Wow so many reviews, thanks a lot guys. When I updated I was expecting at most a handful of people to remember this story.
First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
A post-war confessional prose by the German pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984).
The 6 paths were gathered in their guild's meeting room.
The reason for their gathering, Kaguya.
Since Kaguya hadn't made a wish that caused conflict or that ended up making them sacrifice themselves to bring back their creator, their stay in the world was prolonged.
"So… what now?" Jiraiya asked.
"We continue doing what we've always been doing. Our mission hasn't changed." Kakashi answered.
"Perhaps we should move onto step two? Up till now, besides our students, we've avoided making any long-lasting plans or preparations." Neji added, "I think we should work on our overall structure, there is a lot we can improve."
Gaara nodded. "I for one think we need to recruit more into the guild, even if just to take care of the children when we go on dangerous missions."
"I agree, we can't take any dangerous mission with little Juvia around… but do we even need to? Thanks to the combined money of all the S and SS class missions and Jiraiya's novels, we have more money than we can spend. We should put it to good use."
"That's a very youthful thought, Kakashi. I agree we could focus on training little Juvia instead."
"We don't do missions just for money. Humans put missions to get help with troubles that they cannot deal with. It helps pass time, extends our network of connections and this world is our home now. By doing missions we give back to this world, clean it, even if just a little."
Nagato said and they all agreed. They didn't do missions just for the money, many of the missions they did were to solve curses or large incidents such as extremely powerful and destructive monsters either by killing them or relocating them to less populated places or even destroying dark guilds that were terrorizing the population. The missions paid a lot as they were all high ranking S or SS ranks and they helped increase their network of contacts.
"I understand, Nagato, still Gai and Kakashi have a point. We could leave one team doing missions, another team on standby collecting information and doing other tasks such as recruiting, as for the rest, they stay here taking care of the children and doing other internal work." Neji suggested having had thought about the issue before.
"Very well, let's call the mission team the Alpha team, the reserve team the Beta team, who will be those teams and who will stay here?" Nagato asked.
"The teams don't need to be the same as before, but I think we, Jiraiya and I, should continue our work outside as we already do what is expected of this Beta team already."
"You just don't want me teaching Minerva," Jiraiya glared at Neji and then looked at all the others, "he thinks I'm a bad influence on her, can you believe that?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"What? What's with that look? In another life I taught our creator and he turned out more than okay if I may say so."
They each shared a look.
Who were they to question how their creator turned out? But… given the recent development, they too weren't sure if he was the best role model either.
(With Naruto)
(Ur's house)
While Kaguya and Ur had a 'chat' in the bedroom, a clone of Naruto prepared dinner in the kitchen, and the original cured the bruises and injuries on Grey.
'Deliora, the demon of destruction… I was going to let Nagato deal with you, but it seems like it'll be quicker if I do it myself.'
The existence of creatures like Deliora bothered Naruto. He more than any other had sympathy for gigantic misunderstood creatures, he understood that there sometimes could be nuances and context for the destruction caused by certain powerful creatures.
Some had a naturally destructive presence or strong appetite that had nothing to do with hatred towards humanity, those were a small minority. From his experience, the large majority of conflict surrounding giant beasts and small humans came because humans would provoke them in some way by invading their territory or subjugating them.
It was like that for the Bijuu. They were around a millennia-old, if they hated humans they could have very well wiped civilization out in the gap that there were no geniuses like Hashirama or Madara to deal with them. Or even with those geniuses present, if they had the malice to want to wipe out humanity they could still accomplish that.
One supercharged long-distance Bijuu Dama is all it would take to wipe out a major village, by the time anyone was the wiser it would already be exploding overhead. No long and drawn-out fight or epic showdown involved, even someone like Hashirama wouldn't have been able to protect the village if an enormous Bijuudama appeared in the center while he was doing paperwork.
Hokages had a lot of paperwork.
Deliora however wasn't such a creature, that Naruto was sure of from what he had read about it. From what he gathered it was a demon created by the dark wizard Zeref that appeared from time to time destroying cities and everything in its path.
Up until now, Naruto hadn't actively tried hunting it because if he gave Nagato time to do it then the red-head would eventually end up finding out more about its origins in the process, also he didn't quite care enough to actively seek it out.
Looking at the sleeping boy, Naruto began to reevaluate himself and rethink things.
It was a recurring thing, as time went on he constantly found himself 'losing' his humanity, becoming insensitive and distant to other humans. For a creature like him, losing his empathy for humans was dangerous. He had no intention of becoming a hero that went around looking to save people, but it was important to not ignore problems within his reach and expertise.
