Tower of God

"Why does it hurt to be in this world?"

He came into this world accidentally. Stumbling into a dark cavern with so much pain that it felt like he was being ripped apart at the seams. His travel was very clearly interrupted or diverted somehow.

"Ah, an irregular. Hopefully you don't die as quickly as the last one."

The Caretaker was a weird creature that he found when he stumbled upon an old stone door. A being with authority over the Tower, the unknown place he had found himself in, and he was the First Floor Guardian. The Caretaker has a special authority over the other Floor Guardians and it was his duty to test Irregulars like him to see if they were worthy of climbing.

As he climbed and he challenged the other Guardians, the tasks given to him would get harder and even life threatening. Or he could just take the tests made by the Rankers that did the tests in place of the Guardians.

He met quite a few of these Rankers that administered tests for the Regulars. But he was an 'irregular', a being who opened the doors of the Tower himself and because of that was not restricted by the Laws of the Tower that was agreed by the King and the Guardians. He was naturally stronger than everyone else because of this but his powers are fleeting and his existence seems to fade in and out of reality.

"You're an exotic guy, aren't you?"

There was one beautiful soul that he met while in the Floor of Tests. She was cocky much like Tayuya but he could feel the care in her gaze, even when she learned of his status as an Irregular. The stigma of what Enryu did to the Forty-Third Floor Guardian and that Irregulars were incredibly dangerous followed him like a plague. She wasn't like the others, though, and she didn't think of herself as the Creator's gift to the world. Too bad she had the responsibility forced on her by the King.

"I guess it can't be helped. You and I will climb this Tower together and I will protect you!"

A princess nominee whose destiny is to be on display for this Empire's King. A sad future without love or a family of her own. She stayed strong, however, and she never allowed herself to feel sorry for herself.

"This is the Hand of Arlen. It is the last surviving piece of a larger statue destroyed tens of thousands of years ago. It is said that Arlen was a very loved person."

She was. The inhabitants of this floor that do not climb care for this arm as if it is a tribute to a goddess. Some speak of a story silenced by the King and the Families. Hushed whispers of a woman who fought the King but lost her lover to suicide and her child to the tyrant.

"Your existence is… flawed. An Exis without their power."

"Leave my friend alone! Your breath stinks! Trash can!"

That… thing was a monster of an entire different category. I could not beat him without my divinity and because I had to focus on staying in the present let alone protecting her from him I could not fight him to my full potential.

"Your existence will be amusing. So will hers. I will meet you again, maybe at your full power… next time. We will see who was able to be made a God."

That was the first time I was able to truly see that I am not destined to travel the Tower yet; not with her. My time is not ready yet, I feel myself being pulled forward in time. A flow of a raging river that is Time telling me I have not reached my destination yet. It hurts to stay and it gets harder each year.

…

"Hey, Naruto? You okay?"

I don't want to leave yet. Don't make me leave her yet.

"Hey! Where's your body going?!"

Naruto shivered as his climbing companion kneeled at his side. He tried to grab his arm as it felt as if hundreds of needles stabbed into his arm and his bones shattered like glass. He couldn't grab the pained limb as it was disappearing inside the sleeve of his shirt and he ended up balling the sleeve into his fist.

"Naruto! Talk to me! Please!"

Naruto's eyes opened and he looked into the worried red eyes of the woman he's grown to love as a great friend. More, if only their destinies were to be different but he can't change that in this condition. His eyes caught her black hair swaying behind her while in a ponytail with a red cloth he gave her on the Floor of Tests. She has never parted with it ever since, calling it a sign of their friendship and their futures as High Rankers.

He smiled weakly and reached over to shakily grab her hand that was on his shoulder. "I will see you again, Yuri. I will be back and I hope… you are strong enough for that rematch."

Naruto's eyes drifted close and felt the world slipping away as Yuri panicked over him but eventually he lost all sight and hearing of her. He was in a world of eigengrau; nothing to show him existing anymore other than his consciousness. He doesn't know how long he lived there but the concept of time was not linear. He couldn't tell where he was being pulled.

"Please."

He opened eyes he never knew he closed and what he found is a young beautiful woman. She was hunched over on her knees and she shook with uncontrolled tears. Her brunette hair is a mess and matted down in certain places. Her luxurious clothes are dirty and ragged.

"Please. If there is a god listening, please save my baby."

Naruto slowly walked over and what he found both horrified and disgusted him. A bundle of a baby's remains. Rotting and deformed, whether from the beginning or not he does not know, but it made him queasy.

She must have noticed his approach because she gasped and looked up at him, her doe eyes staring with fear and hope. Her face is familiar. He feels like he may have seen it before but it escaped his attention enough to just be a subtle itch at the back of his head.

"Are you here to answer my prayers?"

Naruto was silent as he flexed his fingers. He could feel his original power gathering back into him. "I may be. What are you praying for?"

"Please, save my baby," the woman offered the bundle and Naruto forced himself to not react negatively. "I will trade my life for his if you need. Please."

Naruto looked at the infant and he could sense the lingering of a soul attached to the body. A soul that refuses to leave. A soul that has not experienced life.

"I can bring him back to life. Are you sure you are willing to give your life for his? There are no second chances."

The young woman nodded her head. "Anything for my baby."

Naruto smiled sadly at the woman and her devotion to her child even if he has long since died. She clung to the hope a god would answer her prayers. She is lucky he came along as he wasn't sure any of the Guardians would listen.

"As you wish, ma'am. Your life will be used to revitalize your son and his soul will be reborn." Naruto put his hand on the crying woman's forehead before it was enveloped in a white glow. "He will be marked with your sacrifice and he will experience you there with him. He won't know who it is or if it is you, but he will feel you with him. I hope there is solace in that."

"Thank you, my god," the woman weeped against her child even as her perfect skin shriveled. "Thank…you."

Naruto took the bundle into his arms as the woman faded to ash and dust, her soul no longer sustaining her body. His hand now pulsed with a light purple hue with the soul of the mother. He really should have gotten her name so he could remember the woman that sacrificed her life for her son.

He looked down at the decaying body of the infant and he frowned slightly. "I know you can hear me. Even if you will not remember me, even if you have dreams about this. Your mother loved you more than her life. Please do not think of yourself as abandoned or unwanted. Let the mark of your mother's soul remind you of that."

Naruto felt a disconnect from his body as he moved his hand to the nameless infant, moving back as if detaching from his body. But he could hear his own words echo like the inside of a vast and empty cave. "Let my Divine Mark show my blessings to you, so you may know of who watches over you and will protect you. I will search for you, I promise."

He only watched as the gray skin slowly turned peach with life and a small cry sounded in the clearing.

His vision swirled and he descended into a spiral. Darkness consumed the forest and the child and he was back to the eigengrau world.