How to make that special night.. special.
October 10th 16th Year 4th Era
A long sigh rang out across the span of the near empty open air rooftop bathhouse. Even though the sound itself was low in volume the sounds of revelry down in the streets easily drowned out the solitary sigh of light contempt. The sound emanated from a young looking girl who was leaning up against a large rock in a far corner that was gently secluded thanks to a thick batch of bamboo. As the bathing girl looked up to the red, orange, and purple streaked sky of the arriving autumn night she decided that it was time to head out and finish off the night before heading home. She already felt the cold air start to blow in as it got goosebumps to rise along the exposed skin of her shoulders and arms. She rose to her feet silently as the sound of the water falling from her body and flowing waist length hair was muffled by the sounds of popping firecrackers. She rung her hair out as she moved to the door that led to the bath and changing room respectively enjoying the feel of her fur like long blonde hair. It was thick and slightly fluffy but straight enough to not be a hassle to deal with thankfully. She absentmindedly plucked a hair from her head by the root before she wrapped the rest up in a towel to dry as she examined the base. The strand was at least a foot long matching the length of the rest of her bangs and making a side note to trim them as they were getting rather long before going back on track and marking how at least another half inch of red crept up out of her skull since she last bothered to check. She tossed the strand away over her shoulder with a silent huff as now she had a bit more than an inch of red hair growing out that was easily visible and it slightly annoyed her with how fast she grew it in the past month and a half. Sighing again she made her way over to the baskets to get her clothes to finish drying off and get dressed.
"You know all that sighing and groaning you keep doing is going to become quite the unattractive habit if you keep it up Fox Princess." Was the remark in the form of the most sensual and warming feminine voice the young girl ever heard and was already quite accustomed to hearing it. With a light smile she turned to the side and saw a full length wall mirror to her left and saw something other than her own reflection looking back at her. "Well.. I take it that calling out other's faults out so openly is quite the distasteful trait as well, Kurama." The girl teased right back soundlessly as her lips never moved from her small smile even though her voice sounded like glass chimes in a soft summer breeze to the other woman.
Though the other woman's appearance was, easily, drastically different from the girl's own. The woman in the reflection was quite tall, easily standing over six feet in height with complimenting proportions to match. Kurama smiled noticing the blonde's analyzing gaze spreading her blood red painted lips to reveal glimmering white teeth and long sharp canines and mentally giggled as counted the moments to herself how many it would be before the young girl would realize she was staring again. The woman had an inhumanly beautiful face with blood red eyes and black slitted pupils to match framed by straight shimmering silky dark red hair that went down to the middle of her back and flowed like water. Though modestly covered up in a plain dark red one piece swimsuit the woman's form was encased in sand colored skin that was wrapped wonderfully around her subtle amounts of muscle and perfectly distributed areas of fat along her body, arms, and legs that seemed to go on for miles. Though that is where she stopped resembling a human and then the demon that she was. Starting with the twin rust red fox ears perched on her head followed by, much like the young girl, very distinctive whisker marks on her cheeks totalling three on each side. Then there was the nine luxurious ever writhing fox tails that matched the rest red of her long fox like ears and hair. With a faked blush and completely ingenuine embarrassment she covered herself with her tails. "You are staring again Naruto.."
The now identified girl only looked at her somewhat blankly and blinked while she tilted her head to the side slightly while the fox demoness adored that look and sighed to herself noting just how impossibly adorable Naruto was to her. "Sorry?.." The girl mentally replied seeing no nor understanding nor caring about any social taboos when it was just the two of them. The fox smiled and let her tails fall back down to idle about as the girl began to dress herself since her hair was already dry and being freed from the towel it was in. Though when the girl was fully dressed and on her way out Kurama noticed that the girl's smile was gone as her padded tabi completely muffled the sounds of her stepps.
