Naruto's POV from chapter 70. I didn't much like this when I wrote it, but I can't remember why now. So uh, here it is, slightly delayed.
.
.
Naruto likes a lot of things because liking things is better than hating things. He likes ramen and orange and toads and plants and training and –and a million other things! The world is full of things he likes! But at the top of the list of things he likes, are his precious people.
Because nothing, not orange, not ramen, not training, makes him feel quite so happy as when he has friends.
And Naruto really doesn't like it when people hurt his friends. When Haku seemed to kill Sasuke, Naruto felt like he was going to explode with anger, something deep inside starting to burn with unending fire.
Seeing Shikako fall, a sword lodged through her chest in a way even Naruto can tell is fatal, is a million times worse.
If it was him… if it was him, he would heal. But Shikako isn't him. And there's no gentle Haku here, to prove the attack a lie.
The smell of blood is real.
Naruto screams, rage and grief and anger. So much anger. It's an inhuman sound, and it wakes the beast within him. Kyuubi beats against his stomach, red chakra spilling out into the air. Everything is red.
He slams into Haido, shredding skin and smashing bone as he rams him into the wall. His clawed hand clutches a throat, blood starting to run where the sharp points of his nails break the skin, and drags him up, ascending the wall like gravity has no hold on him.
Haido only just starts to struggle, a blast of energy leaving his hand and slams into him.
Naruto snarls.
Haido smashes against the roof, chunks of stone blasting away under the force of his body. His skin is crackling and burning where the red chakra lashes at him, seeming to melt beneath Naruto's hand.
Naruto feels nothing but grim, vicious satisfaction.
He doesn't even care when Haido transforms. Nothing is going to help him now. Not with this redred anger bubbling in his veins and spilling out of his skin. Not with Shikako-chan dying behind him. Nothing is going to help him.
Nothing does.
Haido dies but the anger doesn't go away.
Naruto slams his fist into the wall, again, and again. His heart feels too big, like it's going to burst, pounding away in his chest. Everything burns.
Then, suddenly, there's bright light and he's falling.
.
.
"What?" Naruto splutters, hauling himself out of the cold and freezing water. The place is familiar, the cavernous sewer that houses the Kyuubi. Except it's not. The ceiling, the walls… they radiating light.
Everything is pure and clear. The water, usually rank and dark, sparkles around his feet. The corridor doesn't seem so huge and intimidating when he can see all the corners and edges.
"Hey! Why'd you pull me in here?!" He turns to demand of the fox. Except, where there is usually nothing but solid blackness, the cage is lit too.
Naruto realises he has never actually seen the Kyuubi before. He's seen its teeth, of course, when it had snapped at him, and eyes where it had glared. It had tried to claw him, once. And there was always that noxious red chakra seeping out, flickering like fire and smoke.
It actually… kinda does look like a fox, he thinks, surprised.
"I," it rumbles. "Did no such thing. If you must blame anyone, blame her." It drops its muzzle down to rest on its paws, tilting its head towards the wall. Lips pull back over long teeth, though the Kyuubi doesn't move.
"Huh?" Naruto frowns. Her? He takes a step closer, puffing up to begin to argue with the fox, then notices a strange shimmering between the bars. He reaches out and brushes his fingers against it.
-we are- this too shall pass (time moves on) – don't leave us! – live/love - we exist we have always existed we will always exist we are – look at it all it goes on forever – to hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour – I don't want to go
"Shikako," Naruto says numbly. His hand falls away. "I have to go back!"
"That is not your friend any longer," the Kyuubi says. Its eyes are half lidded, as though the light has sapped all its strength away. The giant tails twitch once, twice, and still. "No mortal thing can hold that power."
And Naruto had felt that, when he touched it. It was still Shikako, still his friend, but she was a small and tiny part of something so vast… she would get lost in it, vanish like a drop of blood in a lake of water. Be washed away, as though she were something unimportant.
Naruto clenches his fists together, nails biting into his palms. Shikako was his first friend – the friend that he'd never had to prove himself to, or earn respect from. "I have to help her," he says, feeling powerless. "I have to-"
What can he do?
His breath shudders in and out. If it were him, he would heal. "You-" Naruto starts. "Could you heal her?"
"Why," the Kyuubi breathes, "would I want to do that?"
Naruto nearly screams at the dismissive response. The light – Shikako's light – curls around him like a reassuring hug. It should make things better, but all it doesn't, not where it matters.
"Aren't there things you want to protect?" Naruto asks, almost helplessly. He can't imagine the Kyuubi having friends, or family…
The Kyuubi huffs. "No."
And there is something in the word. Something that echoes in the deep places of Naruto's heart. Something familiar. "It sounds lonely," he says. For the first time, he wonders what it would be like to be in the seal. Alone, all the time. Dark and dank. It is not a nice place.
"Lonely," the Kyuubi mocks. "I have been trapped for decades, barely tasted freedom before it is snatched from my grasp again. I have been torn apart, so I am barely half of myself. I have been enslaved. And you think what concerns me is loneliness?"
"Yeah," Naruto says. He's not entirely sure he knows what the Kyuubi is talking about – or that he wants to know, truthfully – but he knows loneliness. Even for something like the Kyuubi. "Hey… what's your name? You have to have one, right?"
On any other occasion, Naruto might have been proud of managing to surprise the Kyuubi. But it's the last thing on his mind right now. The Kyuubi heaves a great, shattering sigh, that makes the water surge and the floor buck underfoot.
"My name is Kurama," it says. "And your friend cannot be saved."