[Caterpillar] Chapter 34 - Faith (Patreon)

Vanilla biscuits and green tea were being served in the living room of Doctor Fate's tower but, unlike his usual self, the gluttonous fox felt no desire to stuff himself full with the food placed on the coffee table in front of him. Instead, his slit crimson-red eyes were staring intently in the grey eyes of the old sorcerer and his Negative Emotion Sensing ability was focused on him too. Though he had played off Naruto and Wonder Woman's worries in regards to him, Kyuubi himself was more concerned than anyone about the things happening to him.

"How do I make the voices stop? How can I end this?" Kyuubi asked after he finished telling Doctor Fate about his problem. His fluffy nine tails were unconsciously flicking in distress.

Kent Nelson looked like he was hesitating, mulling over what answer to give him.

"You can't."

A low growl came from the fox.

"What are you hiding from me, sorcerer?" Kyuubi asked dangerously. The fur on the back of his neck stood up like needles.

Doctor Fate's expression changed. For all intents and purposes, the demon fox across the table in front of him was like a ticking bomb. He decided it was not wise to test his patience.

"I am not lying. You can't stop it. Not by yourself." the sorcerer said. "To put it simply, the power of faith is pushing you to become a god."

Whatever Kyuubi had expected Doctor Fate to say, it was not that.

"The power of what now?"

From angry and frustrated, Kyuubi had become speechless.

Kent Nelson explained:

"While I was curing Mr Uzumaki's petrification a few months ago, we had a rather interesting conversation. From what he told me, hundreds of millions, if not billions of people in the Vega System had celebrated the annihilation of the Psion race. He said that some of the more extreme and zealous people there even started to create cults dedicated to worshipping the being that had brought them salvation, the being that had freed them from their tyrants. To worship you."

The silence that followed was almost deafening.

"In all honesty, back then, I just brushed those words aside, not paying them any attention. I thought he was exaggerating in an effort to justify his deeds."

With the knowledge and wisdom of Nabu, Doctor Fate could see what lay beyond the physical realm. He could sense the power of faith converging into the fox cub's tiny body and that there was an enormous amount of it.

"The voices tormenting your mind are nothing but the voices of the people who put their faith in you. They are praying to you. For them, you are their god. But since you obviously not a god, things aren't going well for you. Naturally, something like this would not have happened if there were just a small number of people praying. But when there are hundreds of millions or billions of people, the psychic energy generated by their will and their faith is not something that can be easily ignored."

Kyuubi was floored by the revelations.

"How do I make it stop?" he asked urgently. "I can't go on like this. Over the past few weeks, I forced myself to sleep because the voices would quiet down then. But even that doesn't work anymore. I have to stop it!"

The fox was growing desperate as he realized the actual magnitude of what was happening.

"You only have two options:" Doctor Fate said and showed two fingers. "One: to break those people's faith in you. But after what you did for them, I can't imagine a scenario where the people of Vega System would start to resent you unless you started committing some unthinkable atrocities against them."

The bijuu may have been an avid enthusiast of battling and violence but he was not a mindless beast that enjoyed slaughtering innocents. He eliminated that option from his mind right away.

"Two, become a god. But that is impossible."

Before Kyuubi could say anything, Doctor Fate asked him a question:

"You've ever wondered what are the gods? How are they any different from other metahumans? It's not like they are the only beings in the Universe with superhuman powers or the ability to not die of old age. There are countless other beings with superpowers out there. In that case, what makes someone a god?"

Kyuubi and Naruto had travelled the Universe for nearly a century but that did not mean they were all-knowing. There were plenty of things that they were still clueless about. In particular, the things Doctor Fate was talking about had never even crossed the fox's mind before.

"Outwardly, one would think that gods are no different than other metahumans. But what is different at them is their essence: the essence of divinity, the energy of the Source and the Presence. It is an energy coming from the Creator, the one true God. That is what gives the gods their power, their immortality, their right to call themselves gods."

The fox listened to his words with rapt attention. He instinctually understood that that was a piece of information that extremely few beings in the entire Universe were privy to. Kent Nelson was among those extremely few enlightened beings because he was the owner of the Helmet of Fate and possessed the wisdom and knowledge of Nabu, a Lord of Order.

