Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Natsume Yūjin-chō belongs to Yuki Midorikawa. I own nothing but this fanfic.

Chapter 5

Hiruzen had just entered the battlefield when he heard a powerful howl reverberating throughout the village, silencing all the commotion for a split moment, even stopping the Kyūbi from its violent spree. It did not belong to the Kyūbi because he had seen the fox roaring and trampling everything around it when the howling started. No. Someone else did it and truly, Hiruzen had never heard of such a mighty long howl before, a howl that could give him goosebumps and render him immobile just like how the Kyūbi's roar could incite tremendous fear. A howl full of force, demanding and oppressive. It was like a killing intent, yet different. There was no malice behind the howl, only strength. Dominance. Warning. Declaration.

"What's going on?" he muttered, confused. His eyes darted everywhere looking for the source, and it did not take long for him to find it. There, seemingly standing in the air, was a huge white wolf with some markings on its head, baring its sharp teeth right at the Kyūbi as if looking for a fight with it. It was not as big as the fox, but Hiruzen could feel its strength. That wolf was not to be underestimated, he knew. So he ordered his shinobi to stay put, wait, and observe. He had no idea who the wolf was, but he was fairly certain it was not their enemy; its howl and body language clearly told him that.

As if confirming his judgment, the ninken—Inuzuka's—howled back in response before scattering, for the first time ignoring their masters, forcing the Inuzuka to follow them instead. One of them landed near him, barking excitedly, circling him and the shinobi around him. The others, he discovered, were also doing more or less the same thing in their chosen spot. The nearest Inuzuka then communicated with hand signs, telling him that the ninken wanted them to stay back and assist when needed.

That confirmed it. The wolf was their ally.

What happened after that was a brutal fight between two beasts. Kyūbi had the advantage of body size and more limbs including its nine tails, but the flying white wolf was fast and agile, always managing to avoid serious hits and launch its counterattack. It was all bite and scratch, all teeth and claws, yet after a while, Hiruzen saw how the Kyūbi did not seem to get hurt by the wolf's attacks, unlike the wolf whose bruises were becoming more apparent after getting hit a few times.

Chakra, Hiruzen thought. Kyūbi was made of chakra. It could not get hurt so easily. The wolf, although humongous and strong, was not a bijū. Once it got hurt, it could bleed like any other animal.

The Third Hokage felt dreaded once he figured this out. If things kept going on like this, the wolf would lose. They had to subdue the Kyūbi and seal it as soon as possible, but how?! They could not seal it without a proper container. At this point, it was wise to assume that their jinchūriki, Kushina, had passed away, which meant they had to find a new jinchūriki or at least an appropriate object that could be used as a temporary container for the Kyūbi. However, it would not be so easy to find both the jinchūriki and the object that was strong and durable enough to contain Kyūbi and its corrosive chakra. Not to mention the sealing technique itself. Hiruzen knew some fūinjutsu, but it was not his area of expertise. Other than Kushina, the only fūinjutsu experts Konoha had were Jiraiya and Minato. Unfortunately, his student was nowhere in the village while the Yondaime was supposed to keep the Kyūbi sealed during Kushina's labor. It was unknown whether he was alive or dead after the Kyūbi escaped. Hiruzen felt so desperate, so much it reminded him of the time when he lost Tobirama-sensei. Please, Kami, at least let Minato be safe!

Hiruzen had just coordinated with a few medic-nin and ninken specialists to support the wolf when suddenly, the Kyūbi seemed to be distracted. It turned away from the wolf, looking back at the Hokage Rock before opening its jaws. When he saw that, Hiruzen became even tenser and panicked.

It was going to shoot a bijūdama! Konoha wouldn't stand a chance!

The wolf was trying to stop it, but the Kyūbi slapped it away using its enormous tails without breaking the bijūdama. When the wolf was back on its feet again and rushed forward, attempting to stop the Kyūbi for the second time, it was already too late. The weapon of mass destruction was unleashed and Hiruzen could only order the people to retreat to avoid the backlash of its explosion and brace for the impact but then, a familiar seal formed in the air, a seal that brought relief to him and all shinobi of Konoha.

