Naruto wakes up with fire in his chest and voltage crackling in his blood from toes to fingertips. Because Kurama had promised to train him. Like a real ninja.

He looks down at his hands, breathless smile on his face, and closes his fingers into fists. Kurama had warned him that it wouldn't be easy, that it would take time and dedication and it would exhaust parts of him he didn't know existed. But that, if anything, makes him thrill more, not less.

His dream is suddenly that much closer to not being a dream at all, and donating his blood sweat and tears to training seems like a small price to pay.

"Can we start now?" he asks, because he's so far from sleep it's not even funny.

~Now? It's not even three in the morning.~ Kurama responds grumpily. Naruto gets the impression of him cracking open one crimson eye.

"Please?"

Kurama harrumphs, a terribly put upon noise that Naruto doesn't buy for a second.

~I suppose we can start with the boring stuff.~ he agrees.

"Can training even be boring?"

~It depends on the type, believe me.~ He warns. ~Exercises in patience, for example.~

"Hey!" Naruto grumps back, because he's fairly sure he was just insulted, or at least his attention span was. Kurama ignores his outburst.

~Do you remember when I told you we were starting from the foundations?~ he asks instead.

"Yeah." he answers, a little confused. He'd just figured he meant the basics.

~The true basics of building strength and ability have nothing to do with jutsu, and everything to do with simple skills and knowledge. Basic life lessons.~

"Life lessons?"

There's a long, hesitant pause.

~Like things your parents should have taught you.~

There's a subtle apology in those words, and Kurama never apologizes, not for anything. Naruto figures calling him out on it would be unappreciated, but it makes something warm and achy eat at his chest regardless.

"What, you mean like cooking and cleaning and things? What does that stuff have to do with being a ninja?"

~Don't dismiss something just because it seems menial. The same skills required to cook are useful when mixing poisons like the paralytics Jounin use on senbon. A clean and organized system makes it easier to get to things you need faster, be it medicine or books stored in a cabinet or weapons stashed around an apartment.~

Naruto blinks, takes a moment to consider this new idea.

"I never thought about it like that."

~Ninja are able to turn any type of skill to their advantage. Usually the only difference between a menial skill and a deadly one is how you use it.~

Naruto nods, hops up from his bed and looks around.

"What do I do first then?"

~Clothes, first and foremost.~

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

~You don't want me to answer that.~

Naruto huffs indignantly, but moves over to his closet anyway. What greets him is the sorry sight of his jumpsuit, muddy, bloody, and mangled like a war veteran. Or like it was sent through a blender. One of the two.

"Dammit…" He says aloud, because how the hell is he supposed to fix that?

~Lost cause, I'm afraid.~ Kurama says without provocation. ~Do you own anything that isn't the color of a citrus fruit?~

"What's wrong with orange?"

~Nothing, in moderation. But it's very… conspicuous.~

"Con- what now?"

~Noticeable.~

"Oh. Yeah, I know."

~It's all got to go.~

"What?! Why?"

Kurama sighs heavily through their connection. ~You're trying to be a ninja, right? Ninja clothes have to blend in and be practical. Almost all of the stuff you have here would get in the way of both stealth and motion.~

Naruto holds up his jumpsuit, his favorite article of clothing, and grimaces forlornly at the red spiral on the back. "Aw man."

He feels Kurama's attention sharpen suddenly and gets a weird image of the big fox's ears coming up.

~Hey, brat. Do you know what that symbol means?~

Naruto shakes his head, even though it means very little to Kurama.

"Nope. I just liked it, and it was on all the Jounin vests. Why?"

~It's Uzushio's village symbol.~

"Uzushio?"

~Hidden Whirlpool. It's where your clan originated. Where your mother was born.~

"My mom was… wait, my CLAN? I have a clan?!"

The emotion Naruto gets through the connection is practically sheepish. ~Not exactly.~

Naruto can sense a long story coming, so he crosses his legs and sits down on the floor.

"Okay, go."

Kurama deliberates for a bit before he seems to settle on a place to start.

