The location was a large and long hallway which had a width of 100 meters, it went so high that the ceiling was nothing but darkness and the length was, according to some so massive that could spend your entire life trying to reach one corner and you still wouldn't see the end. The walls of the hallway were covered in smooth satin cloth hung between two successive pillars that, like the hallway, rose all the way up into the darkness. There was a few pictures hanging on these walls, pictures depicting various events that had taken place in times long ago, but one pictures stood out among the rest, it look up almost the entire length between two successive pillars and was at least twice that length in height. The picture was that of a man with blonde hair wearing a golden flowing cloak, which seemed to be made out of chakra, standing on the head of a great beast while they fought a great battle.
Now many might wonder where in the entire ninja world you could find a place so massive and who would live in such a place, and the answer to the second question was a beast so powerful so that it could level mountains with just a swing of its tail, a beast so powerful and no single man could ever hope to kill it. This hallway was the home of the great nine tailed beast Kyuubi, or Kurama as Naruto called him, and it had been such for more than a century. He had lived and roamed in this hallway ever since the bars holding him had been removed and thought he still couldn't walk the world this single hallway was still, according to him, much much better than the jail that he lived in previously.
Though this hallway was Kurama's home, right at this moment he was nowhere to be seen. The only person in sight was an old man who sat in a chair right in front of the picture depicting the battle. He sat on a chair which had cushions for his back and bottom(read this in minions voice please :D) that barely reached his knees as his long silver hair cascaded along his back. His eyes were blue that had lost some of the brightness it had when he was young and, if on looked really carefully, you could see tell-tale signs of whiskers marks along his cheeks that were partially hidden by all the wrinkles that had been formed on his face a long time ago. This man was Naruto Uzumaki, the former Rokudaime Hokage and one of the Hero of the Fourth Great Ninja war.
He looked at the large painting, which showed him atop of Kurama, fondly as he thought back on the war that brought him closer to Kurama than any other jinchuuriki of the nine tails before him. It was also the same war in which he lost many good friends and comrades. All of that had happened so long ago, but he could still remember it like it was yesterday. Not because it was a such a good memory that he was not able to forget it, but because he never allowed himself to forget the sacrifice of all the ninja that died in the war against Madara Uchiha.
"What are you doing here?" a voice said suddenly.
Naruto turned to the right to see a large beast, many stories tall and with nine large tails waving behind him, slowly walk up to him. The beast slowly crossed Naruto then turned around, after walking some distance from Naruto, and sat down on his belly, his jaw facing Naruto.
"I can here to see an old friend or am I not allowed to that anymore?" Naruto said with a teasing smile.
"You know what I am talking about. You should be resting right now."
"Hey I am resting, you know." Naruto said with a pout. Even in his old age he still had some of his childish manners.
"I am sleeping in my bed right now, with all the necessary things I need by my bedside." He continued.
"You need both physical and mental rest right now Naruto." Kurama said as he looked at Naruto in disapproval.
"And I am taking good care of myself, thank you very much!" Naruto said with a smile as Kurama snorted.
The two creatures started at each other trying to make the other one back down. If anyone else saw this stare down they would have laughed at how amusing it looked, a frail old man trying to win a stare down against one of the most powerful tailed beasts in the world, one that brought even the bravest men to his knees by his presence alone. Yet Naruto was not afraid, because this was not the first time he had this competition with Kurama.
After what left like hours, Kurama finally sighed and turned away from Naruto. He kept on looking at the picture that hung infront of Naruto and thought back on the many years that he had spent with his jailer turned partner turned friend. He was also Kurama's first friend, the Sage of Six Paths, though dear to Kurama, was more of a father figure than a friend for Kurama and as such Naruto was just as important to Kurama was the sage was.
Kurama let out another sigh as he turned to Naruto.
"You are not young any more Naruto, you know coming in here puts a lot of strain on your body Naruto." Kurama began, "My chakra and the influence it has on one's body as well as mind was not meant for humans. Even now, as you stand before me in your weakened state, can you honestly say that my presence is not affecting you?" Kurama said as he locked eyes with Naruto.
Both of them were quite for a few minutes staring at each other, then Naruto turned and looked at his and Kurama's painting again.
"Do you remember the war Kurama?"
"Don't change the subject, Naru-"
"I only remember parts of it." Naruto continued without moving his head.
"The greatest war that our world ever had, the war for peace, that's what they call it these days. The war that brought forth our greatest heroes." Naruto said as he frowned." All they talk about are people who lived; they never talk about the dead. What about Neji, Guy-sensei and others. Why does no-one ever talk about them?"
"Naru-"
"Were their deaths meaningless? Did they not give their lives so that we could win the war?" Naruto was almost shouting now.
"They are just much a hero as the others maybe even more. They had the courage to do things for us knowing that they would not live. Does that not take more courage? And what do they get, just a stupid monument in their name. Is that fair?"
Kurama looked at Naruto's face and could see that there was something else that was bothering him.
"Then should they have not fought the war? Should they have stayed at home in safety while their friends and family fought for their lives?" Kurama said, "They knew what they were getting into at the start of the war, every person, the ones who died and the ones who lived, who fought in the war did it so that their loved ones back home could live peacefully."
"Neji died so that you could live on, he did it for you and for that woman, or did you forget that?" Kurama asked Naruto.
Naruto looked confused for a second but quickly changed back to his previous face. This did not escape Kurama though and it worried him even more.
"Do you think he should have just let you and that Hyuuga girl die? Would that have made her happy? No. He took a decision in the midst of battle and he carried it out with honor. As for the monument, I believe it is the way you have lived your life till now, with honor and courage, which is the best way to honor their legacy."
