Chapter 2 - Scarlet

Underneath the unsuspecting Konoha, Danzo perched on his throne in his Roots base of operations. The fact he had managed to keep it a secret even after he had been ordered to disband his organisation just highlighted the village's incompetence in his eyes. He had been impatiently waiting for a report after he had sent out a squad of root members to find Kinoto and Hanoto and the Kyuubi. It had been over twenty-four hours since he had sent them to kill the junchuriki and reseal the tailed beast so he could control its power for the good of the Leaf. A cold droplet of water dripped from the cavern above him splashing him, causing him further irritation. His fists clenched in frustration.

Danzo had wondered what would be taking them so long. Had the boy awakened the beast inside of him already? The genjutsu he had put him under should have sufficed enough to do whatever they had to do, so whatever had happened someone must have to had to interfere or he had been betrayed. That was impossible.

After waiting another gruelling hour, Danzo had just about had enough and was about to send out a battalion of his Anbu when the squad he had sent previously finally flickered into the throne room. They dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves before him.

"Lord Danzo, we found the site Kin and Han were sent too," one with a blue cat mask barked, Danzo raised an eyebrow, "There was no sign of the jinchuriki but we recovered the bodies of Kin and Han. They had their throats slashed and Finn couldn't sense any chakra of any kind in the area so the Kyuubi couldn't have been released."

He brought his fist down upon the throne and growled. How had this happened? Had they lost the Leaf's ultimate weapon? Someone had to have helped the boy, but who? No one outside the village should even know that the boy held the nine tails.

Without the kyuubi the village would be susceptible to attack from any unallied nations and they would be destroyed, his life's work undone in one fell sweep. This news absolutely could not reach the other hidden villages, or they would begin with plotting the Leaf's downfall. He needed to speak to Hiruzen and formulate a plan. The Leaf needed more military power. Once upon a time, they were untouchable. As much as he disliked Minato, the Fourth Hokage, the man was extremely powerful and could- and did- protect the village, however Hiruzen had retaken the hat and was growing old and senile, soon his power would wane and they would be weakened even further. They needed to remilitarise and recall their old power.

"This is unacceptable," he stood, glaring at his soldiers, "Round up the best trackers and sensors and scour the site again. Triple check, then check again. Failure is not an option. I will meet with the Hokage to gather intel. Go!"

"Yes, Lord Danzo," they chorused before scattering to carry out his orders.

Supressing his anger, Danzo made his way to the Hokage tower. The Root base was connected via hundreds of underground tunnels that would confuse any intruder, but he had grown in this darkness and swiftly found the closest exit. Minutes later he had arrived at the building he spent most of his time and days working in. He was the current shinobi advisor to Hiruzen along with the two elderly advisors for non-ninja. They were fools but had their uses- he could manipulate them with little effort swaying many decisions to his hand. Being an advisor would not be his first choice, however it did come with some benefits, such as being privy to classified information.

Inside the tower was mayhem, at least to the eye of a trained ninja. The Hokage's personal Anbu black ops were rapidly gliding through the shadows and he assumed they had been given orders to search the entire village for the kyuubi container; Hiruzen did always have a soft spot for Minato's son.

Spotting the receptionist, he ignored her completely as she rushed to stop him from entering the Hokage's office. Pushing past her he opened the door and stepped into Hiruzen's place of work. The office was relatively bland to behold, holding in it a simple wooden desk with the symbol for the Leaf displayed proudly on the front, and paperwork in neatly organised piles off the left. Other than a few chairs and windows allowing the natural light to reach in, the rest of the room was empty.

Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, sat behind his desk frantically issuing orders to his Anbu. His old teammate looked worse for wear with sagging skin and blemishes of his cheeks and chin, however his advanced age did not take away from the hidden strength he held under the white robes of the Hokage uniform.

When he did not immediately spot him, Danzo spoke up, "What's going on, Hiruzen?"

The man finished issuing his orders, something about organising another search of the village before giving him his attention, "Like you do not already know, Danzo. Naruto Uzumaki is missing."

The man did never trust him; however, he would play dumb for now, "Missing? You lost the kyuubi jinchiriki?"

Hiruzen grit his teeth and replied, "His name is Naruto and we've searched everywhere. I was at the orphanage and when he did not show, I asked the woman in charge, she said that he had gone out to play with two boys the day before and had not returned since."

