[Caterpillar] Chapter 52 - Epilogue (Patreon)

The Bijuu Empire, ruled by the God of Destruction, Truth, and Justice, Kurama has expanded greatly in a short period of time, in a matter of years extending well beyond the borders of the Vega System. Hundreds of different species of people, living on dozens of different planets worship the Ten Tailed Fox God Who, in spite of His epithet as a God of Destruction, is a benevolent and fair God, one that His subjects adore.

The headquarters of the Bijuu Empire is located on planet Karna, in the Vega System and the capital city of this planet was named Great Naruto City in honour of God Kurama's brother, God Naruto. Not much is known about This mysterious God except that He is married to a silver-haired Goddess and that the two of Them like to wander the Universe, in the guise of mercenaries. But it is clear that God Kurama holds the greatest form of respect and love for Him.

Great Naruto City is an enormous metropolis spanning over 20k square miles. Contrary to how most large cities in other advanced civilisations from all over the Universe look like, Great Naruto City does not consist of countless skyscrapers nor does it show visible signs of pollution and there are no slums on the outskirts either. A peculiar characteristic of this city is that none of the buildings is allowed to have more than 9 floors above the ground.

The presence of an All-Knowing and All-Seeing God makes this city a utopia. That is not to say that there are no fights and arguments among family members, lovers, coworkers etc. However, there are no violent crimes, no corruption, no human trafficking and no other heinous acts. Anyone who commits such grave crimes, no matter how important, wealthy or powerful they are, they are instantly executed with but a thought of God Kurama. Such is the situation not just in Great Naruto City but all across the territory of the Bijuu Empire too.

This kind of order, unity, and prosperity is extremely rare in the Universe at large, almost unheard of. This reality coupled with the fact that God Kurama's religion does not have any stringent laws and rituals, every month, leaders from new planets are willingly coming to pay their respects to the Ten-Tailed Fox God and ask him to take their homeworlds under His rule. The Bijuu Empire's borders are expanding extremely fast without God Kurama or the military might of the empire taking any specific actions. Last month, the president of Morn planet from Altair System and the Queen of Ars planet from Sirius System became vassals of the empire as well.

[...]

"Finally over." a young girl said and let out a sigh of relief. It felt strange for her to talk in such a reverent manner about her own family but she had to in order to keep up the pretence of an ordinary girl at school. None of her classmates knew that she was the daughter of two gods, that she was a young little goddess herself, or that the all-mighty God Kurama was her adorable uncle.

"Uncle Kurama, I finished my homework!" she yelled and jumped up from her chair, flying out of the room.

Still flying, the girl burst from one room to another like a small hurricane, startling all the attendants she passed by. But when she was about to enter the personal quarters of Kurama, a yellow-skinned old man with orange hair and dressed in red robes cut in her way and bowed respectfully.

"Princess. I'm afraid my Lord is meditating now. He usually does not like to be disturbed in such moments."

"But he promised we'd play after I finish my homework!" the girl whined. "I even wrote the essay for the History class as he wanted, praising how great he and his empire are! I didn't write the truth about how he's a lazy bum that does nothing but sleep the whole day!"

The old attendant started sweating bullets at the young girl's words. If said by anyone else, it would probably be seen as blasphemy. That young girl, however, had a very special status.

"You little twerp, who are you calling a lazy bum? Badmouthing me behind my back, eh?" the deep growl that came from Kurama's personal quarters reverberated throughout the entire temple.

The little girl broke into a wide smile.

"Uncle Kurama!" she yelled out in enthusiasm and shot forth like a bullet towards the horse-sized golden fox that appeared from behind the two large doors of his quarters.

The former bijuu could not hold back a toothy grin at the sight of the overexcited girl launching herself at him. His smile widened from one ear to another when she slammed into his ten tails and started hugging them.

"Ah, so fluffy! So beautiful! So cute! Ah, I love this!" the little girl gushed and cooed as she rubbed her cheeks on his golden fur.

Kurama chuckled heartily and used his tails to make her sit properly on his back, to ride him.

"Ow! Hey, not the ears, let go!" he cried out when she grabbed him by his long rabbit-like ears as if they were a harness.

"Naw! Don't lie, I know it doesn't hurt you!"

