"Now you really do look like a granddad!"
Minato, propped up against a stone, managed to laugh dryly before wisps of his own entrails escaped his mouth. He was falling apart for good. "I guess I do," he wheezed, weakly blowing some air at his now gray blonde hair.
Naruto, who was to be supported by Kakashi to even stand, let himself fall heavily down at his father's side. "We... never really got a chance to talk, huh?" he mused, looking at the ground.
Minato chuckled weakly. "I guess not." He coughed again. "Ugh..., then again, we never should have. I am dead after all."
"You're just a dunderhead," Tayuya huffed, sounding terribly sleepy as Karin let her down besides Naruto. She leaned heavily against him, closing her eyes. "Bet ya he got that from you."
"Hey!" both father and son exclaimed at the same time.
Minato shook his head, watching in mild fascination as his legs slowly began to turn into dust. "Ah, no... he got that from his mother." He looked at the two of them. "She'd be so very proud, you know?" He laughed for a moment. "And... and she would hound you for some kids on a daily basis... and... and stuff you with ramen till kingdom come-!" He was forced to stop, coughing harshly.
"Lover boy already takes care of that," Tayuya chuckled tiredly. "Bet you he's simply eating her share as well."
"That might be entirely possible," Kakashi added, sitting down painfully at his mentor's other side.
"Ey..." Naruto protested weakly. "I'm not... that bad. Right? Right? Oh fine, maybe I am. But what can I do? Ramen is the best!"
Minato laughed, a raspy, labored sounding noise. "Oh no... Don't make me laugh... Jeez, you're so much like you mother, it should be a crime." He lifted his head with some effort, meeting Naruto's eyes, who was rapidly blinking tears away. He smiled, lips stretching until they cracked. "I'm proud of you. Your mother is too, I know it..."
Naruto rapidly shook his head. "I- No... I'm-!" he stammered incomprehensibly. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, forcing a smile that never undid the tears that fell freely from his eyes. "Say hi to mom for me. Might be... might be quite some time before we see each other again." Whatever he had wanted to add, was swallowed by a sobbing noise that escaped his throat.
"I... I will," Minato promised, smiling weakly. His eyes moved to Tayuya, who had cracked one eye open to observe. He saw how tightly she was clutching his son's hand, how hard he must be squeezing back. "Don't spoil him too much, yeah?" he began before a huge crack appeared right in his face, splitting it right between the eyes. Minato struggled to continue talking. "If- If he's anything like his mother-... he... he'll totally never get off your back!" he joked, his attempted smile cracking his cheeks like brittle stone.
Tayuya huffed, pushing her head against Naruto's with a bit of effort. "He better don't, cause I'm not leaving anytime soon."
Suddenly the process of Minato's ruin seemed to accelerate, wisps and pieces of his body cracked and fell away, disintegrating into the wind. "Take care... you two... all of you... I'll see you all... in... in the next... life..."
And as if this last goodbye had exhausted the remnants of his energy, Minato's body fell away into a could of white dust, which scattered into the wind, fading from sight not a second after.
The way back to Konoha was arduous, strenuous and a horrible reminder of just how terrible this war had been. Not every chakra bomb that had been fired had also been blocked. Huge parts of the Land of Fire has simply been wiped off the map, villages had disappeared and forests had burnt to the ground.
Naruto didn't want to hear about the death toll. He knew it was bad, very bad. In fact, he couldn't even sense half of the people that should have been there. But not only that, Kurama was gone as well. He hadn't felt this empty since Jiraiya had passed. The Kyuubi had been a constant in his life, even if an annoying and brash one. The fox had been there when no one else had been.
Tayuya squeezed his hand, even while she conversed with Sari and Karin, who had thankfully survived this madness. In fact, all of the Konoha 11 were still here. And, of course, Sasuke.
Naruto could see him be guided along the rest of them in between the hobbling Kakashi and the super pissed Tsunade. Sakura, who looked like someone had tried to dye her hair red, was doing her best to heal both Kakashi and Sasuke even as they walked.
Lee and Gai were walking back on their hands ever since Karin had healed them, though now she proceeded to scowl at them something fierce. Neji, Tenten and Hinata were with Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, all of whom had taken quite the beating with Madara's Shinra Tensei. Naruto was just glad they had made it at all.
But that thought returned him to the loss of Kurama, to losing his father for a second time (in some way) and never even getting the chance to say thank you to Hiruzen for all he had done.
They said goodbye to Gaara and his entourage of exhausted shinobi when they got closer to Suna, promising the Kazegake he would visit them soon. Killer B, who was not allowed to come anywhere near Tayuya or even allowed in her field of vision, had tried cheering him up, but ultimately failed and didn't even attempt to rap as they said goodbye as well.