Doctor Fate continued:

"The power of faith amplifies a god's power. The psychic energy they assimilate from the people that worship them can increase their strength several times over. But the power of faith itself cannot create a god."

"The only ways for a new god to appear in this world are either to be given birth by a god, or for a mortal to usurp a god's divinity. But how many mortals can stand up against a god, to say nothing about killing them? And even if you are powerful enough to do so, how would you find a god? Gods live in a different dimension from our own, in another plane of existence. The Sphere of the Gods. Mortals have no way of accessing their realm."

"Do you understand now why I said you can't?"

Doctor Fate was not an expert at reading emotions on a fox's face but the grin that appeared on Kyuubi's face left no doubts that he was in a great mood. Instead of being deflated or angry by the seemingly impossible task ahead of him, Kyuubi was excited. For months, ever since he and Naruto destroyed the Psions, he had been plagued by the voices in his head. It was something that had gotten increasingly worse with every passing week. There were moments when he was seriously considering the possibility that maybe he was going insane. But now, he finally found a solution to his problems.

⁂

"Come on, Di. We have to go." Naruto said and broke their hug.

Wonder Woman let out a small sigh. Naruto's offer from a few months ago to leave the Earth behind and tag along with him and Kyuubi on their adventures seemed more tempting every day. Though she was a woman who did not run from responsibilities, it was different when all her efforts were being spat on.

She locked the door of her apartment and then the two of them climbed the staircase to the rooftop of the skyscraper. It was a short flight of stairs because her apartment was already located on the top floor of the building.

Clad in their respective armour suits and equipped with their battle gear, they were going to take flight from the rooftop of the building.

"Are we going to Salem first?" she asked as she approached the edge of the rooftop.

"Yes, we have to take Kurama with us too," Naruto said and followed her towards the edge.

However, when he looked at the scenery below, his expression darkened.

The avenues and streets of New York had become an ocean of people. Despite the cold and snowy weather outside (it was past the middle of December) tens of thousands of people were marching together, their screams covering any other sounds in the city. What they were screaming could not be understood completely because they were not coordinated but it was not difficult to guess what they were saying. After all, Wonder Woman had killed Maxwell Lord IV only a few hours earlier that day and the AI named Brother Eye had streamed the act for the entire world to see it.

A few currents of air started to circle around Naruto and his feet left the rooftop of the building. He started to fly after casting a Wind Release technique. Wind had always been the element that he had had the most talent in. Flying was something that very few shinobi back in his homeworld had been capable of but it was nothing extraordinary for him after almost a century.

As the two of them flew together above the city, he said:

"These are the people you're fighting for. Do you see it now? People's hearts change like the weather. They love you today and tomorrow they'll lynch you in the streets. Why even bother trying to be a hero...?" but when he saw the expression on her face, he stopped himself from continuing. He realized that at that moment, the last thing Diana needed was more nagging from him. His words were like pouring salt on an opened wound. "...I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

Diana bit her lower lip and avoided meeting his eyes, speeding a bit ahead in front of him. In her heart, however, her thoughts were not much different than what he said.

'I dedicated so much time and effort to fighting crime. Everything I did was to keep everyone safe. Yet they...'

Before meeting Naruto, Wonder Woman had not even had a social life at all. Spending from 10 to 20 hours either on guard at the Watchtower or actively fighting against regular and metahuman criminals alike was a daily occurrence. As people who did not have a civilian identity at first and no other friends outside the Justice League, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman were the ones who spent the highest amount of time on duty.

As for killing Maxwell Lord, she was not a bloodthirsty person. On the contrary, she had a very kind and pure soul. But the Amazon princess was not blinded by her kindness. She knew what was truly important and where to draw the line. Under the effects of the Lasso of Truth, Maxwell Lord was compelled to speak the truth. The truth was that he was never going to let go of Superman and that the only way for Superman to regain his mental faculties was for Maxwell to die. Because of that, Wonder Woman killed him. It was for the sake of countless innocent people who could have suffered or even died at the hands of the mind-controlled Kryptonian.

'I can see where the average population is coming from. They are afraid of me, of my power. They hate metahumans. I can understand their reaction because fear makes people irrational. But Superman, Batman, J'onn and the others... how could they not understand why I did it? Why did everyone turn their back on me?'

