The Rise of the Sky ✧
Kurama rests his head on his paws, eyes half-lidded. After a long pause, he spoke again, more slower though thoughtful..
"... There might be a way, you know."
Naruto turns to him, confused. "What way?"
"To go back" Kurama says simply "Not by years—just far enough. Before you became Hokage."
Naruto's brow knits. "what are you talking about?"
"There are a few ways to bend time," Kurama explains, his voice low. "Most are long sealed away. Some exist only in myths, passed down like ghost stories, some are devices lost to time, hidden in places no one remembers." He pauses, his gaze sharp.
Kurama continues on. "But one of them is an old sealing technique.. Is real, and it is the one I know a lot. A sealing technique ancient and forgotten." He looks at Naruto with quiet weight. " It comes from your clan—The Uzumaki. A method buried so deep, that even your people have lost it. The knowledge was passed down only from clan heads to their heirs.. As if the wrong people got their hands onto this, it is dangerous.. I came to know of it, when I was sealed inside the First Hokage's wife that is Mito Uzumaki. She carries the knowledge.. Though she never dared to use it nor pass it down to others.."
Naruto listens closely, eyes wide as he takes in what Kurama says. His chest feels tight. He doesn't know much about the Uzumaki clan—his own clan even today, he only know bits from what others told him, and what his mother told him when they met for the first time.. He knew that the Uzumaki clan have red hair, uses Fūinjutsu and stuff. But never the full picture..
This is the first time Kurama has talked about it. Naruto never asked. He thought maybe it was something painful for Kurama. Something from the past that he didn't want to remember. And Naruto didn't want to make Kurama uncomfortable. So he stayed quiet.. Now hearing all of this, it feels like a door is finally opening. A secret being shared at last.. "Why didn't you tell me before?" He asks softly
Kurama doesn't look at him right away "You didn't ask," he says. "And you already had too much to deal with. But I guess.." Kurama looks away again .. "You know... We've talked about this before, I told you the things that made me, have hatred against humanity.." he starts, voice low, "but I never really said 'everthing'. " Naruto watches quietly, letting him take his time.
"Mito kept me sealed tight. Polite, composed. She treated me like a weapon—something to be contained. Kushina... Your mother.. She was terrified. Always afraid the seal would break. She never spoken to me unless she had to. She was loud and strong but deep down, she feared me like everyone else did. They only saw me as in their words... As someone that only draws hatred."
Naruto's expression softens, the ache in his chest returning. This part of Kurama's story, never gets easy to hear. "And even before them," Kurama says, voice deepening with old resentment, "Hashirama and Madara tossed me around like a tool. Madara tried to bend me with those cursed eyes. Hashirama sealed me like some beast to be cataloged and contained. And others before them saw me as a creature of destruction.. They didn't care what I thought or feel, no one did."
He pauses, then says quieter, "Everyone wanted my power for their own use.. But no one truly wanted me." Naruto stays silent, eyes locked on Kurama, the pain in his gaze mirroring the fox.
Kurama continues on "Then I ended up sealed into you... A kid ... A baby, or what Ill like to say before a little brat. And what did the village do..? They hated you. Called you a demon. Looked at you like I was staring through your eyes."
Naruto's fists clench, not from anger but from the memory. "They blame you for things I did, for the things I was forced to do." Kurama says, his voice tinged with guilt. "But you never hated me. Not once." Naruto finally speaks, his voice quiet but sure. "Because as I said before it wasn't your fault."
Kurama stares. Naruto looks up, unwavering. "You were sealed inside me. You didn't asked for that. I was hated because people were scared but you didn't put that hate in their hearts they did. You may done horrible things but no one tried to understand you or understand why. They all thought they were doing the right thing but it wasn't. Because you're no weapon , nor beast you are Kurama." The way Naruto says it make it seems it's so simple but Kurama murmurs. " You had every reason to hate me back. But you didn't."
"That's why we were able to make it work." Naruto says, a soft smile playing on his lips.
"That's why I could use your chakra. All of it. Not because I was strong but because I trusted you as you trusted me."
Kurama lowers his head a little, a deep breath leaving him. "You're the only one who ever tried to understand me. The only one except my father Hagoromo ,who saw more than a monster. And you were the first to ask my name.."
Naruto moves closer, sitting cross-legged in front of him. "Because you're not a Monster neither am I. You're Kurama, as I said before you're a citizen of the hidden leaf village, an ally, a friend and someone who has saved the world. And I'm glad I got to meet you."
Kurama snorts softly but his eyes glint "You are really are a sentimental idiot."
Naruto chuckles. "Yeah, your idiot and you're stuck with me."
There's a beat of quiet understanding between them. Kurama rises slowly gaze settling on Naruto. " Alright, let's draw that seal and I'll guide you through it. The seal is unstable and dangerous but with your blood and my chakra..." He smirks faintly. "We can make it work. I'll walk you through it, you're not doing this alone."
