Thanks to the power of the Kyuubi and his own unnatural vitality, Naruto had regained consciousness within four days of his operation.

He immediately wished that he'd remained asleep.

His body was just a few steps away from being entirely mummified beneath gauze, bandages, and an assortment of wires and IV's. The pain of whole ordeal had lessened significantly within the short time that had passed, but he was still terribly sore and stiff after having received the Leader's "gift". Moreover, he could actively feel as his chakra was forcibly converted by the chakra receivers to resemble that of his master's. It left him feeling quite nauseated; like he was a stranger in his own body.

And he was weak, Kami he was weak now.

Before the operation, he had been able to perform nearly 20 high level jutsu. As it was, he would've been surprised if he was still able to mould his chakra. All those painstaking months of building up his control had been utterly shot due to the influx of foreign energy. He would have to learn his old abilities all over again. It was such a shame; he'd been so close to mastering the Dance of the Shikigami. Hopefully Konan would be willing to help him rediscover its secrets. And hopefully it would be easier the second time around.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, he was quickly finding out that he was also complete rubbish with his new kekkei genkai. This wasn't unexpected, his entire chakra system was in the process of being reconstructed, but it still hurt to know how far he'd fallen and how little he'd gotten out of the deal. As it was though, the shared vision of the Leader and his five Paths did little to help the ever growing queasiness that Naruto had to endure.

To his juvenile Rinnegan, the images of everything that the other Paths saw were an unrecognizable cacophony color and motion. His untrained eyes weren't yet able to distinguish one image from another causing all of the pictures meld together and pile up on top of each other. It also didn't help that the Rinnegan was able to see the ebb and flow chakra; something which the young Naruto was completely unacquainted with. All this provided him with was an unintelligible mess that was punctuated with blindingly bright flashes of blue light at random intervals. Even if he had been completely healed, the boy still wouldn't have been able to walk with his Rinnegan in such an unusable state.

And the worst part was that Naruto didn't know how to turn it off.

His eyes remained unopened behind a thick length of gauze as they continued to heal. They were shut but that didn't impede the flow of the images in the least. Naruto could do little more than wait for the Leader or Konan check in on him, and hope that he wouldn't puke in the meantime.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before he heard the door to his recovery room slide open. Since he was unable to find any jumbled flashes of his own bandaged body in the sea of pictures that bombarded him, he came to the conclusion that it was Konan who was now in his room.

"Konan?" He called out for her in a rough whisper.

He heard her feather soft footsteps on the stone floor and felt her presence somewhere at his side.

"I'm here Naruto-kun. How are you feeling right now?" She felt a little bad for asking such an obvious question. Her student probably felt exactly the way a 5 year old boy would feel after having his eyes removed and being systematically impaled. It was mostly just a test to see how much strength was in the boy's words. To see how his mental health was holding up after something like this.

"I'm weak. I can see what Leader-sama sees and it's making me sick." His words were interrupted by a series of soft coughs. "Can I have some water Konan-chan?"

He heard the sound of water being poured into a glass and felt it press against his hand.

Konan felt a slight disruption in the air just before it happened; years of training took over and she instinctively performed a substitution.

A wave of force exploded from Naruto's body. The steel frame of the bed beneath him crumpled like it was made of tin foil, and the glass of water at his side was reduced to little more than dust. Wires and tubes buckled against the pressure and were destroyed; the larger machines that they were once attached to got flung against the far wall like ragdolls in spite of their weight.

Naruto lay cradled with the wreckage of his bed gritting his teeth against the jarring impact of his body against the floor and the seething pain in his eyes. He knew what had happened. The Leader used this power often enough in their spars for him to be quite intimate with it.

Shinra Tensei: the power of the Deva Path.

Somehow, his body had reacted automatically to the "threatening presence" and had tried to get rid of it. At least, that was Naruto's best guess. He didn't even really know how he had done it. One second he was lying there and the next second his ears were filled with the sound of things being broken and he was on his back in a crater. A horrible thought suddenly occurred to him; what if he'd hurt Konan?

Fueled by panic, Naruto slowly began to get to his feet despite the way that his muscles protested.

"Konan-chan?" he called out as loud as his parched throat would allow him. As he made his way out of the rubble, he realized with a start that the images had finally gone quiet. He was just about to crack a smile when they returned en masse, seemingly drawn to his hope the way that a shark was drawn to blood. Vertigo set upon him and he felt himself pitch forward toward the ground. The boy gritted his teeth in preparation for the inevitable pain that would come when he struck ground, but it never came. Instead a pair of strong arms caught him. Again his eyes burned as they reacted to this new threat, but the wall of force that leapt from them melted away like wax before an open flame.

