Naruto Avatar

Kingdark: Yes, this is precisely what the title implies. This is a Naruto story with the potential and ability to bend all the elements which have been shown in both cartoon series. Only the potential though. It'll require hard work before he can do everything. I think that my approach is fairly original because there aren't THAT many Naruto stories that have been crossed with the cartoon. Should you know a story that is similar to this one, I would be interested to know about it.

Summary: Over a period of several months, Naruto is an invisible observer of the lives of four Avatars. Kyoshi, the Avatar from the earth kingdom, Roku the Avatar from the fire nation, Aang the Avatar from the Air nomads and lastly he watched and learned as Kora who was the Avatar from the water tribes lived her life. When Kora finally dies at the end of her life, Naruto is left with a mysterious message as well as reassurance that he'll remember everything but without any of the emotional attachments and the reminder that he won't be able to go into a genuine Avatar state but he'll know how to fake it eventually.

Kingdark 02: I reread the story and I'm no longer happy with it. In fact, I'm not happy with the original first chapter. (it has been replaced by this version) and I'm also not happy with the eleven pages worth that I have ready for chapter 02. That's why I'm going to review this chapter, review the second chapter and then replace this one while posting the second chapter in one go.
Kingdark

And so a story concludes only for a new one to begin…
Chapter 1

Naruto woke up and just like that cryptic message had said, he remembered everything perfectly. The attachments he had formed to the people he had watched had lessened but hadn't disappeared completely. Despite knowing that he would no longer dream about the world from where the Avatar came from, Naruto thought that he could honor all four Avatars by being the best he could be.

Over the past several months, Naruto had slowly changed his habits. Watching other people being taught and explained why they were being taught also happened to teach Naruto as well. By the end of it, Naruto had learned all four languages, a lot of their dialects as well as their styles.

"I wonder what I should do right now…" Naruto whispered to himself. It wasn't the first time he talked to himself but he took special care not to make it a habit. He was already disliked by the general civilian population, there was no need to give them genuine reason that there was something wrong with him. Still, the message he had been given and the implication that he now had so much power at his fingertips made him giddy and paranoid at the same time.

After the Kyoshi had died he had immediately begun studying the history of Konoha and the general world. Rules. Laws. The politics. He had started to reading everything he could get his hands on. It was a bit weird for the people who knew him but since it was his dream to become Hokage, it had become pretty much his excuse for all. Studying history? As Hokage I would need to know. Studying politics? A Hokage needs to know what he's doing. Studying laws from the past versus now? He had to know for later.

It had made him a better student overall and left an impression on how hard a Hokage's positon sometimes could be. That being said, the words of the message, still bothered him a little for reasons that he couldn't put his finger on.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you have been chosen to be the first Avatar of your world. Your world has been out of balance for generations and attempts to nudge it in the right direction have failed or have made things worse. Or both. Since you do not have access to masters who already have mastered their elements, you were 'rewarded' to observe the lives of four Avatars. To learn as they learn and hopefully so you could prevent making the same mistakes the Avatars made.

You will be capable of bending 'any' of the elements you have witnessed in your dreams. Only the primary four will come easy to you though and even then you still have to work hard to make it work. Additionally, after you wake up there will be a great number of people of various ages throughout the world who will find themselves capable of bending a single element. You are instructed to seek these people out. So you can learn from them and they can learn from you.

Finally, you have been blessed with a number of additional powerful abilities that you can wield as you wish, but beware because we'll be watching you. You are the Avatar, it is your duty to restore the balance. You will be capable of gifting people you think are worthy with a single elements that fits their personality. However, you will remain responsible for their actions so be cautious.

Even should you be killed, you'll be simply reborn in another child and it will be up to you if you wish to remember your previous experiences. Last but not least, every Avatar has had their own animal familiar. You already have an animal familiar of your own but it is bound tighter to you then anticipated. Meditate and you'll find your animal familiar eventually.

Good luck Avatar for you are going to need it.

After the message had been concluded, Naruto had woken up rather abruptly and that was only a few minutes ago. The message was clear though, he had a lot of work cut out for him and virtually no support whatsoever. Actually, who was he kidding? He was just a no name orphan child, he had NO resources to speak off.

