so, do the various blessed choirs count as her demigod children spread all over for that true zeus impersonation?
POISON [NARUTO SI]
- Thread starter BrunofanofK
- Start date
- Worldbuilding Mature Fantasy
-
- Tags
- naruto self insert
Linked contents
- Status
- Location
- Brazil
Zeus name literally mean "Breath of Everything that is", his fecundity legendary for a reason. With Ambrosia Megumi breath life into elementals the same way Zeus impregnate rivers by swimming there. Good for you to spot that.
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- Location
- Brazil
How does one describe the unnamable? The secret of the final stigmata lies in God. Megumi needed to experience true Shinjutsu to achieve her final apotheosis and the Powers that Be, Fate, Heaven tried to use that chance to kill her. Fate is real in Naturo and if someone tries to hit it there make sense for there to be a counterblow.
The Reaper Death Seal is described the way I did because its existence is divine. It is something that can't be properly described. The Uzumaki clan created it through fuinjutsu, by capturing thr shadow cast by god in a symbol. Fate set Jiraiya as Megumi's executioner due to his mighty fate, this was a reference to his final fight against Pain and Kamikoshi fight with Ishikki. The thing is, with Goetia even those secrets can be puzzled out, so she prepared a counter-attack; she put her trust in Jiraiya, that he would be the man he was and allow her to seize his fate to her advantage.
Megumi had no means to defend against Shinjutsu until she experienced, even the Rikugan can't see through the Death God until he makes contact. That is the nature of God. Kurama though has not only survived it but has the Yin portion of his soul trapped there. This gave Kurama an opportunity, he simple had to sacrifice everything to seize it. As someone condemned to exist as a plot device in a prison, Megumi quickly grew to be a person worth such sacrifice.
Throughtout this series everything we saw was half of Kurama's power, in Naruto the Last Kurama full power split the planet apart. He used all of that power to kill a God. This is his middle finder to Fate. He used Baryon Mode to immolate the Death God from the inside and out while using his soul as a bridge to complete the final Stigmata.
This also means Naruto is no longer a Jinchuriki. He is free from the yoke fate had set for him.
This was his resolve as a brother and Megumi answered in kind. She isn't any god, she is Zeus, the King of Gods. That is because Zeus liberated his trapped siblings from the belly of his father and then started the Titanomachy with their support.
Zeus elder brother in especial is Hares, and Kurama's circumstances created a spiritual resonance between them. Kurama died for this victory and in the line between life and death he found his chthonic crown. He killed the last Death God, after all.
I will enter in more details about how Megumi's Karma Stigmata works latter. For now, it is best to imagine it as a form of Olympic Exaltation, for those familiar with Exalted. Zeus is the main shard that allow for these off-brand karmas to manifest, allowing compatible mortals to exalt as gods. The topic of reincarnation and possession is a endlessly complicated but the important is that instead of Otsutsuki body snatching it is more like being possessed by Olympian god's Holy Spirit.
It will certainly fuck less with your head than Indra did with Sasuke.
- Location
- California
They fought old man toad for the fate of the world. They knew that he would get the chance to use the reaper death seal and used that the chance to jail break kuramas other half and take his job. And other godly ascension stuff.
- Location
- Brazil
Thank you, I sometimes am too long winded. My nest story will have a limit of 3k per chapter. Brevity is the soul of wit, I have been improving a lot with this hobby.
Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Also pretty sure Kurama is now bound by the Demon code and thus can´t refuse a Rock off...fully expect Madara to roll up with an Electric Guitar now.
Really neat stuff, although I dunno how much I like her embodying Zeus...she was already plenty promiscuous with her first apotheosis. Adding emulating the Horny God that is Zeus on top? Lord Kurama help all the men and women of the world, the Super Senjuu has been unleashed.
Really neat stuff, although I dunno how much I like her embodying Zeus...she was already plenty promiscuous with her first apotheosis. Adding emulating the Horny God that is Zeus on top? Lord Kurama help all the men and women of the world, the Super Senjuu has been unleashed.
I don't think it stacks, I think it's more a case of she had the same characteristics, so she could ascend using Zeus mantle, not the other way around. Kind of like mantling works in Elder Scrolls.
You're a pretty good writer (although i personally dislike mysticism), but you really need a english proofreader or at least to put your text through a online spell checker that is more 'intelligent' than just autocorrect the first word in the algorithm based on levenshtein distance or some other trash-tier heuristic.
Lots of passages where the word chosen is obviously not the one the text required or wanted.
Here is a simple example among many:
Lots of passages where the word chosen is obviously not the one the text required or wanted.
Here is a simple example among many:
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- Location
- Brazil
I have been asking for a beta reader since chapter one. The position is open for anyone.
Please help me.
Unfortunately for you, there is nothing i value more than the ability to be lazy. Why i didn't move at all yesterday - get someone else. I'm sure there should a do-gooder reading this.
Karma--. You can kill me in your fic to release bad thoughts about this exchange. Get a expy about some guy that doesn't move even to save himself and just straight up murder them.
Karma--. You can kill me in your fic to release bad thoughts about this exchange. Get a expy about some guy that doesn't move even to save himself and just straight up murder them.
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Stigmata and you (Yin alinmented Gates)
- Location
- Brazil
Magnum Opus Stigmata
6th Gate – Gate of Life
Hinduism Chakra: Vishuddha [Purest] Chakra
Element: Aether
Sefirot: Da'at
Sense: Throat
Located on the spinal cord, just below the throat, aligned with the center of the collarbone. The Vishuddha chakra, meaning Purest. Its element is the Aether, referred to as Akasha.
It's a point of conversion of the previous Chakras, being known as the purification center, thus all five senses previously managed by the bellow chakras converge. In its most abstract form, it is associated with higher discrimination and is associated with creativity and self-expression.
It is believed that when Vishuddha is closed, a person undergoes decay and death. When it is open, negative experiences are transformed into wisdom and learning. The success and failure in one's life are said to depend upon the state of this chakra, whether it is polluted or clean. The feeling of guilty is given as the most prominent reason for this chakra to block the Prana moving upwards.
This chakra is where the elixir of immortality of the gods drip down from. Know in India as Sanskrit, sharing the same Indo-Aryan etymologic roots as Ambrosia.
Sometimes being referred in legend as Amrita or Soma, it alleged had the power to covers the naked and heals all who are sick: the blind man sees, the lame man steps forth. Capable of let those who seek find what they seek, let them receive the treasure, let him find what was lost before, let him push forward the man of truth. It is capable to grants speed and strength to warriors, excellent and righteous sons to those giving birth, spiritual power and knowledge to those who apply themselves to the study of mysteries.
It's what the gods of Olympus and Indian pantheon use to fight off the shadow of death itself and medium of countless forms of miracles. In addition, it is said that those that consumed it had their crimson blood turned into golden ichor, something toxic to humans yet capable of grand transformation, springing magical herbs when it touches the ground.
Due to these properties, its fundamental quintessence was judged akin to the Philosopher's Stone. The central Mystery of Alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment, heavenly bliss and chrysopoeia, the artificial creation of gold. It is Prima Material, the source of all earthly elements that first sprout from Primordial Chaos. That is also, why the Philosopher's Stone is considered a homonym to Alkahest, the universal solvent.
Ichor, the golden blood of the gods.
The third of the Four Noble Truths, that all suffering can be ended, bringing about true joy and liberation.
The Magnum Opus was the "Great Work" required to manifest this key wonder. In the more alchemical tradition, the process is ruled by the precept of the four humors, being created by the order of black, white, yellow, and red that it was governed by. But the Esoteric Hermetic alchemists tradition reject work on exoteric substances, instead directing their search for the philosopher's stone inward. The transmutation mediated by the stone is interpreted as a psychological, theological, philosophical, and aspirational process.
The Vishuddha Chakra also represent the Third of the Four Noble Truth – nirodha (cessation, ending, confinement): dukkha (suffering) can be ended or contained by the renouncement or letting go of this taṇhā (craving); the confinement of tanha releases the excessive bind of dukkha.
Nirodha, refers to a state of cessation of perception and feeling. It is the out-of-body experience where mental formation cease and the body in in a Flow state, where the practitioner performs activity fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and deriving joy and rapture in the process of the activity.
Alas, instead of find nirodha through confinement, Megumi found it through liberation: Catharsis. Literally meaning purification and cleansing, it is the purification and purgation of emotions through climax, in whatever form it may take. Artistic (Spirit) or Hunger (Eros). The inflation of the soul until it break the limits of the Logos and burst free. A Tragic Disposition, in real life men are sometimes too much addicted to pity or fear, sometimes too little; tragedy brings them back to a virtuous and happy mean. Affirming life at its peaks and in its abysses, the fullness of life and the violence of death, the world a mystic temple and hall of doom. The tragic contrast that everything has its opposite within itself, paradox and duality.
This Divine Madness is no sickness, no debility in life, but companion of life at its healthiest. It is the tumult which arrive from its innermost recesses when they mature and force their way to the surface. It is the madness inherent in the womb of the mother. This attends all moments of creation, and ushers in primal salvation and primal pain – and in both, the primal wildness of being. To the Hellenic people pain is sacrosanct, thus a sexual symbol is a holy one. The pain of the woman at childbirth sanctify all following pains of life thereafter!
What the last disciple of Dionysus called the Great Health and Carl Jung called the Treasure of Rebirth and Renewal. The treasure hard to obtain found during the travel to the Underworld of the Archetypal Hero's Journey. I descended into the chthonic deeps and laid eyes into its foundations. Guided by the divine inspiration, I traveled through the road one must go alone, no guides, no helpers, no markers, and risking to lose oneself in the hidden deeps of one's own mind.
All who travel into the abyss of death do die, a person cannot visit the same river twice. The triumphant hero that emerges experience an amazing transformation. It qualified as a form of rebirth, to reemerge from primordial chaos. A rebirth, as if one is their personal dying-and-rising god.
Meditation upon the Vishuddha Chakra bring about various epiphanies and occult powers: vision of the three periods, past, present and future; freedom from disease and old age; destruction of dangers; and the ability to move the three worlds.
The three worlds are physical and objective world, the psychological and cognizant subjective world and the world of concepts, abstractions and creation. The visage of every true god is the visage of the world, the world reveal itself through the god. Humans too, carry within an immeasurable world. The god-that-is-me. Therefore, humans are a holy trinity upon themselves, three gods in one godhead.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Zeus, Dionysus/Zagreus and Hades. What bring Dionysus the victory here is his validation to the concept of Metempsychosis, the first western theory of reincarnation through palingenesis.
According to this myth, the infant Dionysus is killed, torn apart, and consumed by the Titans. In retribution, Zeus strikes the Titans with a thunderbolt, turning them to ash. From these ashes, humanity is born, tainted by this sin of murder. In Orphic belief, this myth describes humanity as having a dual nature: body, inherited from the Titans, and a divine spark or soul, inherited from Dionysus. In order to achieve salvation from the Titanic, material existence, one had to be initiated into the Dionysian mysteries and undergo a ritual purification and reliving of the suffering and death of the god.
The uninitiated in Orphic cult, they believed, would be reincarnated indefinitely, as the well of rebirth would keep on turning. The newly dead who drank from the River Lethe would lose all memory of their past existence. The initiated were taught to seek instead the river of memory, Mnemosyne, thus securing the end of the transmigration of the soul. Orphics believed that they would, after death, spend eternity alongside Orpheus and other heroes.
Also, the fact Dionysus is the god of wine. The sweet nectar of the gods.
The Vishuddha chakra is the point where the balance of Ying and Yang essences flip, being decidedly more Ying. The fundamental revelation of the bodhisattva only remembered as the Sage of Six Paths is the Creation of all Things. It can be said to be the fundamental mystery of the Ninshu, and its study is the fundamental purpose of its cult; a virtuous human is the one that struggle with god, the search to comprehend it is a virtuous one.
The Ichor is a limited recreation of Creation of All Things. This bring about an incredible metamorphosis, Body Reformation. The Otsutsukification of the body with all following consequences together with limited ability to perform any kind of jutsu by burning through one's personal store of Ambrosia contained inside their bodies.
By using the Greek Gods' mysteries to perform said Body Reformation it becomes painted in their aesthetic. The visage of a God is the sight of a World that reveal itself through said God. This grant the bearer a divine gravitas that render their divinity undeniable.
It is less that they bear beauty to break all hearts and more like the pain ensued to get there make them real in a way that mortals can never dream of matching, therefore beautiful. Beautiful is the only word I can think to describe the experience involved at looking at myself. In a sense, beauty is synonymous to the gods' control over mortals. Virtue is performative excellence; the attribute was elevated to the realm of mystery, an appearance that induct catharsis.
Lesser Key Stigmata
7th Gate – Gate of Mystery
Hinduism Chakra: Ajna [Command] Chakra
Element: Qliphoth
Sefirot: Binah [Understanding] & Chokhmah [Wisdom]
Sense: Intuition (Third Eye)
The Ajna Chakra, the sixth primary chakra in the body according to Hindu tradition, that signifies the subconscious mind, the direct link to Brahman, which is comparable to the Theory of Form; affirmation of the existence of an ultimate reality, eternal and constant, unlike the temporary and changing perceived reality.
To open this Chakra is to one's Third Eye located in the brow, said to connect people to their intuition.
Gate of Mystery, called Gate of Healing by practitioners of the Extreme Lotus. Located in the brain's right hemisphere, it can regulate energies in the body, capable of re-energizing the body and enabling rapidly recover from exhaustion in a normal person. To the Uchiha, it is responsible to kneading the especial chakra created and emitted by the Crown Gate and the administration and manifestation of unique Mangekyo Sharingan supernatural abilities.
Keeping to the stabilized logic, the Gate of Mystery relates to the Binah and Chokmah sephirot's, the Understanding and Wisdom of God. The Ajna Chakra is described as a transparent lotus flower with two white petals, said to represent the gods Shiva and Shakti, the divine archetypes of the Father and Mother, respectively Zeus and Hera to the western civilization.
This Chakra is the recipient of the light of Keter represented by those two gods, flowing from the Gate of Coronation. This also evoke the more sacred aspect of both matrimony and creative power of each sex, it is the Primordial Chaos and Golden Order that give rise and shape to the world. Genesis and the Good News.
It is said that Qliphoth, the Husk of the Tree of Life was conceived by the very light of Keter at the beginning, the emanation of evil might be unsightly but it serves a purpose. The price of wholeness of spirit is imperfection, the husk is a catalyzer that gather and expel impurities, protecting holiness like a nutshell. Qliphoth exist severed from the light of the Tree of Life, in darkness. How can a person truly know oneself and see his own shadow? That which one is aware of has already been internalized and is no longer an unconscious factor.
Fortunately, humans have struggled with that same question since we first had a thought worth having. To this, they had passed down sacred formulas and panaceas perfected across the ages. Stories both fiction and more real than reality, capable of pulling apart the banality, uncertain and opaqueness of reality to reach a quintessential truth.
King Solomon is one of such stories. Regarded as the archetypal wise person, he fell in love with Wisdom (Chokhmah): "I loved her, and sought her out from my youth, I desired to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty." For impressing God with his virtue and wisdom, Solomon was gifted with a magical ring bearing a seal that not only protected him from demonic possession but also allowed him to subjugate and command them. The original legend describes the world as pandemonium, each person possesses one thousand demons to their left and one thousand to their rights, they inhabited the sea, earth, sky and the stars themselves. By using the ring, Solomon pin down one of these demons and interrogate them about their name, astrological location in the cosmos, activities, evil Root, genealogy, corresponding angel and then conscripted it in the construction of Solomon's Temple. That was the First Temple, where the Ark of Covenant was stored in the inner sanctum and David promise was to be fulfilled. Said demons cut the stones for it as the use of iron in its construction was forbidden.
Solomon did not fall from grace due to consorting with demons, but due to worshiping pagan gods and building altars to their grace inside the First Temple. The lesson from that story is that we all have inner demons as terrible as they are numerous, but by confronting them, we can brand and take ownership of them and directed them toward constructive goals. The part of us we live unaware of will be left free to dictate our destiny as fate. However, if tamed, what was a Demon, after all, if not to Man his bosom friend? That is the path of Wisdom.
Granting my Shadow shape using the 72 Demons of Goetia as template, it is well within the power of my Creation of All Things, even under the limitation of manifesting things that already exist in abstract sense. It is actually especially easy, as Qliphoth has an intrinsically link to substance and gross matter.
Megumi toke a page off The Games We Play, created by Ryuugi, which explored the idea that the Soul is a wave-particle, Sefirot is the wave aspect and Qliphoth is the particle aspect of the soul. The ten Sephirot's being seem as an element in the periodic tablet for the soul.
The second advantage of the Solomon's Lesser Key Stigmata, besides the powerful host of familiars, is that the network of these familiar exist in concert as Megumi's own personal First Temple inside her mindscape.
Qliphoth most basic function is a shell to protect the divine. There is no such as thing as a true self, humans are a house of spirits. The Temple of the God that lies within. This not only lay the groundwork for the final stigmata to the Gate of Coronation but also serve as a magical firewall against mental interference. The eyes are the window of the soul, after all. Anyone invading my mind will have a bad time.
That is Goetia, a colony of amalgamations. They are essential Ghost Liner: Boundary Record Belt. Entities made of a manifestation of Data engraved into history and remembered by one's soul, calling forth a phenomenon that was once recorded. They are more a book or software given a hardware than a soul given a living vessel to inhabit.
These Demons are like a giant dummy semi-autonomous brain, familiars of the most traditional sense, born from a cut off piece of its master soul. It actually really reminiscent of the BBEG from The Games We Play, the archangel Malkuth used the memories of the billions of souls used in his making to give power and sapience to his Qliphoth familiars.
The stigmata itself when manifested looks like red eyeliner makeup tribal tattoos of oriental inspiration, reminding me a bit of Indra's own red eye shadow. Yet it can be said to be a homage to Marduk, the king of gods of the first proper human civilization that bore a crown literally made of eyes. Megumi is literally lining her brain with eyes Bloodborne style.
To bearers of the Olympic Karma, this Stigmata give rise to a unique Mystic Eye in line with their respective Archetype.
Karma Stigmata
8th Gate – Gate of Coronation
Hinduism Chakra: Sahasrara [Thousand-petaled crown] Chakra
Element: Holy
Sefirot: Keter
Sense: Liberation
One's thoughts should be pure, one's forehead should display no harshness, one's ears should always turn to hear good, one's eyes should distance themselves from noticing evil, always looking at the good, one's nose should be free from the breath of anger, one's face should always shine, and his mouth should express nothing except good.
The First and upmost Gate of Coronation, called the Gate of Opening by practitioners of the Extreme Lotus, can be likened to a crown. The Sahasrara Chakra that relate directly with Keter, the most sublime and most hidden of all hidden things.
The Crown Chakra, Sahasrara [Thousand-petaled], the most sublime and hidden of mysteries. Highest spiritual center, pure consciousness, containing neither object nor subject. Where the sacred and subconscious and holy Anima/Animus that reside dormant inside every soul. In esoteric Buddhism, it is called the petal lotus of "Great Bliss" corresponding to the fourth state of Four Noble Truths.
The path of liberation.
At the time of death, someone who mastered it is said to be capable of directing his consciousness up the central channel and out of this wheel in order to be reborn in a Pure Land, where he can carry on his tantric practices, or transfer that consciousness into another body or a corpse, in order to extend life.
In the West, it has been noted by many that Sahasrara expresses a similar archetypal idea to that of Keter, in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, which rests at the head of the tree, and represents pure consciousness and union with God. Keter is so sublime, it is called in the Zohar "the most hidden of all hidden things", and is completely incomprehensible to man, being invisible and colorless.
What are the ten utterances? The first is supreme crown, blessed be His name and His people.
The first Sefirot is called the Crown, since a crown is worn above the head. The Crown therefore refers to things that are above the mind's abilities of comprehension. All of the other Sephirot are likened to the body which starts with the head and winds its way down into action. But the crown of a king lies above the head and connects the concept of "monarchy", which is abstract and intangible, with the tangible and concrete head of the king.
This first Sefirot represents the primal stirrings of intent in the Ein Soph (infinity), or the arousal of desire to come forth into the varied life of being. But in this sense, although it contains all the potential for content, it contains no content itself, and is therefore called 'Nothing', 'The Hidden Light', 'The air that cannot be grasped'. Being desire to bring the world into being, Keter is absolute compassion.
It is the nature of god to exist in mystery but if something can't be directly contemplated then one just has to resort to indirect means.
Men are not born tabula rasas. The same way all lifeform has anatomically compatible organs, so does the psyche (soul) is similarly shaped. We call these spiritual organs Archetypes, and just as an adequately functioning physical organs are essential to a health body, a health mind is reliant on the proper functioning of said Archetypes.
Archetypes cannot be directly observed, their existence are revealed by the arrangements they produce in consciousness. Mainly through the manifestation of symbolic imagery. It is only through the interpretation of the symbols manifested by the archetypes that one can gain an understanding of the archetypical pattern of the human mind.
God might exist in mystery, yet they are universally and irrevocably contained by the Divine Frame of these Archetypes. In every legend of every civilization of every people these same frames emerge again and again.
For good and ill, Divinity exists on rails.
Even if the Archetypes themselves are beyond keen, their divine shadows cast Symbols of Power that serve to convey a living, subjective meaning through indirect means.
The process of manifesting the Divine is performed by untangling this knot, and that is the function of the foremost Archetype, The Self.
The Self is the entirety of the Psyche, conscious, personal and collective unconscious elements. Rather than letting it remains submerge in darkness, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere 'being'.
And so, when the eight Stigmata are aligned in harmony in the Mandala Wheel of The Self, The Noble Eightfold Path is revealed.
This is Liberation.
The urge to become who one is.
6th Gate – Gate of Life
Hinduism Chakra: Vishuddha [Purest] Chakra
Element: Aether
Sefirot: Da'at
Sense: Throat
Located on the spinal cord, just below the throat, aligned with the center of the collarbone. The Vishuddha chakra, meaning Purest. Its element is the Aether, referred to as Akasha.
It's a point of conversion of the previous Chakras, being known as the purification center, thus all five senses previously managed by the bellow chakras converge. In its most abstract form, it is associated with higher discrimination and is associated with creativity and self-expression.
It is believed that when Vishuddha is closed, a person undergoes decay and death. When it is open, negative experiences are transformed into wisdom and learning. The success and failure in one's life are said to depend upon the state of this chakra, whether it is polluted or clean. The feeling of guilty is given as the most prominent reason for this chakra to block the Prana moving upwards.
This chakra is where the elixir of immortality of the gods drip down from. Know in India as Sanskrit, sharing the same Indo-Aryan etymologic roots as Ambrosia.
Sometimes being referred in legend as Amrita or Soma, it alleged had the power to covers the naked and heals all who are sick: the blind man sees, the lame man steps forth. Capable of let those who seek find what they seek, let them receive the treasure, let him find what was lost before, let him push forward the man of truth. It is capable to grants speed and strength to warriors, excellent and righteous sons to those giving birth, spiritual power and knowledge to those who apply themselves to the study of mysteries.
It's what the gods of Olympus and Indian pantheon use to fight off the shadow of death itself and medium of countless forms of miracles. In addition, it is said that those that consumed it had their crimson blood turned into golden ichor, something toxic to humans yet capable of grand transformation, springing magical herbs when it touches the ground.
Due to these properties, its fundamental quintessence was judged akin to the Philosopher's Stone. The central Mystery of Alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment, heavenly bliss and chrysopoeia, the artificial creation of gold. It is Prima Material, the source of all earthly elements that first sprout from Primordial Chaos. That is also, why the Philosopher's Stone is considered a homonym to Alkahest, the universal solvent.
Ichor, the golden blood of the gods.
The third of the Four Noble Truths, that all suffering can be ended, bringing about true joy and liberation.
The Magnum Opus was the "Great Work" required to manifest this key wonder. In the more alchemical tradition, the process is ruled by the precept of the four humors, being created by the order of black, white, yellow, and red that it was governed by. But the Esoteric Hermetic alchemists tradition reject work on exoteric substances, instead directing their search for the philosopher's stone inward. The transmutation mediated by the stone is interpreted as a psychological, theological, philosophical, and aspirational process.
The Vishuddha Chakra also represent the Third of the Four Noble Truth – nirodha (cessation, ending, confinement): dukkha (suffering) can be ended or contained by the renouncement or letting go of this taṇhā (craving); the confinement of tanha releases the excessive bind of dukkha.
Nirodha, refers to a state of cessation of perception and feeling. It is the out-of-body experience where mental formation cease and the body in in a Flow state, where the practitioner performs activity fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and deriving joy and rapture in the process of the activity.
Alas, instead of find nirodha through confinement, Megumi found it through liberation: Catharsis. Literally meaning purification and cleansing, it is the purification and purgation of emotions through climax, in whatever form it may take. Artistic (Spirit) or Hunger (Eros). The inflation of the soul until it break the limits of the Logos and burst free. A Tragic Disposition, in real life men are sometimes too much addicted to pity or fear, sometimes too little; tragedy brings them back to a virtuous and happy mean. Affirming life at its peaks and in its abysses, the fullness of life and the violence of death, the world a mystic temple and hall of doom. The tragic contrast that everything has its opposite within itself, paradox and duality.
This Divine Madness is no sickness, no debility in life, but companion of life at its healthiest. It is the tumult which arrive from its innermost recesses when they mature and force their way to the surface. It is the madness inherent in the womb of the mother. This attends all moments of creation, and ushers in primal salvation and primal pain – and in both, the primal wildness of being. To the Hellenic people pain is sacrosanct, thus a sexual symbol is a holy one. The pain of the woman at childbirth sanctify all following pains of life thereafter!