He became aware that there were only two images now. Both of them were of him. One showed him in the arms of a man, as if he were holding his own bandaged form; the other showed him from a slightly different view in the arms of the Preta Path who was currently absorbing the rouge energy created by his Rinnegan.

"Naruto, I need you to focus on my voice. I need you to calm yourself."

The boy's body shuddered a bit as another wave of force was created and subsequently drained, an effect which left his eyes feeling as if there was crushed glass being rubbed in them.

"Naruto. Acknowledge."

It was an order from the Leader, he had to respond.

"I-I hear you L-Leader-sama. I can't control the eye." His tone was shaky but neutral. It was clear that the boy was trying his best not to panic. A shinobi does not panic. He approaches every situation with calm and quickly forms a plan to confront adversity. Weakness in his master's presence was unacceptable.

He let his body calm itself. His heart rate began to slow and the interval and intensity of the blasts began to lessen, never quite disappearing but becoming far more manageable for the boy to deal with. The pain also lessened in turn from a mind numbing agony to a persistent throb that pulsed in time with the activation of his technique.

The Preta Path deemed it safe to let the boy go and he crumpled unceremoniously at his feet. No longer in contact with the threat, his Rinnegan went silent. Another image disappeared, signifying that the Path had closed its eyes, and Naruto was left staring at his own sorry form through the eyes of his master.

"I apologize Leader-sama. My behavior was unbefitting a shinobi of Akatsuki; I will accept any punishment that you bestow upon me."

There were a few moments of silence before his master spoke. "The fault of this incident lays with me Naruto. I underestimated the speed at which your Rinnegan would develop and didn't take time to set up proper protocols for this scenario. It was quite some time before I was able to walk the Deva Path, and with only my own experiences to provide scope I was under the impression that you would act similarly."

Naruto was blown away. Though the man had not directly said it, the Leader had admitted weakness. And even more surprising than that, the man had almost apologized. Such a thing was entirely unheard of. His master was God; God made no mistakes and explained himself to no one. Naruto internalized all of these feelings immediately; it was not his place to think such things.

"Konan tells me that you are weak but otherwise fine. This is because your chakra nature is being rewritten by the Rinnegan to encompass all 5 elements. It will be at least a week before your chakra is entirely converted and until such a time you will be unable to utilize your chakra and you will continue to feel tired."

Naruto nodded. "Did I hurt Konan-san?"

"No. Konan is fine; she was able to get out of the way without injury."

The boy let out a breath that he didn't realize that he'd been holding in. He didn't know what he would do if he'd actually managed to hurt Konan-chan. Naruto realized the nature of his thoughts and pushed them aside, there were more important matters to attend to.

"What am I to do while I wait Leader-sama? A weapon is of no use when left to inaction."

A small smirk spread across the Leader's face. The tenacity of this boy and his eagerness to be of use was surprising. He'd taken in a few apprentices before Naruto, but none had been suitable to undertake a mission of such dire importance. And certainly none of them had been worthy or strong enough to receive the eyes of the Rikudō Sennin. But this boy was different. He was truly and utterly self-sacrificing even for a world that he'd hardly ever seen.

"You must heal first. A weapon that is in disrepair will only harm its wielder." The man paused as a thought occurred to him. "Your eyes are too weak for you to walk the paths yet, but you should be able to see though my eyes, yes?"

The boy nodded.

"Are you able to see though the eyes of the Paths yet?"

Again, Naruto nodded but this one held more uncertainty. "I can see through their eyes but I can't tell what I'm seeing. Everything seems to be happening at once."

The Leader had never encountered this type of problem on his own, though he was able to anticipate its cause. He'd been expecting this to happen and had quickly severed his link with the other Paths when he'd learned that Naruto was awake.

The Leader had first discovered the visual link of the Rinnegan when he broke his body apart and created the other Paths. At fist, the experience had been disorienting and he'd struggled to deal with his newfound power. But the process of creating Paths was time consuming. This meant that it would take several days if not weeks before another Path was created. Because of this, his brain had been able to adjust itself to interpret the images before things were again unsettled by the addition of a new Path.

"Your mind can't figure out what to do with the images, so it shows them all at once. I will open the eyes of eyes of the Preta Path now. I want you to see though both of our eyes at the same time and feel the connection of our chakra and the chakra of the world around you."

Twin images returned to Naruto's mind. It was unsettling but nowhere near as overwhelming as trying to deal with six images simultaneously. Something was bothering him though.

