Chapter 9: Waves and Clouds
Kyu's ears twitched. It was late. Sato had already left, going home for the night. It was dark – relative to the bright lights of downtown Tokyo, at least. But it was most definitely not quiet. Like most big cities, Tokyo never really slept. There was always people driving nearby, hurrying to some late night job or other. There were always trains – they seemed to run on a set schedule no matter the time of day. There were always a thousand little sounds, from someone out for a midnight stroll, to birds in the trees.
It set his nerves on edge.
While he had been welcomed into a sanctuary of sorts, this shrine, he was under no illusions that it had any magic, chakra-based or otherwise, protecting it. It was merely a small wooden building in a hostile world. It did not seem very hostile right now, but that was only because he wasn't running through the woods, dodging SHIELD patrols as he subtly misdirected them away from portals.
He was in hostile territory, and he would have to maintain that mindset until the operation – he refused to call it an invasion – was successful. He needed to bear in mind that any human who recognized what he truly was would, at best, panic. More likely, they would react out of fear. Worst case scenario, he could find himself dead, and the operation's stealth thrown out the window.
Still, these pillows were comfortable. Very, very comfortable. His eyes lidded peacefully as he rested on one of the cushions in the shrine. That was the advantage of hanging around humans. They did make such comfortable furniture. And it was more than big enough to support his entire body. He could just... lose himself in it. Never too much, still hostile territory... hostile territory...
His eyes closed.
Had anyone been there, they would have seen a fluffy orange fox, curling up into a little ball of fuzz, resting atop a dark purple pillow, only the tip of his black nose sticking out from under his tail.
He looked almost like a pillow himself. Or perhaps a tribble. He was certain that Sato was taking pictures of him when he did this, but he figured that, so long as no other unreasonably cautious humans saw them, he was probably fine. He made sure to keep the gemstone in his collar under his chin, so it would not show in photographs, just in case. Kitsune were known to carry gems, so a fox with a gem, even in their collar, might draw attention.
As he turned his mind inwards, to the forest clearing where the rest of his kind waited, he could feel tension in the air. I am going to have to explain why I just killed a group of SHIELD agents, he thought to himself.
It turns out, that wasn't what Kurama was worried about. No, he had far "bigger" problems. First of all, his own hide.
"Summons from ninja are down by half already. We never had many people willing to sign the Fox Contract. Apparently many considered toads, TOADS, to be preferable. No thanks to that... questionable gentleman of the Sannin and his fame. In any case, summons are dwindling. Though they may take months to stop completely, we're already past the point of taking individual kitsune off the contract. The time has come to tear apart the contract itself, and create a new one, if there is to be one at all."
Kyu gave the silver-white kitsune a cautious look, as the entered the clearing. Her posture gave away irritation about something, as she updated Kurama on the progress they were making with the fox contract back in Naruto's world. Kurama was taking it well, it looked like. Though his mouth always had that snarl-like quality to it, he was saying nothing, simply waiting and thinking as one of his children delivered their report.
"The biggest issue right now is... yourself, Kurama. Of all the kitsune, you were the most well-known. Of all of us, you had perhaps the best relationship with the human who called you to battle. Naruto was a strange one, we all know it, but he was powerful, and, though he was slow to realize it, influential. A natural leader. You are, by far, the most likely kitsune to be missed. Kyu's summoner may be angry, but he will find a replacement summon. He is ANBU. They have resources. They can find another contract. You, Kurama, are impossible to replace, and not just because Naruto was your Jinchūriki, rather than your summoner by conventional means. You attract perhaps more attention than the rest of us put together, and if we are going to pull this off, you have to go back to Naruto's world, our home world, at least temporarily so you can reassure everyone you haven't gone rouge and dropped off the face of the planet."