Kyuubi had a tick mark on his temple.

"Damnit, Thea, I'm a god! What would my people say if they saw you not only riding on my back but also pulling on my ears like that?!"

"Grandpa over there sees you and he doesn't think anything less of you, does he?"

The fox and the little girl both turned to look at the old attendant at the same time. The skin over the old man's arms and back broke into goosebumps.

'Damnit, princess, are you trying to have me killed?!' he thought, on the verge of crying. He could only force himself to smile and shake his head. His crying-smiling face was terrible to look at.

"Nothing will ever reduce my Lord's majesty. His great poise does not falter even when-"

"Reno. I'm embarrassed for your sake. You can retire for the day," Kurama said, feeling himself blush at how the old man was forced to lie through his teeth by the young girl.

The attendant did not need to be told twice. Bowing deeply with his right hand on his heart, he made himself scarce the next instant.

"I swear I gotta have a talk with your parents about his. I'm not your babysitter for them to dump you on my doorstep whenever they go out on a mission! I'm a god! And I'm an emperor too! More than 50 billion souls depend on me every day! I don't have time to waste playing around with you!"

The little girl giggled at his snarky words.

"You're always saying things you don't mean, Uncle Kurama, I know you. Daddy says you're a tsundere. But I still love you so much!" she said and wrapped both her arms around his neck, hugging him dearly.

The fur on Kurama's neck bristled at the young girl calling him a 'tsundere' but all his annoyance melted away the moment she said she loved him and embraced him. Unknowingly, little Thea had her doting uncle Kurama wrapped around her little finger.

⁂

"Oy, when are you coming back?" a deep voice suddenly rang in Naruto's head.

"What happened?" he asked back in his thoughts.

"Come get your sprog, I can't deal with her anymore. She's as annoying as you used to be as a kid, except less dumb and more adorable. I can't even smack her around as I would do to you."

Naruto inwardly chuckled at the fox's words, not buying his victim act in the least.

"We should be back by tomorrow. We found him, Kurama. We finally found him."

For over a decade, he and Diana had spent a fortune on information brokers to find a certain man. Ten years was a very long time to be relentlessly searching for someone but Naruto was nothing if not tenacious. His efforts finally bore fruit today.

"Good," Kurama replied. "The little monkey told me to tell you to not forget to bring her hot ice."

"I won't. Talk to you later, bro."

With that, Naruto ended their telepathic chat and turned his attention back to the matter at hand.

A tall and athletic woman with waist-long silver hair and garbed in white and golden armour stood next to a similarly athletic woman with blonde hair and wearing what looked like the robes queens used to wear in Ancient Greece on Earth. They were none other than Diana and her mother, Hippolyta.

Diana's face was cold but serene. Only her blue eyes spoke of what she truly felt. Even then, she held onto her round golden shield and stood unmoving in her place.

Her mother, on the other hand, was not as much in control of her emotions as she was. Hippolyta's beautiful face was twisted by a dark expression filled with hatred. In the Amazon Queen's right hand was Diana's god-slaying sword, its sharp blade dripping with fresh blood. In her other hand, the Queen was holding onto the severed head of an old man with long curly hair and a bushy white beard.

The life in the severed head seemed to have not completely vanished yet as the old man's eyes still held some traces of lightning on them and his mouth was opened as he was trying to form words. However, no sound came through his bloodied lips. Hippolyta watched unblinkingly how life slowly seeped out of the man's head, how his lips stopped moving and how all the arcs of lightning in his eyes slowly faded away. After almost 10 years of continuously searching for him, the information brokers had finally found the former King of Olympus. And now, there he was, dead, beheaded, finally paying for his numerous crimes.

If Naruto had not been a god already, he would not have passed on the opportunity of taking Zeus's life with his own two hands. However, as a result of Kurama infusing his divinity into him before the final battle against Darkseid a decade ago, Naruto soon ascended to godhood too. Therefore, he decided to leave the killing of the God of Thunder to his mother-in-law. Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned and Hippolyta scorned had been. Although several thousand years had passed since the King of Olympus forced himself on her, Hippolyta had never forgotten nor had she forgiven him.

