Another path

Kurama's dream

At the beginning, all was dark and silent. It couldn't feel or see anything, everything was blank and numb and sad and frightening. No identity nor will, just a vague consciousness too dim to process any of its surroundings.
Then in a flash- it wasn't anymore. Fractured and individualised into nine figures who stood naively. Wisdom yet no experience, love yet no connections. A paradoxical existence that was born from the will and power of a sole man. And for what sake ? The salvation of his people.

That's what the Bijū were. Existences - not even life as their beginning and end were not defined by birth and death - that served as protection for humankind. It could have been sad. It could have been ironic. Yet it only was beautiful. Kurama could only find it beautiful. She found her Father beautiful. Perhaps because she was a child at heart but she couldn't help it. The grace and the wisdom of the Sage bewitched her and Kurama wouldn't want anyone else to be her parent. He raised her siblings and herself well yet was unable to prevent the conflict between his sons.

Shūkaku called that His one mistake but Kurama disagreed. She always disagreed with her little brother, finding him brash and loud. However, if she was to be objective, he was right on this one. Hagoromo had failed to explain to Indra why his view of strength was wrong and that caused their family's downfall. But Kurama adored her Father and it went far beyond reason. To her, He would always be right and fair. She had embraced His ideals and philosophy and was proud Asura did too.

When Hagoromo told them he would soon depart, she couldn't prevent tears from running down her cheeks. It surprised her how even Shūkaku and Son Goku got worried when they saw her cry. Kokuo nodded as if she understood. Of all of them, Kokuo probably was the wisest after Gyūki and Kurama herself. She knew her older sister loved their father to the point of adoration where she and the others never got quite the same feeling. Despite the Rikudō giving metaphorical birth to all the Bijū, Kurama was the one who seemed to take this idea of parenthood to heart the most. Maybe because she was the first born and viewed the entirety of the Bijū as her family. Shūkaku, Isobu and Gyūki didn't seem to share this view and considered them more of a group of partners. Son Goku, Matatabi and herself thought the whole group to be a family of sort with Hagoromo as a caretaker. As for Saiken and Chōmei, they were a bit of an enigma. No one could really tell what they thought most of the time.
But the thing was that, out of the entire group, Kurama would obviously be the most affected by Hagoromo's death.

It's not because you know something will happen eventually that you are ready for it. Kurama wasn't ready to feel Hagoromo's chakra vanish. She couldn't ever be. She took it upon herself to let his memory and ideals be carried through her and her siblings. However, she saw the world sink into violence and war with the very invention her Father had designed to bring peace. Chakra used to spit fire, harness waves and spark electricity, all meant to kill your fellow human being rather than understanding or working with them. She tried to stop it. She was meant to stop it. Yet she failed her f'Father and became a weapon instead of an help and it tore her heart apart that her very existence would become a betrayal to Hagoromo's wishes. She refused to live like this and began to enforce righteous behaviour.

But Kurama was no fool. She knew that her own ways were corrupt and that violence would only bring more violence. And much like her siblings, she soon found herself feared and detested and forced to defend herself. Hatred and resentment grew in her heart as she started to loathe both herself and humanity. The last straw came when Asura's descendants, once peaceful and wise, lost sight of the origin of their conflict with Indra's children and they began to mindlessly massacre each other.

It was all so bitter and disgusting and pathetic. Then one day, she met that child, Suisei. A rejected Senju, part of a branch that lost their life force and abandoned after her family had been decimated by the Uchiha. A lonely child. Kurama couldn't bring herself to hate children. They were the product of their circumstances, innocent souls caught up in the madness of their elders. She took pity and offered the little girl a part of her chakra. She saw hair blazing red like flames and a boiling chakra mixing with a blue one. The child hugged her gigantic figure, trying to encase the front leg of the Kitsune with her tiny arms. Kurama didn't realize how much it meant. It only dawned on her years later why the Uzumaki loved and revered her as their Mother. She had casually given up a piece of herself, a pice of her very being. And Suisei had realized so and told her children and grandchildren of this so that all the Uzumaki knew the greatness of their origin.