Kyu smirked at that last part. The enormous eyes of Kurama, seeming to hover above the treetops in the endless forest that was their shared mindscape, looked down at them impassively. He had always taught them that he valued useful ideas, whatever the source. That only a fool disregards ideas that are not their own in something as important as a battle. It was good, though, to see he lived by his own advice, and did not anger at being told to leave the world he so badly wanted to move to, by one of his own children.
The silver-white kitsune flicked her tails in slight irritation as Kyu approached the pair of them, coming to a stop behind her. He couldn't pass her without it being a slight, given she was superior in rank, she was there first, and she was currently delivering her report to their leader. For the moment at least, his business had to wait.
"The Fox Contract was drawn up hundreds of years ago. At a time when we thought ourselves lucky to even be treated as tools by the humans. At a time when we were content to see the world, even if doing so meant seeing the world in flashes, brief blurs of motion as we were summoned into the thick of battle. We need a new contract. A new contract that stipulates that we decide when we come and go, that we are to be treated as equal members of the teams we join. That we are to be paid. Yes, paid. In human money. If we are ever to have the resources to accomplish anything, we will need the human money to do things like secure lodging independently, to buy supplies, and to start trade that can be used to improve relations."
Kyu was already tilting his head. What she was proposing was to accompany their move to another world with a complete redefinition of the relationship between kitsune and humans. Even with those who they'd been working with for centuries. He was certain this would go down like a ten-ton brick with the ninja of every village, in every land, all over the shinobi world.
Still, he had to admire her for suggesting it. She was always very... upfront about getting what she wanted.
"Now is not the time to be soft, pliable, or easy to negotiate with", she stated, matter-of-factly. "We are in the best position we have been in for many hundreds of years. You, the most well-known kitsune, are a hero, credited with helping the good guys, including Naruto, win the fourth shinobi war.
The shinobi themselves are recuperating after that great conflict. Another conflict is the LAST thing they want right now. Thus, they will accept, grudgingly, that which previously they might have considered grounds for conflict.
Right now, every human land is taking stock of what they have. Evaluating the new post-war balance of power. They are renegotiating old deals in light of the changed power dynamics. They are re-evaluating old relationships and trying to put themselves in the best position in this new shinobi world. Everyone, every nation, every village, indeed, many of the high-ranking ninja personally, are doing it. If we do the same thing, right now, we would merely be one more player doing so. One more group of people doing exactly what they are doing. They cannot fault us for doing exactly what they are already doing right at this very moment."
Kyu sighed, though he managed to suppress the desire to roll his eyes. She could not see it, but Kurama definitely could, and while he did have his sense of humor, it is always safest to let the boss laugh first, rather than injecting sarcasm or humor into a situation that everyone else is taking with the utmost seriousness. He knew he was relatively young to be involved in the operation at this high a level, and kids sitting at the adults' table must not remind everyone of their youth by attempting to be humorous and coming across as inappropriately flippant.
"You disagree, Kyu?" came the smooth, yet incredibly deep and surprisingly loud, voice of Kurama.
There was nothing for it now. Kurama's chakra sensing abilities were legendary. Kitsune were the physical embodiment of chakra. That was partly how they had accomplished their shared mindscape, being effectively pure magic to start with, and all attuned to each other already. Still, it was not without its downsides. One of those was that nobody played tricks on the boss. Nobody lied to the boss. He might literally be able to sense the lie within you.
"Humanity don't see us as people", Kyu stated flatly. "They always have applied, and will always be tempted to apply, different rules to us than they have applied to themselves. Even Kurama, legendary as he is, has been beaten before by certain Kage-level ninja. Yet, nobody talked of sealing those Kage away in chains. Perhaps it would be different if they were immortal. Perhaps it would be different if it was easier TO seal them.
In any case, I am not convinced. Humans have always treated us as animals that happen to be able to talk, rather than powerful ninja and personifications of chakra who just happen to look like animals. The former is how they see us, the latter is how we are. Humans won't think twice before applying completely different standards to us, and blaming us for doing something they're already doing every single day. They probably won't even REALIZE that there is a ridiculous double-standard going on."
