5. Explanation Given

Author's Notes: Quick Warning, this is going to be a bit of an info dump, but I thought better now than at the end of the Percy Jackson part of this series.

Story Start: A Higher Plane

Iris and Percy reappeared in a medium sized conference room whose single bright light was over the table and chairs allowing the corners to be rather dark. A quick glance up told Percy that there were other lights but they were currently off which meant that the mysterious atmosphere the lights gave off was completely intentional. Sitting at the head of the table was a red haired man who kept the mid back length of hair in a single braid. He had a tattoo that resembled a string of Celtic Marks down the right side of his face going from his forehead, over his eye, and ending just at where his chin turned inwards. That wasn't the weirdest part to Percy though. No, that would be the fact that along with a pair of denim jeans he was wearing a somehow professional looking black t shirt that had the Milky Way Galaxy imposed on it with a section of the Orion Branch of the galaxy that Percy knew held the Sol system outlined in red.

The man glanced up from the manila folder on his desk when they arrived and said "Thank you for bringing him Iris, you may leave, I'll ensure Mr. Uzumaki gets back to where he needs to go."

"Yes sir." Iris said with a deep bow and promptly left the same way they came. The hell?

The man turned his gaze onto Percy and he felt himself unconsciously stiffen as he could suddenly feel the overwhelming power coming off the unusual man. This man made Hades flaring his 'god aura' feel like a kitten trying to stack up against a full grown tiger, and he wasn't even trying. Only the fact that there wasn't even a speck of combat intent in the aura or the man's stance prevented Naruto from instantly snapping into a defensive stance. Amusement shimmered in the man's eyes even as he gestured towards one of the corners and said "Please wait there Mr. Uzumaki, once I have finished with the upcoming meeting we can have a proper discussion."

Naruto did as told, idly wondering just who was going to be part of the meeting that he had been brought to witness. He got his answer when as soon as he was in the shadows Hades suddenly appeared without any fanfare, one moment the chair at the other end of the thirty foot long table was empty, the next the ruler of the underworld was there. It was a little jarring to be honest.

The man opposite Hades clasped his hands over his folder and said "Welcome Hades, I apologize for not being able to respond to your request for a meeting sooner but we had an upstart in the KOI-351 system attempting Ascension that I had to deal with personally." Naruto got the feeling that while there HAD been an actual being attempting to reach god hood or higher status, the man hadn't been as efficient in dealing with them as he could have been. Pulling out a pair of professional looking reading glasses from a pocket of his shirt that had NOT been there before and which just as quickly disappeared once empty again, the man opened them and slid them on one handed in a manner that said 'I've done this action more times than you've drawn breath in your entire life.' Flipping open the folder, he looked back up at Hades and said "Now, your stated reason for requesting this meeting was to lodge a complaint about an imported asset who we have an eye on for becoming a Creator's Chosen, so what seems to be the problem?"

"What seems to be the problem?!" Hades asked incredulously before he slammed a palm on the table and said "That brat you brought in invaded my realm, summoned a monster that massacred my army, openly attacked me, then punched ten giant holes in my ceiling and absolutely flooded the place! We're STILL trying to pump all of the sea water out! We're lucky that the waters from the various rivers have been spelled not to overflow their banks or they would have mixed with the seawater!"

"I see, and what, exactly, did you do that provoked such an attack?" The man asked calmly, though with a hint of something dangerous in his tone.

Hades' eyes shifted once, for only a moment, before he sat up straight with crossed arms and said "I did nothing that warranted an attack on me or my domain."

"No?" The man asked, and there was definitely something dangerous in his tone as he looked down at the file on the desk and lifted a couple of pages to look at one in the middle and said "So you didn't in fact send not one, but all three furies after him, kidnap his mother from clear across the continental US when Miss Sally Jackson was NOT killed or even gravely injured in anyway, threaten him with the end of death if he didn't hand over an Object of Power that was NOT yours to claim and then threaten him with the death of his mother when he showed that the container you thought held said Object of Power did, in fact, NOT contain said Object of Power?" Hades' skin had grown increasingly pale as the man calmly spoke, sweat forming on his brow as the man's aura became increasingly dangerous before he snapped his eyes up at the end to pin Hades with a glare that made Naruto think of a large eagle that was about to eat a house cat that had dared to take a swat at him.

"I-" Hades started but couldn't actually finish his response.

