Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor any of the characters, and concepts associated with them, or anything else in this story.
'words' = thoughts "words" = spoken "words" = spoken by monster, or used for emphasis.
Ch. 7, New Skills.
Harry had not spoken with Sir Cadogan for a week now, and the boy was starting to get a little anxious about the whole thing. The-Boy-Who-Lived, as he discovered he was sometimes called, was currently sitting in the library looking for any books the school might have on pureblood families, and famous British Wizarding Families, hoping to find anything he could about his heritage. So far Harry had discovered several books on pureblood customs and the British Wizard Government, otherwise known as the Ministry of Magic, which he had set aside for later study 'after all,' the thought process went, 'I'm a part of this society now, I'd better learn how it works.' After another forty-five minutes of searching the shelves, picking up books, flipping through them and finding nothing of immediate value, Harry decided to pack it in for the night and head back to the Sett.
Five minutes later, making his way along the History of Magic corridor, on his way back to the Hufflepuff quarters Sir Cadogan jumped into a nearby frame, waving his sword over his head trying to attract Harry's attention shouting "Potter, Young Potter my boy wait."
"Sir Cadogan, it's good to see you again, I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me" the boy said with only a touch of humour in his voice as he walked over to the knight.
"My apologies for the delay but when I started discussing the idea with a few of the other fellows, several became very interested, and the next thing you know I could not get a free minute to talk to you. I think I have been approached by nearly every portrait of a previous teacher in this school." Here the knight paused to catch his breath as he now leaned against a nearby tree. "Do you know that there are more past professors hanging around as portraits in Hogwarts than we have actual faculty members in the school?"
"No sir Cadogan I didn't," 'although now that I stop to think about it, it does make a certain degree of sense.'
"Yes loads of 'em, and let me tell you being a portrait is no easy life, and few people actually stop to talk to us. After a few years of being hung up everyone is ignoring us, and unless we can find something to occupy our time it can get pretty boring."
"Are you saying that there are a large number of competent, knowledgeable professors hanging around the school who would be willing to tutor me?" Harry asked his voice full of incredulity at the startling discovery.
"Oh Yes! And not just the paintings, when he heard you were interested in learning the sword Sir Nicholas almost challenged me for the opportunity to train you, we just couldn't figure out a method for a ghost to fight a painting. Therefore we have decided to share you. We will teach you how to fight with a sword, and how to use a shield, buckler, or a dagger, and some hand to hand combat as well, and a few years when you are stronger I will teach you how to use a great sword like mine."
Harry was stunned at this sudden turn of events. 'Wow I will be able to have my own teachers, I won't have to double check every potion Snape writes on the board, I could get explanations to the theory questions that come up. I wouldn't have to hang back at the end of class to ask what I should be reading next, shoot maybe they'll be willing to do something as simple as homework review.' As these thoughts were running through his head a recent memory from two days ago popped to the forefront when he had seen Justin go up to Cedric Diggory to ask for help with his transfiguration homework. The memory gave Harry an idea. "Sir Cadogan,… how would the portraits feel about tutoring more people than just me?" Harry asked.
"I'm sure they would be delighted Master Potter. How many more students are we talking about?"
"Oh, roughly a quarter of the school. I was just thinking, Wouldn't it be great if Hufflepuff dominated the school this year in the exams? Not Ravenclaw with all their intelligence or Slytherin thanks to all the studying their parents give them at home, but that bunch of ol'duffers Hufflepuff? Harry asked a grin.
It took a second or two for the idea to sink in, then Sir Cadogan burst into a hearty laugh, "Capital, absolutely Capital, and none of the actual professors will be able to figure out why until we decide to tell them. I must say I like the way you think young man."
"Thank you Sir Cadogan, do you think the portraits will be up for it?"
"Oh most assuredly,… they will love it."
"Wonderful, then all I need to do is arrange things with my house." Harry was turning to leave when he realized he'd forgotten to ask an important question. "Oh Sir Cadogan, when does my sword training start, and where should we meet?"
"Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me. The good news is that the school actually used to teach the sword, so there is a training Salle inside Hogwarts, it just hasn't been used in over a hundred a fifty years. We shall begin this coming week's end. After breakfast on the Saturday go to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom on the fourth floor. There you will find a picture of some magicians shooting spells at targets. Tell them that they 'should be using Expeliarmus', and the picture will swing away, leading to the old Salle."
"Thank's Sir Cadogan, I'll be there. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to hurry back to Hufflepuff to get back before curfew, and I need to set things in motion for the tutoring." With that Harry made a quick bow to the painting and continued back on his journey to the Sett feeling much better about how his day had turned out after all.
Harry had gotten back to the Sett in good time and was now sitting in the corner of the common room revising his History of Magic notes and waiting for Rupert to show up so they could discuss the tutoring idea. As he sat there Harry looked around and took in a sight that, a few years ago, he never thought could exist, him, in a room full of people who didn't loathe him. In the middle of the room a few second years were playing Wizards Chess, a game Harry had recently learned and was enjoying, although he wasn't nearly as good as most of the rest of the house who had been playing it almost their whole lives, over on the side of the common room a few other Hufflepuffs were swapping treats that their parents had recently sent them, a game of Gobstones was keeping some of the other badgers occupied, while another contingent sat around in a heated discussion on broomsticks. Everyone was relaxing and winding down from a hard days work, and Harry did not have to worry about being attacked, or sent to clean the shed.
