OooOoOooO

"Vulnerability isn't a weakness but a temporary period of showing one's true self."

It was so dark.

Kyuubi could see it through his host's eyes. Not even a trace of light just to let them know that they were not being swallowed by darkness. But it was eerily quiet too, something Kyuubi knew that shouldn't be surprising. But it never failed to do so, as welcoming as it is.

The first time they had woken up to this place, the blonde had done nothing but shout obscenities, growl empty threats, and even bang on the walls that seemed to have no any windows or door. It was so fucking silent that they could hear the blonde's heartbeat so clearly–the only thing letting them know that this wasn't death but of imprisonment. They couldn't even access their chakras, it was sealed somewhere deep within them it was so far out of reach.

After every moment of anger or frustration, he could hear the quiet sobs, the hitch of breathing, and feel the prickling pain of loneliness. The emotion was strong enough that it reached even further beyond the locked bars.

He hated the feeling.

It reminded him of those times when he had been locked up in his other hosts, chained and stripped of any intention of freedom just by existing the way he was. He abhorred humans, their kind so disgusting and menacing as the way they presented themselves out to be. Their abilities to mask emotions and their purpose irked the hell out of him–a testament why he never trusted them. The only one he would come close to liking as a human would be the Rikudo Sennin.

But then again, the man would hardly seem human to anyone. With Kami's powers almost at the man's reach.

And it was never understood why he stayed where he was; behind the cage with a slowly decaying seal that barely held up the bars, which seemed to appear that they could crumble any moment.

Not now, when the barrier falls, then it falls.

That thought came naturally to his mind. It's certainly not to make the best of his remaining time here. But to simply wait for the world to rotate and move on as he watched and stayed within the conscious of the human boy–the only one he would admit that he could take a tolerance for. The blonde was loyal, honest and open, empathetic, and simply understood him more than any Jinchuuriki that he could come across.

Now, all that was left was respect and patience.

"They're not coming for me, are they?" The blonde had once asked, his voice raspy and hoarse from the screaming he had incessantly made.

"We're still here, are we not? So what do you think, child?" He couldn't help but mock him, snipped back a snide remark. He maybe prideful and arrogant as a demon but when tranquillity sets in and only his thoughts were left, he had come to wonder when had he become so spiteful and a little bit of a cold-hearted bastard.

"I want to get out of here, furball! It hurts." Wide blue hysteric eyes stared up at him, desperate and wild, glazed with apparent fatigue of helplessness.

Uzumaki Naruto had just turned thirteen when he was brought here and he didn't look to have aged up at all. But Kyuubi could see the millennia of age it had seemed to embed on the boy's eyes and soul.

He snarled at the blonde boy but the child just stared up at him with frantic and searching eyes.

"Don't come begging to me, you pathetic meatbag. It was your fault we had been in this predicament in the first place! Insolent whelp!" Kyuubi roared with anguish, crimson eyes blazing with all the rage and hatred.

"Can't we do something about this?" There was an edge of not so quite panic but a little bit of terrified frenzy in his childish and grating voice. "We've been only here for months, that's something, right? Right?" Naruto bellowed at him with despondency.

It made Kyuubi paused, crimson slitted eyes staring at the child in front of him with ruthless amusement.

"Whelp, it's been one and a half year already. Stop that hopeless waiting, no one's here for you." His voice had gone low from the reverberating growl but it was crooned with saccharine glee.

What little bit of life there was in those cerulean blue orbs died on that instant. Only a spark left, a speck of naïve hope of being saved from this torture and damnation.

Besides, who was he to judge? As much as it made him keel over to admit, they weren't so different after all. Kyuubi was sealed inside a prison by the name of Uzumaki Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto was locked down in the darkness by this small confinement.

But there's a difference between us…

Whereas the blonde had no chance, the possibility of freedom had just presented itself in front of the Kyuubi no Yoko.

There were times that the blonde could still surprise the Kyuubi no Yoko into speechlessness. Aside from being far too quiet, he would just sit there lounging in the darkness of the cell. There was a big stainless bowl meant for taking out his body wastes and a small round tray to be full of food–both only replaced and replenished with necessities when the blonde was fitfully asleep. The boy had once tried to stay awake, but it seemed that the captors knew so no one came in.

