A/N: Is it writer's block if you think you know what you want to write, but are too lazy to actually write it?


"Kurama." Naruto is sitting at the table with his arms on the table and a serious look on his face, his eyes attempting to bore into Kurama. Kurama really can't take him seriously, however, seeing as Naruto's legs are still dangling off the seat, too short to touch the ground, and all in all, Naruto just looks like a child playing grown up. Kurama stifles a laugh, giving Naruto the respect he wants.

"Brat," Kurama responds, and tilts his head in acknowledgment. His lips twitch when Naruto furrows his brows and pouts, but with the control he has gained over millennia of years, he steels his face to become an emotionless mask.

"Kurama," Naruto tries again, eyes attempting to focus on the red head sitting before him. He has wanted to ask Kurama this question ever since Shikamaru questioned Kurama's existence (of course he exists, you idiot, have you seen my bentos? Who else would make them, huh?), and today, Naruto firmly tells himself. Today is the day where all will be revealed. Where all will be uncovered. Where Kurama's secrets will be bared to the world.

Naruto's thoughts sound dramatic, but they're only there to cover up the nervousness and the feeling of his heart pounding a rhythm against his chest.

"AreyouaLeafninja?" Naruto gets it all out in one gush, and by the way Kurama inclines an eyebrow at him, he is rather amused. Naruto huffs, but repeats himself, clearer and more slowly this time, the way he would speak to a child, but he'd die before admitting that to Kurama. On another hand, if he admitted that to Kurama, he'd probably die as well. "Are you a Leaf ninja?"

And Kurama smirks at him, eyes lighting up with that same glint Naruto has seen in his own eyes countless times before when he is planning a prank – when he sees it in his eyes, Naruto thinks that he looks cool and playful, but when it's in Kurama's eyes, Naruto gets a bit scared. Because Kurama's humor and idea of a prank is very different from Naruto's. They are worlds apart, even. If Naruto thought painting the Hokage monument was funny, Kurama would think that blowing it up was even funnier. "No, I'm not."

Naruto is both shocked and unsurprised, because Kurama doesn't seem like a Leaf ninja, and he just appeared in Naruto's house without a care for the world. Naruto isn't complaining, Kurama is the best thing that has ever happened to him, but Kurama knows the village like the back of his hand, knows every single shortcut and all the shopkeepers that treat Naruto badly. If Kurama isn't a Leaf ninja, then what is he? And how does he know so much? Kurama knows Chouji, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kiba, Sakura, almost everyone in his Academy class without needing Naruto to tell him. "Then how did you enter Konoha? Isn't there supposed to be guards or anything to block strangers from entering?"

Kurama's smirk grows wider, and Naruto blinks, because wow Kurama is actually really amused. "I'm a demon, what else?"

"Demon!" Naruto tries to shove down his excitement and act more wary, but his awe overshadows his fear. "What kind of demon?"

"A fox." Kurama grins at this, foxy and playful, and Naruto can't help but grin as well. "The best kind ever."

"Like the one that attacked Konoha?" Naruto frowns slightly, because it brings back bad memories, fleeting memories of a man with hair the exact same shade as his with no whiskers in a blue outfit carrying him, eyes filled with love, and a woman with hair the color of the setting sun with dark circles under her eyes hugging him and whispering my baby I'm so sorry.

"Better." Kurama ruffles Naruto's hair, laughing at the sudden petulant look on his face. "Come on, it's almost your bedtime."

Naruto smiles in response and grabs Kurama's hand, feet pattering on the cold tiles as he follows Kurama to his room. "So you know lots of cool jutsus and fighting techniques!"

"Yeah," the red head nods absently, helping the boy into his nightclothes. "Lots of them."

He misses the small glint in the blonde's eyes as he places the nightcap over the boy's head. "So you'll teach me, yeah?"

Kurama catches that question, and raises an eyebrow at the smirking boy beneath him. "When you're older."

"How long 'til older?" Naruto whines, even as he crawls into bed.

"Ten years?" And a soft nostalgic smile creeps up on Kurama's face that softens his facial features and makes him look less snarly and all fight me bastard but more of kind and wistful and well then.

Naruto pouts, clinging onto Kurama even as the latter attempts to leave. "That's a long time."

"When you live to be as old as me, ten years pass by in a flash." Kurama flashes him a grin, slowly removing the grip that the boy has on him. "I'm a super old demon, remember?"

