10 Chapter 10: Meeting of the Minds VI

[Really?] She whispered uncertainly. Naruto just nodded emphatically causing her to perk up even more and her tails to wag happily.

Naruto had to stifle his giggle at her cute behaviour. She really wasn't as bad as people made her out to be. But he knew from experience that people only see and believe what they want to.

They judge what they don't like or don't understand with harshness. He sobered up though as he needed answers. He finally accepted himself after all these years.

For him to move forward though, he needed to know where he came from. He needed to truly know who he was for him to be the man he wants to be.

"You told me you would tell me about my parents if I passed your test." He pointed out snapping the Kyuubi out of her reverie.

She looked down at him with a scrutinising stare before nodding her head and resting it on her paws in front of her.

[Sit down and make yourself comfortable.

I will tell you not only about your parents but about my origins. It is a story that is connected and universal.] She said.

Naruto nodded before he sat down on the water covered floor in a cross legged position.

[My story goes all the way back to the Rikudou Sennin. I can see you don't know who that is. He was revered as the 'God of Shinobi'.

He was the first and most powerful. Today, he is just a myth amongst shinobi, but I know him to be very real. There was once a colossal primordial monster that threatened the world. Its power was what shaped the continents.

It was always hungry though. Not for food, but for death and destruction. At the time, people had no way to oppose this terrible calamity. But then he came along, the Rikudou Sennin.

He fought the beast for days on end with no rest, when he finally wore the beast down enough to do something nobody thought possible.

He sealed the beast within himself, becoming the first ever jinchuuriki. The people were so thankful to be freed from their fate that they worshipped him as a god.] Naruto was listening with rapt attention as the Kyuubi regaled the tale.

The Kyuubi as well noticed that he paid full attention to her words. If this was the old him, he would have gotten bored halfway through and drifted off.

It seems fusing with his darker half, which embodied the more spiritual aspect of himself, represented by his cognitive functions and intelligence, really enhanced him.

[The Rikudou Sennin then went around the world, meeting different people and gifting them with chakra as well as passing on his teachings of peace through understanding. He called it Ninshū.

However, over the years, humans perverted his teachings by using it not for its original purpose, but rather for wars and violence.

Thus Ninshū became what you know today as Ninjutsu.] Explained the Kyuubi to an amazed Naruto about the origins of Ninjutsu.

[For all his power though, the Sage was not immortal. He knew that the day would come that he would pass on to the next world.

He knew that when this came to pass, the Juubi will be free from the confines that he kept it for so long and will once again rampage upon the world. So he came up with an idea.

Before his death, he split the chakra of the Juubi into 9 different parts, thus giving birth to the Bijuu of today.

The husk of the Juubi that was leftover was sealed up and thrown into the sky, creating what you know today as the moon. He gave the 9 Bijuu different names and tasked us with maintaining the balance of the world.

We were neither good nor evil, we were neutral. It was our task to ensure nature and the world remained in equilibrium. It was on his death bed though that the problems started.

You see the Sage had two sons. The eldest inherited his eyes and was hailed as a prodigy in the mystic arts.

The youngest son inherited the powerful body and chakra of the sage and he wasn't nearly as talented as his brother, but he believed in hard work and determination.

On his death bed, when the Sage was looking for a successor to his teachings, he asked the brothers how they would go about maintaining the peace.

The eldest believed in peace through power and intimidation. The youngest however believed in peace through friendships and bonds forming an understanding between people.

The Sage decided the philosophy of the youngest was more in line with his thinking, thus chose him as his successor. The eldest was infuriated at being overlooked for, what he thought was, his weak younger brother.

He challenged the youngest to a fight, it was unclear who won, but the events from that day forward started an ancient blood feud that I'm sure you are quite familiar with.

The youngest son was the ancestor of what is today known as the Senju clan, whilst the eldest is the ancestor of the Uchiha clan.] Finished the Kyuubi.

gritting her teeth at the thought of that accursed clan. Naruto on the other had was wide eyed at the history of the founding clans of Konoha.

