So, this is the second chapter. If this fic gets enough love or if I get hit with more inspiration I'll continue, but until then, enjoy!
Kurama had been traveling for days, keeping all his senses open just in case he encountered anyone. Luckily, with his power, he was never short of food and it was relatively easy to find water. It wasn't that Kurama couldn't use chakra, it was just that demon energy was simply completely different. While chakra allowed the user to use many different elements and components, demon energy was usually one thing specific.
When the bijuu had been 'born', Kurama was taught some chakra. Just for knowledge's sake, he learned as much as he could, but never really used it; he didn't see a need to. As a demon, even merged, he was faster and stronger than normal humans and his demon energy alone is good enough. But Kurama was never one to turn down knowledge, or leave such a gaping hole in his education of fighting.
He could feel that he was getting closer to a big mass of energy and signatures meaning that villages or even cities had been formed. Seeing as how it had been centuries, it was a welcome surprise that humanity had rebuilt together.
Though that did pause him to think, just what exactly would he tell anyone? He couldn't go 'I was in another world, actually another dimension for centuries so I don't know what is going on anymore.' Not only was that Yusuke level of stupid, but it would raise way more questions.
Bringing his red and silver hair forward, he supposed that he could just be someone that has no home and is finally starting to look for one. He would have to be cautious with that story, but at least it was close to the truth. Also being on the run would explain why he was hidden so thoroughly and where some of his fighting prowess came from.
As for a name, it had been a long time since he wasn't called Kurama, so he could keep that just for simplicity's sake. He guessed he could use a variation of Minamino as a last name; Minato wasn't too far off. Kurama Minato, good enough.
As he had finalized his name internally, he had picked up some people finally spotting him. Some of them stopped and stared for a bit before leaving again. Though their speed was much faster than normal humans, which was a slight surprise.
Finally at some point, he was about a day away from what was probably a village when he felt people come watch him from the forest. They were obviously trying to hide, but you couldn't hide from a demon, especially not one as old as Kurama.
That filled Kurama with a pang of sadness for a second; his children, the bijuu, had grown up while he was gone. He missed the first century at minimum and that was when they would have the most growth. But he shoved that thought away as he turned towards the forest for the night.
Kurama knew that he was being watched, so he didn't even consider using any energy or chakra, just climbed up a tree. Once he was high enough, he settled on a branch and used his pack as a pillow.
He wouldn't be completely asleep; it's been like that ever since he was a child; you couldn't let your guard completely down or someone would just kill you for it. Especially when Kurama became the well-known thief, people were especially after him during those days.
Still, relaxing in a tree, surrounded by nature was nice. He couldn't sleep but he could rest at least.
It was roughly a few hours after dawn when Kurama decided to complete 'wake' himself. He was a little impressed that even though the original watchers left, he was still consistently watched all night. Weighing the pros and cons, he figured that people here were sturdier and better than in the human world in his dimension. Going by their stealth, and even just their speed, clued him in. So, with some recklessness (he was blaming Yusuke, you don't spend a few years with that man and come out unscathed), he simply jumped from his high branch down to the floor.
Landing in a crouch, he was pleased to note that his watchers hadn't even reacted to his jump; which hopefully meant that it was somewhat common feat now. Hopefully this just let him blend in a bit better, and gave him a more accurate scale for what people could now do.
Slowly standing up, he stretched a bit as he considered his plans. He was hit with a bout of mischief (that was well known among foxes), and considered the pros and cons of letting his watchers know that he knew they were there. Deciding to think on it, he didn't waste time and continued heading towards what he was hoping was a village, and where he felt something wrong with his eldest.
He was mildly impressed with the walls when he saw them; that was definitely a village. He continued to casually walk up to the front gate where there were some people standing guard. Deciding to indulge himself, he sent a backwards wave towards his watchers as he stepped up to the guards.
He specifically didn't react when he felt a spike of unease from his watchers. But he did smile politely at the guards and just hoped that not too much has changed.
"Name and reason" One of the guards asked.
He was dressed a little odd, and Kurama could definitely make out some weapons on his person, along with a weird almost headband that had a rectangle of metal in the middle with a symbol. The one who asked had it tied around his forehead, while the other guard had it loosely around his neck.
Maybe this new era of people will prove to be interesting at least if the welcome committee to a village were obviously fighters of some kind. Kurama had to violently fight back the urge to smirk, he always loved a good fight.
"Ah yes, I am Kurama Minato and I guess I am just visiting."
He couldn't help but notice a slight reaction to a couple of things. First was the name, and that caused the guards to give him more of a closer inspection. The next thing that got a reaction was his red hair; and they look almost astonished as if they recognized him.