It was another thirty minutes before Rupert made an appearance, coming down the stairs from the dorm rooms. "Rupert, can I have a word in private?"
"Of course Harry" he replied leading them down into the study area and into an empty room.
"Now then Harry, what did you want to tell me?" He asked as he closed the door and cast a silencing charm at the door.
"You know how two days ago you were asking that sixth year about differencing numbers to increase their potency?" Harry asked, stumbling a little at the end as he tried to recall exactly what he had heard Rupert call out.
"You mean differentiating numbers to increase their potency Harry, and yes I couldn't figure out how Professor Vector was coming up with either her numbers or their potency."
"Well how would you like a tutor?"
At this Rupert started chuckling, "Harry I didn't know you were an Arithmancy expert?"
"Me? No, I don't know anything about it, I'm not even sure what Arithmancy is. But I do know someone who might…
You see I struck up a conversation with a painting a few days ago and he pointed out that there are more paintings of past professors than there are practicing professors in the school."
"I've never thought of it but I guess that makes sense, after all Hogwarts has been around a while."
"Exactly, and most of them are bored. After all they have been hanging around a while with nothing to do. So some of them approached the painting I was talking to and offered their services as tutors, I in turn asked if they would like to be tutors for the whole house, something that would give Hufflepuff a leg up in the school standings."
Rupert couldn't believe his ears. He had spent an hour pouring over his notes and his books before he went looking for anyone who could explain it to him, a tutor he could sit down with and who could explain everything to him would be a godsend.
"Harry this is brilliant. We would not only have someone to double check our work but we could also end up ahead of the curve."
"My thoughts exactly. The only subject I'm worried about is History of Magic, I mean, who knows how long Binns has been teaching here."
"That aside though it is going to take some organization. I was hoping you could get the Prefects to set up a schedule and pass the words amongst the rest of the Sett for me."
Not for the first time Rupert Oldridge stopped to take a good look at this boy. Here was a child who in Rupert mind was truly a hero, and now he had done something that would make him the toast of Hufflepuff and he wanted to fade into the background. "Sure Harry" Rupert said, squeezing Harry's shoulder, and giving him a kind smile, " don't worry about a thing, we will take it from here and get this rabble organised, and I won't tell the rest of the house who they have to thank for it."
Hearing this news Harry gave a smile of his own, thanked Rupert for his understanding and went back upstairs to watch a few games of Wizards Chess and see if he could pick up anything.
'Stupid cat' thought Naruto as he made his way back to the Hokage tower, looking at the evil creature that seemed to sleeping peacefully in Misu's arms. Finding the Fire Daimio's wife's cat was one of the most annoying D rank missions in the village. It seemed like at least once every month that cat made a run for freedom, and at this point Naruto wasn't sure if the cat just really hated it's owner or someone like the Old Man had specifically trained that cat for his or her own evil purposes. Either way that was four hours Naruto wasn't going to get back. "Mission Accomplished Ojii-san" Naruto said as the group shuffled into his office.
Before anything else could be said a large woman grabbed the cat from Misu's arms and started to seemingly be trying to asphyxiate the beast in a giant hug crying out, "You found him, Oh thank you, I am never going to let you go ever again. How could you run away from mommy? Bad Girl" before the woman left the room while continuing to both berate the cat and hug it to death.
"Congratulations Team, another successful mission, although Naruto, what took you so long." The Old Man said as he lit his pipe and leaned back against this chair, "Keep up the good work, you're team seems to be doing well Hamaki-san"
"Thank You Hokage-sama" the jonin replied with a bow.
With that the four left the Hokage Tower and made their way to Ichiraku for Ramen and to discuss how the mission went. They did this after every mission, with a different member choosing the location every time.
"Four hours chasing that damn cat!" grumbled Makoto as he sat down on one of the stools at the bar.
"I just want to know what that woman does to that cat to make it run away so hard, surely at this point it would be more humane just to put the poor creature down." Misu stated as she laid her head down on the bar as if to go to sleep.
"Oh stop your complaining," Hamaki-sensei said with a chuckle, "and don't feel too bad, we did pretty well if the stories the other Jonin instructors told me is anything to go on. On top of that you worked well as a team. I think you are almost ready for some C rank stuff as soon as you get your Jutsus up to scratch. Work hard on those and you'll finally be able to stop doing all these D rank chores."
"Or you could just give us C rank missions now Sensei, come on how tough can they be for awesome Ninja like us?" Naruto asked as he struck what he thought was a cool guy pose.
"When you're ready Naruto… It is like the tree exercise, you should learn to walk before running up it as fast as you can." Hamaki-sensei said with a snort of laughter, "How are you getting along with your hand seals anyway?"
