This is another story that I started a couple years ago and haven't done much with recently, but plan to come back to at some point. I have a number of ideas that I was planning to fit into this particular continuity, though they don't completely butterfly out from the change point.
This one is probably fourth or fifth on my list of priorities at best, but I figure I'll end up posting it on Fanfiction.net, so I'd get a bit of feedback before doing that.
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Kyuubi no Fuzzy-nii-sama
Chapter 1
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Water dripped, slowly and with no random pattern, droplets falling from the ceilings with a dull splat and in some cases the sound of water upon water. Breath quickening, the giant fox demon raised his head and glanced around himself with a measure of wariness as he awoke, only slowly becoming aware again.
The prison was little different than it had been for the past three years, but he had not... slept... for nearly 100 years that he recalled. Even when that blasted Uchiha had seized control of him, wrenching him out of the Kushina woman, he had been fully aware. That awareness was what had driven him into the fury that he had maintained for the past three years.
Still, there was something off-- Pausing, he abruptly realized that his was not the only one breathing in the dank, poorly lit sewer that this boy's mind had deteriorated into over three years of neglect, abuse, and his own corrosive presence.
Looking down, a cruel grin stretched across his muzzle as he noted the small form resting against one of the bars of his cage... resting against one of his own hands in point of fact. He was not sure how the brat had reached this place so early, but the fools in Konoha would suffer for it.
Moving slowly so he didn't wake his visitor, his other hand rose, ready to rend the annoying brat and hopefully his own cage... when he abruptly heard the child distinctly murmur "Kurama" in the midst of some other nonsense.
The shock of hearing a name that had not been spoken by a human for over 600 years halted his attack, the words pulling up memories buried by hundreds of years of warfare, slavery, and hatred.
His hand twitched involuntarily as he shuddered and the boy was sent rolling across the floor to land up against the wall. Despite the force of the impact, however, he merely stretched and yawned, blinking sleepily.
Kurama glared at the little human, his killing intent spilling across the landscape of the human's mind-- only to be completely ignored as the child yelled, "Yay! Fuzzy-nii-sama! Wanna play sommore!"
Blinking, Kurama asked, "What was that, brat?"
"Not brat. Naruto! Wanna play!"
The giant embodiment of hatred, rage, and power was fairly sure he had heard that correctly this time. For a moment, he considered whether he was still asleep. He couldn't see his mind coming up with this though. He had gotten flashes of the brat's life over the past few years-- moments of pain and particularly strong emotions largely. Nothing that would have led to this kind of delusion.
"Why are you not cowering on the floor in terror, brat?"
This caused Naruto to stomp and point accusingly. "Grumpy Fuzzy-nii-sama! No more naps. Play?"
Ignoring that, since he had scarcely expected an answer from the little kid, the Kyuubi examined the child more carefully. Sending a wave of his chakra out of the cage, as much as the seal would allow at this point anyway, he watched the child's reaction and noticed something odd... his chakra flowed around the kid. It was almost imperceptible, but something was shielding him and it wasn't the seal, since that was right in front of him.
This was beyond bearable. He had been trapped for over a hundred years at this point and he didn't think he had ever been subjected to such a humiliating experience. "Stop calling me that you little--"
Wait. The kid wanted to play. Kids were stupid. The seal was right in front of him.
"Hey, kid. If you want to play, you'll have to open this cage. I can't do much while I'm locked up like this, right?" One enormous finger pointed at the apparently flimsy seal paper.
"Yay! Guessing game time!" The little boy ran forward and plopped down in front of the fox.
"What?" Blinking again, Kurama growled then shook himself. "Nah, let's play tag or something, kid. Just pull this paper off and we'll be set."
Screwing up his face in confusion, Naruto seemed to be thinking about something then smiled and said, "You said only pull the paper with the secret word. No matter what. It's the guessing game!"
"I said? What do you mean I said that, brat?"
This time, Naruto ignored the insult. "Yesterday! When we played!"
Breaking into song, his piping voice as steady as a child was likely to manage, the boy sang, "Kurama kon kon, finds the right word, don don; doesn't get out, without giving it a shout; Kurama kon kon, don don!
Screwing up his face in an expression of concentration that human vixens would no doubt find adorable after his little song stopped, he tried it one more time, trailing off at the end, then said, "Umm... I forget the rest."
Staring at Naruto, Kurama found he was developing a head ache. And it wasn't the abominably bad "song" either, he was beginning to think that he had actually interacted with the kid... or something had on his behalf, whether through him or disguised to look like him.
The issue with either option was... none but the other Tailed Beasts should know his name at this point. Perhaps it had been written down somewhere, but he suspected if it was anywhere in Konoha they would have tried to use it to bargain with him at some point.
Something had happened here and as he settled down to stare at the kid, probing for clues and randomly guessing words, he determined that whatever it was, he would be taking advantage of it. This brat and the Uzumaki, Minato, the masked Uchiha, Madara, the First... they would pay the ultimate price, made possible by this mistake.
O.O.O.O.O
There was a time when Kurama had cursed the monotony of his existence. The years that passed without more than glimpses of the world outside of his cage, stolen from the mind of his jinchuriki.
With Mito, there had once been a stretch of nearly a decade where he saw nothing save the interior of his cage, her self control and phlegmatic personality enough to prevent even the glimpses he received in periods of great emotion. Kushina had held him for a far shorter time, but he had seldom gone a day without a view of the outside world. Still, she seldom confronted him directly.
He now looked back on those times with a fondness his past self would have found nauseating. The child he was trapped within, now that he had found a "friend" seldom went a few hours without bugging his prisoner. Constant requests to play, inane prattle about the boy's daily life, and when the boy slept, he was inevitably within his mindscape. Snoring.
It had been only a month after the incident that he had made his first attempt on the child's life, no longer willing to wait upon the inane "game" he had supposedly created, and found that even when within reach of the cage the seal prevented him from harming the boy.
As a result, "tag" was now Naruto's favorite activity. He would seldom sit still for a session of the "guessing game" without forcing the Kyuubi to attempt to strike him down and the boy was beyond stubborn-- refusing to even consider releasing the seal without finishing the game. The sessions were short at first, but the boy soon began to develop an almost preternatural sense of danger. Given that this was his mind, the limitations of a four year old body also posed no real difficulty and there were now times it would take him an hour or longer just to touch the boy.
