Chapter 1 – Meeting of the Gods
Kami was in a foul mood which was definitely unusual behaviour for the most powerful of all the gods save the Shinigami and she was not happy with him at the minute. She stormed down a white hallway and taking a deep breath waved open a huge set of double doors and walked into an enormous room that was completely empty apart from a large round table that had seats surrounding it. All the chairs were elaborately decorated and had the symbols of the god they belonged to worked into them somehow. Kami's was slightly taller than the others signifying her position as the most powerful god and ruler of life. The other chairs belonged to various other gods which were too numerous to name. Kami sat down and waved her hand again mentally summoning all of the gods to a meeting and sat back in her chair fighting the urge to massage her temples with her fingers. It wasn't a gesture befitting a god but the headache she was currently experiencing was nearing astronomical proportions, the entire timeline of two of the worlds she governed had shifted immensely in the last few minutes and when she had tracked down the source of this shift she had found that her equal and opposite the Shinigami had gone against the rules that had been set down and given a small child the powers of at least a demi god that could easily grow into powers equalling a full god.
"Giving a child powers over the dead what foolishness" she muttered her melodious voice less musical than usual as it was tinged with anger. She waited as her fellow gods appeared around the table one by one patiently waiting for the meeting to begin and the reason for them being called to be explained.
A full ten minutes later and most of the gods were becoming impatient, the only one left who hadn't arrived was the Shinigami and they normally would have started without him because he never seemed to care about anything other than collecting souls anyway. But Kami had told them to wait which meant that this meeting was about the Shinigami and that meant that something had happened that would affect a lot of things to come.
Finally with no noise at all the Shinigami faded into view he walked over to his chair which was as tall as Kami's but much plainer with none of the decorations or elaborate additions that the others had. Before he sat down his face and body morphed changing from the demonic fanged and horned face that he wore before into the face belonging to an aristocrat he had silky black hair which high cheekbones and immaculate clothing, only his eyes which shone with wisdom and age revealed who he really was.
"Glad you can finally join us" Kami said irritably "What on earth took so long."
The Shinigami gave a small shrug "I had some business to attend to as you probably already know, I thought that it wouldn't matter if I arrived a little late as mostly you carry on the meetings without me."
"Only because we all know that you care for nothing other than collecting souls for your collection" said the moon god Tsukiyomi with a hint of disgust at the death god's hobby.
He merely smiled at her before turning his attention back to the woman opposite him that was glaring at him he motioned for her to start.
"What were you thinking?" She asked managing to keep her voice reasonably calm "What were you thinking giving the powers of a Shinigami to a child, we agreed that unless we had a unanimous vote to allow it then everybody was banned from giving a mortal those types of powers again. Look at what happened the last time, they became corrupted with power and now one seeks to trespass upon the heavens themselves. I would have thought you would have more sense than to start that nightmare all over again. "
There was instant uproar as she finished speaking, every god was shouting at the Shinigami who simply raised an eyebrow at them and waited for them to stop. Arguments broke out among them on what the punishment should be and what they could be, some wanted him removed from his position but others argued that nobody else would be able to handle his job. This led to more arguing as other commented on how he obviously hadn't done his job well at all. This brought the argument back to why he broke the rules and what should be done.
Seeing how things were going nowhere the Shinigami turned his cold gaze to Kami to see if she was going to put an end to this foolishness but she seemed content to sit and glare at him. He almost sighed at the childishness she and the rest of the gods were displaying. It was no wonder the worlds they governed went to hell so often. He was about to interrupt when he heard a large number of the stronger gods finally agree in something which was that he would have some of his power and freedom forcibly removed. This arrogance quickly sent him into a cold fury. He stood up rising like a wraith from hell with a black aura growing around him.
