20 Revelations

Naruto, after his battle and subsequent unconsciousness, found himself once again inside his mind space, this time, however, it had turned into what appeared to be a Shinto shrine. He walked up a stone stairway covered in moss and under the red gateways, with his fox ears bouncing on his head. At the top of the stairs was a huge open space of about 200 x 200 feet with a giant open-walled shrine and inside it was Kurama, in a much more succeeded form of a human female, if you took away the fox ears and long, flowing tails. Naruto walked into the shrine and looked at the lounging fox "So, female?" Kurama laughed, not in the booming voice of before but in a sultry feminine one, "This form is so comfortable! How would I not choose it, only a fool would willingly want that obnoxious bundle of nerves that get squashed whenever they sit down!" She?/he? exclaimed matter of factly. "But anyway, enough of that, the reason I called you here is to give you another of the sealed memories." As she/he ahhh fuck it, she said this she flung a bulb of light of her fingertip and it shot into Naruto's forehead.

The first thing he saw was fire...a burning world. A beautiful mountain city with a granite stairway with gold archways carved directly into a mountain, going all the way to the top, was now covered in blood and bodies. He saw men and women with small white wings on their backs, pinned down and had their wings cut off as they wailed in pain. Men and women cried as they were whipped and beaten. Women were being raped and the men castrated. The children were used as cupbearers by fat men sitting on thrones that watched all of this while swirling their wine in their golden goblets. Naruto didn't know why he was so angered by this, more so than seeing something so heinous, he felt a connection to these people.

It was then he saw two soldiers one in white armor trimmed with gold and the other in dark black steel from head to toe. The two soldiers flanked a young woman and brought her down the bloodied steps of the mountain, she had beautiful blond hair that went all the way down her back and seemed to flow behind her, her pure white was toga was marred by blood. On her head was a crown of silver and gold, and as the crying and beaten men and women saw her they, despite their agony, all bowed down to her and screamed as one "MATRIARCH!" They seemed to shake the world with their ravaged voices. The woman stopped and moved her eyes over the men and women that called out to her, she then looked down to her arms, which clutched the body of an infant, gold hair the same as her. She brought the infant into a hug as she whispered into its ear "You are made for greatness, not to be slaughtered like an animal, live, Barak!" as the words exited her mouth, Beautiful pure white wings sprouted from her back knocking the soldiers away. She drew a circle with her finger that seemed to open a portal of light, she placed the infant inside and then the portal closed leaving her standing there alone. A tear fell from her pure, blue eyes as five more sets of white wings.

She was then covered in a white light that soon encompassed her entire form, shrouding her. She looked to her former subjects as she screamed "I vasileía ton angélon kai ton andrón!" which the men and women echoed through their pain. As soon as the voices had ceased, the light enshrouding the woman exploded outward and all the people it touched turned to dust. In less than a second, the woman, all her subjects, and all the invaders ceased to exist as even the blood and fire was erased.

It was still and quiet. Naruto had unknowingly fallen to his knees in shock, he felt sorrow as if he had watched his family died in front of his eyes. No, they did die in front of his eyes, he could feel it in his soul, he knew who they were and he was overcome by rage and sorrow as he cried, his tears turned to blood. As he was still crying he watched as the scene shifted to that of a thick forest where he saw the infant that the had seen in the woman's arms was laying in a patch of grass, crying. He watched as a white light covered the child, he saw the trees and grass grow and sprout flowers and vines. He watched as soft flowers grew under him as vines extended from the trees and wrapped around him into the shape of a circle with a side cut out, and with the infant inside it on a bed of flowers. When all this finished, the baby stopped crying and a few moments later he saw a man he had never expected to see, appear in front of the child. Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage. The man walked forward and picked up the child and then vanished.

