A/N: This story starts at an hypothetical end of Naruto.

Prologue

As the original form of all nine-tailed beasts, the Ten-Tails; the Juubi, is a superior existence, the Origin of everything that has ever existed in the world. As the source of all chakra, this entity can either destroy or control whenever it wishes anything if it deems be useful to its goal — that is: its Revival.

The Juubi has the insidious means through its Power, of corrupting organic minds, "reprogramming" the brain through physical and psychological conditioning using electromagnetic fields, infrasonic and ultrasonic noise, and other subliminal methods. The Juubi's resulting control over the limbic system leaves the victim highly susceptible to its suggestions. Organics undergoing through this process may complain of headaches and buzzing or ringing in their ears. As time passes, they have feelings of "being watched" and hallucinations of "ghostly" presences. Ultimately, the Juubi gains the ability to use the victim's body to amplify its signals, manifesting as "alien" voices in the mind.

In doing so, the Juubi is able to create perfect deep cover agents. The Juubi's "suggestions" can manipulate victims into betraying friends, trusting enemies, or viewing the Juubi itself with superstitious awe. When used to subvert a well-placed political or military leader, the resulting chaos can bring down nations. Long-term physical effects of the manipulation are unsustainable. Higher mental functioning decays, ultimately leaving the victim a gibbering animal. Rapid indoctrination is possible, but causes this decay in days or weeks. Slow, patient brainwashing allows the thrall to last for months... or years.

# Kurama's Redemption #

Blood.

Naruto could smell it everywhere. On him, on the burning buildings around him, leaking out of the body of the last of his childhood friends not far from him… it was even in the mud that he was lying in. Something cold and wet hit his face, causing him to stir and beginning to bring him back to his senses. Was it raining too? He couldn't remember when it had started…

It was strange, even the rain seemed to smell of blood, though that was impossible… or at least improbable.

He could smell the fire too. The burnt stench of wood slowly being reduced to ash, a hint of sulfur being carried in the smoke as the buildings, walls, and even citizens of his village burned around him.

Slowly he became aware of the sounds. The support beams of the buildings creaked as they burned away. The pitter-patter of rain – or blood – sprinkled down from the heavens and landed in potholes of puddles. He heard the cries and screams of those watching their friends, family members, or even complete strangers being massacred. He heard the battle cries of their enemies and the dead themselves who had at long last had been overrun. He heard a rasping sound that he couldn't immediately identify until he realized that it was the sound of his own breath laboriously being pushed in and out of punctured lungs, carrying the scent of more blood to his nose as it pushed against the mud on his face... and there was the laughing.

As much as he hated the other sounds, he hated the laughing the most. Although it was little more than a whisper, it roared in his ears, drowning out everything else.

"Kukuku..."

Holding tightly to his ears, he opened his eyes and watched, atop all this madness, the masked man responsible for this mess. He clenched his fists, catching some dirt in his callused hands and drew his hand back, almost claw-like fingers leaving a trail in the dirt while he stared in anger at his opponent. He could feel on himself the effects of the induced hatred in his own cells. He perceived his environment become blurry, the sounds around him grow scattered, and his slow physical transformation – pinpointed most by the significant whiskers-like scars on his cheeks becoming darker. When he deeply inhaled, his breath felt irregular, coerced but fierce. Determined.

"I won't let you win, Madara," he said— or rather the Fox made him say. The cynical laughter of their common enemy doubled in intensity.

"So? How do you plan to do that?" the masked man asked, tone mocking. But the teen could not help but stay silent, head turned away, features stony. Defeated as he had been, he could not show his proud and worthy face as he used to.

"How ludicrous you are, both of you. Your friends are still fighting, yet here you are, just pushing up daisies," the masked man taunted tirelessly the teenager who turned his face to him, and glared at him as a wild animal.

"Don't underestimate me, mortal!" the blond roared.

"Oh! That is the Kyuubi, isn't it? Don't worry. You're next, once I finish off your little brother," the masked man announced gleefully. "You are but a tool to my means, Fox. The Juubi is within easy reach for me. This world will be mine. The peace has come. My peace. My redemption!"

"You fool. You do not realize yet you are only being manipulated. The Juubi does not submit to anyone — and will never not. It is just fooling you into thinking you can control him. But it is controlling you in fact."

"Shut up, trash! You know nothing! You only seek to survive and get free from my grip. And you will eventually be free at the end..." the possessed man smirked. "Inside my body, along with your whole brethren."

He then kicked him hard in the face, sending him flying, and knocking him out as he slammed into the ground.

