Chapter 1 - Master of Death?
On the eve of his final confrontation with Lord Voldemort, Harry had thought to throw the resurrection stone away after meeting his parents and godfather from beyond the grave, but in the end he buried it in a spot that he might retrieve later if he happened to survive, even though he wasn't intending to at all.
After the battle, he retrieved the stone and possessed all three deathly hallows and so supposedly became the "Master of Death", but it didn't really seem to affect his life going forward at all. He never relinquished possession of the items, and he was never defeated so retained mastery of the Elder wand.
Fast forward over a century, Harry lived to see the dawn of the 22nd century and died aged 120, a beloved war hero in the wizarding community, all of whom agreed that he was one of the most powerful sorcerers who ever lived. For Harry had been something of a late bloomer despite the latent signs he had shown in his youth (such as notably his early mastery of the patronus charm and his ability to drive away a hundred dementors), and it wasn't until he reached his sixth decade that he finally reached his potential.
Throughout his life he had defeated several more dark lords who threatened to menace Wizarding Britain and Europe and lived to see his great, great grandchildren go to Hogwarts. Because of his incredible magical power, he had greater longevity than the average wizard and surpassed the age attained by Albus Dumbledore, though the latter had his life cut short. Following on Dumbledore's example, he never sought to become the Minister of Magic, and after a long and fruitful career in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, he "retired" to become the Hogwarts professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Later he became headmaster, succeeding Neville Longbottom who died of old age three decades before he did.
He generally followed the model set down by Dumbledore and successfully kept the peace in the wizarding community while training a new generation of witches and wizards skilled in magic who could carry on with vigilance after him. Surrounded by his extended family, Harry was almost relieved to go as he had lived a very long, very eventful, very happy life for the most part, and he was tired.
But Death had other plans, for he had not forgotten that Harry retained mastery of all three Deathly Hallows up to the point of his death, accomplishing something that no other witch or wizard had done before him. Harry was the first person in existence to have cheated death, not counting all the times when the actions of others protected him, this time he really could not die. The laws of magic would not allow it, and instead transported his soul into another dimension to be reincarnated. Here he would live again, having cheated death and become its master in the previous life, he would be allowed to live a second life again, and when he finally died again, this time it would be final.
Because the soul is where all the memories of a person's life are stored, the reincarnated Harry would remember much of it, though time and distance would diminish the acuity of things remembered. The soul being affected in its new life and accumulating new memories and experiences would gradually, slowly lose possession of what it formerly contained. But it would be a slow process, and the most important memories would be the last to go.
And so, in another world, in another dimension, in another possible universe, a black haired, green-eyed infant was born, exactly one year before the events of the Kyuubi attack that set the course of destiny for Naruto Uzumaki. His parents were remarkable shinobi though not of any notable clan, slain in the defence of the village. If Death had any grudge against Harry being allowed to cheat death, perhaps he showed his resentment by recreating the tragic circumstances of his first life.
Aged one, Tokuda Konyo, had been left in his home without a nanny, such was the desperation of the village, the Kyuubi advanced forward and with a gust of wind generated by its chakra tail, it knocked the house down with the baby inside of it.
Remarkably, Konyo survived with nothing more than an odd lightning shaped scar on his forehead. The day after, the Shinobi clearing the rubble had heard the sounds of an infant's cry and rescued him. But because of the confusion, and the sheer number of orphans and the fact that his parents had no living relatives on both sides of the family, Tokuda Konyo was left unclaimed with many being not fully sure who he was.
The deaths of Fujita Shoyo and Tokuda Kenji were mourned by their friends and associates but none felt obliged to take in the orphan left behind, because there were too many orphans and everyone had other priorities with a nephew or niece, ect. Konyo was sent to the orphanage and was considered by all to be a perfectly ordinary boy, with no signs of any "unnaturalness". He was intelligent but a little shy, remarkably even-tempered for a child, but also remarkably uncurious, never asking any questions because he seemed to know everything already.
Though Konyo would hide it, knowing instinctively that others might react negatively to his advanced worldly knowledge and wisdom, and took careful means to seem like a simple child, it was all but impossible to fully convince others. And so he had no real close friends at the orphanage from a very young age, because he never reacted instinctively like a child.
It got better as he slowly grew up, as he forgot steadily more and more of old Harry's world but more importantly took in everything contained in this one. He had fitful dreams where he remembered things, impossible things like magic, but he was not readily convinced as he had inherited a rational character that the old Harry had cultivated in his elderly years. He thought he was mad, or at least as much as a child is able to reflect in this sort of way, for despite retaining much of Harry's old memories, he possessed a child's brain and intellectual capabilities.
And so the first six years of Konyo's life passed in just this fashion, he would remember things that he was not convinced by and he would disregard what he remembered. He knew everything that an adult should know already, and so despite the language differences, he learned extremely quickly, as he saw the parallels between this world and old Harry's. He had no trouble learning the names of everything that he saw much quicker than any other toddler, despite the relative neglect he received as an orphan. He took every precaution to hide his talents from his caregivers and was not entirely successful, as he was generally considered to be a prodigy and the most naturally gifted out of all the orphans.
Aged six however is where our story truly begins, because it begins with the friendship that arose between Naruto Uzumaki and Konyo Tokuda, both different than the rest of their peers, yet standing out from them for very different reasons. The details of how their friendship came about and the most important events of their early friendship shall be discussed in the next chapter.