Chapter 1: Return
On one bright dawn of October the tenth, exactly seven years from the time of Naruto's disappearance, found one Hatake Kakashi at the Memorial Stone like most days. Unlike most days, his eyes were glued to one name and one name only.
Namikaze Minato
Minato-Sensei... I failed you... Again. Kakashi bowed his head, brow furrowing as he stared at the ground. His fists were clenched at his sides, nails making intentions in his palms. He wasn't crying. No, he was far from crying, but he felt as if he was being ripped up from the inside anyways. He healed and ripped himself up again and again. Each time he felt like he was losing them, he would force himself to remember. I couldn't protect you... Or your son. I should've been there! He gritted his teeth before sighing and slumping.
Dwelling on the past was something that he really shouldn't do. Everyone had told him that he should let go of the past to look towards the future. But Kakashi was unable to. He was trapped in a single moment, in several single moments, individual moments, which haunted him again and again. He coped though. He let himself mourn, he trained in remembrance of them all and he got stronger, never stagnated, in their name. Kakashi did not live for himself, he lived for the people he cared for, which were slowly diminishing, but still there. He lived for all those that had died to keep him alive, to protect this precious village.
But Kakashi could no longer see this village as precious to him, only as something precious to those that came before him and to those that he lived for.
He had known, but now he wished that he hadn't. Had he not known who Naruto was, had he not known of what Naruto was containing, he could remove some of the blame, heal a little, heal a little permanently. He wished he hadn't known so he could keep the part of him that loved every aspect of his villae alive, to look through rose-tinted vision once more. It was a selfish one, but a true one.
They all had to cope.
He didn't like how the villagers had treated Naruto, at all. In fact, he could say that he outright hated some of them. He understood that Naruto was keeping them safe. He wished that he had gotten to know the kid better... And now? The blonde child was gone. Gone. Dead, most likely. And it was all their fault. He hated.
And it was his fault. He had been assigned to watch over Naruto that day. He had stopped to try and suppress the mob, but when he had gotten to the alley where Naruto was, all he had found was a dead ninja and no Naruto.
It was a rather gruesome sight, even for him. The corpse was already rotting when he had gotten there, skin and flesh slashed open in several places on the body, insides turned out. He was just glad that he didn't see Naruto's corpse. If he had... He would've probably died of guilt.
He should've been there. He should've been there to stop whatever had killed the other ninja from killing Naruto, too.
Kakashi heard the bushes rustle behind him, but didn't move a muscle. He knew who it was. After all, they always came on this day to this place ever since the disappearance of Naruto.
Jiraiya of the Sanin.
The white haired ninja moved to stand beside his student's student, looking at the Memorial student as well. After the news of the death of his student's son, Jiraiya had taken time every October tenth to come back to Konoha. It was partially out of guilt and partially out of loyalty towards his student. He and Kakashi were the only ones. They would come here at dawn and leave after the sun fully rose. It was a tradition of theirs that hadn't changed in the past seven years. If their first meeting had been any other day, Kakashi would've probably been in awe of the author of his favorite series. However, Kakashi had never forgiven the Sanin for not being there for Naruto. He knew that the Sanin was Naruto's godfather, the Hokage had told him so.
"Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi greeted quietly. The other only nodded in response, oddly quiet as usual on this day.
The two stood in silence as the sun rose, mourning and remembering. It was a melancholy silence, yet not exactly uncomfortable, almost peaceful yet not. It was a silence that had occurred every year and a silence that was soon filled with noises of the morning. Birds chirped and the wind blew. To the two there, it was a day of remembrance, but no matter what happens, the sun always rises tomorrow, even if you feel as if it shouldn't.
The silence brought them tragic thoughts, but also a sense of forgivness.
As the sun's rays spread and strengthened, the silence was broken by a loud shout.
"Kakashi! Jiraiya-sama!"
The two turned to the intruder of their silence. It was Asuma Saturobi. The jonin landed in front of the two, a slightly confused and panicked look on his face.
"The Hokage requests your presence urgently!"
The two mournful ninja looked at each other before immediately heading for the Hokage tower. They knew it must be really urgent if the Hokage had requested them specifically on such a day. Usually, Sarutobi would just let them stay at the Memorial Stone.
What could've happened?
Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed on his pipe as he composed himself. He thought that he might have nearly had a heart attack just now. He couldn't believe what he had seen. But... It was real. His crystal ball had never been wrong before and there were even reports on sightings by ninjas that handed in mission reports. At first he had brushed them off as hallucinations, but now he couldn't argue with the fact that what he had seen was real.
He had never given up the hope that Naruto was alive and that was what led to his discovery. Every year on Naruto's birthday, the first thing he did when he got up was to try and search for Naruto using his crystal ball. He always woke at the crack of dawn to do so, too.
This year was no different. He had been fully expecting the ball to show nothing but it's clear blue depths as always, but he had been surprised when images flickered within. So, of course, he had redoubled his efforts, the hope in him growing.
Imagine his surprise when the scene he came upon was not of Naruto, but of the Yondaime. He had stared, stunned, at the scene.
Minato had been just as he remembered. Young, serene and cheerful. He had a bright smile on his face and a sad look in his eyes as he laughed at something in front of him, making encouraging motions. Then, he had beamed with pride at whatever he was watching. And Sarutobi had been so shocked that his mouth had fell open as he stared. Then there was Kushina, in all her fiery glory, walking over to stand by the Yondaime, looking over at whatever the Yondaime was looking at with obvious pride. Then the image had flickered and died and trying to look for Minato or Kushina had no longer worked, just as it should with a dead person or dead people.
Baffled, the third Hokage decided to try and find Naruto once more, deciding that the last scene was just a fragment of his imagination. Therefore, he was very, very surprised to see a scene of Hizashi Hyuuga, the Hyuuga clan head's dead twin brother, and Shisui Uchiha, the dead Uchiha genius that committed suicide, sparring, Byakugan and Sharingan active respectively. Again, his mouth had dropped open as he stared before the image once again died.
He had shaken his head to clear it, unbelieving of what he had just seen. But then he had used the ball again. This time, however, was what shocked him the most. The Shodai Hokage and his brother, the Nidaime Hokage were, in the crystal ball, standing side by side as they barked out silent orders towards an unseen person. It was further proved to Hizuren that this pair was the real deal when Hashirama suddenly used Mokuton and accidentally knocked his brother off his feet. He quickly apologized, seeming shocked that he had hurt his brother, only to be kicked in the shin by said brother and fall over.
The image dispelled just as quickly, but it left behind a thoroughly gaping and shaken Hokage. The crystal ball had never failed before and yet... And yet, all these people were there, but meant to be dead!
It took a while to recover before he told the nearest ninja, which happened to be his son, to get Jiraiya and Kakashi quickly. He then sent messages to each clan head, requesting their presence as soon as possible.
Which brings us back to now.
Just as the Hokage decided to spare himself the headache in thinking about everything that he had seen, the door opened, admitting everyone he had requested for. At once, he leaned forwards, lacing his fingers together and placing his chin on top.
Everyone seemed to be tense and apprehensive, though they didn't show it on their faces. Some betrayed confusion in their eyes and a few of the clan heads were talking quietly as they waited for Sarutobi to start speaking.
The Hokage quickly activated the security seals and coughed to begin. Everyone's attention was immediately on him.
"We have a very... Interesting situation. As many of you know, there is a crystal ball technique that is used to track chakra patterns. Today, I was, once again attempting to find one Uzumaki Naruto with this jutsu. However, as usual, it didn't work. It didn't work properly, at least."
Kakashi frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I'm getting to that part... When I attempted to find Uzumaki Naruto, I was instead directed to a scene of the Hokage. The fourth Hokage. And Uzumaki Kushina."
Kakashi paled and Jiraiya's eyes widened.
"How... Is that possible? The Yondaime is dead... And so is Uzumaki-San," Hiashi asked, narrowing his eyes. Hiruzen held up a hand to stop further interruptions.
"After that, the scene faded, but when I attempted to use it again, I was greeted with the scene of Uchiha Shisui sparring with Hyuuga Hizashi." This time it was Hiashi who reacted by the slight widening of his eyes. "The next scene I came upon though, was one of the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage. In the scene, the Shodai Hokage used his Mokuton, making me believe that the people in these scenes may just be real. This isn't the only thing, though. Recently, there have been sightings of people who should be dead walking among the living. This is just another instance of this."
Mutterings broke out among the gathered.
"How is this possible?"
"We all know that the only Uchiha alive are Itachi and Sasuke. And Uchiha Shisui's eyes were taken by Itachi."
"I-I think I saw someone on the last mission I went on."
"Really? Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination?"