~Uzushio was a sort of… sister village to Konoha, from what I understand. I remember that Mito married that sappy weirdo that was your first Hokage. Hashirama?~

"The one on the monument with the long hair and the dopy downturned eyes?"

~That's the one.~

"I painted fat spirals on his face."

Kurama dissolves into yipping laughter. ~Ha! I knew there was a reason I liked you, kid.~

Naruto is glad someone finds it funny. It makes getting yelled at by Iruka-sensei for two hours straight totally worth it.

"Who's Mito?" he asks.

Kurama wipes an imaginary tear from his left eye. ~She was my first Jinchuuriki. She was an Uzumaki too. Like you, and like Kushina before you. She was the matriarch of the Uzumaki clan, when it existed.~

"What happened to it?"

~Uzushio itself was wiped out during the one of the Shinobi World Wars. The third, I think. I remember because it happened right after Kushina left the village. She was so upset she made herself nauseous.~

"Why did she leave Uzushio then?"

~She became a Jinchuuriki. Hated or no, Jinjuriki are considered powerful weapons. In order to maintain the balance of power in the elemental countries, each major village is supposed to have at least one. Suna and Konoha only have one, because of all the bijuu Shukaku and I are the strongest, but the rest of the villages have two.~

Something doesn't seem right about that, so Naruto does the math in his head. One for here and Suna, two for Kiri, Kumo, and Iwa… "Hang on, that's only eight bijuu."

Kurama snorts.

~Well technically, some backwoods village in Waterfall Country has Chomei, but don't ask me how the hell that happened.~

Naruto giggles a little at that out loud. The shadows in his room are thick and soft, catching the sound as it echoes against the walls. The dark isn't the obstacle to his eyes it once was– ever since Kurama had pushed his chakra through Naruto's system, his night vision has been incredible. That's not the only thing either– for the first few second afterwards he'd been hyper aware of everything, colours, sounds, the tree against his back and the damp, scent charged air in his lungs. He could feel the grit of the bark clear through his sandals, could see motes of dust and spores as they wafted through the moist air, could smell the leaf matter and clay churning in the mud pits dozens of feet below. He could hear heartbeats like they were drums and could tell which was the tiger's and which was his own. And, for a fraction of a second, he had felt Kurama within him, felt not just the great beast's power, but everything else too– bone and skin and muscle, and a beating heart not unlike his own.

The sensation had dimmed, but never entirely faded. His senses are sharper as a result, altered permanently somehow. He can see through most shadows now like they aren't there. He can smell the fire elms outside his apartment like the leaves are changing under his nose, even though the window is hardly open a crack. He can hear wolves howling just outside the village, cries that remind him a little of how Kurama used to sound at night. He can sense heavy clouds coming in by how the breeze feels against his skin through the cracked sill, can tell there'll be a storm tomorrow.

He wonders if better senses will help him be a better ninja. He hopes so.

"If Uzushio was wiped out so easy, I guess that means they were pretty weak, huh?"

He asks, a little disappointed. It would have been amazing if he came from a strong clan too, but a village that got wiped out in one battle can't be very strong, and that just adds to the evidence that he really is a loser.

Kurama guffaws, like the answer is obvious. ~Are you joking?~

Naruto flinches at the inflection, at that little bit of hope dashed, but Kurama isn't finished yet.

~Uzushio was a tiny village in a tiny country, barely big enough to occupy the island it was founded on...~

And… ouch. That kind of hurts even more than Naruto thought it might–

~... And it was still strong enough to go toe to toe with any elemental country, and then come around again for round two.~

Naruto's head snaps up from where it had been sagging. He can feel Kurama grinning, but it's not mocking, it's excited.

"What?"

~Don't get me wrong kid, I hated Uzushio's guts probably more than anyone else's, but just because I didn't like them doesn't mean I don't appreciate sheer tenacity in human form. It's why I can stand you.~

"They were strong, then?"

"You kidding me, kit? In the wars prior to it's downfall, seeing an Uzushio-nin on the battlefield meant run for cover. One Uzushio team running in sync was worth more than entire squadrons of average ninja. The Ido-Senshi could decapitate a man without even touching them, a single Chunin level Kurogane clansmen could send out chakra scythes that left enemy ranks in tatters, the Kikan could lay down barriers that stopped any A-Rank jutsu in it's tracks.~

Kurama's grin is so manic that Naruto can't help but mimic it. He rocks forward, hanging on every word.