Naruto nods, of course he remembers, Kurama just mentioned it, what, ten minutes ago? Naruto may have short-term memory, but not that short term. "Old man."

"Hey now brat," Kurama chuckles. "Better not insult the person cooking every meal for you."

"Bleh." Naruto sticks his tongue out at the man, and cuddles further into him.

That is how their night goes, every night, in the same way, both collapsing in laughter and jokes and teases and prods at each other's ego. Naruto falls asleep to a twilight sky (not black, more of light purple mixed with blue hues and tinges of green swirling in the middle with pretty and sparkling stars dusting the surface) and smiles and laughter, and he loves the way he can always wake up to the knowledge that Kurama is his.

It takes a bit of coaxing before Kurama reluctantly begins to join Naruto in bed, but Naruto is grateful for a warm body to clutch and snuggle into when the nightmares of blood and darkness hit.


Again, Naruto thinks. Again, again, again, because if he doesn't get this simple exercise down right, Kurama will never teach him anything. It's so simple, just sticking a leaf to his head, but it's something the Academy never taught him, and even chakra control is just something they briefly covered, so Naruto really has no idea what to do to get the leaf to stick to his head. He considers the idea of asking Kurama for help, but then the image of Kurama's knowing smirk and short laugh makes Naruto stop short.

He tries to restrain the amount of chakra going to the leaf, but every single time, the leaf either falls off, or goes up in flames (three-quarters of the time), or explodes in his face. The latter two aren't very desirable, but they are the most frequent, and Naruto doesn't know how to find a proper balance.

Naruto, after a week of futile training and Kurama's tiny laughs, decides to sink and ask Iruka-sensei for help.

"The leaf exercise?" Iruka is suitably surprised, because Naruto has never willingly approached him for help, much less for chakra control. "It's a chakra control exercise, who told you about it?" Iruka doesn't bear much hatred towards Naruto, the boy, but his anger towards the fox demon inside is blinding, and sometimes that rage affects the way he treats the blonde boy. Iruka still attempts to be neutral when interacting with the boy, but when it comes to the other teachers, they let themselves see the boy as the demon inside, and sabotage his attempts to study. Mizuki is a fine example, no matter how much Iruka wants to deny it, because Mizuki with all his sneers and jeers towards the "demon boy", is Iruka's friend.

Naruto mutters a quick "someone", and bounces on his toes, looking away from Iruka and trying not to keep eye contact. "So?"

And Iruka sees, not a demon child, one who wrecked Konoha and ripped Iruka's parents away from him, sending the village up in flames, but a blonde haired boy with brilliant blue eyes that reflect the world with all its naïveté and innocence, and a smile that rivals the sun, someone who wants to learn. As a teacher, Iruka decides that yes, this is what his role is.

He spends the next week teaching Naruto about chakra control, and at the end of that week, Naruto can keep the leaf sticking to his forehead for half an hour. Iruka finds it plenty funny, how Naruto bounds around and yells "Hah! Hah! Told ya I could do it!" but some part of him wonders who Naruto is referring to.

He sits Naruto down, and with a stern look on his face, questions Naruto about who he's talking about. When Naruto freezes up at this and refuses to answer, Iruka knows something is wrong.

"Naruto," Iruka tries to pull the concerned teacher card. "Naruto, is the person dangerous? Does he pose a danger to you? As your teacher, I am worried for your safety."

Naruto scrunches up his nose at this, cocking his head and thinking hard. "Well, when he doesn't give me food as punishment when I don't listen to him, he's dangerous?" Naruto phrases it more as a question than a statement, but only the front part of the statement registers in Iruka's mind.

"He starves you?"

"If I don't listen to him, then he doesn't give me food for two hours, yeah. But then he gives me a bigger serving later on so… Starving? I don't know, sensei." Iruka heaves at this, because thank god, Naruto is thin enough as he is, and starving would do him no good at all. But this he sounds relatively nice, okay, considerably manageable, perhaps not that bad, and Iruka thinks that he might, might just be good for the boy.

"So it's a he?"

"Kurama isn't a it, Sensei!" And Naruto doesn't notice that he's revealed the name of his guardian, and Iruka puts that on his list of Things to Re-teach Naruto. Shinobi always have to know what they're saying, and revealing secrets or names in the heat of the moment can be the whole village's downfall.

"So his name is Kurama?"

"Sensei!" Naruto is looking at Iruka like he's omnipresent. "How did you know?"

