I'm sorry. I lied about two chapters. I created this perfect ending for this one and wanted to piss people off. I hope that it's reasonable. Also, I'm going to start chapters off with a sort of intro such as the one right below this author's note. It will be filled with foreshadowing, either about the current chapter, or even further beyond. Keep them in mind. Now, on to the story.
The usual. A query (for those who don't know what a query is, it is like a philosophical thought of some sort): Just as nobody talked about the Kyuubi attack around Naruto, and nobody discussed the possibility of Konohamaru having a living father, the population was always quiet about Hashirama's son. There was a reason for that, just as there was a reason for the formation of Akatsuki and the murder of Madara.
Harry woke up again, still unable to move. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness for what felt like days, unless he was sleeping much more than he anticipated. He had wondered if Madara or Hashirama had been captured and kept immobile, but that didn't explain his position under water. Or the fact that he wasn't breathing, but seemed to still be conscious. What he would give just to be able to see!
But, this day was special. His prison of some sort had somehow condensed around him and started crushing him! Harry would occasionally try to push everything away, but he wasn't strong enough to move the wrought iron walls that somehow formed… around… him…
Oh, hell NO!
This was what he was trying to avoid! How the hell did he end up in this position? It was mutiny! He knew it was one of the Death's faults! They were probably watching and making fun of him! He would have the last laugh, though…
Cute giggling escaped Harry's lips. If Harry could, he would curse the simple sound of it. He was supposed to be a terrifying god of… everything! He wasn't supposed to sound cute!
Just wait until he grew up. Then, they would all know of his powerful exploits and cower. Wait… but didn't he not want to have all the attention? It was so long ago. Aw, screw it. He would just do what he wanted to do.
It took several minutes for some light to appear at the base of the prison or sorts. Harry didn't want to think about what that could mean, so he tried to ignore it as best as he could. He was successful in ignoring the female anatomy he suddenly found himself looking at, as well as the doctors (who were surprisingly good at their jobs despite the planet being in some sort of feudal era) who kept trying to make him cry so they knew he was alive. It never hurt, but with his new ears it was loud and startling. He was able to ignore most of it, anyways.
What he couldn't ignore were the shots they gave him. It hurt like hell! And who the hell puts thermometers up other people's asses, anyways? Oh, right. You can't put a thermometer in a baby's mouth. Well, fuck.
And then he got to the chakra check and stuff like that. Now, that was an interesting conversation.
"What? That's impossible! He shouldn't be able to live!"
The other nurse went over. "What's impossible?"
"This!" He held up a graph. "He has too much chakra to even be human! It's almost as much chakra as a veteran summon animal! A body simply can't hold that much chakra unless it's a jinchuriki or Hashirama!"
The second nurse started leafing through papers as fast as she could. The mother noticed and asked the question of "Is everything okay? Is my baby okay?"
She was answered with an affirmative. From there, she went to sleep, probably from exhaustion. Harry wished he could open his damn eyes, but no matter what he tried, he simply couldn't. Maybe it was another suckish thing about his situation?
"We need to run tests. This could be a medical breakthrough if we figured out how this was possible!"
"What? But what about-"
"Don't worry about them. His parents won't know if we run a few tests fast enough. We could disguise them as extra screening!"
The first nurse looked at the second one. "This is a really bad idea."
Just then, Harry sensed another presence walk into the room. It was much more powerful than everybody else in the room, barring possibly the bedridden woman. The power felt like Akihiro's, from the few times he saw the man. It was obviously Hashirama.
"What's a bad idea?"
The two nurses looked at him and smiled brightly. "We were just going to do some extra screening tests, sir. I hope you don't mind."
"Why? Is he alright?"
The second nurse came in at the last second. "That's what we're making sure of."
Hashirama looked at them for a few seconds. For a second, Harry thought they were actually going to crack, but they held firm. "I will come with you. I'm a great healer as you know, so I might be able to help."
The two looked unsure. The first nurse took initiative this time. "That would be great! You could help explain some things."
"Like…?"
"Like how he has so much chakra!"
