Welcome, this is a Rinnegan Naruto story. He will be OP. I hope you enjoy it regardless :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter One: The Bird's Liberation

"It never stops. Well over a millennium, and it is still the same. Why is peace not attainable? Why must violence and warfare be the status quo?"

These were thoughts of a man who floated several feet above the ground in a lotus position. History books would call this man many names. The Sage of Six Paths, the God of Shinobi, and the Savior of the world, to name a few. Otsutsuki Hagoromo is his birth name, and he is the founder of shinobi. He was the first person born with chakra in their body. His legend spread throughout the world as a myth due to its numerous, grandiose feats.

"Defeating the Jubi (Ten-tails) before turning it into the moon sounds a little farfetched, old man."

A chuckle escaped Hagoromo's lips before he turned to the deep voice. The voice came from an enormous fox with nine tails, red eyes, and a frightening disposition. Despite this, the Sage didn't fear being in its presence.

"I can not blame them. If I heard the stories, I would call them fairytales too. Luckily, I was there for it," said Hagoromo looking at the fox. It was smiling at him cheerily. Hagoromo smiled as a byproduct. "What is with the look, Kurama-kun?"

"You, you're here. I knew you were too great to lose to something like old age."

"I did die to old age."

"Your body died. Your spirit is strong, and I can feel your chakra. You're not fooling me," spoke Kurama, getting a wider smile from Hagoromo. The fox's tails were waving excitedly in anticipation. "You can spring me at anytime there, pops. You've been sitting there going through a monologue in your head for too long."

"Oh, I can not free you, my dear boy. I am only an apparition." Kurama was shocked to hear this. Hagoromo frowned, seeing the fox's face. "I wish I could. Sadly, you are stuck here for the foreseeable future."

Spirit crushed. Kurama's hopes were high when its creator appeared. Hagoromo would unlock the seal, and Kurama would be free of its confines. Free from being inside one of these lesser beings called humans. Hagoromo was a human too but, he was half-alien so, he didn't count. Then he said he couldn't help.

"No! You're...you! You can do anything!" shouted Kurama in disbelief. Hagoromo was somber, seeing the disappointment on Kurama's face. "What other reason could you be here for then? To talk about what's been happening?! Well, I've been stuck inside a human for the better part of a century, old man. Not the best of times."

"I know. Even if I could free you," said Hagoromo before turning his head. On the other side of the seal, a baby slept peacefully. Hagoromo smiled at the child as he continued. "I'd kill that boy in the process."

"His life means more to you than mine?"

"How I feel is irrelevant. The boy's life means something to someone. Do not be like that."

"How am I supposed to be? All I wanted to be was alone. Then he came and used those cursed eyes on me. After him, ginger lady wife of flower boy sealed me," rambled Kurama summarizing his more recent memories. "When she was approaching death, she got a baby ginger lady to contain me. This plan backfired because another scummy Uchiha, possibly the original one, came, and mind fucked me again. Sunflower guy had to lock me away. One half in the Shinigami and the other half in a chibi version of himself." continued Kurama before looking at the Sage. "Let's recap. Mindfuck. Prison. New prison. Mindfuck again. Half my body locked away into the Shinigami's tummy. And prison once again. Said prison being the most helpless thing on Earth, a human baby. How am I supposed to be, old man?!"

Hagoromo watched Kurama huff after its emotive statement. The Sage allowed the weight of the fox's words to digest fully. Kurama had a point. Its summary was a pretty awful experience. An existence like this wasn't how Hagoromo meant for the beasts to live.

"Alright, I see your point. Maybe there is something I can do for you," said Hagoromo a minute after Kurama finished speaking. Kurama opened his mouth but, the Sage stopped him. "Not kill this child by freeing you. Seriously, no."

"Fine, take over his body and become the Jinchuriki. I'll be fine with this cage if you do."

"I'm not doing that either. Why would I want to redo life all over again? That-" said Hagoromo lazily pointing to the baby. "-was terrible. I'm not doing it again. Besides, if another me wound up in the world, people would..." the Sage trailed off. He began thinking of the possibilities of another him in present times. Kurama watched its creator nod slowly before looking at the baby. "Hmm, what was that legend of the Rinnegan? Those who possess it would bring about world peace or world destruction?"

"Yeah but, that's just a legend." Kurama blinked after its sentence. The fox realized where Hagoromo's thoughts were. "No, you better not do this."

"Why not?"

"What if the child grows up and abuses your power as your descendants did? Your eyes are stronger than the ones that have fucked me over all these years."

"You have a point. The boy could do that," said Hagoromo walking over to the slumbering child. "That's what you're here for, Kurama-kun. To make sure it doesn't happen." Hagoromo stood over the baby boy. He put a palm to the baby's head. "He's the reincarnation of Ashura. I can feel it. I wonder what it'd have been like if Ashura inherited the full breadth of my powers?"