Naruto suddenly turned a few deeper shades of red while he scratched the back of his head, "Not bad sensei… I have the Kawarimi and the Henge no Jutsu down to just two seals, but my Bunshin is still at three, I can't seem to make it any less, or produce less than 7,… Oh and the Oiroke no Jutsu is still just one."
"So not as much progress as we would like then, and you want to go on a C rank mission?...You're all almost ready, but you're not ready yet. Now let's order, 'cause I'm hungry." With that the team turned to Ayame to place their order, and go about the serious business of eating.
After the meal was over the team 14 went their separate ways, for the rest of the day. Misu and Makoto to their family business and Naruto to his room to work on his Occlumency. Getting back to his apartment Naruto closed the blinds on all his windows and squatted down in the living room to get to work. Naruto had only been working on it for a few days, not soon enough to see any results yet, but the idea of his jutsu kept him at it, sure in the knowledge that is would eventually pay off.
Two hours later Naruto finished his mental workout and decided to work on his body before going over to meet with the Old Man to let him know exactly what abilities Harry was trying to teach him. It had been about two weeks since he had got the OK from Ojii-san to have the new Uzumaki special ability, enough time for him to have technically received Harry's scroll so long as he didn't wait for a reply before mailing it. Naruto quickly took off heading for the outskirts of Konoha.
Because Konoha was a ninja village there were a few rules that the civilians needed to remember. Two were that they were not allowed on the rooftop, and that they weren't allowed on the city walls. The first rule was so that the ninjas wouldn't have to worry about people getting in their way as they moved along the rooftops, the second was because, along with the idea of keeping the wall free of civilians so that the ninja knew who was up there, and therefore who was friend and who was foe, a few ninja, starting with the Maito Gai the "Green Beast of Konoha" liked to use the wall as their personal running track, all 18 miles of it, from one side of the Hokage mountain to the other, or in the case of the blur that just ran past guard post number 6, Naruto.
'I think it is time to increase my weights again' Naruto thought as he strolled into the Hokage's office, his hair still wet from the shower after his workout. He had managed to match his personal best for the run and was feeling pretty optimistic. Shifting gears Naruto called out to his old mentor, "Hey Ojii-san, how has your day been so far" as he came to a stop in front of the man's desk.
"Naruto It seems like I saw you just earlier today. What brings you back?" the Hokage asked grateful for a chance to take a break from the paperwork that his assistant seemed to believe was needed.
"Just thought you should know what one of the special Uzumaki special techniques is going to be."
"Oh, Hen-ry has sent you a list?"
"Nope just what the first one will be. I thought I should let you know as you will be picking the person who might test it with me."
"Smart thinking Naruto. I see all that time with Zuki-san seems to be paying off." The Old man said as he leaned back in his chair and packing his pipe, "So what will you be trying to master?"
"A discipline that will hopefully make Genjutsus completely ineffective. It is some kind of mind power that should make it so that no Genjutsu can affect my mind."
Sarutobi suddenly stopped all movement in fact Naruto was surprised he didn't fall out of his chair (an act he had actually been hoping for when he first thought about talking to the Old Man about it).
"Naruto, that is amazing. Do you think it will work?" The old man stammered out.
"From What Hen-ry writes I don't see why it shouldn't, although I wont really know for a while yet. I have to train my mind a very special way. If you can arrange for me to be tested against light Genjutsus at the end of the month though I can hope that I will have had some success by then, I will probably still be at the beginner level but who knows what that means in terms of fighting off these jutsus."
"I must say Naruto I am impressed, both with you personally and with your team. Hamaki-san says that you are a very squared away team."
'Wow' thought Naruto as he broke out in a blush and started to scratch the back of his head, 'Sensei said that? I can't believe it! I need to tell the rest of the team, he never says stuff like that to us.' The sudden praise shocked Naruto so much that he could only stutter as he said thank you and made his way out of the Old Man's office.
Harry couldn't stop looking around the Salle since he walked in a few minutes ago. Harry had imagined a stone hall with a few suits of armor around it and maybe a few picture frames for the paintings to watch the students in their practice. Instead Harry found a large rectangular hall with a door on each wall. The shorter far wall was devoted entirely to books. The two long walls had every type of sword, dagger, axe, halberd, or just general blade that Harry could imagine hung along them. There were also several dummies were set up in the middle of the hall, some in robes and other in armor. Lastly there were several doors along the wall with the paintings. One led into an exercise room with lots of heavy objects to lift, another actually opened up to what appeared to be a fairly large looking garden, with a pond in the middle, a garden that Harry had never seen before, 'how can this fit inside the grounds' Harry thought as he looked over it from the doorway. The third door turned out to be a closet filled with cleaning supplies.
"Ah Harry good of you to get here so promptly" Sir Nicholas said as he glided down the stairs without making a sound. "Yes we have a proper gentleman on our hands here" agreed Sir Cadogan as he took up a place in one of the frames.
"Now then Harry my boy today we are going to start with some fitness and agility tests. It would be stupid to try and teach you the long sword until you are strong enough to even try and properly wield it, so once we have established your baseline we will expect you to do some work with the weightlifting fairly often." Sir Nicholas declared as he walked out into the garden.
