The Last In Succession in the Lands of Fire

'How many faces, dead in the dust to such a menace?' thought the fourth leader of his kind.

A flash of light, a breath of fire, and another tail beat him back towards his men. The face of the demon held irrefutable and, for the purpose of his kind, unjustifiable anger. His eyes were a foul red, while his pupils spun in anger…

'wait, spun?' thought the fourth, and he took a closer look.

The eyes of the beast were never red, and he's never seen them red in his life, nor in the lives of the leaders before him, which could be seen through the crystal ball, the Eye of the Kage, but that's a secret in which not many knew.

The eyes of the demon did not glow red because of anger, power, or malice. It was an illusion to hide the sharingan. The eyes of those who seemed so distressed about the land have now been seen on the demon.

'Are we betrayed, Gamabunta?'

'Perhaps, but no longer is the beast to blame for the faces of the dead, the living now alone.'

'So he should not die, but whom?'

'That is no longer up for us to decide. No matter what we do, from here on in, the beast must die. Such power cannot be detained from its course.'

'But this is no justice, Gamabunta. There cannot be peace like this.'

'Peace? Warlord, there will never be peace until the age of your kind has ended, and your debts repaid to the lives alone, a debt that can only be paid in blood.'

'Then can I not see the light? Is this what is left of my retribution?'

'No choice you have made can be unmade by what you do now.'

'Then let this be my final my final choice: to have faith in the next generation and what will come to pass…and maybe one day there will be piece.'

'No…you don't mean… Stop! You FOOL!'

And history records this as the day the beast has died...but this is not the end of this tale…

Death came for more than those in combat this day, but the soul of a child was waning. The power of the leader could not do what he believed must have been done. In an act of desperation, not one, but two prices were paid to the lord of death. One was for the demise of the demon, and one was for the life of the boy to be spared, for the demon's soul could not be left to overtake the soul of the child. The body would dissipate, and the effort for justice lost. The lord of death demanded two prices, one known and one…less known.

'To save his life is to damn his life. How important do you think your choice, boy?'

'Considering that The Yellow Flash was the end of so many, you might be willing to help me. Do not damn him, I beg you.'

'Ha! The Yellow Flash resorts to begging. I pity you. I will not damn his life, boy, but I will not give up his soul either. He is not worthy to live the role you have played out for him. He is too weak. Instead, for the sake of your "goals" I will provide a worthy soul. A soul that has fallen, but has still to prove itself for what it is. Does that sound fair?'

As life slipped away from the final leader of our time, so did the decision.

'Good…. I expected you to choose in this way.'

The Most Worthy of Unworthy Souls

The depths of the shimigamis' realm are filled with spirits, and those spirits form smaller sub-realms based on the communities of people you knew. At least they would if you were that well known, or knew people that well. If not, you were simply a ghost of you're living self, traveling from realm to realm of those with their own communities. These were the "unworthy". These were the people who were miserable with their previous lives, waiting for death to give them a better life. Among the shapeless abyss lies one, who has become the most worthy of these ones, the retainer of Death.

It was here that I was awakened, and given the choice…

"Suffer new life or suffer my wrath!"

Quite an easy decision, considering how sad it was to live the way I was living.

"I wish to live, my lord…" I hated say 'my lord' but an unworthy one, who had no realm, no sanctuary from anything, I had no choice. The dead cannot die twice; this is true, but this is a curse. Many things in this realm would love to endlessly feast on the suffering of the unworthy, not the least of which were the insane souls who were fed upon. It was evil fate for the dead, but this was no realm like the living realm. No religion could have predicted this, neither ancient mythology nor modern Christianity nor even the eastern philosophies. It was so utterly painful, being alone there. It was a curse to die alone.

A tome fell into my arms, a heavy burden, but not necessarily large. No book was really "large" as much as dense.

"This is your guide, your sample of the new world, which was unlike your own. Do not die until your task is complete, lest you face heavier wrath then that life could give you. Do not hesitate when the path for you takes you to do things you do not wish to do. You will have a guide to lead you away from the wrong path.

"What is my task?"

"DO NOT BE SO INSOLENT, FOOL!" He swiped at me, and I felt weaker, sadder. "YOU WILL BE GUIDED! NOW GO!" And my soul was spirited away.

Faster and faster, my soul moved. Nothing could catch me and for a second I felt…happy? It has been a long since I felt like that. I felt the air and the wooden floor and the heat from the candles circling me and even the pain on my noticeably small belly, and I cried tears of joy like I've never cried before. I lived again. I was free, again, and then I was picked up, by the third leader. He was old, anxious, depressed, and remorseful about the man who supposedly, my father. I could almost read his thoughts from his expressions like I did back in the day. 'What am I supposed to do with this?' 'I can't take care of him in my age.' 'There are so many other things to do other than take the son of the fourth and the bearer of the monster... why? Why did the fourth do this to us instead of letting it die with him? The coward!'