"SIT DOWN!" He seethed angrily "I cannot believe your arrogance; you presume that you lesser gods can force me to do anything. I have been silent for far too long if you have forgotten my power or my origins." His black aura was released with vengeance forcing the weaker gods known as third tier gods to the floor under the immense pressure it gave off. The stronger gods known as second tier were forced to sit down and they began to sweat under the gaze of the angry god. They had forgotten that as he was Kami's equal he was also a first tier god matched only by Kami in strength.
"Enough" Kami said tiredly "You've proved your point now answer my question. Why have you broken our strictest rule and reintroduced that forbidden power into the world again. Even though you are my equal you must realise that there must be punishment for this betrayal."
"Yes I have given a mortal the powers of a Shinigami." The death god said mildly having calmed down quickly from his fury "But I cannot be punished for it."
"Such arrogance" The god known as Susanoo shouted followed quickly by his sisters Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi. "You have overstepped your authority death god by ignoring the pact that we made to never trespass onto someone else's domain or authority. You did this when you did this behind our backs." The other gods were nodding their heads but Kami continued to stare at the Shinigami who looked totally unconcerned.
"Then why haven't the effects already started?" He stated looking around at the suddenly stunned gods. "You surely didn't forget that the contract we made was automatic, if I had broken the laws that we set down then I would have already been struck down by its combined magic. As this is obviously not the case then it begs the question of why haven't I."
"I assume you will enlighten us" Kami said dryly managing to hide her shock and embarrassment at having forgotten the terms of the contract they had made. She mentally cursed the god that she thought of as an annoying older brother as he sat staring at her a knowing look in his eyes that told her that while she had fooled the other gods with her quick recovery he knew that she had forgotten the contract as well. Amusement shone in his eyes and she fought the urge to jump over the table and throttle him. Her brother had been so aloof and distant that she had almost forgotten his sharp mind and genius; it wasn't for nothing that most people referred to any deals made with him as deals with a devil.
The Shinigami rose again from his chair and began to pace around the table looking at every god individually.
"I did this because it had to be done" he said firmly "You have referred to the first world we made to as the worst mistake we have ever made but this world is going the same way. Corruption is rampant all over the world and all your efforts to fix it have backfired. I bided my time making sure none of you suspected my motives while quietly making my preparations to create my perfect heir as well as a perfect representative for us in the real world. The timing was perfect when the Kyuubi was forced to attack Konoha and I barely needed to interfere in the real world at all. The boy I gave the powers too is truly worthy of it I have looked into his future and he will not turn out like the others. If you give him your support then he will bring peace to those that suffer under the corrupt leaders that are in charge."
"Why should we support him?" Jashin demanded "Why should we give our support to your avatar."
"We should just get rid of him!" Susanoo sneered "Before his power has time to grow."
The Shinigami shot to his feet rage his dark aura once again pulsing around him "Make one move against him Susanoo and I promise you your name will vanish from human memory faster than you could believe."
"What can you do about it" Tsukiyomi spoke up defending her brother "You only have dominion and jurisdiction over that which is dead or involves death. The boy is still among the living, no matter what loophole you exploited to give him his powers he is now under our jurisdiction as the gods of the living."
"Not anymore" The Shinigami said smirking; Kami looked at him with narrowed eyes. The others may not have noticed it but when he had said those words she had felt a pull or a tug that signalled something. She quietly tried to reach the boy but found him masked by a ghostly aura that she recognised well. Damn he was telling the truth but how was he getting around them like this.
She pondered this question while the others argued and shouted at her still smirking brother it warmed her heart that he was back to his old self again even if he was technically her opponent in this particular political game. It had hurt her more than she would ever admit when he had become more distant and withdrawn from the dealings of the living world. He hadn't even spoken up when they had started giving humans powers again some of which technically overstepped their authority...Wait that was it. She looked up from her pondering with a new respect for her dark brother. He had certainly outsmarted them in this match.
"Quiet!" She shouted bringing instant silence to every person in the room "Stop acting like children and sit down, I have figured what my brother has done and it is perfectly acceptable to our rules." She gave a deprecating laugh "He was right when he said earlier that he has done nothing, we did all the work for him."
