I do not own Naruto, If I did... I would explain how Madara got those weapons that Tobi should have had.

Talk now – normal talk
What now – normal thoughts
Speak – biju, higher being talk
Listen – biju, higher being thoughts

Chapter 2 : A Dream I wish never ends

"So what will you train me in?"A smiling Naruto, who stood on Sayaka's lap, asked cheeringly.

Yukimura gave him a small smile. "First we will start with some basic knowledge and then move on from that, I still don't have more recent knowledge of the world so until you can go to a library we'll teach you what I know."

Naruto pouted. "That sounds really boring."

"You are still young Naruto, doing any advanced form of physical training would do more harm than good to you now" Yukimura smiled at the boy "what we are going to train is your mind."

He pouted. "But that still sounds boring"

"A healthy mind in a healthy body. It is good saying to live by, quite often a person with a keen mind can overcome those with a stronger body."

"Really" he blinked "but how?"

"Simple, because not all battles need to be fought physically, and even if you have a stronger body if you don't know much you can be easily manipulated by other people." Sayaka chimed in. "As ninja this will be even more important for you."

Yukimura rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. "I think we can make learning a few things a bit easier by using games."

"You mean you'll play with me?" Naruto asked in a hopeful tone.

"Of course we will Naruto-kun." Sayaka told him.

"I don't think I ever want to leave this place."

"Eventually you will have to leave Naruto, you see this place is my realm, just like other gods I have my own realm and right now only a part of you is here, your body is in the Konoha hospital."

"But then…"

"Don't worry you don't have to leave soon, we have roughly a year here to train you before you need to go back. There are some rules regarding mortals entering a god's realm and staying there, but you will be able to return, and we will be able to talk to you when you're not here from time to time."

"Alright, but if you're a god can't you make other rules?"

"While I can do that, the rules are made with the human body in mind more than anything else, your body and soul have certain limits that once crossed can destroy you. In this sense I am limited to what I can do, I've already made some changes to you while I was healing you."

"What? You changed something about me?"

"More like fixed a few things that were broken, because of your treatment at the orphanage you were behind other children your own age, I just helped fix the damage done, I did add a bit of my knowledge to you, it's why you're able to understand a few more words then before. And I added something that the ladies will like in the future." Yukimura told him the last part in a sly tone of voice.

"Uh, even after achieving godhood a male's pride is still as sensible as ever." Sayaka spoke in an exasperated tone of voice.

"I don't think he or his descendents will mind all that much." Yukimura let out a small giggle.

"I do hope that you considered a fair and balanced deal for any potential girls he may have." Sayaka told him sharply.

"Of course, it's nothing that big, just you know, a little bonus."

Sayaka let out a sigh."Men and their pride."

Naruto wasn't sure what they were talking about so he just ignored it. "So my body's weak?"

"The human body is an amazing thing Naruto-kun, but that doesn't mean it can withstand a god's realm permanently without certain things happening to it."

"Like what?"

"Changing you into something else, less then fully human, especially if you are still alive when entering the realm, the gods do so to play their own games."

"Whaa the gods play games to?!" Naruto asked in an amazed tone.

"Yes Naruto, but their games often include the lives of mortals as their playthings."

"Huh, why?"

"Why not? Rather than fight it out in an all out battle the gods use mortals as their pawns to help further their influence, they created their own creatures to help enforce that influence."

"That sounds mean."

"It is, in many more ways than you can imagine. But enough of that I think we should do something that every child should experience at least once in their life."

"Of you actually mean it?" Sayaka asked in an amused tone of voice.

"Yep I loved it when I was human." Yukimura answered her in an exuberant tone.

Sayaka laid Naruto gently on the bed and went around the bed to the large wooden wardrobe where she opened it and began looking through it.

"Ano what are we going to do?"

"It's a surprise. But you'll like it." Yukimura told him winking at him.

"Naruto-kun come here." Sayaka told him motioning him over to her side.

Naruto slowly got out of the bed on the side near her and he could see Sayaka with several cloths in her hands, Naruto for his part noticed then he had on a white T-shirt and black short pants on.

"Now raise your hands Naruto-kun." Sayaka asked him in a sweet tone.

As he did so Sayaka helped him put on a thick woolen grey sweater, "All right now put these socks and this pair of pants on," which he noticed were a grey and light brown color respectively, she quickly helped him put them on, "and now this pair of pants", which he noticed, were of a dark blue color.

"Ano I already have one pair of pants on."

"Oh silly those are just to help keep you warm, these are for walking around in, besides these are more fashionable."

"Ano why do I need to two pairs of pants?"

"Well the place we're going to is rather cold."

"And now these boots Naruto-kun."

Naruto for his part had never seen boots like those before, they were of dark color and looked to be made of leather, interior was lined with fur, and the boot had a grey high side. Sayaka quickly helped him put them on and tie their laces.

Yukimura looked at the two smiling he could almost see the original doing something similar.

"Now this Naruto-kun", Sayaka said as she quickly placed a brown trapper hat with grey fur on his head, "oh and let's not forget the gloves, and the jacket."

Yukimura couldn't help but laugh, little Naruto looked like he had put on 10 kilos with all the clothes he had on him.

"You know I don't think he needs all those cloths Sayaka."

Sayaka didn't even look at him as she was helping Naruto put on his jacket. "You know I left you something in the kitchen."

"Really?" He asked in a curious tone "What?"

"A delicious tall glass of shut up juice, you should hurry up and drink it, soon."

"Ahh, I did make you in her image, I almost regret it now."

"No, you don't."

"Yeah, you're right."

"I'm sorry did you say something new."

Yukimura smiled. "Apparently not."

"Ano do I really need all these clothes?"

"Well no, not really, but it's much easier for your mind to accept them given where we're going." Noticing Naruto's confused look he continues. "You see if were to travel to a place that look's to be cold your mind would perceive it as such and would tell you to behave in such a way, the same can be said if we traveled to a place that was to be warm. Creating familiar surroundings so the human mind doesn't break is something rather common for most gods."

"Ano why do the gods care about us mortals?"

"Because Naruto-kun most gods are assholes." Sayaka told him as she finished helping him with his jacket and nodded as she had a satisfied look on her face pleased with her work.

"Well Sayaka may have been a bit blunt with her general characterization, but there is some truth in that, you see Naruto there are two kinds of gods, the first born, who appeared after the creation of the world and the human made gods or the second born."

"Humans made gods!?" Naruto asked in a shocked tone of voice.

