The Burdens of a God.

Note: This chapter may be a little dark at the end as Naruto addresses the burdens of being a god to Rias, but otherwise, the rest of the chapter is quite light and fluffy.

I tried to address the issue on why Naruto didn't wake up for certain events in history and other fair points.

If you feel that this chapter is horrible, especially at the end, please tell me so that I may edit it as I'm not sure if people might be able to understand what I'm trying to say when Naruto starts explaining about his problems.

On that, this chapter is subjected to change if it is not well-received. Please keep in mind that I'm trying to improve my writing skills/etc as I age.

Updates will more than likely not be happening for more than a month, two tops as my exams are literally next week on Monday, and I need time to recuperate my mind and writing skills. It seems the stress is getting to me as I'm completely unable to write anything at all, and even then I think it's incredibly sub-par.

I actually have the next chapter for TToK ready, 11K words in fact, but I feel that the chapter is absolutely garbage. So there goes 11K words, swirling dejectedly down the toilet.

So yeah, keep that in mind that exams are next week and most 16 year olds don't handle well under pressure.

Sorry for this entire rant, I just need people to talk to, y'know?

Side note, I've been writing 90 percent of this chapter from 8pm to 1am. So errors are to be expected.

With that, if you're still here reading this, I applaud you for taking the time to read about my woes and to enjoy the chapter with low expectations.

(PS: I do not actually play MGS, so apologies for any mistakes I make regarding the series.)

A tall figure clad in purple pyjamas and mismatched, furry yellow slippers ran down the hallway silently, the large bush of red that sat upon his head. There was a string of quiet muttering as he zipped from door to door stealthily, pressing himself up against the wall to look inconspicuous, as if he were playing some kind of game.

In his defence to looking silly, he had been playing a video game series that went by the name of 'Metal Gear Solid' during his free time and the game had proven that this was the most effective way of hiding as no one ever spotted his character/s 'Naked Snake'/'Solid Snake' whenever the bearded, one-eyed man hid around corner while he was navigating around the territory of the bad guys.

It was a pity that the company making the game had gone to shit, and had started selling out and making games on phones instead.

A real pity. He'd never forget Hideo Kojima and the work he'd put into the game, only to be sacked by his company for reasons that Sirzechs couldn't even think of –seriously, that game made them money!-. Perhaps if the man were to accept or die prematurely, he could invite him into his peerage…

Nevertheless, the reason he was sneaking around was because he had chanced upon his little sister Rias speaking to herself. Normally, this wouldn't warrant any type of suspicion from her sister-complex older brother as she could be read off a book, but the problem was that she was asking strange questions like 'Wow, did you really beat a giant sand monster by yourself?' and 'Why in the Hell did he grow wings that looked like hands?'

Now, that either showed that his little Rias was losing her mind, or that she was talking to something or someone who had entered her room via unknown methods. Normally, he would've acted on this immediately, but Rias had been looking much happier than before. Whereas in the past she used to look slightly bored and would beg for Grayfia to stay with her at night to talk aimlessly, she now wanted to go to sleep earlier than ever.

After a full week of not wanting to spoil his beloved little sister's good mood, his curiosity had finally reached its peak and now he just had to know who or what she was speaking to.

Tiptoeing across to the the next door just beside Rias' room and peeking his head out just a little from the door frame allowed Sirzechs to see the faint light shining from underneath her door. Still thinking that it was some kind of stealth game, the grown man decided to act like Solid Snake and rolled across the floor, clumsily banging into many of the walls due to his longs legs getting tangled up.

Inside the room, a pair of turquoise eyes rolled in exasperation.

Pretending like he had just performed a perfect roll, Sirzechs popped upwards onto his feet and raised his hands defensively, sweeping his eyes across the hall to ensure that no one had seen him when he performed his poorly executed roll.

After confirming that the coast was clear, he pressed his ear against the door and listened as the blurred mumbling from behind the wood became intelligible.

"Hmmm, what kind of panties should I wear today?" He heard Rias' adorable voice wonder aloud, and could already imagine her holding up a pair of cute striped underpants.

A true sis-con, indeed.

Despite those thoughts, Sirzechs' eyes twitched violently, but made no movements as she could just possibly be talking to herself, and barging into his underage sister's room while she was changing her undies would inevitably land him in hot, hot, hot water with his sister, wife, father and mother.

A situation a man in his high-ranking position would want to be caught dead in.