Like a wildfire, certain problems had a way of spreading from tree to tree. One can pretend they have nothing to do with it and that it won't affect them because it is far, just look away and pretend nothing is happening, it is easy, that is nature. Not just human nature, but nature in general. Living is hard, most creatures wouldn't make it and Nature's solution for the many perils of existence is fleeing and hoping to survive to continue the lineage.
That worked well for animals, deers and other hoofed mammals often would outrun their young when threatened by a predator, leaving them to die if they got caught. Unlike deers, humans however can help each other very effectively if they work towards it, and ignoring problems doesn't make them go away. After all, now it could be the neighbor, tomorrow it can be you.
He didn't put effort into killing Deliora and as a result, the boy's town was destroyed and he was taken in by Ur.
His moment of introspection and the healing of the child took around a minute in total, and as he finished healing the chakra barrier on the room was lifted and Ur walked out.
Ur walked past everyone and left the house, then a second later Kaguya walked out with a smile on her face.
"What happened?"
"We 'talked', established the hierarchy. She will be fine."
"Hierarchy? What hierarchy?"
"Our hierarchy of course." Kaguya approached him. "Since we will be together from now on, I thought it would be important to be clear about our positions and what we are to each other."
"I'm going to talk with her."
Naruto left Kaguya with the unconscious boy and headed outside where Ur was, seated on the entrance stairs looking at the snow-covered ground.
He took a seat beside her and together in silence they watched the snowfall.
A minute passed and Ur broke the silence.
"... Is what she said true?"
"About what?"
"About you making a deal with her in exchange for a wish, anything including your death."
"That… yes it is true."
Ur turned towards him.
"Why? Why would you make a deal like that? Aren't we, you, happy?"
"I am very happy."
"Then why? She said she was going to ask for your death so she could be released, what if she asked that?"
"Well, death is a relative term, I calculated that if she were to do a malicious wish then I would exploit a loophole in whatever wish she made. Even in the worst scenario of me dying without any countermeasures and losing my body completely, I could fuse my Six Paths and create a new body out of them, but I'd rather not do that. They are their people now, if I did that then I'd be killing them."
"You mean Nagato and the others?"
Naruto nodded. He made them for several reasons such as helping him establish himself in the world, but the most important reason was that they were his backup. If Kaguya were to make a malicious wish, then even if he were to die he could come back through them and reclaim his body.
Still, that was just the worst-case scenario, he hoped it never came to that, and it didn't.
"Wow… you know you are a jerk, right? You could have told me."
"If I did then she would know about it… actually thinking about it she probably does know what would happen if she made a malicious wish. Still, everything turned out alright."
"Alright huh?" Ur gave a light jab to his side. "I guess it is alright for you."
"Hey, I had no idea she was going to ask this okay. To me the best-case scenario was she asking to be free and going off her way without causing anyone trouble."
"Right…" Ur shook her head looking down. "How are we going to explain this to Ultear and Lyon?"
"Plus one to the family?" Naruto suggested with a joking voice and got elbowed in the ribs.
Ur rubbed her elbow, hurting more herself than him.
"Could you not joke about it right now?"
"Right right…" Naruto smiled and 'looked' down at the floor where she was. "So… are we going to talk about what's bothering you?"
"You mean besides you suddenly bringing home a woman?"
"Yep, I know that's not what's really bothering you. If it were then you'd be much angrier, jealous women are scary, I'd know."
Ur gave a long-drawn-out sigh, more or less admitting that he was right.
"You know, for some reason, it's really hard to stay mad at you? Is it some type of technique of yours?"
Naruto blinked.
"Not that I know of? Maybe you just love me?" He kissed her on the cheek
He began thinking to himself. It wasn't the first time he had heard those words. Others had told him something along those lines on several occasions. Hinata his late wife theorized that because he had so much energy most of which was Yang, he had a pleasant spiritual wavelength that interfered with one's sense of aggression. An invisible 'pacifying' aura that neither of them could sense or feel.
Throughout his life, he had angered a lot of people, which thinking back were enemies and in a situation of conflict which could be a factor. Still, there was no way to prove it, and he himself wasn't capable of 'feeling' if it were the case or not to do something about it.
Ur accepted his answer/ kiss and sighed.
"It's this thing she said that's gotten me thinking…" She brought her hands to her head. "what am I doing…"
Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder. "What did she say?"
Ur turned towards him again.
