"Hi there" Normal Speech

"Hi There" Thought

"Hi There" Biju and techniques

"Hi There" Biju thoughts and techniques in head

Flashbacks

"Hi There" Normal speech

"Hi There" Thought

"Hi There" Biju and Techniques

"Hi There" Bijuu thought and techniques in head


Chapter 17: Blood Soaked Bones

In another part of the Grand Line while Naruto was busy dealing with Blacktooth and collecting his students from their battle everyone's favourite fox was on his own mission. The nine-tailed fox was resting beneath a tree atop a hill that overlooked a road that connected the only shorelines on the island to the only town. Kurama was on a small backwater island in the middle of the North Blue located weeks away from the nearest island. What exactly was the fox doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Naruto had asked favour of him. The Sage had sent Kurama out on a job to deal with a few corrupt marines. Word had reached his ears that a band of marines were planning to attack this island, pillage the town killing everyone and stealing their riches while blaming it on pirates. Naruto could have handled it himself, but he thought it would be a chance for the fox to stretch his legs, a little light exercise. Kurama had accepted as it would be fun to tear a few meat sacks apart, especially if they were going to offer their lives to him. So here he was the size of a horse sleeping peacefully beneath a tree as a mild spring breeze blew by.

Kurama needed a little time to get out and about, back into the swing of things. He had been spending far to much time in Uzushiogakure as a moderator. Last few weeks he had been stuck as a member of the welcoming party for new refugees. He had used his Negative Emotion Sensing to pick out the rotten apples; it also helped that at the time he had been the size of an elephant. His massive form and unique ability allowed him to root out those who had ulterior motives. Every day he had spent hours on end inspecting refuge after refuge, and he needed a break. This would be a good chance to cut loose and play around. To ensure his fun, Kurama planned to hold back and toy with them a little, like a cat toying with the mouse before it delivers the final blow.

The fox waved a tail through the air as he opened one eye that peaked out to the ocean watching as a ship that was falling apart at the seams flying a jolly roger that had a skull wearing a diaper approach. The jolly roger made Kurama raise an eyebrow up at it, who would ever fly such a flag. He snorted in mild amusement before he shut his eye, the shop was a good twenty minutes from shore he still had time to sleep.

"I wonder how Team 7 is going with their mission. It was only a C rank to deal with some two-bit pirates; surely they could handle it. They could probably even handle this job with ease. This is an easy C in itself. From what I'm picking up those marines are only cannon fodder nowhere near the level of that Akainu fellow. I should see if I can't seek him out for a rematch, maybe even take his other arm and beat him to death with it." Kurama snorted in amusement as he pictured himself tearing Akainu's remaining off and beating him to death. "I should try it; I've never beaten someone to death with their limb. I'll try it today, should keep me amused for a minute or two."

"Those marines are getting closer." Kurama expanded on his Negative Emotion Sensing detection allowing it to reach across the waves of the ocean towards the ship as it lit up everyone aboard. Fifteen signatures radiating with dark emotions shined brightly like stars. A thick feeling of killer intent mixed in with the dark emotions, they were truly bloodthirsty.

"It's foul, but nowhere near the level I've felt before. Still these meat bags won't be around much longer to continue with their tyrannical behaviour. Give a few morons even a sliver of power, and they go nuts thinking they can do as they please." Kurama flicked a tail making the tree he lay beneath shake. The nine tailed fox climbed to his human-like paws and stretched out his back. In the distance down by the shoreline the ship was docked, and fifteen marines dressed in ragged clothing made their way onto the beach. In their arms, they each carried a flintlock rifle, while on their hips a cutlass and on the back of half of them was hand-held cannons.

Kurama licked his lips as he watched them march up the path that stretched between two small hills. The fox prepared himself, but he stopped as he sensed someone approaching from the direction of the village. Looking up he spotted a boy no less than ten of all things charging towards the beach. The boy had short burnt orange spiky hair with mismatched eyes; the left was sapphire blue while the right ruby red. In the middle of his forehead just above his eyes was a pair of circular red dots. The boy came charging down the hill dressed in a sleeveless black top and black trousers wearing only a pair of worn out brown sandals on his feet. The boy charged down the path towards the band of marines.

"Oi you rotten bastard pirates! For too long have you pillaged our homes it stops now! I won't let it continue anymore!" roared the boy as he came to a halt ten meters in front of the band of marines. The group took one look at the ten-year-old and burst into laughter.