Pretending that this time might be different, that the boy's self might be rent asunder by his claws and the prison burst, was the only thing that enabled him to participate in the farce.
If he found that this game translated outside of the boy's mindscape, he might well begin to look into finding some way to off himself from within his prison. There would be little that would be more embarrassing than inadvertantly training his container, though he supposed it would ensure he survived longer.
Not that he was entirely sure that was a positive anymore.
The only thing that kept him somewhat sane was that after the first year he had discovered that a sufficient expulsion of chakra, even if it failed to harm the child, could throw him from his own mindscape.
It was seldom long before he returned and there was inevitably pouting and complaints about his behavior. It was a sad state of affairs that his own behavior with Naruto was more palatable to the child than the outside world of the orphanage. Still, while there was a chance of ending his imprisonment through the "guessing game" he dared not chase the child away indefinitely.
Upon Naruto's fifth birthday, Kurama found that the boy had somehow learned to negate his attempts to throw him from his mindscape.
O.O.O.O.O
Cracking open an eye from where he was pretending to be asleep, Kurama looked over the normally cheery child as he wandered in to the massive room that held the Kyuubi's cage. He noted that the smile upon the boy's face was conspicuously absent. He suspected it had something to do with the beating that had been taking place before now-- the abuse his container suffered seldom registered enough emotion for it to show for him any longer, it was simply a fact of life for Naruto at this point.
This one had been unusually vicious though, no doubt due to the anniversary of his little visit to Konoha and the boy's birthday. The brat would survive it, but he supposed Naruto felt no need to stick around and feel it.
Eye slipping shut again, he decided to ignore the kid while he was actually being quiet. That kind of behavior should be encouraged.
That decision lasted perhaps 20 minutes, then the sniffling and other small signs of misery began to get on his nerves.
"Feeling sorry for yourself, kid? I'm not going to be the most empathetic of ears-- why don't you go do that on the outside. Track down the old man and complain or something." Shoving at the kid with the usual amount of chakra, he sighed in relief as the sniffling cut off and settled down to enjoy the quiet-- until the giggling started.
One eye popping open, he saw the boy looking at him with a wide grin on his face that occassionally broke out into outright laughter and frowned. He had a bad feeling about this. Ramping it up, he tried pushing at the kid again and nothing happened. No matter how much chakra he poured into it, at least within the constraints the seal allowed, the kid seemed to ignore it.
"Alright! I finally got it!" Naruto danced, then bent over wiggling his butt at Kurama. The demon fox groaned. How low had he fallen that a five year old child felt comfortable enough in his presence to moon him.
"All right, brat. What did you do now?"
"Not gonna tell. It's your turn now, you gotta figure it out." The boy grinned, his earlier mood completely forgotten. Bounding forward, he plopped down right in front of Kurama, settling cross legged onto one of the mossy mounds that had grown in a few places within his mindscape. "Come on, it's pretty neat, huh?"
Grudgingly, Kurama said, "Fine, fine. I have to admit, it's impressive. You're what, 4 years old?"
"I'm 5!" Naruto yelled indignantly, facing flushing with anger as he jumped up and shook his fist at his prisoner.
"Ahh, so not so impressive then."
This actually so flustered and surprised Naruto that he just stomped impotently, scowling at the demon stuck inside him, which made Kurama burst out laughing. That in turn caused Naruto to pause, staring in wonder before he started laughing along with the fox.
As his amusement died away, he shook his head. "All right, you've made your point, brat. I didn't think you'd be able to counter that. Don't think it'll last though. Now get out of here, I want some rest on the day I was imprisoned in here. Go bug the old man for your one present of the year."
Beaming, Naruto jumped up, then turned around and ran for one of the corridors. He skidded to a stop just before reaching the darkness though and turned around pointing at Kurama. "No naps though, Fuzzy-nii-sama! You're not allowed to forget how to laugh again!"
Then he turned, fading as he did until the fox was left with nothing more than the quiet sound of water dripping into pools. The boy's last comment reminded him again of the day Naruto had been inflicted upon him and he stared into the darkness, pondering the event and all that it had wrought.
The boy's random comments occassionally shed light upon that blank space in his memories that all of his questions to him failed to unearth. Now the question was just what that light was revealing.
O.O.O.O.O
It took a week to modify his approach enough to bypass the child's new found immunity to expulsion and the modified technique lasted less than a month. This started a new round of challenges between the little boy and the fox that involved control over the portion of Naruto's mindscape that they shared. While the seal limited Kurama, it was to some extent dependent upon the boy... and as he mistakenly trusted the Kyuubi, Kurama had a fair amount of leeway.
Their "battles" involved everything from the boy hiding from him in the shadows and attacking until he revealed him with a wash of chakra to attempts to transform each other through will alone. The latter amused Kurama mightily as the boy didn't have the strength to alter much more than a few of his hairs while Naruto would spend weeks as a puppy, a female, a newborn, or whatever else struck his fancy when he visited his mindscape.
While many lasted only a week or even a few days, it took the boy nearly a month and a half to break the transformation into a female of his kind and just under a month to escape from the form of a fox. The first, Kurama assumed was simply due to the similarity to Naruto's own form... the changes were fairly subtle at the boy's age, though he seemed upset enough about being stuck that the fox didn't bother to simply change it. The latter was largely a matter of how strongly the image resonated in Kurama's mind. It took a particularly strong effort of will to overcome.
The incident with the fox appeared to provide some insights to the boy on how he might begin to get a little back on Kurama and as the boy approached his sixth birthday, he would occassionally manage as much as a whole finger. A couple days before the anniversary of his capture, the boy managed to pull off a particularly persistant orange on two of his fingers and thus spent his birthday in his natural form.
O.O.O.O.O
Kurama was aware of the boy's glee well in advance of his arrival within the mindscape, though he had not caught the reasons for the uncharacteristic mood on this of all days. Perhaps the boy had managed to escape his tormenters entirely. He suspected that if he concentrated he would be able to find out... it had gotten easier to sense what was happening outside of his prison in the last year or two. A function of the trust the boy had in him perhaps?
