Chapter 2: Kurama?

Notations:

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

Naruto ran from the street, meandering between people with the grace of a seasoned dancer or flowing water. He ran like it was no one's business, reaching his favorite spot, the head of the Fourth, in record time. Anyone who saw him had flashbacks of another blonde running as if being possessed. " I need to confirm whether the guess is true or not", he thought grimly. He was afraid of what he would find; after he sat down on the famed Hokage's head in a meditative position and reached within or rather spoke within.

"Kyuubi, if you are inside me, I want to meet you, please"; for a full five minutes there was no reply and Naruto was beginning to relax when something or someone pulled on his mind. Naruto opened his eyes to find himself in a dark corridor. He narrowed his eyes. "Is this my mindscape?", he thought in disgust as he walked forward. He kept walking for a few minutes and stopped seeing some light at the end of the corridor. It seemed to pull him towards it. "Time to find out what is at the end", with that thought, he walked again, stopping only until the end. It was a huge room, so vast it was that the ceiling was impossible to find. He looked around, his eyes seeing black stone and nothing more. But the elephant in the room was a large iron-barred door, with a paper on it that said "seal". He gazed at the piece of paper, resignation written in his eyes. His azure eyes looked past the cage, looking for what he knew was in the cage. He was just waiting for the Kyuubi to open his eyes. Based on what he had read, Kyuubi was a being of pure hatred and evil. A mindless beast that is capable of mass destruction on a scale unheard of. But, Naruto was skeptical when he read that. He might get to see it for himself now. A growl sounded from the cage, sending a breath of hot air onto Naruto's face.

Naruto steeled himself, despite the cage separating him from the beast within. An enormous red eye opened, causing Naruto to tense up. The eye looked at him as if evaluating him. The eye then started to rise, causing Naruto to look up at the massive form. The Kyuubi had orange, silky-looking fur, with black markings around his eyes, connected to his rabbit-like ears. The upper body was humanoid, including the hands. The lower body was just like a fox, barring the nine, long swaying tails in the back. The fire was the closest thing they looked like. The red, slitted eyes looked him closely with a hint of malice. Naruto spoke first; "thank you for answering my call, Kyuubi", he said with a nod. If Kyuubi was surprised, he didn't show it. Inside, however, he was heavily shocked. This was not the first thing he expected his jailor to say. He expected him to look at him with fear, asking whether he was the Kyuubi, following with the denial of the possibility. He did expect him to thank him at all. The Kyuubi replied, "Think nothing of it. I'm surprised though, that you were able to figure it out so quickly. Why aren't you surprised?", he asked with curiosity.

Naruto sat down in front of the cage, which surprised the great bijuu further. Naruto was showing that he was willing to relax in front of him. "Well, I was, for a few moments at least. But it wasn't that difficult to figure out. It is easy to create a plausible theory once you have all the relevant facts", he said, never breaking eye contact with the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi raised a massive eyebrow, silently impressed with his host. His thought processes were very intelligent for someone who was only five years old. He was bold as well, bold enough to maintain eye contact with him. He also could not sense any fear from the boy. "Why aren't you afraid of me?", he asked him. Without a moment of hesitance, Naruto answered, "Because you are misunderstood." This time surprise was visible on Kyuubi's face, which was quickly followed by anger. "What did you just say!!? Chose your next words very wisely!!", he growled. Naruto wasted no time in answering, "In all the books I have read, they described you as a being of pure hatred. But that is only a one-sided understanding, isn't it?", Naruto asked with a sad smile. Before Kyuubi could reply, Naruto continued, "Humans fear what they can't understand. The foremost aspect of your personality that they have seen is hatred, which, while a big part of you, also conceals the being underneath that can feel emotions just like us. Isn't that right Kyuubi?" The Kyuubi was astounded at the amount of understanding his host showed towards him. Perhaps he could….

"What do you want?"

Naruto looked at him with his azure blues, reminding Kyuubi of another set of blues that looked at him fearlessly before sealing him. "If you wouldn't mind", a hesitant smile appeared on Naruto's face, "Would you be my friend?" Kyuubi was truly stupefied at the request. For the first time, in centuries of his existence, someone had asked if they could be his friend. Naruto saw that the Kyuubi was surprised and for the Kyuubi, if Naruto's request was not surprising enough, he was blown away by what Naruto did next. Naruto got up from his spot and walked, into the cage, and offered a hand for him to shake. " My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and it is nice to meet you."

Kyuubi had abandoned all signs of remaining composure and was openly gaping at Naruto. But he composed himself quickly and gave a sincere smile to Naruto. Seeing Naruto was too small to even shake his finger, he extended his index nail to him. " My name is Kurama. Nice to meet you too, Naruto." Naruto smiled, "You have a very nice name, Kurama." In response, Kurama smiled, "thank you. It means a lot coming from someone whose name means fishcake", Kurama smirked at the end, intentionally making the jab at Naruto's name to see if he could rile the boy up. His success was only minuscule though. Naruto only had a tiny frown on his face, instead of the full-blown childish rage Kurama was expecting, "Actually, I prefer the other meaning of my name. 'Maelstrom' is much better than being compared to a fishcake, Kurama." Kurama chuckled, a smooth, deep baritone that lit up a warm feeling inside Naruto. Naruto decided he liked Kurama's voice. "No one would think of a maelstrom when they look at you, Naruto. Perhaps when you are older, but certainly not now", Kurama teased him. Naruto shrugged, and then his eyes turned serious, Making Kurama do the same. Naruto asked the bijuu, "Kurama, you know I have some questions, right?" Kurama nodded, "I assumed as such. However, I had expected us to meet when you were significantly older. I have to say; I was not expecting your call to me."

Naruto shook his head, "Well, if it makes you feel better, I was not expecting you to pull me inside my mind", he said, absently noting that he was not wet at all, despite standing and sitting in the water. Kurama returned to his earlier position, lying down, face on his paws/hands, " I will do my best to answer whatever questions you have, Naruto", he assured him.