"What's with this kid, he doesn't even have any hair down below and wants to act like a man ha. Someone get rid of him." barked out one of the marines as he clutched his stomach from the pain of laughter.

One of the marines stumbled forward throwing his rifle over his right shoulder and strapping it in place. He began to approach the ten-year-old boy reaching out with his right hand, "Don't worry we'll send mummy and daddy on to you in heaven soon."

As the man approached Kurama decided it was time to step in before the boy got killed. The fox took a paw step forward prepared to jump down when something peaked his interest. The boy was showing no fear, all he did was extend his left arm folding his fingers in and pointed his index finger at the middle of the man's forehead, almost like he thought his hand was a gun.

"What you think you got a loaded finger ha!" The man laughed as he placed a hand on the boy's forehead. The child merely smiled and before the man could blink something white had shot from the boy's fingertip and pierced a bullet sized hole through the middle of his forehead. Blood trickled down the hole followed by brain matter as the body swayed backwards and collapsed hitting the dirt with a thud.

"Ho, interesting" Kurama's eyes narrowed as he eyed the corpse lying at the boy's feet. The child stared at it coldly as if the aspect of death did not affect him. The other marines were startled as they looked at the corpse of their friend.

"He...he killed Barry!" shouted a marine as he pointed shaking from the sight of his dead friend.

"He's a devil fruit user" screamed another. The group were just low-class marines they had no experience fighting devil fruit users and didn't even have any seastone weapons or cuffs.

"He's just a child, and there's only one we can take him" one of the braver marines spoke up as he drew his cutlass tossing his rifle aside. The marine roared and charged he was going to cut the brat in two with his own hands then bath in his blood. The marine lunged forward leaping up into the air and gripped the sword with both hands swinging it down overhead.

The young boy eyed the incoming marine and lazily raised his right arm bringing it into the path of the incoming blade. A sinister smile formed on the marine's lips as he expected to cut the boy's arm off regardless if he was a devil fruit user. The blade swung down and met flesh, as it did a loud clunking noise was heard. Metal collided with something hard. The marine's eyes widened as his blade was stopped. Blood trickled down the blade showing he had cut the boy but the blade hadn't chopped the arm off, what black magic was this? The young child swung his arm tossing the marine backwards with a surprising amount of strength. Blood trickled down his fingers like small raindrops as a wound barely a centimetre deep showed itself. The youth tilted his head to look at the wound before he shook his arm throwing the blood to the ground. As he did the skin began to rapidly heal itself.

Watching all this happen was Kurama. His eyes had narrowed further as he stared at the boy with a gaze that could make him burst into flames.

"I'm sure I felt it, chakra. Whatever fruit this boy consumed it uses chakra subconsciously to regenerate the damage done to his body." Things were starting to get interesting for the fox as he watched on. Due to the regenerative properties of whatever fruit the boy ate, his chakra reserves were around the level of a genin.

The child leaned forward, bending his knees as he kicked off the ground launching himself towards the marine who attacked him. His body became a missile as he crashed into the man's stomach. The man's lips parted as blood and spittle flew out. The marine's body went sailing backwards; it felt like he had been struck by a slab of metal. The marine hit the ground and tumbled back landing at the feet of his comrade's blood seeping out from his mouth as he lay the clutching his stomach gasping for air as pain shook his body. The marines could only look on like deer caught in headlights. The boy didn't stop there as he dashed forward charging head on like a raging bull.

"Shoot him!" roared a marine, his words brought his comrades back to the reality of the situation. The thirteen marines settled into a firing stance and aimed with their rifles. Locking onto the boys figure their fired thirteen lead projectiles. The bullets shot through the air heading straight towards the child, but he didn't stop it was as if he thought he was invincible. The bullets struck hitting multiple parts of his body chest, forehead, arms, legs, hip and waist. The bullets dug in drawing blood but barely made it two centimetres in when they were pushed out; the bullet holes instantly healed up as the boy charged like a rhino.

The young boy made his move lunging towards the first marine in sight, the marine who had made the order to shoot. The child appeared in front of him and extended both arms, his palms hitting the marine in the chest. The moment his palms connected blood spilt out into the air as something tore through the man's body piercing through his heart. The boy removed his palms showing two gaping holes in the marine's chest. As the boy lowered his palm unnoticed by all but Kurama was torn flesh that was healing up, torn flesh that hadn't been caused by the marines.