"Eh? How about the cute bear one?" It was still a fifty-fifty chance that she was talking to herself, so Sirzechs still stood his ground. There was a brief pause, as if someone was responding. He could hear Rias' smile as she spoke again, "Well that's a given considering how much you like bears-"

With a resounding "Hyah!", Sirzechs moved backwards and brought his leg upwards, kicking it forwards with all of his might. The door shot forwards, swinging inwards and slamming into the wall next to the door.

"Nobody should be looking at my Rias-chan's panties!" Sirzechs entered the room, eyes burning brightly, fists cocked and ready as he scanned the room, only to find the deadpan face of his sister staring back at him from the bed. Nothing seemed out of place, and she wasn't even doing anything related to panties!

Could it be…? Could she have known that he was sneaking around and eavesdropping on her?!

Her blank face answered all of his doubts.

Impossible! He was as silent as silence itself! There was absolutely no way that Rias could've heard him. Playing Metal Gear Solid (at least seventy percent of the entire franchise beginning from Metal Gear) already gave him a one up on many people. Perhaps Rias' had some kind of trick that allowed her to know of his sneaking skills up her sleeves…

"And just what," She started as Rias' turquoise eyes began to narrow in, presumably, anger, "Do you think you're doing?"

"Bu-But where's the…" He stuttered in confusion as he looked left and right, "And the bear panties- I… Er, hello Rias-chan! What're you doing up so late?" Sirzechs tried the old 'changing the subject', but failed horribly

"Onii-chan, what was that about bear panties? I don't recall mentioning anything about bear panties in your presence." The little girl tilted her head to the side, narrowed eyes burning holes through his face. If looks could kill, Sirzechs would've already been sent to Hell- Hm. Probably not, but nevertheless, bottom line was that he'd be dead. As his eyes went over to her hands, he noticed that they were tightly clenched and were slowly being raised up, already in preparation for knocking his head off of his shoulders.

"Were you, perhaps, eavesdropping on me?" A miasma of darkness began forming from Rias' side of the room, and Sirzechs gulped when Rias' entire body seemed to turn dark, her red locks flickering behind her sinisterly, with only the entirety of her eyes and hair lighting up in turquoise and crimson respectively.

"I'd suggest you leave… Oniiiii-chaaaaan." Rias drawled in a creepy manner. Her cute voice seemed to echo throughout the room and when used in conjunction with her creepy drawl, made it more spooky, sending shivers down her older brother's spine.

"Er… I-I'll be taking my leave now. I'll send someone to fix the wall and door tomorrow." Giving his sister a shaky grin, he waved goodbye to the little sister who was slowly getting up. Not wanting to further agitate his little sister, lest he end up gargling on his teeth, Sirzechs quickly bid his sister goodnight, "G-Goodnight, Rias-chan!" The sweating Devil sped down the hallway, his stealth long forgotten. Rias allowed the effect to fade away and the little redhead rolled her eyes before getting off her bed to close the partially destroyed door and wall. But before closing, she popped her head out and looked left and right again before shutting it. Her thumb pressed the metal circle over the knob, and she nodded to herself as the distinct 'thunk' sound was heard, alerting her that the door was locked.

Behind her back, the space inside of her room began to distort and an open doorway leading to absolute darkness slowly opened up. Upon reaching the floor, the robed foot stepped out and a grinning Naruto popped his head out from the darkness, the rest of his body –sans his leg- still shrouded in darkness.

"Ahoy, Rias-chan!" He cheerfully whisper-shouted, causing the girl to spin around with a wide smile on her cute face. "How'd your brother respond to getting caught?"

"Eh, Onii-chan got really frightened because I used the technique you taught me on him." Rias responded. She had indeed learned that trick from Naruto, who said that he learnt it from his mother the first and only time he met her. Rias' displeasure, who thought that Kushina had purposefully abandoned Naruto, was quelled when Naruto told her that Kushina did love him greatly, and that he had met her in his own mindscape long after she had passed on.

Rias' smile had gotten larger when she heard that Naruto found his mother to be one of the most beautiful women he had ever laid his once-blue-now-purple-ringed eyes upon.

Thankfully, in their brief meeting, she was able to convey to him all of her ungiven love, apologising for the horrible past he had where he was ignored by everyone and had no one to love him save for a handful of people. Naruto cared not for the years of solitude, and gave the woman a big hug before she returned it with double the ferocity. After sharing a brief laugh together, she enthralled him with a story of her past and how she met his father in school. She also taught him the trick she used when boys had bullied her in school about her hair and round cheeks.