"Fucking assholes. Those Uchiha were always arrogant pricks. They always went out of their way to make my life difficult when they were still around. It's no surprise their ancestor was just a big baby throwing a temper tantrum."

Stated Naruto with a scowl on his face causing the Kyuubi to smirk at him in approval.

[You and I are going to get along great boya. Anyway, after the Rikudou Sennin's death, my siblings and I hid ourselves away, whilst still doing our jobs as guardians of this world as the Sage expected from us.

Over the years, I witnessed how humans became more violent, more bloodthirsty and uncaring of their fellow man. The Sage's teachings were all but lost to the humans who were far too drunk on power to care. It disgusted me.

I secluded myself away on a mountaintop so I didn't have to see those monkeys continue to perpetuate their hatred. That's when that man came along.] She said the word 'man' with such hatred and contempt that Naruto had to do a double take.

The fury and malevolence plastered on her face at the thought of whoever this man was really brought out her bad side.

Her visage right now resembled more of how he thought she would be. He made a mental not to never piss her off.

[That accursed pink-eyed monkey, Uchiha Madara! He came to my abode and spouted some ridiculous speech about the superiority of the Uchiha clan.

I was going to turn him into a bloody smear on the ground, but I made the mistake of looking directly into his eyes.

I blacked out, I don't know for how long, but when I regained consciousness, I found myself on a battlefield opposing the other hairless monkey from the Senju clan, Senju Hashirama.

I didn't have much time to regain my bearings before the wife of that tree-hugging monkey, Uzumaki Mito, sealed me within herself, making her my first Jinchuuriki.

I later realised that, Uchiha Madara took control of he with his Sharingan and used me in battle against Senju Hashirama. I felt anger and hatred for the first time in my life.

I had never felt so humiliated before. I was used as a tool, reduced to a slave by a power-hungry megalomaniac.

It was then that Hashirama, and all his infinite wisdom, and I mean that as sarcastically as possible, decided to use his unique bloodline and captured my siblings and hand them out to the other villages as some kind of 'peace offering'.

Like we were just toys he could give away to sooth whatever tensions he caused. He was just as bad as Madara, in my opinion.] She said with a bitter tone in her voice. It was a demeaning memory.

She looked at Naruto who was a bit shocked and a little interested at a certain piece of information. She knew which it was, and decided to enlighten the boy.

[I see you are probably wondering about Uzumaki Mito.

She was indeed your fellow clansman. That's right, the Uzumaki were once a clan. They were feared and powerful. They were regarded as the cousins of the Senju.

They excelled at Fūinjutsu and Kenjutsu and were known for their monstrously high chakra reserves, abnormally fast healing factor as well as their prowess with Suiton Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu. The Uzumaki Clan were the masters of Fūinjutsu.

It is said there existed nothing that they couldn't seal away. However, the other nations felt threatened by their power and independence, so they conspired to wipe them out.

Iwagakura, Kumogakure and Kirigakure formed an alliance and proceeded to wipe out Uzushiogakure, the home of the Uzumaki.

I'm unsure why the Uzumaki were not in the history books or lessons of Konoha as they still bear the symbol of the Uzumaki of their uniforms.

The red spiral. It is unsure how many survivors there were, if any, after the attack. But Konoha brought a young girl to the village before the attack happened.

She was to be my next Jinchuuriki. Unfortunately, Mito poisoned her mind by telling her I was a being filled with hatred.

So she treated me like a rabid dog that needed to be put down. I was chained to a molten rock for the rest of her lifetime, in excruciating pain.

I thought I could convince her I wasn't some apocalyptic beast, but Mito's hatred and biased was inherited by her. Her name was Uzumaki Kushina.

From what I could see, she was quite a tomboy, with a violent temper to boot. She eventually fell in love with that flaky pretty boy, Namikaze Minato, I'm not really sure how though.

