Naruto: Consequences

Epilogue

'Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.'

'Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discren and confirm their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment - that which they cannot anticipate.'

-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

{The Ruins of Konohagakure no Sato - three weeks after its destruction}

It was a strange homecoming of sorts.

Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Uzumaki, Anko Yamaha, Seiya Yamaha, Kumi Kawasaki, Kiba Inuzuka, Mina Inuzuka, and Team Misfits were returning to Konoha after being away for so many years. They were not alone though, as escorts of Neo Uzu were escorting them, as well as Boruto and Himawari Uzumaki, Anko and Seiya's quadruplets, and the Inuzuka sextuplets were accompanying them to their parents's ancestral village.

It was an S-ranked assignment order by Naruto himself: the recovery of the ashes of the first four Hokages: Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Minato Namikaze, as well as the ashes of Naruto's mother and predecessor, Whirlpool Daimyo Kushina Uzumaki along with Hashirama's wife and Naruto's great-grandmother, Mito Uzumaki.

Unlike the Konoha team, whose trip had taken them two weeks just to get to the Land of Whirlpools, it only took Naruto and his team one week from start to finish to arrive in the Land of Fire, then onto the Konoha ruins.

The destruction of Konoha came after the Neo Uzu Taijutsu Tournament. Tsunade and Jiraiya were dead, as were the majority of the Hyuga Clan and Hirotomo. Hana Inuzuka was dead as well. Aside from Tenten and the Ino-Shika-Cho Trio, several main and cadet branch members of the Hyuga escaped, along with the Inuzuka Clan and had hooked up with the four missing Jounins, from what Naruto had learned from his information network.

Mirai and Hotaru Sarutobi, ages ten and seven respectively, the daughters of the late Asuma and Kurenai Sarutobi, had escaped with the civilians when Konoha ordered its civilians to be evacuated. Before heading out of the Land of Fire, the Ino-Shika-Cho Trio and Tenten found them and retrieved them from the civilian remnant that was in hiding before fleeing the country.

They owed Asuma and Kurenai that much. Luckily, they found out that their parents did not poison their minds about the Jinchuuriki. Deciding to keep their crimes about the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki a secret, they decided not to tell Mirai and Hotaru, which would destroy their impression of their parents. Better to have them think that their parents died honorably.

Naruto knew where they were hiding and even he knew from experience that the life of a mercenary/missing ninja was not an easy one. His own children were born in the Land of Spring and had traveled with him, Hinata, Hanabi, Anko, Seiya, the quadruplets, Mina, Akamaru, Setsuna, their eight pups, Kiba, and the sextuplets before he decided to revive the Land of Whirlpools. Kiba's kids and Anko's kids were also born in the Land of Spring.

So after talking it over with Konan, he decided to do the one thing nice for anyone from Konoha. After all, only Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Mina were the ones who showed him and Hinata kindness despite their parents's attempts to kill Naruto. Ino had grown out of her obsession over Sasuke following the retrieval mission, deciding to let Sakura have him. Then there was the fact that Tenten was now a widow, having married Neji in secret, thus making Tenten the de facto head of the Hyuga as she carried the Cadet Branch Clan head's child in her womb. The marriage became public thanks to Hirotomo, but before Neji could be reprimanded for marrying someone outside of the Hyuga Clan, Tetsuya Suzuki and Kurotsuchi had invaded the Land of Fire.