Iruka gives up on the boy. "Nothing. So is he nice?"

"Yeah! He's the best ever, believe it!" Naruto is suddenly rambling about the man, about the food he cooks and how he teaches Naruto some things, like the leaf exercise, and the way he talks, the way he tucks Naruto in bed every night, and Iruka realizes that throughout this whole description, Naruto hasn't mentioned the man's facial features or distinguishing features to Iruka.

"What does he look like?"

Naruto wrinkles his nose, and his brows furrow. "Like I'd tell you, Sensei. I'm dumb and oblivious and tactless, but not that dumb. You'd tell the old jiji or something."

"Does he pose a danger to Konoha?"

"Well," Naruto ponders this for a while. "He's not from Konoha."

Iruka stiffens at this, because not from Konoha means he could be an enemy nin. And Naruto might be living with an enemy nin.

"I want to meet him."

"No way Sensei!" Naruto blows up, eyes wide and accusing. "You're gonna scare him away from me! He's mine."

And then Naruto leaves, bustling out of the door unlike other ninjas, who just disappear from the window or in a swirl of leaves. Iruka, given his speed and level, might have been able to catch Naruto before he left, but Iruka is still frozen in his seat.

Maybe, maybe, Iruka needs to take a step back, and see how this Kurama raises Naruto.


"Brat," Kurama says, voice low and exasperated. "What did I tell you about throwing shuriken?"

"Not to do it on the wall," Naruto murmurs low and under his breath, shifting on the spot.

"And what did you do?"

"Throw shuriken on the wall." Naruto's voice goes even softer here, and he's wringing his shirt in his hands, fidgeting and looking away from the red haired man in front of him.

"Not only that," Kurama says as he turns to look at the target practice on the wall. "What were you even trying to do with the shuriken?"

Naruto bounces back, eyes wide and shining as he babbles. "Names! Shuriken names! Iruka-sensei did it today to show off, and I wanna show him I can do it too! It'd be nice to show off to Kiba too, that ass."

"Language."

"Sorry," Naruto says automatically, not feeling very sorry at all. "So, how is it?"

Kurama squints at the failed formation of shuriken on the wall, thrown haphazardly, a few having already fallen on the ground. "Whose name?"

"Mine! Duh," Naruto grins, crossing his arms. "I'll try yours later."

"Brat," Kurama sighs. "I can't even read it straight."

"Kuramaaaaaa," Naruto whines, upset and irritated. "Let's see you try then."

Kurama takes out his own set of sharpened shuriken (Naruto was amazing, really, okay maybe more of tolerable, but the boy just didn't want to sharpen his shuriken on his own, so his shuriken were all blunt and weak) and hurls them at the wall, hitting out a perfect stretch of "NARUTO" on the wall, with a "KURAMA" next to it. They are simple and readable, and Kurama turns to smirk at Naruto, who's gaping and floundering around and looking very much like a dying fish. "See brat, it's easy. Go sharpen you shuriken and meet me outside. We'll go practice on trees, leave the walls alone."

Naruto whoops and yells, gathering up his shuriken and sharpening tools, running outside to the forest. Kurama makes a Kage Bunshin, sending him off to help Naruto, while he stays in the house and makes the walls shuriken-free again. He stands in front of the wall, contemplating, and, curling his hand into a fist, punches through the wall.

The plaster breaks and crumbles into nothing, and the apartment next to Naruto's own is now joined with his. Kurama takes a step in, and looks around the dusty apartment.

Kurama (the demon of all demons, the god of demons had to stoop down so low) started taking up odd jobs to earn money, along with Naruto's monthly allowance. He told the landlady one sob story about running away from his abusive family and wanting to buy all the apartments on Naruto's floor, and the sobbing landlady tearfully granted him his wish. Kurama obtained all the apartments on Naruto's floor at a discount, and the extra money was put into savings, something Naruto probably didn't even understand. The money is used to buy proper food, not that packet ramen that the idiot boy likes so much, because even though it's a good source of energy, it has practically no nutrients and no proteins and for a growing child, it's not very good or healthy.

Tearing down more walls, Kurama steps into each apartment and tilts his head. Each apartment is dusty and dirty, but even they look better than Naruto's apartment had. This blatant discrimination against his kit makes Kurama feel a boiling rage rolling underneath his skin like waves, and he hasn't felt this way since he had been controlled.

It's strange, how the twenty six year old man changed him so much, and now, his nine-year-old version is doing the same thing.

