Fairy Tail's Tailed Beast Slayer (滅尾獣のフェアリーテイル/Metsubijū no Fearī Teiru)
Chapter 3: Kurama's Jinchūriki
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail. All of Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto while Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima.
Note: Thank you all who have given their opinions of both Naruto's training progress and Kushina's fate; it really helped me on a long one to make a final decision on how I should progress the story a lot more easier. I apologize in advance if some of you are going to disappointed on my decisions, but I'm just following what I feel is right for the story. So, without further ado, thank you for reading and enjoy the chapter!
October 10th X765,
After many minutes of running from a fair distance to Konoha, Hiruzen and the small guild master arrive at what they thought was suppose to be Konoha as the entire village appears to be wiped out completely as the two old men take their time on observing the damages that have occurred in Konoha. While they were taking in the sight of the destroyed village, they came across several bodies of the fallen ANBU and Konoha shinobi on either the ground or caught in the debris.
"What in Mavis' name," Makarov began to question to himself, "happened here? The entire village of Konoha has been practically wiped clean from existence... I can't even sense one living person now regardless if they had magic, chakra, or neither one."
Hiruzen let out a pondering hum as he strokes his beard in a thinking manner until he saw a giant crater a few meters away from the destroyed village while he also sensed a faint trace of chakra and magic that he seems to recognize as his old friend sees the change in Hiruzen's expression after taking one more glance at the destroyed village.
"Hiruzen, what is -" The aforementioned man begins to head to the giant crater, causing the short guild master to be stumped by Hiruzen's behavior, "Wait up Saru; what is it that you just sensed?"
The former Hokage just kept his attention on the faint presence that he sensed in the crater while Makarov just focuses on keeping up with Hiruzen's pace until a few minutes later, they've reached the giant crater and slid down into the center when both old men express shock in their eyes as they come across the fallen bodies of Minato and Kushina.
"Minato... Kushina..." Makarov gasped lightly as he closed his eyes when he lowers his head to mourn for the two and the innocent lives that were lost in this catastrophe.
Makarov raises his head up when both he and Hiruzen heard light breathing and see Kushina weakly get onto her arms as she turns to look at the two old man while taking in slow breaths.
"Hiruzen-sama, Makarov-san..." Kushina began to say until she begins to have a coughing spree; worrying the two men until she began to take in more air and breathes slowly.
"Kushina, what happened here? And what about your child; where is he?" Hiruzen asks Kushina in a calm manner while observing how Kushina was beginning to breathe even more slower, indicating that she's about to pass on and doesn't have time left.
"Naruto... Minato used my chakra *coughs* to send him away from an attack by the Black Dragon himself," Hiruzen and Makarov's eyes widened with shock as the red-haired woman mentions one of Acnologia's titles but they continue to listen to Kushina's words as she was beginning to run out of time, "I don't know where Naruto was sended off but he's in safe hands no- *coughs*"
"Kushina..." Makarov mouthes out sadly as the aforementioned woman was beginning to lose the strength in her arms, tumbling slowly as both men begin to perk up her hearing as her breathing was beginning to fade out.
"Check the defense shelter... I believe there are still survivors in that building if it's still there and... please, Hiruzen-sama; do whatever you can... to find and give Naruto... a new family..." Kushina managed to say as her eyes slowly closed as her arms lost their strength; causing her to fall back onto the ground, lying right next to Minato in the end.
"To think they would die just like this..." Makarov said in a dishearten voice as Hiruzen begins to focus on sensing other chakras in the area and from the direction of the defensive stronghold, Hiruzen was able to pick up a few trances of exhausted magic and chakra altogether from the direction of the shelter.
"It is a shame for poor Naruto though; to have to live the life of an orphan without even knowing his birth parents and his birthplace," Hiruzen replied to his old friend's statement as he begins to head towards the stronghold, "In any case, there's no possible chance that Konoha will be the same as it was before so I've decided to have the survivors of Konoha choose on what they want to do about their home."
Makarov just listened to what his dear friend had to say about his choice of letting the survivors choose their own choices while the short old man also made a decision like Hiruzen.
"You know, Saru, if there's anything that you need my assistance with, you know you can come to me for help as always."
