Work Text:
Kumo respects her jinchuuriki for the impeccable soldiers they are. Strong and patriotic right down to the bone, always willing to sacrifice body, mind and life for their homeland. And even without their Tailed Beasts, there was no one in the village hidden in the Clouds that could come as close to matching their beloved fourth Raikage in battle as Kirabe of the Hachibi, and the only one surpassing Yugito Nii’s spy network is that of Konoha’s Toad Sage.
Kiri‘s fourth Mizukage was a jinchuuriki and widely reguarded as a kind and benevolent leader before he began discriminating agaist bloodline clans. Furthermore, one of Kirigakure's most established seal masters and a respected veteran of two shinobi wars loved Utakata enough to adopt and train him after his parents died on what was supposed to be a simple courier mission. And Harusame was not the only one to love and respect their village's human sacrifices.
Iwas jinchuuriki are naturally reclusive, with the Gobi loving freedom and travelling more than anything and the Yonbi preferring deadly terrains in the volcanoes that harbour his element. They are respected for their prowess and dedication to their homeland, for no matter how far they might stray from their countries territories, when the Village hidden in the Rocks needs them, Han and Roshi will always answer.
Taki became so secluded from the rest of the elemental nations to protect her jinchuuriki from the cruel world that might want the seven tails for power, seeking to harm Fuu (or her predecessor of the Nanabi, her great-grandmother) in the process. Going so far as to make allies with one of the strongest of the Great Five, and allowing the beetle-utilising branch family of the Aburame Clan to relocate in an offering of goodwill, and in a plea for Hashirama to allow Chomei to stay where she has resided with the main family of the Aburame for generations already.
Gaara‘s mother and Rasa’s second wife had the chance to explain her thought process to the gold wielding Kazekage, telling him of her kekkei genkai that allowed her to give her life in exchange to command the sands to guard her child in her stead, for she had already been weakening due to her illness when she and Rasa met, and she would likely not survive giving birth anyway.
He tried to convince her not to use her bloodline limit, telling her that he didn't know if he could watch his second wife die as well, that the guilt of her death would weigh to heavy on their son's small shoulders, that already have to carry the weight of being the jinchuuriki to a ever poorer village. But she trusted her home and husband to love little Gaara enough to make up for the loss of his mother.
And with Kushina gone, there was no one there to teach Naruto of his ancestors, the only ones the Kyuubi respected enough to allow their chakra to hold him. No one there to teach him how he, as the Prince to one of the four noble clans of the Sage's blood, was on the same level with the Uchiha Heir, Hyuga Heiress and the Senju Princess. No one there to tell him that the Hyuga are honorbound to protect and care for him, as the other clan to descent from Ootsutsuki Hamura. But of course, if the Hyuga knew Naruto was Kushina's son, they would go to war over his treatment.
Who would, if there wasn’t even anyone to tell one of the Guardian's last descendants these facts, protect him from a village that does not know how to treat true royal blood anymore?
So even though Kurama is shaken and scarred and full of hatred for the cowardly kinslayer that waited for when Kushina was at her weakest to use him as a tool to kill a child of the Goddess's warden and a cousin, distant as the Uzumaki may have been to the Uchiha. Kushina still treated the ungrateful one-eyed brat like a son when his cursed family was to prideful to do so themselves.;
So even though, or maybe precisely for those reasons, he refuses to allow her child, so pure and full of sunshine and potential, to be treated like filth by those sad excuses of human beings, when in fact those heretics are looking at the closest thing to a demigod since Hashirama Senju, and he hasn’t even turned five yet.
So he calls for his kin, and tells Naruto to endure their hatred for just a little while longer, soothes his fears and uses his very own existence to keep the hunger at bay and the nightmares to a bare minimum.
And when the foxes, be they spirits, summons or ordinary animals, domestic and bred for hunting, tracking and fighting alongside humans, or wild as they come in the forests in the north of fire country where they cover the border to lightning and to earth, hear the Kyuubi no Kitsune call, they answer.
For he was the one of the strongest beings after Asura and Indra took down each other alongside the continent they fought upon. He was the closest thing to a God, stronger than all his siblings combined. And when a young vixen, born weak to her mother and of no use for her skulk sought him out, she did not ask Kurama for revenge, or a new family even though she would have well been within her rights to do so.
No, she asked for guidance, to the wolves or the coyotes or the jackals, that rejected the foxes from their territories and claimed the grounds of her family, for if she was not worth feeding she needed to fight for her family now, when she still had the strength of her last meal.
Or to tell her where to find the leopards or the panthers or the tigers, so that she could offer herself as a sacrifice, to beg for them to house her kin, or at least be gracious enough to allow them a part of their bountiful hunting grounds so that they may not starve to death.
For even after she was exiled, she loved her elder siblings too much to allow herself to let them die hungry.
When she came to Kurama with nothing but humility and the noblest of desires, he granted her a drop of his power, gifted her the ability to mislead even the keenest of senses, to outmanoeuvre the sharpest of minds and bodies, and to blend in seamlessly wherever her heart desired.
