Kurama doesn't need a lot of things. Sleep, drink, and food are some of them. Those needs are for humans and he's not that. He's a force of nature; a being made of chakra; sentient raw energy who by all means shouldn't have emotions or wants. Or even gender as they are useless for someone like him. And yet, even for all that dictates that he should only be little more than a tool, he is not.
He may not need food, but he still wants to eat for the pleasure of eating. He doesn't need to sleep but still likes to rest and enjoy the warmth of the sun against his fur. He doesn't have a real gender but prefers to be a he, in the same way Matatabi prefers to be a she.
They don't need a lot of things but they still have preferences—they have emotions even if by all means they should have been like their predecessor, the juubi, who wasn't more than a mindless beast. They feel and want since the moment they opened their eyes for the first time to find their father standing in front of them, smiling. He looked tired and old, small and completely different from them. Even so, Kurama knew the moment his father named him Kurama that he was going to love him forever. There was just something inside him that told him 'this man is worth loving'. It could have been his kind smile or the warmth of his emotions, he didn't know—he still doesn't know. He only knew that if his father asked him, he would follow him to the end of the world.
That was his first emotion: love, appearing in the moment his father stroked his fur and told them he was their father. Because it didn't matter to him if he was only human, Kurama loved him.
The first time he wanted something came afterward, not too long from his first experience with emotions. Or at least, not too long for a being to whom time doesn't matter. It came with other emotions, these ones negative in nature. Sadness and disappointment came as soon as he realized that for all his prowess he wouldn't obtain what he wanted; his father was going to die anyway. He was human.
Kurama doesn't know if 'waiting' could be considered an emotion, but for them it was. Then the moment came and all the bijuu stood reunited next to their father's bed, trying to enjoy the last moment with his company, some of the tension the waiting brought somewhat gone, but still there, like a solid presence in the room with them. He thought the Waiting was the worst thing he'd experience—he was wrong. His inexperience and youth blinded him because as soon as the moment came, the grief took over and Kurama needed to go away as his brethren's emotions were too much to handle alongside his own.
That was the first time he slept. It was just an attempt to shut himself from the pain, to ignore for a moment that the smile his father gave them before his breathing stopped was the last.
He didn't know how humans slept then, didn't know how it worked for them and what the differences were between one and the other. Now that he knows, he's not sure which one he prefers the best. Humans have dreams and nightmares, they're more active and sometimes he wishes to have that instead of the empty void that is his own sleeping, if it can be called that, of course.
Most of the time he's glad he sleeps the way he does. He's an old being. He's experienced a lot. Bad memories exceed the good ones. Kurama is glad he doesn't dream. Glad that he just closes his eyes, lets his mind wander and an emptiness meets him. It can last a couple of minutes or weeks, he doesn't know as time doesn't matter then; it all feels the same. One moment he's asleep; the next he's awake and ready.
However there are moments in which his mind is muddled before waking up, disarrayed thoughts come forefront and he doesn't what's happening. It only happens when he got knocked out cold or was out of energy before sleeping. A thing that happened a few times in all his existence and most of those times occurred in the War, though he had Naruto alongside him to reassure him as he was startled at the jumble of emotions he was projecting onto him.
Now he doesn't have anyone.
He just wakes up, terrified at how vulnerable he feels—how weak. He stays motionless as he tries to ignore the way his fur stands on end and how he swears there's a sound of a heartbeat loud to his ears that seems to belong to him even when he's sure he doesn't have a heart.
Breathing in and out a couple of times even he doesn't need that either, not really. Then he's aware of his surroundings. He's on top of a car that's moving, his mind provides and he realizes just then his size is smaller than should be, and even as he tries to gather some energy, he can't quite manage it. It fleets away from his grasp at the same time he feels Nature pulling at him, claiming his power.
Kurama tries to increase his awareness and his range is larger than it should be, his senses feel sharper, but he feels weaker all the same. He feels part of Nature and it scares him. He wants to dwell more on his new discovery but in the same way that his awareness has grown, it seems his ability to sense emotions got stronger, too.
And there are a lot of heavy emotions coming from around him.
.
