***

  "Can you understand me ?"

  ***

  The voice asking the question sounded almost amused to Kurama’s ears …

  Huffing at the audacity despite the ‘mesmerising’ tricks shown before … Kurama answered in his rumbling, grunting and sarcastic voice.

  [Kurama] - Understand … you ? -

  Kurama gritted his teeth at the … the … casualness … the arrogance of the little man, daring to ask if Kurama could understand HIM ! … After having watched, for YEARS, his empty meat puppet slowly built this library and it’s pathetics attempts at learning … HE DARED TO ASK IF HE, KURAMA, UNDERSTOOD ?!

  The pause is stretched, dripping with weariness disguised as profound boredom.

  [Kurama] - Of course I can understand your mumblings … arrogant, little man … -

  Kurama huffed.

  [Kurama] - Did you truly believe that speaking in tongues or the making of this orderly library, or the empty vessel you parade, could escape me ? -

  Kurama slept for most of it … He was scrambling his mind to figure out what could have been there, if the empty boy did anything but learn during these years … Kurama had nothing, only the few times he bothered to open his eyes and watch the boring ‘boy’ do something different …

  Kurama flickered a tail towards the bars of his prison, almost ‘by mistake’ … the bars rattled in a thundering sound, announcing the ‘power’ behind such a minor gesture … Kurama almost smirked, lazily turning his head and expecting to see the figure cowering before his might … but he remained unfazed …

  [Kurama] - Hmpf … -

  Kurama huffed like nothing had happened and kept talking.

  [Kurama] - I was forced to observe every single worthless memory your meat-puppet collected, every pitiful imitation … I heard every pathetic call for 'Naruto' and every clunky little experiment with the chakra you now claim as your own … -

  Kurama looked at his new jailer … different then before, but a jailer all the same … just another costume for a pathetic mortal …

  Kurama let his chakra flow out like an aura, the caustic current seeping with his ‘furry’ slowly going towards the figure, carrying the immense feeling of power Kurama held with it … before the seal clamped down on him and on the flow …

  Once more Kurama expected a reaction, awe, greed … But instead, there was only a curious amusement in the eyes of the figure that was skill simply observing him with that unnerving stare … INSULTING …

  [Kurama] - You are not the first mortal to steal from me, only the latest … You look at me with the smug satisfaction of a child who found a forgotten toy, a prize you think you deserve because you were clever enough to find the box … -

  Kurama this time bashed the bars of his jail with his paws, motivated to get a reaction out of the figure in front of him … Kurama’s voice was gaining an edge of anger to it … Kurama would provoke a reaction out of him, he HAD TO …

  [Kurama] - That hole in space you conjured? A pitiful parlor trick … But you are still just a jailer in a different costume, claiming the power I didn't care to defend properly -

  Kurama stood up, looming above the figure, looking down on his minuscule size …

  [Kurama] - So yes, I understand you little mortal … but can you even fathom my existence ?! Is staying silent like your empty vessel the only thing you know !?! -

  Kurama bared his teeth, each of his fangs larger than the figure was … His head thundering in the bars as he collided with them, trying to make the figure jump in fright, to show the expected FEAR when dealing with something as powerful as Kurama was …

  But the figure in front of him just chuckled.

  [Jay] - You are a very angry teenager aren't you ? Have you even passed your first million years yet or you’re still in the thousands ? -

  The silence stretched for a few moments as Kurama felt like he was slapped in the face … There was a minute amount of ‘shame’ at being ‘inadaquate’ as Kurama knew for sure he barely had more than a thousand … And most of those years were spent sleeping away as the world rotted around him … This stranger … This stranger talked about the ‘first million’ like it was a ‘hallmark’ for adulthood … LIES, LIES, LIES !!!!

  But soon Kurama ROARED in anger and defiance.

  [Kurama] - TEENAGER!? -

  The bars of the cage rattled and even then the figure in front of him kept giving him the same look, the one of an amused parent looking at a child throwing a tantrum …

  [Kurama] - I measure my life in the slow erosion of mountains, little mortal !! … I am a GOD made of a power that could carve this pathetic little planet and every fleeting, fragile existence upon it … The concept of a 'million years' is a blip on my timeline, a NAP I take to let time pass between catastrophes -

  Kurama smirked, satisfied at his own argument, it sounded grand enough for his own magnificence …

  The figure in front of him just shook his head in amusement, he even chuckled … THE NERVE …

  [Jay] - Nice try, but I can tell you’re lying, you still care a little too much, too much ego yet … Besides, a million years with an immortal to guide society ? Yeah, things wouldn’t be like what they are outside … I’m just confused at how they even got you ? … You are vastly more powerful than the current populace … Did you let yourself be captured or something ? -

  Kurama’s eyes widened in brief panic and shame before fury made itself known, he ROARED at the pathetic LYING MORTAL !