Which was silly because Kurama didn't have any descendants, but there was likely another group of red heads that had cropped up somewhere and were well known. The silver at the ends at least helped them recover from their astonishment. So pure red hair had to mean something.
Still, Kurama continued to smile and signed a document with his new name allowing him entry. As he was walking by, they looked like they had the urge to comment or ask something but they held onto it.
Kurama was aware that his watchers had also entered the village and seemed to actually disappear within the mass of people. He was also impressed by the sheer size of the village.
As he walked sedately down a main road, he had to note a few things. One, the headband things were actually pretty rare and seemed to only show on warriors of some kind. Two, Kurama may have been too hasty in arriving to a village as he realized he didn't have a currency. Well, this wouldn't be the first time he made a hasty shop selling his plants for some money.
Actually, Kurama probably had some valuable items on him that he could sell, but he was possessive and until he couldn't provide with his plants, he was keeping his treasures. He kept a sharp ear out to hear the amounts and type of money that was being passed around, to hopefully grasp the money system quickly.
Kurama veered off slightly from the main road and just quietly walked around. He thought he could feel new watchers on him, but with the size and suddenness of all the people around him, he wasn't too sure. It would take him awhile to accumulate to the size of people before he could pinpoint if someone was watching him or not. It would be easier if he was outside a village, but he has always been able to adapt.
It was barely midday, but when Kurama spotted some forest, he turned towards that way and continued walking. It would be best if he scouted out a place to rest for the night before he obtained funds to buy anything. Plus, it would be a hassle if he had to exit the village just to sleep and then come back in.
His sharp hearing picked up sounds of fighting, but he didn't outwardly react. If he did have watchers, he didn't want to raise any suspicion or show that he had enhanced senses.
The closer he got to the forest though, the louder the fighting got and he started to slow down, to give himself time to take in what was happening.
The first thing he noticed was an odd hand weapon that looked to be used as a blade. The second thing he noticed was that it was a sparring match between people, which was a relief. The most important thing he noticed though, was that they were quite young.
He squinted a little and could make out that there were 3 of them, all preteens. There was a teenager or young adult off to the side watching 2 of the preteens fight.
This conflicted Kurama; in demon world, it didn't matter how young you were, you fought to survive. But in the human world, they wouldn't allow for any type of this real fighting until they were legally adults. This seemed almost a mix, which was interesting in itself.
He didn't quite know what to do about this, so he stopped at the edge of the ground and watched for a bit. They might be preteens, but this could clue him in to the common way of fighting now; it would help him blend in.
He was interested to see that at the moment they seemed to be fighting hand to hand with some of the weird diamond like blades. This was probably just a branch of fighting as every place had several branches of fighting styles.
One of the other preteens held the blade to the others throat and the match was called. He continued to silently watch as the eldest seem to be talking and teaching the 3 preteens something.
He was slightly startled to realize that it was the beginning of some of the things he was taught with for chakra fighting before he left. It seems like chakra fighting had evolved since he was last here, and was now a common ability in some regard. It wasn't completely the same, but the hand symbols were the same at least.
He continued to watch until he noticed a presence heading towards him, almost lazily. But he could feel the power in that person and immediately knew they walked that slow on purpose, like a predator.
Kurama had to fight a bloodthirsty smile. Maybe fighting here would be much more interesting than it had been in demon world or even the human world.
"Yo."
Kurama turned slightly to look at who approached him but kept the training in the corner of his eye. The young man was barely an adult, and even with his slouched posture, power seemed to emanate from him. Kurama didn't even bat a lash at the silver-gray hair that he had, seeing as his own hair had silver and at one point he had purely silver hair. What was surprising was that even though the uniform was similar to the guards in the front, it wasn't completely the same.
Kurama met the one gray eye of the warrior in front of him. The bottom half of his face was completely covered with a mask of some sort, and the weird headband he had noticed on warriors only earlier was covering his other eye. Just looking into that eye told Kurama, that this man was definitely a warrior, probably a predator.
He had one hand in his pants pocket and the other was held up in a slight wave.
Kurama smiled pleasantly at the man and turned more of his attention towards him; it wouldn't do for a fight to break out and he be unprepared. "Good afternoon."
The two fighters seemed to silently size each other up, one impassive and the other smiling pleasantly. Nothing changed in the man's posture, but Kurama saw a spark of interest in that gray eye.
"I haven't seen you around before, you a merchant?" The man finally asked as he stopped about 2 feet away from Kurama.
Kurama's smile didn't waver as he responded, "I guess you could call me a merchant."
"Oh, then what would you call yourself?" He asked almost lazily.
"Just a traveler."
