Chapter 4: A Strong Friendship Growing

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto

Authors Note: Hari already has some suspicions (gut-feeling) about Naruto's treatment, even knowing virtually nothing about Naruto's situation, but he'll find out more soon. I also want to make another point: Naruto isn't going to see Hari as a father figure, but rather as a brother. Despite his maturity, Hari is not only five years older than Naruto, but really isn't that much taller than Naruto either.

When Hari releases 'a pulse of magic', it's similar but more advanced than the Homenum revelio, as it reveals any people, animals, magic-ed objects and finds any items fueled/created with malicious intent. Hari only really needs his wand for delicate magic like internal healing. (However...)

On a side note, does anyone know the real (and animal) names of ANBU members?

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The ANBU watchers kept a diligent watch over one Shiro-fukurō Harii, and particularly sharp eyes and ears on his interactions with Naruto codenamed Orange. At first they watched Hari simply because he moved in next to Naruto. But then Hari started building a friendship with Naruto...

Hari had the messy raven black hair of the Uchiha, but had bright too green eyes of eyes (the Uchiha's always had dark eye colors), a facial structure that was far more different than any Uchiha, and his personality wasn't like an Uchiha. The possibility was still there (until a blood test denied it), but unless Hari developed the sharingan, he probably wouldn't be claimed as one anyway. Hari was a short individual, but several years older than Orange.

On day one, the target of observation bought the apartment, holing himself up within. A Hyuuga (someone with the Byakugan) under the mask of a squirrel noted that the civilian seemed to be fixing his apartment, nothing too unusual. The place had been a dump. Inu-san idly wondered if the civilian would manage to repair it into a decent shape. Orange reentered the building for the night.

On the second day of observation, the target finally left the building around lunchtime, an aroma of sawdust and paint fading from his scent. Cat-san found it mildly amusing how quickly the civilian seemed to get lost and pretend he wasn't. The target found a local civilian willing to give him directions to the food stalls. The target successfully made his way back home with several bags of basic groceries, nearly getting run over by a speeding orange bullet. Yet the civilian brushed the incident off as if he hadn't noticed, merely blinking, shrugging and continuing hauling his groceries home.

The target's nighttime activities were interesting. After sleeping for only a few hours, the target woke up and made a bakery's worth amount of sweet bread loaves. Inu-san twitched, there were definitely downsides to having a hyper sensitive nose. And if a loaf or two went missing (he was only checking for poison!), Baker-san didn't notice.

The third day, the target made brief contact with Orange before both left for different parts of the city. Orange to the ninja academy and the target wandered about, running into Hanea Kamizuki, Izumo Kamizuki's (one of the chunin gate guards of Konoha) niece. She sat right in front of the target, who looked uncertain how to react. After a short conversation, the target rolled his eyes and helped Hanea stumble home to her mother Izumi. The target was troubled and unaware of his surroundings when another civilian bumped into him. He looked about wildly, snapping out of whatever thoughts he'd been having, looking around in caution. The ANBU shinobi then watched the target arrive at the orphanage, delivering the baked goods. The target spent the rest of the day there, under the watchful eye of Yakushi Nonō, a loyal medic-nin to Konoha. While the target wandered around, in the end heading for the orphanage, another ANBU inspected Orange's neighbor's apartment.

Under his mask, Inu-san raised an eyebrow, wondering how Baker-san fixed his apartment up so fast and made it look tasteful. If he hadn't been here before, Inu-san would have believed that it had never been run down before. Baker-san seemed to be a teenager with many odd (normal) talents, but nothing unusual (plots to kill anyone, poison, ect, that sort of thing) appeared in Inu-san's inspection of Baker-san's apartment.

Again Baker-san woke in the night. The ANBU members were disappointed that Baker-san wasn't baking and instead chose to meditate. Though he often stood upside down instead of sitting. Again, nothing seemed suspicious yet. Close to the morning hours, Orange knocked on Baker-san's door. Orange brought Baker-san a small bonsai and the two had a friendly discussion over breakfast. Inu-san was aware Orange was usually a good judge of persons and noted how relaxed Orange was becoming as a potential point for or against Baker-san (depending if he planned to betray that trust or not).