"I thought it was my imagination, too, but after today..."
"Silence!" Everyone quiet ended at the Hokage's command. "I have heard of a Jutsu that revives dead people. This might as well be very dangerous for us; an enemy gathering an attack force. I want everyone to be on their highest alert. Dismissed."
"Urg... I hate my hair..."
The twelve year-old with platinum blonde hair scowled as he tugged on the slightly spiked strands. His blue eyes glared at his hair which had gotten caught on a branch while he was lunging at his sparring partner; it hurt like a bitch. He had been urged to grow out his hair by his dad so that it reached mid back. The new color, which appeared after the adoption, went quite well with his somewhat aristocratic facial features. He was strikingly handsome, yet had the slight chubbiness that came with being a preteen. It had been a side effect of his new status as the Successor to his dad's place, giving him the same sort of timeless beauty that all immortals possessed.
In his opinion, the length of the hair made him look girly, or, at least, androgynous. Harry called him pretty, but Naruto preferred to think of himself as a younger version of the Yondaime with longer, platinum blonde hair. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to fix it this morning so it was still the bed head it was every morning right after he woke up, full of knots and tangles.
A chuckle floated down from the branches of a tree made of black crystal nearby. Naruto directed his glare towards the immortal perched on the tree. "Your own fault for not taking care of the mess you call hair this morning," the green-eyed man commented.
"This is all your fault and your stupid Blood Adoption thingy! It gave me this hair and it made me look girly and made my intimidation skills horrible! Plus, my hair isn't as bad as that crow's nest you have on your head!" Naruto shot back, sticking out his tongue childishly.
"Hey! I'm offended!" Death pouted, enjoying the banter and taking his chance to tease the other with a smirk. "Don't be mad at the Blood Adoption, Naru-chan! You're very pretty." Naruto's glare intensified. "And it gave you advantages, like magic!" Harry quickly added.
"You know..." A red haired woman cut off Naruto before he could open his mouth to reply, "You kinda look like Minato when he was younger." The blonde child and the blonde man standing next to her both perked up. Kushina grinned evilly. "Cute, girly and totally unreliable!"
"What!?" Father and son both squeaked indignantly. Meanwhile, Uchiha Shisui, Naruto's current sparring partner, and Harry both held back chuckles at the amusing scene.
"Although," Kushina carefully squinted at her son and then at her husband, "Our son does look a lot more masculine than you were at his age..."
"What!?" This time, Minato was alone in the indignant squeaking. Naruto just grinned.
"Must be my influence," Kushina decided with a grin, crossing her arms.
"For shinobi, that might be a good thing," Shisui chipped in, adding in his own opinion, "Your opponents will underestimate you. We are meant to deceive to survive."
"That's the same thing I said when I was trying to cheer Naruto up after he realized he looked cute," Harry commented, swinging his legs and grinning.
"I remember that time... When we were still genin," Kushina's eyes got a glazed look as she dipped into her memories. "Minato was vying for my attention and he and mmph!"
"Oh no, don't talk about that!" Minato exclaimed, clamping a hand over his wife's mouth. "Nothing! Nothing happened! I swear!"
The group peered at the two curiously.
"Oh, I think I heard an embarrassing story of Minato-San from Mikoto-sama once that began the same way... Something about cross dressing," Shisui suddenly perked up, sounding pensive.
Minato gave a resigned groan. "How many people did you tell?" He asked his wife. His wife just removed his hand and grinned, shrugging. "You're all ganging up on me!"
"Hey!" Naruto suddenly cut in, pointing at Harry, "Fix my hair!"
Harry smiled warmly and, with a twitch of his hand, Naruto's hair was silk smooth and free of tangles, though it still resembled Minato's hair with places sticking up. Naruto quickly pulled it free from the branch before both he and Shisui fell into Taijutsu stances again.
"As much as I hate to cut this short, we should really be going back to the main village and meeting with the Hokage," Harry suddenly said, looking up at where the sun was barely visible behind the leaves.
Naruto's face lit up. "We're returning to Konoha?"
"This place is, technically, a part of Konoha, so we are already in Konoha," Harry corrected with a faint smile.
"Yeah, but, we're isolated from the actual village so technically, we're returning to Konoha."
"I still don't understand why you like that village so much..." Harry muttered. "Say goodbye and we'll be off."
Naruto grinned and nodded, bouncing over to his biological parents and giving them each a hug. "Bye, father, mother! I'll see you soon!"
