A/N:
Important Notice: ll the notices about fan fiction updates are on my profile (it'll say when I'll probably update the next chapter).
Chapter Notice: This chapter is more of a character development, and also an introduction to a character.
Warning: Two swear words in total.
Upload: Mon, April, 4, 2016. 11:11PM
Out in the courtyard, among the broken shells of houses, a tall concrete wall stands against the rubble. In front are three kids of Amegakure: Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato.
They're practicing their chakra control, which is to walk up the slippery concrete wall, the process needs more than concentration than tree-walking needs. Behind them is Jiraiya who is fully healed compared to his two other teammates (who are both resting to get their chakra back up to maximum), he stands with his muscular arms crossed and eyes scanning his new protégés process. Standing idly by at the sidelines is Harī who happen to stop by with a basket full of lunch.
Jiraiya, realizing her quiet appearance, turns to greet her with open arms and a wide lecherous grin. However, before he could embrace her, Yahiko - the most annoying brat Jiraiya has ever seen (or heard of) - call her with a welcoming scream, "'Nee-chan!"
Harī lets the boy tackle her into his hug and Jiraiya feels utterly jealous by the fact that Yahiko's top of his height reaches Harī's chest easily so his face is completely buried in her perky mounds. Harī, sensing Jiraiya's displeasure of not getting a hug after cuddling the three (half-sweat, half-rain) drenched kids, wraps her lean arms around him with a slight smile. Jiraiya is always left puzzeled about Harī. There hasn't been any girl (except… entertainers) to offer him free hugs, but that doesn't deter him from laughing like the super-pervert he is, "eheheheh…" When she retracts, he goes back to pouting.
"I made sandwiches," Harī tells them, "I made them myself." She then hands them out one by one from the basket as soon as they're all inside a small shack to get away from the rain, that's also when Jiraiya realize that Harī isn't wet at all.
Yahiko's smile grows into a grin as he accepts the food greedily. Konan and Nagato are more patient and calm. They all have the same gleam in their eyes, when looking up at Harī, that look awfully familiar to Jiraiya. Jiraiya accepts the cup of tea from the thermostat as he takes his own seat right next to the young miss. His hand hovers over her lower back — it's a habit that gets him a bloody nose, two broken ribs, and a black eye (all given by Tsunade).
"Tell me what Konoha's like, Jiraiya." The three children perk up in interest at Harī's inquisition. "Is the village as good as they say?" Her voice is sultry and it comes naturally for her, yet the tone is soft spoken and gentle like a leaf falling from the sky.
"Hm… You'll have to be the judge of that yourself when we get there."
Tsunade thinks Harī is a strange girl. Very unique, in a way that she's rarely affected by Jiraiya's pursuits of the opposite sex. The medic ninja wants to know how she pulls off such a straight face, a pokerface, or her act in front of that pervert. And then she has these peculiar abilities, "mahō," she calls it. This mahō, if it's truly a power told in those ancient folk-tales or myths, it'll be a feat that wouldn't be controlled. If someone did manage to get their hands on her or her powers, Tsunade doesn't want to even imagine the imminent future.
However, Tsunade thinks it'll be hardly likely that someone would get their hands on this oblivious girl, because Tsunade herself can't understand Harī.
"That's all? Just… a bag?" Orochimaru's voice wakes Tsunade from her daydream thoughts of the girl before her.
Harī isn't in her baggy clothes today. She's in a tight fit leggings that goes to her ankles, her top is a zipped up jet black jacket, and her feet are cuffed into military combat boots. Jiraiya will have a field day when he comes out to focus his eyes on her bottom half.
"Not just a bag. It's enchanted with the extension charm." Harī then answers their questioning looks with, "it's a charm to extend the internal dimensions of the object without altering the outer dimensions."
Tsunade doesn't know if it's because she spent the last three days inside a house that appears to be extremely "haunted" with tools and objects flying about and executing their tasks as if they have lives of their own, but she's not quite surprised to hear that the bag is capable of holding many things if what she heard is correct.
Oh, there he is - Jiraiya - with his three new pupils, coming inside through the front doors of the mansion. His white hair isn't as spikey and wild, the heavy pouring of the rain must have calmed it down when the man was teaching. Though, strange to think, Harī's ebony hair is untamable than Jiraiya's.
As soon as he spots Harī, Jiraiya's jaw drops at the sight of Harī's slender legs, and Tsunade senses she'll have to hit Jiraiya so he doesn't lose control of his wheels. And she does so, leaving Harī to greet back the kids.