"She said that you have already gone through one lifetime of watching your lover wither and that you should be with someone like yourself, another immortal, her. I just can't take that out of my head. Am I doing the same thing to you that your ex-wife did?"
"..."
"I am, aren't I? This isn't okay…" Ur shook her head. "When I first told me about you two, you know what I thought? I first thought it was romantic, I thought about how great it would have been for me to have that too, you know. But now, thinking about it again, it just seems cruel to put you through that. You said you used an illusion to fake aging, but she knew, didn't she?"
"We never talked about it, but I think she did. She was always smart… and did have excellent eyes as well…"
"It must have been hell, for both of you. For you watching her slowly die and for her to be the one chaining you down. You're too nice to just abandon her, but you're a god, an actual god, you can make freaking dimensions, whole dimensions. You're meant to be free, wanting to keep you to myself is just selfish and cruel which I guess is why I'm not so mad about... her."
Ur took a deep breath.
"It'll take some getting used to but… it's not the end of the world, I think we'll manage somehow. Just… can you promise me that no matter how many women you get you'll still keep a place for me and Ultear?"
Naruto chuckled, wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her closer and into his lap, getting him a 'yelp' out of her.
"You're talking as if I'll suddenly get a harem of twenty women. You're my wife and Ultear's my daughter, that's not changing."
"I'm your wife… this is the first time you call me that..."
"I thought it was already implied, no? We've been living a married life up till now, besides marriage is just a formality. The union of two individuals as one, acknowledged by some authority such as a god or the nation. This nation has no authority over me, and neither do these gods, so officially nobody has the authority to marry us other than ourselves. Why? Don't want to be married to little ol' me?"
"What? No, nothing could make me happier than being your wife… I just didn't know you saw me like that."
"Right, mmm any more questions?"
"Yes, why did you give her a wish at all? You told me she used to be your enemy."
"Yeah, she was." Naruto smiled and began to appear older in Ur's eyes. "There are a few reasons, for one she has been inside me for nearly a century and everything related to her crimes has been forgotten in time… also, to pay a debt."
He stopped and gained a faraway look as if recalling something.
"I wasn't always this strong, when I had just sealed her inside me, she was the majority of my chakra. Keeping something as powerful as her sealed inside me can be taxing, especially if she were to resist. If she took the opportunity to rampage inside me when I fought stronger enemies, then I would probably not make it. However she didn't, she just stayed still as if it was of no concern to her which allowed me to prevail and become even stronger as time passed. I owed it to at least giving her a chance."
"I see… in that case then I guess it can't be helped." Ur frowned.
Naruto kissed her on the cheek again.
"Still, she being here doesn't change anything between us.."
"Ahh! Demon!"
A yell came from inside the house.
"It would seem the boy is awake, and he has met Kaguya. I think it'd be best if you go greet him. We can talk about our status at another time."
"Right I'll go see him, poor boy must be so confused."
Ur got up from his lap.
"Oh, if he has nowhere to go then he can stay with us. Another one to the family."
"Okay," Ur smiled and hurried inside.
The boy was awake and backed up to a corner of the living room while Kaguya was standing in the same spot she was left on. The boy had awoken, saw her beside the bed, and jumped off to the corner of the living room.
Their Byakugan, Kaguya, and his were extremely powerful, so much that they didn't necessarily need to have them activated at all to see things in a 360 angle through walls. It was quite troublesome, privacy was nonexistent for people like them that was always seeing everything, not even their eyelids were a barrier to block their vision, to avoid seeing something they had to go out of their way and coat the walls in a barrier like Kaguya had done to 'talk' with Ur
Naruto while outside talking with Ur had his attention on Kaguya and saw that she had no fault in his reaction and saw no need to go inside as well, there was already a clone of him in the kitchen with the other children: Ultear and Lyon.
Ur having a lot of experience regarding children managed to calm the boy down quickly and explain the situation. While she dealt with the boy, Naruto focused chakra into his eyes, activating the Byakugan and then going beyond gaining once again radiant blue iris and profound black pupils.
As it turned out, beyond the Byakugan was something much similar to his original eyes in appearance.
It had been a while since he had used these eyes, Ethernano was in everything, the ground, the air, and it hindered his vision in the long term in a phenomenon similar to how water or air particles gained color when in large volumes. It was okay in close and mid-range, but the farther he stretched his vision the 'thicker' the atmospheric Ethernano became.
These eyes however dealt with that much better than the Byakugan did.
As he stretched his vision over the horizon he 'zoned' out of his immediate surroundings. His sight went beyond the mountains, beyond the forests and beyond the cities, englobing everything. Like this, he could see both everything and nothing at the same time, by sacrificing details such as physical characteristics of people and buildings he could focus on range.
