Divinity

Kyuubi comes to an understanding of death, of divinity and of true power. Kyuubi learns from his seal how to manipulate even the gods, and become one himself, if only by proxy.

It's a little strange, but give it a chance.

Power.

Kyuubi understood it. Knowledge is power, and early in eternity he had set off in pursuit of knowledge. While other demons played or killed, Kyuubi learned. Everything he could learn, he did. Things about the natural world, things of more theoretical nature. Things about the living, things about the dead. Kyuubi knew more than any other creature under the sun.

It was no mere coincidence that the Fourth Hokage used the seal he did to seal the Kyuubi. Konoha had known long ago about demons and how to seal them. But Kyuubi was immune, because he understood how they worked, how they were applied, transferred, created, altered and activated. He knew how to counter them. Regardless of how the puny mortals shaped or altered the energies of the seals, no matter how complicated they drew the symbols, now matter how much power they pushed in, the Kyuubi applied a small portion of energy here, a slight variation of parameters there, and in a flash the seal, at best, did nothing. Entire troops of shinobi were lost in failed attempts to use various methods for sealing the nine-tailed fox.

It was in the autumn that Kyuubi decided to visit an area of the earth he had not seen in some time. He ignored the crawling creatures that called themselves humans. Kyuubi already knew all about them. How they grew, matured and died. What they did to eat, drink and live. Everything about them. All things considered, they were probably one of the more interesting species Kyuubi had encountered. But so very weak, when compared to even lesser demons.

The Kyuubi did not really think about the fact that there was a hidden village in the area he was visiting, or deign to notice how the people there panicked and went into a frenzy over his mere presence. The Kyuubi was only really interested one of his more puzzling theories, about the nature of chakra, and had come to inspect a creation of his that he had left in here several thousand years earlier.

It was at that precise moment in time that Kyuubi discovered, to his chagrin, that there was something he did not yet know or understand. In hindsight, that accurate yet useless perception that comes only after it would have helped, it should have been obvious. In looking for things to investigate, the demon fox had ignored himself and others like him.

Oh, he had studied demonic powers, and energies, and abilities, and various other minutiae. But never had he really considered the nature of divinity. What was it, exactly, that made them immortal? That made the superior? He knew the how. Their beings were not subject to decay, and their powers were intrinsic to their nature. But how did it get that way?

It was only now, after being, embarrassingly, subjugated by the power of the divine Shinigami, a being of similar nature but greater power than himself, that Kyuubi realized his mistake.

Thusly chastised, the Kyuubi, sealed into a young human male, began to study the nature of divinity. The origins of gods and demons, the nature of their power, and how these properties interacted with all other things to make the divine into irresistibly powerful, seemingly immortal beings.

The Kyuubi ignored his host for years, as he studied everything he could from the confines of his prison. Fortunately, there was a fine example of divine power not his own right in front of him. The Shinigami's seal. For over a decade, the Kyuubi studied it, and would attempt various things with his power, observing the seal's reactions and fluctuations.

And suddenly, he understood. The sweetest, and most bitter, moment of his existence. Sweet, because now he knew exactly how to become the most powerful of them all. Because he knew how to bend any and every rule about everything to his will. Bitter, because he could never do so, and because he had been beaten to the punch by a mere mortal.

The human leader who had sealed him had, through some form of insight and intuition, gained a greater understanding of the divine, and temporarily changed the rules. Not knowing enough to shield himself from the power he wielded, the human had been annihilated immediately after, but in the instant that he held that terrible power, he had bent Death itself to his will, using the divine power of the Shinigami to change the existence to his liking. Bound by human understanding, the mortal had been under the impression that demons could not be destroyed, only sealed, and so the Hokage had ordered the Kyuubi to be permanently and irreversibly sealed into this young human male.

As the Kyuubi had found, the divine were tightly linked to the nature of existence. To the rules and behaviors of the universe in general. Not bound by these rules, but linked in such a way that they could change the rules. If a sufficiently powerful divine being willed it, anything was possible. Alas, that he could not manipulate the necessary energies and natures from were he was. Because he was divinely bound, and thus, according to the rules of the universe, unable to use his power or do anything with it other than give it to the simple human who housed him.

And in the same way, the Kyuubi was bound to the child as no other binding would do. For all intents and purposes of the entire universe, the Kyuubi was this human, and the human was Kyuubi. Anything that affected one's existence (and not the physical shell of the body the used) would affect the other. So when this child died, he would, as all humans do, shatter and fade into the void of Nothing that bounded the universe. And Kyuubi would do the same.

Unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. What good was all his knowledge if he should still die with this short-lived mortal? And all because of some fancy, half-assed guessing by some other mortal? The Kyuubi refused to accept this. He was as closer to omniscience than any being had ever come, even the one they called Kami. He would not allow himself to be undone by the hurried, barely functional lucky hunches of some pathetic human.

A few more months of calculations told him how to proceed. He would make his host into a god. And not just a divine being, but the divine being to end all others. More powerful, more capable, more intelligent than any who had come before, and any who would come after. And once this had been done, Kyuubi would be free. There was some slim chance that the new god would free him, but Kyuubi understood that it was more likely that he would be killed by the recently-created deity. But still, this would count as a victory, or as close to one as he was likely to get, and infinitely better than getting destroyed at the end of some short, mortal life.

His mind made up, the Kyuubi turned his attention to his host.

His name was Naruto, and he was an idiot. Mostly because of his unfortunate circumstances, but also because of his silly antics and naive belief in the innate goodness of others. The Kyuubi observed for some time, gathering the information he would need in order to communicate effectively and persuasively with his host.

The human was mildly obsessed with his female teammate, and with becoming the leader of his particular settlement of humans. He was quick and clever, but not intelligent. The Kyuubi differentiated cleverness from intelligence as a way of separating those who can reflexively turn the situation to their advantage from those who plan and create situations to their advantage.

Somehow the child had been able to get on a team and was now on some sort of mission in a land Kyuubi had been planning to visit immediately after the area known as Konoha. The humans called it Wave.

Kyuubi was relatively sure how he wanted to proceed by the time the group arrived at the house of the human Tazuna. But he would wait until they returned to the village Konoha before he initiated communication with the boy. It would not do to have the seemingly perceptive mature human with the transplanted eye discover him before he had convinced the boy to follow his plan. So he began to wait, not paying close attention to the boy's actions, other than to note that they were not yet back in Konoha.

It was while he was waiting, his thoughts wandering idly on the order in which to teach the various aspects of nature to his host, when he became aware of a disturbance.

Anger. A very unusual emotion for his host, especially this anger. Not a petty, silly anger, but genuine wrath. The Kyuubi roused himself and surveyed the situation.

Ah, the host's teammate had been killed. Or rather, nearly killed. His chest still rose and fell, though shallowly. And now the enemy with the mask was attacking Naruto.

Kyuubi frowned. That would not do. Even if, as he surmised, the masked human with the senbon was not attempting to kill them, Kyuubi was not going to place his existence in fragile human hands. If this 'Haku' should make mistake, he could kill Naruto, and thus, Kyuubi.

Rather annoyed, and seeing that the host was no match for his enemy, the demon sent a small bit of power through the seal, enough to ensure that Naruto could not possibly lose to an opponent of this caliber.

The Kyuubi watched in interest as this transfer also gave his emotions to his host, greatly amplified by the powerful nature of his demonic (and thus, slightly divine) energy, and added to Naruto's already impressive anger. Naruto actually growled like a beast as he attacked, so great was the rage burning within him.

Senbon deflected off the radiant field of energy projected from Naruto's being, not even phasing the child as he rushed to attack. A single punch later, Haku was defeated, awaiting Naruto's judgment.

Then the child hesitated. The Kyuubi tensed momentarily, but then relaxed the enemy ran off and promptly got himself killed by the instructor's sloppy combination of chakra and the element of lightning. A remarkable feat for a human, really, but not all that impressive to a demon who had seen all there was to see about lightning.

Afterwards, the Kyuubi studied the leader, Kakashi, through Naruto's eyes, pleased by what he saw. While the human recognized the Kyuubi, he obviously thought the demon as some sort of beast, and only capable of giving energy while Naruto was extremely emotional.

Good enough. Eventually, the bridge was completed, the mission finished, and Naruto returned to Konoha.

That was when, one night, the Kyuubi spoke to Naruto.

Naruto breezed through the quiz given in the first part of the Chuunin Examination. It was obviously a ploy to get the clever students to try and spy on others, and be graded for their stealth and effectiveness. But with what he had learned, practically nothing at this point according to the Kyuubi, it was simpler than tying his shoes. Already, he was superior in almost every way to these petty hu- no, the other ninja. The Kyuubi's dismissive attitude toward all mortals was rubbing off on him.

After finishing the simple exercise, he again turned his attention inward, to where the Kyuubi again began explaining about the manipulation of the natural world. Not merely with chakra, but altering significant aspects of the physical realm. This continued for some time, and little progress was made, before he and his teacher both sensed the signal being given to the jounin outside, to swing in the through the window and announce the second part of the test.

