Kurama's Gift

Naruto expected death to be quick, like slipping into a dream. Sometimes, in his bed with Sasuke, he imagined that when he died, when all of this was over and he and Sasuke were old and arthritic, he would dream of his family when it happened. He would feel Sasuke, warm, behind him, and the children would crowd him. They would be little again, climbing up into his lap. And Naruto would die a calm death. A good death. He would die a loved man. A happy man. Because all had been righted. All was well.

But all wasn't well. Not yet.

When he woke, Naruto heard the rattle of chains, the guttural rumble of a growl like thunder on the wind. The pool was shallow now. Just a trickle of water reaching over the ground. Water lapped gently around his ears, through his hair. And Naruto knew he wasn't dead. His eyes snapped open, breath caught in his lungs. He coughed on it, wide-eyed, listening to the rush of water that sloshed past his ears. The ground was hard and unforgiving against his back.

He'd be damned if the fox was the last thing he ever dreamed of.

It had been five years since he'd seen the cage of the Kyuubi.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Naruto?"

It was dark. The demon's pit held no light, only the wispy red shadows of its glowing chakra that played along the cavernous walls.

Naruto didn't move. Not at first. "Shit," he muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. It was only then that he realized it was his right hand. He stared at it a moment, forgetting why it felt odd, strange to be able to wave it around. He flexed his fingers and decided to ignore it.

"Kurama," Naruto finally acknowledged, climbing to his feet. But there was no vulpine face pressed against the steel bars to greet him. He shifted from foot to foot, uneasy.

"Bastard, come 'ere, where I can see you!" Naruto stood at his full height now.

"How long has it been now?" wondered the demon, and Naruto squinted past the shadows beyond its prison. There was no gleam of its yellow eyes bobbing in the dark. No enormous figure slinking in the shadow. Naruto paced restlessly.

"You tell me," he said, simply to say something, and walked forward, eyes roving over the prison. Still, he saw nothing. His anxiety peaked. Naruto's hands instinctively went to his belt, as though his kunai still hung there. But in this dream world, Naruto's belt was bare. He kept the fingers of his right hand curled around it anyway.

"Where are you?" Naruto asked again, and a thin laugh bounced off the walls. The heavy rattle of chains echoed again.

"Don't you see me?" whispered the demon, and Naruto felt a chill.

"Come out," he ordered, and the demon laughed harder. The Kyuubi surfaced then to press teeth against the bars in a bared grin.

Naruto's eyes widened. "You're..." he didn't finish, taking a step back.

"Say it," snapped the demon, and the Kyuubi gripped the bars with peeling, cracked claws. "Go ahead."

Naruto stared. "What happened to you?" But Naruto thought he knew. The demon who eyed him now was not the same demon he remembered from years ago. No. Now the Fox was bone-thin, haggard, and much, much smaller than Naruto had ever remembered. No taller than him. It was still shackled in the chains, tighter now, tighter, since Mikoto's birth.

Naruto stared in confusion, repulsed. "Is it because you've ripped yourself apart? Twice?"

"What a clever whelp," sneered the demon. Naruto felt heat snake up his neck in irritation.

"Shut up, bastard. Why didn't you heal me back there?"

The demon chuckled. "Am I still beholden to you? I'd forgotten." Kurama feigned disinterest and pulled away from the steel, the dragging clink of its chains sharp and unrelenting.

Naruto jabbed a finger at the Fox, who'd already turned away from him. "Hey! Hey! You'll die if-"

"If what?" the Fox taunted. "Two parts of me are already gone. Now I'm all that's left." Kurama paused to look back.

"How dangerous, and not very bright, to entrust your life to one who despises you. One you've helped imprison." The demon retreated into shadow.

Suddenly the room was too large. The breath in Naruto's lungs seared, too short.

"Am I dying?" he asked, and Naruto thought of his family. His children. Sasuke. Every single dead face he could remember from the war that still had not seen vengeance, who would have no vengeance. How often had he lied awake remembering their names? Their faces. How many nights had he nearly screamed because it had been so many years, and he'd done nothing yet? A sick tremor made Naruto shiver. "Is that it? You wanna die? Well I won't let you. I'm not finished yet."

