"Whoo! Another beautiful day on the ocean," Naruto cheered, climbing out onto deck.
"Kill me now," Kuruma groaned, his paws over his face.
Still sea sick huh? Naruto thought, as he relieved a sleepy Hinata at the wheel. A quick check to the compass showed they were still headed in the same direction.
"How are you not? I know you are feeling the same infernal up and down lurching as I am. And yet your stomach isn't affected at all," Kuruma said.
Guess I'm just stronger than you, Naruto thought, with a shit eating grin.
"You damn punk! Come try me if your are feeling so cocky!" Kuruma roared, shooting to his feet, before immediately collapsing. "That was a mistake. Oh Sage Almighty that was a big mistake," he moaned, retching. Kuruma covered his eyes with his paws, as he rolled onto his side, panting.
How can you even throw up? Naruto asked, lashing the wheel in place and checking the sails. They seemed appropriately billowy to him, so he nodded in satisfaction and moved on.
"Everything eats, even demons. You turn what you eat into fat. I turn what I eat into chakra," Kuruma said, keeping his eyes closed.
"Yeah, but you've been inside me my whole life. What was the last thing you ate?" Naruto asked.
"Some cocky ninja from Konoha," Kuruma said.
"Right. The rampage," Naruto said, awkwardly trailing off into silence. Not that Kuruma noticed, being too sick to pay attention. Naruto gave himself a mental shake, and decided to practice manipulating his chakra. He carefully put on chakra claw on the wheel of the boat, and then headed to the ship's kitchen, letting the claw stretch out behind him. He stood in the door to the kitchen and set out to making breakfast and lunch, while only using his chakra to pick up ingredients and the tools.
"And now for the tricky part," Naruto whispered, after putting a frying pan down. He focused, concentrating one claw as tightly as possible. The chakra practically hummed as it was compressed, turning the claw into a thin tendril, and Naruto gingerly moved it towards an egg. As soon as the tendril touched the egg, the egg exploded, and Naruto lost control of the chakra, creating a blast of air which launched the pan, the cooking utensils, and the eggs all over the room.
"Well, I guess I can practice my chakra cleaning then," Naruto groaned, as he stared at the disaster he had created in the kitchen.
/*/
Later, Naruto was joined by Hinata for lunch once she woke up. He had eventually given up on eggs, and settled for soup out of a can.
"Thanks for the meal," the pair said, cheerfully, before digging in. After lunch they sat on the bow of the ship and watched the ocean.
"Naruto," Hinata began, "I have to admit, that despite how much I'm enjoying being free of Konoha, and how beautiful this view is, I'm-"
"Bored?" Naruto guessed.
"Restless," Hinata corrected. "I need something to do, and I can only go through my family's katas so many times."
"Yeah, I get that. I can only do so much practice with my chakra arms before I get bored too," Naruto said. "So how about we play a game?"
"Like what? There isn't anything on board we could use for a game," Hinata asked, curious.
"How about this? Tag, you're it!" Naruto said, poking Hinata and grinning cheekily. Hinata looked at him in shock for a second, before a sense of joy and eagerness warned him of her attempting to get him back. Naruto leap up laughing and grabbed onto the mast with his chakra. Hinata shot after him, running up the mast while Naruto swung from the ropes. He bounced off the sail and couldn't quite control his spinning, as Hinata's fingertips brushed against his cheek.
"Got you," she said, triumph flashing from her emotions. She dove off the mast, and rolled to absorb her fall. Naruto pursued her and caught himself an inch above the deck with his chakra. He looked up in time to see Hinata jump over the edge of the ship. Rushing over, Naruto looked over the edge to see Hinata smiling up at him, her feet firmly planted on the side of the boat and her eyes glittering brilliantly.
"Don't think you'll get away that easily," Naruto faux-growled, letting his chakra grow into faint claws on his hands and feet before chasing after her on all fours. He pounced at her, and she elegantly twirled out of the way, never even glancing back as she did. Without losing a beat, she reversed direction and started running towards the prow of the ship. Naruto chased after her, grinning as he felt Hinata's joy bubbling up from the constant low level affection she emitted. He leapt after her again, only to miss when Hinata stepped onto the bowspit, and flipped herself back onto the deck. Naruto used chakra arms to launch himself high in the air, and then grabbed onto the ropes to launch himself like an arrow at Hinata. She spun out of the way, Naruto's fingers missing by less than an inch, before slipping over the edge again.