After scanning the entire continent a few times, he deactivated his eyes and frowned. Deliora was nowhere in sight, almost as if hiding in another dimension.
'How troublesome, I'll have to do this a few times a week until it appears again.'
Naruto cracked his neck and focused his attention on the inside of his house, gaining information from his clone in the kitchen as to what happened in the time he had zoned out.
Ur managed to call down the kid, his name was Gray Fullbuster, he didn't have any other family besides his dead parents and from the looks of it, he would be staying with them.
The family had increased even more.
'I wonder if we should have the house renovated, it's getting cramped up in here. Although I suppose it is cozy the way it is. I'll ask Ur later and see what she thinks. Dinner is ready.'
Dispelling the clone, Naruto entered the living room, startling Gray that was in there with Ur.
"Hello there, sorry to interrupt you two but dinner is at the table."
"Oh, okay that was faster than I thought. Gray, are you hungry? We can talk in the kitchen."
"Yes, Ma'am…" Gray nodded and the four went to the Kitchen where Ultear and Lyon were waiting at the dining table.
"I was going to make a stew, but I can tell you all are hungry so I went with something less complicated," Naruto gestured towards the table. "That bowl is the salmon we finished smoking two days ago, I mixed it with cream cheese. Over there is cheese, lettuce, onions, sauces, help yourselves."
Ur, Gray, Naruto, and Kaguya each took a seat. Lyon and Kaguya each took a large baguette and began making sandwiches for themselves, Naruto helped Ultear make hers since he was closer to the ingredients and Ur helped make Gray's.
After everyone had gotten theirs, Lyon addressed the Kaguya in the room.
"So… who's she again?"
All eyes turned towards Kaguya.
She stopped eating. "I'm Kaguya Otsutsuki."
"Right… and who are you?"
Kaguya gracefully placed her sandwich down and gestured towards Naruto.
"I'm his wife."
Naruto coughed and choked on his sandwich.
'Oh boy… she said it.'
"You can't be dad's wife, mom is!" Ultear protested, glaring at Kaguya as threatening as a child her age could.
Kaguya looked down at Ultear and smiled.
"Your mother…" she paused and saw Naruto's chakra network light up inside him."Is also his wife. We both are. You can consider me your second mother."
"Second mother…" Ultear repeated while shifting her eyes to Naruto. "Dad?"
'Oh boy… Kaguya said it as if it were the most normal thing in the world. What have I gotten myself into? Let's just row with it, maybe if I don't make a problem out of this then there won't be a problem at all…? Who am I kidding, I'm so going to regret this.'
Taking a second to gather himself, he 'looked' Ultear in the eyes and nodded.
"Yes, that's right. She is also my wife, they both are." Naruto answered, trying his best to say it as if it were a natural thing and there was no problem.
"Oh, okay then daddy." The innocent Ultear smiled, taking his word for it, and went back to her sandwich.
Lyon and Gray both shared a look, acknowledging that it most definitely was strange and as well as refusing to touch that subject.
Ur cleared her throat.
"So Gray," Ur turned towards the child. "I was thinking. Since you have nowhere else to go, if you'd like then you can stay here with us. I'm an Ice Mage, If you are capable I can teach you magic in the meanwhile until you figure out what you want to do."
Gray's eyes lit up.
"You can teach me Ice Magic?"
"I can try." Ur gestured towards Lyon and Ultear. "He is Lyon, my student. She is Ultear, my daughter, I teach them both."
"Oh wow, in that case, yes I'd like to learn magic with you."
"Cool, then welcome aboard. Ur is a wonderful teacher, she has a lot to teach." Naruto smiled at Ur.
"We still need to test your aptitude though, unfortunately only 10% of people can become mages at all," Ur said, trying to not get Gray's hope up too much as there was still a possibility that he couldn't do magic at all.
Gray frowned.
"Oh don't worry about that, most of those cases are because people didn't practice when they were young and missed the chance, the rest, Neji figured out how to encourage the body to take in Ethernano. He should be fine."
"Really? When did he figure that out?"
"Last year. It is a delicate process that requires our special eyes and a lot of control over Ethernano particles. I could probably do it by controlling the atmospheric particles but it would be tricky since I don't have any Ethernano in my body. Neji on the other hand can without a problem."
Unlike his 6 Paths, he still had yet to merge with Ethernano for a very simple reason: there wasn't enough of it in the world for him to completely merge it with his chakra. Due to the ratio of exchange to balance the two energies the world of Earthland just didn't have enough in it for him to do it.
