225. Homecoming

225. Homecoming

“““Tomoka!””” Welp, she expected a lot of things after waking up,this wasn’t it chief. Not a moment after she spoke those words to herself, flashes of light illuminated her room. Next thing she knew, all of her children alongside her beloved were there.

Before she could say anything she felt soft lips taking her own. Unfortunately, she couldn’t enjoy the feeling as the kiss was quickly broken before another pair of lips took the previous one’s place. Lips she had kissed so many times before she could tell who they belonged to no matter what.

The one to kiss her first was Nozomi, while the one kissing her now is Hinata. Once again, before she could get into the kiss it was broken. This little cycle continued for a while until the girls managed to calm down a little.

“Are you alright?” A slightly out of breath Hinata asked. Her eyes, a little moist with tears, shone with the very same intense love that Tomoka felt for her. Not bothering with words Tomoka just nodded. Then a fist slammed against her abdomen with enough force to break a wall. For her though it didn’t hurt in the slightest, her body being too tough for that.

“You had all of us worried! You went and did something stupid and went into a one year coma!” By Hinata’s side Nozomi nodded along. From the looks of it the girl also wanted to rant but her throat had closed off from the cocktail of emotions going through her.

“I’m sorry, I promise it won’t happen again, ever.” With a soft smile Tomoka gathered her girls in her arms, giving them a comforting hug. A while later once everyone calmed down some Pride asked the question everyone wanted answers to. T/his chapter is updated by nov(ê(l)biin.co/m

“What happened?” And so Tomoka explained. She explained what she was, what she is now, what she has always been. What this means for her and for the others. How this might change her plans.

“So in short, you are now some sort of god?” Nozomi was having a hard time wrapping her head around the idea. Sure, Tomoka has always been weird, always being able to do stuff that feels impossible. Even so, hearing it from the girl’s own mouth felt kinda weird.

“That would be an understatement. Gods are beings of theoretically unlimited power within their universe, maybe multiverse. I on the other hand am a concept given form. I wield power not from a universe or multiverse but a fundamental part of existence.

That is an important distinction. Gods wield power from a universe or multiverse. Outside their home verse they are powerless. I on the other hand am a concept, one that permeates all of existence. Be it in this universe, or any other I will always wield the same power. I know it's hard to understand. I, or rather, the me here and now, am trouble wrapping my head around it as well.”

Really, it was hard to think about it. Tomoka understood that she is the only conscious part of herself. She is the conscious part of her concept. Even so, her flesh and bone body can only contain so much of herself. Her soul is only a tiny fragment of the whole that is she. Because of this, for as long as she stays within her mortal body, her connection to the whole is limited into a very thin passage with a limited bandwidth per se.

The her here and now is like a random computer, while the rest of her is like a server farm. The her here can make queries to the whole and receive answers. That however is the crux of the matter. She needs to make the queries. So even though both are one and the same. The her here and now is more akin to an avatar of her true self out there. Confusing? Maybe, but that is how it works.

Explaining everything took a while. Fortunately, her children understood the matter quickly. Them being digital beings with similar workings helped a lot. Hinata and Nozomi had a harder time and in the end kinda gave up.

“So, what did I miss?” Tomoka didn’t need to ask them. She could have done a query to her true self and would have known in an instant. She wanted to ask though, to keep normalcy to interact with those important to her, to live.

“Well...” Seeing Hinata and Nozomi blush in embarrassment made things hard. She wanted to know what they were embarrassed about. Again, she could know easily, instead she opted to wait for their answer.

“After she learned that Obito is still alive and kicking and that both her teammates are pretty much double her age she decided to go with it.” Pride supplied the rest of the answer. I hadn’t left any commands on what they could and couldn’t tell Rin. I had actually planned to tell her as much anyway so no harm done.

