A.N. – HOLY SHIT I'M NOT DEAD.

I *feel* like I'm dead, but I'm not.

Long story short: Life happens. College took more time than expected. The failings of the series made it hard to get interested in writing this fanfiction. All of the above have been solved. And it's awesome. This is just a mess of drabbles to keep myself amused and get them out of my head while I work on Naruto: Lord of Konoha. Yes! The fic is revived! I'm about a third of the way through the next chapter already.

Admittedly, this is a bit rambly, but that's mostly intentional due to the emotional states involved, but still, it's grating to leave it as is.

Regardless! On with the insanity!

oOo

Child of Destiny Mk 3

oOo

Naruto stared at himself in the mirror.

And stared.

And stared.

And stared some more.

Then he stared at his hands.

Then his arms.

He brought a foot up to wiggle his toes and stare at those.

It was at this point, Naruto decided that these eye thingies were weird. No other word for them.

His hands had *colors* to them, mostly this yellowish blue with hints or red flickering through it occasionally, but they had colors playing across them that hadn't been there before.

And it was weird how he just… knew some things now. He wasn't sure where he'd heard them before or if he even had.

Deva. The path of heaven. Light played across Naruto's fingers like water, lighting the dark apartment.

Asura. The path of the demon. Closing his eyes, Naruto clenched his hands into fists, feeling the light solidify and form and something… else… shaping about his skin. When his eyes opened again, brass armor that looked almost alive had formed about his hands.

Human. The path of enlightenment. Naruto closed his eyes, pressing his hands to his temples, trying to block out the skills he had somehow pulled from Mizuki, throw this way, flick your wrist like this, mixing nettle bane and- No. No. Enough of that. –will make a poison that will cause their blood vessels to - No. With effort, he forced the knowledge away, as it carried such hate with it, such loathing… Naruto wanted no part of it. He didn't-… what was he supposed to do with something he'd stolen from someone? Even a douchebag like Mizuki…

Animal. The path of the earth. Naruto lowered his hands, the strange brass not even glimmering in the darkness, despite seeming as clear as day to his eyes. He flexed his fingers and… felt the plants in his little garden shift, knew that the insects amongst them were giving him their attention. He pushed chakra through his hands and towards the plants, and he could see them grow, could see the insects get more excited.

Preta. The path of the hungry ghost. He held out a hand, looking at the potted plant not far from him. His potted plant. And then it flew to his hand, resting in his palm. Swallowing, Naruto closed his eyes, and then he touched… something inside him, something hungry and desperate and needy, and it gnawed at the world about him, he felt better, stronger as it did… But then he pushed it away, and when his eyes opened, the pot and much of the plant were dissolved, the dirt within the pot falling through his fingers.

Naraka. The path of hell. Letting the soil drop to the floor, uncaring of the mess, Naruto fell over to his side, crying as he curled up into a ball. When his clones had beaten Mizuki, he'd stolen something from him, a part of him, a piece of his soul. But that wasn't as bad as when he'd grabbed Mizuki himself and… and he'd known something. He'd… learned more about Mizuki that instant than he'd ever wanted to. Every failing, every fault, every sin, and he'd been so angry then, so mad at him for hurting Iruka-sensei… he'd just… made Mizuki feel every bit of suffering he'd inflicted on others.

The images kept trying to overwhelm him, anger, hatred, desire, so much, so fast. Naruto buried them to keep them and the emotions and pain attached from overwhelming him.

It did nothing to stop the tears.

His eyes closed, he could still feel the chakra pumping into them, and with difficulty, he pulled it away, lessened it, forced it from his eyes. It took almost a minute of concentration for the rings in his eyes to collapse in upon themselves, for them to stop pulling at his chakra and trying to mak all those powers happen and… Naruto didn't know what else but he was just happy the eyes were off.

His head hurt, his eyes hurt, he felt like his stomach was going to twist into knots and fall out of him, his heart ached and he felt like he'd drunken bad milk and was about to hurl. He almost forgot that he'd become a genin in spite of everything.

But he had, he'd used the Shadow Clones to beat the crap out of Mizuki, he'd been so afraid Iruka-sensei had died. So terrified. The shuriken had gone through him. Iruka-sensei had shielded him with his body and the giant shuriken had gone through his sensei. The man had coughed up blood, asking if Naruto was okay even as his eyes went glassy, even as Mizuki yelled about a demon fox and Naruto… he'd just stared as Iruka-sensei had gone limp and he…

Naruto clenched his eyes shut, tears already spilling onto his cheeks.

Iruka-sensei wasn't dead. Naruto was sure. Iruka had woken up after he'd beaten Mizuki within an inch of his life. Iruka had given him his headband, declared him a genin and everything…

Crying quietly to himself, Naruto clutched his pillow tight, trying to burry the hurt and the sin and pain and loathing deep inside as he desperately yearned for sleep.

And so, Naruto, child of destiny, spent his first night with the gift of the gods and sages, the Rinnegan.

oOo

A.N. (the second) – The things I do to amuse myself…

I haven't seen many Rinnegan!Naruto fics, at least ones that don't make me cringe on the summary alone. Mind you, there might be a reason, it's explicitly a Super!Naruto thing, 'cause the Rinnegan is almost explicitly FUCKING-BROKEN-BLOODLINE-POWER, more so than the Sharingan (*coughcoughHAXcough*). The Sharingan still bothers me more than the Rinnegan for some reason, I think it's because the Rinnegan is attached to a guy who's a little psycho, but consistent and just flat out badass, whereas the Sharingan is attached to Itachi (good intentions, absolutely insane methods, seriously, how the fuck'd he expect that to work?), "Madara", (Eye of the moon plan? Seriously?), Madara (Meh, badass, a bit of flair never hurt), Obito (barely got to know the little shit), and Kakashi (Good lord that man has frustrating issues), and the fully psychotic and delusional fuck-it-all Sasuke.

So… it seems to boil down to "Sharingan users are inconsistent, psychotoic, overpowered assholes" vs. "Rinnegan users are consistent, mildly psychotic, ultra-overpowered buttheads that usually have a bit of style".

Or something like that.

This though? This is my take on the Rinnegan, in that each person's Rinnegan actually grants different powers for their paths. The paths themselves are the same, but the powers they grant are different, much like how every Mangekyo user has a different set. Similar sometimes, but different. So Nagato got the Sages Divine Push/Pull, but Naruto did not. Naruto got an entirely different set of abilities (except for resurrection, just 'cause).

If anyone's interested, I might give snippets of this world and further elaborate on Naruto's powers and the effects this has on the world, but the next chapter of this will probably be something totally different.

Oh, and cookies to anyone that can guess the exact powers of each of Naruto's paths.

*cracks whip* Now get to work slaves! Back to the type-writers! We have a chapter to finish!