Cus blinked as she found herself in the tunnels of a flooded, dimly-lit, boiler room-like sewer system.
This was what represented Naruto's mindscape?!
Cus looked around, marveling at what comprised the young man's mind. It was a bit amazing. And more than a bit concerning. Normally, most people would have a mental construct of their home, or of a place where they felt safe, but this was the exact opposite. It didn't exactly scream mental stability.
Cus looked down at the water that surrounded her ankles in a bit of annoyance even with knowing it wasn't real. Not wanting to tread water, the angel levitated herself out of it and shook her legs to dry them off.
Now...where was the source of that red berserker energy? She had told Naruto she was going to train him, but every time he used that red energy during his training, she'd consider the lesson a failure since she was out to help him get strong enough to where her new pupil wouldn't need the red stuff. But just in case, she was going to see if there was a way to hinder that red energy so Naruto wasn't tapping into it unintentionally so that it didn't sabotage his efforts...training to the point one could use divine energy was hard enough as it was, no need for an additional roadblock, after all.
As she floated above the liquid, Cus then heard something like a stone compactor going, making her frown. Wherever that sound was coming from, she sensed the red energy coming from the same direction, so she followed it. As she got closer, she recognized more of what she was hearing. It wasn't a compactor she'd heard earlier, it was the sound of breathing and growling...and from the noise, she figured it was big.
Frowning, Cus followed the sound and, just in case, cast her senses outward to locate the biggest mass of energy. After a long series of hallways, she finally arriving at the source of what she heard and sensed. Cus's jaw dropped at the sight of a huge cage door, spanning floor to ceiling and nearly wall to wall, and all of it held closed seemingly by a paper that connected the two central-most bars together. Seeing movement within the cage, the Angel of the former Universe 10 felt herself gap as she took in the form within the cage: a massive rust red fox with black around it's eyes that curled into it's long ears and almost hand shaped frontal paws.
It...it was…so…it was so…the angel couldn't believe… how… it was so…Cus held her cheeks with wide, glazed eyes, "It's too cute!"
The fox blinked, shocked, then snarled,"I! AM! NOT! CUTE!" the beast thundered, voice showing it to be male.
Cus, stars in her eyes, quickly went up to the bars and squeezed through them. Looking at the large creature with childish wonder, her eyes lit up. "Oh! You fluffy thing, you! As cute as you are, I bet with a bit of grooming, you'd be gorgeous!"
Before the biju knew what just happened, the angel used her staff and immediately a tornado of brushes, blotters, scissors, nail polish, lipstick and cotton balls descended on the tailed beast.
When the smoke cleared, the fox was now very close to resembling a french poodle as the beast's fur looked to be shaven completely off with some exceptions; like on his head was now an poofed-up afro of his own fur with a rainbow assortment of colored bows, the mane was now a poofy mane around the fox's neck and shoulders and all nine of the tail ends were all puff balls.
The fearsome fox now had a pale white face with little orbs at the end of long eyelashes and was wearing the most blinding choice of pink dress ever seen; on his front limbs were what seemed to be latex gloves that went up to his new collar that had eyes on top of his hand-like paws while on his feet were stiletto heel platform pumps.
To to finish the look off, all nine of his tails were matching the dress' material, each with an eye on them. Over all, he looked like a pink clown version of himself. When the Kyuubi looked into the surface of the water and caught sight of his reflection...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU LITTLE BITCH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!" Whipping his head up to glare furiously at her, the fox snarled as he flared his power and blew the outfit off while also restoring his features to what they were before.
Cus's eyes widened at the display, noting the color in particular, "So you're the cause of that red energy?!"
"SO HELP ME, I'LL ERASE YOU FROM EXISTENCE FOR THAT!"
At those words, Cus felt as if her organs suddenly froze over and memories of everything the Omni-king had taken from her, everything he'd erased from existence, flashing through her mind. Trembling, she looked down, shadowing her features and then an uncharacteristic, dark, icy, razor-thin smirk made it's way across her lips. Well...she had entered Naruto's mindscape to halt the chance of this fox's energy messing with what she meant to teach him anyways, after all...
"You know...while necessity makes it so I don't harm Naruto too badly, I don't have a reason to hold back fighting you..." The young-looking angel said coolly. Cus pounced at the massive beast, knocking him off his feet and right against the wall behind him. Before the tailed beast could recover, Cus lifted him over her head with strength highly disproportionate to her body and began to slam his back and face against the walls of the caged-off area four times before throwing him away from her.
