"You brat… we finally met…." The demonic, deep voice sent a chill down Tsuyu's spine.
"You are… different from the rest…." Kyuubi's hot breath, thick with evil chakra, hit Tsuyu's face as he spoke.
While he only saw glimpses of her at times, it was enough to know the human in front of him was not normal. The first thing he noted was Tsuyu's abnormal intelligence; she could read and write - likely since her birth. Added to that was the fact that her spiritual power was greater than even Madara's. It was as if the person standing in front of him had two lives behind her.
Tsuyu was unaware that Being X's constant attempts to convert her in her past life had inadvertently improved her spiritual power. It was a "god" trying to cast a permanent genjutsu on her, after all, and she had resisted it.
There was something amiss when the Fox observed Tsuyu's daily life: reading books, drinking coffee, and training. It was as if the person in front of him had figured out her way of life completely from birth. In Kyuubi's mind, she should have been born a depressed, lonely orphan like the other brat, filled with stupid dreams. Kyuubi could not understand her.
He could tell it would be very difficult to control or manipulate her. It would be nearly impossible to use hatred or pain to dominate Tsuyu - and even if he could, her spiritual power allowed her to resist. His only chance to make the brat hateful was to make her life a living hell and use her brother to achieve that, but he could not intervene directly.
"What are you…?" Kyuubi asked, an honest curiosity to understand.
Tsuyu looked at Kyuubi warily. She felt a flash of fear for her life at first, but upon closer inspection and further deduction, she concluded she was safe for now. She had almost forgotten the creature even existed inside her since it had been silent for seven years. The fact that Kyuubi could communicate like a rational being was a key marker for her; it changed how she would approach the "monster."
"To answer your question, I am Tsuyu Uzumaki," she replied calmly, showing no emotion as she tested how far they could communicate. She was testing the waters, trying to figure out what kind of being he was.
"I know that, brat! Are you mocking me?!" Clang!! He brandished his claws against the cage.
"You have been watching me?"
Kyuubi remained silent. He didn't know how to deal with this abnormal brat. She can even speak calmly in front of me! The feared Kyuubi! I should be feared! She should have cowered!
Tsuyu assumed it was a "yes"; otherwise, he wouldn't have known her name. Since he had answered "I know," he had clearly been listening and watching. "Then what are you?"
"Grrr.... I am the Kyuubi… the nine-tailed monster… the embodiment of hatred… I caused destruction and death!" Kyuubi slammed the gate with his claws, leaving deep marks. He wore a sinister grin as he watched Tsuyu, hoping to plant a seed of hatred. "I WAS THERE WHEN YOU WERE BORN. YOUR FATHER… YOUR MOTHER… I CAN STILL FEEL THEIR FLESH AND BLOOD FROM WHEN I PIERCED THEM WITH MY VERY CLAW… Hahahaha!"
Kyuubi let out an evil laugh. "And I will kill you the same… grrr…." He let out a low, demonic roar.
That's… quite disturbing. Is this fox a sociopath? Tsuyu wondered. The type that finds pleasure in killing? She had never taken her parents' deaths personally, so she didn't feel much grief. However, having a sociopathic monster inside her body who enjoyed killing was a problem. If the fox were merely angry she could mediate, that would be one thing, but this was different. She took a deep breath.
"Kyuubi… I have no grudge against you. I believe we can talk and reach some agreement." Tsuyu made a gesture as if dismissing her parents' deaths as trivial. She was taking a reasonable approach; the fox's strength was proven, and she didn't want to make an enemy of something that could crush her like an ant without knowing the full situation of herself and the fox.
Kyuubi was taken aback, almost choking on his words. He felt like he was talking to a demon in human skin. "DON'T YOU CARE THAT YOU WERE RAISED A LONELY BRAT, AN ORPHAN WITH NO ONE?! THAT I KILLED THE VERY PERSON WHO GAVE BIRTH TO YOU?!"
"I do not feel lonely. I do have people around me," Tsuyu said honestly. Maybe that tactic worked on Naruto, but not her. She loved her peace undisturbed by irrelevant people.