He creates a few more Kage Bunshins, and between them, they renovate the new house, fully. The small, cramped house is now wider than wide, and Kurama even has a room for Naruto to go crazy in, i.e. a training room that has been reinforced with seals and has a hardened wall for Naruto to throw as many shurikens as he wants at. Kurama is rarely satisfied, but with this, this, something warm bubbles up in him.

"Kurama!" Naruto shrieks and yells when he sees the new house, eyes blinking and disbelieving as he traverses the wonder of the new huge apartment. It's big and wide and Naruto even thinks it bigger than the Academy (it obviously isn't, but Naruto's biased, and his sense of size is screwed up anyways) and absolutely loves it. "All for me?"

Kurama hits him up the head. "For us, you dumb shit. What, I don't exist?"

Naruto just laughs and beams as he yells out "Of course!" but both of them know that he is lying, that Kurama doesn't just exist in his world, he is the very center, the one constant which Naruto's axis spins around, the one which Naruto's world revolves around. With Kurama, it's like every thing falls into place.

"Come on Kurama, let's go explore!" And Naruto drags the red haired man around the new house, brimming with happiness and excitement.

When he thinks Kurama isn't looking, Naruto gives him a quick tight hug, arms around him one moment and gone the next, looking away. Because Kurama, Kurama just waltzed into Naruto's life and blended in seamlessly, and he's done so much for Naruto, so much for the stranger boy with yellow hair and blue eyes that Kurama might not know at all. Naruto isn't complaining, but sometimes he's glad, just so inexplicably glad that Kurama is all his, and he feels a little bit mean for being happy that Kurama isn't anyone else's, because Kurama is like an angel, and angels should be shared with everybody since they're angels.

But Kurama keeps insisting that he's a demon, and Naruto just laughs and plays along. Because really, what kind of demon would be like Kurama? Fiery red and snarky and sarcastic and kind and caring and loving and good and cooking and teaching and at conversing with Naruto in Naruto-ese, without any problem at all, being able to say things without saying anything at all, and all the unspoken words hang in between them like all the stars in the universe, brilliant and sparkling and in millions.

"Kurama!" Naruto suddenly stops, and U-turns back to the training room, whipping his sharpened shuriken out, ready to use. "Watch!" He throws them at the wall, and they make a haphazard and slightly messy "KURAMA AND NARUTO".

Kurama stops in the spot, seeing the words, and is hit by a memory of a tall, full-grown blonde and cerulean-eyed man hurling shuriken into the wall of his house, words spelling out "NARUTO AND KURAMA". Smiles and whispers of words that swirl around him, of a boy all grown up and with the cloak of Hokage whispering over his back.

"-rama? Kurama? Kurama?"

Kurama shakes himself out of his stupor. "Leave it there," he tells the brat, and scoops the struggling and resisting nine year old out of the room. "I'll get you some more shuriken. Leave those. And go wash up, you stink."

"Sir!" Naruto gives him a foxy grin, one that reminds Kurama of his own, and dashes off to shower. Kurama turns back to the wall, staring at the words embedded there.

A picture of a broken house, walls crumbled and broken into nothing but piles and piles of rubble, shuriken dead and blunt and on the floor and in the rubble, that when put together, form a half-missing piece of wall that says "KURAMA AND", floats to his mind.

It hurts, it aches, and it burns.

"Kurama!"

And the memory is shattered.


"Sasuke-teme was even more of a teme today," Naruto sulks as he rides on Kurama's shoulders, pulling at the long red hair. "He called me names."

"What names?" Kurama asks, tugging on Naruto's hands to remove them from his hair.

"I don't know them, but they sounded rude." Naruto pouts and sinks further into Kurama, slouching over his head. "Is today a bad day for him or something?"

September the twelfth, Kurama thinks. That day. "Yes, it's a bad day for him."

(Red tracks dancing on the pathways, broken paper walls and spinning red eyes, balancing on poles with fingers moving into formations for jutsus and a boy, blue and black with fans all over the compound screaming into the night.)

"Aw," Naruto pulls on Kurama's hair. "Should we go cheer him up?"

"I'm not doing anything of the sort, brat."

"But if he's having a bad day, there should be someone to cheer him up. Like how you cheer me up when I'm having a bad day!"

Kurama snorts, and sets the boy down when they reach the forest. "Since when do you have bad days, Mr-Sunshine?"