"If only it were so simple," huffed the Fox, growling and shivering in pain beneath a pool of shadow. "I've been dying everyday now for over a decade while the other halves of me live on fully. Without pain. And you...you," the demon snarled. "you're just like your mother: a cockroach." Kurama spat on the floor and tried to lick wounded wrists caught beneath the shackles.

Naruto grinned crookedly. "I could live with that."

The fox glared, eyes bright. "It has been five years. Five years since you've last seen me. Don't you remember?" The fox's grin widened.

Naruto could never forget. He took a wary step back. "What're you saying?" His chest felt too tight as he tried to connect the dots. His hands flew to his stomach in terror, but the Fox laughed.

"I would not survive a third, imbecile," the demon rasped, annoyed.

"I probably wouldn't either," Naruto joked feebly, wheezing past a relieved breath. The demon eyed him.

"Each loss of me hinders your ability to heal as quickly. Because I am less." The fox slinked forward to press between the bars. "But that is not why you're here."

Naruto frowned, unease climbing up his spine in a tingle until it clawed at his scalp. "Why then?"

"So I could look upon you one last time," tittered the Fox, and Naruto's brow furrowed.

"I," said Kurama, cackling gleefully and dancing beneath the chains, "have won!" The demon bounded away and sang, "I've won! I've won! I've won!" and laughed at the look of horror on Naruto's ashen face.

Naruto felt sick. What could have happened? he thought wildly, and he turned on his feet, as if a door might appear. He closed his eyes. Opened them. He never left the prison. A raw fear began to bubble in his stomach. Something that made him want to fly at the walls and pound at them with his fists until he made a door.

"You're gonna let me out. Now." The Fox laughed at his command, and Naruto knew it would keep him, locked away just as it was.

"Your son is just like you," Kurama observed. "When you sleep, I look through the eyes of my other halves. That boy. He screamed and hit the walls, as if he might punch a door though the wall and escape."

Naruto froze. Acid bubbled in his stomach. He screamed, anguished, pounding at the crimson walls once more.

"You were so arrogant, so sure of yourself! You fought your petty human wars and left me to rot, as if I'd never truly break free. And all the while the name that tore fear from the lips of the battle worn was Sasuke. How wrong they were." The fox laughed harder, as Naruto's stomach seized as he sank to his knees.

"Minato," Naruto whispered, and the Fox cackled when he stood, launched himself at the metal bars. The fox skipped back, but Naruto was quick. He reached past the doors to grab hold of the retreating chains and pulled until the demon slammed against the steel, still laughing, even when the force knocked a canine loose. Naruto's hands grabbed at the Fox's frail neck. He squeezed. The Fox grinned.

"What have you done to my son?" Naruto bellowed. The Fox laughed at his tears.

"Of course you would assume I am the one to have done something. Still. You think he will be the only one?" the Fox whispered, and Naruto howled as his heart skipped a beat and his stomach dropped, the anger in his blood fire-hot. He bashed the demon's head against a steel bar. The fox never did try to escape, never did stop laughing.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM?!"

"Soon," whispered the Fox, "soon I will have the boy. And the girl, too. They always were mine. Not yours. Never yours." The demon licked its teeth, adding in a coo, "Oh. The burn of your tears is so, so sweet." The fox snapped its teeth.

Naruto tried to snap its neck.

The fox twisted out of his hold, spitting a weak purple orb of concentrated energy. Naruto let go too late. He flew backwards, crashing against the far wall.

The Fox chuckled. "I have already made my move, whelp. It won't be long. But we'll left here to watch. Wait. And to think. All this time. I never really had to anything." The demon's voice took on an eerie calm, its features smoothing, as if it could see something beautiful beyond the walls that Naruto couldn't. The demon reached beyond the steel, as if it could cup Naruto's cheek, curling claws into a fist before chuckling. Naruto glowered.