"Yes, through their beliefs humans managed to create their own gods, and conflict soon arose between the first born and the second born. At first none of the first believed that the second born could ever truly defeat one of them much less kill one, that belief went out the window when one of the first ones died permanently at the hands of a second one."

"Is that uncommon?"

"Yes, very uncommon Naruto, in general killing a god is very difficult, usually it is done by a fellow god, though even if destroyed in time a god could slowly reform and return. However nothing is truly immortal, it takes time, patience and rather unique circumstances but even a god may truly die."

"The first born believed themselves better as they were self sustained so to speak, in essence it meant that they didn't need mortals to worship them to stay alive and gain power, the second born however need mortals to worship them to remain alive and gain more power. For example think of it this way, a god as a bottle, as mortals worship the god, a bit of water is added to the bottle and slowly more and more is added to it, now rather then overflow the bottle grows larger to accommodate the influx of water. The water represents a god's power, as he gains more, his realm can grow as well, to create something else say a new creature or weapon to use in battle a god often has to give up a small piece of his power, something that if you don't have a lot of you may not wish to do. Even if it's just a little bit of water in the bottle and the bottle breaks it can reform in time using that little bit of water in it. To truly kill a god one must destroy the water within him, eventually the water would run out though it would take an extremely long period of time."

"But what about taking away the people that worship him?"

Yukimura smiled and gave him a proud grin. "Good question Naruto, nice of you to pick up on that."

"Now as I said once a god has that bit of power in the beginning even if he was to be destroyed and lose all of his followers once he or she reformed they could attempt to gain other followers. Even if it took a few years or a hundred years, a god could even attempt and gain followers in another part of the world rather than in the one where they were destroyed. They could either try to inspire a normal human and make them into their prophet in that region or find a way to send one of their already established preachers to that new region to spread his religion."

"So the more people who worship a god has the more power he can gain." Yukimura gave him a small head nod. "So what kind are you?"

"I was more of a first born one in my old form before then becoming the Juubi, who in turn ironically was also called the Devourer of Gods."

"Wait! you killed gods before? You ate them?"

"Yes, I devoured their power and added it to my own before, and as the Juubi and I did the same thing as my other form, though in my first god form I only devoured or killed a god when I believed that the respective god was truly evil and did not deserve to continue to live. While in the Juubi form it was more about a desire to feast on the gods, a burning hunger to consume them all. My own memories are still incomplete of the time as the Juubi, so exactly how it came into being is a mystery for the moment."

"What do you mean incomplete? Why are they like that?"

"Like I said before becoming the Juubi I was a god but something happened and I ended up becoming the Juubi losing quite a bit of my power, then Rikudo Sennin arouse and defeated the Juubi and split it apart into nine other beings know commonly as the biju in doing so he splintered me into many pieces and I lost even more of myself and my power. Heck I think a part of the Juubi is locked in the moon, something that's not going to be easy to get out."

"So if there are other biju does that mean that there are other people like me?"

"Yes, the first Hokage used his bloodline to subdue most of my other pieces and gave them out to the other villages who in turn locked them into humans to use as weapons, they were and still are diluted fools." He told him in a tone laced with anger. "The Shodai Hokage wanted to achieve some sort of peace this way", Yukimura shook his head, "the poor fool, he and his clansmen ignored Rikudo Sennin's teachings and still claimed to desire peace, even with the small memories I have of that man I know this."

Naruto looked thoughtful for a few moments before she spoke up again. "So the other biju are parts of you? Will you take them back?"

"Yes, on both accounts, they are parts of me, different aspects of my original personality, though as the Kyuubi I managed to retain the most from my original form, the others also have important parts with them, parts that I need to become whole again and attain true freedom. I still am in many ways an incomplete being while those other parts of me are out there. If you're worried about the other then don't worry, the bare minimum I would need from them is my divine essence, once that is gone the mass of chakra would still remain and the hosts would still be live, I can take my time until I either find a way to unlock their seal and take the chakra without killing them or wait until someone tries to move the chakra and create a new jinjuriki, heck I can even wait and gather the chakra should they die a normal death of old age."

"Well alright, but what are you going to do when you have all the pieces back?"

"I'll leave this world of course and start traveling again, I do want to visit some places again and see new ones as well."

"What do you mean that you'll leave this world?"

"Just that Naruto, this world isn't the only one in this dimension, other first ones left this world to explore the rest of the universe, some like Prometheus went to bring life to another planet in this solar system, though I don't know how much success he had, and it will take a while for me to have the power to check on that."

"What's a planet? No wait, what's a solar system?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Uh…. Well damn, this is going to take a while, I better give you a shorter version and explain more later on when we start our lessons. The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition to planets, the Solar System also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and gas. To better show you," Yukimura brought both arms together and in between them a white energy appeared, in it a blue orb with a few brown patches upon it quickly formed.

"What is that?" Naruto asked looking amazed.

"Our planet, the place we are currently on, and here," Yukimura said shifting the orb and focusing on a particular patch closely getting near it, "is the continent we are on, I don't know if the boundaries of Fire Country are the same but this" he said yet again focusing on a small part "is where Konoha is located."

Naruto just looked at the image dumbfounded. "It looks so small, I thought that Konoha was huge."

Yukimura ruffled Naruto's hair playfully. "Yes it's what happens, you often think unknowingly in a small box, but once a new idea enters your head that box begins to shake and soon enough you can tear it down. Once a mind expands it's almost impossible for it to revert to its old state. Now for the real mind blowing thing." The image quickly zoomed out and showed the blue orb at first but then it continued to zoom out until is showed other orbs some a bit smaller and a few larger ones, what made Naruto's eyes bulge was the last thing he show, a large orange orb that dwarfed all of the other orbs before it and looked like it could encompass all of them without any difficulty.

"What is that?" he asked looking amazed.

"The sun."

"It's huge!"

"Yes, the others small shapes are planets, though unfortunately they don't have any life on them, well perhaps one of them could have if Prometheus succeeded in his endeavor."

Naruto just stared dumbfounded at the image in front of him. "We look so small!" Sayaka hugged him again.

"True while we may be small, it also shows us how unique life is Naruto-kun, out of all the chances you were born, because of this you have an obligation to yourself to live. Now" Sayaka looked towards Yukimura "if you're done with showing him things that could have waited, I do believe we have a certain activity to perform."

"Oh right." He chuckled slightly as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand and dispersed the image in his other hand.

"Here take my hand Naruto-kun." Naruto slowly took Sayaka's hand who gave him a warm smile.