"Perhaps he is hiding?"

"We've ruled that out as a possibility. I have checked with the barrier team and they reported that the boy's chakra as well as that of the kyuubi's is no longer in the village."

"He ran away?"

"There's a possibility, however I believe he would have come and spoken to me first. If he has truly ran away, we can't afford to waste any time in starting the search!" the Hokage replied.

Danzo closed his eye as if thinking, "I agree, we cannot allow the nine tails to roam around and get captured. This puts us in a bad situation."

"Lord Third!" a voice shouted behind him. Turning around and taking his place beside Hiruzen he was greeted by the site of two Anbu members with two academy students in custody, the boys who had lured Naruto to the outskirts of the village. Danzo was happy he had covered his tracks, "The two students who were last seen with Naruto, sir."

"Report," Hiruzen barked.

"They say they were paid by a group of civilians to lure Naruto to an alleyway on the outskirts of Konoha so they could ambush him," the Anbu on the right reported. The two academy students gulped in fear realising how much trouble they were in, "We quickly rounded up the perpetrators of the assault and questioned them- they didn't talk until we placed them under a genjutsu where they revealed they had beaten Naruto and left him for dead. All eight men are currently in custody. We have checked the area where the assault happened but only blood could be found at the scene. No chakra had been used, so we can rule out the possibility of the kyuubi taking control."

Hiruzen exploded next to him, visible blue chakra flaring around his body, "Take these two into custody to be sentenced along with the civilians of this crime, and start searching the land of fire for Naruto, he can't have gone far in a single day, I want everyone on this. Get them out of my sight!"

Immediately they left, the boys in tow who were shouting their innocence, clearly worried about what would happen to them. At best they would fetch prison sentences bordering on decades; at worst, their chakra would be sealed away never allowing them to pursue being ninjas- a fate some would say worse than death. Again, Danzo smirked internally that his involvement hadn't been revealed as he hadn't seen the Hiruzen so angry since his protégé Minato had been killed and their village had been destroyed.

"Ox!" Hiruzen spoke to air and instantly an Anbu member with a white mask in the shape of an ox with long horns appeared in the office, "Put together a team, your mission is to find and retrieve the Sanin Jiraiya and return him to the village as soon as possible. You leave in one hour."

Ox vanished away after he had been given his orders and Danzo once again turned to face Hiruzen, "Jiraiya, is it?"

"Yes. If the Anbu fail to find Naruto or Kami forgive, he has been taken by a hostile nation, then we need Jiraiya's spy network, and we need him to bolster the villages power now more than ever," he replied, turning to look out of the window upon the village, "You're dismissed Danzo, I will inform you if I get any news."

Danzo blinked and nodded despite knowing Hiruzen wasn't looking at him, before taking his leave to get his own Root to search for the kyuubi, "Lord Third," he said in farewell.

Just as he closed the door, he heard Hiruzen say behind him, "I'm sorry Minato, I failed you..."

"That was the Rinnegan, Obito."

"I'm aware, Zetsu," he bit back, not quite being able to wrap his head around what had just happened.

Had the cells awakened the Rinnegan? The kyuubi? What did this mean?

On one hand, he had one more pawn on his side with the Rinnegan along with Nagato. The power the Akatsuki would hold would be unparalleled when Naruto fully came into his abilities. It would give him a backup to revive Madara in case something happened to Nagato and it would allow them to collect the tailed beasts even quicker if he decided to train the boy. On the other hand, Naruto could prove too volatile to control and potentially even betray him at some point, or even actively work against his plan.

Taking his eyes were out of the question as his own body would not be able to handle the power of the Rinnegan and as such would not work well enough for him compared to his own Mangekyou Sharingan, however having him loyal to him would be the next best thing. With Naruto he wouldn't have to rely on Nagato to play his part in the plan so completely as without the Rinnegan there wouldn't even be a plan. The Gedo Mazo was intrinsically linked the Sage of Six Path's eyes and without a set he couldn't even summon the Juubi.

"This could prove useful in the plan," he noted to Zetsu.

"I would have to agree," the being replied, grinning eerily, "Two sets of eyes are better than one after all. With the proper training he would be some extra added muscle, especially with Wood Release to supress tailed beast chakra."

