Chapter 4

For the next few days, Minato started arranging the duels for Kurama. The chosen few to fight Kurama was Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza, Fugaku, and Hiashi. Shikaku represented strategy, Inoichi represented mind resistance, Choza was strength, Fugaku was chakra capacity along with elemental jutsus, and Hiashi was taijutsu. There was 2 matches per day except for the last day which was a one-on-one. Each person was a genius in their own clans, being ahead of their clan members in every way until the next generation.

While arranging the matches, Minato was also finishing up the last of the paperwork with his kage bunshins and prepared a meeting for the clans and councilors of Konoha. His anger and stress levels were at their highest, gaining a doubled amount from the kage bunshins, making him irritated to the max with everyone he set his eyes upon. He left his office with booming steps, killing intent spreading out in tendrils. With a foot out the door, Kurama accompanied him back to his home. A grin on his face as Kurama dragged Minato to eat ramen, shop around the market and buy sealing scrolls to makes seals and experiment with making some. He bought a mattress and some pillows and had them put in a storage seal to take to Minato's house.

Late into the night, Minato and Kurama finally arrived home. Minato releases a deep sigh as he steps into his house through the back door. His entire energy drained away by Kurama, but he never got to rest as he was dragged by Kurama to empty out one of the rooms for Kurama. It was the room next to Minato's room.

One by one, the boxes neatly stacked in the room were taken out and stuffed into another room. In one of the open boxes, Kurama found plaque for the rookie of the year from year XXX. There was an album of a genin Minato up to a jounin Minato with his genin team. There was also weird things like dog ears and cat ears accompanied by the tails. He made Minato wear the ears and they laughed together.

After an hour or two, they finally cleared out the room with a few boxes left over because Kurama was interested in the objects inside. The bed was pushed against the wall with the window, leaving open area for accessories. Beside the bed was a small wardrobe to hold a lamp and two drawers. In the center of the room was a round, soft yellow colored carpet directly in the path of the sun, even though its night time. It was for Kurama to lay on in fox form.

They haven't bought any bed sheets yet, so Kurama insisted on sleeping on the futon in Minato's room.

"You have a bed! I dont know why you're sleeping in my room!" Minato objects.

"It was comfortable in your room~" Kurama explains.

"But you have your own room now, can you just place the futon in there?" Minato asks in desperation. I tripped when you slept in my room last time, I'm not about to let it happen again! Minato's inner thoughts explaining why he objects to Kurama sleeping in his room.

"But it so much work~"Kurama complains. He turned into his fox form and compromises with Minato, "if you let me sleep in your room you can cuddle with my in this form." His forearms reached open with a proud face.

Minato contemplates on accepting or rejecting the offer. He turns his face to look at Kurama. The fur seems to shine in Minato's eyes. Tempted.

"Fine!" Minato says, blushing, "you can sleep with me but ONLY for tonight."

And at night, they slept, with Minati cuddled up to Kurama's fur. Kurama had adjusted his size to a horse, so Minato was squished in a warm blanket-like fur. It was as if he hid himself from the world and forgot about his responsibilities.

--Next day--

Kurama woke up early, 8'o clock in the morning. He stretched himself, making pops in his bones and unravels Minato from the cage of his tails. The sun gleams onto Minato's eyes, making him flinch away. Minato tries to burrow into Kurama, trying to avoid the light rays.

He fails. Kurama moving about, tickling Minato's nose with the tips of his tail. Minato crinkles his nose, waking up from his half-asleep form into a blank spacey face. Staring at Kurama's naked half-human form, it takes a while before Minato comes back to reality.

"WAAH! WHAT THE F***!?" he cusses.

A blush bright on his face. He covers his face and turns away. Kurama, unfortunately or fortunately, decides to tease Minato.

"What? You don't like my perfect body?" Kurama conceitedly compliments himself,"take a look, this is perfection."