Wonder Woman was momentarily distracted from her thoughts when a loud beeping sound came from the wristwatch on Naruto's hand. He stopped in his flight and floated in the air to answer. After tapping on the screen of the watch, a small hologram was projected from it. Two long rabbit-like ears, a cute snout, nine fluffy tails and the body of a tiny fox cub. It was none other than Kyuubi.

"Naruto! I'm not going crazy!" the fox yelled out the very moment that Naruto answered the call. "Haha! I told you I'm not crazy!"

Diana looked at Naruto bewildered and he found himself chuckling.

"You won't believe it if I told you! Come on, try to guess!" Kyuubi continued to shout, filled with enthusiasm. "Yours truly is becoming a god! Wahaha!"

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"You're definitely going crazy..."

"Nono, I'm serious! Doctor Fate said so. Apparently, those people who started worshipping me in the Vega System are the cause of this. Now, all I need to do is kill a god. Didn't that New Genesis helmet dude offer us an assassination bounty already?"

"You mean Orion?"

"Yes, him. We can kill Darkseid for his bounty and get myself a godhood too. Two birds, one stone. Whaddya say?"

Naruto and Diana looked at each other.

"What are the chances?" she asked him with no small amount of surprise.

Turning towards Kyuubi's hologram, Naruto said:

"Um, about that...we might have to kill another god first."

"What did I miss?"

"It's a long story, wouldn't know from where to start. Let's meet up and talk. Where are you now?"

"In our ship, still outside Doctor Fate's tower. I haven't taken off yet, I called you first."

"Alright, wait for us there. Diana and I are on our way, flying. We should be there in a few minutes. We'll talk more face to face."

After that, he terminated the transmission. Turning towards Wonder Woman, he said with a grin:

"Race you there?"

Diana raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly at him.

"What do I get if I win?" she asked.

"Oho, confident, aren't we? Well, what do you want?"

With a hand under her elbow and a finger to her chin, she made a thinking posture.

"If I win, you're going to teach me some of your skills. Especially the transformation spell or the way you're storing things in a scroll."

Naruto looked at her weirdly.

Interpreting his expression as him being reluctant about it, she added quickly:

"Nevermind, if it's too much to ask, let me think of something else-"

"Dummy, why wouldn't I want to teach you?" he said and pinched her nose, making her slap his hand away in annoyance. He chuckled at her. "I'm not holding my skills secret or anything like that. I just never thought you'd be interested. I mean you're already a fantastic fighter, you can fly and you're a demigoddess too."

A smile made its way on her face when he complimented her fighting skills.

"Come to think of it, we've never sparred against each other, have we?" she said.

"We haven't done any missions together either." he also said. "It would be so fun to do bounties together with you and Kurama... Anyway, we're going off-topic. You don't need to win a wager for me to teach you my jutsu. All you had to do was just ask. Think of something I wouldn't normally agree with; you can make use of this chance and force me to do it."

"But I wouldn't want to force you to do something you don't like..." she said and trailed off.

"Sheesh, you're no fun," he complained in annoyance.

"Well, sorry for not being fun. I'm sorry I'm such a boring person," she said annoyed too.

But their annoyance was all a pretence. Only a few moments later, they started grinning at each other.

"If I win, you're washing the dishes and taking out the garbage for a month," Naruto said.

"Hey, aren't the stakes a bit too high?" she asked, for the first time showing some hesitation. Doing housework was something that she did not enjoy, to say the least.

"Well, you can back off if you don't dare," he said snidely.

"What did you say?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

She knew it was a petty provocation but her competitive nature could not simply ignore it.

"You heard me," he said unrepentantly.

"If I win, you're going to tell me the most embarrassing moment in your life, while you're tied with my Lasso of Truth."

Naruto suddenly became pale in the face. At the front of his mind, a memory that he had tried to bury for over a century had suddenly resurfaced. The memory of losing his first kiss to a black-haired boy, at the academy. He was not going to tell her that, over his dead body.

"Did I strike a nerve?" Diana asked, the corners of her lips raising in a grin. She even started to laugh. "I can't wait for it, haha! By the way, just for the record, earlier this morning, it took me only a few minutes to fly from Chile to Switzerland. That's over seven thousand miles, baby! There are less than 200 miles from where we are now to Salem. Now, you do the math, how long will it take me to get there?"