"We'll be leaving in an hour, so put all of your necessities in this bag, you three. And Yahiko," Tsunade hears over Jiraiya's protests, "don't mess with the bag."
It's been bothering Tsunade for quite a while, but she wants know how Harī's voice could hold so much raw emotion, yet at the same time, it doesn't. It's almost the same tone as a seasoned war veteran, or more. She wonders if Harī has an old soul trapped in the young body of hers.
"It'll be a better idea if we leave right now," Orochimaru explains, "since it'll take us more than half a day to reach an inn the first night." He then adds, "I don't like spending my time in the woods. And I'm sure sensei is expecting us to be back sooner."
"While that's true, it'll take us at least four days if we're lucky," Tsunade responds nonchalantly as if this is a usual occurance, "Harī-san isn't a ninja like us so she can't travel as fast. One of us will have to carry her if we want to reach Konoha in two to three days."
Jiraiya's hand whips up immediately. "I volunteer as tribute!" He recieves a glare from Tsunade and a mean stare from his new student, Yahiko - he's the most protective of Harī than the other two.
"Oh," Harī whose tone is soft like the autumn wind voices, "there's no need. I can fly." Though she prefers riding on broomsticks better, unsupported flight is her only transportation if she can't use apparition (because teleportation has certain range limit). She could always make Death to create a broomstick for her, but she doesn't exactly like asking Death for anything.
Tsunade and Jiraiya both sputter, almost choking on their own spit like goats, unlike the rest. The only being they know who could have the ability of flight is Ōnoki, Sandaime Tsukikage of Iwagakure, and they're sure he uses chakra to do so unlike Harī who has the chakra reserve similar to that of a new-born baby.
"Hey, does that mean you'll give us a ride too, 'Nee-chan?" Yahiko asks excitedly, jumping up and down with his lips stretched out into a happy grin.
Harī smirks in amusement as she answers, "no," and Yahiko deflates, along with Konan. "You guys are too heavy on my poor limbs. Look at how long you guys stretched my arms since last time."
Yahiko pouts and Konan chuckles at the reaction, though Nagato seems to want to say that he has latched onto her middle.
Just as they're all about to leave, Harī stops Nagato. He eyes her warily behind the strands of his hair that are like shield for him. Fear should creep up at his spine when Harī asks him why he keeps his eyes away from the whole world to see, but the emotion isn't there. Instead, the familiar warmth blossoms, just like whenever Harī talks to him even if they are about little things.
Nagato swallows, something's stuck in his throat - perhaps the seeds in the orange that he ate a while ago. His eyes stray away from her bewitching fluorescent greens which he can't explain the beauty of the eyes in simple words— Nagato wishes his eyes are like hers.
Nagato stares down at the marvel floor of the mansion. "I killed with these eyes," he tells her with little bravery and contradicting anxiousness. "These eyes," he hesitates, "I never wanted them - the power that came with it."
No one says a thing for two minutes - Nagato counts. His breath hitch to a bare minimum when Harī's warm fingers brush his too-long bangs and tuck them behind his ears. The strangest thing is that he let her do that, when almost all physical contacts are denied by him even with his two best friends who showed him the light inside a dark crevice.
"There." She smiles - she actually smiles, and to Nagato, it feels like watching the shell of an egg crack. Her eyes wrinkle in the most breathtaking way and the healthy pink in her cheeks reach up to her bottom lashes. It's brief, but it's still a genuine smile.
"Nagato," he snaps his attention back to her whole being, "a great man have once told me that those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it." Harī puts her hands on his shoulders, then her dominant hand moves up to caress the top of his head. The action reminds him of what his mother used to do to him whenever he was hurt, though the memory is hazy. "But you don't have to shoulder this alone, Nagato."
"Ojou-chan, we're leaving in a minute!"
Harī pulls apart from the tiny body. She conjures up a small case onto her open palm. "If you still want to hide your eyes, you can use these. They're colored contacts. Reddish-brown to match the color of your hair."
"… Thanks, Onee-chan."
Yahiko and Konan are, nonetheless, surprised at the revelation.
There are three rooms given to the group when they decide the small merchant village is a good place to stay for the first night: one for Orochimaru and Jiraiya (reluctantly), another for Yahiko and Nagato, and the last one for Tsunade, Harī, and Konan.
When it's past midnight, Harī apparates to the outside. Jiraiya is sitting at the wooden bench, patiently waiting - meaning patiently imagining perversively about what "could" happen when Harī comes for their private meeting.
"Jiraiya," Harī greets as she sits down beside him.
