Eyes of God

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

A/N: Thank you for clicking on this story. I hope it doesn't dissappoint, and I promise that it will escalate into an epic tale from such a humble beginning. With your help and support, of course. If you find anything wrong, don't hesitate to let me know. Jiraiya will be slightly more knowledgable about the Rinnegan, but I stay true to my summary.

"Speaking"

'Thinking' or emphasis

"Demon speaking"

'Demon thinking'

flashback

Jutsu

Ch1: Inheritance

A soft breeze rustled the trees, scattering a few leaves on the ground. As the leaves fell, a blond spiky haired boy no older than eight sat on a swing, head looking down on the ground. Their shadows, their eyes, seemed to mock him, hate his anything about his existence. It was at night that he had any kind of escape, only to wallow on the swing in misery.

Uzumaki Naruto was no ordinary academy student, he was far less carefree. Sure, he'd maintain his idiotic, dumb persona to keep away the glares, thinking that pranks and foolish acts will cause people to see him as anything other than a demon. Why did they hate him so much? Maybe it was his eyes.

Yes, he thought that was why. They signaled him out, made him a freak in the opinion of the village. A metallic purple-blue, four rings clearly visible around a black pupil. Clearly unusual. His surrogate grandfather, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had repeatadly assured him that they just made him special, no reason to let the civilians' hate influence his life. Special. Yeah. What would Sarutobi know?

For one thing, though, the Hokage knew more about Naruto than the boy himself knew. He did some digging and found what those eyes were, the legendary Rinnegan, but nothing was known about them. Hiruzen was also awake of Naruto's parentage, a complicated affair indeed.

Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, was Naruto's father, and resemblance they had was absolutely uncanny. Though the eyes did not match, the boy had grown his hair long to hide his Rinnegan, resulting in long spiky bangs and two strands of sunny blond hair framing his round face. They even had the same look when they thought, face hardening in sheepish confusion. Hiruzen was aware of Naruto's façade, his true personality, and it was darker than Minato's by far. Truly, the boy was quiet and calculative, yet so oblivious to anything blaringly obvious that it was ridiculous. But not ignorant to the hate and resentment of the civilians, young and old.

It made the old kage smile how Naruto's fake enthusiasm was exactly like his mother's. Uzumaki Kushina often pranked people she didn't like, or that she did, and shouted at anyone who insulted her. Called the 'Red Hot Habanero' by the entire academy, her fiery temperament lived up to the name. She beat up those who insulted her scarlet red hair and wouldn't let anyone talk down to her. A stand up personality, much like how he had observed Naruto standing up for the Hyuuga heiress when she was insulted by bullies.

Hiruzen was close with both of them, well more so than he was with most of the jounin of the village. He knew plenty about the couple, including what happened on the night of Naruto's birth. The same night as the Kyuubi attack.

Thus, this begins the second truth of the young boy, that he was the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, a term that meant 'the power of human sacrifice'. On that night, Minato sacrificed his life to seal the fox into his only child, preventing any further destruction. He also had a secondary goal, unknown to Hiruzen, to protect the future from a masked man, Uchiha Madara, so he thought. Little did the Yondaime known that Naruto would hold a power far more powerful than the Kyuubi.

Naruto thought very little about all of this, ignorant of certain truths, as he dangled his small legs off the swing. Only sometimes would he wonder who his parents were, but thinking make their absence hurt more, so he stopped. His blue ripple eyes glowed softly in the dark air, barely visible under his long bangs. Sometimes, sinister nights like this would remind him of the time he awakened his eyes.

Flashback

A six year old Naruto was sleeping peacefully in his dump of an apartment. Cups of ramen were scattered on the floor, littering the already dirty carpet. Naruto owned a miniature kitchen, it was comparable to the size of a toilet stall. Apart from that, there was a ratty chair, a small table, and a futon to sleep. Azure blue eyes closed, the boy slept, wondering what the academy was going to be like.

Footsteps resounded lightly through the room. A breeze rolled in from the newly opened window. Something was wrong, the boy panicked as he eyes snapped open wide.

A shadow! Sword sailing towards Naruto's throat, the man screamed. "DIE!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the flash of steel, he was going to die. He felt a pulse, as if his body heat was radiating outwards, and a sharp pain in his eyes, forcing him to close them.

"Shinra Tensei!" He exclaimed. The normally deep blue eyes rippled, the black dot in the center sending a wave across the iris. Blue was replaced with purple, rings formed within a matter of milliseconds.