What the last disciple of Dionysus called the Great Health and Carl Jung called the Treasure of Rebirth and Renewal. The treasure hard to obtain found during the travel to the Underworld of the Archetypal Hero's Journey. I descended into the chthonic deeps and laid eyes into its foundations. Guided by the divine inspiration, I traveled through the road one must go alone, no guides, no helpers, no markers, and risking to lose oneself in the hidden deeps of one's own mind.
All who travel into the abyss of death do die, a person cannot visit the same river twice. The triumphant hero that emerges experience an amazing transformation. It qualified as a form of rebirth, to reemerge from primordial chaos. A rebirth, as if one is their personal dying-and-rising god.
Meditation upon the Vishuddha Chakra bring about various epiphanies and occult powers: vision of the three periods, past, present and future; freedom from disease and old age; destruction of dangers; and the ability to move the three worlds.
The three worlds are physical and objective world, the psychological and cognizant subjective world and the world of concepts, abstractions and creation. The visage of every true god is the visage of the world, the world reveal itself through the god. Humans too, carry within an immeasurable world. The god-that-is-me. Therefore, humans are a holy trinity upon themselves, three gods in one godhead.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Zeus, Dionysus/Zagreus and Hades. What bring Dionysus the victory here is his validation to the concept of Metempsychosis, the first western theory of reincarnation through palingenesis.
According to this myth, the infant Dionysus is killed, torn apart, and consumed by the Titans. In retribution, Zeus strikes the Titans with a thunderbolt, turning them to ash. From these ashes, humanity is born, tainted by this sin of murder. In Orphic belief, this myth describes humanity as having a dual nature: body, inherited from the Titans, and a divine spark or soul, inherited from Dionysus. In order to achieve salvation from the Titanic, material existence, one had to be initiated into the Dionysian mysteries and undergo a ritual purification and reliving of the suffering and death of the god.
The uninitiated in Orphic cult, they believed, would be reincarnated indefinitely, as the well of rebirth would keep on turning. The newly dead who drank from the River Lethe would lose all memory of their past existence. The initiated were taught to seek instead the river of memory, Mnemosyne, thus securing the end of the transmigration of the soul. Orphics believed that they would, after death, spend eternity alongside Orpheus and other heroes.
Also, the fact Dionysus is the god of wine. The sweet nectar of the gods.
The Vishuddha chakra is the point where the balance of Ying and Yang essences flip, being decidedly more Ying. The fundamental revelation of the bodhisattva only remembered as the Sage of Six Paths is the Creation of all Things. It can be said to be the fundamental mystery of the Ninshu, and its study is the fundamental purpose of its cult; a virtuous human is the one that struggle with god, the search to comprehend it is a virtuous one.
The Ichor is a limited recreation of Creation of All Things. This bring about an incredible metamorphosis, Body Reformation. The Otsutsukification of the body with all following consequences together with limited ability to perform any kind of jutsu by burning through one's personal store of Ambrosia contained inside their bodies.
By using the Greek Gods' mysteries to perform said Body Reformation it becomes painted in their aesthetic. The visage of a God is the sight of a World that reveal itself through said God. This grant the bearer a divine gravitas that render their divinity undeniable.
It is less that they bear beauty to break all hearts and more like the pain ensued to get there make them real in a way that mortals can never dream of matching, therefore beautiful. Beautiful is the only word I can think to describe the experience involved at looking at myself. In a sense, beauty is synonymous to the gods' control over mortals. Virtue is performative excellence; the attribute was elevated to the realm of mystery, an appearance that induct catharsis.
Lesser Key Stigmata
7th Gate – Gate of Mystery
Hinduism Chakra: Ajna [Command] Chakra
Element: Qliphoth
Sefirot: Binah [Understanding] & Chokhmah [Wisdom]
Sense: Intuition (Third Eye)
The Ajna Chakra, the sixth primary chakra in the body according to Hindu tradition, that signifies the subconscious mind, the direct link to Brahman, which is comparable to the Theory of Form; affirmation of the existence of an ultimate reality, eternal and constant, unlike the temporary and changing perceived reality.
To open this Chakra is to one's Third Eye located in the brow, said to connect people to their intuition.
Gate of Mystery, called Gate of Healing by practitioners of the Extreme Lotus. Located in the brain's right hemisphere, it can regulate energies in the body, capable of re-energizing the body and enabling rapidly recover from exhaustion in a normal person. To the Uchiha, it is responsible to kneading the especial chakra created and emitted by the Crown Gate and the administration and manifestation of unique Mangekyo Sharingan supernatural abilities.
Keeping to the stabilized logic, the Gate of Mystery relates to the Binah and Chokmah sephirot's, the Understanding and Wisdom of God. The Ajna Chakra is described as a transparent lotus flower with two white petals, said to represent the gods Shiva and Shakti, the divine archetypes of the Father and Mother, respectively Zeus and Hera to the western civilization.
This Chakra is the recipient of the light of Keter represented by those two gods, flowing from the Gate of Coronation. This also evoke the more sacred aspect of both matrimony and creative power of each sex, it is the Primordial Chaos and Golden Order that give rise and shape to the world. Genesis and the Good News.
It is said that Qliphoth, the Husk of the Tree of Life was conceived by the very light of Keter at the beginning, the emanation of evil might be unsightly but it serves a purpose. The price of wholeness of spirit is imperfection, the husk is a catalyzer that gather and expel impurities, protecting holiness like a nutshell. Qliphoth exist severed from the light of the Tree of Life, in darkness. How can a person truly know oneself and see his own shadow? That which one is aware of has already been internalized and is no longer an unconscious factor.
Fortunately, humans have struggled with that same question since we first had a thought worth having. To this, they had passed down sacred formulas and panaceas perfected across the ages. Stories both fiction and more real than reality, capable of pulling apart the banality, uncertain and opaqueness of reality to reach a quintessential truth.
King Solomon is one of such stories. Regarded as the archetypal wise person, he fell in love with Wisdom (Chokhmah): "I loved her, and sought her out from my youth, I desired to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty." For impressing God with his virtue and wisdom, Solomon was gifted with a magical ring bearing a seal that not only protected him from demonic possession but also allowed him to subjugate and command them. The original legend describes the world as pandemonium, each person possesses one thousand demons to their left and one thousand to their rights, they inhabited the sea, earth, sky and the stars themselves. By using the ring, Solomon pin down one of these demons and interrogate them about their name, astrological location in the cosmos, activities, evil Root, genealogy, corresponding angel and then conscripted it in the construction of Solomon's Temple. That was the First Temple, where the Ark of Covenant was stored in the inner sanctum and David promise was to be fulfilled. Said demons cut the stones for it as the use of iron in its construction was forbidden.
Solomon did not fall from grace due to consorting with demons, but due to worshiping pagan gods and building altars to their grace inside the First Temple. The lesson from that story is that we all have inner demons as terrible as they are numerous, but by confronting them, we can brand and take ownership of them and directed them toward constructive goals. The part of us we live unaware of will be left free to dictate our destiny as fate. However, if tamed, what was a Demon, after all, if not to Man his bosom friend? That is the path of Wisdom.
Granting my Shadow shape using the 72 Demons of Goetia as template, it is well within the power of my Creation of All Things, even under the limitation of manifesting things that already exist in abstract sense. It is actually especially easy, as Qliphoth has an intrinsically link to substance and gross matter.
Megumi toke a page off The Games We Play, created by Ryuugi, which explored the idea that the Soul is a wave-particle, Sefirot is the wave aspect and Qliphoth is the particle aspect of the soul. The ten Sephirot's being seem as an element in the periodic tablet for the soul.
The second advantage of the Solomon's Lesser Key Stigmata, besides the powerful host of familiars, is that the network of these familiar exist in concert as Megumi's own personal First Temple inside her mindscape.
Qliphoth most basic function is a shell to protect the divine. There is no such as thing as a true self, humans are a house of spirits. The Temple of the God that lies within. This not only lay the groundwork for the final stigmata to the Gate of Coronation but also serve as a magical firewall against mental interference. The eyes are the window of the soul, after all. Anyone invading my mind will have a bad time.
That is Goetia, a colony of amalgamations. They are essential Ghost Liner: Boundary Record Belt. Entities made of a manifestation of Data engraved into history and remembered by one's soul, calling forth a phenomenon that was once recorded. They are more a book or software given a hardware than a soul given a living vessel to inhabit.
These Demons are like a giant dummy semi-autonomous brain, familiars of the most traditional sense, born from a cut off piece of its master soul. It actually really reminiscent of the BBEG from The Games We Play, the archangel Malkuth used the memories of the billions of souls used in his making to give power and sapience to his Qliphoth familiars.
The stigmata itself when manifested looks like red eyeliner makeup tribal tattoos of oriental inspiration, reminding me a bit of Indra's own red eye shadow. Yet it can be said to be a homage to Marduk, the king of gods of the first proper human civilization that bore a crown literally made of eyes. Megumi is literally lining her brain with eyes Bloodborne style.
To bearers of the Olympic Karma, this Stigmata give rise to a unique Mystic Eye in line with their respective Archetype.
Karma Stigmata
8th Gate – Gate of Coronation
Hinduism Chakra: Sahasrara [Thousand-petaled crown] Chakra
Element: Holy
Sefirot: Keter
Sense: Liberation
One's thoughts should be pure, one's forehead should display no harshness, one's ears should always turn to hear good, one's eyes should distance themselves from noticing evil, always looking at the good, one's nose should be free from the breath of anger, one's face should always shine, and his mouth should express nothing except good.
The First and upmost Gate of Coronation, called the Gate of Opening by practitioners of the Extreme Lotus, can be likened to a crown. The Sahasrara Chakra that relate directly with Keter, the most sublime and most hidden of all hidden things.
The Crown Chakra, Sahasrara [Thousand-petaled], the most sublime and hidden of mysteries. Highest spiritual center, pure consciousness, containing neither object nor subject. Where the sacred and subconscious and holy Anima/Animus that reside dormant inside every soul. In esoteric Buddhism, it is called the petal lotus of "Great Bliss" corresponding to the fourth state of Four Noble Truths.
The path of liberation.
At the time of death, someone who mastered it is said to be capable of directing his consciousness up the central channel and out of this wheel in order to be reborn in a Pure Land, where he can carry on his tantric practices, or transfer that consciousness into another body or a corpse, in order to extend life.
In the West, it has been noted by many that Sahasrara expresses a similar archetypal idea to that of Keter, in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, which rests at the head of the tree, and represents pure consciousness and union with God. Keter is so sublime, it is called in the Zohar "the most hidden of all hidden things", and is completely incomprehensible to man, being invisible and colorless.
What are the ten utterances? The first is supreme crown, blessed be His name and His people.
The first Sefirot is called the Crown, since a crown is worn above the head. The Crown therefore refers to things that are above the mind's abilities of comprehension. All of the other Sephirot are likened to the body which starts with the head and winds its way down into action. But the crown of a king lies above the head and connects the concept of "monarchy", which is abstract and intangible, with the tangible and concrete head of the king.
This first Sefirot represents the primal stirrings of intent in the Ein Soph (infinity), or the arousal of desire to come forth into the varied life of being. But in this sense, although it contains all the potential for content, it contains no content itself, and is therefore called 'Nothing', 'The Hidden Light', 'The air that cannot be grasped'. Being desire to bring the world into being, Keter is absolute compassion.
It is the nature of god to exist in mystery but if something can't be directly contemplated then one just has to resort to indirect means.
Men are not born tabula rasas. The same way all lifeform has anatomically compatible organs, so does the psyche (soul) is similarly shaped. We call these spiritual organs Archetypes, and just as an adequately functioning physical organs are essential to a health body, a health mind is reliant on the proper functioning of said Archetypes.
Archetypes cannot be directly observed, their existence are revealed by the arrangements they produce in consciousness. Mainly through the manifestation of symbolic imagery. It is only through the interpretation of the symbols manifested by the archetypes that one can gain an understanding of the archetypical pattern of the human mind.
God might exist in mystery, yet they are universally and irrevocably contained by the Divine Frame of these Archetypes. In every legend of every civilization of every people these same frames emerge again and again.
For good and ill, Divinity exists on rails.
Even if the Archetypes themselves are beyond keen, their divine shadows cast Symbols of Power that serve to convey a living, subjective meaning through indirect means.
The process of manifesting the Divine is performed by untangling this knot, and that is the function of the foremost Archetype, The Self.
The Self is the entirety of the Psyche, conscious, personal and collective unconscious elements. Rather than letting it remains submerge in darkness, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere 'being'.
And so, when the eight Stigmata are aligned in harmony in the Mandala Wheel of The Self, The Noble Eightfold Path is revealed.
This is Liberation.
The urge to become who one is.
Holy Tyrant
- Location
- Brazil
A priori, that which is assumed to exist divorced from any previous condition that predate it.
Where does a person begins? Who came to be first, the egg or the chicken? Alpha or Omega?
Megumi or Zeus?
Or maybe further beyond still? In the Before. In Buddhist devas are not immortal. Their lives as devas began sometime in the past when they died and were reborn. They are said to live for very long but finite periods of time, ranging from thousands to (at least) billions of years. When they pass away, they are reborn as some other sort of being, perhaps a different type of deva, perhaps a human or something beyond comprehension. The Lamrim mentions that devas are often reborn into lower realms of suffering like the Narakas and Pretas because their existence consumes a lot of good karma, but they can also be reborn as humans and animals.
If Buddhism is right after all and there is no such a thing as a perpetual, eternal and true Self then does that mean life itself has no meaning or does this elevate validate its sacred nature of life, precisely because of its fleetness?
Does it even matter? Was it even our choice to begin with? Megumi might have chosen Zeus or Zeus may have been the one that choose Megumi yet, if pressed both have the same answer.
The moment they met that bashful smile that shined like the Daybreak and were backed in the Love that it emitted as easily as the Sun does sunlight, they were the ones chosen. From that moment, and forevermore, being the Sky that support that brilliant star up to the heavens was their conjoined purpose, so they reached together and toiled against the frames of the World that tried to strangle that light.
That is what fathers are for. To be a parent IS the closest mortals get to experience godhood. They simple decided to live up to said mantle.
Whether one's existence is horn or ivory hardly mattered in the face of such task. If it is required to assume the mantle of SKY FATHER to see one's son happiness then all Heavens and the Fates themselves will learn to shake at sight of this Father.
Be a mortal, god or otherwise, all will know the price to cross the Silver Bright Holy Tyrant of Usurped Heaven.
RAGING HEAVEN.
-//-
Victory is mine, and with it comes the responsibility for what follows. The snare Fate had set my way crumbled like sand around my godly might. This is the ruinous price for those who suffer defeat from the jaws of victory. The Divinity of the Shinigami was like a glass statue, perfect and pristine until the moment it was subjected to the slightest pressure.
Now it is just trash scattered across the floor.
Kurama and myself are not so brittle… we are gods that endure. Hades and Zeus are the spine of Olympus Mons that pierce from Hell to Heaven. And with this new standing comes the power to turn this Death Trap that was meant to be our tomb into the foundation for our new Regime.
Divine Power,
[Shinjutsu]
Authority.
Its name is superfluous compared to its content. Divinity labor within rails. The power of the Archetypes is manifested through twelve primary templates. While the Olympian gods have a fun dance of chairs game going among themselves, no god bear more than two Archetypes within their Divine Frame.
An absolute restriction that looks really paltry when one is confronted by the magnitude of these powers.
Jiraiya is dying right now. It is simple the way of the world. Those touched by Death are dammed to join its ranks. The old toads' effort is futile, even the me from one minute ago would be powerless to save him.
That is unfair, the Shinigami broke before the man himself did, yet he was still getting his undeserved payment.
This is the kind of unfairness I would never have to tolerate ever again.
For I am THE KING!
The King Archetype is primal and closest to the definitively godhood. The link between the human and the divine realm. It bears two main powers. ORDERING & BLESSING.
ORDERING invoke the King's nature as the central Archetype, the central place where the King oversees and rule the World. This isn't a hyperbole either, the boundaries of the Anima Mundi, the part of reality that is ordered and organized by the King. Outside it lies non-creation, chaos and the demonic.
The power to draw a line in the sand between the sacred and the profane.
The first task of the king is to know where the Kingdom begins and where it ends. It must be clearly defined… even if its boundaries happen to be an entire planet. A lonely peddle drifting inside the cosmos. Is it too much to ask for just the world? Clearly not. Zeus was once the master of the entire Cosmos.
I take this world in hand, the raging power contained within the Manse that once threatened to overwhelm me now submits as it was proper. For that is my will. The power races throughout the dragon lines to the entire planet at the speed of light. The same way I once breathed life into air inside my lungs into elementals I now give this world the awareness to know its monarch. From the breeze to the drop of water and grain of sand, it is by Zeus that they name King.
This Right Order is the manifestation of the divine principles of the universe I have internalized inside myself. This is Justice, and as King, so am I. The Cosmic and Moral structure are the Left and Right Hands of Power.
The line between what is right and what is wrong.
This is a King's crown and a King's burden. The King embodies these very principles, then, now and forevermore in his own person, living them into his own life. If the King embody these principles successfully everything in his realm will also go according to the Right Order and the Kingdom will flourish.
Jiraiya's shallow breath suddenly rebounded as his battered heart find new strength within itself to keep going. The shadow of death is chased away. He is going to live and the old frog couple has enough enlightenment to understand it was my hand that saved him.
This is BLESSING. From the Right Order derives prosperity. The King and Kingdom are mirrors. If the King is health and righteous then his own Realm would follow in his nature. Fertile and Prosperous. This blessing mend both soul, body and mind.
By praising and affirming his Right Order in his deeds and praising those that walk the righteous path, the King affirm the virtue and good of its people. By acknowledging people in their true worth they feel healed and made whole. Filling the nameless emptiness all people feel inside themselves. One that can only be filled by blessing from the King Archetype.
Whatever the Death God toke from Jiraiya, he is getting it back.
This is Justice.
That is the easy part though.
"Your names were Pa and Ma, right?" I inquire the two sages once again. Their faces are laced with both relief and worry. For themselves, their charge and the world that just changed under their own feet.
"Time to hold court. I am the Great God Zeus, King of Olympus. I have terms to dictate, information to share and explanations to give. Due to the rocky circumstances I will have to impose in your hospitality until Jiraiya is conscious again. So, where do you want to go from here?"
The two toads looked at each other and then shared a solemn node, sharing the implicit understanding that their lives depend on their cooperation.
This is going to get old fast; I am start to under both the phase of my life as Touko/Aoko and Zeus's old proclivities for disguise a little bit better. I might be the King of Cosmos but I am also the God of Hospitality (Xenia). I even dismembered half of Hestia's Innocent Authority for myself due to hard rules on the number of seats I am working with inside Olympus. Having people act as if hosting me is some kind of deadly hurdle really piss me off.
I am so going to teach those stupid toads how a proper relation between guest and host owe to be! They better be thankful!
-//-
"Eat up! I pulled out all the stop." Lady Shima, from the Two Great Sage Toads, proclaims proudly, in the way only a true dedicated matron that labored for decades to master her craft could… her best certainly look the part as well. An exquisite yet elegant full course meals comprised of the most colorful and exotic diversity of insects I have ever seen in my entire life. Every single one prepared with refinement and presented with panache that made my own culinary skill seem paltry.
I hope it taste like sea food… please, let it taste like sea food!
The third time owe to be the charm, right?
Right?
I look her way once again. Despite the rocky first meeting and overhaul tense situation, she is still so happy Jiraiya not only survived but is in the mend that her eyes shine full of granny energy. Which is actually kind of cute and endearing for an old frog lady.
Turns out this meeting was a blessing. Animal clans live in keen awareness with nature, my coronation is the hottest news stirring policies around the animal clans and the Toads of Mount Myōboku are the foremost seers of the animal kingdom. This made the place the perfect rub for news and to control the panic and furor.
After I explain the situation around that Manse and divulge the bad news about the Demonic Statue of the Other Path it was a quickly wrap. Now elders from all animal kingdom are flocking the place to pay their respect to their new King. Who would have guessed everything you needed to get the trust of sentient animal society was taking measures so we wouldn't all die?
All in favor of not dying! That is my slogan.
The flood of blessings also helped smooth things over. The prospect of Land of Wind becoming a lush paradise one day by itself was enough to gather the eternal loyalty of all clans in that region.
Considering the seriousness of the treat of the return of the Ten Tails, most clans are bending the knee and pledge themselves to me. Something they actually kind of have to do, as this planet is my Kingdom for all legal and metaphysical purposes. My approval goes a long way and they want to have a good live where we don't all get killed by some primal monster of darkness.
That is how my stay here changed from a hostage situation to guess of honor, and how I got to know Lady Chima over the last days. I still kind broke almost every bone Jiraiya had with my single attack so the toads were reticent about me ministering his medical attention. His bad reputation with women screwing with him again.
She certainly has taken great care of me. In Xenia, intention is King.
I can't escape this.
Grannies, Zeus's greatest tribulation.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"That is right, Megumi-chan. A young woman should eat with gusto! I will make sure to prepare so desert too, just you wait! You will need the extra energy when meeting with those stuck up pricks all day."
This is not like Zootopia at all, Disney lied to me!
"Jiraiya-dono has awoken!" A yellow and orange frog with a batman mask screams to Lady Shima direction, completely oblivious to my presence until our eyes cross while bursting through the door. There was a god after all! Saved by the gong.
"And I presume that Elder Fukasaku just forgot to mention that to me until now, right?" My tone was casual but the young toad still froze up, concerned about involvement in his elder's policies.
I sighed, "I am not going to bite your head off, boy. You can only ever answer for your own actions. The Toads of Mount Myōboku offered me their hospitality so I am the guest here. This is still your home, act like it."
"You honor me beyond words, Lord Zeus! Please, follow me!" The boy bowed as far as he was able while jumping in joy at my compliment. Lady Shima just sighed in exasperation but followed behind me without complains.
That was a mouthful but necessary statement to stop the boy from collapsing like a pile of nerves. I have come to understand why Zeus liked to use disguises so frequently. As a fully realized, manifested and liberated god my true nature is self-evident. Chakra is the binding force of the Universe, even to the most rudimentary lifeform is sensible to its touch… and effects.
Aletheia. Greek word meaning something not occult, opaque, concealed or dissimulated. The Truth is self-evident to the eyes of the body and spirit; Truth is the manifestation of that which exist as it is, resonating through one's entire tripartite soul (Logos/Pathos/Eros).
There is a reason Lady Shima has gained so much face with me the last few days. Despite her unassuming appearance she still is one of this world's foremost mystics, and this shows. The fact she can see through the Omega Aura of the Silver Bright Holy Tyrant of Usurped Heaven and still witness the young Megumi in Alpha is a feat beyond most people.
Even when self-evident, Truth remains complicated, it seems.
I walk through the gorgeous sight of the land of toads at a sedated pace, as the cause of disruption I had no room to complain about the curiosity my presence stirred over the community. From young to old, small to gargantuan, all eyes turn to my direction as I cross the fields with as much dignity and grace as I could manage… I already said this before, but this is getting old fast.
For someone that tried to live as quietly and freely as possible this whole King of the World thing is more a hurdle. I have to put up with due to family reasons than personal interest. Though I doubt that I come out like that for most people. Between killing the Shinigami, taking ownership of the planet, freeing and recruiting the Tailed Beasts under my banner, subverting the Shinobi system with own bloodline, and finally, genocide the Otsutsuki people of the Moon for a crime I have no evidence of…
Is it any wonder I am putting the fear of God in people? Even the treat of the Ten Tails looks more like a flimsy excuse a power-hungry tyrant would use to seize and freely exert power. Especially when everything they can see is the lines of broken bodies of my previous rivals.
Is it ivory or is it horn? Cause might have started in Alpha but now only Omega can be seemed. To the Animal Clans my presence is implicit ultimatum, they can fall in line behind me or be struck down by thunder bolt out of the blue sky. The very World is my Kingdom, barring someone from using sage arts would be trivial. Their backs are already against the wall.
Even my show of clemency toward Monkey King Enma only solidified this view. As Sarutobi's oldest and truest companion he is intimately aware of the man's nature, so I can't help but approve of his proactive actions. At the same time, Son Goku is so livid by what he sees as betrayal that only my hand stayed a summary execution.
We hashed things out with prejudicious use of Ninshu augmented speech, and as the executioner of Orochimari, the greatest pox to Hiruzen's legacy, a common ground was established. Enma and me wanted the same thing for the old Hokage, so conciliation was well within reach… as long as he capitulated to my demands.
It certainly made me look the part of the magnanimous and august monarch. Truth itself was insubstantial compared to the ability to bend the mind of enemies until they became allies. What I proved was that one way or another, by crock or hook, Zeus always gets what he wants.
And so, they are watching me keenly, because they rightly guessed I intend to do the same to Jiraiya. Stent an olive branch to a former enemy… and see for themselves what happens if my, oh so kind offer happens to be rejected.
-//-
Soon enough we reach the private room Jiraiya is located, the man himself looked grim but energetic, despite the battered appearance. Good for him, moping really doesn't suit him at all.
The other toads are quickly to rush out, leaving me with the man himself and the Two Great Sage Toads in the room. Fukasaku look downright panicking internally, he probable intended to take his time talking with Jiraiya before I barged here. A schemer old geezer, this one, even if well intentioned.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Jiraiya, I would like to say I am sorry for ruining your great last standing, but we both know this would be a lie. While I am flattened you thought me the woman destined to spend eternity together with, I am at my core a flighty and free-spirited soul. Don't take me turning you down so badly that you have to die again, ok?"