Leaving around mid-afternoon, the target was pulled after Kamizuki-chan's in a whirlwind shopping spree, before coming to an end at Kamizuki-san's house. They appeared to switch recipes, the silent watcher sparing a brief thought to be grateful that Kamizuki-san was so thoughtful to her fiance.

Orange arrived home first. The ANBU that had been following the target immediately took out the drunk civilians that attacked Orange while keeping an eye out for the target's reaction. The target expressed worry over Orange, to the point of letting Orange stay in his apartment. The target rubbed his head as he examined Orange's apartment before setting to work. The target of observation swept, cleaned, washed and amazingly managed to get Orange's toxic living zone in shape within a few hours. It had a way to go before looking as fixed up as the target's apartment, but it looked much more organized. The target took out the trash (several bags full) before going back to his own apartment. Surprisingly Orange was still asleep and remained asleep as the target displayed his cooking prowess once again.

Behind his mask, Inu-san grimaced slightly from how teary Orange got from Baker-san's genuine kindness. But Baker-san had yet to know how Orange was generally treated in this village.

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"Gochisousama deshita." Naruto sighed in contentment.

Not too long after Naruto finished filling his stomach, he realized he didn't know where Hari-san was. Listening closely, Naruto cautiously approached where the other boy was breathing out gently. Naruto blinked in surprise to see Hari-san sleeping on the floor, using the same pillow and blanket Naruto had borrowed earlier. Searching his brain for his limited experience with positive human interaction, Naruto wondered what he was supposed to do. It would be rude to prank someone who didn't appear to hate him. Glancing back to the dishes that still remained uneaten, Naruto carefully placed them into the fridge as quietly as he could. Naruto stacked the dirty dishes near the sink before slipping out of Hari-san's apartment.

Opening the door to his own apartment, Naruto walked in, looked around and promptly walked back out. That wasn't his place was it? The numbers matched, so Naruto reentered. Had Hari-san really managed to clean his apartment in the time he was asleep? Everything was just so... neat. (Except for his bedroom, but that was alright. It confirmed that this really was his home). Dazed, Naruto fell onto his bed, thoughts whirling around until he fell asleep again.

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Naruto woke earlier than he anticipated. He peeked out of his bedroom and blinked. Why was his apartment so clean again? Reviewing the events prior to going to sleep, Naruto remembered Hari-san had told him that he had cleaned up his apartment. It was still so strange. Not paying any attention to the time, Naruto left and loudly knocked on Hari-san's door.

"Naruto-kun?" Hari-san yawned, "Was there something you needed?"

In all actuality, Naruto wasn't sure what he was there for. He had just acted without thinking, "Thank you. I wanted to say it before, but you were asleep- did I wake you up? Sorry, I just woke up and came over here..." The yellow-haired whiskered boy rambled, "...and you said that I could repay you by learning how to cook and clean only I don't know how to cook or clean, but you obviously do, so could you teach me?"

"Breathe Naruto-kun. And sure I can teach you how to cook and clean, but do you really want to do that at two am in the morning?"

Naruto blinked, sheepishly rubbing his head, "Is it really that late? Did I wake you up?"

"I don't normally sleep more than a few hours at a time." Hari-san shrugged, "But most people sleep in until at least six am. Come on in."

"So... my dishes are all clean. Thanks for putting the left overs away. So cooking for beginners starts with understanding a recipe and all the different types of measurement." Hari pulled out a clean sheet of paper and wrote all the different kinds of measurements, "We're not going to cook anything until you understand this." Harry pulled out all his cooking measurement tools, a tray, a bowl and a large sack of flour. Finding out Naruto had very little experience in math, Hari gave a few impromptu lessons. Not that Naruto realized he was learning math. It was much more hands-on and interesting than a lecture from the academy.

Naruto's first cooking lesson lasted until breakfast. By then, Hari allowed Naruto to participate in making pancakes, instructing the interested boy how to make pancakes perfectly golden. Hari stepped back and allowed Naruto to make a few mistakes as he flipped the pancakes. In the end, some pancakes weren't edible, the boys were covered in flour, but Naruto looked very pleased as he ate his own creations.

