Tender Sea

Chapter 2

2 years after - Konohagakure in the dead of night ...Naruto aged 9

Mindscape

"I'm pretty sure I'm not dying...so why the hell am I back here?" Naru asked, looking around the sewer-like area. It was exactly as she remembered except for an odd noise coming from the direction where the Kyuubi lay. "What is that?" She walked a bit closer and her findings surprised her, "A child?!" She picked up her pace and settled into a light run, "How could a kid be here?"

"Mama?" A small girl with dark red hair and thin white yukata turned to look at her as she entered. Her eyes were puffy from crying and she was still sniffling miserably.

"Sorry, but I'm not your mum." Naru sent the child a warm smile, "But can you tell me how you got here? Actually maybe it would be better if you came over here." She made a coaxing motion, trying to get the kid out of harm's way, more specifically on to her side of the bars.

"No! Mama said to wait here!" The girl was fairly determined despite the fact she had been crying so much.

"But you can't stay there, it's dangerous!" Naru exclaimed.

"Why?" Now she looked around the cage seemed empty to the blonde, but she guessed the fox could be lurking anywhere within its shadows.

"There's a monster in there." She answered, "Now come here."

"Monster!?" The child was paralyzed by the realization, "I don't want to get eaten!" She started bawling sending Naru into a flustered state.

"Shhh! Just wait a second and I'll get you out." Against her better judgement she ran up to the cage but a strange force seemed to prevent her from slipping in the wide gaps.

"What the hell is this?!" She figured if the fox could swipe at her then obviously she would be able to enter his domain but apparently it was wrong.

"Iyah! I don't want to die!" The kid was doing a good job screaming her lungs out but Naru couldn't help but wonder where the fox demon was.

"Maybe..." She looked up at the seal tagged onto the centre most bar, "Is that stopping me?"

"MAMA!"

"Just give me a sec kid!" If it was the seal stopping her then there was no way to save the kid unless she took it off. Then again wouldn't that be freeing the fox? "Hey kid," She paused and stared straight at the crying figure, "How did you get in there?"

"I dunno..." She sniffled. The more Naru thought about it the stranger the situation seemed. After all, they were either in her stomach, or mind, or the seal, but whichever one it happened to be...wouldn't that be accessible to only the fox and herself? "Ah...you figured it out..." The child's voice changed to something more guttural as it stood to face the kunoichi. Red eyes clashing with blue.

"Kyuubi!" Naru growled, "That was low."

"If it means my freedom, I am not below using a child's body." He answered simply enough. "Maybe this would have been better?" The child's form shifted into that of a beautiful woman with a slender yet very feminine frame, the yukata now hanging loosely off her shoulders. Crimson hair lengthened, falling in soft waves and pooling on the ground, also framing a deceptively kind face. To the blonde, the bloody colour of the fox's eyes seemed wrong on the woman. "My dear, Naru-chan." Even his voice had become softer, more mellow and...loving.

"I admit you make a pretty convincing woman." Naru acknowledged, "But I'm not going to be letting you out anytime soon, sorry Kyuubi."

"Not even for me?" The woman continued, "Your Oka-san?"

"Oka-san? What are you talking about? You're definitely the fox, don't try to fool me." The blonde replied.

"...So that's it," The fox responded, picking up on the girl's thoughts, "You still do not know, do you? Who your parents are and what they look like."