Naruto the Scarecrow

Chapter 2

Even as he sat in the shallow water of his mindscape, Naruto could tell that the Nine Tails wanted to say something but Naruto was no state to talk. 'I killed someone, another boy just like me. Did he want to be here, or was he forced to fight like me? I am the demon that people call me. I'm nothing but a monster,' Naruto had failed everything that he knew the Fourth Hokage stood for. 'Surely he never imagined that I would be such a bad person,"

Kurama could feel Naruto's distress. Although it wasn't pain and didn't affect him, Kurama knew he had to help Naruto through this otherwise he wouldn't be able to fight properly next time which would result in more pain for both of them. He had to say something; the only problem was that he didn't know what to say. Kurama had always enjoyed battle, relished the feeling of power and control. He couldn't really relate to his host's feelings.

"Naruto listen to me, you did nothing wrong. You defended yourself and that boy was going to kill you remember? If you had wanted to kill him that would be different but you didn't. Until I can make you strong enough to escape, this is our life now. Nothing will change that. Now remember you promised to get stronger and to protect us both." Kurama said in a rough approximation of a gentle voice.

Naruto heard the words and thought upon them. 'True, I didn't want to kill him. I did make that promise to help us both. I guess I should stop thinking about all of this.'

Steeling himself, Naruto suppressed his emotions down into a dark corner of his mind. It would do him no good to fall apart every time he was forced to kill someone and needed a way to get rid of this "weakness". Looking back up at the Fox, Naruto said evenly, "Okay, what did you have to explain to me?"

Kurama gazed down at Naruto wondering where to begin as well how much to tell the kid. "Alright Naruto, as you already figured out, I am the reason the village hates you. However; I did not want to attack your village or kill the Fourth but I was controlled by a masked man with a Sharingan. This man is now my sworn enemy and he will die."

Kurama paused for breath before continuing, "All you really need to know now is that I am stuck here. The seal keeping me in place is well designed and I have no chance at breaking it by myself. Therefore, I have decided to make you as strong as possible so that any enemies you face will know that they face the strongest Tailed Beast as well. My chakra will also heal your body when it is injured and prevent sickness. Any questions so far?"

"Yeah, surely when I die, you will be set free. Why would you help me get stronger if you could just ignore me and be released?"

"Kid, I have lived for a long time. I am pure chakra and therefore cannot "die" in the normal sense. What happens instead is if I use too much of my own chakra, my being is dissolved and it takes a few years for my chakra to recharge enough and I am "born" again. This process is extremely painful and I have absolutely no wish to go through that again. Anything to delay that pain is a blessing."

'I still won't tell him how I feel his pain as well. To suffer his pain than his death, as well as the continual suffering for the years as my chakra recharges, no way am I willing to go through that.'

Naruto slowly came to face down on concrete. Pushing himself into a sitting position he looked around and saw he was back in his cell.

Kurama continued, this time talking about his plan for training. "Okay, now chakra is the energy used by ninja's to fuel their jutsus. The most common form of this is the chakra formed inside one's own body. Demon containers like you can use your Tailed Beast's chakra as well which is particularly useful since all Tailed Beasts have large chakra reserves. I want your main focus to be on learning how to use my chakra. It is the easiest place to start since I can provide information you need to know and help regulate the flow. Now you need to understand that Tailed Beasts do not typically fight using ninjutsu. That's not to say we can't just that most of us never bothered to learn any. When we did fight we would simply mould our chakra into elemental form and unleash it with little restrictions. This resulted in lots of power but large amounts of collateral damage."