Naruto woke up still in his fox form, in the nest were the two cubs, and a larger fox that he didn't see the night before, this large fox is probably the mother. The mother didn't seem to mind him being there and even treated him like her cubs, cleaning his fur, and then gathering them in the riverbank to teach them how to catch fish. Naruto didn't mind eating things raw like this, though the kids and adults find him weird for it. After they finish eating they clean themselves and the mother lets them play, the two cubs play with each other while Naruto decides to stay with the mother and try to go to the place he was last night, his mindscape.

"Fufufu~, miss me so early in the morning?"(Kurama)

With just closing his eyes and a few deep breaths, he was able to get in, and immediately get teased by Kurama. Hearing that made him embarrassed as his face goes red, he never has a family so he can't help but want to spend time with her, especially when she is so similar to him and with their ability to read each other's emotions, they can resonate with each other, making his time with her the most calming time he has.

"Come here"(Kurama)

Hearing Kurama's next word, he forgot his embarrassment and walked up to her and sat on her lap. She hugged him from behind and patted his head lovingly.

"Now, why don't I teach you how to control your chakra? The earlier you learn, the better it is after all"(Kurama)

Kurama said to him while patting his head.

"Chakra?"(Naruto)

"Hmm... What do you feel when you shape shift, when you change into a fox?"(Kurama)

"... It feels like warm water? It's coming from my belly or my chest, then it goes everywhere"(Naruto)

Naruto explained, moving his hand around trying to show how he felt at that time.

"Fufu~, that warm water is what you call chakra, it is what make you able to turn into a fox"(Kurama)

Kurama started.

"You see all the water here? This all is your chakra, if you can control this you can do many things, like turning into a big nine tailed fox like me, or making all this place into a forest and many more"(Kurama)

She explained, making Naruto excited at how cool it would be to turn into a fox as big as his mother.

"Really!? I can do that!?"(Naruto)

Naruto asked excitedly. Imagining himself as a mountain sized fox.

"Fufu~, yes you can. But first why don't you try to move the water here first, move it like the water that flowing in the river"(Kurama)

"Try imagining and willing the water to move from one way to the other, slowly, then start to get faster and faster until it flow as fast as the river water"(Kurama)

Naruto listened to her and tried to imagine it moving, frowning as he tried hard to make it move but didn't manage to do it. Then Kurama held his hand and waved it slowly from one side to the other, from left to right moving it like they were pedaling the water. Naruto looked at her, and she gestured to him to continue trying. He imagines the water moving by his hand, and finds it easy to move the water to flow along with the movement of his arm, slowly, then it gets faster, then Kurama stopped waving his hand and told him to keep the water flowing, by just imagining it. At first it started to slow down because he lost his focus, but because he already got the gist of it, he tried to keep it flowing and slowly managed to move the water. After he managed to move the water more easily, Kurama told him to make it faster. Because he understands how to do it, it was easy for him to move the water.

After that, Kurama told him to move the water in a different way, swirling down, rising up, arching it back down to make a bridge of water. As he masters one, they move to the next stage, harder than before, and he found it fun. Next he had to raise the water and mold it into the shape of a tree, a bit harder than just making a water bridge, but he managed to do it by slowly doing it. Then he needs to compress the water so that the tree becomes solid, far harder than before, it takes him longer to do it as he can only pump chakra to the tree bit by bit with his current control. Then after that adding the leaves, this is easier, but it meant to familiarize him with how to compress his chakra. Then the last part, change the color to match a real tree, it is easy, as easy as moving the water. What he made was the tree where the foxes nested, it's a special tree where he met his mother. 

Then Kurama told him to make something else, this time she let him choose what he wanted to make. Looking below he sees his mother is sitting in the water so he decides to make a mounds with the tree as it's center, and fill it with grass, making a comfortable place to sit and rest for her. Kurama smiled at him, she told him that this was only a start, next he had to try moving his chakra while not in his mindscape, it's just moving his chakra all over his body but it's important to familiarize himself with chakra.

---

Naruto opened his eyes, it's already noon so his mother has sent him back from his mindscape. He found the two cubs sleeping beside him, probably tired after playing. His mother told him to live with the foxes for now instead of going back to the village, he agreed as he doesn't want to get back to the village. 

Moving chakra oh his body has many use, enhancing his ability, he can make his body warm and cool as he like, he can also make himself invisible if he manages to mimic his surrounding and like what he has done in his mindscape, but instead of making a landscape he make himself blend into the landscape, camouflaging himself. Kurama told him to try and feel the chakra in his surroundings and mimic it. She told him that it wouldn't be easy so he should start by feeling the surroundings, how the air, the water, and the ground smells like, how they change, and how they behave. That's also why he was told to stay with the foxes, as they live in the forest, the foxes know what to look for in nature, he could learn many things that humans just take for granted.

And like that he learns how to hunt, what to eat and what not to eat in the forest, he learns to balance his diet by it's smell. He learns how to read the weather by its smell and the temperature, by the moisture in the air and the state of ground soil. While he learns that, Naruto tries to feel the warm watery feeling of chakra in his surroundings. He manages to notice the feeling of chakra in his surroundings, although only from time to time.

