Chapter 83: Kurama

Kurama’s Image

---

Kael closed the door of his apartment behind him and let the quiet settle. The Parent’s house still carried the scent of Kushina’s skin and the memory of the week he had spent buried inside her, but the moment he stepped back into his own space the weight of it shifted. He dropped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

He had expected guilt. Self-disgust. The kind of cold aftermath that usually followed crossing a line that large of fucking Kushina. Instead a steady current of energy ran under his skin. His body felt lighter, sharper, as if the days of using her had burned something restless out of him and left only clarity.

Kushina was not his mother. She belonged to this world, to the original Naruto. The distinction sat cleanly in his mind and refused to crack.

He opened the system window and checked the reward that had appeared when the quest finally cleared.

[Reward: Connection Established between you and Kurama]

Kael read the line twice. So the Nine-Tails had been inside him. The limited tail-beast chakra he had accessed before now made sense. He made some theory before that the system must have kept a barrier between them until the some kind of conditions were met. He closed his eyes, focused on the familiar pull of the seal, and waited.

Nothing happened at first. Then a faint button appeared in the corner of his vision: Connect. He pressed it.

The world dropped away.

He stood in a vast, dark chamber that smelled of stagnant water and old stone. Towering pillars rose into shadow. Exposed pipes ran along the walls like veins. In the center of the flooded floor sat a colossal iron cage sealed by a single paper talisman that glowed with faint sealing script. The space was exactly as the stories had described, yet the figure inside the cage was not.

A woman stood behind the bars.

Long, wild hair the color of blood-orange flames fell past her shoulders. Her eyes were the same vertical-slitted crimson Kael remembered from every depiction of the Nine-Tails, but they sat in a sharp, strikingly beautiful face. She wore a simple dark robe that did nothing to hide the powerful curves of her body. When she spoke, the voice was deeper than any ordinary woman’s, rough with the same arrogant cadence the fox had always used.

"Oye, brat. Who the hell are you?"

Kael stepped closer to the bars. "I’m... I’m Naruto."

Kurama’s eyes narrowed. She tilted her head, studying him with open suspicion. "Don’t try to fool me boy. I’ve been stuck with that loud idiot since the day he was born. I know every corner of his chakra."

After some pause studying him she said "You’re not him."

"If you’re inside me all this time," Kael said, "shouldn’t you already know everything that’s happened and who I am?"

She snorted, the sound pure Kurama even in this form. "I don’t know who you are or what kind of trick this is. One day I just... went under sleep. Months of nothing. Then I wake up to the when you pumping your load into your own mother. Real classy, brat."

Kael said "Oh about that..." Then he stopped saying because he can in no way explain the situation to her.

Kael looked at her and asked about his confusion.

Kael blinked and said. "Aren’t you supposed to be a giant fox. Why are you a woman?"

Kurama stared at him as if he had lost his mind. "What kind of idiot question is that? Look at me. I’m—" She glanced down at her own reflection in the dark water that surrounded the cage. The surface showed the female face, the big curves, the same red hair. Her expression twisted from arrogance into genuine shock.

"What the actual hell... Who is that?"

"That’s what I’m asking you," Kael said.

Kurama’s hands gripped the bars hard enough that the iron creaked. "This isn’t funny. What did you do to my body? Why am I stuck looking like some human female?"

"I have an idea about why you look like this but believe me I have no no hand in making you like this," Kael answered, "and either way why should I tell you anything?"

The temperature in the chamber dropped. Red chakra flared around Kurama’s shoulders like living fire. The pressure hit Kael like a physical blow and shoved him back several steps across the wet stone.

"Listen here, you little thief," she snarled, voice pure Nine-Tails even though it came from a woman’s throat. "I don’t care what body you’re wearing. You will explain what happened to me or I’ll rip this seal apart and take the answers myself."

Kael got pushed back because of the force in the chakra and he raised both hands and reached for the disconnect button still floating at the edge of his vision. "I will explain this later."

He pressed it.

The sewer chamber vanished. Kael sat upright on his bed again, heart still racing from the sudden blast of chakra. He stared at the empty air in front of him.

Kael thought even though he looked like a human female Kurama still had same powers. Then he looked towards his system screen.

"What the fuck, system," he muttered. "Why are you changing people’s genders now?"

No answer came. The system window remained blank.

A loud, familiar knock rattled the apartment door.

Kael stood, crossed the room, and pulled it open.

Ino stood in the hallway, blond hair slightly wind-blown from the road. The moment she saw him her face lit up. She stepped forward, threw both arms around his neck, and kissed him hard enough that he had to catch her waist to keep them both upright.

"I’m back from the mission," she said against his mouth, smiling. "Miss me?"

Kael felt the last of the strange tension from the seal fade under the solid, ordinary warmth of her body pressed against his. He kissed her once more, slower this time, and pulled her inside.

"Yeah," he said. "I did."

---

Give me power!!!