Opening - Eternal Blaze by Nana Mizuki

Naruto woke, panting, in a Konoha hospital bed. He was still sweating from his nightmare of being eaten by a giant, roaring orange fox. He looked around, horribly disoriented. He'd never been in a room like this before, his last few memories were hazy and incomplete, and everything in the room was shining.

"Shinra Tensei." And then one of the ice mirrors was missing from the formation, and Haku was running away from him.

"Rinne Tensei." After that, his next memory was of looking down at Hinata, who was breathing again, looking up at him and telling him he had the Rinnegan.

The Rinnegan?

Naruto sat up, and brought a hand into his field of vision. "Whoa." His hand was glistening, pulsing with a dim yet clearly visible blue light. "Is this… my chakra?" he flexed his hand into a fist, then loosened it again. Everything else is shining with light too... everything. It's like the walls and the floor have chakra too. Is this what Hinata sees with her Byakugan?

"H-Hinata!" he remembered. She died! I brought her back, I think, but is she still okay? He leapt out of the bed, and made for the door, but before he reached it, it opened of its own accord.

The Third Hokage stepped through, smiling. "Good morning, Naruto-kun."

"Hokage-sama! Is Hinata all right?"

"She's fine. She was here earlier this morning, in fact." The Hokage gestured to the glass vase at Naruto's bedside, which held a single, bright orange rose. Where Hinata had found one of those, no one would ever know. "Both of you were suffering from severe chakra exhaustion, and to everyone's surprise, Hinata was the first to recover. The first thing she asked about was likewise, your condition, and I had to inform her you were still recovering. That was two days ago."

"How long was I out?"

"Eleven days. Chakra exhaustion like what you suffered is serious business. You could have died, but you're lucky. Your chakra network is surprisingly resilient." The Hokage reached out and flicked the spike of white hair at the edge of Naruto's forehead. "Did you do what I think you did, to suffer this much damage?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto reached up to the white tuft of hair. "I'm injured?"

"I suppose you should just take a look for yourself." From within a pocket of his robe, the Third withdrew a hand mirror. "I had been ready to use ninjutsu to wake you, in case you weren't yet awake, but the medic-nin who was attending you predicted you to wake up today, and I planned accordingly," he commented.

Naruto took the mirror, and looked down at his reflection. Two wide Rinnegan eyes stared back at him. "The white hair…" he finally asked after gawking for a while, "What happened there?"

"You forced so much chakra through your pathways at once that they were ruptured. I've only seen a shinobi's hair whiten like that once before, and it happened to his whole head. He was dead in a matter of hours." Naruto blanched. "Fortunately, whatever healing power you have was able to minimize the damage," the Hokage added quickly. "Your chakra pathways have recovered, as have you. You'll live. Perhaps a few years less than you might have, but you'll live."

"Does that mean I shouldn't use the Rinnegan any more?"

"No, it does not," the Hokage answered firmly. "With those eyes you have the potential to become one of the most powerful shinobi in the world… Just, use your powers carefully. And whatever jutsu you used, that put such a strain on your body, please avoid using it from now on. I doubt you'd survive a second use of it. Now," the Hokage continued, "come with me. Some very important people are very interested in what transpired in the Land of Waves."

"Wait!" Naruto followed him. "Can I see Hinata first?"

"Ah… that won't be necessary. Hinata's one of the people we're going to see."

"H-huh?" Naruto ran to catch up with the Hokage. "Wait up, Hokage-sama!"

X

Naruto was suddenly very aware that he was still wearing a hospital gown. Gathered in the Hokage's office were three faces he recognized: Hinata, the Fire Daimyou, and Asuma-sensei. There were also four whom he'd never seen before: an old man leaning on a cane with his face wrapped in bandages, a younger but still old man with a fluffy white mane and red marks on his cheeks, a man who was wearing white and blue Kage robes, hence apparently the Kazekage, and a man with black hair and pearly white eyes, wearing the Hyuuga crest on the right sleeve of his robes.

"Naruto," the Hokage began, and sat behind his desk. "Please give us the most detailed report you can of how you unlocked the Rinnegan, and what you did with it."

Naruto blinked. "Ah... it all started when me and Hinata were training in the woods," he began hesitantly. "We took a minute to relax, and this kid found us, and said he was looking for medical herbs. It didn't take long before we figured out he was working with Zabuza… you guys all know who Zabuza is, right?"

