Disclaimer:
I do not own the Naruto franchise. This is a work of fanfiction.
Chapter 1:
Kurama felt apprehensive, he did not know what was to come now.
What happened to tailed beasts when they passed on to the afterlife? There was no precedence to such a scenario.
He had always thought himself above death, the only real way he could have died was if had fused his very essence and power with that of a human. Until recently, such a notion was unthinkable to the greatest of the Biju.
However, in the last thirty-odd years he had changed so much and it was all due to Naruto. Naruto had changed his view on life, there was so much that Naruto taught him that Kurama came to care for the human a great deal. This was why he had offered power to Naruto to overcome his greatest rival. However, for all his power, that last stunt against the detestable Otsutsuki had its price.
Kurama felt his essence slowly slipping away. The last thing he heard was Naruto shouting after him, begging him not to go. Sadly, there was nothing he could do. A while later, just as he was about to lose consciousness, Kurama felt a great deal of chakra being built up and released simultaneously followed by a very strong pull. Shortly after that, Kurama knew no more.
—scene break—
"Oooooooooi….", "Kuraaaaamaaaaa", "wake up….!", "Kuraaaaaamaaaaaaaa", "oooooooooi".
The incessant shouting continued much to Kurama's displeasure. Soon the shouting was accompanied by a sound akin to an inmate dragging his cup against the bars of his cell.
"NARUTO", shouted Kurama after he couldn't take it anymore.
"I swear in the name of all that's holy! If you don't stop the racket I swear I'll…", Kurama was on his feet chomping at the bit by the bars of his cell when he came upon a perplexing question.
"What the hell…?"
—scene break—
"I'm so glad you woke up Kurama…", said Naruto, who was sitting just outside the cage formed by the seal.
"I don't understand…", intoned Kurama in his deep voice.
"How is this possible?", Kurama asked Naruto. The last thing I remember is a flash of intense chakra…", mused Kurama.
"Well…that would be my doing…", said Naruto, looking sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head. "I took a gamble…I had to, I couldn't lose you Kurama".
Both Naruto and Kurama didn't speak for a while. Naruto let Kurama gather his thoughts as he too did the same.
—scene break—
It had been a couple of hours since he'd woken up. From what he could gather, both Kurama and he had somehow ended up in the past. As per the calendar in his room, he was about eight years old and living on the stipend the Third Hokage had arranged for him.
From his visit to the civilian library, Naruto had gleaned that he was in his timeline and not in an alternate timeline or universe. The newspaper articles corroborated his findings. It was just a few months back that the Uchiha massacre had happened. It had saddened Naruto a great deal that he couldn't help Sasuke. Granted, he had no idea how he would have gone about saving his friend's family, but it still grated on his nerves that he couldn't do anything about it.
Frankly speaking, Naruto had no idea how he'd ended up in this situation. All he remembered was that he somehow wanted to stop Kurama from fading away. In his haste, he had combined sage chakra, the shadow clone technique, the Hiraishin technique and an Uzumaki barrier seal on the fly to prevent Kurama's chakra from leaking away and to transport the two of them away from his seal.
Theoretically, this was an impossible task, how could he have transported Kurama and himself away from his mindscape? It was such a complex notion that Naruto couldn't wrap his head around it.
It took a while to even explain his on-the-fly thought process to Kurama.
"So let me get this straight…", thought Kurama out loud. "Your idea was to isolate my chakra within a Hokage-style barrier technique while you tried to substitute a large amount of nature chakra maintained by your clones to feed the chakra drain caused by my technique?"
"Yeah…pretty much", replied Naruto. "My thought was that if I could feed the chakra sink with enough nature chakra, then at some point the chakra cost would be met. Since I had isolated your chakra, once the cost was met it should, in theory, let you live."
Kurama hummed in thought for a while and said, "That was some great out-of-the-box thinking Naruto. It wouldn't have worked on a human, as your life force and chakra are not truly in sync like us tailed beasts."
It was a solution that had surprised Kurama. Being a Biju, his life force was his chakra. Kurama could see that his final technique would accept an equal amount of nature chakra as payment if Naruto had subconsciously filtered and attuned it akin to his chakra.
"Tell me Naruto, at any point did you use the fourth Hokage's seal to channel the nature chakra?", asked Kurama.
Scratching his head in thought Naruto replied, "Come to think of it…yeah…I had to use Dad's seal to funnel the nature chakra…the whole idea was difficult without doing so…no matter how much I tried I couldn't get the nature chakra to switch with yours…how did you figure that out Kurama?"
The nine-tailed fox explained his reasonings to Naruto.
"What I don't get is how we ended up in the past Naruto", intoned Kurama.
"Eh…that was a last-minute gambit I took", replied Naruto.
"I could see that my seal and the bit with the nature chakra was working, but there was a limit to how long I could have kept it up…I tried many ways to make the drain stop but it was like the thing had a mind of its own…", trailed Naruto reminiscing about the sticky situation.
"In my desperation, I took hold of you as you were unconscious and used the Hiraishin technique to get out of there…I wasn't thinking about the destination, all I wanted was for us to get away from there".
Kurama was flabbergasted. The amount of sheer luck needed to pull off a stunt like this was insane. He doubted that the likes of that pineapple-haired shadow user could have thought up such a plan!
Naruto was truly the most unpredictable ninja in the whole of the Elemental Nations. His never-give-up attitude and situational awareness make him come up with unorthodox methods to solve a problem. "Kind of like the time he fought that Hyuga kid during the chunin exams", thought Kurama.
Kurama looked back at Naruto after his internal musings. "Naruto, let me tell you this…never in all of my life have I seen someone like you…you have done the impossible at times, feats that I could have scarcely foretold…you showed me that there was more to humans than hate…you have brought peace to my troubled mind and now you have saved my life…for this I thank you".
"But, have you thought of the consequences Naruto?", asked Kurama.
"You have left behind your dream and your family. I doubt we can go back to the future. I don't even fully understand how we ended up here in one piece to begin with…all I can think of is that your dad's technique tore through space and time when the nature chakra imploded spectacularly", finished Kurama.
"…", Naruto was speechless for a while.
It hadn't truly sunk into him the causality of his actions.
Hinata, Boruto, Himawari.
Naruto sat down in his mindscape. His form trembling from realising the effects of his reckless action.
"Would I have done things differently?", Naruto asked himself. "Probably…most likely…", these were the words coming to his mind.
His life was essentially being rewritten. He would have to do everything over. No matter how careful he was, he couldn't do everything the same way as he had the first time. There was little to no chance of him seeing his children again. This much he knew.
Did he resent his actions? The answer was yes. But did he resent saving Kurama's life?
No. He did not.
Naruto was an open book to Kurama. As they were in Naruto's mindscape, the nine-tailed fox could feel Naruto's emotions and he could feel that Naruto was hurt and confused.
"I do not resent you Kurama, if that's what you're getting at…I am confused and hurt, but I do not regret saving your life…not now, not ever", said Naruto.
Kurama could feel the sincerity in Naruto.
"Let's take this one step at a time Naruto. I am with you every step of the way", said the nine-tailed fox.
"Yeah…let's…", mumbled Naruto as his eyes became unfocused, lost in his thoughts.
Chapter end.