"Alright then let's go." Yukimura quickly made his way to the door and opened it revealing that it lead right into a snow storm.

"Wha, how did you do that?"

"It's my realm so it's not that hard, come one let's go."

After Naruto stepped through the door all of his senses seemed to be assaulted by a cold sensation, when he looked around himself he realized that he was on a mountain of sorts during a snow storm, when he looked behind him he saw that the door had disappeared and that the there was no path back down, as he looked closer he couldn't see far up on the mountain they where. Yukimura let go of his right hand placed it on his back while Sayaka held on to his left hand.

"There's only forward now Naruto, don't worry it's not far from the top, just a few minutes of walking." Naruto could still hear him even with the winds blowing.

As the three walked forward, Naruto brought his right hand to his face lowering it from time to time to look forward, the wind seemed so sharp he could swear he heard a howl in the distance, it felt as if hundreds of needles were being shoved into his face, while trying to cut through his cloths to reach his bones, at least now he was happy he had all the cloths on him.

The slowly made their way upward as the wind and snow seemed to batter them time and time again as if trying to force them back and prove their dominance over them, Naruto felt Yukimura's hand gently nudge him from behind while Sayaka held firmly onto his left arm, the both of them reassuring him that hey were there for him. Inch by inch he seemed to move forward slowly, ever so slowly but he was making progress, he felt good as if he was winning some sort of battle as he slowly pushed forward with everything against him.

Breathing had long since become more difficult, his face felt like it was on fire now, as he slowly moved forward he could hear the snow screech under his feet, he could barely see in front as the snow rushed towards him. He kept looking downward as he advanced, after a few more moments he realized that the wind seemed to have died down to a degree, he closed his eyes and pushed forward hoping that he was near the top, when he felt Yukimura squeeze his right shoulder and opened his eyes. As he opened his eyes he could he that they were out of the snow storm when he looked behind him he could see white clouds while in front the mountain top lay waiting for them.

"A few more steps now Naruto."

After a walking a few more steps upward they finally managed to reach the mountain top, that as Naruto could see was a clear plateau, the ground was mired by black rocks, the air seemed so clean he realized, the wind seemed to have stopped as well, gently Sayaka placed a hand under his chin and raised his head high once more, and Naruto was at the loss of words of the breathtaking view in front of him. In front of him the landscape was mired with white silvery clouds that glided almost imperceptibly against the sky that was of a beautiful clear blue, the sun could be seen in the distance glistening like a small golden jewel, it felt as if he was on top of the world.

"Breathtaking isn't it Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded still looking at the view in front of him. He slowly turned to his right and could see Yukimura lay down in a meditative position.

"I rather like this place to meditate it helps to clear the mind and put's things in perspective."

"It really looks amazing, it's like we're on top of the world."

"Heh, I did make this place rather big, it's similar to an old mountain I climbed at one time, still beautiful as well, but with less creatures trying to eat you."

"There were creatures trying to eat you?"

"A few, a wolf here and there, an ice troll, a weresheap."

He blinked at the last one. "What are…"

Sayaka let annoyance drip in her tone. "I think someone should remember why we're up here in the first place."

"Ano is this what you wanted us to do?"

Yukimura shook his head smilling at him. "Nope, this is part of it, figured if we're going to do that we might as well go big, insanely big in this case."

"We can do it in a more normal way next time Naruto-kun."

"So what are we going to do then?"

Yukimura smiled and pointed behind Naruto. A light wooden frame body supported by two smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners.

"What is that?"

"Oh my dear sweet boy" Yukimura shook his head, "that is a sleigh, and it is awesome in many ways."

"What's it for?"

"Having fun" Yukimura told Naruto with a smile on his face. Yukimura slowly pushed the sleigh near the edge of the mountain top and got on it towards it rear end with one leg on either side of it. "Well come one get on." Sayaka quickly got in front him and made a small hand motioning Naruto to sit in front of her.

"Is it safe?" he asked looking at the sleigh.

"Of course it is, it's my realm I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you here. Well come on get on."

Naruto hesitantly got on the sleigh and held onto its sides with his arms, Sayaka placed her arms around his body to hold him. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Now the fun part begins."

Naruto slowly felt the sleigh begin to move as Yukimura pushed it forward using his legs, he quickly tightened his grip on the sleigh as he noticed that they were slowly nearing the side of the mountain. "Why are we nearing the side of the mountain." He stuttered.

Sayaka tightened her grip on him. "Because we're going over it Naruto-kun."

"Oh….. WHAT?" He yelled.

Yukimura chuckled. "Yep, go big or go broke, now hold on tight."

Naruto looked on as the sleigh slowly got closer to edge of the mountain before finally going over it, what followed was the most insane thing he had ever done, he screamed his head off the whole way down, as they rushed down the mountain faster and faster, the cold air brushing against him.

"How about we add some obstacles?"

"You are not drifting with the sleigh!" Sayaka warned him.

Yukimura smiled. "It'll be fun."

Naruto eyes bulged once more as trees started to appear in front of them sprouting from the ground up. "Trees! trees!" He yelled.

"Don't worry I see them." Yukimura told him and quickly maneuvered the sleigh to right barely missing a tree, before quickly doing the same thing again to avoid another tree, the next few moments saw them quickly moving to the right and to the left to avoid the trees before finally clearing them.

"One last obstacle before clear sailing"

As Naruto looked forward he could see a small bit of the snow slowly rise up, he was worried they crash into it, his surprise was far greater when the sleigh actually used it as a launch pad, for a few moments he could feel his body rising from the sleigh as they where in the air, his hands attempting to dig into the sleigh, he let out a relived breath when he felt Sayaka's firm hands around his body that pulled him closer to her, and then just as quickly as he was up he came crashing back down as the sleigh hit the ground again and continued it trip downhill once more.

It still took them a while to reach to bottom, time that seemed to fly by as the scenery became a white blur and the wind seemed to throw itself against them, until finally they slowed down and reached the end of their trip. As Naruto realized they had finally stopped, he could hear his own ragged breath and heart beating, but one thought was on his mind above all else. "Let's do it again!" He said in a low whisper.

"Heh, see he liked it" the next thing Yukimura knew was Sayaka's fist colliding with his head. "Owww."

"It should have been a simple sleigh ride down, not maneuvering through trees, you know things don't work that way in the world."

"It was still fun. Besides wait until he tries the other stuff, now then let's go back up and that a few more times, right Naruto?"