At any rate, he would find out soon enough he suspected.
As the day passed and the boy did not appear though and his mood continued to elevate, Kurama had a thought. While it had been some time since he tried to convince the boy to remove the seal, the ecstatic mood that suffused the child might well leave him vulnerable to manipulation.
It wasn't until the day had nearly waned that Naruto finally appeared within his mindscape. He was nearly quivering with excitement and clearly wanted to blurt out his news, but was holding back with what was no doubt a significant effort of will.
Kurama pointedly ignored his role at this point, failing to ask the question of what had the boy so excited.
Finally, the boy could take no more and he burst out with, "Guess what!"
Raising a single eyebrow, the demon fox said, "Is this going to be like the 'game' we've been playing for the past three years? I don't think I'm up for another multi-year guessing game where the only clue is 'me'."
For a moment, this appeared to confuse Naruto, possibly because it had been over six months since Kurama had bothered to initiate one of the extremely frustrating sessions that largely consisted of Naruto grinning like a mad man and saying things like 'Nope', 'Nuh uh', and 'Not it' in various sing song tones. He wasn't even sure the boy remembered it at this point honestly.
For a moment, he appeared ready to answer Kurama's question but he finally just burst out with, "I'm going to be a ninja!" then stared at the giant fox expectantly.
"Well, I assumed as much. You've been playing at it for years."
"No! I'm going to be a ninja now!" The boy beamed and explained further. "The old man is letting me join the Academy early as a birthday present."
Looking around secretively, as if anyone could possibly overhear him talking inside of his own head, he whispered, "And that isn't even the best part! Because I'm working towards being a ninja I get my own apartment!" The last was nearly shouted as the boy jumped around the room, apparently having forgotten about the 'need' for secrecy. The following song and dance about "never gonna go back to the orphanage" was repetitive, long, and off key, but when he started adding in verses about the matron and her assistant it began to get amusing.
If the boy ever performed his little song in front of the orphanage workers, he suspected the kid might have to see if his chakra was able to regrow a tongue. They wouldn't bother with the soap for the "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox".
Eventually, he calmed down enough to stop singing and began extolling the virtues of his new apartment, which he had apparently spent the day moving into with the help of a genin team assigned the task as a mission. The Hokage had apparently gone all out for this birthday, though he had emphasized the need for secrecy which Kurama found a bit unusual. Still, the kid hadn't leaked the secret of his contact with Kurama for three years, so he suspected it would be kept.
As the boy started in on his description of the bedroom for the third time, Kurama decided to make his move. He saw an opening and there was unlikely to be a better time in the near future.
"It's a shame I can't see it for myself. Too bad you're so set on the whole 'guessing game' thing with the seal," the fox inserted slyly as the brat paused to draw in a breath.
Trailing off, Naruto looked at Kurama with wide eyes. "What does the seal have to do with that?" he asked, curious.
"Well, if the tag there was removed, I'm pretty sure I would be able to see what you see. You might even be able to talk with me without coming here. But I guess you're not really interested in that."
"I... wouldn't say that, exactly. It's just you were really, really emphatic about the guessing game..." Naruto spoke as if he were feeling out how emphatic that really was and whether there were some give around it, so Kurama let him speak, nearly salivating as the boy eyed the seal. "It would be... really nice, to have someone to talk with all the time. Especially you, Fuzzy-nii-sama. I'm sure I'll make tons of friends once I'm in the Academy, of course," he blustered, though his eyes said he really believed no such thing, "but it wouldn't be quite the same."
"Well, it has been a long time you'll admit. We could just say that you won the guessing game," the fox wheedled, his tone saying how much of an achievement that would be. "That will no doubt open room for another game in our schedule and we've gotten quite good at creating them, haven't we? Perhaps even one that takes place outside..."
Naruto nodded and slowly moved towards the seal. While it was well outside of his reach, his physical abilities in this space were limited only by his imagination, and he quickly scurried up the bars. Holding his breath, Kurama waited with tense anticipation as the boy reached up and seized one corner.
Resisting the urge to hurry him, he watched as the boy's hand slowly slid beneath the seal and began to pull. He could feel it weakening and were the boy aware of it he would no doubt be screaming-- his power was surging through the child's body. That shield prevented the foolish brat from even sensing what it was doing to him.
He needed the kid to finish, before the Third Hokage or some other ninja sensed what was occurring like the--
--Fourth.
Disbelief surged through him and he couldn't stop himself from exclaiming, "You!"
Before he could do more than that, the child was half way across the chamber, the seal still more than half way on. Crouching before him, hands upon his shoulders, was a blond haired man-- a dead man.
Rage surged through Kurama and he threw himself against the bars of his prison, snarling. "Fourth Hokage!" The yell was gutteral, pleasantries and small niceties assumed for the sake of keeping the child amenable abandoned.
The man said something to Naruto, but the blood roaring through the Nine-Tail's veins drowned out the quiet voice, then the blond adult turned to him and walked forward... though carefully outside of Kurama's reach.
"Come, Fourth, let us see if you have your son's protections in this place..."
"I think I'll avoid that for now, I have little enough chakra as it is to do what needs be done." The calm voice enraged him, Minato had been like this even as the fool was dying upon his claw, stealing his power, and binding the remainder within his own son. "I had hoped never to see you again, Kyuubi."
The words following words that statement threw cold water upon his anger though-- not putting it out, nothing was great enough for that, but quenching it slightly.
"Or should I say, Kurama?"
Eyes narrowing, the giant fox said, "How do you know that name? You did not use it during our previous fight."
"I have been listening to it on and off for the past three years." The golden haired man smiled crookedly and Kurama noted the likeness to Naruto. "Apparently you didn't catch my explanation to Naruto. Admittedly brief, as I have little time-- particularly if I am to put the offer I have for you on the table."
Glancing back at his six year old son, Minato turned back to the bound fox and said, "When I sealed you, I placed a portion of my chakra within the seal. A failsafe, in case it ever deteriorated enough that he manifested eight tails. I expected it to be... much later than this, admittedly."