Despite the tense situation, my ridiculous proclamation extracts a snort from the man. Typical of him, I suppose. Reducing a decisive battle for the fate of the world as a bad breakup, another romantic fiasco to his legendary tally.
We stare at each other in silence, until he caved. "What do you want from me, Megumi?"
"Straight to the point then, very well. Do you remember what I said to you about the Will of Ninjas? Despite admiring the Sage of Six Paths and his legacy, I have always held some contempt for the world that rejected and forsoke him… but that might have just been me. My own biases speaking due to the stress of circumstances beyond my control."
Jiraiya now look genuinely surprised at my frank admission. I have to give it to him, for someone parachuted into this mess out of nowhere, he is taking things in strides very well.
"A bit late for that, don't you think? You won. Everything. You are literally the King of the World."
"Yeah, it is. I am the King of the World… so now everything that follows is on my head. I don't really regret it… no, I feel remorseful that so many people needlessly lost their lives. But I can't and wouldn't take those choices away either. So, everything that is left is for me to take responsibility… and how."
That is when Fukasaku cuts in, excitedly. "Are you really going to spare Jiraiya-boy?"
His tactless interference incense Shima, so things soon degenerate once again to a marital bickering between them. "Of course, Megumi-chan is going to spare the boy, she was the one that saved him back then! You flea for brain of a husband, she has been nothing but kind to us. Is it so bad that those stupid old prophecies turned out to be fudge tall tales?"
At the word prophecy, Fukakuso's old body tense like a well coiled string. Why the hell… no way. It can't be that, right?
Enough, I have become a busy person as it is. I can't waste time on this comedic skip.
"My point, and that also serves for the two of you." I empathize so they would take the hint and shut up. "Is that everyone has to come with terms with this new World Order, including me. Ninshu didn't pan out like Hagomoro expected… but it didn't fail either. Even if conflict can't be avoided, Ninshu still shined as a force for good, capable of mending even as it was subverted to perform harm."
I closed the gap between Jiraiya and myself, then extend my hand to his direction in the Sign of Reconciliation. Jiraiya stare blankly at my extended hand, mile yard stare. His mind was elsewhere, even as he stared in disbelief at my hand.
"You toke everything from me…", he almost whimper.
"Did I really? I told you before, didn't I? Everything my Apollo has I gave to him. That was my honest assessment… until I met you. Godfather, un? I guess you dropped the ball. But when, what the hell do I even know about your circumstances here? When I drop the ball, genocides happen. I owe to keep my own nose clean first. The world still is in danger as long as the treat of the Ten Tails looms over our heads… and I am scared."
My confession shocked the older man. Considering he experienced my power with his own body, the idea I would be intimidated by anything must seem laughable. He lacks contest, something I have from my intimate understanding of Kurama, and the dark implication brought to light by the existence of the Otsutsuki clan.
"Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Progenitor of Chakra, mother of the Sage of Six Path… in Buddhism it is said that there are 3 million realms, as this is not my first rodeo with transmigration I myself up some trust in this. That is how I know to watch out for you, Jiraiya. Your name is that big that I knew of it… and you still almost killed me. No, you would have succeeded hadn't my brother put everything on the line to change that… and you are just a famous folklore fairy tale."
"And this Kaguya is a god, like you." Jiraiya completed my trail of thought.
"Zeus might be a big name in some circles but The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest surviving monogatari. She is that big of a deal, and she was a total hoe, despoiled goddess and devouring mother some thousands of years ago. To the point her sons had to put her to the sword. That is how the legend of the Sage of Six Paths came to be."
Now the man looked downright panicked at the news. If only it ended there.
"My own divine ancestry is tied to her, meaning she might even be getting to ride the Ethos of my name. Zeus is the grandson of Gaia, Primordial Mother Gods and all-around cunt and troublemaker. There is a reason nuking the planet with the Moon sounded a sensible course of action under these conditions."
"What it is required of me, then?" The man asks for marching orders before he realize it himself. I knew I was right about him, after all.
"This world is my son's home. If the oath as godfather genuinely mean anything to you at all, now that the hold of old prophecy was broken, help me defend it. I won't let you make a liar out of me; Apollo's life is his to live from now on… and how much from Naruto he decides to pick up will be up to him. And it is up to you to offer those things to him, as his godfather."
"… you think you are going to die. No, you are either going for broke, even if it kills you. You are covering your bases." His assessment is calculated thing, make sense considering his profession.
"Zeus is the one that Hold the Aegis, whatever flaw I might have, cowardice is not one." I confessed. I was not seating back for this one and being Zeus wasn't a sure promise of victory either.
"The world simples move on, Jiraiya. There is always something happening. Succession or World Orders is as natural as the passing of the seasons. This happened to Kaguya, Hagomoro, Hashirama… and eventually it will also reach me. I won't lose any sleep over it either. So, help me please."
"HE ACCEPTDS!" Fukasaku screams out of the top of his lungs, startling Jiraiya and me out of our own skins. The man even fell out of the bed in fright as the combination of injuries and old reflexes tangled him into the ground.
What the fuck?
No.
No, no, no, no, no!
MOTHER FUCKER!
The light of lightning turn night into day and the sound of thunder deafens the world as my Kingdom take it upon itself the express the stent of my displeasure.
The old toad looks my way as if seeing his own death. That is what pass for wise now-a-days, I guess. He figured out the obvious.
With a smile so sweet it was almost rotten I turn his way.
"Teel me, gramps. Did Gamamaru, Great Honourable Geezer, so happens to release a new prophecy mixtape recently? You know, the kind that involves regicide and patricide?"
Fukasaku opens his mouth but no sounds come out. My attention by itself is withering the old toad into an early grave but I frankly don't care. That is how pissed off I am right now.
"What the hell is going on?" Jiraiya screams, diverting my attention for long enough for the old toad sage to collapse like a puppet without strings.
"So you actually doesn't known of it just yet. I guess this too is fate working in you favor."
"There is a new prophecy?" Jiraiya asks in wonderment.
"I wouldn't exactly call it 'new' either. More like the Last Whimpering Cries of Powerless Heaven. Just a parting poison." I dismiss the thing with as much disdain I could express while crossing my eyes.
"What is it about then?" He persisted, intrigued despite himself. Fool.
Fukasaku pulls through and deliver the 'good news' with a breathless voice. "The Great God Zeus is destined to be overthrow by a son that will be more powerful than himself."
To the man's credit the first thing that enter his expression is worry and panic. I might have really smitten him down right here otherwise. The idiot connects the dots, I only have one son right now. One who was meant to be a Child of Prophecy. The Fates are literally baiting me into killing my own son, the very cause I overthrew their design in the first place.
Cunts.
The sound of thunderstorm is deafening, it really looks like the fucking end of the world from the window. Someone really owe to do something about this.
"And you somehow knew of it?" he inquired, trying to untangle the knot.
"I have known about before I even realized, or remembered, that I was Zeus. Remember Gaia? That was her curse, you could say. She laid it on her husband Uranus, causing him to be overthrow by her son, Cronus who then proceeded to be just as big as a douche bag. This led his son, Zeus," I point at myself, "to overthrow him. Guess what happens next?"
"… I take it she did not stop it at Cronus, then?"
"The witch is an engine of vitriol and powerlessness, making everybody as miserable as herself is her only motivation."
"What happens then? Were you actually overthrow?"
"No, you still don't get it! Divinity exists on rails. The success and failure of a King's Order is bond by his actions, and as he strays from the proper course so does his Kingdom."
Jiraiya looks uncertainly my way. Dread rising in his soul as he starts to see the invisible hand of… Kaguya? Gaia? Fates?
"The King Archetype binds all who bear it to its bipolar Shadow, the Dark King. He fears and hate new life, which he perceives as a treat to his kingship, because he is a weakling at heart. His crown is the core of his identity, so without it he fears being nothing because he was never that great to begin with."
"Poison meant to kill a King. Poison mean to despoil a Kingdom, an Killing Curse of Hatred aimed at the heart of a monarch." The man realizes. A self-fulfilling prophecy.
"Third time is the charm, after watching disgruntled children kill their tyrannical fathers twice it would make sense for someone to wise up and not make your children hate you." I turn my gaze to the toad geezer once again. "And I am especially outraged someone I meant to make peace with would plot to poison my son's heart against me!"
The tension returned to the room. Everyone here is genuinely question whether they will die now. Was I really that scary? I just wanted to live a fun, carefree life for myself and my new family without bothering anyone. Everything else I did was to help, yet here I am.
Is this what life would be like from now on? Will I have to watch out for strangers trying to poison my Apollo against me? Is it my fault for being too strong to be directly opposed? And what of any new child that might come my way? It was not exactly like I planned to be a parent and I am self-aware enough to admit… I am Zeus. Things are hopeless on the abstinence front.
"God-damnit, Shima! Don't look at me with eyes full of tears like I am the bad person here! I was trying to do things right, but there are limits to audacity! You know as I do what happen to fools led astray by the lure of prophecy! Minato is going to be gurgling mayonnaise for the rest of eternity as reward for putting his faith in it! Nagato didn't pass the smell test either! A false idol created as smoke screen by whoever stole the Demonic Statue of the Outer Realm. Now you are putting my son's neck on the chopping block as well!"
"Zeus, what did you say about my student?" Jiraiya inquired with the most level voice I have ever heard from him.
"There is no such a thing as a naturally occurring Rinnegan, Jiraiya. Even Hagomoro started out with the basic sharingan. He isn't the reincarnation of Hagomoro because bodhisattva can't reincarnate but exist within their Pure Land. The boy is a Fater, a puppet, misdirection and scapegoat."
"I am talking about Minato!"
Fuck, me and my big mouth… so that is why everything was innuendo with Kurama, wasn't it? The bastard figured out I was Zeus years ago. Now everything sounds like a sex joke… why am I even thinking this? Am I actually panicking?
You know what? Fuck it. Fuck it all.
"The Nine Tailed Fox is now the new God of Death, Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Who do you think is in the top of his shit list? He is certainly not having fun as his prisoner is now the owner of his soul. There were some forbidden jutsu designed to revert the Reaper Death Seal but they are all void now. Minato's soul is consigned to literal bureaucratic hell."
"He is Naruto's father!"
I raise an eyebrow in open contempt before I can think better of it, even as I am filled with regret for it. The Toad Sage doesn't take it well. At all.
"The world has degraded to such state because humans have freely enjoyed a 'good death', regardless of how sinful they had been in life, leaving a debt of bad karma for their children to bear. This is the rebalancing of the scales, the Justice of Olympus. Mortals will toil in Tartarus until they expiate the bad karma accrued in course of their lives. Then chose to go for the Pure Land or being reincarnated here after drinking from the river of oblivion. Is there any surprise the gods would hold some sins as beyond forgiveness, then?"
The fucker's fate sets in resolve, then stretches his hand to me in the Sign of Reconciliation. Eyes full of fire.
"You can't be fucking serious. Do you think you can win? Against me! Do you sincerely believe my Apollo is going to choose you over me? There is nothing but hags to the Naruto name compared to all the riches of a true Prince of the Earth! I was just throwing some pity your way!"
"Then there is no problem at all, after all… or are you telling me the Great God Zeus fear his own son will betray him?" Jiraiya answer with as much sarcasm and derision as he ever managed.
Motherfucker!
It is said that in Olympus only Zeus is truly free. He is the one that set down the rules that bind the gods themselves.
A King might still be his own person but the crown exists above one's head. By disconnecting one's ego from one's own desires when performing the functions of the King Archetype separate infantile grandiosity from mature greatness.
He acts out of the responsibility to his kingdom, for it is here that his transpersonal commitment lies, a devotion beyond himself and a reminder that even him too is a servant to something higher.
As a temporary steward, the King speak from an inner authority because he gives weight to the voice that lies at the center of every man. A voice that minimize punishment and maximizes praise. A voice that affirms clearly and calmly and with authority the human rights or all!
I am Justice itself. From here out and forevermore. As long as I act as a should then even this stupid prophecy is nothing but a promise that even if I were to fall, someone else would pick the mantle I left behind.
I won't lose!
"… Yeah, that is fucking right. And Jiraiya, if you use this to ever harm my son, I am going to chain you to the top of his fucking mountain and have eagles eating your liver every day for the rest of eternity, to you heard me?"
"It is his choice to make, after all. Or did you lie after all?"
"Apollo is not going to betray me, no son of mine ever will. You are going to realize it soon."
Our little pack when to the Epics as the most hostile Sign of Reconciliation in legends.
-//-
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
Everybody asks What is Zeus and Who is Zeus, but nobody asks How is Zeus.
The reason I harped the danger of obliviousness all this time was precisely because Megumi was born with Zeus's credit card and today, she picked up the tab. The result is the Supreme Douche Bag of the Sky Fathers and all-around bad guy and videogame main villain, Zeus.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGyxY3oxkwQ
People are afraid out of their wit's end, so from their point of view, Zeus' prophecy looked like a silver treat delivered from Heaven itself. From Megumi 's point of view is trying to groom his son into killing her… from everybody else things are more complicated.
Megumi and Jirayia were almost on the mend but the Poison of Prophecy worked as intended. Kaguya and the Ten Tails are an imminent treat and they both genuinely care for Apollo, but friendship is closed off.
Yeah, I did a self-reference to the tittle. Megumi was always a blast to write about because when you look at Zeus behavior from a pedestrian point of view, he is more interested in disguising himself as mortal and wander like a vagabond than rule from his throne. He didn't so much actually chooses to fight Cronus but was forced to.
To Megumi being King of the World is day job she has to put up with, so she is just as likely to delegate as much of it so she has more free time to go back at being a lazy bun.
I could not pass up that Tenacious D reference after last chapter either.
Where does a person begins? Who came to be first, the egg or the chicken? Alpha or Omega?
Megumi or Zeus?
Or maybe further beyond still? In the Before. In Buddhist devas are not immortal. Their lives as devas began sometime in the past when they died and were reborn. They are said to live for very long but finite periods of time, ranging from thousands to (at least) billions of years. When they pass away, they are reborn as some other sort of being, perhaps a different type of deva, perhaps a human or something beyond comprehension. The Lamrim mentions that devas are often reborn into lower realms of suffering like the Narakas and Pretas because their existence consumes a lot of good karma, but they can also be reborn as humans and animals.
If Buddhism is right after all and there is no such a thing as a perpetual, eternal and true Self then does that mean life itself has no meaning or does this elevate validate its sacred nature of life, precisely because of its fleetness?
Does it even matter? Was it even our choice to begin with? Megumi might have chosen Zeus or Zeus may have been the one that choose Megumi yet, if pressed both have the same answer.
The moment they met that bashful smile that shined like the Daybreak and were backed in the Love that it emitted as easily as the Sun does sunlight, they were the ones chosen. From that moment, and forevermore, being the Sky that support that brilliant star up to the heavens was their conjoined purpose, so they reached together and toiled against the frames of the World that tried to strangle that light.
That is what fathers are for. To be a parent IS the closest mortals get to experience godhood. They simple decided to live up to said mantle.
Whether one's existence is horn or ivory hardly mattered in the face of such task. If it is required to assume the mantle of SKY FATHER to see one's son happiness then all Heavens and the Fates themselves will learn to shake at sight of this Father.
Be a mortal, god or otherwise, all will know the price to cross the Silver Bright Holy Tyrant of Usurped Heaven.
RAGING HEAVEN.
-//-
Victory is mine, and with it comes the responsibility for what follows. The snare Fate had set my way crumbled like sand around my godly might. This is the ruinous price for those who suffer defeat from the jaws of victory. The Divinity of the Shinigami was like a glass statue, perfect and pristine until the moment it was subjected to the slightest pressure.
Now it is just trash scattered across the floor.
Kurama and myself are not so brittle… we are gods that endure. Hades and Zeus are the spine of Olympus Mons that pierce from Hell to Heaven. And with this new standing comes the power to turn this Death Trap that was meant to be our tomb into the foundation for our new Regime.
Divine Power,
[Shinjutsu]
Authority.
Its name is superfluous compared to its content. Divinity labor within rails. The power of the Archetypes is manifested through twelve primary templates. While the Olympian gods have a fun dance of chairs game going among themselves, no god bear more than two Archetypes within their Divine Frame.
An absolute restriction that looks really paltry when one is confronted by the magnitude of these powers.
Jiraiya is dying right now. It is simple the way of the world. Those touched by Death are dammed to join its ranks. The old toads' effort is futile, even the me from one minute ago would be powerless to save him.
That is unfair, the Shinigami broke before the man himself did, yet he was still getting his undeserved payment.
This is the kind of unfairness I would never have to tolerate ever again.
For I am THE KING!
The King Archetype is primal and closest to the definitively godhood. The link between the human and the divine realm. It bears two main powers. ORDERING & BLESSING.
ORDERING invoke the King's nature as the central Archetype, the central place where the King oversees and rule the World. This isn't a hyperbole either, the boundaries of the Anima Mundi, the part of reality that is ordered and organized by the King. Outside it lies non-creation, chaos and the demonic.
The power to draw a line in the sand between the sacred and the profane.
The first task of the king is to know where the Kingdom begins and where it ends. It must be clearly defined… even if its boundaries happen to be an entire planet. A lonely peddle drifting inside the cosmos. Is it too much to ask for just the world? Clearly not. Zeus was once the master of the entire Cosmos.
I take this world in hand, the raging power contained within the Manse that once threatened to overwhelm me now submits as it was proper. For that is my will. The power races throughout the dragon lines to the entire planet at the speed of light. The same way I once breathed life into air inside my lungs into elementals I now give this world the awareness to know its monarch. From the breeze to the drop of water and grain of sand, it is by Zeus that they name King.
This Right Order is the manifestation of the divine principles of the universe I have internalized inside myself. This is Justice, and as King, so am I. The Cosmic and Moral structure are the Left and Right Hands of Power.
The line between what is right and what is wrong.
This is a King's crown and a King's burden. The King embodies these very principles, then, now and forevermore in his own person, living them into his own life. If the King embody these principles successfully everything in his realm will also go according to the Right Order and the Kingdom will flourish.
Jiraiya's shallow breath suddenly rebounded as his battered heart find new strength within itself to keep going. The shadow of death is chased away. He is going to live and the old frog couple has enough enlightenment to understand it was my hand that saved him.
This is BLESSING. From the Right Order derives prosperity. The King and Kingdom are mirrors. If the King is health and righteous then his own Realm would follow in his nature. Fertile and Prosperous. This blessing mend both soul, body and mind.
By praising and affirming his Right Order in his deeds and praising those that walk the righteous path, the King affirm the virtue and good of its people. By acknowledging people in their true worth they feel healed and made whole. Filling the nameless emptiness all people feel inside themselves. One that can only be filled by blessing from the King Archetype.
Whatever the Death God toke from Jiraiya, he is getting it back.
This is Justice.
That is the easy part though.
"Your names were Pa and Ma, right?" I inquire the two sages once again. Their faces are laced with both relief and worry. For themselves, their charge and the world that just changed under their own feet.
"Time to hold court. I am the Great God Zeus, King of Olympus. I have terms to dictate, information to share and explanations to give. Due to the rocky circumstances I will have to impose in your hospitality until Jiraiya is conscious again. So, where do you want to go from here?"
The two toads looked at each other and then shared a solemn node, sharing the implicit understanding that their lives depend on their cooperation.
This is going to get old fast; I am start to under both the phase of my life as Touko/Aoko and Zeus's old proclivities for disguise a little bit better. I might be the King of Cosmos but I am also the God of Hospitality (Xenia). I even dismembered half of Hestia's Innocent Authority for myself due to hard rules on the number of seats I am working with inside Olympus. Having people act as if hosting me is some kind of deadly hurdle really piss me off.
I am so going to teach those stupid toads how a proper relation between guest and host owe to be! They better be thankful!
-//-
"Eat up! I pulled out all the stop." Lady Shima, from the Two Great Sage Toads, proclaims proudly, in the way only a true dedicated matron that labored for decades to master her craft could… her best certainly look the part as well. An exquisite yet elegant full course meals comprised of the most colorful and exotic diversity of insects I have ever seen in my entire life. Every single one prepared with refinement and presented with panache that made my own culinary skill seem paltry.
I hope it taste like sea food… please, let it taste like sea food!
The third time owe to be the charm, right?
Right?
I look her way once again. Despite the rocky first meeting and overhaul tense situation, she is still so happy Jiraiya not only survived but is in the mend that her eyes shine full of granny energy. Which is actually kind of cute and endearing for an old frog lady.
Turns out this meeting was a blessing. Animal clans live in keen awareness with nature, my coronation is the hottest news stirring policies around the animal clans and the Toads of Mount Myōboku are the foremost seers of the animal kingdom. This made the place the perfect rub for news and to control the panic and furor.
After I explain the situation around that Manse and divulge the bad news about the Demonic Statue of the Other Path it was a quickly wrap. Now elders from all animal kingdom are flocking the place to pay their respect to their new King. Who would have guessed everything you needed to get the trust of sentient animal society was taking measures so we wouldn't all die?
All in favor of not dying! That is my slogan.
The flood of blessings also helped smooth things over. The prospect of Land of Wind becoming a lush paradise one day by itself was enough to gather the eternal loyalty of all clans in that region.
Considering the seriousness of the treat of the return of the Ten Tails, most clans are bending the knee and pledge themselves to me. Something they actually kind of have to do, as this planet is my Kingdom for all legal and metaphysical purposes. My approval goes a long way and they want to have a good live where we don't all get killed by some primal monster of darkness.
That is how my stay here changed from a hostage situation to guess of honor, and how I got to know Lady Chima over the last days. I still kind broke almost every bone Jiraiya had with my single attack so the toads were reticent about me ministering his medical attention. His bad reputation with women screwing with him again.
She certainly has taken great care of me. In Xenia, intention is King.
I can't escape this.
Grannies, Zeus's greatest tribulation.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"That is right, Megumi-chan. A young woman should eat with gusto! I will make sure to prepare so desert too, just you wait! You will need the extra energy when meeting with those stuck up pricks all day."
This is not like Zootopia at all, Disney lied to me!
"Jiraiya-dono has awoken!" A yellow and orange frog with a batman mask screams to Lady Shima direction, completely oblivious to my presence until our eyes cross while bursting through the door. There was a god after all! Saved by the gong.
"And I presume that Elder Fukasaku just forgot to mention that to me until now, right?" My tone was casual but the young toad still froze up, concerned about involvement in his elder's policies.
I sighed, "I am not going to bite your head off, boy. You can only ever answer for your own actions. The Toads of Mount Myōboku offered me their hospitality so I am the guest here. This is still your home, act like it."
"You honor me beyond words, Lord Zeus! Please, follow me!" The boy bowed as far as he was able while jumping in joy at my compliment. Lady Shima just sighed in exasperation but followed behind me without complains.
That was a mouthful but necessary statement to stop the boy from collapsing like a pile of nerves. I have come to understand why Zeus liked to use disguises so frequently. As a fully realized, manifested and liberated god my true nature is self-evident. Chakra is the binding force of the Universe, even to the most rudimentary lifeform is sensible to its touch… and effects.
Aletheia. Greek word meaning something not occult, opaque, concealed or dissimulated. The Truth is self-evident to the eyes of the body and spirit; Truth is the manifestation of that which exist as it is, resonating through one's entire tripartite soul (Logos/Pathos/Eros).
There is a reason Lady Shima has gained so much face with me the last few days. Despite her unassuming appearance she still is one of this world's foremost mystics, and this shows. The fact she can see through the Omega Aura of the Silver Bright Holy Tyrant of Usurped Heaven and still witness the young Megumi in Alpha is a feat beyond most people.
Even when self-evident, Truth remains complicated, it seems.
I walk through the gorgeous sight of the land of toads at a sedated pace, as the cause of disruption I had no room to complain about the curiosity my presence stirred over the community. From young to old, small to gargantuan, all eyes turn to my direction as I cross the fields with as much dignity and grace as I could manage… I already said this before, but this is getting old fast.
For someone that tried to live as quietly and freely as possible this whole King of the World thing is more a hurdle. I have to put up with due to family reasons than personal interest. Though I doubt that I come out like that for most people. Between killing the Shinigami, taking ownership of the planet, freeing and recruiting the Tailed Beasts under my banner, subverting the Shinobi system with own bloodline, and finally, genocide the Otsutsuki people of the Moon for a crime I have no evidence of…
Is it any wonder I am putting the fear of God in people? Even the treat of the Ten Tails looks more like a flimsy excuse a power-hungry tyrant would use to seize and freely exert power. Especially when everything they can see is the lines of broken bodies of my previous rivals.
Is it ivory or is it horn? Cause might have started in Alpha but now only Omega can be seemed. To the Animal Clans my presence is implicit ultimatum, they can fall in line behind me or be struck down by thunder bolt out of the blue sky. The very World is my Kingdom, barring someone from using sage arts would be trivial. Their backs are already against the wall.
Even my show of clemency toward Monkey King Enma only solidified this view. As Sarutobi's oldest and truest companion he is intimately aware of the man's nature, so I can't help but approve of his proactive actions. At the same time, Son Goku is so livid by what he sees as betrayal that only my hand stayed a summary execution.
We hashed things out with prejudicious use of Ninshu augmented speech, and as the executioner of Orochimari, the greatest pox to Hiruzen's legacy, a common ground was established. Enma and me wanted the same thing for the old Hokage, so conciliation was well within reach… as long as he capitulated to my demands.
It certainly made me look the part of the magnanimous and august monarch. Truth itself was insubstantial compared to the ability to bend the mind of enemies until they became allies. What I proved was that one way or another, by crock or hook, Zeus always gets what he wants.