Naruto felt strange without Kurama's chakra inside of the... well, seal. Not that it had been a seal since he battled Nagato, more like a space the Kyuubi confined itself to.
Again, Tayuya squeezed his hand, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. The worry was evident, he could feel it. She was itching to say something, but didn't know what. So he smiled at her instead.
"It'll be okay," he told her and more so himself.
" 'Course it will be," she said confidently, bumping lightly into him. "Not like I'd let you sulk all day anyways."
The smile stretched a bit wider and he returned the gesture. "Not like I expected you to," he said. "It's just... strange, you know? He's always been there before and now... he just isn't."
Touching her neck, the spot the cursed mark had once occupied, Tayuya nodded solemnly. "As weird as it is, I think I understand." She grinned at him, though it didn't reach her eyes. "You know, even if he was a fucking bastard, the mark gave me power. Was pretty damn strange once it was just gone." She shrugged. "But, well, shit was never mine to begin with."
They traveled slowly, making camp almost every day and didn't cover much distance, but no one had the power left to sprint all the way back to Konoha, not even Gai would boat that much. Three nights they had camped out, sleeping in trees and burrows created with earth manipulation, and were but a day away from Konoha at their current speed.
Tayuya, perched besides him on the branch high above the ground, stared up at the moon deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked her, playing with the ring on her finger.
"Dunno," she replied, "Just wondering how this all would have ended if all that Eye of The Moon stuff succeeded."
Tugging her hand closer to him, he hummed in thought. "Well... a genjutsu, right? An endless one at that."
"Yeah but isn't that just fucking stupid?" she asked, scooting closer to him. "He ensnares everyone in an eternal genjutsu, stopping war, sure, but he'd certainly basically doomed humanity, you know?"
"Really?" Naruto asked, frowning.
"Yeah," Tayuya nodded, turning towards him, whispering in his ear. "Ya know... sex breaks you out of a genjutsu, not that you could have sex while being caught in one. So he effectively killed the whole future. Dumb ass shit. They'd all grow old and die in the genjutsu. No children, no future."
"Huh," Naruto responded. "That's... stupid."
"Mhm," she hummed into his ear. "But.. you know, no that we aren't stuck in a weird ass genjutsu we can have sex," she whispered huskily.
Naruto didn't get to voice his opinion before Tayuya had already pinned him against the trunk.
Karin glowered at them the entire way back to Konoha.
"If I ever get hit by a pine cone again just because you can't keep it in your pants, I'll hit you," she threatened. "And, just so you know, Sakura showed me how to put a lot of force behind these." She waved her fist at them for emphasis.
Sari, walking on their other side, was almost twitching with silent laughter.
Naruto just laughed nervously, raising the stump of his left arm in an attempt to scratch the back of his head. He blinked owlishly at it for a moment. "Huh," he made, "Gonna have to get used to that."
"So do I," Tayuya injected, almost sounding sour. "It just ain't the same if only one hand's fondling my ass."
A few feet ahead of them, Kakashi tripped over a tree root, Tsunade guffawed loudly and Sakura's neck turned red enough to rival Tayuya's hair. And then, from their left, someone laughed. Loudly, roughly and almost hysterically. It sounded utterly unfamiliar and Naruto almost tripped over the same root Kakashi had fallen victim to when he watched Sasuke almost double over in laughter.
"I think he's lost it entirely," Tayuya whispered. "That or he needs to get laid. Oi! Sakura! Come 'ere for a second!"
The village was unharmed. Mostly. Well, there was this giant ass hole right in front of the village gate, which had definitely seen better days.
"Couldn't have been any closer," Tayuya joked as they went around the crater. Naruto snorted, nudging her affectionately. If he kept this up, they wouldn't make it to the compound before she'd drag him to the next tree.
When Tsunade tried to push open the closed gates, the whole structure gave one mighty groan before the two wooden doors simply fell inwards. The Hokgage rolled her eyes. "Let's just... do this later," she sighed, turning to all of them. "Alright... I'm sure we are all tired so... all of you are dismissed. Over the next week I expect every jonin to show up in my office, clan heads included, and then we'll get the aftermath over with. For now..."
Tsunade didn't say anything more, just walked with a visible slouch into the village, where a crow was already gathering to greet them.
Tayuya scowled at the people that came to celebrate their return. "Do we have to?" she asked Naruto.
She caught him staring off into the distance. He was thinking about the Fox again. Her question had startled him and he turned to her with a weak smile. "Don't feel like it either. Come one."
They found Karin and Sari berating Lee and Gai for their stupid exercising in their condition. Sari in particular seem insistent on beating Lee's bushy eyebrows out of his face while she slapped band-aids on various scratches all over his cheeks and forehead.