"—need to look for a place to rest, Sasha. We can't continue like this. Ben has a concussion and moving around won't do him no—"
"And what do you want me to do, huh? We're in a hotspot. Haven't you seen what we just encountered? We need to run, Adam. Better be injured to continue fighting than dead and be one of them."
"Sasha!"
"No, Donna. Someone has to say it like it is. I don't like the weather more than you do, but we can go around trying in every town we find. Look at what just happened."
There's ragged breathing mixed with quiet dread from whom he's sure is Sophia that makes a headache form. He's experienced something similar from the other humans he's been sealed into. Triggers, he thinks it's called. Kurama doesn't know much about the girl's past before the walkers but he's seen enough to know she comes from an abusive family. And as he's spending more time with her, Kurama's more attuned to her emotions. This not quite anxiety drills into his head painfully. It makes him want to destroy something.
Luckily he's not the only one noticing it as he senses Tyreese's aggravation mixing with worry. Kurama hears him taking a deep breath and senses Sasha's own annoyance receding with the sound.
"Maybe we should stop and discuss later. The kids are tired, and frankly, I am, too. But Adam is right, Sasha. We can't continue like this. I hate going into towns and trying our luck but we can't always stay in the car and hope no one dies of hypothermia. Here doesn't snow as other states but it still snows and we're lucky it hasn't so far."
"What do you want me to do then, Tyreese?"
There's a tense silence in which the emotions twirling under him become worse, making his headache turn into an ugly migraine. He doesn't know what the context is but he can shoot a guess and make a deduction from what he's heard. And it rattles him.
In the back of his mind, there's a voice that sounds suspiciously like Naruto's, telling him to show himself and scare the crap out of them just for kicks. But he ignores it as he has ignored most of Naruto's stupid plans to prank. Besides, it's gotten silent so there's hope for the emotions to withdraw into a quiet hum in the back of his thoughts, easy to ignore.
No such luck.
As soon as Kurama tries to use the peace to rest and do a checkup of his current state, something (and he doesn't know what) happens because the tension rises. Kurama curses and sits, enjoying the feeling of the wind brushing his fur for a moment before he glances at his tail and increases the number to two, which he uses to get a better handle on the car's roof. Then, moving to the window he senses Sophia is close to, he taps the roof box twice with his paw, moving his head next to the glass to glare at the humans.
"Would you knock it off? I am trying to sleep here."
"Nine!"
The car jerks from the road and Kurama is glad he decided to use his second tail because something tells him he'd have ended on the ground otherwise. The car stops with a loud screeching sound and Sasha's head turns to look at him, following the actions the others have taken.
Kurama frowns at their shock because he's sure they've heard him talk before. There's a mad cackle in the back of his mind that, again, sounds suspiciously like Naruto's after a well-done prank. He decides to ignore it to look at Sophia, who's giving him a big teary smile that doesn't seem to be losing its size anytime soon.
"So how long has it been since I slept?"
She blinks faster, obviously trying to erase the wetness from her eyes, before she clears her throat. "I think it's been close to a month, Nine." She looks over her shoulder as if to help her confirm her words but the others seem to not let the shock go.
Kurama doesn't like it but it's better than the previous tension.
"Are you better, Nine?"
"I'm smaller, kid. I'm not going to be better any time soon."
Sophia's smile turns into a faint smirk. "You were smaller; the size of a baby. Actually, you started growing around a week ago. Two days ago we had to move you to the roof again as you were too big for the car."
Kurama's ears press to the sides of his head, scandalized. He shudders. "Glad I didn't get to see that," he mumbles before directing his gaze to look at Sasha, who slightly jerks back under his stare. "Where are we going?"
That seems to be enough to wake her from whatever state she's in as he senses some annoyance and incredulity spiking within them.
Sasha raises an eyebrow and mouths a disbelieving, "We?"
Kurama answers her eyebrow game with a tilt of his head.
"Well, seeing I'm on top of the car your group is in and you've been moving me around for about a month, I think I'm entitled to say 'we' and not 'you'. So?"
.