"Heck ya datebayo!" Naruto screamed standing on the sleigh in an exuberant happy tone.

A moment later both Yukimura and Sayaka burst out laughing. Yukimura calmed himself down and whent over to Naruto patting him on the head. "Remember this Naruto whatever you do, enjoy it to the fullest, that is the secret of life."

Sayaka gently closed the door to Naruto's room as she exited it.

"Well?"

"He's asleep, considering what we did today I'm not too surprised."

"He had fun that's what important, things went as expected."

Sayaka nodded her head, "Considering his life it isn't that big of a surprise, honestly we could have been pure evil and chances are he would have accepted our offer, he's so easy to manipulate."

"It's mostly likely that's what the Hokage desired, Naruto's still a small child and can be easily influenced, let the world seem against him and appear as the small light Naruto can cling to."

"He really doesn't compare to the master, I feel I'm dishonoring him just by mentioning the two in the same sentence, much less comparing the two."

"True, there really isn't a comparison between them."

"Mostly likely Naruto will still have questions about the realm and the other gods, eventually we are going to have to tell him about his parents, especially about his mother being your former jailor and the threat he may face in the future with that masked man."

"We still don't if he's still alive, perhaps the Yondaime did something useful once in his life and killed him."

Sayaka snorted. "Considering your luck I doubt that, wounded yes, dead no. What should each of us teach him?"

"Hmm, we'll need the look over the knowledge I currently still have once more, training him in the use of chakra will be difficult."

"We could try to reverse engineer some of the other attacks perhaps we may achieve some sort of success."

"True, perhaps we could use some of the magic training from the other worlds and adapt it to use for chakra as well, the elemental training should be rather useful if done right, magic molding was damn awesome in its own way."

"Indeed, will you attempt to pierce the veil to find a world and learn jutsus from it?"

"A good idea, but that's still hit and miss, I'll need a lot more time to prepare for it."

"Then trying to see variations of the future?"

"Yes, that's our best bet it will take less time than to pierce the veil."

"I'm still worried about the chance of other gods awakening as well, it would set our plans back quite a lot, not taking into account if they would need to be dealt with in a permanent fashion."

"Ah, yes, with my incomplete memories, we still don't know who's left of the gods, at the very least the first born should be gone from this world, the threats remaining should be more manageable."

"Indeed, but perhaps you should claim a domain of the gods."

Yukimura gave her a puzzled look before his eyes widened. "I see, yes I suppose that could work, if push comes to shove I could transform myself into something similar to that god and claim his identity, it would attract less attention then that of a brand new god suddenly appearing or attracting the other's attention of a possible recent ascended being, and old one returning while still something would be far less interesting then a brand new power appearing on the scene."

"Exactly" she told him nodding her head, "the question remains who though, that god must be truly dead and he must not have any creatures that may yet recognize him."

"Hmm", he seemed thoughtful for a moment "Inari, could be a good choice"

She rolled her eyes before replying in a dry tone. "As a fox? How terribly original."

He shrugged. "Aas the Juubi I devoured that god not long before the meeting with the sage, I know for certain that no one knows about our battle and that no other creatures of Inari are left alive, perhaps I could add a bit to the domain once I claim it, that Inari absorbed the essence of other gods from the Juubi's rampage could help that claim, we could use the excuse that after absorbing the essence Inari had gone through a processes of great change that required hibernation."

"I suppose its better than nothing, the least attention the Kyuubi draws the better, but would you actually heed the people's calls when they came? Could you help their fields grow rich with rice?"

"That may be a bit more tricky true, but hmm," he smiled, "creating fox summons and having Naruto sign the fox contract would be hilarious in many ways."

"Creating more life and ones that could give you away? I think not."

"Uh, it's just an idea."

"Not a well thought out one."

"Well, the second one would if we played our cards right would bring the kid some extra money."

"Oh?" She asked in a curious tone. "Do tell."

"Simple, we have him publish some books from the other worlds, I remember reading quite a few of them, we'll have to edit some of them a bit but it could help to build him a nice large nest egg."

Sayaka looked wide eyed at him. "That's, that's actually a very good idea."

"Damn straight, I could try to use the small opening we have and go find a publisher myself and get the ball rolling but all things considered especially considering the state of the opening I believe it would be best that we wait a bit more."

"Indeed, did you discover anything about the dark taint that his core posses?"

"No," he shook his head "I tried but it's tied to him at a fundamental level, we'll need to monitor the situation for the foreseeable future, the only theory I have is that something happened at the sealing with the Shinigami doing something to him."

"So it could be tied to the runes on the cage."

"Exactly, those runes aren't from this continent originally, how the Yondaime got them and was able to use them is a mystery that needs solving."

"So the possibility of a god having awakened and interfering with the sealing grows, to have the Kyuubi on the leash would be a tempting prize, worth trying to fight the Shinigami over."

"True, but then that raises its own questions, like why only seal half of the Kyuubi? Why not try to have that god aid in the battle and since he already interfered why not seal the whole Kyuubi, then the Yondaime could live to tell the tale. Even after looking through the kid's memories I haven't found someone that looks even remotely tied to the supernatural."

"Half of the Kyuubi is better then none of it, and not making it's presence know just yet, staying in the shadows could be more important to that player, not to mention that having the Yondaime as a loyal warrior would be a boon to any god."

"So would the Yondaime slowly spreading that god's religion in Konoha, building a good strong base to help gain control over this continent."

"Indeed, just questions and theories for now with few answers, so then the usual spar?"

"After you my lady."

"Still such a gentlemen."

When Naruto first awoke he kept his eyes closed, the dream last night had been so good he wanted to remember it a bit more, he was the jinjuriki of the Kyuubi, who had become a god again and created the nice lady, and had been human at one point, they had been kind to him and offered to train him, they even took him sledding. As Naruto stirred in his head, he stopped when he noticed his bed seemed unusually soft, the usual smell of his room wasn't present either, he was too afraid to open his eyes, he simply moved around in his bed, it did feel a lot softer then his, he usually slept on the floor.

Naruto gritted his teeth and slowly opened his eyes, only to remain mouth open at the sight in front of him, it was the same room from his dream, it wasn't a dream!, everything had been real he realized. Now Naruto was ecstatic, he through the blanket's of himself, and saw that he was wearing the pajamas the nice lady had helped him change into last night, a beige shirt with three buttons near his neck and black pajama pants.