"It is partially because of that that I am offering what I am about to-- in return for your chakra. Chakra that I will use to repair the seal without dissipating."
Kurama scoffed. "Why should I aid you in anything, Fourth? Let alone let you use the chakra that you left to me and placed in such easy reach of your son."
A gasp sounded out behind Minato and the man actually grinned, looking pleased. The nine-tailed fox felt abruptly that he had just dropped a weapon and allowed a potentially unarmed enemy to pick it up. His opponent's next statement only confirmed this.
"First, because while he might respect his... brother's... wishes, I suspect his father's dying wish will supercede it. The seal will be repaired, one way or another, and I will emphasize that guessing game or no, it should never be touched again."
Glancing at the giant fox in its cave and the loose seal, flapping in a non-existant breeze, the Yondaime continued after a moment. "That is the stick. The carrot is something else altogether. As you might have guessed already, I can see and sense most everything that Naruto does while within the seal.
"And that includes the day you've sought answers to."
Kurama's thoughts raced, rage mingling with curiosity and caution, weighing the risks and rewards before him. This man was quick, though he knew that well enough from his time with Kushina. The Fourth was dangerous, but he suspected that there would be few additional opportunities such as this. That this chance existed at all was unusual. On the other hand, with the seal laced with his own chakra, perhaps he could even influence it, though he would need to be subtle if the Fourth's words were accurate.
Naruto had been too young at the time of the incident, even now he remembered only fragments. By the time he was old enough to properly interpret them, they would be all but gone. If he were free, he would say good riddance and put the past behind him... but to be trapped for decades more potentially and still without answers...?
"Perhaps something more? I believe we also have a shared enemy, I may have learned something of him as well. And I would not be an inconsiderable ally."
Making his decision, Kurama scowled and all but threw his chakra through the bars of his cage.
The Fourth Hokage lived up to his reputation as an unparalleled ninja. The rush of tainted chakra was seized, mastered, and woven into the seal in a matter of moments, the small strip of paper reflecting the changes as if a steady hand were smoothing it back against the cage doors until all but a tiny corner was resting flush against the tarnished metal.
Examining his work carefully, the man nodded to himself and then turned to the Nine Tails again. "If you'll excuse me a moment with my son, I don't have much time before I must seal myself back inside, but I should have enough for that and to provide you with some answers."
With that, the Fourth turned, reaching down and picking up a sniffling Naruto and then vanishing with a yellow flash. Only a minute or two later, the Fourth returned, still holding his son, though it appeared that letting him go would have involved prying the kid off with a crowbar.
As the man turned towards the cage, Kurama spoke, asking questions he had been pondering for three years now. "What did you see that day? Who impersonated me and taught your brat my name?"
Minato frowned for a minute then said, "From what I could tell, it was you or something so flawlessly disguised that I couldn't tell the difference. You collapsed and moments later stood, looking confused and radiating battle readiness. I might have missed it entirely if Naruto hadn't been asleep.
"What happened next, however, would have had me intervening if I hadn't placed such stringent requirements on my appearance. I am still not sure how it was done, but you managed to summon Naruto into this place. You were visibly shocked when he appeared, but seemed to get over it eventually and woke him.
"You've heard bits and pieces of what happened after that from Naruto; your shining personality was present, but you seemed... fond... of my son. You spent several hours probing for details of his life and what was happening with surprising patience given that you were dealing with a three year old, but seemed to notice something after that which prompted more urgency. You began training Naruto in how to visit this place, your little song to pass on your name and possibly more, and a few other things."
At this point, Minato paused, head cocked to one side as if measuring something or making a decision. "I'm running out of time, let me skip to the end. After Naruto had fallen asleep, you appeared to be fading, about to fall unconscious again. However, what was important was what happened minutes before you dissappeared.
"I don't have time to give you the details now, but you addressed me directly. And based upon what you said at that time, I am certain that you at least believed that you were from the future. Given your surprise at my appearance just now, I don't think you were aware of me, but this version of yourself was intimately familiar with myself, you, Naruto, and more." The Fourth shrugged, resettling Naruto in the process. "I have been thinking about the possibility for three years now and I believe it is possible. Unlikely and it would require... well, I don't have time for theory at the moment, but it could happen."
Kurama had let the Fourth speak with uncharacteristic patience, though that was a skill he had been honing for several years at this point. The conclusions the dead man had reached... or claimed to reach though...
"You truly expect me to accept this at your word as you vanish into the ether? A future version of myself appeared in our time and chose to contact the boy? Convince him I was some kind of guardian spirit? The next thing to family?" The scowl that creased the Nine Tail's face made it truly formiddable looking, anger flaring at the absurdity.
"Well," Minato amended, a crooked smile on his face, "Possibly not quite simple as that, he wasn't quite prepared for the level of attachment a little kindness would generate, though he seemed amused enough by it by the end." While the entire situation clearly amused the Fourth Hokage, there was a hint of sadness in the smile as he glanced down towards his son and he quickly got back to the point.
"Give me time though and we can speak again. If I am right, Naruto should gradually replenish my chakra over time-- it is what allows me to exist within the seal without dissipating. Even if that is not the case, I should have enough chakra left for perhaps two more visits." Face hardening, he said, "Give me three months, then remove the seal again. We'll speak then and hopefully more often in the future. There are details that both you and my son require if there was any truth in what 'you' told me, but I need to tell him when he is old enough to understand."
Kneeling, the Fourth finally turned to Naruto, pulling the boy away from his neck. "Remember now, you need to keep me a secret and it's your responsibility to protect your... big brother--" The Kyuubi was amused that he managed to get that out with only a hint of strain. "--from the villagers. They won't understand what happened that night for a long time to come.
"I love you, son. Be strong and remember, leave the seal be for at least three months. You know I'm with you-- let that be enough for now." Pulling his son into a hug, Minato held him for a few moments more and then his hands flickered through a set of seals and he faded away.
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Author's Notes
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So nominally a time travel fic, where the Kyuubi basically rocketed back in time during after rubber-banding back into Naruto during the fight with Madara when the latter lost control of pulling him out briefly. He then snapped right back though, so had very limited time to actually make any changes. Or at least that's the way it started....
