A/N: Greetings, everyone, and welcome to my first published fanfiction. I know I have a lot to work on as a writer, so any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated. This first chapter will be a bit shorter than normal just due to it being a prologue/introduction to the story. On that note, I'll let you get to it!
Chapter 1: Two Steps Back
Kurama had lived a very long time, ever since Old Man Sage had created him and his brethren from the Ten Tails' chakra. Far longer than the squirt of the host he was attached to, that's for sure.
As a demon, he had experienced many things. He could sense negative emotions, and was in fact drawn to them like a moth to a flame - if said moth was thirty stories tall and could snuff out the flame with a single breath, let alone a flap of its wings. Pride, arrogance, malice and greed had all inevitably turned into rage, sorrow, hopelessness and despair beneath his claws.
He had just never experienced them itself, until now.
The chakra cloak surrounding Naruto was fading. As it did, the surrounding void kept creeping towards them. Outside was nothing but a seemingly infinite realm of pure chaotic energy, screaming and howling yet at the same time unearthly silent. Space and time were collapsing, cannibalizing themselves in an effort to eradicate 'Naruto Uzumaki' from existence, and were being kept at bay only by sheer bursts of energy.
"FOCUS, KIT!" Kurama roared within his mindscape, sending it into turmoil. "We still need to find a way out of here!"
"...Kurama… We've already... tried everything…" Even in his own mind, Naruto's reply was barely heard. The walls of the old sewer seemed to darken with each raspy breath he took, further emphasizing the myriad of cracks that had already invaded and spread throughout the complex.
"Then try something else! Isn't that what you're good at?"
"You're... running out of power. I can feel it."
"Who do you think you're talking to, brat?! This is nothing! We just have to hold out long enough for one of your brat friends to break us out of here!"
"...They're dead. All of them. You know that."
"You don't know that for sure, kit! Which is why you need to get your ass out of here and HELP THEM!"
"You saw it, Kurama. We both did. We sensed it. No one survived that but us. Not even Sasuke..."
"So what, are you just going to give up?!" Kurama was practically growling now. "You're the Hokage, brat! You didn't come this far just to quit now!"
Naruto paused at this, even as the rest of his body trembled fiercely, seemingly an equal mixture of despair and exertion. His lips curled upwards, but to call this a smile would be an affront to everything Kurama had ever known about his partner. A decimated cloak, broken body, and utterly dead eyes completed the ghastly visage that was the furthest thing he would have ever associated with the ever-beaming boy – no, man – he had come to know.
"S-some Hokage… I turned out to be… The one that… lost the Leaf… I couldn't even save…"
Abruptly, Naruto paused again, but something was different this time. His whole figure stilled, his face set, and a spark of determination seemed to wash over him.
Inside his mind, the change was even more apparent. The encroaching darkness halted its advance. The cracks were still there, and were in fact still worsening, but if one looked closely enough, they could almost make out the barest hints of blue light streaming through them, eating away at the shadows surrounding them.
"Ne, Kurama… How did you say this jutsu worked again?"
Inwardly, Kurama released a sigh he didn't know he had been holding. This was more like it. This was the Naruto he knew. The brat had a plan. It was going to be hairbrained, he was sure, but they always were with Naruto. And he always made them work one way or another.
"It seems to be some advanced form of time-space jutsu targeting your specific chakra signature. Whoever set this up must really have it out for you, since they're essentially trying to erase you from existence entirely. I suspect that they also took the liberty of separating us from our original plane, so it'll be a bit annoying getting back there as well."
"So then, assuming we escape, could you manage to find the way back?"
"Heh. Sure thing, kit. I can still make out the vague direction of the other Beasts' chakras. So what's the terrible plan this time?" He glanced out at the fading barrier, which was barely an inch from their body now. "Whatever you have up your sleeve, I suggest you do it fast!"
"Well, Kurama, I know you hate being ordered around, but I'm afraid you'll have to make an exception this time, as the last active shinobi of the Hidden Leaf."
Kurama blinked, then rolled his eyes at this. Of all the times… "Alright, brat, what are my 'orders'?"
"Live."
"Wha-"
Out of all the responses the demon fox was expecting, a single word was not one of them. Before he could even begin to react, though, his partner had already erupted into motion, slamming his still-functional hand onto his own stomach. The long-faded black ink of a very familiar seal sprung into sight, before glowing bright blue instead. An instant later, the characters of the seal started to disintegrate, as if they had aged a million more years in the blink of an eye.
Within Naruto's mindscape, the great gates of the seal that once imprisoned the spirit - but had long since been left wide open - began to crack and shatter. At the same time, a fierce and unstoppable gale tore through the caverns of the sewers, threatening to rip the massive fox straight from his den. Instinctively, Kurama tried to resist the pull, but was distraught to find that his claws could find no purchase on the smooth tile floor. A moment later, he looked back up to see a final surge of blue chakra rushing up to meet him, forcing him off his feet and sending him tumbling backwards into the darkness.
After perpetually falling in a direction that could only be described as outward for what felt like both an eternity and just an instant, Kurama found himself floating in the void surrounding Naruto's form. He barely had enough time to snap his head around before the small blue sheen that had taken the place of his crimson chakra cloak sputtered and died. Immediately, the surrounding space surged inward. Kurama, however, couldn't tear his gaze away from his partner's expression, the stupid, idiotic, shit-eating grin plastered on his face as if he had just pulled off the greatest prank of his life.
Kurama roared, and charged.
OoOoOoOoO
The Kyuubi was having the worst day of its life so far. Worse even than when that Madara bastard had first enslaved it so long ago, beginning its long decades of imprisonment by the wretched shinobi. His latest captor in particular had been insufferable, refusing to even acknowledge its existence unless absolutely necessary. Now it had finally tasted freedom for the first time in so long, only to immediately be influenced by yet another blasted Uchiha, At least it had been able to gleam some satisfaction from killing his previous prison as well as that annoying yellow-hair simply by targeting their newborn kit.
Until, that is, its entire being was ripped in half and re-sealed inside said kit.
So here the Kyuubi sat, trapped inside a mindscape that hadn't even fully formed yet, let alone taken on any sort of shape. In a cage, no less, like a common animal.
However, while it was busy venting its rage and fury trying to break the bars – not really holding out any hope of succeeding but still trying regardless – something else unexpected impacted the demon fox. Its tantrum was quickly discarded as it doubled over in waves of excruciating pain, frantically clawing at its own head. Flashes of images, sounds, and emotions were assaulting its mind far too fast for it to process.
At first, it assumed that this was the work of some infernal genjutsu, trying to brainwash it into serving the humans. Thus, it quickly mobilized all of its chakra in order to quickly combat the threat, only to discover to its amazement that it couldn't. It was somehow trying to fight its own chakra, which was a sentiment about as possible as it was coherent.
Memories, it gradually realized, these were memories. Its own memories. His own memories, Kurama corrected. From the future. He had done it!
Eventually, the haze in his mind cleared as the last of his new (old?) memories fell into place. For now, he took to surveying his surroundings. Ironically, a massive sense of relief and triumph arose as he took in the cold metal bars of his cage, which were now both closed and locked. He knew exactly where – and more importantly when – he was.
That was far and away the stupidest plan he had ever had in his long, long life.
But it had worked.
His partner would be proud.