"Look at you. You'd die, so easily," the fox cooed, and Naruto sneered, "for nothing. You'd abandon all your hopes. Dreams. For those freak-eyed whelps and Sasuke. All I ever had to do, was whisper his name to you. Everything you've ever done for him has hindered you. So many deaths are on your shoulders. For him." the fox whispered, and Naruto shivered, stumbling back, still gripping onto the demon's chains.

"You have become pathetic. And all I ever had to do was whisper his name."

The demon twirled in the chains, singing, "Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! Ahahaha ha! What fools you humans are!"

Naruto leaned against the wall, head bent. He listened to its ghastly song.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke!" Kurama, tugged at the chains in delight, watching as Naruto was dragged forward, his head slamming against the steel bars. Naruto's gut burned. His heart sank.

He thought of his family and bared his teeth when the demon quieted, humming Sasuke's name, still taunting him.

"You poor, pitiful human. So old, but so little. And now there is nothing you can do."

Naruto said nothing. He stared at the floor, at the sheen of his reflection in the water. He thought, so many deaths on your shoulders.

"You're right," he said suddenly, and the fox gazed at him curiously, eyes bright. "I've made mistakes. We lost the war." His throat nearly closed on him, painfully, and he hunched.

"I made a lot of 'em..." Naruto's voice trailed, lodged in his throat. His eyes stung. He heaved another breath, stared at his hands. "And they're on me. I know that..."

There were nights he hadn't slept. Because he'd known. And his heart had raced in his chest like it was ashamed to be trapped within his own bones, like it would have liked to bury itself in a chest it didn't know. Naruto had known what running had done. What losing the war had cost.

"Truer words you have never spoken," agreed the Fox.

"But..." Naruto heard himself say, and he looked up at the demon before him, clenching his fists. "But like hell there's nothing I can do!" Naruto grabbed the bars suddenly. The Fox clung to the steel greedily.

Kurama hissed, "There is always a possibility," and looked to the seal above, eyes glazed. "But in here," the demon chuckled, "I have your life. Decisions. Decisions."

"I would," Naruto whispered, enraged. His fingers trembled. "I could, you know. Rip it off. Tear you right out of my skin myself, so you don't have these bars to hide behind," He slammed a fist on the steel, and the demon bounced away from the force. "You're nowhere near what you could be, and outside of me," a feral grin split his mouth, "outside, I could take you down."

"My, we are sure of ourselves, aren't we? You really do hate me." The fox licked its teeth with delight, like this was all very delicious. "You hate me." Kurama's echoed like thunder. The water at Naruto's feet swirled a little faster.

Naruto's eyes widened. He took a step back. He stared at his hands again. He was shaking, he realized. Naruto said nothing.

"All these years," whispered the Fox. "All these years and only once have I witnessed your heart twist with true hate. All this time, and you've never despised the very demon entombed within you. But now."

The demon pressed closer to whisper in Naruto's ear. "Now you feel it, don't you, Naruto? You feel its power. Now you see the power of rage. You can understand it. Don't you? It's euphoric." The demon seemed hopeful.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "No," he admitted, hoarse. "I don't."

Kurama snarled. "Do not lie to me, whelp," the fox hissed. "It's lovely isn't it? Beautiful, isn't it? How could you hope to do anything for your precious parasites if you do not wish to end me? What chance do you possess if you do not try? If you do not give in? I will always be here, Naruto. And if you do not act, I will only take you with me."

Naruto's breath rattled in his chest. He remembered his mother saying, you can't let it consume you. You'll want it too. But you mustn't.

He was still trembling. Minato. Mikoto. Sasuke. Naruto chanted the names in his head, his own little song.

"You always were destined to play the fool," said the fox offhandedly, picking at its chains. Naruto stiffened, his heart in his throat. He swallowed his anger.

"Maybe I do hate you," he said quietly, and the fox grinned in the dark. It looked strangely disembodied, like the smile had ripped itself from the fox's skull long ago, until it was just a sharp pale gleam left to cut the dark.

"How human of you," retorted the fox, ears pricking when Naruto stepped closer.

"But you're right; you'll always be here." That truth stung him. Cut him deep. Something from his teenage years that he still hadn't shaken away. Naruto thought of his children. Sasuke's missing eye.