~And the Uzumaki.~

Naruto's eyes go wide, because Kurama says it like it's the cherry on top, like it's the point, like all the amazing things he's been talking about up till now were only leading up to this.

~Kushina had chakric chains that she could manifest at will, unbreakable, and capable of being sword and shield at once. Fresh off a fight with Minato? Fueled by my chakra? She could turn a warzone into a graveyard faster that you can say Red Hot Habanero.~

"WHAAAAAT?" Naruto practically shrieks, but the fox only laughs. "My mom was a BADASS!"

~The definition of.~ Kurama cackles,

"Did my dad have a clan too?" And he has to know, because there's no way his old man can be near as cool now that he knows how freaking awesome his mom was.

Kurama shakes his head. ~Naw kit. Your pops was a genesis. I remember that much.~

"A what now?"

~A ninja born of non-shinobi ancestry.~ Kurama answers easily, and Naruto loves that about Kurama. He always explains everything in a way that makes sense to Naruto's hyper brain, and he never makes Naruto feel stupid for asking.

~It's pretty rare, but sometimes chakric abilities just… pop up out of nowhere.~ He continues. ~Most clans start out that way– with a single powerful genesis that simply passes down a specific chakra trait through generations.~

"So like Hinata and Sasuke's clans?"

~That's a little complicated. More like your Shikamaru's clan and your Inuzuka. What's his name? Kira?~

"Kiba."

~Sure.~

"What about the Uzumaki? Were they geni-whatever or were they 'complicated'?

Kurama comes up short at that and scowls.

~Ugh, kinda? The Uzumaki themselves were originally a genesis clan, but somewhere along the line they ended up merged with the remains of the Senju clan. So… both? Both.~

"Was my dad cool too though? Do you know?"

Kurama thinks on that for a long moment before he answers, resting a vulpine cheek in a clawed paw.

~I mostly just remember that he was kind of an idiot. He worshiped the ground Kushina walked on, which mostly pissed her off, so I remember that the clearest. He was popular in a way Kushina wasn't though. They called him a 'prodigy' and a 'prophetic child' and other such nonsense. He could use seals almost as well as Kushina could, and he could teleport I think, but I remember another ninja that could do that before him, so that's not so impressive.~

"Mom wasn't popular?"

Kurama shakes his head. ~She was bullied, kit. Especially when she first came to the village.~

Naruto blinks and scrunches his nose, because he can't quite reconcile the picture of this amazing Kunoichi with a fearsome temper and fiercer heart with some kid getting kicked around or ignored on the playground the way he was.

"But… why?"

Kurama snorts. Bitter.

~For the stupidest reason you can imagine. Kushina was picked on for the colour of her hair.~

"The colour of her hair?" Naruto repeats, because he still can't imagine it.

~Kushina's mane was redder than a fire country sunset.~ Kurama explains. ~Beautiful, but it was an Uzumaki thing, a clan trait. And no one outside of Uzushio or Kumo had hair quite that red. So y. Kids bullied her. Just because she was different.~

Kurama growls and spits the last word like it's a curse. And Naruto isn't imagining it– Kurama is speaking in his mother's defense.

"Did you… like my mom, Kurama?"

~No.~ The fox answers truthfully. ~But of all the humans I've ever known, I think I hated her the least.~

And that's probably the highest praise Kurama is capable of giving. Naruto's mom wasn't just badass, she was amazing too.

"I wish I could have met her." Naruto says, without meaning to.

The fox is quiet for a while, but Naruto wasn't expecting an answer anyway. After a few more minutes of sitting in the dark though, Kurama speaks again.

~You're a lot like her, you know.~ He says quietly.

"Huh?" Naruto asks, surprised, because the way Kurama talks about his mother, that's blatant praise, and well… Naruto just isn't used to that. In any form, let alone from a grumpy hateful bag of fur and chakra.