"Indeed."

Slowly approaching the blonde who was lying unconscious on the floor he pivoted to get a better look at him. The boy had undergone an odd transformation. His skin, once pink and warm, now was pale and cold like someone who had never set foot in the sun before, and the whisker marks on his cheeks that used to be present due to the Kyuubi's influence had now vanished. With his Sharingan he could also see his chakra network had grown even larger and knew that once the boy matured, he would have more chakra than even his own, rivalling the bijuu.

However, the obvious change was the glowing golden orbs that sat in his eyes. The cerulean that were once dominant were gone until the boy could learn how to deactivate the Rinnegan at will. What was most surprising was the Rinnegan were not the usual deep purple colour. Obito had assumed the eye was supposed to be purple just as Madara's were.

"Golden Rinnegan?"

Zetsu, knowing already from Kaguya's memories that the Golden variant of the Rinnegan meant it was even purer and more powerful than the purple variant, was salivating at the thought of another potential set of eyes to revive his mother- though he knew from her experience not to take it lightly as the members of her clan she was most terrified of were ones with the Golden Rinnegan. The name Momoshiki Otsutsuki brought fear to his mother even with all the power she held.

"Perhaps it is an even stronger form of the Rinnegan awakened from pure intent?" he said, planting the seed into Obito's mind.

"Or weaker."

"Perhaps," he said again, "We'll have no way of knowing until he awakes."

"Indeed. Set him in one of the spare rooms and monitor his chakra. Inform me when he wakes up."

Almost a full day later the boy finally awoke.

Naruto sat up from his bed, groggily removing the sleep from his eyes. His bones felt tired but he felt better than ever. Instantly, he knew something was wrong. His vision was different. Everything around him that he could see was coloured grey as if he was colourblind, like all the happiness of the world had melted away and he was left with all the sadness. He then noticed that even though everything was washed of colour, he could see in perfect detail as if he had been short sighted all his life and had put on glasses, renewing his eyes. Instinctively, he raised a hand to his eye and recoiled at the view. His body was grey just like the room but darker, however it was glowing like fire was licking at his skin. It took the colour of a golden yellow that reminded him of a sunrise and he released a sigh that he could still see some colour.

He didn't know what had happened, but he knew something was different.

Getting over his initial shock he looked at the colourless room and realised he didn't recognise where he was. His straw bed was replaced with a clean mattress and sheets and the room sported a wardrobe, a writing desk, three cupboards and a painting on the wall. Even though he couldn't see it, he instinctively knew what colours the painting was. 'Weird,' he thought to himself.

"Where am I?" he wondered aloud.

Everything hit him like a ton of bricks. He remembered the village, getting beaten down by the men that had lured him into a trap, he remembered an old man with a wooden cane and a body wrapped in bandages watching him before he must have fell unconscious- but most of all he remembered the masked man that had claimed to be his father and pledged to remove the nine tailed fox from his body. All he remembered after that was pain. Had it worked? Was he free?

A light knocking on the door snapped him from his reverie, "Naruto? May I come in?" a deep voice called from the other side.

He nodded then remembered whoever it was couldn't see him and replied with a quick 'yes'.

A tall man wearing a black cloak with scarlet red clouds emblazoned on it and an orange mask walked through the door- literally walked through the door. Just as if it wasn't there in the first place; his father.

"Woah!" he exclaimed in awe, "How did you do that? Can you teach me that?"

His father chuckled quietly, "I'm afraid not Naruto, it is a technique special to me alone."

Naruto pouted but quickly perked up, "Did you get the kyuubi out of me?"

"I did," his father confirmed, and Naruto pumped his fist into the air.

"Yes! Thank you! I knew you could do it all along," he smiled brightly.

"Oh, did you?" the man said humorously, "You can live peacefully now that the beast is out of you."

"I'm happy knowing the thing that killed mother has gone away," he said looking anything but happy.

His father walked over to the desk that sat opposite the bed and sat down across from him, "Sit Naruto, we need to talk."

Despite it sounding ominous, Naruto padded along to the bed and perched on the end, eagerly listening.

"With the removal of the kyuubi from you, a new situation has arisen," the masked man started.

"A new situation?"