"I'm grateful for your help, Makarov-dono," Hiruzen thanks his friend for his selfless proclamation, " So, since you came all this way, can you help me guide the survivors of my home until they're ready to make the choice of their future."
"You should've already know my answer to that request, Saru." Makarov cheekily stated as he followed the former Hokage from the giant crater all the way to the defense shelter where Hiruzen sensed the surviving magic and chakra in that direction.
January X772
"I'm afraid that I don't have that much time left," An elderly man began to say to nine huge infant creatures that surrounded him in a giant ritual circle: the infant creatures in rotation ranged from a bipedal tanuki (raccoon dog), a fiery bakeneko kitten, a tortoise, a monkey, a dolphin/horse hybrid, a slug, a beetle larvae, an ushi-oni (ox demon), and a kitsune pup. What made these creatures stand out from the rest was not just their height but the amount of tails that these creatures seem to have respectively from one to nine.
"Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Gokū, Kokuō, Saiken, Chōmei, Gyūki, Kurama. Even though you have been separated, you shall always be together. Until eventually that time shall come when you become one again... You each carry a name... And with a different form than you had up to now, you will be shown a righteous path, different from the time you spent inside of me... What is true power... Until that time..."
All of the infant creatures were paying close attention to the man's words as the man turns around to look at the infants behind him when the small kitsune sheds a tear after hearing the man's words and-
"Kurama, wake up! Wake up!" A six-year old blonde boy was yelling at the giant orange nine-tailed fox as the kitsune grumpily opens one eye as it sees the boy clinging onto its left paw.
It has been six years and three months since Kurama had decided to take in the young child as his new Jinchūriki after his second disciple, Kushina, perished from the attack of Acnologia. With the amount of time Kurama existed, it had always tried to hid its presence away from humans after seeing a couple of its fellow Tailed Beasts (Bijū)teach humans their special magic only for them to abuse them in times of war for their homes. Despite how it began to view humans as power-hungry, there had been a few exceptions in Kurama's eyes such as his first Jinchūriki, Mito Uzumaki, Kushina Uzumaki, and now his third disciple, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. The young boy has really reminded Kurama a lot of Kushina as he was raising the child in not only the facial expressions but also in his personality and verbal quirks which annoyed the fox to no ends; not to mention that the young boy ALWAYS woke him up when he was having that particular dream.
"What, brat?" The kitsune said, annoyed, as it opens both of its eyes to give the young Naruto the time of day as the young blonde jumps off of the fox's paw and runs near the entrance to the cave they're residing in.
"Come on, Kurama. You promised that you'll show me how to do the Nine-Tailed Fox's Spinning Talon (Kyūbiko no Bōsekizume) today after I've finished smashing those giant boulders yesterday, didn't I?" The boy pouted at the giant fox who just stares at the six-year old with a tired and annoyed look in its eyes.
"I did, gaki," Kurama sighed out loud with annoyance hidden in its tone, "But I remember that I promised to teach you the Nine-Tailed Fox's Spinning Talon only if you actually decided to read the books I had stashed over there and smash the boulders with just your bare fists." The kitsune snickered when it saw Naruto's disgusted expression when it mentioned reading the books.
"Not the books again, dattebayo!" the young six-year old whined as he was beginning to throw a fit at reading those tattered books in the corner, "The words in those things are really hard to understand; how in the world is a kid like me suppose to read them!?"
"Oh, so you're giving up after all of these years I've raised you to be my Jinchūriki?" Kurama begins to taunt his disciple as the young boy points his index finger directly towards the giant fox while having an angry expression.
"No way I'm giving up, you stinking fox!" Naruto proclaims at Kurama as the smirk on the fox's face begins to grow, "It just that those things have words that I don't even know and everything the books are trying to say makes no sense at all!" The young blonde begins to scuffle his hair in frustration while Kurama's smirk just keeps on growing when the fox just knows what to make the young boy read the books in the cave.
"So you rather go through that again just so you can avoid reading the books with the so-called "complicated" words." Kurama snickers in a teasing manner as the six-year boy screams in horror as he begins to remember what that actually was after Kurama brought it up again.
"NNNNooooo! Anything but that! You know how much I hate having to keep running from those things!" Naruto said to the giant fox as tears began to fall out of Naruto's eyes like a waterfall.