Naruto impassively walked down the halls of the establishment as she fished for her coin pouch without even having to think about the action. She was about to sigh internally as she felt the weight of it but bit it back as she felt Kurama's presence become active inside the seal. "Finished getting dried off and dressed?" Wondered the Jinchuriki. "Yes, it was quite the relaxing soak I dare say." Beamed the fox and immediately mashed the regret, concern, and her louder thoughts down into as much non-existence as she could. Kurama felt through her container's hands along with being able to see through the Jinchuuriki's eyes. Though she could hear Naruto's thoughts she refrained only out of the mutual respect they had both carefully, at least on the demon's end, grown for one another over twelve long short years for one another's private thoughts for Naruto could also hear the fox demon's if she so chose but never once did. However the one thing that they could not block or separate was the ability to feel the negative emotions of anything that possesses sentience. Even though Naruto could hide or not show any emotions the young, for now at least, blonde could never hide or change what she felt on the inside. So Kurama knew that Naruto was feeling both odd amounts of anger and sadness and in turn knew that the girl knew she knew.
Though, rather than let either of them stew in it the kyuubi was quick to speak up and distract the both of them as she felt and saw Naruto pay for the stay and use of the, admittedly, high class bathhouse with almost all of her money and savings. "So.. where is my wonderful and pragmatic warden taking me now? Hmm.. Well, we did have a bit of old fashioned fun already. I was then treated to a high class massage and hot spring bath. Ah! Are we going to go get something to eat then? Oh! I know.. How does that bar-b-que place sound? I sure could go for some meat." Naruto stopped before she headed out of the door and leaned casually up against, a not so well lit, corner in the entryway and outwardly appeared to be thinking quietly. "Hmm.. I honestly don't know if the Akimichi place is open right now, although, even if they were that place would be completely swarming with people right now looking for food more satisfying than what the stands sell.. Hmn.." The blonde girl's eyes lit up as she smiled to herself while moving off of the wall and started making her way to the door sliding out soundlessly as a rather boisterous group of people came in.
The fox figuratively paced around back and forth inside her cell of a seal wondering what the young girl had come up with. She idly glanced out through the girl's eyes looking at the modernizing village that was lit up with new types of 'neon' lights and signs to gauge just where her host was and where she was heading. Muttering to herself under her breath 'out loud' she is able to keep Naruto from hearing her thoughts. As she was about to make her guess known after seeing the upper ranking shinobi districts slip by out of the corner of her ever so gracious host's eyes when she was cut off by Naruto. Who was currently leaping over what appeared to be a 24 hour convenience store.. Interesting. "I know it doesn't matter all that much whether or not in the end but can you go into some detail about a few things with me about this transformation that I'll be going through? I can easily guess a few things such as me becoming a half demon really soon alongside my puberty until I have all nine tails like you and become a full demon in both body and soul. But first off.. What is the deal with my hair?" Kurama could barely stifle her giggling behind her paw at how she was now more or less being coerced into answering the, for now, blonde's questions noting that it was from childish impulses more than anything since the girl has at most five people whom she will even acknowledge let alone talk to. Making herself comfortable so to speak even if she was nothing more than a soul with power at the moment.
"Well young half-breed, First; yes I will answer your questions seeing as it will take some time possibly to get to where ever it is you are taking me. Secondly; your fur dear princess, not your hair, your fur." The demoness lightly placed her finger over the human's lips mentally to keep her from asking a thousand rapid fire questions enjoying the way the girl's face both blushed and scrunched up. "What I meant by that Naruto is that your hair is now becoming fur. I'm sure you already noticed the similarity with how it feels in comparison to my own fur to begin with. When your.. Coat for lack of a better way to put it comes in within the next year so will your ear's change and your first tail grow out matching the coloration of your fur.. Hair.. whatever. This will also mark the point in time you will no longer be fully human and then a half demon."