"Correct," he said, "Do you remember me saying that the removal of a jinchuriki's tailed beast causes the host to die?"

He paused waiting for Naruto to nod suspiciously, "Am I dead?" Naruto gulped.

A laugh was what he got in return, "No, Naruto, in fact quite the opposite, you're more alive than ever."

Naruto sagged in relief.

"In order to stop your body from dying I had to inject you with my cells as well as the cells of the first hokage Hashirama Senju," his father started, looking at the pale skinned boy in front of him, "It mixed with you own to quite the staggering change."

"The first Hokage's cells? But why?" Naruto asked, suddenly feeling a bit queasy.

"Hashirama's cells promote extremely fast healing and as such it was necessary to keep you alive, however in doing so it seems to have brought extra results I didn't anticipate." Naruto cocked his head wishing he could read his father's face.

"What kind of results?" he asked.

"Well, you're skin colour has paled slightly due to the cells, though hardly noticeable, and your whisker marks have gone, however the main change you should be experiencing right now. What do you see?"

At his father's words, Naruto pictured a snowman in an orange shirt but quickly forgot as he looked intensely at the man across from him. His father's body, like the rest of the room they sat in, was grey though slightly darker, however what stuck out was the blue aura that surrounded his whole body like he had been lit on fire by blue flames and it converged on his heart which held a bright azure flame that raged brightly.

"Oh yeah! I can see your chakra in your body! It's like a bright blue all around you and where your heart is I can see a flame," he answered finally.

"Excellent. What you see is my chakra signature. All living beings have one, however shinobis are a lot more pronounced and stronger than regular people and animals due to harsh training and bigger reserves of chakra, I can see yours too," his father said, pointing at him. Obito focused on the boy and the golden aura that surrounded him, like a bonfire had been lit on his skin, and the huge flame that lay in his heart signified the giant chakra reserves the boy held.

"Awesome! What colour is mine? Yours is blue father," he said grinning that it wasn't just him who could see it.

"Yours is golden," his father replied, "The size of the flame will show you an approximation on how strong an opponent is in battle."

"Does the first Hokage's cells let me see yours?" he asked wondering.

"No," his father said, "What do you know of dojutsu?"

"Uhh... nothing?" Naruto said scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Dojutsu is a category of jutsu that manifests visually, basically in a ninja's eyes, the most common and infamous dojutsu's are of course the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, and the Hyūga clan's Byakugan. With their dojutsu comes abilities specific to each eye."

"OH! Like you, you're an Uchiha right father? And one of the people I know from the village has a Byakugan, I never knew it was called dojutsu."

"Correct, being an Uchiha I awakened my Sharingan and with it the abilities that come with it, one of which is the ability to perceive chakra in the body."

Naruto's eye's widened and he stuttered, "Did I get the Sha-Sharingan?"

"No, son," his father said, making him sad that he didn't have the same eyes as his dad, "You awakened something else."

"I did?" he asked.

"Yes, a dojutsu by the name of the Rinnegan."

Naruto shivered as he heard a whisper inside his head calling the word 'Rinnegan'. "But I've never heard of the Rinnegan? What clan does it come from?"

"You wouldn't have as the Rinnegan is the rarest of all dojutsu. Only two people have ever held the eyes you now possess, one being the Sage of Six Paths- the father of shinobi kind- and myself," his father explained. Naruto had heard of the Sage of Six Paths; people spoke his name when talking about Gods. According to what he had read in a book that had been laying around in the orphanage, the man exalted as the God of shinobi was the most powerful being to have ever lived and was the one who created the moon that the oceans relied on to create tides. However, to hear that his father also had awakened the Rinnegan was melting Naruto's brain.

"You have the Rinnegan too father? Is that why you wear a mask?" he asked curious. It was the one thing that stuck out as odd to Naruto.

"Correct child, however the mask is not to hide the Rinnegan, rather to hide my face. You see the name Madara Uchiha strikes fear into the hearts of men and I was said to have died decades ago, however I survived. The mask is to make sure no one recognises me. I awakened my Rinnegan after my final battle with Hashirama Senju in the valley of the end where I faked my death, however I implanted my eyes into someone else for reasons I cannot reveal to you just yet. These eyes are my original eyes."

"You gave them away? Why? To who?" he asked shocked as to why anyone would give away their eyes.