"Master, I don't know what you mean when you say to feel the chakra. I can see it through your eyes, but I don't feel anything except fatigue."

The man nodded as he turned to leave and the Preta Path placed Naruto on an unoccupied and mostly undamaged bed. "The machinations are subtle." It was the Preta Path that spoke. "Feeling chakra is the single most difficult part of unlocking the power of the Rinnegan because it is entirely different from anything that you've ever experienced. It is a sixth sense which is fundamentally different from everything you know. It's not something that you can learn. You can try and try without ever getting anywhere and then one day you will just understand."

Naruto didn't entirely understand but watched himself nod through the Path's eyes. It began to walk away.

"Master?"

"What?"

The boy felt embarrassed. "Can I have some water? I wrecked the room before I got a drink the first time."

The Path fought the urge to sigh.

XxXxX

A month had passed since Naruto awoke. Since then, he'd grown in leaps and bounds with regard to controlling the power his Rinnegan. True to his master's words, the boy's chakra network had taken about a week to stabilize itself after being altered to contain all five chakra affinities. This didn't mean very much in the way of learning new jutsu, his control was still far too poor to begin relearning his lost techniques, but at least he wasn't tired all the time anymore. This also had the added effect of snapping his Rinnegan out of 'bat-shit crazy' mode and he no longer had to worry about destroying a room when he sneezed or jerked awake in his sleep.

With his Rinnegan more or less under control, Naruto began the slow process of learning how to harness its power. His Shinra Tensei was powerful but still had a slower recharge time than his master's. It was likely strong enough to blow away a good sized building, though he hadn't tried yet and probably wouldn't for quite some time. Ninja were about stealth. There was nothing stealthy in smashing a house like soda can. Moreover, Naruto was all too aware of the circumstances surrounding his "adoption." In his case, stealth was paramount.

Nearly all his effort had gone towards refining the Shinra Tensei and its sister technique, the Bansho Ten'in, into a smaller form that wouldn't risk his exposure or cause unnecessary damage to the boy's surroundings. Sometimes deflecting a kunai or knocking an opponent off balance was all that was all that was required to ensure victory. Fights didn't have to end with him standing in a 500 foot crater with his enemy a bloody stain. A ninja was nothing if not subtle.

The other abilities that he'd learned were more suitable for utility as opposed to raw destructive power.

He'd learned how to summon chakra blades and had quickly taken to the art of fighting with one in each hand. Many weapon masters stove for their whole lives to become one with their weapon; to feel their weapon as an extension of their body. For Naruto, this was something that had been his since the day that he first summoned a chakra blade. The black iron rod was already a part of him to begin with; he could feel even the slightest change in the position or pitch of the blade as well as its exact length and momentum. It made him a born sword master, though he wasn't under the impression that this meant he could give up and focus on other things. His inexperience was beaten into him on a daily basis quite literally when he spared with the Leader.

The Kyuubi was always able to heal the damage away, but recently Naruto had discovered what a boon the Asura Path could be. Thus far, his knowledge of the Asura Path was extremely limited but he knew enough to harden his skin into metal to absorb a blow. Considering how wearily often he took hits, it was starting to become second nature to him. It didn't really help all that much when put up against the Leader's strength, but at least he was trying. It was crucial to use the Path as much as possible in order to prepare himself for its use in the future. The ability to wield six weapons in each hand, create mechanized projectile weapons, and cast three jutsu at the same time was waaay to good to pass up. But as it was, Naruto could only harden his skin and create a single additional arm which mostly got in his way.

It was a similar problem to the shared fields of vision (he was up to three Paths at once). His brain didn't really know what to do with the extra appendage, and the chakra receivers in his arm could only help so much to orient him. Practice and patience was the key. A ninja was nothing if not patient.

But if Naruto was being entirely honest, he was beginning to go a little stir crazy after being trapped in the Amekage's tower for more than a month.

The boy had been forced to remain within the iron embrace of the Amekage's tower for almost his entire life. He had no friends or loved ones (he didn't know if the Leader or Konan counted), and had never seen the sun. When he was allowed to leave the tower, it was always under the guise of a henge and he was always accompanied by his master and Konan. They would play the part of a family of orphans, himself in the role of the idiot younger brother, and Konan and the Leader as his strict but kind older siblings.

