Chapter 31

Hope you enjoy, words and stuff woo let's...bleh. I have a headache, my image of Ozpin has been spun around like a top, and above all else...I've run out of Pepsi Max Cherry! But whatever, I hope you all enjoy! Please do consider hopping over to my pat reon, I'd really appreciate any support you can give me.

Also...this one may make some people stop reading. I changed the seal, so Kurama is going to have a physical body, but I think people might get pissed off at how exactly I handled it...so, sorry in advance if you decide to stop reading, but I like cute things, so fuck it, fuck you, and fuck Kur...hmm, wait no, this isn't Hana Nanashi...damn.

Also don't actually fuck you, have a hug instead!

Chapter 31

"...Why can't you just bring me normal trouble, Akari-san?"

Grinning unrepentantly, Akari just shrugged, waving her hand around. "Well, if I did, what would break up the boredom of doing...that-" She gestured at the paperwork adorning the Hokage's desk. The piles and piles of horrendous paperwork. "-for endless hours every day?" The old man had to concede the point in that regard. "Besides, this isn't as bad as some things I could have come up with. I just want you to look over it so if anyone complains I can say I got your approval to shut them up."

The man looked over the seal again, the many sprawling and crisscrossing lines quickly making the attempt at deciphering the seal merely an exercise in futility. "Akari, if you could please explain what changes you've made, that would be a good start." Akari frowned, looking over her own seal with a quirked lip, trying to pick where exactly to start, then doing as she normally would and saying fuck it to the whole thing.

"Basically, this seal uses the same Eight-Trigrams Seal Minato and I used to seal Kurama within me the first time. Of course, since this time Kurama is willingly going to enter the seal, we don't have to use the Shiki Fujin to seal him. But...I may have added a few things, just for convenience. For example, the first Eight-Trigrams was made in a major rush, so we didn't have time to really modify it. This one...well, with it, pulling Kurama's chakra through my coils should go a lot smoother. I still have to acclimatize to it, but it won't take so much to actually use his Chakra any more."

Akari watched as Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe. "I see. And what other features might this seal have?" Akari bit her lip. She knew that to an extent she could trust Hiruzen, since he knew about her unique circumstances but didn't pressure her. But it was still hard to trust him, since while he liked her, he had Konoha's best interests in mind, not Akari's and certainly not Kurama's.

"Uhh, I guess I may have slipped in a feature to let Kurama leave the seal to an extent." Hiruzen's only reaction was a slight raise of his eye-brows, a testament to both his control over himself and the fact that he trusted that Akari had an explanation. Which she did. Just as soon as she thought of it. "The idea is that he can send a small stream of Chakra out of the seal to form his own, albeit far smaller, body, then his consciousness could be transferred to it. This would let him experience the world again even as his main body is still within my seal. If that body was destroyed, his consciousness would simply re-emerge with his main body...or at least, that's the theory."

Hiruzen let Akari stew for a moment, a pretty good way to get some time of his own to think on what she'd said. While he was contemplating her changes, Akari was already thinking of the next seal she was working on, her Kage no Te. It was pretty much already made, she just had to make sure it wasn't going to cause an exacerbating feedback loop of Chakra, which would end up ripping her forearm to pieces.

That one she didn't have to explain, but since Kurama was, well, Kurama, she had to get the seal checked out by Hiruzen. "Akari-san, I trust you know to not abuse this trust I place in you when I say that you may use this seal?" Akari blinked in confusion. "You and Kurama share a connection possibly stronger than the Eight-Tails is rumoured to share with his Jinchuriki. As long as you are still defending Konoha as you have been, I see no reason to deny you this."

Akari resisted the urge to leap over the desk and hug the old Kage in appreciation, that wouldn't go down well with the ANBU currently in the room. Instead, she settled for the most earnest and genuine bow she could muster. "Thank you so much Hokage-sama! You haven o idea what this means to both me, and to Kurama." Hiruzen smiled in a grandfatherly way, his pipe being used to gesture towards the door.

"Well, I'm sure you would rather not keep Kurama waiting any longer than necessary?" He chuckled when Akari nodded, then spun around and Shunshin'd out of the office as quickly as she'd arrived.

"THANK YOU!" She yelled over her shoulder.

"So, ya know what to do?"

Kurama rolled his eyes. She couldn't help it though, even after going over the plan several times, she still felt like she hadn't taken enough precautions. This was Kurama she was talking about here, if anything went wrong, it would utterly kill her. "I know what to do. I know so well, in fact, that I could recite it in my rest." Akari shrugged unrepentantly, a pair of Shadow Clones kneeling beside her and drawing out the seal in tandem.