"Everyday," Naruto whispers, soft and quiet and Kurama almost misses it, but he feels the way Naruto's grip tightens marginally. "Everyday used to be a bad day. But!" And at that word, Naruto jumps up and smiles, and Kurama wonders how is it that this boy, this miraculous creature that can't possibly be human (because who smiles that much?), can hold a breathtaking smile on his face and look at the brighter side of things, no matter how much life throws shuriken and kunai and ropes and poison and whatever not at the kid. It's amazing, and Kurama is suitably impressed. "After you came, every thing became A-Okay! So, we need to go cheer Sasuke-teme up too!"

And no matter how much Kurama wants to argue with that logic, he can't deny that it's relatively sound for a nine-year-old, and reluctantly lets Naruto drag him over to the Uchiha compound, a minor henge over the two of them so that no one stops and glares at the pair.

Naruto barges in with guns blazing, eager and delighted with a "SASUKE-TEME!" that makes Kurama's ears hurt, and he mentally scribbles down on a list to make sure Naruto knows more tact to not go screaming into a person's house when said person is having a bad day. It's proper etiquette, really, and it should already be programmed into one's body, it shouldn't have to be taught. But Naruto defies all laws of the world and the universe and physics, so Kurama doesn't bother thinking on it.

Sasuke is silent and brooding in his room, and the glare that he sends Naruto when the loud boy jumps in can probably level a city and kill thousands, but Naruto just brushes it off like he deals with it everyday – and he probably does – and pulls Kurama in. Sasuke's eyes widen and an eyebrow curves up at that, because he's never seen anyone willingly get close to Naruto, and because that red haired stranger is someone that Sasuke can swear that he's never seen in his life.

Kurama takes one look at the sulky child and sends Naruto out to get tea or something, before settling down next to Sasuke. If he could do it his way, Kurama would kill Sasuke on the spot, because that boy, that boy sitting thirty centimeters away from is the existence that has brought so much pain to his kit. Tears and screams and whines and sobs all for the one boy sitting next to him that really, in Kurama's opinion, deserves nothing. But Naruto seems to be able to see some hidden value in the boy, getting up and chasing after him even though all Sasuke has done is hurt, terrorize, and hurt even more, and one of the promises that Kurama made to the Naruto of his time was to help the people that Naruto couldn't, back then. And sadly, that classification includes Sasuke.

"Who are you?" Sasuke starts, mumbling as he stares at a blank spot on the wall. "I've never seen you around."

"I'm a demon, what else?" Kurama flashes a grin at this, remembering the time when he broke the "news" to Naruto and the kid's reaction. Sasuke's eyes widen even further and he tries to subtly scoot a little further away, but Kurama notices and smirks. "Scared?"

"N-no."

"Bet you are."

The silence that falls between them is slightly more calm and comforting now, less awkward than before, and for a small moment, Sasuke makes believe that Kurama understands what he's going through.

"So, bad day?" And the fantasy is gone, because Kurama probably has even less tact than Naruto.

Sasuke hisses and shifts his body such that his back is facing Kurama, and glares harder at the wall.

"Come here you idiot." The words ring once, twice, in his mind, and they register for only a second before Sasuke is enveloped in red red red warmth and kind and comfort and big brother? It's warm and comforting and home, but there's no Tachi-nii in the hug. But Sasuke, muscles tired from the seiza position that he's been maintaining for the past two hours, just lets his body sag into the hug, and his arms tentatively come up around the red haired man.

Warning bells are going off in his mind, and Sasuke knows, understands, acknowledges that this fabled Kurama whom Naruto always speaks of in the Academy is a stranger, someone who might pose a huge danger to him, had the ability to kill him now and walk away, but the tired childish voice that used to stay in the back of his mind has taken reign now, and all he wants to do is sleep. He's still nine years old, after all.

There is a hand petting his head, a form of affection that he has never obtained, not from his silent father, busy mother, and stoic brother. Uchihas don't usually show affection, and Sasuke can lose a few fingers and still be able to count the number of times that his family has displayed any form of affection towards him on a hand. At least, the times that he remembers, of course.

Naruto almost walks into Sasuke when he comes back with tea, but Kurama motions for him to set the tea down, and Naruto instinctively curls up next to Kurama as well, falling asleep in a matter of seconds. Carefully, Kurama takes a sip of tea before moving his body such that his back touches the floor, and the two children are asleep on either sides of him.

He stares at the ceiling, and wonders when the nine-tailed fox became the sort of guardian for two orphans.