Rating: M
Pairings: Kurama/?, Naruto/?
Notes: This is my first fanfiction and I honesty have no idea what the hell I'm doing, so give me tips, criticism, anything to help me improve! For now you have a mess so bear with me until I get better at this, okay? Now without further ado, please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not, in any shape, thought or form, own Naruto!
PROLOGUE: LOSS
Kurama is furiously confused right now.
One moment Kurama is in Kushina's seal trying to help her in giving birth, cuz he wants to see them kits damn it -he gets to be named after one of 'em, crazy right?!-, then some random man comes with the most sage-forsaken gaudy mask ever made and Sharinganed him so hard, he's still feeling the whiplash.
And now, he honestly doesn't know how he ended up here with both Minato and Kushina. Stabbed. By his own claw.
What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck.
A strangled cough snaps his attention to Kushina as she tries to raise her head at him, and honestly speaking, he doesn't want to know what her expression is right now.
Though he's unsure, and honestly hopes his memory fails him for once, he vaguely remembers attacking while she was in the middle of labor, probably destroyed half of Konoha and killed a fourth of their population.
So, yeah.
He really doesn't want to see his only friend's face of betrayal and pain right now, or ever.
So you can't really blame him for why he finds the ground so interesting right now. "Kushina, I-"
He chokes on his breath.
Kushina is smiling at him.
Why is she smiling at him?
Why does it hurt so much?
"Sor…ry Kura-Chan…"
Why is she apologizing? Is it because she used that Sage-forsaken name?
"We…kinda have t-", she coughs up a mouthful of blood. "to...seal ya b-back ag-gain.", she continues with a grimace.
He doesn't even think he heard her at this point. His ears feel like they're stuffed with cotton, everything coming in so muffled yet so clear at the same time. His having thought up an argument, to tell her to stop talking, yet the words are still stuck in his throat. His eyes so damn blurry, yet he can see her face oh so clearly.
The face, that always shows so much positive emotion like a mini sun that can brighten up the place more than his flames can even dream of, looking so pained right now, covered in her blood more red than her own blazing hair. A pain HE caused.
"B-be sure to….t-take care of N-Naru..to for us?" She's looking at him with an expression he honestly never wished to see on her. She wasn't asking him to look after Naruto, the name of one of her sons he heard oh so many times, he could probably cover the entire Hokage monument with the name each time he heard it, she was begging him. He destroyed her home. Killed her husband. Killed her.
Yet she is begging him to take care of her own flesh and blood, her son.
Then he freezes.
She said her son.
Not sons.
He feels his breath hitch and his body seize up.
As thought sensing his question, which he is glad she did cuz he doesn't think his throat will be working anytime soon, she answers, "H-he…he didn't make it….." she chokes out, tears streaming out her eyes as well.
He couldn't have.
He can't have.
Kushina raises her tear-tracked face and smiles at him. Not the Uzumaki grin or a mischievous one. A genuine smile with no teeth.
"Take care of him for use, Kura-Chan!"
He suddenly feels like he's out of his own body. There yet not feeling. Like it's empty, a husk of its former glory.
He vaguely feels himself separating into two, but doesn't care.
Kushina is gone.
Kushina is gone.
He killed her.
He killed Kushina.
For the first time, Kurama doesn't even let his pride cross his mind. Everything is blank except for the giant 'YOU KILLED KUSHINA' overfilling his mind. He doesn't try to stop as he welcomes the long forgotten familiar prickling in his eyes like an old friend.
As the silence breaks in the corpse-filled land, the wailing of a single mourning baby echoes across Konoha.