That was it. Hashirama finally sensed the massive onslaught of chakra being emitted from the infant and gasped. It was one of those 'how' moments where you had none of the pieces and absolutely no way to put them together. With the coupled strain of realizing that he had a child, as well as the problems that came from it with Mito being the way she was, and the strain of finding such an impossible fact out, he fainted.
Yes, people. Hashirama, rival of Madara and possibly most powerful shinobi in the world, fainted. As in hit the floor hard. Let's be thankful that he didn't suffer from brain damage.
If Harry could roll his eyes, he would have.
The nurses looked at each other, unsure of what to do. They settled on bringing him into a hospital bed next to his wife until he woke up.
This left Harry alone with the two nurses, who had absolutely no idea how to test him in the first place. It wasn't too bad, only a couple needles drawing blood and some work at the desks. They studied the makeup of the blood, and how it reacted similar to the blood of other types. Using microscopes and some sort of machine that Harry highly doubted should be seen in such a world, they even determined his blood type and related blood.
He heard some gasps coming from the nurses every once in a while, so he figured they found more stuff which shouldn't be possible. Bored out of his mind, he fell asleep and dreamed, dare he say it, of getting horrendous acupuncture. From that point forwards, Harry had a phobia of needles.
When he woke up next, he was in the arms of Hashirama. It was surprisingly comfortable, even if it was demeaning. He was quiet, but when he noticed slight movement in his arms, he presented Harry with a warm smile. It reminded Harry of Akai when Akai would give such meaningful smiles to him. At that moment, Harry wanted to cry. No, he didn't want to. He did.
Hashirama's eyes opened slightly wider. He tried to shush Harry with rocking him (which made Harry queasy and cry more) and bumping him up and down in his arms (which also did nothing to help). Harry decided on trying to throw up his newly fed milk (It might have been a great view, but the rest was uncalled for) to feel better. It worked, all over Hashirama's new white shirt.
Harry quieted down not long after that, instead focusing a couple of (cute) laughs at the man's face. A pensive would have done nicely, or a photograph. Did they have cameras here? He didn't think so, but they may have had some.
The rest of the trek to the large building was finished quickly, the Hokage wanting to get a clean shirt on as fast as possible. Harry was lain down in a… pink… crib… 'Fuck my life.' Harry briefly wondered what possessed the man to choose this specific color scheme for the crib, but dismissed it as his wife's crazy ideas. Hopefully.
Thinking about insane color schemes brought him to the thought of the room he might have. He decided to not think about it, but the seed of horror was already there. It was so degrading!
Hashirama walked out of the bathroom a few seconds later, looking as good as new. He wore a brown silken shirt with matching brown leather pants and sandals. His brown eyes shown kindly in Harry's direction, and glistened with affection. That smile seemed so much like little Akai's… it was painful. It was so sweet and kind. So innocent. It was the kind that loved all life and would fight anything to save it. It was the kind that so painfully ripped the boy away into the darkness.
Harry's eyes glistened with unshed tears, but they refused to fall. Harry refused to let them. It was over. It was not the time to grieve over the past, it was time to forget the past. No, not forget- never forget again. It was time to remember and learn. He still had the world. And, as much as he disliked it, he was a baby.
Now is as good a time as any to start training, right?
Hashirama must have noticed the tears welling up, because his eyes widened once again. "No, no, don't cry. There's nothing to cry about. Please don't cry." He started to rock Harry back and forth, making Harry a bit woozy again, but thankfully stopped before anything… unfortunate happened.
Hashirama sighed in relief when Harry didn't cry, and set the now-baby Harry back down in the crib and let Harry go to sleep.
Over the next few weeks, Harry became attuned to his smaller chakra to such a degree that he was able to split it back into physical and spiritual energy. It weakened the separate parts exponentially and wouldn't be practical in any way, but it allowed him an awesome control over his chakra. It was something he didn't even know was possible to attain, and vowed to find a way to create such peace with his full power.
Using this control, he found himself capable of not only sensing everything around himself, but absolutely everything in a ten kilometer radius. It was like his powerful eyes that saw through objects, only he didn't need eyes. And he could sense his opponents chakra types and almost memorize their movements.