"Then you might as well get to those books before I forcefully take you outside of these mountains so we could initiate that then," Kurama said with pleasure in its voice. "Because I think the wyverns on the other side really miss chasing their strongest prey yet."
"Well, I don't! Those handless lizards are really snappy; snappier than yourself, you lazy fox." Naruto exclaimed while he walked all the way to the corner with the books and picks up a small book with a dark tan cover and strange letters inscribed right on it. Kurama fell right back to sleep as Naruto begins to read the book with a concentrating glare.
As the minutes begin to go slower in Naruto's point of view, the young boy was beginning to grow impatient despite he just only read a few pages from the book in his hands and Kurama's snoring made the boy even more irritated and eventually he had enough as he threw the book to the ground in anger, waking up Kurama from his nap.
"Why I outta- Can't you even finish reading one single book without getting frustrated at the words, gaki?!" Kurama roared in anger as Naruto stares right back at Kurama with his own angry stare.
"Like I've told you a zillion times, these books are really hard to understand especially with this etanao or something chakura; it's making my brain rot!"
Kurama just stares at the young boy as the latter just throws another tantrum until Naruto begins to notice Kurama gets closer to him as it lays back down on its stomach as it begins to etch some kind of inscription on the ground for the boy to see.
"I guess I should've explained this to you personally instead of shoving books about this topic to your face so try to listen carefully," Kurama started to say as the six-year old just stares at the finished inscription Kurama drew on the cavern floor, "Ethernano is the basic enbodiment of all magic that most people usually use either in their daily lives and jobs while Chakra is another form of Ethernano but unlike the magical presence, Chakra is the person's life energy instead of being magic itself."
"So both E-tha-na-no and Cha-ku-ra are both forms of energy, but how can you tell them apart?" The six year old asked the giant fox as it just gives a sweatdropped expression but lets a huge sigh as it starts to explain it more simply again.
"Close enough but to answer to your question; Ethernano is basically the essence of a person's soul or emotions taken physical shape and it's the more common type of energy here in Earthland while Chakra is the person's life energy like I said before so it's a lot more dense than Ethernano itself and only a few people of Earthland can use it at will."
"So in a way, Ethernano is the person's soul while Chakra is raw power alone?" The young boy asked Kurama as the boy was somewhat starting to understand the two essence of energies.
"You're catching on; but to make it easily, Ethernano can be comparable to Nature's air as it flows all around us while Chakra is the hidden potential of all living beings so it can't exactly flow into the sir itself unless the user has no control over it or lets it out when they're using it in battle. As a Jinchūriki, you'll eventually gain control of both Ethernano and Chakra over time and with mastery of the two energies; you'll be strong indeed."
Naruto gaped at the fox's proclamation and causes the boy to embarrassingly blush as he scratches the back of his head while chuckling at his imagination in his head of being the strongest.
"Now then, since you can't seem to learn anything from books alone, I might as well teach you through experience then," Kurama said as the giant fox gets up from its resting spot and begins to walk outside as Naruto snaps out of his trance to notice the fox staring from outside of the cavern, "So, there's no other choice but to find those handless lizards." Kurama said as the young boy's eyes widen in horror at the mention of the wyverns and begins his head rapidly in protest once again.
"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO! No way, you stinking fox!" Naruto stubbornly said as he moves his arms in a refusing gesture while still shaking his head rapidly in refusal, "There's absolutely no way that I'm facing those lizards again-" Naruto began to say until Kurama curled one of its tails around Naruto and begins to take him outside by force while ignoring the constant whining from the six-year old boy.
Meanwhile, at a certain guild in Magnolia, two old friends along with a somewhat younger man with long spiky white hair and wears a green kimono underneath a red haori are currently sitting at the local bar in Fairy Tail as they have their own conversation while watching the usual commotion in the rowdy guild.
"Whohahahaha! Oh boy, I forgot how rowdy this place can get at times," Jiraiya laughed joyously as he takes a sip of the sake in his hand, "It makes me think on the good old days, right, old man?"
"Yes, except that they didn't fail getting a single bell from such obvious traps though." Hiruzen told his former student in a teasing manner as the younger man turns his away from Hiruzen as his face pouts out in annoyance from the memory.