This one is probably fourth or fifth on my list of priorities at best, but I figure I'll end up posting it on Fanfiction.net, so I'd get a bit of feedback before doing that.
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Kyuubi no Fuzzy-nii-sama
Chapter 1
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Water dripped, slowly and with no random pattern, droplets falling from the ceilings with a dull splat and in some cases the sound of water upon water. Breath quickening, the giant fox demon raised his head and glanced around himself with a measure of wariness as he awoke, only slowly becoming aware again.
The prison was little different than it had been for the past three years, but he had not... slept... for nearly 100 years that he recalled. Even when that blasted Uchiha had seized control of him, wrenching him out of the Kushina woman, he had been fully aware. That awareness was what had driven him into the fury that he had maintained for the past three years.
Still, there was something off-- Pausing, he abruptly realized that his was not the only one breathing in the dank, poorly lit sewer that this boy's mind had deteriorated into over three years of neglect, abuse, and his own corrosive presence.
Looking down, a cruel grin stretched across his muzzle as he noted the small form resting against one of the bars of his cage... resting against one of his own hands in point of fact. He was not sure how the brat had reached this place so early, but the fools in Konoha would suffer for it.
Moving slowly so he didn't wake his visitor, his other hand rose, ready to rend the annoying brat and hopefully his own cage... when he abruptly heard the child distinctly murmur "Kurama" in the midst of some other nonsense.
The shock of hearing a name that had not been spoken by a human for over 600 years halted his attack, the words pulling up memories buried by hundreds of years of warfare, slavery, and hatred.
His hand twitched involuntarily as he shuddered and the boy was sent rolling across the floor to land up against the wall. Despite the force of the impact, however, he merely stretched and yawned, blinking sleepily.
Kurama glared at the little human, his killing intent spilling across the landscape of the human's mind-- only to be completely ignored as the child yelled, "Yay! Fuzzy-nii-sama! Wanna play sommore!"
Blinking, Kurama asked, "What was that, brat?"
"Not brat. Naruto! Wanna play!"
The giant embodiment of hatred, rage, and power was fairly sure he had heard that correctly this time. For a moment, he considered whether he was still asleep. He couldn't see his mind coming up with this though. He had gotten flashes of the brat's life over the past few years-- moments of pain and particularly strong emotions largely. Nothing that would have led to this kind of delusion.
"Why are you not cowering on the floor in terror, brat?"
This caused Naruto to stomp and point accusingly. "Grumpy Fuzzy-nii-sama! No more naps. Play?"
Ignoring that, since he had scarcely expected an answer from the little kid, the Kyuubi examined the child more carefully. Sending a wave of his chakra out of the cage, as much as the seal would allow at this point anyway, he watched the child's reaction and noticed something odd... his chakra flowed around the kid. It was almost imperceptible, but something was shielding him and it wasn't the seal, since that was right in front of him.
This was beyond bearable. He had been trapped for over a hundred years at this point and he didn't think he had ever been subjected to such a humiliating experience. "Stop calling me that you little--"
Wait. The kid wanted to play. Kids were stupid. The seal was right in front of him.
"Hey, kid. If you want to play, you'll have to open this cage. I can't do much while I'm locked up like this, right?" One enormous finger pointed at the apparently flimsy seal paper.
"Yay! Guessing game time!" The little boy ran forward and plopped down in front of the fox.
"What?" Blinking again, Kurama growled then shook himself. "Nah, let's play tag or something, kid. Just pull this paper off and we'll be set."
Screwing up his face in confusion, Naruto seemed to be thinking about something then smiled and said, "You said only pull the paper with the secret word. No matter what. It's the guessing game!"
"I said? What do you mean I said that, brat?"
This time, Naruto ignored the insult. "Yesterday! When we played!"
Breaking into song, his piping voice as steady as a child was likely to manage, the boy sang, "Kurama kon kon, finds the right word, don don; doesn't get out, without giving it a shout; Kurama kon kon, don don!
Screwing up his face in an expression of concentration that human vixens would no doubt find adorable after his little song stopped, he tried it one more time, trailing off at the end, then said, "Umm... I forget the rest."
Staring at Naruto, Kurama found he was developing a head ache. And it wasn't the abominably bad "song" either, he was beginning to think that he had actually interacted with the kid... or something had on his behalf, whether through him or disguised to look like him.
The issue with either option was... none but the other Tailed Beasts should know his name at this point. Perhaps it had been written down somewhere, but he suspected if it was anywhere in Konoha they would have tried to use it to bargain with him at some point.
Something had happened here and as he settled down to stare at the kid, probing for clues and randomly guessing words, he determined that whatever it was, he would be taking advantage of it. This brat and the Uzumaki, Minato, the masked Uchiha, Madara, the First... they would pay the ultimate price, made possible by this mistake.
O.O.O.O.O
There was a time when Kurama had cursed the monotony of his existence. The years that passed without more than glimpses of the world outside of his cage, stolen from the mind of his jinchuriki.
With Mito, there had once been a stretch of nearly a decade where he saw nothing save the interior of his cage, her self control and phlegmatic personality enough to prevent even the glimpses he received in periods of great emotion. Kushina had held him for a far shorter time, but he had seldom gone a day without a view of the outside world. Still, she seldom confronted him directly.
He now looked back on those times with a fondness his past self would have found nauseating. The child he was trapped within, now that he had found a "friend" seldom went a few hours without bugging his prisoner. Constant requests to play, inane prattle about the boy's daily life, and when the boy slept, he was inevitably within his mindscape. Snoring.
It had been only a month after the incident that he had made his first attempt on the child's life, no longer willing to wait upon the inane "game" he had supposedly created, and found that even when within reach of the cage the seal prevented him from harming the boy.
As a result, "tag" was now Naruto's favorite activity. He would seldom sit still for a session of the "guessing game" without forcing the Kyuubi to attempt to strike him down and the boy was beyond stubborn-- refusing to even consider releasing the seal without finishing the game. The sessions were short at first, but the boy soon began to develop an almost preternatural sense of danger. Given that this was his mind, the limitations of a four year old body also posed no real difficulty and there were now times it would take him an hour or longer just to touch the boy.