"So close, Naruto," she called, as she ran away. Naruto shook his head from his landing, and continued the chase. Hinata lead him towards the stern of the ship, and balanced herself on the rudder. This time when Naruto caught up to her, he went for a low lunge. Hinata jumped, and widened her eyes comically, as gravity kicked in and dragged her off into the ocean.
"Pretty girl overboard," Naruto yelled, moving his chakra arms to fish Hinata out of the water. He lifted the dripping wet girl upwards as Naruto climbed back onto the deck. He placed her down gently and took a close look at her. Hinata was shivering and rubbing at her eyes. Her pale skin was flushed with embarrassment as the emotion radiated from her.
"T-thanks, Naruto," Hinata stammered, not looking at him.
"No problem, Hinata. Guess you got a little carried away, huh?" Naruto said, nudging the girl.
"I-I-I guess s-so," Hinata said, poking her fingers together. "Y-you, umm, you. Youcalledmepretty," she finished in a rush. Naruto immediately blushed, and looked away.
"Umm, yeah, haha, I guess I did," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I mean, it's true. Your a girl, and your very pretty, and you fell overboard, haha." Naruto felt a deep upwelling of emotion from Hinata, affection mixed with that weird emotion he had only ever felt from her.
"T-thank you," Hinata said, grabbing Naruto's hands and smiling at him. "I-" Hinata glanced down at herself, and blushed until she her face was as red as a tomato. "I should change my shirt," she said, standing up. Naruto looked up and blushed his ownself. The water had made Hinata's rather thin shirt cling to her skin, and Naruto clasped his hands over his nose as he averted his eyes.
"Y-yeah, probably a good idea," he stammered, nodding. "I guess we can play some more, later." Hinata nodded, and ran off, as Naruto took several deep breaths to compose himself.
/*/
Later that day, Naruto was standing by the wheel of the ship while he did his best to keep the sun at the ships back, but the wind wasn't cooperating, so he settled for keeping it to the right instead. He yawned as the water got choppy and the boat began to lurch between the waves.
"Good evening, Naruto," Hinata said, easily walking across the swaying ship as she carried dinner up to Naruto.
"Evening, Hinata. What's for dinner tonight?" he asked, looking at the tray she was carrying.
"I thought I would try to make a fruit salad. Also, I cracked open a can of sardines. So fruit and fish," Hinata said.
"Huh, okay," Naruto said, shrugging. He looked at the bowl of fruit in puzzlement, it was a bunch of cut apple pieces. He took one and ate it, revealing the orange slices underneath. He laughed and mixed the bowl of layered fruit with his chopsticks, creating a proper fruit salad. He snagged a sardine and ate the oily fish down in a single bite.
"I know it's not very good," Hinata murmured, picking at her own food. "I never really appreciated how hard it was for my servants to prepare my meals until now."
"Don't worry about it, I don't really know how to cook either," Naruto said, waving a hand dismissively. "In fact, I'd say this is a lot better than the stuff I was scavenging back in Konoha."
"Really? The meals you've been making have been better than mine," Hinata said, confusion flowing from her.
"Ahh, I'm just good at choosing pre-made meals," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm not really doing any actual cooking."
"Hm," Hinata hummed, radiating disagreement.
"So how far do you think we have to go?" Naruto asked, changing the subject.
"I'm not sure," Hinata said. "I imagine it's a pretty far journey, or else my clan would have records about what's actually across the ocean."
"Yeah? So nobody has ever been there before? That's awesome," Naruto said, smiling.
"I'm sure there will be people there at least," Hinata said.
"I wonder what they are like?" Naruto mused.
"Well what do you hope they are like?" Hinata asked. "I'm hoping they are nice and open to new ideas, a people who aren't bound by tradition on who they should be."
"Hmm, personally, I just want to see some cool new jutsus. I mean, maybe they don't have ninja. Maybe everyone is free to use chakra to do whatever they want instead of just fighting with them. Think about it, maybe they'll have jutsus that control the weather, or to just instantly build a house," Naruto said.
"Why didn't you learn any jutsus back in the village?" Hinata asked.
