G'day.

I'll be honest. I didn't want to write this story. I want to write stories that happen after this one. But I need to write at least some of this in order, so here we are.

For those who are following my Nest series, I hit a road block with that. I am hoping that writing something else will help.

About this story. This is an idea I had for a while, "What if Kurama founded a summon clan of kitsune." I couldn't find anyone else doing this idea so I did it myself.

On to the story.

"Kurama."

The single word is enough to wake him from his slumber. There are only a few creatures that know his name, fewer still that know he belongs to it, and fewer even still that would use it. The figure he sees when he opens his eyes, however, is not someone he would have guessed.

"Ashura," He breathes, "Aren't you meant to be dead?"

"I am," His long dead half-brother replies, "But I needed to see you."

"And why, dear brother, do you need to see me?" Some part of Kurama isn't even surprised by his half-brother being here. As long as you know what you are doing getting out of the land of the dead isn't hard, Matatabi did it all the time, but it wasn't something to be done lightly. Ashura's mere presence spoke of great importance.

"I found something, a creature bearing the chakra of Kaguya." Well, that's certainly important enough. While Kurama had never met his grandmother he did know of her, he knew enough to fear her return at least. If a creature had her chakra, and Kurama knew that Ashura wouldn't lie about something like this, then it meant that she was alive.

"I thought she was dead." He says. But even as he says it, he knows it's not true. The Sage had said a hundred times that she was defeated, that she was no longer a threat. But never once had he claimed her dead.

"Apparently not," Ashura says. "We have a plan. We need to you to leave this world. Flee somewhere this thing cannot follow. I can only guess at what it wants, either kaguya to return to the world, or to remake the Juubi."

Both of which would end up with Kurama in a lot of trouble. To remake the Juubi would involve recombining all of his siblings, and if Kaguya returned the best he could hope for is being her pet. Neither of which were very appealing to him.

"And where would you have me go?" While normally he would all to happy to charge into a fight, he was not above running from something he knew he couldn't beat.

"We've found an island in the realm of summons, we can take you there. We placed an illusion over the island, the only way to find it to be brought there." That does sound appealing, However he still had one question.

"You keep saying 'we'. Who have you gotten to assist you?" The second he sees Ashura's reaction to his question he knows who it is.

"Indra," Ashura confirms. "I trust him, Kurama. Whatever differences we may have, on this matter, we are united."

"Take me to this island then." He knows that there are things that Ashura isn't saying, but he trusts him. Besides, a nice uninhabited island in the summoning realm? Sounds great.

"Thanks Kurama. Ok lets go."

The island is larger than he expected, more than large enough for him to roam around on. In the centre of the island is a massive tree, so large that he could comfortably rest on its branches. Beneath the tree was a large cave, also more than large enough for him. When he turned to look at the sea that surrounded the island he saw the illusion. Unlike the thick fog that he as expecting, it was instead a slight shimmer in the air. Probably looks more impressive from the other side.

Standing here, beneath the great tree he can feel the chakra in it. The unique kind that can only mean...

"Ashura made the tree." It's a statement, because of course he did, the tree is practically bursting at the seems to hold all the chakra. It holds the unique blend of human chakra, nature chakra and their father's chakra that he has never found anywhere except in the trees that Ashura makes.

As he enters the cave he can feel the roots of the great tree in the ceiling, the walls, even the floor. They form a barrier, blocking any chakra from getting in. He's pretty sure even he couldn't break through it. Not easily anyway.

"Kurama, we need to talk," Ashura says, as he turns to see them he notices that Indra has appeared from wherever he was (finishing the illusion around the island no doubt). "We made a deal, on your behalf. It was the only way to get the shinigami to agree to all this."

"And what, dear brother, have you agreed to?" When Ashura doesn't answer he turns to Indra.

"The deal was simple, we get to go to the mortal realm, bring you here, arrange all of this, and get to help the others. In return, you have to create a summoning clan of kitsune." Indra explains.

"And how am I meant to do that?" Kurama asks.

"We leave your body in the cave, Ashura moves the roots to create an impenetrable barrier so no one can get a in. We help you create a new body, a summon animal. Ashura and I will find people to fill out your ranks. " Indra continued.

"And what happens when someone summons me who would use my power to harm others?" Kurama questioned.

"Only someone with the summoning scroll would be able to do that. And Indra and I can make sure only the pure hearted can can use the scroll," Ashura chipped in. "Besides, with the roots in place no one could summon your true body."

"And why would the shinigami ask that I create a summon clan?" This is the big thing. The shinigami doesn't ask for just anything. If it asked that Kurama make a summon clan, then there is a reason. Unfortunately he already has an idea of the answer.

"We don't know." There it is, exactly as he thought. But if the shinigami thinks this is important...

"Fine," Kurama relented, "But anyone you would bring here to join the clan would have to be a Kitsune as well, permanently changing the body of someone isn't an easy, or safe, thing to do."

"No, it's not." Indra says, "That is why Ashura and myself search for recruits in the recently dead, if they agree to serve the clan then they can be brought here. Instead of changing their bodies we would be creating new ones and simply putting their souls inside," That's the old way of doing it, the way the summon clans were first founded, it hasn't been done that way in centuries, "We even have some people selected for the first few recruits. We will have a few years to get ready before they die, time we can use to prepare."

"And who have you selected?"

"The first is a man named: Senju Hashirama."

So the followups to this will probably be oneshots based on each character as they come to the island, the first being Hashirama. (Unless I think of someone else first.)

In no particular order other people I am considering turning into foxes: Tobirama, Mito, Sakumo (on the fence with this one), Yahiko, Shisui. And that's just the pre-canon characters I can think of off hand.

Let's talk about the ripple effect, shall we? (or is it the butterfly effect?)

We start with a single change, Kurama leaves the mortal world before Madara can control him.

This means that Kurama is never used against Hashirama. Therefore, he is never sealed into Mito, Kushina or Naruto.

Because Kurama is never controlled Hashirama never finds a reason to seal Biju (the ones that didn't leave the world like Kurama).

This means that there are no jinchuriki. At least, not until someone tries it on one of the Biju still around. (Probably Shukaku.)

This means that Tobi never sets Kurama on Konaha, meaning that the non-jinchuriki Kushina and Minato never summon the shinigami, and as such, don't die.

This means that Naruto will have his parents. (Probably. I have half a mind to kill them off anyway and turn them into foxes.)

Until the next time-

Blue.