I felt pain, but the pain was not my own. It came from somewhere else…

'Hello?'

'LEAVE ME!' A roar of energy went into me, and I felt what she felt, heard what she heard, and I felt compassion.

'I cannot…not when you're like this.' What was I doing? I don't even know who this is? It could be the same soul eaters that took pieces of me and forced me to flee towards Death.

'And was Death the kinder host?' She heard me.

'Of course I heard you. What do you take me for?'

'I don't know. I cannot see you,' I said, and immediately the vision of the third dimmed and relit to encompass a flooded room, like a cave and a sewer combined, with piping and a solid ground and walls, but no flowing water. An enormous cage stood in the middle of the dimly lit room, and on the cage held a paper seal. It might as well have been an adamant lock from how powerful it felt. It literally bent the view of the area around it, distorting the separation between the two gates.

'Come here, soul, and tell me your name,' said the same voice from the cage.

'I approached the cage and met a vicious, giant fox that stood inside, a prisoner. My answer came instinctively.

'I am Naruto Uzumak-'

'HAR, HAR, HAR, HAR, HAR' a more demonic voice laughed. 'Do you expect me to believe that you are the soul of this child?'

'I...I…I don't know,' I stood stunned in terror. She was the fox, and she stood so close to swiping me in and eating me, were the seal not there.

'Hmph. So my power scares you, too.' The demonic voice sounded disappointed, and there was even a hint of depression. 'Am I so inhumane that you must lie to me, trick me into leaving you be and sinking away here to rot!'

'Wait! No, it's not like that. I never knew-'

'Prove it! Let me taste your soul, see into you and know what I do not already know about you.' She spoke of an ultimate act of trust. Souls that are eaten lose their identity and go insane, or become mere servants of the one who devoured them. This I have felt once before, and paid the price. How would the fox know of such an act, unless she has devoured before- "Do not hesitate when the path for you takes you to do things you do not wish to do."…I walked towards the cage, very closely to the fox and seal.

I removed the seal…

And was nearly dropped to the floor by the third. His eyes went wide as he called for his trusted advisors, who just as old and decrepit as he was, and they were shocked…

I felt a tongue, then a bit more than a tongue… teeth? But they only nipped at my skin, drawing no blood in a sensual, almost erotic sequence.

My senses were split between the baby's desperate fear of being dropped by the third, whether purposefully or accidentally, and my soul's nerves, which reacted both in fear and pleasure to the feminine spirit of the kitsune which had its maw around it.

The advisors of the Third grew more and more hostile. They were afraid of the fox more than I was. They swat at the Third's arm, but he fled, shrouding their vision with smoke and mirrors. We began moving through the forests.

The kitsune drew closer to my soul, removing its maw from me and changing as it tasted more and more and more. And soon it became humanoid, surrounded by its nine tails. She smiled and strode towards me. I blushed as much as my soul could as she drew me towards herself. Apparently I was allowed to taste too.

The sound of leaves was a calming sound compared to the shouting before. The night skies were cool, although not so cold in the blanket in which I was wrapped. The moon lit the way, and the third ran with resolve.

For the fires that surround her, she tasted quite cool, or was that the night? Beautiful sweet pleasure fills me as I taste her and see something so human, but not human at all, something special. She was like I, unproven and exiled, betrayed and misled in her long gone naivety. Used and abused time and time again, she lost faith. She abandoned the world in despair. Her last contact with the likes of them proved to her that they had not changed, but she has faith in me, for I am not them. Her fires bloomed into shades of blue from the natural red they had before, and suddenly I believed she was beautiful, perfect in her imperfection. But the love I felt for this wasn't love, but the effect of the taste. I could draw her into me, if I wanted to do so. Instead of tasting, I could devour, and make her mine forever, but I refrained. I stepped back and looked at her human form, and she looked at me.

'It's been a while since I felt this way.'

'Me, too, ' I said. Was this the guide in which Death spoke? There was nothing to hurt me otherwise, so it must be so.

'From now on, I shall call you "Soul" for you are not this child. I saw him die, but you are different from him, although no less sad or pathetic.' I shrugged at her, now that she no longer scared me, and then paused.

'And what shall I call you?' I asked. She paused for a moment and then turned back to me.

'Kurama,' she said, as she walked back into the cage and closed it. She gestured for me to reapply the seal, so I did, and reawakened to the third's relief.

He had since provided me to a home, which would be paid for my upbringing, as well as for keeping my existence a secret. He gave very little details, even holding back the fact that I hosted a demon. From their faces, I imagined that the secret would hold for less than a week, although that didn't matter too much. They seemed kind but probably would kill me once they learned of who I was.

But I was alright with this because I had gained new life, a new beginning.