Naruto put his arm across his body, loosening it with a quick stretch. He was standing on top of the open ocean, its waves swelling under his feet.
About fifty meters away, Kurama—his oldest companion—faced him wearing a different form than he recognized. She was grinning, baring her sharp teeth. Naruto lifted his hand, holding his fingers out straight. He dragged his hand straight down as if chopping the air.
"Begin!" he howled.
A second later, Kurama started looking a lot more familiar.
Her human body disappeared, turning into a hulking fox as big as the main Kuoh Academy building. She'd never been the type to take things slowly. The instant she transformed, a black ball formed in front of her face. She spat it like a bomb, while Naruto's fiery wings spread and carried him into the air out of its path.
The explosion in his wake sent water pluming into the sky. It was a good decision for them to take this offshore. He felt a little bad for the fishes though…
All the more reason to finish this fast!
"Here I come!" Naruto announced.
His wings fired him forward, Rasengans forming in each of his hands. He attacked Kurama's head, driving them against her forehead, where they exploded.
She didn't feel it any more than a mosquito bite. Kurama flipped her head, launching him up in the air, where one of her tails struck, hitting Naruto hard enough to shatter his bones.
His broken body was thrown back. By the time he arrested his momentum he was completely healed again. Grinning, Naruto created clones on either side of himself, sharing his grin.
"Let's go!" Naruto hooted.
Kurama was no dumb beast. Her eyes tracked him and his clones carefully. The response she chose was her favorite: brute force.
Tails slapped the water, sending up tsunamis as the environment was turned into an attack. The three different Naruto's whooped. They charged headfirst into the attacks.
The real one and one of his clones forced their way through the walls of water, taking a blow that cracked bones and healing from it just as fast. The third clone was carried away by the wave it faced, washed underwater, where it disappeared.
Naruto stopped his flight beside one of Kurama's flanks. His clone did the same thing on the other side. He used hand seals so fast his fingers blurred; his clone created a magic circle, calling on hellfire.
Kurama was attacked by the elements against both her flanks, but her fur was like armor, and the attacks didn't break through.
She created another tailed beast ball. The black circle swirled menacingly, bigger this time than the first one. As quick as it was created, she brought her jaws down and swallowed it.
That only lasted until she opened her mouth, firing a beam that cut the water all the way down to the ocean floor. She whipped her head around, dragging the beam over both Naruto and his clone.
Phenex regeneration was seriously a cheat code. Naruto didn't even bother trying to dodge. He allowed his body to get vaporized, his clone doing the same, and they both reformed closer to Kurama.
They landed on her head. This time when they attacked, they pooled their power, wind and fire mixing to create something more deadly. The attack was focused to the width of a spear, burning as hot as lava. It actually made Kurama twitch.
"You're fighting like a bug!" she roared. Her voice was deep and shook the marrow inside his bones when she was in this form.
Two of Kurama's tails came together in an attempt to crush him, clapping against each other. Naruto was too nimble, though. He loved flying with his new wings. As soon as he had been able to, he pushed them to their limits, learning how fast he could go and what they could do. He was grateful for those hours of daredevil flying now.
Naruto weaved between Kurama's tails and even sped through her wicked teeth at one point. He could hear her growling, even feeling the vibrations.
As her frustration mounted, Naruto turned sharply toward her head. As he traveled, there was an abrupt surge of energy, followed by his eyes changing to resemble those of a goat.
"Big Ball Rasengan!" Naruto shouted.
His sage mode empowered attack was on a different level from everything he'd used so far. Kurama wasn't ready for it. She remembered the difficulty of gathering natural energy and hadn't given Naruto any chance to stop and collect it.
Naruto could only grin, glad that his third clone had paid off. After letting itself get dragged underneath the water, it meditated and gathered energy for him, then dispelled itself. The clone Naruto was fighting Kurama with also disappeared, giving the original all his natural chakra to use.
The massive Rasengan hit Kurama's snout and blasted her back so hard that she reared up on two legs temporarily.