"Ojou-chan," he greets back, an idiotic grin on his face, and his hands acting up again. "Eheheh, what did you call me for?" He thinks he knows the reason behind the meeting. "Lonely night?" He wiggles his eyebrows.
Harī refrains a chuckle - she thinks how Jiraiya acts is a source of entertainment for her. "It's about Nagato." Jiraiya's ego deflates like a popped balloon.
"What about him?" Jiraiya squints his eyes exhaling a puff of air.
"He's been hiding his eyes behind his bangs." Jiraiya turns a little bit serious. "Ever since I met him, I could feel strange chakra from his eyes, specifically. I was hesitant to speak to him about it since I didn't want to pressure him, but I felt like I needed to confront him before we left, and I did. He said he killed with his eyes." Jiraiya narrows his eyes further and further as Harī tells him about Nagato.
"What does it look like?"
"Ah, so you know that they're contact lenses…?" Harī smirks inwardly. "They're purple and rimmed with rings. Do you know anything about it?"
Jiraiya scratches his chin. "I wonder if it's the same thing that Ōgama Sennin talked about…" He mutters. He looks up at Harī and gives her a reassuring smile, "not to worry, Harī-chan, the kid's in good hands."
Harī widens her eyes and blushes, she looks anywhere but Jiraiya, "I-I wasn't worrying."
"I guess we'll have to camp out tonight," Jiraiya announces just as Harī lands to the ground, white mist envelops the ground. "Yahiko, Nagato, you two will come with me to gather woods for a campfire. And Konan, you help the rest set up camp."
When Jiraiya and the two little boys come back, they see a small single tent set up and not a single sleeping bags in sight. Jiraiya, sensing Tsunade, Orochimaru, Konan, and Harī inside the one-person tent, peeks the fabric entrance open with an annoyed expression as he tells Nagato and Yahiko to set up the campfire.
However, when his eyes see a grand living room and connects to the kitchen and two big rooms - the doors just the tent fabrics - he backs out and look at the exterior again. The outside of the tent look like it can only fit one small person, but the inside looks like a whole apartment room— no, bigger!
"Jiraiya-sensei?" Nagato comes from behind him. "Ero-Jii-sensei?" Yahiko calls from the frame work of the campfire.
"What're you three doing, standing there?" Tsunade asks in her pajamas, she has a cucumber face mask. "All the hot water'll be all used up if you don't hurry to the bathroom." There's even a bathroom?! "The boys are on that side," she points to the right, "and the Girls are on the other." Surprisingly, Tsunade doesn't warn Jiraiya of anything such as 'you better stay on the boys' side, you pervert, or I'll break your neck!'
"Ya-Yahiko," Nagato calls, looking at the fireplace at the living room, "it looks like we gathered the branches for nothing."
"Eh? What d'you mean, Nagato?!"
Jiraiya snickers as quietly as possible. It's the dead of the night and everyone's asleep. He walks through the drapes of the entrance of the boys' quarters and through the living room. His eyes hold a mischievous glint. It's Tsunade's fault for not giving him her usual stern warning.
Inside the girls' room, Tsunade snickers as well. When Harī told her what would happen to boys if they happen to 'sleep' walk to the girls' side of the tent, Tsunade couldn't help but stay awake because she knew that Jiraiya would totally 'sleep' walk.
"Eheheheh," she hears him giggle, then, "GAH—!"
"W-W-Why didn't you w-warn me, Tsu-Tsuande…?"
Konohakgakure no Sato. When she lands behind inside the village behind the entrance, Harī feels like an ant when compared to the huge, enormous gates of Konohagakure.
The two chunin guards sputters, unable to utter a word at the sight of Harī - either from her etheral beauty or from her being able to fly. "Mahō," Jiraiya explains to them as if it's something easy to accept. "Ran-kun," he calls out to one of the chunin, "can you give these four a temporary citizenship pass?"
"U-Uh, yes, of course, Jiraiya-sama."
"-sama…?" Tsunade echoes in confusion.
Ran and the other chunin, Takeshi, grin proudly, "of course. You three were able to stand against Hanzō the Salamander and came back in one piece! That's truly an amazing feat, Tsuande-sama! It's said that Hanzō the Salamander is an opponent even some Kage have feared…" He drabbles on.
Harī, in the meanwhile, fill out the slips of registry papers, and Konan helps - she's filling the papers for four different people, including her, after all. When finished, they hand the papers to Ran. "Great," he says, "you'll have to wait a couple of days before you can do the tests for an official citizenship pass since there's been a lot of refugees these days because of the war. - And these kids are your kids or…?"