~I mean, you have Namikaze's colouring, but the fire? The temper? The willpower? The stubbornness? That's all Kushina.~

Naruto's face gets hot under the esteem and something warm and giddy wells up in his chest that makes him feel so light he might float off the ground. "Really?"

~Really. Only one big difference.~

"What's that?"

Kurama doesn't answer immediately, and there's abrupt and inexplicable tension in the air now. Whatever it is it's hard for Kurama to say– Naruto can practically hear him grinding his fangs around it. So Naruto waits in rapt attention, uncharacteristically patient.

~One big difference.~ The fox repeats, but this time the words are heavy with gravity, mean something greater than the air on which they're spoken.

~You kit, I actually like.~

"Why didn't we protect them?" Naruto asks some time later, after the atmosphere has cleared a little and both he and Kurama have regained some of their emotional footing.

Naruto had been floored, to put it mildly. Kurama didn't even like his mother, he'd said as much very clearly, and his mom had been awesome, which he'd also said very clearly. So why would Kurama like him? Naruto is still a nobody right now, and while he's going to see to it that changes, he has no idea how he earned that regard.

But Kurama hadn't explained, and Naruto hadn't asked.

~Hm?~ is Kurama's response.

Naruto has spent the last hour or so sorting through his stuff, putting it in piles to either throw away or find a better place for. His jumpsuit, unfortunately, is in the former pile. It hadn't required a lot of intervention on Kurama's part. If Naruto wasn't sure what pile to put something in, he just sent a sort of vague askance in his direction, and the fox responded with either a warmer feeling positive or a cooler feeling negative, to keep or toss respectively. The toss pile is getting distressingly large, but Naruto trusts Kurama's judgment, even if it's sometimes grudgingly.

"If Konoha and Uzushio were so close, why didn't we protect them?" Naruto clarifies.

~I don't know.~

"We should have." he says adamantly. "If I were Hokage, I would have made sure we did."

~I believe you, kit. But the past can't be changed. Only learned from.~

Naruto takes a moment to think about that, putting a particularly gnarly looking pair of socks in the Toss pile and his picture of himself and Jiji at the summer festival in Keep. Something strange occurs to him.

"We never talked about Uzushio during our history lessons. I would have remembered."

Kurama seems to know what he's asking even before Naruto tries to explain.

~Humans don't like being reminded of their failures. Iwagakure and Kirigakure teamed up at the beginning of the war, just as it was breaking out. Uzushio was the real threat if all out war developed, because while Konoha had the numbers, Uzushio had the skill, and they were the reason Konoha had won every war before that. So they surprise attacked them with enough shinobi to overwhelm them, and Konoha failed to come to their aid in time. By the time Konoha got there to chase Iwa and Kiri out, it was too late.~ Then he adds, almost an afterthought; ~Kushina was inconsolable for weeks.~

"They attacked them because they were afraid of them?" Because that's what Naruto is getting out of this, and he's starting to see a pattern he doesn't like.

~That about sums it up, yeah.~

"Kind of like people are afraid of you?"

Kurama pauses, obviously surprised, because Naruto is angry in a way he hasn't been in a long time and Kurama can clearly feel it.

~Yeah, kit.~ Kurama affirms. ~Exactly like that.~

"Why would people destroy something just because it's strong?"

~Fear.~ Kurama responds immediately, because he would know. ~People always fear what they don't understand.~

Naruto doesn't, but if that makes him not a person, if that makes him a monster, then he's fine with that. He's fine with being a demon if the alternative is being afraid.

"You know what Kurama?"

~Hm?~

"I hate that."

~You know what, fishcake?~

"Yeah?"

~I think we have that in common.~

When Naruto finishes with the main room and has everything from his Toss pile packed up in trash bags, Kurama directs him towards the kitchen. Naruto goes, opening the refrigerator first. He immediately wrinkles his nose.

The milk has gone sour again, yet another thing he'd forgotten about. He doesn't even need to open the lid to check.

Kurama makes a disgusted growl at the state of the shelves.

~How the hell you feed yourself, brat? It's practically empty. And from what I'm getting through your olfactories, what is there spoiled over a week ago.~

"Hey, that's not my fault. I usually just eat with Iruka-sensei anyways."