It was a few days after he arrived in this body that Harry opened his eyes finally. They were a shocking red, with sharingan commas ringing them. It seemed like a permanent sharingan spun in his eyes, never to leave. The most amazing thing, though, was that they were fully matured, with three tomoe in each eye. Medics and doctors of all kinds researched the phenomenon for a week before they were forced out. Hashirama theorized that because of the amount of chakra in his body, Harry couldn't turn off the sharingan. It was fully matured because of the stress the massive chakra put on his body originally. They just left it at that.
The doctors were sworn to secrecy because of the implications of either Hashirama or Mito having Uchiha blood. It wouldn't bode well for the village to find out because other villages would turn and annihilate the Uzumaki clan in Whirlpool. It would be a complete genocide. That couldn't happen.
An illusion was cast over Harry's eyes, similar to a transformation, which turned the red eyes to a deep brown in contrast to his blackening hair. Harry would have looked like the perfect Uchiha in all ways. It was disturbing.
It was after those few weeks that Mito Uzumaki came home. She was calm one moment, but energetic the next. Over the next few years, Harry would often wonder if the woman was bipolar. It was the day she came back that he found out what his actual room looked like.
Harry had been moving his body parts and channeling chakra into his limbs to strengthen them enough to move despite the lack of muscle. It helped, allowing muscles to develop quicker and gain density. It wasn't that tiring, but that didn't say much with the abnormally small amount he actually slept in the eyes of his parents.
He made sure to stop his truly abnormal activities when his parents walked into the room. It was his first real glimpse of his mother figure. She had bright red hair that hung to her shoulders and spread out. Two bangs fell from in front of her ears to the sides of her mouth. Beautiful green eyes shown back at Harry in brilliant wonder. It was the picture of not only the perfect mother, but of Harry's mother.
It looked like a slightly transformed Lilly Potter.
And it brought terrible memories back. Memories which Harry never wanted to remember again. It made his heart weep. He refused to cry, but the rest of his body trembled in sadness. He wouldn't cry in front of these people that were beginning to mean so much to him. Damn his heart and mind. They fell in love with things without his consent.
It was painful to remember the mother he never had. He thought he had gotten over it. He thought it was behind him. But it wasn't. It seemed like the pain would always be there no matter what. His heart would forever throb, even when it didn't beat. His eyes would always weep, even when they refused to cry. It was a nightmare of life and death, how everything you don't want comes back to haunt you.
She walked over, and the first thing she did was pick Harry up and kiss him. It brought him so close to tears, but he managed to refrain. Instead, he settled in to the warmth and let it calm him down. He didn't have to worry. These people would be there for him until their deaths. They would love and care for him. They would survive.
"He really is a cutie, isn't he?" Mito said after a minute.
"Yes, he is" Hashirama said fondly. "And he isn't that hard to take care of. He's an angel."
'An angel of death, maybe' was Harry's morose mental reply. A couple of loose tears slid from his tiny cheeks, unbidden. Nobody noticed.
"Have you shown him his room yet?" Mito asked.
"No, not yet. I was waiting for you to get back, so you could do it with me."
Mito smiled a sincere smile, mirrored by Hashirama's Akai-smile. Harry watched in awe of the deadly memories these two brought up. It killed him. It made him overflow with a mixture of happiness that he could remember the good times, and with sadness for what had ended. How it had all turned out.
Mito, carrying Harry, led Hashirama through the mansion- it could only be a mansion- and into a room at the end of a hallway. It was just as Harry had feared. The walls were painted a mixture of forest green, hot pink, and baby blue. They were covered in flowers- pasty white and burning yellow- and had a space reserved just for the pink crib. Baby toys that weren't ever going to be used lay scattered across the floor. A look of dawning abject horror began to light Harry's face up like a rising sun.
If Harry could, he would have screamed. In this case, fainting like Hashirama (that picture would be forever in his mind) would do. In his unconscious state, he didn't hear the rest of the conversation between the two.
"I think he likes it."
Mito looked at him, and then Harry. "He's already asleep. The color scheme must have soothed him to sleep. I told you it was a good idea.