In a cave, Naruto severely wounded, was lain near his now naked comrade; the Eightieth Beast's host. From the outside, the screams and explosions were a constant reminder of his failure, followed later by the silence... the terrible silence... broken by the start of the Ceremony.

During the lascivious ode to the chaos and the destruction lead by the masked man, the only survivor left of the whole carnage was drowning in his blood and the shadows, where all he could do was rehash bitter thoughts:

Darkness, sadness, I am alone now.

Yet, this time, in the nether of his soul, a voice came out of himself, and seemed to envelop him in a resurgent vim.

Get up, boy!

My friends are dead; I failed my mission... I deserve to die

Stop self-pitying and fight for our lives!

At this beg, one hand appeared to be lifted from the heavy darkness, as animated with the will of the Demon who was no more. Nevertheless, the hand finally fell on the floor soundlessly... and lifelessly.

I'm so tired... Why can't you let me rest in peace and sleep peacefully... Kurama...

Shut up! I won't hear such foolishness from you! Is it not you who at first constantly harassed me with your stupid bravery and your fool enthusiasm for degenerate optimism?! Remember Naruto! Remember what you did to live up to this day, everything you have fought, every person you have defeated! How can you seriously believe that I'd let you sleep peacefully without fighting? You are my container, and I refuse my vessel to be such a coward. You are not a coward Naruto, so fight!

Fight!

"Fight..." breathed eventually a voice from the inert corpse.

The baron of the corruption was genuinely surprised to hear such a sound in the cohort of his dirge but he immediately returned to his business, seeing that the blond did not move an inch. Yet, a dialog that he could not hear blustered within the two souls' container. The only hint of this virulent discussion was the right hand of the teen that suddenly crisped:

Fighting, Kurama? What do you think I didn't try for hours and hours?! I've done all I could do, with Bee, Kakashi, Gai, my friends, everybody! And yet, we're just out of his league... he's too strong...

When Naruto opened his empty eyes to pour a tear of despair, the Nine-tailed Fox, his Fox, seemed to materialize above himself, in all its grace and its crimson splendor. Its immense and majestic tails fanned on its hind in a garland of disproportionate red, and yet, sobeautiful fur...

And even Naruto could not help but in raptured by wonder before this view, to see a so beauteous and powerful creature bending its head toward him — compassionate, sad, disappointed.

Betrayed.

That's all? Is it only for this that you changed me... that you changed me, my nature, and our relationship? All for this? To end up condemned, solely powerless, contemplating this red-eyed freak's win over us; with me aspired to a multiple entity while you died in the process... Is it really what you want, Naruto?

That is really what I want?

Naruto gulped, and shook his head, before closing his eyes. Weirdly, he could look at the Kitsune even more clearly than before. And this way, they found themselves thrown into the hearth of their linked minds, at the common border between their two souls, gathered in harmony... by osmosis...

In one and single individual...

"Look at our surroundings, and tell me what you see," ordered the fox spreading its tails in a wide range.

When Naruto's eyes opened, he could eventually apprehend the world around them. They were floating, both of them, in sea of clouds. Below, he could see his body resting on the floor. They floated in the air, both, them, the possessor and the possessed. At the end of their field of vision, on the horizon, dissociated from the darkness was an imposing luminous mass. A halo of hope and light, isolated in an isle enclosed by shores of despair. That radiance pulsed serenely away — a light, that receded continually, undeniably... Beyond the desert of Suna, the Iwa plains, the mountains of Kumo, the Kiri swamps, and even beyond the limitless forests of Konoha. They seemed to reign over this divine pantheon where everything seemed to be within each. They were free, free as the air, free from any earthly bonds and any moral alienation.

They were... simply... Pure...

And for Naruto, only one answer was possible...

"Nothing..."

A cynical smile materialized on the Kitsune's face.

"Nothing?"

Naruto shook his head.

"In all this vastness, do you know what I see only?"

Naruto fixed him without a word and the smirk of the fox widened back.

"What I see is a wonderful young man. What I see is the only human I've ever respected. What I see is the only human who has deigned to even understand me. And do you know how I feel when I see you like this, Naruto?"

The blue-eyed blond could only reply to the red-eyed beast with a bitter smile:

"Yes..."

The fox nodded.

"It doesn't look like you, Naruto, to give up so easily... I know it because I have lived sixteen long years inside you, sixteen years where the only thing I tried to do was submit you to me, sixteen years of rancor and hatred... and do you know what dissuaded me to be consumed by that hatred, Naruto? Do you know what pushed me to change?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you, Naruto... and I refuse you to let die when I've finally found someone I can trust, a true friend... you." the fox affirmed frankly as he focused his glare further on his.