The two hugged back. "Goodbye, son." "Do well in the shinobi ranks! You can kick anyone's ass to hell and back!" "Kushina! Language!" The family of three laughed as the two faded from view.
Naruto turned to Shisui and waved. "See ya, Shisui-nii-san!" Shisui nodded before fading away as well.
"You packed everything?" Harry asked, jumping down from the tree.
Naruto nodded and Accioed a bag from inside the black crystal structure that was their house with his wand.
Harry nodded approvingly. "You're getting good at silent spell casting, though your control with wandless magic is abysmal as ever most likely." Naruto pouted at him. Harry just smiled and held out an arm, apparating as soon as Naruto took hold.
The Hokage sighed as he walked out of his office and through the administrative part of the Academy. He really, really needed to stretch his muscles and get away from his paperwork. He wasn't running! No way! He did his work diligently, thank you very much, and he was most certainly not afraid of paperwork! He just felt like getting some fresh air.
He nodded to his secretary as he went, not paying much attention to the people around him. That is, until he heard a familiar sounding name.
"-yes, Naruto would love to become a shinobi so I was also wondering how to sign up for that..."
The Hokage froze in place and then turned towards the source of the voice. There were two... Exotic looking people in kimonos standing there at the counter, apparently applying to become residents of Konoha. The taller one who held a snakehead cane was the one talking and the shorter one...
The Hokage's eyes widened.
It was Naruto.
At first, he didn't realize since this Naruto had platinum blonde hair, but now, looking closely, he could see the resemblance that the youth held to both Minato and Kushina. And if he looked closely enough, he could just about see the three thin whisker-like marks that adorned each cheek of the boy's face. The boy was looking around curiously at everything and then, their eyes met.
The child's smile brightened and he waved.
And that was when Sarutobi was sure that this must be the Naruto they had been looking for.
He decided to go over.
The woman telling the unknown man about how he could apply for Naruto to become a shinobi spotted him and gave a beaming smile, abruptly stopping. This made the unknown man look over curiously as well, his eyes shining like emeralds in the light.
"Good morning, Hokage-sama!"
"Good morning, Tanaka-san," the Hokage greeted the woman, still looking at the duo.
The taller man gave a respectful nod and smile while the child grinned.
"And you must be...?" He directed his question towards the man, smiling warmly.
"Hakuro, Kuroishi Hakuro. This is my son, Kuroishi Naruto, Hokage-sama," the man, Hakuro, introduced with a smile. Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at the man, not feeling any significant chakra in him. He seemed to be a civilian. Naruto on the other hand...
Sarutobi nearly cried with joy when his senses confirmed that, yes, this was the Naruto he had been looking for all along. He curbed that urge though. Instead, he just nodded. "Well, I would like to discuss something's with you, Kuroishi-san... Would you mind coming to my office? I can help you settle in if you want."
"Not at all, Hokage-sama. Come on, Naruto," Hakuro said, beckoning for Naruto to follow as the Hokage led them away.
After entering the Hokage's office, Harry and Naruto were told to sit down, and so they did. Harry set his cane across his knees, smiling pleasantly. He knew what was going to be said. He wasn't sure why he had conjured a snakehead cane, but for some reason, he felt a bit like Lucius, so he did. He was donned in an elegant dark red kimono-like robe with golden flowery patterns on the hems (Go Griffindor, go! the childish part of his mind shouted). On the other hand, his charge was wearing an actual kimono. It was turquoise with darker blue and sea-green patterns. Naruto was bouncing excitedly in his seat.
Harry's eyes fell on the mountain of paperwork on the Hokage's desk and he winced in sympathy. He was lucky that he no longer procrastinated or his paperwork would look like that, too.
Then, he felt a wave of energy and recognized it as something to ensure security and secrecy. As soon as he felt it, he tensed in his seat. However, Naruto immediately shouted, "Old man! I'm back!" and Harry had to resist the urge to burst out laughing from the expression on the Hokage's face and the urge to facepalm at Naruto's bluntness.
The Hokage blinked rapidly in shock before smiling warmly at the boy. "So it is you, Naruto. How are you? Where have you been all these years?" He asked.
"Hari-nii-san saved me and took me in! He's really nice and raised me and taught me all sorts of cool stuff!" Naruto told the other excitedly. "I wanna be just like him when I grow up!"
