From a young age, she is aware of being… wrong.
Everyone gives her the side eyed look, like she might attack when their guard is down. They look like deer, she idly thinks, when they are being watched by a leopard.
An old woman raises her, but never gets too attached. Treats her like a houseguest and not a daughter. When Yugito is six, the woman casts her out, muttering, "bakaneko" under her breath.
Yugito once asks her reflection why nobody likes her,
and it smiles back.
"I like you, little host."
She screams.
/
She is informed of what she is and why people treat her the way they do when she is eight.
It's a relief to finally have an answer.
She isn't the only jinchuuriki, there's a boy, somewhat older then herself. He calls himself Bee and he likes to… rap. He calls her stuck up, laughs, and then punches her in the shoulder.
She tells him to speak normally when addressing her.
He frowns at her, "you don't get out much, do ya?"
"I take walks. Sometimes I train."
"…Yeah. Exactly."
Somehow they become friends.
/
The training is hard, torturous. They push her to use the bijuu's chakra as soon as she can control her own.
Her body is in a permanent state of pain, and at one point she contemplates running away.
The Raikage tells her that controlling the beast is a sign of her own strength, a sign of her force of will. By doing that, she will gain respect, and earn her place in the village.
Bee sees her wavering, and offers a bet. If she can control the Nibi before the he can control the Hachibi, he'll do her C-rank missions for a month.
"Make it two, that's my lucky number."
She takes the words to heart, and she is nearly sixteen when a man publicly thanks her in the market place for saving his son's life.
Someone else gives a free lunch, for the efforts she's been putting in to the village.
Technically Bee was the first one to make friends, the first one to stop butting heads with his bijuu. But he tells her that she's younger than him, so really, she's made the most progress.
She goes home, content with her life.
/
She is fire, she is limitless. She will not be captured here.
But the Akatsuki are relentless. Matatabi brings down the building, she throws them off and incinerates stone. The earth splits under her steps, and her screams should bring humans to their knees.
But the two Akatsuki members are immortal, and the Nekomata's vessel is not. The downside to a host is that the Nibi herself is subject to their limits.
She sweeps her tails, she turns earth to lava, and green to ash. Her eyes glow with hunger, with anger, that these morsels dare to turn her power against her.
The battle is long, but their opponents defy natural law. The beast and human fall as one, and Yugito knows it's over.
She overhears the Akatsuki discussing the search parties out looking for her, the Raikage leading them personally. They are desperate, the two men laugh, everyone has volunteered to save Yugito Nii.
It is a small comfort, in the face of death, but Yugito finds it a comfort all the same.
In the end, she found her place and…
In the end, she does not die alone.