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Once the ANBU giving their report left the room, the Hokage let a small smile show. Of course he'd have to talk with this Hari himself and make sure he wasn't a spy, but from the reports from the ANBU and the people Shiro-fukurō Harii had been interacting with, the boy certainly seemed sincere. And Naruto certainly needed someone to look out for him. Old men and ANBU could only do so much.

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Kicked out of the academy once again, Naruto stormed away to a private spot where he could work on his 'special jutsu'. He'd show them. He'd become Hokage and then everyone would like him!

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"Hari! Hari! I figured out how to do a pervert knock-out jutsu!" Naruto barged in.

"Oh?" Hari asked calmly in his distraction. He was inspecting his newly made dreamcatcher, imbued with magic. Creating the runes with the string had been the hardest part. Among his first attempts, he had done one rune per layer, but it wasn't as strong as the connected runes on his design. Another attempt had transfigured or combined the string into the wood surrounding it, creating a wood only web. At least it could be used as a cup's coaster Another (where Hari had been thinking too much about where his idea for a dreamcatcher came from) turned the string into the thin string of an actual spider's web.

"Yeah. Watch this!" Naruto shouted. Hari glanced up as Naruto shouted, "Oiroke no Jutsu!"

As the smoke faded, Hari turned bright red, coughed, and averted his eyes in embarrassment, "Could you put some clothes on, please?"

"Hold on." There was some muttering and a 'poof', "I figured out how to henge clothes on!" Naruto cheered.

Hari was almost grateful for the orange jumpsuit (almost, because the orange was still an eye-watering shade) now, as he turned back to Naruto, "That's a jutsu? What is a jutsu anyway?"

"You bet it is a jutsu dattabyo! And a jutsu is a jutsu. -What are you working on?" Naruto released his special jutsu.

"A dreamcatcher. If I've done this right, then I'll have less nightmares."

"Nightmares? What about?" Naruto asked in callous curiosity. Not that Naruto meant to be insensitive, but Hari didn't really want to talk about it.

Hari winced, "...many things," he mumbled, "please don't ask."

"Okay, can I ask how you make one?"

"...not at this time. What do you learn at your school?"

"Stuff about being a ninja." Naruto scowled, "It's just the boring stuff."

"Well, the boring stuff can help save you."

"Save me? How can history about dead people and math help me be to be a better shinobi?" Naruto protested, "I just need to make a clone to pass the exam."

"A clone?" Hari asked in confusion.

"Yeah, but mine look... wilted." Naruto made the hand signs for the bushin, scowling at the five creations of chakra. Hari knelt and poked the created clone in fascination. It looked terrible. Pushing on it's skin felt like you were inserting your hand into jello.

"Gah-!" Hari yelped as the clone puffed into a pile of smoke, coughing as Naruto rolled on the floor laughing, "Haha. I've never seen one before." Hari defended himself.

"Still- You jumped!" Naruto guffawed.

Hari rolled his eyes, "Yes, I jumped. Move on please. Back to your previous question, history can tell us about what tactics and mistakes that we want to prevent. Math is a basic building block. It helps you take inventory, keep track of your monetary resources and is even part of cooking."

"What's monetary resources?"

"Money."

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" Naruto asked.

Hari shrugged, "It sounds cooler." There was more to it than that, but maybe a simple reason would be accepted sooner by Naruto. "Anyway older people sometimes use fancier language to confuse kids. Understand the fancier words and it's less likely you'll be tricked."

Naruto shrugged in disintrest, "Okay, so what does math have to do with cooking?"

"Fractions, parts of a whole, are a type of math. When we were cooking, there were a lot of fractions and a little bit of reading involved."

Naruto made a face, "I don't like to read, I prefer to do something... like pranks! And cooking was much more intresting than a math lecture."

"And what if I had a few tricks to make reading interesting? I'm not much of a reading person. I'm just doing a bit of research currently. For me as a teacher, even pranks have their turn in a good history lesson."

