Asura was what he was.

A beast. A monster made of three heads, each diverging from a shared neck; six arms, three in sets of two that broke free from their chest and shoulders alike; and an insatiable lust for the delicate crimson of human flesh.

When the peaceful villagers gazed upon his dreadful visage, they ran away. The middle head, the first and often only to be seen, frowned. The left head, the least noticed, recoiled and cursed and raged and raged. The right head, the most monstrous of them all, rolled its eyes, deeming judgement beneath it.

The beast, him, walked for miles through the village, searching for something. The middle head gazed on all that they had with mournful eyes. The left head grew jealous of the village's bounty. And the right head huffed, unwanted on the walk.

The villagers returned with sticks and stones and words. The middle head grew stoic, determined to show them that he wasn't a monster at heart. The left head spat curses until its throat burned raw. The right head, it cared not for their futile efforts; it's lazy, dreadful presence only encouraged the witless villagers further.

One of the elderly villagers, a Shaman in tune with life and death and the order of the world, raised his staff. The power of life overcame Asura, him. His veins twisted to the pulse of nature.

The left head spat in anger, before it knew no more.

The sticks and stones and words rained still, but Asura's heart was healed. No longer would the middle head have to restrain its own body alongside the assault to its skin. The right head said nothing, as always, but was glad the nuisance was gone.

And, the right head could wrest control from the middle head much easier with the left head gone.

Tendrils of dream clung to his head as Naruto woke up. The foggy vestiges of an unclear image were all he could see before it faded away, mists of a multi-limbed monster disappearing.

In its place, a red tinged sewer sapped at the surrounding light. The eerie glow of yellow beneath him and pitch black behind him, always teasing at his peripherals, created a daunting and far too familiar atmosphere.

"This place," Naruto said aloud, hoping to fill the hungry space.

It didn't echo.

"Why am I here?" he asked himself. Naruto grasped at the remaining straws of his dreams, a vision, before it ultimately slipped away.

Rarely did he remember dreams, but this elusive revelation unsettled him more than something unreal should have.

Ultimately, he accepted that he wouldn't know what he saw and walked forwards, the only option available. The zapped yellow water shimmered beneath his feet as his ankles descended cell deep into the crisp water.

'Why am I here?' The thought bounced around through his head. It rattled him.

The nine-tailed fox was not something he liked to ponder on for any period of time. Or acknowledge that it was there at all. Buried memories of attacking Pervy-sage resurfaced in his mind.

After minutes of walking, Naruto turned one last corner to the gate, the seal.

Like skyscrapers, poles of chakra inked into his skin ascended out of visibility and well into infinity; and then, they plunged far below to root it to something substantial. A small scrap of paper hung simply in the symmetrical center, belying the terrible power and possibility it represented.

"What is that?"

Instead of an empty black or simmering inferno that was the ninetails, a translucent yellow wall of chakra jello was interposed between the seal and chakra beast. It pulsed to the too quick beat of his heart, flashing into a sickening shade of insectile yellow before rescinding.

Silver scaffolding crisscrossed through the chakra barrier, buttressed against the spires of the gate. They flowed with serpentine movements, heads of bright color darting along the paths like beads. And, against that silver, were strings of blue rocketing along the troughs like a jagged rollercoaster.

A hauntingly familiar shade of electric blue. "Rasengan."

His chakra. It was right there.

"Pervy-sage… why did you lie to me?"

Where was the ninetails? He almost missed the fuzzbutt.

What was that yellow chakra? The silver pipes?

With predatory precision, his eyes locked onto a stripe of movement, a red bolt of chakra burrowing into the yellow. The yellow chakra melted in its wake, squirming a pathway out before it was absorbed by the defensive jello.

The ninetails, what was it up to?

This barrier. Pervy-sage. Chakra.

Naruto stepped up to the gate. His hand gripped the gate. He bruised it. His fingerprints wrested themselves into the metal. He snarled. He stopped. He started again. His head beat. It stopped. It started.

"Why?"

A shining tail of red chakra burst through the yellow chakra, rippling against the spiritual nature of the seal. Naruto was hammered backwards against the furthest wall, sinking nowhere into the unforgiving tunnel. His head pulsed as the red chakra touched his system, introducing fragments of limitless power to his mortal and constrained body.

