Final Chapter: Apotheosis
Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Final Chapter: Apotheosis
The skies seemed to react to Naruto's presence. The clouds parted away, and a strong wind began to blow.
He closed his eyes and focused for a moment.
The cultivation that he had been holding for a decade was now unleashed.
A calming golden aura surrounded his body, giving him a godly presence.
For the past decades, he had continued to absorb all the energy he could from his surroundings while transforming everything that he had accumulated so far into his own Divine Energy.
The Nine Bijuu took him very far, but after assimilating Kaguya, he still had a long way to go.
Naruto had initially calculated that it was going to take him at least five or six hundred years to reach this point.
This was until he discovered a method that allowed his clones to absorb natural energy from all over the world and bring it back to him.
Having millions of clones as he did, propelled his cultivation speed to a whole other level.
It was actually much more effective than he expected. And after only two decades of using this method, he was already ready to ascend.
Naruto thought that it was too early. Not only would he fail to keep his promise to Tsunade, but he would also have to leave his two companions behind.
He stopped absorbing energy directly, but his body was continuously taking in everything in the surrounding area.
Naruto contained his cultivation, preventing it from reaching that last step. And he succeeded for a decade, but then it became too much.
He now felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he allowed his cultivation to circulate properly.
"Mmm…" Naruto just now realized something… he was not sure what to do next, and nothing was happening.
His cultivation was now at the very peak of the Immortal Ascension Stage, and all his energy had been refined into Divine Energy.
This is where his knowledge ended. After all, no one who ascended came back to tell the tale.
"It's okay… I'll figure this out." He refused to have made it this far, only to fail at this point.
All of a sudden, Naruto felt that something strange was occurring to his body. He looked down at his hands and could not see anything off by using his eyes, but his other senses were telling him otherwise.
"Could it be?…" Something occurred to him.
He decided to sit down and close his eyes again, pulling his consciousness into his Mind Palace.
"As I suspected… it was you." Naruto looked up at the Golden Scripture.
Since he had awoken in this world, the Divine Artifact had remained floating in the same place, right above his chakra pool.
The pool no longer existed, as he had no more need for it. In fact, his Mind Palace had changed quite a bit over the years.
His golden core had also vanished, its function had become obsolete the moment that Naruto stopped using chakra as a source of power.
But the scripture remained there nonetheless… that was until now.
The golden artifact was now moving around in an erratic manner.
If this was a person, Naruto would think that it was nervous about something.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me you are afraid of returning up there."
As Naruto said this… the book stopped moving.
"You came from the realm of the Gods, didn't you? I have not forgotten that Goddess I saw in the cave where I found you… she was your previous user. Something must have happened to her that forced her to escape the Higher Realms, losing her immortality in the process..."
He never put that much thought into it because it just felt like a distant thing.
But now that he was so close, it occurred to Naruto that whoever killed that Goddess was likely trying to acquire the Golden Scripture. And now he was going to that place.
The scripture moved in front of him and opened its pages.
"Mmm?…" Naruto looked down at the writing on the first page.
He had never seen this language before, but he somehow understood what it said.
It spoke about the life of that Goddess and the enemies she had made during her lifetime.
"This is your way of warning me. Oh… I see." This is why Naruto felt that something was wrong. His eyes went to the scripture. "It was you, wasn't it? You were preventing my ascension."
He had already thought it was strange that nothing occurred after he reached the peak of cultivation. This Divine Artifact had somehow stopped him because it was concerned about returning to the Higher Realms and meeting those Gods once more.
Naruto crossed his arms. "Hmph! Who do you think I am?!" he shouted at the book in front of him.
"Do you truly believe that I will run away from a challenge? That I will want to remain here for the rest of my days before it's safer? Screw that! Bring it on!"
The Golden Scripture made more pages appear. These contained an absurd amount of information that suddenly entered his mind.
There was information about the next levels of cultivation after the Ascension.
Much like mortal cultivators, Gods were also separated into many different levels. And the moment he arrived there, Naruto was going to be at the bottom once more, just like when he first woke up as Naruto.
He may be invincible in this world, but in the Higher Realms, he was going to be nothing but cannon fodder until he increased his strength.
His cultivation method, the Cosmic Assimilation, he now knew how to continue to use it after becoming a God.
Finally, there was information about the geography of the Higher Realms. There were countless Mortal Worlds, but only nine High Realms existed.
Each one of them was absolutely massive and ruled by powerful Gods that would crush him in an instant if he entered their sights.
Naruto wasn't sure if the Golden Scripture was telling him all of this to scare him from ascending or to help him once he was there.
But this only had the effect of making him more excited at the prospect of such a challenge.
The Golden Scripture remained floating in front of him, as if it was waiting for his decision.
"If you know me, you should already know what I am going to say. Let us go!" Naruto exclaimed.
Reacting to his words, the scripture began to glow brightly, and a moment later, it turned into particles of golden light that dispersed all over his soul.
Naruto opened his eyes to the real world and saw that his body had begun to experience changes.
He had known for a while that in this next step, only his soul was going to ascend.
Naruto's skin was glowing brightly, and particles of energy were coming from it.
His family was looking at him with concerned eyes, wondering if something was wrong.
Naruto raised his hand to them. "It's okay. I'm fine."
His fingers started to disappear. His body was now turning into pure energy and then reabsorbed into his soul.
They called for him and wanted to approach, but Naruto stopped them.
"This is how it was meant to be. Don't worry about it. Everything is as it should be." His entire arm was now gone, and the rest soon followed in kind.
His clothes disappeared, his flesh and bones turned into energy that would later on be used to construct a new body to inhabit.
He now had the soul of a God. Once he reached the Higher Realms, he would need to construct himself a body worthy of a God as well.
This was the Ascension… his Apotheosis.
Naruto disappeared in a flash of light like he had done many times before.
However, everyone present knew that he was not going to return this time.
His loved ones could only hope his last words were true and everything was as it should be. That he reached the Higher Realms and became an Immortal, just as he had always wanted.
The tales of Naruto Uzumaki and his descendants would be told for many more generations to come. Even as the world progressed and became more modern, part of this world would always remember the blonde ninja who became a God and left behind his legacy.
The End.
A.N: - This is where the fic ends. The tales of Naruto the God, will continue in a different realm, but that is a story for another day.
I hope you guys have enjoyed the fic. If there are any loose ends that you felt were not addressed or any questions that you may have, feel free to ask them and I will try to answer the best I can. -