01.01.2019

A/N at bottom of chapter.

TW: Implied sexual assault of a minor. Reader discretion is advised.

Flashback:

Kurama felt many things towards humans. He loathed them. Truly and utterly detested them. They were the reason he became the supposed 'embodiment of hatred', after all. He wouldn't exactly disagree with that title though. In fact, he wore it with pride. He was more than willing to display his pure and seemingly undying hatred to the puny beings that were the human race.

He truly thought his dislike towards them had reached full capacity. His hatred truly could not grow any further. After being sealed, into not one, not two, but three goddamn Uzumaki women, being controlled by two Uchihas by their accursed bloodline limit, and being 'split in half' by the Fourth Hokage, he could safely say he despised these hairless monkeys. They were such lowly thing compared to him; the mighty Nine-Tails. The Kyuubi.

However, his disgust towards them proved to be completely different. If he could, he would gladly speak for hours about how much they repulsed him. But, before now, he had never been so sickened by them that he could feel the bile rise to his throat—despite it being impossible in this form, he could physically taste it. It was appallingly nauseating.

It wasn't the killing intent, no. Theirs was nothing compared to what he had felt in the past, and nothing compared to his. It wasn't the fact that they were singling her out because she held him inside—that was to be expected. It was more…what they were doing. What they were trying to do.

He didn't like the girl by any means. But, even he understood that she was only a child. He knew that if any these beings were "innocent", it would be one of her age. Having been stuck with her for the last 7 years, he found that she was annoyingly bright and bubbly. Annoyingly. She was like her mother. She gave him headaches many times from her laughter and, in his opinion, sheer idiocy. He concluded, at first, that she was simply oblivious to the obvious hatred the village felt towards her, but dismissed that notion when she started to cry herself to sleep at night—which also gave him a headache at times. She seemed to just act oblivious to it; she was either an idiot, or she was very smart. However, the fact that she was spewing nonsense about becoming hokage left right and centre, made him presume it was the former rather than the latter.

Regardless he knew that, no matter what, she couldn't act oblivious to this. The more they did it, the more he felt that revulsion manifest within the pit of his stomach. He didn't exactly want to protect the girl, but even he couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand the fact that he knew what these humans were doing to his jailor and couldn't do anything about it.

He didn't want to die, either. He didn't want them to kill her and for him to go with her.

It was self-preservation, he told himself. Merely self-preservation.

The jinchuurikis that held him before this had had the same thing done to them, but, it was…different. With them it was willing. Natural. And it never happened this early. He would've never been able to tell the difference before now. He would've simply said it's something humans do.

He never understood how it could violate someone before now.

He sometimes hated his ability to feel negative emotions, because the ones these three were emitting simply made his gut churn. It was truly sickening. But, even their emotions didn't compare to what the girl was feeling. That was what really got him. It had been a long time since he was so affected by a mere human's emotions.

He couldn't take it anymore.

The seal was nowhere near 'worn' enough for the girl to use his chakra, but he attempted it anyway. Surely he could push enough through. Just enough so she could stop them; just enough for something to happen.

Kurama began exerting as much chakra as he could through the seal. It was resisting, he could feel it, but nowhere near as much as when she was a child and he had been truly attempting to break the seal. Some was getting through, no matter how little, which was enough to keep him going.

He hadn't expected her to appear before the seal.

He hadn't been ready to see the look of absolute fear in her eyes.

Because, it wasn't directed toward him.

"Where am I?" Her voice was as shaky as her body. She sounded so weak.

Kurama couldn't help the resentment he felt toward her purely for existing. She was the reason the Yondaime had put him here, in a cage in a goddamn gutter, and she looked exactly like him. She was like a small female version of him, simply sitting in front of him, and oh kami did he want to kill her simply for that fact.

But still, her eyes held no terror toward him.

He didn't respond, only kept trying to push his chakra through.

"Can you help me?"

Kurama'a heart felt something it hadn't in a long time. He hated it. The kyuubi truly hated the fact he felt sorry for the girl. He hated the fact that her asking that question alone made him want to cry and rip out the throats of those three humans.

She stared at him expectingly. He remained silent.

Her eyes fell to the water.

He wanted ask her to open the seal. She would do it. She was too young and naive to know otherwise. And, if she did, he would be free. Free to wreak havoc on this village and destroy it by his own will. He could kill her, his jinchuuriki...

Or he could give her his chakra.

He tells her to open the seal.

And she tries to.

Kurama did not expect to see the yondaime appear before them and stop her, and the yondaime did not expect to see a seven year old naruto standing before him.

Hello everyone. I'm back, and I promise I'm back for good now. A new year resolution of mine is to update my fan fictions more frequently and write more often. I don't have a laptop currently, so I'm using my phone.

The reason my updates became so infrequent was due to the usual culprit: depression. I've struggled on and off with depression from a very young age, and in 2018 from January until about June it was very severe. I struggled to get out bed or shower or go to school a lot of the time. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I've now left the toxic relationship I was in and I'm with someone who makes me immensely happy, and I've started college which is SO much better than Secondary school. My mental health has been extremely stable from about August and it's very odd and new for me to be content and productive and just happy with myself and where I am, especially for such a long period of time. I hope it lasts, and I hope anyone who's reading this who is struggling with anything at all right now knows it can and will get better.

Here's to an amazing 2019.