--In Iwa, a young man sneezes, blowing up a bomb in his face. --In Suna, a young man sneezes, dropping a prototype poison.--

"Go put some clothes on!" Minato yells and tosses Kurama out of his room.

"Pfft, hahahahahaha," Kurama laughs in the hall as he gets up to get ready.

They leave at 9:30 a.m. after eating breakfast and head to the arena. There, Fugaku, Inoichi, Shikaku, Choza, and Hiashi were waiting. Danzo, Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu waited in the stands to observe Kurama. Minato began to explain the rules and concepts of what would go on in the trial.

"First, Kurama would be going against Fugaku to test elemental and jutsu aptitude," Minato began, "Next, he will go against Hiashi to test taijutsu. Shikaku for strategy, Inoichi for torture/mind resistance, and Choza for strength capacity," Minato explained the order of which they would fight in and what Kurama would be tested for.

Initially, it was irrelevant for so many people to fight Kurama, but the council (excluding Hiruzen) were adamant about making sure he was prepared for his job. It didn't make sense for Minato, but he chose these people because they were less likely to fight dirty (taking bribes to give false evaluation). The other relevant rules were no life-threatening techniques, if a person yields then the attack will be called off and if the attack hits it is foul-play on the attacker. Some miscellaneous information about the Medic-nin being on standby and if someone is caught cheating, they would be punished. The referee was a chuunin.

And so, the trial for Kurama to be tested to become the second-in-command began. Kurama and Fugaku were the only ones in the arena as the other fighters left to the stands. They faced each other and took their positions as ready. The chuunin signaled them to begin and left the field immediately. Minato sat in the box with the councilors to observe them and the fighters. He watched with intensity as Kurama and Fugaku began to fight.

Fugaku quickly retreated to cast a Great Fireball Jutsu. Kurama dodged it by jumping largely to the side while still heading towards Fugaku. He started casting Kaze no Yaiba while running, this shcoked everyone in the arena watching. Usually, a person would stand still to cast a technique. Kurama did not do that, surprising Fugaku. He didn't block instead he tried to avoid, but it still cut him from his left pectoral to his shoulder. He barely dodged it in time.

"Katon: Hosenka no jutsu!" Fugaku retaliated, hoping to hold off Kurama for a while to cast Karyuu Endan. He ran in a circle around Kurama and prepare to cast the jutsu, but he was unprepared when Kurama used the teleportation jutsu to get close to him. Thrown to the ground, Kurama quickly placed the blade of the wakizashi near Fugaku's neck.

"I...forfeit," Fugaku reluctantly admitted. He faced Kurama and saw a mocking grin on his face. Fugaku became pissed at looking at the false smiling face. He stomped away to prevent himself from punching Kurama in the face.

The chuunin entered the arena to announce the winner and for the next fight to happen. Hiashi entered the arena, looking prideful and arrogant as he passed by Fugaku.

"Hmph, well done," Hiashi initiates,"For an Uchiha."

"Hn," Fugaku replies, "Wish you well in getting your a** beaten by him."

"No one can defeat the Hyuuga taijutsu," Hiashi pridefully argues.

"Minato beat you square and fair in the fight for the Hokage seat," Fugaku points out, embarrassing Hiashi.

"Shut up! Damn Uchiha!" unable to comeback Hiashi could only come up with shouting at him.

He entered the arena, glaring at Kurama with an arrogant smirk. He didn't expect Kurama to give him a mock-grin in return (think of Sai's smile). They took their taijutsu forms. Hiashi's was the standard starting form of the Gentle fist. Kurama's form was a humanoid version of his fox version. He was crouched down on near the ground, his nails becoming thick, pearly claws and his legs spread apart ready to pounce. One of his arms was placed further away from his body than the other. It was intimidating to feel the killing intent from his form.