The boy roared as he pushed on, his right foot stomped down on the marine who lay on the floor, the same marine he had body slammed. The boy's foot squished the marines head, almost like his foot weighted the same as a mountain. The child advanced on the marines leaping up into the air as he dived onto the head of his next target. The child grabbed the sides of the man's head and made him scream; it was like something was drilling its way into his skull before it impaled his brain killing him. The boy jumped off the corpse and landed on the ground in a crouched position; two holes appeared on either side of the marine's head as something had impaled his brain. The way the boy fought it was clear this was not his first time killing and that he was experienced in the area especially with his swift yet brutal methods.

"DIE!" the boy shot forward as he did something began to poke through the flesh of his arms. His skin tore as shooting out from his elbows, palms and the back of his shoulders were long bone spikes each over a meter in length.

"A bone-like devil fruit, similar to the Kaguya clans Shikotsumyaki (Dead Bone Pulse). It explains why he was able to block the sword and bullets; he manipulated his skeletal structure making it harder than steel and used it like internal body armour." The fox contemplated his thoughts as he laid down on the edge of the cliff, paws hanging over the edge. The fox curled up his tails and began to watch the battle from the sidelines.

The young boy charged towards the marines and kicked off the ground where he began to spin. As he spun bone, spikes shot out from his ribs, knees, back of knees and heels of his feet. He became a spinning blade of death as he spun towards the marines. The marines screamed as he connected with them, the blades of his spine spikes tearing them apart as he mowed down three of them sending limbs and organs flying on impact. One of the less experienced marines clutched his stomach and threw up as someone's entrails landed at his feet. The number of marines had fallen by seven leaving eight alive.

One of the remaining eight turned on his heels screaming as he attempted to flee towards the boat. The boy sneered and raised his left hand pointing his fingers towards him. The tips of the boy's fingers split open as five rounded bone projectiles launched forward with the speed of bullets. The bone bullets shot forward and struck the running marine in the back. The bullets cut through their targets puncturing his lungs, kidneys and stomach before shooting out the front. The marine screamed as blood gushed out from his body and he collapsed. He could feel the gastrointestinal acids from his stomach spilling out and making their way through his body as he underwent an agonising death.

"You won't leave this place alive." A bloodthirsty aura radiated from the boy's body as the bone spikes began to melt like a liquid. The bone began to run down both his arms before it hardened forming a thick layer of bone armour. The armour extended over his palms ending at his knuckles leaving his fingers and palm exposed. On each pair, two bones began to grow from above the wrist. These four bones shaped themselves like katana blades and grew to a length of half a meter long. The boy charged ahead closing the distance between himself and a marine who drew his sword. The boy slashed upwards with his right set of bone blades. The marine sweated as he raised his cutlass sliding it between the two bone blades and placed it at an angle blocking the incoming blow. The boy merely smirked, and with a twist of his wrist, the bone blades snapped the cutlass in two. His left arm came from underneath and impaled the man through his stomach on the twin bone blades. The remaining six quickly retreated and regrouped together.

"This freak is too strong what do we do?" asked a frightened marine as his knees shook.

"Get him into the water, he'll be unable to use his powers." another said the six shared and nod and quickly surrounded the boy from all sides, leaving a gap that leads towards the shoreline. They would need to push him back. Three of the marines aimed with their rifles, quickly reloading and fired. As they fired, the other three did the same before the three from the first round reloaded and fired again. The six marines kept up this act firing three rounds each time quickly reloading to fire again. The boy lifted his arms up allowing the bullets to collide with the armour plating his feet dug into the ground.

Two of the marines tossed their rifles down and withdrew the cannons on their backs, out of the surviving marines they were the only ones left with them. The other four retreated to the back allowing room. The marines locked onto the boy and the one of the left fired shooting a basketball shaped cannonball. The cannonball sailed forward and struck the boy head on exploding on contact. Bone cracked as the force of the explosion sent the boy sliding back onto the shore. The second cannon took aim, and the marine wielding it fired as the first one reloaded with help. The second cannonball shot forward and struck the boy again, bone armour breaking off as one set of blades broke in half. The boy was sent flying backwards as he lost his balanced a third shot was fired.