"See, told you that it was scary for men. Probably gave him a minor heart attack when your hair started floating." Naruto gave a chuckle as the rest of his body emerged from the universal doorway he summoned. On his arms Naruto carried an array of bags, each with their own colours, decorations and sizes. He waddled forwards carefully as not to break anything fragile inside them.

"Where did you go? Shopping for technology?" Rias asked with a tiny smile, making a jest at Naruto's wonderment towards the new age. Naruto pouted at Rias, causing the girl to break out in giggles. Dropping his sad act and allowing a smile to form on his face, he set the bags down and sat down with his legs crossed onto her carpet.

"Ha-ha, very funny Rias-chan. I was, in fact, at the moon." Rias raised an eyebrow, suddenly interested in what the bags contained.

"I seriously hope that you didn't bring aliens into my home."

"Oh Rias, you really need to stop watching those movers you tell me so much about."

"They're called movies, Naruto-kun, not movers." Rias corrected him with a smirk, to which the spiky-haired blonde tap his finger at the side of his chin.

"Huh, could've sworn they were called movers…" He muttered and shrugged to himself before going back to unpacking his bags. Rias sat beside him, him on the floor while she on the edge of her bed, swinging her legs in anticipation as Naruto poked his tongue out and shuffled through the bag, rummaging through the first bag's contents.

Naruto allowed her curiosity to be satiated as he first pulled out a thumb sized shard of a smooth black rock. Rolling it in his palm briefly, Naruto tossed it up in the air and caught it as it fell back down with his index finger and thumb. Rias marvelled at how the rock seemed to sparkle under the light, different minerals on its surface reflecting light at different angles, at varying levels of brightness.

"This," He handed the rock over to Rias, who obliged and took it from his pinch-grip, "Is a piece of the moon I brought back with me."

"Really?" Rias stared with interest at the piece of rock in her hands. "This rock came from the moon?" It was definitely something you didn't touch every day, and it was probably worth its weight in gold if sold to the right person. The lunar rock felt both smooth and coarse at times due to the numerous minerals embedded into it and Rias thought it was definitely a cool souvenir.

"Oh my g-" Naruto huffed before he continued, "It's a mineral, Rias, not a rock."

Rias raised an eyebrow at his sudden change in demeanour, "Nope. Definitely a rock."

"Never mind," Naruto relented, "That's a gift by the way. Who knows? That might come in handy one day." Rias smiled, setting the fragment of rock onto her white sheets. Naruto then stood up as he began pulling out a flag from his bag, and Rias gawped as Naruto pulled out the distinct fifty-starred flag of the United States of America.

That wasn't the surprising part. What was surprising was that Naruto was pulling out a metre (100 centimetres) long pole that followed the flag out of a twenty centimetre tall bag.

"W-What the… How are you doing that?" Rias spluttered as Naruto continued to pull the flag's pole out, "That shouldn't be possible. A-Are you bending space?"

"Hey, I told you. I'm a god, I'm pretty sure I can do anything I want. Like, oh I'unno, creating the moon after I blew the first one up?" Naruto waggled his eyebrows as he lifted the flag out of the bag and gently placed its end onto the carpeted floor while holding onto its middle. "Speaking of the moon, this is America's flag."

Rias rubbed her eyes wearily, having briefly forgotten that he best friend was quite literally a god and could do whatever he wanted to even if it meant defying the many laws of the infinite universe. She briefly went into her mind and tossed that memory into the room in her head that she dedicated to solving Naruto.

"Yes. I can see that. Remind me why you have that again, Naruto-kun."

"They probably think some other country did it, but I stole it after I realised that they had placed it on the moon. Like, who does that? They come to my home uninvited, and I don't even get mad about it. But then they go ahead and claim it as theirs? Are you kidding me? Space was mine! Completely untouched by Man at the time save for me, but noooooo, they just had to come to space and claim the moon as theirs!" Naruto grumbled and crossed his arms beneath his chest grumpily.

In a silly voice, he pretended like he was one of the astronauts. "Hey guys, let's just disregard the fact that we have no idea if anyone lives on the moon and mark it as the American's, huh? Rude pricks."

Rias scratched her head as she listened to Naruto's tangent. Wondering how he had known that they had even landed on the moon, but guess that he was still half-conscious at the time. The part of him that was awake was probably the part that watched over the world in case of impending doom, and that he was awoken due to the Evil Piece she had held up to the moon. Disregarding that question, she corrected him. "I'm fairly certain that the Russians got to space first."