"Allow me to explain to you just how thoroughly you screwed up Hades." The man said in the same tone as one ordering pancakes at an IHOP. "Naruto Uzumaki is a former Hokage. That means that he was the leader of a group of warriors who could easily take down any of the special forces on that little pebble you inhabit. A single four man team could do enough damage they would have made the Vietnam war look like a small bit of high school bullying. He's also one of the best Seal Masters of his generation and THE best when it comes to Wind Style Jutsu. On top of that, he was the container of the Nine Tailed Fox, I believe you are familiar with it since he created a clone in its likeness that proceeded to occupy your forces while he made his way towards your palace." Hades paled a little more when he learned that Percy HADN'T summoned the beast but in fact it had been a copy of his that had transformed into that form. "He is also capable of creating well over a thousand copies of himself, all of them capable of the same amount of destruction as the original." What blood had been in Hades' head was now at his toes at the thought of a thousand Kyuubis running amuck in his realm. Leaning back, the man continued "In short Hades, you managed to piss off the single most powerful mortal in this Cluster and that's BEFORE we take into account his new status as Poseidon's son. I'm honestly surprised he didn't make it so that you needed four new prosthetics or even outright kill you considering he's taken on deity level entities in his past life and came out on top."

Naruto knew he really shouldn't, but he couldn't help but enjoy the look of fear on Hades' face at the moment. Taking off his glasses and putting them on top of the file, the better to get the look in his eyes across, the man said "Now, you are going to go back to your realm and you are not going to even THINK about that asset anymore. But if he DOES for some reason come back into your domain you will help him with whatever he requires with a cheerful smile and a 'Yes, Mr. Uzumaki!' Do I make myself clear?"

The man's aura suddenly skyrocketed and Hades wasn't the only one momentarily sweating buckets as the god actually squeaked like a mouse before he rapidly nodded and said "Yes sir!"

"Good, now leave, I have other matters to attend to." The man said as his aura dropped back down to the same level as it had been when Percy arrived making the shinobi shudder at how well the being before him hid his true power. Hades didn't even say anything, one instant he was there, the next he was gone leaving an empty seat.

The man sighed and closed his eyes as he kneaded his forehead and said to himself "Olympians are such a hassle." Gesturing to an empty chair much closer to him, he said "Mr. Uzumaki, if you'll please come join me." As Naruto walked over and took a seat two spaces apart from the man he shook his head and said "I swear, if the tower of paper work for replacing the majority of a pantheon in a manner that WOULDN'T cause serious geographical change wasn't taller than a Class Delta Solar System was wide, I'd have replaced the majority of them eons ago."

Opening his eyes again, he slid his glasses back on and leaned forward and said "Now then Mr. Uzumaki, my name is Ticris, and I'm the Higher Plane Administrator for the Solar Cluster Earth is part of, allow me to explain a few things about your situation. Normally, this meeting would be held off until you accomplished your assigned task, less pressure or temptation to show off that way, but given how, thorough you were while dealing with Hades after he stole your mother from you and Ares after he tried to play you for a fool the higher ups have allowed me to give you a bigger picture than you currently have."

"I can appreciate that, all I got before I came to this world was that my creator was doing this place's creator a favor." Naruto said.

"That is both a bit true and yet also a little false." Ticris said before he visibly settled himself for telling a story and said "Long, long, LONG, ago, so long even Eons doesn't cover the amount of time needed to be measured, there was only one universe, formed at if not the very top, then certainly in the top ten highest dimensional planes. Like with everyone given enough time, the residents of this universe become incredibly advanced, both in the various magics and other spiritual energies of that universe as well as technologically. As such, they inevitably discovered a variety of ways to become immortal. However, with immortality comes population control issues. Enforcing such wide spread birth control without taking overly drastic measures was not viable, and very, very few of the population felt that mass sterilization would be a good idea. The general consensus was that the universe would inevitably fall into stagnancy without any new minds being brought into being. As such, other methods of preventing over population had to be conceived. And so, the Branching River Initiative was conceived and implemented. Using an advanced combination of technology and magic, the people of this universe began the creation of other universes, starting directly around theirs but constantly creating more and more both around their original universe AND into the lower dimensional planes, modifying said plains as needed. The creation of the first universes took time to be sustainable yes, but once they were, the creators now had plenty of resources for a still growing population, and said population was divided into large groups who would ensure the universes' continued survival and functionality. However, several of the universes in the lower dimensional planes eventually began experiencing problems, the lifeforms that were naturally growing in said universes were either beginning to kill off each other in mass quantities or were experiencing unforeseen natural disasters that were on both global and solar system scales. One universe even lost an entire galaxy within a single Earth's hour time."