Hearing this Harry couldn't help but let out a little chortle, 'It looks like these guys don't know me very well' he thought as he tried to get back in control. For the next hour Sir Nicholas had Harry running laps and doing reaction drills. He also wanted him to do some swimming,
"What do you mean you don't know how to swim" Sir Nicholas asked, his voice laced with incredulity, "How do you not know how to swim?"
"My relatives never taught me how." Harry pointed out as he stood there casually not even breathing hard after half and hour of working out.
"Well that is something we will have to change, and right quickly too. Swimming is a great form of exercise, uses all sorts of different muscles that it is a great way to stay in shape… alright there is nothing I can do about that for now, and I can't teach you to swim as there is no way I could rescue you if something goes wrong but I'll ask around, maybe when the weather is warmer you can have someone teach you in the lake."
A half hour after that episode though Harry finally finished all the tests Sir Nicholas and Sir Cadogan thought were important, and although he was sweating a bit, only feeling like he had done a light workout.
"Master Potter, I must say I am impressed, you have done a far better job of keeping in shape than the rest of these wizards" Sir Cadogan complimented from his frame.
"Yes, good base stuff to build on" Sir Nicholas added as he made his way over to the wall of blades, "Alright Harry well we still have another hour before we are done for today, so I want you to go over to the wall and take down the long straight sword above the heavily jeweled curved Tulwar" he said pointing to a rapier hanging on the wall, "also pick up that sword there," he said pointing to another, "and that slightly curved blade over there" he said lastly before going to the center of the room. Harry quickly went to get all three weapons, having to cast the Wingardium Leviosa spell to get the second sword down, and awkwardly carried the three to the middle of the room. "Alright boy lay them out and take a seat, we haven't got all day." Sir Nicholas said as Harry stood in front of him, holding the blades out in front of him.
"Now then Harry my boy," he said as he began his lecture, and started gliding back and forth, "what we have here is a quick history of the western sword. Behind me you will see one of those ridiculous coats of armor, each grasping their large bulky sword, those are long swords, and Sir Cadogan will be teaching you how to use them eventually, although I don't know why anyone would want to" he mumbled under his breath for only Harry to hear, "After that people started to desire something smaller and more wieldy so we got things like this sword," he pointed to the large sword with a basket hilt that had been the cause of Harry's trouble bringing them over, "This is a claymore, very popular when I was still alive, you can see that we moved from the two handed behemoth to a one handed sword, which gives you more maneuverability, but it still packs enough punch to hurt someone even if they are wearing armor. Then shortly after I died people started to move to something lighter, like the rapier here, and the saber" he said, stopping to point at the sword with the much thinner blade and the fancier hilt than the claymore, and the blade he had Harry pick up last. "The Saber is more of a cutting weapon, but the rapier relies on both the edge and the point…well come on boy pick it up, you need to know what you're dealing with," Sir Nicholas said coming to a stop and waiting for Harry to take the time to actually examine the weapon before deciding to continue with his lecture. After giving Harry a few seconds to truly look over the blade he continued, "The blade is much thinner, like a large needle, meaning that even though you can, and will it's primarily used as a stabbing weapon. Therefore because of the finesse required to handle it, it is considered the appropriate blade of a gentleman, and for dueling. We are however going to teach you to use both the point and the edge. A duel is all well and good, but winners write the history books." the old ghost said looking Harry directly in the eye before starting Harry on the basics.
Sir Nicholas started by teaching Harry the correct stance, the basic guards, how to move and lunge, spending the time to make sure Harry was doing things correctly. Then he did something miraculous that Harry didn't even know was possible. He glided up to one of the wooden dummies and seemed to fuse with it, almost like he was sinking into the dummy, causing it to suddenly start moving. Harry was so startled he dropped the rapier, the look of shock turning to one of embarrassment when the sword clanged against the stone floor. At this Sir Nicholas jumped out of what Harry had thought moments before was nothing more than a practice target, "Haha, didn't know we ghosts could do that did you?" Sir Nicholas said with a large smile on his face.
"You can take over things?...Can you take over anything?" Harry asked as a frightening thought of having his body taken over by some evil ghost came to mind.
"Have no fear Master Potter, we can only take over inanimate objects like this dummy, we mainly use it as a defense mechanism, or as a way to spook the muggles, but it also gives me a way to spar and teach you things, like to be ready for anything. Now," he said his tune changing from joking to angry, "Don't You Ever drop your sword like that again. A man who doesn't respect his tools isn't much of a man. Your sword could save your life someday, so respect it and make sure it stays in good condition. Now I am going back in," the ghost said pointing to the dummy, "I will advance and attack, you will react as best you can using what we've looked at so far you, and if you see an opening don't hesitate to take it." With that the ghost faded back into the dummy and waited for Harry to get ready before it started to move, forcing Harry to react either blocking with the guards he had shown, or retreating w hile looking for opening.
After twenty five minutes Harry had managed to strike the dummy three times and, thanks in no small part to his other training, and his years avoiding Dudley, had managed to successfully block, what he felt were, many of Sir Nicholas' basic attempts to hit him, before the old ghost called a halt to the whole affair. The knight had still been able to land a lot of hits, Harry looked over his body and knew he would have a few fresh bruises tomorrow.
