A/N: So, here's another chapter of KI! Don't worry, this chapter is a lot longer. Now, this part is about the beginning of the HP series, but I'm not sure how much longer I'll stick with this part of the timeline. I think I might write another chapter of their childhoods before moving onto Hogwarts, but I'll have to see. Anyway, thanks to all my readers and reviewers!! I love it. :D
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Chapter 1 : Rebirth
The Kyuubi put its all into the spell that destroyed everything in front of the mountain and after that there was darkness. The Kyuubi knew that it had succeeded, so it was content to wait. The demon fox waited through the darkness and then the babbling mind that woke up within the darkness. The babbling mind was not the mind of its boy, but it was very similar to the mind that the Kyuubi was forced to listen to during his first few months of confinement.
In a way, this was very similar to the first time he was confined within the hyper ninja. He was as weak as he was when he was first sealed away into a human host and he could do nothing but regain his strength. Even the babbling mind was familiar to him, though it was not the same mind as before. Still, this babbling mind was the mind of his current host: a human by the name of Harry Potter. So named by the two humans who took care of the boy, never knowing exactly who and what resided within their son.
The Kyuubi was not the only one to exist in the back of the babbling mind: one Naruto Uzumaki also slept in the back of the boy's mind. James and Lily Potter would have freaked out if they knew about the two extra presences within their son, but lucky for the Kyuubi, they did not know. Besides, it wasn't as though Naruto's presence was truly unnatural: the slumbering mind was not a highjacker of the babbling mind. No, the babbling mind that was Harry Potter and the slumbering mind of Naruto Uzumaki were the same person.
The parents of Harry James Potter would not have understood this fact; how two minds could be the same person, they would have asked and the answer was simple. True, the babbling mind was not currently Naruto's mind: the babbling mind was a fresh slate and it had not gone through the experiences that Naruto's mind had gone through. This would not have worked if the hyper ninja had woken up within a baby's body. The Kyuubi knew its boy; being trapped within a helpless body once again would have driven the boy nuts. Therefore, a new mind had been necessary and that was how Harry Potter came to be. But, Harry Potter would not last very long and Naruto Uzumaki would wake up one day.
Not that it mattered. Sure, right now it was easy to see the differences between the two minds and their experiences would be different, but Harry Potter was Naruto Uzumaki. It was different bodies, different names, and different minds, but the same soul. Naruto would not kill Harry when he woke up, just as Harry did not kill Naruto when he came into existence. It would not be an abrupt switchover, the Kyuubi absently mused as it had nothing to do, the two minds would blend until there was only one mind. Naruto or Harry, it wouldn't matter—he would just be the Kyuubi's boy. This was the same with the others who were reborn within new bodies and minds.
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Elsewhere, Hermione Jane Granger clutched a cloth book to her chest as she slept. Almost two years old, her bushy hair was quite long already. Her parents were bemused at the state of her hair: curly strands of brown mixed in with straight strands of pink hair. They got many disapproving looks from people on the streets, but they did not dye their daughter's hair. The pink hair was all natural, though they did not know exactly where it came from. They ignored the state of her hair, however, focusing on how proud they were at how interested in learning Hermione already was.
Draco Black Malfoy had puzzled both his mother and father. They both had fair blond hair, but their son had all of these black strands mixed in with his platinum blonde hair. It perplexed them, but they covered it up with a slight glamor charm and left it at that. The boy's middle name definitely fit him, Narcissa mused as she peered in at her child where he was being taken care of by a nanny. Black blood flowed through his veins just the same as Malfoy blood and all was right.
Despite her large family, Molly paid close attention to her last son. Even as her oldest child prepared for his first year at Hogwarts, her next two eldest complained about not going to Hogwarts, and her twins ran rampant around the house while her newborn child demanded her attention; she did not neglect Ronald Billius Weasley. She was worried about a lot of things, the Dark Lord and the possibility of an attack for one, but she was also a bit concerned about Ronald. In a house full of screaming kids, the young boy was often the quietest one in the house. Watching the twins interact with Ronald and drawing him out of his shell, eased her worry enough for a new one to take place: where was her wand?