Bone spikes shot out from his back and dug into the ground holding him in place. More bone sprouted out not just from his back but every section of his body and began wrapping around him. Bone encased his entire body from head to toe in a thick layer of armour. The third cannonball collided head-on with the bone armour and exploded on contact. Cracks appeared at the front of the bone armour as the boy was pushed back, bone dug further into the ground bringing him to a sudden halt, standing just an inch from the sea

The boy looked up with a sneer as his bone armour rapidly started repairing itself. The bone user tossed his hands out to the side, and the bone armour around his arms began to change its shape. The right bone piece expanded in size turning into a drill like a shape that covered his entire arm. On the left, the bone became thin and narrow taking the shape of a segmented bone whip that was coiled around his arm. The boy swung his left arm launching the bone whip as it extended, the tip shaped like an arrowhead. The whips blade pierced through the chest of a marine and the whip coiled around him. The boy pulled reeling the marine in where he thrust the bone drill forward and pulverised the man's head.

The boy launched himself off the beach darting towards the five remaining marines who were scared out of their minds. If their cannons could not stop him what would?

The bone wielder crossed the distance and lashed out with his bone whip. The whip extended as its entire length became razor sharp. The bone whip moved like a centipede as it coiled around two of the marines. The boy pulled, and the marines were shredded to pieces beneath the razor sharp whip, they didn't even have a chance to scream. The tip dug into the grown, and it moved in a manner that the boy's body was sent flying up into the air as he used the whip to propel his body.

The boy sailed towards a marine and thrust the drill down. The drill penetrated the tip of the man's head and carved him straight down the middle splitting him in half. The boy landed on both before launching himself forward towards the second surviving marine who was climbing onto the boat. The bone drill shot forward leaving the boy's arm as he fired it like a giant bullet. The drill spun through the air with deadly accuracy. The drill dug its way into the boat and the marine. With a swing of an arm, the final marine was ended as the whip pierced through his forehead and out the other side.

The boy retracted the whip, and it began to submerge itself back into his body. Skin tore apart as bone retracted back into the child's body. The boy craned his neck before he rotated his joints cracking sounds echoing from his bones. The child patted his right shoulder and rolled his arm as he left the shores heading up the path back to town.

Kurama climbed to his feet and jumped down landing in front of the young boy making him jump back and take a battle stance. Kurama flicked a tail in mild amusement before another tail shot forward and slammed into the boy throwing him into the ground with enough force it cracked on impact. The tail shoved the boy into the ground creating a human-sized crater. The tail pinned the boy in place as Kurama approached him. The fox parked it right next to him lifting his tail up allowing the boy to slowly climb up out of a human-sized crater. The fox had held back his strength so not to kill him.

The moment the boy climbed out bone tore through the flesh of his right arm creating a long serrated sawtooth blade.

"If I wanted to I could destroy you with a wave of a tail boy." Kurama gave the boy a bloodthirsty smile as one of his tails waved about as it waved the entire island began to shake. "With a single wave of a tail, I can create Earthquakes, Tidal Waves and Tornadoes. Now I didn't come down here to kill you. You intrigue my boy, tell me what's your name."

The bone wielder glared at the fox as he sat down on the ground, bone shrinking back into his body "Dean. The name's Dean you walking shag rag." Spat out the boy who identified himself as Dean. The boy folded his arms over as he spat on the ground annoyed at the foxes actions.

"Shag rag watch it you two-bit monkey!" Barked the fox as he glared daggers at the boy. The child climbed to his feet and glared back; the fox did the same standing up as they glared towards one another.

"You heard me! Watch it, or else I'll skin you and make a new fur coat."

"You dried up meat sack!"

"Flea bit mongrel!"

"Snot-nosed brat!"

"How about I cut you up and make some fox jerky!" the two pressed their foreheads together as they glared at one another. The two gave each other a death stare before the boy Dean smirked and stepped back.

"You're alright you oversized plush toy." Dean folded his arms over his chest and examined the giant fox giving him a once over now that the two had gotten familiar with each other.

The fox snorted at the boy's straightforward personality, "I guess I can resist eating you, for now." The fox curled up as he laid down in the middle of the roar swinging his tails back and forth. "Tell me, how did you do that thing with the bones?" Kurama already knew the answer to his questions but was curious to see if the boy could answer it.

"Not much to tell really." The kid shrugged his shoulders as he held up his right hand and a bone spike shot out of the palm of his hands. "Apparently not long after my teeth grew in I got my hands on some weird white fruit and ate it. Next thing my parents knew I could manipulate my bone structure and started calling me a devil child. Not long after that abandoned me here and left. Never saw them again after that. Didn't learn to control it until a few years ago. The matron at the orphanage I stayed at up until then was never too happy with me, kept putting holes in everything." The bone spiked shrunk back into his palm as the torn flesh it caused healed over.

