Reflection
Itachi never thought he would get a chance to see the sunshine blonde again. The moment Naruko's cerulean blue orbs landed on the two, water welled in them, as she broke out into a sprint, shocking the two men by engulfing them in a tight hug. Wet teardrops hit their shoulders as Naruko's arms squeezed them.
"I'm so happy to see you guys again, though I wished it was under better circumstances." Naruko choked back a sob as Killer Bee asked them if she knew them.
"You can put down your guard, Bee. They are good people despite their troubled past. But to be on the safe side—" Naruko threw out two seals that attached themselves to Nagoto's and Itachi's bodies, paralyzing their movements and blocking their conversation from reaching the Kabuto's ears.
"Naruko, you're much different from our last encounter. You have grown a lot." Nagato smiled like a proud big brother, to which Naruko sheepishly scratched her head. Since the blonde first arrived, Itachi's eyes stayed glued to her, and of course, he couldn't miss the bright gold chakra that bathed her skin.
Who she informed was the Kyuubi's chakra which she somehow got under control. Something which he, ex-prodigy and genius, couldn't wrap his head around as Naruko shot her eyes towards him and placed her warm hand against his cheek.
"It's good seeing you again, Weasel-chan, or should I say, Itachi-nii? I... I really did miss you. See! I even still wear the ribbons you once bestowed upon me!" Naruko pointed to the ribbons which tied her pigtails, and Itachi smiled softly, touched by the small sentiment.
Itachi watched as the blonde's eyes dimmed, struggling to say the following words that came to her mind.
"I heard about the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre. I'm sorry you and Sasuke had to go through something so painful. Like I said before, I don't diss Sasuke's hatred. He has every right to thirst for revenge. But... But I can't let it consume him!" Naruko clenched her fist, eyes fierce.
"He has been through so much pain! He even decided to join the Akatsuki and destroy the village to get revenge for his dear big brother! He's sinking farther and farther away from me, and I can't let it happen! He's my teme! My rival! My special person; no one can take him away from me!" Naruko clutched at her heart as the pain of never reuniting with Sasuke cut deep.
Staring at the young woman before him, Itachi was reminded once again why he entrusted her with his little brother.
"Just like I promised all those years ago, I'll help Sasuke achieve the happiness he deserves. So please, rest well. You have done a good job, but now it's my turn. Thank you for coming into my life, Itachi-nii."
Itachi was a proud man, like many members of his clan, but she graced him with a sincere smile. Thanking him for everything he had done, despite the blood spilled on his fingers and being one of the reasons behind Sasuke's road to vengeance, she graced him with a smile that brought tears to his eyes.
Led by his own emotions for the first time in years, Itachi acted outside the characteristic seen in many Uchiha men and cupped the blonde's whiskered cheeks making her, and everyone who witnessed it, flush red when he gave her a quick kiss on her forehead.
Too bad this sincere moment was ruined when Itachi, a few minutes later, had Naruko throw up the crow that he had planted inside of her with Shisui Uchiha's eye implanted in it.
"That's gross!" screamed the green-faced blonde, holding her stomach.
"Sorry," Itachi mumbled an honest apology to which the blonde threw an angry finger at him and yelled,
"We're having a moment, Tachi-nii!"
Kurama never held a great liking to humans. You can say he detested their existence, viewing them as foolish—a weak breed too easily manipulated by their own feelings.
"You know... Your eyes are really sad, ya know."
"Thanks for the chakra, furball! Don't worry. Once this is over, let's sit down and truly talk things out. You have a reason for your hatred, and I would like to hear your story." Words she said to him with that stupid grin on her face after she took control of his chakra.
"Who the hell are you to judge and say my childhood was unhappy because I was a jinchūriki ? Despite my parents, who you so selfishly took away from me, some great people still came into my life and saw me for who I was and not as my status! Because of them, my childhood wasn't filled with complete sadness but had a sprinkle of happiness despite having a tailed beast sealed inside of me!"
Naruko yelled at the masked man, minutes before their battles.
Kurama flashed back to the many speeches said by Naruko. Believe it or not, Kurama always knew there was something special about the brat named Uzumaki Naruko. The girl's soul and love burned like the undying flames that possessed the sun, entirely unlike his past jailors, such as the male Uzumaki, who married the Senju Heiress and her mother, who only saw him as a mindless beast controlled by his rage.
None stopped to look past the beast and got to know him. For many years, people only sought to abuse his power for their good or seal him away because they saw him as a threat.
He hated humans. He hated them to his very core, but when Eight-Tails asked him if he hated Naruko, Kurama couldn't answer because a small part of him that was not consumed with hatred favored the little ball of energy—recalling those sad eyes and how they looked at him when they first met when she trained under the Toad Sage.
Even now, as he watched her interact with the idiot Yonbi , Naruko did not express fear or hatred, but genuinely listened to everything he had to say. Including telling her his real name.
"Kurama? Oi, furball, from now on, I'm calling you Ku-chan, okay?" The cheeky blonde had the guts to tease him.
Kurama did not approve of that name.
Upon hearing how people only sought to use them but never saw them for who they were, Naruko had a flashback, and Kurama remembered a time when the girl was running through the village only to take a painful fall to the ground. Scaring her knee, it had begun to bleed. Naruko was a young girl back then, around the age of seven, so of course, tears ushered from her eyes.
If Naruko were any other child, someone would've noticed her and lent the distressed child a hand. But no one offered Naruko a hand despite having watched what took place. A family of three even walked around the distressed child and, in not-so-hushed voices, mentioned that she was a child that should be avoided. A plague that tainted their village.