She had one singular shot at this, which was why she was almost burning a hole in her own abdomen with her Sharingan, making absolutely sure her seal was perfection itself as her clones drew it out. She then had to compress what had been written, otherwise it would never all fit onto her stomach. The seal key had already been written and given to Bao for safekeeping with her summons. That was the safest place for it after all.

And unlike the key for her old seal, she could actually damn well access it. The Eight-Trigrams key was held by the toads, which meant she had to rely on a toad summoner, Jiraiya, to retrieve it. This way, only she had control over her key, since no other panda summoner existed. "I'm sorry boo, I just really don't want to fuck this up, y'know?" Kurama huffed, and though he put his head closer to Akari, he made sure not to nudge or distract her or the clones.

"You know, you really don't fit the mould of human any more..." He muttered idly, and though she tried to hide it, Akari let a little bit of hurt slip into her expression. "Not like that." He chided softly, his eyes meeting hers fearlessly, even with her Sharingan swirling in her eyes. "You are the...second human to ever treat me kindly. To even consider my own well-being." Akari's eyes widened unconsciously.

"You mean...?" The giant fox nodded. He was talking about his own...'father', the Sage of Six Paths himself, Hagoromo. Akari grinned. "So, you reckon I'm getting as good as he was at sealing?" Kurama looked over her for a moment, frowned, then tilted his head to the side in serious contemplation. "Wait, Kurama, I was joking..." But the fox snorted, shaking his head.

One paw came to a stop above her, pointing at the nearly-completed seal. "Only my father would have been able to modify an already-convoluted seal such as the Eight-Trigrams, made over dozens of generations of Uzumaki Seal-Masters, to grant me a corporeal form outside of the seal. You are not at his level yet, but I can't think of another being capable of such a feat."

Akari stared at the fox in disbelief. Sure, she regarded herself as a damn good Seal-Master thanks to the extremely high proficiency level she possessed, but to be known as only inferior to the progenitor of Chakra itself? That was...a bit much. Then again, after Minato and Kushina died, she hadn't had a single real Seals User to compare herself against, what with Jiraiya being out of the Village all the time.

Her proficiencies were certainly bullshit in that regard though. She'd never really measured them, but it was like with every level, she just somehow gained knowledge she shouldn't have had. For example, compressing seals. She never actually read a scroll on how to do it, yet because her Proficiency was so high, she just somehow knew. Perhaps it was like how someone originally had to come up with the idea. She could skip grinding levels and try to use it, but she wouldn't know if she got it right or wrong.

Though then she thought about her Sharingan and realized she wouldn't have not noticed that sort of thing, but by that point she got a headache and gave up trying to apply logic to her Game. Her two clones dispersing may have had a hand in that, since that told her they were done, as did the influx of memories, both of them having concluded that the seal was actually finished. "How's it look?" She asked casually.

Kurama snorted, shaking his head. "How would I know? I'm not a Seals Master." Akari stuck her tongue out at the giant Bijuu, looking over her seal with Sharingan active, making sure then doubly sure that every portion was absolutely perfect. If this fucked up, there was no going back.

"Okay...I think we're good to go. So-" Kurama cut her off.

"I know what to do, please don't explain it again." Akari shrugged, waving her hand at the seal. Kurama reached his paw over and placed the tip of one claw against the smooth black lines, closing his vulpine eyes. "Just for the record, if you die from this, I'm ripping the Shinigami apart, pulling you back out, just so I can send you back again in more pieces for being an idiot, got it?"

Akari grinned and nodded. "Gotcha!" Then she felt the same burning feeling as four years before as Kurama's Chakra entered her seal. It was far, FAR less agonizing than before, presumably because of her acclimatization to using his Chakra. It still hurt, but it was bearable. It also seemed to flow far quicker, probably because Kurama was willingly pushing his Chakra into her seal, rather than being forced into it.

She felt a lick of Chakra already begin funnelling through her coils, the seals 'Familiar' function already working to form a far smaller, cheaper form for him to inhabit. But since Kurama had to push all his Chakra into the seal first, all it was doing right now was fizzling out as it tried to form a body, but failed. She saw Kurama getting noticeably smaller as he had less Chakra filling his form, which was admittedly quite funny, even if she was too pain-ridden to actually remark on it.

Then, it was over...just like that. "You good Kurama?" The fox muttered an affirmative, his Chakra already pressing through the seal and into her coils, leaving her with a permanent sensation of burning in her body, like she'd been exercising. It honestly felt great, and since she knew it was actually helping to attune her body to handle Bijuu Chakra, it was worth being in mild pain.