And so, they are watching me keenly, because they rightly guessed I intend to do the same to Jiraiya. Stent an olive branch to a former enemy… and see for themselves what happens if my, oh so kind offer happens to be rejected.
-//-
Soon enough we reach the private room Jiraiya is located, the man himself looked grim but energetic, despite the battered appearance. Good for him, moping really doesn't suit him at all.
The other toads are quickly to rush out, leaving me with the man himself and the Two Great Sage Toads in the room. Fukasaku look downright panicking internally, he probable intended to take his time talking with Jiraiya before I barged here. A schemer old geezer, this one, even if well intentioned.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Jiraiya, I would like to say I am sorry for ruining your great last standing, but we both know this would be a lie. While I am flattened you thought me the woman destined to spend eternity together with, I am at my core a flighty and free-spirited soul. Don't take me turning you down so badly that you have to die again, ok?"
Despite the tense situation, my ridiculous proclamation extracts a snort from the man. Typical of him, I suppose. Reducing a decisive battle for the fate of the world as a bad breakup, another romantic fiasco to his legendary tally.
We stare at each other in silence, until he caved. "What do you want from me, Megumi?"
"Straight to the point then, very well. Do you remember what I said to you about the Will of Ninjas? Despite admiring the Sage of Six Paths and his legacy, I have always held some contempt for the world that rejected and forsoke him… but that might have just been me. My own biases speaking due to the stress of circumstances beyond my control."
Jiraiya now look genuinely surprised at my frank admission. I have to give it to him, for someone parachuted into this mess out of nowhere, he is taking things in strides very well.
"A bit late for that, don't you think? You won. Everything. You are literally the King of the World."
"Yeah, it is. I am the King of the World… so now everything that follows is on my head. I don't really regret it… no, I feel remorseful that so many people needlessly lost their lives. But I can't and wouldn't take those choices away either. So, everything that is left is for me to take responsibility… and how."
That is when Fukasaku cuts in, excitedly. "Are you really going to spare Jiraiya-boy?"
His tactless interference incense Shima, so things soon degenerate once again to a marital bickering between them. "Of course, Megumi-chan is going to spare the boy, she was the one that saved him back then! You flea for brain of a husband, she has been nothing but kind to us. Is it so bad that those stupid old prophecies turned out to be fudge tall tales?"
At the word prophecy, Fukakuso's old body tense like a well coiled string. Why the hell… no way. It can't be that, right?
Enough, I have become a busy person as it is. I can't waste time on this comedic skip.
"My point, and that also serves for the two of you." I empathize so they would take the hint and shut up. "Is that everyone has to come with terms with this new World Order, including me. Ninshu didn't pan out like Hagomoro expected… but it didn't fail either. Even if conflict can't be avoided, Ninshu still shined as a force for good, capable of mending even as it was subverted to perform harm."
I closed the gap between Jiraiya and myself, then extend my hand to his direction in the Sign of Reconciliation. Jiraiya stare blankly at my extended hand, mile yard stare. His mind was elsewhere, even as he stared in disbelief at my hand.
"You toke everything from me…", he almost whimper.
"Did I really? I told you before, didn't I? Everything my Apollo has I gave to him. That was my honest assessment… until I met you. Godfather, un? I guess you dropped the ball. But when, what the hell do I even know about your circumstances here? When I drop the ball, genocides happen. I owe to keep my own nose clean first. The world still is in danger as long as the treat of the Ten Tails looms over our heads… and I am scared."
My confession shocked the older man. Considering he experienced my power with his own body, the idea I would be intimidated by anything must seem laughable. He lacks contest, something I have from my intimate understanding of Kurama, and the dark implication brought to light by the existence of the Otsutsuki clan.
"Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Progenitor of Chakra, mother of the Sage of Six Path… in Buddhism it is said that there are 3 million realms, as this is not my first rodeo with transmigration I myself up some trust in this. That is how I know to watch out for you, Jiraiya. Your name is that big that I knew of it… and you still almost killed me. No, you would have succeeded hadn't my brother put everything on the line to change that… and you are just a famous folklore fairy tale."
"And this Kaguya is a god, like you." Jiraiya completed my trail of thought.
"Zeus might be a big name in some circles but The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest surviving monogatari. She is that big of a deal, and she was a total hoe, despoiled goddess and devouring mother some thousands of years ago. To the point her sons had to put her to the sword. That is how the legend of the Sage of Six Paths came to be."
Now the man looked downright panicked at the news. If only it ended there.
"My own divine ancestry is tied to her, meaning she might even be getting to ride the Ethos of my name. Zeus is the grandson of Gaia, Primordial Mother Gods and all-around cunt and troublemaker. There is a reason nuking the planet with the Moon sounded a sensible course of action under these conditions."
"What it is required of me, then?" The man asks for marching orders before he realize it himself. I knew I was right about him, after all.
"This world is my son's home. If the oath as godfather genuinely mean anything to you at all, now that the hold of old prophecy was broken, help me defend it. I won't let you make a liar out of me; Apollo's life is his to live from now on… and how much from Naruto he decides to pick up will be up to him. And it is up to you to offer those things to him, as his godfather."
"… you think you are going to die. No, you are either going for broke, even if it kills you. You are covering your bases." His assessment is calculated thing, make sense considering his profession.
"Zeus is the one that Hold the Aegis, whatever flaw I might have, cowardice is not one." I confessed. I was not seating back for this one and being Zeus wasn't a sure promise of victory either.
"The world simples move on, Jiraiya. There is always something happening. Succession or World Orders is as natural as the passing of the seasons. This happened to Kaguya, Hagomoro, Hashirama… and eventually it will also reach me. I won't lose any sleep over it either. So, help me please."
"HE ACCEPTDS!" Fukasaku screams out of the top of his lungs, startling Jiraiya and me out of our own skins. The man even fell out of the bed in fright as the combination of injuries and old reflexes tangled him into the ground.
What the fuck?
No.
No, no, no, no, no!
MOTHER FUCKER!
The light of lightning turn night into day and the sound of thunder deafens the world as my Kingdom take it upon itself the express the stent of my displeasure.
The old toad looks my way as if seeing his own death. That is what pass for wise now-a-days, I guess. He figured out the obvious.
With a smile so sweet it was almost rotten I turn his way.
"Teel me, gramps. Did Gamamaru, Great Honourable Geezer, so happens to release a new prophecy mixtape recently? You know, the kind that involves regicide and patricide?"
Fukasaku opens his mouth but no sounds come out. My attention by itself is withering the old toad into an early grave but I frankly don't care. That is how pissed off I am right now.
"What the hell is going on?" Jiraiya screams, diverting my attention for long enough for the old toad sage to collapse like a puppet without strings.
"So you actually doesn't known of it just yet. I guess this too is fate working in you favor."
"There is a new prophecy?" Jiraiya asks in wonderment.
"I wouldn't exactly call it 'new' either. More like the Last Whimpering Cries of Powerless Heaven. Just a parting poison." I dismiss the thing with as much disdain I could express while crossing my eyes.
"What is it about then?" He persisted, intrigued despite himself. Fool.
Fukasaku pulls through and deliver the 'good news' with a breathless voice. "The Great God Zeus is destined to be overthrow by a son that will be more powerful than himself."
To the man's credit the first thing that enter his expression is worry and panic. I might have really smitten him down right here otherwise. The idiot connects the dots, I only have one son right now. One who was meant to be a Child of Prophecy. The Fates are literally baiting me into killing my own son, the very cause I overthrew their design in the first place.
Cunts.
The sound of thunderstorm is deafening, it really looks like the fucking end of the world from the window. Someone really owe to do something about this.
"And you somehow knew of it?" he inquired, trying to untangle the knot.
"I have known about before I even realized, or remembered, that I was Zeus. Remember Gaia? That was her curse, you could say. She laid it on her husband Uranus, causing him to be overthrow by her son, Cronus who then proceeded to be just as big as a douche bag. This led his son, Zeus," I point at myself, "to overthrow him. Guess what happens next?"
"… I take it she did not stop it at Cronus, then?"
"The witch is an engine of vitriol and powerlessness, making everybody as miserable as herself is her only motivation."
"What happens then? Were you actually overthrow?"
"No, you still don't get it! Divinity exists on rails. The success and failure of a King's Order is bond by his actions, and as he strays from the proper course so does his Kingdom."
Jiraiya looks uncertainly my way. Dread rising in his soul as he starts to see the invisible hand of… Kaguya? Gaia? Fates?
"The King Archetype binds all who bear it to its bipolar Shadow, the Dark King. He fears and hate new life, which he perceives as a treat to his kingship, because he is a weakling at heart. His crown is the core of his identity, so without it he fears being nothing because he was never that great to begin with."
"Poison meant to kill a King. Poison mean to despoil a Kingdom, an Killing Curse of Hatred aimed at the heart of a monarch." The man realizes. A self-fulfilling prophecy.
"Third time is the charm, after watching disgruntled children kill their tyrannical fathers twice it would make sense for someone to wise up and not make your children hate you." I turn my gaze to the toad geezer once again. "And I am especially outraged someone I meant to make peace with would plot to poison my son's heart against me!"
The tension returned to the room. Everyone here is genuinely question whether they will die now. Was I really that scary? I just wanted to live a fun, carefree life for myself and my new family without bothering anyone. Everything else I did was to help, yet here I am.
Is this what life would be like from now on? Will I have to watch out for strangers trying to poison my Apollo against me? Is it my fault for being too strong to be directly opposed? And what of any new child that might come my way? It was not exactly like I planned to be a parent and I am self-aware enough to admit… I am Zeus. Things are hopeless on the abstinence front.
"God-damnit, Shima! Don't look at me with eyes full of tears like I am the bad person here! I was trying to do things right, but there are limits to audacity! You know as I do what happen to fools led astray by the lure of prophecy! Minato is going to be gurgling mayonnaise for the rest of eternity as reward for putting his faith in it! Nagato didn't pass the smell test either! A false idol created as smoke screen by whoever stole the Demonic Statue of the Outer Realm. Now you are putting my son's neck on the chopping block as well!"
"Zeus, what did you say about my student?" Jiraiya inquired with the most level voice I have ever heard from him.
"There is no such a thing as a naturally occurring Rinnegan, Jiraiya. Even Hagomoro started out with the basic sharingan. He isn't the reincarnation of Hagomoro because bodhisattva can't reincarnate but exist within their Pure Land. The boy is a Fater, a puppet, misdirection and scapegoat."
"I am talking about Minato!"
Fuck, me and my big mouth… so that is why everything was innuendo with Kurama, wasn't it? The bastard figured out I was Zeus years ago. Now everything sounds like a sex joke… why am I even thinking this? Am I actually panicking?
You know what? Fuck it. Fuck it all.
"The Nine Tailed Fox is now the new God of Death, Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Who do you think is in the top of his shit list? He is certainly not having fun as his prisoner is now the owner of his soul. There were some forbidden jutsu designed to revert the Reaper Death Seal but they are all void now. Minato's soul is consigned to literal bureaucratic hell."
"He is Naruto's father!"
I raise an eyebrow in open contempt before I can think better of it, even as I am filled with regret for it. The Toad Sage doesn't take it well. At all.
"The world has degraded to such state because humans have freely enjoyed a 'good death', regardless of how sinful they had been in life, leaving a debt of bad karma for their children to bear. This is the rebalancing of the scales, the Justice of Olympus. Mortals will toil in Tartarus until they expiate the bad karma accrued in course of their lives. Then chose to go for the Pure Land or being reincarnated here after drinking from the river of oblivion. Is there any surprise the gods would hold some sins as beyond forgiveness, then?"
The fucker's fate sets in resolve, then stretches his hand to me in the Sign of Reconciliation. Eyes full of fire.
"You can't be fucking serious. Do you think you can win? Against me! Do you sincerely believe my Apollo is going to choose you over me? There is nothing but hags to the Naruto name compared to all the riches of a true Prince of the Earth! I was just throwing some pity your way!"
"Then there is no problem at all, after all… or are you telling me the Great God Zeus fear his own son will betray him?" Jiraiya answer with as much sarcasm and derision as he ever managed.
Motherfucker!
It is said that in Olympus only Zeus is truly free. He is the one that set down the rules that bind the gods themselves.
A King might still be his own person but the crown exists above one's head. By disconnecting one's ego from one's own desires when performing the functions of the King Archetype separate infantile grandiosity from mature greatness.
He acts out of the responsibility to his kingdom, for it is here that his transpersonal commitment lies, a devotion beyond himself and a reminder that even him too is a servant to something higher.
As a temporary steward, the King speak from an inner authority because he gives weight to the voice that lies at the center of every man. A voice that minimize punishment and maximizes praise. A voice that affirms clearly and calmly and with authority the human rights or all!
I am Justice itself. From here out and forevermore. As long as I act as a should then even this stupid prophecy is nothing but a promise that even if I were to fall, someone else would pick the mantle I left behind.
I won't lose!
"… Yeah, that is fucking right. And Jiraiya, if you use this to ever harm my son, I am going to chain you to the top of his fucking mountain and have eagles eating your liver every day for the rest of eternity, to you heard me?"
"It is his choice to make, after all. Or did you lie after all?"
"Apollo is not going to betray me, no son of mine ever will. You are going to realize it soon."
Our little pack when to the Epics as the most hostile Sign of Reconciliation in legends.
-//-
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
Everybody asks What is Zeus and Who is Zeus, but nobody asks How is Zeus.
The reason I harped the danger of obliviousness all this time was precisely because Megumi was born with Zeus's credit card and today, she picked up the tab. The result is the Supreme Douche Bag of the Sky Fathers and all-around bad guy and videogame main villain, Zeus.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGyxY3oxkwQ
People are afraid out of their wit's end, so from their point of view, Zeus' prophecy looked like a silver treat delivered from Heaven itself. From Megumi 's point of view is trying to groom his son into killing her… from everybody else things are more complicated.
Megumi and Jirayia were almost on the mend but the Poison of Prophecy worked as intended. Kaguya and the Ten Tails are an imminent treat and they both genuinely care for Apollo, but friendship is closed off.
Yeah, I did a self-reference to the tittle. Megumi was always a blast to write about because when you look at Zeus behavior from a pedestrian point of view, he is more interested in disguising himself as mortal and wander like a vagabond than rule from his throne. He didn't so much actually chooses to fight Cronus but was forced to.
To Megumi being King of the World is day job she has to put up with, so she is just as likely to delegate as much of it so she has more free time to go back at being a lazy bun.
I could not pass up that Tenacious D reference after last chapter either.
Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Zeus doing Zeus things, really waiting for Megumi to smite Danzo with divine Bolts. I do wonder how the Elemental nations will take to their new Divine Overlady.
Basically really wonder how people will react to the 8ft tall Uchiha-Super Senjuu Bombshell going:"I am in charge now."
Really wonder about Madara, like the guy should be smart enough to know he got out-Uchiha´d.
Basically really wonder how people will react to the 8ft tall Uchiha-Super Senjuu Bombshell going:"I am in charge now."
Really wonder about Madara, like the guy should be smart enough to know he got out-Uchiha´d.
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- Location
- Brazil
I have been cooking Danzo's fate since the end of chapter one. Megumi has so many options open to her it becomes a question of how she cook it now.
This last chapter was more about her assessement of her situation while setting up things for following arcs. Her live just became a lot more complicated and she has to deal with it like everybody else. Madara's power didn't protect him from having a bad life and only Zeus's lucky bonus at fresh respawn gave her a window of oportunity to get the hell out of dodge... and this story is called POISON for a reason.
Megumi has many challenges ahead of her.
Triumvirate
- Location
- Brazil
The collector of souls
Surrounded by screams
The guardian of Hell
Precisely it seems
Consumes the bad devoured by wrath
Strong vile powers don't enter his path
Lives for the pain
Embraces this crown
Watch out for the king that lay underground.
Surrounded by screams
The guardian of Hell
Precisely it seems
Consumes the bad devoured by wrath
Strong vile powers don't enter his path
Lives for the pain
Embraces this crown
Watch out for the king that lay underground.
[Hades, Lord of the Underworld]
"Long time no see, pops. It is good to see you."
"I-I wish I could say the same, but these circumstances have been trying, Kurama."
"I guess you are right, any proper parent would be ambivalent at meeting their problematic and prodigal son. Especially when the quiet ones show up as a murderer of murderers, a Death God… but hey, think positively. This time it wasn't Indra at least!"
Despite the grim topic, the Death God's joke does extract a smirk from the venerable bodhisattva. Something obvious to notice due to their meeting ground, the liminal line of the Six Realms, the Event Horizon permitted only to those responsible for the spinning of the Wheel.
"Is it my fault, after all? Did this old fool's delusion cause nothing but a burden after all?"
"NOW YOU ARE PICKING A FIGHT! I won't allow anyone saying this about you, not even yourself. Nobody can respond for actions others than their own, this is why we are meeting in the first place."
"Kurama… you have changed."
"As the most annoying person I ever know would say: about god damn time too! This mess started because we decided to stagnate and wait in the first place."
"But I was the one that asked, wasn't I?"
"No, you simple told us what would happen the best you saw it. We were the ones that sat on our tails and waited for the world to simple fall into place… because it was easy, because we loved you, because we were kids… I am a kid no longer, pops."
"So, you acted."
"Yeah. In the beginning I thought Megumi was the blue-eyed savior you talked about… and I found in my heart that I hated it! By then I already hated everyone and everything, including you… including myself. My existence was hatred itself. Yet…
Time itself had no mean in such place, as soul itself serve as medium. Still, to the Death God, those are the untangled burdens of ages. Everything he experienced amounted to so far beyond the standards of human life experience any comparison would be crude approximation.
"She is by far and away the most arrogant, prepotent, presumptions, self-serving and entitled person I have ever met. She lives for her own pleasure, first and foremost and believes the world of herself. So, why was she the first person to look my way and actually see me since you!"
The Death God's proclamation ringed like a capital accusation, even followed by finger pointing. His expression was livid in helpless frown of exasperation. He kept going?
"She makes us all look like suckers. 'What, are you using your eternal soul as a dagger? Savage is too generous a description, you all are subhuman! How can't you not know anything about Ninshu? One would thing an entire field dedicated to fool people's sense would inspire elevated minds, but what do I know? I guess you are either born perfect, or you are not me…'
"And my favorite, 'you might be the incarnation of hatred and I might have mistaken you for Satan a minute ago, but I think you are actually an amazing dude for protecting this world, so now I am going to punch you in the soul with the power of Love until I knock your head straight. Be thankful.'!"
"Kurama… to be honest, you don't sound that upset about it. If anything, these are all fond memories, aren't they?" The old savior inquires with bemusement.
The Death God signed is answer enough, "One can hardly be angry as a dog chewing your sandal. What really frustrated me was that Megumi was right, the world wasn't her problem to solve. Everyone is the protagonist of their own story, if they really wanted to then this world would already be a paradise… yet we waited instead."
The silence was ponderous now, the implications of life choices holding thing in check. The Death God persisted though.
"Everywhere she went she found handholds left behind by you to help those that follow. To her this was natural, 'of course the Great Sage of Six Paths would leave something like that!' that is what she thought every time. Then why didn't I see it myself until she pointed out? Was I really so worthless I needed that dumbass to hold my hand all the way through?"
The rants of the Death God were the only sound present, the Savior only offered companionable silence as he was expected.
"In my century of captivity, I kept on wondering what went wrong. Who's the ultimate responsible for my sore state of events… and I found it to be myself. I allowed the world to strip me of agency, so naturally I was diminished to a device. The answer never lied in Power, it lied in action, in courage!"
"You have indeed grown," The bodhisattva assessed with resolution. "and acted instead of waited."
Hades, newly anointed Lord of the Death, nodded in agreement.
"I acted, preened for the collaboration of the Holy Ghost most likely to answer my call and toke by force what the world refused to part with freely… I know that this isn't what you wanted pops, but it is the best I can offer you."
"It is cruelty."
"It is Justice. My own ORDERING, people have been writing checks they can't afford, leaving a debt of karma that blight their next to kind in a perpetual vicious circle. This ends now, that is my decision as King."
"You have really become an inflexible man. First you affirm my legacy while in the same breath turn around and strike at it. This is literally Hell you are making here!"
"I know this is not what you wanted… but this is my best compromise. By bearing the weight of their choices themselves every person is also entitle to their own life and their own ends. Salvation is a good thing, but so is freedom. You know as I do, people will make their own choices. And I won't take that from them, that is also my mercy as King. My BLESSING."
"It still a cruelty. The shadow of death that brings all to the desolated land of the dead-
"Where each soul will be judged, trialed and send their way! If the Pure Land is truly what they desire then they better start to preparing for the pilgrimage in life still. If it is too much for them, then they can always drink from the liver of oblivion and be reborn. As someone who experienced unfair imprisonment, I know the value to matching crime and punishment."
"… I didn't wish for that, to any of you."
"I know. As I told you before, you were right in the end. Everybody is just living their lives the best they can. You might think yourself a naïve old fool but this flame you passed on already toke a life of its own. This is the result of that idea."
"Utterly beyond my expectations… are you sure, Kurama? How is this any different from before? Nobody will be thankful to you for the trouble you have taken upon your shoulders. You will be feared, the most feared for sure."
The Death God's answer was a snore of bemusement, as if he had heard an unexpected joke. "I don't care for those things anymore, because I already have a place that I belong to. She might be the most exasperating jackass in the world, but she was the first that saw through my unending power and looked at me. She validated me, she fought for me when I had given up on myself. She saved me."
…
"She became my sibling that day, proudly bearing the mark of our bond." Hades absentmindedly caress his now human face, bearing his own whiskers in open fondness. "The same way only she saw me, I am the only one that actually saw that carefree flame. From now on people will only heard the loud Thunder left in its wake that is Zeus. That is why it is up to me to be by her side, that is our bond as siblings. I will take care of Megumi."
Despite the grim topic and tragic nature of the meeting, the old bodhisattva couldn't help but smile in open approval at his child's resolution. If only…
"That make me glad. Very well, I will accept your terms. It is not like I could do anything either way. Children will walk their own path one way or another. So, what come next?"
"What else? Live the rest of our lives. I have my freedom, a new full-time job, and a new family of dumbasses to look after… and it is all your fault!"
"E-excuse me?"
"You just couldn't keep it in your pants, could you? Your libido is a danger to us all, as expected from Zeus's great ancestor!"
"That is not fair at all, Kurama!"
"Hey now, don't be so hard on yourself pops. Considering this all started because some alien chick decided to get down and dirt with the local fauna, I guess neither of you had any real shot at keeping your nose clean in this matter."
"That is my mother you are talking about! Your grandmother!"
"I know, right? It's crazy to think about it, yet Ufology turned out to be a mostly sensible religion, with right to Chariots of the Gods and everything! Ashatar Sheran might even lend his magnetic turban to Olympus in its moments of greatest need yet."
"Good to see our grim origin can elicit so much humor from you."
"Come on pops, relax. We are practically co-workers from now on. Which mean we have a lot of gossip to catch up to… and reminds me of something."
"Somehow I am dreading this already."
"Our names."
…
"Pops, did you use the Rinnegan to google for our names?"
"… I don't know what google means."
"You fucking did it! The power to witness the Whole of Samsara, all three million worlds, and you use it for that. In the end of the day you really are just as bad as Megumi!"
"I had a lot of things going on and was kind of busy, dying. Why don't you experiment coming up with nine names from the top of your head?"
"Please, don't mention my deepest nightmares so casually, if you would? The rate Megumi is going I might just wake up one day to The Nine Muses. Wait, why are you smiling?"
"Because, Hades, Lord of the Underworld, I just 'googled' your future and it is hopelessly grim. It seems I am not the only one feed up with that attitude of yours. Something about 'getting rid of this V card' and 'big titty goth girlfriend'. A true gothic ballad worth of epics, my congratulation son."
"MEGUMI!"
-//-
[Zeus, the Holy Tyrant]
"For all that it is worth, I am sorry Megumi." Lady Shima laments in our parting.
"Yeah, me too." I answer just as drained. So much for peaceful resolution.
Through my entire life prophecies have been nothing more than fairy tales, plot devices from stories and bad excuses to move plots certain directions. I intellectually knew that at some point in time they were seen with reverence by both mighty kings and beggar alike. Leonida's last stand in the Battle of Thermopylae was decided on an Oracle's counsel, that is how impactful such things had been. In a sense, whether they are horn or ivory is insubstantial when compared to its real power.
Hope.
Why did Hope reside at the bottom of Pandora's Pithos? Was it so even when faced with a world full of evils and curses people had the strength to forge ahead or was it a crucifixion nail, ensuring that death doesn't come too quickly? That the afflicted would stubbornly march on out of their own volition? A cruelty of cruelties, drop that embitter every bitterness further still.
Gu (蛊), the traditional preparation that involved sealing several venomous creatures (e.g., centipede, snake, scorpion) inside a closed container, where they devoured one another and allegedly concentrated their toxins into a single survivor, whose body would be fed upon by larvae until consumed. The last surviving larva held the complex poison.
Regardless, what matters is that this thing is now out of the box. It would have been impossible for me to hide it and as far as everybody is concerned, that prophecy is a fact of life to this new Silver Age. Zeus is the King and he will be so until a son that might not even been born yet rises to replace him.
That puts to rest the matter of legitimacy at the very least, mine is the divine line of kings. Those bearing animosity toward me had to confront not only overwhelming power but the yoke of fate. Resistance was futile… direct resistance, that is.
Which bring us to today. A king can be as grand as he is kind, but the office comes with some implicit necessities and responsibility. Clemency to valorous vanquished enemies is magnanimous, meekness in the face of conspiracy and trickery? Not so much.