Karin glowered at Gai, viciously fastening a bandage around his shoulder with enough force to choke a rhino. "And if I catch you so much as jogging, I will personally strap you into a hospital bed until even the bruising has vanished!" Gai's youthful smile twitched, as if he had trouble holding it in place, and he nodded jerkily.
"And you!" Karin suddenly turned to them. "You should be resting! Not fucking at every turn!"
She snorted. "You just need to get laid. I heard the Uchiha has a thing for Uzumaki." Her grin was almost feral at his point. "Seems to insist on kissing them, too."
She loved how Naruto always almost gagged at the memory. He suddenly pulled right into his face, to kiss it better, obviously. She complied gladly.
"If you don't stop this right now, I'll put a seal on both of you that renders you impotent!" Karin growled, tying a fist sized know onto Gai's shoulder.
She gasped. "You wouldn't!"
"Try me!"
No one noticed that Sari had a strangely comfortable conversation with Lee, only using her hands.
Coming home to the Uzumaki compound was something Naruto found hard getting used to. It was just... so grand by comparison to his apartment. Thankfully the whole complex had been untouched by the war, aside from pieces of debris and... cabbage?... in the courtyard.
"My cabbages!" it echoed from the neighboring market.
Tayuya cackled besides him. He didn't get the joke. Letting himself be dragged towards the main building, he did wonder once more what became of Kurama. He was supposed to be immortal and all that. Did it make a difference if the fox offered his life up willingly? He hoped not. He was seriously missing the grouchy thing. Tayuya tore the door open, apparently offended that it dare to block their way, and dragged him inside.
There, sleeping on the cushion Sari had produced some time ago, was the foxy ninken they had never gotten to name. Tayuya had obviously overlooked it, making a beeline to the stairs and no doubt the bedroom with him in tow. He stopped her right besides the sleeping pup, which... looked more like a fox than a dog, really.
"We never named him," he said, crouching down.
Tayuya leaned onto his shoulders from behind, putting all her body weight atop of him. "Mhm... the fox wanted to name him." Her hand found his almost automatically and he was grateful for it.
Naruto wondered what he should name the fox kit. Kurama would feel... wrong, not if there was still a chance for him to reform. Inu had been off the table long ago, though that had been Kurama's idea anyways.
"How about.., Kyuu?" he asked, pushing his head back to nuzzle Tayuya's neck.
...
"What the fuck kind of name is that?"
Really, it had been an answer Naruto expected.
Just not from the small fox at his feet.
He jumped, Tayuya included, almost up to the ceiling. Landing unsteadily and with wide eyes, he watched the little fox unravel itself from it's sleeping position and dropped his jaw unceremoniously to the floor when nine, fluffy tails swished about, white tips instead of black, but nine freaking goddamned tails.
"No fucking way," Tayuya whispered into his ear. A sentiment Naruto could readily agree with.
"Kyuu?" the fox said, the voice so... young yet most definitely the Kyuubi's drawl. Offended drawl. "Did I miss a few brain cells when I repaired your head?" Crimson eyes lazily looked up to Tayuya. "Or did you truly fuck his brains out? On the way here? I'm almost impressed."
He craned his neck around, to look at Tayuya, who was fingering the mark on her neck. It was pulsing softly. He watched the fox stretch languidly. "I... How?" he asked dumbly.
The fox huffed, a sound that was closer to a yip than anything else. "Do I really have to explain this? Can't you just be happy to have me back? Ungrateful human..."
It turned out that while Kurama would never walk the earth again, this little splinter of his chakra had never been included in the equation. The moment Kurama sacrificed all of his chakra to undo most of the serious damage done to Naruto and Tayuya, the essence of his being latched onto the next source of his chakra he could find. Which just so happened to be the ninken/fox in the Uzumaki compound.
"Besides," Kurama drawled, the sound of his voice so young and almost smooth it made Naruto uncomfortable, "I'm hungry. The food here is terrible and it's been a few millennia since I last ate. So, let's get some steak, huh? I prefer veal myself but wouldn't say no to lamb or pork either..."
Just like that, the fox sauntered in the direction of the kitchen, leaving Naruto and Tayuya staring after him.
"You know," Tayuya spoke up after a minute of stunned silence, "That almost put me out of the mood."
"Really?"
She snickered, suddenly sinking her teeth into his neck. He hissed softly as she placed the hickey of the century all over the side of his neck. "Only almost," she hissed against his skin. "Leave the baby fox to mess up the kitchen. You, lover boy, have other things to mess up." She drew closer to his ear, her breath so hot it almost burned him. "Namely... Me."
Uuuh... He shuddered at that one. How did he deserve her again?