Naruto was silent as he kept on looking at the painting in front of him. He kept on looking at the painting, as if trying really hard to remember something really important.
"Naruto, what is bothering you?" Kurama asked in a voice that sounded a little worried, at least as much worry as he could show in his voice.
"I can't remember their faces anymore." Naruto said suddenly, "Neither Neji's nor Guy-sensei not even Kakashi-sensei. I keep trying but all I see are blank faces."
Naruto then turned to face Kurama and his face was pale and distraught. He looked Kurama in the eyes and said
"I had a dream about the war yesterday. It was after I had met with your old man."
Kurama smiled a bit at hearing this; even though Naruto was old he still hadn't really learned to show proper respect to the elders.
"I had just woken up and had started fighting Madara again when all of a sudden every person around me started to lose their faces, I mean they just lost thir eyes, their nose and their mouths. I remember thinking that it might be genjutsu and tried to dispel it, but nothing happened." Naruto said in a whisper, but Kurama heard it clearly due to his keen ears.
"I kept running everywhere, searching for their faces, but all I found were blank faces that kept staring at me as if asking me why had I forgotten them, why didn't I remember them? I was scared Kurama, really scared." Naruto's body trembled a bit.
"I am even forgetting Hinata-chan's face, I need to look at her photo everyday after waking up and before going to sleep just to make sure I won't forget it. I have already forgotten Sakura-chan and Sasuke's faces. Whats happening to me Kurama, why can't remember their faces?"
Kurama knew exactly what was wrong with him. Most jinchuuriki never lived as long as Naruto had. Even Mito Hashirama, with the same Uzumaki vitality as Naruto, had died before she reached 80 years old. And even at that age Mito had started showing the same signs. That was one of the reasons she had started looking for the next jinchuuriki, to tell him or her what to expect when you were the jinchuuriki of the most powerful tailed beast. Naruto, on the older hand, had already crossed more than hundered years as such that effect of being his jailer, thought he didn't like calling him that, was much more profound. Kurama's chakra was really corrosive to a human, both physically and mentally and thought they had already taken care of the physical part of the chakra during the Great Ninja War, the part that affected the mentality of the jailer was much more harder, especially after Kurama had gotten back both his Yin and Yang chakra. His chakra had been affecting Naruto's brain since his birth, more so in the first fifteen to sixteen years of Naruto's like than any other, and while at his young age his body was able to somehow oppose his influence, Naruto was no longer young and no matter how much Kurama tried to hold back his chakra, he was still a really powerful being and to completely eradicate his presence would require him to be removed from the jailer. The effect was even more when the jailer visited the bijuu inside their bodies. That was why Kurama had told Naruto he needed rest and had wanted him to get out of here.
"This is why I didn't want you to come here Naruto." Kurama whispered before speaking again in a normal voice, "You are old now Naruto, you no longer have the mental strength to overcome the effect of my chakra inside here. We can still talk without you needing to come here, plus I am sure there are still many of your friends who still want to talk to you."
"All of them are dead." Naruto said, "All the people out there, they don't think of my as their friend. When they see me all they see is the last of the heroes of the Fourth Great Ninja War. They don't see Naruto Uzumaki the ninja, they see the Hero of the Nations and the Rokudaime Hokage."
Naruto was silent for a while as he contemplated what to say next.
"Don't get me wrong, I don't regret anything I did. I am happy that I was able to defeat Madara and became the Hokage, but I never thought I would be last to die. I never thought I would be so alone." Naruto chuckled as he continued, "Even Sasuke-teme's grand-children and my own talk to me like a stranger."
"Ah." Naruto exhaled," The burden of being one of the strongest ninjas ever sure is tough, eh Kurama?" Naruto said as he gave a big smile to Kurama.
"You are the only friend I got Kurama. Plus the only way I can remember their faces is by looking at these paintings here." Naruto said as he pointed all the paintings hanging on the walls.
Kurama kept looking at Naruto in silence as waited for Naruto to continue and when he didn't Kurama decided to speak instead.
"There is something you aren't telling me Naruto."
Naruto turned from looking at all the painting to look at Kurama in the eyes.
"I have decided it's time Kurama. I know that I won't see the sunrise tomorrow morning. So before I pass away I wanted to ask you what you desired. Do you want to be set free old friend, or will you look after my grand-child as you have looked after me all these years. I leave that decision in your hands." Naruto said as he looked at his only friend left in this world.
Kurama was stunned, he had always wanted to be set free but he would be wrong if he said he didn't form a bond with his friend's family that was almost as strong as he bond with Naruto himself, but was the bond enough for him to give up on his freedom. Kurama thought about it for a while before he came to his conclusion.
"I have decided. I want to…"
[h]
And that's that. Thank you once again for reading this, it was definitely not my best. Though I had the general idea of what I wanted but for some reason I was just not able to convert those ideas into words. That is another reason why this chapter took so long to come out.
Another thing I wanted to talk about is that while the number of views for "Random Stories" has crossed 200(Thank you for that J, and yes I consider 200 views a really great accomplishment ^^ ) almost half of the views are for just the first chapter. The number of views drops drastically from the first to the second and as I upload this chapter the number of views for chapter 9 is just 6. If possible please tell me what I should change to make these stories more interesting.
I ask this because I have a story that I have in mind that I would like to write and Random Stories is just the warm-up to it. I want to see how people respond to my writing, but I can't do that if only one of you (Thank you Illuminated ^^) writes the reviews. So please tell me what I should do to improve my writing.
Thank you as always, R&R and till next time.
Hasta La Vista Amigos.