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan peer up at her with the same questioning stare. "I'm just taking care of them for a while."
"So then, I don't have to get you an adoption paper to fill out?"
Harī pauses briefly, but nonetheless, she answers, "no."
Team Hiruzen report on their mission to their mentor in the Hokage office. The Sandaime nods at every few sentences given. The conversation then drift onto the newcomers, Harī and the three Ame orphans.
"And you can vouch for them?" Hiruzen asks and Jiraiya is the only one who answers a positive, while Tsunade looks a bit wary, and Orochimaru is indifferent about the subject. "Tsunade, what do you suggest?"
"Sensei, Harī-san has powers a shinobi could only wish to have." Orochimaru nods at Tsunade's words. "Powers that are unpredictable and unknown to this world. And I don't know what she's thinking, her facade is, I hate to say it but, top-notch - when she's not around the orphans. —"
"Then, I recommend attaching an Anbu."
"Danzō," Hiruzen greets half-heartedly. "If this woman is as powerful as you say, Tsunade, wouldn't she easily tell if someone is watching her?"
"I didn't suggest a spy, old friend," says the monotone voice of Danzō, "he'll befriend her, pretend to be her friend, find more information about her, … and see if she's," he rummages cabinets inside of his brain to find a word he's looking for, "- good."
"Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya, you are all dismissed." They exit. "Very well, Danzō. Who do you propose we send for this mission?"
Jun has a mission. A mission inside the village for the first time in his (Root) Anbu career. The confusion that runs inside his head runs wild but it doesn't betray his outer facial expression or bodily behavior.
Odd, he thinks. Every one of his missions involve assassination outside the village. But seventeen, almost eighteen, years of age, he gets a mission to go undercover inside the village to… befriend someone. Making petty relationship isn't what he does. He kills, whether for fun or to survive this shit world.
He skims through the mission information. His name will be Michio, with no last name just like Jun. A kindhearted jounin shinobi who's on break for two weeks. Within that time period, he's to meet a woman, Harī, and befriend her in order to find out whatever information he can on her.
What's so important about this foreigner?
They settle upon a inn. Harī and Konan share a room, while Yahiko and Nagato has their own room. The first two nights in Konoha is spent with Harī letting Konan to braid her long unruly hair, painting each other's nails, and making roses out of origami papers. All the while, Yahiko and Nagato have pillow fights against each other.
The next morning, Jiraiya comes to get Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan. While they're all off to train in training ground thirteen, Harī goes house-hunting with a realtor.
"This one is the most expensive one out of the listing, miss. Three small bedrooms, one master bedroom, two full bathrooms, a half bathroom, a kitchen, living space, …" and the realtor lists on.
"I'll take it," Harī says.
"… And the biggest feature of this house is— You'll take it?" Harī nods.
Harī shrugs. "How much is it? I'll pay the full price right now."
Mistress, allow me.
Often times, Harī forgets Death is even there with her. It's all do to the dark shadowy cloak that he has on that allows him to hide himself from everyone, including Harī, his Mistress, Master, Vanquisher, and Conquerer.
With a simple direction of his stare, the inside and the outside of her new temporary home becomes brand new, clean, and fresh. Death snickers when Harī claims that she now has nothing to do.
He simply stays with Harī because she's an easy entertainment for him. She knows this, but Death is a trustworthy ally to have by her side.
"Death, lead me to the grocery store?"
Always, my lady.
Grocery shopping is more of a hobby than a chore. It's peaceful, is what Harī thinks of about picking out food and putting them into baskets. When done, Harī is heading back home with two heavy plastic bags in her hands.
Harī suddenly wonders if Death has once been a mortal like she has been as Harriet Potter. I'm the first Death ever to exist, Mistress. Many have tried to control me through the use of the Deathly Hallows, but only you have and will succeed Death, he answers her thought.
Harī sighs as she locks the front door behind her. "I told you, Death, not to read my mind."
I apologize, Mistress. Whenever Death ghosts through passers, he sends cold shivers inside their bodies.
"But, tell me, Death, what do you mean by only I have and will succeed you?"
Many think once they have obtained the three Deathly Hallows that they are easily the master of this one, but they all have missed one important fact. That is to accept death when they come; to not fear the afterlife when they come - My Mistress, you have proven yourself to this one.
Harī gasps and drops her bags when she bumps into someone who easily catches her with ease, his left hand supporting her back and his right hand gripping her wrist. "I—" Silver hair, how original.
"I'm sorry," Harī manages to get out.