"YOU—" Kurama bellowed.
Her snout was stinging, but she created another tailed beast bomb and swallowed it, soon spitting a beam at Naruto as he came in with a repeat attack.
Their energy met in a massive explosion. Kurama was knocked further back, her feet sliding across the surface of the water. Naruto's body was less durable and took serious damage, only for his body to heal again. He was grinning.
They started trading punches like two towering heavyweights who'd given up on ducking, weaving, or guarding. It was a slugfest. Explosions rocked the ocean all around them, columns of steam curling off of the ocean and massive waves being sent sloshing away from the area. He was pretty sure this went on for hours.
Naruto didn't use clones. Instead, they rammed their might against each other tirelessly. Mostly he used Rasengans, but occasionally he'd launch elemental attacks, mixing wind and fire and using sage mode to lend the techniques even more power.
Kurama growled and cursed and roared about crushing him… But he had a damn good read on her. He probably knew her better than anyone, and he could tell the way her fox lips were turning up in the corners meant she was enjoying this.
Soon, they came to the climax.
Naruto's smile was tinged with a little bit of a grimace as his body ached, specifically his reserves of chakra. As strange as it was to admit, he didn't have an endless battery anymore the way he used to back in the elemental nations. Close to endless, definitely, but his fighting style involved dumping out attacks like candy that would leave Kakashi exhausted from using them once. Almost every move Naruto had would've been a trump card to another ninja, even most of the kages.
His magical power helped him make up for this. On that front, Naruto still felt good. Plus, with sage mode active, it wasn't like he was out of juice. He could still pour everything into this.
They didn't have to speak for them to understand that all the cards were about to come down.
Kurama lowered her head, howling. Her tails all came up while a dark ball formed in front of her mouth: one more tailed beast bomb. Above all nine of her tails, other spinning circles appeared. That made ten total, and Naruto's eyes briefly widened.
"New trick!" he said.
"IT'S MY TURN TO LEAD!" Kurama bellowed, confident in the result of their bout as she released her attack.
Ten black beams shot forward, traveling at an angle and meeting up, combining into one massively deadly concentration of nearly infinite chakra.
His spikey blond hair blowing around on his head, Naruto grinned. He met the attack in the middle with his own.
A howling to match Kurama's started up, originating from his hands. On one side, wind shrieked as it formed a ball full of untold amounts of wind chakra. On the other side, a similar spinning ball appeared, but this one roared with fire, its heat strong enough to evaporate the ocean far beneath Naruto.
He flew straight into the beam of Kurama's attack, bringing his own spinning balls together, more than doubling their size as the complimentary natures formed a unified front.
"Phenex Release Rasenshuriken!" Naruto screamed. His words could barely be heard over the sound of the clashing forces.
The grinding force of his attack met the utter destructive force of Kurama's attack. In his last life, Naruto had to throw Rasenshurikens to avoid obliterating his own body.
Here that didn't matter! If he tore himself apart, he'd burn back as good as ever. Naruto pressed in, ignoring the pain of his limbs getting ripped up, healed, and ripped up again. He was grimacing now, but still had exhilaration in his eyes.
The black beam threatening to eat his body was driven back.
In the same way that his body was getting grinded up, so was Kurama's attack. He was eating ground, driving it back, and forcing his way forward progressively.
This distance shrunk. Kuarama tried to pour on more power but couldn't. She'd already given it everything she had, just as Naruto was giving this every bit of his grit and strength.
"Let's… Be… FRIENDS!" Naruto howled.
He broke through the last of the attack, striking Kurama's face, and he watched those huge fox eyes go wide seconds before the detonation.
The explosion of Naruto's attack ate away most of his body. Like always, he came back… Though he could feel his magic power was almost at empty because of the sheer amount he poured into his last attack. When it ran out, his regeneration would disappear.
Luckily, the giant fox in front of him had disappeared first.