"Unless you die this night. It wouldn't be much trouble to me. I am already dead. I will live on in my other halves. Fuller. In less pain. I will relish the release." The demon meant it, Naruto knew. He clenched his fists, and stepped forward. Kurama snapped rapt eyes on him as he drew closer.

"What will you do now?" the nine-tails wondered, shaking the chains. "Stay here? Rip the seal? There isn't much time left to decide, Naruto. Either you play the noble hero, and let half of me die with you, or you rip the seal in the hopes the transformation will stall me, heal you a little, so you can run after your family. But then," Kurama laughed, "you rip the seal, and there's always the chance you might not be much help, hmm?"

Naruto said nothing. He tried to envision what the demon saw. What it wanted. Rip the seal, and most likely lose control to the demon, die in the process, and have his transformed body, no longer his, aid the demon's other half as both wreaked havoc. Perhaps the two halves might even combine once they came across each other? Or die with it, sacrifice the dismal chance to help his children, and the nine-tails would still have won.

He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. You mustn't give in, Naruto, he remembered his mother saying.

Naruto sank to his knees before the demon. The kyuubie growled as he reached a tentative hand between the bars. The fox skulked in the dark, eyes sharp. Naruto didn't look away. He said nothing as he grasped a chain, heavy and cold as ice in his palm. He stood up with it, watching it slither after him.

The fox snarled now. "You can do nothing. Nothing." The demon walked closer, and closer still, until they stood eye to eye. Naruto didn't release the chain. The fox's yellow eyes were spiderwebbed with red veins. Naruto found a reflection of himself in the dark of a widened pupil.

He let his hand travel up the chain. All the while his mind chanted, Minato, Mikoto, Sasuke. Mikoto running through the grass after a lizard. Minato training in the wood. Sasuke sitting with him, late at night, talking in a low voice.

The fox pulled back, snarling. Naruto's scalp ticked as Kurama said, "You just may lose a hand, whelp."

Naruto slowly reached for a shackle. His skin burned against the metal. Naruto bit back a grunt.

The fox recoiled. "You wouldn't release me." The demon attempted to smoothly disengage, but Naruto was faster. He gripped both of the fox's shackled wrists now, and stared at his reflection in Kurama's eyes.

"What will you do?" the fox asked again.

Naruto said, through gritted teeth, "There's nothing for me to do now. Even if I want to." He squeezed, and the shackles shattered, like ice. The fox staggered away, stunned, licking at wounded wrists, naked now, scarred and blistered, from rubbing endlessly against the steel.

"One gift," Naruto growled, "for another." The demon growled, but it laughed.

"Cunning," mused the fox, licking its teeth, "and so impulsive." The demon moved freely now, without weight, pressing its muzzle between the bars. "I could ignore what you've done-"

Naruto's heart skipped a beat. "But you won't. Demons love this shit, don't they? Deals, bargains. Gifts. I broke your chains-"

"I am still behind bars, you idiot," Kurama howled, and the demon shook with restrained anger, fur standing on end.

"But you're freer than you've been in decades," Naruto shot back.

"I could have waited decades more."

"But now you can see through my eyes!" His stomach twisted as he said it. It would be unrestrained now. It would be able to flit through his thoughts quicker, could make his heart twitch in a rage easier, like those untethered teen years so long ago. He feared it.

The demon quieted.

"Isn't that what you miss most? Shackled, you sat here, dying, no will to live. But now those chains are gone."

Kurama didn't answer. Only stared.

Naruto didn't wait for a reply. "What's going to happen to my children?"

The fox grinned. "Wake up. Find out. I was going to leave you here to die with me, but plans change, don't they? I will experience greater enjoyment watching you run."

And Naruto knew he would live. One gift for another.

Naruto gasped awake, coughing on the breath in his lungs. Or maybe it was from the grass that fell into his mouth. He spat on it. Naruto jackknifed into a sitting position, (the kids! the kids!) groaning at the pain that ripped up his right side. He tried to wipe at his face with his hand, and froze.

It was gone. His arm was gone.

Mistakes. They really came back to bite him in the ass.