Kurama nodded. His eyes bobbed up and down slightly – but the rest of his enormous body was hidden in the darkness of the forest. Probably blocking out a fair portion of the starlight, too.
"Were this any other time, you'd be right", the white kitsune continued. "However, we have an additional ace-in-the-hole that they aren't aware of. We have this place. We have the power, and the right, to simply leave their world if they say no. The mere fact that we're even considering doing this, of leaving the lands of ninja, possibly for good, will send shockwaves through their world.
Ninja pride themselves on duty. Always doing what is best for their clan, for their village, for their team. To betray their team-mates, their clan, their village – these are the worst things a ninja can do.
Admitting that we've begun preparations to leave their world behind if they refuse our terms is merely the first step. The second is to remind them of all those times they have treated us as less than them. Of all those times they have summoned or dismissed us without basic respect. Of all those times they have had us die for them in battle without so much as a thank you. Of all those times that they have treated us in ways that they would NEVER dare treat any of their human team-mates.
In short, we propose a new contract that presents us as equals. When they react with shock, we get them to take us seriously by announcing that we plan to leave the world entirely if our terms are rejected. When they realize that we are serious, and ask what in the world has possessed us to have such a change of heart... that is the point at which we remind them, each of them that we have worked with, of all the times they have treated us as less than them. That is the point that we SHAME them into agreeing to our terms – because they have disgraced themselves by treating us as mere animals, when we were, in fact, their teammates.
Each land has its own ninja. The ways of each village are different. But no ninja village has ever lasted which tolerated its team-mates betraying each other. So, all of the ones which survive have that as a hard-and-fast rule. Teams must co-operate to survive. Those that betray their team-mates are worse than trash. This is the single common thread of outlook between all ninja villages, between all ninja – the ones surviving beyond the war at least – and this is the lever we can use to make them bend. Our original contract assumed they'd treat us much better than they have. They failed to live up to our understanding. So, our new contract... will be much more explicit about our expectations."
As she finished, she flicked a tail idly, and then got to the question that had been getting on her nerves most of all.
"Kurama, you have an excellent relationship with Naruto. He is influential. You are a hero. Why, Kurama, will you not lead the negotiations on the new contract?"
Kyu was staring at her by this point. He had always known she was brash, but this was getting quite close to the line.
"I want to keep my absence a secret for as long as possible", Kurama stated simply. "Not to mention, we've thought this through, but no plan survives first contact with the enemy. It would be extremely wise to have some aces up our sleeves. If I lead it, we will have to face the sigma that the nine-tails has built up throughout history. Some, even today, have never forgiven me for my past deeds, such as the attack on Hidden Leaf Village, or my... similar rampages... in earlier centuries. If you lead it, you face no such obstacles. You also look more... photogenic than I, with your smaller size, white fur, and so on. Your normal look appeals to humans, whereas mine terrifies them. Besides, I can still enter the negotiations later, as an ace up our sleeve, if and when negotiations reach an impasse. We need to have cards up our sleeves for situations like that, and I'm good at surprise breakthroughs."
Kurama gave them a knowing smile.
"Well, you are older and wiser Lord Kurama, if you think it best, I shall follow", she replied, a hint of hesitation in her voice. "Does that cover the matter?" It was obvious that she wasn't truly comfortable, but she trusted Kurama's judgment, they all did. Many kitsune outright worshipped him as the creator of their kind. What he said was generally accepted without question. At least, by most of them it was. The very smartest, however, were perhaps beginning to suspect that being treated like a god by his children in his shared mindspace with them, and as a hero in the human world (at least by some, after so many centuries of being reviled) was perhaps starting to go to his head.
"I consider the matter addressed – for now", he answered, "though we will talk on this more later. There is much to do before we can announce that we are canceling the old contract and creating a new, much different one."
He turned to stare directly at Kyu for a moment.