"Well done Harry, very well done, much better than I expected in fact." Sir Nicholas could not believe how agile and quick this boy was, Harry level of athleticism had meant that Sir Nicholas had needed to try a little harder than he expected in order to hit the boy. "Now, put the swords back where you found them, and I expect you to practice what you have learned until it becomes second nature a little every day. Now Harry I saw you starting to break form a few times and swing wildly, you do get more power swinging with your arm and using the side of the blade, waving it around like you are trying to mow down fields of hay, but you also move slower, yes your wild slash did block my attack, but I hope you noticed each time I was able to hit you right afterwards, as you were out of position for the next attack. There are sword fighting styles based around slashing and cutting, to be used with weapons like the saber, and I will be teaching them to you later, but I would recommend the rapier and the style we are concentrating on for now, as it will enhance your control when it comes to the heavier and more unwieldy weapons."
After that they returned to the exercise for another ten minutes before Sir Nicholas once again stopped.
"Like I said before Harry you are in very good physical shape, but you are going to need to work on your wrist strength. A strong and flexible and controlled wrist will also help with your spell work, so I expect you to work on it."
Next Harry spent more time working on the forms and holding his position locked in place, before returning to the exercise against a ghost controlled dummy. Lastly he ended the session in the weight room where Sir Nicholas led him through some exercises that would work on Harry's weaknesses.
Harry left the salle more tired than he had expected. His usual workouts nowadays went for just as long, but the constant changing direction back and forth and the short quick movements weren't something he got much practice with since he didn't have an opponent to push him, especially since he left Dudley behind (who was also significantly slower than Sir Nicholas). 'I will need to see if I can increase my time with Sir Nicholas, knowing how to block is useless if I am too slow to actually use it' thought Harry as he made his way into the showers, to get ready to enjoy the rest of his day.
That evening, after a nice afternoon spent flying on one of the school broomsticks, and admiring the change in the look of the forbidden forest, as autumn truly took hold, Harry was in the Sett playing chess against Zacharias Smith, and losing, when Rupert Oldridge rescued him,
"Harry can I have a word with you in private please." Rupert said as he walked up and interrupted Harry who was staring intently at the board.
"Ouhhh, Potter's in trouble" Smith crooned.
"Of course Rupert, Zach do you mind if we finish this later?"
"Meh, call it a draw, I need to go and get a letter off to my parents anyway, or my mum will send a howler."
"Thanks" with that Harry followed Rupert off to a quiet corner.
"Harry everything is set. We will call a house meeting next week after the quidditch game, we have already organized how things are going to be set up, and we will start the Wednesday after we get back from Christmas," Rupert exclaimed in an excited voice.
With the holiday break only a week or two away at this point the idea made sense.
"Great I will let the paintings know, do we have any sort of plan set up?"
Yes, we're going to give each year an evening, seven years seven days. First years will get Sunday, Second years Saturday, Third years Friday and so on. After all rank has its priviledges" Rupert said with a smile.
"Fair enough, I'll tell the teachers. Now though I won't know what I am looking forward to most next week, my first quidditch game or the meeting afterwards."
"The quidditch, your first match, then definitely the quidditch," Rupert replied as he ruffled the younger boys hair before heading to join some of the boys in his year who were gathered around the fire drinking mugs of hot cocoa.
Naruto sat in his room shivering. He had not expected that when he started his occlumency training. had noticed many positive things as he started to organize his mind and build up his mental defenses. He finally had all his jutsus down to one hand seal, thanks to his ability to analyse things both faster and more clearly. Due to his work on Occlumency he was forced to study his actions as he sorted his memories. This led him to discover his stumbling blocks in his hand seals, among other things,things he could now devote time to practicing until they were both more correct and natural. His mental ability had also improved a lot, the time it took him to think through a problem, or read a scroll had noticeably gotten faster.
But now as he started to work on his mental defenses the fist "hiccup" occured.
As he started to work on his mental defenses, something happened. One second he had been laying out how he was going to defend his mind and his senses, and the next he was somehow standing in a sewer, staring at a giant beast locked behind a gate.
"Well well well look who decided to finally come say hello!"
"Ki..Ki..Kiuby?" Was all Naruto could stutter out as he looked up at the creature, that was at least 10 times his size, with a healthy dose of fear.
"Ha, that is Kiuby-domo to you whelp" the fox replied all nine tails waiving around behind him in a confusing, but still somehow threatening motion.
'How can these bars hold him back?..Well only one way to find out.
"Well say something Whelp!"
"how about I just call you asshole!"
"You Dare Mock Me? I will crush you, you pathetic worm!" the demon replied charging the bars, only to be humbled as he crashed into them and the gate held.
"Yeah, I dare mock you mister angry fox stuck in a cage. Oh if only I had a stick to poke you with...Hold on,... this is my mind..."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Oh... Apparently we haven't met, Hy I'm Uzumaki Naruto" the boy replied in a deliberate voice that matched the large smile on his face as he held out a hand.
at this a low growl could be heard coming from the fox as he stared at the boy as if he were an annoying ant at a picninc.
