Caterpillar

Great Naruto

A large city that spread over 20k square miles could be seen even from space. It had a rough, circular shape and the streets and avenues had been designed in a spiderweb pattern. Four enormous towers stood at the edge of the city like faithful guardians. They were space terminals, a sort of airport but for spaceships. Tens of thousands of spaceships could be seen landing or departing from those four terminals on a daily basis.

The most peculiar thing about this city besides its enormous size was the fact that there were not any buildings with more than 9 floors - and that was probably also why the city had extended on a horizontal scale that much. Furthermore, a lot of green could be seen as trees and parks were everywhere. Nonetheless, transportation from one side of the city to the other was not an issue due to numerous flying buses and cars.

GREAT NARUTO CITY

WELCOME

"He named the capital city after you?" a white-haired woman said in surprise and laughed when she saw the large hologram in the sky, at the entrance of the city.

"He must've done it as a joke," a reddish-blond haired man laughed. "In my first serious mission as a shinobi when I was a kid, we saved an island country from a local mob boss. The locals named the bridge they had built to connect to the mainland after me: the Great Naruto Bridge."

The man and the woman were none other than Naruto and Diana. However, they were wearing civilian clothes rather than their combat suit or armour; they had no masks and no weapons visible on them either. They had come to planet Karna, in the Vega System, as tourists, to visit an old friend, not to fight.

All of a sudden, a chorus of gasps came from the other passengers in the flying bus. When Naruto and Diana also turned their heads to their left to look through the window, their reaction was not much different than the others.

In the middle of the city, a grand and imposing castle-like building dwarfed everything in its surroundings. It was a temple of massive proportions; its height alone was over 600 feet. Compared to the rest of the city's buildings which had, at most, only 9 floors, the temple appeared like a behemoth.

In the wide plaza in front of the temple, an almost-lifelike statue had been erected. It was over 100 feet tall and it depicted two beings, both equally tall: a fearsome ten-tailed demonic fox... and a young man with spiky hair, slit eyes, and whisker-like marks on his cheeks.

Tens of thousands of people belonging to dozens of different races from the Vega System (and not only) were spread all over the large plaza, snapping pictures and shooting videos. However, there was a certain sense of order despite that they were complete strangers. Nobody was pushing or shoving others, no thieves were trying to pickpocket other people, and nobody was shouting or behaving inappropriately. A feeling of reverence and a sort of holy fear and respect could be sensed from everyone.

"Are these...pilgrims?" Diana was the first to realize.

In front of the large and life-like statue, there were long pathways divided by golden ropes where thousands of people stood orderly in queues, waiting for their turn to arrive at the very wide brazier burning in front of the majestic statue with a magical golden fire. Those at the head of their lines were throwing pieces of paper with small, personal prayers written on them, into the golden fire on the brazier before putting their hands in prayer and closing their eyes for a few moments. Then, after bowing deeply at the statue, they would leave, letting others get their turn to pray at the statue too.

The guide belonging to the touristic agency that had organised the trip, a human-like being with copper skin and yellow hair, started to inform the passengers of the flying bus about the city and various other things: