A/N: I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! After two months I finally got this chapter ready. Before going through the story, I would like to inform you guys of the changes I made from the Prologue up to chapter 4. The changes are not that big but it's relevant to where the plot of this story, I suggest rereading it again. Anyways, If there are still people who are waiting for this story to be updated, here it is, I hope this is enough to satisfy your long wait.
-SyrinxSilenus
The Fourth Hokage's Son
Chapter Five
Kushina drew a ragged breath as they dove to avoid the unforgiving projectiles sent in their direction.
She didn't need to say anything to know that their situation had gotten considerably worse in the last few minutes; they'd expected to be long gone by the time their captors had realized anything was amiss.
'This is not good,' Kushina thought bitterly as she and Kaoru jumped from opposite directions to dodge the barrage of kunai thrown their way.
Their bodies were far weaker than they'd ever been, but they were Whirlpool Ninjas at heart, and Whirlpool Ninjas driven into a corner were truly a force to be reckoned with. The Second Great Ninja War was a good indicator of that.
Kushina discreetly slid Naruto into the bushes and pressed a finger to her lips, maintaining eye-contact with the frightened boy as Kaoru handily distracted the three Iwa Shinobi. She didn't want her son to be involved in the fight at any stage; he could even be used as a hostage to make them cooperate unwillingly. It was a discomforting thought she pushed out of her mind as her hands got to work.
The redheaded mother allowed her blue-tinted chakra to flare up in her palms, effortlessly melding the viscous energy into the ominous pattern of two identical kanji, each intent on inflicting paralysis the moment they made contact with human skin.
She leaned forward and kicked off explosively, rushing into the ongoing fight.
"Kaoru-chan, switch!" the elder Uzumaki cried sharply as she dashed in the direction of the younger redhead.
Kaoru didn't even glance in her sister's direction as she bounced away from the three shinobi she was engaged with.
With meticulous precision, Kushina slipped and weaved through the flailing limbs and sharp weapons, slapping her palms onto the bodies of the three Iwa Shinobi. As expected, they all slumped on the floor, instantly paralyzed.
The three shinobi, despite being completely immobilized, could still look up and direct all their frustration at their lack of skill and the fact that their opponent had incapacitated them all so quickly.
The two redheads, on the other hand, did not have the luxury of wasting time after their enemies' defeat; Kushina lifted her son from the bushes and started running again without a single passing glance for their fallen enemies. They'd be up and chasing them not too long after anyway, the purely-chakra seal wasn't designed to cripple, more to delay.
"Kushina-neesama…" the younger sister suddenly called out to her sister as they ran, trees whipping past at an astonishing rate. The addressee shifted her gaze to the other redhead in question, her mind idly focusing on her pacing and breathing while she subconsciously kept checking their six.
"What is it Kaoru-chan?" she asked, her words short and clipped.
"Let's split up."
Kaoru's measured tone and words caused Kushina to almost stumble in shock at what her sister was suggesting. Little Naruto squeaked in surprise at his mother's misstep, tightening his hold around her neck in fear. Thankfully, she immediately managed to regain her footing as she whipped her head towards her sister, staring at her with wide eyes.
"What!? Why should we split up? I will never leave you behind, Dattebane!" she loudly protested, glaring in defiance at her younger sister.
Kaoru shook her head, refusing to listen to her elder sister. "No, nee-sama. They are gaining on us; we need to split up. If we do, it will increase our chances of survival," the younger redhead defended.
"B-but-"
Kushina tried to protest again only to snap her mouth shut at the determined look in her sister's eyes.
"Nee-sama, listen to me. I'll distract them with clones disguised as you and Naruto as I run on the path towards Konoha. You, on the other hand, will run in the opposite direction. They will surely follow my path because they expect us to head straight to Konoha," Kaoru explained with narrowed eyes, gears spinning inside her head as she analyzed their situation.
The elder Uzumaki shook her head. She refused to be separated from her sister. "No! They will catch you, 'ttebane!"
"Kushina!" Kushina was caught off guard with her sister's unusual exclamation, being directly called her first name making it even more so.
"Nee-sama, you have a son. You need to think of his and your safety first," she paused. "I will be fine. I can easily evade them because I'll be alone. I'll distract them with clones."
Kaoru's tone did not waver; a testament to her willpower.
"But you'll run out of chakra soon," the elder redhead weakly protested, despite knowing that her sister's strong resolve wouldn't budge one bit.