Pretending that this time might be different, that the boy's self might be rent asunder by his claws and the prison burst, was the only thing that enabled him to participate in the farce.
If he found that this game translated outside of the boy's mindscape, he might well begin to look into finding some way to off himself from within his prison. There would be little that would be more embarrassing than inadvertantly training his container, though he supposed it would ensure he survived longer.
Not that he was entirely sure that was a positive anymore.
The only thing that kept him somewhat sane was that after the first year he had discovered that a sufficient expulsion of chakra, even if it failed to harm the child, could throw him from his own mindscape.
It was seldom long before he returned and there was inevitably pouting and complaints about his behavior. It was a sad state of affairs that his own behavior with Naruto was more palatable to the child than the outside world of the orphanage. Still, while there was a chance of ending his imprisonment through the "guessing game" he dared not chase the child away indefinitely.
Upon Naruto's fifth birthday, Kurama found that the boy had somehow learned to negate his attempts to throw him from his mindscape.
O.O.O.O.O
Cracking open an eye from where he was pretending to be asleep, Kurama looked over the normally cheery child as he wandered in to the massive room that held the Kyuubi's cage. He noted that the smile upon the boy's face was conspicuously absent. He suspected it had something to do with the beating that had been taking place before now-- the abuse his container suffered seldom registered enough emotion for it to show for him any longer, it was simply a fact of life for Naruto at this point.
This one had been unusually vicious though, no doubt due to the anniversary of his little visit to Konoha and the boy's birthday. The brat would survive it, but he supposed Naruto felt no need to stick around and feel it.
Eye slipping shut again, he decided to ignore the kid while he was actually being quiet. That kind of behavior should be encouraged.
That decision lasted perhaps 20 minutes, then the sniffling and other small signs of misery began to get on his nerves.
"Feeling sorry for yourself, kid? I'm not going to be the most empathetic of ears-- why don't you go do that on the outside. Track down the old man and complain or something." Shoving at the kid with the usual amount of chakra, he sighed in relief as the sniffling cut off and settled down to enjoy the quiet-- until the giggling started.
One eye popping open, he saw the boy looking at him with a wide grin on his face that occassionally broke out into outright laughter and frowned. He had a bad feeling about this. Ramping it up, he tried pushing at the kid again and nothing happened. No matter how much chakra he poured into it, at least within the constraints the seal allowed, the kid seemed to ignore it.
"Alright! I finally got it!" Naruto danced, then bent over wiggling his butt at Kurama. The demon fox groaned. How low had he fallen that a five year old child felt comfortable enough in his presence to moon him.
"All right, brat. What did you do now?"
"Not gonna tell. It's your turn now, you gotta figure it out." The boy grinned, his earlier mood completely forgotten. Bounding forward, he plopped down right in front of Kurama, settling cross legged onto one of the mossy mounds that had grown in a few places within his mindscape. "Come on, it's pretty neat, huh?"
Grudgingly, Kurama said, "Fine, fine. I have to admit, it's impressive. You're what, 4 years old?"
"I'm 5!" Naruto yelled indignantly, facing flushing with anger as he jumped up and shook his fist at his prisoner.
"Ahh, so not so impressive then."
This actually so flustered and surprised Naruto that he just stomped impotently, scowling at the demon stuck inside him, which made Kurama burst out laughing. That in turn caused Naruto to pause, staring in wonder before he started laughing along with the fox.
As his amusement died away, he shook his head. "All right, you've made your point, brat. I didn't think you'd be able to counter that. Don't think it'll last though. Now get out of here, I want some rest on the day I was imprisoned in here. Go bug the old man for your one present of the year."
Beaming, Naruto jumped up, then turned around and ran for one of the corridors. He skidded to a stop just before reaching the darkness though and turned around pointing at Kurama. "No naps though, Fuzzy-nii-sama! You're not allowed to forget how to laugh again!"
Then he turned, fading as he did until the fox was left with nothing more than the quiet sound of water dripping into pools. The boy's last comment reminded him again of the day Naruto had been inflicted upon him and he stared into the darkness, pondering the event and all that it had wrought.
The boy's random comments occassionally shed light upon that blank space in his memories that all of his questions to him failed to unearth. Now the question was just what that light was revealing.
O.O.O.O.O
It took a week to modify his approach enough to bypass the child's new found immunity to expulsion and the modified technique lasted less than a month. This started a new round of challenges between the little boy and the fox that involved control over the portion of Naruto's mindscape that they shared. While the seal limited Kurama, it was to some extent dependent upon the boy... and as he mistakenly trusted the Kyuubi, Kurama had a fair amount of leeway.
Their "battles" involved everything from the boy hiding from him in the shadows and attacking until he revealed him with a wash of chakra to attempts to transform each other through will alone. The latter amused Kurama mightily as the boy didn't have the strength to alter much more than a few of his hairs while Naruto would spend weeks as a puppy, a female, a newborn, or whatever else struck his fancy when he visited his mindscape.
While many lasted only a week or even a few days, it took the boy nearly a month and a half to break the transformation into a female of his kind and just under a month to escape from the form of a fox. The first, Kurama assumed was simply due to the similarity to Naruto's own form... the changes were fairly subtle at the boy's age, though he seemed upset enough about being stuck that the fox didn't bother to simply change it. The latter was largely a matter of how strongly the image resonated in Kurama's mind. It took a particularly strong effort of will to overcome.
The incident with the fox appeared to provide some insights to the boy on how he might begin to get a little back on Kurama and as the boy approached his sixth birthday, he would occassionally manage as much as a whole finger. A couple days before the anniversary of his capture, the boy managed to pull off a particularly persistant orange on two of his fingers and thus spent his birthday in his natural form.
O.O.O.O.O
Kurama was aware of the boy's glee well in advance of his arrival within the mindscape, though he had not caught the reasons for the uncharacteristic mood on this of all days. Perhaps the boy had managed to escape his tormenters entirely. He suspected that if he concentrated he would be able to find out... it had gotten easier to sense what was happening outside of his prison in the last year or two. A function of the trust the boy had in him perhaps?