"So what do I do now?" He asked himself again. "I can't exactly go to the Hokage… He'll think I'm nuts and even if he doesn't think I'm nuts then he'll most likely use those creepy blond mind readers who can take what they want from people's memories…" Naruto shuddered and promised himself again that, THAT clan would find themselves on a number of highly unlucky missions that would lead to their extinction.

"I'll just stay FAR away from that family no matter how cute their daughters are." Naruto promised himself again.

Naruto inhaled sharply and let it out very slowly. His dreams had taught him a lot. He remembered them clearly and part of him was glad that the emotional attachments to those memories had been lessened a great deal. Another part of him felt just a little sad that he no longer had the emotional attachment to any of the people he remembered.

One thing that Naruto had learned was that bending was dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing. While it was true he had four lifetimes worth of knowledge in his head that still didn't give him the experience. It was one thing to watch something but it would be a whole different manner to do it yourself.

Naruto stood up and retrieved his journal. It was written in a combination of all four languages. It was virtually impossible to translate it since the language was so much different compared to his own. He had made it a habit to write everything of note down in the journal so he could review it later.

Even though he had no experience in bending there were still a lot of habits that had crept in that were easy to copy. Naruto assumed a relaxed lotus position that was optimal for meditation and since it was a Saturday he had no worries about being late for the academy. He closed his eyes, relaxed and then was entirely still. Up until today, nobody had realized that Naruto had changed. Nobody knew of his dreams and nobody knew what he now could do or anything else. Today, that luck was about to run out.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had made it a law that every orphan that was going to the academy would have an AnBu operative check on them. Check on their apartment, the food they had and their general lifestyle. Unfortunately, it is one thing to make a law, but to actually make it happen in practice is a whole different matter. In practice, most orphan children were lucky if they got a checkup once every few months. Naruto was no different. When the AnBu operative stealthily took a peek into Naruto's apartment he was immediately alarmed in seeing the Jinchuriki sit far too still for his character. It was generally known that jinchuriki could get in touch with their prisoner through meditation. So seeing the Jinchuriki sit so still was immediate cause for concern. Because the academy didn't teach meditation until much later.

The AnBu operative was smart enough that he couldn't disturb the boy because that could cause the boy to lash out to him as a threat. The AnBu operative realized that he didn't have much options left to him. The boy was an orphan and the tenants in the apartment building were all civilians who didn't give a damn about a single orphan living in the same building. That left only people that the boy interact with regularly but there were very few of those as well. Actually, as the AnBu operative reviewed the file he had memorized, he realized that the only one that he could alert would be the boy's academy teacher. After he had alerted the teacher he moved on to report to the Hokage himself. The man did care for Naruto after all.

X

Naruto knew nothing of this of course. He was walking in what appeared to be a sewer. Naruto felt a bit confused as to how a sewer could lead him to his familiar but he nevertheless kept walking. He hoped that his familiar wasn't something as lame or boring like a rat or a fish because that would be really embarrassing.

Naruto could tell which way to go but the whole thing appeared to double as a maze as well. "Maybe some kind of mental defense?" Naruto thought idly. Then and there he decided to see if he could generate 'mental monsters' to patrol the maze and to attack anyone that dared to try and influence his mental facilities. The maze was poorly maintained and that was saying something about his mental state.

Still, Naruto continued to walk and it was at this point he realized that the 'water' he was standing in had a current and that it wasn't water at all. It was in fact not even a liquid at all!

Naruto followed the stream and noticed that the longer he followed the stream, the stronger the current got. Naruto noticed that several times, he could continue to follow the stream where a wall used to be. So 'normal' visitors would have to find a way around which would force them to double back and hopefully find another way to get deeper into the maze itself.

Finally, after what seemed to be a long time, Naruto reached what appeared to be the heart of the maze in the form of a cavern. Naruto could only walk halfway into the cavern though. Halfway through there was a huge gate of some kind that would prevent anything from passing through it. Naruto stepped closer and realized that the bars themselves as well as the 'lock' had Uzumaki seals on them. He didn't know how he recognized them as his own but somehow he knew that this was part of his legacy.

A frown crept on Naruto's face as he realized that he wasn't a child of a no name couple and actually had clan history in him.

