To Live 1000 years

Prologue

It was dark, Dante was surrounded by darkness. He felt a sweet peace wash over him, were his eyes open or closed? He couldn't tell, he couldn't remember anything, all he could see were glimmers of light and regret. He let the darkness take him and he prepared for oblivion until a light washed over him and suddenly he was inside a pure white room sitting across from an old woman dressed in a pure white gown, her silver hair seemed to wash down her body like an avalanche as they accented the wrinkles on her skin.

"Hello Dante." She said plainly, Dante looked up at her, bewildered at such a sight.

"W-where am I?" he asked fearfully, he had no memory of how he got here, all he could gather was that his name was Dante, and he was somewhere new.

"You're nowhere, and everywhere, you're here and you're there, and it's nice to see you, my child."

"What?" Dante asked, confused, he was thoroughly unnerved at this situation, "I don't have time for riddles, what happened?"

"Oh you died." Dante sat there stunned to hear this, "I pulled you out before things got too...grizzly, you were known as Dante Algario, and you were a human on earth. It takes a bit for the memories to come back after someone dies and I snipped the one of... your death. It'd be cruel to make you remember such pain." Suddenly Dante remembered, his brain was flooded with his memories. He was a 19 year old boy, he was going to college online, he lived with his grandmother, he was working a part time job at an amusement park. He was walking to his car after work and when he went to cross the street and...he couldn't remember. Dante gripped his red hair in a panic.

"I can't be dead... I... why."

"It's okay Dante," The woman reached over and put a hand on his knee, "Everyone dies eventually, you're safe now."
"What about my life before? What about the people I left behind?! It's not fair!"

"What about your life? The people you left behind will die too, and the life of humanity will continue on, the world won't stop spinning, and besides, what comes after is amazing, you should feel lucky you left early."

"Lucky?!" Dante stood up quickly, "I had a family! I had people I loved! I had a future! Does none of that matter?" She looked Dante sternly in his eyes and stuck fear into his heart, he sat down quickly.

"Dante..." She continued, "You'll come to find out that none of that mattered, you'll see soon, the point of your life on earth was to prepare your soul for your true life afterwards, when your soul is 'ripe' to hatch, you'll die, and you come to me."

"And who are you? God?"

She paused and looked down then back at Dante, "In a way...yes, but not in the way you think." Dante looked at her puzzled, "You see, our species are extra-dimensional creatures, only 7 of us exist, we spend our time traversing the multiverse, experiencing what we want and doing what we want, and when we are ready to 'die' pursae, we create a universe and sit and wait for a soul worthy of receiving our power, and you're just that, you should be overjoyed."

"What happened to the souls that aren't worthy?"

"Well, I send them to a separate universe that allows them to live in peace and happiness, I believe you know it as heaven. My other family, I'm not too sure"

Dante stared down at his thumbs in his lap "Wait, what makes me worthy? And why are you giving me that power?"

"Well, it's hard to explain in a way you'll understand, our kind, when we're ready to 'pass on' we kind of just know who it's going to be, it's like a 6th sense."

"Well, what if I refuse?"

"Dante, I don't think you understand what I'm giving you, it's literally the power of a god, you can do anything, go anywhere, the only limit is your imagination, you'll never age, and you'll never be bored because anything and everything is available to you all the time."

"But I don't care about that, I want to go back to my family, I want to go back to my life."

"You will, and you can, this power makes anything possible." Dante felt a tear slide down his cheek and on to his hand.

"I can see my family again?"

"Yes, and so much more."

"What about you? Will you die or something?"

"Yes, I will, my existence will end once I give you these powers."

"What about the universe,"

"Look," she pointed out to a window, it was just blackness, nothing in sight.

"That's the universe right now, it ended eons ago, along with all life."

"Wait, but I died in the 21th century, the universe should still be alive."

"Time flows differently outside reality, you aren't experiencing time in the universe now that you're not in it, so billions upon trillions of eons flew by in the time we had this conversation, and now it's dead, as will I be soon."

"What about heaven, what about my family?"

"It lasted the same amount of time, but the souls of my children have aged and faded, they're gone as well." Dante began weeping, "don't worry though, you can still see them, just take my power, go back to your life, do whatever you want, it's alright." She held out her hand and Dante took it, and like that she was no more and Dante was alone.

Many, Many years later

"Dante, gather your things, we're leaving." Dante looked up at his father, his dark red hair seemed to be wreathed in moonlight.

"Dante Yuki," He turned around and saw his mother standing tall, her beautiful black hair falled around her shoulders like the shadow of night falling upon day, "Listen to your father, we have to go." Dante put his backpack on, he was only 8 now, his hair was dark and his eyes shined blue, He took his mom's hand as they fled into the night, once they were out of the hidden Mist Village, Dante turned to his mom

"where are we going mom?"

"We have to head east to the leaf and hope they take us as refugees."

"Why?"

"Because we aren't welcome in the land of water now, and your dad thinks the land of fire is best we got. The Hokage is rumored to be a kind old man." She looked down to her son as she came to a stop, this caused Dantes dad to stop as well. She knelt down and put her hands on Dante's shoulders. "Listen, we're trying to keep you safe, we love you and we have to protect you, we're sorry we had to leave, but this will be a fresh start for you." Dante's dad came and put a hand on Dante's head and ruffled his hair.

"For all of us." He said as he Knelt down and hugged his family with tears in his eyes. They kept walking for hours and hours, Dante got to sleep riding piggyback on his dad, until they came to a stop at a river. Dante opened his eyes and saw that they were now in a forest, he looked around and saw the mesmerizing fireflies. His dad set him down. "Why don't you go rest over there sport, we'll set up camp in a little bit. Take a blanket." He handed him a Blanket from his bag and Dante walked over to a soft patch of grass and propped himself against a tree with a Blanket wrapped around him. He watched as his parents approached the river.

"Kota, are you sure you want to do this?" She looked at Kota, Kota looked at Dante and back at her.

"Yes, I'll keep us safe Tsuki, this is the beginning of something amazing, we'll be fine. I love you and I love our child," He took both her hands. "Just trust me, firefly," he looked into her eyes with a smile as a shooting star shot through the sky.

"I do," She kissed him gingerly as Dante covered his eyes in disgust. He peaked and uncovered when they turned to the river. Kota pulled out two head-bands and handed one over to Tsuki. They placed them on the floor and each pulled out a kunai Knife, and slashed across the four wavy lines on the head band and they threw them both into the river. Tsuki began to cry as she renounced her previous life but she looked at her smiling husband and resting child and smiled because Even though she felt sad for leaving her home behind, she trusted Kota. After a couple minutes of silence, they walked back to their child, and began to set up the camp.