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A continuation of the first part. I don't plan to pick this up as a full story, so I just skipped to the good part.
Several months after Kurama's awakening.
"Kurama! Kurama! Wake up! I've got something I want to show you!"
Within the confines of Naruto's seal, Kurama, greatest of the Biju, cracks open her eyes. Without flesh to be groggy, she snaps to awareness instantly, and is greeted with the sewer-like mindscape of her host.
Over the weeks, the boy's mindscape has been slowly transforming, starting the day after Kurama introduced herself to her host. Gone is the ankle high water and the stale air. She can see the bricks that make up the floor, and each day the bricks are straighter, and a bit more grime is banished. Beneath her, a thin dais separates her from the cold floor, a courtesy afforded by many hours of meditation on Naruto's part.
Her plans to 'befriend' her host and convince him into releasing her are going swimmingly. Naruto, being a neglected child, latched onto her at the first sign of affection without so much as bothering to verify if it was real or not. At her prompting, he began to learn the art of fuinjutsu to modify the seal containing her, and take his training seriously so he might live long enough to release her. Her fox tongue planted the ideas in his thick skull and let him run from there, letting him believe he came up with the ideas himself.
He took to it all with a significant amount of dedication. Hell, it's as if his goals in life had shifted. Is she really influencing him so? It will be a… Less-than-perfect day, the day Naruto breaks the seal and inevitably dies in the process. Once convinced to keep his voice down, Naruto isn't wholly disagreeable as company.
Dare she say that the boy is actually likable? No. He is likable. Pleasant, even. Lying is for humans, so Kurama won't lie to herself.
"Kurama?" Naruto's voice echoes all around the empty mindscape.
Right, right… The boy has all the patience of a squirrel with a thickly shelled nut in his mits. Five seconds of thought is too much to ask for.
Rolling her eyes, Kurama answers. "Yes, Naruto," she calls back into the empty space, "I'm awake. What is it that you need me for…"
The biju concentrates for a moment, and peers through her host's eyes, finding that he's in the middle of one of the Leaf Village's many verdant training grounds. It's also the crack of dawn. Naruto normally slept like the dead until 10 AM if not summoned by his sensei. What prompted this?
"… This early in the morning?" she finishes. The great fox feels out the rest of her host's body, frowning when she feels his stomach rumble. "What have I told you about skipping breakfast?"
"I've got a reason for that! I promise!" The young ninja insists.
Kurama flares her chakra, enough to make her displeasure known, but not enough to make the seal on Naruto's stomach step in. "Very well. I'm listening. Go ahead."
"Hehe! So, uh, I was studying the seal last night after you went to sleep, and I think I finally picked the last of the traps and failsafes. I'm still figuring out how to turn them off and let you out, though. It's such a pain! All of the component arrays interweave with the primary array using redundant falling-latch lines, so you can't take the seal down one part at a time. It's like some kind of lock with funky pins. It's also got these detector parts that reference a list of some kind, and on that list it-"
"Naruto." The Kyuubi firmly interrupts, stopping the boy from rambling. "You are the fuinjutsu expert, not I. What is the point that you are trying to make?"
"Whoops, hehe…" Kurama can already visualize the young ninja scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "So like I was saying, I wanted to tell you about a bypass I found!"
'A bypass?' Kurama homes in on the word with… A small spike of dread. She wasn't expecting this day for months, maybe years. The thought of preparing for Naruto's passing did not even occur to her so early.
"It's not a full release," Naruto continues on, "but I can at least kind of let you out."
The sudden chill in Kurama's breast is banished, and without even realizing, she breathes out a sigh of relief. "I see. And what does this entail? …It won't harm you, will it?"
"It shouldn't."
"Naruto." Kurama's voice takes on a hard edge. "I told you no unnecessary risks! Especially not with seals!"
She can feel Naruto wince. "Let me explain! The seal is only concerned with keeping your chakra gated unless I call on it, but I still can't use more than two-tails before burning out, so I figured 'Hey, what if it's not me who is using it?'"
'What?' Kurama blinks, her fury cooling.
"I made this little seal array that can… Oh, yeah, no rambling. Sorry! Let me just use it. Mimic Clone Jutsu!"
In one instant, Kurama is in the cage she has lived in for the past twelve, nearly thirteen years, and the next –
Cool, clean wind.
The scent of the earth and grass.
Sunlight warming her fur.
– She's outside.
"What…?" The word spills from her mouth without any control, and Kurama looks around, only to find herself face-to-face with a pair of orange-clad legs. She cranes her head up, finding a radiantly smiling face staring back down at her.
"It worked!" Naruto cheers, jumping and pumping a fist in the air. "Heck yeah! I knew I could do it!"
Kurama blinks her eyes and shakes her head, quickly getting her bearings. Looking around, she finds that she is in the same training ground Naruto took himself to. She looks over herself with no small amount of amazement… And perhaps a bit of disappointment.