He spotted the chair that Sayaka sat upon yesterday a bit farther away with some cloths on it, a pair of dark blue short pants and a red T-shirt with a spiral design on it and a pair of simple black slippers under the chair. They must have left the clothes for me to wear. He heard a small knock on the door, "Yes?" He asked in a quiet tone of voice.

Sayaka entered the room dressed in a beige kimono with flower patterns on it. "It's good that you are awake, we can have breakfast now."

"You're actually real." He told her in an awed tone.

"Of course, did you think it was all just a dream?"

Naruto nodded.

Sayaka slowly made her way towards him and kneeled down and hugged him tightly. "We are very real Naruto-kun, never doubt that, alright?"

"Hai" he answered her teary eyed, no one had shown him so much affection before.

"Now I left some clothes for you yesterday after I tucked you in, you can wear them or choose some of your own from the wardrobe."

"I have my own clothes?"

"Yes, we didn't know exactly what would fit your taste so we created quite a few clothes." Sayaka led Naruto to the wardrobe and opened it up, once he saw what was inside Naruto's jaw all but hit the floor, there were dozens of cloths, shirts, T-shirts, pants, short pants, sweaters all of different colors, red, blue, orange, light green, even some pink ones, and all with models on them, he hadn't seen so many cloths even at the orphanage.

"You can wear whatever you want Naruto-kun, after you change please join us for breakfast." And with that Sayaka left the room.

Naruto after looking through them all he decided to wear what Sayaka had left on the chair yesterday. Once dressed he made his way towards the door, hesitating in opening it for a moment, he remembered how it had led to a mountain yesterday, he took a large breath and then opened the door. To his joy it lead into a hallway were the light was a dimmed blue, he could see a few other closed doors, the floor was made of hardwood, the walls were of a beige color, the ceiling looked to have small crystals upon them in a few places that emitted the light.

He stepped out in the hallway and made his ways to the right where he could see a golden light coming from an opened door and could hear noises. Once he stepped inside the kitchen he saw Yukimura, who was wearing dark pants, a dark shirt with the shoulder a beige color, the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and Sayaka sitting at a large table with various jars on it eating pancakes, the orphanage caretakers had rarely made such food and even more rarely had he ever eaten something like that, even more rare was the fact that they had fruit juice, something he had only seen others drink.

"Have a seat and eat Naruto, we weren't certain if you had eaten something like this before."

"Only twice, they actually gave me one a long time ago and I managed to get one that the caretakers wanted to throw away because it wasn't as good as the others."

A frown graced both Yukimura and Sayaka's faces. "Well that isn't the case here Naruto-kun so eat up."

"Hai", he quickly began eating with great gusto trying the contents of various jars. The taste seemed incredible to him, each jar brought an explosion of taste with it. "Ano what are in these?" He asked pointing at the different jars.

"Well, some have apple jam, strawberry and plum jam, honey, chocolate and even some apricot jam."

"What's jam?"

"Ugh… that's wow, let's skip over that for the moment."

"Ano, why am I not that hungry it feels weird, I'm usually a lot more hungry."

"Well again you don't need to eat while here but seeing as how you will need to return one day it's best we encourage your desire to eat to ensure you stick with the behavior."

"Why don't I need to eat while here?"

"Because you aren't here with your physical body that needs the nourishment, the soul can survive just fine without it, but some gods prefer to have food in their afterlife, it depends on what afterlife a person ends up in."

"Afterlife?"

"Remember how I told you that some gods need mortal to worship them to gain power?"

"Yes."

"Well, some of those gods also have afterlives where mortals souls that worshiped them end up in, some places have food there, though once a soul leaves the body it doesn't actually need to eat food. For example the goddess Kalahira had the Golden Planes, a good description for that place is best summoned up in prayer for her, guide this one to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves, the hungry never starve."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It wasn't, sadly she and the rest of her fellow pantheon gods were killed during the wars of the gods."

"The wars of the gods?" Naruto asked pouring himself some juice.

"Yes, once the gods discovered that bit about mortals giving them more power they began to fight each other, some chose direct battle with each other, while in time realizing that a direct battle would leave the winner exposed and vulnerable to an attack by others the gods, they began to create various creatures and use mortals as their own play things to fight their battles, only striking at the other gods when they were sufficiently weakened. Though getting there required a few wars, in which many people died and the landscape changed greatly."

"That sounds mean, using people like that for power."

"It is what it is, and in hindsight it was better than a direct battle between gods as those were far more brutal and destructive. I think the Juubi came into existence during one of those god wars, though the memories are still incomplete and foggy in some cases."

"The Juubi killed a lot of gods?"

"Yes, gods, demigods, ascended beings, spirits, demons, they all fell before the Juubi."

"Demons exist? Wait, spirits exist as well? And what about the other things?"

"Right, well, um where to start."

"Allow me" Sayaka told Yukimura "Naruto-kun listen, at the top of hierarchy are the second born gods, the first born gods should all be gone from this world, the second born gods are split between the major and minor gods, they are followed by the ascendant beings, who are either creatures or mortals who have gained enough power to stand close to the gods, in some cases even manage to fight against them on even grounds and put fear into their hearts, generally speaking Ascension occurs after a person has found and absorbed the essence left behind by other gods and creatures made by the gods and took it into themselves, or there were also cases where they experienced an amount of power from a gods realm and absorbed it. Another explanation would be that an ascendant being is anybody who cannot die from natural causes, old age, and sickness, they can be killed by other means and have access to magic. Though some ascendants are weaker then demigods some are stronger as well and it is why they are ranked higher."

"Demigods are a divine or supernatural being, they were more of an experiment by the second gods. The term has been used in various ways at different times and can refer to a figure who has attained divine status after death, usually they are granted this power by a god, some minor deities are closer in power to demigods rather than gods, there is also the case of a mortal who is the offspring of a god and a human. To our knowledge all the demigods should be dead." Sayaka paused for a moment to clear her throat and let Naruto absorb what she had just told him.

"Demons were created by one of the first born gods when the second born gods began to gain more power and followers, it was a way to curtail their growing arrogance. Sacrificing himself that god gave the demons the potential to reach the power of the second born gods, all of the demons have a bit of that gods essence and thus a path to power is open to them, but gaining access to that power is difficult. The strongest of the demons were the demon lords, they were the ones that would lead the other demons to war, the strongest of the demon lords was Urgash, he was the only one to become the ruler of all demons, he created a realm for the demons, similar to how the gods have a realm of their own, and had actually managed to permanently kill a god of war who foolhardily challenged him to a battle. After that act the demon wars began where the gods and their pawns waged war with the demon to exterminate them, most of the demons and the strongest of their kind died in the last demon war, what little remained behind were hunted down by human hunter groups dedicated to exterminating them, very few should be left behind, if any at all, mostly likely what remains are scattered and hidden in various parts of the world slowly rotting away, some likely either sleeping or sealed away."

