Chapter Text
Asura knew he had died. There was no other way he would be able to see his own body, and his brother’s, just laying there motionless.
Seeing the fallout of something like that happening was even worse, given that it was their children that found them laying with each other’s blade between their ribs. The following escalation made it too hard to bear, to know that this is what became of their father’s teaching and his dream for peace among chakra using people.
Seeing the Hidden Villages get set up was a joy to the Ootsutsuki. But as Konoha found its origin, Asura couldn’t help but notice the similarities in Senju Hashirama - his own descendant - and Uchiha Madara - Indra’s descendant. He also knew that Madara had been scared by the loss he had experienced by losing both his younger siblings.
Hashirama, on the other hand, had felt the same loss. But had been able to save one of his brothers, the same brother that had killed Madara’s.
Again, two friends, brothers even, were pitted against one another. Except that this time, Asura knew a third party was responsible for that. With Indra he had never noticed the way his older brother had changed so much. Had started getting radical ideas and working towards a goal not his own.
With each generation of their incarnation being born, it became clear that another was influencing their bonds, and their fights. Willing to make sure that blood became enemies, and that Senju and Uchiha forgot that they had the same for ancestors. Forgot that at one point, they were two brothers.
Sighing as he looked on, Asura was shocked to find Zetsu behind all of this. That being their father warned them about, the last essence of Kaguya before she was sealed, and as such the most dangerous in his efforts in getting her back was behind all of this. That the being had been able to live on, undisturbed for close to a millennia, left to its own devices and doing who knows what to get what it wanted.
Noticing Madara changing the same way Indra did, once upon a time, unwilling to look further than he would be able to. All because of what Zetsu was whispering in his ear. The way he turned Madara against Hashirama, Konoha and his own clan, was nauseating.
Not just that, but seeing the same thing as had happened to Indra, happening to Madara. It brought things into perspective. It hurt Asura’s heart to know that this is what most likely happened to his older brother. How long had Zetsu been influencing Indra before their father made his decision to choose Asura as his heir. What had Zetsu been telling Indra that made his older brother react like he did this time around.
What promises had been made to Indra, promises that Zetsu never meant to keep. Not when all he ever did was to get Kaguya back on this plane. To get the original Ootsutsuki what came to her (according to her, at least), which would mean the extinction of Earth and everything on it.
Feeling despair grip him by the throat at seeing Kurama, the oldest of the Bijuu, trapped by eyes that he had once adored and used to attack a whole village.
He was in awe to see the way Fuuinjutsu had evolved over the years since he started the art, to see his descendants perfect it to such a degree that it was able to keep a Bijuu sealed inside of a human - without the use of a Rinnegan. The implications that Kurama, and later the other Bijuu, were sealed into humans for the heck of it hurt. But it would mean that they weren’t up for grabs by Zetsu and whoever it was the specter manipulated to do his bidding.
Madara’s apparent death, followed by Hashirama’s mortal wound on the battlefield, hurt. It was like he was seeing his own death, and Indra’s flash before his eyes once more. That he was once again seeing the exact same outcome.
“I hope that we can change this at one point, brother. To make sure that Father is proud of the men we became, even if it took us several generations, instead of making a mess of the world he left behind. The world, and the people, he left in our hands, who are as clueless now as they are when he walked the Earth.”
Shaking his head, Asura chose to stay in Konoha, to look over the Senju and the few Uzumaki who made the move to a greener place.
As such he was there when news reached them that Uzushio had fallen. That the village founded by his daughter’s lineage was forever gone, wiped from the map because of what they could do and the chakra they possessed.
Looking over the women he had grown fond of, Mito and Kushina, both willing and able to bear Kurama inside of themselves. Willing to keep him safe, even if the Fox didn’t see it that way.
He could feel Kurama’s rage brewing, could feel it stepping into his soul and change it into something that Asura wasn’t used to seeing. Something that didn’t remind him of the curious little fox that followed Indra and him everywhere trying to learn as much as he could.
He mourned when Mito passed on, when Kushina took on the title of Jinchuuriki. She didn’t have it easy, but she was without a doubt of his blood. Just as stubborn and willing to keep on going if it meant reaching her destination.
When she married and came to be with child, he believed that this might just be a turn in event that they needed to break the cycle of hatred. Maybe now, after all these generations, they would be able to start fresh.
Only to be there when it all went to hell. When it became obvious that even this wasn’t meant to be. Kushina and her husband would give their life for Konoha, leaving their newborn son to the tender mercies of Konoha and its civilian population.