Rather than be her normal, building-crushing size, she's little larger than a normal fox, and only two of her magnificent tails trail behind her. A cursory check confirms that everything is as it should be, she's merely small.
'Still, though…' Kurama sighs, trying not to be overwhelmed by the sensations of the material world. "Naruto," she begins slowly, slightly unused to articulating her muzzle. "How did you do this?" She asks, looking up at the boy.
The blonde grins again, and it's easy to see just how pleased he is with himself. "I won't bore you with the details, but I figured out how the Shadow Clone Jutsu worked and remade it from scratch! All I had to change was having the clone pull your chakra and your… Your brain?"
"Consciousness," Kurama corrects automatically, "which is one's self or one's state of awareness." How such a gifted child could still have gaps in his vocabulary like that is a myst – actually, no it's not a mystery. The Kyuubi knows full well who to blame.
The lack of literally any kind of caretaker.
"Yeah, that!" Naruto nods. "The Mimic Clone takes some of your chakra, makes a body, and puts your consciousness in it. It's stronger and way more durable than a Shadow Clone, too! I don't know how to make it last forever, and the 'real' you is still sealed inside me, but with this, I can let you out for a while… Kinda." All at once, the blonde boy's grin becomes brittle and his veneer of confidence is wiped away. The usual Naruto is gone in an instant, and in his place is a child desperate for approval. "Do… Do you like it, Kurama? I worked really hard to get everything working right…"
Kurama takes a deep breath of air.
It tastes like freedom, the first taste she's had in over a century.
Freedom willingly given to her by the one who should hate her the most.
"Naruto," Kurama's face smiles on its own. It's no mocking sneer, or the furious precursor to a snarl, but the first true smile she's had in decades. It feels good, wearing such an expression. "I cannot overstate my pride in you. In just a few short months, you've advanced so far as a ninja and even further as a young man. To go so far for me…" She looks the boy in the eye. "If all humans in this world were like you, then it would be a splendid world indeed."
The young ninja's face practically explodes into happiness. For a moment, his expression outshines the sun, and it leaves Kurama a touch awed that such a human can be real.
"Okay, let's quit wasting time!" The boy exclaims. Slapping his hands together in a headseal, he erupts into smoke, and in his place is a small, yellow fox, one a bit smaller than Kurama. At Kurama's raised eyebrow, the smaller fox explains. "You have to come along with me all the time when I do ninja stuff, so why don't we turn it around? Let's have days where I go with you as you do fox stuff!" He jumps up and hops on his paws impatiently. "C'mon!"
The red fox snorts. "The gesture is appreciated, but do you even know what fox stuff entails?"
"No," Naruto admits, pausing. "But maybe you can teach me? How hard can it be?"
Kurama smirks. With a flex of her chakra, her human-like upper body shifts to match a regular fox. "Very well. Try to keep pace."
The morning passes by in a flash. Naruto may be a shinobi savant, as proven by his transformation being a real transformation and not an illusion, but Kurama has him beat in every way conceivable as a fox. The Kyuubi's usual impatience is on the back burner, because if they are going to have outings like this, then Naruto has to learn how to do as a fox does. She teaches him how to run properly, how to slip between bushes in a hurry, how to maneuver on four legs, and how to best leverage his sharp senses among other things. When asked how she knows all things, her reply of "Do you think I cannot shrink myself or change shape? I am made of chakra, not meat" left the boy amazed.
They moved on from there. A nearby stream provides a place to take a drink and rest for a while, and when Naruto hesitantly leans into her as they lay in the shade, Kurama finds that she doesn't mind the contact at all. That turns out to be a good thing, as they move to fighting next.
Being both smaller than Kurama and lacking the instinct of even a newborn fox, poor Naruto is thrown around like a rowdy kit and pinned over and over. The repeated failures bother him none, as his vulpine face is awash with delight the entire time. Rather than be frustrated, the yellow fox listens intently when Kurama explains what he did wrong and how to do better. Eventually, the lesson devolves into nothing but playing simply for the fun of it, as Naruto's attention span begins to wane. In a move that would leave her siblings gaping in disbelief, Kurama even lets Naruto pin her so he can claim that he won one.
Finally, as noon begins to close in, the final lesson is afoot.
Hunting. An important skill for both a fox and a young ninja.
Just a few steps behind Naruto, Kurama watches as the boy-turned-fox zeros his blue eyes on a rabbit through the bush the pair are hiding in.
In the small clearing ahead, a brown rabbit munches on a few stems of clover, suspecting nothing. It flicks an ear, and Naruto remembers to keep his breathing slow and quiet. 'Good boy.'