"Nee-sama, we are Uzumaki, we have huge chakra reserves. Trust me, I will make it back to Konoha," the younger redhead assured. However, the elder sister couldn't help but be concerned for her safety. For years she had thought that she was the only one left, and suddenly; a miracle happened and she was reunited with her younger sister. The thought of losing her again after she just got her back tore her to pieces.
Kushina opened her mouth to protest again, but what came out instead was a choked cry of pain. Her foot slipped, the sudden shock temporarily overwhelming her senses.
"Nee-sama!" Kaoru gasped, hands whipping out to steady her plummeting sibling. Regardless, their combined momentum forced them to tussle and tumble to the ground.
"Mommy!" Naruto, who had been previously silent as his mother and auntie argued, cried out in worry.
Kushina's legs buckled as pain spread throughout her backside and she dropped to the earthy floor on her knees. Naruto immediately stood on his toes as he checked his mother for injury and began to bawl when he saw a kunai lodged on his mother's back, located just on the upper side of her hip. The entry had not been nice, the kunai deeply gashing into her body.
"Mommy!" Naruto exclaimed, panicking as the emerald-green blouse of his mother became soaked in a vivid red, small flecks of crimson spurting at her every movement.
Kaoru moved fast as she saw that another four shinobi from Iwa were nearing them. She quickly turned back towards the rigid figure of her sister and grabbed the handle of the offending kunai, her brashness earning a moan of pain from her sibling.
"Nee-sama hold your breath!" the younger redhead warned before unceremoniously yanking the kunai out of her sister's back. Kushina bit her lip, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, but it did little to mask the searing emptiness left by the tool.
"Nee-sama, please tend to your wound, I'll take care of the pests," Kaoru said, hissing the last words out as she ripped a part of her skirt and passing it to her sister. Kushina quietly took the piece of cloth as her sister stood up and intercepted another group of Iwagakure Shinobi, alone.
Kushina wasted no time drawing a simple and small seal on the cloth, Naruto watching curiously as he wiped his tears while his mother worked. After flourishing the final stroke to the seal, the woman placed it on her wound, wincing at the burning feeling that arose.
"Naruto, close your eyes and cover your ears," she softly instructed her child, and he stared right back at her worriedly, but reluctantly nodded in response.
"O-okay mommy." he agreed, eyes staring at his mother in fear, fear of losing one of his sole parents. Kushina smiled at her son, grasping the side of his cheek lovingly.
"Listen to mommy Naruto, no matter what you hear, don't open your eyes or remove your hands from your ears, understand?" the redhead mother repeated, her voice taking a sterner tone.
"O-okay mommy. If you say sow." the child shakingly agreed. Tears were already running down his cheeks again as he sniffled and tried to muffle his sobs.
"You need to promise me, sweetheart," Kushina insisted, afraid that her son would forever be traumatized by this scene.
Little Naruto cried harder as he looked at the soft but pained expression of his mother, hardly understanding what she wanted to do but knew that it was something that she didn't want him to remember.
For a 4-year-old boy, this was too much to handle, but the little blond wasn't just any ordinary boy. He was the son of two legendary shinobi and the Jinchuriki of the most powerful Bijuu. Even with his young mind, he quite understood their situation, he was a bit confused, but he could guess that his mother wanted to do something, something that could hurt him.
His mother had always thought of his well being no matter how much she suffered. His mother was the best mother in the world. He loved his mother so much.
So as the child wiped his tears on his dirty sleeve. He stared straight into his mother's beautiful violet-blue eyes. "I promise mommy. I will never go back on my words, dattebayo!"
Kushina stared at his son's resolute cerulean eyes and watched as he turned his back on her, clamping his chubby hands on his ears.
The mother watched her son's back with a saddened expression for a few seconds as tears started falling down her cheeks. She bit her lower lip and tried her best to stifle her shout as she activated the seal that she had placed directly on her wound.
The seal hummed with chakra, and suddenly a blazing flame roared to life, scorching the wounded skin on her back. The smell of charred flesh filled the air as a piercing wail laden with agony resounded throughout the forest.
Kaoru glanced at her sister as she dodged another Earth style jutsu aimed at her, frowning as she realized what her sister was planning to do next. She yanked a hidden piece of cloth from her rapidly shrinking skirt and slapped it on the ground, activating one of her own inventions to counter her enemies. An ominous glow lit the fabric alight as tens of water tendrils shot out simultaneously.
"Fuinjutsu: Watery Thorn Maze."
The tendrils quickly surrounded the unfortunate two Iwa-nin, crisscrossing into an inescapable tangle of sharp thorns of water, before piercing through both unforgivingly.
The other two Iwa-nin formed a set of hand signs with practiced precision, slamming their palms on the ground as they immediately shouted the name of the jutsu, "Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
As if the earth itself had answered the call, a thick wall of earth emerged from the ground, successfully blocking the vicious tendrils.
Kaoru scowled as she jumped away from her enemies.
Thoughts and strategies to defeat the remaining Iwa-nin came to mind, but none could fend off so many enemies for a long period of time. She wanted to conserve her chakra as much as possible, so she only used low-level seals and avoided using elemental Ninjutsu due to her current state.
She wasn't in her full power so she needed to use her chakra wisely and conserve as much as she could. Attacking using Fuinjutsu would save her more chakra, in the long run, she figured. She chanced another glance at her sister and decided it was time for plan B.
Meanwhile, Kushina was already slumped on the floor, tormented by the ongoing crushing pain. Finally, her anguish lessened a bit to a much tolerable ache after a few breathing exercises, taking in deep gulps of breath as the wound on her back was successfully cauterized, preventing the wound from bleeding out further.
There was blood on her palm and nails as she unconsciously dug it through her skin, and a small cut on her lower lip had appeared due to how hard she'd bitten on it.
Hands cold and trembling, she tore a piece of fabric from her blouse and folded it, using it as leverage to put pressure on the wound, hissing in pain as the burning feeling on the wound intensified.
She immediately started wrapping her wound with the cloth that her sister had given her. Her skin was pale and a bit cold as her hands continued to tremble with so much pain wracking her body.
Kushina took a measured, long, deep breath as she stared at her son's shaking figure. Even though he never moved from his position, she knew that he had heard her screams of pain, but he had kept his promise.
"Naruto," she called, voice still very weak. She touched his back with a trembling hand and the child jolted. He immediately turned around and wrapped his shuddering arms around her neck, burrowing his face into the crook of her neck.
"Mommy."
Kushina encircled her heavy arms around the small figure of her son as he cried his heart out. The older Uzumaki would have if given the opportunity, but in this situation, she couldn't let her heart and mind falter if they were to survive.
And yet she didn't want her son to experience things like this at such a young age. She wanted her son to have a happy childhood, a normal life with loving parents that she and her husband both lost at an early age. But her son didn't get what they wanted for him, he had already begun to suffer not even a few minutes after he was born.
This world was just too cruel.
'My poor baby.' The mother agonized over her son's stolen innocence and happy childhood. She wanted the world for her son. She wanted the best for him, but this was all she could give him. Pain, agony, and a burden so huge that his small shoulders shouldn't be able to begin to carry it.
Kushina couldn't help but loath the people who did this to them. She despised them with every fiber of her being.
"Don't worry honey, mommy…will be fine," the mother assured her son as she smiled tenderly at the young blond.
"There they are!" Kushina whipped her head to stare at her sister as the younger Uzumaki woman fought the remaining Iwa Shinobi alone, she had managed to incapacitate two of her opponents and was already dealing with the last two. However, the elder woman narrowed her eyes as she saw reinforcements arriving.
"Kaoru-chan!" Kushina called out to her sister.
The younger kunoichi looked up from her fight and saw the approaching shinobi. She kicked her opponents away from her and immediately slammed paralysis seals on each of their bodies when they were distracted a bit by the arrival of their comrades.
Kaoru stopped to gaze at her sister, and Kushina, somehow understanding what her sister was trying to convey, shook her head and mumbled a quiet, "No."
The younger Uzumaki woman smiled encouragingly at her sister and proceeded to slam her palms on the ground, blue chakra flaring in between her fingers.
"Uzumaki Genjutsu: Nightmare Dance."
A wave of chakra gushed out from the seal, wasting no time encapsulating every nearby shinobi in the forest. The very air seemed to bend as the chakra seeped into every tree and living being
The Iwa ninjas slumped, their eyes becoming cloudy and vacant, captured in the illusion.
Once she had confirmed that they'd all been enthralled by the lingering chakra, Kaoru jumped up and started leaping through the trees straight to the path towards Konoha and, like lost ducklings without their mother, the reinforcement shinobi followed suit, eyes blinded by the illusion as they ran past Kushina and Naruto.
Kushina wiped her face, eyes shadowed by despair as she smudged and removed the previous seal from her hand and in its place drew another, a bigger statis seal that stretched from the tips of her fingers to the top of her shoulder, engulfing the entirety of her arm.
At this point, it was simply delaying the inevitable, as the purpose of this was to dull and nullify the pain just so that she could push herself a bit further, for her and her child.
The redheaded-woman then gathered her crying son in her arms and proceeded to run into another direction, away from where her sister had run.
The mother ran with her son without stopping. Clutching her crying child to herself as she silently wept for her brave, reckless sister.
'I will look for you Kaoru-chan. If you don't make it back to Konoha. I'll trash the whole Elemental Nations just to look for you,' Kushina solemnly vowed as she ran through the forest away from Iwagakure.
After two hours of running, the redhead realized that they were finally coming out of Earth's country. Just a little more push and they would be inside the border of the Fire country.
Suddenly it felt like a thousand knives had pierced her back and she belatedly realized that the stasis seal had finally lost its effectiveness and the pain was back to pay it back tenfold.
"Damn it.." she muttered, stumbling slightly on her next stride.
"Mommy," little Naruto murmured out in worry as he saw his mother's face contorted in a pained grimace.
"M-mommy's…fine Naruto," Kushina tried to assure her blond son, but the boy was already crying.
"M-mommy, y-you need a d-doctor," the four years old stuttered as he cried, sniffling as snot and tears messed up his face.
Kushina gritted her teeth as the feeling of pain intensified, her hands felt so cold and she was sure that she looked as white as paper and Naruto cried harder as he saw the unnatural color of her mother's skin.
"N-Naruto…sweetheart, m-mommy's ok, let's just find–Ah!" the redhead huffed as the pain in her back seemingly increased exponentially. She was reaching her limit, she could tell.
The little boy panicked as he saw the weakened state of his mother and his eyes darted everywhere. Looking for a safe place where she could rest.
"There!" Naruto shouted as he saw something in the corner of his eyes.
"Mommy! Let's go hide! There!" The blond boy started to help her mother up and drag her towards a cave hidden among trees and bushes. Kushina tried her best to stand up on her own as her son held her hand firmly in his small hands.
She chuckled faintly, "My, what a gentleman you are."
"Mommy, I-I just want you to be better." The boy sniffled.
Kushina could only reply with a painful grimace as she pushed her jelly legs to move.
Mother and son trudged with difficulty towards the entrance of the cave, and when they finally made it inside, the redhead succumbed to her exhaustion and agony. Her legs buckled and darkness slowly clouded her consciousness. The last thing she heard as her consciousness faded was her son's anxious weeping. And then Kushina knew no more.
When Naruto saw his mother lose consciousness, he assumed the worst. Without really knowing where to go, the little boy ran out of the cave to look for someone to help his mother.
The boy was frantic, but he still knew who to avoid – those bad people with a weird design on their foreheads. They were evil and they wanted to hurt his mommy.
After seeing the same headband tied on the forehead of many Iwa Shinobi that he encountered for the past four years of his life, Naruto had pretty much memorized its appearance. So much so, that he could practically picture them in his mind even when he closed his eyes.
So as the blond boy ran through the forest, he made sure to look out for those bad guys with a specific design on their forehead. A small insignia of two rectangles overlapping each other.
Naruto ran and ran as he pushed his tiny legs to move and just find something. Something or someone to help his mother.
"Please, mommy needs help," the blond boy kept on mumbling as he ran without direction. He realized after a while that he didn't know what he was going to do or where he was going to go and that he was just running in a loop, so he stopped and started bawling to his heart's content.
"Crying will not help, brat." The Kyuubi's guttural voice resonated inside the little boy's head, and the next instant, the blond was standing inside a dark place that looked like a sewer with his feet submerged in the ankle-deep water in front of a giant, worn cage as he kept on crying.
"B-but, m-mommy's hurt, a-and I don't know what to do!"
"Tch, crying wouldn't help you either."
If one looked closely, the fox seemed uncomfortable as the child in front of him kept bawling.
The mighty Kurama, the most powerful of the Bijuu, didn't want to admit it, but the little boy had grown on him and he wasn't completely indifferent to seeing him in so much anguish.