They didn't participate in this charade for Naruto's enjoyment though; it was yet another form of training. Konoha, and nearly every other hidden village, was continuously on the lookout for the "missing nine-tails jinchuuriki". If he was discovered all of Akatsuki's work would be for nothing. But they weren't just able to keep him in the tower until he was strong enough to go out on his own. He had to learn how to "make friends" and discover how normal people interacted with one another so that he could properly emulate them in the future. In a way, it was one of the most important lessons for him to learn and would have to serve as a replacement for his D-rank missions.

Realizing this, he spent the next few weeks getting his chakra control back up to snuff so that he could maintain a henge for few hours and go play in the park with his Nee-chan and Nii-san.

XxXxX

The trio sat beneath an umbrella laughing and talking about nothing in particular at the edge of a playground. No one really paid any attention to Menma and his siblings. They were ordinary and unassuming; just another family of orphans. But their seemingly innocent actions were decidedly not.

Underneath all of the jokes and talk were coded orders and questions of a rather sinister nature. For example whenever Tsubaki-neechan flicked at her hair it was a kill order for whoever Akone-niisan was looking at. His job was to respond in code for the best and most desecrate method of the target's disposal. This took the form of bombastic hand gestures or running off into the rain to play games like tag or ninja with the target.

Most kids didn't like to play ninja with him after playing more than once. Menma cheated a lot and was unusually good at throwing toy kunai knives into the other children's blind spots. That and it was really hard to hit him, almost like he had an invisible force field or something. As it was, Menma would only play a few games and then leave to talk with his brother and sister. Tsubaki and Akone were pretty good ninja, so that's probably where Menma got all his tricks from.

XxXxX

"You're so full of it Akone-niisan!" a rambunctious Menma yelled at his brother while pointing his finger. "There's no way that you actually met the Amekage! He doesn't even talk to the jonin, why would he waste his time on a chunin like you?"

His brother leaned forward and flicked Menma between the eyes to which the boy jerked back and rubbed his face. "You're such a brat sometimes Menma. Why do you ask me questions if you're not going to believe me when I answer them? I've totally met the Amekage. Back me up on this Tsubaki."

Tsubaki looked at him thoughtfully. "Well I guess it's possible. I've never really seen him but I suppose-"

"Ah-ha!" Menma cut her off. "If Tsubaki-neechan hasn't ever seen the Amekage then I know that you're full of crap! She's a jonin, so she's way more important than you!"

That comment earned Menma a hard shove from his older brother out from under the umbrella and into the rain. "Quit being a dick Menma."

"Tsubaki-neechan!" Menma whined. "Akone is being mean to me."

His sister snickered into her hand. "Maybe you shouldn't be such a dick to him then. He's way bigger than you and I don't know if I'm in the mood to protect you right now."

"Oh I get it, you're on his side! Ninja siding with ninja; well if that's the case I'll go somewhere that I'm wanted." Menma stormed off towards the playground.

"Good luck finding a place like that, brat!" His brother shot after him. That earned him a smack in the ribs from his sister.

XxXxX

His mission had been received loud and clear. There was a girl his age being bullied by a group of older boys. He was supposed to extract her and inflict as many "casualties" to the enemy team as he could before his sister came and pulled him out of the brawl and took him home for being "a dick." Man, that was a stretch from the original code but a good shinobi was able to adapt on the fly. Either that or his master's opinion of him had lessened significantly after questioning his "mad ninja skills."

As he approached the group his eyes went hard. They were picking on her for being an orphan and for being weak. Pulling her hair and calling her mean names, saying things like she should be more respectful of ninja. Apparently his master had redefined ninja to mean second year academy student at some point. That or these four kids were full of shit.

Naruto didn't need to try very hard to feel Menma's rage at these boys. If there was one thing that he despised, it was those who used their power to hurt others. He saw the hypocrisy in beating them up for this, but honestly he didn't care. His orders were clear and he was trained to act, not to think. But he couldn't help but feel slightly in the wrong. Handicapped though he was, he was more than a match for any genin and maybe even a chunin if he really cut loose with his Rinnegan. He'd have to try hard not to hurt these kids too badly. Life lessons didn't do the dead much good.

"Oi asshole!"

The bully who was currently holding the girl by the hair turned around and freed up his other hand. "You shouldn't speak that way to your betters, short stuff. Now me and my boys have to rough you up." The other three boys tried to appear menacing and started chuckling. "If you lick my shoes I might just leave enough of your face to left to play kissy kissy with your girlfriend here." The boys surrounded him, an action that just begged for a Shinra Tensei fired off at head level. Menma wasn't afraid though, and that irritated the older boy. The bully got right in his face. "What are you gonna do, you piece of trash?"

