Pre-word: Hello again.

This is actually a chapter I was looking forward to writing as I get to kinda start laying out Naruto's new powers. Although I wonder if I'll have made an unpopular decision in that regard, haha. Guess we'll see, but I'll explain myself and a little of my decision making after.

So I will see you at the bottom if you're still with me.


Heart Under Shadow

Yin and Yang


It was a full moon tonight.

Kaguya hated the moon… how could she not? For her, it had been nothing more than a millenium long prison. Yet even she could not deny its beauty. And never had she seen it as clearly as she did tonight.

That was because before now she only had the opportunity to view it from within Naruto's shadow. Even as he slept, rolling over in his bed, she did not leave his shadow for even a moment. Just merely gazing up at the moon those nights from within it. As if looking at her former prison from within her new one.

Naruto had realized this earlier, but his shadow was a little special. Not just because she resided in it. But because her will had merged its shadow with his. This meant even in the darkest of nights, he would still have a shadow. Let alone a night like tonight with a full moon.

Now she walked beside Naruto, hand-in-hand, as they slowly made their way deeper and deeper into one of the numerous forests from which Konohagakure had received its name. The light of the moon was a blessing, casting a wider shadow so she could move somewhat more freely. Not that she took advantage of this, preferring to cling as closely to Naruto as physically possible for the moment.

The two of them came into a wide clearing with several large boulders scattered about. It would appear it was a proper training ground of some sorts, the rocks covered in numerous scars no doubt caused from Ninja blades. Of course, no one was here at this time of night, making it perfect for them now.

"This will do." Kaguya nodded in respect to Naruto. He had been the one leading them here, after all, so it had been his good sense to choose this place. She had been aware that he knew his way around the forests, but to be this informed to even know such an excellent area… she had underestimated him yet again.

"Really? That's a relief." Naruto chuckled happily, just glad to have been able to pick a place to her liking. He didn't really know her much yet, but she seemed like the hard to please type of person. He also had no idea how right about that he was. Now wasn't the time to get to know her, however, now was finally the time for him to get some answers.

He let go of Kaguya's hand to pull off the gloves that the mysterious Kakashi person had given to him earlier, once again exposing the purple eyes full of concentric circles on the palms of either hand. "First of all, you know what these are?" He asked, pointing the eyes in her direction.

"Rinnegan." Kaguya said again, taking several steps away from him. His shadow stretched only three short meters, which was all the distance she could get from him now. "Yes, we know what they are." She didn't bother looking at the eyes, instead looking back up at the moon. It had been the power of those eyes that sealed her there in the first place, after all.

"So… what are they then?" Naruto encouraged her to continue, eager to get to the bottom of these sudden new eyes. For him, who knew nothing of the three great Dojutsu, or any of the forgotten history, Kaguya was at a loss for how to properly explain.

For starters, it was unlikely Naruto had ever even heard the title of her son, Rikudo Sennin, or his numerous accomplishments. Even the religion he had founded, Ninshu, had been perverted and twisted into Ninjutsu. It was no longer a power to connect others as he intended, but now just a power to strengthen one self.

Nevermind her son's teachings, however, it was the power of his eyes that were important to this matter. He was called Rikudo Sennin in the legends because his Rinnegan had granted him access to six unique abilities, paths as he referred to them as. However, Kaguya was unable to sense the connection to these numerous paths in the eyes that awakened in Naruto.

That was perhaps inevitable. Like her resurrection, the Rinnegan awakening had been the result of an imperfect procedure. As the Rinnegan currently were… Kaguya was reminded more of a being known as Momoshiki, from her own clan, rather than her son.

Of course, explaining her true nature would be even more difficult and unbelievable a story, but trying to start from the Rikudo Sennin would possibly give Naruto a false impression. Make him think he was capable of more than he ever would be.

This wasn't to say Naruto didn't already hold incredible power in those hands. So long as he learned to harness their power, he would gain incredible strength unlike anything he thought imaginable. He would be more perfect than he imagined himself in his dreams. In fact, depending on the path he had access to, he might even be capable of miracles above her son.

A jack of all trades is a master of none.

Despite the leagues of devoted followers who would call him their master and for all his miraculous achievements, Rikudo Sennin had never reached the end of any one path. Of course he hadn't. It would be impossible with the way he had continued with his life, attempting to simultaneously walk six individual paths all at once.

For Naruto, reaching the end of one path might be possible. So long as he devoted himself to it and followed Kaguya's guidance, that is. Of course, the first step was understanding that he stood at the start of the path at all. Something he would never figure out if Kaguya didn't start explaining to him the nature of things.