"So tell me!" Naruto whined

Hari laughed, "I don't know any of Konoha's history or the history of the elemental continent. My home before this village was located on an island and they distorted their own history and completely neglected writing anything about places beyond Britain. It's a hidden place where there are no ninja, but there is plenty of trouble."

"No ninja?" Naruto gaped,

"None." Hari confirmed, "So I need your help if you want my help passing your exams. There's got to be some paper portion. To start off with, I could repair and clean up your scrolls. But in exchange you need to go to the library and get me the same basic scrolls plus some on chakra basics. Some of your scrolls might be too damaged to repair and I need to know if I am repairing them correctly."

"They'll just throw me out!"

"...Did you tear apart one of their scrolls or defile the library?"

"...No...?" Hari lifted an eyebrow. Why would librarians stop someone from learning? Let alone throw them out? Hari thought of Irma Pince and winced, well there were possibilities...

"Did you insult their livelihood? Did you annoy aka prank the librarians outside of the library? Or try and learn something illegal?"

"...Maybe?" Naruto answered, thinking of his pink-haired classmate's mother. Shuddering, Naruto noticed Hari had come up with an idea.

Believing the librarians had thrown Naruto out of the library for being prank happy, Hari suggested, "Why don't you try going as someone else?"

"How?" Naruto asked in bewilderment.

"Use your specialized henge. With clothes on." Harry emphasized, "And act like one of your classmates, so they can't figure out that it was you. That means no orange jumpsuit or loud shouting- unless you're acting like a fan girl or something; in which case you might be thrown out anyway. Try acting like someone worried about the tests; as long as you aren't cutting it too close, they'll give you something helpful to read. Also... can you change your hair color? It's too memorable if it is yellow. Try a light orange even."

"An orange hair jutsu!" Naruto beamed in delight, running off, "Great idea Hari!"

"Don't forget the scrolls from the library! And be polite!" Hari hollered back. Hm... well he needed to hang this dream-catcher up above his bed. He'd find out if it worked tonight. In the meantime, he could make treats for the orphanage.

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The librarian eyed the orange haired girl suspiciously. She was still there, looking lost. Michi Kiku made her steps swift and silent as she snuck up on the out-of place child. Clearing her throat, she was rewarded by a shriek of surprise. Suppressing her amusement, she scowled,

"Loud noises are for outside the library gaki."

The girl rubbed her hair in nervousness, "Sorry, sorry. I'm a bit lost at where to look. I'm an academy student you see, from a... civilian family. I misplaced my scrolls and I've never been here before. My sensei said that I need the basic scrolls about Konoha's history, jutsus, and... something else. And that I need to copy the information from a library scroll as punishment. And then I asked a ninja if I could learn a jutsu from them and they said to look for... I think it was called chakra something scroll?"

"That's a lot of scrolls." Michi Kiku commented blandly.

"I know, Librarian-sama." The girl looked down gloomily.

"It's Michi Kiku. Just call me Michi-san." Kiku eyed the child thoughtfully, "I'll let you check out five today." Kiku's hand snaked out and grabbed the girl's wrist and dragged the orange-haired academy student along. "But first, you need to show me your handwriting."

"My handwriting?" The girl crinkled her nose in confusion.

"Well if you are going to be copying that many scrolls, your results should be legible." Kiku explained, handing the as yet unnamed girl a paper and pencil.

"...What should I write?" The girl asked nervously,

"How about your name?" Michi-san asked.

The girl froze up.

"Is something wrong?"

"N-no. Just don't laugh." The girl blushed in embarrassment, once again rubbing her head full of orange strands.

"I won't." Michi-san promised.

In very sloppy lettering, the child wrote, "Shiro Daidairo."

As promised Kiku didn't laugh. 'You poor child. Although White Orange does sound pretty.' Michi Kiku thought. "Did you have orange hair when you were born?" Michi-san asked in curiosity.

Orange-chan shuffled awkwardly, "I wouldn't know. I-I'm an orphan."

"Well you are definitely going to need a scroll on improving your hand writing. You can buy practice paper at the calligraphy store. In fact, I can get off shift and I'll direct you there."

"Wha? Oh no, I wouldn't want to take up your time."

"I insist." Kiku decided a short break would do her some good before she annoyed the other librarians.