It was so dark.

And Kyuubi had no qualms about realizing that his host was terrified.

But then he realized that the emotion and feeling wasn't completely human, but were based solely on instincts.

"Hey, Kyuubi," The fox was mildly startled when no insult came hurtling his way.

He didn't answer, opting to observe silently first.

"Kyuubi, you there?" The voice was so small as the words were feebly spoken.

The Kyuubi paused before shifting in his position.

What do you want, whelp?

It took a strong amount of will to ignore the urge to roll his eyes when he felt the clearly relieved feeling vibrate through his host's being.

Naruto didn't answer for awhile.

But Kyuubi was shocked to see the seal further decay, almost only a half holding up. But the cracks along the pipes that stemmed at the hallway of this sewer had lessened, making the fox wonder what made the boy tick.

"Just wanted to know you're still there."

It didn't take long for the bijuu to realize what the blonde meant. He scoffed loudly.

As if I was given a choice, where else could I go?

Then Naruto laughed loudly. It used to be full of joy, innocent and too open as genuine. But now, it was nothing but a grating sound that would make anyone winced at the raspy and harsh quality of it.

"Why didn't I think of that before? Of course, you'll always be there. Got no fuckin' other place to go to." For some reason, the words were bitten out with defeat, relief and bitterness mixed into one concoction.

Kyuubi hated that tone more than anything else.

He hated unexpected changes–he loved being control of things (that's why he abhorred the Yondaime because the fox didn't anticipate at all for the bastard to lock him up in his infant child, of all the unfortunate things)–and this new personality was another territory for the fox.

And that was why he slowly grew to dislike this behaviour.

"Che, Sasuke is such a bastard–but what can I say? I was stupid so I felt like I should play hero and be friends with him." He paused from his rambling, leaning sideways to the gargantuan but unstable bar. "Friends with him…" He trailed off under his breath.

But then, he was instantly on his feet.

"What was wrong with me? I was so fucking delusional for even thinking that it would work out! Look where it got us–I mean, me! We're locked up in this damn box-like space!" He angrily stomped his foot on the damp ground, splashing water wildly. "It was the bastard's fault and I'm so fucking stupid to fall for it!" He yelled at himself, hands firmly tugging at his blonde spiky locks.

He rounded on the creature behind the bars.

"And you! You knew this would happen so why the hell didn't you stop me?" The boy's eyes were puffed and slightly red, eyes that desperately wanted to cry but with no more tears to spare. His voice had also gone several octaves higher.

"I don't know what you're talking about, whelp." Kyuubi lazily replied, having been witnessing this entertainment for the past three months.

"You damn well know what the hell I'm talking about!" The boy shrieked at him, trudging at the edge of the bars slightly poking his head between. Blue eyes narrowed at him. "You knew this would happen!" He repeated, loud voice echoing within the sewer halls.

"And what proof do you base that statement?" He grinned a feral grin down at the insolent and not so stable boy. "Test me, whelp."

"You…you could have–said something!" The blonde boy accused as he stumbled on his words. Then he slid to the ground, his head cradled on his hands. Sobs came out in slight hitches, from the rampaging creature to the now suddenly pathetic little heap of sobbing mess. "Fuck, fuck, fuck…" He repeated under his breath, voice becoming higher in pitch but lower in volume.

"Oi, whelp."

The blonde didn't look up.

"Stop bitching already." The Kyuubi couldn't help but remark. Seriously, the beginning was fun and all but by the time the boy started to sob like a lunatic, it just got annoying.

Naruto suddenly looked up at him with a toothy grin.

"Don't tell me, you're actually worried!" The boy guffawed loudly. "Because I might start to think that I already died without realizing it." He continued to laugh himself hoarsely, the idea not even perturbing him but actually finding it to be quite amusing.

The Kyuubi growled, his patience thinning.

"Don't lower me to your kind, insolent vermin. You were making a nuisance out of your pathetic self." The fox spoke lowly, anger leaking into his voice.

But the blonde didn't listen.

He just laughed, laughed, and laughed until his chest fucking hurts, until he had to gasp for breath, and until he ached all over because he realized he ain't got anything to lose anymore.