"Rip off that seal and say that, I dare you!" the creature said pointing to the large seal holding the gate closed with one of his tails.
"What you think I'm some kind of Baka? No way."
"Kit, one of these days I'm gonna get free, on that day, I will make it my job to spend years killing you as slowly as possible."
"The day you get free will be the day I die. On that day, I wont care."
"Then I will go after any family or friends you develop, trust me on this, you will pay."
"but in the meantime... Sit... good foxy. Now I've got work to do, so leave me be." And with that Naruto left, leaving his Occlumency practice to curl up in a ball and try to deal with dealing with one of the most angry and powerful beings that anyone had ever met. It was another four hours before Naruto who had decided long ago that nothing was ever going to truly beat him, headed back into his mind to set up his defenses. In two weeks he had his meeting with Ojii-san to test his new ability, and he wanted to be ready.
A week before the meeting Naruto was already showing improvement. He had almost managed to master the tree walking exercise, able now to run up and down a tree with only a little preparation before hand. Still not enough to use it in the middle of a fight, especially with the slight disorientation that occurred with the change in axis, but enough to creep up on an unsuspecting enemy and drop down from a limb above him. He was now practicing this, after a suggestion by Zuki-san, in his room, practicing his Taijutsu as he moved up and down the walls, and along the ceiling. So far it wasn't going badly although he had fallen a few times and was sporting a few bruises on the top of his head, which would be only a memory come morning, the slips also caused him to realise his need to work on his reflexes, as he tried to do a flip while falling, hoping to land on his feet. Finishing up the exercise, and falling 4 more times, Naruto made his way to the training ground to meet up with the rest of team.
Arriving at the training ground he saw a trap line just behind the entranceway. 'Well this is something new' thought Naruto as he came up with a plan. Using his tree walking technique he quietly climbed up and over the walls of the training ground, before launching a Kunai at the wire. As soon as the knife sliced the wire a net sprung from the ground, potentially capturing its prey, causing Misu-chan to run out of the bush she had been hiding in… only to discover an empty trap, and to suddenly be tackled from behind by Naruto.
"Hah, better luck next time, you will have to do better than that to catch the best ninja in the village." Naruto said as he struck his favorite cool guy pose.
Sitting up Misu-chan could not believe it, "how did you know it was there? I have spent days perfecting that genjutsu… there is no way someone as unskilled as you in that area should have been able to see it."
Hearing this caused Naruto to start jumping for joy inside 'Yes! The training works, I am starting to block these stupid mind jutsus.'
"Well I guess I'm not as unskilled as you thought. I am after all the greatest ninja in Konoha!"
"Baka, no your not," replied a now humbled and angry Misu-chan, "everyone in the village knows the number one ninja in terms of ability and looks is Neji-chan."
"What? That Hyugga? I am easily twice as good as he is. The only reason he did better than me in the academy is because of those eyes and all the clan training."
"That's what you say, and I notice you didn't fight the handsome statement," Misu said in a tone of superiority as she finished dusting herself off.
"What does being good looking have to do with anything, and if you find large bug eyes good looking then maybe, I on the other hand have a much more evenly proportioned face."
This statement drove Misu to defend the official heartthrob of their class, "You take that back, he is not bug-eyed" she said as she made a fist and started to advance on her team mate, much to the delight of Makoto who had arrived half way through the argument and was enjoying the banter between the two of them.
"Alright, break it up" Hamari said as he appeared in a poof of smoke and pulled Misu away from Naruto. "I am glad to see you are full of fighting spirit Misu-chan, you will need it for our lesson tomorrow. For now let us head to see what kind of mission the Hokage has for us.
At the Hokage tower they were assigned the mission of walking the Inuzuka dogs. Naruto had discovered early in life that the Inuzuka's dogs didn't seem to like him. As a child he had put this down to the village's general hatred of him, but now he understood it was his scent of fox that sent them off. This gave him an idea. "Guys, I've got a cunning plan. Those dogs don't really like me, they wont bite me but they will chase me, so if you go in there and tie them all together loosely so they can still move around, then I will go in and they can chase me, I will lead them to the outskirts of town and I'll run around the base of the wall." By now the rest of team 14 was used to the way that the rest of the people saw Naruto. They still didn't know why, but they were used to the reality of it, although the fact that this extended to dogs was new to them.
"Alright Naruto, we will wait for you at the base of the Hokage monument and reign them in there and walk them back. That should give them enough exercise," Misu said after she thought about it for a moment. With that the three set about their responsibilities, and besides one civilian who was unfortunately crossing the street at the wrong time, the whole event passed by without much fuss, in fact the villagers seemed to love the spectacle of Naruto being chased by a pack of dogs, and by the end of the ordeal all the dogs seemed very tired, and maybe a little crestfallen to have not gotten that damn fox, but happy because, there's always next time, and the chase was fun. In fact they were returned in such a happy state that Tsume Inuzuka, the head of the clan, made sure to remember to request team 14 the next time the task was going to come up after Kuromaru told her how happy the rest of the pack was.