He disappeared for the babe, left all alone, with the spirit of a fox pressing down on his newborn soul. Already he could feel the soul giving in, too fresh to do anything against a millennium old chakra entity.
Shaking his head, Asura knew that he couldn’t do anything. That nothing he did would help Naruto, but he had to try. If only for the heir he had left, for the last sparkle of hope he held that with Naruto, Kurama wouldn’t be left alone.
Closing his arms around the babe, Asura was shocked to find himself being sucked into the body of the newborn. Only then did he realize that Naruto’s soul wasn’t disappearing, it was making room. It had recognized another part of itself and wanted to make sure that they could both inhabit the body now theirs.
“I see, so you are my latest reincarnation”, picking up the baby soul Asura couldn’t help but grin down at the blond haired baby. He never knew what he looked like as a baby, even if Indra assured him - multiple times - that he was the cutest baby ever. He hoped that those words were true and that Naruto was somewhat like he had been - ages ago.
“I never expected to have a body again, but don’t mind it all that much either. Maybe now I can finally do something about Zetsu, about the being that took my brother away from me. Who will keep turning clans against each other, like he did to Indra and me.”
Naruto, it would seem, was exhausted from what had happened to him, choosing to close his eyes and nuzzling against Asura’s chest. He didn’t mind, babies were a treasure, even more so for someone like him who held such a close bond with nature. He had felt Naruto be created - or at least, felt when the hump of cells started brimming with life.
“I would be exhausted too, after a day like you just had. You should be out there with your parents, not secreted away here where the Hokage put you. This is no place to put a child, but that’s an issue for another day.”
Looking, and seeing that Naruto had indeed fallen asleep, Asura gathered the babe close before starting to explore the seal he could feel just underneath their skin. How would it be built up, and where would Kurama be?
Only one way to find out, so onwards he went.
—-
Finding the chamber that was Kurama’s kage, Asura had to wince at seeing the Fox locked up. For all that he was the oldest, and should have been the wisest, Kurama never did like being left out. Or in this case, locked in, not when he valued his freedom more than he did anything else.
The size of the little Fox that followed him around all the time was very different from the being he saw before him. Easy the size of a small mountain, Asura remembered seeing Kurama rampaging around in Konoha. The kitsune had seemed impressive then, but seeing him close was even more so.
“We really did mess up, didn’t we?”
At his uttered words red eyes sprang open to zero in on him. Several rows of sharp teeth snapping at him, even if Kurama would never be able to harm him through the bars separating the two of them.
Taking in the person standing there, Asura could see the moment Kurama’s disbelief turned into anger.
“Asura, come to gloat?”
Blinking, he shook his head, “Never, least of all to you. You were wiser than I ever was, Kurama, a part of Father in ways that I never was able to. Much more able to make sense of the lessons he gave us, trying to prepare us for when he left this world for the next.”
Kurama snorted, “Sugar coated words won’t get you anywhere, I’m certain you know that.”
Asura nodded, “I don’t believe in sugar coating anything, you must know that at least.”
Settling a fusing Naruto in the crook of his arm, Kurama looked at the babe laying there, “But you are willing to protect my current jailor, would you not give him to me?”
Sighing, Asura shook his head, “You know I cannot. The way you are now, you would kill him, a babe of not even a day old. Where is the little kit that would run after Indra and me, asking questions and trying to learn each and every thing there was to learn about humans?”
Kurama snapped his jaws, “He was there for the fallout following the death of you and Indra. Who was there, when after your children had passed, their descendants were all too happy to forget what they had been told.
I was there when they started to hunt us, one after the other. Again and again, until one bright little Human found a way to seal us inside of them. Coming after me, after all of us, to cage us in a prison made of flesh.”
Swallowing, Asura looked at the Kitsune, “A prison, or a last way of defense against Zetsu’s plan to resurrect Kaguya?”
Kurama shrank back, growling, “She was sealed away.”
Asura nodded, “With only one person knowing how to get her back. One being who was a part of her for so long they know what to do to release the Goddess that almost wiped us out. One being who would do anything in its power to get her back here, get her back in power. One who’d give us all up, sacrifice each and every one of us if it meant to bring her back.”
Looking at Naruto, Asura added, “I am here for a reason, Kurama, in part because I think that this is the turning of the tide. We need to change this. To make sure that humanity remembers the teachings given to them at one point, but forgot because it didn’t help them to survive.”