Naruto responded with vicious headbutt. The bully went down like a sack of bricks; unconscious with his head split open. Naruto's eyes widened just a bit in alarm. His Rinnegan had reacted instinctively to the pressure and had hardened the skin to metal at the point of impact with the Asura Path. He had to focus more or else these boys would end up dead or in the hospital.

A pair of hands moved to grab him from behind. Naruto let them, judging Menma to be only slightly above average in terms of taijutsu, and forcibly suppressed the pressure wave that was building behind his eyes. Another boy hit him in the face, though Naruto made sure that the blow would miss his piercings. Normally people didn't get their hands slashed open after punching someone in the face; it would look even stranger if it happened in a playground fight.

The bully cocked his fist back to deliver another punch to his face. Naruto decided that Menma had taken harder hits from his brother and it would take more than that to daze him. He hauled off and kicked the boy in the chest with both legs, sending him to ground wheezing.

Naruto then turned his attention to the third boy who had yet to move and couldn't help but let the small smile slip across his face. Apparently his "girlfriend" wasn't as weak as the bullies thought. As the boy went to slug him in the stomach, the girl slammed her open palm against his ear. Hard. Hard enough to send him to the ground with a damaged equilibrium and a burst eardrum. She was pretty good.

Naruto "managed" to struggle free and get off an elbow to the ribs before being kicked in the back of the knee and sent to the ground. That time he'd been armored by the Asura Path. A kid wouldn't be able to tell the difference through his shoes anyway.

Naruto spun around, catching the other boy off guard and began to hammer away at his chest. Personally, he usually preferred to punch the neck, which didn't hurt your hand as much as punching someone in the chest or the face, but apparently Menma wasn't as ruthless as him. The same couldn't be said for his "girlfriend" who was currently biting the boy who Naruto had dropkicked. Like an idiot, the boy just stood there and screamed as he tried to push the girl off of him. He could almost see the frown forming on the Leader's face as he watched the fight through his pupil's eyes. The academy was going to need some stricter tests in the future if this was the kind of ninja that were being churned out.

Naruto gave the boy one last punch to the solar plexus before sending him to the ground with a clothesline. Hopefully his clothing would help to cushion the blow of the iron-hard chakra receivers in his arm. Apparently it didn't work very well, and the boy was left unconscious. How tragic.

Naruto was about to help the girl finish off the last bully when he heard his sister's murderous voice as she ran towards him. He had to wrap this up quick; his goal was to eliminate all the enemies he could.

With a quick kick to the side of the head, Naruto had knocked out the bully turned chew toy. Just in time too, Tsubaki's had clamped down on his ear like a vice. He hoped that Konan would remember about his piercings, blood was difficult to cover up with a henge and his control was probably too low to do it today. Of course she did, but it didn't hurt any less when she started to drag him off kicking and screaming the whole way.

He caught the girl looking at him out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to face her as best he could. She was looking at him with big green eyes behind her slightly darker green hair, silently apologizing for what was happening to him. He flashed her a big shit eating grin and thumbs up.

"What's your name!?" he yelled as his sister continued to drag him away.

A smile came to the girl's face. She was pretty when she smiled. Well Menma thought she was pretty, Naruto didn't particularly care.

"Risa!" She called out and began to follow him until Tsubaki shot her a death glare that stopped her in her tracks.

"Don't encourage him!"

"I'm Menma! Let's be friends!"

A sharp tug on his ear. "Shut up Menma! We're going home. This is the reason why we can't have nice things."

"I'll come to the park every day Menma!" Risa shouted back to him. "I'm sorry for getting you in trouble!"

"Don't worry about it! I'm not scared of Tsubaki-neechan." He stuck his tongue out at her for emphasis. Then Naruto noticed that he was looking at himself. Akone wasn't looking very happy.

"Quiet being a dick, Menma." He grabbed hold of Naruto's other ear and began to drag him away with the help of his sister.

That was the day that Naruto made his first friend, and most likely also the day that he made his last.

Wow, that first chapter got quite a response. Thanks for the support you guys. I'm still trying to get a feel for everyone's character, so if I write something strange please tell me. Also, does anyone know if the rinnegan can let a person use elemental kekkei genkai (lava release, gale release ect.)? I know that it gives you all of the elemental natures, but I don't know if it lets you combine them. Maybe using multiple handseals via the Asura Path can create them. Tell me what you guys think. The next chapter might be up tomorrow depending how motivated I feel today *cough*review*cough*. I have lots of ideas for this story, so hopefully I'll be able to update regularly.