At any rate, he would find out soon enough he suspected.
As the day passed and the boy did not appear though and his mood continued to elevate, Kurama had a thought. While it had been some time since he tried to convince the boy to remove the seal, the ecstatic mood that suffused the child might well leave him vulnerable to manipulation.
It wasn't until the day had nearly waned that Naruto finally appeared within his mindscape. He was nearly quivering with excitement and clearly wanted to blurt out his news, but was holding back with what was no doubt a significant effort of will.
Kurama pointedly ignored his role at this point, failing to ask the question of what had the boy so excited.
Finally, the boy could take no more and he burst out with, "Guess what!"
Raising a single eyebrow, the demon fox said, "Is this going to be like the 'game' we've been playing for the past three years? I don't think I'm up for another multi-year guessing game where the only clue is 'me'."
For a moment, this appeared to confuse Naruto, possibly because it had been over six months since Kurama had bothered to initiate one of the extremely frustrating sessions that largely consisted of Naruto grinning like a mad man and saying things like 'Nope', 'Nuh uh', and 'Not it' in various sing song tones. He wasn't even sure the boy remembered it at this point honestly.
For a moment, he appeared ready to answer Kurama's question but he finally just burst out with, "I'm going to be a ninja!" then stared at the giant fox expectantly.
"Well, I assumed as much. You've been playing at it for years."
"No! I'm going to be a ninja now!" The boy beamed and explained further. "The old man is letting me join the Academy early as a birthday present."
Looking around secretively, as if anyone could possibly overhear him talking inside of his own head, he whispered, "And that isn't even the best part! Because I'm working towards being a ninja I get my own apartment!" The last was nearly shouted as the boy jumped around the room, apparently having forgotten about the 'need' for secrecy. The following song and dance about "never gonna go back to the orphanage" was repetitive, long, and off key, but when he started adding in verses about the matron and her assistant it began to get amusing.
If the boy ever performed his little song in front of the orphanage workers, he suspected the kid might have to see if his chakra was able to regrow a tongue. They wouldn't bother with the soap for the "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox".
Eventually, he calmed down enough to stop singing and began extolling the virtues of his new apartment, which he had apparently spent the day moving into with the help of a genin team assigned the task as a mission. The Hokage had apparently gone all out for this birthday, though he had emphasized the need for secrecy which Kurama found a bit unusual. Still, the kid hadn't leaked the secret of his contact with Kurama for three years, so he suspected it would be kept.
As the boy started in on his description of the bedroom for the third time, Kurama decided to make his move. He saw an opening and there was unlikely to be a better time in the near future.
"It's a shame I can't see it for myself. Too bad you're so set on the whole 'guessing game' thing with the seal," the fox inserted slyly as the brat paused to draw in a breath.
Trailing off, Naruto looked at Kurama with wide eyes. "What does the seal have to do with that?" he asked, curious.
"Well, if the tag there was removed, I'm pretty sure I would be able to see what you see. You might even be able to talk with me without coming here. But I guess you're not really interested in that."
"I... wouldn't say that, exactly. It's just you were really, really emphatic about the guessing game..." Naruto spoke as if he were feeling out how emphatic that really was and whether there were some give around it, so Kurama let him speak, nearly salivating as the boy eyed the seal. "It would be... really nice, to have someone to talk with all the time. Especially you, Fuzzy-nii-sama. I'm sure I'll make tons of friends once I'm in the Academy, of course," he blustered, though his eyes said he really believed no such thing, "but it wouldn't be quite the same."
"Well, it has been a long time you'll admit. We could just say that you won the guessing game," the fox wheedled, his tone saying how much of an achievement that would be. "That will no doubt open room for another game in our schedule and we've gotten quite good at creating them, haven't we? Perhaps even one that takes place outside..."
Naruto nodded and slowly moved towards the seal. While it was well outside of his reach, his physical abilities in this space were limited only by his imagination, and he quickly scurried up the bars. Holding his breath, Kurama waited with tense anticipation as the boy reached up and seized one corner.
Resisting the urge to hurry him, he watched as the boy's hand slowly slid beneath the seal and began to pull. He could feel it weakening and were the boy aware of it he would no doubt be screaming-- his power was surging through the child's body. That shield prevented the foolish brat from even sensing what it was doing to him.
He needed the kid to finish, before the Third Hokage or some other ninja sensed what was occurring like the--
--Fourth.
Disbelief surged through him and he couldn't stop himself from exclaiming, "You!"
Before he could do more than that, the child was half way across the chamber, the seal still more than half way on. Crouching before him, hands upon his shoulders, was a blond haired man-- a dead man.
Rage surged through Kurama and he threw himself against the bars of his prison, snarling. "Fourth Hokage!" The yell was gutteral, pleasantries and small niceties assumed for the sake of keeping the child amenable abandoned.
The man said something to Naruto, but the blood roaring through the Nine-Tail's veins drowned out the quiet voice, then the blond adult turned to him and walked forward... though carefully outside of Kurama's reach.
"Come, Fourth, let us see if you have your son's protections in this place..."
"I think I'll avoid that for now, I have little enough chakra as it is to do what needs be done." The calm voice enraged him, Minato had been like this even as the fool was dying upon his claw, stealing his power, and binding the remainder within his own son. "I had hoped never to see you again, Kyuubi."
The words following words that statement threw cold water upon his anger though-- not putting it out, nothing was great enough for that, but quenching it slightly.
"Or should I say, Kurama?"
Eyes narrowing, the giant fox said, "How do you know that name? You did not use it during our previous fight."
"I have been listening to it on and off for the past three years." The golden haired man smiled crookedly and Kurama noted the likeness to Naruto. "Apparently you didn't catch my explanation to Naruto. Admittedly brief, as I have little time-- particularly if I am to put the offer I have for you on the table."
Glancing back at his six year old son, Minato turned back to the bound fox and said, "When I sealed you, I placed a portion of my chakra within the seal. A failsafe, in case it ever deteriorated enough that he manifested eight tails. I expected it to be... much later than this, admittedly."
