Chapter Text
Kurama rubbed the side of his nuzzle absently against the cold bars. It was soothing—and wasn’t that fucking weird for him? In his previous… containers, he hadn’t been imposed in a giant cage. There hadn’t been a sewer either, but he blamed Konoha’s citizens for that as opposed to the kit’s parents. Point was, before he’d always been shunted in tight, white, sort-of metaphorical cages. It was less literal when it was seal work done by a proper Uzumaki. It wasn’t in how the seals were structured or placed, it just had to do with the blood donator’s views were when it came to demons and caging them—and how their thoughts moved and all that rot. The Uzumaki, and really just people from long ago, they had a certain understanding they passed down about the world. They had certain thought processes and innate habits when it came to how they perceived the world and taught each other sealing. How they pictured the seal in their heads was important to how it affected Kurama. An Uzumaki would have said “Oh, it’s all spiritual and unimaginable for us in this life.”
The demon fox thought the word Bullshit covered it all more succinctly.
Then along came Namikaze and he brought a more literal interpretation to his seal work. It was crass. Imaginative, yes, and his work certainly would have flabbergasted the old Uzumaki seal masters of old, but then they would have gotten over their surprise and then deemed Namikaze’s work to be subpar.
See, it was all because the yellow prick had viewed Kurama not as a mythical entity but as a living creature that he was there, in the soothing dark and able to think things over in peace. Being trapped in a white, tight, space all rolled up and constantly pressured—it was cruel but something that was done on purpose. It kept the demon’s focus from moving too much, kept them more like the mindless gods of chaos that the old men purported the Biju to be.
Relaxing in a smaller, wet form against cold metal and watching as Naruto trained—none of that was what the old school seal masters would view as a success. Kurama could reflect on things, here. He could shift his form out of the cartoon mammoth form he often took and could relax looking like an average, if blood-soaked, fox. It was more natural for Kurama.
However, it was also a more vulnerable form. But Kurama had been so comfortable in his dark cage that shifting to his smaller form seemed right. And when he watched the old pervert toss Naruto over a cliff, he still didn’t change his form back to the monstrous version.
He also didn’t stop Naruto from coming into the “foyer” of his mindscape where Kurama waited.
“Whuh,” Naruto blinked owlishly, twisting about erratically as he took in the dark sewers and the huge bars.
Kurama waited a minute, letting Naruto acclimate a bit more and finally catch sight of the fox on the ground. “S’up, kit?”
Naruto threw an incredulous glare at the fox before, childishly, pointing to Kurama. “You’re the fox bastard!”
“Mm. Yeah. So, you wanted some chakra?”
“I—yeah.” Naruto’s frown took on more apprehension as withdrew his arm and began to hunch over slightly. Disdain and theatrics were things the boy was used to, but genuine surprises and congeniality were just… awkward. “You gonna give it up?”
“Sure, kit. You just have to watch out when you take too much, like on the bridge in Wave. It amplifies whatever state you are in.” When Naruto just blinked, the fox began to wave a few of his wet tails around. The blood matted fur caused the appendages to scrap against one another at times. “If you’re in an angry state, a fight-or-die state, you’ll just be angrier, more brutal, if you let it affect you too much. You have to adapt yourself more to how my youkai feels in you and ease into being able to handle more and more.”
Naruto stared flatly at the fox. “Why are you being so helpful?”
“Stolckholm Syndrome.”
“What?”
“Ah, that was before the last apocalypse, wasn’t it… well, basically I’ve been watching you your whole life and so I’ve become a fan of yours. I want you to succeed, kit.”
Naruto stared and then shrugged. He was always a very go-with-the-flow sort of kid.
As soon as the next night, Kurama found Naruto standing in his mindscape again with a determined expression. After several beats of silence, the small fox tilted its head, ignoring the splash of a few drops of blood falling off him and into the sewer waters of Naruto’s mind. It was as symbolic as it was literal, but he knew Naruto wouldn’t pick up on that. “I can watch through your eyes, but I cannot read your mind.”
“I want you to make me stronger.”
“Is not the old man doing that?”
“Not… not fast enough.” Kurama blinked and Naruto heaved a deep sigh. “I was thinking. The chakra you gave me makes me feel… alive. Summoning toads is great, but it’s not my power. Neither is yours but it… um.”
“It becomes yours,” Kurama helpfully supplied. “It’s how the seal is designed. Your father had the same sort of thinking, I suppose. My power is slowly becoming yours.” He pulled his lips back in what could have been a grin and pushed his muzzle through the bars. “I will soon become no more, but you will become me and more. So I don’t mind speeding up the process.”
“Wait. What?”
“We will become one. You’ll have my memories and instincts, but they will be tempered with yours. You will have power and I will still be able to live in some way.”
“So… wait, you… we’d become one, all equally and stuff?”
“Yeah, kit. We’d be a new entity entirely.” He waited a beat, explaining the next bit more hesitantly. “You can either gain me with the power now or wait and slowly obtain more power. The timing is completely in your hands.”
Naruto stared, but Kurama was patient (and unsurprised) when the child eventually started wading through the sewer waters over to the fox. “You tricking me?”
“I was serious about being your fan, kit.” When Naruto didn’t respond, Kurama dipped his head down. “Think on it and get back to me. If you decide you want to speed up the process, just come back and tell. Even if you’re mid-battle I will make sure it goes smoothly for us both.”
“I… yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll get back to you.”