"The cynics are right nine times out of ten."
- Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
Kurama couldn't remember the last time he had truly sat down to have a conversation.
It had been at least 200 years since he last encountered one of his siblings and even then there was barely a greeting exchanged between them. So when he detected a person within his territory he decided to have a few words with them before making a meal of them. Few beings ever attempted to challenge his might, but those that did usually put up an interesting fight and deserved the courtesy of at least naming themselves before he wiped them from existence. Once he was closer to his target, though, the track of his thoughts derailed. Nature energy bent around this thing like a tree might bend to the winds of a hurricane and at the center of the flux was an eerie void like the eye of a storm, leaving an unnatural silence in its wake. Despite his best efforts Kurama began to desire to understand the walking mystery before him. Kurama had made the decision to find out as much as he could about this enigma, after all, there wasn't much else on his list of things to do.
After inviting the humanoid into his home he found that it could only communicate via a foreign language. The creature had introduced itself and mimed with its single hand for himself to reciprocate. A simple request, all said, but the answer was not something he would give away so easily. Instead, he had used the moniker the humans ascribed to him.
While the creature had babbled in its nonsensical language, Kurama's mind had worked to find a solution to the dilemma of communication. Most of his abilities were combat oriented except for his ability to sense dark emotions, and that didn't help much in conveying complex information. An old lesson sprung unbidden from within Kurama's mind, the words of his father to students he taught ninshu to.
"You can say 'sorry' a million times, say 'I love you' as much as you want, say whatever you want, whenever you want. But if you're not going to prove that the things you say are true, then don't say anything at all. Because if you can't show it, your words... don't mean a thing."
It was something that Kurama had had little use for in the past, but if successful the language barrier would be no problem at all. Without asking permission, he grabbed a hold of the little humanoid and twisted his chakra into an incorporeal spike, lancing it through the vacuum surrounding the creature. The first few attempts were insufficient to penetrate the void, but however after redoubling his efforts several times over he managed to connect with its mind.
The connection transferred no true memories between them, but rather showed the abstract core of what the person experienced. His father had likened it to the soul, but Kurama thought of it more like a sea. You could look at the surface, but there was always more complicated feelings deep below the surface. The impressions of an entire lifetime, the experiences, and emotions within all one's endeavors were laid bare. He saw the way that the human had broken again and again but stood up each time against incredible adversity and through dozens of atrocities. By will and drive it had forged and reforged itself into iron, and that was something that the fox could respect.
Through the connection, Kurama wove the necessary foundations for the understanding of the common language of the world. The process took far more chakra than it should have, but soon he had inscribed the necessary knowledge upon the human's mind. However, the mental strain seemed to incapacitate the human and Kurama now found himself holding its unconscious body without a clue how he should proceed. Eventually, he decided the best course of action was to wait out the aftereffects of his technique. Laying the humanoid down on the ground he then proceeded to walk over and curl up to his dias, allowing the residual feelings of the connection to fade into the back of his mind as he, too, drifted into sleep.
The next morning Kurama awoke as the enigmatic creature stirred into awareness. It wasn't long after he found himself asking questions about its origins, the answers to which were nothing he could have predicted. This humanoid was from another world entirely, or at least it believed the fact implicitly as he would have felt it if it lied.
Further questions only raised his curiosity to new heights. This human-alien which called itself Skitter had traveled to other worlds and fought battles so fierce that they sounded more like the legends of his father's exploits concocted by the superstitious mortals than actual first-hand accounts. His questioning ran for so long that Skitter began to look in her pack for food. Realizing that his questioning time would be reduced if the human had to find her own food, Kurama decided to remedy the situation on his own, quickly allocating an apple tree from a nearby grove hidden just a few miles from his mountain and dropping it right by the human. Even as Skitter complained Kurama had the feeling that he would enjoy having a pet human especially if they were as fun to annoy as this one.
It had been only a few days before Skitter somehow managed to attract the attention of the ninja clans. She had talked him into waiting for ten minutes before pouncing on the intruders but the time seemed to have been well spent. Upon his arrival, the humans agreed to discuss terms with him. Normally such a thing would be superfluous as he would simply destroy any who dared enter his domain but watching the faces of the humans as they listened to him speak brought a dark sort of enjoyment to his heart and he found himself eagerly awaiting another chance to break these humans' expectations.
The following day brought with it a surprise in the form of two clan children. Both held chakra signatures that were familiar. Fathers favored children in their present incarnations and also the single greatest contributing factor to Kurama's hatred of humanity. Why the sage chose these two to carry on his legacy Kurama never understood. All the two ever seemed to manage was the exact opposite of fathers dreams. Kurama had half a mind to kill the both of them, but the gifts the two brought changed his mind. These gifts happened to be Kurama's favorite foods and other amenities from a time when he was living at fathers monastery. He had the sneaking suspicion that the old man had had something to do with this, perhaps having written down a list of the bijuu's favorite things and placing it in the vast libraries he tended to spend most of his time within. If any records from the monasteries era still existed it would likely reside within the Senju and Uchiha archives.
Kurama decided that the gifts warranted some favor, especially since the two seemed genuinely interested in garnering his favor. After hearing out their reasons for coming he couldn't help but laugh at the irony. These two had been complicit in nearly all the bloodshed of the last thousand years; Indra for his bastardization of ninshu, Ashura for helping spread it. Even after reincarnation, the siblings continued their feud, perpetuating war across the world. The previously-peaceful sage animals were dragged into conflict thanks to the contracts they made with humans, after which the knowledge of ninjutsu was shared and used to gain advantages between neighboring animal tribes. The very use of chakra in warfare could be traced back to these two and they were the ones complaining about their clans' inability to negotiate peace.
It was just too funny.
To be fair, though, the two kits before him couldn't be entirely blamed for their past selves' mistakes. A thought occurred to Kurama at that moment - this was a chance of a millennium, to right the mistakes of the original Indra and Ashura.
Kurama knew that his own understanding of humans was lacking; the only thing he knew for sure was that giving too much power to a single human would eventually lead toward self-destructive behavior. Skitter was a treasure trove of human ideology and had given him a broader perspective on the workings of the human mind than he had ever dreamed of having before. Perhaps with her help fathers dream of peace would be feasible. Either way, he was determined to keep his pseudo-brothers close by to ensure that they didn't somehow ruin his father's dreams any further than they already had.
XxxxX XxxxX
Step one of Kurama's plan to world domina- optimization was going better than expected. He had stopped a slaughter on his doorstep with a show of force and now the humans were practically scrambling to set aside their differences. Madara and Hashirama were spending more time than ever in the mountain den and were becoming far too familiar with him in his opinion. It was now to the point that he could detect their intent to bother him from miles away, despite the relative insignificance of such a desire. In fact, the two seemed to be up to something suspicious as they lurked in the forests just beneath his mountain. The intent drifting from them was one of trickery and Kurama was already suspicious of some kind of prank. Madara usually restrained the worst of Hashirama's idiocy, but every so often the Senju would convince his friend to participate in his childish behavior. Following a game trail to a dense outcropping of foliage, Kurama spied the two troublemakers engrossed in the construction of some sort of elaborate spring system. Using his superior stealth skills Kurama drew closer to try and figure out what the two were planning.
"- ten gallons is all that I could get. It should at least be enough to cover some of his muzzle if we can get the packages to explode at just the right moment," says Hashirama.
Were the brats really attempting to use this setup on him? The packages smelled vile and their consistency looked to be of a mushy paste-like texture. It would take weeks to properly clean it from his fur if it ever made contact. Sneaking even closer, Kurama whips his dextrous tails at the small pile of paste containers, sending them flying at the two boys, causing the contents to drench them from head to toe. Before either can process what just happened Kurama grabs the two of them, making sure to form a layer of chakra to prevent the paint from contacting his immaculate fur.
The ensuing interrogation eventually reveals their purpose for their little stunt. They were creating a distraction so that their friends could enter his home. That was simply unacceptable. These clan children had no right to bother him or Skitter on a mere whim.
The trek back to the den was relatively short and upon arriving Kurama was surprised to see Skitter handling the children fairly well. Using fear tactics was something he could respect. After revealing himself Kurama decided to entertain a single conversation with them, so long as they agreed to learn the same lessons as Hashirama and Madara were undertaking. Afterall any plan that relied solely on those two was sure to fail, better to plan for their inevitable failures now.
After settling into the den Kurama watches as the children have a look around before grouping together and talking of Skitter. Eventually, Kurama gets tired of the waste of time and suggests to Skitter to just reveal herself. Proceeding to do so Skitter walks out before the assembled children, however, the excitement of the Aburame somehow caused a reaction within Skitter. The tone of her emotions suddenly shifted into a sea of primal desire and instinct while also exuding potent killing intent. Quickly snatching her up with a tail, he tries to make sense of what just happened. While yelling at the Aburame for their likely involvement, when suddenly pain shoots through his tail causing him to reflexively drop Skitter to the ground. Kurama looks down at his tail and finds a slowly recovering bald patch where once Skitter was held.
Soon after Kurama finds himself leaving his den after getting a promise from Skitter to not kill the prospective backup pla- new students. Having walked some distance from his home Kurama began to contemplate the strangeness of the past months. Having people talk to him was such a novel thing before, but now he was almost wishing he had some peace and quiet again.
Later that day after feeling the presence of the clan children leave his home Kurama made his way back to his inner sanctum where Skitter awaited. Upon his arrival Kurama found Skitter looking over scrolls that smelled of the Nara boy and fresh ink.
"Are you really taking their words so seriously? We both know that the plans are a farce, anything that they concocted by themselves will likely fall apart in at most two generations. Put it aside, we have real matters to discuss."
Skitter proceed to put away the documents while giving a short sigh of annoyance.
"You could take this more seriously you know. The proposed plan for uniting the clans is revolutionary for these people." She sighed. "But I suppose I can understand your viewpoint. Look, I just want to say I'm sorry for earlier, my powers just acted up when those Aburame bugs got out is all."
Looking at her like she was a particularly annoying fly, Kurama stares at her in disbelief before replying.