"Does have its perks, I can make my bones as hard as steel, manipulate them out of my flesh and I can heal in seconds. I'm like a superhero" said the boy named Dean.

"Kid you ate an Akuma no Mi a Devil Fruit, a foul-tasting fruit that gives its consumers unique and deadly powers. The one you ate was most likely a Paramecia class fruit."

The boy raised his right eyebrow before he struck his right fist into the palm of his left hand, it was like a light bulb had gone off in his head, "Oh so that's why people keep calling me a Devil Fruit user. I knew the weird fruit I ate had something to do with my powers but was never sure what it was. Whenever I tried to ask everyone just gave me looks and walked away."

The fox flicked a tail the boy was unaware of the gift he had received as everyone seemed to avoid him. To some Devil Fruit powers were a godsend to others a curse. There were those who would ignore the plight and confusion of devil fruit user. It would be frustrating to a child who had obtained these unique powers but had no idea what they were or where they came from if everyone they spoke to avoided the conversation.

"Boy, why don't you come with me. If you do, I can promise you will learn everything there is to know about your abilities and more. You will have the ability to obtain power you could never dream off if you follow me." The fox could see great potential inside the youth called Dean. If the boy agreed and came back to Uzu with him, then Uzushiogakure would have obtained a warrior with excellent prospects. The total power of Uzu was already steadily growing, but it needed constant new recruits to build its power base especially if it wanted to contend with the World Government. The World Government had eight hundred years to get to where it currently was, and because of this, it was one of the world's superpowers. To contend with them, Uzu would need talented youths just like Dean.

"You sound like those old guys who offer children candy to follow them home. How do I know this isn't some trick." The boy was on his toes as he took a step back. Flesh tore open on his right arm as from above the wrist a bone blade slid out.

Kurama gave a wave of a tail, and the bone blade shattered, "Boy with the power I hold do you think I would need to trick you when I could take you by force?" To prove his point, Kurama stood up and began to rapidly grow in size, within seconds he was the size of a mountain. On this tiny island in the middle of nowhere his form stretched to all sided as the town resided beneath his belly. The sight of this fox as big as their island made the island folk scream and ran around in terror shouting that it was the end of days.

Kurama giant form gazed down upon Dean who was looked up at the fox with a dumbfounded expression, mouth gaping wide enough for a watermelon to fit. The fox revealed a shit-eating grin as his form began to shrink returning to the size of a horse. His tails flicked back and forth in mild amusement from Deans stunned expression.

"I hold enough power in my pinkie to destroy this island with a flick. Even the marines fear my name, Kurama the Demon Fox, the Strongest Creature Alive. It is not arrogant of me to say with a wave of a tail I could wipe Marineford off the map. Thousands of years ago I was known as a Natural Disaster. Everywhere I went destruction followed. If you follow me, I can promise you this, in time you will possess strength equal to a fraction of mine. And if you're worried about the people here don't be, I vow they will come under my protection" The fox's eyes twinkled with a look that promised Dean everything he said would come true. Kurama was not one to boast of no reason; he was a being of great devastating power. Only one person in this world was strongest than Kurama, and that was Uzumaki, Naruto. These two alone could wipe out the entire world and build it a new if they so sought, but where was the fun in that? As for protecting the island, Kurama would talk to Naruto about placing a few seals around the place to keep them alerted should anything happen.

"If you can make me stronger, fine I accept!" the boy Dean gave his answer he stepped forward up to the fox. He had never seen a creature like this in his life; it was shocking enough he could talk but the fact the fox was able to become a tall as the highest mountains even more so. Just standing next to the fox named Kurama, Dean felt an ungodly amount of power radiating from him. Beside Dean didn't have anything here for him, he had left the Orphanage last year and lived on his own, he was unwanted by everyone on the island for being a 'Devil Child'. There was no reason he shouldn't accept the foxes offer, and if the fox could make him stronger who was he to refuse such an offer.

Kurama's grin expanded inside threatening to split his face in two. With a swipe of a tail, it wrapped around Dean, with a tug of his chakra the fox connected the Hiraishin formula on his own body to one connected to Uzu no Kuni and vanished in a flash of orange.