"Five"
"In your entire world?"
"Senjutsu isn't a walk in the park y'know. I came this close to death several times before I mastered it." Naruto created a tiny circle with his fingers.
"Who taught you?" Mother earth often wondered who taught him how to wield and Balance Nature energy. Naruto was in a caliber of his own.
The blonde placed a finger on his own cheek having an internal debate on whether to tell her or not.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you"
"Try me" Gaia challenged
"A toad taught me senjutsu. A little green talking toad" Naruto deadpanned
The mother goddess went silent for a while finding it hard to believe that. Though, she's a goddess living with a dimensionally displaced human, how bizarre would it be to learn sage arts from a talking toad? She's seen and heard much stranger things. "And you said there's nothing much to talk about? Tell me, do dragons exist in your world?"
Naruto shook his head. "Nope"
"Devils?"
"Never heard of them"
"Angels?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Gods?"
She was firing questions at the blonde boy who provided honest but short answers. Sometimes, Gaia wondered if he was a god in Disguise that commited a grave sin and escaped his home planet considering his power level but she threw that thought out the window when they got closer. So if gods existed in his homeworld, was he related to one?
"Gods? Yeah there's a god in my homeworld, The Shinigami."
"A Shinigami!" Gaia yelled astonished.
"Yeah, I know there's a shinigami in this world but he's way different from mine."
"What's the difference?"
"He's mostly neutral but the pale grotesque dude can be summoned to seal an enemy in his stomach for eternity. The only downside is that the caster's soul is the price for summoning the Shinigami. You'd be surprised by the amount of Shinobi living inside that dude's stomach."
"I see..."
Gaia went silent speaking no further. Her black boots tapped the cold hard ground. "Naruto-chan, what's a shinobi?"
Naruto sometimes called himself a Ninja or a shinobi. She thought it was one of his quirks but now, she highly doubted that.
"A Shinobi is a person specialized in the art of manipulating Chakra to create techniques" Naruto gave her a brief comprehensive answer.
"You were a shinobi? Like a soldier?"
"Hm" Naruto took a left and the familiar street of his neighbourhood greeted his sight.
"What rank were you?" Gaia questions looking at Naruto's eyes which he averted for some reason.
"G-genin, the lowest rank" Naruto admitted reluctantly. I missed the promotion exams." He added.
"Have you ever fought in a war?"
Naruto nodded. "Two wars."
"I pay my respects, war veteran-sama" She unclasped Naruto's arm and gave a two finger salute making Naruto snort at her joke.
"War is filled with horror and evil. It's a bad experience, war forces you to grow up and you'll never see the world in the same way again. War should be avoided but sometimes, in order to have peace, war is necessary." Naruto said, suddenly looking like a real war veteran.
"I'll remember your words o great sage." She bowed her head and let out a giggle.
"Stop it." Naruto said with feigned anger.
The blonde ninja relaxed, pocketing his hands, looking around the Neighborhood noticing a new house.
"How did you get here?" The goddess asked.
"I was in a war" Naruto straightened his back.
Naruto was about to take another step before Gaia's question stopped him.
"Who were you fighting? Neighboring villages? Tyrants? Civil war?"
Of all things, Gaia didn't expect Nauto's answers.
Naruto turned around, his face devoid of emotion and spoke. "A goddess"
"A goddess?"
"Yes," Naruto turned around, taking quick steps back home.
"What happened in the war? How about the evil goddess? Did you defeat her?"
Naruto stared at his palms with a gloomy expression. The yin and yang seal are still present in his palms, a constant reminder of Sasuke's sacrifice and his failure.
"I killed that bitch myself." Naruto scoffed.
Gaia's eyebrows shot to her hairline and her pupils dilated. The mother goddess didn't know she was living with a god slayer but now that she knew, she wasn't cautious or afraid at all, if anything, the respect she had for him increased.
"I don't remember much about how I got here. Anytime I try to recollect, I get this mean headache. It's like my memories are surrounded by a thick black fog. I remember waking up in the dimensional gap and feeling unbearable pain and the next thing I know, that blasted Faction's on my tail." A deep frown appeared on Naruto's face at the mention of the Hero Faction.
"You killed a goddess? Why? I thought you were the kind who'd avoid taking a life unless absolutely necessary."
"That bitch killed my friends and she..." Naruto bit his tongue trying to rein in his anger. Mugen Tsukuyomi was a tough subject for him. "She killed my friends and my sensei"
Gaia placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
"I'm really sorry. I must've been a constant reminder." She said dowcasted.
Naruto flicked her forehead. "You're not Kaguya. You're you, Gaia. My alleged Older sister"
"Tsk, you little brat" Gaia slapped his shoulder playfully.
(The next day)
Naruto inspected his face, staring at the mirror, keeping an eye on the clock every now and then. Today was the last day he'd be proctoring his homeroom class so that means no more school, no more annoying students & no more bat problems... For a while. The holiday's around the corner and the exams are coming to an end! He was feeling great today. He brushed aside stray strands of hair from his eyelashes fastening an orange watch to his wrist. He felt good for some reason today all due to his beauty sleep and his dreams weren't plagued with nightmares considering his conversation with Gaia stirred up memories he'd rather kept buried.
Squeaky clean.
Well fed.
Well rested.
I think today's gonna be great, Naruto's thoughts before he looked out the window.
"What the..."
He stopped his sentence midway when his brain tried to interpret what his eyes were seeing.
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