Chapter 7 Freedom

Naruto and Kurama walked alone through the forest. Kurama was still in his chibi form and laid on top of Naruto’s head. Naruto eventually made his way to a small little creek, and sat down on the bank with his feet in the water.

He picked up Kurama and set him on the ground next to him.

“Are you ready to talk Kurama?”

The demon fox nodded his head and sat down on his haunches.

Naruto muttered to himself.

“Good…”

Naruto then brought a finger to his forehead and regained his initial form.

His red hair shortened back to its original, shorter length, and changed from red back to white.

He grew a few inches, and lost most of his muscle mass as he visibly aged.

While he had appeared as a fit and healthy man in his late 30s before, he now looked like more like a tired old man.

Kurama watched the transformation happen before him, and was concerned by the lack of energy fluctuations that should have accompanied such a momentous change.

Naruto looked Kurama in the eye and asked.

“As long as it doesn’t involve my past, I will answer anything and everything you want to know with complete honesty, so what do you want to know?”

Kurama spoke without moving his mouth, his deep voice resounding within Naruto’s head.

“How do you know this one’s name?”

Naruto thought for a second.

“Your father told me.”

Kurama froze.

“You’ve met Hagoromo, where is he?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know where he is, but he did ask me to look after you and your siblings.”

“How can I believe you?”

Naruto shook his head.

“I don’t know. I’d have trouble trusting me too.”

The demon fox sat quietly for a couple seconds before asking another question.

“Did you mean what you said about the Bijuu to that cursed couple?”

“Every single word.”

“You wish to actually remove the harness of the shinobi from the Bijuu.”

“Yes.”

Kurama laughed in his face.

“Foolish Human! Are you not scared we will destroy the world?”

“Nope.”

Kurama wasn’t expecting such a straight answer.

“I am a being of Pure Malice, Rage, and …”

Naruto burst out laughing in Kurama’s face. Naruto actually started rolling around on the forest floor, laughing so hard he was grasping his stomach.

Kurama was none too happy.

“Oi, oi, OI, OI, STOP LAUGHING! WHAT’S SO FUNNY?!

I AM THE NINE TAILED FOX, THE GREATEST OF THE BIJUU!

YOU DARE TO LAUGH AT ME?!”

Sadly for the fox, every line only made Naruto laugh harder. Tears were rolling down his face, and Naruto was having trouble composing himself. He reached up with a hand to wipe the tears from his face.

“Sorry, Kurama, its just… heh… it just reminded me of a good friend and the times we had.”

Kurama growled at the man.

“Do you think you can control the Bijuu, prevent us from doing what we want?

If I feel like destroying something I do it. If I’m hungry I eat.

I only act according to my whims, I live as the incarnation of wrath and malice.”

Naruto had largely sobered up. He thought to himself for a few seconds before replying.

“I can’t deny that you’ve been colored by rage and malice. But that’s not you.”

Kurama replied in anger.

“What do you think you know about the Bijuu?

You could not even begin to comprehend the existence of a Bijuu.

A Bijuu is pure emotion and chakra, we experience life a different way than you.

You think you can determine who I really am? Pathetic, and foolish mortal!”

Naruto had a simple sad smile.

“Do you really think of yourself as pure malice?”

Kurama bared his teeth.

“Of course.”

Naruto chuckled to himself quietly.

“Okay then. I’ve changed my mind.

I’m going to seal all the Bijuu then.”

Kurama exploded. The form which he had been constrained to couldn’t withstand his full power and rage.

“HUMANS ALWAYS GOING BACK ON THEIR WORD!

YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH THE BIJUU.

EITHER YOU DIE OR I DO!”

Kurama started charging his Bijuudama. Naruto hadn’t moved from his initial position. He simply sat there and watched, before speaking softly.

“That’s the real Kurama right there.

Here you are, claiming to be pure malice.

But who are you deep down?