"Sleeping?"

"Yes the last war of the gods forced many beings into a deep slumber to recover, others hid themselves away out of fear of that cataclysmic war."

"Was it that bad?"

"Yes, it was the last war of the gods that ended the age of the gods, exactly what happened is still a mystery to us, but after it the Juubi was the only true power left behind, and it too was eventually defeated by Rikudo Sennin."

"So why didn't the others come out then?"

"Like I said before Naruto-kun, the few gods that remained were wounded and needed time to lick their wounds, some likely needed time to reform. While the other beings couldn't awaken so soon after entering their slumber, a few creatures did attempt to take advantage of the situation, but when you have someone like Rikudo Sennin who defeated the Juubi, those attempts are destined to failure, that time period also saw the appearance and rise of the shinobi, add the new biju running around and the creatures soon found themselves out matched. Demons are a bit more difficult to classify as some are so weak that a lowly untrained human can kill them while others need far power to be killed."

"Like Urgash!"

"Exactly Naruto-kun. The second born gods usually looked down on the demons, who to gain more power must draw it out from inside themselves, and can not absorb the essence of the other gods, they can however make it into weapons to use it against the gods, and can use some of the artifacts the gods create, a few managed to corrupt them, the demons gain much less power from mortal worshippers when compared to the gods, more like small drops compared to a full glass that the gods gain."

"Now another class would be the spirits, this is also quite a diverse group as a few are man made, while others were created by the gods."

"Why would they create them?"

"Some created to serve them others to terrorize humans and have the humans turn to them for protection from such things. Manipulation was a common thing for the gods hence why I said they are assholes. Though spirits come in different shapes and forms, some good, some evil, one example is that of a river spirit that protects its specific river. While they may have the power to stand against some demons none can actually fight against the gods and hope to win. The last class would be that of the creatures, heralds and servants of the gods, like I said before some gods created creatures to serve them and fight for them, likewise they vary greatly in power, though very few ever reach the power of a demigod, heralds are chosen mortals by the gods who receive some power from a god in some form or another. Some gods preferred to change the mortals that worshipped them after death into creatures then quickly send them into battle, they have some of their worshippers trained to become warriors for them once they die."

"A special case here are the avatars, they are arguably the largest summons to date, with nearly all the titans matching the biju in height and can match or in some cases out match a tailed beast in strength. Because of their immense size, avatars are highly resilient to nearly all physical attacks. The avatars may be slow and heavy, but their massive strength is capable of destroying hordes of shinobi within seconds. They are not very physically beautiful in any way, but vanity and other worldly qualms do not concern them. The avatars were created ages ago during the war of the gods, and were their trump cards, they required the gods to gave up a large part of their power while creating them, unlike other creatures the avatars had little will and mind of their own, they were created for war and didn't need much of that anyway. Again thankfully all of them should be dead, their own power made them reach somewhere around demigod power, exceeding it even a few times. The problem was that they weren't very smart and did have their own glaring weaknesses, tales of heroes slaying such beasts still exist around the world, mortals do not know the truth about why does battles were fought anymore believing that the heroes fought to defeat the creatures to save them when in truth they simply fought because their gods waged war with each other."

He rubbed his head."It all sounds so…"

"Messed up?" Yukimura supplied smiling.

"Yes!"

Sayaka nodded her head. "It is, it's all a giant cluster fuck."

"Uh shouldn't you watch your language" Yukimura asked only to receive a small smack on the head. "Owww, why?"

"You should have stopped me from saying it."

Yukimura rubbed his head. "Ugh, you would have hit me even then."

"Never the less."

"What does fuck mean?" Naruto asked with a confused look on his face.

"It's a bad word Naruto-kun and Yukimura will explain it more later."

"Um, yeah, sure I will."

"In any case, we believe that the problem began when the world was still young and the energy that created the world was still present in some quantity, we believe that it was this that gave humans the power to create the second born gods and other creatures, in time that energy seems to have disappeared and that's the reason why humans haven't been able to create other gods recently."

"Honestly I think sometimes that the Juubi was the great equalizer, it didn't create alliances, it didn't care about what the god's domain was, or if it was a spirit, a demigod or demon, the Juubi devoured them all, perhaps it appeared to help end the conflict of the gods."

"So it was a good creature?"

"More like a force of nature, it didn't care about good or evil, it just was, with one move it destroyed mountains and created fields in their place while with another it destroyed cities leaving only ruins."

"Well let's just finish eating, so we can get your training started."

After Naruto had finished eating Sayaka had shown him where the bathroom was so he could wash up and afterwards the three made their way out of the house, when he exited the house Naruto could see a small garden, the road leading to the front door was paved and had three trees on each side who's branches seemed to unite above the peoples heads to provide shadows, he could fell a soft gentle breeze caress his face.

A small bench could be found on the right side with a large tree behind it providing cover from the sun; it was a bit farther from the trees with a path leading to it. Around all kinds of flowers could be found, it looked as if every color was present there, they were artfully arranged and complemented each other to create an ocean of color, Naruto simply stared at how beautiful everything was.

Sayaka placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and he looked at her away from the flowers, she gently ruffled his hair.

"If you want we can teach you how to garden as well"

Naruto gave her a small head nod and took her hand as they started to move forward, as they walked down the path that led away from the house he could saw that they were soon walking through a forest, soon enough the three were in a large green clearing with a few trees and a lake nearby; their large house could still be seen in the distance. Yukimura turned to him and asked. "Well then ready to begin Naruto?"

"Yes!"

Yukimura and Sayaka gave him a warm smile. "Good, now then first thing's first, we need to go over what we will train in respectively, the list is rather large."

"It is?"

"Yes, like we said before, you will unfortunately have to become a shinobi and that will some extra training and skills."

"Aren't shinobi heroes?" He asked curiously, the old man with the funny hat had always told him and the other orphans that shinobi were heroes.

"Hardly, they may have started that way, but have long since fallen from grace reduced to lowly hired mercenaries, doing whatever they can for money. From what I remember of Rikudo Sennin, the mortal had desired that teaching people about chakra would lead to peace and stability, it would give people the power to fight against demons and spirits without needing to bend the knee to other creatures. Unfortunately somewhere along the way they fell from grace, and started fighting amongst themselves, spilling their own blood, perhaps it was the fact that they only had each other to fight against as the other creatures went into hiding or were exterminated by them or perhaps it was simple human nature."