"Even so, at least the two of you didn't cause so much damage to several towns just to wrap up a single job," The short guild master said as he drinks his mug of beer and lets out a relieved sigh before continuing, "I swear, I think they're just trying to cause more trouble so the Council can just have a word with me about the guild..."
"So how's being the leader of the newly-built settlement coming along; even though we've been practically neighbors after six years?"
Hiruzen strokes his beard in a thinking manner while he then tells his dear friend his answer:
"Some of the surviving shinobi are still adjusting to having mages as 'neighbors'", Hiruzen emphasized in his explanation, "But I'm relieved that some of them along with the children and villagers adjusted to the change. So much that the majority of them actually moved into your humble city. It's a blessing to see the children of wizards and shinobi becoming friends instead of enemies." The slightly elderly man finished with a smile on his wrinkled face.
Upon hearing the older man's answer, Makarov also gave a cheeky smile; thinking of how the survivors of Konoha lived in not only their newly-builded settlement but also in the city of Magnolia.
"I'm glad to hear that; it makes me really think about the good old days and how we first met during one of my old team missions, Hiruzen..."
"But that's just the joy of youth that the two of you just don't have anymore," Jiraiya said as the two old man turn their heads to stare at the white hermit with an uneasy glance until Jiraiya suddenly slams one hand into the other palm as he remembered something, "But even so, I'm pretty sure that you'll enjoy this with the time you have left, right, Makarov-dono?" Out of his kimono, Jiraiya takes out a small orange book with a woman kicking a man with the symbols for "Icha-Icha" engraved right above them as Makarov looks at the book with fascination and his eyes suddenly turn into hearts right after the short old man leaps out of his spot and automatically snatches the book out of Jiraiya's hand.
"Ohohohoho! So you've finally published the second volume of your famous series!" Makarov said with a lecherous tone in his voice, "You wouldn't believe how many days and months that I wanted to read this after such a long time!" Makarov finishes with a strange giggle as Hiruzen just stares at his old friend and student with a blank stare.
"In any case, Jiraiya," Hiruzen said to catch the attention of both men, snapping them out of their perverted conversation, "Have you manage to find any form of ethernano similar to either Minato or Kushina?" Jiraiya begins to develop a serious expression while Makarov stops his goofy act as he turns his attention onto Jiraiya once more when the hermit just sighs with disappointment hinted in his sigh.
"Gomen ne; but I'm afraid that I couldn't find the child's presence anywhere, old man; it's either gone from this world... or that it still exists but rather, it's being hidden by some kind of outside force."
"An outside force, huh? It would make sense; if only we knew who Minato and Kushina send their child off to..." Makarov said while thinking of any possible situations in his head until Hiruzen began to call out to someone:
"Seeing as you've heard everything there's to know about the child, will you still accept this task, of finding your sensei's possible six-year old son..."
An ANBU shinobi suddenly appears right in front of Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Makarov as the ANBU takes off his mask to reveal the face of the spiky silver-gray haired boy from six years ago but he isn't wearing his headband to cloak his long scar that stretched over a strange red eye with two black tomoes in them.
"Kakashi Hatake..."
"I REALLY HATE YOU, YOU STINKING OLD FOX!" Naruto is screaming out loud to the giant nine-tailed fox who's lying nearby while running away from at least five giant wyverns. Kurama sensed one more wyvern try to ambush the fox, only to get crushed by one of the fox's giant tails.
"Tsk, dumb lizards, thinking that they could sneak up on me of all creatures..." The fox smirked as it sees Naruto still trying to run away from the hoard of wyverns, each of them trying to get a bite from him only for the young boy to jump left and right just to avoid being eaten, "Oi, Naruto. Don't just run away; remember what I've told you about Ethernano and Chakra and use those words into mastering my Tailed Beast Magic (Bijū Mahō)."
Naruto didn't heard all of it as the wyverns were becoming desperate into eating the young boy but the six year old had enough and he spins around during a dodge so he could look directly at the savage wyverns behind him as he then begins to inhale the ethernano from the air and then begins to mix the ethernano he sucked in with the energy in his body like Kurama demonstrated to him a year ago. The wyverns closed in on him when the young Jinchūriki landed on the ground and tilts his head back, unaware of the boy's next move.