"Now then, let's see how this goes..." A spike of Chakra threaded through her seal, flowing through her Chakra coils to emerge from the Tenketsu on her fingers, jumping away and forming a blob on the ground, which quickly took the form of a fox. It only had one tail, far less conspicuous, and while she could sense Chakra from it, it was far less than she had just felt stood beside Kurama. "Well, this is...unexpectedly pleasant."

Akari bit her lip while Kurama inspected his new 'familiar' body, then tapped her foot when he spun around, finally throwing her arms up in the air and turning away. It wasn't fair. Animals were just so cheating, they were too cute. What she certainly didn't need was for Kurama to then clamber up her back and sit astride her shoulders. "Kurama, seriously?" The fox tipped in agreement, then put his head on top of hers.

"Onwards Noble Steed!" He yelled, yipping with laughter.

When she got to Konoha, to say the populace were surprised at her new companion was an understatement.

There were some yells that the Demon had come again, conveniently forgetting how Kurama had sat beside Konoha Hospital for several days without damaging anything too badly. But mostly it was just general surprise, especially when Kurama actually spoke to them, even if he was rather rude. There were a few far more innocent children who darted forwards and practically begged to pet him, which was just pure adorableness. What was funnier though was that Kurama, after of course acting pompous, let them do so, and even as he tried to hide it, Akari knew he really enjoyed it.

Thanks to her Sharingan, it was now a memory she would never forget, no matter how much Kurama tried to pretend it never happened...and that he didn't purr when one of them scratched a sensitive spot between his ears. But aside from being cute, Akari knew that Kurama was actually doing something quite sneaky. Being seen with children petting him would almost immediately make people raise their image of him in their minds.

If he snapped at them and drove them off, then, of course, he'd be seen as little more than a rabid animal. Granted, being seen as an adorable glorified pet wasn't that good either, but it meant there were far fewer people willing to openly slander him or Akari, so that was good. Not that many people did so any more anyway, not after several years of Akari serving Konoha extremely efficiently, then Kurama's second visit to Konoha being far less violent than his last visit. Four years wasn't a long time to forget such a thing, so unspoken anger still existed, but just through one small action, much of the hatred had dissipated into mere discomfort.

All thanks to a small group of kids who didn't really comprehend just how powerful Kurama was. Akari grinned at them, drawing their attention with the wave of her hand before spooking them by undoing the Henge over her stump, then drawing her other hand back around with some sweets that were in her inventory. That was one thing she realized would stop people staring so much, just having a Henge from her wrist which gave the illusion that she actually had a hand. It would only be necessary for maybe another week, but since it meant people only stared at her because they recognized her, it was still useful.

She reached her arm down to let Kurama climb back up onto her shoulders, smirking when all the kids made varying levels of awe at the inherent cuteness of a fox climbing someone's arm. It was an inarguable point, that kind of motion was cute no matter what...well, unless he was trying to claw her eyes out, maybe a bit less cute then. She shook her head of her silly thoughts and, after making sure Kurama was steady on her shoulders, walked up the side of a building, getting another wave of amazement from the kids before she disappeared over the top, hearing them all whine that the show was over.

Akari then started jogging home across the rooftops. It wasn't that she didn't want to interact with any civilians, it was just that right now, she wanted to get home. Sealing Kurama was pretty tiring on her Chakra system, so even though according to her game she had max Chakra, she still felt tired. Kurama yawned in her ear, so apparently he was tired as well. "Don't fall off bud."

The fox chuffed at her. "Don't think I can't just attach myself to you with Chakra." Akari raised her eyebrows, not having realized that he would actually know the wall-walking technique. Her face must have given her away because he gave her a deadpan look, which considering she was currently hopping across buildings made her stop and plant her hand on her thigh as she laughed.

"I swear I'm not laughing at you Kurama!" She quickly said when he actually looked annoyed at her. "Just...jumping around like that, then you looked at me, and...I just can't..." She said between giggles, Kurama chuckling awkwardly alongside her, which just made her laugh harder. She managed to get control of herself after a few moments of laughing, wiping a tear away from her eye. "Okay, let's just try to get home without something stupid happening again, yeah?"

Kurama just rolled his eyes and put his chin down on top of Akari's head.

Funnily enough, they managed to make it home before anything happened.

Of course, as soon as Akari came through the door she found herself ambushed from above and below by vicious assailants. One latched onto her waist like a limpet, the other coiled around her neck and flicked her tongue at Akari's face. "Could you two not let me make it two steps before this?" Naruto and Monty looked at each other, then back at Akari before both shaking their heads. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you two?" She ruffled Naruto's hair and extended her arm, watching Monty coil around down to her wrist then back up again so she was looking at Akari.