"Yeah, and there's a reason they didn't land on the moon, y'know. It's cause they know better than to mess with Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Sure thing, Naruto-kun," Rias giggled while Naruto propped the flag up against the wall. "What else did you bring with you?"

"Oh, right! Before I self-exiled myself, I managed to retrieve that I haven't touched it since I placed them on the moon either." Naruto had used his new found godhood to steal various items before the incident with the moon came about.

While picking up a few of these gifts, Naruto had also taken Madara's Gunbai and cool samurai armour, all of Obito's masks, and a few of Akatsuki's signature cloaks. There were a few more things here and there that he had taken along with him before he left, but he couldn't remember much besides the important ones.

He had sealed all of the items he had collected inside of the scroll for convenience. Naruto was certain that nobody, save for himself, was able to use any of these items, let alone get to them as it require chakra to unseal from the scroll.

"So, what's inside?"

"This and that, just some things that should never have been placed in the hands of humans as well as weapons that bring destruction and death. Y'know, just the usual fun stuff you had to deal with in the past as a shinobi." Naruto was certain that a few items he had not picked up were somewhere else in the world as a majority of them were probably hidden in places humans were unable to reach. "I'm not going to unseal this today, maybe another time."

Returning to his scavenging, Naruto was interrupted as Rias asked him another question.

"I've wanted to ask you this for a while, Naruto, but why didn't you wake up during the World Wars, or when every other ruthless dictator was in power, and stop them?" Naruto knew of their existence due to his partial-awareness during his slumber, but had only recently been educated by Rias and read up about the history that had unfolded during his sleep.

He learned of Germany's atrocities against the Jews in World War Two, and what the Russians did to the innocent Germans after the war ended. How Stalin had many of his own countrymen killed during his tyrannical reign and all of the new terrorist groups popping up left and right, causing absolute havoc to different parts of the world.

Naruto lifted his ringed eyes from the backpack and scratched at his scalp. "Well, that's a tough question that not many might understand and is quite hard for me to put into words. This might be long, so just bear with me." Leaning back, Naruto pressed his back into the frame of the bed and sighed, looking slightly older than he did seconds before. The little redhead guessed that it had to do with some form of guilt, or something along those lines.

"Think of it like this. The reason I accepted godhood from Kaguya was to attain true peace, right?" Rias obliged him with a nod, "Well, during the first few years of my self-imposed exile in the moon I realised that I wasn't capable of stopping all conflict or saving all lives. It was a foolish thought really, and the only way of attaining that was through the Infinite Tsukuyomi or me ending human life. Conflict, be it small in the form of just the average people punching his fellow nobody, or large scale situations like the World Wars and all that other crap wasn't just something I could stop. Even if I did stop it, they'd still harbour the same feelings they had before I stopped it and everything would inevitably blow up just like it did for the shinobi."

Rias noticed the frown on his face as he began pouring his heart out to her.

"People, humans, need to work together to solve a common problem before they can understand how to come together. They require something, something so much worse than each other to stop and fight against in order to forget their hostility to each other and to learn how to trust each other. Do you think that the Five Great Villages were best friends before the whole palaverous event with the Zetsu, Kabuto and the undead army, Obito, Madara, the Shinju and Kaguya?" Naruto's spiked hair followed along with his movements, shaking left and right as he did. "The answer is a resounding 'no'. But we became allies, friends because of a simple, common problem. Correction, a common problem that could potentially kill all of us or trap us in some dreamland we can never escape from for all eternity. If Madara and Kaguya's failed attempts at trying to bring their version of 'peace' have taught me anything, it's that true peace is completely unobtainable."

It was painful to accept, but true. It was so long ago that the world was in peril, at its mercy at the hands of a crazed goddess, but once they were saved and time passed on, wars and endless conflict returned, a vicious, never-ending cycle.

Naruto sighed again, "So I decided, that unless another Kaguya was going to spring forth, attempting to end all life on Earth or to destroy Earth completely, only then I'd have to step in. But until that'd happen, I would stay completely out of the spotlight." Naruto allowed his words to sink into Rias for a moment, before continuing.

"I mean, can you imagine what I'd have to deal with if I exposed myself to stop –in my eyes- minor wars? From then on, any problem, no matter how insignificant, would be pinned on me, just because I am a god. Someone would say, 'Oh, why didn't you stop that tornado from hitting Point A?' While someone else would say, 'Thank you for saving those caught in an earthquake in Point B!' Then if I had done the opposite, the same people would reverse their roles and blame me for not saving those in Point B… Is it my fault that the Earth's plates shift, causing natural disasters?"

