Chapter 24 - K

"There's a car outside and we've got some fuel from the ones we found on the highway. We should use that," Donna says after a tense moment, trying to reason with his husband but he's still noticeable frustrated. His emotions are almost shoved towards the others and the impotence and jealousy in there too is nauseating.

"… Okay," he finally says and Kurama rolls his eyes. He stands up and decides to wake Sophia up and start with her training regime as the conversation moves toward others topics. It won't be long before the humans will start calling the others into eating something before leaving and that'll cut her free time short.

Opening the door is easy to do when one is finally able to form a tangible chakra arm. Is not big or powerful, but solid enough to touch things and he will take whatever small progress he can.

The room has some books on the floor as he made Sophia read him some of what they found inside the house. The titles seemed interesting and now he has more knowledge about this world. He still doesn't know how to read the language even if he understands it so Sophia's been helpful in that sense. The encyclopedia holds the most useful information so he'll only take that one on their trip so she can read him while traveling as he didn't get much from that book because Sasha and Sophia were supposed to share a bed and once she entered the room for that purpose they had to stop.

Looking at her sleeping face makes him slightly guilty because it's early and it was because of him she stayed up late and didn't get a lot of sleep time.

Oh, well.

Grabbing one lonely pillow between his fangs Kurama throws it at the kid. It makes a thud sound when it meets her face but the only response he gets it's a long groan and then the pillow is being thrown lazily at him. He doesn't bother dodging as it won't even reach him.

"Come on, girl. Time to train."

There are more groans of protest before Sophia stands up five minutes later. She takes off her shirt and pants before starting with some light workout to stretch the body before slowly increasing the difficulty of them. It's not long before she starts with the tiring ones. Considering how she couldn't do a single push-up when they started and now can do seven well done without stopping, he would say she's improving. It's slow progress but progress nonetheless. He can't make her do the entire length of the regime the Academy makes the ninja hopeful do at her age yet, so he has to start with the routine designed for seven years old.

Forty-five minutes of training and fifteen minutes of cooling off later, she's sprawled on the floor, panting. He places her backpack in front of her and she opens it to retrieve a small cloth she uses to clean the sweat covering her body.

It won't do much but the house doesn't have water and they can't afford to spend the one that's inside her bottle. Though that doesn't stop her from scrunching her face when she touches her hair.

"My hair smells?"

"It stinks."

She frowns at him before sighing. "I know. But! I'm doing better, aren't I?"

"Can't deny that," he says slowly because it's not good exactly but he faintly remembers the other kids at the Academy (the civilian ones) advancing at her same pace. He's not going to judge her based on his own jinchuriki's when everyone knows biju hosts are stamina monsters. That'd be plain unfair.

"Next time we can start with light katas."

"Katas?"

"They're for you to learn some fighting forms."

Sophia instantly perks up, sitting up and ignoring her tiredness. "You'll teach me how to fight?"

"You can't learn enough to fight those walkers with the little time we have, it takes months if not years to learn a fighting style. However, I can teach you how to dodge to avoid scratches and bites so you can get an opening I guess."

"Really? Thanks, Nine."

She smiles at him before looking down and making an excited noise. Fist bump and all. However, she stops her languid eager movements to look at him with furrowed brows. "Wait. How are you going to teach me? You're a fox."

Huh. It seems he didn't think that far. Not that he's going to let her know that. He's stablished a kind of an admiration relationship with her and he kind of likes her awe at his knowledge and power. It's nice to not be called fuzzbutt and similar and be treated with respect for a chance.

"I'm a being made of chakra; I can alter my form to look human."

That's… true. He was born a fox but that doesn't mean he cannot change his form. It's difficult, actually. Not because it wastes chakra but the quantity of concentration he needs. However, he's been inside some humans and he's familiarized enough with some forms for it to not be so taxing.

With a deep, unnecessary breath, Kurama lessens his physical form. His defined features become bubbly and it's hard to not entirely let go and become one with the Nature energy and rest until he's strong enough but he manages. He forces himself to take another familiar form. He hears a small gasp and realizes he's closed his eyes. He opens them and sees Sophia looking at him in awe. This time he's taller and she has to look up.

"You look weird."

Kurama raises an eyebrow as he's used Naruto's form and he's not that odd-looking. Glancing to his left, he surveys his work, using the reflection of the window in the room to look at himself.

"Huh. Didn't see that one coming," he says touching his somewhat orange hair. It is blonde but there's a faint orange like his fur that seems to have bled through. His skin is probably a shade darker than Naruto's but he does look like him. A slightly older Naruto. And that's mostly because his features are sharper than the original. Though his face is more similar to the Fourth Hokage than Naruto, actually, and that kind of bothers him. Well, at least he doesn't look entirely like Minato. His eyes are red, and his fangs are larger. Naruto's whiskers are more notorious, too.