You will often scream in pain and sorrow, for Zeus' heart is pitilessly harsh, and everyone whose ruling power is new is cruel and ruthless.
Politics in the Animal Kingdom are as cut throat as one would expect. If I had met Jiraiya just moments later then the entirety of the Toad Clan would have been implicated. As it is, only the seer Gamamaru and Sage Fukasaku knew of it… and he tried to keep it to himself, like a hidden dagger.
While the old oracle is senile and demented beyond question, Fukasaku's doesn't have any excuse. As things stand, my only option to prevent bloodshed today was with the promise of bloodshed in the future. I very much meant every work I told Jiraiya and as their favored child, the Toad Clan will share his fate.
Should I catch the smallest hint of treachery Mount Myōboku will become the hunting ground of my ravenous winged rounds, my eagles. and as I demonstrated, nothing gets pass Zeus's notice for long.
Proudly seating over my shoulder, The Great Tengu of Mount Kurama, Kiichi Hōgen, elder of the Eagle Clan looks down at Shima with open cruelty, as if she was a full course meal he wanted to take his time tearing apart and savoring, one beating organ at time while she screams.
This isn't the kind of audacity I intended to indulge, but this fiasco burned any bridge I ever could have with the toads. Even if most clans already bend their knee and signed allegiance to Olympus, I needed an unconditional ally in my corner among the animal clans.
The Uchiha traditionally held contract with bird clans, the hawks being their most prominent among them. Said that, they aren't the only ones. The raves, crows also count among their numbers. But by far and away the less remembered are the eagles, and for good reason.
Creatures of pride and hubris on feathers, the eagles are as powerful as they are aloof. Animal clans get involved with shinobi policies because they have to, as they still live in the same world, so having the backing of ninjas as a subcontractor is a tradition that predate the existence of Hidden Villages.
While they only ever made pacts with member of the Uchiha clan, they are infamous for having plucked out more than their fair share of sharingan eyes for perceived slights.
The last holder of the Eagle contract was Tsubasa Uchiha, my mother.
The Eagle Clan of Mount Kurama are said to be endowed with oracular properties like the toads, are immune to being struck by lightning and protected from hail and, as messenger of Heaven, are heralds of victory.
They are infamous for only making contract with young children, and even then, they only raise the young who could look at the sun directly without their eyes watering. Raising their contractors as their own.
To a black sheep like my mother, they were the closest thing to a stented family. Kiichi Hōgen toke her in the same way the toads' toke Jiraiya. He foretold her destiny, as a spark that one day could create an unstoppable gale that would sweep the world over. He loved her from the bottom of his desiccated black heart like she was his own chick and now he experiences nothing but bittersweet triumph today.
His dedication and loyalty are beyond question, as far as he is concerned, I am part of the Eagle clan from the moment I was born. The last vestige of a loved child. I also need his wisdom and tutelage; Sage Arts have been a constant torn in my side that I need to rectify by learning myself. With his support I can keep a presence so that an unexpected turn like Enma's meddling doesn't happen a second time.
Plus, he is sensible enough to not gloat. His aura of smugness is already bad enough, having dethroned the Toads on the fate-fu department and being granted royal status as the bearers of Zeus personal contract.
It least I didn't have to kill anyone today. let's see if I can keep things this way.
"Goodbye, Shima-ba. For everything that it was worth, you do hold my respect. Let's pray we never have to meet again, for your own sake if nothing else."
"I promise to take good care of your boy wherever Jiraiya bring him over, ok?"
"… thank you. This actually mean something coming from you."
"Megumi, you have much work ahead of you, don't waste time on the morsel. The restoration of Land of Wind alone is a priority due to the Gelel Manse." Kiichi Hōgen cuts in while sinking his claws on my flesh, an unconscious habit I would have answered with violence hadn't this being the same careless way he spoke to my own mother. He is filling the role of tutor seriously at the very least, plus he is right about me taking care of loose ends. Sparing the toads is a risk, no matter how you posture it.
He understands too, my true aspirations.
With the power of Karma I can build a galactic empire. While I hold no illusions about Utopia, this is still the answer I had been searching for since Kurama first put his idea forward. More than the issues of personal power, Karma is the perfect foundation for the construction of a Perpetual Heavenly Bureaucracy capable of addressing issues of Cosmic Sociology. Something a short lived and empire comprised of mortal bureaucrats could never manage for more than a few centuries.
Cosmic Sociology is comprised of two axions; first: survival is the primary need of civilization. Second: civilization continuously grown and expands, but the total matter in the universe remains constant.
Kaguya Otsutsuki proved that. The answer why the universe is a Dark Forest.
It all comes down to chakra. The open galaxy beyond a habitable planet's biosphere is so hostile even Otsutsuki wouldn't dare to spend too long there, let alone harvest anything there. The meteorite Sasori brought to me proved that.
I can now survive- more like not die instantly, in a stroll on the outer atmosphere while exposed to cosmic radiation thanks to the adaptation powers of my Celestial Noon Stigmata, but even then, it would be a close thing. Just as miserable experience as my stay in the Gelel Manse.
Cosmic Radiation is the raw Breath of Life of the celestial bodies, so it is far easier to get chakra after it has been settled into natural energy (mana) inside a planet. Otsutsuki are a planet devouring species. I am not sure how this relate to their life circle and reproduction but I am Otsutsuki enough to understand the instinctive level of disdain one would hold for all native lifeforms lesser to itself.
This is scary implication because that show Otsutsuki also bear some level capacity for social instinct, which naturally leads to social relationship and structures.
Kaguya already seems scary enough. Do I really want to tangle with other Otsutsuki, all bearing their own agendas and beliefs?
Worse still, Kaguya's behavior seems… erratic. Having children then fearing them to the point of searching their death. While the existence of other Otsutsuki seems almost guaranteed I have doubts she is the standard of her kind.
Which brings the second greatest problem of Cosmic Sociology. While society as a whole can be predicted, a single individual is not so easily predicted. This becomes downright unacceptable risk when a civilization's life is on the line. A single nihilist person could condemn an entire society given the chance or enouth power, especially in this deadly game of hide and search.
Hell, I don't even know if there are worse things out there than those Otsutsuki! Who is to say the world is not full of Lovecraftian horrors and galactic kaijus like Type-Moon's Oort Spider, Umbral Star and Crimson Moon or Galactus? The existence of chakra ghost alone opens the window to entities akin to the Ruinous Powers. I have no intention to tangle with Chaos Gods until the heat death of the universe.
Having Trust is like being lost in the Sea of Stars. There really is no end to it.
That is why Karma is such a silver bullet.
While not perfect, Ninshu is the best answer to the Chain of Suspicion. While its use in a cosmic scale is a fantasy, the Chain of Suspicion inside a planet cannot reach beyond more than two or four levels. Well within the parameters Ninshu can solve. As for the stubborn ones that refuse to fall in line… this is not a game. The right and freedom to put the world in jeopardy is very much off the tablet!
Well, every task is burdensome, except to rule the gods. No one is truly free except for Zeus.
The greatest power of my Karma is its fecundity. As the King of Gods, Zeus Karma serve as the keystone of Olympus, the liberator of the gods, allowing for the creation of subsidiary Karma marks much like Shard entities reproduce by creating Buds.
The hard cap of twelve Olympic Karma marks is more like a safety feature than limitation. Even if one among us were to die, the Karma would be passed on to a compatible bearer among my Sacred Crests offspring. There will always be 12 Olympians.
Plus, as the keystone and King I have the administrative privilege of shutting down an Olympic Karma much like Zeus himself was capable of temporarily striping his fellows from their godhood.
This is a safety feature I share with Kurama's Hades Karma, since we share in the King Archetype. A second layer of security that is absolutely necessary due to the powers involved. The power of the Olympic Karmas are very much alike to Celestial Exaltation Shards in world shattering capacity.
Every single one is a simulacrum of my own Karma, set to different Archetypes. This mean all Olympians would be set to equivalent weight of existence while set in different specialties and bearing different Divine Authority [Shinjutsu] depending on the Archetypes of the respective god.
If a kage level shinobi can be liked to an epic level character from D&D, set between level 21 to 30, then in that scale, Zeus would be a level 90 Paladin… Hades a level 90 Necromancer, Poseidon a level 90 Barbarian, Ares a level 90 Fighter, Hermes a level 90 Rogue, etc.
This is the level of power capable of shattering the world apart as an afterthought if turned upon itself. Olympus power is meant to protect the world, not destroy it. A perpetual Heaven Bureaucracy that administer and oversee the planet's future.
This is the Ideology of Hagoromo manifested. Kurama and myself will never be more powerful than we are right now, but that is ok. We are no longer alone in this fight. Chakra should not be left to stagnate in a single set of hands, the bond of 'cooperation' is the golden path. A virtuous circle that bind all together. Even the mortal bearers of my blood and Sacred Crest will be able to channel the powers of the gods themselves, even if only to the smallest of degrees.
That is my answer as Zeus, King of Olympus.
That said, mortals will be free to live as they choose though. I have no interest in managing their lives, unless they threaten the world itself. I am already showering them with enough blessings for them to want for nothing, though I know better than expect much. Humans are made for trouble, if given paradise the first things they would do is ruin it, just to prove they are free. That they are not a piano key but a people with agency.
Wasn't that the plot of the Atlantic Lostbelt? Yeah, really not making that mistake again. Best to leave it to Hades to sort the lot in the underworld, it was always meant to be a place of trial anyway. I already have my hands full preparing to fight Cthulhu… which kind of happened once already? I am the literal King of the World; how come I have lost control of my life?
Anyway, with my powerbase more or less assembled, next come my master plan.
What a civilization needs are energy and concealment to survive. I have a plan to give this planet both of those things in spades but I don't have the right tools to make it reality. Fortunately, I am no longer on my own. Sasori and Nono successfully exalted with Hephaestus and Herademeter karmas. Ever since then Kurama and me have being pushing as much of our spare power their way to accelerate their maturation and now things are in motion.
The integrated nature of our karmas mean we can synchronize our Divine Authorities over each other extremely easily. My Right Order Shinjutsu will be the foundation which the two of them will raise the Tree of Emptiness using Goetia as a medium.
I call it the Tree of Emptiness Project-
Kiichi Hōgen call my attention in the special way of his, sinking his claws until drops of golden ichor stain my fabric.
I turn to him unamused yet the old bastard just swings his head toward the window. What? How in the world- no, if anything, he is the most qualified person to sneak pass me.
I reached out and grab the veil of ether concealing Kabuto, revealing him to the open. "Young man, you are in so much trouble!"
Kabuto tried to gesticulate something, but being caught red handed seems to have frozen him on the spot… he is still thirteen years old and his behavior is both, typical for his age and a consummated pattern. What make it MY problem is the quicksilver karma mark dancing across the entire left side of his body.
When the fuck did this happens? No, to begin with I don't fully understand the mechanics behind the Karma Stigmata either. While I was able to anoint Sasori and Nono easily enough, there was a clear compatibility too good to be true, as if my own fate as Zeus set or paths to cross so they could be born. The Holy Ghost of each karma want to be born, so as long as there is a compatible host… does the process can happen automatically?
"Congratulations are in order, my king." Kiichi Hōgen speaks, voice full of mirth. "A new prince of the Earth has been born today. I believe this one is supposed to be Hermes, he certainly fit the bill."
At the Tengu careless words, Kabuto entire body freezes up like a statue. Fuck! Of course, he already heard about that stupid prophecy as well! This is like the replay of the worse day of his life all over again.
That is why I fucking hate prophecies!
Hermes isn't the fastest Olympian god, that title actually belong to Ares. Hermes is a psychopomp, there is nowhere he can't get to, be it the underworld to the inner world of Olympus that only exists inside my soul. As the foremost trickster god, if he bolts, I will never be able to catch him.
That is why before he recovers his bearing, I closed the gap between us and embraced him with everything I had, my pneuma included. "Don't you dare run away! And don't you dare believing fiddle-faddle either! I already broke Fate before and will do so again as many times as necessary. Do you understand me?"
"B-but-
"No buts! I will never regret saving either of you that day! We have been family already ever since that day. Nono is my sister in both flesh and spirit… and now you are my son in much the same way. And family stick together, Kabuto. I won't let the mad ramblings of an obese frog with one foot in the grave be the destruction of my family!"
…
"Do you understand me?"
Kabuto nodes meekly.
"I want you to say it."
"I-I understand." He relent while flush with so many emotions he cans scarcely pin them down.
"Good. I kind want to ask how you got here… but the answer is self-evident. And considering leaving you to your own devices is invite more trouble you are tagging along."
"Really?" The boy asks excitedly. He is been really restless since forever so I sort of saw this coming.
I sign in defeat. "You might not be an adult yet, but you aren't a little kid either. It is keeping you in sight or have Sasori making some adamantine chains to pin you down. Besides, I wouldn't be so happy if I were you." I smile in the vindictive way only parents can pull off, "Nono will be the one to decide your punishment latter on."
Kabuto face crumbled in terror at the realization. I sort of sympathized… Nono has taken to her Karma a little bit too well. She is Hera and Demeter, bearing the full power of an Earth Mother Goddess, and their especial brand of cray-cray. She actually scary me to the point of me counting this as another advantage in favor of the whole 'being born a chick' thing.
Single life for me, baby!
-//-
[The World Quaker]
"Good job, Kisame. I figured he would let his guard down around you and I was right. Now the great sword Samehada is yours and you will work for me." The fourth Water Shadow's voice gloated from the darkness at the manifestation of its perverse design.
"Until you make me disappear, yodaime Mizukage-sama." I answer with a smile full of teeth, a show of aggression to the petty and avaricious monster that control the Blood Mist.
"I can trust a man like you. It is precisely because you have done many dirty deeds for your village and country, completed many betrayal missions… you know this world hold nothing but lies."
Deception. Sophistry. Falsehoods. Throughout Kisame Hoshigaki's life, lies have been the perpetual constant, tainting everything like iron bitter bloodstains… until the day he met something genuinely True.
No, he was the one found, and from that moment on it was too late for him.
Truth sets one free? Ridiculous! The Truth burns. It burns until only what is worth of it is left behind, if nothing at all. It is cruel and uncompromising, careless and contemptuous. It is so bright one is blinded by looking at it, it is so cutting one is flayed by touching it.
Once upon a time, Kisame thought himself a false existence. He misses those days sometimes. There is scarcely anything left of him and the only consolation he has to show for it is that what remains is true.
"I am a mist ninja yet I kill mist ninja… there is no place for me in the Mist Village. There has never been one from the very beginning. What can I do? Where can I go to settle down?" Kisame intone aloud the curse of his old existence. He wasn't the one that was fake, from the beginning this whole place was the deception. A worthless country… Zabuza was right.
"I will free you from the pain of falsehood. I will make a place for you." The new voice intones from behind the Yagura, the true puppet master and ruler of the cesspool called Village Hidden in the Mist.
Of all the thoughts crossing Kisame's mind the one that jumped to the forefront was that:
LIAR!
The thought came unbidden from so deep inside his soul he was forced to seize up, to not act upon the furry and rebuttal flooding his senses and overwhelming his reason.
The deceiver continues on talking, oblivious to Kisame's turmoil or misunderstanding it. What jumps to Kisame's mind is the sharingan glowing ominously in the dark. The pieces fall into place.
"This world is indeed nothing but lies…" Those are Kisame last words before he gives in to the furry building inside his heart.
The carp perform the final leap of faith and cross the Dragon Gate.
It was like the open sea under the night sky, a limitless body of water as a heavenly mirror to the cosmos. As deep and cavernous as the bay between stars, as bone shilling as the abyssal deep where no light can reach.
It was also churning, a deep current capable of grind the world to dust with its sheer weight and ferocity. The surface heavenly mirror is a bulwark of drowsiness keeping this world in check… until it wasn't.
Kisame knew what broke the spell. It had been its name.
It came unbidden, unprompted and unexpected.
No… that is not true, it is not the Truth.
He had been searching it.
He scoured every corner of his worthless soul for something like this.
Something with significance, something that could not be marred by lies.
That is when he found it… or it found him.
At this point, it doesn't make a difference. That is the Truth.
POSEIDON
The world in Kisame mind's eyes exploded from his soul into reality. Power so vast and deep one might as well call it unending. It was too much weight for the world itself to bear, so it broke under it. The water mist was pressed down into an unstoppable gale as the current of power make the sky itself scream.
Earthquakes and storms. Just by being there, present in the real world instead of consigned to the imaginary.
That much power should have torn him apart yet it refuses to let go, it clung to his being, making itself home. His frame bulked and expanded, muscles and bones increasing as if they could hold the sea itself in a human frame.
Electric blue tattoos dance across the left side of his body, being crowned with a single straight horn made of Opal gemstone. The power behind the mark doesn't seem satisfied with that much alone thought and the patterns take over the entire body, manifesting a second dragon horn.
Blue skin hardens and turn into scales, nails turn into cruel clans, bones of feet turn to digitigrade like a quadruped hind leg, his hair and beard grown freely and wild and a long tails manifest from his coccyx.
Kisame went from a shark-man to a legitimate Dragon-man. There was only one name in his mind to his new standing.
POSEIDON MODE.
The second thing he noticed was the spike covered mountain rolling his direction.
With a lifetime worth of sword fighting skill honed by whatever divine power saw to grant him favor, Kisame swung Samehada for the first time. The sword that once was bigger than himself now stretched itself to the limit to become a club worth of his stature. Its legendary hunger could be felt as a barely perceptible currency draining the unending sea of his power.
Kisame swing Samehada as if it would be his last time, putting in it all his furry, his lifelong regrets while screaming in defiance to the heavens.
It was like the world itself was rented asunder.
Kisame watched in disbelief as the Three-Tails is sent at terminal velocity to the now open sky of the Mist Village. The Three-Tails was light too. Much too light for a titanic monster of its size. More than that, the veil of mist that perpetually shrouded his hometown was gone, as if disperse by an angry god, revealing bright daylight of noon.
Kisame looked down and crossed eyes with the masked man responsible for this charade and came to himself that he was said angry god.
Poseidon started marching forward, Yagura was already dying, he could literally see it with his eyes, somehow. By the time he hit the ground his broken body would simply succumb to his injuries.
The masked man tried to use his sharingan to subjugate him, Poseidon noticed. A filth mucky thing, like tar trying to force itself against his awareness. It was met with a tsunami of furry, washing it away like the dirt it was.
Poseidon closed the distance between them and brought Samehada down a second time and the very foundation of Hidden Mist broke, the island was literally split in half with his second careless display of overwhelming power.
The cheeky little deceiver dared to be unharmed, somehow phasing through his attack like a ghost. He then proceeded to try to drag him down the hole inside his eye leading to what the current revealed to him, being his personal little slice of purgatory.
Pathetic. It was like watching a retarded child trying to suck the sea dry with a bucket. Poseidon stood undeterred and unamused at the masked man's attempt.
At the very least this gave him the insight behind the intangibility little trick. He unleashed his chakra- pneuma like a tsunami, manifesting an aura of deep-sea pressure, bringing the weight of his existence to bear against him.
The single moment of exposure to his aura was ruinous to the stranger, his extremities were crushed into useless meat and his very life was almost taken. He saved himself by reusing intangibility but he was helpless now.
Poseidon smiled cruelly at the helpless man that was the hidden master of this place just moments before. He could take his time, let the man exhaust his strength and chakra. It would be like death by downing, something he certainly deserves.
Yet, he found he didn't have the temper to wait. Plus, the fear and pain of the man was like honey and blood to his tongue. He wanted to taste the surprise and despair as his perfect defense was stripped from him.
With his free hand, Poseidon seized the masked man's head between his fingers like it was an orange. With the same overbearing weight, he used to crush his opposition, Poseidon crushed and bended the very rules of nature until the uncertain existence of the masked man was confirmed in his grip. This was within his Authority as bearer of the Wanderer Archetype, he instinctively knew.
Poseidon enjoy the masked man manic desperation the same way a fisherman take satisfaction in wild trashing of his recent catch. Then he crushed that presumptuous head like an overly rip fruit.
Then the sounds of applause followed. "Well, that is what I call a bombastic first impression. You even went full god mode straight out of the gate too! Are you perhaps a genius, brother?"
"More like an idiot savant. I knew fully maturing Poseidon's Karma was a bad idea. We should have let him easy his way to his new station slowly. Look at the mess he made!"
"Why do you always have to be so grumpy? We are 'The Big Three', the towering pillars of Olympus itself, of course he gets priority! Otherwise it would make us look bad if he struggles even a little bit against mortals… or is it that you are jealous? Since for the longest time you have been my only older brother."
"Ha, your arrogant tongue is only matched by your overinflated sense of self-worth! I have more siblings than finger now, you are not that especial."
"A tsudere as always- oh, I figured it all! You are frustrated Poseidon stole your thunder! After all the trouble you went through to cajole Kokuo and Saiken into infiltrating this dump just to being reduced to the support role of rescuing crew."
"… that pun was terrible."
"Ha, I totally nailed."
The two strangers chatted amiable as if he wasn't a treat to them at all. No, they weren't strangers at all, despite the aura of opaqueness around the masked one, the twin shard of heaven they had for eyes were unmistakable. The divinity that set his course in motion.
More than that, Kisame realized now that he knew its name as surely as he of his new one… and that they indeed were family. They came here to welcome him home.
He wasn't alone anymore. He found the place where he belonged.
"ke ke ke, he he he, HO HO HO!"
"You certainly are in a good mode. Can you answer my question now, Kisame? What is Truth?"
"Truth is whatever a man has to find out for himself with his own eyes alone." Poseidon uttered with the same weight he carried in all things. That was his answer.
"Now that is a truth worth a good laugh, straight out of the gut!" The Heavenly Sentinel comment while casually leaning their weight over the Shadow of Death like the petulant hunt she was and would always be. "We do have cause to celebrate too! You did a great job today, brother. That man was a dangerous rebel playing with forces that threaten the world itself. Now that Hades has his soul, we can track down that stupid statue and wrap up this business."
"… now that you mentioned it. It is strange, his soul should already be in my possession. Mortals don't normally survive decapitation." The Shadow of Death mention, causing three sets of eyes, each endowed with heavenly principles of their own toward the fleeing form of the Hell's rebel.
Their divine awareness only sharpened the outrage of the once and future lords of creation. A reality manipulation jutsu of the highest order was preemptively used by the masked man in his final moments, allowing him to reject ordained death. From there he played possum until the opportunity to scape presented itself.
Between Heaven and Earth, some truths are universal. Every time mortals trick the divine retribution will follow.
"MOTHER-
"BASTAR-
"SON-OF-
Sonner or latter, that is. Today, Obito Uchiha escaped to die another day.
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
And here you thought Megumi wouldn't be part of a tree members team, didn't you? That is all part of her secret strategy to take down Kaguya. It is called:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N1wsTCdnmI
Meguni is being her typical Otsutsuki Zeus, which isn't that different from the regular one. Odin has got nothing on him, Zeus as being the master of keikakkus from Titanomachy, Pandora's Box, to Trojan war. People forget that because… well, he is Zeus.
By the way, I am not even going to pretend Kisame/Poseidon isn't Kaido. While Megumi herself never went full tilt since ascending, the nature of her power is well established. It was more interesting to show how unique each god Karma would be. Hades is full of tricks of his own as well.
Now that the heavy hiters of Olympus are assembled and two of its best support units are more or less online, Olympus is now acting on the open… plus Kabuto and Naruto as mascots. Hermes and Apollo karma are still mostly immature, not that different from Boruto's and Kawaki.
I will make an entry explaining the mechanics behind the Olympic Karma seals.
So yeah, there is no way to sugarcoat it, Obito is turbo screwed. Not only he personally aggrieved every single one of the Big Three, by assaulting Naruto in his cradle, mind controlling Kurama and turning Mist into a cesspool, he now pulled a woe right under their nose. He has set himself to be the Sisyphus of the Naruto world. There will be no 'he was a great guy' this time.
This saved the Moon Eye Plan though, and he now know the kind of opposition he is facing, for all the guy's fault he had the personal power to capture all Tailed Beasts on his own in canon, he was just too lazy before.
Now that he has the hounds of hell biting at his heel's things are escalating quickly. He will have to review the whole "never your ally" with Madara, because it became clear he can't pull that plan alone anymore. Which is 'good' for Madara because his plan was stupid and only worked because Black Zetsu was doing double duty to see it through.
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Nice chapter, the olympians gather! Thanks for the update
- Location
- Brazil
thanks, the tongue really is the whip of the body. Already corrected, every little helps.
If Megumi and friends are taking up the mantle of the olympian gods, are the Titans supposed to be the other Otsutsuki that are around the planet, like Kaguya and Isshiki? If the Toads were able to harness the legend of Zeus to create a prophecy of her demise, would Kaguya and Company be able to mantle the titans to get some sort of power boost (even if it would be idiotic, what with their fate of being defeated).
The Karmic Principle
- Location
- Brazil
I just realized today that we reached the 220k mark, so a small refresher seems in order even though Fate and Karma have been a central topic of this tory since the beginning.
For short, Fate is as real, concrete and mysterious as gravity itself. It is the Principle of Causality we call Karma: A is followed by B that is succeeded by C, atc.
Zeus is, in a sense, the God of Fate itself and Justice, this manifest as the Rikugan's 5th power, "Divine eye" (dibba-cakkhu), that is, knowing others' karmic destinations.
The same way a person can build a plane and fly against gravity, Fate too can be challenged. The thing is that every action generates a reaction. This is as true in metaphysics as material reality. Megumi was disrupting the current of thousand of years of karma so the powers that be pushed back. It tokes Kurama everything to push back and he only succeeded because he was himself.