"True heroism Naruto, is a very different thing, first, it's performed in service to others in need, whether that's a person, group, or community or in defense of certain ideals. Second, it's engaged in voluntarily, even in military contexts, as heroism remains an act that goes beyond something required by military duty. Third, a heroic act is one performed with recognition of possible risks and costs, be they to one's physical health or personal reputation, in which the actor is willing to accept anticipated sacrifice. Finally, it is performed without external gain anticipated at the time of the act. Shinobi perform mission for money, be they to hunt down bandits, to guard a certain group, assassinate someone, or deliver packages, at the end of the line they know that they will get paid, a mission shouldn't be about money it should be about leaving some good behind."

"Shinobi call themselves heroes and heroes have standards, those standards call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield, when in truth they bathe in the darkness they call evil. Such illusions, perpetrated by so called heroes throughout history, have led countless young men and women to their bloody deaths, all for the sake of this valor and glory. The people call the Yondaime Hokage a hero for what he did in the war, but he is a war hero not a true hero in my opinion, what did he do? He killed hundreds with his technique, hundreds of parents lost their children, hundreds of children cried for their parents to return, only to fall on death ears.

The only consolation is that those people would have killed other people creating their own casualties, it was good that he killed them because our side did not lose any people and the enemie's lost many, the shinobi believed. Understand this Naruto unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other people, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are the people who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, people always privately want to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes." Yukimura shook his head.

"Conviction is what drives a true hero, conviction, in my opinion, is true power. Conviction means a strong persuasion or belief; with that any hero has the strength to do what they do everyday. When everyone else is ready to fold conviction is what helps them beat the odds. This was proven time and time again as they went against this forced evolution. The people of Konoha may claim that their shinobi have to will of fire burning brightly in them, but my question is if they truly do or is it just the indoctrination that they are submitted to as young children? People call the kages heroes, ridiculous, heroes are made by the paths they choose and not the powers they are graced with. My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight."

"So what should I do if I become a shinobi? If I don't have another path to walk on?"

"If you don't have another path to walk on then you create one Naruto-kun, if it doesn't exist yet then make it yourself, do not follow the same path others have walked so many times, leave the beaten and old path behind you and walk forward on a different path one made by you."

"Can I actually do that?"

"Of course you can Naruto-kun."

"Never doubt yourself, once you put your mind to something you have no idea of what you can achieve. Two of the most important things that we will train are your mind and will Naruto, your will is also be tied to your conviction, once we're done with you'll have a keen mind and an iron will."

With a swift movement of his hand Yukimura made several tree stumps appear from the ground with several board sets upon each of the tree stumps. "Each of these boards has a game that we will play Naruto, Shogi, Chu Shogi, Makruk, Xiangqi, Boku and Reversi, all excellent games to help develop your mind, it will be your deadliest weapon. Remember this Naruto direct action is not always the best way. It is a far greater victory to make another see through your eyes than to close theirs forever."

"An iron will means to be resolute and sometime even stubborn and obstinate Naruto-kun, it will help you persevere in the face of adversity, this way when you encounter life's hardships and even should it rain fire down upon you will be able to move forward and not brake when others fall to pieces, you will grit your teeth and keep going just a bit more to accomplish your goal, because in the end that's how winning is done."

"Can I really be like that?"

"You are no more powerful than you make yourself Naruto. If you see yourself as having a weakness, you are simply increasing the problem. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Standing in combat against another with the confidence begat of one who is convinced of their immortality is in itself a fierce weapon. How might a man stand against a god? What mortal cannot be unnerved by the snarling power of an immortal? Do not underestimate the power of your attitude or sell yourself short. Never allow yourself to be pushed, let there be no doubt in your enemy's mind that they are up against a superior force and that they will be defeated. The greatest of training can falter when your opponent fears you. Make them fear you Naruto."

Naruto nodded his head.

"One thing that will be vital to your survival will be your ability to deceive and lie to people."

"You want me to lie to people? Why?"

"A shinobi will have to deal with lies and deceit in his life Naruto, and if you slip and let people know about me what do you think will happen?"

"They'd hurt me?" He asked in a frightened tone.

"Yes, more so than before, you must keep my and Sayaka's existence a secret Naruto, and that will require learning how to deceive and lie to people. If you get too strong too fast that will also attract people's attention so you will need to hide your abilities for a time."

"How long?"

"Mostly likely you will only be able to reveal bits and pieces and only use everything you have when you are certain no one else is nearby."

"The thing we can train you right away is ambidexterity, it means being able to use both hands equally as well, people are usually right or left handed, one hand is dominant, and if you injure it you would in trouble and have difficulties using the other arm, so we will teach you will to use both equally as well."

"That sounds cool."

"Add a bit of speech to better haggle with merchants, some diplomacy and teaching you to be more persuasive, how to have keen eye, how to sneak, have a muffled movement, pickpocket, and how to properly lock pick."

Sayaka rolled her eyes. "You still enjoy that a bit too much."

"It's nice, and there's a pleasure in sneaking in a place picking the locks and robbing it blind."

Naruto sratched his head. "You want me to steal from people?"

"Shinobi will be required to do so Naruto, and it will be more about testing yourself, think of it as helping people test their security measures."

He nodded. "I guess that doesn't sound too bad."

"Add learning how to meditate, lead people and gain political pull." Noticing Naruto's look he continued. "In the future you will sadly need to learn how to gain political pull to help make your life a bit easier."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"You shouldn't need to do so in the first place," Yukimura told Naruto in a depressed tone, before letting out a sigh "personally I've always liked alchemy and herbalism, with magic present in this world it will be more interesting to use it. Alchemy is the art of brewing potions and poisons by combining ingredients with matching effects. Initially, you don't know the effects of ingredients and must discover them by eating ingredients, reading recipes, or brewing them into potions. Herbalism is use of plants for medicinal purposes, and the study of such use. Plants have been the basis for medical treatments through much of human history."

Sayaka stepped up next Naruto. "There are skills on how to fight while blind, governing estates, blacksmithing, logistics to help with path finding and urban tracking, my own preference are tactics and the art of war though."

"What's that?"

