Chapter 12: A Glance Across the Years
"Huff... huff... huff."
White wisps of breath poured from little Naruto's mouth.
Winter nights were cold, but Naruto couldn't care less about that right now.
Someone was trying to take away his only friend!
(╬￣皿￣)
He became a fast-rolling ball of energy, sprinting down the road at full speed.
"Hey, Hashirama. Have you actually thought about how little Naruto is supposed to beat this guy?"
Right in the middle of their wild charge, Kurama raised a rather important question.
"Ah... right."
Hashirama stopped short. He lowered his head, scratched his chin, and stamped his foot.
"Uh... Kurama, how about you handle it?"
He couldn't exactly show up himself — which left only one option. You're up, Kurama!
Oh, how convenient. It's "Nine-Spicy" when things are fine and "Kurama" when something needs doing.
Taking advantage of me just because I can't beat you.
Do I look like the kind of fox that bows to your nonsense?
Hashirama stared at the Nine-Tails, who had drifted off into its own little fantasy, completely unaware of what it was thinking.
"Well? Are you going to help or not?"
Hashirama's question snapped Kurama back to reality.
Helping Naruto was never really a question. In Kurama's eyes, this child had already become family. In other words, Naruto was its kid — and no outsider was going to bully its kid.
"Fine. But you have to call me the Great Lord Kurama."
Kurama lifted its noble head and looked down at Hashirama with utter contempt, as if he were something entirely useless.
"Hah?"
A towering wooden giant rose from the ground, its glittering golden eyes fixing on the proudly raised Kurama.
That day, Kurama remembered what it felt like to be dominated by a wooden giant.
But the expected fist never came. Instead, the wooden giant opened its enormous mouth.
"O Great Lord Kurama, please grace us with your magnificent power."
After all this time together, Hashirama had come to understand that Kurama's nature wasn't bad at all — they had slowly become something like friends. So what did it matter for the man who had once bowed his head before all Five Kage to give Kurama one grand title?
Satisfying — and yet not entirely satisfying.
Kurama had the nagging feeling that "Great Lord Kurama" had come far too easily. Where was the sense of achievement?
Well, it would have to do. Little Naruto had already arrived.
"Hey! Let Hinata go right now!"
Naruto spotted the man in Kumo ninja gear with little Hinata held against his chest.
"Mmph! Mmm!"
The moment Hinata saw Naruto, she struggled even harder.
"A little brat. You know this girl?"
The Kumo ninja hadn't expected a child to find him. Truly unbelievable.
But if this kid knew the Hyuga heiress, then he couldn't be allowed to leave tonight alive.
"Little blondie, you've got no one to blame but yourself. You had a clear path and walked straight into danger anyway."
A kunai flew directly at Naruto's forehead.
But the Kumo ninja didn't put much force behind it — in his eyes, a child barely bigger than a dumpling posed almost no real threat. He also needed to keep things quiet and avoid drawing Konoha's attention.
"Give my friend back!"
Naruto swatted the flying kunai aside with his bare hand — but the blade sliced deep into his palm, cutting all the way to the bone.
That really hurt.
But right now, saving Hinata came first. How? What could he do?
Little Naruto's still-developing brain ran through every possibility and came up empty.
"Hey, kid. Use my power."
Kurama couldn't stand looking at Naruto's wound any longer.
Crimson Nine-Tails chakra flowed through the channel set within the Eight Trigrams Seal, guided carefully by Hashirama, and spread across Naruto's bloodied hand.
"There's no helping it. Until the seal is released, I can't truly merge with Naruto."
Kurama watched as its red chakra wrapped around Naruto and gently pulled some of it back. The wound on Naruto's hand began to close rapidly, though the whisker marks on his cheeks darkened and the faint outline of a Tailed Beast cloak shimmered into being around him.
"Kid, finish this fast. Or you'll black out."
Even though Kurama could temporarily take over Naruto's body if he lost consciousness, it had no desire to put Naruto through any more mental strain than necessary.
"Alright, let's go!"
Little Naruto leapt from the ground and launched himself straight at the Kumo ninja in the trees.
"N-Nine-Tails?"
The way the Kumo ninja looked at Naruto changed in an instant.
This couldn't be real. He'd run into a random kid on the road, and now he was being told that kid was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?
Still, the boy was tiny. He should still be able to handle him, right?
All of that thinking happened in less than a second — because the next second, the claws formed from Naruto's Nine-Tails chakra slammed directly into his body.
How is he that fast?!
The blow tore through the Kumo ninja and the force surged into him like a wave. The pain made his grip falter instinctively, and Hinata slipped from his arms.
Naruto's mind was growing hazy, but he caught Hinata without hesitation.
Straining against his own fading awareness, he set her down gently and managed a few words.
"Run."
The crimson glow in Naruto's eyes faded to a clear, vivid blue the moment they found Hinata's face — brilliant in the moonlight, like something out of a dream.
"Hinata!"
The moment Hiashi had sensed the Nine-Tails chakra leaking out, he had broken into an all-out sprint toward it.
He had no choice. This was no longer just a family matter. If the Nine-Tails went into a rampage, all of Konoha would be dragged down with it. The Third might be able to reseal it at the cost of his own life — but Hiashi could not carry that kind of responsibility on his conscience.
Running faster than he ever had, Hiashi soon spotted his daughter being held by Naruto.
"Father!"
Hinata startled, glanced at Naruto beside her, and did not move away.
Hiashi dispatched the barely-breathing Kumo ninja on the branch above with a single strike, then turned his full attention to Naruto — this little troublemaker.
He barely even checked Hinata for injuries first.
Truly. It was almost enough to make you cry.
Through the Byakugan, Hiashi could see the crimson Nine-Tails chakra flowing steadily from the seal on Naruto's stomach into the rest of his body. But the moment Naruto went limp and lost consciousness, the flow slowed and faded.
Hiashi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. That was close.
The Fourth's seal was still holding firm.
He didn't dare touch Naruto's pressure points — a child's points hadn't fully formed yet, and one wrong move could accidentally release the Nine-Tails. That would truly be the end of everything.
What was actually happening, of course, was that Kurama had pulled its own chakra back inward, and Hashirama quietly closed the small corner of the seal back up.
"Little Naruto did wonderfully. That's my student," Hashirama said, wiping his tears, eyes shining with pride as he looked at the child he had watched grow.
Hmph. This was entirely my doing, Kurama thought. Without me, with Naruto's constitution alone...
Actually — Kurama paused. Naruto's constitution had been changing. All that physical training with Hashirama was gradually making Naruto's body resemble his more and more.
There was a term for it, wasn't there. Sage Body.
It was starting to remind Kurama, just a little, of Asura from long ago.
Kurama smiled — rare, quiet — then settled back down.
Naruto had pushed himself hard tonight. The horse race could wait until tomorrow.
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End of this chapter...