"Hari?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," this time it was Harry that spoke, "I am a foreigner with a foreign name. I changed it so that it would be easier to pronounce."
"Ah... So you are Naruto's guardian?" The Hokage had a challenging glint in his eye.
"Indeed I am. And I am, in my opinion, a better guardian for Naruto than any other person you can find. I saved him from your... Villagers and took him in, after all." Harry said the word 'villagers' with a sneer on his face. "I have legally adopted him, the files should be wherever you put files like those, and I have used a jutsu to Blood Adopt him. This way, if a blood test is taken, it will come up with my name as the parent and any inherit skills I have will be passed on to him. I have also taken precautions regarding his tenant."
The Hokage stiffened at the last part before he sighed. "I see... I suppose I can only ask that you take good care of him." He sighed again. "So, you both wish to become residents of Konoha?"
Harry nodded. "We will become residents of Konoha if you declare Uzumaki Naruto as no longer existing and allow Kuroishi Naruto to exist without ties to his previous identity. Also, I wish to buy the Forest of Death from you."
The Hokage got a slightly bewildered look on his face. "I guess that is acceptable... Though you will be watched for a period of time to make sure you have no ill will towards our village and also interrogated. But why do you want to buy the Forest of Death? It's very dangerous and many ninja have died trying to go inside."
Harry smiled so that his eyes curved in a way not unlike Kakashi's. "Who do you think is the cause of that?"
The Hokage stared. Then he cleared his throat. "Alright then... How do you plan on paying for such a large plot of land, anyways?"
Harry's smile widened further. "I grow crystals."
"..."
It didn't take long for the meeting to finish. At least it didn't take long after Harry dumped a bunch of rare, priceless stones on the Hokage's desk. The interrogation was quick. All that happened was that a shinobi asked them a whole bunch of questions, had them fill in some paper work, and then a man with a lot of scars, Ibinki or something, said they were good to go. It probably only went so fast because they had the Hokage backing them.
Harry then decided that it would be fun to open a jewelry/weapon shop. He didn't want to exhaust his mortal energy reserves growing precious stones, after all. He needed a source of income and entertainment. Making jewelry would probably be fun... Probably. Although he had to learn how to first. Or, he could just use magic... Oh yeah, he could just use magic.
He bought a relatively large place for his store and the first thing he did was to put runes and seals in the basement so that he and Naruto could travel could travel between the shop and their house freely. After some magic construction that turned the ceiling into black crystal, the walls into marble and the ground into grass, he bought some glass tables, shelves and cabinets and placed a few of his self made weaponry and jewelry on the shelves. He also placed the different kinds of stones and materials out for viewing pleasure. He didn't think that it would have many buyers due to the high prices, which meant he could deal with his own paperwork and overseeing of death whenever his services were required.
Perfect, Harry thought as he looked around the elegant and high class shop.
After the shop had been bought, Harry had let Naruto go and explore after giving him some ryo to spend. Of course, Naruto took his chance to find out how the village had changed. Tomorrow, Monday, he would go to the academy to meet his new classmates, so he took his time in exploring.
Walking through the streets, he was glad that his Konoha hadn't changed all that much from before. He ignored the stares he got, but relished in the fact that there were no hostile looks. There were some giggling girls though... A few women even stopped him to comment on how adorable he looked and what not. He was really enjoying himself and even got a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's; he was really glad that the ramen stand was still where he had remembered it to be.
After he had eaten ramen that afternoon, Naruto hummed a tune as he happily bounced down the streets towards the less occupied areas of Konoha, namely, the Training Areas. That was when he sensed something... Not meant to be so. He paused abruptly and tried to figure out where the bad vibes were coming from. His search led him into a group of rather small trees and to a clearing within the mini forest.
Then he realized what the bad vibes were. Someone was being possessed by vengeful spirits. It was among his inherited abilities to be able to sense un-departed dead, spirits, ghosts and demons.
He could feel it in the air, the oppressive cloud of darkness that was currently possessing an innocent soul. And it wasn't just one spirit, it was hundreds. What were they doing? Why were they doing this? Having so many possess one person was dangerous. It would drive them into insanity. Even one could make someone obsessive...
He slowed down as he neared the clearing, trying to stay hidden from the figure inside. Peeking around the tree, he saw someone throwing kunai at a bunch of targets, training hard. The feeling was coming from that figure. Naruto jumped as the figure suddenly spoke.
"Who's there?"