The shadowed man gasped, thrown back from Naruto's bedside into the wall, crashing into it with a loud thud. It dented, and the man fell face first onto the carpet. Naruto felt dizzy, faint, confused. While his head swam with vertigo, he tried to piece together what happened. The man, motionless on his floor, tried to kill him? But why?

Naruto stood up, still in his pajamas, and stumbled towards the man. His eyes hurt, not in an unbearable pain, but in more of a constant throbbing, like something was stuck there that wanted to escape. The young jinchuuriki had no idea that this was actually chakra, fueled by his inner anger and rage, that wanted to blast the man into bits. He didn't know how he pushed the man across the room, but it took restraint not to give into his urges and do it again.

Pacifist by heart, he did not understand the man's motives. "Mister... Why would you..." There was no answer.

There couldn't be an answer, the man was knocked out on his floor. The blond boy studied the intruders dark brown, nearly black, hair that was stained red in places by fresh blood. He was wearing shinobi gear, that for an old genin. One that didn't have enough prowess to ever make chuunin.

Wide eyed, Naruto looked at who he had just defeated, before the dizziness returned again, stronger than before. His head twisted downwards to the left, trying to focus on one point of the floor. Uncessessfuly. He felt as if he was flipping head over heels as he looked at the carpeted floor. Head resting against the wall, he slumped sideways. His eyes fluttered, bearly remaining open, as he decided to let darkness overcome his vision.

What happened next, he couldn't recall.

End Flashback

After that had happened, Hiruzen, acting as Naruto's kind guardian, told him that everything was fine. The assailant was arrested, ANBU operatives had gotten there in time since they often would check up on the boy. The Hokage reminded Naruto that the civilians and some less logical shinobi didn't view him as they should. There was another hollow promise to fix it.

The one thing that was largely left unspoken was Naruto's eyes. Not many knew of the Rinnegan, it was a lost legend, only heard of by a few jounin, a couple ANBU, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen himself. All that the Hokage disclosed to the boy was that his eyes changed. Naruto wasn't even aware of the fact until the old man pointed it out. Secretly, Hiruzen hoped that keeping the boy in the dark would also keep other villages from finding out about Naruto's new bloodline. Kumo would have been horrendous.

Since that incident, assassination attempt, Naruto hadn't been the same. He was far more paranoid, spending a good amount of free time each day training to protect himself. He hadn't figured out how he hurt his attacker, yet, so he did physical strengthening and tried to work on taijutsu. Ever since he received the dojutsu, civilians had been looking at him with more than ignorant looks, he could see hatred etched into their faces. Instead of only shunning him, they sometimes went out of their way to insult the boy. No more physical attacks happened, thankfully, but that was likely the work of Hiruzen. His eyes were just another reason for people to laugh at him and reject him. Did he hate his eyes? No, they were a part of him. He had to believe that everything was going to get better.

Every day and many long nights, Naruto sat on this swing, remembering his past and considering his future.

Everything had to get better, right? He could stop all the hate once he was Hokage. Only that, to be that strong, he had to appear as weak and not give the haters a reason to kick the 'demon child' out of the village for being too strong. He found that, ever since his brush with death, he had intimate knowledge of an energy flow within his body and slightly increased physical strength. Even without a comprehensive taijutsu style, he trained for hours on end with little break, now that he was eight years old he needed to take care of himself.

He stood up from the swing, the bright moon and twinkling stars telling him it was too late to be outside. After all, he had to wake up early for the academy, he'd 'hate' to miss if. Iruka-sensei may be the only teacher who somewhat connected with him, but the man was still that, one teacher. Often, Mizuki-sensei would force him into humiliation or pain. Yes, the academy was a tough place for the blond jinchuuriki, a necessary place all the same.

He walked through the deserted streets, depressed, tired, hair hanging in front of his face as he focused on the ground. No one was outside save those who were going to or from small bars situated around the city. He continued walking until he came upon a particularly interesting place, and decided to look through their window.

There were a few people sitting up on a bar, laughing heartily at someone joke. Naruto saw someone with jagged white hair down his back, a sannin? No, the teachers always pegged him as a war hero, so why would he be in such a crappy bar drinking his heart out with two women at his side. The pseudo-Sannin turned his head, staring straight at the boy.

Naruto jumped, quickly moving away from the window before sneaking another glance in the room. Phew, he was safe. Maybe it was time to go to his apartment.

He continued walking home, upset that he wasn't old enough to forget his troubles over alcohol.