~Is ramen the only thing you ingest?~ Kurama asks, horrified.

Naruto has to think on that for a second.

"Iruka-sensei makes me curry sometimes?"

~Toss it.~ The fox barks.

"But–"

~All of it.~

Naruto huffs indignantly, but grabs another trash bag and starts to clear everything into it.

"Why are we doing this again? It's not that big a deal what I eat, is it?"

~Wrong, fishcake. There is nothing more important to training than being healthy.~

"I'm perfectly healthy!" Naruto squawks.

~Oh I am starting to seriously doubt that. First big lesson, brat. Pay attention.~

Naruto snorts, but stays quiet.

~The body runs off food like a fire runs off fuel. The body needs all different kinds to function properly, especially when it's under stress when training. Eating the same kind of food all the time will make you tired a hell of a lot faster than eating something balanced will.~

"Whaaaaaat?" Naruto whines. "Nobody told me that!"

~Human's sometimes say the same thing using the words; 'It's good for you.'

"Ugggggh." Naruto says aloud. "I owe Iruka-sensei an apology. Or seven. I just ate what I wanted when I was hungry. I didn't think something that tasted so good would be bad for you."

~And why ramen?~

Naruto pauses with his hand over the trash bag, Ichiraku take-out cup pressed against his palm. The question is odd, if only because it feels like Kurama is fishing for a specific answer. Naruto's not sure how to respond, so he figures he might as well be honest.

"Teuchi and Ayame were the first store owners not to kick me out." He admits. When Kurama doesn't respond, Naruto adds, "Besides, ramen is amazing."

Kurama blows air harshly through his nose.

~Must be hereditary.~

Naruto finishes with the fridge and moves on to the pantry. "Does this mean I have to learn to cook?" He wonders.

~Afraid so.~ He replies, and it's not even sarcastic.

Naruto groans obnoxiously. "I don't suppose you know anything about that?" he asks, tentatively hopeful.

~I'm made of chakra, brat. I don't need to eat.~ he pauses then, thoughtful. ~Kushina was a good cook though, I might remember some things.~

Naruto sighs with relief. "Okay, good. Because the last time I tried to cook anything I set off the smoke alarm four times and the sprinklers twice."

Kurama snorts again the way he so often does, but it's his amused snort. ~You don't give up easy, do you?~

"No way. Believe it."

~I do, kit.~

And it's weird, having someone that does. Someone that has faith in him, even when he doesn't have it in himself. It's different than having Jiji and Iruka-sensei. Iruka-sensei believes in him in a way that's half true kindness and half duty, and Jiji likes him, sure, but he doesn't believe in him the way he pretends he does, and sometimes the old Kage looks at him and his eyes go straight through, like Naruto isn't even there.

He knows now that it's because Naruto makes him see ghosts.

But Kurama believes in Naruto, not as some extension of Kushina or Minato, but as himself, and that faith in him gives Naruto faith in himself. And faith in himself is all that really matters, right? It just matters that he gets stronger, not that the village sees him do it.

Kurama seems to sense his thoughts, his change of heart, because he speaks, out of nowhere.

~Village idiot my everliving ass.~

Naruto isn't sure how to respond to that, so he doesn't. Kurama had said it like he was talking to himself anyways.

It's something like six thirty in the morning when he finishes cleaning out his apartment. Kurama had been nonverbal for the most part, only really piping up to complain about the grime on his countertops or make disgusted noises whenever he pulled something out from under his bed that used to be edible. When he's finished, having wiped down every conceivable surface and sacrificed several washcloths to do so, ninety percent of his apartment is wrapped up in plastic bags and the other ten percent is vaguely shiney.

He stares forlornly at the closest garbage heap, where his ruined jumpsuit is visible through the cloudy plastic.

~Did you make that, Fishcake?~ Kurama asks, curious.

"Yeah." He responds miserably.