"Yes, I implanted them into a young boy to keep them safe. The shinobi who has them is called Nagato. Perhaps one day you two will meet."

"Do I have to give mine away?" he asked scared.

"Oh no Naruto, these eyes you have been gifted are yours to master. With them comes great power. They say that he who bears the Rinnegan are meant to be Gods who will bring creation or destruction. That is the power they hold," his father said.

"What can they do?" he asked again. He was so cool. With his eyes he could become a great ninja.

His father quietly stared at him for a few seconds before saying, "Come let us eat, you must be hungry. I will answer your question after you listen to a story."

Right on cue, Naruto's stomach growled and he giggled. They stood up and his father led him out of his room- this time opening the door- and down a cavern lit with torches on the wall. They were spaced out every few meters giving just enough light to see but not enough to drive the darkness away. Naruto wondered where in the world they were. He had never even left Konoha; he hardly even left his room at the orphanage for fear of being looked down upon.

At the end of the cavern, they took a right and then a left, each tunnel looking the same as the last, before they finally stumbled on the kitchen- if you could call it a kitchen- inside the cramped room was two old looking chairs, a table and some wooden cupboards. Naruto sat down on one of the chairs which creaked under his weight while his father grabbed some bread and prepared it for him.

Then he spoke, "Years ago when I awoke my Rinnegan, I snuck back into Konoha and into the Uchiha clan compound. You see the Uchiha keep a stone tablet that only those with the Sharingan can read. It was written by the Sage of Six Paths himself when he awoke his own Rinnegan many thousands of years ago. With my eyes I could finally read the entire tablet and it detailed a jutsu that would bring ever lasting peace."

Naruto listened intently, his father turned and sat down opposite him, placing a plate of buttered bread in front of him. He took a bite, "Everlasting peace?"

"Yes," he said, "The name of this jutsu was the Infinite Tsukuyomi. The caster of this jutsu would use the gathered tailed beasts and look upon the moon allowing everyone to live out the life they have always dreamed of. There would be no pain, no war, and no death"

"But if it isn't real then what's the point, father?" he asked, the bread tasted stale but he wouldn't complain. At his question his father narrowed his eye.

"In this world of shinobi, we are taught from an early age how to kill men far older than ourselves. Shinobi culture is one of death. With chakra comes jutsu, and with jutsu comes war. Ever since the Sage gifted humanity with chakra there has never been a time of peace. Even now, with villages, there is still the sign of war on the horizon, each nation vying to one up the other. Peace will never be achieved by regular means. Humans will continue to kill one another."

Naruto nodded he was listening. Deep down he knew his father spoke the truth. Naruto had seen the ugly side of people, even those who didn't use chakra.

"That is why the Sage left behind this jutsu for his successor. I am that successor. I will gather every tailed beast and use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to create a peace that will last forever and people will be able to live happy lives. If you join me son, we could create a perfect world together. People will rebel at first and lives will be lost but, in the end, it will be worth the pain. That is my goal."

"You want me to help you? What can I do?" he asked.

"I have created an organisation known as the Akatsuki. We are a group of powerful shinobi, one being Nagato- the man who possesses my Rinnegan- that will bring this dream into reality. Right now, we are gathering resources so that when the world is ready, we will be ready too. You could help me Naruto, with your eyes and under my tutelage, you can become powerful and help other jinchuriki's like you once were be free of their bijuu so that we can create a peace that lasts. If you join the Akatsuki you'd be doing your part for the world just like me."

His father's speech resonated with Naruto deep down. To free other jinchuriki from the burden that he had dealt with his entire life and create a peace for everyone was something that he wanted to do, "You'll train me to become a powerful ninja?"

"Of course. With my help you will become a prodigy in every sense of the world. We will train your mind, your body, your eyes. I can teach you ninjutsu and how to swing a sword until you can beat one the tailed beasts on your own," his father said.

His words swam around his head. Naruto had always wanted to be a powerful ninja and bring peace to the village. What his father was offering him would allow him to fulfil his goals. "What jutsu could you show me?"

"Anything you want, the Rinnegan allows the user to use all five basic elements easily, unlike the most ninja who can use one or two. Though we have something more powerful than every other ninja."

Naruto's eyes widened, excited beyond his imagination. 'My eyes will make me amazing.'