"I decline. I hate humanity. I'll have this child destroy the world the first chance I get."

"...you're right, it is a bad idea," said Hagoromo shaking his head. "It could end badly."

"Exactly, you old-"

"-So be it. Have the boy destroy the world if you want."

"Jiji," warned Kurama one last time. "This reverse psychology stuff won't work. I'll do it!"

"Oh, I believe you."

"This isn't a game!"

"Kurama-kun, I respect your fear and understand your concern. However, every reincarnation of Ashura has done wondrous things for the world," spoke Hagoromo before channeling his chakra. "I aim to jumpstart such things. Please watch over this boy for me like I know you will. He holds my very essence."

Kurama said nothing. The fox could feel the chakra transfer beginning. A few seconds later, a white light expanded to cover the boy's entire mindscape.

(Real World)

A crib sat neatly in the corner of a room. It housed the same baby Hagoromo and Kurama were looking at earlier. The baby slept soundly even as An older man kicked in the door to the room. The man was well into his fifties. His eyes were surveying it like the battle-hardened shinobi he was.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was the man's name, and he quickly realized nothing was amiss. Everything was as he left it. Hiruzen knew what he felt. And if the only thing in the room was the baby, it meant it had to come from him.

"Is the Kyubi breaking the seal?" thought Hiruzen walking over to the baby boy. The baby's golden hair and whisker scarred cheeks brought a smile to his face. "You wouldn't let the Kyubi loose would you, Naruto-kun?"

Maybe he was going senile. He could have sworn he felt a chakra spike. And perhaps he did. However, seeing how everything looked normal, the old shinobi would pass it off as senility. What else could he do?

(13 Years Later)

"You're not hurt, are you, scaredy-cat?"

Two kunai stabbed deeply into a snake many times bigger than him; Uzumaki Naruto stood a few feet from his teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke remembered saying those exact words to Naruto during their first real mission together. A mission that went awry and had them locked against two shinobi set out to kill them.

Throughout their battle, Sasuke needed to save Naruto repeatedly. Naruto was unprepared for the actual dangers of a ninja, and Sasuke made sure to let him know about it. Naruto happened to return that gesture in magnanimous fashion.

"Oh, you've grown up so interesting," said their enemy, a kunoichi from Kusagakure. Her tongue elongated before snatching up Naruto in a vice grip. The tongue was positioned in a way that showed the boy's belly. "Hmm, there goes the seal."

Five of the kunoichi's fingers glowed purple before she slammed them directly atop the seal. Naruto let out a silent shout from the powerful strike. Five markings showed around his seal before Naruto passed out. The woman chuckled before launching Naruto away without a care.

"Naruto!" shouted Naruto's other teammate, Haruno Sakura. She managed to launch a kunai that pinned him to a tree. "Sasuke-kun, Naruto might not be the best but, at least he's no coward."

Those words from Sakura got the Uchiha to snap himself out of it finally. She was right. And more importantly, Naruto was right. He needed to stop being a punk.

Sadly, they would find out later that they faced Orochimaru of the Sannin. One member of the trio of legendary Konoha shinobi. They were no match at all. While all this happened, a certain Bijuu was panicking within its Jinchuriki.

(Naruto's Mindscape)

Kurama was a wreck. The fox sat shaking its head at its current predicament.

"The second seal cut me off from the boy."

Usually, this would be a problem. Naruto wasn't all that impressive a shinobi. Any real danger, Naruto relied heavily on Kurama's power to survive. Kurama had stopped all of the boy's near-deaths. However, that wasn't the only thing Kurama stopped.

A black and white chakra, settled in a yin-yang pattern, sat outside the fox's cage. This chakra was the essence Hagoromo gave Naruto when he was a baby. Since then, Kurama has kept the powerful chakra away from Naruto. The Bijuu didn't want Naruto ever to garner access to it.

Sadly, the seal from Orochimaru cut the fox off from his Jinchuriki. Kurama could no longer stop the chakra from flowing freely.

"You finally got your wish, Jiji." Kurama watched the chakra slowly filter into Naruto. It melded with the boy's already powerful internal energies. "If he destroys the world you so wished to protect, it is on you."

The Bijuu could feel Naruto's body adapting to the Rikudo's chakra. And the fox didn't care to keep watching the metamorphosis.

Kurama would deal with this when the time came.

(12 hours later)

Pain, definitively, is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. Naruto had felt pain during his life. Most of those pains were physical, and Naruto always shrugged those off in a matter of minutes. The more damaging pains were always gone after a night's rest.