Megumi heavily suspect the situation around Otsutsuki people of the Moon played out the way it did because Fate was trying to 'soften her up' to be more easily taken down. In Naruto, mindset is fundamentally tied to mental power amps as half of chakra is spiritual energy. She could have solved thing peacefully with the Moon Otsutsuki main branch if she hadn't been distracted by the Gelel Mine.
She sees the prophecy the same way. It is the other way around; Zeus isn't destined to be overthrow because he is King but because he is the bearer of the King archetype, he is bond to the Dark Tyrant, the King's bipolar shadow. This is the destiny of every king because everything ends.
She is gender savvy to see it as a Krato's finger trap. Fate is taking the easiest route to defeat her by attacking her new godly weak spot. That is because it would offer the least resistance. That happened because she challenged the ordained fate of the world. Her battle against fate is very much a uphill struggle full of pitfalls.
As Ishikki explained, even him is bond by this. In a sense, the Otsutsuki final goal is to transcend the boundaries of the world's frame by ascending to a higher existence.
Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Did you...did you just turn the fucking Sage of Six Paths into a shitlord?
- Location
- Brazil
Remember how the Sage adjusted his speech patern to Naruto's liking? That was something like that, he just delivered to Kurama Megumi's future words. Zeus had been the one to set up Persephone and Hades's betrothal and Kurama had been having too much fun trolling her. This was his hubris twice repaid. Megumi has decided to find him a girlfriend and Hagoromo decided to get back at him by spoiling this little surprise.
The twelve Olympic Karmas
- Location
- Brazil
The twelve Olympic Karmas.
Divinity is tied to the frame of the Archetypes, while the Divine exists in Mystery its dancing shadow can be witness through every tale worth remembering. Humans are not born a tabula rasa but the image and semblance to the Divine, their life and belief capture its essence, even if only to the smallest of degrees.
God lives within you. To be man is to be part god and part beast, to have the head in the clouds and the feet in the dirt. The Karma Stigmata is the end conclusion of that idea.
Plato's theory of the tripartite soul, the Holy Trinity manifested confluence of spirit, reason and appetite. The Father (Archetype), the Holy Ghost (Symbol=God), and the Son (transient mortal vessel).
A virtuous circuit leading all the way to heaven itself, and the definition of Virtue proposed by Socrates is a Golden Road between excess and deficit of a quality. All tree parts must work in harmony for proper manifestation. It is a path all must walk willing or not at all, whether they are aware of it or not is insignificant.
The result remains constant, Megumi as Alpha and Zeus as Omega. This shaped what followed, the Karma of Zeus was the frame used to bring about the entire Pantheon. The twelve main Archetypes, framed by the lens of his Karma. This colored everything that followed in the Hellenistic pantheon and its Ethos.
Maybe this was caused by the 4th power of the Rikugan, "Remember one's former abodes" (pubbe-nivāsanussati), causal memory, that is, recalling one's own past lives. These memories tainted Megumi's mindset with past biases, leading her to gravitate to the most compatible god to her own personality.
Each Hellenic God is a multifaced and layered existence. They bear a mighty Ethos that made them enduring while other pantheons were forgotten. Despite that, Megumi's Karma Stigmata is a too rigid frame, so concessions and compromises had to be made.
Instead of bearing a single Archetype, each Olympic Karma shares it with a single other Karma. Their numbers were also cut down to size, from 13~15 to hard number of 12. This means superfluous gods such as Hestia had their Authority dismembered inside Zeus's hospitality and Hera's family portfolios. As the Father and Mother, they bear the principle of safety of the Innocent Archetype, fostering it as their banner and with it, openness and faithfulness to find the best life has to offer. The Father creates the Garden of Eden and the Mother sees to it that the children grown well inside of it. Peacock/Nono's ascension was a matter of course.
The twin crowns of Hades and Zeus, one Chthonic(underground) and one Olympic(shinny) are bearers of the King Archetype. Poseidon exist in the middle as a God of Sea and Earth, he bears the Wanderer Archetype involved with self-discovery and defiance to social norms for the sake of one true self.
Both Hades and Poseidon bear the Everyman though, the desire to community and belong, being tempered by Zeus' Innocent Archetype. Kurama and Kisame fought their entire life against alienation from others and desired a place to call home and a family. Zeus's hospitality and irreverent sincerity manifested in Megumi's … unique personality is a balm to their soul.
These kind of relationships and Archetypes bind all Olympic Karmas.
Divinity is tied to the frame of the Archetypes, while the Divine exists in Mystery its dancing shadow can be witness through every tale worth remembering. Humans are not born a tabula rasa but the image and semblance to the Divine, their life and belief capture its essence, even if only to the smallest of degrees.
God lives within you. To be man is to be part god and part beast, to have the head in the clouds and the feet in the dirt. The Karma Stigmata is the end conclusion of that idea.
Plato's theory of the tripartite soul, the Holy Trinity manifested confluence of spirit, reason and appetite. The Father (Archetype), the Holy Ghost (Symbol=God), and the Son (transient mortal vessel).
A virtuous circuit leading all the way to heaven itself, and the definition of Virtue proposed by Socrates is a Golden Road between excess and deficit of a quality. All tree parts must work in harmony for proper manifestation. It is a path all must walk willing or not at all, whether they are aware of it or not is insignificant.
The result remains constant, Megumi as Alpha and Zeus as Omega. This shaped what followed, the Karma of Zeus was the frame used to bring about the entire Pantheon. The twelve main Archetypes, framed by the lens of his Karma. This colored everything that followed in the Hellenistic pantheon and its Ethos.
Maybe this was caused by the 4th power of the Rikugan, "Remember one's former abodes" (pubbe-nivāsanussati), causal memory, that is, recalling one's own past lives. These memories tainted Megumi's mindset with past biases, leading her to gravitate to the most compatible god to her own personality.
Each Hellenic God is a multifaced and layered existence. They bear a mighty Ethos that made them enduring while other pantheons were forgotten. Despite that, Megumi's Karma Stigmata is a too rigid frame, so concessions and compromises had to be made.
Instead of bearing a single Archetype, each Olympic Karma shares it with a single other Karma. Their numbers were also cut down to size, from 13~15 to hard number of 12. This means superfluous gods such as Hestia had their Authority dismembered inside Zeus's hospitality and Hera's family portfolios. As the Father and Mother, they bear the principle of safety of the Innocent Archetype, fostering it as their banner and with it, openness and faithfulness to find the best life has to offer. The Father creates the Garden of Eden and the Mother sees to it that the children grown well inside of it. Peacock/Nono's ascension was a matter of course.
The twin crowns of Hades and Zeus, one Chthonic(underground) and one Olympic(shinny) are bearers of the King Archetype. Poseidon exist in the middle as a God of Sea and Earth, he bears the Wanderer Archetype involved with self-discovery and defiance to social norms for the sake of one true self.
Both Hades and Poseidon bear the Everyman though, the desire to community and belong, being tempered by Zeus' Innocent Archetype. Kurama and Kisame fought their entire life against alienation from others and desired a place to call home and a family. Zeus's hospitality and irreverent sincerity manifested in Megumi's … unique personality is a balm to their soul.
These kind of relationships and Archetypes bind all Olympic Karmas.
- Zeus – KING & INNOCENT
- Herademeter – CAREGIVER & INNOCENT
- Poseidon – EVERYMAN & EXPLORER
- Hades – KING & EVERYMAN
- Aphrodite – LOVER & MAGICIAN
- Apollo – ARTIST & MAGICIAN
- Athena – HERO & SAGE
- Ares – HERO & OUTLAW
- Hephaestus – SAGE & ARTIST
- Hermes – JESTER & EXPLORER
- Dionysus – OUTLAW & LOVER
- Artemis – JESTER & CAREGIVER
Original Sin
- Location
- Brazil
I never thought a country could fall this quickly. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. This place WAS a dump. There are limits to mismanagement and the Masked Bastard fully intended to find what they were.
That Poseidon trashed the place with a transformation sequence and two blows was more of a mercy. Thank to my Right Order the power of my Staff Treasured Tool – Royal Scepter of Boreal Covenant – now operates in a global scale. This show how shrewd that sly fox Kurama truly is; with it I can easily shift the karmic principle in the favor of Olympus. Assets we would want to protect are less likely to be destroyed while those we won't mind ended are more likely to find themselves in our line of fire.
Through this power, mortal men can be famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as Zeus mandates dictate. For easily she make strong, and easily she bring the strong man low; easily she humble the proud and raise the obscure, and easily she straighten the crooked and blast the proud, -- She who thunder aloft and have my dwelling most high. Attend them with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness.
There are… moral implications about those things. By no means is friendly fire enabled as well, any Olympian could kill a city with careless easy if they truly tried, but this certainly make things easier. Even if the Masked Bastard was pulling the strings there are still too many that went along, just because it was easy, or fun to be a fucking animal!
The collective foul mood of the Big Three certainly drove home our displeasure with the place. Fortunately separating the chaff from the wheat was a job already half done, especially with some meddling from my Demon Gods. My mystery faith had long since infiltrated the Mist Village itself, the alure of personal power too tempting and loyalties too loose.
All they needed was a heads up their gods were in town and it was a wrap. One hundred querubins battling as a cinchonized fighting block armed with Qliphoth carapaces and arms simple tore through all resistance like a shoal of piranhas sweeping across the Mist Village.
The following castes, although in smaller numbers, capitalized beautifully. Serafins persuaded those they could into standing down or joining the cause, Ishins played support to their sibling caste wherever they could, Hashmalins rated out the vermin's I would never forgive and the Ofanin took control of the population to avoid casualties and chaos.
From there came the relief effort. While Sasori can kick my ass in all aspects of human endeavor now, as the bearer of Hephaestus Karma, the very Flame of Civilization, the special gift stolen by Prometheus, I still have the backing of my 72 Demon Gods. Building a city using Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees was trivial. This place has never looked better too.
Well, that was the very least we could do, really. One of those you break you buy it scenarios.
It all went down as well as it could… so how come this still taste like defeat?
That fucking Masked Bastard!
At least this meeting and the samples left behind were informative. At first, I thought the one responsible for the robbery of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had desecrated Hagoromo's body for his Rinnegan. Especially after finding out his brother's eyes still existed preserved in the Moon.
Thank you, God, such sacrilege didn't come to pass!... is it strange for me to keep saying those things? Whatever.
To begin with, as a Buddha, Hagoromo escaped Samsara through parinirvana(nirvana after death). That was why early Buddhism frowned upon depictions of Buddhas much like Islam does. This only changed after the Hellenization of Buddhism with its cult of form… sorry, I guess? The point is, I would bet my eyes he simple vanished like Anakin Skywalker in that horrible movie that should never be mentioned.
There is no Jojo race for the body of the Sage of Six Paths, so how did these jackasses get their hand on a Rinnegan? The produced it! Literally created one set of their own. The Masked Bastard has Hashirama cells up his fucking ass, maybe even his eyes are stolen or mass produced as well. Which means whoever is behind this has been trying to pull this off for a long time, for sure. This is a problem that predate the modern Hidden Villages.
A problem I would have pulled by the bud if a FUCKING MORTAL HADN'T GOTTEN THE BETTER OF ME!
Every action generates a reaction. Fate is not on my side here, this was a problem meant to be solved by the Child of Prophecy, and then came Zeus! This is a calamity meant to manifest as a global crisis and my intervention just meant the Fates want to at least take me down with it.
This whole Fate-fu thing is like the ultimate Jiu-jítsu between two anacondas, there seems to be no end as every roll is countered by a counter until fate itself become a death spiral of chaos outside anyone's control. But if the worse come to pass, I can at least make preparations to turn this incoming crisis into an opportunity. Zeus architected the Trojan War as a death trap to stop the warring factions of men from terrorizing the land. The current Villages System very much fit this bill. Or am I being the predictable one here?
What is clear is that I need to control the situation and just seating in my throne bending Fate in my favor isn't going to cut it. I also need to accept the possibility there some of my decisions will be turned into landmines by the Fates. I have to retrace my steps in search of it. Finally, I have to a total information blackout over the Land of Water. The news will definitely reach the other villages soon and there are good odds the Masked Bastard and whoever is pulling his string will try to use their panic against me.
I lost the element of surprise, time to fortify my defenses, assets and take care of any loose ends before they bite me in the ass and I already know where to start. It all comes down to the Otsutsuki and I have been seating on these leads for years now.
A family reunion where all cards are put on the tablet. I will find my answers in the Uchiha Stone Tablet.
-//-
αMegumiΩ: So, how is infiltration in Rain Village going?
The Galant: Kind of busy here at the moment. Don't you have anything better to do than distract me?
αMegumiΩ: I am stalling. Something came up and now I have another confrontation with my roots and pass. The basic, so I desperately want for some distraction to stall that.
The Galant: and talking with me is your idea of distraction?
αMegumiΩ: the animosity is mostly one sided from your way, anyway. And once again, I am sorry you have to pass through this… everything.
The Galant: you are sorry you didn't get everything you wanted. My interests and cooperation have very little to do with it. Anyway, Hanzo is dead. Nagato did him in and now Rain is his and Akatsuki's home base.
αMegumiΩ: Well, talk about moving up in life. I guess this is big new to you, you have a history with Hanzo if I am not mistaken.
The Galant: that is putting mildly. The place is like a kicked anthill right now. Do you know anything about it?
αMegumiΩ: I… might be partially responsible, yes.
The Galant: Me-, no. Zeus, what did you do?
αMegumiΩ: you know, this passive-aggressive attitude of yours isn't attractive at all! No wonder the rag never gave you the time of the day.
The Galant: what. Did. You. Do?
αMegumiΩ: that obvious eh? I caught the Masked Bastard that attacked Apollo in the cradle by the tail. He was being Shadow Mizukage by controlling Yagura with his Sharingan behind the scenes. Mist is totaled by the way, but the bastard escaped right between my fingers and is badly hurt.
The Galant:
αMegumiΩ: don't you dare give me the silent treatment Jiraiya! I may make it look easy but the bastard is bad news! You are already over your head with Nagato alone, even with intel. He is another lab project like Nagato, augmented with Hashirama cells. Do I have to remind you about the guy's healing factor?
The Galant:
αMegumiΩ: Jiraiya, I am serious here. Eat the damn ambrosia apple at the very least! It will give you a fighting chance.
The Galant: yeah, definitely not eating that one.
αMegumiΩ: I know everything related to you deceased teammate is a sore topic, especially considering my part in it, but it is safe. There are no hidden gotchas in it.
The Galant: and I am to believe you because you are giving me your word?
αMegumiΩ: yes, did you forget already? Zeus' mouth does not know how to utter something false. Everything I says will be fulfilled.
The Galant: nice of you to remind me why we aren't friends. Very well, I will consider it.
αMegumiΩ: see that you do. It would be lame for you to die offscreen like some chump after all that tough talk you put to me.
The Galant: somehow, I sense your priorities have put my life in second order in this business.
αMegumiΩ: aren't you just being paranoid?
The Galant: you aren't denying me though.
αMegumiΩ: are you really going to be an ass for the rest of forever now?
The Galant: are you going to hold Minato's soul under coal forever?
αMegumiΩ: that is unfair and you know it! It is out of my jurisdiction.
The Galant: what? Because you are trying to not be a tyrant? As I remember, you weren't dragged to the throne. You took it by force and nobody can pretend otherwise. If you really want something you will simply take it, and everybody else have to live with it.
αMegumiΩ: ass. See if I care when you croak!
The Galant: go have you family meeting, Megumi. Closure is not a luxury affordable to most.
I close up the chat window with a sign, the guy certainly knows how bring a girl down.
"That is not true at all!" Kabuto scream at my side, startling me out of my skin. Did he spy on my personal messages? How- right, this will get old really fast, to first go where he was never meant to reach, he needs first the power to see where he is not meant to look. That he can pass my Daemonic Firewall just show that he still a god at the end of the day. While I use the standard service all my angels enjoy, this is still a feat upon itself. And a problem, I keep my private stuff here… the kind no child wants to know about their parents. Ever.
Time to deliver some discipline, I grab Kabuto in an arm lock then suddenly start to hustle his hair with my other hand. "You do have a cute side after all, but should know better than to snoop on my personal business!" I preen him while continuing my ministration, much to his torment. We keep like this for some minutes, until I sort of get distracted and start to simple tickle him in a mock wrestling battle like I usually do with Apollo. Like my own father in the Before did to me.
Would Kotaro do the same to me had he lived? I would like to think so but I know better. Kotaro loved me as any father should yet he didn't know how to express it. No, that ability was something deliberately taken out of him by his own father. Because we are shinobi. That is what the Shinobi System is at the end of the day. It demands total subjugation of the self for the good of the System that exist only to perpetuate itself.
Jiraiya might be right, at the end of the day I am nothing but a tyrant. So what? At least I am not such a pathetic and insecure god as to obsessively count every strand of hair of my subjects for any signs of defiance!
At the end of the day, no matter how pretty ideals are, a lie remains a lie. At least I am not looking always from the truth of human nature! I am not the one bending humans in misshapen caricatures in the misplaced pursue of lofty ideals. Everybody has to content with the disparity between their dreams and their reality, even the gods. I have seen how the natives do and have not been impressed, the natural conclusion of their ideal is a rejection of the world itself.
Decadence.
Eventually our little game subsides as Kabuto flags down, resulting in a companionable silence as Kabuto uses all of his super spy training to pretends not enjoying cuddling with me. His embarrassment at being seeing through was really endearing too, audacious rascal! I guess there is truth It are the troublemakers we always get attached to the most before realizing it.
"I could do a better job than Jiraiya!" Kabuto complains before he can think better of it, he also seems to hate how petulant that sounded.
"That is true. I also would have sent you there as well had your Karma been fully matured too. So, why am I keeping you by my side instead?"
That answer stole the wind from his sails while at the same time stopping him cold. Yet he did not get to be chosen by the Hermes Karma by being slow on his feet. "is this about Fate too, then?" he inquires.
"It is funny, to mortals Fate might seem like an absolute and untrickable linchpin of Reality but in the end of the day it is just one among many Power that Be… and Power can always be countered by a Higher Power."
Kabuto puts the pieces together, "you think I am in danger. Me and Apollo, we are Higher Power as well, so the Fates would try to kill us before we reach our full potential." Hermes eyes lock with mine fiercely, "like it tried with you."
I only smiled, "and where Jiraiya comes in, then?" It was a long shot but Hermes is meant to be my herald and mouth piece, the labyrinth of mirrors he calls a mind should be capable to match mine own, anticipate my motives and expectations. Especially now, this might make the difference between life and death. Not only for him, but all of Olympus.
I haven't been cuddling him as Nono might, I am preparing him so he might survive any trial throw his way should anything get pass my Aegis. Whether I live or die is insignificant now, another Zeus will rise to replace me with the power of Karma. That is what meant to put one's trust in the future generation instead of using it as a rung to elevate oneself further.
"Jiraiya is a significant existence that has once almost killed you. He might still do so if indirectly if the prophecy plays out as the toads hope." Kabuto plays out with the right idea, teasing from it my intention. "yet you still managed to recruit him to our cause, to your own design. A situation where I might well get killed by the invisible hand of Fate would be more merciful to him… he is a maverick! You are using him to add chaos and unaccounted variables so he might reveal future dangers meant to threaten us!"
"You get full marks. In the end of the day, your life is worth more to me than his. Free hands are the devil's workshop, instead of letting him get back to Konoha I get more by throwing him at my problems. Turning a liability into a doubtful asset. This is especially true now, Hermes."
Calling by this name was the final push, it seems. He realizes he is most likely getting involved whether I want it or not and what I need from him. "Time is in our favor, with all twelve Olympians victory is a foregone conclusion, so the ordained future you crashed is now falling down on us!" From that dreadful realization he extrapolates to its likely end, as expected from a trickster god. "Things that were meant to happen are manifesting early on before they can be aborted. The time tablet of the world is accelerating… by about ten years?"
"The fact you can even puzzle out how far ahead we are talking show why you are just as big a treat as I, in your own way. Things are going to progress at a breakneck speed very soon. There is no one between Heaven and Earth that would dare to cross the name Zeus lightly. The Triumvirate of Olympus is an unstoppable force due to our synergy, allowing us to punch far above our weight class when working as one."
"So, the best strategy is dividing and conquer. Multidirectional attacks before more Olympians can join the frame." Kabuto concluded, a crude retaliation but spiteful enough to seem the most realistic and probable. We were the ones that put ourselves in collision course with the way of the world in the first place.
There is no shame in painful suffering inflicted by one enemy on another. So let Zeus hurl his twin-forked lightning bolts down on my head, convulse the air with thunder and frantic gusts of howling wind, and shake the earth with hurricanes until they shift the very roots of its foundations. Let him make the wildly surging sea waves mingle with the pathways of the heavenly stars, then lift my body up and fling it down to pitch black Tartarus, into the whirl of harsh Necessity. Let him do all that— he cannot make me die.
I serrate my hand into a fist, and Kabuto flinches at the background sound of thunder. Oh, do someone want to play catch the lightning bold with the big bad tyrant, do they? Does someone want to see Zeus at its worst? I will gladly show it to them. At the end of the day I actually hate these kinds of fights,
that is why I will always make a point to leaving perpetual reminders of the price of crossing me!
Enough of moping around, the gloves are off. If living to me epithet is the cost to save my family then so be it.
I stand up, Kabuto turns to me. "What are we doing now?"
"You will be tagging along Poseidon for a while, a small country trip across the Land of Water. To establish a new cultural paradigm, one needs first to uproot the old costumes and you two are bearers of the Wanderer Archetype, your Aletheia speak for itself in that regard." I kneel until we are at eye level. "Hermes, I Father Zeus command you to spread the good news of Olympus. That the age of strife will be nothing but a distant memory and the righteous will always be under the Aegis of my Justice."
"Understood! It will be done." My son answers full of conviction, my heart break just a little. This is War, the real deal. And the one responsible will be me.
"It is good that you are enthusiastic because I fear I will have to run you ragged in this last stretch. Hades has his hands full raising an army worth of Ragnarök. Any lost souls you find and send his way will raise our future fighting force, that is something you are well suited for as well."
Kabuto just nods in affirmation, eager to please. That he tries to hard just fill me with shame, the trusting nature of children is the reason child-soldiers are so popular in a world free of biological restraints. They are easy to indoctrinate and make fanatical followers.
This practice will end soon. Time to make good of my talk and walk the walk. I will be dragging this world out of its dark age into the light of civilization even if I have to pull it by the hair while it is kicking and screaming.
"I will return to Konoha, time to confront the ghosts of ancestors. If you find trouble, don't hesitate to run to either Kisame or Kurama. We don't need to be taking risks right now."
-//-
"Megumi, are you here?" Fugaku ask my name as he enter the hidden chamber of the Naka Shrine. The fact he wasn't that surprised by my sudden request speak volumes of the level of trust and rapport over the last two years… I wonder if this too, ends today.
Bonds are easy to make but hard to sever. I never intended to deceive anyone but I have been living a double life anyway… because that is how the world worked, because I was afraid what would happen to me if people realized I was special, because I had to protect Apollo.
Because it was convenient.
I can't go on like this anyway. If these relationships really meant to be anything, I have to put myself on the line and being sincere. He might reject my offer anyway but at least this will be a clean break. He deserves that much at least, as a courtesy to family. To know what is behind and ahead of us.
"I am already here, Fugaku-san." I call in my adult voice from behind him, without my mask of opaqueness.
He immediately falls back on his instincts and turn to me with his Mangekyō Sharingan blazing to live. Expected really, the voice of a mysterious woman inside his family sacred halls? This only make things more dramatic though.
Mangekyō Sharingan clashed with Rikugan and was rebutted, as all its dark enlightening is extinguished by my innate Knowledge of the Destruction of Defilements (Klesha). He stared in stunned silence at my form, especially my twin shards of heaven. Even if our nature differs, our root was undeniable the same, that interaction made it self-evident.
"I have been keeping some things from you, a lot of things happened and a lot more are about to happen too. I was born under the luck karma that allowed me to escape our family curse… this same karma binds me to confronting it now. So here I am now."
He looks at me up and down, "Well, I sort of saw something like this coming-
"wait, you have?" I cut his answer because I am a pile of nerves right now.
Fugaku looks at me in puzzlement, then answer in his typical way every time he has to deal with young hot-headed member of our family. "Your divine ears were a good enough hint; the fact you knew you were a Uchiha despite your abnormal chakra also hinted at some form of ocular power. Plus, you are a lousy liar, despite being quite shrewd and distrustful of strangers, once your guard is down you are quite easy to handle."
I collapse into a boneless squat with my arms stretched out and taking a breath to put this nausea down, that is good right? The knot on my stomach certainly think so.
"You really are Megumi, aren't you? It's kind of bad to know you will never get better at handle any kind of pressure." Fugaku comment lightly to himself, which kind of piss me off. Really, that is what you have to say here?
"You are taking it all with strides, good someone here is having fun!"
"Oh, I am freaked out. I am helpless here, that little exchange made this clear. Yet I am still alive and you even said you came here to make things clearer so I want to hear it."
"Right, it is called, well, more like I named it Rikugan. Six Supernatural Mysteries of Buddhism. The fundamental disciplines those in the pursue of Nirvana [HEAVEN] need to master." I expressed these hidden disciplines the best I could by using Ninshu connection to Fugaku.
"That is the first thing you care about? One would think the 4th power more concerning!" I almost cream at the man, how can him overlook the breaking point I have been dreading all this time?
He seems surprised by my outrage too, but then roll over my complain with his typical Uchiha stoic wall of austerity while things over my outrage, as if I was the one doing trick questions here.
