#you can't look at the naruto universe and tell me anyone ever organized that shit

[agoddamn]

There's a lot of Nart fanfic where Amaterasu and sometimes other Shinto gods are real, and it always gives me kind of an odd vibe. It's usually the same script where the gods are angry at the Sage for something something fate ruined everything yadda yadda bad parenting.

It gives me an odd vibe because Nart lore always gave me the opposite impression, in that cosmic sense. The inmates are running the asylum. The Sage is the biggest dick on campus, but he doesn't run the universe in the cosmic sense either; he just sees a lot. Nobody is driving the bus. Everyone's on their own.

It gives me a similar kinda frenetic energy as stuff like the Pern series, where the myths and histories we're familiar with are apocryphal cargo cults. Seat-of-the-pants making-this-up-as-I-go bullshitting. Fits with how Kaguya was never intended as a goddess, either, and merely ended up amassing power as a means to escape her fate as a sacrifice. There were never gods, just people strong enough to make others believe that.

If there were ever any gods in Narutoland, they're long dead and everyone involved is merely propping up their chosen corpse.