Naruto cautiously approached the gate and immediately realized that the gate was far taller than he had first thought. It took him longer to get closer to it and as soon as he was close enough it wasn't hard to recognize that something was sleeping in the cage itself.

The form itself was large but it was clear that the cage was far too small to hold it comfortably. The form itself was curled up very tightly in such a way that it couldn't be too comfortable if you had to hold that position for a long amount of time.

"This is odd." Naruto said to himself.

"Ehm... Excuse me... Who are you? Are you okay?" Naruto asked cautiously. He had no idea what sort of spirit it was. He was unable to see it properly so that left him with getting its attention.

The spirit that had been sleeping woke up immediately and flinched horribly. The cage reacted immediately by shrinking several sizes but after a moment it very slowly returned to its original size. The spirit and he really needed to figure out what it was, made a noise of distress that cut off immediately. The spirit, very cautiously moved its body around, being careful not to touch the bars even for a moment.

"W-who are you? Why have you put me in this place? Why have you hurt me for so long? I was supposed to be the partner of a human but…" Naruto took a step back with every question as if he had been physically struck.

"I… I don't know. I didn't even know you existed before now." Naruto admitted. He paused for a moment, debating whether he should tell the spirit about his experiences. It had already unknowingly hinted that it was supposed to be his partner…

"I'm pretty sure that I was supposed to be your partner but I have no idea why you are locked up in this place." Naruto followed that up by a brief explanation about his dreams and all the relevant details.

"So you see, I have woken up from that dream just a few minutes ago from my point of view and after that mysterious message hinted that I could find my familiar this way, I figured that I had nothing to lose so I went ahead and tried it. The rest is as they say history. I appeared further into the mental maze and found myself here." Naruto concluded.

"You… You…" Naruto still hadn't been able to identify the spirit so far, but it was obvious that it was very angry and he couldn't blame it for feeling angry at all. The spirit's anger then seemed to disappear completely.

"I want to be angry, really I want to be. I want to rage, I want to shout, I want to curse you to the deepest of hells but… I can't. I was warned well ahead of time that it wouldn't be easy. That it would be hard when we would meet and that I would have very little support after I arrived here. But there is a reason why they asked me and it wasn't because I'm pretty either."

Naruto couldn't help but smile at that remark. Still, he hadn't been put at ease completely.

"I was asked because of my age and my experience. You are the first avatar of this world. Even though you have witnessed four avatars throughout their lives, you don't have any experience at all. Except what wisdom you picked up."

Naruto was nodding slowly, but first he wanted, no he needed to improve this place. It had to be more comfortable for the spirit at least. If they were going to be partners… Then then there had to be some trust at minimum! Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and imagined the cage increasing in size, big enough for the creature to stretch and even walk around in. It was just a guess but since those were Uzumaki seals, he was banking on the theory that since HE was an Uzumaki they would obey his instructions.

He opened his eyes and noticed that nothing had changed. "Okay then, how about this then?" Naruto thought to himself.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I command the cage to become bigger and more comfortable for its occupant." Naruto ordered in his most commanding voice.

VOICE COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED

VOICE COMMAND ACCEPTED

VOICE COMMAND IS BEING PROCESSED

The voice was… Well, it was inhuman. It was totally without emotion and very, very creepy, but the results were plain as day and immediate.

The cell, which was before barely big enough for the creature to lie in, was suddenly big enough for it to stand up, stretch out and to even walk around for a bit.

VOICE COMMAND COMPLETED

"I know that this is barely sufficient as an apology but I hope it's a good start." Naruto said sincerely.

The spirit stood up and approached the gates but it was still too dark to identify it properly. Naruto had a feeling he was going to regret identifying it.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I command the cage to be properly illuminated and for its prisoner to be allowed to control the strength of the light."

VOICE COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED

VOICE COMMAND ACCEPTED

Ever so slowly, the darkness of the cage gave way and Naruto barely stopped himself from taking a step back. He barely acknowledged the automated voice that the voiced command had been completed because inn that cage was standing one of the type of spirits that was the most respected, oldest, wisest and most compassionate spirits that he knew off. In that cage was a Kitsune. But not just any Kitsune, but a Kitsune with nine tails. It implied wisdom. Experience. Power. Kindness. It spoke of ruthlessness, anger and violence. A kyuubi no Kitsune spirit was a very good companion for the avatar for it too was a creature of balance.