"It is time I let you in on something."
For a moment, it seemed the whole forest was shifting, as Kurama opened his mouth wide, and waved his tails behind him, starting to form a tailed beast ball in front of his nose.
Unlike most, it did not seem to be composed of a mix of purely positive and negative chakra. There were other orbs in the mix, too, orbs that neither kitsune had seen before. Whatever kind of chakra they were, they were exotic, thus, to kitsune, interesting.
The tailed beast ball started out purple, and opaque, but as the strange new transparent chakra flowed into it, it turned transparent, like glass.
In a few seconds, Kurama had created something that looked like an enormous crystal ball, but which hummed with an incredible amount of energy.
"Look", he said firmly. "And you will see what I see."
They looked.
The ball showed Tokyo. In particular, it showed a view of Tokyo from the sea. A wave gently lapped the shoreline. Then another. A soothing pattern came into view, waves beating on the shoreline in quiet rhythm, drowned out by the shouts of happy, often young, humans playing on the sand. It was a scene of joy and leisure.
Then, the waves stopped. The entire picture seemed to shake, as if someone were attempting to seize the crystal ball, and shake it loose from Kurama's hold on it.
Distantly, a slow, droning wail made itself heard over the beach. Not the wail of a human, or even any beast they knew. If anything, it sounded like one of the human police cars that they had recently seen in the city, except... it had no hope. Police cars were full of hope. Their wail rose quickly, but it also fell quickly. It was high in pitch. It was excited, like the bark of a dog, or the gecker of a kitsune. It said "I am here, get out of my way! Someone must be saved!".
This wail was not like that. It had no hope in it. It was a sorrowful, haunting sound. It rose and fell slowly, like a mournful wail of anguish and suffering that blotted out everything else even as it made your ears hurt. It was so loud, far louder than any police car, or anything else on this new Earth that the kitsune had ever heard. And it seemed to be coming from everywhere, touching everything and everyone on the beach as far as the eye could see. It was as if an enormous weight had suddenly dropped on the minds and ears of everyone present. It spoke of futility, of terror, and of death. It was the wail of something great and powerful... dying.
The humans started screaming. Many instinctively grabbed their loved ones, clutched them tightly, then took off running with them, as fast as they could. They left behind towels and spare clothes. Picnic tables and sand castles. Lost in the crowd, many abandoned their cars. Humans never abandoned their cars.
Then the waves stopped.
The humans in the image were still a flurry of motion, running this way and that, families desperately trying to fetch confused, crying children from the water. Suddenly, they were treating the ocean as if it was a dangerous serpent which might rear up and eat them.
The water hesitated, as if it too was learning to be fearful, then abruptly pulled back from the shore. It was as if the sea had deserted the land, suddenly deciding that there would be no more beach, no more ocean. Not today.
In the distance, a line appeared on the horizon. It was a thin line. You could barely make it out.
Every second, it grew. Every second, it got taller. Suddenly, it wasn't a thin line anymore.
It was a wave. It was as if every shinobi, every ninja from the five greatest ninja nations had all lined up, hand in hand, academy student to Kage, and cast water release. All together. In the direction of the humans' great city of lights.
The wave appeared to be moving slowly, but that was only because of the sheer distance it was covering.
Within a minute, it was close enough that they could hear it roar. Roar like a savage beast that wanted nothing more in the world than to destroy everything, and everyone, in its path.
The last twenty seconds it was on the screen, it moved impossibly fast. Faster than they'd ever seen any human vehicle move. It crashed into the shoreline like a hurricane. People, cars, whole houses were washed away as if they were made of paper. Everything caught underneath it when it hit was simply annihilated. The wave even crested the tops of some buildings, submerging them completely like a wall of water that ate them beneath its jagged upper teeth, then continued on its way.
Countless humans were lost. Most of them were children.
That, however, was not the worst part of it.