The man was too good to show any outward signs of his interest, but Kurama had been a demon and fought demons for centuries. There were still the tiniest of tells that most people gave off, and with his experience he either had to learn them all, or die trying.
"Maa, so what brings a traveler here?"
Kurama noticed immediately how the man didn't offer the name of the village. That was pretty smart, try to feel out what Kurama actually knew before giving away free information. But Kurama had centuries of practice, and was known for his silver tongue. It did spark amusement internally to have the first person he was truly talking with, actually challenge him like this.
"Oh, I'm not quite sure where I'm heading yet so I decided it would be nice to rest in civilization for a while."
Kurama hadn't had this much fun in a while. Most demons didn't care for word play, going straight to fighting. And the demons that did fight intellectually, he's already faced and devised a strategy to defeat in some capacity. Humans were a little more interesting in that they didn't go straight in the fight, but even that got boring. But this game of non-answers, while he's in a foreign environment, and almost no knowledge what so ever, this was fun. It was even more fun because Kurama knew that this fight of words could easily turn physical and this man in front of him would actually give him a real fight.
Maybe Kurama shouldn't spend so much time around battle nuts, it seems to have infected him in some way.
The man seemed to smile with his lone eye and Kurama was slightly impressed that he could convey emotions through a single eye.
"You seemed to be watching our forces quite intently, do you fight?"
Kurama was still slightly impressed that even now, the man didn't give up any key words. Oh, Kurama might have gone out to find his children, but he had found entertainment in the meantime.
"A bit." Kurama nodded his head a little to go with his statement.
The man seemed to give a nod back before turning slightly to watch the training. Kurama turned just the slightly bit to see the training better, but never letting this man out of his sight even for a second.
This did tell Kurama though that fighting was common and that it wasn't restricted to just adults. Going by how only the warriors had the headband, and none of the major crowd had them, the fighting must be voluntary to some degree. It was a nice mix of teaching younger people how to fight but also didn't seem to put them in the front lines.
Kurama didn't doubt for a second that they wouldn't be put on the front lines if the situation asked for it, but it didn't seem necessary currently.
They stood in silence for a minute before a commotion was heard. Turning to look to the commotion, but keeping the man in his sight, Kurama tried to figure out what it was.
Just as he looked, a young child wearing orange seemed to run by on the street. A mere minute later, there were some angry civilians (this was definitely a militaristic place in some regard) that were following. Kurama couldn't help his smile from widening slightly when he saw a few of them had pink hair; he must have pranked them and got caught.
The man had stiffened for a millisecond, but Kurama caught it. Oh, that's interesting. The boy must be someone special to the man in some regard.
As Kurama was pondering that though, his sharp hearing caught some of the words being shouted.
"Demon brat."
"Monster."
Were just a few of the words but they made Kurama's smile a bit colder and his eyes narrow ever so slightly.
Kurama knew he probably gave this reaction away to the man, but he couldn't really help it. As a demon himself, he was always offended in some way when people tried to use the word demon derogatorily.
Going by his energy alone, it was a simple bo-oh.
Oh.
Kurama blinked once in surprise. The boy held part of his eldest energy. (Kurama always found it adorable that his eldest named himself the same name)
Kurama's eyes couldn't help by narrow a bit more in concentration. But..the energy was wrong. It wasn't his child's full energy, it seemed to be only half. So where was the other half, and better question, why was it inside a human child.
Kurama didn't forget about the man that he had been talking with, but he seemed to focus a bit more on the remains of his eldest's energy that was left behind as the boy ran away.
The energy felt wrong. It felt like it was only part of the energy, and thus having two separate halves caused unimaginable pain. Kurama might not have been here for a few centuries, but the bijuu were his children. And yet, part of them is sealed within a human boy?
Kurama felt the first stirrings of anger. He didn't know what happened, but whatever happened didn't warrant a soul being ripped in half and locked up.
He deliberately took a deep breath, knowing that the man would catch on. But if he didn't calm himself now, the anger would just build and that would do no one any good.
Kurama noticed a calculating gleam enter the lone eye. So not only is the boy someone special to the man, he must be special in a wider sense. If Kurama wasn't actively looking for bijuu energy, he probably never would have felt his son's half soul. It was locked and suppressed away very tightly.
The boy having even half of a bijuu's power has to mean something. Something that was probably important on a village scale rather than a personal. This meant that Kurama had to tread carefully, because that lone eye was just daring him to ask about the boy.
But Kurama was patient. He has had centuries to cultivate and refine his patience. Waiting just a bit longer is no reason to get sloppy. He would find out more about what has happened since he was gone.
He had a feeling he wasn't going to like what happened to the bijuu.