A collective nod answered that question.

"Right, so, this kid starts fighting us with an Ice Release, I guess it was a kekkei genkai, and then Kiba showed up and helped us fight him off. He came back a few seconds later and trapped us all in a dome made out of ice. We were able to break out of it…" he paused, and looked at Hinata. "No, Hinata got us out of it." She blushed faintly. "And me and Kiba left her to recover because she used up all her chakra."

Hiashi Hyuuga's eyes narrowed.

"So, we went after this ice kid, Haku, to save Tazuna and Asuma-sensei, and we found Asuma fighting Zabuza and Haku two-on-one. He was putting up a great fight but he was outnumbered, so Kiba took on Zabuza and I fought Haku. Only, Haku had so much more chakra than I did, 'cause I'd been training, and there was the ice dome, and all that… Gah, I'm making excuses…"

Naruto ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Anyway, Haku was beating me. He had me surrounded by a bunch of plates of ice, like mirrors, and he could throw senbon through all of them. He said some stupid stuff about me giving up and letting him kill Tazuna, I said no way, and then Hinata showed up. She used a Substitution Jutsu on me, put herself inside Haku's power, and got cut up by senbon too."

Hiashi's eyes narrowed further.

"So I went back in to help her, but… she got hit by a senbon in the heart." All eyes turned to Hinata, who was completely focused on Naruto's story, her eyes wide. "After that it starts getting hazy… I started screaming, and this voice asked me…"

What would you do to save her? To erase this moment as though it had never happened to her?

"And I said I'd do anything…" by now, both Naruto and Hinata were blushing furiously, "…and that little converstaion was all in my head, by the way…" he said in a small voice, then steeled himself and spoke louder. "Next thing I remember, I said 'Shinra Tensei,' but I don't know what the jutsu did 'cause I don't remember the next few seconds. After that, I looked down at Hinata," he shuddered, "and she wasn't breathing… so I said 'Rinne Tensei.'"

Everyone in the room sharply drew in a collective breath.

"Next thing I remember, Hinata was looking up at me, alive again, and she told me…" he pointed at his right eye. "She told me about these. Then Haku used another jutsu, and I used Shinra Tensei again, but I still don't remember what it actually did 'cause I passed out. Then, Hinata was carrying me… I guess she took a soldier pill for extra chakra? Anyway, she was carrying me, and said we won. Then I passed out again, and woke up back here in Konoha."

The room fell deathly silent, and Naruto looked around at the gathering of extremely powerful people as though he had done something terribly wrong and was expecting an equally terrible punishment.

Finally, the Hokage spoke. "Gentlemen," he addressed the adults, "You have all the answers Naruto and I can provide at this time. With the exception of Jiraiya, I must ask you all to leave."

No one argued, but Hiashi made his way to Naruto instead of the door, clamping a hand onto the Genin's shoulder. "Uzumaki… you and I will be having a very long talk about you and my daughter." Then he too left the room.

Only Naruto, Hinata, the Hokage and Jiraiya remained. Naruto and Hinata immediately leapt from their respective chairs and hugged each other. "Ahem," the Hokage cleared his throat, and the two released each other. "Naruto, Hinata, I'd like you to meet Jiraiya, the Toad Sage of the Sannin, and the only ninja in the known world who has firsthand experience with the Rinnegan and isn't a missing-nin."

Jiraiya flashed a proud grin. "With respect, Hokage-sama, that's 'Legendary Toad Sage of the Legendary Sannin.'"

"Yes, well…" the Hokage replied with a sigh, "Naruto. Jiraiya here was your father's Jounin sensei." he gestured to Jiraiya, whose grin broadened. "Just as I was, in turn, his sensei. He's one of the most powerful shinobi in the world, and he's agreed to train you, Naruto."

Naruto blinked, looked to Jiraiya, then the Hokage, and then Hinata. She nodded to him subtly, and whispered with a smile, "Good luck."

Naruto shook his head, and faced Jiraiya. "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama, but I can't. I've trained with Hinata-chan for two years, and that's gotten me to where I am today."

"What?!" Jiraiya roared in shock. "Kid, this isn't a deal you just pass up! It's the oppurtunity of a lifetime!"

Someone thinks highly of himself, Naruto thought, but said nothing.