Jiraiya, Legendary Toad Sage, self-proclaimed the most powerful of the Sannin, was enjoying a nice drink at a ratty bar. He didn't go there often, but it was where the sexiest women and most hilarious guys resided. If you looked past the cobwebs and poorly made drinks, it wasn't too bad a place. He laughed loudly at a man's joke, wrapping his arm around a woman to his left. His waist-length spiky white hair swung to the side as he turned to the woman and tried to give her a kiss.

With barely any time to widen his eyes in fear, the woman drew back her hand and slapped him across the face, making the man who told the joke to chuckle even louder. Red handprint on his face, Jiraiya cried comical tears.

The woman poked him in the cheek. "Not in public, Jiraiya," she giggled. Okay, there was a very likely chance that he'd have a fun night. "I'll be right back," she grinned, making him give her a lecherous smile in return as she got up.

He turned back to his drink when the woman was in the bathroom, only to notice a funny reflection in his glass. Two purple-blue ringed eyes were looking at him. After rubbing his own eyes, the Rinnegan was still staring at him, wavy in the reflection.

"Dammit Nagato," he mumbled under his breath, "I didn't do anything to you..." The man raised an eyebrow at the Sannin's inaudible mumbles.

Suddenly starting to feel a bit paranoid, Jiraiya twisted his head at the window. In the darkness were a paid of almost glowing ringed eyes hidden under silouetted hair. "Nagato?" He murmured again. But the boy across the glass seemed startled, turned away quickly.

Then it hit him, that wasn't Nagato. He wasn't drunk enough not to trust his vision, and his vision clearly showed him a boy with the Rinnegan, but instead of the flat, long hair, it was spiky and messy. Should he go after the kid? He already had enough obligations to Konoha's spy network. Besides, Tsunade would kill him for corrupting a young child.

But could have lived with himself? Could he really abandon someone when they needed help?

His mind was decided, he knew he had to follow what morals he set in place. This kid could just be a gift from Kami to help him do some right in this world. He paid for his drink, giving the bartender a warm thanks, and left without another sound. As a legendary shinobi, he'd have thought it was easy to find one small boy in a village. Not as much so when that boy disappeared the moment he went to search. What if those eyes were merely a figment of his imagination?

He tried to focus, where could the kid be? It was dead silent outside, excluding the muffled words spoken in the dimly lit bar he just exited. Closing his eyes with focus, he could hear a quiet pitter patter of feet in the distance. 'Found you.' Without a noise from his large sandels, the toad sage dashed through the dark streets towards the only noise he heard. As he strained his ears and passed multiple apartment buildings into the residential district, the other person's running got louder and louder. He turned out of an ally, onto the next street just in time to catch another glimpse of the boy.

Against the light of a building, he noticed that the kid, he thought it was still the same one from before, was a blond very similar to his student Minato. 'I feel like I've seen him before,' Jiraiya thought. Now where was this Minato-like blond going? All alone in this awful apartment complex?

Jiraiya walked into the complex, looking at the receptionist. The man was probably mid 40's, and he had a scar running across his left cheek right next to his nose. "I'm looking for someone," he said, elaborating on the man's unspoken question.

"And why should I help you?"

The sage put on a ridiculous grin and held out a hand to the front of his face, striking a pose. In a loud voice he proclaimed, "I'm Jiraiya, Legendary Toad Sage, and Most Amazing of the Sannin! I don't need reasons!"

The man snorted. "Yeah right..." Jiraiya's expression fell. He held back a loud laugh at the man's idiocy.

"I'm looking for a blond kid, about yey high," he held a hand to his stomach. "He's got blue ringed eyes. I think he just came in."

Jiraiya could swear he heard the man mutter "demon" under his beath, but he brushed it off as either the wind or something else. "Uzumaki Naruto?" The man asked, frowning at the person who claimed to be a Sannin.

"Naruto?" Jiraiya wondered out loud. 'Minato's kid?' He thought, puzzled look on his face. The man must have gotten it wrong, Naruto was being well taken care of by his sensei, Sarutobi Hiruzen, not living in some dirty area of Konoha. And, really, its not like the boy would ever have the Rinnegan, that's just ridiculous. Maybe it was worth it to finally get a glimpse of his godson for the first time in three years.

"Third door on the right. Fourth floor. I don't know who you are, but if anything happens I'll complain to the poli-" wait, the Uchiha were all dead. "I'll do something..." He sighed, pulling out a cigarette and breathing out a cloud of smoke. Man, did the night shift stir up some weird characters...