Kaguya probably could but at the cost of sucking the planet dry and messing it up. She had the equivalent chakra to an entire planet, and he was several times that, coupled with the exchange rate it just wasn't viable for either of them. They would need both a place with a lot of energy and a lot of time to steadily absorb energy overtime.
"Oh, okay then. You will sleep in Lyon's room, Naruto, we don't have a spare bed, can you prepare one for him?"
"Sure, I'll do that after we finish dinner."
"Okay, for clothes you can share Lyon's until we buy you some for your own at a nearby town."
"We can go tomorrow…"
And so dinner went smoothly, they exchanged conversation and got to know one another. Gray and Kaguya were silent most of the time, the former having a familiar brooding aura while the latter just seemed content eating.
And ate she did, the most out of them all: four sandwiches the length of an arm.
After dinner, Naruto created a bed for Gray, activated his eyes to check for Deliora once more, and then it was bedtime.
It felt strange, the sudden change in his life as per Kaguya's use of her 1 wish felt surreal. It felt even stranger that everything was going well.
Entering the bedroom both Ur and Kaguya were waiting by the bed. They were seated on opposite sides of each other, Ur wearing a short dark blue nightgown while Kaguya had her hair tied in four large buns kept by two Kanzashi hairpins, wore a black lace nightgown with nothing underneath.
Ur averted her eyes from him, blushing a storm, while Kaguya had a triumphant smile as if she had 'won' something.
Naruto felt it to be quite the sight. For Kaguya, since she always wore chakra clothing he had never seen beneath her robes which hid her breasts that were just a bit smaller than a certain Blond woman he knew
As for Ur, while he was accustomed to her figure, seeing her acting so timid was a reward of itself.
"Welcome, husband. Don't be shy." Kaguya patted the spot between her and Ur. "We've come to an agreement, I'm first."
"Right, the hierarchy thing?"
Naruto approached the bed by Kaguya's side,
"And who put you in charge?" He cupped her chin. "You asked for some alone time with Ur to talk, but I don't recall ever putting you in charge."
Kaguya met his eyes with her smile still present.
"One of us has to be first and It can't be her, she is a mortal with a limited lifespan. We are Gods, you may not like it, but I am the only one like you."
Naruto smiled.
"Do you remember back when I had just become Hokage? You were quiet inside me, do you remember that time?"
Kaguya tilted her head, her smile faltering slightly.
"No. After I was sealed I was upset and I didn't see into your life much."
"Well, when I became Hokage I had tan into an issue." He began raising her head, making her get up so that she was on her knees. "Being a Hokage occupied a lot of my time, so I couldn't spend much time with my family. I could use shadow clones, but leaving them for paperwork was irresponsible, and leaving my family with a clone was as well. People like the original, the thought of being left with a clone sounds offensive to some, plus I liked to spend my personal time with my family."
He sighed.
"Fortunately I once met an enemy in a certain war that had a very convenient technique. I got Kabuto to summon him with a Zetsu corpse, had him perform the technique in front of me, reversed the process, and perfected it. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the technique much because you being inside of me made it complicated, so I kept it as a last resort. However, now that you are free, I can abuse it however I want."
He retracted his hand and his body became a white light.
Kaguya didn't know about the history of the technique, but there was no way she didn't recognize it. His most fearsome technique and the reason he had been invincible throughout the years.
'Oh my… Is he thinking about using that?"
The light shined and split into two lights, then both split once more. When the lights died down there were four Naruto.
Ur's blush intensified, dying her ears red.
Each of the four grinned.
This chapter took a bit longer than expected, it has been a sad time here. A student/neighbor of mine passed away due to covid and I couldn't quite focus on anything for more than a few minutes but here it is anyway. I don't want to go into a cycle of delaying all over again.
Not much happened in this chapter, just enjoying some development before the next saga begins and we enter the big leagues.
Tbh I am happy that this next saga is about to begin, which was one of the reasons I had stopped writing. Back when KS and later I was writing there wasn't enough information on canon to write it, we already kinda knew what we wanted to do but there was no way to do it as it was just murky waters. Actually still missing some information that is still coming out in the 100 year quest, but I can kinda circumvent that without writing myself into a corner.
This next chapter will either come really fast or medium, depending on my speed. I'm thinking of updating The Red Man as I liked that one a lot, then work on my original story (it isn't posted anywhere and has nothing to do with ffn) which I have to rewrite like 50k worth of words because I just changed the core concept and have to start all over