Mental pain was a different story. This pain was something Naruto was not used to having. He couldn't remember having a headache. He couldn't remember having an ailment of any kind. The pounding in his head and the pulsating pain behind his eyes were shocking. He'd never experienced such stimuli. Images of another life assaulted Naruto's mind throughout the pain. The images were fleeting but, Naruto caught each one despite this.

Some of those images included wild things. One moment, Naruto looked at a goddess-like woman and called her mother. The next moment, he watched his mother merge with a tree and turn into a beast with ten-tails. He fought alongside his 'brother,' sealed his mother into the moon, and the beast itself into himself. Fast forward, he was sharing his chakra with the world and searching for peace and stability. He found love, had children, and lived a beautiful life.

And as he was approaching death, he separated the beast's chakra into nine beings and sealed the remnants in the moon too. An entire lifetime flashed through Naruto's head in a few seconds. The lifetime was an incredible thing to experience in the way he had. The pain in Naruto's head and behind his eyes abruptly stopped when the memories ended. Now over, Naruto found his senses.

His sense of hearing was first. He could hear voices that didn't belong to his Genin team.

"Someone should wake him up. This is embarrassing," said a boy with black hair and a bored expression.

"Shikamaru?" thought Naruto before hearing another voice.

"We could kick him. Can I kick him first?" asked a portly boy with reddish-brown hair.

"Ha, that's Choji."

"Stop it, you idiots. Maybe he has their scroll. We could take it while he is out," said a girl with platinum blonde hair.

"How opportunistic of you, Ino." thought Naruto feeling her kneel next to him. Naruto caught her wrist when she tried to check his person. "Stealing our scroll? You could have at least asked first."

"Oh, Naruto-kun, hi! When did you wake up?" questioned Ino nervously, realizing she'd been caught red-handed. Cranking her seduction up to 11, Ino prepared to weasel her way out of trouble. This plan stopped when Naruto opened his eyes. "Oh wow, your eyes. They're different."

Naruto's eyes were lovely to look at. A shade of blue that matched the bluest of ocean water. They were very expressive. If you looked at them, one could tell everything Naruto was thinking or feeling.

Now though, Naruto's eyes were the opposite. Cold and emotionless. Purple eyes with a tiny pupil surrounded by concentric circles. Ino couldn't turn away from them. The unbridled power within them wouldn't allow her to. It was like they were looking at her soul, and she was finding it hard to breathe.

"There's nothing wrong with Naruto's eyes. What are you talking about, Ino?"

Ino blinked, hearing her teammate. Refocusing on Naruto, Ino saw his eyes were their regular blue. A dopey look on his face got Ino to shake her head.

"Did I imagine that? I swear his eyes were purple." Ino was confused. Her teammates looked away, not hearing a response. Ino held Naruto's gaze as his expression shifted. "I didn't imagine it. What I saw was real!"

Naruto's blue eyes were the same but, they held something different. The infinite brightness was there. Something else was there, too. And having seen what Sasuke did earlier, Ino couldn't help but be curious.

"What happened to you all in here?"

(Two days later)

Ino was livid. Forty-eight hours passed, and she'd found out little to nothing about Naruto. The fact she'd been spending time trying to find out something about the dead last irked her.

"Those eyes and the way he looked at me after." thought Ino remembering the moment. Naruto hadn't shown either again since. He was the same Naruto she'd always known. "I know what I saw. Is he trying to hide it?"

And there she went thinking about him again. She was supposed to spend her time thinking of getting Sasuke to marry her. None of her focus should be on Naruto. However, her gossipy nature and her clan's aptitude at information gathering kept her hooked. It would until she figured out what it was all about.

Sasuke's new power was given to him by Orochimaru. The same could be said for Naruto. Except, Naruto's power wasn't as evil as Sasuke's.

"It felt as if he was staring into my soul." thought Ino looking at the blonde-haired genin. The purple eyes were firmly implanted in her brain. "Where did those eyes come from? And how do I get him to-"

"Kick his ass, Naruto! Shannaro!"

"Ugh, Forehead is so loud." thought Ino looking at her rival/best friend. The girl was hyped because her teammate was fighting. The same teammate Ino was thinking so hard about these days. "Maybe this fight with Kiba will shed some light. Naruto can't beat Kiba. I'll have to pay attention now since this will be his only fight."

Naruto stood on the arena floor with a far-off look on his face. He didn't acknowledge Sakura's cheer for him.

"Hagoromo or Naruto?" thought the jinchuriki having a mental crisis. Memories were what made you, you. Having another man's memories gave Naruto some pause. "Am I Hagoromo? Am I Naruto? Who am I?"

This thought had plagued Naruto since awakening two days ago. He didn't tell anyone about the eyes he held. The Rinnegan, according to his new memories. The Dojutsu was a step up from the Sharingan his teammate and sensei had.