"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata began shakily, "J-Jiraiya-sama is right. You'd get so p-powerful with that kind of t-training…"

"Exactly." Naruto intertwined his hand with hers, and she blushed. "Jiraiya-sama, as much as I appreciate it, I can't accept your offer, unless you train me and Hinata together." Everyone's eyes widened, and Naruto beamed. "I already said I'd do anything for her, didn't I? Believe it, Hinata-chan and I got this far without a sensei at all! So imagine how strong we'd get if we trained under one of the Sannin. It wouldn't be fair at all for Hinata to miss out while I get 'the oppurtunity of a lifetime.'"

Jiraiya nodded along with everything Naruto said, chuckling quietly, and when the blonde Genin finished, he let himself laugh louder. "Oh, I see how it is... This should be fun, and you're right anyway." Jiraiya turned his gaze on Hinata. "As a Hyuuga, you have incredible chakra control honed through the Byakugan and Gentle Fist, don't you?"

Hinata nodded after a brief hesitation. "Y-yes. My Gentle Fist isn't as good as some of the other Hyuuga, but I use n-ninjutsu too…" she trailed off.

"What Hinata-chan means is," Naruto continued, "She can do things no other Hyuuga has even tried to do in decades, and she's great at it." Hinata blushed and tried to hide herself deeper inside her hoodie, but got nowhere.

Jiraiya nodded, smirking but not laughing at this point. "Hinata, what exactly did you do to earn such praise from Naruto? What makes him say that you're 'great at it?'"

"The W-Water Dragon Bullet," she replied reluctantly, and Jiraiya's eyebrows slid upward. "I f-found out in the Land of Waves that I f-finally have enough chakra to use it, b-but not for too long."

"I see…" Jiraiya rubbed his custom forehead protector thoughtfully. "Well… since I'll be stuck here in Konoha anyway, training Naruto and such, I suppose I might as well train you too. There are a few jutsu you might be able to make particularly effective use of, if all this is true."

"T-thank you, Jiraiya-sama… I-I mean, Jiraiya-s-sensei!"

Jiraiya grinned. "So here's the deal. I'll stick around and train you two for the next couple of months, and as a bonus, I'll stick around to see you two compete in the Chuunin Exams, but after that, you two had better be damned strong. In fact, I'll make you the deal right now…" Jiraiya stood, and held out his hand palm-up, forming a spinning sphere of chakra in his palm.

"This is the Rasengan, an A-rank jutsu that requires no hand seals and no elemental affinity. Hinata, you're gonna learn it by the start of the Chuunin Exams." He turned to Naruto. "You, kid, you're gonna learn to use those eyes properly. You'll be unlocking and mastering each Path of the Rinnegan with my training, and you'll have three of 'em unlocked by the start of the Chuunin Exams. Those are my terms, meet them and I'll keep training you two."

"No problem!" Naruto announced loudly. "Me and Hinata-chan should have all that done in two weeks, tops! Believe it!"

"I don't," Jiraiya replied, with a slight hint of cold anger in his tone. "The tasks I've set for you are not easy. That's why doing them in two months is a fair challenge." Jiraiya made a fist, destroying the Rasengan in his hand. "Meet me in Training Ground Thirty-Five tomorrow morning. We'll start your training then."

The Toad Sage left the room, and Hinata immediately hugged Naruto again. "N-Naruto-k-kun, thank you s-so much!"

"Naruto, Hinata," the Hokage interrupted whatever Naruto had been about to say, "one last thing before you go: the Chuunin Exams, as Jiraiya mentioned, are in two months, and you will be competing in them. The level of power you two demonstrated in the Land of Waves… it's just laughable for you two to remain Genin at this point. Not to mention the quick thinking you showed in the Shiro Kyuuden. Now, be on your way." The Hokage sighed. "I have a lot more to deal with today."

Blushing at the mention of the Shiro Kyuuden, Naruto and Hinata quickly left the room.

X

"Naruto. Open your eyes."

Naruto knew he was dreaming immediately, judging solely by the fact that he was staring up at a completely different ceiling from the one he'd gone to sleep under. He sat up, and realized he had been laying in shallow water. His back was soaked. "Huh? Who's there?"

"Over here, Naruto." He turned, and saw a smiling face looking back at him, a face framed by yellow hair as bright and spiky as his own. Next to this man, Minato Namikaze, stood a woman of the same age, with the long, scarlet hair characteristic of the Uzumaki Clan. Naruto's eyes widened. "Come here, son."