He sent her to be the guiding star for her kin, to lead them to him where he would create what humanity would one day call the realm of spirits and summons. He spoke to her, that even though she may have come to him just another nameless vixen, she shall return a powerful leader, strong enough to make her parents realise their mistake in abandoning her.
And even though he made her the most powerful of her kind, barring himself, she would later come to tell him and her own kits of how the greatest gift she received that fateful day when she sought out the kyuubi no Kitsune was not her power, but the name he bestowed upon her.
So when Kitamura, eldest of the fox clan, son to the founder Youko, the Kyuubi-named herself, heard the desperate cry for help from the one who created their home; The one who empowered his mother to escort all the foxes and wolves and coyotes and any other of the canine family she could find to the new summon realm;
The one who later gifted Kitamura the strength to look past the hatred that filled him when he caught word that his mother was on her deathbed, catching the blow meant for one of the youngest in the skulk, and avoid the war that would have erupted should he have retaliated and demanded the blood of their cousins, when he heard Kurama’s plead to aid his host who hurts with neglect and harm, who hungers in the days and shivers in the nights, even though he was surrounded by those who were supposed to be his kin, Kitamura answered.
He named a successor, and made the long trip to the human realm, through the cold waters of foxglove country, over the mountains of lightning country, through the forest his ancestors once called home. What he did not expect was that his kin would risk their lives alongside him, for most of them grew up with a mother that told them bedtime stories of fat rabbits and vast valleys, not of a God that gave her the Gift of Life itself like his own did. He would have been enough to get a kit out of the Village hidden in the Leaves, but his blood was not the only that thirsted for revenge.
They hid among the trees, spread the word through the land to implore their cousins be they ninken, summons, wolves or dogs to not interfere, only to be provided with the date and information of the so called “Kyuubi festival” in Konoha by not one, but two, of who Kitamura understands are some of the leaf‘s most ferocious fighters, a dutiful Inuzuka heiress and the bitter and vengeful last Hatake, two clans that have not forgotten that Kitamura's own cousins taught their earliest ancestors all they knew today.
The head of the fox clan had made sure they would know he would repay their kindness once the child and his tenant were safe where they belonged, with Kitamura their kin.
And so began the night that Konohagakure no Sato would later call the Kitsune‘s Retrieval.
Kitamura used his prowess and called forth the fog that Kurama once created to guard the entrance to the summon realm, that led those who would wish his kind harm astray.
He assembled his Kitsune and ordered them to seduce promised daughters, to fuck married men silly, to wreak havoc where no one was there to stop their onslaught and to show those that tried to interfere with their holy duty that which they fear most.
He called the trained ninkits to lead shinobi away from where they were needed, to lead them on goose chases through the most remote parts of the village, and to trap them where they could without endangering themselves.
He ordered the wild ones, those that were untouched by human and bijuu and spirit alike to feed on livestock and run to the ninken of the Inuzuka Clan and thank them for their cooperation in saving their own and ensure them that the fox clan shall not forget this great kindness for generations to come.
When the screams of fear, surprise and twisted pleasure alike pierced his ears, Kitamura and the most powerful among his brethren made their way to where they could feel their most powerful relative in all but blood.
They found him, guarded by the Hatake heir, masked to all but Kitamura‘s senses , curled up in his arms and looking with big eyes, full of confusion and fear and awe at their appearance. The last one of, in their eyes at least, one of the most noble of clans unmasked himself of the porcelain depicting the animal that some of his civilian clan members earned their coin breeding and spoke in quiet, soothing tones to the child.
He explained both their heritages, who he hosts (even though Naruto was already very much aware of the big nice fox in his belly, much to Kakashi's surprise and his early greying, were he anyone but a Hatake) and the ones who would come to take him to safety.
Naruto looked reluctantly between the parties before glancing over to where, on any other night, one might get a glimpse of the Hokage monument. He asked the eldest of the eldest summoning clan in existence, with all the authority and political weight only a child naive to the world could have, that he would only come if Kakashi-niisan was allowed to visit.
While the mentioned shinobi blanched and Kitamura’s escort snickered at the child’s insolence regarding one of the most powerful summons in existence, Kitamura merely scrunched up his snout in pretended distaste, before relenting on the grounds of Naruto driving a hard bargain for one so young.
The child grinned in response before hugging Kakashi goodbye and trudging alongside one of Kitamura‘s younger nieces towards the village gates. The fox elder stayed a moment longer, regarding Kakashi and searching for something in his eyes, his own narrowing for a moment when he recognized the sharingan in the shinobi’s left eye socket.
He seemingly found it just as Kakashi began to squirm under his gaze. He gifted the Hatake a purple pendant previously tied around his left paw, and instructed him to head north until the cold snaps at his bones in one years time, and to follow the pendant from there.
With those words he turned and once kakashi could no longer make out his silhouette, let out a yipping laugh.
The last thing anyone in Konoha saw that night was the fog explosively receding towards the northern gate before feeling as tired as never before, and falling into a sleep that lasted three days and three nights.