"A friend..." Naruto repeated thoroughly.

Tears flowed from the teen's blue eyes as the thin pearls from a rainless sky.

As an orphan, he had always been lonely. No one had confessed such dedication and such affection to him.

He had often been scorned in his childhood by his nature. He had managed to be understood when he had finally proven his valor as a human being. He had eventually achieved respect once he had demonstrated he possessed the true soul of a shinobi. He had been revered once people remarked he had the caliber of a hero.

Yet, no one, no one had confessed such love to him. A thoughtless love, a pure love, a love only devoted to him, solely to him. He had partly glimpsed such love in the past, when he had been aware of the girl who had followed and worshiped him during his childhood, but it was not what he had truly expected.

No...

What he had craved for had been to have someone he could have trust, someone who could have been like him, and someone who had lived the same hardships as did. No. No one had understood him up to this far. No one had understood what he had expected from the others, from his environment, from his friends. In Sasuke, the renegade Uchiha, he had thought to see such a glimmer of hope, but no, even Sasuke had misunderstood him in his quest of vengeance.

Nobody had understood...

Until Kurama, nobody had understood him so well. Nobody had cheered him on although he had given up all hope. Nobody had given him so much without asking anything back.

Because after all, Kurama was only his mirror, his other self.

How could he abandon him? How could he, whereas his friend still fought for him in the hope to convince him to act now? How could he let his defeatism take precedence over the respect his friend had for him?

One idea emerged then from his mind. A spark shone from his brightened and unreal eyes, as if they reverberated the flame of his now reinvigorated life.

As one last duty that still attached him to this world...

"I have one last plan," Naruto said, deadly serious. "And I hope you won't mind me for what I'll do."

And of course, Kurama replied with a diabolical smile.

"I'm eager to do anything that can annoy this red-eyed freak."

A small smile spread onto Naruto's lips. 'Ah Kurama, and his old antics,' he thought while the fox was still listening him. 'Such a pleasure despite of the dire situation.'

"Then, come with me, Kurama, we still have one card to play before the end."

And together, in a dizzying plunge, they came back to his body and to the deepest refuge of their mingled minds.

An immense fox with nine-tails walked alongside a young man toward the far end of a cage. On their way, tremendous pillars of steel appeared. A seal with a complex design was opposed on the dark wall behind the bar of the fox's cage. Naruto touched with his fingertips the drawings. He seemed to be nostalgic, regretful, but relaxed at the same time. With his fingers, he tweaked the nodes painted on the picture frame. A blue thread emerged from the seal and Naruto dissociated it on two distinct azure links. Kurama glared at him in awe.

"What the hell?! What are you doing, lad?!" Kurama asked in a bellow.

"Well... I'm freeing you from this seal," the blond confessed mysteriously. Kurama stood still for a while, waiting for a further explanation. Naruto shook his head "This seal was originally designed to send you into another dimension to make sure you do not go on a rampage if I lost control of you. Even if both of us know it can no longer be useful in this way, it will still prevent him from completing the Juubi with you gone. I can still willingly trigger the seall on my own, but it comes at the price. The price..."

"Of your life..." finished Kurama. Then angry, he barked at him: "This plan is foolish. We must have another option, we—"

"We do not Kurama. We can't win over Madara. He's too strong for us. We tried the best we could and we failed. We have no other choice!" shouted Naruto.

"We always have the choice," chewed Kurama bitterly. "We can always try again to defeat him, and—"

"No. It is useless. You know like I do. We're fated to die, both of us, if we take this way. And I do not want you to die. You do not deserve to die after all the hardship you had to suffer. I don't want you suffer any more from the foolishness of my kind. In my case, I'm condemned anyways. Whatever I do, it will not change a thing for —"

"Don't finish that sentence. Ever. I've already told you; you can't die. You cannot die. I won't allow it as long as you are within my paws."

"But you will and I will force you if necessary."

Kurama glared at him in disbelief.

"Forcing me? Know your place lad. You can't force me in anything. If you refuse to battle him, I'm going to fight him alone, with your consent or not."

"And for which cause?" replied Naruto harshly, setting his eyes on his. "To let him take you as you said?"

"At least, at the end, we'll know that we would try everything possible," retorted Kurama sourly.

