A God Amongst Men

The mask of god

Naruto looked at the large pyramid that stood in the middle of the ancient ruins. It wasn't exactly visible to the naked eyes, but nothing was really hidden before the eyes of Naruto Uzumaki. He figured that no one really had ventured into the pyramid since it wasn't visible to the naked eye, and it wasn't exactly tangible for one to touch it if you couldn't see it.

Sighing once more as he gathered the energy reserves stored within his muscles, Naruto closed his eyes: he was preparing himself for what was coming, what he was going to hear from this being that brought him from the Elemental Nations.

His life wasn't ''his'' anymore. He had died, and this being that called him here had sacrificed his life to being him here. As far as it concerned him, Naruto knew that he had died and this could only explain why he was alive and all parts of his body present. If someone had given their life for him to live, he could at least hear what they had to say.

As if it was on automatic, the walls shifted to create a passage for him to enter. The passage he walked through was deathly quiet; candles were lit on the walls, giving the passage a dim light; some sort of thick mist flowed on the surface where his feet touched: he couldn't see where he was landing, but he still walked without fear or doubt - his eyes were only focused on the end of the passage.

Once he made it out of the end of the passage, he reached the center of the pyramid; it was rather clear as day. The center was some sort of a hall, the entrance being at the one he used. All four sides were empty, but there was something like a tomb in the middle and a man sitting on top of it, legs crossed; he was wearing a white gown, exactly like Hagoromo's, and had small black eyes, as well as shoulder length black hair.

Naruto didn't reach the man, but stopped at a safe distance.

''You surely did take your time in coming here,'' the stranger said calmly. ''I could've ceased to exist if you had taken much longer.''

The voice was the same as the one that had spoken to him in the river village. It was a bit light though, but the same voice nonetheless. In response, Naruto shrugged. ''I don't think you would have allowed yourself to cease to exist before you spoke to me if you really wanted to tell me something important.''

''That may be true, but when your time is up it is up,'' the man said. ''I am not surprised someone like you would say something like that though. You are the same person who promised Mei-san that you would return from the dead if your plan doesn't work,'' he sounded a bit amused.

Sometimes he truly went overboard when making promises, but then again, the power between life and death was inside his hands. He existed in the physical plane and the spiritual plane, why wouldn't he believe he could return from the dead? On top of that, he did the impossible, even some things he considered to be godly, how couldn't he believe that the impossible would happen if he did many of such things?

Before he could respond, it was only then did he realize that the man in front of him was a ghost: he could see through him. He didn't say his findings out loud, he settled for responding to the remark about his promise. ''I gave up too much for things to turn out in a way I did not think. If my spirit is watching, then it surely wouldn't rest in peace until its body is revived. Of course, since I am here, that can't happen.''

Being here meant that even if he couldn't remain in a plane where he could observe the Elemental Nations. But if he existed somewhere, he wouldn't be here. Being here meant that his soul was in this world, everything of his existence had been removed in order to be brought here.

Perhaps he had been a little too naive to think that he would be able to move between the dead and living as he so wishes. Hagoromo couldn't do that. He couldn't even show himself to everyone, and he couldn't interfere with things directly. The fact was simple: he was a dead man and so was he. Even if he had turned into the state of Hagoromo, he could only influence little.