A Subtle Shift

4| In a New Light

"That woman back there," Kurama continued when Naruto didn't say anything. He walked at a quicker pace, only one destination in mind.

"What about her?" he responded out loud since no one was around to hear. His tone was upset, but also dabbed with some irritation. He didn't get why people couldn't get their heads out of their asses and try to get to know Naruto. To get to know Kurama.

"She... she was your mother's sister. I'd recognize that red hair anywhere. You've seen her before, remember? A year back when you pretty much spent your entire 15th birthday sulking and depressed."

Naruto had already frozen. "My mother's sister? What? You said you knew nothing about my parents!" He whirled onto his heels, seriously debating whether or not he should go back and chase after that woman. If she truly was his mother's sister, she could have answers to a lot of questions Naruto had wondered about his entire life.

"I lied, mostly to protect you," Kurama growled lowly, but calmly. "I wouldn't have told you if you hadn't met her just now, but now that she knows you're alive, this could mean bad news. You need to know about who your parents are. Prepare to hate me afterwards."

If Naruto wasn't afraid of being spotted by more resentful villagers, he'd have darted after the woman, but he pathetically didn't. It was almost embarrassing—being afraid of a handful of words and a bunch of stares. Naruto almost felt the urge to throw himself over the edge of a bridge at the very thought.

Naruto was mad at Kurama, but hating him was almost impossible. His jaw clenched, too stunned to open his mouth and speak, so he thought back instead.

So? Who are my parents, then?

"*"

By the time Kurama had finished, Naruto had made it back to his bunker. He hadn't said a word—just silently walked as Kurama replayed the story of everything that had happened up to the sealing of the Nine-Tails into the Jinchuriki.

Naruto's throat felt dry. His eyes stung with tears as he bent down and felt the ground, before feeling the latch of his bunker. He twisted it slightly before discreetly lifting it open.

The familiar sent of books and grass filled his senses as the relief of being back home flooded him. He slipped inside, walking down the stairs before reaching up and locking the latch door from inside.

His bunker wasn't too large, only having been made for one, but it was sustainable. The metal that Naruto had spent so long gathering posed as his roof, floor, and walls, but he made it more homey by adding pictures and rugs. The second he entered, he was greeted by his desk facing the wall to his left.

It was hard to get electricity for light, cooling, and water for showers, which was honestly the longest process of making the bunker in the first place, but he later found that a singular zap of his (well, Kurama's) chakra into the wires was enough to keep his lights and refrigerator working for a week. As for the water for showers, he managed to connect his pipes and sewage system to the village's river and wasteland (which took almost a year).

Naruto's bed sat a few feet from his desk, neatly fixed as a rug laid under it. His bunker consisted of two rooms: the first one containing his bed, desk, refrigerator, stove/microwave, a small table, two cabinets, and a bookshelf. It was sort of a bedroom-kitchen. The second room was the smaller of the two, it being the bathroom. A door connected the two.

To be honest, Naruto only knew how to build this because he managed to steal blueprints to a one-bedroom apartment and tweaked it a little.

He slipped off his shoes and stuck them in the shoe rack next to the stairs that led down into his bunker. He gulped heavily, his throat parched, and he was still fighting every nerve in his body not to cry.