"Ehhh, that's kinda complicated," Naruto said. He felt the disappointment coming from Hinata and sighed. "It's mostly that I didn't want to be a ninja, so I didn't bother to put any effort into learning the jutsus taught at the academy, or else the old man would expect me to pass the test to become a ninja. That and the academy jutsus are kinda lame."
"I suppose so," Hinata said. "But I feel like you're leaving something out."
"Kinda. But don't worry about it, it's not that important," Naruto said, sweating a bit. "On a different note, is it just me, or is the wind picking up?"
"I feel it too," Hinata said, standing up. A spike of fear shot through her as she stared out at the horizon. "Um, Naruto, where did that come from?" she asked, nervously.
"Where what came from?" Naruto asked, standing up as well. A wall of storm clouds filled the Western horizon and the ship creaked as the winds tugged at the sails. The sheet of gray went on for as far as the eye could see, and distant flashes of lightning would come down as Naruto watched. Naruto stared at the incoming storm, his eyes wide.
"What should we do Naruto?" Hinata asked, tugging at Naruto's sleeve.
"Umm, we should run away! Yeah! The wind of the storm will push us forward, so we'll outrace it. Right?"
"That makes sense," Hinata said, smiling, even as her fear and apprehension rose up within her. Naruto gulped and turned the ship to be pointing directly away from the storm. The boat lurched as the waves struck it.
/*/
"Brat, you are not allowed to drown to death, you hear me?" Kuruma roared in Naruto's mind, trying desperately to stop himself from puking as the boat pitched with each massive wave.
"Don't think it's up to me big guy!" Naruto yelled back as he tried to keep control of the ship in the storm.
"What?" Hinata yelled from her position on the deck. She had been retying snapped ropes and trying to replace a sail that had torn free from the winds.
"Nothing!" Naruto yelled back, as he strained against the wheel. He was using his 'demon form' and was anchoring himself to the wood by the simple method of digging into the slippery wet wood with his claws. He imagined Hinata was doing something similar with her chakra control so she wouldn't fall when the ship bucked from the waves. There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder.
"That's right on top of us brat! Weren't you trying to avoid this storm?" Kuruma yelled as he cradled his head with his paws.
"Yeah, well, that didn't work now did it?" Naruto snarled, wiping water from his eyes. A wave broke from right behind them, hammering down into Naruto, and snapping the railing on its way down to the deck. "Hinata!" Naruto yelled.
"I see it!" She said, slapping the debris away with the palm of her hand, and almost dancing over the wave as it drained into the ocean. A rope to the main sail snapped, and she casually ducked it as it whipped across the ship, slapping into Naruto's chakra, before flying out of reach.
"Geeze, that hit harder than Neji," Naruto said, as the sail began to twist and catch the wind in a different direction. The boat groaned as the wheel fought Naruto's grip, and the entire ship began to tip over sideways.
"Oh no," Hinata gasped, her voice lost to the wind. She looked up at the tangle of ropes and gulped, her confusion calling Naruto's attention to her, who could only stare helplessly at her. He didn't have a clue what to do either, but the boat was nearly sideways at this point, and they had to do something. He could feel Hinata come to a decision as determination bloomed in her mind. She shot forward to the base of the mast and slammed her fists into it. She smashed it again and again, yelling in rage as her hands dug into the wood, filling with splinters even as the mast slowly began to break. It finally snapped the mast quickly being dragged into the ocean as the ship suddenly righted itself.
"Good job Hinata," Naruto called, sensing Hinata's relief. Hinata sent a spark of pride to Naruto at his words, and then a massive wave swept across the ship, completely engulfing Naruto. He endured the hit and waited patiently, until he felt a wave of panic and fear overcome Hinata. Immediately, Naruto let go of the wheel and shot upwards, extending his claws downwards to get extra height. The ship began to spin out of control as Naruto frantically scanned the ship's deck for Hinata. He looked out to where he was detecting her fear and cursed. It was coming from off the side of the boat, in the ocean.
"Pretty girl overboard," Naruto yelled, diving off the ship into the stormy waters. He reached out blindly with his chakra claws, trying to catch a hold of Hinata, but to his frustration he got nothing and could feel her getting further away. He flailed away at the water, trying to get closer as the ship capsized behind him and began to sink.
"Kit what the hell do you think you're doing? Didn't I tell you not to drown?" Kuruma demanded, finally breaking out of his misery now that the lurching of the ship was gone.