The fox, dazed for a moment, recovered and raised a hand-like paw to smash the girl again and attempted to pounce on her, but Cus was too fast and he fell onto the ground.
The giant fox and the young-looking angel then rushed at each other, but the smaller of the two grabbed the larger and lifted him over her head and then began to spin him around like how a professional basketball player would the ball on their finger. Then Cus hurled the fox, with him screaming as the Angel then jumped and slammed against him and then laid down on her back in mid-air as if she were lounging on her back and began to juggle him with her legs, causing the giant fox to spin like a ball.
Getting bored of this, the angel then launched the fox high into the air and slamming him against the ceiling of the cell, caught him, and viciously slammed the giant kitsune against the ground and lifted him up only to repeat the slamming for another seven times.
Cus shrugged as the Kyuubi slammed into the floor, "Try hitting me all you like, won't work. Smaller size gives one an advantage in dodging and striking beings like you. After all, as big as you are, have you ever tried to hit a regular house fly?" Well...there was that as a factor, and the tiny detail that as someone who trained deities, Cus was actually ABOVE god-teir level in strength, but she wasn't going to tell this fox that bit of information.
"DAMN YOU!" the Kyuubi roared in outrage as he then attempted to slash Cus into ribbons with his claws but just like before, Cus simply evaded the claws as if the Kyuubi was in slow motion to her, getting even more agitated by seeing the angel make a monkey out of himself, the Kyuubi then attempted to use his tails against her like colossal whips only to quickly regret that choice as Cus then grabbed one of his tails and then suddenly she began to spin in a circle while picking up speed she spun faster and faster until before the Kyuubi knew it he felt his tail was suddenly let go and he could hear Cus taunt, "So long, Fluffy!" only for the Kyuubi to crash into a nearby wall of his cage.
Then Cus teleported on top of the Biju and looked down at the beast, "You know... if you just agreed to not endanger my student's life like you've been doing, this all could've been avoided..." then shot downwards and the fox roared in anger as Cus buried her feet into his back with enough force to dislocate his spine.
Seeing that brute force wasn't working, the Kyuubi then began to create a Tailed Beast Bomb as he began to make a dark sphere and just about as the beast was about to swallow the orb, Cus finally made her move as she tapped the end of her staff to the beast's gut. Though to her this was just a tap, but Kurama was knocked onto his back and in pain as the force from the "tap" felt like getting hit by a incoming planet. And the fox knew what that was like due to his father's Chibaku Tensei!
What was more, the beast felt enraged at the sight of Cus's grinning face and he didn't even care about "accidentally" killing his stupid host...as long as he can kill this pest then who gives a shit!
Cus then saw the biju open it's mouth and saw multiple orbs in front of it until they all fused into a gigantic black orb until she saw the fox chomp down upon it and then swallowed it, and then saw the beast fire an energy blast at her.
Recognizing the technique, Cus tsked as she raised her hand in defense before the attack hit her with an ungodly explosion.
The inside of the cage lit up like a sun had been born there and the fox sneered as the massive mushroom cloud started to dissipate. But to the biju's shock and horror, once the blast was gone, he saw Cus had caught his biju bomb in the air and she picked it up above her head and smiled coldly, "I believe this belongs to you..." and then she threw it back to the biju, causing a massive explosion upon impact.
When the explosion faded, the beast was down on his side, breathing in a labored fashion.
Looking down into the water, Cus saw that blood was emanating from the inside of the cage, from the Kyuubi itself. There was no overbearing, smothering presence that came with standing before it. That fox was hurt.
"...Just...What...ARE you...?" There was no possible way that his enemy was human as no mortal creature could take a bijūdama directly and survive, let alone still have a body remaining afterwards.
"Ready to be reasonable? I'll heal you if you listen to what I have to say. Though I need to confess, so many things in this universe...I'm really enjoying that Hamura Ōtsutsuki brought me here." The god-trainer said. It felt good to vent how she felt like that, but she knew she was going to feel guilty later.
At the casual comment, the fox's eyes widened, utterly shocked, freezing.
"WAIT...WHAT...?! Wha...WHAT did you just SAY?! My UNCLE sent you here?!"
Now it was Cus who was shocked! "Excuse me...WHAT?! My benefactor is your what?!" Aiming her staff at the fox and having the orb glow, the aura also appeared around the downed beast and he felt his wounds heal.