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Voldemort cared not about the color of his target's hair; the blond strands mixed in with Harry Potter's unruly black hair did not have anything to do with the Prophesy. He cared only about his mission and blond hair had nothing to do with it. His spy had only been able to hear part of this prophesy, but it was the most important part. The prophesy told him how he could become invincible; all he had to do was kill one small baby. It was pure chance that he chose the Potter baby over the Longbottom boy; his Potions Master used to know the female Potter and this would be a good way to cement his position within Voldemort's ranks. All he had to do was kill off the father and son and Severus was guaranteed to be his for forever.
The few blond strands of hair mixed in with black were never even noticed by Voldemort, even as he stood over the dead woman's body and spoke the words of the Unforgivable Killing Curse. This was it, his moment of glory: the death of one babe less than two years old and Voldemort would live forever. Or, at least, that was how it was supposed to be.
In reality, it took him months to narrow down which baby he was going after, and months to find out where both families lived, though he had caught a break with one of his new Death Eaters in finding out where his intended target lived. From there he just had to choose the day and move in for the kill.
Killing James Potter wasn't that hard at all; the man barely lasted long enough for them to have a proper duel. He then came upon Lily Potter, trying to escape with her son. He made her an offer, graciously allowing her more than one chance to consider it. Unfortunately, she was intent on saving the life of her child and he had to kill her. It didn't really bother him, though, as he paused to look at the child. The blond strands of hair weren't noticed, but the faint birthmarks on the boy's cheeks were. It really did look as though they were whiskers, but he put that out of his mind.
Whiskers were not a grand enough topic to think of when he was finally going to win the war. He then thought of the world that he was going to create by killing this one boy. This was the turning point, he aimed his want and spoke the dreaded words. His magic rushed out to kill the boy, but something unexpected happened. The next thing he knew, his world exploded in unnatural red fire.
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The Kyuubi knew that something was going on; all of this fuss reminded him of when Konoha was under attack in the last life. Something big was happening and, for all that the adults tried to hide it from the fifteen month old, they were worried. The Kyuubi had a sense that this was life threatening even as he felt the spell that enveloped the house being cast. The adults relaxed at that point, though there were still whispered conversations and the babbling boy was kept close to them at all times.
The babbling boy was drowsing when it began. The Kyuubi was only partway paying attention to the world outside the babbling mind when he felt the spell fall. The Potters immediately went into action, the mother heading upstairs while the father stayed downstairs to fight. The Kyuubi was still not totally recovered from what happened at the bottom of the mountain, but he was able to surface just a little. Just enough to be able to pay attention to what was going on outside the boy's mind; not enough to take the boy over, but enough that the boy was calmer than how he would have been without the Kyuubi's presence.
The mother managed to get to the other end of the house before the dark wizard caught up with them. The Kyuubi growled when it realized exactly what the dark wizard was after: his boy. He heard the dark wizard's offer and was glad when the mother behaved as a mother truly would and gave up her life for her child. Of course, that now left young Harry Potter without a defense; or at least that was how it appeared. The Kyuubi sighed to itself and thought back to what one of the boys that used to hang out with his boy always said, "How troublesome."
The Kyuubi felt the spell that ended life approach his boy's body and he reacted as he always did against threats to his host's life. He had to take a more direct approach than he usually did, but he reached out with his chakra and reflected the life stealing spell back at the original caster. He followed that up with a surprise attack with his chakra, the flames quickly spreading from the dark wizard's body to the rest of the house. The dark wizard's soul fled the house, but the Kyuubi made certain that he could never come back to this body.
The red chakra turned the house into an inferno, but baby did not seem to be harmed by the raging fire. While everything around him burned, not one flame touched either Harry Potter or the blanket that was wrapped around him. All looked to be well with the boy, even with the jagged wound that was left on his forehead. Despite appearances, however, there was something wrong with the boy. His outside appearance showed no signs, but inside the boy's mind things were a wreck.
The Kyuubi didn't really have a cage any longer. He was still trapped within the boy's mind and body, but he did not have an actual seal that confined him to human flesh. Because of his actions, he was now tied to the boy more deeply with more spiritual bonds than the balance of both spiritual and physical energy. The chakra keeping him sealed was warped, but still effective in keeping him from escaping. He could move around more freely within the boy's mind, however.
He had kept his contact to the babbling mind to a minimum; only keeping an eye out on the world around the boy. New mind or not, this was still Naruto and that boy was a trouble magnet. Unfortunately, confronting the dark wizard meant that the Kyuubi had to move to the front of the mind and take control from the babbling mind. This created a shift in balance and that wasn't good. While a fire raged on in the physical world, something similar was happening within the boy's mind.