By the end of the mission Naruto felt like he'd been run ragged, almost getting caught just as he ran past the Hokage monument. 'Damn those dogs were fast' Naruto thought as he slowly made his way to his usual stool at Ichiraku's.
just as he was diving into his fourth bowl though his old friend Rock Lee walked in.
"Hey Lee, how're you doing, I haven't seen you since the team assignments" Naruto called out cheerfully.
"Naruto, good to see you again, although I should have known I would've run into you here."
"So how are you dealing with all these D rank missions?"
"Well we were all getting a little angry about them, but two weeks ago Gai-Sensei started to give us our first C rank, so far we've only had one, an escort mission by a pompous businessman who wanted to impress people by having bodyguards, nothing happened."
"Geez, you guys are lucky, Hamaki-sensei won't allow us to do any C rank missions for another month. How are you doing with your weights, I am up to thirty pounds on each leg, and twenty on each arm" Naruto said as he rolled back his sleeve to show his friend..
"Wow Naruto you are doing great, although I wish I had thought of arm weights, but I am up to fifty pounds for my legs."
The news that not only was he behind the other team in mission achievements, but was also behind his friend with the weights brought Naruto to a stop. It seemed like no matter how hard he worked there was always more work to be done.
"Well I bet I can eat more ramen than you!" Naruto said, determined to win at something.
"Ha, You're on, my flames of youth burn through more ramen than you!" replied his hypercompetitive friend.
With that they both dove in, Naruto into his fourth, Lee into his first.
Fifteen bowls later Naruto leaned back, letting out a large burp, which in turn freed up some space. Looking over Lee was clutching his stomach leaning back, trying to get his body to digest at least some of the twelve bowls of ramen he had just consumed.
"You win Naruto. This time you win," Lee said in between large breaths before rolling off his stool and stumbling out of the restaurant, looking for something that might make him feel better. Watching his friend leave Naruto calmly slurped down an errant noodle that had somehow escaped him earlier, before finally turning to Teuchi.
"Poor boy couldn't hold his ramen"
"Naruto, no one can compared to you" the old man replied with a smile, "now you have had more than enough for one night, you need to get home and rest so you can work properly tomorrow."
"Hai, Hai, slave driver, I guess I will see you later Teuchi-san." With that Naruto pulled out his Toad shaped wallet and paid his tab before leaving, and heading home across the rooftops.
Across town all the new jonin instructors were wrapping up a meeting with the Hokage to compare notes. "Mimura-san, how is your team doing?" The Hokage asked as he leaned back in his chair and started to unwind after a hard day of running the village.
"Very well Hokage-sama, my team is ready to take on a C rank mission, although I would like to delay their start until next month. Aside from that I have no complaints they have very good teamwork, and should all develop into strong Ninja, although they are a very overeager group, but I hope delaying their first major mission will help calm them down some."
"That is good to hear, I have seen Naruto chomping at the bit to get moving already. If you hold back a C rank mission much longer he might explode," the old man said with a chuckle before turning to the next team, "Maito-san, how goes the number one team of this rookie class?"
"Their flames burn bright Hokage-sama, although I am worried about Neji-san. He never displays any emotion, and while he works well with the rest of the team at the moment I am not sure he is truly accepting them yet."
"Yes one of these days I hope to see any member of the Hyuga clan express some emotion beside annoyance, although I've heard that Hyuga Hinata is different so that might be something to look forward to next year. How did you feel they did in their C rank mission?"
"They all managed to behave very professionally, even though no threats presented themselves they never let their attention waver."
"That is a good thing to see, hopefully they can keep that level of enthusiasm up… Alright well I think that wraps everything up for tonight. Thanking you all for coming, and for taking the time to train these genin, and I will see you all next month, when hopefully the reports will not have changed too much."
With that the Hokage lit his pipe, closed the large scroll that was laid out on his desk, and watched as the jonin let themselves out.
"...Now then we have something new starting after Christmas, a new tutoring source. The Paintings of former teachers have decided to help out Hufflepuff where they can. We will be breaking this tutoring up by year, so as you go through the week take note of what issues in class you are having issue with"
Harry had been listening to the George Abner, the seventh year Hufflepuff Prefect, and therefore the Hufflepuff head boy describe the process for the last five minutes as he leaned against the back wall of the Sett's common room.
"I know some of you don't like the idea of having the extra help no one else knows about, it seems like cheating in the house standings, but we are also being used as a test basis, if it's decided that this works, and if the paintings decide that this is something they want to keep on doing they may bring the other houses into it, but for now the paintings would like us to respect their privacy, which is something I think we can all agree to, and do our best to show everyone why they shouldn't underestimate us."
This last bit struck Harry as weird. He knew it made him the odd man out of this group, but Harry had learned from an early age that there was no such thing as fairness, and therefore had no qualms about not revealing the secret tutors to the rest of the school. As Abner continued to drone on Harry thought back to his day so far, it had been an odd one, starting during his morning work out.