Sitting up on his haunches, the fox stared at his former opponent. "My uncle Hamura's brother, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, my father...he generated my siblings and me. Divided raw energy into nine separate bodies and gave each of us a process he used is explained to have initially involved the administration of imagination, and the spiritual energy to create physical forms from nothingness. Then, through the application of vitality, and the physical energy which forms, he would breathe life into the resulting creations..."
Cus nodded. Seeing as she dealt with gods all the time, she was used to things like that, so it was perfectly normal to her and she accepted the explanation. "So...what is your name, then?" she asked.
"My name's Kurama." the biju grunted. "Don't care to tell it to people...but everything my father and uncle did had a purpose to it, if uncle brought you here, had to have good reason. That makes it so you need to know who I am. So...what was with the bipolar bit? First you're too childish and carefree, then you turn cold as ice before beating on me?"
Cus sighed, "I am sorry for that, but what you said brought up memories I hate...It...it isn't something I want to talk about, but...Hamura brought me here to rebuild my life after literally having everyone and everything that mattered to me..." she looked away, unable to continue.
Kurama blinked. So, she was so childish in order to distract herself from the pain of her loss, then? He could understand that. "I see, my erasure comment triggered bad memories, earned that beating, then...and what made you so interested in the brat I'm stuck in?"
"I was asked by your uncle to "not let the world his elder brother created come to an end.", so, I decided to apply my craft as an instructor. And luckily, I found someone with the potential to help make it so that happens. Naruto has the potential, just needs to have his own ability developed first so he's strong on his own merits as opposed to depending on your power." Cus said.
"Heh...him strong on his own? Ha! That's a good one!"
At that, Cus frowned sharply, "Now see here! It's obvious he has lackluster excuses for mentors who didn't know how to teach him properly! Blaming the student for the failing of his mentors, whom I'm guessing all knew you were in here and how you make things more complicated yet didn't take that fully into account, is hardly fair!"
Kurama blinked before musing that over, "...Fair enough...I'll give you that one, girl."
"So...noticed that attack of yours had a decent bit of power behind it. Not bad...Whatever makes this chakra stuff so much more fluidly adaptable and malleable than what most I know use is pretty interesting. Not bad from how far it's come based off what I was able to see in my staff when I saw what the brothers were like way back when...wonder what the ratio components are..." Cus admitted.
"Wait...you have the ability to see into the past as far back as you want, but couldn't learn about the elements of chakra from that?" The fox couldn't help a disbelieving scoff.
"...I focused on seeing what Asura, Indra, and each of their respective, successive reincarnations' lives were all like, end to end for each, over everything else; especially if it turns out that the information was something so common, I could look it up in a book in present day and get the same answers from it." Cus admitted.
Blinking a bit, Kurama nodded as he processed that information. Ok...he had to give this girl that. "True...Seeing what Asura-nii-sama and the teme's lives, all of them, were like is important." Certainly more so than, as she had put it, information that was so common that it could be looked up in a modern-day book and get the same answers.
"Also...if by teme, you mean Indra, I can see why...that Madara Uchiha guy who was his last reincarnation was especially nasty..." Cus pointed out, only to trail off as the massive construct gawked at that...then anger quick replaced the stunned expression.
"HE WAS WHO?!" The fox roared, "Oh that little...! Oh...now I...RRRRAAAAGGGHHHH! Just when I thought that for how much I utterly and completely loathe and despise that bastard couldn't get any worse...! Indra...! He was INDRA?!"
"Relax, Kurama...you were the one who said everything your father and uncle did was for a reason right? So if I'm a martial arts teacher and Hamura felt it would be best if Naruto and me where around one another, what does that say?" The angel pointed out. Cus wasn't at all surprised by the fox's outrage over the discovery. According to Hagoromo himself, Indra was an ineffectual loner who had the power to accomplish anything he put his mind to by himself, and as a result couldn't comprehend the value of caring for others and was ultimately consumed by hatred.
His father, Hagoromo, treated the flaw in his eldest son's character like it like his own fault for choosing Indra's clearly superior (in so many ways) brother as his successor, but he wasn't forced into it; Indra was responsible for his own actions. There were embers smoldering within Indra that his father had overlooked. But the thing was, those dark feelings were already there by Indra's own choice, they just needed to be coaxed to the surface.
The night before the old Sage's death, Indra chastised his father for being afraid of someone named Kaguya's power instead of seeking to understand it, before proclaiming that he would reincarnate over and over until Ninshu was a thing of the past. And Indra's reincarnations were never any better! Heck, the creep's mindset had been what started the Uchiha/Senju feud and fostered an "It's-All-About-Me" attitude in his descendants. Sure, Indra's bad traits were helped along, but ultimetly, Indra wasn't forced into it; he was responsible for his own actions; but his father, Hagoromo, treated it like his own fault for choosing Indra's clearly superior (in so many ways) brother as his successor instead.