~You can sew then?~

"I had to fix my stuff a lot." he confirms. "It's one of the few things I can do okay"

~The Eye Bleed Orange Ensemble was a bit much, but the Uzushio symbol? You could stitch that on practically anything.~

That… makes him feel a lot better actually. And he can put it on more than his clothes if he thinks about it, like his scrolls and his packs. It's his clan symbol anyways, he might as well act like it.

He's hauling his first heap of junk out the door when Kurama interrupts his thoughts again.

~How do you get money, kit?~ he asks, like the thought just occurred to him. ~You're not a Genin yet, so you don't get paid.~

"Well no, but Jiji pays for my apartment, and orphans get a weekly stipend."

~How much?~

"2,000 ryo."

~...That's not much is it?~

"It's enough. And it can go a long way if I stretch it."

Kurama's ears go up and his eyes narrow suspiciously. ~You know how to manage money?~

Naruto blinks, not sure what he did to deserve the scrutiny. "Uh, yeah. I have to do it all the time."

~You're barely eight.~ Kurama says accusingly.

"...So?"

The bijuu grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like stupid petty humans, but Naruto ignores him since he's fairly sure it's not directed at him.

"Why?" He prompts instead, as he heaves the last of the trash bags into the dumpster next to his complex.

~You need supplies for training.~ Kurama responds automatically. ~Actual food, too. How much do you have right now?~

Naruto isn't actually sure about that. "Hang on, lemme check."

He ducks back inside and heads for his bed, feeling underneath his mattress for Gama-chan. The fat frog purse is reassuringly heavy when he manages to yank it from it's hiding place and flip through the bills and coins inside.

"12,800 ryo." Naruto tells Kurama proudly.

~You saved all that from a 2,000 ryo stipend?~ Kurama seems… bewildered? Naruto isn't sure what's so surprising about it. He'd had more before he'd blown some on new sandals and dango last week.

"I like saving." He defends. "Besides, I had to go hungry for a couple days after I bought all my academy supplies, which sucked, so I'm never doing that again."

Kurama makes an angry noise at that.

"So, groceries and training supplies? Do I need anything else?" Naruto asks in an attempt to distract Kurama from his hateful brooding the way Kurama had distracted him from his darker thoughts earlier. He's pleased to find it works.

~New clothes and paper barrier seals.~

Naruto grabs an ink pen from his bedside table and scribbles it down on his arm so that he doesn't forget. He's dreading it already, but maybe if he has it all written down he can get it over with faster.

"I hate shopping." he growls.

~I can imagine why.~ Kurama trails off with a hum, thinking. ~Can you use transformation jutsu?~

Naruto grimaces as he caps his pen. "Not well."

~Then take a seat, brat, and get down here. We'll see if I can't drill something useful into that stubborn skull.~

"Grumpy old fox…" Naruto mumbles, but does as he's told.

"Well that was the weirdest crap I've ever done, hands down. And it was easy! Iruka-sensei always made it sound so complicated."

~You learn different. Kushina was the same way– she got in arguments with her instructors all the time.~

Naruto grunts, kicking open his front door and readjusting his bags around his arms to free his hands. He forms a quick sign to release the transformation–he'd imitated Sasuke, just for kicks, and boy had that been a trip, no wonder the asshole thinks everyone's a simpering idiot– and dumps his current load of stuff on the countertop to join the rest. There's a lot.

Thirteen bags in total– four of groceries, two of clothes, four of ninja supplies and three more of non-ninja supplies.

Naruto isn't exactly broke, but it had been close. The ordeal has left Gama-chan distressingly skinny.

He puts the ninja stuff and clothes on his bed and starts going through the other bags, yanking out all the kitchen supplies he never thought he would need–a knife block, soup pot, rice cooker, cooking chopsticks– and sets them aside to deal with later. He unloads the groceries next. Kurama had insisted on getting a little bit of everything, and Naruto had listened because he has no idea what he might like outside of ramen, curry, and dango. Kurama had been particularly enthusiastic about the meat choices for some reason, so Naruto had gotten several kinds; tuna, salmon, beef, chicken, and some pork belly. He turns a package of Tofu in his hands.

"Is this supposed to be a meat or a vegetable?" He asks absently.