Despite the brave front the blonde tended to show people, she was just a child who was easily affected by the adult's hatred towards her. Their words entered her ears, and the young blonde got to her feet and took off running, bangs hiding the tears that she had shed.
"Trust me... I know that feeling. Having people ignore you and treat you like a nuisance or something to be used. You and I both have names given to us by people who cherish us. You should be free, not caged like some animal, because you are more than what people have told you throughout the years."
Son Goku could see Naruko's eyes held honesty and something he hadn't seen in a long time, which was kindness.
"So, Uzumaki Naruko, what do you want from us?"
"From you? Why the heck would I want anything from you? I thought we were bonding. Ya know, getting to know each other's pain and feelings. Listen to me, and listen to me good: I refuse to take anything from you like those in the past have done to you. You have control over your own choice, not me or anyone else!"
Kurama smirked at the shocked expression written on that stupid Yonbi's face, recalling various others who had worn that same expression thanks to the brat who had a knack for catching people off guard.
"I don't trust jinchūriki's easily due to the lies many have told before you, but... but something about those eyes you possess. They remind me of 'mother'. She too, possessed those very same eyes."
By now, both of Kurama's eyes were open. Recalling the person who he and his siblings viewed as their mother, as it was with her help they were brought into existence. To this very day, Kurama could still remember the woman holding him tightly to her chest as she raced through the damp forest with him in her arms.
Placing him inside a temple with tears in her eyes, she patted his head and gave him a kiss near his eyelids.
"Looks like this is where we must part, my beloved Kurama-chan. I'd hoped we had more time together. The same goes for your siblings, but fate had other plans. The trials you must face from here on will not be easy. Breaking you to the point that only hatred will consume you. But fear not, 'cause in the far future, you'll meet a little sun whose light will cleanse the darkness and bring forth effects that this world has never seen. Please protect that little sun as she is someone very dear. Someone who I believe may be able to break the wretched curse."
Decades passed, and Kurama could vividly remember the sadness that was etched onto her beautiful face. Long brown locks that were wet from the rain rested over her shoulder blades. Kurama had actually forgotten these words their 'mother' had once said to him before leaving him alone in that empty temple. Only recalling them when Son Goku mentioned how Naruko's eyes reminded him of her.
That was when Kurama remembered that since he was first sealed into the brat, nothing about her was normal. Last time he checked, no person should have two souls. Remembering that blinding figure who tended to appear and get in his way whenever he tried to break free or manipulate Naruko's rage.
Kurama didn't know who that woman was, nor could he ever get a good look at her face as she was always bathed in blinding gold light. But one thing he knew was that she was old, older than the old man and their mother, and very powerful. Someone that not even he, the great Kyuubi, could trespass.
"Everyone believes you to be the savior, the ones who are now long forgotten once talked about. Do you think you can do it, brat? Erase hatred from this world?" Kyuubi had asked her.
"Despite what you may think of me, I'm not naive. You can't erase hatred from the world. Only a fool would think such a thing. But just like I told Nagato, I will try to make this world a better and happier place so that others won't have to suffer like me, you guys, Sasuke, Nagato, Itachi, and many others! People have a right to their emotions, whether love, hate, or rage! But don't let the negativity consume you. Everyone deserves happiness, even you, Kurama."
She pointed those convincing shining blue orbs at him, those orbs with the power to peer into one soul and see the darkness that lingered inside. It was those eyes that made it hard for Kurama to hate the blonde completely. His mind traveled down the road of memories of the many people whose lives Naruko had changed.
"Do you bastards not know who you're talking to?! I'm Uzumaki Naruko! Future Hokage, dattebayo!" shouted a young Naruko before wrapping her scarf around a young Hyuuga who came to be her very first friend.
"The name is Uzumaki Naruko, Konohagakure's next Hokage. Remember it, Dattebayo!" The loudmouth blonde flashed a teary-eyed grin to the first person who didn't view her as a monster but saw her as a person. The one to shower her with parental love and guide her on the path of the person she came to be.
"Uzumaki Naruko, next, future Hokage, Dattebayo! So you'll remember the words I said to you. I meant what I said. I know you'll grow to be someone strong one day! Never forget it!" Naruko told a young Sakura, who would grow to be a comrade and big sister to the knuckleheaded blonde.
"My goal... is to become the next Hokage, so then everyone will acknowledge my existence. No matter what, I'll make my dream become a reality! Dattebayo!" grinned the blonde preteen in the loud orange jumpsuit to the scarecrow who, most of her life, had always been watching over her and would continue to do so.
"Se-cre-te~! Konoha's number one Orange Prank Mistress and Future Hokage never reveals her secrets," said the blonde to the young Uchiha, whose fate was intertwined with hers whether he liked it or not.
There were many others. The blonde's presence and kindness had changed in many ways. She always walked to the beat of her dream. So fearless and unrestrained, just like the sun that burned in the sky. Naruko always kept running forward, proving others wrong, whether it be her fist, her words, or both!
She was a girl with a big dream and an even bigger heart. Instead of erasing emotions, she told people to embrace them because that was what made them human.
Despite the hardships life had thrown at her, Naruko grew up to be one heck of a selfless girl, that it was scary to what lengths this girl would go to for people. Despite how people called her a hero, Naruko didn't set out to follow that path. She was just following her heart even now, as she set out to save Yonbi from the clutches of that masked man.
Watching when the blonde placed a seal on the chakra rod planted inside Son Goku's body that decreased its weight, allowing her to pull it out with the necessary strength, Kurama could do nothing but smirk with pride.
This was his brat, who he had watched grow up under his watchful eyes. The one to never give up, even when others told her it was pointless. The loudmouth squirt who was always shouting her dreams and was now close to achieving them.
"Tch, cheeky brat. You never cease to amaze me."