As the sun set and the moon rose the nightlife of the Land of Spring came to life, tired workers and couples drinking and relaxing in a variety of bars.
In one of them sat two people, a young blonde man with blue eyes and a woman with dark orange hair and red slited eyes, their eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment before they both grinned and their drinks met in cheer.
"I'll give it to you" The woman said. "When you came to me in the seal with this idea all those years ago I thought you were crazy"
"Kurama I'm offended" Naruto said, jokingly overreacting. "I always keep my promises"
"So I see" Kurama said. "How long do you think it will take before somebody suspects something?"
"In a few years, I imagine" Naruto said. "When you don't reform people will start to get ideas"
"Aren't you worried?"
"Should I be?" Naruto said. "As far as anyone is concerned Naruto Uzumaki, the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, heroically sacrificed his life as a last-ditch effort to take out the evil leader of the Akatsuki"
"People aren't stupid" Kurama said.
When Naruto merely raised an eyebrow she elaborated.
"When they realize I'm not really dead someone will think you may not be either" She said. "They'll come looking for you"
"Kurama my teacher for the better part of three years was a spymaster" Naruto said. "As much as I didn't care for Jiraya personally I acknowledge his skills, if there's one thing I learned from him is how to hide, and besides, people depend on chakra way too much, some hair dye and decent papers and nobody will make the connection"
"If you say so"
"What about you?" Naruto asked. "Now that you're free from the seal what do you plan to do?"
"I wanted to go find the bastard who controlled me and kill him" Kurama said. "But I won't be stupid, I'll just hide somewhere inhospitable to humans and wait a century or two, once they die out I can come back"
"Good idea" Naruto said. "I'm going to be busy setting up my new identity for a while still, afterwards I think I'm going to become a seal merchant, not many of those around and with Jiraya dead I'm probably already the best in the world with all that studying I had to do to get you free from the seal without killing myself, I want to see how far can I take it"
"Go ahead then" Kurama said. "With the missing pieces of my chakra recovered I don't think the Akatsuki can complete their plans so you should be fine"
"There were more of those going around than I expected" Naruto said. "The monk brat, those two weirdos from Kumo, not so dear old dad"
"Tell me about it" Kurama said. "At least I'm whole now, and using the henge to look human was something I should have thought to do years ago, I should go relatively unnoticed"
"Yeah, well, cunning and trickery are what I fox does best"
Kurama gave him a bemused smile and spoke.
"I told you I'm not an actual fox, that's just the shape the old man gave me" She said. "That said, if I had been more like a fox then maybe I wouldn't have been captured in the first place"
They shared a moment of pleasant silence, the sounds of the other tables becoming background noise, before Naruto spoke.
"Why did you pick that form?"
"Why?" Kurama said, smirking. "Are you attracted to me?"
Naruto rolled his eyes and said.
"You've been stuck inside my body for 16 years, I assumed you would prefer a male body, and it is not like you have a gender"
"Amusement" Kurama said. "Besides some minor changes I made myself as close to Mito Uzumaki as possible, I find it funny to parade around as my first jailor"
"Whatever you say" Naruto said with a shrug before he chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm imagining what kind of face the leader of the Akatsuki will make when he realizes we fooled him"
"He'll be mad" Kurama said. "Konoha probably won't survive the retaliation, if they even make it that far, he sure did a number on them if the memories of the clones are anything to go by"
"Maybe they will, maybe they won't" Naruto shrugged. "That's hardly our problem"
Naruto then finished his drink and got up.
"I better get going" He said. "Not all of us are immortal"
He extended his fist to Kurama and said.
"We won't see each other again so this is goodbye"
"So long" Kurama said, their fists bumping. "Partner"