Naruto stood, and made his way to his parents' arms.

They embraced him, and he let himself cry. "It's okay, Naruto. It's us, we're here now, it's not a dream."His father ruffled Naruto's hair. "It's time we gave you some answers."

Naruto listened, still crying quietly. "Look over there, Naruto," his mother pointed, and he looked. At the far end of this giant red sewer they were in, there was a wall of golden bars that held back a giant, growling orange fox with nine massive tails lashing behind it. "That's the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tails that attacked our village twelve years ago."

" That night, we tried everything to stop it... but ultimately we had to resort to this situation. You're what's called a Jinchuuriki," his father continued. "One of nine humans who carry a Tailed Beast sealed within them."

"So why me? Why seal the Kyuubi… in your own son?" Naruto whispered, trembling.

"Because you're strong enough to control him," Minato replied. "But that's not all. I sealed my own and Kushina's chakra in here, a leftover of our souls, so we could give you these answers. We would've wanted to be there for you from the start, but you only triggered this function of the seal when you used the Kyuubi's chakra for a moment in the Land of Waves. And then you awakened the Rinnegan, which cut that chakra off from you."

"I… don't understand that at all."

"It's simple. We wanted you to have the power to defend yourself, so until you unlocked your Rinnegan the seal was set to leak the massive chakra of a Bijuu through to you. Once you had the Rinnegan, which we're so proud of you for by the way, that leak was dangerous and unnecessary, so it was sealed."

"Mom… Dad… how did I do that, anyway? How'd I get the Rinnegan?"

This time, Kushina spoke. "It's triggered by absolute devotion to another person, a willingness to do absolutely anything to protect them. Your mind rationalizes this, and turns it into a question: what would you do to save this person?"

Naruto realized, "The correct answer… the one that got me the Rinnegan… was 'anything.'"

"That's right. For better or worse, you didn't stop to think about what exactly 'anything' would entail, you just made that choice on instinct. And it didn't have to be that kind of love specifically, but you awakened it to save Hinata Hyuuga." Minato beamed. "My little boy's all grown up, I see."

Naruto blushed, and Kushina smacked her husband on the back of the head. "…Moving on," Kushina announced, smirking as Minato rubbed the sore spot, "There's a scroll in the Uzumaki Clan trunk we left you, that should explain how to properly use the Rinnegan."

"The one I couldn't open," Naruto remembered. "It's about the Rinnegan?"

Kushina nodded. "And it's sealed so only someone with a Rinnegan will be able to open it. Once you've read through some of it, you should be able to remember using its jutsu, such as Shinra Tensei." she beamed and ruffled his hair. "I was never able to do it myself, ya know. I was born with another kekkei genkai instead. But you, Naruto... you'll be able to put that scroll to good use."

"But there's something else very important we have to talk to you about." Minato laid a hand on his son's shoulder. "We don't understand the whole situation yet; we died before we could piece it together, but Akatsuki is trying to gather all nine of the Bijuu and recombine their powers into the demon that the Sage of Six Paths defeated a thousand years ago. The Ten-Tails. Even a single Bijuu's power, channeled back into the Ten-Tails… you have to stop them, Naruto. Stop the Akatsuki. Gather the Jinchuuriki before they do, present a combined front and defeat them."

"Okay," Naruto replied. "I'll do that. I was already gonna become the Hokage, and with that kind of influence the other Jinchuuriki should listen to me. But how will I recognize them?"

"That's just it, Naruto." Kushina smiled down at him. "Each Jinchuuriki bears a stigma, a mark of their Bijuu. You have your six whiskers, for example. We don't really know all of them, but Shukaku the One-Tail gives its Jinchuuriki black rings around the eyes. The Three-Tails marks its host with a pattern like a stitch on the left cheek. The Seven-Tails turns the bearer's hair teal and their eyes orange, and the Eight-Tails puts a mark like a bull's horn tattoo on its Jinchuuriki's cheek. Now, some of these marks might be covered by their bearers, but if you search for them, they'll likely seek you out in return." Kushina intertwined her hand with Minato's and finished, "we have to go now, Naruto. We don't have much chakra here inside you, and when it runs out we'll vanish forever. We need to conserve it for the next time."

