"You know, while I waited for my death after that accident, I was prepared for a lot of things." I smiled bemusedly, "meeting the God himself, repenting for my sins, or even being sent to hell and meeting the devil." I chuckled.
"Of course, I could see myself being tortured too, after-all, my old job wasn't much saintly." I murmured, but my voice wasn't low enough for no one else to hear.
Lowering myself, I folded my legs and sat on the top of water seemingly floating on it. In front of me were steel bars that divided the space I was into two parts. The bars itself looked endless, neither could I see how far it reached to the sky and unfortunately I didn't have a skill to see below unclear water.
But what I was talking to wasn't the bars, it was with the monster that the bars were holding behind, like a cage. If it wasn't for the cage, my body would have been shredded into pieces like a paper.
"What's up Kurama-chan?" I waved my hand, "Fancy meeting you here."
The monster before, it was hard to describe him as a fox. The only part resembling a fox was it's face but just by looking at it baring it's fangs at me, I discarded that thought.
'Foxes aren't that expressive.'
"You're not the brat...How did you get in here?"
Kurama glared at me. It's nine tails were floating behind him sending a shiver down my spine...or at least that is what would happen normally. If it wasn't for the bars I would have a big black tailed beast bomb coming at my face.
"hmm, that's a question you'll have to ask this thing right here" I pointed at seemingly nothing on the air, that's what it looked like to the fox. "But I doubt you can see it, can you?"
I waved my hand through the bluish semi-transparent screen that I was too familiar from reading all the manga and watching anime.
[ Name: Naruto Uzumaki
Age: 12
Species: Human
Abilites: Shadow clones, taijutsu, memory sharing
Passive Skills: Parallel processing, body mutation(in progress)
Current mission: Survive(Failure will lead to death.) ]
A crease formed in my brow as I looked at the 'memory sharing'. That was the last hint I need to confirm that me ending up in this body wasn't some accident. It was clearly well planned and executed.
'Oh no! Who would have thought that failure to survive would lead to death?' I sneered inwardly.
As for my unusually calm nature, it was all thanks to 'parallel processing'.
[Parallel Processing: Allows one to process and sort out information at high speed. Also helps in keeping the unwanted emotions in check if the host's life is at risk, so as to improve the chance of survival. Also neutralizes any mind or memory manipulation.]
*Grrr*
Kurama's growling snapped me out of my thought. That was the one side effect of 'parallel processing', I got lost in my thoughts too frequently. This was for the tenth time I had ignored Kurama.
'Thank god these bars exist, sighh...'
"Oops, my bad" I smiled with an apologetic face. "I would love to show you the full picture but Sasuke outside is about to pass out and we both would end up dead after that."
This was the mission that system gave me. While I was laying unconscious here, Sasuke and Kakashi were fighting Haku and Zabuza outside. Though it was still a mystery how the original Naruto ended up dead. As far as I could remember, he was just unconscious originally.
'Sighh...'
Putting aside all the problems that I was going to face after 'surviving', I gathered all the memories I had about the 'fourth great ninja war' and separated the few specifics ones that the fox would be very interested in. Specifically the ones related to the guy known as 'the ghost of uchiha' and 'ten tails'.
Using the memory sharing skill, I transmitted all those to Kurama.
'According to skill description I just need to think about it and it'll happen.'
[Transmission of selected memory fragments...1%...2%...3%...]
*GRRRrrrr*
I looked at Kurama, his legs were shaking. After few seconds, he couldn't hold himself. With a thud sound he fell on the water surface, his heavy body producing ripples all across. But even the ripples were forcefully dismissed and couldn't reach me.
'Well, I guess it's working?' I wryly scratched my cheek. 'Hopefully, he gets more distracted my the memories rather than the pain.'
A few minutes passed in awkward silence as I kept staring at Kurama and the screen before me.
[...50%...69%...75%.....88%....99%...]
"What was that, human? Kurama raised his head. His voice was lingering borderline between confusing and threatening. It seemed that the memories shook him to the core.
"If you don't explain right now, even the seal won't keep you safe" He muttered with a slight hiss at the end but it was clear that he wasn't just talking. Chakra started overflowing, passing through the same seal that blocked almost everything.
'Finally!'
I screamed inwardly but still maintained the calm smiling face on outside. If I showed a moment of weakness all the plan I had would go haywire and I'd end up dead.
"I don't mind, but we need to survive first." I flashed a cheeky grin, "And for that I might need your help" I pointed toward the red chakra all over the water surface.
Kurama's eye flinched for a second as he realized what had just occurred. But he visibly calmed down in a matter of seconds, after all he wasn't alive for more than a thousand years for nothing.
With a soft grunt, he lied down with his head on his arms looking away from me.
"Do whatever you want."
I couldn't help but chuckle.
'Although he says that, the chakra flow isn't decreasing.'
The original Naruto was able to tap into Kurama's chakra because he was confused that Sasuke died. But since I wouldn't feel anything even if he had passed away, I had no other choice than to manipulate Kurama to make him help me by his own choice.
'Well, time to wake up. I really hope I haven't gone rusty...'