Korra had seen many things in her life. Benders with never before seen bending abilities, spirits, dark spirits, a man fused with a dark spirit that became a giant, a giant metal robot with a spirit cannon.
But she had never seen a creature like the one she was seeing right now and just the sight of it left her terrified.
"W-W-What are you?" asked Korra.
"Korra, meet Kurama, the being that lives inside me." said Naruto.
"What? How could you possibly have something like that inside you?" asked Korra.
"Don't you have a powerful spirit inside you?" asked Naruto remembering what he was told about Raava.
"That's different! Raava is a spirit of light! He... He's a monster!" exclaimed Korra.
"I'm here, do you remember?" asked Kurama with his arms crossed.
"Explain yourself, now!" demanded Korra.
"Well..." began Naruto ready to tell the story.
"Let me handle this, Naruto." said Kurama wanting to be the one to explain everything. Korra turned to look at him, paying attention to whatever he was going to explain. "Avatar Korra, what I'm about to tell is a story that goes back to the beginning of the ninja era."
Korra made sure to listen to every detail of the story.
"Many years ago, the world was ruled by one person, the first person to possess chakra, Kaguya Otsutsuki. However, over time, the power drove her mad until one day, her children, Hagoromo and Homura, rebelled against her and fought each other." began Kurama telling the story.
Korra was slightly surprised to learn that it was a woman who was the first to use chakra and that her own children fought against her because she was driven mad by the power.
"During the fight, Kaguya created an immensely powerful chakra beast, the 10-tailed beast, the jubi. Because he was too powerful to be destroyed, Hagoromo had no choice but to absorb him into his body, becoming the first jinchuriki." continued Kurama.
"Jinchuriki?" asked Korra.
"It's the name given to people who possess a beast with tails inside like me." replied Naruto.
Korra was very surprised to know that there was a person who was able to contain a powerful beast inside him without being harmed.
"What happened in the end with Kaguya?" asked Korra curious.
"Hagoromo and Homura managed to defeat her, ushering in a new era of peace in the world. Sometime later, when Hagoromo was near his death, he divided the jubi chakra into 9 parts. That is how my siblings and I, the bijuu, were born." said Kurama.
Korra was more and more amazed. Not only was that person able to absorb a huge and powerful creature inside him, but he was also able to split his power to create 9 creatures like the one in front of her.
To her, Hagoromo was the most powerful person she had ever heard of.
"I don't understand, why did he create you?" asked Korra.
"So that we could live together with humans in an era of peace. However, things weren't like that after a while." said Kurama.
"What do you mean?" asked Korra sensing the bad part of the story coming.
"While to him we were living beings, to most humans we were nothing more than monsters, weapons they wanted to use for their selfish ends. So, they captured us one by one and locked us inside some ninjas so that way, the Hidden Villages could have their own jinchurikis." said Kurama.
Now Korra was beginning to feel sorry for them. She even regretted calling him a monster earlier. They just wanted to live in peace, but the people of their world wanted to use them as tools for their own affairs. In fact, that reminded her of how things were during Wan's time when it came to the relationship between humans and spirits or when Kuvira used spirit energy to create her weapon.
"But that's not all." said Naruto catching the Avatar's attention. "Some jinchurikis started out as children. Only a few saw them as tools and weapons, but the others saw them as monsters or demons. They saw more of the being inside them than the person themselves, causing the jinchurikis to be outcasts by the people in their villages." said Naruto having brief memories of how he was treated at home during his early years of life.
Korra was shocked. She couldn't believe they would do that to children and worst of all, people treated them with contempt just for being something they didn't want. In fact, she remembered something Naruto mentioned the night they met.
"You're not the first person to call me 'monster'." said Naruto in the Avatar's memory.
Now Korra understood, Naruto must have been in a lot of pain during his life. She may have only known him for a short time, but she knew he was a good person, he didn't deserve to be treated that way just because he had a powerful being inside him.
Without warning, Korra jumped in to give him a hug, much to the ninja's surprise.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to suffer so much." said Korra trying to keep from crying.
"It's okay. That's in the past now." said Naruto returning her hug before they separated. "Besides, not everyone hated me. There were people who saw Naruto Uzumaki more than the bijuu inside me." said Naruto remembering all the people in his life who treated him well. "And as for the bijuu, they now live peacefully in freedom and people have stopped seeing them as monsters or weapons."
Korra smiled that Naruto wasn't alone in his childhood and that things would end well for him and the bijuu.
"Wait, if the bijuu are at large, why is Kurama still inside you?" asked Korra.
"Oh, it's because you're glad to be in me." said Naruto with a smile.
"It's not that. It's just that, now that I like you, I wouldn't want you to die." said Kurama looking away.