Of course, this development did not happen on the spot.
It was two years ago when the fox and his jailor had first met.
Kurama was pissed off, the moment he thought that he was finally going to be free, it was destroyed by yet another power-hungry old man.
'Humans are truly despicable.'
Now he was stuck inside a baby. A baby who didn't even know how to walk!
When he finally gets out of this cage, he was sure to tear those stupid, mindless mongrels into shreds.
The Kyuubi no Kitsune banged one of his large tails on the cage before he decided to just sleep his irritation away. And so, the greatest of the Bijuu slept for the following months, wallowing in his solitude inside his newly formed prison.
The following days and months passed too quickly without Kyuubi's notice and finally, two years had passed since he was sealed again, and his little jailor had grown a bit.
Kurama didn't do anything aside from sleeping and cursing the humans who sealed him away as he sometimes heard their irritating voice inside his host's mindscape. He could squish these fools with just a single tail. He wanted to stomp and tear them into pieces.
Sometimes he observed the outside world through the eyes of his new jailor, and he couldn't help but hate humans more than he hated them before.
The Nine-Tailed Fox didn't hate his previous jailor, he just disliked her. Yes, that was a big difference in Kurama's dictionary. It meant that she was on the neutral side of the battle, and the fox may or may not include her in his righteous revenge. After all, she never once used his power just for the sake of having power, but he also disliked her for that.
He couldn't try anything to escape because the wench never once used his power – except that one time during the Third Shinobi War when the redhead woman was consumed by grief and anger after witnessing her whole team get slaughtered, which he immediately took as an opportunity to finally escape his prison until that blond mongrel interfered and destroyed all his chances of escaping again. After that, the redhead had never used his power again – so he was stuck inside of her for years and he grew so bored that he developed an unhealthy habit of watching his jailor on a pranking-spree.
But even he, the embodiment of hatred, was disgusted with what these humans did to his previous jailor. Especially what they were planning to do with his power.
So, if Kurama was going to choose, he would choose the lesser evil. Right now though, he couldn't do anything anymore. He failed to escape when the redheaded-woman was in labor, and now he was stuck inside of a two-year-old child.
He could only hope that the duo would be able to escape before that old man's plan was executed.
The time passed by so quickly just like any other century, Kurama watched and waited patiently for what was about to happen, and when he saw an opening, he would grab it and burst his way out of this curse cage.
Imagine the fox's surprise when one day he was awakened by a presence in front of his cage and when he opened one majestic eye, he saw his two-year-old jailor looking at his prone form in wonder.
The giant orange fur moved and walked closer towards the giant bars of his cage and loom over the toddler, staring down at his jailor with an intimidating aura surrounding him.
"Brat," his magnificent voice boomed around the place, as the child watched him with eyes wide as saucers.
Kurama expected many things from the child's reaction. Terror, surprise, and confusion were preferable. But think of the sheer surprise he was struck by when the child suddenly exclaimed with a voice laced with so much enthusiasm as he giddily pointed at him.
"What a cute furbowl!" (What a cute furball) the two-year-old blond child happily exclaimed as he jumped in place in excitement.
"Les'go pway! Les'go pway 'ttebayo!" (Let's go play! Let's go play, 'ttebayo!") he demanded excitedly as he clapped his chubby hands in front of him. Cerulean eyes were twinkling with so much exhilaration that Kurama couldn't do anything but stare, mouth left agape.
"Y-YOU INSOLENT WHELP! I, THE MIGHTY KYUUBI NO KITSUNE, AM NOT HERE TO PLAY WITH YOU, YOU WORTHLESS BRAT! COME CLOSER AND LET ME TEAR YOU TO SHREDS!" The mighty Kyuubi roared after he recovered from his shock. He even stuttered a bit at the start, too flabbergasted at the child's excitement in seeing him, which hadn't ever happened to him in the history of…forever!
The impact of his roar caused a powerful shockwave inside the boy's mindscape and Kurama pretty much expected for the blond kid to run back to his mother, shaking and crying with far more terror than before.
Nevertheless, the little rascal effortlessly took the wind out of his sails a second time when the brat just stared at him with stars in his eyes as he clasped his chubby hands in front of him and bounced closer to the large bars of his cage and-
"OOOHHH! AMAAAAYYYYZZZIN Dattebayo! Your sow amayzen! Your voice is BOOOMM! Yeeey!"(Ooh! Amazing, dattebayo! You're so amazing! Your voice is BOOM! Yeey!) the child exclaimed, body vibrating with too much excitement that Kurama almost face faulted, and to his never-ending horror, the child started dancing like an idiot chicken in front of him.