"You asked who I was a bit earlier, Uzumaki Naruto and from your actions I can tell that you at least want to make an effort. They have earned you the right to know my name at the very least. My name is Kurama. But people in your world know me as the Kyuubi no Kitsune. I… I was supposed to be your familiar from the start. First, I was supposed to help you through any questions you had…"

"You mean you already knew everything I told you?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yes… Well, to a point." Kurama admitted. "Since I was supposed to guide you through any problems or questions you had, I already knew that you were going to dream about the lives of four famous Avatars. Actually, now that I think about it, even though you can only officially bend any elements after the dreams ended, I was supposed to guide you through the motions while you could do it safely."

"Wait, are you telling me that I could bend without even meaning to? That doesn't make any sense! Not from what I saw at least. It has to be possible to only bend when you or I intend to bend right?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"That much is true but you could say that there is a mental button involved. It is 'on' by default and you would need a lot of effort and practice so you could turn it off when it needs to be off."

"I see. Well, it is very nice to meet you, Kurama-san." Naruto answered.

"Do you happen to know what went wrong?"

Kurama just shrugged as much as a giant nine tailed fox was capable off. "I don't have a clue. I just remember going through the portal in the spirit world that was supposed to bring me here. It did but… I was the wrong size. I was huge. Big enough to crush entire city blocks with just a single step. Next thing I know, I'm under attack by humans that were clearly attempting to defend their homes." Kurama explained.

"Everything I tried in order to communicate backfired on me in some way. I tried to back away and I tripped, causing untold amounts of property damage. I tried to talk to them and I hickuped and accidentally expelled some sort of large ball of energy that exploded and caused even more property damage."

Unsaid that it wasn't 'just' property damage but that a lot of people died as well.

"Next thing I know, I'm being sucked into some kind of magical construct and end up in this place."

Naruto somehow knew that there was a half-truth in there somewhere but the important bits were true.

"I know that a simple apology isn't going to cut it. If I want to show you that I'm sincere and want to make amends…"

"Even though I had nothing to do with it… I think."

"Well, one's actions say more than one's words so…"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I give the following commands:

'The prisoner will be allowed to observe the outside world through my eyes at any time the spirit known as Kurama desires, effective immediately.'

'Additionally, the prisoner also known as Kurama the spirit will be allowed to tap into my senses at any given time at any given time he pleases. Effective immediately.

'The prisoner has the right and authority to change the inside of the cage in whatever way he pleases. Effective immediately.'

'The prisoner also known as Kurama, may review my memories at any given time, effective immediately.'

'There are to be no penalties for the prisoner without my say so, effective immediately.'

'The prisoner only needs to give verbal commands for his desire to be completed. Effective immediately.'

VOICE COMMANDS ACKNOWLEDGED

VOICE COMMANDS ACCEPTED

VOICE COMMANDS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED

Kurama stared at the human for several long moments. "You would do such a thing even if you have known me for such a short amount of time?" It asked curiously.

Naruto just shrugged. "We were supposed to be partners remember? Until you do something that tells me that I can't trust you… Well, I owe you a big apology for what you have gone through so far. The least I owe you is some entertainment. Besides, if I want there to be even the smallest amount of genuine trust between you and me, someone needs to make the first move without expecting anything in return. That someone has to be me, since clearly you are not in a position to do something to make me trust you. I, on the other hand can do plenty."

"You… You don't want anything in return?" Kurama asked skeptically.

"Does it count that I expect you to be polite? Or to just offer me advice? Or to just be a friend?" Naruto asked.

Kurama didn't have much of a chance to answer that question because Naruto was beginning to feel a tug that was dragging him backwards. Out of the cavern and away from the cage.

"You are waking up. Or rather, you are being woken up to be precise." Kurama said. Don't fight it and don't mention me or our conversation for now would you?"

"Fine!" Naruto answered before he yelped as something was forcefully dragging him backwards and didn't care much about his dignity.