Well, at least close to Akari. It seemed Monty was feeling a bit defensive about the fox currently draped over Akari's shoulders, who looked no unbothered by the situation he might as well have just been a puddle. Then again, animals were pretty good at picking up things humans never could, so perhaps Monty knew exactly what Kurama was, even in a weaker form.

Or maybe she just didn't want anyone else laying claim to Akari. She rubbed the top of Monty's head, earning a lick of her tongue in return before the snake returned to glaring at Kurama. "You really couldn't stop these two?" Anko, from her claimed spot on the couch, just shrugged. "Well whatever. Thanks for covering while I dealt with this guy." She jabbed her thumb at Kurama, earning a light growl in return. "Touchy touchy."

She grinned when Kurama snapped at her thumb. "I'll show you touchy in a minute." Of course, then Kurama had to go and spook everyone in the room. Monty recoiled back down Akari's arm and onto Naruto's shoulders with a hiss, whilst said boy was backing away and staring at Kurama with wide eyes. Anko hid it well, but even she seemed a bit spooked by Kurama's deep, foreboding voice.

"Oh don't mind him, he always sounds like that." Akari just muttered, wandering over to the couch and, after letting Kurama walk down her arm and onto the back of the cushion, all but fell onto the comfortable material. When nobody said anything in response to her words, she groaned and dug her head from the half-buried position it was in to look around at the frozen faces of everyone else in the room.

Anko was the first to break the silence however. "Akari...so, every time...Kurama has spoken to you, he's sounded like...like...-" She articulated vaguely at Kurama.

Blinking, Akari just made an awkward noise in her throat. "I dunno, he sounds normal to me. Why, what does he sound like to you?" Anko and Naruto both shivered, Monty shaking her head in a similar way. "What?" Now Akari was genuinely curious.

"He sounds like he wants nothing but to tear us all to pieces. It doesn't help that his voice feels practically dripping with bloodlust." The Snake-enthusiast bluntly spoke. Akari made a pained rumble in her throat, looking at Kurama, who looked pretty nonchalant. Maybe that was why he got treated like absolute shit. To other people, maybe he always sounded like he wanted to murder them.

To her...he just sounded like Kurama. A bit rough around the edges, but under those harsh edges was the partner she'd trusted with even control of her body. He'd never broken that trust, even when he could have escaped. In her eyes, that made him worth trusting. And the fact that he didn't demand to know what the hell the 'Game' really was...

...it made her want to tell him all the more.

I'm sorry, this one kinda...meh.

Next chapter will hopefully be the last of these kinda annoying ones. I mean, I love adorable fox-sized Kurama, even if he is still a badass, but I want to get back into action. So, next chapter will be this, no if's or buts. If I fail to do these things, you can scream at me to fix it!

1. Deal with Shisui. It NEEDS to be done and over with. It also then ties her in with him, as well as Itachi. Don't forget the task the Hokage gave her all those chapters ago.

2. Her Shadow Hands Fuinjutsu. When she completes that, she'll have use of both hands again. And since it's a tool, not an ability, all Shadow Clones she brings to existence will also have a Shadow Hand. Think of it like a Kunai in that sense.

3. I forgot number three, but I'll update this when I remember it.

But please, PLEASE, tell me in the reviews all the things I've forgotten like a fucking idiot. I have really bad memory, and 99.9% of this story is in my head, meaning I really easily forget details.

I am re-writing a couple of chapters every so often. Not major re-writes, just fixes for stupid decisions. Did you know Akari was LEVEL FUCKING 9 in Fuinjutsu when she made the Golan Seals? NINE! What the fuck kind of drugs was I on to think that was high enough? So no, I have to fix things like that. I think level 35 is more reasonable. It also means her reaching the proficiency she's at now, only below the Sage of Six Paths himself in skill, is far more plausible. If she didn't take that 'Ink? Why Ink' perk in the beginning she'd be far weaker at it, but since she gets a 200% Exp increase to Fuinjutsu, learning it is a cinch for her.

I really hope you enjoyed! Even if you don't have a mistake to point out, please tell me if you enjoyed, if you hated it, if you were indifferent, I really love hearing those reviews.

Take care, and stay safe boos!

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 77

Age: 16

Experience: 65,945/77,000

To Next Level: 11,055

Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.

Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.

Health Points: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.

Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.

Strength - 70

Vitality - 60

Endurance - 60

Intelligence - 80

Agility - 161

Wisdom - 90

Luck - 60