Kurama felt his consciousness awaken and was greeted once again by the pain caused by that accursed brand. After living for centuries he knew that humanity were far greater monsters than he would ever be but actually branding a six year old boy; Kurama never really thought something like that would happen before his eyes. 'If Naruto suffers another brand I don't think his mind would survive. I can't let that happen,' Kurama was shocked with himself for that thought. He suddenly realised it was true but not just because of the deal he and Naruto had made. Having watched Naruto's life through his eyes, Kurama knew exactly how much the village hated Naruto. The boy, bless his soul, not understanding why but determined to never give up in spite of it had earned a small portion of Kurama's respect. Knowing that his natural healing had started the second the brand had left Naruto's skin, Kurama figured that the biggest threat to Naruto was his own mindset.
'I have to teach him nature transformation now. I can't worry about over stimulating his brain or setting lofty goals if he loses a fight. With enough skill he might even be able to shield his back from that brand.' Kurama thought heavily.
"Naruto," Kurama began, looking down at the small boy still curled up on top of his left paw. "You have to wake up. There are things I need to teach you and we don't know how much time we have before your next fight."
Naruto stirred, stretching out his body with a wide yawn. His eye's where still shadowed in pain but nowhere near as bad as before. Naruto was in deep thought, 'When I got branded, it was the worst thing I had ever felt. When I got to my mindscape though, the Fox also looked like he was in pain. Does that mean we are more connected than he said? I guess it would explain why he wants to make me stronger but why didn't he tell me? Lack of trust I suppose, I still don't fully trust him but if we are going to be working together we should at least be friendlier.'
Finding out that he quite liked the idea of having a friend, Naruto looked at the Fox and asked, "Hey Nine Tails, I know you're gonna tell me to shut up but just hear me out okay? I think I can sort of understand you now. You had your freedom taken away and got locked up just like me. We are both thought of as monsters but that's not the case. If we are going to work together we should treat each other a little bit nicer. I guess what I'm really trying to say is, do you want to be my friend?"
There was silence throughout the mindscape. Naruto was still looking the Fox in the eye, hoping he had said the right thing. Kurama blinked and then gave a snort.
Kurama was amused. A human wanted to be his friend? Still, he had not detected any kind of lie or misdirection when Naruto made his offer. 'I highly doubt he meant best buddies. He is probably still suspicious of me, just as I am of him but he has a point. We are stuck together and I can't really keep calling him brat. I guess I'll give him my name but not the rest, he will have to earn the truth first.' Making up his mind, Kurama gave his response.
"Sure kid, my name's Kurama. Now that all the touchy feely stuff is out of the way, let's start this training huh? Most kids wouldn't be able to do this but I have faith in you."
Great!" In spite of the fact that he had just been branded, Naruto was smiling. "You're the first friend I've ever had. I know that I'm weak but I will become strong enough to protect my friends and that's a promise, believe it!"
Kurama could feel the emotion of the moment but chose to ignore it. Almost as if in after –thought Naruto said, with a slight smirk. "Oh and can you let my brand scar? I want to keep it as proof of my promise."
Kurama nodded before telling Naruto what he had wanted to say when he woke him up. "Now we need to move onto the next step of your training. The next stage you have to learn is how to mould my chakra into one of the five different nature transformations. This is quite hard but the results will be worth it. Basically, if someone with an affinity for the fire transformation used a fire jutsu it would be stronger and cost less chakra that someone without the fire affinity. I don't know your own nature affinity or how to discover it but that's not important yet. All you need to know is that I possess a Fire affinity and that I have already mastered it. I just have to train you so that you can use my chakra and nature at the same time. This might sound like a big shortcut but it will still be hard work. You and I both know that you have to master it and soon, otherwise-" Kurama trailed off knowing that Naruto knew to what he was referring to.
Naruto gulped, he knew that Kurama was asking a lot but he also knew he was right. He had to do this, he just had to.
〰️➿〰️
Naruto spent the next four days practicing Kurama's nature transformation. It was hard work and in that entire time Naruto could only make fire chakra appear on the palm of his right hand. It resembled a small unstable ball of fire flickering as if a strong breeze would snuff it out. Kurama also told him to try and walk up the side of his cell with chakra. At the start he couldn't even stick to it, but with continual practice he eventually managed to stand on the wall with his right hand aflame.