"Right, I guess this makes sense. You have always acted childish but never thought yourself as a kid… I always overlooked this as a side effect of the rough up bring involved into raising Naruto as a genius and pariah of the Leaf," Fugaku now enter full detective mode. "The gods know I struggle just as much understanding Itachi, but having access to your past lives seems just as plausible some days with that boy, he acts more like an old man than me."
The way my body flinches at his statement immediately put Fugaku is alarm. "No way." He all but prays to me.
I turn my gaze to the stone tablet instead, driving home how serious this might get. Would I kill Itachi if his body were to be taken over by the Will of Hatred of Indra? That is part of the reason I have been dreading coming here. My life was much simpler before I realized Who the god-that-is-me was. No wonder Kurama figured it out when I made the Raiden Shogun Stigmata, this family is a nightmare.
Yet I don't want this sordid history to repeat itself. Indra and Zeus might be both tied to the same root but we still were our own persons. At the very least I would never curse my children the way he had. I want to break everyone free from his hold. Maybe this is the Zeus in me, but even if they grow to hate me for it, I can't condone of a body snatcher great founder his descendants like meat suits over a stupid family feud.
If Indra wanted to play family disputes so much then Zeus is more than happy to give him the Uranus especial. We are incompatible existences; he is the very origin of the curse the allowed me to manifest. The Uchiha have been hostages of his ambition for far too long. Our battle is about Justice and I am his Tribulation repaid.
The way Fugaku and me were staring at the stone tablet was ominous enough, a cloying silence that precited disaster. As clan leader and bearer of the Mangekyō Sharingan he is better informed about its content than most. It is clear he has a health fear for our family bloodline.
"It occurred to me, I never explained to you Tsubasa's situation, have I?" Fugaku says, turning my way with an inscrutable resolve in his bearing.
"I want to hear it! Please, Fugaku-san. Who really were my parents? Their actions, their decisions, the ideals they lived by and even the way they deiced on dying for my sake… They are the ones that brought me here, yet I don't know anything about them… I want to know who Megumi, daughter of Kotaro Shimura and Tsubasa Uchiha really is! I feel this is the most important answer anyone can ever give me."
"That make me really happy, Megumi." Fugaku answer in a rare display of tenderness. "You might be worried about my reaction to your previous allegiances but ever since I first laid eyes on you, staring in defiance at a hateful crown while using your body as a bulwark for Naruto, I could only see Tsubasa in you." For all that Fugaku only experienced true Ninshu once in his life, he showed himself more than capable to make it up with enthusiasm and love. I could picture Tsubasa in my minds' eyes as vividly as if I were meeting her in person.
T-those words, then… "you knew. About me, from the beginning?"
"For all the good it did." Fugaku answer in self-chastisement. "At the point you revealed yourself the best I could do was raising the prickest custody case in the history of the Leaf, forcing Sarutobi to take custody of you two in the best interest of the Leaf. A bitter victory."
"But that still protected me from grandfather." I pointed out automatically, it was a real solid considering he didn't get anything out of it. "And I meant about them two, you know those things personally."
Fugaku sign, bracing himself for what is to come.
"Like all clans and bearers of bloodlines, there are different family branches bearing their gift to a lesser or greater extend. Tsubase and me were cousins twice removed, both members of the Uchiha main branch, direct descendants of Uchiha Madara and Izuna."
I just stared at Fugaku, my uncle. His face was never so severe. "As the most gifted among our family in terms of pedigree we inevitable were especially aware of the nature of our bloodline. We saw in first person as children, how the power of Sharingan that everyone is so proud and envious of only hurt the bearers the most in the end."
Fugaku massages his tired pupils, and now that I look closely there is significant damage there. He is going blind. He understands personally the weight of this curse.
"I never thought this mattered, we were taught to think such price was well worth it. The power to protect those you love is just too valuable, I didn't care to lose my sight for it. Tsubasa disagreed, she thought the sharingan far worse than a double-edged sword, but the very root of our torment."
"Poison." I clarified, Fugaku only nodded.
"Yes. This brought irreconcilable disagreement between her and the rest of our family. We all wanted to protect the same thing… but everyone involved was so stupid and uncompromising!" The man fumes in what is obvious an old grudge about managing his mad house of a family.
"I take it things deteriorated."
"They did. Considering you already know who you father is then the rest is obvious. They both died the day the Kyubi attacked. Tsubasa was secretly living close with Kotaro by then. Nobody would have approved of their dalliance, it would generate outrage from every front, so they were laying low. Frankly, I thought they intended to defect at the earlier opportunity. Go somewhere nobody would reach them."
[MEGUMI-
[It is not your fault. Don't make me repeat that. Ever.]
"You knew all that, yet you let them be." I looked at the man that was my uncle.
"Tsubasa always said I was too soft to be the clan head, I guess she was right." Fugaku admitted without shame or regret, glad that I had been born in this world.
"Thank you, Uncle. You don't know how much this mean to me. For all that I keep discovering things about myself I keep on getting lost in it. You helped me remember what I have always know from the beginning." I say with as much sincerity I can gather from my heart and make itself evident with my Aletheia and Ninshu.
"And what is that?" he asks me with pride, liking what he helped bring into the world, no matter how secondary that role might have been.
"I had decided my Ninja Way for myself the day I met my Apollo. People are meant for Love, it is only Justice that I fight for it. Even if life is painful it can be worth it if one live with courage. That is what I want to give to this world." These words echo like the Bell of Providence inside my soul, bringing balance to my unsettled and rattled spirit. The sins I have committed, that are ahead of me, I can only bear them for be it as Zeus or Megumi I know who I am.
"Now I know who my enemies are as well." I turn back to the stone tablet, whatever truth I find there I won't let it decide my course of action anymore. "I will save our family from this curse, our story won't end in tragedy as long as I fight for it. Those that threaten that are my enemies."
My words are judgement as I draw the line in the sand that separate sacred and profane. This world is my Kingdom and readily respond to its King edict. No more hesitation, my will is adamant wrought and my power respond to it. I finally understand What being Zeus truly means, I might not be able to kill Indra but I can make him wish and pray for death that will never come.
"Time to pull the veil of ignorance, hatred and obsession and reveal the truth." I summon in hand my scepter. In the Gelel Mine I needed to pull every stop to divine the past of that Manse, now the command of Zeus alone is more than enough.
The Wheel turn back as the truth of the past is revealed.
-//-
The stone itself was originally unremarkable marble block, that is until the hand that carved it made it something especial, everlasting. A father's earnest love and concern drove every blow of the chisel, carefully and with precision of someone intending to create something everlasting. A frantic warning to all of his progeny, his hopes were that this record would shepherd them away from the path of ruin.
In it he recorded his own life struggle. A tragic tale of familicide driven by grim necessity. Of an unknowable entity born beyond the void of the starts that reached this planet in search of the Chakra Fruit of the Sacred Tree. It tells how she used the power from the fruit to achieve godhood and dominion over the planet and eventually enslaved all of its inhabitants, reducing them to batteries for more power. The heart of the sculptor is full of anguish as he reminded himself of his scarlet sin, the realization he would have to choose between the life of the planet or his own mad mother.
He was a righteous man, for he walked the world and learned to love it. This only made his choice more tragic as he was pitted between these two loves, condemned to forsake one for another. Yet choose he did, and with a broken heart filled to the bursting with black bile he stood his ground against his mother. And in his pain, he found the power to oppose her. The more he lost the stronger he became, until after years of fighting he eventually turned the tables on the Rabbit Goddess.
There wasn't much left of the world afterward, so he used the overwhelming and powerless caged chakra of the Divine Tree manifested spirit to breathe life to the battered planet. After finishing his dire great work, he dedicated his life to atonement. Atonement for himself and atonement for his mother as well. He took the burden of her sin upon his shoulders, in hope for some kind of piece of spirit for them both. Even after everything he would always love his mad mother.
Alas, the hope Hagoromo had when creating the stone tablet would not be manifested.
His son was a man consumed by ambition and will-to-power. Being born a special existence, he always existed alienated and severed from others. He considered his condition a gift that elevated him, as he became a man it became the core of his existence. Consequently, everything that threatened this was seen as treat to his very sense of identity.
An unfortunately condition for someone having a mostly well-adjusted younger and less obviously talented brother. To Indra every feather under his brother's cloak was slight against himself, something stolen from him. He saw himself as the true successor of their father and yet his brother's opposition hounded his every step. It was maddening enough to him that his cursed ocular power swelled and bloomed much like his father's once did.
Yet he could not overwhelm his brother let alone surpass their father. It became clear to him that his brothers bore something that was rightfully meant to be his. A missing piece that would allow him to become who he was meant to be. The supreme most powerful being in existence.
He carved this hint in the stone tablet in hopes to direct his future self. To a man so self-willed defeat was never an option, the question was only how far he was willing to go to see his self-appointed destiny manifested. Obviously, any morality or sense of shame had long since being discarded. No price was high enough, so he took the option with the most likelihood to see his dream fulfilled.
Using his prodigious talent in ninjutsu, Indra willingly discarded his own body in the hopes of goading his brother into doing the same, a trap designed to capture him in his design. They would forever reincarnate until he achieved his ultimate victory. Until then their descendants would bear this curse, exploiting the binding nature of chakra strengthened by the nature of blood ties, Indra would scout for those more receptible to his spirit and slowly poison their minds until they became all but a successor of his will.
Rather than a true and complete reincarnation it would be closer to Roa's immortality spell. This would make his brother less aware of his plans as well. Those are the limits Indra crossed to fulfil his ambition.
He was the greatest fool and a willing puppet. When he created his plan, he had already fallen to someone else's hidden design. Indra was haunted by a Demon. An impossible existence I only knew about because I commanded 72 such beings myself. Even familiarity did not stop the shill going up my spine at such existence, not one unbounded by my guiding will. This was a nightmare scenario for me already, especially with what followed.
Said demon was like a baboon perpetually stuck to Indra's back. Indra following successors were plain to not only the Rikugan but also to the Demon. He used the trap meant for Ashura to manipulate Indra himself, playwrighting a torrid tale that made Cain and Abel look like a mild family disagreement. He constantly edited the stone tablet to direct Indra's actions, using his blind thirst for power as harness, blinders and reigns which to command and direct him.
The same story repeat itself again and again, until eventually the last of Indra's successors, Uchiha Madara, confronts Shura successor, Senju Hashirama in front of the very same stone tablet. Both oblivious to their gleeful audience of a single laughing demon.
"So that is the truth." I intone mutely, Fugaku simple stare at the stone like it was death itself.
"Itachi…" his heart is seized with fear as he made the same connection to most likely victim of Indra's ambition, and with it any vestige of sympathy for Indra was ruthlessly crushed. Indra might be just another victim, manipulated as he had been, yet he still made the decision to harm his father, brother and children out of his own volition. He is just another name in my list.
"That is not going to happen." Those were my words as King of Olympus, as far as the world was concerned, they were Heavily Law, this sad tale ends here. "I will give Itachi the Ares Karma if I have to if worse comes to pass and Indra try to possess him. He is compatible enough; tough I admit this would still be a heavy burden."
My words push Fugaku out of his funk, the man is gearing up to a fight as old instincts take over, good.
"I need your help. I may be an atavism but it is clear in retrospect that the Olympian series of the Otsutsuki clan are still deviations from the original star entities. If we can be described as sweet fruits deprived of poison then the original strain is the very cultivation of it. As such while we Olympians possess Aletheia it only makes sense they would possess advanced means to conceal their presence… even from my Rikugan."
"That… thing, it is most likely a remnant of Kaguya. You can't track it down, but you know where it is most likely to go, here." Good thing about Fugaku is that he is always quickly on the uptake. "You want me to capture it?"
"That thing will never let its guard down around me, and even if I defeat Indra, it will forever haunt our family if left free. This is about more than myself. The future of Apollo, Itachi and Sasuke are in jeopardy as long as that thing exists. I will obviously support you, but it will most likely have to be done by you."
"Good." Fugaku spoke with the resolve of a man whose only way forward is through.
That is when Jiraiya pm me.
The Galant: remember how you said you couldn't lie? Time to eat those words, Orochimaru is alive, and has become some sort of immortal Orochi monster! I have been blowing his heads yet he keeps on just growing more of them!
Why am I not that surprised? The fact the Fates would try to turn my meddling against me was a foregone conclusion but… what is this sense of trepidation?
wait
αMegumiΩ: have you been poisoned yet?
The Galant: why yes, I have. Your ichor has been like piss wine against it too!
αMegumiΩ: do you feel like dying too, don't you? The poison is that painful I imagine, not something designed to kill a blessed immortal but to make it wish for death.
The Galant: how do you know all that? I am in real pinch here too!
αMegumiΩ: Orochimaru has become a Hydra. He must have used my Ichor to do it, my battle with Hashirama was that brutal. He is not even the true Orochimaru either, but the last remaining fragment of his will.
The Galant: that explain how he became even crazier at least.
αMegumiΩ: Jiraiya, retreat. Only Herademeter has any hope of treating this poison, you have done enough.
The Galant: I can't. They captured Nagato, I got through him but then this black thing started to manipulate his body. I have to save him!
Fuck!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
αMegumiΩ: I am sorry. I will need in Konoha very soon. You need to live through this to protect Apollo while I personally deal with his mess. I will be brank, the poison you carry in your veins and your services as an iron forehead against Fate make you more valuable alive to me. I don't think you can save Nagato against a Demon yet the decision is yours. You did a good enough job, I suppose.
The Galant: you were already expecting something like that from the beginning? And now you think Naruto is in similar danger as well?
αMegumiΩ: this is just the nature of the Game of Divinity of paradox-billiards-vostroyan-roulette-fourth dimensional-hypercube-chess-strip poker. Two forces capable of bending reality ducking it out? Things would always end ugly like that as the smallest of possibilities snowball into the worse of catastrophes.
The Galant: Fuck, fine. I will need someone to extract me though.
αMegumiΩ: already going your way. Mind your manners around my boy, please.
I turn to Fugaku, "Uncle, I think we fucked up. Did we really contain grandfather or is him biding his time?"
Fugaku look my way, then remember how Danzo covets the power of Hahsirama and Madara while just internalizing the buried truth of the stone tablet: blood bind all things together forever more tightly. That is how the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan worked in the first place.
If Danzo Shimura were to use my blood as a medium, a natural bearer of Senju and Uchiha power, how far could he go? The nature of a Senju is steady and perpetual accumulation of power in response to will-to-power, the Appetite of life, something he has in spades. The nature of the Uchiha is power in the understanding of the Tree Unwholesome Roots, and the man is known as the Yami of the Shinobi!
What are the odds he would be closer to a regular Otsutsuki than myself? Including the ability to hide his true power like that fragment of Kaguya's will just did. If my worse fears are true then time is on his side. Why wouldn't he seat on his hands until he becomes unstoppable? I mean, that is precisely what I fucking did!
Ah, this war already started didn't it? I want nothing more than to march to Rain and rain thunderbolts there until nothing remains, but if I do so the bomb that is Danzo will explode. This is the counter for having flushed out Orochimaru with Jiraiya. I am locked here for now.
Both sides are desperately building up our forces and advantages before the final battle.
"we have to act, now!" Fugaku screams at me.
Are you mad- no, that is precisely what we need to do, actually? In times of crisis only boldness can solve stalemate.
"I need to speak with Hyuga Hiashi, right now. The survival of the Leaf Village hangs on this meeting." I say to Fugaku, he looks startled my way but nods. Time to use all that political capital he has build over the last two years for all that it is worth it.
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
The shadow of the 4th Shinobi War looms ever closer as the villain team make a comeback with the overwhelming power of Megumi's cells! The Hashirama effect, when you are so awesome everyone wants a bit of you inside of themselves. The list of enemies is now clear, Kaguya, Black Zetsu, Indra and Orochimaru? Why, who could have seen this coming?
As someone well acquainted with bureaucratic Hell this chapter was kind of cathartic to write. This is basically the life experience of sidereal exalted pitted against each other in the Gold and Bronze factions struggle while having to manage the Bureaucracy of Fate. Either nothing get done or everything is on fire. The world might as well truly end just due to spite.
This was also the fulmination of Megumi's character arc. She has been under a lot of stress lately and despite her strong front she has always been a bit meek in certain respect. This is usually solved by others instead of herself, so I am glad Fugaku got to shine here. The guy has always been regarded as inferior to Minato for his life choices but here those same qualities made the fundamental difference. Megumi found her center, just where she started with Apollo, and with-it Zeus serrated his hand over his reigns. Now the Holy Tyrant is really to go full throttle in the final battle.
That Poseidon trashed the place with a transformation sequence and two blows was more of a mercy. Thank to my Right Order the power of my Staff Treasured Tool – Royal Scepter of Boreal Covenant – now operates in a global scale. This show how shrewd that sly fox Kurama truly is; with it I can easily shift the karmic principle in the favor of Olympus. Assets we would want to protect are less likely to be destroyed while those we won't mind ended are more likely to find themselves in our line of fire.
Through this power, mortal men can be famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as Zeus mandates dictate. For easily she make strong, and easily she bring the strong man low; easily she humble the proud and raise the obscure, and easily she straighten the crooked and blast the proud, -- She who thunder aloft and have my dwelling most high. Attend them with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness.
There are… moral implications about those things. By no means is friendly fire enabled as well, any Olympian could kill a city with careless easy if they truly tried, but this certainly make things easier. Even if the Masked Bastard was pulling the strings there are still too many that went along, just because it was easy, or fun to be a fucking animal!
The collective foul mood of the Big Three certainly drove home our displeasure with the place. Fortunately separating the chaff from the wheat was a job already half done, especially with some meddling from my Demon Gods. My mystery faith had long since infiltrated the Mist Village itself, the alure of personal power too tempting and loyalties too loose.
All they needed was a heads up their gods were in town and it was a wrap. One hundred querubins battling as a cinchonized fighting block armed with Qliphoth carapaces and arms simple tore through all resistance like a shoal of piranhas sweeping across the Mist Village.
The following castes, although in smaller numbers, capitalized beautifully. Serafins persuaded those they could into standing down or joining the cause, Ishins played support to their sibling caste wherever they could, Hashmalins rated out the vermin's I would never forgive and the Ofanin took control of the population to avoid casualties and chaos.
From there came the relief effort. While Sasori can kick my ass in all aspects of human endeavor now, as the bearer of Hephaestus Karma, the very Flame of Civilization, the special gift stolen by Prometheus, I still have the backing of my 72 Demon Gods. Building a city using Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees was trivial. This place has never looked better too.
Well, that was the very least we could do, really. One of those you break you buy it scenarios.
It all went down as well as it could… so how come this still taste like defeat?
That fucking Masked Bastard!
At least this meeting and the samples left behind were informative. At first, I thought the one responsible for the robbery of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had desecrated Hagoromo's body for his Rinnegan. Especially after finding out his brother's eyes still existed preserved in the Moon.
Thank you, God, such sacrilege didn't come to pass!... is it strange for me to keep saying those things? Whatever.
To begin with, as a Buddha, Hagoromo escaped Samsara through parinirvana(nirvana after death). That was why early Buddhism frowned upon depictions of Buddhas much like Islam does. This only changed after the Hellenization of Buddhism with its cult of form… sorry, I guess? The point is, I would bet my eyes he simple vanished like Anakin Skywalker in that horrible movie that should never be mentioned.
There is no Jojo race for the body of the Sage of Six Paths, so how did these jackasses get their hand on a Rinnegan? The produced it! Literally created one set of their own. The Masked Bastard has Hashirama cells up his fucking ass, maybe even his eyes are stolen or mass produced as well. Which means whoever is behind this has been trying to pull this off for a long time, for sure. This is a problem that predate the modern Hidden Villages.
A problem I would have pulled by the bud if a FUCKING MORTAL HADN'T GOTTEN THE BETTER OF ME!
Every action generates a reaction. Fate is not on my side here, this was a problem meant to be solved by the Child of Prophecy, and then came Zeus! This is a calamity meant to manifest as a global crisis and my intervention just meant the Fates want to at least take me down with it.
This whole Fate-fu thing is like the ultimate Jiu-jítsu between two anacondas, there seems to be no end as every roll is countered by a counter until fate itself become a death spiral of chaos outside anyone's control. But if the worse come to pass, I can at least make preparations to turn this incoming crisis into an opportunity. Zeus architected the Trojan War as a death trap to stop the warring factions of men from terrorizing the land. The current Villages System very much fit this bill. Or am I being the predictable one here?
What is clear is that I need to control the situation and just seating in my throne bending Fate in my favor isn't going to cut it. I also need to accept the possibility there some of my decisions will be turned into landmines by the Fates. I have to retrace my steps in search of it. Finally, I have to a total information blackout over the Land of Water. The news will definitely reach the other villages soon and there are good odds the Masked Bastard and whoever is pulling his string will try to use their panic against me.
I lost the element of surprise, time to fortify my defenses, assets and take care of any loose ends before they bite me in the ass and I already know where to start. It all comes down to the Otsutsuki and I have been seating on these leads for years now.
A family reunion where all cards are put on the tablet. I will find my answers in the Uchiha Stone Tablet.
-//-
αMegumiΩ: So, how is infiltration in Rain Village going?
The Galant: Kind of busy here at the moment. Don't you have anything better to do than distract me?
αMegumiΩ: I am stalling. Something came up and now I have another confrontation with my roots and pass. The basic, so I desperately want for some distraction to stall that.
The Galant: and talking with me is your idea of distraction?
αMegumiΩ: the animosity is mostly one sided from your way, anyway. And once again, I am sorry you have to pass through this… everything.
The Galant: you are sorry you didn't get everything you wanted. My interests and cooperation have very little to do with it. Anyway, Hanzo is dead. Nagato did him in and now Rain is his and Akatsuki's home base.
αMegumiΩ: Well, talk about moving up in life. I guess this is big new to you, you have a history with Hanzo if I am not mistaken.
The Galant: that is putting mildly. The place is like a kicked anthill right now. Do you know anything about it?
αMegumiΩ: I… might be partially responsible, yes.
The Galant: Me-, no. Zeus, what did you do?
αMegumiΩ: you know, this passive-aggressive attitude of yours isn't attractive at all! No wonder the rag never gave you the time of the day.
The Galant: what. Did. You. Do?
αMegumiΩ: that obvious eh? I caught the Masked Bastard that attacked Apollo in the cradle by the tail. He was being Shadow Mizukage by controlling Yagura with his Sharingan behind the scenes. Mist is totaled by the way, but the bastard escaped right between my fingers and is badly hurt.
The Galant:
αMegumiΩ: don't you dare give me the silent treatment Jiraiya! I may make it look easy but the bastard is bad news! You are already over your head with Nagato alone, even with intel. He is another lab project like Nagato, augmented with Hashirama cells. Do I have to remind you about the guy's healing factor?
The Galant:
αMegumiΩ: Jiraiya, I am serious here. Eat the damn ambrosia apple at the very least! It will give you a fighting chance.
The Galant: yeah, definitely not eating that one.
αMegumiΩ: I know everything related to you deceased teammate is a sore topic, especially considering my part in it, but it is safe. There are no hidden gotchas in it.
The Galant: and I am to believe you because you are giving me your word?
αMegumiΩ: yes, did you forget already? Zeus' mouth does not know how to utter something false. Everything I says will be fulfilled.
The Galant: nice of you to remind me why we aren't friends. Very well, I will consider it.
αMegumiΩ: see that you do. It would be lame for you to die offscreen like some chump after all that tough talk you put to me.
The Galant: somehow, I sense your priorities have put my life in second order in this business.
αMegumiΩ: aren't you just being paranoid?
The Galant: you aren't denying me though.
αMegumiΩ: are you really going to be an ass for the rest of forever now?
The Galant: are you going to hold Minato's soul under coal forever?
αMegumiΩ: that is unfair and you know it! It is out of my jurisdiction.
The Galant: what? Because you are trying to not be a tyrant? As I remember, you weren't dragged to the throne. You took it by force and nobody can pretend otherwise. If you really want something you will simply take it, and everybody else have to live with it.
αMegumiΩ: ass. See if I care when you croak!
The Galant: go have you family meeting, Megumi. Closure is not a luxury affordable to most.
I close up the chat window with a sign, the guy certainly knows how bring a girl down.
"That is not true at all!" Kabuto scream at my side, startling me out of my skin. Did he spy on my personal messages? How- right, this will get old really fast, to first go where he was never meant to reach, he needs first the power to see where he is not meant to look. That he can pass my Daemonic Firewall just show that he still a god at the end of the day. While I use the standard service all my angels enjoy, this is still a feat upon itself. And a problem, I keep my private stuff here… the kind no child wants to know about their parents. Ever.
Time to deliver some discipline, I grab Kabuto in an arm lock then suddenly start to hustle his hair with my other hand. "You do have a cute side after all, but should know better than to snoop on my personal business!" I preen him while continuing my ministration, much to his torment. We keep like this for some minutes, until I sort of get distracted and start to simple tickle him in a mock wrestling battle like I usually do with Apollo. Like my own father in the Before did to me.
Would Kotaro do the same to me had he lived? I would like to think so but I know better. Kotaro loved me as any father should yet he didn't know how to express it. No, that ability was something deliberately taken out of him by his own father. Because we are shinobi. That is what the Shinobi System is at the end of the day. It demands total subjugation of the self for the good of the System that exist only to perpetuate itself.
Jiraiya might be right, at the end of the day I am nothing but a tyrant. So what? At least I am not such a pathetic and insecure god as to obsessively count every strand of hair of my subjects for any signs of defiance!