"Mother, that's enough," Diana approached Hippolyta and said as she put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

She took the severed head out of her mother's hand and a silvery flame burst from her palm, reducing it to ashes.

The Queen nodded to her daughter and then turned towards Naruto and said: "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Naruto."

"He deserved this and much more. It's only fitting that he met his end at your hands."

Diana strapped her shield on her back and then she took the god-slaying sword from her mother's hands. Flicking it a few times powerfully to remove the blood from its blade, she sheathed it on her back as well.

"Come, mother, let's go home," she said.

"How long are you going to stick around this time? Thea misses her grandma a lot," Naruto said.

A smile appeared on Hippolyta's face at the mention of her granddaughter.

"What if my answer was forever?"

Diana's eyes widened at her words and she quickly took her hands in hers. "Mother, are you serious?"

Hippolyta smiled warmly at her reaction. "I've been the leader of the Amazons for over 5000 years. I think it's time for someone else to take on this responsibility now."

"This is great! I can't wait to see Thea's face when she hears you're going to stay with us from now on!" Naruto said, not any less enthusiastic than Diana.

"Who did you leave in charge?" Diana asked curious about the situation of the Amazons in the other dimension.

"Artemis. She's always wanted to lead the Amazons. But she respected me too much to ever try to take my position by force."

"Mhm, you're right. I think she will be great for that role."

The three of them started walking slowly towards their spaceship as they chatted about various matters and their future arrangements now that Hippolyta was no longer going to return to the Amazons' dimension.

While Kurama could always open a portal anywhere for them, Naruto and Diana found out that they still loved travelling by spaceship once in a while when they went on a job. It was mostly out of nostalgia. Travelling by spaceship held a special place in their heart because they had spent the first few years of their relationship living like that. Furthermore, it was also a chance for them to spend some intimate time as a couple, not anxious about their daughter's superhearing catching wind of their activities.

⁂

"Daddy!" Athena yelled in glee and flew right into her father's wide open arms, nearly taking his breath out with her hug.

"She's always going to be daddy's girl, isn't she?" Hippolyta said and laughed softly from the side.

Diana pretended to be annoyed. "That's because he always lets her do anything she wants. She has him at her beck and call. If it wasn't for me to keep the two of them in line..."

It was as she said. Naruto could hardly ever refuse anything his little angel asked. Therefore, the role of the authoritative figure fell onto Diana's shoulders. But she did not blame her husband in the least. She understood where he was coming from. As an orphan and an outcast whose dream had always been to have a family and as someone who had suffered through the torment of a 10-year-long illusion by the Black Mercy, Naruto treasured his daughter like the light of his eyes.

"Have you been good? Did you listen to your uncle? Did you do your homework?" he asked while tenderly cupping her face and caressing her cheeks.

The young girl leaned into his caresses like a spoilt little kitten, delighted at his attention. She had been away from her parents for only three days but, as any other kid of her age, she deeply missed her parents despite that only such a little time had passed. Naruto himself was inwardly cooing at how adorable she was. Not a day passed without marvelling at the fact that he had a daughter.

'My daughter. My dear Athena. My cute little Thea.'

Long, ruler-straight black hair that reached her waist, a pair of big, innocent blue eyes, pearly white teeth, and three pairs of whisker-like birthmarks on her tender cheeks. She was like a miniature carbon copy of her mother except with three cute pairs of whiskers. She had inherited her mother's intelligence as well but the personality was that of her father. Always filled with energy, always annoying someone until they gave her their undivided attention, and always in the mood for pulling a prank if the opportunity appeared. The Thea of Black Mercy's dream world did not come close to how his real daughter turned out to be. In his eyes, she was perfect.

Naruto fell a step behind everyone as he watched them enter the house. Little Athena was now in her grandmother's arms who was cooing at her in a manner that would make the Amazons rub at their eyes if they could see the way their normally stern and no-nonsense Queen was acting then. Meanwhile, Diana was talking to Kurama about whether Thea had been obedient while they had been away.

It felt so domestic. So peaceful. Almost hard to believe something this good was real.

"Diana, Thea, Kurama, mother-in-law... This is my family."

A soft, content smile appeared on his face. If someone asked Naruto at that moment who was the happiest man in the world, he would instantly answer: "Me!"