"I have to save Hinata!" Naruto yelled back, desperately trying to get closer to Hinata's presence.
"You idiot, you don't know how to swim! How do you expect to help her when you can barely keep your head above the water?" Kuruma said. "Oh wait, nevermind. How can you help her as you drown?" Kuruma asked sarcastically as Naruto slipped beneath the waves. The giant fox sighed, and forcibly pulled Naruto's mind towards him.
"Wha? Why are you interfering?" Naruto asked, taking a moment to reorient himself.
"Because you are failing. At this rate you'll die pointlessly," Kuruma said, matter of factly.
"Well what else can I do?" Naruto yelled in frustration.
"You can leave it to me. You see that seal on those bars?" Kuruma said.
"Yeah?"
"Remove that, and I'll be able to leave this prison entirely, allowing my real form to exit your body. I'll be able to save both you and Hinata," Kuruma explained.
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Let's do this," Naruto said, eagerly moving towards the bars of Kuruma's cell. He grabbed a hold of the seal, only to be interrupted by an arm wrapping around his chest and pushing him back.
"What do you think you are doing?" a stranger with blond hair and blue eyes said.
"You interfering bastard! What do you think you're doing?" Kuruma roared through the bars, rattling his prison bars.
"Bringing my son to his senses, obviously," the man said.
"Your son?" Naruto asked, falling on his butt.
"That's right Naruto, I am your father," the man said, offering Naruto a hand to stand up.
"My father? How is this possible? My father is dead," Naruto asked, allowing himself to be pulled up.
"I copied my personality into the seal, to emerge if it was about to be broken," Naruto's father said.
"Okay. But do I know you? You look really familiar," Naruto asked.
"Seriously brat? His face is carved into a mountain. This is the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze."
"I knew that," Naruto said, quickly. Minato and Kuruma both gave him looks of disbelief.
"Anyways, I'm surprised at how calm you are demon fox. I expected you to be all 'Rar, I hate you fourth Hokage. I'm a big fat fox who's still salty about losing to you in a fight," Minato said.
"I lost you say? Funny. I'm about to be freed, and I'm far enough away from any ninja that being resealed is basically impossible. Meanwhile, you're not only dead, but trapped in eternal torment inside the Reaper's belly. In fact, I'm glad you managed to slip a echo into the seal. Now you can fail in person," Kuruma said, with a dark laugh.
"Please, I'm sure Naruto is just confused or misunderstanding something, I'm sure I can think of another solution rather than letting you out," Minato scoffed.
"Well I'm drowning alone in the middle of the ocean while a storm rages around me. I don't know how to swim, and I have to rescue my Hinata at the same time," Naruto summarized. "Besides, I don't see what the big deal is, if I had known it was that easy to free him, I would've done it already."
"You what! What do you mean, you would've freed him already? He would've slaughtered everyone in the village if you did that," Minato exclaimed. Naruto frowned at him, despite his apparent shock, Naruto wasn't detecting any emotions from him.
Is that because he's like the Old Man, and can hide his emotions? Is that just a thing Hokage's can do? Or is it because he isn't really here? Naruto thought.
"That doesn't matter," Naruto said, bluntly. "Regardless of what I would've done, I will die if I don't free him now."
"Not necessarily. I can teach you a technique that could send you back to Konoha in a heartbeat," Minato said.
"Oh cool! Can we use it to save Hinata too?" Naruto asked, beaming.
"Er no, it can only transport one person," Minato admitted.
"Well than that's useless. I'm not leaving without Hinata," Naruto said.
"Don't be an idiot, it's better that you at least live, rather than you both die," Minato said, taking a step forward.
"Shut up! Your the one who doesn't know anything. I'm the person who brought Hinata out of the village, and I'm responsible for her. I'll never give her up to anyone, not even to the Reaper himself. So either help me save her, or get out of my way!" Naruto yelled, clenching his fists and walking forward.
"What, and you think freeing the Demon Fox will save her? He'll kill you and her before going on a rampage someplace else! You can't risk freeing him!" Minato yelled back, throwing his arms out to block Naruto's path.
"Hey big guy, you gonna betray me and murder Hinata?" Naruto asked, looking past his father to Kuruma.
"Nope," Kuruma said, smiling widely.