Naruto opened his eyes to be confronted with his academy teacher, Iruka-sensei.

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto mumbled. "What are you doing here?" Naruto still felt rather groggy, but he remembered that it was a normal feeling if you had gone really deep into meditation.

"Academy students from a civilian family are being checked on regularly. Especially academy students who are also orphans. Your checkup happened a few hours ago and I was alerted. I came as quickly as my duties had ended." Iruka explained.

"That doesn't explain you waking me up. I thought it was something like a big taboo to disturb someone that's meditating?"

"It is." Iruka confirmed. "But that's mostly because of veteran shinobi. The ones that can react rather violently when they are disturbed."

"Oh." Naruto muttered.

"Naruto… Would you tell me about your experience?" Again, telling someone about your first experience was also deeply personal. It was usually shared with parents or family. But Naruto lacked both and Iruka was someone Naruto was close with.

"No." Naruto said simply.

Iruka stared at his student, it wasn't like Naruto not to share or bag. Give Naruto even the smallest of reasons to brag and he would take it up immediately. So, not doing so went against his character. That being said, it was Naruto's right to keep his experience to himself and since he had been studying all sorts of things, Iruka was sure that Naruto knew his rights.

"Alright. You know that you can always tell me if you change your mind."

"Right, so you can go and tell it to the Hokage right?" Naruto said sarcastically. Iruka froze in his tracks. This was odd. Naruto liked the Hokage. He had a close relationship with him. But he was right. Iruka would have reported everything Naruto shared with him. It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter.

"You could share it with him first, if you don't like to share it with me." Iruka offered.

"No!" Naruto said with a scowl. "Now, if you'll excuse me… I'm hungry and I have a number of chores I need to complete."

Iruka realized he didn't have a choice but to leave so he did. Something had changed and Iruka didn't know what it was or when it happened and he did not like it. Naruto looked outside the window as Iruka exited the building on the ground floor and how he then took the ninja express over the roofs and rapidly vanished into the distance. Naruto then did what he said he was going to do. He cleaned his apartment a little, started the basics for food but at the same time he was deep in thought.

X

The next morning, Naruto woke up and found himself utterly recharged and ready for the day. Then it hit him.

"Could it be Kurama's doing?" Naruto wondered. "After all, he definitely wasn't happy before I found him and I can't really blame him. But maybe he was somehow expressing his displeasure in some way and since I improved his situation the best way I could without expecting anything in return, maybe he stopped doing it? Could I risk meditating again to see if I'm right?"

Deciding that he had nothing to lose, Naruto assumed the lotus position again allowed himself to fall back into a state of meditation.

X

Naruto opened his eyes and smiled. He was back! Naruto followed the stream again and it didn't take long for him to find the cavern again. Naruto checked to see if everything was the way he left it and to his relief it was. It had just occurred to him that he hadn't specified how long the changes should remain. "Maybe I should order it to be on the safe side?"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and until further notice, the cell is to remain unchanged from its current condition." Naruto said calmly.

VOICE COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED

VOICE COMMAND ACCEPTED

VOICE COMMAND HAS BEEN COMPLETED

"I really need to figure out a way to change the creepy voice into something better." Naruto muttered.

"Kurama? Are you there?" Naruto said out loud. There was no response. Naruto frowned, did something happen?

"Kurama? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Naruto asked again.

"Increase the cell's lights slowly!" Naruto ordered.

Immediately, whatever controlled this place obeyed and the lights slowly increased in strength. Eventually, Naruto noticed that Kurama was curled up but he definitely didn't seem comfortable.

"What the fuck happened to him?" Naruto exclaimed.

PRISONER WAS PUNISHED FOR ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS UNAUTHORIZED SYSTEMS

Naruto blinked. "What? What systems could he possibly have tried to access?"

"Why was this voice describing things like a computer?" Naruto wondered.

PRISONER ATTEMPTED TO INFLUENCE EMOTIONS TO EMOTION / ANGER /

Naruto blinked. Okay, so maybe Kurama did try something he wasn't supposed to. Looking back on it, Naruto could hardly have expected Kurama to trust him just with a few boons.

"Undo whatever punishment you have applied and allow him to heal, if possible help him heal as quickly as possible." Naruto instructed. He wasn't sure if it would work but hey, he could try. The results were instant though.

