Naruto's Different Beginning
Chapter 1
Three Years Later

Three years later, on September first, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Harry Potter, and Haruno Sakura sat on a red steam engine called The Hogwarts Express, headed to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a place Harry had ran away from only months before Naruto stole the Forbidden Seal. In the third and final task of an event called The Triwizard Tournament, Harry had witnessed the murder of a classmate and the rebirth of a madman named Lord Voldemort, who had killed Harry's parents when said boy was only one. Realizing the world would look to him to defeat him, Harry ran, not wanting to be the savior for a world that had treated him with scorn several times over a four year time period. It didn't help that the Headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore, had refused to remove Harry from his aunt and uncle's house, even after Harry admitted that his family had abused him regularly since his third birthday; the day he had levitated a toy Dudly, Harry's overweight cousin, had been playing with to him. That had been Harry's first use of magic, and it had cost him greatly.

"I am not looking forward to this at all," Harry, a seventeen-year-old boy with emerald green eyes and shaggy black hair that hid a lightning bolt scar on his forhead, told his friends regretfully.

"I know, it can't be easy, going back to the place you tried to run away from," Sakura replied sympathetically, pushing a strand of pink hair out of her green eyes with annoyance.

"How do you think your old friends will react to you being back?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know, I only came because you guys were invited. I think it's ridiculous that everyone in this place automatically assumes I'll come to the rescue and defeat Voldemort. I was only fourteen when I ran, it was foolish of them to believe I had any real chance. I was lucky during my first years at Hogwarts, but luck doesn't last forever."

"I think you are very brave to come back after the headmaster refused to take you away from your abusive family," Sakura told him.

"Yeah, I'm just scared that Sirius will be mad at me for running," Harry sighed, thinking of his godfather fondly. The man couldn't take Harry, as he was a fugitive, falsy accused of leading Voldemort to the Potter's home the night Lily and James Potter died. Harry, however, knew the truth, and was one of the few people he'd missed while in Konoha.

"Hey, you needed to get away, and they should have seen that," Naruto lectured. "They can't expect you to not be affected by a student being murdered in front of you, or seeing the return of an evil man who killed your parents."

"Naruto! Since when do you have a brain?" Sasuke taunted, his head with spiky black hair tilted to the side.

Naruto scowled, crossed his arms, and glared at Sasuke, hurt that his boyfriend would say such a mean thing to him.

Sasuke closed his black eyes, and appeared to not care that he had obviously hurt Naruto. But Harry could tell that the younger boy was actually quite mad at himself, he just refused to show it.

The train ride passed quickly and peacefully, as the two boys made up quickly, like always, and the four waited until every other carriage left five minutes before them before heading to the castle that made up the school themselves.

The entered the castle and approached the double doors of the Great Hall, where the last student had just been sorted into Ravenclaw.

Harry then pushed open the Great Hall doors. Needless to say, four people in heavy black coats barging into the school would make people nervous when a war wasn't raging outside the castle walls, and thus they were met with hundreds of wands aiming at their chests, courtesy of the staff and students.

"Ah, you don't remember me. I'm hurt, Headmaster, I'm hurt!" Harry told the old professor.

Dumbledore's periwinkle blue eyes widened. "H...Harry?" he asked in amazement. Harry and his friends pushed down their hoods.

"Where have you been?" Hagrid, half-giant who worked as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher as well as the grounds and games keeper, asked in shock.

"Japan, with Kakashi Sensei," he replied nonchalantly.

Dumbledore turned to his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. "Why did you have him?" he demanded.

Kakashi looked at Harry, who nodded.

"We found him on the edge after running away three years ago, and we decided to adopt him as one of our own when he told us his story," he said simply.

"Well, then, Harry, why don't you go sit down at your table while your friends here are sorted?" Professor Dumbledore asked, hoping against hope that Harry still followed his orders like the pawn he was meant to be.

"No."

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

"I will be resorted, or I leave, and refuse to help you fight Voldemort," Harry said harshly.

"Really? Well, I assure you, Potter, the Light side will not need your help," a tall, lankly man with greasy black hair and cold black eyes sneered, "there is no reason we need you to fight, or your friends."

"I wouldn't say that if I were you, Professor Snape of Potions. You're looking at the best five ninja's in Konoha," Sakura spoke up.

The hall gasped; everyone knew about the Konoha Ninja Assassins from legends that old families had passed down for centuries without knowing why.

Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Very well, then, why don't you all step up to be sorted," he ordered them reluctantly, temporarily accepting that he couldn't win the battle at that exact moment without raising suspicion. When they began to reply, they were stopped by their sensei.

"Cell Seven! You are to be sorted into different houses, so all houses will be protected," he told them in Japanese.

They nodded, and, after introducing the three sixteen year olds, they each stepped up to the Sorting Hat.

In the end, after much arguing, Harry was sorted into Slytherin, Sasuke was sorted into Ravenclaw, Naruto was sorted into Gryffindor, and Sakura was sorted into Hufflepuff.

Soon, the feast as over, and they all retired in their own house dormitories, hoping to be well rested for training the next morning.