31. reality check


    <span style="font-weight:400">As Tomoka opened her eyes the first thing she saw was a pretty blue sky with white clouds. The fluffy things floated in the vast blue without a care in the world. Sometimes she wondered howfy it would be to have a nap on them. She understood that clouds were just masses of condensated water but still, they looked so fluffy.


    <span style="font-weight:400">[Hey you, you are finally awake.]


    <span style="font-weight:400">That got a chuckle out of Tomoka. She recognized that line. An iconic meme that was still in use even after twenty years. She wondered if Kurama had read her memories or if it had been just a coincidence.


    <span style="font-weight:400">[What’s so funny?] Looks to be thetter option. Tomoka spent some time exining to Kurama about meme culture and that very meme. However, her mind was elsewhere as she did. Once she finished exining an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What am I even doing?” She felt tired, not physically tough, after all this is her mindscape. Grasnds going as far as the eye could see. With patches of different forests here and there. In the middle a giganticke with clear water. Floating about ten meters above the tranquil waters is a massive building.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her mind’s pce, the ce that contained all her thoughts and memories. The Giant building looked like the love child between a stone castle and a wooden library. If one were to enter it they would find a maze of corridors and doors. She nned to fill the thing with Genjutsu traps for whoever tried to snoop around in her head. At the end of the maze a gigantic library containing thousands of books stood in all its glory.


    <span style="font-weight:400">[What do you mean]


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I almost died, Kurama. I almost died again”


    <span style="font-weight:400">[You looked fine, you even said you didn’t care]


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Fake bravado, I was scared shitless. When I was using the static field jutsu I was in panic. I didn’t want to die, so I went all out.” Tomoka’s mental body began deaging. From her usual twenty-five year old mental self to her four year old real self. The girl began sobbing softly in an attempt to hide it from the fox.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s so much fun here. I don’t want it to end yet. I don’t want to die” Rain began falling in the mindscape as the wind picked up speed. The usually calmke had its waters disturbed by waves that grew bigger each moment that passed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I am an idiot, Kurama. I am only four years old! I could have died. Training and realbat is nothing alike. There was no need for me to go all out like that. What was I even thinking!<span style="font-weight:400">”


    <span style="font-weight:400">As her rant continued Tomoka’s tears flowed. Answering her unstable mind, the mindscape became more and more chaotic. Even the mind pce was creaking and groaning under the pressure.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tomoka was really angry at herself. She had been aplete idiot, a dumbass, brain dead. She could have died. She repeated those words to herself over and over again. That is until a soft something curled around her. Warm and soft like the softest nket she had evere in contact with.


    <span style="font-weight:400">[I won’t deny that you are an idiot. However, you won, you can learn from your mistakes and improve. It is okay to be scared of death, even I am scared of dying and I am effectively immortal. You are alive now and that’s all that matters.]


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tomoka took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Opening her eyes again she saw one of Kurama’s tails above her acting like a nket while another worked as a pillow and mattress. The giant fox was looking elsewhere trying to exude disinterest in the current situation. Feeling a lot better and a little cheeky, Tomoka hugged Kurama’s tail while rubbing her face on it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So soft” A content whisper scaped Tomoka''s lips


    <span style="font-weight:400">[OI! what do you think you are…] Looking down Kurama saw the little four year old Tomoka cuddle up to his tail. Her soft breathing told him that Tomoka had fallen asleep again. A strange feeling he hadn’t felt before bubbled up in his chest.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Deciding to allow it just this time a small smile appeared on the fox’s face as he curled up to take a nap as well.


    <span style="font-weight:400">{I guess the twerp can be cute sometimes. Not that I will ever admit it}