"We should be able to communicate. After all, you are living inside me. We will be meeting a lot from now on, and I have no reason to be on bad terms with you."
She refused to let emotions take precedence - especially since she had so few regarding her parents. Kyuubi, though disturbed by her eerily calm tone, kept his pride.
"Communicate?! With a human?! I would never! You humans only ever see us as weapons, as slaves to your greed! I will never stoop so low!"
Tsuyu took another breath. "Kyuubi-san, if it were up to me, I would never have agreed to them sealing you inside me. I value freedom above all else. The way I see it, you are trapped inside me just as I am forced to carry you. If the future allows it, I would be glad to go our separate ways—as long as you don't go on a rampage, of course."
She added the honorific to acknowledge him as a "person" to get him to listen. Kyuubi roared in her face, showering her in bad breath and sticky saliva. She wiped her cheeks calmly, though she felt disgusted.
"Liar! Humans are liars! I won't believe it! Let me free?! IMPOSSIBLE!"
Despite his anger, a part of him felt a strange sense of acceptance because Tsuyu was treating him with actual consideration, and the promise of freedom, it almost made his tail straighten. However, he quickly denied it out of pride.
Tsuyu suddenly remembered something more important than handling this emotionally constipated "fox-zilla."
"Naruto…," Tsuyu muttered. If her guess was correct, the Kyuubi inside him had managed to break out. Since his fox and her's were connected, it triggered her's too. She had to leave this place quickly.
Kyuubi sensed her thoughts and tried to kick her out of the subconscious space, but Tsuyu wouldn't budge. Her spiritual power is too heavy! 'What - what is she?!' Kyuubi cursed, horrified internally.
Tsuyu felt a force tugging her toward an exit. "I will come back to talk to you, Kyuubi-san," she said as her consciousness returned to her body.
"DON'T COME BACK!!! R-"
Kyuubi couldn't even finish his roar before she just left. Kyuubi felt like he was slapped in the face by her audacity.
Her consciousness returned to her body. She felt disoriented but regained her senses quickly. She looked toward the source of the evil energy. Alarms blared, and red flares painted the night sky like hell on earth.
Naruto…
Tsuyu bit her lip in frustration. She had no real power yet, but he was her responsibility.
'He is my brother'.
She ran toward the chaos, passing shinobi and masked ANBU who were guiding civilians away. Suddenly, a masked man flickered to her side.
"Tsuyu. Come with me. It is not safe." It was the ANBU assigned to watch her.
"I have to go to my brother," she said resolutely.
"Under the order of the Hokage, you must follow me. Otherwise, I will use force."
Tsuyu hesitated. She couldn't openly disobey the Hokage, but the ANBU noticed her slip of the tongue. "Wait. You know…?"
Shit. It's supposed to be a secret, she thought. Wait… actually, every adult knows anyway. "I heard from someone," she said, switching to her "child" acting. "They say my brother has a fox demon in him. But he's my brother! I have to get him!"
"You are just a kid," the ANBU replied. "Leave it to us. The Sandaime will save him. Have trust in Konoha."
Tsuyu couldn't trust them; she had raised him for seven years. The man moved to strike the back of her neck to knock her out, but Tsuyu sensed the danger and dodged.
'Nani?!' The ANBU gasped. Tsuyu used a backswing to block him and, before he could react, used a Body Flicker to appear behind him. Using a strike enhanced by her Raging Fist technique, she knocked him unconscious. A mere watcher, a Chunin, didn't have the skills to react to such a surprise counterattack.
The ANBU collapsed on the ground. Tsuyu reasoned that the Hokage wouldn't be too harsh on a seven-year-old civilian for this. She followed orders only when they benefited her, and right now, her brother was the priority. She used Body Flicker to move across the rooftops, avoiding other shinobi.
She reached a high vantage point and looked down at the panic. Beyond the blasts and the chaos, she saw it.
'Naruto!'
Or rather, a monstrous figure coated in thick, dark red chakra with six tails waving behind it. It wasn't her brother anymore; it was a beast that had lost all control.