Kurama woke up immediately and noticed Naruto standing outside his cage. "So you return." Kurama said simply. Naruto blinked. Okay. Something wasn't adding up. If the… voice? If the voice was correct, then Kurama tried something to make him angry. So why was he acting normal now? Oh! He doesn't know that I know that he tried to influence me. Naruto realized.

"I better be upfront with him." Naruto decided.

"Did you try to influence me somehow?" Naruto asked bluntly. Naruto noted that Kurama seemed to freeze like he was caught so that seemed to confirm that he did try something.

"I…" Kurama began. "I did." He admitted eventually.

"Why?"

"You probably won't believe me but it was an accident. You could say that it was indirectly your fault." Kurama answered.

"My fault?" Naruto repeated. "You better explain that bit because I don't see…" He trailed off and then he smacked himself.

"It was because you were connected with my emotions right? You weren't used to it and to be then connected to my senses and feeling my emotions must have been weird."

"You.. You believe me?" Kurama exclaimed.

Naruto was nodding slowly. "Yes, I think I do. But for the future… You do have the option to cut the connection as you please, so do that if you are being overwhelmed."

Naruto noticed that Kurama was staring at him like he couldn't believe his ears. "What? Did you think I would have cut you off again? Put everything back the way it was before?" Naruto snorted. "I wouldn't do that unless you do something really stupid or try to hurt me deliberately. Trust me, I wouldn't punish you like that for no good reason."

"Then you are a better human then most." Kurama murmured.

"I wouldn't know. I've been alone for as long as I can remember." Naruto replied with a shrug. "That reminds me. How… Did you end up in my mind?"

Kurama snorted. "I'm not in your mind. I'm in the seal that's located somewhere on your body."

"I see." Naruto muttered.

"The seal is yours to control. You are for the lack of a better word, its administrator, or the warden of it, since this is a cell to hold me. You could do anything you wanted with it and I would be unable to do anything to resist, just like it seems that there is no filter on my mouth and that I am unable to lie directly to you or to try and trick you in some way. And I didn't even know that myself. Huh." Kurama seemed annoyed and bothered that he couldn't even tell a lie if he wanted to.

Kurama shook his head and presented a subject that he thought Naruto needed to be aware off.

"Do you know that you aren't limited by the rules like the other avatars were?"

"Ehm.. What?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"I guess not." Kurama snickered. "Anyway, the other Avatars they were known. Respected. They had not only the support of the country they were born in but also the respect their very nature demanded from people."

"And I have none of that. Except for you." Naruto remarked.

"True. But that wasn't my point. You are not limited by any of those rules. You aren't know, you don't have the support of being taught by other masters since there aren't any yet. More importantly though, nobody knows the power that you have available to you."

"But the avatars I watched got their avatar state from Raava!" Naruto protested.

"I don't have that connection so that means I couldn't go into the avatar state even if I wanted to!"

"You are partially correct." Kurama corrected. "While it is true you do not have the connection to Raava, you do have a connection to another spirit."

"You are referring you yourself? Naruto realized.

"Precisely." Kurama agreed.

"Now, there are a number of differences between myself and Raava. I am not the spirit of peace and light obviously. Instead, you could say that I am not yet defined."

"….?" Naruto remained quiet.

"I am a Kitsune. More importantly, I am a Kitsune with nine tails. That makes me old compared to other spirits."

"I thought a single tail equaled about a century?"

Kurama shook his head. "No. It's actually impossible to say how much time I needed to gain an additional tail every time. Time works differently in the spirit world so I don't even try. Anyway, you were chosen to be the first avatar because you are mentioned in more than one prophecy to bring either unity through peace… Or unity through violence. As you make decisions, it will influence me and your future incarnations."

"Wait, you are already telling me that I will be reincarnating like Wan?"

"Yes." Kurama agreed.

"But I don't even know what my starting element would be. I have observed the Avatars a lot but that doesn't help much…"

"Air." Kurama said promptly.

"Air is my first element? Like Aang?" Naruto actually liked that. Aang was awesome. Well, he was also a bit of a wimp that couldn't end an enemy like the fire lord permanently, but his solution worked as well.