Kurama froze, eyes widened in shock as her logic dispelled his anger. "Go on..."
"Well, since you're in him, I'm guessing you overheard my telling Naruto about this?" Cus asked, making a small destruction orb in one hand, the other drumming her fingers against her staff, "And if it can destroy just about anything, right down to the soul...think of what it could do to Indra...even if Naruto never uses it on the current Indra, with how proud of his power that guy is, just think how he'll take it if his opponent has a skill like that and he can't even force them to need to use it on him? How crazy would that make him? Destroy him so completely that he'll never be able to be reborn again, or hit him in the ego and crush his pride beyond all repair no matter what lifetime he's reborn into."
Despelling the destruction orb, she continued. "All I ask in return is that you don't turn Naruto into a berserker like you did while using Naruto's body as an avatar when we fought each other earlier and he was up to four tails of your power. This is some highly volatile stuff, after all; no need to have my pupil have more to worry about with you causing him to go on a power overload-induced rampage while there's an element like this kind of energy in play as a factor. Deal?" Cus asked.
"Done! Ahahahahahahah! Either way, Indra-teme gets crushed! Either his body, or his oh-so-precious ego! HA! I LOVE IT!" Kurama cackled.
"Ok. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find my student." Cus said with a smile, excusing herself. Pushing her way through the bars again, she was off, leaving a vindictively smirking, sentient energy construct in her wake.
Casting her sensory skills outwards again, the angel nodded to herself. Ah...There he was. But who were those other two signatures she picked up? Shrugging, the trainer decided it wasn't an issue at the moment, so it wasn't something that she felt the need to do anything about. Besides, those two additional presences didn't seem to radiate any hostility. So no threat, no worries.
But back to the matter at hand, the angel resumed her seeking out Naruto's mental cognition of himself in his mindscape. Traveling down the dimly lit halls for a while, she stopped, finally spotting her quarry. Cus noticed Naruto was in a copy of the orange and black outfit that she'd replaced. It made her pout a bit, but since this was his mindscape, she figured he was just drawing on memories for how he appeared and was used to his old clothes.
Going over to him, she tapped Naruto on the shoulder, making him jump and whip around in a fighting stance, causing the angel to giggle.
"Cus-sensei? Wha...how...?" Naruto said, shocked at seeing her here.
"What? Did you really think just my knocking out cold in the real world meant I was going to let you slack off on training now, did you, Naruto?" she teased.
At that, he stopped and contemplated what his new sensei said, "...Bushy Brows and Bushier Brows would like you, Cus-senesi." The Uzumaki admitted after a moment.
"Huh?" Cus asked with a slight tilt of her head that made Naruto have to look away from her, finding the expression of confusion to actually be somewhat cute on his current teacher.
"...Don't ask..." Naruto shuddered.
Blinking, she shrugged, after all, if he knew what he was talking about, then best take his word for it. And anyways, she came in here to further train him.
"Ok...since I'm here now, how about we do some physical training then, Naruto?" Cus asked her student and he looked excited to hear that and Cus then made a giant ring like an arena in the mindscape. Seeing this, Naruto looked on in wonder until he heard Cus cough into her fist to get his attention and Naruto then stood in a fighting stance as he braced himself for a real beating of his lifetime, as he knew Cus wasn't going to go easy on him and he wouldn't have it any other way...
After Cus exited the mindscape (having given Naruto's mental self a sound thrashing), she smiled as Naruto groaned, falling flat on his back. On the plus side, Naruto had to confess, Cus-Senesi had a point. Staying still for meditation WAS going to be easier when his body was exhausted. Not only was he physically tired, but he was mentally drained.
Sheesh...where all her sessions going to be like this?!
As he lay there, he suddenly found his vision obscured by purple, black, and light blue as Cus
"Resting up?" she asked, smiling.
Naruto groaned in reply, "Trying to...sheesh sensei, did you go in there just to beat on me?!"
At that, the young-looking humanoid shook her head, "Nope, that was just extra training. Real reason was to make it so you wouldn't need to worry about the red energy driving you rabid any longer." she confessed.
At that, Naruto tensed.
"Oh come on, Naruto; did you really think I wouldn't notice there was something fishy about your energy after seeing what that idiot caused you to turn into? Besides, I already pointed out I saw him use a dangerous method on you in spite of your protests, what it turned you into, and the way that old fart turned tail and ran. You think I didn't overhear about the kyubbi?" his new teacher pointed out.
Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the curses and rejection as tears begin to build up behind his mask, 'That's it then...I guess she'll just abandon me and want nothing more to do with me, just like the villagers and older ninja in the village have done before...no matter what...I'm always going to be alone...thanks a ton, Yondaime-teme...' he thought bitterly.
While Naruto respected the Yondaime Hokage, there was no denying part of him utterly resented the man; his choice to seal the fox into him had made Naruto's life nothing but utter shit from day one!
However Naruto then felt a pair of hands touch his cheeks and he felt his gaze look up to see Cus' face looking into his eyes, "I'm not going to abandon you, Naruto. So stop thinking like that. Now, let's head to town to take a little break now, shall we?" Cus said while looking at Naruto straight into his eyes, she knew how he felt as he thought that she was going to leave him just because of what was in him, but she wasn't like that and she was going to drill it into his head, even if it killed her.
Naruto jerked away, surprised, "Wha...?!"
"Well...let me put it to you like this: Did you want the fox in you?"
"Well...no...was sealed into me the day I was born and I didn't even know about it until I was thirteen. Hell, I never found out about the Fox until I was almost killed as an Academy Student after that bastard Mizuki spilled the beans..." Naruto muttered.
Cus nodded, "I see. Then why would I reject you over something like that? It'd be pointless and stupid to fear and hate you over something that you weren't even aware of or choose. Honestly...what kind of moron does that?"
Naruto stared as her, even going as far as removing his mask to look her in the eye. "...What did you...?"
Cus blinked,"What? Is it really so strange?"
Naruto shook his head. "Nobody's ever told me that before...everyone back in my home...the way they looked at me, the way they treated me...it...it was hard. I never asked for the Yondaime Hokage to have sealed the Fox in me...but everyone knew it and hated me as if I was the fox..."
"...Then all due respect, Naruto, my opinion was this Yondaime Hokage is that he's a moron that saved a bunch of idiots who are too damn stupid to simply go outside, look around, and realize if you were this apparent monster everyone thought you to be, then why the hell is their home village still standing rather than the place they live be nothing but a crater filled with blood-drenched rubble, or why are any of them still even alive, especially after ten years if you were this massive, destructive creature that's apparently pure evil."
Naruto gaped at her. While he couldn't stand people belittling the Hokages, there was no denying what his new sensei made way too much sense. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.
He sighed. Unsure.
A hand squeezing his shoulder caught his attention and Cus smiled at him, "Naruto...just rest. I admit I put you through a lot in a short amount of time, this just now included about you and what you have within you...just relax." she urged softly, then tapped him on the center of his forehead with the tip of her finger, using a minute trace of ki to effect his mind to urging it to shut off and rest.
As he felt the effects and his eyes dropped, Cus smiled. He needed his rest. While he was doing that, Cus got up and went to the nearest town to get set out to plan a physical conditioning regiment list for the first part of her training Naruto. And after a few minutes, she was looking one over as she got back to where he was still out like a light. It was pretty basic so far:
1000 Push-Ups
1000 Sit-Ups
1000 Squats
1000 pull-ups
50 kilometre run
4 hours meditate/rest period
Swim 1/4 Miles
Kettlebell Turkish Get Up : 1 set, 3 reps each side
Lateral Box Jump: 3 sets, 20 reps
Rear Foot Elevated Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 sets, 6 Reps each side
Single-Arm Dumbbell Flat Bench Chest Press: 3 sets, 6 Reps each side
Standing Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3 sets, 6 Reps
4 hours meditate/rest period
Single-Arm Cable Lat Pulldown: 3 sets, 6 reps each side
Pall of Press: 2 sets, 6 reps each side
Standing Barbell Push Press (split stance): 3 sets, 6 reps
Single Leg Dumbbell Deadlift: 3 sets, 6 reps each side
Standing Cable Chest Fly: 3 sets, 6 reps
4 hours meditate/rest period
Bent-Over Barbell Row: 3 sets, 6 reps
Half-Kneeling Cable Wood Chop: 2 sets, 6 reps
Single-Arm Kettlebell Snatch: 3 sets, 20 reps each side
Barbell Back Squat: 3 sets, 6 reps
Bent-Over Dumbbell Row: 3 sets, 6 reps each side
4 hours meditate/rest period
Single Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets, 6 reps each side
Standing Cable Low Row: 3 sets, 6 reps
It wasn't too bad a start as far as physical conditioning went. But what she needed was somewhere privet that would allow her and her new student to really cut loose. There was a reason Gods of Destruction had their own planets, after all. Not having a resource like that would cause a need for major downscaling of what they did. The need to avoid collateral damage would be a problem. Especially with the reserves Naruto had. An overdeveloped energy network and denser energies like he had weren't capable of overly finite techniques.