Space-time barrier. Minato was back.

~o0o~

During his brawl with the kyūbi no yōko, Madara learned a few things.

First: the fox had a crazy good healing technique. It was as if he was immune to physical attack, most likely due to his body being made of chakra. Madara hit him quite a few times, but he couldn't even leave a scratch on him because it would be healed shortly after.

Second: the fox did not seem to see him as the main target. His main purpose was not to defeat him, a fellow daiyōkai, but to destroy the village. It was true that they fought fiercely, but it was mainly because Madara was trying to prevent him from causing more damage to the village. It was because Madara was in the way that they ended up fighting, seemingly one on one, but truthfully, the fox was focused on the village, not him.

Third: chakra was nutritious! True to those lowly yōkai in Sora-ku, consuming chakra could make him stronger. Every time Madara bit the fox, he was able to eat a piece of the bijū chakra. He did not grow stronger immediately and the effect was not too obvious, but it helped heal his injury faster than usual.

Fourth: the kyūbi was actually an atomic bomb if not a nuke. His chakra ball was so powerful the explosion was visible and audible even after it was sent far away using some kind of teleportation technique.

Fifth: the kyūbi seemed to paint the Fourth Hokage—the one who sent away his chakra bomb—as a target. He ignored Madara once the man came into the picture. Madara probably could ascertain this hypothesis if the Yondaime stayed for a little bit longer. Unfortunately, he left to take care of another enemy soon after he teleported the bomb.

Sixth: his attack had no effect on the control of the sharingan. He kept attacking the fox not because he wanted to kill him, but simply to return him back to his senses. However, it was obvious that his physical attack was useless against the sharingan.

He had considered summoning lightning, a more powerful attack to strike down the kyūbi, but on second thought, he dismissed it as the damage to the village and its surroundings would be too heavy given how massive and powerful the lightning he had to summon to beat such a huge and powerful kyūbi, deciding to only use it as a last resort. Since neither his fists nor his lightning were feasible, the only option left was his spiritual attack. But before that, he should drive the fox out of the village because the bijū had destroyed the Uchiha Compound. He did not want Kakashi's house—his house!—to be subjected to the same fate.

Madara lunged forward, head-butted the kyūbi with no care of hurting it, grabbing it tightly with his claws, kicking when necessary, and pushing it out of the village with all his might. They brawled again, each trying to trample the other, but Madara was not a newbie in this. Hey, he was a wolf yōkai! A hunter and predator with great instinct and adaptability. This kyūbi might be bigger than him, but Madara was not a daiyōkai for nothing. Dragging a prey two times bigger than his size was doable to him, especially a mindless prey like this controlled fox.

It was not easy, nor was it without pain as he had to stay close to his opponent, leaving him with minimal room to avoid getting hit, but he managed to keep the kyūbi busy fighting him as he steered their direction outside the village. Once they made it outside, he held the kyūbi down and glared harshly at the sharingan.

Wicked eyes. Let's get rid of it.

Madara used his spiritual rays in the hope of purifying the mind of the fox, blinding the surroundings with white-bluish light as a result. A moment later, he checked the fox's eyes.

The sharingan was still there.

Aaaghh! These damned eyes! Why could it withstand his spiritual light?!

Madara felt irritated. To think a human's eyes possess such power. How was he going to get the kyūbi back to his senses? Should he find the blasted, damned Uchiha who did this to him? But how was he going to do it when he still had to restrain the kyūbi—oh?

He was so focused on his spiritual light's uselessness that he failed to notice that his light, in fact, did not fail completely. Sure, the sharingan was still there. Sure, the kyūbi was still under control, but he was not moving much. His spiritual light could not get rid of the sharingan control, but it could freeze the kyūbi. The fox was still growling menacingly, trying to break free, but Madara knew his power had weakened him.

That was great. He stopped this mindless fox's rampage. Normally, yōkai would either die, be injured, or run in fear when they were in contact with his spiritual light, but this kyūbi was only restrained. As expected of a daiyōkai. Not bad, Kyūbi. You may be stupid, but at least your power is real.