Orange-chan looked like she swallowed an additional protest as she gave a resigned nod, "Hai, Michi-san."

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"Michi-san? I am paid through the orphan fund, but I don't know if I have enough to cover everything. I know I could pay for half, but everything seems so expensive!" Orange-chan scuffed her foot on the floor. Underneath the disguise, Naruto plotted on how to get revenge on Hari. An idea came to him as he took another glance at the practice paper. No kid seemed to like handwriting, so...

Michi-san seemed to know what he was asking and nodded, "Since it was my idea, I will pay for the other half of the cost. But you have to show me the improvements in your writing every time you come into the library. Naruto internally winced, now he had to improve his handwriting, "Hai Michi-san. Michi-san?"

"Hai Orange-chan?"

"I'm not much of a book learner. But my best friend promised to help me!" Orange replied, "But his handwriting is much worse than mine! Could I buy extra calligraphy paper for him?" This was so much more work than Naruto had anticipated. Work to change his transformation jutsu, work to find the scrolls and work at not being exposed as Naruto.

"Certainly. What is your friend's name?" the off duty librarian asked pleasantly.

"Hari."

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"Hari-san! I got you a present!" Naruto barged into Hari's apartment for the second time that day. If this became a habit, Hari would have to make sure he only did his runic experiments in his bedroom.

"A present?" Hari asked, green eyes revealing his confusion.

"Yep." Naruto sang as he shoved the package into Hari's arms.

Hari blinked, looking between the present and Naruto in suspicion before opening the present cautiously, "Paper?"

"Call-i-graph-phy paper. I couldn't get out of getting it, so I thought you might use it with me."

A wide smirk grew on Hari's face, "Thanks. But your prank failed, because I actually wanted some of this paper. I just didn't know where to find it yet."

Naruto stared at Hari in disbelief, "I thought you said you weren't a book person."

"I'm not. But there is a certain subject that I find pleasantly entertaining that requires better handwriting."

"What? Like write letters?" Naruto snorted.

"Something like that." Hari smirked, "You need to learn the basics first. For me that meant improving my writing skills. I was close to being blind when I was your age and my handwriting was horrendous because of that."

As the latter half of Hari's response went over his head, Naruto whined, conflicted to feel disappointed at his prank's failure and surprised/ happy that Hari liked his gift, "But letters?"

"You'll see. It might seem pointless now, but it will make sense later. Are you ready for another cooking lesson?"

"Hai." Naruto stomach grumbled,

"I don't mind if you eat first." Hari gestured to the fridge. Hari opened the scroll on history of chakra to start off with.

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Jutsu were not simply jutsu as Naruto had earlier stated. Hari read off of his completed notes- aka the short homework assignment for after the lesson. Jutsu's were divided into three categories: taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. The first two types relied more on a person's physical chakra, while the third relied more on a person's spiritual energy. His informative notes on kekkei genkai or bloodline abilities (inherited traits for certain techniques) would have to be homework for Naruto on another day.

The first category, taijutsu could be simplified to hand-to-hand combat. Ninjutsu were like spells, but relied on two sources of energy rather than just spiritual energy. Genjutsu were illusions, only detected differently. Genjutsu tended to be targeted on an opponent while illusions were more to hide and deceive something. In a way illusions (or spells) could combine with runes to make wards. It made Hari wonder if there was anything like runes in this ninja world that could also make 'wards'.

There had been moments while Hari had been sitting that he wondered why he was helping Naruto in the first place. Was it just because he wanted a distraction? In a way, Hari had to admit the answer was yes. Yet the younger boy, within a matter of hours, hand managed to find a space in Hari's heart. Hari hadn't wanted to get attached and yet he had. It was his own fault and because of that, it was Hari's self-appointed responsibility to teach the boy. Hari frowned, why had someone tried to attack Naruto the day before? Would he made such an effort (did he still have his people-saving thing?) to reach out to Naruto if the attack hadn't occurred? Maybe, but Hari wasn't certain that he would have ended up teaching Naruto how to cook let alone with the blonde's schoolwork. Well what was done was done. Hari enjoyed being a teacher more than he thought he would.