The streets where barren as Naruto walked through the dark and chilling streets that led to the Hokage tower, however what disturbed him the most wasn't the distorted and eerie renditions of the normal high street, but the uncomfortable feeling of being watched that kept niggling at the back of his mind and the fact that for once the fox was keeping its mouth shut instead of explaining what the feeling was.
Everywhere he looked, buildings were covered in cracks that gave off what could only be described as a dark light that consumed the air around it, while what were normally windows were either non-existent or cloudy and impossible to see through. What struck him the most though was the Hokage mansion and monument.
The normally perfect and majestic tower was now a dark and twisted rendition with what could only be described as money seeping out of the gaps between its bricks, the normally clear and crisp protrusions that make the external walkways and balconies now looked more like branches that twisted off into the air surrounding the structure, giving the entire tower a look that more resembled a dead tree than a building.
The Hokage monument was also different, instead of the impassive faces of the great leaders, two of the faces were now frowning as small plants caused the Shodaime to look old and wrinkled and water slowly flowed down the cheeks of the Nidaime. The face of the Sandaime was obscured by what Naruto recognised from his countless visits to the old man's office… paperwork, however it was the Yondaime's rendition that confused him the most. The face of the youngest Kage on the monument was twisted in an angry scowl and a glare that seemed to loom over the whole village while a familiar seal was carved into its forehead, though the crack that split the symbol in half confused Naruto… if he was right then that crack symbolised something and he was beginning to feel fear swelling up when thinking of the possibilities.
After several minutes of standing and staring at the distorted faces of the mountain, Naruto finally decided to check out the massive tower that took pride of place within Konoha's walls. Once he reached the front door, he gathered his courage and readied himself for whatever he was about to face as he reached his hand out to the handle and quickly flung the thick plank of distorted wood open.
He was greeted by the strange sight of several creatures going about their business… which seemed to mimic that of normal people in the Hokage tower. Observing these creatures as they proceeded to ignore him, he picked out their main features.
The first to stand out to him was the only one that didn't move, a strange creature that appeared to be completely covered by massive, black samurai armour that only allowed it's glowing red eyes to remain visible, while the spear held in its right hand made it quite the intimidating sight. After taking note that his instincts told him to avoid that one, he noticed several humanoid spirits that looked like young woman with long flowing hair, a perfect hourglass figure and sapphire eyes… not sapphire coloured eyes but sapphires instead of eyes… and ruby lips, diamond fingernails and a long and elegant gown made of money.
There was also a small group of skeletal creatures with black skin and glowing red eyes. Their fingers ended in long and sharp claws that were covered in crimson stains while they simply lounged around the area, obviously observing him from the way their gazes were fixed on him. Then there was another group of young women, though these ones looked normal… except for the bat like wings that erupted from their shoulders and the whip like tails with heart shaped tips. They were wearing black, thigh high stockings that were strapped to a small pair of black panties while a simple black tank top accentuated their curves.
"What do you think of your first look at normal spirits little Uratha?" came a call that filled the blond with a sense of terror he had never felt before… and the worst part was that he didn't even know why he was scared of this voice, "do not worry, I'm simply so powerful that your instincts are telling you to never try and challenge me… I will admit that I wasn't expecting you of all people to be the new Uratha."
Slowly turning his head towards the surprisingly tranquil voice, Naruto was greeted by the sight of a large creature with greyish blue skin, long flowing white hair and endless pits that replaced its eyes. It's face was decorated with a pair of large horns that erupted from its forehead, while another set protruded from its mouth and acted almost like a stand for the ornate knife that was present between the beings teeth… though that was all the blond could see courtesy of the large, greyish cloak that shrouded the creatures body.
"What are you?" the young werewolf asked as he noticed the cold stares that the rest of the rooms inhabitants were sending his way.
"Heh, what am I? I am by the Uratha's own naming system, a greater incarnae… by a normal humans naming system however, I am simply referred to as a god," the tall being stated with a slightly bored tone, "if you want me to be more specific then I am known as the shinigami."