Someone incensed at dishonesty, and someone who would die for his siblings.”

Naruto sat there as Kurama slammed the Bijuudama down on his head.

“DIE HUMAN!”

When the dust cleared, Naruto was in the same spot, unhurt, uninjured, and calm as can be.

Naruto spoke up again.

“You are a kind soul Kurama.

The Bijuu are being of emotion, and absorb their emotions of humans naturally.

You took the entirety of negative emotion onto yourself to save the other Bijuu from the same fate.

Your canvas has been stained with the ugliest shades of humanity.

I can tell you honestly, I do not like it, and will not abide it.”

Naruto clasped his hands in prayer, and a golden light shone over Kurama.

A black smoke emanated from the fox as it burned, but Kurama felt no pain.

“What are you doing, human?”

Naruto smiled.

‘I told you that I don’t like what humans put on your canvas. So I’m clearing the slate.”

Kurama sat there for a few more seconds, before eventually shrinking down to a normal sized fox. Kurama inspected himself, looking himself over from head to tails.

“What happened to the voices? The urges? The obligations?”

Kurama looked at Naruto with crystal clear eyes. Naruto replied.

“You chose to take the negative emotion of Humanity onto yourself.

Your compulsions were not you, but the product of those emotions.

I have removed those emotions, so you are no longer bound by them.

Kurama looked into the sky and saw the black smoke that had been removed from his body. Kurama recognized that smoke as the negative emotions it had been tormented by. Those emotions could not be destroyed, and if they escaped, they would only seep into the other Bijuu.

Kurama couldn’t let that happen.

“You fool! You’ve damned the other Bijuu! How could you!

You said you would free them! Not torture them!”

Kurama opened his mouth and sucked in, pulling on the negative emotions which had just been expunged from his body. Kurama would take them back in. It was better that he suffer alone than for all Bijuu to suffer.

Naruto simply laughed.

“A very noble and beautiful sacrifice, but sadly you’re too late.”

Naruto waved his hand, and the black smoke that had been expunged from Kurama formed into a solid sphere in his hand.

The sphere glittered in the light, shifting between ebony and violet, pulsating with a disgusting malevolence.

Kurama saw the mass of emotion in Naruto’s hand.

“Give it to me!”

Naruto smiled again.

“Like I said, too late.”

and he popped the sphere into his mouth and swallowed.

Kurama could not believe his eyes. The man in front of him simply ate the collective ugliness of humans like it was a snack. Kurama ventured a tentative question.

“Are you okay?”

Naruto suddenly had a glassy look in his eyes. He stood up without a word and stretched his hands towards Kurama, acting like he was about to throttle the chibi fox.

“MUST ENSLAVE BIJUU!”

Kurama was startled; the human had been corrupted by the negative emotions of humanity, and had now become a power hungry demon.

The Fox quickly jumped back. Naruto, on the other hand, stumbled forward with jerky motions. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his fingers twitched at the end of his outstretched limbs.

“MUST SEAL BIJUU!”

Kurama started charging another Bijuudama; the last one hadn’t worked, and with the removal of his negative emotions, his chakra manipulation had once again reached the pinnacle. The demon fox called the strongest among the Bijuu had returned to his ultimate state!

Naruto saw the resulting Bijuudama, and started panicking. His eyes returned to normal and his hands were thrown up in the air with his palms open. He then yelled with a sense of panic.

“I’M KIDDING, KURAMA, IM KIDDING. OI, OI ,OI

DON’T FIRE THAT THINGS ITS DANGEROUS

IM FINE IM FINE IMFINE, STOP STOP STOP STOP.

NOT THE FACE, AIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!”

Kurama, of course, did not fall for this obvious trick. This man was corrupted through and through. And obviously, based on his pleading, the face was indeed his weak spot.

So Kurama launched the Bijuudama directly into his face.

Naruto started rolling around on the ground.

“AHH MY EYES YOU BASTARD FOX!

DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW BRIGHT THOSE THINGS ARE UP CLOSE YOU SON OF A VIXEN?

THAT FRICKING HURT! I CAN’T SEE!”

Kurama launched two more Bijuudama into the mans face to make sure he wasn’t faking it.

That being said, though the Bijuudama were obviously causing the man pain, the man was rolling around on the ground, the man seemed to have taken no significant damage.

Eventually the man recovered enough to open his eyes, and he glared hatefully at the fox in front of him.

“Didn’t you hear me you little prick?

I said I was joking, I’m not corrupted.”

True to his word, Naruto was not corrupted, and Kurama now noticed that the man exhibited no outward signs of corruption. He seemed to be in control of his emotions, and did not have the aura of malevolence that would be expected.

The fox tilted its head and looked at the old man

“How?”

Naruto simply scratched his head and said with a sheepish smile.

“I’m just really talented, I guess.”

Kurama slowly walked over and replied.

“Hubris is a negative emotion, you have indeed been corrupted.

Kurama then promptly bit down on the man’s hand.

“AIIIEEE YOU FRICKING FOX!

THAT HURTS, WHY ARE YOU BITING ME!?

LET GO GOSHDARNIT!”

Naruto proceeded to jump around and shake his hand, but try as he might, he could not seem to shake the fox from the deathgrip it had on his hand.

Naruto started pleading with the fox.

“Please let go, I’m fine, I promise, I’ll feed you? I’ll comb you?

How about the Great Freedom Sutra? You want the Bijuu to be free right?”

That caught Kurama’s attention. He immediately let go of the man’s hand and replied to him.

“Great Freedom Sutra?”

Naruto saw the lifeline, and grabbed at it with all his strength.

“Yep, its a super powerful jutsu just for Bijuu that will nullify every single seal!

Once you learn this jutsu you can never be forcibly sealed inside a ninja ever again.

You can even teach it to your siblings, it works for all Bijuu.”

Kurama was interested, and waited for the human to continue.

“How about this Kurama? All I need to do is touch your forehead, and I can transfer the knowledge to you. That’s all it takes. Will that convince you that I’m not corrupted?

Kurama replied.

“Maybe, jutsu first.”

Naruto sighed and reached out to impart the jutsu. True to his word, the jutsu was transferred to Kurama without issue via a single touch.

Kurama sat there and pondered the jutsu. It was exceedingly simple, but seemed to contain multiple truths within it.

Kurama sat there and repeated the sutra back to Naruto.

“Free is the mind without fear. Free is the body without desire. Free is the soul without hate. Have faith and know love and neither the Chains of Earth nor the Locks of Heaven will bind you.”

Naruto nodded his head with vigor.

“That’s it. All you gotta do is repeat that to yourself, and you’ll feel all you bonds slip off you.

Its just a little trick, isn’t it more shocking that you guys can be sealed in the first place?

Kurama could intuitively feel that the sutra would work. It was like it was made for Bijuu.

Kurama though for a moment before asking.

“So, we’re free? Do whatever we want?”

Naruto said.

“Yep. Completely free.

Do whatever you want. Don’t do what you don’t want.”

Kurama thought about it for a second.

“I’m actually not convinced that you’re not corrupted.

I’m gonna keep an eye on you for now.”

The chibi fox ran over, and before Naruto reacted, the fox jumped onto his head and sat there.

“You also promised to feed me and comb my fur.

Should you break your promises, you’re are definitely corrupted.”

Naruto was frozen and could barely get the words out of his mouth.

“Kurama, you’re free. Go wherever you want, do whatever you want to do.”

Kurama replied.

“I am aware, foolish human.”

The fox did not move.

Naruto whispered

“Please take good care of me this time too.”

He quickly wiped away the tears forming in his eyes.

Kurama inquired.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, just got some dust in my eye.”

“Hmmph, foolish and clumsy... ”