"Thanks!" Jiraiya waved and ran outside. The man raised an eyebrow, but then placed his head in his hands and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, in his room, Naruto took off his ugly orange jumpsuit, he only wore it to make people think he was an idiot. An idiot couldn't be dangerous to the villagers, but a smart, strong 'demon' would be. According to them at least. Under the jumpsuit he wore a white shirt with the orange Uzumaki swirl, he had assumed that it wasn't just an honorary title after many long years. He reasoned that they wouldn't give him the surname of a powerful, newly dead clan.

He kicked an empty ramen cup in annoyance, watching as it sailed across the room and hit the wall he broke two years ago. Suddenly, he felt a presence, he didn't how or why, just a paranoia that he was being watched.

"Fine weather we're having," someone commented. Naruto whirled around and saw the white haired man from earlier sitting in his windowsill. He had red markings by his eyes, stretching to his cheek and a wide grin on his face. On his forehead was a metal plate with two small horns and the kanji for 'oil.'

"Who are you!"

Jiraiya reached out to pat the boy's hair, but his hand was slapped away. It was true, he realized, this boy did have the Rinnegan, and he had the six whiskers on his face, three on each side, meaning he was in fact Naruto. Something weird was going on here.

Jiraiya gave him another big grin. "I'd do my normal introduction, but I doubt that'll help to much. I'm Jiraiya, Sannin of Konoha. You are Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Yeah. You're a Sannin?!" Naruto looked at him in a mixture of awe and confusion. A Sannin was visiting him, why? Not only was completely worthless, according to most, he also had problems seeing what such a reputable man would want with him. Yeah, he had become far less trustworthy than his former self, it was only logical. The man was probably there to kill him.

"The one and only Legendary Toad Sage!"

"Why would you care about me?" Naruto, still sitting on his messy bed, looked down on the ground in depression.

"Those eyes are special. I gotta ask, how did you get the Rinnegan?"

"The what?" Naruto muttered, looking up at the man. No one called his eyes special besides the Sandaime. Freaky or dumb usually fit the description.

Jiraiya was dumbfounded. The boy didn't even know which dojutsu he'd been displaying for multiple years! "The Rinnegan. It's a legendary kekkei genkai. I only know of two others who had that specific dojutsu."

"Who?" Naruto was interested.

"The Rikudou-sennin and another student of mine, Nagato."

The young jinchuuriki gave the sage a puzzled gaze. "Who were they?"

"Sweet Kami, kid! I thought people read kids stories about the Rikudou-sennin!" Exclaimed the white haired shinobi.

"Nobody ever bothered to read me a story..." Naruto replied, once again fixing his gaze on the carpet.

Jiraiya was lost, completely and utterly. His sensei forgot to inform Naruto of what the Rinnegan was, and Naruto had never received any kind of love? That was madness. He thought that Naruto had been placed in the orphanage with that nice woman, and he'd only have his own apartment when he became a genin. Sure, Jiraiya couldn't be there for Naruto, though he thought his sensei would have shown a little more compassion. After all of that 'Will of Fire' inspiration and Jiraiya's belief of peace, he thought someone would have at least raised Naruto.

"Oh..." He didn't know what to do. He was a shinobi, not a father! Secretly, he knew he wasn't responsible enough to have kids. He'd pretend that he was responsible, but people like Tsunade or Orochimaru knew just how immature he could be. What kind of negative influence would he have on kids?

That would change.

He could change.

"You never had anyone to look after you?" He asked. Sometimes, he thought he made conversations awkward by learning so much about people with very little talking. Often, he scared people by being able to tell them a great deal of how their life was without it ever being mentioned. Being the puppetmaster of a spy network had its merits.

"Well, Jiji was there... Sometimes," Naruto amended. Could he confide in this man? He claimed to be a Sannin and seemed trustworthy. Nevermind that, he had to spill out his feelings before he exploded like an overpressurized balloon. "The civilians hate me! I don't know why, but every time they look at me the-"

He felt a hand grab his shoulder. "I'm sorry. Say, Naruto, how is the academy going?" Guilt gripped him again, for not telling the boy why he was so hated.

Naruto bit his lip at that. The cesspool of bullies and asshats, yeah, that was definitely a good place for him to learn. "The teachers won't teach me, the other kids bully me, and I can't let anyone know that I'm smart, or strong, or a good fighter, they'd just get in a big group and beat me senseless. And if I fought back Jiji would be mad, so I just stay dead last as if I'm stupid."

"I'm proud!"

"What?!"

