had a chance, everyone had loved ones and no one would take them away. It was my dream..." His speech seemed to be winding down and Naruto sat listening with bated breath. "And to the boy - no, the man that killed that dream... I give only... death."

Naruto was on his feet as soon as the last word was out of his mouth, but he was already too late. He'd let down his guard to give his enemy his last words. The battle had left him sluggish and slow, and his decency was about to cost him his life.

"Kamui." Tobi had used his dying breath and the final bit of his energy on this, his final technique. As his eyes closed, he saw Naruto with a look of utter shock on his face. Tobi, in his final moments, felt satisfied.

Naruto found himself in a dark void. The rushed manner in which Tobi had cast his final jutsu had left it malformed and volatile. Kakashi had told him that when he and Tobi used their shared technique, it would drop the person into a pocket dimension from which they could never escape, unless released by Tobi himself. This didn't look like any pocket dimension, not that Naruto had ever seen one. It was an endless black void with no end in sight, and Naruto found himself adrift.

He cursed his soft nature. He should have finished Tobi cleanly, he shouldn't have dropped his guard, he should have done many things; however, such was the nature of Naruto. he was trusting to a fault and the quintessential spirit of mercy, even when it was not in his best interest. His mercy and trust had put him here, adrift in an empty void from which there was no escape that he could conceive of. He cursed himself and mourned the loss of his friends and dream. He was the best, but the best was dead. What was the point of being the best ninja the world had ever seen, if he was going to be stuck in this place for the rest of his life? His thoughts continued on this dark path until the exhaustion from the battle finally found him and he was lost in the land of dreams.

Naruto dreamt of a huge celebration in Konoha. His friends were there, there was bottomless ramen, and everyone was shouting his name. He was the happiest he'd ever been in his life and even the fact that Rock Lee was in a dress and Ino's head was on Shikamaru's body couldn't put a dent on the ecstasy he was feeling at the moment. What did put a damper on the occasion was the rude awakening he received.

When he came to, Naruto looked groggily around and blearily noted that this was not, in fact, the endless void he had fallen asleep in. No, he was in a very dirty alleyway, book-ended on the left and right by a pair of very tall, brick buildings. He felt a brief rush of relief and joy. Tobi's final revenge had failed! Nevermind that he didn't recognise the design of these buildings and that he was in the noisiest, stinkiest place he'd ever had the pleasure of visiting. He wasn't in the void and he could find his way home.

Naruto rushed out of the alleyway, his tattered orange and black jacket waving wildly in the wind, the zipper having been torn off during his battle. He ran to the end of the alleyway and took a huge breath of not-so-fresh air that he let out in an explosive exhalation. Naruto opened his eyes and was ready to take in the sight of whatever dump in the Elemental Nations he'd, quite literally, landed in, and was thoroughly shocked by what he saw.

This was like no place he'd ever seen, and it certainly wasn't anywhere in the Elemental Nations. He knew, he'd been to every corner of the continent on his training trip.

There were buildings all around him, taller than any he'd ever seen. Large metal... boxes moved up and down the odd black road at high speeds. The people were dressed strangely, and when he finally noticed them pointing and staring at him, he also noticed that they weren't speaking any language that he had ever heard before.

With a falling heart and a depressed sigh, Naruto came to the realization that he was very far away from home, and that getting back wouldn't just be as easy as asking for directions.

Edited 4/28/13 for grammar, spelling, and typos.