"For what? For us to comply ourselves at the end in self-pity? I held you in higher regard Kurama." The eyes of the Fox shimmered furiously.

"You... bird-brained worthless arrogant moron of a human. All I wish for is your survival. You are MINE! You cannot die until I allow you!"

"But you will. I'm sorry Kurama. But... I'm not leaving you the choice," finished Naruto, resolute as he turned toward the seal, but a tremendous blaze of red chakra flashed before him and left a crack on the soil. A clawed paw snatched him by the arm and twisted him before two desperate red eyes.

"You belong to me!" Kurama finally yelled.

Naruto looked at him bitterly and sighed. For once, he approached his Fox. The breath of the animal was rough as if it could no longer respire with ease. Naruto put an appeasing hand on its snout, massaging it softly. His hand passed through its whiskers, then its eyes and ears. The blond smiled sweetly for he did not have any more rancor toward it, whether for the murder of his parents, or for the attempts to corrupt him to kill his friends, or even for the suffering of his childhood. However, the Fox still did not forgive itself for its past crimes. He felt obliged to Naruto to owe him its life. Above being his friend, Kurama was his guardian, his retainer.

"You are not making it easy. But please, Kurama... please... Let me do this... for you... I know you'd do the same for me if you could. So let me accomplish my last duty."

"I-I... I can't." Naruto hugged the Fox as if it was a small deprived kit. The paws of the fox fussed his hair in regret.

"Don't worry Kurama. I'm sure you'll be fine on your own. I'm here, and I will always be with you..." Naruto comforted him slowly.

"It won't be the same. I don't want to leave you. I—"

"Shh. You don't have to bear this burden," murmured Naruto to him, as if he guessed his thoughts. "You don't to feel guilty for my death. It's my own choice Kurama. My own." The Fox lifted his eyes to him.

"But I will. You know me. It's what I do," muttered Kurama as he could not let his blood tears flow.

And this was true, as Naruto knew it. The feelings of the Fox were always stronger than humans, both in love and hate, in regret and remorse. If Kurama had been stronger, he would have been able to save him and Naruto would have not been obliged to resort such a trick for their win. He felt guilty as if he was the one who would still kill him in the end - the criminal, the murderer of his friend. And for that, Kurama could only be desolated:

"I'm sorry, boy, for all the harm I've done to you." The fox vowed, making an oath. He inclined his head toward the teenager to scrutinize him much better. With his narrowed eyes, he stared at the juvenile without making any noise to respect the offering that his partner gave to him. Naruto wrinkled his lips and shook his head drearily. While he lifted his eyes far away on the thick cloud offered by the cell, Naruto remembered his life. He knew he was about to die. The process was soon done. Their spirit had already began to split.

But he still smiled.

"Yeah... Kinda... Farewell... Damn, I was never was good at partings. I remember when Sasuke left us..."

Kurama screeched his fangs and his claws on the ground.

"Don't talk about that bastard. He's just another red-eyed freak who wishes for your downfall," the fox thundered in his cage in a vengeful rage. Crimson lightning emerged from his incisors and reclaimed atonement for the past crimes of his friend's enemies. Naruto calmed down the fox when he put his hand delicately on his snout.

"You're right, Kurama. It's time for you to go. Madara is going to finish with the Hachibi soon." He touched the face of the fox who was still crying.

"Goodbye, Naruto. I was happy to know you," the fox finally acknowledged. He shed a tear for his friend, his brother, his Light. Kurama gently caressed the blond's face with his long rough tongue, to forever impregnate his scent. Naruto was amazed at the show of emotion that the demon was expressing. He had never realized how deep his ties were with the Fox.

Naruto clenched his fists in a dull but determined sound as he suddenly turned to the seal and ripped it. His hands then were rapidly moving, forming hand-signs, conjuring the forbidden jutsu and causing a blinding light to explode outwards, warping his world, and then...

Kurama faded away...

In his soul, Naruto started a light which arose from him. It was the most marvellous light the world has ever known. Black holes formed from his arms and legs. He scrutinized the outside, seeing only a devastated world; he did not regret his choice. He knew it was for the best.

A red aura emanated from Naruto and then dissipated. Naruto released his last breath, a quiet, peaceful one. His lips were turned upwards into a proud smile. He had done all he could do. His face was blank like the snow. Crimson blood leaked from his mouth. A hero died that day, but it was for a good cause, and he had known that.

Madara turned and walked toward Naruto to check on him. A still corpse with no pulse greeted him. He had never been so angry in his long life than in that moment. He screamed, a bellow of rage and fury.