Children of the Wind

1. After Life

“Sometimes, in the wind of change, we find our true direction.”
- Unknown.

Naruto remembered once, when he was a very small boy, a caretaker at Konoha’s orphanage gathered all the children around to tell a story. He had kept to the back of the room, hoping the shadows would hide his tear stained cheeks and trembling lip. Why he was distraught, he couldn’t remember, as there had been many similar instances, and in his old age, memory had begun to fade and blur together.

He remembered how he hadn’t wanted to listen to the story. He’d only wanted to find some secluded place where he could be alone with his misery and his scorn. As always, Naruto was defiant to authority and adamant about his wants and feelings, and rightly so.

But slowly, word by word, the story pulled him in. It influenced him so much that even in his final moments, decades later, it was a story the legendary Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure remembered as clearly as if he’d heard it yesterday.

They said one day, many years ago, a piece of sun fell to earth. Blinded by its radiance and threatened by the unknown, all the world tried its hardest to tame it. The rain did its best to drown it, the dirt and stone attempted to bury it, and the cold strived for its demise. One thing, and one thing alone, became the piece of sun’s salvation. They called it the wind.

Bound to neither earth nor sky and answerable to no one and nothing, with just a few words, the wind fed the piece of sun to a roaring flame. It burned so brightly that no amount of rain could ever drown it. No amount of dirt or stone could ever bury it. No amount of ice and cold could ever bring about its demise. As a child of the wind, it became everything it had ever wished to be, and more.

The world said, “You are beneath me.”

The rain wailed, “You will be nothing.”

The dirt and stone shouted, “You will always fail.”

The cold hissed, “You will be your own undoing.”

The wind whispered, “You are far more than they think you are.”

And the wind alone was right.

~.~

Naruto could not remember the exact moment of his passing. One moment, he lay in his bed, surrounded by his children, grandchildren, friends and loved ones. The next, nothing.

There had been many faces missing from the crowd around him. He had outlived many from his generation, and was the last of the Konoha Eleven. It was because he was a Jinchuuriki, he knew, but even Gaara had let go just a few days prior, Shukaku with him. The rest of the Jinchuuriki were gone, and so were their Bijuu.

Kurama, too, had chosen to die with Naruto, the one host he’d grown to love more than any other. As Naruto’s body and mind had slowed and grown weary with age, the retired Hokage had insisted the stubborn fox take a new host or be set free, but time and time again, Kurama refused. The days where such decisions were forced upon him were long past, so eventually, Naruto relented.

When he died, there would be no tailed beasts left in the world. Memory of them would fade and become stories, myths, then legends. None would remember. None would know the truths they had fought so hard to bring to light. And, strangely, they were okay with this. The time for useless violence was over, and after their passing, the Bijuu would never again be made to suffer in quite the same way as Naruto and the others had done.

Naruto himself would likely fade away into legend. The last great Jinchuuriki, just another face in the stone. But his will would live on. That was what was important, he knew. Uzumaki Naruto would be no more, but in a way, he would always be remembered.

Children of the wind always are.

~.~

Naruto surveyed his surroundings with a clarity found only after death. He sat on a high cliffside overlooking a vast forest, cross legged and relaxed as he watched the goings on of life below him. He felt the wind as it brushed past him, given power with height and distance, and reveled in the feeling of freedom he had so long been denied, confined to his bed as he was.

All his life, he had loved high places. At first it had been because childhood bullies and hateful adults could rarely follow if he decided to wait them out on the roof of a building, from the top of a tree, or even from the highest point on the Hokage Mountain.

After he had heard the story of the wind and the piece of sun, his appreciation of high places became an obsession. Whether it be from a rooftop, tree, or mountain - whether he be committing acts of vandalism or trying to get people to just acknowledge him as they passed - Naruto felt like the higher up he was, the closer he was to the wind, and the closer he was to acceptance. Finding out later that his Nature Affinity was wind made it all the better.

It made sense that his afterlife would start on the top of a cliff, he supposed. A bit… unexpected, sure, but he wasn’t going to complain.
He felt weightless, as if no one could touch him. Though, this was likely because they really couldn’t, him being invisible and all. His body had no solid substance. When he looked down at himself, he could see straight through the faint outline of his body to the earthen terrain beneath him. He wondered if he had truly passed on yet, or if showing up on a cliff wearing clothes he hadn’t worn since the war and translucent was some sort of in-between stage.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto glimpsed movement, and smiled at its familiarity. A much larger, warmer body curled around him, the tip of a huge glossy black nose sniffing the air beside him. On his other side, nine russet colored tails - just as transparent as himself - spilled over the side of the cliff, swaying slowly in the wind as one. Naruto greeted his once-enemy-now-long-time-friend with a fond smile.

"Been awhile since you were free from a seal, huh? Really free?” He asked the Kyuubi, who was gazing at the world around him with a look awe and nostalgia.

Kurama flicked his ear in his direction as he responded, voice quieter than his former host was used to now that it was no longer echoing in his head. “The only times I’ve been outside the seal in the past two centuries were when I was under the direct control of one dictator or another. Earlier on in life, the other Bijuu and I were raised by the Sage of Six Paths, who gave us freedom over thought and action, and we were left alone for many years after his passing.” He lowered his massive head to the ground with a huff, eyes cracked open like those of a sleepy cat. “It wasn’t until you shinobi started sprouting up and thought to use us for power over others that we last our freedom.”

Naruto blinked. “Didn’t ask for a history lesson, but alright. Take it all in, Kurama. This is our eternity!” He said, making use of Kurama’s shoulder as a back rest as he turned his gaze skyward. Has it always been this blue?

Kurama snorted, the deep throaty sound succeeding in jarring his human friend rather forcefully from his comfortable position, earning loud protests in response. “I’m merely taking advantage of your sudden ability to remember the things I say for more than five minutes at a time-”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“-and my ability to speak to you without having to repeat myself multiple times, because apparently I was ‘speaking too quietly’ for you to hear.”

“You were!” Naruto insisted.

“I was in your mind, old man. There was no volume control.” Naruto swore the fox was smirking at him, though with that full mouth of sharp teeth, it was difficult to tell. “You were going senile, admit it.”

“Technically, you were in my stomach,” Naruto said indignantly, crossing his arms in defense. “And who are you calling an old man? You were centuries older than I ever was!”

“I’m immortal, I don’t count,” Kurama grumbled, deep voice taking on a weary tone. “Death has made you annoying again, brat.”

“Were immortal,” Naruto corrected, then chuckled sheepishly. “And yeah, sorry... I guess that’s the side effect to dying and waking up in a younger version of yourself. My voice went back in time, too.”

Kurama grumbled again, but otherwise didn’t respond. He shifted a bit, folding his legs and laying his head on his paws, and Naruto took the opportunity to use him as a pillow once more. For a while, the only sounds were the chirping of the birds, the wind across the clifftop, and the large fox’s deep rhythmic breathing. The former Hokage closed his eyes and sighed softly, reveling in the serenity that came with having no danger, responsibility, or expectations every moment of every day. Now he had until the end of time to feel the sun on his face and the wind in his hair.

It was Kurama who finally broke the silence. “Naruto.”

Naruto raised one eyebrow questioningly, cracking one eye open to glance at his friend. “Yeah?

Kurama let out a long breath, flattening the grass around them. Then, after several long moments, “... Eternity is dull.”

Naruto laughed.