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  [Kurama] - SILENCE !! -

  There was a small pause in the air … The stranger was waiting … But Kurama didn’t actually have anything to say … He was dominated by the descendant of that betrayer Indra and his demonic red eyes … and then beaten by Asura’s descendant and his wood release … only to be sealed inside that whore of a woman, Mito … The humans advanced their techniques while he only grew bigger … Kurama would NEVER admit being bested …

  To admit that would be a wound on his pride that Kurama simply refused to take … Indra's usurper controlled him with his unfair eyes and Asura’s descendant beat him with the unfair wood release … Kurama only lost because they used TRICKS …

  But without a quick response, Kurama could only deflect by throwing a question back at the figure.

  [Kurama] - Who even ARE you to think you can lecture me on AGE ? … You wear the worthless body of a human boy and pretend to be great by asking me how I was jailed ? Well, who do you think you ARE ?! -

  The words were spewed with the venom of Kurama's veiled contempt for the mortal in front of him … There was a nagging feeling at the back of his head, the part of him paying attention to what was said … But Kurama silenced that inner voice with his anger.

  Jay simply nodded his head, like a parent patiently waiting.

  [Jay] - Jonny Jay Joe, or just Jay, Immortal Explorer Extraordinaire at your disposal … -

  Jay did a little bow and shrugged, the indifference of someone that stopped counting years a long, long time ago …

  [Jay] - … And I’m not lecturing, I’m just surprised to find another immortal being so early into my ‘run’, especially one made from pure energy that’s also incredibly young … you can’t have form naturally have you ? -

  Kurama was speechless, fear gripping his heart as his mind scrambled to think … How ?! How !?! What did he KNOW ?!

  The casual acceptance of immortality, the simple em genuine curiosity … as if he just encountered a KID in need of teaching … KURAMA HIMSELF ! A KID !?!

  [Kurama] - Who are you ? -

  Kurama asked in a voice that was cold fury and guarded wariness …

  … But the figure in front of him … Jay, he said his name was Jay … This ‘Jay’ simply smiled politely and did a little bow once more … Like it was no big deal …

  [Jay] - I already told you, Jay, Immortal Explorer Extraordinaire at your disposal -

  Kurama narrowed his eyes, his chakra flowing out, even as the seal suppressed him … something in the tone made the fur of Kurama’s neck stand on end …

  [Kurama] - Explorer you say ? … -

  Kurama tried to scour his mind for any possible memory of a figure like his … despite the centuries of isolation and hibernation … Kurama tried to remember something, anything that could ‘explain’ what was in front of him …

  The only thing that stood to Kurama’s mind was Hagoromo … his … Father … and the warnings about the Ootsutsuki … The beings from beyond the sky that came bearing the seeds of destruction … the Seeds for another Ten Tail’s … The warnings that Kurama wilfully ignored as time marched on and the world kept on turning …

  [Jay] - Correct … -

  Kurama saw the little game ‘Jay’ was trying to play … Kurama would allow it … he would voice his questions …

  [Kurama] - An Explorer of what ? -

  The smile on Jay’s face made Kurama’s fur stand on ends … His voice was calm and placid, with the meaning being …

  [Jay] - An explorer of realities of course, like this one … -

  [Kurama] - An Explorer of Realities … -

  Kurama repeats, testing the words, chewing on the deceit … on the ‘confirmation’ of what Kurama just now feared …

  [Kurama] - And here I thought you were just another parasite that found a particularly rich blood meal … Came to finish the job and suck this planet dry … Otsutsuki ? -

  Kurama’s voice dripped with venom but … there was no expected reaction, only a silent curiosity as Jay’s eyes lighted up in knowing there were others …

  [Jay] - No, can’t say I’m one of those … So who are these Otsutsuki ? You made it sound like they are a space faring civilization … Draining up planets ? Yes ? -

  Kurama form stilled as he processed the words … his fury surging moments later …

  [Kurama] - Don't play the ignorant tourist with me, 'Jay' … -

  The voice contained a cold fury …

  [Kurama] - Your act is thin … -

  Kurama huffed, bashing his body against the bars of his jail ...

  [Kurama] - You LIE !?! LIES !! You feign ignorance about the ones that travel between planets but claim to do the same as them ?! … -

  Kurama's head struck the cage as he roared in the face of the ‘usurper’ …

  [Kurama] - You are either a liar or a refugee !! -

  Jay just shook his head, amused.

  [Jay] - Or you just didn’t listen to what I said, I said realities, not planets … If these Otsutsuki were actually dangerous like you assume they are, we wouldn’t be having this conversation … So their civilization either collapsed in the time you have known them, or they aren’t that bad … you have no idea what a ‘Bad’ actually looks like … -

  Jay just shook his head.

  [Jay] - From what I saw of everything here, things are pretty … Tame -

  Tame … Tame … Kurama’s isolation, capture, the death of his father, the usurpation of his descendants, his isolation and centuries of dreadful boredom sleeping away the years as he waited and waited for things to get BETTER … AND HE CALLED IT TAME ?!

