When Kurama woke me, my first instinct was to lash out. It was what years of living on the run did to a person.

"Kit, calm down. It's just a message from Tsunade."

I looked around, then, and my gaze fell on the little hawk sitting on a branch above my head. It screeched and flapped its wings in alarm at my sudden movement.

"Oh. Thanks, little guy." I grabbed the letter and read it while the hawk hobbled over to my shoulder.

I blinked, and read the letter again. And again.

I swear Kurama short-circuited too. 

'Kurama, am I reading this right or do you see it too...?'

"No, no, I see it. I was about to ask you the same."

Tsunade was offering to let the Bijuu reside in Konoha for protection. In Konoha. Of their own free will. Her protection.

I didn't realize I was crying until Kurama's chibi form manifested on my shoulder and he wiped my face with a pawful of my cloak. The hawk jumped in surprise at his appearance, but stayed put. He was a hawk that spent a lot of time with ninjas, of course random foxes didn't scare him. Though they probably should, since foxes naturally eat hawks -

I shook my wandering head and came back to reality. 'You think your siblings will agree to it?'

"I don't know. They don't particularly like the Hidden Villages, and being stuck in the middle of one despite it being called 'protection' might alarm them, but I'm pretty sure Tsunade wouldn't make this offer lightly. She wouldn't make it at all if she didn't mean it."

I nodded. 'Having them all in one spot will make them easier targets though.'

"You think the other Hidden Villages are willing to make the same offer?"

'Maybe? I can't really see them doing this. But now that they've met you, I think they'd be hard pressed to imprison any of the Bijuu, at least for a while. They should agree, with a little prompting.'

"A 'little prompting' is all we need." Kurama said ominously.

'Sure, sure.'

Kurama snorted, "Sit down for a bit, eat something. I'll talk to the others and get back to you with what they say."

'Ok.' I said as Kurama retreated to the psyche plane.

I was glad for the offer, but I couldn't help but worry.

After all, when you lived a life like mine, trusting strangers was hard.

Tsunade POV~

The elders stared at me, speechless.

"You want to do what?" Homura said finally.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed, "I said, I'm offering to keep the Bijuu in the village to protect them."

They were silent for a moment, then, here it comes, Koharu all but shouted, "They are Bijuu! Without Jinchuriki! And you're just going to keep them all in the village?"

"Well obviously not all of them. The kyuubi is staying with Naruto, and the Hachibi still has a Jinchuriki - "

"That is besides the point!" Homura was shouting now too. This was not helping my headache. "Even just one Bijuu nearly destroyed the village, and the Kyuubi could've done so much more damage had the Yondaime not stopped it! We can't keep multiple Tailed Beasts, unrestrained, in Konoha at one time! No matter what Uzumaki says, even if he's managed to calm them down they are still dangerous."

I sighed. I was too tired for this shit. Although, for once, I could understand their concern. That was a lot of Bijuu in one place. Still, why'd they have to be so loud and close-minded about it?

"Look, have you met a Bijuu? Talked to one?"

"That doesn't -"

"It's more relevant than you think. Bijuu are as intelligent and emotional as humans, and that was only made more clear when I spoke to the Kyuubi. We have powerful shinobi here, several of them capable of causing a lot of damage to the village if they so pleased. You don't see them running around wreaking havoc, do you?" I rubbed my temples in frustration, "I didn't know before, but now I can see why the Bijuu attack the villages. They hate humans, because humans imprison them and treat them with no regard to how they feel. If you mistreat a person like that, can you expect them not to bite back?"

They listened in rapt silence.

I leaned back, "Just...give them a chance. Treat them as especially stubborn humans, and as long as you keep that respect they shouldn't snap and destroy Konoha."

They didn't respond for a moment, then they stood and began to leave.

"This is on you, Tsunade." Koharu said on her way out, "It's your judgement as Hokage that could decide the fate of the village. I hope you know what you're doing."

I didn't reply as they left, and I listened to their receding footsteps.

"Me too." I whispered into the empty room.

Naruto POV~

'Wait...they agreed?'

"I guess. They didn't seem happy about it, but apparently they are all convinced that no matter what shitty situation they get into, we'll be there to save them."

'They really said that?'

"No, but it was implied."

I paled slightly, 'Uh...that's a lot of pressure.'

"Don't worry about it too much." Kurama told me empathetically. 

I sighed and stood. 'Well, we should get a move on, before...'

Kurama simply nodded as I prepared to leave. I hadn't forgotten about how we failed to save son Goku's and Kokuo's jinchuriki. The two Jinchuriki were dead now, and there was nothing I could do about it.

That didn't make the failure sting any less.

'So, Chomei's Jinchuriki is still around, right?'

"Yes. Under heavy protection, according to Chomei."

'Good. I suppose we don't have to do anything about that, then. I don't know if it'll stop the Akatsuki from getting, what's her name, Fu? Anyways, me being there might just send their attention to her so I guess it'll be safer for her if I stay away.'

"Hm. Where to, then?"

I paused. 'Well, I guess we should get the remaining Bijuu to Konoha.'

"Aren't Shukaku, Matatabi, Son Goku, and Kokuo in the Gedo statue?"

'Uh...Isobu isn't. He's kinda been sitting around for a while. For some reason they've left him alone, but I don't think that'll last long. And Saiken is with his Jinchuriki somewhere.'