Not very long ago, Naruto would have been completely oblivious to this. Before the Kyuubi introduced himself, Naruto was nothing. And while at the time, he had been rather upset, in hindsight, that accurate yet useless tool, the demon had, of course, been right.

Naruto owed it to himself to be so brutally honest with himself and his teacher. He knew the Kyuubi was also so honest. When they had first talked, months ago, the Kyuubi had not minced words about how he was the demon who had nearly destroyed Konoha ("I didn't notice, I wasn't really paying attention") and how he fully expected Naruto to kill him once achieving godhood.

Naruto knew how much this irked the demon, and so the demon set about making sure that Naruto would know everything he knew, as if the boy were to be his successor.

He paid vague attention to the female explaining the- No, the kunoichi explaining the second part of the exam. It annoyed Naruto to compete, but he understood that it was necessary. Acting out of the ordinary would attract unwanted attention, and even with his current power, all it took was a single surprise attack to end everything. This way, behaving as though he were still a child training to be a ninja, he would be as safe as he could reasonably expect to be in the near future.

Naruto was unsure how to deal with the new ninja who had arrived. This particular one, actually very, very strong by mortal standards, and possibly not mortal, was obviously after something. But what was it, and how could Naruto keep his cover and stay alive? He couldn't kill or even seriously injure the ninja, as that would be suspicious. He couldn't run, as that would be out of character, and thus also suspicious. He needed a way to disable the enemy without revealing himself. He was not nearly far enough along in his training to override anyone's free will, a task that Kyuubi told him was possibly the most difficult of all.

Fortunately, the ninja made his intentions clear fairly early. He wanted something with or about Sasuke. It was not too difficult for Naruto to pretend to put up a fight, and then become separated from Sasuke, who was no match for the strange, not-quite-mortal. Apparently he wanted to place a seal on Sasuke. Quite clever work, for a human, though obviously not anything like the work of the late Fourth Hokage.

Once the ninja had left, leaving his scroll behind, Naruto went to 'help' his teammate, who was already being fawned over by the female. The seal would make for interesting future encounters, but was not something Naruto would need to worry about for some time. No point changing or removing it and risking exposure.

They continued on through the Forest of Death, and reached their goal on the second day.

In the preliminary round, Naruto decided that he would actually attempt to gain the rank of chuunin, since that would make others consider him more powerful, and he would be more free to use his powers without being suspicious.

It was child's play to pretend to fight for some time, and then to manipulate the human, Kiba, into position, where Naruto released sulfur and other various chemicals into the air, quickly incapacitating the ninja, who was highly-sensitive to these sort of attacks.

Everyone laughed about how Naruto farted on Kiba to win.

Naruto ignored them, listening to the Kyuubi as the demon instructed him on how to harness and absorb semi-divines, in case the other host should become as issue. First, there were minor variations to be made to the ether surrounding the entity to be sealed, which were slightly different if the entity was already sealed...

In the first round of the actual tournament, Naruto was paired with Neji, a mortal with eyes that had been modified to see the physical realm from the point of view of the ethereal. He could see almost all around ("The eyes are intimately linked to the life force of the user, anchored on the bone in the neck, which is, for this reason, unable to be seen through...") and through most physical objects.

For this match, Naruto decided that it would be easiest to pretend immunity to chakra strikes. He knew that those in the know speculated that the demon would have various effects on him, and would assume that it was related to the Kyuubi.

So when the match began, Naruto charged forward as if he were some green Academy student. Neji smirked and flew through the Gentle Fist style in seemingly flawless form. Each strike of chakra was converted and absorbed as energy, and used to fuel increasingly powerful punches and kicks. In short order, Neji realized that something was wrong, as Naruto became quicker and stronger, seemingly unaware of Neji's strikes.

Within a minute, because Neji was not a genius for nothing, the pale-eyed prodigy realized that Gentle Fist was useless. The chakra did not seem to do anything, and the physical strikes themselves were to weak to do anything other than cause minor discomfort.

Adapting to this, Neji adopted a more traditional taijutsu style, this form as flawless as the last. Naruto pretended to clean up his act, improving his taijutsu form and gradually returning to normal speed as he burned off the extra energy he had been using ("You should not dissipate excess chakra gathered into the air around you, as it is easily detected by those with more than basic knowledge of chakra, and would draw suspicion, as normal mortals do not...").

Neji and Naruto sparred this way for some time, until Neji flowed into a new form, a sort of combination style, with the power of normal strikes at the speed of Gentle First. Naruto dodged more than before, as flurries of impressively strong punches would quickly harm his blocking arms.