"The art of war which is the art of winning conflict is to have a state of perpetual surprise. To be invisible through secrecy which makes you impervious to attack. To rig the board for your victory through careful planning which ensures constant victory. To never be predictable or measurably by your enemies through deception which makes you more an idea, a phantom, an unstoppable force than just a man. Those who studied the art of war know that the size of an army is only part of how a battle is won. Other elements, like weather, and land, play a major part of it, allowing even a smaller army to defeat one that is much larger than their own. Many however still often believe that it all comes down to who can mass a larger army faster, a false belief, the shinobi started as much smaller in number and only later grew in size, however even now they are much smaller in size then the regular army. Terrain, where you fight usually determines if you die or not thus picking a battlefield is as important as having soldiers. A great deal of elements can affect the terrain and play a big part in how they affect your troops."

"For example a forest can allow you to set up ambushes, you can hide your troops in them, use them as cover to protect your troops however they would make larger-units, such as siege weapons move slower. A narrow path or a cliff could be a path through a cliff, valley, a dense forest, bridges it would limit the passage way, and allow only a few units to engage one another at time, if can get the high ground while the enemy crosses through a narrow valley victory will almost certainly be yours. Uneven terrain, hills, rough landscape and swamps make the movement of the army much slower were as open fields and flat land allow units to move faster. Thus as you can see, certain army composition would work better on certain battlefields. Another thing to consider is the army size, speed and movement. A larger army tends to move slower than a small often this allows Guerilla-like hit-and-retreat tactic to be workable against large armies, especially on a favorable terrain."

"Such as forests?"

"Exactly Naruto-kun." She gave him a proud smile.

"But leadership attributes could help negate some of that, a commander could have units already prepared to deal with any attacks. Something that is vital to consider is the weather, rain, fog, sunshine, cloudy, all which have an effect on the field, and thus in battle. Consider attack an army when it is raining or there is fog, a fog would decrease visibility while the rain would do something similar but would also change the terrain making it muddy, and thus decrease the armies speed. Last would be the day and night cycle, hit them when they least expect it."

"While there are other skills we can teach you, some are more related to certain jobs, like that of carpenter, distiller, fur trapper, cotton planter , sugar planter and hunter."

"So if I learn all of these would I gain power?"

"No Naruto you would gain strength."

"How is that any different?"

"Strength is different than power. Power is ability to affect things but it can be used by you without being innately yours. Strength on the other hand is the discipline and cultivation of your own character and self. A sword is power but the speed and skill you use to take it from your enemy is strength. Strength is yours. A part of you. Strength of will, intelligence, and skill. Strength of character such as determination or diligence. A sword is a power. It must be picked up and set down to benefit you. The skill that you wield it with is a strength. It is you. Strength is personal potency and perfection. After you are totally destroyed your power is gone but your strength remains. Powers rise and fall but strength cannot be taken from you."

"Strength sounds much better."

"It is Naruto-kun."

"Well then, let's start with some games then shall we?"

Tea Country

The fire crackled as Hiroki Takahashi stirred it with an iron pike, picking up a log he placed it in the fireplace, the house had a nice choosy felling to it, the fire created shadows that danced on the walls of the room. Hiroki drank a bit of warm milk from his mug as he watched the fire, autumn had finally arrived and soon winter would follow. This had been a good year for the people, the harvest plentiful; the fields only needed a bit of more work before they would be ready for winter.

Hiroki's strong arms ached from the work he had done today but he didn't mind, it was good honest work, he looked over to his room, his wife Kuse and their children, little sweet Tobe and his son Fujiwara had gone to sleep early and he would join them in a short while, his thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the front door. He got up and picked a wooden club he had made with his father when bandits had been spotted roaming through the land years ago; many of his neighbors had done the same, even if they never had that kind of trouble he and the others kept one around.

Hiroki went to the door keeping the club behind him, it could be a neighbor but he would rather not risk it, he let a breath and opened the door. The sight was not what he expected, there in front of him were two men both wearing almost entirely white clothing, they were both wearing white haoris that stretched past their knees with a golden outline around the edges, a black sash around their waists, white gloves and black boots.

The two men each carried a bag on their right side and were carrying a thick white covered book in their hands. The first man was a blonde of average size, fair complexion, his hair was spiky in the back and he had two bangs framing his face and wore grey rimmed glasses, he was smiling. The second man was much taller then the blond man, he had tan skin, a military cut hairstyle and very small white eyes, he appeared to have some sort of block like grey boots that covered most of his legs, on his left shoulder was a metal shoulder guard, he wore a stoic expression.

"Good to meet you sir! The blond man began in a passionate tone. "We wanted to ask you if you've heard the good news?"

Hiroki looked at the two; he wasn't sure what to say. "Good news?"

"Oh yes, it is about the one true god who suffers for you dear sir!"

Hiroki scratched his head, he had heard about some gods but he had never heard about one that suffered for him. "Well I've never heard about him."

"That's alright sir; do you have a few moments to talk about him?"

"Well", Hiroki looked to the inside of his home.

"Oh, we don't need to enter your home sir!" The man looked offended at the suggestion. "Out here is perfectly fine all we ask are for a few moments of your time to talk about the one true god and his good book." The blond man handed Hiroki the thick white covered book.

Hiroki was still puzzled, they didn't appear to be thieves, and they were polite, passionate perhaps about their beliefs. "I guess I can spare a few moments." Hiroki stepped out of his home closing the door to it.

"That's all we ask my dear sir."

That night Hiroki would spend reading the thick white covered book given to him; soon he would become brother Hiroki, fully embracing his new religion and god.

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out a possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

Check out the poll on my page and the forum where the other polls are.

A.N. : I still think that I could cut more from this chapter, suggestions on what to scale down will be welcomed.

Old A.N :

- I don't think I did that great of a job describing the feeling of reaching a mountain top and the view from there.

- Everyone should go sledding when young, it's freaking awesome.

- The explanation about the gods and spirits is basically that its all a big cluster fuck, humans creating their own gods is an interesting idea that I liked, if you manage to read about the different pantheons from different cultures you can tell just what kind of messed up gods humans thought existed.

- The last bit of about heroism I actually got of the internet while searching for a more expanded definition of what heroism is and I personally agree with it.

- A lot of quotes from other people in this chapter.

- The part that sounds like that of a Sith is just that, I got it from a website long ago, sadly I don't remember the exact site, still that bit is from there, and its awesome.

- Got a few bits from the Laws of war in this chapter.

- Well the good news is that I already have 3 pages written out and another 2 sketched out for the next chapter that got cut from here, I was planning on having him wake up here but I decided against it in the end