Chapter 3 - 3. Adventure With Kurama

Shiroken was a weird baby. He grew up very slowly. From his mind, he was like a blank slate, needing to be taught everything, even how to feel and how to react to pain. But, recently his body was starting to develop a little faster.

All the Bijuu siblings guessed that it was maybe due to Shiroken being like them, made of chakra, so it takes time for him to gather natural energy from the air and grow up. ​​

Well, some of that was really what a baby was supposed to be like, but the poor Bijuu didn't know that. They just cared about making sure he was well-fed, clean and healthy.

It had been many decades since all of the siblings got together to care for this strange baby. Unknowingly, they all got closer like never before. They still fought, squabbled and had their differences, but overall, they had each other's back. All because of a small baby coming into their lives.

Shiroken has started to walk on his legs now, albeit while stumbling and falling. It was something strange for Kurama, as he had studied the human body before while eating them, and Shiroken didn't have any bones, as such, why was he finding it hard to walk?

He also did not start talking yet. And for the Bijuu gang too, trying to avoid meeting humans was becoming very hard to do. Much harder because now they had to gather milk for the child. By now, they had terrorised about 20 villages and stolen their milking cows.

"Pheew... It's hard work milking a small cow when you're this big." Saiken came beside little Shiroken and sat down. He was, as always, a sweaty blob.

Kurama grunted, "You could have just made yourself smaller."

"But it's uncomfortable that way. Anyway, after doing it so many times, I have now become a master milker." Saiken proudly claimed.

"SASA..." Shiroken threw his play ball towards Saiken, telling him to play with him. Saiken is one of the kinder tailed beasts and he is also very energetic.

"YES... let's playyy..." He cheered and threw the ball at Shiroken for him to catch.

But, Shiroken was too small and the ball directly hit his face, leaving behind a red mark. If it was thrown by some human it would not have done anything, but an almighty tailed beast threw it. Leading to this.

All of a sudden, a strong silence ensued around them, as all the tailed beasts present looked at Shiroken with a sense of uncertainty.

All of them were scared of his crying, because although he rarely cried, whenever he did, it was so loud they would feel their ears would burst.

"ARGH... you dumb fatty..." Shukaku cursed.

"COVER YOUR EARS..." Isobu whimpered.

Shiroken sniffed a few times and looked like he would cry at any given moment. But then he suddenly smirked at all of the scared tailed beasts. "Khehe..."

*THUD* All of them fell down, relaxing their bodies. Kurama came to Shiroken and put him on his back, "Haha, you are getting smart, boy. Good, there is no advantage in being dumb like Shukaku or crazy like Chomei."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? FIGHT ME! I will show you I am stronger." Shukaku jumped up.

Kurama ignored him, "Go away, Raccoon, I have already defeated you tens of times already."

"But I have learned a new sealing technique, and come fight me in a desert this time, I will make you eat dirt there." He boasted. Desert is his most suited region and he felt the strongest there naturally.

Kurama didn't even reply to him and just went out of their camp to stroll around with baby Shiroken. In the past 20 years, he had come to like Shiroken. Initially, he just shrugged the presence of a baby in their camp. The only ones who really treated Shiroken well, were Gyuki, Chomei, Saiken, and Kokuo. Meanwhile, Shukaku, Kurama, Isobu, Matatabu and Son Goku didn't really bother him.

This was because Gyuki was just interested in the strange baby made of Chakra, Chomei is a happy-go-lucky person and just liked Shiroken, and Saiken is an energetic being but kind too, so he felt like helping when others didn't. this left Kokuo who is indifferent overall but would help if someone asked him, as he is very polite.

Shukaku, Kurama, and Son Goku detested humans. Isobu and Matatabi didn't care about him, but still held a bit of hostility because Shiroken looked like a human.

As Shiroken didn't know what anger or hostility meant, he would constantly get close to all of them and play. Sometimes hugging Kurama's fur and falling asleep, sometimes swinging or climbing Gyuki's tentacles, playing with sand while sitting on Shukaku's head, making weird drawings on the ground with Son Goku and playing catch-ball with the cat-like Matatabi.

He was around everyone and slowly became a part of their life. Every night, they would sleep around him and every morning the first thing they'd do after waking up would be to check on him.

There was once an incident, where he went missing but was later found sleeping on the back of Kurama. He was so small that he had disappeared in the fur.

Slowly, all of them felt like Shiroken wasn't really a human. He might look like one, but his body is made of the same material as them. Hence, he was considered a part of their family.

"Haha, enjoying the air, Shiro?" Kurama asked as he steadily ran through the jungle. Because of Shiroken's skin and hair colour, he was called Shiro for nickname.

"AYAAA..." Shiroken affirmed with his cute voice and a toothy smile.

"Good, today I will try to teach you what we call Bijuu dama," Kurama revealed and turned towards a giant canyon.

But, while on his way, he saw a large group of humans travelling together, towards the same canyon. He stopped in his tracks and tried to listen to what all the people were saying. He used his Chakra to make a bubble around Shiroken so his voice does not go out.

"Ah... Village Chief, how long will we have to travel? Even the bulls are tired now." A young man asked another old man.

The old man, supposedly the Village Chief, replied, "Even the women are not complaining, why are you? We must go further. Because no matter how much distance we keep from them, the bloody flames of wars between the Senju and Uchiha Clans will keep on expanding like wildfire. We lost so many people this time, just because we were in their path of destruction. In the eyes of those mighty Shinobi, we normal people are nothing but meat bags. No better than the bull you were cursing just now."

