As I stared across the misty river flowing in front of me, I wondered if this was really the best idea. In all honesty, it was a bit of a gamble. After all, I was currently trying to start a cult in an oppressed country in hopes of becoming the most powerful being on this planet. The things that could go wrong with this plan are practically limitless, but then again, what good thing in life came without risk?
Perhaps I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.
It all started when I woke up in a pitch-black void, and at the same time, I woke up here in the Land of Water. One of my consciousnesses was laying down on the ground, staring up at the clouded sky in a daze.
The other one was floating in the middle of this infinite darkness. It took me a few days to work out what was happening to me, but eventually, I discovered that I was God. Or, well, a god, at least.
The first "body" that was floating in the void was me, an at of this moment, formeless divinity drifting in endless darkness. The other one was a completely normal person's body that was sitting on a river bank waiting for my agreed meeting with a fisherman who would help me get across the river and into the Land of Waves.
I realized early on that for anything my god self did, it cost a certain amount of energy. This energy was provided by my "followers" through their worship. I call it Divine Power. Everything that I had tried to do so far had barely given me a small spark of Divine Power. Even spending a full day just praying to myself only gave me enough power to cause a few blades of grass to grow or a single flower to bloom.
Let's say that a full 10 days of prayer and meditation was enough to give me 1 unit of Divine Power. Creating a second body, for example, costs about 1000 units. Yeah, either self-worship wasn't very efficient, or I was going to need a lot of followers.
Considering the fact that my new body didn't even have chakra and seemed to be more like an average civilian from Earth rather than a ninja from Naruto, I considered it to be a bad investment.
So, with all that being said, how was I supposed to gather enough followers to start earning enough Divine Power for me to become an almighty god? Simple: the Land of Waves.
The Land of Waves was a small island nation stuck between the much larger nations of Fire and Water. Despite its location, it didn't really hold any strategic value. It was lacking in both resources and military power. But because of the lack of interest in the island, it had actually done pretty well for itself until Gato decided to ruin it all.
Turns out when you everyone else has 3 World Wars and almost constant fighting, you end up being a decent place to live.
Of course, this all ended once Gatō came around. His exploitation of the people turned a prosperous country into one just barely clinging on to life.
I didn't know exactly how long before canon I was currently in, but I did know, from the nearby villages, that the Land of Waves forbid anyone from leaving or entering without express permission. Gatō probably wanted to stop anyone from leaking news about his takeover to the other nations. Whatever his reasoning was, it made things difficult for me.
My human body, who I decided to name Ayumu, was sitting on the bank of a river, patiently waiting for the fisherman. After some searching, he managed to find someone who was willing to illegally smuggle him into the country for a small fee.
After another half an hour, I heard the sound of a boat coming my way. Sure enough, a small canoe-like vessel slowly rowed up to the shore where my body was standing. An old man wearing simple robes and a conical hat was sitting in it.
He nodded at me as he got closer. "You the guy that wants to get into Wave?"
I nodded. "Yeah, here's your money."
I tossed a bag of ryō over to the fisherman who caught it. The man opened it and checked it quickly before nodding again and waving his hand.
"Alright then, hop on." I obeyed, and the boat soon was set off back across the river.
The fisherman spoke up once we had gone a while. "You know, kid, you might not know this but Wave isn't exactly the best place to be right now."
"I do, actually." He gave me a strange look. "I came to help." At that, he just shook his head in disbelief.
"You came to help? By yourself? What are you going to do, kid?" I wasn't offended by what the fisherman said. I was well aware of how ridiculous I sounded. A lone person trying to save an entire country by himself?
"You'd be right to think I'm being silly. But I can't just sit by and watch this happen, you know?" The fishermen raised an eyebrow.
"Why would someone who is clearly not from Wave care about it so much?"
"Because even though I am but a humble priest, that doesn't mean that my ability to help people is any less. Anyone with the power to help others should try their best to do so." The fisherman still looked unconvinced but decided to stop arguing.
After another half an hour or so on the water, we made landfall. "This is where we part ways, kid. Good luck doing whatever it is you're gonna do."
I waved goodbye to the fisherman as he rowed off back across the river. With him gone, I turned around and set out for the nearest town.
Now that I was here, I needed to get started on making a following. To start, I'd find the largest town and start gathering followers. From there, it would just be a matter of time.