Naruto Potter
Chapter 1: The Boy-Who-Lived Meets the Boy-Who-Got-A-Demon-Stuck-In-His-Gut
It was late september. A dirty boy scampered to the next trashcan. He appeared to be about 3 years old, or a very small 4 year old. He dove into the trashcan and started searching for anything edible. This was his 3rd trashcan that day. The next day was the day when everyone emptied their cans, so he needed to scrounge up as much as possible. He finally spotted a 3 inch piece of stale crust from a piece of bread. He held it up like it was the holy grail. Quickly, he searched the rest of the can, before climbing out and rushing to the next can.
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Harry grinned at Ron and Hermione. They had been planning a trip around the world, where they would visit all the obscure magical communities they could find. They'd been researching places to go for about 3 months, and they were really excited. They were going to leave that day.
He wrapped an arm around Hermione while Ron stood to his other side. While they'd been out searching for the horcruxes, Ginny had found a suitable replacement for Harry, something for which he was eternally grateful. Ron and Hermione had dated for a while, but it never really worked out, and after the battle with Voldemort, Harry and Hermione had become a couple.
"Okay, 'Mione. What's our first stop?"
Hermione pulled out a piece of parchment, and looked at it.
Ron nodded at her impatiently. "Well, on with it."
"First stop: Konoha."
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The same dirty little boy was quickly scampering back to his apartment. He needed to beat the rush of people that usually came out at about 6:00. He ran as fast as he could with his pieces of food bundled in his dirty shirt, but living off of dirty water and scraps every day made him lose energy, fast. He was still about a quarter of a mile away from his apartment building. As he ran, he kept an eye out for people. Most people were closing up for the day, and were too busy to notice him, but one in about fifteen people would see him and throw a rock at him, or spit at him, or call him a "Monster", a "Freak", or a "Demon".
Just as he got to the bad area of town where his building was located, he bumped into someone's leg, and fell backwards, still clutching his bundle of scraps. He looked up at the man with fear in his eyes, only for his eyes to widen slightly when he noticed that there were 3 other tall men behind him, glaring. The boy stammered out an apology and quickly tried to stand up, only to be kicked back down. The boy sighed- resigned to his fate. He internally berated himself for thinking that today would be different.
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The golden trio stood, looking at a map. "According to the book I read, konoha's in a hidden continent off of japan. There's 5 major countries in the continent, which all house a smallish village which has a majority population of magical people. The muggles know about the witches and wizards, but tend to just stay out of the way. Also, they use a form of wandless magic called ninjutsu. Konoha is the village in the Fire country, and is said to be the friendliest of the villages."
"Bloody hell, Hermione. How do you find these books of yours?!" Ron asked, incredulously. Even at 26, she was still a bookworm.
She swatted his arm. "Prat. These books actually aren't hard to find if you've been in a library for more than 5 minutes a year."
He just shrugged. Harry rolled his eyes.
Ron thought for a minute, and said, "But, how're we supposed to get there?"
Harry took out one of his father's journals and said, "When my dad was young, he visited there, and thought it was incredible. So he made the journal into a portkey. It should bring us about a mile away from the front gate, and bring us back to hogsmeade when we use it again."
He tapped the cover of the journal with his wand and said, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
Then, they each grabbed onto a corner of the book, and said, "Konoha".
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They all felt the tug in their navels before they landed in a forest. Harry brushed off his pants and looked around. When he saw a giant wall in the distance, he motioned towards it and said, "This way guys."
As they started walking towards the village, Harry had an inexplicable feeling that today would be a very important day. Shaking the thought out of his head, he grinned, and wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist.
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The boy backed up, trying to get away from the men. When he hit the wall, he flinched. The men smirked cruelly down at him. The apparent leader said, "Well look what we got here. A little demon brat. What do you say boys, how about some demon hunting?"
The men behind him grunted their agreement. They were buff men, but the boy didn't see any hitai-ate's on them, so they weren't ninja. The leader grinned maniacally and shouted out towards the men and women leaving work for the day. "HEY EVERYBODY! WE HAVE A TRAPPED DEMON OVER HERE!"
This made some people look up. They looked over at him, and then at the child at his feet, and grinned. They quickly rushed over to the group, until there were about 15 people. They all looked down at the boy, glaring, shouting out different names at him. Then the first few approached, and started raining punches upon the poor boy.
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Harry, Hermione, and Ron walked through the village, thoroughly impressed with it. It was beautiful. They were just about to look for an inn when they heard some villagers shouting. They'd cast language charms on themselves so that they'd be able to talk to people, but they were sure they must be malfunctioning when they heard people shouting out words like Demon, Freak, Monster, and Murderer. Wanting to know what was going on, the three friends quickly approached the group.
Harry tentatively walked up to someone in the back of the mob, and tapped his shoulder. The man spun around, and looked at him curiously. Harry said, "Um excuse me, what's going on here?"
The man's expression changed to one of glee. "We're demon hunting!"
Harry was still confused. "Demon?"
The man thought for a second, and then said, "Oh, you must be foreigners. Yeah, we have a resident demon. He attacked 4 years ago and was almost killed, so he possessed the body of a baby. But the sandaime won't let us kill 'em. Says that the boy's not the demon." He snorted.
Harry thought for a second to remember who the sandaime was. 'Oh yeah. Hermione said that each village has a leader called a kage, and that the sandaime is the current hokage.'
Harry pushed his way to the front of the crows. Ron and Hermione looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him. When he got to the front of the crowd, Harry gasped. There were people beating up a small child who looked to be 3 years old. He had hair that looked like it was supposed to be blonde, but Harry couldn't tell because it was thoroughly soaked with blood. The boy had bruises all over his body, and his pants were ripped. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so Harry could see the boy's ribs and skinny arms- there was no doubt that the boy was malnourished. The boy had blue eyes that were dull from the pain, and three thin black lines that resembled whiskers on each cheek. The boy's shirt was sitting about a foot away, poorly containing a few dirty scraps of food.
Harry felt rage bubbling in the pit of his stomach. Faster than anyone could see, he had his wand out and was shouting, "Protego!" at the boy. The men trying to attack the boy were stopped, and Harry used this opportunity to grab the boy, who was now unconscious, and the boy's shirt. Once he had the boy he ran as fast as he could to the place they had been told was the hospital, while Hermione went to inform the hokage.
Harry didn't know who the boy was, or why no one else had defended him. But he did know one thing.
There would be hell to pay.