Kurama does a mental shrug. ~No idea.~

Naruto puts it with the rest of the meats anyway, because he's found it refrigerated so it should probably stay that way. He sorts through the fruits and actual vegetables next, stashing away cucumber and eggplant and daikon along with apples and oranges and dragon fruit. He comes across a small bag of red, berry-like vegetables and rolls one around on his palm.

"These are the asshole's favorite food, I think."

~Tomatoes?~

"Yeah, I remember Sakura talking about it."

~By 'asshole' you do mean the arrogant Uchiha, yes?~

"Yup."

~And Sakura is the pink one?~

Naruto snickers. "Soooo pink."

~Do you like her, fishcake? Outside the pretending?~

Naruto pauses for a minute before he resumes loading the refrigerator. He considers pretending like he doesn't know what Kurama is talking about, but the fox always knows when he's lying, so he doesn't bother.

"I do like her." Naruto defends, because he does, especially when she's not fawning over Sasuke, or when she drops her perfect sweetheart Kunoichi facade to yell at him for being a moron. It's rare to see, but there's a strong personality underneath all the fluff and sparkle. But the urge to be more than friends just isn't there like it should be.

Kurama raises a skeptical eyebrow.

"I do." He repeats. "Just… not the way I think I'm supposed to? I don't know. That doesn't make any sense does it?"

~It makes more sense than you might think. And don't worry about what other people think you should do. They can't know you the way you know yourself.~

Naruto nods to himself and finishes putting the noodles and rice away in his little pantry. When he's finished, he gives his arm a cautionary sniff.

"I need a shower. I think I still smell like sour milk."

~I'd be surprised if that's all you smelled like.~

"Jerk."

~Fishcake.~

By the time he gets out of the shower it's almost eight. Only an hour before classes. He's sitting on his bed in a new pair of black boxers, looking over the long sleeve black top he's gotten from the ninja supply store around the corner.

"So this is standard shinobi stuff?"

~Yes.~

"You sure about the size? It's at least one too big for me."

~With the rate you're growing, Kit? I'd be surprised if it lasts you a year.~

He pulls on the long sleve and the loose black sweats. The pants hang a little low and the shirt is a little baggy around his elbows, but other than that they fit fairly well, despite being a little long on all fronts.

~You have the wraps, Fishcake?~

"Mhm." Naruto picks up the black roll of soft, gauzy cloth. "Where do I put it?"

~Arms, wrists... anywhere there's too much fabric.~

Naruto nods and gets to work on the problems spots, mostly above his knees and elbows, but also a few loops to tie back the too-long sleeves and hems.

"Breakfast?"

~I think we start simple. Rice omelet?~

"Can you even taste things?"

~I can see through your eyes and smell what you smell. What makes you think I can't taste what you taste?~

Naruto stretches to test the movement of his new clothes and finds them comfortable enough. He places the two sets of spares in his now mostly empty closet and puts his hands in his new pockets before wandering back into his kitchen.

He yanks a cookbook of simple recipes from one of his shopping bags and starts to gather what it says he needs.

~Kushina always said that cooking was a lot like sealing.~

"Sealing?"

~Fuinjutsu was the specialty of Uzushio, why they were so strong. They used seals like shinobi here use clones or substitution.~

"Like the seals on scrolls and exploding tags?"

~A poor imitation, but yes. Seals are difficult to master, but Uzushio had them down to such an art form it was practically in their blood. They could use them for anything from transportation to combat.~

"How is cooking like sealing then?"

~She said it was because both are composed of many pieces that, when pressed or mixed or moulded together, creates something greater than the sum of it's parts.~

"Is it weird that that makes a lot more sense than I thought it would?"

~It means you learn like an Uzumaki.~

With Kurama's help and new hope that he may not actually be a total idiot, Naruto makes a whole rice omelet while only ruining two eggs and setting off the smoke alarm once.

Turns out Naruto does like rice omelets.

"So what's next?" He asks as he clears away his dishes. "Please say some actual training."

"Patience, brat. First things first, I'm teaching you about chakra. As a being made of it, your education on that front is severely lacking. But after class. Right now you need to get going before you get late.~

"Aw craaap."