"Do you realize the implications of what happened earlier? That patch of fur may seem trivial to you, but there is something you must understand. I am power incarnate. within my being there is enough raw energy to wipe out an entire country. That patch of fur was the equivalent of shoving a pound of uranium down your throat. Frankly, I'm surprised you walked away from the experience alive, let alone unharmed."
"...I didn't realize it was that serious, but I don't see what I can do about it now. It's not like I can ask it to spit it out or anything, hell I don't even know for sure what it's actually doing with all that chakra."
Kurama contemplated an idea, whatever the thing attached to Skitter was must have its own thoughts grafted onto her mind. He only had the one attempt at ninshu as a reference but it was possible that this passenger could be communicated with if it was truly sentient. Whichever was the case, Kurama wasn't happy having an unknown element tampering with Skitter's psyche.
"If I am to trust you around the humans, we need to make sure your... passenger isn't going to induce a feeding frenzy anytime you so much as look at a Kikaichu. If this passenger of yours is sentient. then I should be able to communicate with it via ninshu. Since it's been soaking up chakra from around you there shouldn't be a problem for it to bridge whatever gap prevents the two of you from communicating properly."
"I'm not sure that that's a smart thing to do," Skitter said. "I really don't know enough about my passenger to say how it would react, plus it's connected to me through a piece of my brain. The last time someone tampered with that connection to my passenger I didn't even know who I was anymore. I became a monster and I'm afraid of becoming like that again."
"Ninshu was designed to be a noninvasive form of universal communication. Whatever your problems are with this passenger, get over them because I'm doing this with or without your permission. You will be untrustworthy if this problem persists, and I find it completely asinine that you let fear dictate your actions like this."
"You don't fucking understand what it was like! What it feels like to have your personality, your soul, taken away from you piece by piece until all that's left is barely recognizable."
A strange sensation passes through the air, like a toxic cloud slowly taking away the oxygen of the room. The bitter smell of nature energy enters the periphery of Kurama's senses, and suddenly Skitter shudders violently before the sensations dissipate. The effect had originated from within her body, showcasing an intelligence and control that neither of them had realized the passenger was capable of.
"Holy shit, I didn't know it could do that. Why hasn't it done something like this before now though? If your chakra gave it enough agency to understand speech and try communicating...I have a terrible premonition that this will end badly for me."
"No need to be so cynical, this should be over quickly. Now get over here so we can get this over with and get onto discussing what will happen with our involvement with the clans."
Skitter reluctantly moved from her sitting position walking slowly to stand close to Kurama. Mimicking their first encounter Kurama snatches Skitter in one hand, grumbling slightly with impatience at the whole situation before closing his eyes and beginning the procedure.
XxxxX XxxxX
Funneling chakra through Skitter, Kurama locates a point in which his chakra flows out of existence. Following the pathway proves difficult but eventually he manages to slip a fragment of his being through the hole in reality. The fragment relays a portrait of a moonless black sky filled with an innumerable number of multicolored motes of light, winding around themselves like a spiraling waterfall of incandescent water droplets. Within the whirlpool of stars, an odd creature undulated and twisted in impossible directions, seemingly ignoring normal three-dimensional physics. Kurama didn't know what he expected this 'passenger' to look like, but this was definitely not what he imagined. The thing was massive to the point of defying comprehension. He had never felt so small before, yet the size difference didn't intimidate him. In fact, Kurama revealed for a moment in the novelty of being smaller than someone else, regardless of the strangeness of the entity before him.
With an effort of will, a thread of chakra suddenly manifests in the void of space and with a burst of intent the thread rockets forth like a transparent red harpoon, connecting to the floating creature and forming a tether. Through the new connection, a familiar echo of experiences flashes, a close facsimile of Skitter's. The only difference Kurama could find was a subdued need for conflict and a burning hunger that verged on starvation. Feeling the creature ripple with curiosity at the chakra thread he quickly sets about trying to convey the knowledge necessary for it to form its own communication thread with Skitter. A moment passes where the being stops all its strange movements, seemingly contemplating the new information before suddenly a pseudopod of crystalline material whips forth, following the chakra thread to its entrypoint, engulfing and subsequently breaking the small fragment of his power that had entered the starfield.
Opening his eyes to the real world Kurama, growls in annoyance at his apparent failure. Looking towards the human in his hand he finds her looking straight at him with two fully dilated eyes. A look of confused wonder slowly spread across her face.
"I-it's - she's talking to me I think. It almost sounds like my voice, but I don't know what it's trying to say...does the name Hagoromo mean anything to you?"
Kurama barely managed to not drop Skitter in his shock at the name. How can this passenger-creature know Father's name?
XxxxX XxxxX
AN: Sorry for the long delay, it's hard being an adult sometimes who would have thought? Anyway I would like to again thank QafianSage for all his help with this. If you havent already, check out some of his stuff, my personal favorite is an old SI story set in the Inheritance cycle setting (Eragon) as a mother fucking magiteck android. As always tell me your thoughts, I love hearing the conspiracy theories but even just hearing your perspectives helps alot with motivation for the story.
Next chapter: *tentative title* Inquisiitive Minds