The peaceful day didn't last that long. The shinobi that had watched him the night the villagers tried to kill him was back with three others. For some reason they managed to find him even though he was in his fox form. They attacked suddenly, throwing weapons at him to block his escape and surrounded him. Seeing him being attacked, the mother fox tried to protect him but didn't stand a chance against a full fledged shinobi, she was sent flying with a powerful kick by one of the shinobi.

Seeing that happen enraged Naruto. He fights back, body enhanced with chakra, he moves with speed that surprised the attacker. He hit the one who kicked the mother fox with the hand that he had unconsciously turned back into the shape of a hand. With a fist glow bluish white because of the chakra fully enhanced in it, he punched and made a hole in the shinobi's chest, sending him flying back.

Kurama used her chakra making blood red chakra lance that shot and hit the other tree before they could run away or call for help, her chakra that has turned corrosive eat away at the shinobis body, leaving no  evidence. She did the same with the one Naruto killed to disintegrate the body.

"*Hic*... Mom, is she going to be okay?"(Naruto)

After the fight, Naruto ran to see the mother fox. She is bleeding and barely breathing, he has grown close to the foxes, they're like his own family and he doesn't want to lose them.

"... She is going to be fine, I'll help her. Can you bring her and the two cubs to the nest? I don't want anyone to come and attack us again while I'm helping her"(Kurama)

Nodding to that, Naruto changes back to his human form and carefully picks up the dying fox, bringing her to the nest, the cubs follow after him. After the foxes gathered in the nest, Kurama let out her chakra again and made a copy of herself beside Naruto. The copy looks exactly like her except it doesn't have the right number of tails.

"Now let's make this place safe first, kou souzou [fox creation]"(Kurama)

Saying that, Kurama created a golden ball of chakra in her palm, Naruto could feel the massive amount of chakra in the ball even with his undeveloped sense of chakra. The ball floated and stuck itself above the nest ceiling.

"Naruto, let's go inside, you don't want those shinobi to come again"(Kurama)

Surprised that Kurama was already inside when he noticed, Naruto ran inside following after her, the opening got bigger allowing him to enter without transforming into a fox again and then it shrinked back when he was inside. The surroundings changed as the nest grew larger and larger and it turned into a large cave with the ceiling showing the outside sky with the golden ball of chakra as the sun. There's no change on the outside, the tree is definitely not big enough to fit this big cave inside it

Kurama gets close to the foxes that lie in the middle of the nest and sends her chakra to heal it. Unlike the blood red chakra she used to kill those ninja, this chakra is less dense and has an orangish color. The chakra gently envelops the mother fox and started to heal it.

"... I think I will give them a blessing, it will make them stronger and smarter. It will help both the foxes and you, so that when something like this happens again you can help each other. And I guess it's time I made my own kin into the sages group"(Kurama)

Kurama beckoned Naruto to sit on her lap and hugged Naruto from behind. Naruto could feel that she is transferring chakra from her main body inside of him to the clone and made it grow more tails to hold the excess chakra. When it grew to three tails she stopped and moved the tail to curl around each of the three foxes. She brings them closer to where she sits down.

"This will take a while, you should get some rest"(Kurama)

Kurama said as she gently hugged Naruto closer. Naruto was tense and afraid, he was barely able to get away from angry villagers before, but just now he was up against 4 shinobi. He is not used to fighting at all, he is just a 4 year old child. Kurama decided that she will teach him how to protect himself, not necessarily how to fight, he wouldn't be able to fight off his attacker if outnumbered with a short training, also teaching him how to fight might make him arrogant and think of fighting first before safety. So she would teach him how to hide, to dodge, to deceive, and to read his opponent so he can protect himself better before teaching him how to fight. Naruto was finally able to rest after some time, he only cried when he saw the mother fox was hurt.

"He is a strong child..."(Kurama)

Kurama continues giving her chakra to the foxes. She also possesses them, putting her will into them, just enough to make them smarter and self aware. It's a slow process as she doesn't only make the fox smarter but also able to use chakra by slowly widening their chakra coil and reserve by using her chakra.

Possession is not something special to her, others are able to do it if they know how to. But giving blessings is not something anyone can do, she was once under a god and as a chakra creature she is closer to a god than a living being, so she was able to learn it. Sure her other siblings could give others their chakra and make them able to use some of their power, but they won't be able to choose what power the human would be able to use. And this possession is one of the requirements for her to be able to give precise blessings.

Her gifts to them are wisdom, her chakra, and a long life. Naruto doesn't know but the red fox doesn't live long. Her chakra will help them to be able to live longer, and also enable them to shape shift. It will be a great help for Naruto when they do master their power and mind.

It takes her until morning to finish the blessing. Most of the time is spent enlarging the foxes' chakra coil and to change their chakra to be as dense as hers. The foxes don't end up having one tail worth of chakra, but they have enough to shape shift and other uses. The foxes woke up stronger and with light of wisdom in their eyes. And from today, she will teach them the way to protect themselves and each other.