Cat-Mom, Fox-Kid, Racist Son

Yoruichi

I've come to take you home, Stark. You belong with your real family.

Stark

You abandoned me for your precious Soul Society. Don't pretend to be my mother now.

Stark

Look at your skin - you think someone like you could ever be my mother?

Naruto

That's enough! Your mother's skin color has nothing to do with being your family!

Stark

Oh, the demon container wants to lecture me about family? At least I wasn't sealed inside an infant. Mind your business fox boy.

Yoruichi

I had to leave to keep you out of danger, Stark. Just give me a chance.

Stark

Enjoy your abandoned kid and your demon brat. I'll find my own path. Hopefully away from your kind.

Naruto

Hey! Get back here! We're not done talking, you coward!

Naruto

You're not walking away from this! Not after what you just said!

Stark

What do you want, demon boy? Come to defend that deadbeat's honor?

Stark

You think I wanted to be this? Some mixed freak that doesn't belong anywhere?

Stark

She left me here! Said it was to protect me from Soul Society politics. Protect me? I was five! I had to scrap for everything.

Stark

(The other kids called me a mutt. Said I didn't belong to either world. Mom's world or dad's world...)

Naruto

I know what it's like to be hated for something you didn't choose. The whole village hated me because of the Nine-Tails.

Naruto

But hating your mom won't fix what happened. Trust me - I spent years hating the Fourth Hokage for sealing the fox inside me.

Stark

Maybe... maybe we're not so different you and I.

Naruto

We're both orphans in our own way. Maybe it's time we stop letting the past define us, yeah?

Stark

I haven't told Frieren or Fern about her. About any of this.

Stark

(What if they see me differently? What if they think I'm just some half-breed freak too?)

Stark

The temple monks... they knew. Called me cursed spawn. Said my existence was an abomination.

Stark

They'd lock me in the purification chambers. Said they were cleansing the demon blood from my veins.

Stark

(Every scar reminds me. Every night I hear their chants. Demon child. Soul Society's mistake.)

Naruto

Those monks were wrong, Stark. Being different doesn't make you cursed - it makes you unique.

Naruto

Listen - if Frieren and Fern are really your friends, they'll accept all of you. Not just the parts you think are acceptable.

Naruto

I spent years hiding who I really was. When I finally let people in? They became my real family. Not the village that hated me.

Stark

(Maybe... maybe I don't have to keep running from who I am. Maybe they really will understand.)

Naruto

Come on. Let's go find your mom. She's got a lot to say.

Yoruichi

I never stopped loving you, Stark. Every day in Soul Society, I carried your photo. Every mission, every battle... I wondered if you were safe.

Stark

(She kept my picture? After all these years?)

Yoruichi

I was so scared they'd use you against me. The noble families... they would have made you a weapon. I left to give you a chance at a normal life.

Stark

I... I used to wait by the temple gates every day. Hoping you'd come back. I told myself you didn't want me because I was broken... because I was different...

Stark

I just wanted my mom. Even if she was black, even if she was different... I just wanted you to hold me like the other kids' moms did.

Stark

(Don't let go. Not again. Please.)

Yoruichi

I have to go back, Stark. Yhwach is rising. If I don't return to Soul Society, countless souls will be lost. Including yours.

Yoruichi

But before I go... let's take this picture. So you'll always know - you were never abandoned. You were always loved.

Stark

I understand. Go save them. Just... come back when it's over. I'll be waiting, mom.

Yoruichi

(My beautiful boy. My brave, broken Stark. I'll come back. I promise.)