"No, no, it's my fault. I should've been more careful. I am a shinobi after all," he chuckles. His voice, his behavior, the way he talks are with good-nature.
Harī bends down to gather the ingredients for lunch and dinner tonight. The man immediately follows her down to pick up the apples first, working his way to the vegetables. "Thank you," she says to him when they're done gathering.
He sheepishly smiles again, "I at least owe it to you. - My name is Hatake Sakumo." Yes, he seems like the type to introduce his name to others first.
"Harī."
Sakumo grabs the two bags, strength is on his side as he takes them easily from her grasps. "Let me help you carry them back." No remarks of 'I can't let a lady such as yourself' or anything of the like.
They walk silently, beside each other. Sakumo is a great conversationist and doesn't get bored of talking, but he's very unlike Yahiko in terms of leading his speeches. He's calm, calculating, kind, selfless, compassionate, and everything good. Harī finds Sakumo a comfort.
Harī learns that he has a son named Kakashi - he likes to talk about the boy a lot. A prodigy, he says proudly, but he's worried. Sakumo doesn't want Kakashi to follow in his foot steps if he could help it.
"What do you do for a living, Harī-san?"
"I do a lot of things. I traveled a lot ever since I'd turned four years old. I try to garden whenever I'm free. I take care of three orphans at the moment. I have Death as my best friend." Sakumo raises an eyebrow. Before Harī could continue, a scream puts a stop to their conversation.
Soon enough, other various screams and wails follow along with it, then an explosion from the North side of Konoha. Sakumo tells her to stay put as foreign ninjas with completely different outfits leap from rooftop to rooftop, to which Harī summons her wand and points it at the ninjas, "Immobulus." The seven foreign shinobi float in mid air, unable to move.
Sakumo widens his eyes and he's lost for words. "The explosion's that way," she informs him, "let's go." Before he could respond, Harī grabs his arm. They twist and turn during the fast tubular experience of teleportation.
"H-How…?" However, there's no time to speak, and Sakumo instinctually blocks kunai attacks that come from his right side, his left land covering Harī in a protective way. "Iwa," he curses.
Ruins smother most of the area from the previous random explosion. There are wounded almost everywhere Harī looks. Red sparks from her wand stuns back a couple of the enemies as she hurries over to an injured boy. Broken arm. "Brackium Emendo."
The boy feels hot smothering temperature at his arm, then sudden coldness wash over it. He doesn't feel pain. "I-It doesn't hurt anymore," the boy gasps.
Harī deflects a kunai with a shield created by her mind and magic. "Get away from here, kid." She sends another powerful, silent Stupefy, making her way to the next injured. She gasps when the earth in front of her creates a barrier, then she hears clangs of metal, she turns to look at Sakumo and send him a grateful look.
"Immobulus!" Five more are frozen in place.
"Sakumo-san, I found him fighting one of them," a voice says.
Harī looks toward the Hatake when she's done healing her seventh patient. Most of the Iwa ninjas are gone by now. "Kakashi, are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine."
"Your son?" Harī asks when she nears them. She gasps when she reminds herself of Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato. "Fuck!" Harī apparates to training ground fourty - the place where Jiraiya told her they would train. They're not here. "Yahiko! Konan! Nagato! Jiraiya?!" No answer. "Death, make a broomstick for me?" There is a limit as to how exhausted she could get from using up so much of her energy of blasting charm after charm. She's not hesitant in requesting Death something.
Of course, Mistress. In his hand, forms a dark broomstick that lurks with shadowy mists. Harī mounts the broom and she flies, searching from the bird's eye view.
"Konan?! Yahiko! Nagato!" Harī calms down when she sees them right below the seven Iwa ninjas are frozen in mid air. As soon as she lands, she gathers all three of them into a big bear hug. "You guys are going to be the death of me."
Yahiko chuckles, Konan says nothing but crooks her head into her shoulder, and Nagato says, "sorry."
A/N:
There's something I need to explain about Harī's character regarding chapter one when you see her having not a lot of emotion being expressed. It's because she's living another life and there's almost close to nothing that could make her angry, or truly happy. She misses her old life, she wants it back. Near the end of chapter one, Harī is coming out of that phase because of the three Ame orphans. She's beginning to change, you can clearly see that in this chapter, especially at the last part.
Although she's nonchalant and very indifferent, she'll still have the characteristics of Harriet Potter since I really love how Harry Potter was portrayed in the franchise. (He's actually my first crush I ever had when I was younger).
For those of you who left reviews, thanks so much! I love reading them!
Until the next chapter.