Kurama jerked his head back, one of his enormous tails cracking sideways like a whip. The picture in the ball zoomed out. It now showed an enormous stretch of coastline, a great many human kilometers. Or it would have. If that coastline were not currently underwater.
Still, at this scale the tragedy of it was humbling. They were witnessing something that had not been seen within the lands of ninja in the living memory of any human. Even Kurama's wrath on the village of the hidden leaf could not compare to the life lost here.
Yet, the image was zooming in again. Not on the beaches, which were completely destroyed. Not even on the humans' tall buildings, some submerged, some crippled, toppled, or simply washed away.
No, the image focused on just one set of buildings. They were short, fat, and very, very ugly. Even by human standards!
They were made of concrete. Not even painted concrete – just solid, gray concrete, unadorned with the slightest concession to the idea of making them look nice. Behind them, stood a row of red and white towers, blowing huge pillars of white smoke high into the sky.
These buildings were right on the edge of the water. Yet, they were clearly not houses. They were far, far too big to be houses. They also had no windows. Houses also don't have enormous chimney structures. Not in Tokyo. Space was too precious for anything like this.
As the wave approached, Kyu noticed concrete walls surrounding the entire complex. Concrete walls that were highest facing the sea, as if they were standing guard against the ocean itself.
The wave was too high. It rode over the tops of the concrete walls, and fell upon the structures within like a giant blue wolf, cold and hungry.
As the wave slammed into the concrete buildings, they stood surprisingly firm. They did not bend or buckle. Clearly, they looked designed to withstand enormous force. The blue wolf of the ocean tore at them, slammed them, and tried to drive them back, as it had with so many other buildings, but they stood firm. Resolute.
The same could not be said, however, for the pools in front of them. Kyu had noticed these small, perfectly identical blue pools of water, in front of each of the concrete buildings, and had thought them perhaps the one concession to appearance made by whoever designed this soulless-looking place.
They were not a concession.
As the water from the sea crashed into them, subjecting them to enormous pressure, they changed color. They were never blue like the sea, originally. They were a far, far lighter shade, as if the water within had been mixed with an enormous quantity of some strange potion. More cyan, than ocean blue.
But now, now they were losing that color. The sea was making them its own.
As they lost their color, the volume of white smoke coming out of the towers above the buildings rapidly increased in volume.
At this point, the view sped into fast-forward. The water from the sea sloshed around, but quickly drained and retreated. The smoke from the towers, however, kept growing and growing. Something was wrong. The pools of water retained their sea-blue color, very different from the cyan they had been originally.
Then, one of the buildings cracked. Inside it, was something humans must have summoned from hell.
It glowed, but not like fire. It glowed green, bright green, like healing jutsu. It was, however, most definitely not healing jutsu.
It was melting through the concrete. It was setting the concrete on fire.
Could anything even set concrete on fire? Amaterasu could, Kyu thought. It could burn anything. But Kyu had never heard of anyone filling a building with the black fire, and just leaving it there. What purpose would that serve? Surely it would get out at some point? What is this green fire, and what are the humans doing with it?
The green... thing, whatever it was, oozed out of the building like an enormous, volcanic slime, dissolving everything it touched into a burning slurry. Concrete, metal, plastic. Nothing was immune.
The ground shook again.
Then, suddenly, the crystal flashed, and the image went white.
"I can't see the structure after this point", said Kurama quietly.
"Whatever came out of it is emitting some kind of energy which interferes with the time/space scrying technique I am using. Still, let me show you what happens when I zoom out again."
Kyu watched, mesmerized. The white flash appeared not to be some sort of flare, or light. It appeared to be some sort of cloud, which came from the concrete buildings, but quickly grew to an enormous multiple of their size. The cloud engulfed the entire area the buildings were in. Then the surrounding lots. Then it started drifting on the winds, as Kurama showed its course by zooming further and further out.
The last image the ball showed was the white cloud covering half of Japan.
