The Blessed Realm

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Talk to the Kyuubi

Killerbee dissolved the embrace with his girl-friend and went to join the two boys.

“You've seen what to aim for,” he said. “Truly taming your bijuu means that you no longer have to be ashamed of it, nor that you fear what it might do to other people. Now tell me: what did people in Konoha teach you?”



“They taught me to keep it in check and under control,” Naruto answered.

“Nobody tried to teach you how to use it?”

“Jiraiya once did. He taught me how to access the kyuubi's chakra. When he tried to teach me to use the kyuubi itself it got loose and attacked him. With four tails it had gained complete control and I no longer knew what I was doing. Jiraiya was hurt so badly that he was on the brink of dying. From then on I was told not to use the kyuubi but to keep it down, and honestly, if friends die when I use it, I think it's wise to listen to this advice.”

“It still seems a waste to me. I mean, why did they turn you into a jinchuuriki if not to make use of the kyuubi?”

“I wasn't made a jinchuuriki because they needed a weapon. It was done because it was the only way to get the kyuubi under control when it attacked Konoha.”

“All the same I would have guessed that they still have techniques to use the kyuubi in Konoha. After all they relied heavily on it during the First and Second Ninja World Wars.”

Naruto had never heard of that.

“And in Cloud Village they have techniques to use the Hachibi?”

“They do. But that's not what I'm going to teach you. I am going to teach you a different way to tame it, a way I've developed by myself.”

“What kind of way?” Naruto asked, both curious and impatient. Yet again Killerbee did not give him a straight answer but instead told him his story.

“I got turned into a jinchuuriki at an age that's too young to remember anything,” he said. “But I remember very clearly how I first met the Hachibi, even before anyone told me of its existence. It was on a rainy afternoon, I was bored as no one had time to play with me, so I sat by the window and daydreamt, and in that state of dreaminess it happened that I entered my own soul and found the Hachibi: a huge monster behind bars. I was not afraid, as I had not yet learnt that monsters behind bars are something to be afraid of. Instead I reached out to touch his nose, and talked to him to ask him why he was behind bars, and the Hachibi answered me, and soon we were friends.”

Naruto had not known the kyuubi before people had told him about it. He wondered what would have happened if he had met it by chance, just as Killerbee had: whether he would have made friends with it too, or whether he would have learnt to use it to kill people, as Gaara had. He had been bored quite often at the time, actually – not because people didn't have time but because no one ever played with him. He had often stood by the window and looked outside and hoped that kids would play with him too. His whole body had ached with longing and sadness in those moments but he never begun to daydream, or turned into his own soul.

“When I was considered old enough to get trained as a jinchuuriki I already knew more than people could teach me. Just as with you, people tried to teach me to control my bijuu, how to use his chakra while subduing his personality. I did not care about it – the Hachibi was my friend, so what point was there in subduing his personality? From my teachers I learnt how to change form and how to use non-human chakra as if it were my own, but I never tried to control the Hachibi itself. I soon gained confidence in my skills and in the Hachibi's cooperation, and people told me that I was the most talented jinchuuriki in the history of the Cloud. I loved to scare my teachers by taking risks they considered crazy, but I knew that everything was safe, as the Hachibi had assured me of his cooperation. I never told them of our friendship. You are the first to learn about the secret.”

Sasuke caressed Naruto's hand, proud that he was included. Naruto himself felt weird, overcome by contradictory feelings. On the one hand Killerbee's words gave him hope that one day he, too, would be able to cooperate with the kyuubi and no longer have to be afraid of it. On the other hand he was sad that he had wasted so much time subduing the kyuubi and keeping it in check when he could have made friends with it instead. Also he had difficulties casting away the advice people had given him for all his life: What if there were crucial differences between the Hachibi and the kyuubi that made it possible to tame the former, but not the latter? For all his life he had strived to subdue the kyuubi, and had been proud of his achievements, and letting go of them was not easy. For a moment he considered declining Killerbee's offer and telling him that he thought his path too risky, and that he preferred to stick to what he had learnt in Konoha: to control the kyuubi instead of making friends with it. Then, however, he remembered the woman embracing the Hachibi.

“So let's start,” he said. “What shall I do?”

“Don't rush,” Killerbee slowed him down again. “I need to figure out your current level, and then decide where to start. Have you ever talked to the kyuubi?”

“Yes, several times.”

“You should make it a daily habit.”

Naruto swallowed. For him conversations with the kyuubi were associated with moments of extreme anguish, and talking to it every day would mean that every day he was reminded of these moments.

“What shall I talk about with it?” he asked.

“Whatever you want. Just connect to the kyuubi. What did you talk to him on other occasions?”



“Not much,” Naruto admitted. “When Jiraiya still tried to teach me to use it I asked it to lend me its power. After I had stopped doing this the kyuubi began to offer me its power of his own accord, but I had learnt to decline it. It always turned up when I was in a desperate situation, tempting me to accept its help to get out of the situation, but except for a few times I did not give in. I knew that it would gain control over me if I did.”