"Stop speaking in riddles" Jashin groaned angrily "Will someone just tell us plainly what he has done."
"Fine" The Shinigami said with a small smile "You may remember that over the last few centuries on this earth you all have been very generous with your gifts to your followers or avatars. Without thought or care you gave them powers that far outstripped your jurisdiction trying to make your followers more powerful than any others. While doing this you may remember that most if not all of you gave them powers that crossed my jurisdiction. You may remember that none of you asked for my permission before you gifted powers that directly interfered with me." He looked around at the members that were now looking pale and worried.
"You Jashin have given the powers of immortality to your followers that crosses into my jurisdiction because it interferes with their time of death. Everything has to die and anything that doesn't has to be blessed by me first. As soon as you gave powers that you weren't authorised too you owed me a debt by our laws that I could call in at any time without even telling you."
"So" Amaterasu said slowly "Every single person who gave a gift to mortal that should have been okayed by you first owes you a debt that lets you make decisions for them."
"Almost" the Shinigami's smile was now predatory "But you don't owe me for every gift you gave you owe me for every person that has had that gift."
Immediately the gods that had given gifts to major clans that should have been taken before the Shinigami first went white and one fell of his chair. If every single person that had their gift meant a debt then they must owe the Shinigami hundreds of debts.
"Surely not all of us owe you" Tsukiyomi said nervously shrinking at the thought of the dark spectre that she had poked fun at constantly for the last decades being in complete command of the gods.
"Not all of you" Shinigami admitted "Just all you second tier gods and half the third tier, Kami is the only higher ranked god that now owes me nothing as I used up the two debts she owed me to give the boy powers and then place him under my protection."
"Why does Kami only owe you two?" Tsukiyomi pouted childishly making many of the gods chuckle.
"Because there have only been two Rinnegan users at this moment in time which means only two debts."
"Hey that's not fair there's only one Sharingan user that is immortal why do we owe you so many?"
The Shinigami's face darkened considerably "That man is an abomination and so is the clan, why you made a clan that would kill their best friends and pluck out each other's eyeballs to gain power is something I will never understand but it doesn't matter. The reason is that the potential for the immortality is in every Uchiha, it doesn't matter if they haven't actually activated it yet."
"That's a pretty thin argument if you ask me" Tsukiyomi muttered under her breath before being silenced with a glare from Kami who sighed and stood up.
"So basically you distanced yourself from us so we'd think you no longer cared about what we did then you gathered debts from everyone who didn't ask your permission before giving gifts that interfered with death, am I correct so far?" Kami asked her brother signalling to everyone else that they were no longer welcome in this discussion; it was now between the two most powerful gods.
"Yes" the Shinigami replied calmly "But you only scratched the surface of my full plan truthfully"
Kami restrained herself from rolling her eyes at the casual arrogance of her brother "Fine" she bit out "What is your full plan?"
"Simple I wanted to find a powerful and worthy soul that would not abuse the power that I would give him, and then I would use the debts to make him the first living shingami, the fact that such a soul is also a jinchuuriki and the son of one of the strongest ninja ever is just a bonus."
"You assure me that you have everything well planned out then?" Kami asked looking at him piercingly "And if anything goes wrong you will take full responsibility"
"Yes" The Shinigami answered confidently "Leave young Uzumaki to me, watch him all you want but do not interfere in any way. Soon you will see why I chose him to be my heir and vassal on earth."
The Gods started to vanish one by one most of them shaking their heads in disapproval or resignation, Kami waited until they had all gone except for her brother before vanishing herself leaving the Shinigami alone. He waved his hand creating an image in mid air of a sleeping baby with blond hair and blue eyes with three whisker like marks on both cheeks.
"I shall be watching you Naruto Uzumaki don't let me down." With those final words the Shinigami vanished fading away into nothing.