That was when the Kyuubi finally realized that Uzumaki Naruto was starting to lose it.

When Naruto started to sing himself to sleep, the Kyuubi didn't say anything about it.

The fox fought the urge of telling the blonde kid that Kushina would have done that herself but seeing there wouldn't be a chance for that since she's technically dead, he just opted to stay silent and waited for the blonde to fall into a restless slumber.

Watching Naruto cracked slowly was like peering into a water tank made out of glass, slowly fracturing from so much water. Or in this boy's case, slowly breaking from the unending bout of darkness and loneliness.

"You know, Kiba and I used to pull all the kinds of pranks in the Academy. But dogbreath was too scared of the higher authorities to pull the ones I did!" Naruto once told him in a temporary time of soberness. "While Shikamaru is too lazy to even help us plan and Chouji stays where Shikamaru is." The blonde chuckled.

"There's also Hinata, she's kind and nice but…–weird. Out of all the people, she's the one who didn't dismiss me readily. I wonder what she saw in me. Though there is Sakura-chan," The spite in the tone didn't stun the fox at all. "She always sided with Sasuke. Always comparing me to that bastard. But I say bull shit! You know? I was the one always nice to her, always making her feel special but she chose the ice cube instead. I just discovered a while ago how pathetic I was to go chasing after her. Or was it weeks or months ago? I forgot." He shrugged with a lazy grin.

"But Kakashi is the bastard on my list next to Sasuke, the fucking cyclops never taught me anything other than tree walking! How was I supposed to survive with that? Seriously! He was a goddamned elite jounin for crying out loud! Even he should know that genin wouldn't live long enough in the ninja business with that, though not really useless, technique. But," He drawled the last word longer in his tongue. "He taught the teme the Chidori, which was used to stab me in the chest with the fucker's own hand and brought me into this situation. I hope those bitches die a slow painful death. It's not like it's up to me to decide now, is it?"

Then Naruto sighed wistfully.

"I hate those fuckers! Don't you, Kyuubi?"

He then laughed gutturally.

The fox stayed silent.

"It's Kurama, whelp."

Blue eyes slowly blinked at him, uncomprehending for a second before the blonde cackled.

"And I'm the fucking Shinigami." Came the immediate sarcastic reply.

Naruto didn't realize that he was the first human (aside from the Rikudo Sennin) to ever know of the Kyuubi no Yoko's real name. But he was so deep, so, so, so deep into his own little world that it will never occur to him.

So, so, so into it that he never could tell what was wrong from right. Or was it what was right from wrong? He couldn't tell anymore.

Kyuubi, meanwhile, had never seen a sadder creature than this boy.

The door to his cell finally opened after three years of isolation.

Blue eyes stared unblinkingly at the light with a psychotic toothy grin that should be out of place but it wasn't. Pale skin and petite small body of a grinning boy greeted the visitor. No emotion sparked in the blonde's eyes as he kept staring.

A person hesitantly entered.

Cerulean blue met the tearful pair of lavender.

But Naruto didn't recognize anyone anymore aside from himself because all he has was himself. He and himself, that was what he knew and this unknown was making the blonde annoyed for intruding here.

"Naruto…" A small, definitely female voice, called out.

She looked a little worse for wear as if she fought her way in. Konoha hitai-ate tightly tied around her forehead. Behind her, the sound of battle could be heard but he didn't care or give a damn about it.

But Naruto was out of it.

He didn't and will never recognize her or anyone.

This is freedom, whelp.

Even Kyuubi realized a long time ago that the blonde had finally cracked, the blonde's fragile hold of sanity had already slipped, nowhere to be seen again.

Naruto suddenly laughed, laughed, and laughed until his heart ached with non-existent emotions. It was harsh and guttural, raspy and hoarse that made the figure before him flinched as well cry out in misery for him.

"I don't need that, never now, never will…"

He continued to laugh until blood dripped down his chin.

Red chakra poured out as the seal dissolved and the bars crumbled.

Everything just burned.

And Kurama–the Kyuubi no Yoko–was finally free.

It was so dark.

Naruto recollected wistfully.

It was death.

AN: Something I would like to share, it's kind of insane. I know. Please review. Implied NaruHina.