Hiashi initiated the fight, unable to handle the pressure he rushed in. He first attempts to strike the tenketsu points in Kurama's shoulders and arms to disable the initial defense. Like a fox, he smirks, he runs in before Hiashi can get a stable position from his run. Running on all fours he got to Hiashi faster and with a clawed hand he strikes at Hiashi's greatest weapon, the byakugan. Hiashi's eyes widen as he is almost blinded by the sharp claws of a demon, barely able to dodge by bending backwards with one leg up. Using the momentum, he twists his body to knee Kurama's back. That move was not one of the Gentle fist forms, something Hiashi used for his advantage. Landing a blow on Kurama, pushing him forwards, Kurama lays his arms in front of him to go into a roll and quickly get back up.

Kurama realizes, Damn I should've been able to block that attack. He crouches down, his smirk gone, his playful, mocking aura disappears. The intimidating aura from the beginning feeling like a domesticated dog, this aura was stronger, darker, like a larger demonic being. Hiashi immediately rose his guard up more. His stature tense and ready for any attack, and before he realized it he was thrown back towards the wall of the arena.

His head bleeding and four broken ribs, he barely managed to get up and out of the hole in the wall. Kurama fastly approached towards Hiashi, ready to crush Hiashi into the ground. His hands nearly reaching Hiashi's face before Hiashi aimed a hit at Kurama's elbow temporarily disabling the forearm before hitting 20 other tenketsu points in Kurama's body each meant to disable the limbs and a few organs. But with Kurama's healing ability and abundant chakra, it left him paralyzed for a few seconds before he started attacking Hiashi.

Hiashi could only dodge and block the oncoming attacks, some at his head, others around his body that could cause life-threatening harm. He retreats in order to catch his breath. Kurama is still chasing him, disappointed in himself to allow a human to attack him at his back, disable his limbs. His only goal to overcome Hiashi and destroy him completely. But once Hiashi retreated, he admitted defeat. Kurama had to stop himself from hitting Hiashi afterwards, his hand a few centimeters away from striking Hiashi's eyes. Hiashi then fell to the ground, exhausted, 90% of his chakra used leaving his with only 10% left, nearly killing him.

Medics came in with a stretcher, carrying Hiashi to the medical room. Shikaku stood at the balcony observing Kurama. Killing intent drenching Kurama, his eyes poised to kill. Shikaku sighs, knowing he would probably end up worse than Hiashi. He left the opponent area towards the hokage seating area.

"I have something to request," Shikaku said.

"Is this about what type of challenge you want to give Kurama?" Danzo asks.

"Yes," Shikaku shamelessly admits, "I don't feel like dying today so I suggest we do Shogi."

Minato laughs at Shikaku's request. He expected it to come but not the way it would come out of his mouth. Hiruzen simply smiles, thinking, Well he is a Nara. Koharu's face is red with anger, ready to pop. Homura sighs in anger and desperation.

"I'm afraid, it won't work that way" Minato responds after laughing, "You see, the council wants a fight, I don't care how you do it, Hiruzen is here as an unbiased opinion, so I don't think you are gonna be able to follow through your request."

"Worth a try," Shikaku sighs and walks back to the arena.

Kurama, full of killing intent, glares at Shikaku. Shikaku flinches as he feels the enraging demonic chakra, although he doesn't know it, roll off him. As if sucking him in, gnawing his body, torturing his mentality, but he tried to be strong in order to fight Kurama. Quickly, Kurama reaches his arm out to grab Shikaku's face. Shikaku dodges the grab, leaning left, but he was slow to respond which left two scars on his face. The first scar starting from the middle of his forehead curving downwards ending below his eye. The second scar is below his eye leading down to his cheek towards the jawline. Blood dripped down his face, covering half of it.

Damn was I lucky, if I didn't dodge that I would've been blinded, Shikaku thought to himself as he ran away from Kurama to prepare for the Shadow Strangle Technique. He stood at the edge of the arena where the shadow of the wall could be seen and prepared for the technique. Very quickly, he did the hand seals dragon, tiger, and lastly rat. Capturing Kurama, whose hands was an inch away from digging out Shikaku's heart, he controlled his shadow to move Kurama's hand back his (Kurama's) side. Tangling and swirling, the hand shadow moved around his body, reaching up to his neck. Shikaku planned to knock his out by obstructing Kurama's breathing. Kurama was held there for a moment, the shadow binding tighter to hold Kurama down.

