"To be honest, we've been here for a while now... long enough for Kurama to tell us what he knows about you, Damon."
A soft female voice finally broke the silence, drawing Damon's attention toward the Two-Tails.
Matatabi.
"At first I was skeptical. Honestly, I thought you had put some kind of genjutsu on Kurama to fool him," she admitted. "But everything changed once he showed us part of your memories."
One of her tails moved toward Damon and gently brushed his cheek as she began to purr.
"You're interesting. When you were among the Uzumakis, you taught them that we were sacred beings, and that they had to do everything they could to protect us from human hatred."
Damon tensed slightly at that reminder. He still remembered how close his own wife, Mito Uzumaki, had come to killing him when he first suggested capturing the Bijuu and sealing them inside humans. Even now, he still had no idea how he had managed to convince her.
"Your plan for peace is insane," Matatabi continued, "but I've seen with my own eyes how humans have started putting their hatred aside just to survive this war, turning sworn enemies into brothers."
Then she smiled.
"I believe in you too, Damon."
Damon looked at the Bijuu in surprise. Truthfully, he had expected them to hate him because of their miserable situation. After all, they had been locked away simply for existing, punished for being strong. But as he looked at each one of them, every single beast seemed to be smiling at him in its own way. Some were stranger than others, sure—like Shukaku, whose smile looked more sadistic than anything else, or Son Gokū, whose looked more proud—but all of them meant the same thing.
They trusted him.
Kurama placed a hand on Damon's shoulder before speaking.
"Damon, if you fall, I fall with you."
A yellow claw settled on top of Kurama's hand.
"Then let's crush them, runt!" Shukaku's excited voice rang out.
"Count me in, Damon," Matatabi said affectionately, placing one of her paws over Kurama's.
Damon frowned a little at being talked to like a child, but decided not to make a big deal out of it.
"I'll be your shield, br—" Isobu began calmly, placing a paw on top of the others.
"Do you all realize I'm older than every single one of you, right?" Damon cut in, trying to defend himself.
Nobody paid him any attention.
The great red monkey added his hand to the pile.
"Show them who's boss, Damon," Son Gokū said proudly while looking at the blond.
At least he doesn't talk to me like I'm nine years old, Damon thought.
"I think I can speak for all of us when I say we trust you, Damon," Kokuō said before placing her hoof with the others, followed by the remaining beasts.
"And here I thought you'd be the one to meet the man that old fool talked about," Gyūki's deep voice rumbled as he was the last to place his hand with the others.
Damon raised his fist and bumped it against Kurama's palm, feeling the chakra of every single Bijuu beginning to flow into him.
"Kurama... this is different."
All the Bijuu raised a brow at that.
"The Juubi is going to be completed, and right now I'm not strong enough to face its jinchūriki..." Damon let out a frustrated breath. "Damn it. If I wasn't stuck at ten percent of my divine power, this would be a different story. Twenty percent... if I could just use ten percent more, everything would be a lot easier."
"That's where I come in, Ashura."
Another presence finally made itself known inside Damon's mental space. It was not that he had been hiding. Damon had simply been too focused on everything else to notice him.
The second he heard that voice, one he could never forget, he turned so fast it looked like his neck might snap, making sweat appear on the newcomer.
"F-Father?" Damon asked in complete shock. Then he immediately pointed at him like he was accusing him of a crime. "Were you the one who dragged me in here?!"
Now it was everyone else's turn to sweat because of how violently Damon's mood had shifted. Even Hagoromo ended up with more sweat on his face than he would have liked because of one of his son's ridiculous reactions.
"Calm down, Ashura. I had a reason for bringing you here."
Damon tilted his head in confusion while staring at Hagoromo, who only gave him a small smile. No matter how many years passed, or how many names he used, he was still the same at heart.
"Come closer... Damon," Hagoromo said, earning a nod from the blond.
Damon did not hesitate. He stepped forward as if he were seeing what a father should be like for the first time in his life, because honestly even Kronos, useless as he was, had managed to be less annoying than Zeus. But the old sage's next actions threw him off. Hagoromo raised both hands, and Damon copied him without fully understanding why.
Then their palms met.
The moment they touched, Damon understood.
Yin and Yang chakra came together in perfect balance.
Damon pulled his hands back and stared at his own palms. On the left was a black marking in the shape of a crescent moon. On the right was a white marking that looked like a blazing sun. The amount of chakra now flowing through his body and through the environment around him was overwhelming. He had felt power like this before. He knew chakra was something to respect, something that could make a person terrifyingly strong...
but this was on another level, far above that.
Slowly, Damon lifted his gaze toward Hagoromo, and at that moment he felt it.
Something bad was coming.
To call the chill that ran down his spine a shiver would have been an understatement.
He felt his blood turn cold.
Damon looked at Hagoromo, who seemed to know exactly what he was thinking.
"My mother is about to awaken. It doesn't matter how much you try to stop it, Damon," Hagoromo said, his voice serious.
Then he placed a hand on the blond's head and gently ruffled his hair while a real smile appeared on his face. "But I want you to know something. No matter what happens, and no matter what you choose... I will always be proud of you."
Hagoromo began to fade from Damon's mental space.
Damon smiled, even through the tears in his eyes, and thanked the old man for everything.
>>>>
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