Two and a half years had passed since the day Damon left on his training journey with Jiraiya.
Truthfully, in terms of knowledge, Damon had not needed much training. He already carried far more experience than someone his age should ever possess. So instead of focusing purely on techniques, he used that time to adapt to his body, temper it, and strengthen it enough to withstand the strain that greater powers would bring in the future.
The burden of divinity was not something an ordinary body could endure. Neither was the overwhelming chakra Kurama constantly poured into the seal, but with Jiraiya's help and Kurama's cooperation, learning to control that new power had not been as difficult as expected. Eventually, Jiraiya trusted him enough to hand over the key.
His body had changed drastically during those years. The childish softness he once had was gone, replaced by a lean, athletic frame built for battle. He was muscular, but not excessively so. Every part of him now looked refined, disciplined, and dangerous.
During that time, Kurama had come to enjoy his conversations with Damon. The fox had always been curious about him. Damon had hinted at fragments of his past before, enough to make Kurama realize that his reincarnated life had not simply been about chasing peace. There had been far more behind it. Far more weight.
Eventually, once he felt comfortable enough, Kurama finally asked what had been on his mind for a long time.
"Hey, Damon… I've been wondering something. What exactly did you do during all those years in your reincarnations?"
Damon fell silent. For a moment, he simply stared ahead, thinking about how to answer. What could he even say? How was he supposed to summarize centuries of struggle, bloodshed, failures, and responsibilities in a few words?
After a while, he let out a small sigh.
"What can I tell you?" Damon said quietly. "Like I told you before, peace was always my goal. But peace is not something you just say and suddenly have. To create it, I had to build the conditions for it."
Kurama listened without interrupting.
"When I first arrived in this world, there were no great elemental nations," Damon continued. "There were only small countries, one after another, constantly fighting over land, resources….. They didn't know chakra yet, but they already knew war. Swords, spears… that was already enough to kill each other."
His eyes hardened slightly.
"Ashura helped me stop many of those conflicts. He truly did. But every time I put out one fire, two more would appear somewhere else. It was endless. And Indra…" Damon clicked his tongue. "Indra always found a way to get in my way."
Kurama snorted. "I agree. The Uchiha are always a pain in the ass, putting their noses where they don't belong."
A drop of sweat slid down Damon's temple. Even after all this time, Kurama's pettiness could still catch him off guard.
Still, Damon continued.
"At first, I thought the problem was simple. I believed that if I defeated the violent ones, protected the weak, and became strong enough to make everyone think twice, then the world would eventually calm down."
He gave a bitter smile.
"I was wrong. I should have realized that the moment I saw humans turn against Kaguya while she ruled..."
Kurama narrowed his eyes. "So what was the real problem?"
"The real problem," Damon said, "was people. Fear. Greed. Distrust. The moment people feared losing what little they had, they chose violence. The moment they wanted more, they chose violence. The moment they distrusted their neighbors, they chose violence."
He paused.
"And once chakra spread through the world… everything got even worse before it got better."
The fox stayed quiet now, listening seriously.
"So no," Damon said, "I didn't spend those lives just walking around talking about peace. I fought. I taught. I built. I destroyed. I made alliances. I crushed threats before they could grow. I guided clans. I corrected mistakes. And sometimes…" His voice lowered. "Sometimes I had to stain my hands so others could keep theirs clean."
Kurama stared at him. For once, the fox did not joke.
"…So that's the kind of peace you were chasing. Real Order"
Damon closed his eyes for a moment. "The only kind this world ever allows."
Silence stayed between them for a few moments before Kurama spoke again.
"So what? You just kept doing that over and over in different lives?"
Damon opened his eyes again and looked ahead. "Not exactly. The ultimate goal was always peace, but depending on who I reincarnated as, I had to take a different approach. It might not have been something global every time, but it still helped."
Kurama frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, for example, the Uzumakis. I reincarnated as an Uzumaki a couple of times. Once the clan decided to separate from the Senjus, I created an island for them. It cost me my life, but in the end it took the Uzumakis out of the equation in the conflict between the Uchiha and the Senjus. A three-clan war would have been far more difficult to manage."
"But even then, you know how that ended for them... and I still regret it to this day," Damon said with a bitter smile.
Kurama stayed quiet for a moment, finally understanding that Damon had not spent those lives chasing some impossible answer all at once. He had been building peace however he could, one place at a time.