Naruto froze. The reason he was so scared of this creature was because it was death incarnate, in other words it was so far out of any mortals league that it was considered a divine entity.
"Relax little one, I'm not going to do anything to harm you, after all, I'd probably have two VERY irate women kicking my ass if I did," the tall figure stated in a dismissive voice, surprising the blond with the statement.
"Huh? What do you mean 'two' very irate women? Who the hell even cares about me?" the trenchcoat wearing genin asked in confusion.
"Well to answer your second question, quite a few people actually and the two women that would be kicking my ass are Mother Luna and Lady Luck," the horned god stated, his lips never moving as the words just flowed from nowhere.
"Huh? Are you trying to tell me that the furballs joke about lady luck having a crush on me isn't as ridiculous as it sounds?" the spiky haired youth asked with a blank stare fixed on the god.
"Honestly, I don't have a clue. All I know is that for some reason when you were developing in your mother's womb, you started to siphon off her powers and ended up becoming a sort of demigod of luck… though the fact that you don't have a clue how to harness that ability makes it a moot point," the empty eyed death controller stated with a shrug.
"(sigh) so you mean she could just as easily try to kill me to get her powers back huh?"
"That's possible."
"What did I do to deserve this? Why the hell to I have to be so unlucky?" suddenly something clicked in his head and he decided to ask the older being about it, "wait, if I'm supposed to be so lucky then why do I seem to have all the worst luck with the important things?"
"Oh that's simple… you don't," the shinigami said, further confusing the child, "every bit of 'bad luck' in your life had nothing to do with luck. The Kyūbi attacked the day you were born because you were born," Naruto was left speechless, the Kyūbi's attack was his fault? That couldn't be possible, "now don't you go and get me wrong, you didn't make any difference to the Kyūbi's attack but the fact is that your mother was the former host and the seal was weakened during childbirth… which was when that bastard I can't get my hands on showed up and ripped it from her gut," yet another startling revelation as the blond listened to the story, to think that his mother was the Kyūbi's last host and the attack on Konoha was orchestrated by someone death couldn't claim, "you were chosen to be the next host so that you could have a weapon to fight this ass with so don't go thinking it was just a simple case of 'here's a baby… let's use it!'.
Naruto couldn't help but sweatdrop at the way the god said that, but then he decided to ask a question over it.
"Why did the Yondaime want me to have a weapon to fight this guy? Why not use a different person he could trust more?"
"I'll answer your question with a question of my own… why wouldn't a father give his own son a way to protect himself?"
"Wait… what did you just say?"
"That the yondaime hokage was your father," the greater incarnae deadpanned, earning a look of shock from the child as he processed everything he had learned so far.
"Wow… this sure is a lot to take in," the whiskered child mumbled out earning a small chuckle from the god.
"Well I don't really know about the mental limitations of a human or Uratha but I can't say I was expecting you to get a headache this quickly," the spirit said calmly as it watched the blond hold his forehead.
"Well I'm sorry if I can only handle a small amount of information but it is pretty important stuff to me," the young blond muttered as he tried to clear his head.
"Yes… however please understand that our level of comprehension isn't even close… you are a mortal while I am a god… so I have absolutely no idea how much you can handle," the knife eating spirit stated in an attempt to get the young werewolf to understand that it wasn't intentionally overwhelming him with information.
"Yeah… I guess I'll never even come close to your level of understanding huh?" the blond werewolf asked while lightly clutching his aching head.
"That's right… you will never reach my level of understanding," the ancient spirit confirmed with absolutely no tact.
"Gee… thanks for making me feel so insignificant," the azure eyed Uratha deadpanned, causing the spectral entity before him to cock its head to the side.
"But you're not insignificant, you are the last of the Uratha and as such you are the sole heir to the duty of ensuring that the spirits remain balanced. Despite the fact that spirits are now scared of entering the physical realm they can still make serious problems for it and it is your heritage to bring wayward spirits back in line," the god of death informed him calmly.
"But why can't spirits like you keep them in check?"