"All thou need to know about the Rinnegan is one thing." Kaguya decided that instead of explaining the history of the eyes, she would at least tell him the concept upon which they operated under. "Under the right circumstances they will awaken in a host… and through coincidence those circumstances gathered within thou and the Rinnegan appeared." Only it hadn't been entirely a coincidence. Perhaps a reincarnation of Asura being born the Kyubi Jinchuriki was, but everything after was a deliberate act.

"Yeah… I don't really get all the complicated stuff, y'know. Point is, I get some kind of cool power from this, right?" Naruto asked, turning the eyes up to look at them for himself. If he was being honest, having eyes in his hands felt kind of disgusting, but if he got to do cool stuff with them, that was good enough for him.

Kaguya sighed, not knowing why she had just bothered. Of course, she realized now. Naruto didn't care about the history or where the eyes came from. The only thing he wanted to know was what kind of new power he had. In a way, that made things easier for her, but she did wish he would take knowledge a little more seriously.

"Yes, that much is certainly not mistaken." Kaguya said. She decided for now to humor him, as she would not deny that she was also curious what power he would manifest. "Once thou make those eye's thy own, that is."

The truth was exactly as she said: Naruto's Rinnegan weren't truly his own just yet.

He had awakened the eyes, yes, but they were in a way still dormant. That much was obvious because he had yet to be able to see out of them. In addition to this, she could only sense Indra's chakra coming from the Rinnegan.

"What the heck does that mean?" Naruto tilted his head. "How can they not be mine? They're in my hands. And if they're not mine, how do I use them?" It was too many questions all at once for Kaguya to answer, so she decided to not even bother. Instead, she would just solve the core issue. Rather, she would have him do it for himself.

"Hold out thy hands like this." Kaguya spread her arms wide, palms facing upwards, in a way that looked as if she was praying to the heavens. Naruto did as she instructed, mimicking her movements. "This shall perhaps be more easy if thou close thy eyes."

Naruto nodded, doing as told and slowly closing off his blue eyes. Kaguya and the world around him disappeared as he was thrust into darkness. Kaguya called out further instructions a moment later, reassuring him that he wasn't alone, "The same as preparing any Jutsu, weave chakra into thy hands. That should be enough to complete thy connection to the Rinnegan."

He had been expecting a much more complex ritual of some sorts, but it seemed to be as easy as that. Not that he was going to complain. He had never been good at the complicated stuff, or creating clones, but even he could unleash his chakra when he had to.

Chakra flared up from deep within his stomach, swirling around and then spreading to the rest of his body. He could feel the power surging down his legs and into his arms. It raced into his palms and there was a sudden pulse of energy. Unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was like ripples on the water, only it was his skin experiencing this instead.

Then he could see.

The full moon was shining down at him and he was looking right up at it. That didn't make sense though… His neck was still slightly inclined from having to look down at the much shorter Kaguya. Yet somehow he was looking up at the moon right now anyways.

"Turn thy palms towards us." Kaguya instructed. Naruto didn't really get it but did as was told. As he moved his hands, the image he was seeing changed. Until as he started to reach forward and Kaguya came into view.

"This is…" Naruto gasped. "Am I seeing with my hands?" The knowing smirk Kaguya gave was all the answer he needed. Even then Naruto couldn't believe it, letting out an ecstatic laugh as he turned his hands in opposite directions. His very vision split, as if looking at two separate images simultaneously. "Whoa…" The sudden sensory upload was so unlike anything he had ever experienced before that there was a sudden spike of pain in his head and a wave of vertigo. He grit his teeth, Rinnegan eyes flinching shut as he fell to his knees.

"Do no fret." Kaguya said, her voice unconcerned, as she took a couple steps towards him. While on his knees, the two were near the same height, so it was easier for her to reach forward, taking his cheeks in her hands and stroking his face comfortingly. "Thou shall adapt to thy new sight quickly. The first time is always the most difficult." His blue eyes shot open, surprised by her sudden proximity. Although he could say he didn't mind the touch, enjoying the sensation of someone holding him in any way a foreign, but not unwelcome concept.

"That was wild!" Naruto grinned through the piercing headache. "So these eyes are mine now, right?"

Kaguya indicated for him to look down, "See for thyself." She said. What he saw when he did was perhaps the last thing he had expected. His Rinnegan eyes were now a vibrant yellow that seemed to cast their own light, like two miniature suns. No longer were they the dull lifeless purple that they had original awoken as. He didn't dislike the old color, but this new one certainly felt… more like himself.