  Kurama's face, already strained by anger, contorts into a mask of pure, incandescent denial and rage … and his ROAR came incandescent …

  [Kurama] - TAME !? -

  Kurama paused as the words were almost getting stuck in his throat … the clouded memories of the ‘Juby’, of the world three that harvested all life and energy out of a living planet … The fact that the moon itself was the shell of such monstrosity …

  [Kurama] - The moon in the sky is the remnants of their weapon … a seed that empties a planet of life and energy to bloom into a terrific tree ‘thing’ and it’s fruit ! … YOU CALL THIS TAME ?! -

  Jay nodded, unbothered.

  [Jay] - Yeah, that’s pretty tame actually, I thought it was way worse, for a moment I thought they were an actual expansionist civilization with an armada but if they bothered with a bioweapon as inefficient as one that can be stopped and wasted that much resources ? … yeah, not that worried … Bad would be an entire reality where fate itself was bent towards misery, war and suffering, realities where gods already totally entrenched in their powers toyed with the lives of GALAXIES worth of people, causing untold atrocities in an untold number at every single moment … Places where the cultures are so corrupted that even if the cause were removed, nothing would change … They themselves would perpetuate the cycle, too corrupted to evolve but too advanced to die out on their own without a purge of untold precedence … This … -

  Jay gestured around him …

  [Jay] - Plain normal -

  The immense fox stared at Jay … the sight of his unbothered shrug over the extinction of planetary life finally doused Kurama's theatrical anger with cold indifference …

  The emotional weight of his thousand years … dismissed as "Plain normal" by an entity that stopped counting its age millennia ago …

  The realization that Kurama’s entire existence … his life, experiences, isolation, FURY … are small …

  Kurama gritted his teeth in anger, his voice coming out strained with cold impotent rage …

  [Kurama] - What’s your deal then ? … If you’re not one of them … WHO. ARE. YOU ? -

  [Jay] - I already told you, just an Explorer Extraordinaire taking a look at things, seeing how fast I can uplift a society as a way to pass time … Every immortal has to have a good hobby, this is mine … -

  His simple answer froze Kurama with what felt like dread … but then ANGER came.

  [Kurama] - LIER, YOU’RE A LIAR, A SNIVELING MORTAL FOOL PRETENDING TO BE MORE THAN … -

  With a wave of Jay’s hands, silence fell on everything around him …

  [Jay] - Mind your voice, this is my mind and if you’re going to keep screaming my ears off, I’ll just ignore you from now on … -

  Kurama froze as his roars made no sound … He bashed his paws in the cage and trashed all around, but only cold silence rewarded his efforts.

  Jay looked at Kurama ... simply looked at him with a disappointed face.

  [Jay] - Hmph … Asshole -

  Jay turned to go back to investigate his memories and uncover what was happening around him with the tasty pieces of information this gigantic fox told him … Wait …

  [Jay] - You didn’t even tell me your name ! -

  Jay laughed as he turned to the fox still thrashing in the cage.

  [Jay] - Wow, you lack even basic courtesy … And you do have an anger problem, a word of advice, this is my mind, everything here is my interpretation of them … if I don’t want to hear you, I WON’T … and seeing that you want to throw a tantrum, I’ll go back to seeing these memories and try to fit ‘Alien Invaders’ in what I know of history, the books those ninja have on it are pretty slim on details … we will talk again when you calm down … -

  Jay barely threw back a look as the Fox redoubled his efforts bashing away at the cage.

  The seal holding the Fox in there flaring slightly with each angry crash as the fox tried with all his might to get to Jay, roaring, trashing, bashing …

  Each flare reveals a bit of the inner workings of that barrier …

  … The fox it’s still too young … Jay’s thoughts started to go over the history his vessel heard and collected, the ‘foundation’ of the ninja system, the previous era of the warring states … And the VAST piece of missing history before came the legends of the gods and the ‘destructive beast, natural disasters in the form of gigantic animals …’

  [Jay] “ But if the fox is intelligent, the rest probably can think too … And those ‘Otsutsuki’ … What could have stopped their conquest ? … This world doesn’t seem capable of contending with a space faring civilization, nor a moon-sized Bio-super-weapon … There is too much story missing, too many inconsistencies … I couldn’t find a single lore about the moon … If the moon appeared one of these days, where are the worshipers ? … The presence of a new celestial body would have caused untold disaster, surely a very strong religion would have formed and yet … “

  Jay perused through the ‘books’ of memories saved by his body, trying to pierce this curious mystery …

  [Jay] - … I just love finding such good puzzles, this soon into a run … -

  Jay organized a crude board with timetables and theories to explore …

  The biggest piece of the puzzle was … The Fox couldn’t be too old so everything that happened since the supposed alien invasion was still relatively recent …

  *** *** ***