Jiraiya explained. "I assume you wear that orange jumpsuit there and act like an idiot." He pointed at it to emphasize the point.

"How did you-"

"I'm a Sannin!" He interrupted. "You can't hide anything from me. Besides, like my godson would ever be stupid. With those eyes, you're probably far smarter and more skilled than you let even the Hokage know!"

'My godfather is a Sannin!' Naruto thought dreamily. 'So my parents probably weren't thieves or scum like everyone said! And he's complimenting me!' This was like a dream come true for Naruto, no one ever cared for him or bothered to see past his mask. The fact that his godfather thought he was smart went miles for the boy's happiness and self-esteem. Iruka-sensei 'said' that he believed in Naruto, he was warming up to the boy, but he was still oblivious to the blond's pain.

Naruto paused, frowning slightly. "Wait, you keep talking about my eyes. What exactly is a kekkei genkai? I know a dojutsu is like the Sharingan, Iruka-sensei told us so, but he never talked about 'bloodlines.' What is the Rinnegan, Jiraiya-oji?"

"Uncle Jiraiya? I like it," commented the Sannin as he thought about the first question. What had the academy's standards gone to? Only mentioning the Sharingan breifly but not even talking about kekkei genkais? Ludicrous.

"Hmm, you see Naruto, a kekkei genkai, or bloodline trait, is an ability passed down by inheritance. They can involve mixing multiple elemental affinities, like Hashirama-sama's Mokuton, or the Hyōton, or they can be a dojutsu like the Sharingan. Kekkei genkais can also come in different forms, such as the Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku (Dead Bone Pulse)." Naruto soaked up the information over a few seconds, pausing to let his lethargic mind wake up a bit more with the information.

"Cool. What's an elemental affinity? And if they each have abilities, what does the Rinnegan do?"

"There are five main elemental release jutsu types: Katon, Suiton, Doton, Raiton, and Fūton. Hashirama-sama's Mokuton mixes Doton and Suiton together, for example."

"Meh, that isn't such a tough thing. Why can't they just say that at the academy," he wondered aloud.

"I know, right! They're getting sloppy with education, but you don't need to hear about politics, it'll probably go right over your head. After all, you're what, eight? Anyways, the Rinnegan. I've only seen it one other time in person. My student, Nagato, had the dojutsu and was able to use all six elemental releases."

Whoa, that was so cool. Naruto could use all six elemental releases! Wait, "Six? Didn't you say there were five?"

"Ying-yang release is the sixth. Nagato used it in the form of a gravitational pulse. That is only one of the six paths of the Rinnegan."

"Only one?!" Naruto gasped in awe. It already sounded like a mythical dojutsu, and he had it. He could definitely become strong enough to stop all the civilians from hating him or anyone else!

"Yes, I'll teach you about some of the other five if you accept my proposition," Jiraiya replied, grin returning to his once serious face. He couldn't fail Naruto like he had Nagato. It was quite possible that he had received another chance to train the 'child of prophecy', and this time he wouldn't let Konoha's politics get in the way.

"Proposition?"

"Do you want to leave the village and train under me? I know that you don't really know me yet, but that's going to to change. I was picked by your parents as your godfather for a reason, and I plan to be the person that I should have been for the past eight years."

Naruto hardly needed any more incentive to escape the village. Whether it was his sluggish brain that had overflowed from too much information, preventing him from thinking clearly, or his true desires, it wasn't a tough decision at all.

"Of course I'll leave with you, Jiraiya-oji!"

"Be ready in the morning."

The shinobi world was full of change, which happened in the blink of an eye, unpredictable like a lightning strike. It appeared erratic, random, able to appear anywhere that you could think. If you took a long lighting rod and stabbed it into the ground, however, you could effectively control where that lightning went. Similarly, one could take the initiative to do something unexpected, changing the unpredictability of the future. A choice that can alter destiny.

Jiraiya had made one such choice.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was working late. Sure, he could have gone home, but there was so much information to sort through from Jiraiya's spy network. On top of that, he had even more papers for education reform scattered across his desk. Some from clan shinobi, claiming that academy became to soft, and some from civilians, claiming it was rigged for clan children. He'd just reject all of them again, the academy was fine how it already was. It was nights like this, stuck in his office, that he would think about Naruto, if he did the right thing.

By nature, Hiruzen was a kindhearted individual who would give anything for the preservation of the Will of Fire. So why would he feel so guilty at letting hatred towards one blond boy go unpunished? It was simple, the minority is always subject to the will of the majority. He couldn't stand to see all of his village at odds, hating or praising him for defending the boy, so he swept it under the table and kept it quiet. Not even Iruka, Naruto's sensei, was aware of all the negative emotions.