"Die? What do you mean?" asked Korra confused.
"When the bijuu is inserted into the jinchuriki, the chakra of the two become one. When it is extracted from the jinchuriki, the jinchuriki dies." said Kurama.
Korra was horrified. If the bijuu were at large, that meant that the jinchuriki who had previously held them were dead.
"W-what happened to them?" asked Korra.
"A group of evil ninja called Akatsuki intended to capture all the bijuu and use them as a powerful weapon. So they went after the jinchurikis and extracted their bijuu, killing them in the process. Now there are only two jinchurikis left." said Naruto remembering that event where they captured Gaara and he died losing Shukaku, even though he was alive now.
Korra felt sad to know that almost all the jinchurikis died because a group of crazy people were willing to kill them to achieve their purpose.
"I'm so sorry, Kurama. You and all your siblings didn't deserve what happened to you. Nor all those jinchurikis." said Korra.
"Bah. As the brat said, it's all in the past." said Kurama, getting the Avatar to smile.
"So, did you always know you had it in you?" asked Korra curious about the history of the two of them.
"Well, I didn't know at first, since that subject was a very private one in the village and when I found out and we met, we didn't get along very well." said Naruto.
"If by 'very well', you mean you had locked in a cage." said Kurama.
"Hey! It was my father who locked you in the cage, not me!" exclaimed Naruto.
"Your father?" asked Korra.
"Naruto's father, Minato Namikaze, was the fourth Hokage of the village and the person who put me in him." said Kurama.
"What? Your own father put Kurama inside you?" asked Korra very surprised to know that a father would put such a creature inside his own son and cause him a lifetime of suffering.
"Yes, it's a long story." said Naruto.
Over the next few minutes, Naruto told her that Kurama's previous jinchuriki was his mother, Kushina Uzumaki and that due to childbirth, Kurama's seal would be weakened, so it was decided to perform the birth in a secluded and secret location.
However, to Korra's horror, as soon as he was born, a masked guy, whose identity they decided to omit, took Naruto hostage before disappearing with the mother and, shortly after, used a powerful technique to completely release the seal and free Kurama.
Things took a turn for the worse when the masked one used a powerful genjutsu to put Kurama in a state where he acted like a wild beast to ravage the village.
Fortunately, Minato, Naruto's father managed to save the mother and then fought against the masked one and Kurama. After the masked one escaped, Minato decided to use a forbidden technique to stop Kurama, even if it meant his death.
Eventually, it ended with Kurama trying to kill Naruto, but his parents sacrificed themselves to protect him. After that, Minato's technique locked half of Kurama's power inside him before he and Kushina died and Kurama was locked inside the baby.
Korra couldn't help but shed tears at the sad story of how his parents gave their lives to protect him.
"I-I don't understand. He killed your parents! How are you two acting like good friends?!" asked Korra.
"Well. I admit we hated each other, but then I understood that there's nothing to be gained by hatred. Hate is what led to the conflicts in my world and I wanted to stop them. So, I had to let go of my hatred and now I don't see the monster that killed my parents, but a good partner." said Naruto.
"And I no longer see a brat who gets depressed because things went wrong, but a ninja who deserves me to share my power with him." said Kurama with a smile before the bijuu and the jinchuriki clashed fists.
Korra was impressed. Despite their history with each other, they accepted each other almost as lifelong companions. To her, that was an inspiration to see beyond the hatred. Maybe she could use that to help Asami overcome her hatred of Kuvira for killing her father.
After that, Korra opened her eyes, finding herself back in the garden of the Sato mansion with Naruto in front of her.
"I hope this was enough for you." said Naruto.
"More than that, Naruto. I see now that you are a wonderful person. It even makes me jealous of you." said Korra.
"Haha. Oh, come on. You exaggerate too much." said Naruto being modest.
"I'm serious. Anyone in your situation, would have fallen into despair or even utter darkness, but you kept holding on to hope and finally found the light at the end of the tunnel." said Korra.
"Well, I didn't do it alone. I had my friends by my side to help me. Besides, you got yours too, didn't you? Despite what happened, you're still fighting for others." said Naruto.
"That's right. No matter how crazy things get or what might happen, I'll keep trying to bring balance to the world. That's my path as Avatar." said Korra.
"And I don't plan to regret my words or give up. Because that is my ninja path." said Naruto.
Both the Avatar and the jinchuriki shared a confident smile.
After that, Naruto and Korra spent the rest of the afternoon together telling each other things about their lives.
They may have gone through different times in their lives, but if there was one thing they had in common it was that no matter how difficult and dark the situation, they always picked themselves up and kept going to fulfill their path.