Chapter 4: Another Interlude - A soliloquy on an essential prerequesite for becoming Hokage
Summary: In which Kurama contemplates the prerequisites for becoming Hokage and misses his siblings.
Kurama still couldn't believe the audacity of the blonde empty-headed idiot. He had actually tried to bind Death into doing his bidding. Yep, definitely good riddance.
Death, as it turned out, looked tiny like Kushina when Mito had started training her. He missed Mito. Mito had not been an idiot like Kushina… although, maybe she'd been more of one; she had, after all, married the first Fire Shadow-dolt. And that guy had decided it was a brilliant idea to enslave sentient beings of chakra and give them out like gifts. As if that would help peace. He gave other countries weapons of mass destruction (a title Kurama bore most proudly).
He had returned to Konoha a few days after and asked – politely; Kurama was clever and not suicidal, unlike the blonde aforementioned idiot – to be slightly larger. It took ages to get anywhere on these tiny paws and he wanted to check in on his siblings. She (having lived inside of both Mito and Kushina, he could now tell the gender of these short-lived fireflies) had done as he wished rather easily and he was now the size of one of the carts the Shinobi were always hired to protect. Kushina had done a lot of those stupid guarding missions. One of the few times he agreed with her – there was little he thought could be more boring.
Actually, there was a thought. Maybe it was a requirement for becoming Hokage – being a stupid idiot; both Kushina and Mito's husband being prime examples. Yes, that sounded right. … Or, the more frightening thought, Jinchuuriki's sought out idiots for husbands, even before ever becoming one. Or maybe only those who married idiots were eligible and capable of becoming one.
Yeah, not a pleasant thought. Kurama definitely thought the first one far more likely. It definitely encapsulated everything they were.
Life was both easier and harder as a nine-tailed cart-sized fox-ghost.
Easier because he didn't have to fear being captured, sealed or mind-controlled.
Uchiha! A part of his mind still hissed venomously. He wondered if any of them would ever have been sealed if not for Madara and the blonde-idiot's cursed family student.
Harder because he couldn't really interact with the world. It wouldn't matter with his siblings, once he was close enough he could nudge them and they'd meet in their shared mindscape, but it was still annoying when he couldn't bite the idiotic humans he crossed paths with.
Well, maybe making more work for Death than he already had wasn't the wisest choice.
But he was just so angry.
And yet…
This was the first time in a long time he was free.
He had expected Death to call him back or not allow him free reign or any other manner of unpleasant thing. Instead… well, he was free.
He could breathe the air (he didn't have lungs) and see the blue sky (in more colour than any real fox) and run as long and as much as he wished in any direction. Kurama could jump into water and climb up mountains.
…
He didn't know what to do with his freedom. It had been so long since he had any, since he could make his own choices. So he did what he had been told to when he was still young, when he hadn't been so full of anger and hate.
It was his duty as the oldest. He would look after them. Make sure they're okay. Pester Death (ask it – her – politely) to help them if they needed it.
There had been a time where he had played with his siblings, where he had enjoyed looking at the humans doing silly things, going into the big water and seeing all the weird creatures inside (benefits of not needing to breathe). A time where looking at one of these tiny (now same size as him) mortal creatures hadn't filled him fear and hatred, with the urge to both destroy and run far and fast.
But that was a long time ago. A time when he had still deserved his title of older brother. Before he had, due to the Uchiha, single-handedly led them to their destruction.
Did they miss him? Had they ever been free? Were their humans understanding and talked to them like Mito? Or where they encaged and tortured as Kushina had done, every ounce of power drawn from them at the whims of the person imprisoning them?
Had they changed? Lost their playfulness, their humour?
Another human walked through him; Kurama growled and fangs snapped shut over air, unable to bite the person.
He hated them. He hated them all. They did this to him, to them all. As if they were the only ones who mattered in this world, as if this world belonged to them.
One day, he'd show them all and tear them down and protect-hide his siblings far away from these mortals who sought out nothing but how to destroy each other.