Kurama was back to her redheaded form with the kimono on her body, falling toward the water. Her kimono was flapping around her body, showing lots of legs and glimpses of what lay between them.
Not that Naruto was looking. He swept down on his wings and scooped her up… Only to run out of magical energy. His eyes widened as they tumbled toward the water.
Luckily, they were only ten feet up when he'd caught her. They landed in the water, which jolted Kurama back to herself, and they broke the water, Naruto swimming for both of them with his arm around her waist.
A second later, now that they were ready for it, they channeled chakra (the dregs of it, in Naruto's case) and found themselves laying on the surface of the ocean, both on their backs.
"I can't believe this," Kurama grumbled.
"Believe it!" Naruto said, calling on a catchphrase he hadn't used in ages, laughing as he did.
Kurama scowled. She mostly looked angry at herself for having set him up for that. He heard her cursing under her breath.
"Fine. You're the boss again, brat. A deal is a deal," she said. "BUT!"
Kurama turned on her side, poking Naruto on the nose. She was pretty, Naruto noticed, with her hair glistening in the sun the way it was.
"If we're doing things your way, you better not let your life be boring!" Kurama said.
Naruto stared at her blankly until Kurama demanded: "You have a problem with that?"
"Kurama… It's me," Naruto said. "When has my life EVER been boring?"
Kurama stared at him. "Good point," she said, sounding a little grouchy but also eager. "I've heard good things about the underworld. They say it's packed with strong beings." She sighed, suddenly sounding a little dreamy. "I wonder how they taste."
"We're not eating the satans," Naruto said, crossing his arms.
"For now, maybe not," Kurama said.
Naruto sat up, looking at her lounging on her side, spaced out as she imagined feasting (presumably) on Ultimate Class Devils. His friend had changed a lot on the outside, taking the form of the redheaded beauty lying in front of him, but Naruto couldn't fight down his grin as he looked at her. Kurama was back.
And they weren't about to be separated again.
Naruto held his hand out, a chess piece appearing in the air above his palm. It had a distinctive crown built into the top of it, making the piece look fancier than any of the others Naruto possessed.
There was no doubt in his mind as he offered his Queen piece to his first and original partner.
"Until the end of time or when the last spark sputters," Naruto said, closing his eyes.
Kurama lifted her head, staring at him with furrowed eyebrows at the change in his voice.
"Through hot and cold, danger and peace, sin and succor, fly at my side. Burn my enemies and warm my friends. Serve and be received. I name you Queen, the wings that will see me fly."
He opened his eyes, finishing the chant he had been taught when welcoming servants into his peerage. It was superfluous; the evil piece was powered by intent not words, but his mom made him memorize it all anyway, instilling the ceremonial importance. Each pillar clan had a different one that they called their own.
"Damnit," Kurama cursed, understanding what she was in for when it was all laid out like that. Still, she looked at Naruto and didn't have doubt in her eyes. "Yes. Do it."
Naruto passed the piece to her where it sank into her chest.
Kurama closed her eyes, going still for a second. When her eyes snapped open, the self-proclaimed king of beasts had been reborn.
As a devil of House Phenex.
"Should we get back?" Naruto asked.
Kurama looked at him and sighed… But he caught a flicker of a smile.
"Let's see how this works," she said.
Her body disappeared, turning into red energy that flowed into Naruto. He grinned as he felt power seep into him. His body was cloaked in chakra. Now that the two of them were united again, unlike when he'd been bossing her around in front of Vali, the energy wasn't an ugly red.
It was bright gold.
Like a sacred gear, Kurama's power materialized on his body. The physical symbol of that power appeared on Naruto's forehead.
Looking at his reflection in the water underneath them, Naruto stared at what looked like a Konoha headband from back home, only instead of Konoha's symbol it was the Phenex Clan's crest: a jagged orange image of a phoenix with its talons beneath it and wings raised.
His smile only getting bigger, Naruto turned his attention toward the horizon.
He vanished in a burst of speed.
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