He eventually became the Yondaime Hokage. Their life was going pretty well, and she found out one day she was pregnant.

They were both extremely happy at the news. It was a few months later that they decided on a name for their baby. Minato, took inspiration from his favourite book written by his sensei Jiraiya.

He chose to name his some after the main character of that book. He decided the name of his some would be Naruto.] Naruto was in tears as he heard the origins of his name.

He now knew. His parents loved him. They were pretty famous too. He decided to listen on to the story before he go too emotional.

[The problems arose from the fact that when a female Jinchuuriki gives birth, the seal weakens.

To prevent this, it was agreed that Kushina would give birth in a secluded location, with the wife of the Sandaime Hokage acting as the midwife as she was one of the few people who knew about Kushina's status as a Jinchuuriki.

I only have a vague memory of that night but one moment I watched your mother give birth to you and the next moment I saw her strapped to a rock as I was extracted from her.

Before I could think on what happened I blacked out again. You should know, that when a Bijuu is extracted from a host, the host dies.

When I regained my consciousness, I found myself in the middle of Konoha, going on a rampage.

It took me a few seconds to figure it out, but I realised that I was once again taken control of by a damn Uchiha. At that point, years of resentment for my treatment at the hands of that village as well as the hatred for that accursed clan made me lose my patience.

I rampaged freely, destroying everything in my path, until that damn Yondaime Hokage fought me with his summons. The overgrown frog held me down long enough for him to complete his preparations.

I saw you lying on a ritualistic alter and I knew immediately what he was planning. I tried to get to him, but I was stopped by golden chains that restrained me.

I was shocked because I knew this was a special ability of your mother, who should have been dead from the extraction. But she fought on and held me down while your father completed the seals.

I tried one last attempt to kill you, to prevent myself from being sealed again, but both your mother and father jumped in front of you and I ran my claw through them.

By then it was too late and you father completed the Shiki Fūjin, a powerful branch of Fūinjutsu that summoned the Shinigami to seal away whatever the caster desires for the price of his soul.

Your father then divided my chakra, sealing the Yin half within himself, and sealing my Yang half within you. They both passed on a few seconds afterward.] Finished the Kyuubi.

She was anxious to know his reaction to the story his just heard. It would decide the kind of interactions they would have in the future.

[That's the story of how you became a Jinchuuriki. Do you hate me now?] She questioned with a neutral expression on her face.

She needed to see if he truly could be the one her father spoke of. She needed to know his strength of will and fortitude. Naruto just sat in silence. Contemplating everything he heard.

It was a lot to take in. He found out he belonged to a clan. He wasn't the first person to hold the Kyuubi. He finally learned the names of his parents.

"I want to hate you, I really do. I want to scream about the injustice of the world. But I know that it will make no difference at this point.

I know how it feels. To be pushed to the side. To be ignored and be thought of as a monster. To be disregarded as a mindless beast.

I understand you better than anyone. I know if I had a chance to make that difference in my life, I would take it. I don't blame you for wanting your freedom, which was stolen from you, back.

I do feel a little guilty for the way my mother treated you. I guess, in my mind I always had this imaginary image of my parents being perfect and infallible.

But they were human too. Capable of making mistakes and judgements influenced by others. I'm still not sure how to feel about my father.

While I'm happy he loved me, I can't help but be a little pissed at how I was sacrificed for the village. It isn't an easy pill to swallow.

While I'm sure they had their reasons, they subjected me to a life of hell. I guess there's no use thinking about it now.

I just have to make do with what I have and move on with my life. So to answer your question, no Kyu-chan, I don't hate you." Answered Naruto, with an understanding smile on his face.

The Kyuubi for her part smiled back at him, happy that she finally found a human who was worthy.

After centuries of hatred and prejudice she can hopefully fulfil the job left to her by her father. Her mind finally caught up to what he said though, causing her head to snap in his direction.