"You were right. I'm glad I didn't do it. I would have done a forest scheme with a sunset." Hashirama looked around the room and shivered. "Babies are weird."
It was the next day, when Harry woke up, that something was noticeably wrong. His parents barged into the room with looks of horror plastered on their faces. Harry- no, it was Eiji now- didn't know what to make of their disheveled states. They kept mumbling too low for Harry to accurately hear. They probably did it to keep from disturbing Eiji.
Eiji. The name suited him in some sort of messed up way. It translated to the word eternal. It was his curse that he was forced to bear, first of his free will, and then as a punishment for choosing the hell he lived in. Eternal. It would always follow him. He would be the last thing, just as many believed him to be the first. In the end, it would be only him. The end.
A few seconds later, a sudden earthquake hit the village. Some buildings fell down, changing into rubble. A sudden heat smashed right into Eiji's face. It didn't hurt, but it was hot. More earthquakes smashed the village. The earth rocked. The smell of rot began to waft into the room. A roar. Some groaning.
Hashirama ran over and grabbed Eiji, consequences be damned. At least Eiji could hear then.
"He'll be fine! It isn't the most powerful, and he has enough chakra to keep it at bay. This is necessary!" It was Hashirama.
"I know he'll survive! But what about you? You'll die! You don't have to use that seal, you can use another one!" Mito was hysterical.
Hashirama looked down. "If I don't use that seal, then the village would take many more casualties than necessary. I can't let that happen."
"But you're the only one that is holding this village together! Don't do it!"
Harry was forming an idea about what they were talking about. He didn't like it. He started to actually cry. He tried to hold it back, but at the thought of never seeing that Akai smile again, he couldn't help it. Choked sobs formed in his throat. Mito took him and tried to soothe him. He only cried harder, knowing that his feeling of wholeness that came from Hashirama would never be felt again.
Hashirama shook his head sadly. "It has to be done. My brother can take over. He's a great leader and can lead this village to prosperity. Everything will be fine. Don't worry."
"But everything won't be fine! Who's going to be Eiji's father? Who will be his dad?"
"I'm sorry. It's a necessary evil."
Mito started screaming. "Think about yourself for once! Stop being so selfless! You treat yourself like dirt and the people like gods! Stop it! Just stop it!" Mito fell to her knees and grabbed Hashirama's legs, crying on his leather pants. "Please. Don't go. Do it for me."
Hashirama put his hand on her head. Eiji was on the ground next to him. "I'm sorry. This has to be done."
With that, Eiji found himself lifted into the air by Hashirama. Eiji was crying hysterically, too. He couldn't bear to find another person he cared about- even if for a couple of weeks- dead at his feet. Too many people have died. Too many murdered because of either himself or for himself. There was too much death. Too much pain.
Too much blood and tears. Rot and decay. Nothing survived. Everything ended up dead. And the dead, which should be at rest, can never be at rest as long as there was so much hatred.
The door was kicked open from the outside, shattered on the far wall. Mito go up as soon as she could. Hashirama was already prepared for the worst. Eiji was taken by Hashirama and held protectively. There was nothing Hashirama could do as long as Eiji was in his arms, so Mito was alone in the fight. When the dust settled, red eyes glared into the room. Red eyes that morphed into purple rings with silver. They glared, and thunderous earthquakes shook the background.
It seemed like the beginning of the end. Maybe misery would forever rule. Would it?
Stay tuned for the next installment, "A Fire-y Cat of a Man."
I put the last part in as some sort of foreshadowing. Keep it in mind. I hope I didn't make anything too obvious, but that's debatable. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and next chapter will have non-Harry, or Eiji as it is now, action. It will be mostly Hashirama and Mito fighting unknown opponents. Lastly, I would love to hear what you readers think about what's happening.
What are the earthquakes?
What are the eyes and who do they belong to?
Is this the end of Hashirama, or will something miraculous happen?
Since we all know that this story can't go on without Harry, I won't even bother to ask if he'll survive. I'm not stupid, and I know the readers aren't either. So, good luck.
Benedark: The god of this reality.