Naruto also inspected every part of his cell that he could reach. The walls were solid and the steel bars too strong for him to budge, even with Kurama's chakra gloves. There was no way to escape his cell and he had no chance of beating his captors when they fetched him for his fights. Naruto would just have to keep doing what he was told for the moment until he had a good chance for freedom. 'If I had managed to trick him into freeing me, the cell would have no hope in keeping me here but now I am sworn to help Naruto and freeing me now would kill him."
Kurama knew that he had skipped a large chunk of Naruto's actual ninja training. It would've been far easier if he could teach him ninjutsu but he didn't know how. Using hand signs to cast a flame would be infinitely easier than dropping him into the deep end and starting with nature transformation but Kurama couldn't do that; he had no idea what the actual hand signs looked like. On the plus side, if he did manage to escape and get back to Konoha, Naruto would be the strongest six year old in the entire village. He would pick up their teachings in ninjutsu faster since his chakra control would be at a higher level than others his age.
The injury suffered from the brand was healing slowly. It still hurt a lot but in four days Kurama had managed to heal it as if two weeks had past. The mark itself was nothing special, just a plain circle four centimetres in diameter located roughly two centimetres above his left kidney. In order for the mark to scar, Kurama was forced to slow his healing factor down to a crawl.
The sound of his door being unlocked caught Naruto's attention. He looked towards it and spied Akari looking back at him with a sadistic grin.
"Hope you're feeling better brat, it's fighting day for you,"
Naruto swallowed, he didn't know if he had trained enough for another fight. He also knew that Akari would not give him a choice in the matter, so he sighed and walked over to his door, following Akari all the way to then into the pit.
Naruto could see his opponent across on the other side. It looked like a twelve year old boy with an ugly scar running down the left side of his face but apart from that he was utterly unremarkable.
"Naruto, do you want me to take control here? I do not believe you have trained enough yet," questioned Kurama.
"Let me have at least a minute or two. If I'm going to get stronger I will need to fight my own battles and not rely on you to save me," Naruto replied, a touch sombrely.
"Okay but remember what we discussed. Surprise and speed without exposing yourself."
Naruto eyed his opponent with a grim expression.
"FIGHT!" the announcement for action came through.
Naruto breathed out spreading out his legs evenly and raising his hands up. Naruto was watching his opponent charge towards him. Waiting until his opponent was almost upon him Naruto concentrated on his right hand and fire burst into life in his palm. He thrust his right palm forward into the chest of his opponent with as much speed and strength as he could manage without losing his balance. The older boy screamed in pain and backed away several paces, clutching at his chest in agony. Naruto could see the indent of his strike seared into skin.
Not letting this opportunity go to waste, Naruto stepped forward and grabbed the other boy's face with his burning right hand. Cries echoed throughout the underground arena as Naruto scorched his opponent's eyes. Stepping back as the blinded boy started flailing about randomly; Naruto flanked the poor boy and started choking him to death with his left arm wrapped around his throat. A tormented choking could be heard as the boy desperately struggled to breath. Sub-consciously, Naruto's arm relieved some of the pressure. Despite his earlier resolve, killing another boy had affected him too deeply. However, Naruto only received a painful elbow to his ribs for his moment of mercy. Steeling himself, Naruto choked the boy even harder than before. Even with the nails digging into his forearm, Naruto didn't let up on the pressure and the boy's life slipped away.
Naruto let the limp body fall away as he stepped back. The all too familiar feeling of disgust rose inside him but Naruto quickly shoved it away, into the dark corner of his mind. He couldn't afford to fall apart now, not when he actually had a friend to lose. As Naruto continued to suppress his emotions, a distinct numbness started in his hands and feet. Naruto didn't really pay it much heed, 'Perhaps this is what strong people feel? Lack of feeling makes it easier to fight.' This new sensation wasn't physical; it was all mental as a result of Naruto giving himself physiological damage as he suppressed his feelings of disgust, sadness and anger.
Kurama himself was disturbed. 'Perhaps all the suffering Naruto has endured broke him? Or these circumstances are forcing him to become a colder person? A boy of six shouldn't be having these kinds of thoughts. I did promise to make him stronger but at what cost? Will the boy who wouldn't let sadness stop his smile have to die so that we don't have to undergo any more pain?'
Kurama knew that these kinds of questions would never be answered but he still could not help but feel regret at the death of Naruto's innocence. "I have to ensure that he doesn't become some kind of crazed cold-blooded killer, who wipes out life without a second thought."