"Be assured, they are thy Rinnegan. Unique to thou now." Kaguya took a step back as she turned to face one of the numerous boulders. "Aim thy dominant hand at that boulder. It is time to confirm thy Path."

"Finally," Naruto stumbled back to his feet, holding his right arm out in front of himself, palm open. He gripped his forearm with his left hand and again began to channel chakra. As before, vision from the right eye flooded in and this time formed an image on top of what his blue eyes were also viewing. It was still an unusual and kind of a nauseating sensation, but it didn't cause a sense of imbalance or pain like before. "What now?" He wondered aloud, as just pointing the eye somewhere didn't seem to be doing anything.

"The same as when thou perform any Jutsu." Kaguya said. "This time, instead of simply weaving chakra in preparation for the Jutsu, unleash the chakra and the Jutsu should activate automatically."

"Like this?" Naruto had no idea what he was expecting, but he did as instructed and pumped chakra once more into his right palm before discharging it all at once. At first, it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then they both felt the change. As if gravity was suddenly pressing in on them from the side.

The boulder Naruto was pointing his palm at was ripped from the ground, being dragged forward by some invisible force and came flying at them with the speed of a thrown kunai. "Holy shit!" Naruto yelled in a panic, glancing at Kaguya as if to ask what to do. Only she was no longer there. Kaguya had already dropped into his shadow, disappearing completely in order to avoid the incoming rock.

Naruto didn't have such luxury and had to dive to the side, tucking into a roll to just barely dodge the boulder three times his side as it flew past. It carried on unhindered into the forest until it hit a tree, shattering bark and gouging a path through the earth as it continued its destructive path. Several trees were sent toppling to the forest floor, making a ruckus so loud that birds and other wildlife were sent fleeing in all directions, their screams and animistic cries only further adding to the discord. This cacophony of noise and chaos went on for several more agonizing seconds; Naruto having tucked himself into the ground face first, hands covering his head and butt in the air as he just waited for it all to end, hoping none of the trees fell on him.

Finally, silence once again reigned. Aside from the distant cry of upset birds now circling the skies, Naruto was only able to hear his own ragged breathing. He slowly lowered his hands, lifting his head to turn around and view the destruction he had just caused. At least half a dozen trees were down, the boulder having carved a clear path through anything that had been in its way; which had almost also included him.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Naruto couldn't even shout, just uttering his exclamation breathlessly. He looked down once again at his Rinnegan eye, not able to comprehend that it had been his own power just now that had caused what just happened.

"That was the Bansho Ten'in." Kaguya corrected, reappearing from his shadow with her arms folded and a satisfied smirk. "As we already suspected, but thou walk the Path of Heaven itself: Tendō!" Her words were haughty and yet full of pride. Naruto had no idea what she was talking about, but it would appear she too had been pleased by his power just now.

"It was kind of dangerous though…" Naruto chuckled awkwardly, stumbling to his feet as he better inspected the damage just caused. "I'm not gonna like… have to dodge my own attack every time, right?"

"Thou shall learn control." Kaguya assured him, glancing over to his left hand now. "We already have a general idea of thy power, but for posterity, we should assess the capabilities of thy non-dominant hand."

"Right-o!" Naruto wasn't about to complain, turning to a different boulder and this time raising his left hand to point at it. Just to be safe, he tensed his leg muscles, ready to dive out of the way at a moment's notice. Channeling chakra into his palm again, he unleashed another attack. This time, instead of gravity running towards them, it was if it was being pushed away.

The boulder was blasted backwards with enough force to send it airborne. It didn't make it far before smashing into another rock of equal size, the two hunks of stone shattering apart upon collision and sending shrapnel whizzing past in every direction.

Naruto was at a loss for words, arms dropping down to his sides as he stared mouth agape at the sheer destruction he was capable of with just a single point and small discharge of chakra. This morning when he woke up, he couldn't have fathomed having this kind of power for himself. Yet now it was his reality.

"Shinra Tensei." Kaguya stated the name of the ability demonstrated just now. "In thy right is the power of attraction and in thy left is repulsive force. Truly the dominion of Heaven itself." As she talked, Naruto glanced down at her. She seemed to be in a good mood, throwing back her long white hair with one hand as she went to place both fists on her hips.

"You suspected this?" Naruto asked, recalling what she said just after he used the first technique he didn't quite remember the name of. "Why would you think I would develop this power in particular?" He knew nothing about paths or how many of them there might be, but she hadn't seemed surprised that out of all of them he would get this one and had even been ready when the boulder initially came flying in their direction.