"Would'ja teach me that!? Com'on com'on com'on! Le's go pwaaaay Dattebayo!" (Would you teach me that? Come'on Come'on! Let's go play!) the little hellion shouted as he pumped his fist upward in a victory pose (whether he knew that or not, the befuddled fox didn't know), body practically vibrating with so much enthusiasm that gave Kurama whiplash.
The Kyuubi no Kitsune, strongest and mightiest being on the planet AND among the other Bijuu, felt the urge to facepalm or bang his head into his cage. This was plain stupid. So, so stupid! Kurama couldn't deal with this brat. Snarling viciously, the giant fox flicked his tail and threw the loud brat out of his mindscape.
"Ahh, peace and quiet at last," the mass of orange fur sighed as he laid back down and attempted to go back to sleep. He hoped that the next time he met the child, he wasn't as ridiculous as their first meeting. Kurama snorted as he remembered the first thing that the child said to him.
That foolish brat, He's the first being whoever called him 'cute furball'. That description shouldn't be the first thing to describe him during the first meetings. 'Scary, gigantic, intimidating, beastly, and evil' were more appropriate. But 'cute'?! That stupid brat was delusional. Besides, who in their right mind would ask the mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune to play? Kurama grunted in annoyance as he remembered the exuberant two-year-old blond. He hoped to the high heavens that he wouldn't see that brat again.
Unfortunately for Kurama, the high heavens seemed to hate his guts, as the next morning, he was abruptly awakened by a very familiar presence, one whom he didn't want to be involved with. So with a guttural growl, he flicked the brat out of his cage with a single tail.
But to Kurama's utter horror, the little hellion was persistent. He goes inside his mindscape to annoy the living daylights out of his orange fur every single time he has a chance. He keeps on bubbling gibberish things to the fox, making the mighty Kyuubi turn around and clamped his gigantic paws in his ears to muffle the blond's none stop chattering.
As the days passed by, Kurama got tired of kicking the blond kid out of his cage and just tuned out his nonsensical chattering.
A year had passed with the same routine and the mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune finally spoke for the first time after their first meeting.
"Mommy said that wamen is fud for the gawds-" ("Mommy said that ramen is food for the gods-)
"Hey brat, why do you keep on coming here? I'm not even speaking with you," the fox asked curiously with a facade of disinterest, although he really was curious about the boy's answer.
"Da's easy! I go tawlk with you so you won' be lo-nely. Aren't you lo-nely?" (That's easy! I go talk with you so you won't be lonely. Are you lonely?") the blond kid answered innocently as he tilted his head to the side in a cute manner. Looking like what he said was pretty much obvious.
Kurama was beyond flabbergasted. He opened and closed his huge snout in a more or less accurate imitation of a fish, then came the flushed anger.
"Are you an idiot!? I'm a Bijuu! I don't get lonely! What makes you think that I'm lonely?!" the fox thundered at the kid, and the addressed boy closed one of his eyes as he clamped his chubby hands on his ears.
"Hey! Everyone gets lonely! Me and my mommy is also trapped! Mommy said that I can't go out, becoz the bad people won't a-llow usss! You're also trapped, right? And bein trap is lo-lonely so I can be your fwend!" ("Hey! Everyone gets lonely! Me and my mommy is also trapped! Mommy said that I can't go out because the bad people won't allow us!) The gibberish explanation was said with a lot of stumbles over the right pronunciation, but somehow, Kurama understood what the boy was trying to say, and that was scary enough for the almighty Bijuu. Because how the hell did he understand those gibberish baby talks, and why in the world was he even speaking with this brat?
The fox didn't know if all toddlers were like this, but he was pretty much sure that no other toddler would ask to be his friend, nope. They would more than likely run for their mother, bawling about a certain 'scary giant fox or evil orange fox.' But this one. This one was plain stupid.
"Tch, I don't need a friend," the gigantic fox denied, snorting at the thought, and turned away from the boy. The blond grinned from ear to ear when he realized that the giant furball hadn't thrown him out yet, and so the kid started talking nonsense again, not caring whether the fox answered or not; at least he knew that he was listening, even though he really didn't have much choice in the matter.