Naruto screamed.

His throat burned raw.

His hands plunged into his liver.

Fingernails snapped against abdominal muscles.

Fire.

He smelled burnt hair and tasted copper. His tongue tasted like teeth. Naruto brushed his sloppy strands of gold out of his eyes.

That, was why he didn't care for the ninetails. With all the stubbornness of the tide, Naruto reared himself against the seal through his jelly muscles.

"Is that all you've got, fox?!" Naruto challenged. He lined his words with pain, projecting it out of body. "I thought you could do better than that!"

The yellow chakra had consumed the chakra tail and shimmered like the golden sun had been remodeled by Midas. An orange fire laced its way through the silver aqueducts, feeding on the weak, very blue chakra that was formerly there.

The barrier jiggled in the way only gelatin could. Even still, the silver lines warped like they had passed through a curved mirror as the cavern shook with primal, unforgiving wrath. The seal reamined unbowed.

But, to Naruto's horror, the space between the spires widened fractionally. His breath caught in his throat before he let the ninetails see his fear.

Two tails of chakra plunged into the barrier like spears chasing after submerged fish. With earthshaking, tsunami curling might, the yellow was parted by two titanic tails. The chakra barrier was rent in two. And through the gap, Naruto heard a baleful snarl that shook the cavern with more vitriol than the fox had ever managed. A beast of such proportions that the sky was rent asunder with a shout.

The water cascaded like a flood gate broke, but Naruto floated atop with fearlessness. He kept tangent with the top of the water. He bobbed to the top of each crest before cooly sliding to the bottom.

"Yeah, yeah, enough of a hissy fit?" Naruto was offended. His middle lip curled up as the corner pointed down.

The cavern became shockwave as the ninetail's behemoth voice provided more bass than was audible. Vessels cracked and blood ran down his chin, ears sharp.

A second time the voice came in audible tones. "You don't know anything, child. This chakra barrier is but a temporary measure, and then I will be free."

Defiance reared its battered face. "I won't let you."

The cavern shook exactly seven times and Naruto topped seven frothing bends of water. The red bounced and the ceiling descended as a falling sky. The red shadows whispered and boomed at him. "It is truly a shame that I must kill you. Your courage is admirable."

"It's not like I'm doing it for you." Naruto crossed his arms. "You won't be escaping today, so go back to licking your balls, you dick."

There was a black silence as the yellow chakra slowly began to reseal itself, each shambling creep more inexorable than a zombie apocalypse. The ninetails struggled to hold the gap open as its glorious tails were slowly forced together.

It seemed that he had stumped the fuzzy bastard.

Then, the red spoke again. "Truly, a shame. Such a powerless miscreation impersonating the legendary. Such a joke should be treasured like a precious animal dropping."

Damn, those insults actually burned. Fire begets fire though. "Who're you calling a miscreation you glorified plush toy?! Keep talking shit like that and I'll break out the collar."

For the first time ever, Naruto had broken the ninetails omniscient bearing. "Plush toy?! To compare me to such cheap fabric won from carnival scams. I'll have you know-" the line went dead for a moment. An evil chuckle passed through the ceiling. "How amusing that you think you have that power to chain me? What a priceless mortal you are."

Any tension that had built up stopped. Did the ninetails just try to pretend it was still some unfeeling bastard? Did that really happen. "Fine, maybe one of those fancy silk stuffies," Naruto conceded.

"Thanks," the echoed voice huffed.

Instantly, the tails repealed themselves as the yellow chakra collapsed inwards like a parted sea smoothing out.

Naruto snickered before it turned into a full belly laugh. "Pfft, hahaha." How could he be scared of big 'ol fuzzy now?"

He almost straightened out before he lost himself into laughter one more time.

And then reality reasserted itself. Even if the ninetails was less of a dick, it still was trying to break free and kill him. And, from what he could tell, the tailed beast was closer than ever.

Naruto realized, that perhaps the ninetails slip wasn't a slip, but a calculated maneuver to relax him into inaction. And it had almost worked.

No, Naruto's stomach sunk into his hip as his face tilted downwards against his will; he was more frightened than ever.

His legs dipped deeper into the shimmering water more and more with each passing step as he walked away from the seal. His hair settled like burnt ashes on his heavy shoulders.

His stomach burned with a persistent nudge.