"We just said it, but Tendō is power over attracting and repelling forces." There was a slight pause, but when it was apparent Naruto still didn't understand she elaborated further. "In more simple terms: Opposites. The same principle in which In'yo governs over."

"In'yo?" Naruto asked, having a vague idea like he had heard the word before but being unable to place it.

"Separately, thou might know it as Yin and Yang. In'yo is the culmination of those two sides into one whole." Kaguya explained. "As for why we suspected it…" She held up her arm and from the darkness of her sleeve the tanto she had earlier stolen appeared. She grabbed it by the hilt and pulled the blade free. "For one such as thou, showing might be easier than just hearing an explanation."

Kaguya channeled chakra into the sword and then held it over her head. "We said it earlier, but this is a fine blade. Able to channel one's chakra and incorporate it into their attack. Observe." As she swung it down, the blade made a black streak through the air, the tip of the blade unleashing her chakra in a dark, shadowy slash. "We have a Yin type chakra affinity, as thou can see."

At her full power, she would have actually had both In'yo and all the other primary chakra elements as part of her nature. Yet her imperfect resurrection had left her with only Yin. Her shadow hadn't realized it, but it had unintentionally only pulled the Yin chakra of the other eight Biju when extracting a sliver of their essence. It was, however, this unintentional mistake that ended up in a serendipitous merger.

She tossed the blade to Naruto, who only barely managed to catch it by the hilt. "Channel thy chakra into the blade and swing it as we did." She didn't wait for him to ask any questions and Naruto, for his part, quietly did as he was told.

When he swung the blade down, in contrast to the black, shadowy chakra of Kaguya's strike, the blade now emitted a force of pure white. "Thy chakra affinity… is Yang. At least, it became as such when thou became our Jinchuriki host." She had no doubt that Naruto had probably been born with a different type of affinity. More than likely one of the five elemental nature's most humans possessed.

However, that had changed when her shadow had merged all of the things it had gathered with his chakra. Indra's eyes, slices of Yin chakra from eight Biju, and the nature of a shadow itself being darkness had almost created an imbalance of dark energy inside Naruto. Had that imbalance remained as it was, it was unlikely he would have survived the merger and everything would have been for naught.

This was why she described it as a stroke of serendipity. The Yondaime Hokage had sealed only the Yang half of Kyubi's chakra in Naruto and Asura's chakra also consisted primarily of Yang energy itself. These things served as a counter-weight, balancing the scales and allowing her incomplete resurrection to work at all. In the process they both lost their original affinity, but emerged with a new one: Yang for Naruto and Yin for Kaguya. Together they were the perfect representation of In'yo.

"...Jinchuriki?" Naruto asked now. Unlike with In'yo, where he had at least a vague idea of its concept, he was confident he had never heard that word before now. Yet he didn't like the sound of it, getting the sense the word was somehow dirty and even saying it was slanderous.

"That is right…" Kaguya realized. "Thou do not know." Their time together so far may have been brief, but Naruto had not once asked about Kaguya's origins, despite having numerous opportunities to.

She already knew why. To Naruto, it didn't matter where she came from. He was just happy to have someone to talk to. Someone that would be by his side… no, that was forced into being by his side. Even if Kaguya had come out to tell him she hated him, Naruto would have tried to befriend her. Because he would have known she could not go anywhere. They were stuck together and to Naruto, that made her the closest connection he ever had.

"What don't I know?" Naruto pressed, concern and fear filling his voice and causing it to crack. While he may have been content not knowing Kaguya's origins before, he couldn't ignore it any longer. That was because he had unknowingly received some kind of title.

The title of a Jinchuriki.

Naruto may not have had any proof, but he knew it deep in his gut. That word was the reason for his misery up until now. For all the hate he had endured up until now. So he had to know what it meant, no matter how much that might hurt him.

"We suppose it can't be helped." Kaguya sighed. "We shall tell you." If she was being honest, she did not want to divulge this information to him. Partially because it was mostly irrelevant now. No, it was wrong to say it was irrelevant. It was just that the circumstances of Naruto's condition had changed. However, because no one else actually knew about this change in circumstance, it was as if nothing had ever really changed at all.

The truth became a lie, but no one knew that. So in the end, wasn't the reality in some way that it was still the truth?

"On the day of thy birth, thou became the Jinchuriki host of the Kyubi no Yoko."

There was a moment's pause following her revelation where she wondered if he would understand what that meant. What she didn't expect were the sudden tears that rolled down Naruto's cheeks. Unlike normal tears, these ones were cold and silent. He was probably not even aware of them himself.