Kyu tore his face away from the crystal ball. After a few seconds of staring, perhaps trying to memorize the cloud's course, his fellow kitsune did the same. Kurama snapped his tail again, as if it were a rope, and the ball vanished instantly.
"As you know, the most ancient and powerful of kitsune, such as myself, are said to be able to warp space and time. This ability is mostly dismissed, as humans don't generally get to see us do it. We keep this ability secret, even from our Jinchūriki. The perils of trying to see, let alone understand or alter, the future are enormous. Too much for the minds and souls of humans. They lack the... centuries of experience and perspective that we have. To know when to act, and when not to act."
Kurama sighed, a great, heaving sigh, as if he was taking an enormous burden off his shoulders, a burden that only he could understand.
Kyu was beginning to understand something about why the nine-tails was called the god of kitsune, and how much responsibility, how many harrowing choices, that position really might entail.
"I have decided. We will act. We will prevent this tragedy. Long have the humans revered us as their gods, or at least, messengers of their gods. We have abandoned them for hundreds of years. We have left them to struggle between themselves, without our guidance, without our wisdom. If we are to start acting, if we are to be bold and take risks, I can think of no greater reason to do so than to prevent this tragedy."
Kyu nodded. This, he would be happy to do.
"What do you need us to do, Lord Kurama?"
"We are at your service, Father."
Kurama stared at each of them for a moment, as if deciding which piece of a five-dimensional puzzle-piece set had their particular face on it, and how they might fit into the whole.
"Kyu!", he barked. Kyu stood instantly to attention, even his tail ramrod-straight. "Your previous missions gathering undercover intelligence have gone well. You have a safehouse in Tokyo, you've been monitoring the patrols around our portals, and you even managed to take out some necromancers, without being caught. You have done well. But now, I have a more challenging task for you. I want you to hunt down one of these teams that is hunting us. These 'SHIELD' teams, and really... get to know them. "
Kurama suppressed a smirk. It never looked friendly on his features, and he had to be conscious of his public image these days, even with his own people. Kyu did not have this problem, and was smirking happily as he nodded affirmatively.
As Kurama turned to the white kitsune, she reflexively unfurled all her tails, swishing them behind her as she did when preparing for a fight.
"Onyx", Kurama continued, "you have served me well sorting out that mess with the contract thus far, but this is just too important, and requires your special skills. I am taking you off that, temporarily, and sending you to Earth. There is a meeting of world leaders, what they call the 'G8 Summit', very soon. I need an extremely strong kitsune to penetrate whatever security they have there, and, without drawing any attention to yourself, take the temperature of the human world leaders. Find out how open they are to the idea of... us. Without drawing attention to yourself. This won't be easy, but I have confidence in your skills."
She did not smirk. This was not playtime. This was tricking her way into the most secure meeting rooms on Earth, extracting information from world leaders without giving a thing away. This was a peculiar kind of fun for the older kitsune. It wouldn't do to smirk in Kurama's presence, after all. She would save that for after her mission was successfully completed. She was not completely without tact, after all.
Kyu's ear twitched. "Forgive me, Lord Kurama, if this may be impertinent. But, that concrete structure. The one housing the great evil that spreads across Japan. What is it called? Perhaps you have your reasons for not telling us, and I will respect that if so. If you have no reason to keep it secret, though, I would like to know. I am about to question some SHIELD agents. Some SHIELD agents that have possibly been using necromancy. If there is a connection, I would like to be able to spot it... and to spot it, I need to at least know the name of the place we are trying to protect. So that, for example, if they start talking about it, I can be certain to listen closely."
Kurama smiled, looking down at the relatively tiny kitsune, whose entire body was smaller than one of his eyes. It was true. He did have a tendency to omit vital details. He'd grant the little kitsune this one. What harm could it do?
"The place we are working to save", he said, lowering his head into a pool of light so they could see his face, lips, and what motions he made to pronounce the words, "is called Fukushima".