"In one life, I was born into a noble family in a land that was always at war," Damon said. "There was no great nation there yet. Just samurai, feudal lords, proud clans, and idiots with too much ambition. They fought over land, rivers, roads, food… anything was enough to start bloodshed."
"So I changed my approach. I stopped thinking only like a warrior and started thinking like someone who actually wanted things to last. I built alliances where I could, destroyed the ones that needed to be destroyed, forced order on nobles who benefited from chaos, and secured roads so trade could move without getting robbed every few miles."
Kurama's eyes narrowed. "You ruled?"
"In everything but name," Damon replied. "By the end of that life, that land had finally stopped tearing itself apart long enough to become the foundation of what later became one of the great nations."
Kurama stared at him for a moment. "So you helped create the elemental nations?"
Damon shook his head. "Not directly. I laid part of the foundation. That's all. I was never arrogant enough to think one man builds a nation alone. But sometimes all a land needs is for someone to stop it from destroying itself long enough for something better to be built."
Kurama stayed quiet, so Damon kept going.
"In another life, I learned something else. War wasn't the only problem. Hunger was just as bad."
The fox blinked. "Hunger?"
Damon nodded. "Yes. People love talking about honor, justice, and ideals. But starving people don't care about any of that. They care about surviving, feeding their children, making it through winter. A sword can stop one battle, but it won't stop the next one if people are still starving."
Kurama's expression became more thoughtful. "So what did you do?"
"I focused on the land," Damon said. "I had canals dug, reservoirs built, irrigation expanded."
"I introduced better farming methods, taught villages how to store food properly, and built systems so one bad season wouldn't turn half the country into desperate thieves and raiders. Of course, I had to learn all of that myself first before I could start applying those solutions."
"In the end, small things like that make a difference. A lot of it was possible because of my understanding of nature energy. I'm sure even you can feel it in Konoha. That's why I created a forest big enough to help the land breathe easier. When nature is healthy, everything becomes easier."
"It would have been easier if the Shinto gods did not have that rule against interfering with the human world. They helped me train my immortal body and taught me about my domains, but when it came to human affairs, I was mostly alone."
Kurama understood that much. What kind of long-lasting peace was it if some small dispute could break it apart in a matter of days….
Kurama looked at him for a long moment. "You were really trying to fix everything."
"I was, and it ended up being really exhausting," Damon said. "Because every time I solved one problem, another appeared. Stop war, and famine shows up. Stop famine, and greed ruins distribution. Kill corrupt men, and ambitious ones take their place. Unite clans, and old hatred stays under the surface waiting for the chance to come back."
He looked ahead quietly.
"Peace isn't some final victory. It has to be maintained. That's why, once I finally bring peace here, I plan to make the gods rethink that rule about noninterference. I understand why it exists, but every now and then, a little divine pressure would save a lot of lives."
Kurama's tails shifted behind him. "And Ashura?"
Damon was quiet for a moment before answering.
"Ashura was one of the lives where I got closest to what I wanted. He had the heart to bring people together and make them believe in something better. But even then it wasn't enough. Not while Indra kept feeding pride, division, and superiority into the world. Alongside Black Zetsu."
"Black Zetsu? who is that never heard of that name??"
"It is a creation of the Juubi, or at least that is what I suspect. Something that has been moving in the shadows for a long time, manipulating Kaguya and others to create chaos and reclaim chakra. Even you were affected by that mess. Do you really think Madara acted alone when he controlled you? Even Indra was manipulated. There are too many things moving in the background, things even I can't fully control."
Kurama's eyes widened, clearly not expecting things to run that deep. "When you say it like that... it makes sense why you've spent so long trying to bring peace," the fox said slowly.
Kurama looked at him in silence. For once, there was no mockery in his gaze.
"You really did all that?"
Damon's expression darkened slightly. "No. I did what I could. And when that wasn't enough… I did what I had to."
The words lingered between them.
After a while, Kurama spoke again. "And after all that, you still kept trying?"
Damon let out a slow breath. "I learned that building peace was harder than winning war. War only asks for strength. Peace asks for everything."
Kurama was quiet for a few seconds. Then the fox let out a low huff.
"Hah… and here I thought you were just some stubborn idiot."
A faint smile touched Damon's lips. "I am that too."
Kurama let out a quiet laugh.
For a while, neither of them said anything. Kurama finally understood that Damon had never been chasing some childish dream of peace. He had been fighting for it, life after life... and even that had never been enough.
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A little something....
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