With a shrug the girl let the build up of her questions go as she tried flexing the muscles in her lower back that she thought would let her flick her tail. "Well.. then Kurama I take it that you have an idea of what is going to happen to me because while I'm not trained in the art of sensing I can clearly tell that you don't have chakra at all. Though something has to be fueling all of this, something that is bound to my soul." The demon had a lecturing smile on her face as she processed how to explain the changes to the pre-teen. "Well.. to put it out there you will no longer have chakra and your chakra network will cease to exist and everything else that would entail as I'm sure you are smart enough to figure out." Naruto sighed as she thought about all the time that was wasted in learning how to use her chakra up to this point already. Using what control she learned already to run along the walls of buildings and rebound of them well above the street level though now she was far from the sounds of the festival still raging on as the sun fully set leaving the sky clear with stars appearing one after the other though the moon was absent. "So I guess that will do for my questions for now because I should be able to figure out the rest on my own."
The Kyuubi began to plan things out in her head at this point as to what she should do to help the girl she inadvertently, though quite on purpose, forced to become a demon and lose all her chakra still become a ninja in this age. Now silent and all thoughts of figuring out where they were going and where they were long dismissed as unimportant while the buildings became more spread out and the streets now dirt rather than paved with stone and the trees far more numerous. The one hand she had to accept regardless of what Kurama chose that she had to take responsibility and help her succeed in the human's goal of becoming a ninja to both support herself and grow strong enough to defend herself on her own as was the way of a demon. Especially so with her role and status when she would inevitably be dragged into the affairs of demons when the fox was free. Then the obvious struck her upside the head and she couldn't help roll her existential eyes. Clearly she would train her in being a ninja. But not like the ninja in this age of chakra and blood lines derived from demons copulating with humans hundreds of years ago resurfacing like the Uchiha's Sharingan for example. She would train her in the ways of ninja from when she was but a child long before humans entered the age in which chakra became the mundane. The Kuji-in with its mudra.. or something or another.. But waved the name off as it was not important at all for the time being.
For now she had at least a starting point and all she had to do was plan out what she needed to teach and when then followed by how. Well.. the demoness could forget about when she would teach her. For everything would start next week as she only had a season and a half left to begin training her first and hopefully only student before Naruto started in the Ninja Academy in spring. Where in which they would, unfortunately, start to dump as much useless information and training into her cell's head as the could during that 3 year period. Though throughout the entire ordeal she would also be able to teach her how to be a fox demon worthy of the title of Kitsune no Oujo. Though when the fox finally pulled herself out of her muses content with a small outline of what needed to be done and decided to take stock of where they were she couldn't help but blink owlishly. "..Uhh.." From what Kurama could see they were in the middle of a forest in the great area of nowhere. The only thing she had to work with was a large metal chain link fence with a closed off gate. "Right.. So where exactly did you bring me to get some meat to eat Naruto?" The girl in question could only smile toothily knowing no matter what Kurama would love this. "Training ground 41 also known as 'The Forest of Death' of course." The Kyuubi raised an eyebrow quite high to that mental response.
AN:
Right. So much talking, so much heavy handed exposition. But don't worry this is possibly the largest amount of thrown in your face and despair telling instead of showing you are going to have to deal with. For I am a firm believer in the concept of "Show not Tell" when it comes to the exposition of the world the story itself takes part in. Such as I will show you a noticeable amount of poor and hungry people in an area of poverty rather than tell you that this area is impoverished through character dialogue. But yes those of you curious about what I have planned for Naruto to learn and graduate through doing and be trained how exactly in it by Kurama I will give you one hint for you all to go out and google till your heart's content. The mudra of the Kuji-in is a real thing. And if you can believe it i cut out at least 3 pages of handwritten text that were supposed to be in this chapter. Not to mention while in the process of typing this up and editing it I completely redid the latter half of this chapter to allow a better flow. Since I use a text to speech program to have what I wrote read back to me as it helps me catch things I missed or break up sentences that either are running on too long or don't have the correct punctuation flow is quite important.