This whole group of about 150 people consisted of mostly women, children and the elderly. They had a few carriages to carry their luggage and food. Most of them looked sad, injured and hopeless. Their whole village was destroyed by that big green skeleton monster made by one of the Uchiha clan's people.

Most people here had lost someone dear to them. They had travelled hundreds of miles in the past 8 days, just wanting to find a faraway place to live in peace. To again build their village.

"Ma, I'm hungry." A little boy, about 5, called out his mother, who was walking alongside the carriage on which the boy sat.

She was bleeding from her feet, as her bamboo sandals had already waned out.

"Just a little more, Jin. Just a little more... AH" She tried to assure him, but her feet were hurting too much now.

"EYOOOO..." All of a sudden, a cute gibberish-like sound fell in her ears.

She looked around herself to see where it was coming from. ~What was that? Did I lose too much blood?~

She felt scared that she would die at this rate. Her son, Jin, only had her now, as her husband had just died in the village. She looked down to see how much blood she had bled ever since they stopped here to drink water.

But, blowing her mind to the seventh sky, there was a baby nearby her on the ground. And the baby had kept his arms above her feet, emitting some kind of bluish light from his palm.

"AH! I FEEL NO PAIN," she loudly exclaimed.

Attracted by her voice, a few people near her came over. They saw the cute little naked baby, miraculously healing the woman's feet.

After a few seconds, her feet were as good as ever. Then, the little baby turned to another set of feet, healing them. In the baby's defence, he was just crawling and couldn't see the faces of people.

One by one, he healed the feet of all those who were severely injured.

"HEY, who are you?" The little boy from before, Jin, jumped down from the cart. But, the baby was too small to reply.

~Oh, he's so cute.~ Jin thought and quickly proceeded to pick the baby.

"Okay, from now on. You are my little brother." He declared.

*PA* *PA*

The baby patted Jin's head twice with his chubby palms. Jin immediately felt full.

"Woah... what a magical bab... brother." He was awed. The same was the reaction of all the people there. They were asking each other who this baby was. But, none had the answer. Some even started to say that he was a guardian angel.

...

Kurama was busy listening to the two humans at the front of the caravan. He scoffed after listening, ~HUH... humans... never learn to live in peace. Always fighting and killing their own.~

"Let's go, Shiro. We have training to do." He said and turned around. But...

.

.

.

"WAAAA... where did he go? SHIRO! SHIROOO..." He shouted loudly. His voice resounded around the whole forest, and in response, he heard the loud cheering of Shiroken.

~AH, how does he get around my chakra?~ he cursed himself for his lack of awareness.

He arrived at full speed, jumping out from the middle of the trees, stomping over many of them. With each of his jumps, the ground shook.

The 150 people in the caravan shivered in fear, thinking what calamity they had to face now.

"GRRRRRR..." Kurama had his fangs out as soon as he saw Shiroken in the arms of a human.

"GIVE THE CHILD BACK!" he roared, so loud that each felt their hearts vibrate.

Jin, the little boy who was holding Shiroken, felt his legs freeze. All were feeling that, but he was feeling it more because the huge red fox was looking straight at him.

All the people immediately kneeled there and started praying together.

"O GREAT PROTECTOR SPIRIT OF THE JUNGLE. PLEASE LET US GO. WE DID NOT MEAN TO ANGER YOU... OH GREA..."

But, immediately the old Village Chief ran in front of little Jin, covering him. He knows what this fox is. He had heard about it from his own grandparents. That this beast was once a fox living in a temple, for the purpose of protecting it in a forest region. But humans kept on destroying the forest, turning the Fox into such a ferocious beast.

"GREAT PROTECTOR OF THE FOREST. PLEASE SPARE US. WE HAVE LOST EVERYTHING ALREADY." He pleaded.

"GIVE SHIRO BACK. NOW!" Kurama roared.

Nobody could be so dense as to not understand who this Shiro was. There was only one miraculous white-haired baby around them.

The Village Elder took the child from Jin. But Jin, although afraid, started protesting. "NO! DON'T. THE FOX WILL EAT HIM! STOP!"

"AYA... GUGU..." Shiroken was waving towards Kurama, wanting to get back on his soft fur again.

But, Kurama, heard what the little boy said. He was ready to defy 'him', someone who could kill all of them here in a matter of seconds.

"LEAVE HIM, JIN. Do you want all of us to die? We don't know this baby." The village chief fought.

"BUT... y-you said babies are the most innocent and purest stage of a human cycle. They must always be protected. How can we let him die?" Jin cried. It was strange how he was fighting so strongly for Shiroken. Maybe Shiroken did something to him or he felt something for Shiroken, it was obvious for all that he was being stupid... but brave.

Immediately, a village member dragged him back and covered his mouth.

The village chief lifted Shiroken up towards Kurama. "Here, please take him and spare us. Please..."

Kurama growled at them to scare them, and then slowly brought his face near Shiroken.

"GHEHE... KU-KU..." Shiroken patted Kurama's nose.

Then, to the horror of all the people there, Kurama opened his mouth and gulped Shiroken whole.

[A/N: Decades have passed, just to make it clear.]

[You can see Saiken and Kurama on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

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Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*

Thank you for your support!