Something Precious

Chapter Fifteen

The sealed gates in front of him were huge. This room wasn't like the one that they had gone to to get the Nine Tails. This room was not a place of strength. It had the same grey walls as the rest of the mindscape and water coated the floor. The aura coming from behind the bars was terrifying, it could cause even a jounin to start shaking in his boots. There was only one word that could describe it - bloodlust.

But there he was. Naruto Uzumaki at sixteen years of age, faced the creature behind the seal with not a hint of fear. The killer fox narrowed his eyes in suspicion of what the kid could possibly want.

"Hey Nine Tails. Evil glare as usual huh?" the teen greeted cockily.

"Naruto, what do you want?" the fox growled lowly before pausing as if noticing something out of the ordinary. "Where is he?" he demanded.

"Where's who?" Naruto inquired in a tone that suggested he already knew but was asking anyway.

"Where is the real you?"

"The real me? I'm right here?" as he spoke the boy's feet rose from the ground. He floated up to the seal. His fingers slipped under the paper placed on the gates and this time as he went to rip it off no one stopped him. The Nine Tails growled in a way that showed his suspicion. Naruto pulled up his jacket revealing his bare skin and the black seal that decorated his stomach. He bit on the hem of his jacket to keep it up then shoved his right sleeve up above his elbow. His finger tips glowed blue with chalkra and black markings like the ones that made up his seal appeared all down his forearm in the shape of a key. His hand went to the seal and twisted, just like that the seal came undone and the Nine Tails was free.

The beast burst from his cage and roared loud enough to burst their eardrums.

"Remeber Naruto - the Nine-Tails is a hateful being." Master B's voice filled the air. "Be careful, you may have defeated your hate but you could still be consumed by his. What you have to do is grab his chakra with yours and pull. It'll be like a game of tug-of-war, it could go either way, really it's a battle of wills. I'm sorry but I can't help you anymore it's up to you now."

"I got it. Thanks Octapops." said the memory Naruto before he gave his undivided attention to his tailed beast. The fox roared again.

"You think you can take my power?! Me the most powerful of the tailed beasts?! No way!" he yelled. He brought his tails together so they made a circle. Blue and red chakra orbs appeared and they collected into one dense ball which the beast then swallowed. He pointed his muzzel towards the boy infront of him, he opened his mouth and from it shot a blast that could level an entire forest. The boy jumped back as the force of the blast destroyed the room around them.

A large purple hand came up infront of the teen and blocked the blast so it wouldn't harm the boy. "Thanks Octapops." Memory Naruto said again.

"How dare you work with the jinchuuriki of the Eight-Tails, you the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails!" the giant fox roared. "Shameful!!"

But the Uzumaki wasn't listening. Since his physical body was completely still he could collect nature energy and he entered sage-mode. "Sage art: Giant Rasengan!!" he shouted loudly as a giant blue ball of spinning chakra formed above the blonde's up-turned hand. He then drove the powerful jutsu into the form of the Nine-Tails. Unfortunately the fox blocked it with one of his giant tails. His other tails began thrashing at the boy and it was all memory Naruto could do to dodge. The tailed beast was fast though and eventually managed to trap the teen under one of his massive paws.

"Did you really think you could beat me?!" the fox snarled.

The blonde smirked. "Yeah, I did. That's why I undid the seal." he said confidently. Three copies of him jumped out. One of them managed to grab one of the fox's tails and toss him so as he landed his stomach was undefended.

"Rasen-shirikan!" and then he threw it at the beast. It exploded and as the fox was recovering, memory Naruto grabbed his chakra with his own. "Now pull!" he commanded his clones, and the tug-of-war began.

As Naruto pulled something strange happened, the blue chakra that he was trying to free from the fox suddenly turned red and it rushed towards him encasing his chakra as well.

'I hate you!,
'It hurts!'
'I want to kill you!'
The whispered words echoed. They were the fox's hatred. Tortured screams rang out as a result of the beast's blood lust. The teen was put off by the familiar words of the self he thought he was done with.

Now it was the memory Naruto's chakra which was being pulled. The golden colouring faded from his eyes as his sage-mode was used up. The teen took no notice of this as the taunting consumed and slowly started to break his will.

"Just give it up, you will never be able to control my power. This is only a tiny peice of my hatred." old memories of when the villagers looked on Naruto with contentment in their blacked-out eyes played in the boy's head. One of his eyes turned black with a red iris and no pupil.

"No, stop it, just get out!" the teen yelled with desperation, his eyes pressed shut.

"It's okay Naruto, you can stay here." the kind voice of a woman rang out. Memory Naruto opened his eyes and the sewer was gone, instead there was a landscape of white and yellow pastel colours, and in the middle of it stood a beautiful woman with long red hair. She wore a gentle smile.

Naruto, Sarutobi, Inoichi and even Kurama, smiled at the familiar face of Kushina Uzumaki. Sarutobi and Inoichi realised that she must be Naruto's mother.

"Naruto." she said lovingly.

"Wait who are you?" he asked.

"Oh that's right, you wouldn't know. Well, why don't you try to guess who I am." Kushina offered. The memory Naruto's eye brows furrowed as he examined the woman.

"Wait I know who you are." he stated confidently.

"Figured it out huh?" she smiled at him.

"You're the Nine-Tails aren't you?!" he burst. The lady started laughing while clutching her stomach. Inoichi and Sarutobi joined.

"You think you can trick me by taking that form-" he was cut off by a punch in the head by Kushina. The watching Naruto rubbed his head and mumbled something like 'that really hurt.'.

"Wrong ya know!" the lady yelled and the two laughing men laughed harder.

Memory Naruto backed away rubbing his sore head. "You said ya know." he pointed in awe as it began to hit him who this woman might be.

"Sorry 'bout that. I was born impatient so I talk fast and some times weird thing come out. I try to control it but I slip up, like when I'm excited." she explained, indeed talking rather quickly.

"What does that mean that you're. . ?" he trailed off.

"That Minato. Did he really not tell you anything?" she questioned. "Shame on him. Anyways, that's right, I'm you're-" this time she was cut off when the blonde boy embraced her. He was crying.

"I've wanted to meet you for so long now mom." he said. His eye went back to normal.

The memory played on for a little longer and as they talked. But eventually the memory Naruto had to go back to fight the Nine-Tails. This time his will held and he won against the beast. He now had control of the Nine-Tails power.