Finally, as the Hyuuga lunged forward for a stomach-level uppercut, Naruto slammed his head into Neji's foreheard, stunning the prodigy, and allowed Naruto to finish off the exhausted opponent.

The Kyuubi only rolled his eyes when, predictable, Shukaku emerged from the red-haired human. This particular lesser demon had never been very bright. Surely he should have noticed that the death of his host would release him. So why did he protect him?

It didn't matter. Naruto performed the correct manipulations of the auras and ethers of the area with an acceptable degree of accuracy, and absorbed the one-tailed demon. The former host slumped unconscious as his lack of sleep suddenly took effect.

It was amusing to watch as Naruto assimilated the new power and attributes of the late Shukaku. As Naruto's intellect was improved, he saw the boy suddenly understand things that had before been mysteries, now knowing all that Shukaku had ever known, with all that experience, coupled with his own.

What emerged was not Naruto, or Shukaku, but something like each of them. Naruto's personality and will, and the nearly-divine nature of the lesser demon, combined to form a new, greater being.

It was the first step of many.

It was on a trip with the sage of frogs that he first encountered Akatsuki. A large, fish-like man stood leaning against the wall, while s smaller man with red eyes stood in the doorway, looking evenly at the blonde-haired chuunin who had just answered the door.

"Naruto-kun, please come with us."

His senses told him that Jiraiya was nowhere nearby, and that these men had interacted with weak divinities, most likely demons. They would know where to find them. Draining the knowledge straight from their minds, Naruto destroyed their existence as he examined their memories. Ah, a statue which contained most of the nine? Perfect. He only needed two more to get the needed three to proceed with the Kyuubi's plan, but extra would be useful, and reduce the effort needed for what must be done.

Naruto paused briefly, consulting the Kyuubi. With his current demon, and current abilities and precautions, he need not fear death. And now, knowing where to find at least two more, he no longer needed the human world.

Naruto left the hotel, never looking back.

Mechanical constructs, all three of them. Destroyed so easily that Naruto barely took notice, entering the once-secret base of Akatsuki. A mortal with affinity for paper crossed his path, and Naruto ripped her memories away, not even bothering to destroy her body. Confirming that this was the place, and that it had six demons for him to take, he strode toward his objective, leaving the drooling husk of a human behind him.

With all that he knew now, assimilating the demons was easier done than said. Already sealed and restrained, it hardly took any energy to absorb them.

Now he was almost there. He contained enough of a divinity to effect the necessary changes. He twisted his powers, skirting along the edges of the rules as he effectively increased his own power through convoluted variations of his own semi-divinity. Then, once he had enough, he granted himself divinity.

Earthquakes rocked the world. Storms sprang from nowhere, going from clear skies to brilliant electrical furies that burned entire countries. Fire literally rained from the sky.

In other words, existence buckled and quivered as a new god was added. Gods were eternal, existing from the beginning of time. So when Naruto, a mortal, became fully divine, the universe was forced to change. History was rewritten. Time reset. Everything that ever was, and everything that was yet to be, changed.

Naruto was never born. He was an eternal spirit who had descended from his place above to inhabit the body of a mortal known as Uzumaki Naruto.

As a divine, Naruto had certain privileges. Most importantly, the privilege of changing himself. He decided that he could learn anything at an infinite speed, and so this was true. As soon as he had decided this, he had learned everything that Kyuubi had ever taught him, or planned to teach him, or ever knew. He understood. Everything.

And as he had promised so long ago, he began the work to free Kyuubi. Suddenly and violently, with a speed faster than any other god, he slew Shinigami and every other threat to his power, who might realize what could be done, if Kyuubi's methods were used correctly. Then, he stretched and ripped and tore the universe apart as he absorbed the being once known as Kami.

Existence flickered, like a light bulb with spotty wiring. The dead arose from the their graves, as there was no such thing as death. Except that they had never died, and so they were never placed into graves to begin with. Without Shinigami, all the rules put in place by that god vanished

And the same with Kami. It was this being who had decreed what was normal, and what was appropriate. Who had determined exactly what creatures existed and did not. But now, with its guidance, existence existed in every possible manner. There were dragons, and sea monsters, and every form of everything that could ever be imagined.

For an instant, existence was in chaos. Then Naruto rewrote everything.

Naruto, Kyuubi and Kami were one, yet separate. Three parts of a glorious whole. One being, but somehow with three persons. Each able to think for themselves, yet all thinking all at once.

In the beginning, there was Naruto.

The end.

Did you like it? Hate it? Were you confused by it? Did you click on it by accident? Let me know.

-demonicnargles