"It is partially because of that that I am offering what I am about to-- in return for your chakra. Chakra that I will use to repair the seal without dissipating."
Kurama scoffed. "Why should I aid you in anything, Fourth? Let alone let you use the chakra that you left to me and placed in such easy reach of your son."
A gasp sounded out behind Minato and the man actually grinned, looking pleased. The nine-tailed fox felt abruptly that he had just dropped a weapon and allowed a potentially unarmed enemy to pick it up. His opponent's next statement only confirmed this.
"First, because while he might respect his... brother's... wishes, I suspect his father's dying wish will supercede it. The seal will be repaired, one way or another, and I will emphasize that guessing game or no, it should never be touched again."
Glancing at the giant fox in its cave and the loose seal, flapping in a non-existant breeze, the Yondaime continued after a moment. "That is the stick. The carrot is something else altogether. As you might have guessed already, I can see and sense most everything that Naruto does while within the seal.
"And that includes the day you've sought answers to."
Kurama's thoughts raced, rage mingling with curiosity and caution, weighing the risks and rewards before him. This man was quick, though he knew that well enough from his time with Kushina. The Fourth was dangerous, but he suspected that there would be few additional opportunities such as this. That this chance existed at all was unusual. On the other hand, with the seal laced with his own chakra, perhaps he could even influence it, though he would need to be subtle if the Fourth's words were accurate.
Naruto had been too young at the time of the incident, even now he remembered only fragments. By the time he was old enough to properly interpret them, they would be all but gone. If he were free, he would say good riddance and put the past behind him... but to be trapped for decades more potentially and still without answers...?
"Perhaps something more? I believe we also have a shared enemy, I may have learned something of him as well. And I would not be an inconsiderable ally."
Making his decision, Kurama scowled and all but threw his chakra through the bars of his cage.
The Fourth Hokage lived up to his reputation as an unparalleled ninja. The rush of tainted chakra was seized, mastered, and woven into the seal in a matter of moments, the small strip of paper reflecting the changes as if a steady hand were smoothing it back against the cage doors until all but a tiny corner was resting flush against the tarnished metal.
Examining his work carefully, the man nodded to himself and then turned to the Nine Tails again. "If you'll excuse me a moment with my son, I don't have much time before I must seal myself back inside, but I should have enough for that and to provide you with some answers."
With that, the Fourth turned, reaching down and picking up a sniffling Naruto and then vanishing with a yellow flash. Only a minute or two later, the Fourth returned, still holding his son, though it appeared that letting him go would have involved prying the kid off with a crowbar.
As the man turned towards the cage, Kurama spoke, asking questions he had been pondering for three years now. "What did you see that day? Who impersonated me and taught your brat my name?"
Minato frowned for a minute then said, "From what I could tell, it was you or something so flawlessly disguised that I couldn't tell the difference. You collapsed and moments later stood, looking confused and radiating battle readiness. I might have missed it entirely if Naruto hadn't been asleep.
"What happened next, however, would have had me intervening if I hadn't placed such stringent requirements on my appearance. I am still not sure how it was done, but you managed to summon Naruto into this place. You were visibly shocked when he appeared, but seemed to get over it eventually and woke him.
"You've heard bits and pieces of what happened after that from Naruto; your shining personality was present, but you seemed... fond... of my son. You spent several hours probing for details of his life and what was happening with surprising patience given that you were dealing with a three year old, but seemed to notice something after that which prompted more urgency. You began training Naruto in how to visit this place, your little song to pass on your name and possibly more, and a few other things."
At this point, Minato paused, head cocked to one side as if measuring something or making a decision. "I'm running out of time, let me skip to the end. After Naruto had fallen asleep, you appeared to be fading, about to fall unconscious again. However, what was important was what happened minutes before you dissappeared.
"I don't have time to give you the details now, but you addressed me directly. And based upon what you said at that time, I am certain that you at least believed that you were from the future. Given your surprise at my appearance just now, I don't think you were aware of me, but this version of yourself was intimately familiar with myself, you, Naruto, and more." The Fourth shrugged, resettling Naruto in the process. "I have been thinking about the possibility for three years now and I believe it is possible. Unlikely and it would require... well, I don't have time for theory at the moment, but it could happen."
Kurama had let the Fourth speak with uncharacteristic patience, though that was a skill he had been honing for several years at this point. The conclusions the dead man had reached... or claimed to reach though...
"You truly expect me to accept this at your word as you vanish into the ether? A future version of myself appeared in our time and chose to contact the boy? Convince him I was some kind of guardian spirit? The next thing to family?" The scowl that creased the Nine Tail's face made it truly formiddable looking, anger flaring at the absurdity.
"Well," Minato amended, a crooked smile on his face, "Possibly not quite simple as that, he wasn't quite prepared for the level of attachment a little kindness would generate, though he seemed amused enough by it by the end." While the entire situation clearly amused the Fourth Hokage, there was a hint of sadness in the smile as he glanced down towards his son and he quickly got back to the point.
"Give me time though and we can speak again. If I am right, Naruto should gradually replenish my chakra over time-- it is what allows me to exist within the seal without dissipating. Even if that is not the case, I should have enough chakra left for perhaps two more visits." Face hardening, he said, "Give me three months, then remove the seal again. We'll speak then and hopefully more often in the future. There are details that both you and my son require if there was any truth in what 'you' told me, but I need to tell him when he is old enough to understand."
Kneeling, the Fourth finally turned to Naruto, pulling the boy away from his neck. "Remember now, you need to keep me a secret and it's your responsibility to protect your... big brother--" The Kyuubi was amused that he managed to get that out with only a hint of strain. "--from the villagers. They won't understand what happened that night for a long time to come.
"I love you, son. Be strong and remember, leave the seal be for at least three months. You know I'm with you-- let that be enough for now." Pulling his son into a hug, Minato held him for a few moments more and then his hands flickered through a set of seals and he faded away.
================================
Author's Notes
================================
So nominally a time travel fic, where the Kyuubi basically rocketed back in time during after rubber-banding back into Naruto during the fight with Madara when the latter lost control of pulling him out briefly. He then snapped right back though, so had very limited time to actually make any changes. Or at least that's the way it started....