"That is simple… because there are many powerful spirits that will use that as an excuse to start a war with another spirit of similar power in an attempt to increase their empire… however if an Uratha was to start acting as a law keeper they wouldn't have enough to gain from wasting their resources on eliminating the threat," the greater incarnae told informed him seriously.
"And what would happen if a war between powerful spirits happened?"
"The last time a war like that happened… the human world was almost completely destroyed, every civilisation fell and billions of people died in a span of a few years… that is why it is important to prevent such an event from happening again," and with that said, Naruto's face lost all colour… to think that that could happen if he screwed up… it was definitely not something he wanted to happen.
"Hold on a minute! I don't want that kind of responsibility!"
"What is wrong with the responsibility of keeping lesser spirits in their place?"
"That's not it, I don't want to be responsible for preventing a war like that," the whiskered werewolf clarified.
"But you wouldn't be, the Uratha may have the power to police over lesser spirits but they are completely powerless against the higher ranking spirits in this world, all you would be doing would be ensuring that the less powerful spirits don't cause too much trouble for the physical realm so that the more powerful spirits don't retaliate against each other for stepping into each other's domain," the death spirit further explained to the young blond, causing him to let out a sigh of relief now that he understood that he wasn't being given as great a responsibility as he originally thought he was.
"Oh, sorry, I guess I misunderstood what you told me," the azure eyed child said nervously as he scratched the back of his head.
"Did you honestly think a responsibility of such magnitude would be given to a mortal?"
"How should I know? This is my first visit to the Hisil so I don't know what sort of crazy things spirits do."
"I see… tell me, what do you know about spirits?"
"Uh… they aren't solid."
"…"
"…"
"Is that all?"
"Pretty much."
"(sigh) alright, every spirit has a role they play in the real world, for example there are spirits of pain, spirits of trees, spirits of kunai etc, etc. Now an important thing to remember is that each spirit has a ban, a rule that they quite literally cannot break no matter how hard they try, for example, I cannot preserve life, only destroy it. It was courtesy of his ban that Father Wolf was slain that is how dangerous they can be," the shinigami explained to the blond who's eyes widened in shock at that little piece of information.
"Wait, how did Father Wolf's ban kill him?"
"(sigh) Father Wolf's ban was that if worthy successors were to try and take his place, he could not fight back, in struggles of dominance he could put his children in their place but when they chose to dispose of him… his ban prevented him from protecting himself," the knife nibbler stated with noticeable sorrow in its voice.
"W-wow… that sounds really bad."
"It was… he might have been getting weaker but he was still a formidable hunter and although he wasn't as successful as he was in his prime, he was still stronger than all of his children combined and should have never been slain by them."
"So I take it lots of spirits liked Father Wolf then."
"Quite the opposite in fact, I liked him because I've always been lazy and didn't want to do more than I had to which meant that I was never on Father Wolf's bad side, however most spirits did get on his bad side and he oppressed them to ensure that they didn't cause too much harm and they didn't like that one bit."
"So a lot of spirits like the Uratha for killing him then?"
"No, they hate them for that, they hate the idea that 'mere halfbreeds' could slay the one spirit they all feared… so you'll have your work cut out for you if you want to make a good impression on them."
"(sigh) it's never easy is it?"
"Nothing worthwhile ever is… so has the furball told you anything about spirit branding?"
"Not a thing."
"Well the basic gist of it is this, a certain rite is used to mark an Uratha with brands that only appear in the Hisil, spirits read these brands and use them to learn a little more about you, for example right now you could easily be branded with marks of cunning simply due to the phase of the moon you had your first change under. In the old days when Uratha were relatively common, there were the 'Tribes of the Moon' and joining one would allow you to receive a branding for a certain trait."
"A certain trait?"
"I'll explain it to you later, for now just get used to this reality, since it's your first time in this realm you should learn and adapt to the rules of this place," the Greater Incarnae told him with a tone of authority, earning a nervous gulp off the young child at the prospect of what he would face in this new (and potentially hostile) environment.