Chapter 37: The choice of Kyubi

In a splash of water, the Fox, the Vixen and Neji landed on a solid surface which was formerly the ground of the seal room. Around them, the walls are twisted and blackened, they are split by large cracks opening on nothing, on the vacuum. The ground too is borken in pieces, but the water doesn't run out by the opening. Floating above the vacuum, the liquid mass seems to cling to what remains of the thick iron bars which retained Kyubi.

Alia opens her eyes and releases the leg of her father. she trembles on her legs.Because of emotion, because of tiredness. Her white eyes full of fear, she looks at the large head of Kyubi above her. She notices his closed eyes, his low ears. Even the undulating movement of his tails is less sharp than before.

With a small voice, she asks: "You're sad, Father?"

Kyubi: "Yonbi... Alia, why did you betray me? Did I betray you? Why did you reject me?"

Alia leans on her legs to seek the glance, so burning usually, of the Fox. She tries to explain: "But I, ... I don't want that the village is destroyed! I don't want that Dad, Mom, Grand-father, Aunt Hanabi, everyone... die! I don't want that all is broken! I want... I want... "

The tears start to run from her large white eyes while she continues: "I want... to become again a small girl. I want go home, with Mom and Dad! I want to go to the academy and to become Shinobi... I don't want to be a malicious demon Renard!"

With Dad, she said "with Dad". Neji heard almost only this word. How happy! He cherishes with his hand the purple fur of his daughter.

Neji: "Alia, We'll go homme all together, don't cry anymore. Dad is here. "

The Fox sit in the water, without trying to escape by the many cracks of the room. He could flee now. He could find his freedom, run away alone, leave far from these poor creatures who're living on the surface... but... his daughter, his small Vixen...

Large tears run from her eyes, she groans. She's unhappy. And the Fox hasunderstood that he's the culprit. He gently rubs his muzzle against the one of his daughter to comfort her. Bur the very powerful Kyubi can't calm the tears of a small Vixen. It's not so simple, not as easy as to kill hundreds of human and to shave villages. Kyubi can do all that. But he doesn't know how to prevent his daughter from being unhappy because of him.

Large sorrow, large sobs. A despair, large as violet Vixen, floods the seal room, floods the incandescant heart of the Fox. How can flames burn under all this despair?

The Fox has a deep sigh. He sees the walls gradually being closed again, the ground becoming again flat, the bars of the cage rectifying. His prison is being rebuilt. Outside, the white eyes woman is remaking the spiral seal on Naruto's belly, assisted by Jiraya. Does he have nothing anymore but two choices? To flee or to stay?

To flee. To give up his daughter, to never see her again. To live, unceasingly tracked by human, these so small creatures, unimportant, but who are covering and transforming the world. Strange beings, in the heart more powerful than him.

To stay. To wait without defending until the cage is closed again on him. To stay for always in this wet room, without being able to live and move, and seeing his daughter only in her dreams. And then, disapear forever at the same time as his carrier.

He, the Fox, can't he find another solution? another answer, as these human do, each time , to fight him and to win against him. Can he accept a sacrifice for another form of victory?

Kyubi looks at his small violet Vixen, and blows on her muzzle. In a pink cloud of smoke, the great form of the Vixen disapear and the fine body Alia with her four small tails appears. With support, Neji falls to the ground, and catch up his daughter with accuracy before she land in the cold water. Relieved, he tightens her against him with forces. Alia cries if happiness in Neji's arms. It's so reassuring, so reassuring to be in Dad's arms , to hear him say: "It's finished, my treasure, we'll go home soon, with mom."

The glance of the Fox overhangs these two small human, and Kyubi has a mocker smile. He makes slap his nine tails, making spout out the water. The water which was used to stabilize the seal agitates under the impulse of Kyubi's chakra and begin to whirl. Carried by a wave, Neji and Alia passed through a crack and disappear in the vacuum...and they suddenly appear just next to Naruto.

Hinata: "Neji! Alia!!!"

She can't raise from her work and the seal, but Neji reads her joy on her radiant face. Under the hands of Hinata and Jiraya, red and black signs twist and agitate on Naruto's belly, in spite of the pressure which they exert.

Jiraya: "Neji, what's happening inside?"

Neji: "The Fox had created a swirl in water."

Jiraya: "A swirl? What does he try to do??"

Suddenly, in a geyser of water melted with red chakra, a mass of colossal energy spouts out the Naruto's navel and pushes back Hinata, Jiraya, Sasuke, Neji and Alia. Then water and chakra fall down them, soaking them completely. Hinata and Jiraya raise immediately to look at the seal on Naruto, but it doesn't show anymore sign of activity. The seal is closed again from inside.

Hinata and Jiraya look with perplexity. With a detached face, not to show his concern, Sasuke leans near Naruto who makes him the sign of the victory with a bright smile. He doesn't seem very disturbed by the event. On the other hand, Hinata falls like a mass in Neji's arms, Neji who holds already Alia and wavers under the shock.

Neji: "Hinata!"

Alia: "Mom! Mom!"

But she seems to have lost conscience.