"Damn rat!" Naruto raged, but he grinned the grin of a man who'd beaten death as he tottered, relishing the cool prickle of the grass beneath him (he was alive, alive, alive! Thanks to that bastard fox!). He fell back on his ass, laughing maniacally at himself, and tried to stand again, suddenly aware of how very alone he was. The gurgle of a creek snaking through the grass caught his attention, and he was acutely aware of the burn in his throat.

Night had fallen.

The crickets sang.

The mountain burned.

The smoke on the mountain seemed so very far away. The orange and black glow of the fire raced along the mountain's edge up above, catching Naruto's eye. He swallowed. Kosuke would have found the children by now, Naruto assured himself. Sasuke would have received the toad's signal of safety by now. He said this to himself, over and over, as he tried to stand. His legs wobbled beneath him, but he did it. He never could rip his gaze away from the scene above him.

The flames were slowly eating their way through the mountainside. Down at the base, Naruto could still feel the cool whip of a summer breeze. The fire was quick, but still far away.

Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto's heart thudded in his chest with a sick flop. "Sasuke?" he called quietly, staring into the dark, before hissing out an impatient, "Sasuke!"

He huffed, giving up for the time being, and risked a glance down his right side, holding his breath. He was heavily bandaged, and clean. Naruto exhaled slowly, trying to reach for his belt, when he was reminded, painfully, that what remained of his right arm was caught in a makeshift sling. He clenched his left fist in a fit of anger before reaching over to clumsily grab at a kunai.

He hissed through his teeth. "Dammit!" And that was when a dark figure dropped from the copse of trees that ringed around the creek. Reflexively, Naruto threw the kunai. A split second after, he realized he knew this mysterious figure and winced sympathetically.

It wasn't too bad of a throw, he decided later. Not nearly as forceful as he would have liked, but, he could make being a lefty work.

Sasuke deflected with a quick flick of his wrist, catching the kunai with his other hand as it fell. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?" He began to sharpen the edge of Naruto's kunai against his own.

Naruto could see Sasuke's face now, aglow with the after-light of the mountain's wildfire. Naruto shot him a bemused look. "Is that what my blanket of grass was for?" He kicked out a foot as Sasuke approached. He hopped over it, face impassive.

Bastard. Naruto grinned.

"I swallowed that grass," Naruto whispered harshly. "It nearly choked me. I could have died."

"You're feeling better," Sasuke drawled, but Naruto didn't miss his relief, so palpable Naruto nearly felt the whoosh of breath Sasuke had been holding. Sasuke offered him a shoulder (which Naruto took, gratefully), and Naruto sighed, hunched and quiet while Sasuke watched him.

"Can you see okay?" he asked gruffly.

"I caught that badly aimed kunai, didn't I?" Sasuke replied coolly, but he pulled Naruto closer, silently thankful, his eye closed in his relief,. Naruto moved against him.

"Listen. We gotta go. Now. Don't quirk your eyebrows at me, teme!"

"Naruto-"

"You should'a gotten Kosuke's signal by now, so all we have to do is-" Naruto stopped short in his rambling when he realized Sasuke had remained oddly silent. Naruto looked back to the mountain.

"Sasuke," he whispered, and he felt sick. His stomach knotted. "Tell me. Tell me you got the signal."

Sasuke wasn't looking at him. He'd dropped to a crouch by the creek, but he wasn't drinking.

"I'm still waiting." Sasuke splashed water on his face.

Naruto sank to a sitting position on the grass.

"A group of survivors helped us get through. They took care of you. We saw stragglers while we ran, but..." Sasuke paused, taking a breath, "There are a few special ops teams combing through the village. The villagers are fighting back. It's closed off now. Back up's been called in. And don't look like that," Sasuke added harshly. "Minato is with her. He might be inexperienced, but we trained him well. They're alive."

Naruto was numb. "I know." Sasuke didn't need to help him to his feet this time. They stared at jagged line of fire ahead. Naruto looked back at him, and Sasuke didn't say a word, only stepped forward.

"Can you run?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm standing, aren't I?"

Together they ran for the fire, night shadows weaving through the trees.