"Hashirama was famous for his use of Mokuton, or Wood release. It is arguably the strongest of every element allowing complete control over nature itself. With his cells in you and the Rinnegan allowing you to use the two elements to create it, you will be able to use the same wood style the first Hokage used," his father told him and Naruto almost fell off his chair.

"Really!? No way!" his father nodded to him in confirmation, "Awesome! When can we start?"

"Soon, Naruto. First, there is something you need to learn. Your eyes will continuously use up chakra if you have them on at all times, you need to learn to deactivate and reactivate them at will. This will be your first lesson," his father said and passed him a mirror that he materialised from thin air.

Taking the mirror, Naruto immediately plopped in front of his face to look at his Rinnegan. At first it startled him. His skin was pale but not unnaturally so and the whiskers he had been born with had vanished leaving unblemished skin. What stuck out most though, of course, was the Golden rippled eyes with black concentric rings centred around a black pupil. He could feel them pulse with unimaginable power. Looking at himself he could hardly recognise himself.

"To turn them off, I would assume it's like any other dojutsu. If you focus you should be able to feel a small pull of chakra just behind your eyes. If you cut off this stream of chakra they should deactivate," his father told him.

'Hmph' he nodded and began focusing. Instantly he could feel the chakra inside of him. It felt like raw power, and reminded him of an ocean due to its size and intensity. Feeling deeper he could feel the tiny but steady stream of chakra that went from his reserves to his eyes. Closing his eyes, he commanded his chakra to stop flowing upwards and just like that the chakra recoiled away from his eyes and fell back into the endless ocean.

Slowly opening his eyes, he smiled at the sight of two cerulean orbs staring back at him. Naruto also realised he could see in colour with his Rinnegan deactivated and took in the colours around him. The scarlet clouds on his father's cloak, his orange shirt and his pale white skin. Channelling his chakra back towards his eyes he watched intently as the blue span around its axis and morphed into the Rinnegan once more. Satisfied he could control his eyes he showed his father and got a nod in return.

"Very good, Naruto," his father praised, "Come, I want you to meet someone."

Naruto beamed at the masked man and followed him out of the kitchen again. Though he still felt hungry, he didn't feel the need to eat anything which was odd. Perhaps it was the cells again?

Ten minutes later they walked into a familiar large cavern. It was the room the Naruto had the kyuubi extracted. In front on him sat the throne, and behind stood the giant statue, however this time one of the eyes were open staring creepily into nothingness as if it was having a staring contest with the air. Naruto assumed it was due to having one of the tailed beasts inside of it. With the others would come more open eyes.

With his eyes, he watched as a chakra signature rose from the ground similar to how his father walked through his bedroom door. Turning off his Rinnegan to get a better view he saw a weird looking thing wearing what he now knew as an Akatsuki robe. It had a half white, half black body and from the sides grew a green plant like structure making it look like a Venus flytrap. He took a step back.

"This, Naruto, is Zetsu. The first recruited Akatsuki member. He specialises in espionage and information gathering due to his particular skillset of being able to travel vast distances extremely quickly and to hide his chakra signature," his father introduced.

"Nice to meet you Naruto," the white half waved in an almost electronic voice.

"Hello. Rinnegan bearer," the black half spoke. His voice was far deeper than the white half.

"Hello, Zetsu," he said awkwardly back.

"An odd-looking thing isn't he," his father said, causing the white zetsu to have a tantrum, "White Zetsu is made entirely out of Hashirama's cells- like a clone- and Black Zetsu is my will incarnate. Zetsu, Naruto wishes to join the Akatsuki and help our plan come to fruition."

"Excellent," Black Zetsu grinned.

"Let's begin with your second lesson, Naruto," his father said turning to face him. Zetsu sank back into the floor. He nodded, wondering all the things his father would teach him.

"In the village's academy, prospective ninja would enrol around the age of five depending on their skillset. They are taught your basic maths, literature, history and geography. This is to strengthen your mind. From today onwards I will provide you with books and lessons until I deem you perfect. The other half of the academy training is your basic taijutsu- hand-to-hand- combat- and weapons training. This is to strengthen your body. However, this is where we will diverge. Ninja nowadays are taught far too slowly and it stops them from maturing their power. Back when I was a child, we were taught how to kill the second we could walk. So, to strengthen your body I will drill you in every sense of the word. You will be taught advanced taijutsu that you will make your own, ninjutsu of high calibre and kinjutsu with multiple different weapons. Do you follow me so far?" his father told him.