The angel sighed as the thoughts made her start remembering teaching Rumsshi-sama back in Universe 10 again. As she sat down, she jumped up when, right as her cheeks touched where her butt would go with where she was sitting, a drawn-out sound drew her attention. Looking at what she'd sat on, she felt her eye twitch at what she'd fallen for.
A whoopee cushion?!
Picking the aforementioned item up, the angel felt a smile tug on her lips, even as she rolled her eyes. Naruto did warn her he'd make her the butt of his jokes and pranks if her thoughts turned to what had happened to Universe 10. She felt thankful for that, even if it put her at the butt of things he did since the distractions helped.
Mature, no; sweet, yes.
It was actually endearing. While he couldn't do anything about her old home's erasure (though she was beginning to suspect that he would if he were able to), he could at least try to keep her spirits up, keep her smiling, and give her as much comfort as he could offer realistically. And all this because he didn't want to see her in pain when they were only slightly better than acquaintances with how much they knew one another despite how she'd declared herself his new sensei.
"...Gowasu-sama would have liked him..." Cus sighed, thinking on the Kai made her eyes sting with tears she wanted to let fall. Just how much was she going to be reminded of how her universe was taken away?!
She was brought out of her thoughts as music reached her ears, making her turn to see what was making it. Naruto walked up to her, his mask pushed up slightly and the source of the sound in his hands: an ocarina. One that had very clear mending done to it. A long, jagged diagonal crack running down it's surface.
"Got up a little bit ago. Thought you could use some company..." he said, lowering the instrument.
The angel smiled, there he was...butting in on her grief so the loss didn't break her, again. "Thank you...didn't know you could play."
Looking at the ocarina, Naruto sagged, "...Practiced a lot with this ocarina. It's something I kept as a memento from a friend. Lost his memory for a while...never told me his real name, but I ended up giving him the nickname "Menma" since I didn't know what else to call him..."
"Fermented bamboo?" Cus asked, raising a brow.
Naruto shook his head, "Long story...important part is that he was my friend..."
Cus frowned. Was? Oh...she wasn't going to like this. "What happened?"
"Situation and circumstance...all because of some big wig's bad choices, the place he called home was run into the ground, so the idiot goes and let's in the worst of the worst, and that only causes more problems. Because of that, whole place was demilitarized because when the idiot learned he let in a snake in the grass, he also learned it made those lands enemies. Thing was, with the entire territory demilitarized like that, what about the solders and the rest who fought for it, both as there home and way for a living? Most had to resort to becoming bandits. Menma...he was caught up in that. found out he tried erasing his own memory because there were things he wanted to forget, but he still wanted to do the right thing, even sacrificed himself to make sure innocent people were safe."
Naruto sighed and looked away from Cus, "That's what happens when the people have fools or cowards running over their governments and they never think of the people or their needs, and it can change the people's view on life... It's sad really..."
Cus stared. That...that sounded almost almost just like her story! She looked down, a smile tugging her lips as she realized why her student was telling her this.
A life ruined by the situation and circumstances that resulted from someone else's choice and actions...Cus clenched a trembling fist as her thoughts turned to Zen-Oh and everything he had childishly taken away!
Despite her size, appearance, and personality; she was actually the oldest of the Angels among her siblings. Ironic that she was the black sheep of her family then. But then, by the token of being the eldest, she'd existed long enough to develop a conscience. She'd lived and seen enough to understand that without emotion, you have no regard for the lives of others since you lack things like compassion or guilt. She understood what it was Hamura Ōtsutsuki had said, the harm caused when those that are powerful embrace apathy was a dangerous mix before bringing her to this universe.
Wrapping her arms around Naruto, she nuzzled herself against him, "...Thank you, Naruto..." she said, knowing the story was personal to him. Cus felt she needed to hear that. So this was why Hamura Ōtsutsuki sent her here. A tit-for-tat deal, as it were. She'd help Naruto improve, and he'd help her mentally and emotionally. And she was lucky enough to have met someone that wanted to keep from having things ruin her. She could work with that.
Smiling, Naruto put the instrument to his lips and resumed playing, happy when he felt Cus relax as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the tune.