At the end of the day, no matter how pretty ideals are, a lie remains a lie. At least I am not looking always from the truth of human nature! I am not the one bending humans in misshapen caricatures in the misplaced pursue of lofty ideals. Everybody has to content with the disparity between their dreams and their reality, even the gods. I have seen how the natives do and have not been impressed, the natural conclusion of their ideal is a rejection of the world itself.
Decadence.
Eventually our little game subsides as Kabuto flags down, resulting in a companionable silence as Kabuto uses all of his super spy training to pretends not enjoying cuddling with me. His embarrassment at being seeing through was really endearing too, audacious rascal! I guess there is truth It are the troublemakers we always get attached to the most before realizing it.
"I could do a better job than Jiraiya!" Kabuto complains before he can think better of it, he also seems to hate how petulant that sounded.
"That is true. I also would have sent you there as well had your Karma been fully matured too. So, why am I keeping you by my side instead?"
That answer stole the wind from his sails while at the same time stopping him cold. Yet he did not get to be chosen by the Hermes Karma by being slow on his feet. "is this about Fate too, then?" he inquires.
"It is funny, to mortals Fate might seem like an absolute and untrickable linchpin of Reality but in the end of the day it is just one among many Power that Be… and Power can always be countered by a Higher Power."
Kabuto puts the pieces together, "you think I am in danger. Me and Apollo, we are Higher Power as well, so the Fates would try to kill us before we reach our full potential." Hermes eyes lock with mine fiercely, "like it tried with you."
I only smiled, "and where Jiraiya comes in, then?" It was a long shot but Hermes is meant to be my herald and mouth piece, the labyrinth of mirrors he calls a mind should be capable to match mine own, anticipate my motives and expectations. Especially now, this might make the difference between life and death. Not only for him, but all of Olympus.
I haven't been cuddling him as Nono might, I am preparing him so he might survive any trial throw his way should anything get pass my Aegis. Whether I live or die is insignificant now, another Zeus will rise to replace me with the power of Karma. That is what meant to put one's trust in the future generation instead of using it as a rung to elevate oneself further.
"Jiraiya is a significant existence that has once almost killed you. He might still do so if indirectly if the prophecy plays out as the toads hope." Kabuto plays out with the right idea, teasing from it my intention. "yet you still managed to recruit him to our cause, to your own design. A situation where I might well get killed by the invisible hand of Fate would be more merciful to him… he is a maverick! You are using him to add chaos and unaccounted variables so he might reveal future dangers meant to threaten us!"
"You get full marks. In the end of the day, your life is worth more to me than his. Free hands are the devil's workshop, instead of letting him get back to Konoha I get more by throwing him at my problems. Turning a liability into a doubtful asset. This is especially true now, Hermes."
Calling by this name was the final push, it seems. He realizes he is most likely getting involved whether I want it or not and what I need from him. "Time is in our favor, with all twelve Olympians victory is a foregone conclusion, so the ordained future you crashed is now falling down on us!" From that dreadful realization he extrapolates to its likely end, as expected from a trickster god. "Things that were meant to happen are manifesting early on before they can be aborted. The time tablet of the world is accelerating… by about ten years?"
"The fact you can even puzzle out how far ahead we are talking show why you are just as big a treat as I, in your own way. Things are going to progress at a breakneck speed very soon. There is no one between Heaven and Earth that would dare to cross the name Zeus lightly. The Triumvirate of Olympus is an unstoppable force due to our synergy, allowing us to punch far above our weight class when working as one."
"So, the best strategy is dividing and conquer. Multidirectional attacks before more Olympians can join the frame." Kabuto concluded, a crude retaliation but spiteful enough to seem the most realistic and probable. We were the ones that put ourselves in collision course with the way of the world in the first place.
There is no shame in painful suffering inflicted by one enemy on another. So let Zeus hurl his twin-forked lightning bolts down on my head, convulse the air with thunder and frantic gusts of howling wind, and shake the earth with hurricanes until they shift the very roots of its foundations. Let him make the wildly surging sea waves mingle with the pathways of the heavenly stars, then lift my body up and fling it down to pitch black Tartarus, into the whirl of harsh Necessity. Let him do all that— he cannot make me die.
I serrate my hand into a fist, and Kabuto flinches at the background sound of thunder. Oh, do someone want to play catch the lightning bold with the big bad tyrant, do they? Does someone want to see Zeus at its worst? I will gladly show it to them. At the end of the day I actually hate these kinds of fights,
that is why I will always make a point to leaving perpetual reminders of the price of crossing me!
Enough of moping around, the gloves are off. If living to me epithet is the cost to save my family then so be it.
I stand up, Kabuto turns to me. "What are we doing now?"
"You will be tagging along Poseidon for a while, a small country trip across the Land of Water. To establish a new cultural paradigm, one needs first to uproot the old costumes and you two are bearers of the Wanderer Archetype, your Aletheia speak for itself in that regard." I kneel until we are at eye level. "Hermes, I Father Zeus command you to spread the good news of Olympus. That the age of strife will be nothing but a distant memory and the righteous will always be under the Aegis of my Justice."
"Understood! It will be done." My son answers full of conviction, my heart break just a little. This is War, the real deal. And the one responsible will be me.
"It is good that you are enthusiastic because I fear I will have to run you ragged in this last stretch. Hades has his hands full raising an army worth of Ragnarök. Any lost souls you find and send his way will raise our future fighting force, that is something you are well suited for as well."
Kabuto just nods in affirmation, eager to please. That he tries to hard just fill me with shame, the trusting nature of children is the reason child-soldiers are so popular in a world free of biological restraints. They are easy to indoctrinate and make fanatical followers.
This practice will end soon. Time to make good of my talk and walk the walk. I will be dragging this world out of its dark age into the light of civilization even if I have to pull it by the hair while it is kicking and screaming.
"I will return to Konoha, time to confront the ghosts of ancestors. If you find trouble, don't hesitate to run to either Kisame or Kurama. We don't need to be taking risks right now."
-//-
"Megumi, are you here?" Fugaku ask my name as he enter the hidden chamber of the Naka Shrine. The fact he wasn't that surprised by my sudden request speak volumes of the level of trust and rapport over the last two years… I wonder if this too, ends today.
Bonds are easy to make but hard to sever. I never intended to deceive anyone but I have been living a double life anyway… because that is how the world worked, because I was afraid what would happen to me if people realized I was special, because I had to protect Apollo.
Because it was convenient.
I can't go on like this anyway. If these relationships really meant to be anything, I have to put myself on the line and being sincere. He might reject my offer anyway but at least this will be a clean break. He deserves that much at least, as a courtesy to family. To know what is behind and ahead of us.
"I am already here, Fugaku-san." I call in my adult voice from behind him, without my mask of opaqueness.
He immediately falls back on his instincts and turn to me with his Mangekyō Sharingan blazing to live. Expected really, the voice of a mysterious woman inside his family sacred halls? This only make things more dramatic though.
Mangekyō Sharingan clashed with Rikugan and was rebutted, as all its dark enlightening is extinguished by my innate Knowledge of the Destruction of Defilements (Klesha). He stared in stunned silence at my form, especially my twin shards of heaven. Even if our nature differs, our root was undeniable the same, that interaction made it self-evident.
"I have been keeping some things from you, a lot of things happened and a lot more are about to happen too. I was born under the luck karma that allowed me to escape our family curse… this same karma binds me to confronting it now. So here I am now."
He looks at me up and down, "Well, I sort of saw something like this coming-
"wait, you have?" I cut his answer because I am a pile of nerves right now.
Fugaku looks at me in puzzlement, then answer in his typical way every time he has to deal with young hot-headed member of our family. "Your divine ears were a good enough hint; the fact you knew you were a Uchiha despite your abnormal chakra also hinted at some form of ocular power. Plus, you are a lousy liar, despite being quite shrewd and distrustful of strangers, once your guard is down you are quite easy to handle."
I collapse into a boneless squat with my arms stretched out and taking a breath to put this nausea down, that is good right? The knot on my stomach certainly think so.
"You really are Megumi, aren't you? It's kind of bad to know you will never get better at handle any kind of pressure." Fugaku comment lightly to himself, which kind of piss me off. Really, that is what you have to say here?
"You are taking it all with strides, good someone here is having fun!"
"Oh, I am freaked out. I am helpless here, that little exchange made this clear. Yet I am still alive and you even said you came here to make things clearer so I want to hear it."
"Right, it is called, well, more like I named it Rikugan. Six Supernatural Mysteries of Buddhism. The fundamental disciplines those in the pursue of Nirvana [HEAVEN] need to master." I expressed these hidden disciplines the best I could by using Ninshu connection to Fugaku.
- Higher powers 「Knowledge of the Unimpeded Bodily Function」
- Divine ear 「Understanding of Breathing of the Living World 」
- Mind-penetrating knowledge 「the Comprehension of the Hearts of Others」
- Remember one's former abodes 「Recollection of Soul's Memory」
- Divine Eye 「the Comprehension of the Empyrean Eye」
- Extinction of mental intoxicantion 「Knowledge of the Destruction of Defilements (Klesha)」
"That is the first thing you care about? One would think the 4th power more concerning!" I almost cream at the man, how can him overlook the breaking point I have been dreading all this time?
He seems surprised by my outrage too, but then roll over my complain with his typical Uchiha stoic wall of austerity while things over my outrage, as if I was the one doing trick questions here.
"Right, I guess this makes sense. You have always acted childish but never thought yourself as a kid… I always overlooked this as a side effect of the rough up bring involved into raising Naruto as a genius and pariah of the Leaf," Fugaku now enter full detective mode. "The gods know I struggle just as much understanding Itachi, but having access to your past lives seems just as plausible some days with that boy, he acts more like an old man than me."
The way my body flinches at his statement immediately put Fugaku is alarm. "No way." He all but prays to me.
I turn my gaze to the stone tablet instead, driving home how serious this might get. Would I kill Itachi if his body were to be taken over by the Will of Hatred of Indra? That is part of the reason I have been dreading coming here. My life was much simpler before I realized Who the god-that-is-me was. No wonder Kurama figured it out when I made the Raiden Shogun Stigmata, this family is a nightmare.
Yet I don't want this sordid history to repeat itself. Indra and Zeus might be both tied to the same root but we still were our own persons. At the very least I would never curse my children the way he had. I want to break everyone free from his hold. Maybe this is the Zeus in me, but even if they grow to hate me for it, I can't condone of a body snatcher great founder his descendants like meat suits over a stupid family feud.
If Indra wanted to play family disputes so much then Zeus is more than happy to give him the Uranus especial. We are incompatible existences; he is the very origin of the curse the allowed me to manifest. The Uchiha have been hostages of his ambition for far too long. Our battle is about Justice and I am his Tribulation repaid.
The way Fugaku and me were staring at the stone tablet was ominous enough, a cloying silence that precited disaster. As clan leader and bearer of the Mangekyō Sharingan he is better informed about its content than most. It is clear he has a health fear for our family bloodline.
"It occurred to me, I never explained to you Tsubasa's situation, have I?" Fugaku says, turning my way with an inscrutable resolve in his bearing.
"I want to hear it! Please, Fugaku-san. Who really were my parents? Their actions, their decisions, the ideals they lived by and even the way they deiced on dying for my sake… They are the ones that brought me here, yet I don't know anything about them… I want to know who Megumi, daughter of Kotaro Shimura and Tsubasa Uchiha really is! I feel this is the most important answer anyone can ever give me."
"That make me really happy, Megumi." Fugaku answer in a rare display of tenderness. "You might be worried about my reaction to your previous allegiances but ever since I first laid eyes on you, staring in defiance at a hateful crown while using your body as a bulwark for Naruto, I could only see Tsubasa in you." For all that Fugaku only experienced true Ninshu once in his life, he showed himself more than capable to make it up with enthusiasm and love. I could picture Tsubasa in my minds' eyes as vividly as if I were meeting her in person.
T-those words, then… "you knew. About me, from the beginning?"
"For all the good it did." Fugaku answer in self-chastisement. "At the point you revealed yourself the best I could do was raising the prickest custody case in the history of the Leaf, forcing Sarutobi to take custody of you two in the best interest of the Leaf. A bitter victory."
"But that still protected me from grandfather." I pointed out automatically, it was a real solid considering he didn't get anything out of it. "And I meant about them two, you know those things personally."
Fugaku sign, bracing himself for what is to come.
"Like all clans and bearers of bloodlines, there are different family branches bearing their gift to a lesser or greater extend. Tsubase and me were cousins twice removed, both members of the Uchiha main branch, direct descendants of Uchiha Madara and Izuna."
I just stared at Fugaku, my uncle. His face was never so severe. "As the most gifted among our family in terms of pedigree we inevitable were especially aware of the nature of our bloodline. We saw in first person as children, how the power of Sharingan that everyone is so proud and envious of only hurt the bearers the most in the end."
Fugaku massages his tired pupils, and now that I look closely there is significant damage there. He is going blind. He understands personally the weight of this curse.
"I never thought this mattered, we were taught to think such price was well worth it. The power to protect those you love is just too valuable, I didn't care to lose my sight for it. Tsubasa disagreed, she thought the sharingan far worse than a double-edged sword, but the very root of our torment."
"Poison." I clarified, Fugaku only nodded.
"Yes. This brought irreconcilable disagreement between her and the rest of our family. We all wanted to protect the same thing… but everyone involved was so stupid and uncompromising!" The man fumes in what is obvious an old grudge about managing his mad house of a family.
"I take it things deteriorated."
"They did. Considering you already know who you father is then the rest is obvious. They both died the day the Kyubi attacked. Tsubasa was secretly living close with Kotaro by then. Nobody would have approved of their dalliance, it would generate outrage from every front, so they were laying low. Frankly, I thought they intended to defect at the earlier opportunity. Go somewhere nobody would reach them."
[MEGUMI-
[It is not your fault. Don't make me repeat that. Ever.]
"You knew all that, yet you let them be." I looked at the man that was my uncle.
"Tsubasa always said I was too soft to be the clan head, I guess she was right." Fugaku admitted without shame or regret, glad that I had been born in this world.
"Thank you, Uncle. You don't know how much this mean to me. For all that I keep discovering things about myself I keep on getting lost in it. You helped me remember what I have always know from the beginning." I say with as much sincerity I can gather from my heart and make itself evident with my Aletheia and Ninshu.
"And what is that?" he asks me with pride, liking what he helped bring into the world, no matter how secondary that role might have been.
"I had decided my Ninja Way for myself the day I met my Apollo. People are meant for Love, it is only Justice that I fight for it. Even if life is painful it can be worth it if one live with courage. That is what I want to give to this world." These words echo like the Bell of Providence inside my soul, bringing balance to my unsettled and rattled spirit. The sins I have committed, that are ahead of me, I can only bear them for be it as Zeus or Megumi I know who I am.
"Now I know who my enemies are as well." I turn back to the stone tablet, whatever truth I find there I won't let it decide my course of action anymore. "I will save our family from this curse, our story won't end in tragedy as long as I fight for it. Those that threaten that are my enemies."
My words are judgement as I draw the line in the sand that separate sacred and profane. This world is my Kingdom and readily respond to its King edict. No more hesitation, my will is adamant wrought and my power respond to it. I finally understand What being Zeus truly means, I might not be able to kill Indra but I can make him wish and pray for death that will never come.
"Time to pull the veil of ignorance, hatred and obsession and reveal the truth." I summon in hand my scepter. In the Gelel Mine I needed to pull every stop to divine the past of that Manse, now the command of Zeus alone is more than enough.
The Wheel turn back as the truth of the past is revealed.
-//-
The stone itself was originally unremarkable marble block, that is until the hand that carved it made it something especial, everlasting. A father's earnest love and concern drove every blow of the chisel, carefully and with precision of someone intending to create something everlasting. A frantic warning to all of his progeny, his hopes were that this record would shepherd them away from the path of ruin.
In it he recorded his own life struggle. A tragic tale of familicide driven by grim necessity. Of an unknowable entity born beyond the void of the starts that reached this planet in search of the Chakra Fruit of the Sacred Tree. It tells how she used the power from the fruit to achieve godhood and dominion over the planet and eventually enslaved all of its inhabitants, reducing them to batteries for more power. The heart of the sculptor is full of anguish as he reminded himself of his scarlet sin, the realization he would have to choose between the life of the planet or his own mad mother.
He was a righteous man, for he walked the world and learned to love it. This only made his choice more tragic as he was pitted between these two loves, condemned to forsake one for another. Yet choose he did, and with a broken heart filled to the bursting with black bile he stood his ground against his mother. And in his pain, he found the power to oppose her. The more he lost the stronger he became, until after years of fighting he eventually turned the tables on the Rabbit Goddess.
There wasn't much left of the world afterward, so he used the overwhelming and powerless caged chakra of the Divine Tree manifested spirit to breathe life to the battered planet. After finishing his dire great work, he dedicated his life to atonement. Atonement for himself and atonement for his mother as well. He took the burden of her sin upon his shoulders, in hope for some kind of piece of spirit for them both. Even after everything he would always love his mad mother.
Alas, the hope Hagoromo had when creating the stone tablet would not be manifested.
His son was a man consumed by ambition and will-to-power. Being born a special existence, he always existed alienated and severed from others. He considered his condition a gift that elevated him, as he became a man it became the core of his existence. Consequently, everything that threatened this was seen as treat to his very sense of identity.
An unfortunately condition for someone having a mostly well-adjusted younger and less obviously talented brother. To Indra every feather under his brother's cloak was slight against himself, something stolen from him. He saw himself as the true successor of their father and yet his brother's opposition hounded his every step. It was maddening enough to him that his cursed ocular power swelled and bloomed much like his father's once did.
Yet he could not overwhelm his brother let alone surpass their father. It became clear to him that his brothers bore something that was rightfully meant to be his. A missing piece that would allow him to become who he was meant to be. The supreme most powerful being in existence.
He carved this hint in the stone tablet in hopes to direct his future self. To a man so self-willed defeat was never an option, the question was only how far he was willing to go to see his self-appointed destiny manifested. Obviously, any morality or sense of shame had long since being discarded. No price was high enough, so he took the option with the most likelihood to see his dream fulfilled.
Using his prodigious talent in ninjutsu, Indra willingly discarded his own body in the hopes of goading his brother into doing the same, a trap designed to capture him in his design. They would forever reincarnate until he achieved his ultimate victory. Until then their descendants would bear this curse, exploiting the binding nature of chakra strengthened by the nature of blood ties, Indra would scout for those more receptible to his spirit and slowly poison their minds until they became all but a successor of his will.
Rather than a true and complete reincarnation it would be closer to Roa's immortality spell. This would make his brother less aware of his plans as well. Those are the limits Indra crossed to fulfil his ambition.
He was the greatest fool and a willing puppet. When he created his plan, he had already fallen to someone else's hidden design. Indra was haunted by a Demon. An impossible existence I only knew about because I commanded 72 such beings myself. Even familiarity did not stop the shill going up my spine at such existence, not one unbounded by my guiding will. This was a nightmare scenario for me already, especially with what followed.
Said demon was like a baboon perpetually stuck to Indra's back. Indra following successors were plain to not only the Rikugan but also to the Demon. He used the trap meant for Ashura to manipulate Indra himself, playwrighting a torrid tale that made Cain and Abel look like a mild family disagreement. He constantly edited the stone tablet to direct Indra's actions, using his blind thirst for power as harness, blinders and reigns which to command and direct him.
The same story repeat itself again and again, until eventually the last of Indra's successors, Uchiha Madara, confronts Shura successor, Senju Hashirama in front of the very same stone tablet. Both oblivious to their gleeful audience of a single laughing demon.
"So that is the truth." I intone mutely, Fugaku simple stare at the stone like it was death itself.
"Itachi…" his heart is seized with fear as he made the same connection to most likely victim of Indra's ambition, and with it any vestige of sympathy for Indra was ruthlessly crushed. Indra might be just another victim, manipulated as he had been, yet he still made the decision to harm his father, brother and children out of his own volition. He is just another name in my list.
"That is not going to happen." Those were my words as King of Olympus, as far as the world was concerned, they were Heavily Law, this sad tale ends here. "I will give Itachi the Ares Karma if I have to if worse comes to pass and Indra try to possess him. He is compatible enough; tough I admit this would still be a heavy burden."
My words push Fugaku out of his funk, the man is gearing up to a fight as old instincts take over, good.
"I need your help. I may be an atavism but it is clear in retrospect that the Olympian series of the Otsutsuki clan are still deviations from the original star entities. If we can be described as sweet fruits deprived of poison then the original strain is the very cultivation of it. As such while we Olympians possess Aletheia it only makes sense they would possess advanced means to conceal their presence… even from my Rikugan."
"That… thing, it is most likely a remnant of Kaguya. You can't track it down, but you know where it is most likely to go, here." Good thing about Fugaku is that he is always quickly on the uptake. "You want me to capture it?"
"That thing will never let its guard down around me, and even if I defeat Indra, it will forever haunt our family if left free. This is about more than myself. The future of Apollo, Itachi and Sasuke are in jeopardy as long as that thing exists. I will obviously support you, but it will most likely have to be done by you."
"Good." Fugaku spoke with the resolve of a man whose only way forward is through.
That is when Jiraiya pm me.
The Galant: remember how you said you couldn't lie? Time to eat those words, Orochimaru is alive, and has become some sort of immortal Orochi monster! I have been blowing his heads yet he keeps on just growing more of them!
Why am I not that surprised? The fact the Fates would try to turn my meddling against me was a foregone conclusion but… what is this sense of trepidation?
wait
αMegumiΩ: have you been poisoned yet?
The Galant: why yes, I have. Your ichor has been like piss wine against it too!
αMegumiΩ: do you feel like dying too, don't you? The poison is that painful I imagine, not something designed to kill a blessed immortal but to make it wish for death.
The Galant: how do you know all that? I am in real pinch here too!
αMegumiΩ: Orochimaru has become a Hydra. He must have used my Ichor to do it, my battle with Hashirama was that brutal. He is not even the true Orochimaru either, but the last remaining fragment of his will.
The Galant: that explain how he became even crazier at least.
αMegumiΩ: Jiraiya, retreat. Only Herademeter has any hope of treating this poison, you have done enough.
The Galant: I can't. They captured Nagato, I got through him but then this black thing started to manipulate his body. I have to save him!
Fuck!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
αMegumiΩ: I am sorry. I will need in Konoha very soon. You need to live through this to protect Apollo while I personally deal with his mess. I will be brank, the poison you carry in your veins and your services as an iron forehead against Fate make you more valuable alive to me. I don't think you can save Nagato against a Demon yet the decision is yours. You did a good enough job, I suppose.
The Galant: you were already expecting something like that from the beginning? And now you think Naruto is in similar danger as well?
αMegumiΩ: this is just the nature of the Game of Divinity of paradox-billiards-vostroyan-roulette-fourth dimensional-hypercube-chess-strip poker. Two forces capable of bending reality ducking it out? Things would always end ugly like that as the smallest of possibilities snowball into the worse of catastrophes.
The Galant: Fuck, fine. I will need someone to extract me though.
αMegumiΩ: already going your way. Mind your manners around my boy, please.
I turn to Fugaku, "Uncle, I think we fucked up. Did we really contain grandfather or is him biding his time?"
Fugaku look my way, then remember how Danzo covets the power of Hahsirama and Madara while just internalizing the buried truth of the stone tablet: blood bind all things together forever more tightly. That is how the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan worked in the first place.
If Danzo Shimura were to use my blood as a medium, a natural bearer of Senju and Uchiha power, how far could he go? The nature of a Senju is steady and perpetual accumulation of power in response to will-to-power, the Appetite of life, something he has in spades. The nature of the Uchiha is power in the understanding of the Tree Unwholesome Roots, and the man is known as the Yami of the Shinobi!
What are the odds he would be closer to a regular Otsutsuki than myself? Including the ability to hide his true power like that fragment of Kaguya's will just did. If my worse fears are true then time is on his side. Why wouldn't he seat on his hands until he becomes unstoppable? I mean, that is precisely what I fucking did!
Ah, this war already started didn't it? I want nothing more than to march to Rain and rain thunderbolts there until nothing remains, but if I do so the bomb that is Danzo will explode. This is the counter for having flushed out Orochimaru with Jiraiya. I am locked here for now.
Both sides are desperately building up our forces and advantages before the final battle.
"we have to act, now!" Fugaku screams at me.
Are you mad- no, that is precisely what we need to do, actually? In times of crisis only boldness can solve stalemate.
"I need to speak with Hyuga Hiashi, right now. The survival of the Leaf Village hangs on this meeting." I say to Fugaku, he looks startled my way but nods. Time to use all that political capital he has build over the last two years for all that it is worth it.
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
The shadow of the 4th Shinobi War looms ever closer as the villain team make a comeback with the overwhelming power of Megumi's cells! The Hashirama effect, when you are so awesome everyone wants a bit of you inside of themselves. The list of enemies is now clear, Kaguya, Black Zetsu, Indra and Orochimaru? Why, who could have seen this coming?
As someone well acquainted with bureaucratic Hell this chapter was kind of cathartic to write. This is basically the life experience of sidereal exalted pitted against each other in the Gold and Bronze factions struggle while having to manage the Bureaucracy of Fate. Either nothing get done or everything is on fire. The world might as well truly end just due to spite.
This was also the fulmination of Megumi's character arc. She has been under a lot of stress lately and despite her strong front she has always been a bit meek in certain respect. This is usually solved by others instead of herself, so I am glad Fugaku got to shine here. The guy has always been regarded as inferior to Minato for his life choices but here those same qualities made the fundamental difference. Megumi found her center, just where she started with Apollo, and with-it Zeus serrated his hand over his reigns. Now the Holy Tyrant is really to go full throttle in the final battle.
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