The journey to myself

Subconscious

Ever since he had gotten to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, Naruto's life was going pretty smoothly. Intense, as always, but smoothly, evenly.
He was now constantly surrounded by his friends, all the people who now recognized him as their hero. That made Naruto's heart feel warm. Most of the loneliness he used to feel just a couple of years ago had vanished, being replaced by an increasing amount of links he built with practically every one he ever met, not to mention that he now even was friends with Kurama, the Nine Tailed Fox who had made his life so hard not so long ago. He felt happy and he thought he was finally somehow healing from the losses of his beloved ones like Ero Sennin or Neji. He was now recognized by everyone, starting from when he saved Konoha from the Shukaku, then Gaara from Akatsuki, Konoha again fighting all by himself against Pain and then pretty much saving the whole world after fighting Uchiha Madara during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
However, he wasn't really realizing that there was something going on deep inside him. Ever since the war ended, he kept himself busy with every mission he could get. He would be constantly harassing Tsunade-no-baa-chan so that she would keep him busy. He wasn't conscious about the fact that he only felt good when he wasn't alone, because even when now he had friends, even when Sasuke was back at the village, he still didn't have anyone to get home to, he still didn't get Sasuke to fully accept him, not in his life, nor as the great Shinobi he had become... he simply still had his heart incomplete. And he couldn't fulfill that emptiness as long as he kept being unconscious about it. That was how he started a journey in which he simply didn't allow himself to stay home doing nothing. He would put his life at risk as many times as necessary. He just wasn't going to let his unknown emptiness take over him. What his subconscious didn't know was that even when his mind could maybe (and just maybe...!) keep working on and on, his body might just be a little more fragile that he thought...