Naruto swallow hard. "Are you serious Kurama, really sure?.." Kurama nods once again. "We could go back just a few weeks. Before the ceremony, before the distance started growing between you and Hinata and Boruto." The words hit Naruto like a wave, His and Kurama conversation is still fine.. But something about this... Topic that is, Time travel.. make him speechless and unable to answer, he just breathes shakily, unsure.
Kurama watches him closely. "And no." He says firmly, "it's not running away, I know that's what you're thinking.
Naruto shifts his gaze quiet.
"You're not turning your back on anything."
Kurama continues. " You're going to do better, to fix what matters. That takes more guts than staying here and drowning in it."
Naruto stares at the floor. The idea sounds impossible and yet. It's right there..
Achance
And slowly, almost reluctant, he nods.
Naruto now sits at the wooden table of the bedroom, a blank scroll that is small spread out before him. The soft glow of a nearby lamp casts long shadows on the parchment. Besides the scroll sits a small dish, dark red and thick. It looks like Ink at first but it's not, it's blood. His own. Drawn from his wrist. Mixed with chakra just as Kurama instructed him. Kurama's voice rumbles in his mind, steady and deep. "Start at the top. One spiral . Counter-clockwise. That marks the anchor point."
Naruto dips the brush into the blood and begins the first stroke. His hand trembles slightly-nerves-but the swirl comes out smooth and deliberate. "Now, two mirrored arms on either side." Kurama says. "Like wings. That stabilizes the temporal field of it."
"Like this?" Naruto draws the curves slowly, trying to mirror them as evenly as he can.
"Exactly, good." Kurama pauses. "Next, the old Uzumaki crest, modified, a broken circle with a line through it. It represents the disrupted timeline." Naruto frowns a bit, as he draws, focused. "This doesn't look like any sealing jutsu formula I've seen before."
"That's because it isn't." Kurama replies.
"It's not designed to contain or trap—its mean to shift. It borrows from space-time techniques, like your father's Flying Raijin but it's more than moving to one place your moving to another time, it's more unstable. Less precise."
Naruto swallows. "So... We're aiming to land a few weeks back..?" Kurama is quiet for a moment. "That's the intention." Naruto glances to the side, as if to look at Kurama. "But it might go further."
"It might," Kurama admits. "that's the danger of it." Naruto exhales slowly, steadying himself. He keep drawing. More symbols follow— ancient symbols that feel foreign even to his chakra. Sharp strokes, curves that seems to shimmer under the light. One looks like an eye. "That one," Kurama says, "is the gate. The moment of release. Once it's done, press your palm there. The blood will activate the chakra flow."
"And your chakra?"
Kurama's presence flares just slightly inside him. "Already flowing through you."
Naruto finishes the last sigil and sets the brush down. The scroll gives off a faint hum. The air feels heavier. Like something ancient has been stirred awake.
"This is it?" he asks quietly
Kurama nods in his mind "This is it."
Naruto places his palm firmly on the final mark. The seal flares to life and the world begins to tremble. A surge of heat floods Naruto's palm as the seal flares. Chakra coils up his arm like fire racing through his veins. and the scroll blazes with light of red , gold, then white. The air distorts around him. It feels like space itself is folding inward, crushing, stretching all at once. His vision blurs. The room. The table, the walls fracture into ribbons of light. "Kurama?!" Naruto shouts, his voice cracking from the force of the pull.
No answer.
"Kurama!" He yells again, louder this time, desperate.
Still nothing
The chakra tether between fades. Naruto feels it. Like a cord snapping, severed in midair. His heart races. His skin prickles.
The world rips apart.
There's no sound, just the rush of wind and something deeper like time screaming. Naruto clutches his chest where the seal burns hottest, but it offers no real comfort now. He's falling?.. through the light, through color, through nothing.
And then...
Silence.
Darkness.
Cold earth meets his back as he crashes down, breath punched from his lungs. Dust rises around him. For a long moment, he just lies there, chest heaving. Trying to catch his breath. He blinks up at the sky familiar blue.. tinged with the golden afternoon. The clouds rolls gently above. But something feels wrong... He sits up slowly, eyes scanning the surroundings. No humming streetlights. No distant sounds of chakra-powered transports. The buildings around him seem.. Different, older and smaller. No wires, no antennas and no metal..
It's Konoha but not his Konoha..
"... Kurama?"
His voice quieter as he call out in his mind.. Uneasy. Only the winds respond, whispering through the leaves. Novoice in his head. No warmth in his chest. He presses a hand to the seal on his stomach. It's still there.. but feels hollow. Dormant. "Damn... It." He mutters, his voice rough.
Kurama is gone...
Not forever—but silent..
Naruto rises steadily to his feet, brushing dirt from his pants as he turns in a slow circle, trying to get his bearings. His gaze settles on the Hokage monument in the distance...
Only four faces carved ..
He not just in the past..
But alone for the meanwhile..
And whatever lies ahead, he'll face it alone without the one friend who's always been with him.