The view switched once more to the child, but all was blurred and he couldn't make out anything other than their gender and age. When he looked at their faces his head hurt, so he stopped trying. He watched as it seemed to enter fast forward, he watched the child slowly grow as those around him went from young adults to old white-haired men and women. He then saw them be replaced by new men and women. This repeated many times until the infant had grown into a child of about five years old. It cut to him in a classroom, arguing with a girl with red hair, the scene abruptly came back into focus and he could see clearly the surroundings. It was then that Naruto realized. this is his father, Minato Namikaze and the girl in the crowd is Kushina Uzumaki.

The scene then jumped once again to a now grown Minato and Kushina, fighting off the Kyuubi with Naruto on a pedestal. He watched his father grow two sets of white wings and suddenly his form was covered by lightning as he charged the Kyuubi and fought it to a standstill. It was then he noticed the form of the Tobi and Minato rushed forward and slapped the man out of the air, at the same time placing a contract seal on him, wrestling the Kyuubi from its control. Tobi, after saying a few words, fled and left them to fight the Kyuubi. He watched as Kushina used her adamantine chains to incapacitate the Kyuubi as Minato flapped his pair of wings to hover in front of the fox. He glanced at Kushina, who nodded to him, he turned back to stare into the eyes of the fox.

Naruto watched as the top left wing on Minato's back slowly caught on fire and burned into his back, leaving a scar. The wing was replaced by a ball of light that flew into the Fox's forehead. Another two wings burned as a shinigami appeared behind him. The vision abruptly stopped there, but Naruto knew what happened next. Minato chose to take the deathblow meant for Naruto, but he didn't know Kushina would leap in front of Kurama's claw too instead of tightening the chains, which he chastised her for doing the same thing as him. before they both died.

Brought back in front of the Kyuubi, crying, Naruto felt a sudden warmth as Kurama had brought him into her embrace. "I regret that day. I just wanted to live free and alone. But humans sought me out as a weapon. I resented the men that sealed me and I resented my hosts. I was so overcome by rage, but then I saw the memories that your father sealed inside me after I was sealed inside you and had calmed down. and I made a promise to not fight against you for at least your short human life. But then I saw the memories of your heritage and then the memories after you took over this body. and I decided to follow you and protect you, you are worthy to stand beside. I am waiting for the day you stand at the apex. You may even be able to one day remove me from your body without you dying. " She said softly. Naruto laughed through his tears, "You were doing good but then you had to add on the last bit there to ruin the speech."

"Shut up." She snapped, biting his right fox ear, earning a yelp from him "I can have my own wish!" Naruto just nodded. Kurama let a small voice "I can put my faith in you, right?" She asked slightly unsure. "You can," Naruto said leaning back to look into the now bewitching face the fox had come up with. "And you know, I think that since you've been slowly turning yourself into a female, I think Kurama is a bit too masculine, do you mind if I suggest a name?" Naruto was secretly hoping she didn't snap seeing as the sage named her and is kind of like her dad. The ears on top of her head twitched as she said: "Sure, not like you can come up with anything good.." Naruto just smiled as he said "Since you put your faith in me, how about, Shinko. I can be your faith and you can be mine." After he finished he blushed a bit at his wording but put his mind off it.

'Shinko...' Naruto watched awestruck as a blush spread across the fox girls face and couldn't withhold a gulp which didn't go unnoticed by her as she blushed harder while thinking "What is wrong with me? I'm a millennium old demon and I'm getting embarrassed by a 12-year-old human?!" She suddenly blurted out "F-fine, I'll allow you to call me as such, mortal." Before quickly releasing him and going back to her mountain of pillows and covered herself in her tail as if it were a blanket. Naruto smiled as he stood up and spoke to the fox pelt blanket, "Well, I should head back, I'll talk to you later." Right as he was about to leave he heard Shinko say "From now on...From now on, when you go to sleep, come in here to talk with me, you can do that...right?" She asked in a small voice. Naruto blushed a bit as he said: "Y-yeah, I'll talk to you tonight then, Shinko." With those words spoken he disappeared from the mindscape.

Shinko let out a breath as she hugged one of her tails and whispered to herself "Shinko...Such a stupid name... but I like it...Shinko" She kept repeating the name to herself while giggling and thinking, maybe not being alone, isn't so bad after all. "Shinko..."