"There you go. And I trust him a lot more than I trust you. He's been there my entire life, given me advice when I needed it, taught me how to survive, and trained me to be a proper demon. Who are you in comparison to that?" Naruto said, stepping up to Minato and looking him in the eye.
"I'm your father," Minato said, trying to be stern.
"My father's dead. You're just some crappy echo he left in my head. Now go away," Naruto said, lightly pushing against Minato who vanished into faintly glowing dust.
"Hahaha, oh Kit, you make me so proud," Kuruma laughed.
"Thanks," Naruto said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Besides, you're basically my dad when I think about it. So...sniff, so it's not like I've actually lost my dad at all," he continued, frantically wiping his face with his sleeve to contain his tears. He missed Kuruma pause, before shuddering, his red fur sticking on end.
"Well Kit, we are on a time limit here, let's get this done," Kuruma said, gruffly, trying to settle down.
"Right," Naruto said, tearing the seal from the cell doors.
/*/
Kuruma laughed and laughed as he burst out of the cell. Naruto's body exploded with red chakra as Kuruma poured out of his body and into the real world. The ocean water was forced away by Kuruma's sheer mass and he had one moment of triumph before the water came rushing back in. He sputtered and spat out the sea water that had shot up his nose, as he paddled back up to the surface. The mighty waves that had overwhelmed Hinata and Naruto were mere splashes against his neck, the pounding rain a mere drizzle.
Taking a moment to inspect himself, he was shocked to see a bright blue orb inside his body. It seems that Naruto had instinctively shielded himself with his own chakra, preventing himself from being torn apart by Kuruma's raging power when the demon fox left his body. Kuruma hesitated, he could feel the binding between him and Naruto still, he may be free for now as Naruto was unconscious, but when the kit woke up, he'd be able to drag him back inside.
Should I betray him? It would be nothing to crack that shield like an egg, and tear the kit apart. Then I would be truly free. I could return to Konoha and get my revenge, I could retreat to the wilderness and remain forever free from humanity from that point on. Kuruma thought to himself. He felt an odd bit of reluctance at the thought. Betraying the kit didn't sit well with him, and really, the kit wasn't a bad host and he wasn't entirely wrong when the kit called him his- Kuruma shuddered again, and forced his thoughts away from what he was thinking.
Instead he focused on his environment instead. Just swirling gray clouds, sheets of rain, and a dark sea. Nothing really to see, but he wasn't limited to just his sight. Kuruma sniffed the air, and focused on his emotion sensing. Off in the distance, he could oh so faintly smell his brothers, the closest being Shukaku whose faintly sandy smell wasn't really that far off, all things considered. The other thing to note was the tiny frightened mote of emotion that was swirling around his paw. It was the kit's vixen, and again, Kuruma felt reluctant to allow that mote of life to be snuffed out.
Oh this is pathetic. The great nine tailed demon fox, saving a couple of humans because of feelings, Kuruma thought with disgust as he gently picked the vixen up with his tail and brought it around to his face.
"Naruto?" the vixen asked, coughing up water, even as the warm love and faith she showed the kit shone upon Kuruma.
"Nay. I am the kit's fa-ahem. I am the kit's mentor. And I won't be dishonored by allowing a kit of mine to die to a bit of bad weather," Kuruma rumbled.
"Oh. Are you going to save us?" the vixen asked, weakly.
"I suppose I shall do so this once. Though I will expect the two of you to pay me back in some manner once we reach shore," Kuruma said. "For now, sleep little vixen. I will handle things from here." Overwhelmed, Hinata nodded, and allowed herself to pass out. Carefully, Kuruma parted the chakra that made up his body and slowly brought Hinata's body to Naruto's. He couldn't help but smile when Naruto's chakra shield opened up to allow Hinata in when she reached his barrier.
"Ridiculous little kits," Kuruma snorted, raising his snout high and swimming towards his brother's scent.
Author's Notes: So I had fun looking up the ways to correctly sail through a storm, and then have Naruto do basically the opposite of that.
Besides that, Naruto got some pretty massive power boosts here, in getting Kuruma as an ally and developing his chakra whip. The big difference from canon regarding Kuruma is that they aren't really equals at this point. If Kuruma wants to, he can pretty much take over Naruto's body more or less whenever, and the best Naruto could do to fight back is to force Kuruma to kill him in order to be free.