At her words, his eyes became serious and his body was suddenly enveloped in a very bright cloak of red and yellow light. Despite the risk of getting ill if he absorbed too much natural energy, he even entered his Six Path Sage Mode at the same time and a Truth-Seeking Orb appeared behind his back. He was not taking any chances.

"I can't wait to see you wearing an apron and washing the dishes like an obedient housewife."

A tick mark appeared on her temple at his words.

"And I can't wait to see what you're hiding. It's got to be something very juicy if it got you to be THAT serious!"

Eyes filled with fighting spirit, they glared daggers at each other. After getting in a line, he said:

"Alright, counting together from 3 to 1 and starting at go. Ready?"

"Ready."

Then, they started counting at the same time:

"3... 2... 1... GO!"

A deafening explosion boomed as if the sky ruptured. Wonder Woman exploded forth with such speed that she left sonic booms in her wake, clearing the sky of clouds in her surroundings.

But Naruto did not fall behind her at all. The Truth-Seeking Orb at his back instantly transformed into an enormous slingshot. Not only that he also broke the sound barrier when the slingshot launched him, but he even overtook Wonder Woman too despite her already insane speed. However, just as he was about to grin in satisfaction and relief, he was suddenly thrown off his course when she blitzed past him almost like a hurricane. As hard as it was for him to imagine, Wonder Woman's speed all of a sudden increased to almost double from before.

'Fuck.'

It was at that moment that Naruto knew, he was fucked.

'No! I can't lose this! I won't lose this! No matter what!'

His mind set, he formed a one-handed ram seal. In the next moment, his body vanished, leaving behind only a few arcs of yellow and red light. He teleported.

⁂

"You cheater!"

Wonder Woman's loud yell made a whole flock of birds scatter and fly in panic from the woods surrounding Doctor Fate's tower.

"I didn't know you were such a sore loser," he said with a grin. "I thought warriors are proud people that know how to take a loss with dignity."

"I didn't lose! You teleported! You cheated!" she shouted incensed.

"How so? I said we'll race but I never said we're only doing it by flying. You just assumed that."

"You- ... ...!"

"A ninja must see underneath the underneath. That's the first lesson that my first sensei taught me after I graduated from the Academy."

Diana's cheeks were red and her entire face was flushed from anger. If she had lost 'fair and square' she would have not said a thing. But she could not accept the result in the current situation.

"You tricked me! You're a scumbag, Naruto!"

"Ayo, stop praising me like that or I'll get a big head. Ninjas are masters of deception, didn't you know that? Hehe. When I was a kid-"

Naruto abruptly stopped his gloating when the sound of a sharp sword leaving its sheath reached his ears.

But when Diana lunged at him, a cloud of smoke unexpectedly filled her entire line of sight. When the curtain of smoke finally dispersed, there was only a piece of log instead of Naruto. If that was not enough to infuriate her, there was even a smiley face with its tongue stuck out that had been carved in the bark of the log.

It was so ridiculous that the princess found herself bursting into laughter. All her annoyance melted at that moment.

He appeared behind her with a body flicker movement and embraced her from behind, his hands resting on her tummy.

"Feeling better yet?" he asked and kissed on the cheek.

"You jerk!" she said petulantly but leaned back into his embrace like a spoiled child.

She realized that their little race and his shenanigans had been just a way for him to distract her from her worries and relieve her stress. And it worked. Although only for a moment, she had forgotten about the tens of thousands of people protesting against her in New York City or that the ones she used to think of as her dear friends hated her guts now. She felt better now.

'My goddess, how I love this man!' she thought.

"But don't forget that you lost. You still have to wash the dishes for one month. I'll make sure to take photos," he piped up.

'I take that back, I hate this man!'

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: A bit of fluff towards the end of the chapter, don't complain. After all, I did promise you, didn't I? You will get diabetes by the time you finish reading this fic haha.

Jokes aside, there are some interesting things coming up next. About Kurama potentially becoming a god, I'm not sure if my foreshadowing was on point but I did sprinkle quite a few hints over the course of the story. I hope you liked the chapter. Until next time!