The babbling mind had been pushed to the very back of the mind, where the Kyuubi usually resided. After the Kyuubi determined that the dark wizard was gone and that he could control the demonic fire from the back of the boy's mind, the fox tried to move to the back of the mind. Things didn't go as smoothly as the demon fox hoped, however, and the babbling mind was put to sleep as Naruto's mind woke up.
In the brief moment of respite before the ninja really woke up, the Kyuubi yanked at his connection to the demon fire and put it out. He knew that Naruto would not be happy with him when he realized what had happened and he was right. At least this way he didn't have to worry about his host's body burning up within the fire; plus he had a feeling that he would need all of his chakra to defend against the angry ninja.
"Hey, Fox, what's going on? What happened to the battle?" Naruto asked as he looked around the mental landscape. They had ended up within the same sewer landscape as they always did, though there were a few changes. The seal and chains keeping the cage closed had disappeared, but the doors of the cage were still closed and the bars were now a glowing blue with flares of red traveling through them. The water leading up to the cage was now all dried up and there was a crib and a bed in the middle of the pathway. The bed was empty, but there was a black haired baby sleeping within the crib. Naruto crept closer to the crib and poked at the baby. "What's a baby doing in here?"
"What question would you like answered first?" the Kyuubi asked with half lidded eyes.
"What's going on with the battle? Those Wraths or Wraiths or something like that?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at the Kyuubi. "And what's up with your cage?"
The Kyuubi sighed at the added question. "How much of the fight do you remember?"
"We set up the explosive tags and made it out of the base and into a battle. They just kept coming and we were losing," Naruto mused before he froze and pinned the Kyuubi with a look. "Sasuke's dead; I died. What's going on?"
"You almost died. I couldn't have that so I put a stop to the Wraith." The Kyuubi gave its boy a prideful look. "I destroyed the whole valley."
"What? How?" Naruto shouted as he took a step towards the cage. "Does that mean that Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei?"
"It was necessary to kill everything within the valley, yes," the Kyuubi answered. "But we are still alive."
"You mean you killed everyone and kept me alive to live without my friends?" Naruto gave the Kyuubi a fierce look and stepped closer to the cage, clenching his hands into fists. The Kyuubi only laughed at him before giving him a smug look.
"You're friends are also alive, but we are not in Konaha," the Kyuubi answered.
"Are we in Suna then or one of the other hidden villages?" Naruto asked, scratching his head in puzzlement.
"We're not in that world at all, brat, I brought us into a new world," the Kyuubi finally revealed.
"A new world?" Naruto sputtered. "Take us back to Konaha!"
"It's not possible; you've been reborn here with a new body and everything. We belong in this world now and we can't go back to Konaha." The Kyuubi sniffed and shut its eyes.
"What do you mean a new body? What was wrong with my old body?" Naruto shouted, checking himself over. He frowned as he realized that he was the same as he always did: blond hair and all. He was even wearing his traditional orange, which he hadn't been wearing during the mission. "I look the same."
"That's what the baby is for," the Kyuubi snorted. "That's what you look like now."
"What?" Naruto yelled out, staring at the sleeping baby. "You turned me into a toddler?"
"I turned everyone into a toddler; we couldn't have gotten into this world otherwise," the Kyuubi corrected.
"But why couldn't you have transported me with my body, why do I have to be stuck as a little kid?" Naruto whined.
"Do you know how much chakra it took just to bring all of your souls over to this world and implant them to be born again?" the Kyuubi asked, finally opening its eyes. "I barely had enough energy to bring all of you here, let alone your bodies. So your young again and in a new world, tough luck; leave me alone."
"But what about my dream? What about becoming Hokage?" Naruto quietly asked.
"Find some other way to become Hokage." The Kyuubi flicked its ears at Naruto. "Just leave me alone to sleep for a while."
"But what am I supposed to do?" Naruto asked.
"Wake up, brat, and figure out your dream." The Kyuubi batted its paw at Naruto and he flew back. Naruto blinked and found himself to be really tiny. He focused only on moving his small limbs, trying to get used to how they moved. It took him a bit, but he finally got used to his small body enough to really look around. He got the shock of his life when he found that he was cradled in the arms of a giant, riding on a large vehicle high in the sky.