“Well, this is convenient.” Not like it really matters any longer. Nothing really did in a way. Tomoka knew that she could simply stop the whole fourth ninja war plot. Hell, she could break and recreate the universe into anything she felt like. She wouldn’t though, there would be no point in doing so.

Instead, she would continue with her simple mortal plans. Have a fun mortal life, and then, do it all over again in another universe. A new adventure elsewhere with those she loves. Over and over until everything ends, and then, she can eternally rest with her girls. Sounds like a plan to her.

“So how is she adapting to the changes?” Afterall, the augmented growth project can be a bit brutal. In short, it is a project to give clones proper lives within a virtual accelerated world. The idea to put Rin in it is so she could catch up in age with Kakashi and Obito.

“Rather well, she was a little out of it after coming out of the simulation. Her bodily coordination took some work the first week and her mental health was a bit unstable as well. By now she has fully recuperated.” This time it was Sloth of all people to give the report. Though Tomoka guessed it made sense. Afterall, he is kinda in charge of people’s mental health.

“Anything else? No? Then if you all excuse me, I have a pair of girls to pamper and fuck to make up for a year of absence.” Tomoka grinned seeing the blush on her girls’ faces. A moment later she teleported to her private quarters, making sure to teleport her girls with her, though not their clothes, or hers for that matter.

Once the news of Tomoka’s “recovery” leaked to the rest of Yggdrasil an impromptu party began. Everybody was celebrating for many different reasons, one of them being how empty Ygg had felt. After Tomoka fell into that coma her phantoms also disappeared. Although there were already thousands of people living in Yggdrasil, the tree still could hold exponentially more people. The void her phantoms had left was felt, and missed.

Aside from that there were a few key figures dying to meet Tomoka, one of them being Rin. Rin Nohara had adapted well to her new home, because that is what it was, home. Ever since she went through the growth program she felt more at ease, life she finally fit. If there was a single think she could complain about then it was the weirdness of her boss, Orochimaru.

Sure, Rin loves working in R&D and especially so in the medical sector. Her relationship with those working there is great and she gets along well with Kabuto. The guy is chill and smart, not to mention that he too likes to complain about their boss. There was nothing romantic about their relationship though. Not to mention Rin didn’t feel comfortable with one just yet anyway.

Despite adapting and fitting well, there were still questions Rin wanted answered. She felt like she could never properly fit in without those, like she could never live a normal life if those doubts weren’t cleared. Sure, those had diminished throughout the year, even so, it was still there, at the back of her mind.

Hearing about Tomoka’s recovery was a great relief for Naruko and Satsuki. The last year had been the very best of their lives so far and it was all thanks to her. Now fourteen the duo’s relationship had advanced quite a bit. From shy girls to love birds would be the best way to describe it.

If there was one thing Naruko loved was how attentive Satsuki is. Nothing could escape her eyes, and it wasn’t due to the sharingan either. Satsuki would be there to comfort her when she had a bad day, she would be there for her one she had good ones too. Of course Naruko reciprocated. Afterall, she loved how the Uchiha had changed.

Now That Naruko got to meet Satsuki’s parents, and received their blessing, that was embarrassing, she got to see the resemblance. It was funny really, Fugaku Uchiha looked cold and uncaring from the outside but in reality he simply was bad at showing his true feelings and emotions. Mikoto on the other hand reminded Naruko of Satsuki the most, or should it be the other way around?

If she had to make a comparison, then Naruko would say that Sasuke resembled his father more, while Satsuki is more like her mother. Sure, both Satsuki and Mikoto were warm, caring and patient people. However! If there was one thing Naruko feared was getting them angry. There was this one time when she had made a mess after Satsuki had just cleaned up. Shivers, it gave Naruko shivers just thinking about it.

Both Naruko and Satsuki wanted to visit Tomoka. See how she was doing now that she finally woke up. They knew better than to do so however. Afterall, they knew how pent up both Hinata and Nozomi had been throughout the year. They were scary, there is no doubt about that.