The next time the blond boy visited, he wasn't thrown out of the mindscape like before, and as time passed by like a lightning strike, the fox started commenting with the boy's nonsensical chattering.
"That's stupid, Brat. Ramen is not the only food in the world."
Of course, commenting means insulting the boy with every single thing he said, but the child didn't stop coming inside the mindscape to give the mighty Kyuubi much-needed company. This was refuted vehemently by the enormous Bijuu, but no one could deny the fact that the little blond devil was no longer getting thrown out of the mindscape.
One day, Kurama woke up with a child on his snout snoring loudly without a care in the world and the great Nine-tailed fox snorted as he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
When Naruto was found sitting on top of the fox's head on another occasion or just plain hugging the mighty beast's snout as he basked in the comfortable orange fur of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, no one commented. After all, this development was only known by the two parties involved.
"W-what should I do?" the brat cried out as he rubbed his eyes with two chubby hands.
Kurama blanched as the boy bawled louder than ever. If this continued, then the enemy would find them, and that was something the fox really didn't want to see, for his and his vessel's sake. He couldn't let the brat be caught especially when his powers were at stake. The fact that he was worried about the little brat's well-being was unsaid, but that wasn't important for now.
"Hey, brat. Let's play." With great reluctance, the Kyuubi leaked out a small portion of his chakra until it started to envelop the boy's body.
That did the trick. The almost-four-year-old boy stopped crying as he was suddenly distracted by the beautiful orange chakra surrounding him.
"Yey! Pwetty owange!" the happy blond exclaimed with excitement as he jumped around playing with the orange chakra of the great Kyuubi no Kitsune. Who said that the Nine-Tails' power was only used for destruction? No one said that it could also be used as a child's plaything, as humiliating as it may have seemed.
The fox looked on in satisfaction as the boy stopped bawling and his ear-cringing cries were replaced by Kurama's secret favorite music nowadays, Naruto's cute giggling and laughter.
Of course, as the boy was busy playing with the Bijuu's chakra, that was when the fast entrance of one Itachi Uchiha happened. And a game of cat and mouse took place, one that Kurama very much enjoyed, especially when he saw the defeated appearance of their pursuer.
"Good job kit. You did well," Kurama praised the blond with an air of satisfaction worthy of a proud mother, completely amused with the turn of events. Naruto grinned so wide at his friend's compliment.
No one knew at that time that the amusing teenager would become their awesome savior.
The next time Kushina gained consciousness, she realized that she was lying on her stomach and someone was tending to her injuries. Of course, that caused a bit of a panic to the redhead, so she attempted to move.
"Nn...Ah!... " the wounded Kunoichi tried to speak but her throat was raw, and her voice sounded hoarse even to her own ears.
"Mommy!" she heard her son's voice cry out and not a few seconds later, her little boy appeared in her line of vision.
"N-Naruto… " Kushina mumbled weakly.
"You're finally awake Kushina-sama."
The woman suddenly jolted as she heard the deeper voice of a young male.
"Wha–" Kushina tried to say but was cut off when she felt a hand on her shoulder trying to steady her.
"Please do not put more strain on your body, Kushina-sama or your wounds will open up again," the person stated, and the redhead stopped moving.
"W-who are you? How do you know my name?" the wounded woman demanded, suspicion lacing her voice despite her current predicament. The person was still out of her sight, so no one could blame the woman's suspicious nature, especially when her child was with her without protection.
"Mommy! Tachi-niisan is a friend! He treated your booboo!" little Naruto defended the 14-year-old as he dragged the teenager in front of his mother, and Kushina's eyes widened as she recognized the attire of the person she was talking to.
"See!" The boy exclaimed as he gestured towards his savior, but his mother wasn't listening anymore, her eyes were focused on the familiar insignia designed on the forehead protector that the teenager was wearing.
'Konoha's forehead protector! A-and that face! Mikoto's eldest, Itachi-kun! I-it's Itachi-kun! Then that means–' the Kushina's frantic thoughts were cut short when the boy started speaking.
"It's okay Naruto, I'll introduce myself," the young teen said as he lightly patted the little boy's head, then he kneeled in front of the wounded woman's prone body.
"My name is Itachi Uchiha, and I am one of the Fourth Hokage's personal ANBU guards."
*END OF CHAPTER FIVE*
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