Madara was pleased with his opponent's prowess; the fox was not an embarrassment to the rank of daiyōkai, but now that he had a prey restrained below him, his natural instinct as a predator kicked in. Bijū or not, daiyōkai or not, how could Madara refrain himself when a prey with lots of nutritious chakra was ready to be devoured before him?

He couldn't. Obviously.

So, Madara bit the fox. Hard. He tore the chakra construct with his teeth again and again, savoring every bit of this new delicacy he just discovered in this world. He did not even need to be worried he would kill his prey. He had learned from Sora-ku yōkai that these creatures called bijū could not die because they were made of chakra. Given enough time, they would regain all the chakra they lost. How great!

After some time, Madara realized the fox was no longer under sharingan control. It allowed him to regain a bit of power and fight Madara to free himself, but alas, after quite a few bites of the bijū's nutritious flesh, Madara's power had been replenished. With one more time unleashing his spiritual light, the fox was once again rendered immobile.

Ha! Take that! This is the true power of the great Madara-sama! Now, just stay still and let him take a few more bites. Hmm… so refreshing!

Once his hunger had been satiated, the kyūbi's size had diminished greatly; it became almost as big as Madara himself. Losing mobility and almost one-third of his chakra, he could not do anything when Madara held it down, only growling and glaring murderously—with a mix of fear if Madara might add—at the wolf above him.

"Sorry about that, but your chakra was just too tempting to ignore," Madara said, ignoring the hatred in his opponent's eyes. "And you're just stupid, you know. Being controlled by Uchiha again, haven't you learned your lesson? Sheesh, no wonder those humans sealed you." He licked one of his paws. Thinking about what happened today, Madara could understand a little why humans sealed this kyūbi, at least initially. How could they let such a stupid monstrous beast run around without supervision? If he kept falling into sharingan control, humanity would perish sooner or later.

"What do you know?!" The Kyūbi retorted angrily. "You have no idea how those humans treated me in their seal!"

"How? Enlighten me." That was quite an interesting topic, actually. Madara would love to hear it. Was it like how the seal worked in his world? Or was it different? If so, how different?

Madara had imagined all kinds of things that could happen to a sealed yōkai, but none of them was quite similar to what he heard from the bijū.

Chained and staked to a rock? And it was not just one or two legs, but all four plus all nine tails, added with one more stake through his abdomen?

Well shit. Talk about overkill. That was too horrible and unjust for a bijū whose only crime was being stupid enough to let an Uchiha control him against his own will.

"You have suffered," Madara said, feeling sympathetic. "You do not deserve to be treated like that."

"If you understand, then let me go," Kyūbi said.

"Can't do. If I let you go, I'm afraid you'll go berserk for revenge."

"So what?! They deserve it!"

"Your jailor deserves it, not the whole village," the wolf corrected. "Besides, you're stupid. It's better for you to be sealed. At least for now."

"Why you—!"

"It's for your own good," Madara interrupted. "You know you are a liability as long as you are powerless against the sharingan, don't you? Both to yourself and everyone around you. At least try to run away or stop staring at it if you really can't handle it, or make friends with those who can handle it for you," he admonished. "Those humans will protect you from the wicked eyes until you can handle them yourself. The only problem is your seal. They should provide a better one for you, without all the torture and forced labor—hmm?"

Suddenly, he sensed someone new in the area. The blond Hokage had returned, looking gobsmacked from a tree branch where he stood on. Clearly, he never expected to see such a sight upon returning. Madara could not blame him. Of course he would be shocked to see how great and mighty this daiyōkai was for being able to subdue the kyūbi no yōko. However, it seemed he was not the only one who noticed the man's arrival. The fox below him sensed it as well. He started struggling to free himself, snarling viciously at the young kage, but Madara firmly kept him under his strong paws as he turned to face the Yondaime.

"Oi, blondie," he called in his deep, beastly voice, "get your ass down here. You've got a business with us."

Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!