Kurama decided to feint fainting and as Shikaku loosened the jutsu, Kurama escaped and palm striked Shikaku into the wall. Kurama then returned to not being angry and calmed down. His anger taken out in that one hit against a smart and clever man.

Inoichi and Choza stood next to each other, realizing what they have been signed up for. A demon in disguise was their concluded thought about Kurama, which was accurate. Minato would have smiled at Kurama's victory, but knew it wouldn't do any good as Shikaku experienced the most violent way to be knocked out. The next match quickly started as both Inoichi and Choza did not want to prolong the inevitable.

Inoichi walked down to the arena. He walked stoically in front of Kurama. The chunin had fainted due to the amount of Kill intent protruded from Kurama.

"I am going to be clear on this Kurama-san," Inoichi starts, "I am not a combat type, I am a support type, and so I would like it if I just did a mind jutsu on you and you try to resist, is that sufficient for you?"

Kurama shrugs and with a smile he states, "Sure, we could do that, but don't complain if you find something you don't like."

"Thank you," Inoichi says and takes a few steps back from Kurama. He uses a unique hand seal for the Mind Body Switch Technique. His psyche transferred into Kurama's mind, as Kurama stood where he was and accepted the technique into his body, smiling evilly as it happens.

Inside, Inoichi sees a large black area. There were no images or fields like he saw in many other shinobi minds. He could feel a creeping chill come toward him, as he turns two large hands rush towards him. They were large, orange, clawed five-fingered hands, and they did not look like those of a human.

As he peered closer to identify the body attached to the hands, the appendages reached into the darkness and as he looked up, he saw red, slit-pupiled, eyes. They glowered at him, reaching down into his soul, as if reaching towards his real body and ripping out his heart. Inoichi quickly cancelled the technique to return to his own body. He wanted to get out before his own mind was messed up instead of him doing it to Kurama. He quickly forfeited and left the arena.

Once he was Choza, he fell to the ground. Fortunately, Choza managed to catch him before he completely fell. He was mentally exhausted, This hasn't happened since Ibiki's capture, he thought.

"Be careful Choza" Inoichi warns, "he's incredibly dangerous."

"I figured that out," Choza states like it's the obvious, but he was also trying to lighten the mood. His two best friends were out of commission, which hasn't happened since they were beginning chunins. To take things lightly and fast, Choza jumped down to the arena and proposed doing an arm wrestle. Everyone in Konoha knows that no one has been able to win against Choza in arm wrestling, Minato could sometimes when 40% of the time. This was also a way to gauge how strong a man like Kurama could be when not fighting.

"We will not use chakra in this match," Choza states.

"Okay!" Kurama cheerfully agrees.

A branch Hyuuga is brought in to make sure neither of the contestants were using chakra. A chakra sensor was also there to bring in an unbiased opinion of who was using or not using chakra, in case the branch Hyuuga gave biased report.

They both but their elbows on the iron table, ready to begin.

"Start!" the Hyuuga shouted.

All at once, they started to push the other arm down. Neither moved from the center as dents started to form in the table. But the strength of a demon greatly outweighs the strength of a human, slowly Kurama started to exert more strength into his arm. The veins bulged on both persons as one resisted and the other persisted. After 25 minutes of pushing, Choza began losing strength in his arm and Kurama pushed nearly 15% of power into his arm to put Choza down, and then he won.

By now, it was 4:50 P.M and the sun began to set. Kurama was accepted by the council to be Minato's second-in-command and secretary/assistant. Minato dismissed everyone from his office except for Kurama. The medical team worked overtime for the injured, they weren't deadly but they could lead to a long-term coma and physical disability. Being held back, Kurama stood across from Minato's desk, waiting for him.