"So how am I supposed to start practicing? In a village like Konoha nothing stays a secret forever."

"You have the ability to change this place to however you want it to appear. That means you can change it to say, the air temples, or any of the other places where avatars were taught traditionally. You have to practice in the real world as well obviously, but you can practice here as well. Besides, you don't need to keep it a secret." Kurama said with a shrug.

"Just act like you didn't know it was impossible and that you just do it. Act like you have the feeling that it is only part of what you can do. That way you can add other bending styles without too much alarm."

"Like a new bloodline?" Naruto said to himself.

"Precisely." Kurama answered immediately.

"It might even improve your standing in your village if you prove to have an unique ability."

"That would make it worse." Naruto snorted. "They wouldn't see me, for me and would only see me for my ability. On the bright side… I would be able to eventually start my own clan… So how would I learn?"

"I would teach you." Kurama answered.

"How?"

Kurama told him.

Naruto's smile grew larger as Kurama explained the details and well…

"That could work!" Naruto said excitedly.

"Of course it could work!" Kurama said indignantly. "There is a reason why I was forc- err I mean why I was chosen to be your animal familiar after all! One of those reasons would be my age, experience wisdom and knowledge."

If Naruto had been paying attention he would have noticed that Kurama had nearly said something he hadn't wanted to say. But he hadn't been paying much attention so it would come to bite him in the butt… Eventually.

Now, one would wonder how Naruto went from 'oh my god there is a Kyuubi no Kitsune in my stomach's seal' to 'I'm trusting him with all sorts of ideas' there was a very good explanation for it.

Naruto and Kurama had been together since birth. The seal had kept Kurama pretty much isolated but it wasn't a perfect seal. So for years and years, a tiny bit of Kurama's power had been leaking into Naruto's body. It wasn't enough to really change him over time, not even if it would've continued for decades more, but it did bring Naruto and Kurama closer together.

So it wasn't that Naruto went 'just' like that from one opinion to another it was just that he simply knew that he could trust Kurama and why he made the first move to get that trust back in kind. It was also why Naruto had no hesitation in changing the entire appearance of the cavern into a near perfect illusion of the air temple he had observed in his dreams. The air temple was deserted and some parts were rather 'out of focus' since Naruto's impression of the temple wasn't perfect.

The door that sealed the cage disappeared and changed into a steel collar of sorts that rebound themselves to Kurama's paws, tails, neck and around his stomach.

Both Naruto and Kurama paused for a moment as they realized that even though the cage door was gone and so were the bars… It was still very obvious that Kurama was a prisoner that could be called to heel at any time. Literally.

Naruto wasn't really comfortable with it being so obvious though, or for it being there at all. But he also wasn't certain if he could or even should do something about it. He opened his mouth only for Kurama to interrupt him.

"Don't." Kurama said. "Don't change anything about my… Chains just yet. It's like you said before. There needs to be trust between the two of us. What you did so far is more than enough to show that you want to be trusted and it is now my turn to do the same." He paused.

"I think that most of this," He waved halfheartedly at the chains. "Is mostly a representation about our relation or at least in part. I think that as we get to know each other, that some of it or perhaps even all of it will disappear on its own. Now… Let's get to work!

"But you still haven't explained what you meant that I'm not limited to the rules like the other Avatars!" Naruto protested.

"Oops." Kurama muttered.

"You're right. My point was actually very simple. The fact that nobody knows about you is both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. The Avatars you knew were bound to laws and other rules even if they were unofficial at times. You can do whatever it takes. You will still be reincarnated but you can choose to remember after a while so you can continue your efforts should you be killed before you can make sufficient progress."

"Wow. So I'm technically immortal?" Naruto asked with a frown of distaste.

"Only by a technicality. You could chose to forget. To 'die' when it happens and to let your successor deal with your mistakes."

"Hey now!" Naruto protested.

"You will make mistakes. It's a fact of life." Kurama repeated.

"Oh fine. Let's just get to practice already."

X
End

Original word count with notes: 5735

New total word count with notes: 6530

Kingdark: If you have read this chapter before recently, you'll have noticed a lot of changes. Hopefully it was enough to make it worth reading again.

Kingdark