The expression on Sasha's face is familiar. It's the same Naruto always wore before he started shouting. Though hers is more subdued and Kurama pities that. However, before words can come out of her mouth, her brother stops her with a hand on her shoulder. It works as she backs away to glare at her brother. She frowns at him, a silent conversation happening with expressions before she rolls her eyes at whatever thing she finds on her brother's face.
She returns to look at him. "We're running from a town half an hour from here. Don't know exactly where we are going. We just want to be away from that place."
Kurama glances in the opposite direction the car was moving towards and sniffs. The scent of death is strong. He spreads his newfound awareness and is surprised when he can sense faintly the dead. He hums distractedly, more curious about the new development. "Yeah, can smell those things from here. It's a wonder you managed to survive with that many."
"Yeah. A wonder," Adam says sarcastically, glancing at his son whose face is pressed to her mother's side. "Wait. Smell them? Can you do that?"
Kurama smiles in that sociopathic way Naruto has told him so many times how scary it is. It seems to work fine on adults, too. Or that's what he gets from the way he sees the humans inside the car as they tense. "Of course. I can do that. I can do even more, human."
"Does that means you're not as weak as before then, Nine?" Sophia asks with furrowed eyebrows. Kurama is reminded that from all that he managed to teach her, she's still but a child. He could ignore it as he feels she's truly worried about him but that kind of question is not meant for company and Kurama thinks of himself as her teacher so he can't let it slide.
He makes another tail appear. This one with more difficulty as it seems three tails are his limit and flips Sophia on the head. She doesn't complain but her hand still goes to rub her forehead.
"Kid, you need to learn when not to divulge things. Never put all your cards on the table. But yeah, that's true. I'm not at my normal level of power. When I'm around the height of a house you will know I'm improving. Until then, I can only do the basics, but those seem to be enough for this world."
There is a lull in the conversation in which the adults take the time to glance at each other meaningfully. It's Donna the one who stops them by looking at him in exasperation. "Look, we all would love to know what hell you are and what your intentions here are. But the truth is that my son is unconscious and injured. We could barely stitch him and we still need to check those up. We don't have any painkillers for the fever that's breaking and we've been almost a week on the road so we don't have enough gas either. We need to search for a place to sleep. So if any of your mysterious abilities can help, that'd be great."
"Donna—"
"Shut up, Adam," she shots her husband before turning to look at him. "Can you do it?"
Kurama glares at the human, a slight thread of killing intent sweeping in the background. It's not enough to face a genin but for a civilian with a non-developed chakra network is enough to make them freeze.
"Let's be clear in something, human. I'm not a pet. I'm not someone you can order around. If I'm here, with your group, is because of a whim. These 'walkers' don't face me; they're just a nuisance to me. You'll do yourself a favor in showing me some respect."
Donna's head slightly tilts down. Her brain recognizes him as the threat he is, but her glare doesn't lessen and for that, he's gained some of his respect. "The fever can kill him in this weather. Can you help my son, please," she asks between gritted teeth, a bead of sweat falling from her hairline from the exertion his killing intent is taking on them.
Her determination reminds him of Naruto's and because of that, Kurama smiles. "I don't think I have enough energy to completely heal him, but I can try, human."
She nods and signals her husband to open the door. He seems reluctant but eventually accepts. Kurama jumps from the roof and is slightly surprised to notice that the wind is stronger from outside his roof box, or whatever is called. He looks up to the sky and sees it darkening. It'll rain in a few hours.
"Here," he hears and turns to see the man, Adam, helping her wife to pull his son into a better position, closer to the door.
Kurama notices the red mark on the kid's head and the gash on his upper arm that has darkened the dark green shirt he's wearing. He's sweating and the heat he's exuding can be felt from where he's standing. He glances once more at Donna before he tries to concentrate his energy, pull it away from Nature, and for one hand of chakra.
It works, if barely, but the arm is red instead of yellow. He knows if he tries to touch the kid, he most likely will end up burning him. He moves the arm away from the humans to avoid accidental touching and Kurama closes his eyes to better ignore his surroundings so he can concentrate, but it's still hard and only gets the arm to turn orange.
"Fuck," he hisses and makes the arm disappear as he shakes his head. He looks up at the kid and sees Sophia peeking from behind his form. Seeing her reminds him of something, giving him an idea.