"So like…" He asked, voice hoarse and dry. "I am the demon fox that attacked the village? That's why everyone hates me? That's why they're always so mean to me and won't let me play with the other kids?" He collapsed to his knees, the sword he had been holding falling from his grip and clattering to the ground at his feet.

"No, that is not right." Kaguya walked up to him, taking his head in her arms and pulling him up against her shoulder, burying his face in her long white hair. She was reminded of how she used to comfort her own sons when they had hurt themselves. Only this wound was far more deep than anything they had ever experienced. "Thou were merely its jailer. Of course, humanity is too ignorant to separate the two… so perhaps to them it is as thou say." Even she couldn't deny his words completely. No matter how much she wanted to.

"You keep talking about it like it's the past… but what does that mean?" Naruto's hands slowly came back up, returning Kaguya's embrace and pulling her tight against him. He let out a choked sob, the tears flowing more freely now, yet somehow he also felt strangely comforted. Perhaps because he wasn't alone. He finally had someone that would look him in the eyes and tell the truth, no matter how hard that was for him.

"We already said. Thou are our Jinchuriki host now. Kyubi no Yoko is gone." She began stroking his hair, gazing out over the boulders he had just destroyed with his power not long before. Even with the power of heaven now in his hands, she was reminded that he was still a vulnerable boy.

"You mean like… you ate it, or something?" Naruto asked, somehow finding the strength to chuckle through his forced sobs. Just the idea of Kaguya coming into his shadow to eat the fox was enough to be funny even in this circumstance. However, as it was he could no longer ignore the obvious question. So he asked, "What even are you?"

"We suppose it was only a matter of time before that question." Kaguya gazed up at the moon, debating how much to answer. Although, she supposed mixing in a bit of the truth into a fairy tale didn't sound too bad. "Thou can just think of us as a Moon Rabbit that came down to Earth to eat demons. Then we made a mistake and lost our own shadow… binding us to thou."

"...Even if it was a mistake, I'm glad you're here now." Naruto smiled, giving one last ragged breath as he finally calmed down and pulled away. Sitting on his knees was uncomfortable, so he shifted himself slightly, ending up in a cross-legged position on the forest floor. Kaguya turned herself over, pressing the little of her back into his chest and resting her head just below his chin.

Together, the two sat for a while in silence.

"You know I just thought of something…" Naruto said, looking down at his yellow Rinnegan eyes again. They were facing up, looking at Kaguya from below, but he slowly started to turn them inwards as if to face them against one another. "You talked about In'yo and all that stuff earlier, so if I used them at the same time, wouldn't I create some like… even more crazy powerful Jutsu then those last two?"

Kaguya realized what he was intending to do just in time, reaching down and grabbing both his wrists to prevent him from doing exactly what he was just thinking. "We would advise against that." She warned. "Even as just a test…" There was a slight pause, as she turned once more to look at the object of her former imprisonment.

"Thou would destroy Konohagakure no Sato." She said, gazing up at the full moon.


Chapter End


Post-word: So as promised up top, but I would like to talk a little about one of my decisions.

As you might have realized, but I've decided to make Naruto's Rinnegan more like Momoshiki's instead of Pain. I'll talk a little as to why. First of all, I'm not really a fan of a character that has a ton of different abilities. I think having just a couple abilities taken to the extreme is much more interesting. Of course, you haven't seen everything he's capable of yet, but he won't be developing all the other Paths at the very least.

Now if I'm going as far as to make the comparison to Momoshiki, why not the Chakra absorption ability? So you won't hear me trash on the source material often, because despite its flaws, I still love the original Naruto manga and most of what it had to offer, but in my honest opinion: Chakra Absorption is the most broken and stupid ability in the series that basically only exists to make other characters weaker to balance fights.

Onto a final note and without spoilers, but I don't watch Boruto or read the manga. Having said that, I'm on the internet a lot and as a consequence of this am up to speed on the most recent developments. Frankly, I don't really care all that much either way. If you love Boruto the series, more power to you; If you hate it, that's fine too. Speaking only for myself, Naruto officially ended with the Boruto movie, which I happened to really enjoy.

I thought that might be relevant to say with this chapter, but I likely won't bring it up again.

In the future I'll try to avoid leaving notes this long as I would rather leave the explanations to the story itself, but I kind of felt like sharing a little of my decision making process. If it's relevant and I think you'll benefit from hearing it, I will of course talk about it, but if not I'll try to keep these more brief. Not that this helps this one.

Next time, I think the cast will expand a little as we get to the Academy.