But then Naruto had manifested the Rinnegan. How, he didn't know. Why, he couldn't be sure. Nonetheless, it had happened, he couldn't change that, making Naruto a future asset for the village. It took all of his power to keep Danzo's paws off the boy and leave him to a normal childhood, but to no avail. He was sure that he fucked up somewhere. Naruto wasn't the fun-loving child that he was familiar with, he could see past that façade now. While appearing dumb, Naruto was smarter than ever, well, as smart as the average ten year old or so, and more hurt inside than it appeared possible. It was unfortunate that Hiruzen didn't know that Naruto received much worse academic training than that of the other students, not even learning the proper academy style taijutsu.

He brushed his mind off the topic, it wasn't like he could change it, anyways.

He apathetically heard a window slide open from behind him. "Come in Jiraiya-kun," he commanded.

The large man jumped in, over his desk in a blur, and stood across from him. "Aww, Sensei, you're no fun anymore." Hiruzen rolled his eyes.

"What do you need, Jiraiya-kun? You already dropped off the spy reports, and, may I add, they were quiet helpful."

Jiraiya features hardened, turning into an amalgamation of seriousness and disgust that puzzled the old kage. "How could you!?"

"What?" Hiruzen was trying to puzzle out what had Jiraiya in such a mood.

"Naruto has the Rinnegan, and he is hated by the entire village! When did you think that telling me my own godson was in trouble was relevant?" The toad sage screamed in anger.

"I did what was best for him!" Hiruzen stood up, only a few inches short of Jiraiya. He exhertered all the authority he had in that exclamation to calm down his student. It didn't work.

"Yeah, what was best for him. Leave him clueless about a legendary dojutsu and wondering why no one read him bedtime stories as a child. You really screwed up there. He should be living with you, if you care so much, not in some rundown apartment. I can understand you not mentioning that he's a jinchuuriki, but did you ever venture to think about his mental health? He has a huge inferiority complex, feeling he has something to prove while having to appear like an idiot to not get beat up. How does that make sense to you, you old goat?!"

"Calm down Jiraiya! There was nothing I could do. If I gave Naruto to any of the clans, the balance of power would be upset, and people would get angry and ask questions. If I let him stay with me, they'll think he's getting special treatment. If I tell him about his dojutsu, he might go blabbing to the wrong civilian. Kami knows what Kumo or Iwa would do if they found out one of our young students has the Rinnegan. Think about the village for a second, Jiraiya-kun, and realize how little of a say I had in the situation," Hiruzen reasoned, trying to keep the man from fuming away. He couldn't lose his last student after Tsunade and Orochimaru practically abandoned Konoha.

Jiraiya scowled. "This village was built on the principle that everyone get treated fairly. Have you grown so powerless in your senile old age that the civilian council can question your decisions? This a military dictatorship, it matters not if the civilians are upset for a day or two that one of their own was jailed for mentally screwing up a little boy. My godson. I may not have been there for him, but I have a legitimate excuse. You have none."

"You're not thinking straight, Jiraiya-kun. Don't let anger blind you."

"I can see straighter than I have in years. There is a boy out there that has the potential to bring peace to the nations, yet he is treated like dirt for factors out of his control. Face it, you were wrong. I'm claiming custody of Uzumaki Naruto as his godfather, whether you like it or not." Jiraiya slammed pappers on his desk, filled out and signed custody forms. Hiruzen was broken inside, his final student hated him too. Could he have done anything right instead of focusing on the whole?

It was a tragic moment, Jiraiya walking past him to leave out the window.

"Wait, Jiraiya-kun." The man stopped. "You're right, I was being a fool, too far set in my ideals to see what was in front of my face the entire time, but not even I can change the past.

"When will Naruto be back?"

Jiraiya gave him a forced smile, figuring that he was too hard on his sensei. The old man was just doing what he thought was best. "I'll be back in time for the chuunin exams in four years. Trust me, by that time he will be a formidable shinobi, worthy of his father's legacy." The Sannin left, leaving a candle flickering in the darkness as Hiruzen sat alone.

That boy had promise to do great things.

A/N: Thanks for reading! This story may seem generic, but I promise that I will put my own spin on the traditional Rinnegan Naruto. All critique and input is accepted, and everything that makes sense will be looked at. I really hope I didn't screw Jiraiya's character too much...

Jiraiya out