Like their previous lessons, Kurama showed Naruto the first time around, masterfully catching a panicking rabbit alive before the long eared rodent even realized she was there. Naruto appeared a bit green under his fur as she showed him just how to bite the neck for a quick and merciful kill, but he wasn't squeamish. After that, she let Naruto have at it and take the lead. For each failure, she explained what he did wrong and how to correct it.
The first time, he stepped on a twig and the prey took off in a hurry.
The second, he positioned himself wrongly and their scents carried in the wind, running off a particularly fat rabbit.
The third time, he got excited and let out an un-ninja-like yip just before pouncing, giving himself away.
They took a break there, and Kurama quickly located a berry bush for her kit to snack on and regain his energy for his next attempt. Now they're back to it and –
Wait. Her kit?
'My kit?' She shakes away the thought. 'Being outside after so long must be getting to me.'
Kurama returns her attention forward as Naruto lowers himself and tenses.
Then he leaps out of the bush without as much as a rustle from the leaves.
The rabbit's ears perk, and it turns to look at the yellow fox coming its way. It turns on a dime, legs ready to send it bounding, but the unfortunate prey is a split-second too slow, and Naruto's jaws wrap around the back of its neck before viciously biting down.
Snap!
Pride surges in Kurama's chest as Naruto gives his prey a shake to be sure it's dead, then he brings his well-earned kill back. 'He learns quickly.'
Returning to her, the smaller fox drops the unmoving rabbit at Kurama's paws, his whole body shaking.
"Are you well, Naruto?" The larger of the two asks. She leans forward and briefly touches her nose to his. "You're shaking."
"It's just adrenaline is all," he takes a deep breath and grins, wide and proud. Behind him, his bushy tail wags. "Did you see that? Did you see that, Mom?! I got 'em just like you showed me and –!" The small fox freezes, his eyes going wide as he realizes what just slipped past his lips.
Kurama blinks, her ears pinning back in surprise. "Mom?" she parrots uncomprehendingly. A strange satisfaction mixed with something warm bubbles in her stomach. She replays the word to herself, and is dismayed by how good it feels.
"I'm sorry!" Naruto blurts out, his face ashen. "That kind of just came out but I promise I didn't mean anything by it! It's just that you're really nice and no one ever really cared about me and I thought maybe this is like what a mom does and it slipped out! Please don't be weirded out and never talk to me again!" He says all in one breath, vulpine face screwed up into absolute terror at the thought.
In one fell swoop, all of Kurama's plans come off the rails, and… and… Dammit, she can't help but find herself annoyed that she doesn't care nearly as much as she thought she would. Here she is, the mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune, greatest of the Biju and immortal engine of destruction, feared by all who walk these lands… And she's getting sappy because her jinchuriki accidentally called her 'mom'. She's never going to live this down. With an inward sigh, she stomps on her protesting pride.
Naruto clenches his eyes shut as Kurama stands and slowly approaches. He clearly doesn't expect Kurama to nuzzle him as tenderly as she can, for when she does, his eyes shoot wide open.
"Don't be absurd," she says quietly, rubbing her muzzle across his. "I'm not going to hate you for that."
The kit's jaw drops, and it takes him several seconds to find his voice. "Really?" He stutters, disbelieving. "You mean that? For real?"
"Yes." Kurama does her best to remain patient. Letting previously unused instincts guide her, the great fox steps closer, pressing her side to Naruto's and setting her head on his. Beneath her fur, she churns her chakra, generating a soothing warmth that seeps into her jinchuriki. "But I have to ask why? How does a slip like that even occur? You deserve better, Naruto. Better than what your village can give you, and better than what I can give you."
"You cared when no one else would," the boy-turned-fox mumbles. "That's good enough for me."
'Good enough.' Kurama scowls, her burning hatred of the Leaf Village rising once more. 'Just caring is good enough?' Her disgust of humanity reaches new levels she thought previously impossible.
"I don't believe that I would be a good mother," Kurama firmly answers back.
Naruto sniffs and begins to pull away. "That's okay. I don't think I would be a good son anyway," he says, slowly standing.
Both of Kurama's tails wrap around Naruto and halt him, pulling him closer instead. "I wasn't finished," she says. "I don't believe that I would be a good mother, but if you would claim me as one," she does what feels natural, bringing her voice down to a gentle whisper and nuzzling him once more, "then I will claim you as a son."
Pulling his head back, Naruto looks up at the larger fox with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Really?"
The Kyuubi's eyes flash, and she smiles. "My kit, when will you learn that I do not mince my words? We will simply have to learn how to be mother and son together."
Naruto presses his face to her chest, his body beginning to shake. His sobs are quiet, but each little cry is like a kunai driven into Kurama's chest.
"I love you, Mom," he mumbles into her fur.
She holds her child a little tighter.
Her plans for total freedom may have been delayed, perhaps indefinitely, but at the very least, Kurama can claim some petty revenge for stealing Minato and Kushina's child.