Naruto felt a little nervous with the expectations of his father but he would try to live up to them. He nodded, though he did let out a moan at bookwork.

"Good. Students then take the Genin exam at twelve or sometimes earlier if they are a special case. The exam consists of a written part, a taijutsu part, and the ability to create a clone. This is pointless and a waste of time. By the time you're twelve you will have surpassed jonin when I'm done with you. Every month we will have regular check-ups on your skills. If you disappoint, there will be consequences. From this day forward you will run at least one mile a day until you can do ten miles every morning."

"Yes father, I won't let you down. I'll become a great shinobi you can be proud of and I'll help you achieve your dream," Naruto vowed.

"Training you in wood style won't start until I'm satisfied with your control over the five basic elements. To preform ninjutsu you must first learn every hand seal until you can perform them without any seals, these will be in the books provided. Secondly, you must learn how to infuse chakra and channel it into the jutsu. What are the five basic elements?"

"Uh Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning," he provided.

"Correct. Each hand seal works better with a specific element however it isn't absolute. With your Rinnegan you will be able to use all five as I mentioned and it should come easily and natural to you. Ninjutsu works by preforming the necessary hand seals and channelling your chakra to a certain point or your body or outside of your body. For example, a fire style jutsu like a fireball, you would channel chakra to your mouth and light it into a flame with the hand seal. However, with a style like water, creating water uses more chakra as you have to turn your chakra into water, so channelling your chakra into the atmosphere or a river and utilising your surroundings as a basis for the jutsu can help conserve chakra," his father said before facing away from him and preforming the ninjutsu.

The fire style lit up the room as it sailed from his mask to the cave wall. It warmed up the room considerably until his father cut of the chakra and the heat subsided.

"Now watch with your Rinnegan the way chakra flows," his father ordered.

Activating his eyes, he watched as the colour drained from the world and his father's blue aura flared as he held a hand seal. Naruto commit it to memory.

"Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu," his father shouted, and Naruto watched as the chakra built up in his mouth with a steady stream on chakra flowing upwards until he cut it off again. Naruto watched amazed.

"You try," he said.

"But- but I can't do that!" Naruto replied.

"Try," his father said simply, and Naruto coughed awkwardly before standing next to his father and reaching for his chakra. He felt it deep inside of him, the calm ocean he had felt earlier was now a raging tempest and he commanded his chakra to flow towards his mouth. Instantly, he felt it bend to his will and for the first time ever Naruto felt powerful. His chakra bubbled at the back of his throat and making the hand sign his father had used he toned the name of the jutsu before lighting the chakra with a spark and immediately a giant fireball twice the size of his fathers ripped out of his lips and crashed into the wall turning it to ash. So shocked Naruto was he stopped focusing on the chakra flow and coughed up smoke until his father gave him a glass of water.

"Remember to never lose focus, Naruto. It could mean the difference between life and death. However, excellent work. You did it on your first try. Even some seasoned ninja can't do that," his father said proudly.

"Thank you, father," he said in return, happy that he had performed a jutsu on his first ever try. Naruto new he would be powerful; it was just a matter of time. He reached for his eyes and smirked in pride.

"Now again! This time don't lose concentration!"

Thank you for the reception on the first chapter, heres a second. One reviewer asked why I didn't have nagato originally pose as naruto's father and that was just due to the fact that he wouldn't have access to hashirama's cells, and nagato doesn't actually possess his own rinnegan-with them being from madara- however he will meet nagato possibly next chapter. This fiction is AU and as such naruto will be a lot smarter and quicker to learn mostly due to the rinnegan but also because i don't want to have him training for five chapters. There will potentially be a time skip next chapter by a few years but it will be covered. Also obviously atm obito is acting more fatherly but this is just a manipulation tactic and eventually will show his normal personality and at the same time naruto will start to become more cold but not completely unemotional so that he goes around killing everyone he sees, currently he views bijuu as awful and he wants to free the jinchuriki from what he believes is a prison. Thank you for reading.