“So it was all about power and control,” Killerbee said. “That's no foundation for a friendship. So your first exercise will be to go and talk without any specific purpose. Just talk. If you don't know what to talk about tell him about your friend. Tell him he's your friend, and ask the kyuubi not to take over when you lose control during sex.”

“It won't work,” Naruto replied. “Taking over is its greatest desire. It will do everything to trick me into giving up control.”

“Talk to him, and then decide whether you may trust him or not. Now to you...”

He turned to Sasuke. “You'll be his backup. You have to get the kyuubi back under control if things go wrong. Do you trust yourself to do that?”

“Yes,” Sasuke answered.

“I don't need a backup,” Naruto said. “I can control the kyuubi by myself.”

“You need to stop controlling the kyuubi, so you need someone else to take control if necessary. Everyone needs a backup – for me was my brother who took this task upon himself. I didn't really need him, as I was friends with the Hachibi already – but it's part of the traditional training of a jinchuuriki in Cloud, so you will accept a backup too. You can trust your friend: he showed he's able to face a bijuu when he fought me.”

Sasuke bit his lips: Some things weren't forgotten easily.

“But remember that the kyuubi is still your responsibility. He'll only intervene in case of an emergency. And you” - again he turned to Sasuke – “if you intervene keep in mind that ultimately you need to make friends with the kyuubi too.”

Sasuke nodded. He wanted to look cool and confident, but Naruto saw that he was paler than usual and very serious.

“Now take it slowly,” Killerbee continued. “You're just starting. Only talk – don't make any attempts at removing any seals or otherwise liberating the kyuubi. One day in the future you'll decide that it's time to do this, but today is not that day.”

Naruto was very serious now too. It was long since he had actually talked to the kyuubi, talked in order to borrow chakra, not drawn into his own soul while the kyuubi had already partly taken over and acted in his stead, while within his soul it was offering its power to him, tempting him to let go and give in to his anger, making this appear the simplest way to deal with the problem at hand. He had been taught to stay clear off this path, to resist the temptation and remain in control of his anger. Now simply talking to the kyuubi seemed strange.

He sat down, closed his eyes, and as intended he soon found himself in front of the kyuubi's cage, The kyuubi had been resting, but it noticed him immediately.

“So finally you've decided that you want to use my power,” it said.

Naruto shook his head. “I don't. I don't need it here in Music Town where there's no need for fighting.”

“So what else do you want?”

This was not going well, Naruto thought. He decided to follow Killerbee's advice and speak openly about his motives.

“I want to ask you to refrain from turning up whenever I have sex,” he said.

“Why should I do that?” the kyuubi asked.

“Because I don't need you then. Having sex is not fighting. I don't need any extra chakra then.”

“You should fight. It's a prefect opportunity to get rid of Sasuke when he's least on the alert.”

“I don't intend to get rid of Sasuke when he's most trusting,” Naruto answered, somewhat annoyed. “I don't want to get rid of him at all.”

“You should reconsider,” the kyuubi replied. “He's your main obstacle to absolute power, after all.”



The kyuubi withdrew into the the back of its cage. Naruto stayed behind, confused and at a loss. He opened his eyes and was back with Sasuke, Killerbee and Killerbee's girl-friend.

“How did it go?”

“Not well,” Naruto admitted. “It flatly refused when I asked him not to turn up during sex.”

“But he talked to you when you spoke to him. That's a good result for your first attempt.”

Naruto was not so sure.

“Tomorrow you talk to him again. You'll see, with time he will be more open to what you have to say.”

Naruto didn't feel like it. Even this short conversation with the kyuubi had exhausted him. However when Sasuke seduced him the next morning (having sex was better than studying for the entrance exam) Naruto talked again to the kyuubi before he was ready to engage in more than tender caresses. He talked to it only for a few seconds, just to tell it that he was going to have sex now and that he wouldn't need its chakra. He was conscious of the kyuubi during their whole love-making and his orgasm lacked in intensity compared to other days, as he could not let go as he did normally, but he was better prepared when the kyuubi tried to take over after orgasm, and he was able to talk the kyuubi into withdrawing instead of pushing it back into its cage.

“I could kill him off easily now,” the kyuubi said. “Then you'd be rid of him.”

“I don't want to be rid of him,” Naruto replied. “Actually I enjoy making love to him.”

The kyuubi was crafty and malicious and Naruto doubted that he'd ever be able to cooperate with it. Yet even as it was he was more confident than the day before. Sex was more complicated than without being aware of the kyuubi all the time, and convincing it to withdraw was still difficult, but he no longer feared that he wouldn't manage, which was a huge step.

When Naruto opened his eyes he saw that Sasuke had been watching him all the time and that his Sharingan was activated.

“You took much longer than on other days,” he said.

“I talked to it again,” Naruto answered.

Sasuke caressed his hair and the whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks.

“Next time just warn me.”

 

A/N: Thanks again for your reviews and your plusses! You can find my answers at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/14965-blessed-realm/ .It is now possible to access the thread without registration at the forums.