Naruto nodded numbly, and his parents hugged him. "Goodbye for now, Naruto."

X

"So…" Naruto stood alone in front of the cage that had been placed in his subconscious, a few moments later. "You're the Kyuubi no Kitsune, huh? The creature that attacked Konoha the night I was born?"

"That's right," the creature within answered, making no effort to hide its annoyance. "Why did you stay here, after your parents left to conserve what pathetic little chakra they had remaining?"

"I wanted to talk to you." Naruto stared up into the hate-filled eyes of the strongest of the Bijuu. "Is that really your name? Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

"…No," the fox replied, surprised by the question.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki." The boy continued to stare up at him without a trace of fear or even hatred. This was likely due to the rather solid wall between the two, the demon noted idly, but there was still a chance the boy was just that plucky. "I'm sure you already knew that, but it feels right to introduce myself anyway."

"I will not tell the likes of you my name," the Kyuubi growled again, louder this time and with a hint of condescension. "Don't bother asking again."

"So what should I call you, then?"

"Don't call me anything. You don't interest me, so I'd rather not talk with you at all."

"Huh..." Naruto looked around. "It's so dark and depressing in here… Is that because you like it this way? I don't think my mind would naturally look like this, so did you make it look like this?"

The Kyuubi snorted. "Don't blame it on me. I had nothing to do with the pitiful state of this inner world of yours. As you can see," his tails lashed out in all directions, striking the bars of his cage, "I'm completely trapped in here. But to answer your question... I don't care particularly for this scenery. It wouldn't be a great view even if I hadn't been looking at it for the past twelve years."

"Since you attacked the village and killed countless people, you mean. My parents, the parents of some of my classmates… some of the people I might have been classmates with are dead because of you."

"Then why do I see no hatred in your eyes?" The Kyuubi rumbled. "Why do you choose to speak with me?"

"Because I don't understand why you did it. Why kill them? They never did anything to you, did they?"

"I killed them because they were human. I hate you and all your kind."

"That's…"

"It's what? Horrible? Monstrous? Evil?"

"Sad. It's sad."

"Why don't you hate me?" The Kyuubi repeated, startled by this point.

"Because I feel bad for you." Naruto smiled sadly up at the look of surprise on the demon's face. "The Sage of Six Paths created you, right? By splitting up the chakra of the Ten-Tails into nine entities? So, in a sense you were born because of a human. Is that why you hate us? Because you didn't ever want to exist? Or is it because the humans saw you as a monster, and hated you first? Were you innocent in the beginning?"

The Kyuubi remained silent, pondering this. Then he spoke up louder, angrier, "Do you seek to tame me, child? To make my power your own?"

"No. It'd be nice to be that strong, but I don't want a shortcut to that power. I'm here," Naruto admitted, "because I know what it's like to feel hate. To be hated. I know how much it hurts, Kyuubi. If it hadn't been for Hinata, and Iruka-sensei, and some of the other kids who looked at me like a real person… I might've turned out like you did. Hating the whole world and thinking to myself, 'they deserve it. They started it; they treated me like this so it's their fault.' I might've really done it, but then someone was there for me, and she saved me from that darkness."

The Kyuubi listened patiently, until Naruto finished and it replied, "You're not the first human to play that card against me. I don't want your pity."

"No, I understand that too. Pity isn't as bad as hate, because you know they're trying to help, but it still makes you feel… low. Less than what you are, and what you want to be." Naruto smiled again. "You know, this really is just a projection of my mind. It's a thought, and I can change that thought really easily." He looked around, humming thoughtfully, and then snapped his fingers.

The dim-lit crimson sewer was replaced by a vast, serene valley ringed with trees bearing sweet fruit. The floor beneath them turned to an endless sea of soft, warm grass. The ceiling became a sky with its own glorious yellow… no, orange sun, in a perpetual sunrise. The Kyuubi looked around, shocked, even as its cage expanded to give it room to wander. Then, its attention snapped back to the boy who had done all this in the blink of an eye.

Naruto was still smiling. "Do you like it? I guess a Bijuu might find it a bit too... tranquil? I could make it whatever you want, any suggestions?"

"Twelve years I festered in a lapdog's cage in a stinking sewer… and now this," The Kyuubi mused. "I might yet give you my name after all."

"I think it's morning out in the real world," Naruto said with a glance to the cloudless sky. "I'll see you again tomorrow night."

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