"Nine-Tailed Fox's Howl (Kyūbiko no Dōgo)!" Naruto releases the blended ethernano and chakra as a massive beam of raw energy which hits all of the wyverns on contact, burning off the majority of their scales and flesh just from mere contact with the beam before it finally faded out.
The wyverns turned back around after being hit by the excessive energy beam and fly off without anything to eat. Kurama then sees Naruto run up to it with a pleased expression since he finally drove off the savage handless lizards on his own.
"So, how did I do this time, Kurama?" Naruto boasted after his victory which made the giant fox grunt in annoyance from the boy's newfound attitude but eventually grins a little after looking at the smiling blonde's face and automatically remembers Kushina making a similar smile on her face.
"Not bad, after many attempts we practice this with the guide of the books," Kurama told his young disciple, "It wasn't exactly that strong though since the wyverns we found today were just brand new adults on their first hunt but if we continue to do this method of training, then eventually you'll get the hang of my training in this method."
Naruto nodded at first until he managed to reel in all of the words and he instantly begins to turn pale from the aspect of facing those lizards again.
"Oh no, that was only one time; I'm not going to go up against fully-grown wyverns then if it means that I'll be definitely eaten for sure the next time!" Naruto exclaimed out to Kurama who just squints one eye in amusement to make it look like that it has a raised eyebrow.
"But if you think it about it now, would you prefer reading the books or actually taking the training seriously through experience? Because I know for a fact that you're one who learns through action instead of learning by reading textbooks." Kurama said in an analytic manner to Naruto whom begins to think things more carefully but like any six year old, he still doesn't get what Kurama was talking about but he still nods his head so he doesn't have to read the books.
"That's good to know, then we'll start the training of the Nine-Tailed Fox's Spinning Talon right after you learn the basics of the Nine-Tailed Fox's Claw (Kyūbiko no Tsume) through more practice with the help of the boulders and the wyverns here," Naruto still became pale from the idea of facing those flying handless lizards again, "I'm making you fight those blasted newts is so you can get a better grasp on how to use your hands just like any lizard claw and then focusing your Chakra and Ethernano into that hand to perfect the Nine-Tailed Fox's Claw, do you understand now?"
Naruto began to think in his young child head of his about what Kurama said to him about fighting those wyverns but if it'll make him strong, then the boy realized that he didn't need to think about it anymore so he then bumps his hand onto his left chest, just above the heart as he then states to the giant fox:
"You better believe it, it's just getting me more revved up now than ever, you giant fox!"
"Good," Kurama replied to Naruto's determination with the same acknowledged eyes that he usually has when the boy does something impressive, "Then, let's go back to the cave to rest up then we can check on your vocabulary just before we have dinner."
"Not again with the word lessons..." Naruto whined as Kurama begins to head back to their cavern while leaving Naruto behind to have another tantrum again.
In another village far away, many of the villagers are glaring at a young girl with black hair that reaches to and frames around her neck while wearing a white hairband over her bangs; what probably caused them to stare at her with such menacing and hateful eyes are the two small curved horns protruding out of her short hair. She continues her way through the villagers with caution and fear in her eyes, one of the villagers grabs ahold of a tiny stone and chucks it at the girl, nearly hitting her.
The horned girl begins to runs away as the villagers begin to follow the previous action and begins to throw small but somewhat harmful objects (more stones, twigs, splinters of wood/glass, etc.) at the girl as she gets farther and farther away from the open populous while getting hit by a couple of those thrown objects and enters into the forest outside of the village. The young girl enters a hole inside of a rock formation underneath a tree as she curls up onto the wall of the small cave and begins to shedding endless tears.
"Why... Why is everyone afraid of me?" The girl thought to herself while continuing to cry until she began to fall asleep without an answer to her question.
End of Chapter
Finally finished; I was having creative problems when I was typing out this chapter so I apologize again if this chapter wasn't to your sense of taste. But don't worry, I'm still going through with the plan I've made for this story while incorporating what I've read from the many reviews into the mix as well. And before I wrap things up here, the Fairy Tail anime is finally back on air and I can't wait to see the many scenes that I like in the manga be animated onto the television (computer) screen.
Thank you for reading and please review to let me know how well I'm progressing with the story.
