Six Years Too Long

Chapter 35

Me? Finishing a book? Absolutely unheard of, yet here we are. Oh how the tides change! It felt right to end this one on Naruto's birthday. Happy birthday, Naruto! 

Without further ado, welcome to the final chapter of Six Years Too Long. Hopefully it's not majorly disappointing. I rewrote it so many times and it just-- never looked quite right, so fingers crossed

This is the longest chapter we've had for this book to date! Yay!

Third person pov

In the end, Kurama uses two of his tails to hold the gate shut. He winds them around as many times as they'll go, sealing the massive metal bars in place. He stays as still as he can manage, eyes drawn to the paper seal in the quiet moments between sleep and Naruto's visits.

It can hardly be called a seal anymore. Peeled off and hanging oddly, slouched over half of the way down and folded over on itself, it would take only the vaguest of nudges to open the gates and send his chakra flooding out through Naruto's system. 

It's a scary concept, the thought that he could accidentally overwhelm his host with his power with just a bump. Even if his chakra would never seek to harm-- not anymore-- it is still foreign, and Naruto is still so young. Kurama's power is corrosive all on its own, and it will continue to be until he can teach Naruto to properly harness it.

There's a special sort of melding that needs to occur for the pair of them to coexist without the seal between them, and the simple fact of the matter is that Naruto's chakra pathways aren't matured enough yet. Maybe in a few years from now, as he grows and exercises his reserves more.

It would be better if Kurama could continue to gradually leech out, to slowly diffuse himself until Naruto's body is adjusted. The same way he'd been doing so far, over time so that Naruto would be better ready to take on the highly concentrated level of energy he'd be shouldering once the seal fully opened. 

It could be dangerous if Kurama were to do it now. As nice as it would be to "rip off the band-aid", as humans love to say, harm could come to the kit. The permanent kind that he'd never grow out of, that even Kurama couldn't fix. It simply wasn't worth the risk.

He needed that damned Namikaze to get his ass in here and fix this mess. And therein lied the problem.

"Tell him." Kurama hissed out. Naruto was sitting amongst the flowers today, and apparently his hearing had turned selective, because he didn't so much as twitch at the sound of Kurama's voice. "I can't hold it shut forever. I could slip up, you brat, and then where would you be? Potentially braindead. That's where."

Naruto pursed his lips but didn't say anything, averting his gaze. Kurama grit his teeth together, glowing eyes going narrow. He had no idea why Naruto was being so stubborn about all of this. Never in their time together had the little brat had the audacity to outright ignore him the way he was now, blatantly and seemingly without reason.

Did he not realize the true gravity of what could happen to him? Without the seal, the bars were weak, even with Kurama holding the gate shut. If Naruto were to fall into danger again, Kurama's chakra would corrode through the bars at an accelerated rate if he tried to help, thus breaking the seal down completely. It was too dangerous.

Even now, it was risky. If Kurama let himself get too annoyed, his chakra could rise and cause further fissures to the already-damaged cage he sat in. He is a being created of pure energy, and it answers to the rising and falling of his own mood. 

Kurama is on the cusp. He teeters on a fine line, and Naruto's direct chakra pathways lay on the other side. One wrong step and his raw chakra will be injected. Still so little, still growing, the kit will not stand up to such a tidal wave of power. A little bit leaked through a strong seal to heal and save, Kurama can give, and Naruto will be fine.