Naruto shivered as he tried, and failed to comprehend such an event, the uncountable amount of life that must have been lost during that event. Ticris was understandably solemn as he said "Due to these incidents, the original Creators began creating lesser beings who still had the power of keeping the universes from suffering such accidents again, proto gods and goddesses if you will. These beings were given specific districts to govern, some rather large, others only a single solar system depending on how high the severity of likely crisis in that area was. And for a while, it worked to prevent further calamities. However, like with all bodies of governance, over time some of these beings began to want more, more territory, more power, more control. Their creators were able to bring them back under control, though sometimes having to eradicate them and then replace them, until one time they couldn't." Ticris materialized a wine glass with a deep red liquid in it and he swirled it as he stared at it contemplatively for a solid minute before he continued his tale, still swirling the liquid inside. "Even now, no one is quite sure how the wannabe conqueror managed to modify his abilities to the point where he could take on his Administrator along with the Administrators of the four closest regions, he never said and the resulting battle was so fierce we were forced to put him down. We only managed to do such when another Administrator asked for outside help so to speak. You see, the next universe over to the problem area had beings living in it that actually had abilities that could not only match the rogue god but eliminate him. One quick universal transfer of their best fighter and the rogue and his army of followers was eliminated in a if not short period of time, then certainly an acceptable one of a couple of months. The warrior was then returned to her Universe with a few rewards that she had requested when offered and went on to finish living her life back home."

Draining the glass in one go, Ticris dismissed it and leaned forward with his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands as he said "A precedent had been set, beings with powers specific to one universe were capable of solving problems in another where the natives of said universe couldn't. The resulting program that came to be because of that situation is called the Creator's Chosen. The program went through several iterations over the eons until it was perfected as much as possible into what it is today. From taking warriors temporarily out of their own universes we now use soul magic to transfer warriors into new bodies, the soul magic enabling them to keep the abilities from their previous lives. If a warrior manages to pass his or her test during their second life then they are given the opportunity to fully join the Creator's Chosen. If they agree, they are allowed to rest for up to fifty years between each life in an afterlife where the souls of their companions can mingle together with them. Once the fifty year vacation time is up, they are then sent onto their next life if needed though the Chosen can request a new mission before that if they wish or may have to be temporarily granted a new body if a big enough crises arises that requires immediate action from multiple Creator's Chosen. The standard lifespan granted to them is one hundred years unless the species they reincarnate into has a much longer lifespan, though typically such reincarnations are done with Chosen whose original lifespan was of similar length since they are able to handle said lengthened lifespans better mentally."

Ticris cocked his head a little and said "Of course, beyond becoming a technical immortal and being able to rack up abilities, the Creator's Chosen have other boons as will. For starters, if you mange to complete your entrance challenge then you gain the ability of using a subspace pocket which can hold physical objects in your soul allowing you to use objects such as weapons and other tools from previous universes in your new one. True, the subspace pocket starts off relatively small at a twenty by twenty cube but a Chosen can expand it with a little bit of work in between lives. Some of the older Chosen actually have entire planets in their subspace pocket to serve as warehouses for all of their accumulated souvenirs. Finally, during their rest periods, Chosen are able to interact with other Chosen who are waiting to be assigned a mission allowing you to trade both information and various techniques if the two of them have obtained compatible abilities. So Mr. Uzumaki, any questions?"

Naruto's head spun as he considered the implications of what he had just been told but then he 'got his head back in the game' and asked his first question.

End

Author's Notes: Schedule and Poll on my profile.

Speaking of my profile, I'm disappointed in you guys. Sixteen of you guys at the time of typing this did not know I've actually posted challenges. Do none of you guys look at my story list even out of curiosity? I'm also rather sad, NO ONE has said that they'd give my challenges a crack. (I'm currently sulking in the corner of my bedroom with a storm cloud raining on me while tracing circles in the carpet with my pointer finger.)

Alright, enough with the sappiness, let's talk story (Which you guys could do at any time if you joined my discord server by the way). Anyway, I've had plenty of people asking about just what the heck is going on with this story, why was Naruto chosen, why does he go to so many of the planned universes, etc. etc. Hopefully this clears the air. There's one or two more chapters for this time frame before we have a time skip into Sea of Monsters proper. If you want an idea about some of the content, I recommend you look up the History Channel's Battle 360 show.