Naruto's fists clenched hard as he began arguing with the invisible people that were blaming him.

"Is it my fault that your governments didn't ensure that your buildings were structurally sound, sturdy against an earthquake? Am I to blame that underground shelters were not installed for your protection against tornadoes? Sooner or later, they'd question me on why I didn't save their relatives, friends, loved ones from a disease, a fatal wound maybe? I didn't interfere because when you give people something to push their blames to, they won't hesitate to do it." His unique eyes were glassy as he stared off into space, speaking about what was in his mind.

"Eventually, areligious nut-job is going to try to have me killed in some delusion, thinking they'd get rid of the false god. They'd fail and word would get out that I was un-killable. I'd be blamed for living forever, for having the gift and curse of immortality. Then the demands for me to bring the dead back to life would come, people begging me to make them immortal, getting upset or furious if I were to turn them down and then more would hate me."

He gave a mirthless chuckle as the wrinkles on his youthful face became more pronounced. The bags beneath his eyes seemed to have darkened exponentially. "Ah, but don't forget that when they actually have to deal with a problem that may destroy all-of-humanity, they'll come crawling back and begging for help, forgetting that they'd had ever wronged me because it's my job to save them from total annihilation. Heh… I don't even need it to actually happen to see it because it's so predictable."

"I think I can see why Kaguya went insane trying to stop all those wars. She must've snapped under the pressure and just wanted to wipe everyone off the face of the Earth in order to solve all of their problems for them." He allowed his head to fall onto Rias' bed, allowing the coolness of the soft mattress to comfort him.

The little girl shifted over to Naruto, stroking the front of his soft hair with her tiny fingers. She was disappointed in herself that she had never noticed the burdens hidden behind the constant joy and happiness Naruto emitted.

"I might be a god, but I can't solve everyone's problems." With that, Naruto closed his eyes, clearly exhausted from his long-winded and emotional speech. Rias had been nodding throughout his entire rant. She knew what he meant. If word ever got out that there was a god who could've stopped the World Wars, or tragedies in general, from befalling, he'd be treated like Superman from the American version of Manga, comic books.

The Man of Steel was revered by people when he saved the day, feared and hated by the same ones who praised him when he did not.

Perhaps it was for the best that he had allowed the World Wars to take place. Who knew? Perhaps the world would have changed drastically had Naruto interfered.

It was obvious that a massive weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, something that had obviously been gnawing at Naruto for a while. And Rias could tell that what Naruto needed was someone he could lean on, someone who could listen to his troubles without judging him.

He needed his best friend. And she was there for him just like how he was there for her.

With a large yawn, Rias placed her head beside his; silently enjoying the way Naruto looked when he was sleeping. Now his eternal youth seemed to return to him, and was much more peaceful than he was a minute ago. She guessed that telling his feelings to her, someone who wouldn't judge him due to his status, had certainly disencumbered him from his guilt as well as got rid of the dark thoughts that had amalgamated inside of his head.

As she began to fall asleep, Rias patted herself on the back for scaring Sirzechs earlier and locking the door. Now her older brother would be too afraid to teleport into her room, nor would he be brave enough to enter. She was sure that he'd tell Grayfia, and everyone else for that matter, to let her wake up whenever she wanted to lest she use the 'Red Hot Habanero' technique on him again.

"Good night, Naruto… don't worry, I'll be right here, next to you." And so she shut her eyes, tiny hands buried into his lusciously soft but spiky hair. Right as her eyes shut, she fell into a deep sleep and failed to notice the soft smile that had formed on Naruto's face as he whispered softly to the quietly-snoring girl next to him.

"Thank you, Rias-chan."

They were four words, but they showed Naruto's gratitude for letting him get rid of all of the weight that had been accumulating on his chest.

Erm, once again, please tell me if you liked this chapter or not.

Not sure if people would like the explanation process I gave for him about his burden, but as Rias thought, it is comparable to that of Superman in the 'Man of Steel' and 'Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice' movies.

Now you might be thinking, 'But Naruto can use his clones to help people.' And I respond saying:

Self-reliance is important, if we had a god at our every beck and call, to save us from danger and all that jazz, most of the population would become entirely reliant on Naruto to save them. They'd end up like the humans in Wall-E where they are serviced by robots entirely, they grow fat as a metaphor for showing that they cannot even take care of themselves in the least.

So there, Naruto doesn't want them to be reliant on him, neither does he want normal people to know of his existence.

Not to mention the religious nut-jobs.