The first time that Naruto ever met Kurama, he was less than a year old.

It was an odd experience for the kyuubi, to be woken by a tiny baby attempting to crawl its way over to the fox. He growled at the human infant in an attempt to keep it away, but the child plowed on until it was past the bars and snuggled into Kurama's fur.

The fox, for some reason that he could not understand, couldn't bring himself to swat the baby away as he usually would, so he let the blond baby sleep contently against his side.

Naruto started to show up like that regularly, appearing out of nowhere in the middle of his mindscape and crawling his way over to the fox to take a nap or to babble happily at the tailed beast.

Kurama got used to it quickly, and, while it was annoying at times to listen to the baby attempt to talk, he enjoyed the company of someone that wasn't trying to use him, that didn't hate him, and wasn't corrupted like most of the rest of humanity.

Months passed by and baby Naruto continued to show up, his speech slowly got better as the years passed and soon, rather than speaking nonsensical words, he was telling the fox about his day or begging for stories.

It struck Kurama as odd, the child wasn't afraid in the least despite the fact that the kyuubi was a being of malice, and he seemed kind. It was refreshing, in a sense, but still odd.

Usually, the fox didn't really respond to his requests for stories or opinions, rather he just stayed there and listened to the child speak. But every once in a while, when he was bored or in a particularly good mood, he told the child stories.

He would weave wild tales of samurai, shinobi, and monks. He told the child of his (Kurama's) old man, the Sage of Six Paths.

Whenever Kurama did indulge the child in stories, the blond boy would listen with rapt attention. He would laugh at the funny parts, cry at the sad, and smile at the happy. Whenever Kurama told of something he didn't understand, he would stop the fox and ask to explain.

Months turned to years and it wasn't until Naruto was 6 that Kurama realized something.

He wasn't hateful anymore.

It came as a surprise to him, as he had been hateful for so long that it was a weird notion to not be full of malice anymore. But when he thought about it, it settled in his mind like a comforting blanket that Naruto was the reason that he wasn't any longer. Somehow, the child had sneaked his way into Kurama's heart and firmly settled himself as a person Kurama cared about.

That why, when Naruto next entered the mindscape to chat about his day with the fox and called out his usual greeting ("hello kyuubi!") Kurama interrupted the 6 year old and said, "Kurama."

The child blinked, surprised, and gazed up at the fox with wide blue eyes.

Kurama smiled, a friendly smile rather than a malicious one (and wasn't that weird?), and spoke again, "Call me Kurama."

Naruto was silent for a moment, and didn't move, before grinning wide and nodding happily, "Ok! Hello Kurama!"

And that was how the fox and the child became friends.