He would have told someone about them but, he didn't fully comprehend. It wouldn't do any good to show something he couldn't explain. So, Naruto kept shifting through Hagoromo's memories to find a way to-

"Oi, pay attention while I kick your ass!"

"Oh right, I'm in a fight." thought Naruto dodging Kiba and his dog partner, Akamaru. The two came at him in a flurry of claws. It wasn't wise to get hit by that. "I don't have time for this."

"You won't escape me this time. Gatsuga (Fang over Fang)," said Kiba launching at Naruto in a spin.

Naruto closed his eyes before his Rinnegan came to life. He marveled at the potency of his chakra. Naruto picked an ability he could remember Hagoromo using and felt his body augment substantially. Ducking Kiba's attack, Naruto rose when the Inuzaka was above him.

"Shurado (Asura Path)." thought Naruto throwing a punch that hit Kiba flush.

Kiba's spin stopped cold. Spittle flew from his mouth while he sat hunched over Naruto's fist. Kiba blacked out from the intense shock of pain. Naruto dropped the out of it Inuzuka, and he didn't get back up.

Akamaru whimpered by his out-cold owner. Naruto turned his Rinnegan off and opened his eyes to look at his right hand. Naruto frowned, seeing scratches across it.

"I'm not as good as Hagoromo. This body needs work." thought Naruto with a plan to get better.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," said the proctor of the prelims before he turned to Naruto. "Hell of a counter, kid. I didn't know you could do that."

"Guess I got lucky, is all," said Naruto before heading back up.

Naruto stepped back onto the balcony overlooking the arena floor. There he saw another one of his classmates move to greet him. Seeing her, Naruto couldn't help but acknowledge what he knew.

"Hinata-hime?"

"Hime?!" thought Hinata with wide eyes.

"Hmm, she holds the power of Hagoromo's little brother, Hamura. He calls her hime because of this. That doesn't mean I should have. Mah, too late to take it back." thought Naruto seeing the container held in her hands. "Is this for me?"

"Hai, Naruto-kun...nice...nice fight," spoke Hinata with furiously red cheeks. Naruto smiled at her before accepting the gift with a hug and thank you. "Naruto-kun is hugging me!"

Hinata held up throughout the entire hug. Naruto let go of her and walked off. His departure allowed Hinata to pass out from the proximity with the apple of her eye. Her sensei caught her as she smiled at the girl.

"Way to go, Hinata. That was good." thought Hinata's sensei before looking at Naruto. She was confused. "I thought he was the dead last? He beat Kiba with one move. A Taijutsu strike, and that's Kiba's best art."

Kurenai couldn't fathom Naruto has grown so much since graduating from the Academy. However, he beat arguably her best-fighting student with minimal effort and minimal damage. How intriguing. Maybe this was what her female student saw that no one else did?

Naruto made it to his team and looked at all of them. Sasuke was smirking at him while Sakura fist-pumped at his success. And Kakashi was giving him an eye smile. Those three reactions got Naruto to smile to see them happy with his win.

"See you in the finals. Don't lose until you face me," said Sasuke nodding to his teammate.

"Hell yeah, Naruto! You beat him in one move. It was like WHOOSH and then WHAM POW!" exclaimed Sakura continuing her fist pump and cheerleading.

"Congratulations, Naruto. Very impressive victory," said Kakashi looking at the blonde. While cordial outside, Kakashi was curious internally. "That counter should be impossible for someone like Naruto. And yet, he did it. When did he learn it? Not to mention the chakra I felt."

Kakashi would be left wondering about his student as well. Something had happened to Naruto, that much he knew, and he would find out later.

Naruto could answer all his questions at a later time. For now, he'd let his student bask in his success of passing. Currently, he was the sensei of two ninjas who reached the final stage of the Chunin Exams.

"Oh, my cute little genin. They grow up so fast, don't they?" thought Kakashi before giving Naruto and Sasuke patronizing pats on the head.

Pats the latter didn't like much, and the former didn't pay attention to. While Kakashi was messing with Sasuke and Naruto, sharp eyes were looking at Naruto. Sarutobi Hiruzen looked even older as he donned red robes and a red hat to watch the preliminary fights. The last battle caught his eye.

"I remember that chakra. It was the same one I felt over 13 years ago." thought Hiruzen seeing the far-off look on Naruto's face. "My boy, what happened to you in that forest?"

For now, Hiruzen would continue to watch the prelims. Like Kakashi, he'd be finding out what happened to Naruto too. Something changed within Konoha's Jinchuriki. What change? Hiruzen aimed to find out as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading

A/N: This story is merely an attempt to write from the perspective of a demi-god. Naruto is OP. I won't repeat it. None of his fights will be much of anything. At least for now. Maybe the Otsutsukis will come later. I hope you stay around but, if not, thank you for at least getting this far. Chapters will be longer, starting with the next. Ciao.