"And Chomei's with that girl, and Gyuki is with Bee, and I'm with you..."

'Should we bust out the ones in the Gedo statue again?'

"Actually, I don't think Son Goku and Kokuo are in the Gedo statue. The Akatsuki killed their Jinchuriki before they were finished extracting the Bijuu from them, so they failed in fully extracting them. Both of them should manifest again somewhere else soon, since their Jinchuriki died."

'Really?'

"Yeah."

'Let's go find em, then.'

"Exactly."

It wasn't hard to locate Son Goku and Kokuo. After their Jinchuriki died, according to Kurama, it would take them several hours for their chakra to form into a solid being again. They should have been settled by now.

"Hey, kid." Son Goku greeted. He and Kokuo reappeared in different places, but they weren't far from each other. 

"Hi, Son." I said, suddenly feeling nervous. "I - uh, are you sure you want to stay in the Leaf village?"

Son Goku raised a massive eyebrow and barked a laugh, "Not really, no. But I'm not stupid. It's probably the best option at this point. Besides, what can a bunch of humans to do me?"

"A lot, from what I've seen." Kurama grumbled.

Son Goku scowled and poked me with a massive finger, causing me to stumble, "Oh, shut up, little foxy."

"Little foxy - "

"Uh, can we get going now?" I said in an attempt to diffuse the situation. I didn't really want Son Goku to poke me again. That hurt.

Son Goku snorted good-naturedly, "Sure. Let's grab Kokuo and Isobu and get a move on. Though I'm not very eager to go there."

We did just that. It was pretty odd, walking around with a couple of Bijuu. Isobu was in a different spot from where he was before, in an effort to make it a little more of a pain in the ass to find him if the Akatsuki went searching, but I found him easily and we kept going.

The Tailed Beasts could move fast when they wanted, too. Especially Kokuo. The only problem was, they literally caused the earth to shake when they ran.

At least they slowed down a bit when we approached Konoha. At this rate I was worried they might cause the gate to topple if it shook more. 

An old fear was what rooted me to the spot right outside the gate. The towering gates, the buildings, the village within them...they were filled with memories, most more bad than good.

I was never setting foot in there again. I couldn't bring myself to enter the gate. Even just standing outside paralyzed me with a terror of years before. The darker times that I never wished to endure anymore.

The Bijuu seemed to have the same problem. For them, Hidden village meant they were trapped, used as tools, treated as monsters. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first time they entered as guests instead of prisoners.

Thankfully, Tsunade was already waiting by the gate when we arrived.

"Hiya, Baachan. Um," I just now realized how weird I must look, coming up to the gate with three Tailed Beasts behind me, "they said yes?"

Tsunade was literally the only one keeping her composure. At least, the only one not to be visibly  wary. I could feel the fear, the apprehensiveness, the hatred leaking from within the village.

I was sure the Bijuu could feel it too. I regretted bringing them here. They didn't deserve this.

Tsunade was surrounded by shinobi. Among them were mostly ANBU and jounin, many of them obviously cautious. They didn't trust us, of course.

Further back, I saw Kakashi and Sasuke observing from a rooftop. I flicked my gaze over to them, just long enough for them to know I saw them, then looked back to Tsunade.

Tsunade nodded, "They're welcome to stay as long they need. The Akatsuki are few in numbers, and I doubt that with the little members they have left they would attack the village. Pain was an exception, but the way they are now they'd be fools to strike at us."

I nodded. I was getting more anxious, and I wanted to leave. Too many hard gazes were pinned on me, too many memories surrounding these walls, too many of those glares pointed to me in my life.

I stepped closer to Tsunade, only because I didn't want the others to hear what I said, but the shorter distance between us only seemed to bother the other shinobi more, much to my dismay. I hated this. I hated the old nightmares this was bringing up, because this was the exact reason I left in the first place.

"Are you sure they'll be okay here?" I asked her in a low voice. 

Tsunade looked over at the Bijuu behind me. "If you're talking about whether the Akatsuki will get them, yes, this is the safest place for them. But I'm assuming that's not what you're talking about."

The look on my face was enough to answer that question.

She sighed. "I'm sorry. I should've thought more on this decision, since I knew that no one would accept it immediately, but this is a safe place for them. No ninja here will willingly let the Akatsuki get the Bijuu. But it will take a long while for them to get used to them, or even tolerate them." her eyes softened sympathetically, "It'll take time, but we'll get there."

That didn't help much to quell my worry. "Uh...what about your name? Your reputation? People are going to start doubting your leadership."

To my surprise, she only smiled sadly at this, "That was bound to happen. Someone had to take this step, and they may doubt me now, but that was inevitable."

I nodded. After a beat of silence, she said, "Do you need anywhere to stay for the night? You're welcome here."

I froze up at that, and Tsunade, being as observant as she was, was sharp enough to notice my displeasure and dropped the request quickly.

"I'll be going now. There's things to do." I said.

"Naruto." at the firmness of her voice, I looked up at her eyes. "Be careful. Don't be afraid to lean on us if you need to."

I smirked, "Of course, Baa-chan."

She smiled and ruffled my hair, and I turned to go. Before leaving, I glanced over at where Sasuke and Kakashi were sitting, now joined by Iruka, and sent a casual two-fingered salute in their direction. 

Iruka's face visibly lit up, and Kakashi waved back. Sasuke didn't need to.

Mood restored, I wished the Bijuu good luck and ran into the forest.