[That morning at the end of his workout Harry had been doing a cool down run that took him passed Hagrid's hut. As he came around the bend in the shore of the lake he saw a large dog running at him. Unsuprisingly Harry slowed down considerably, fighting other people he could do, but attacking a dog just seemed wrong, it was also something he had never thought he would face, made doubly troubling by the fact that he did not bring his wand to his morning work outs...
The whole issue was rendered moot however when the large animal jumped up on him, knocking the poor boy to ground, before proceeding to lick his face, only stopping when Hagrid ran up and called him off.
"Sorry 'bout that 'Arry, but it seems like Fang 'ere really likes you."
Harry slowly stood up, and went to pat the large dog before turning back to its owner, "Not a problem Hagrid" he said as he started to scratch Fang's ears like he had seen dog owners do at the park, "he certainly is a friendly animal. What kind of dog is he?"
"Fang 'ere's a Great Dane. So what are you doing up and about this early in the morning?"
"Oh just taking in the morning air, I like to exercise a bit in the morning, get the blood flowing, and prepare for the day."
"Well, would you like a cup o' tea?"
"Thanks Hagrid that would be nice."
A few minutes later Harry was sitting in Hagrids hut in an chair made for someone at least twice his size, his feet forced to dangle off the ground, being regaled of stories Hogwarts past (it turned out that Hagrid actually knew Harry's parents fairly well, and showed him a picture of them all on their wedding day), and of strange animals that the large man had collected as pets in the past or wanted to have in the future, dragons in particular.
"You know them Weasley boys" Hagrid asked Harry.
"Only the younger one, and no offense but if he is anything to go off I am not in a hurry to meet the rest, we don't really mesh."
"Too bad that, twins are right terrors, good boys though, always come up with some new prank, keeps everyone on their toes and breaks up the day t' day routine, but they've an older brother, Charlie, now he's a Great lad, went off t' foreign parts studying dragons… Nice boy writes me every now and then, let me know about 'em. 'oping in a few years to travel and see 'em meself" the man continued.
By the end of his third cup of tea, the second one being knocked over by Fang who was jumping around Harry hoping to convince him to play, Harry had tried to leave pointing out the need to shower and change before seeing his first quidditch game, and enjoying his weekend with his friends. This led to another five minute talk with Hagrid talking about when James Potter had been on the Gryffindor team as a world class chaser.
Later, after lunch Harry had experienced his first wizard sport (if you don't count chess, which Harry didn't). It had been amazing, there they were all the different players swooping and diving, dodging and weaving, and constantly trying to get that weird shaped ball through those hoops. Looking at it he could understand why someone would want to be a chaser. He was sitting next to Longbottom and Granger supporting Gryffindor, as neither Hufflepuff nor Ravenclaw were playing, and they were if not friends, at least people he respected and wanted to be friendly with. The Gryffindor Chasers and Beaters were clearly superior to their Slytherin counterparts, and their Goalie was amazing. Harry became even more excited the first time he saw the snitch, "Longbottom" Harry said grabbing the other boys shoulder, "why don't either of the Seekers go after the Snitch over there?"
At this the shorter boy started looking around where Harry was pointing before giving up and replying, "because Harry, much like the rest of us, they can't see it."
"Oh…of course, sorry" Suitably abashed Harry went backed to watching the game.
But in the end, the game had been fairly one sided. Wood the Gryffindor Goalie had done an admirable job, making a few saves that seemed to defy the laws of magic and science combined, and even though six of the seven players Gryffindor players were better than the Slytherins, the Slytherin Seeker was much better, after faking the Gryffindor into a dive that almost left him with several broken bones, Higgs had gone off and easily caught the Snitch without much of a fight from his opposite number who had been looking over on the other side of the pitch for the illusive golden ball.]
Abner had now moved on to a different subject, "If anyone is planning to stay here over Christmas, I need you to give me your name by the end of the coming week so that I can pass it along to Professor Sprout."
The Christmas holiday was going to be three weeks long, and there were a lot of things Harry could do in that time, 'I do want to go and buy a wand holster, and I could do some shopping in Diagon Alley and the rest of London. Also there was that idea of finding a martial arts dojo and seeing how my skills rely do compare. On the other hand I could stay here and get really ahead of my studies.' Unfortunately now that Harry was trying to spend a few hours a day in the Salle, he had realized that he no longer had much time to read ahead, at least he hadn't this weekend, what with the game and everything. Longbottom had also mentioned that he would like someone to help him with his studies and so he and Hermione were going to try and collaborate on that. All this meant that soon he was going to be pushing himself just to get his homework done on time, let alone read ahead and take care of his muggle studies. The clincher was the time, that and the cost of finding a hotel room for three weeks on Christmas, because there was no way he was going to spend that time at the Dursleys. Three weeks was not enough time to really do everything he needed done in London, but it should allow him to make sure he was properly ready for the coming term. With that decision made Harry headed out to go and do some training at the Salle.
Harry hurried out of the Salle aware that it was after curfew. Between working out and the different books on fighting that they had down there Harry had lost track of time. Walking by the entrance to the library he heard voices, looking in he saw Granger and Longbottom again with books spread all over one of the tables. "Oi you too, don't you know what time it is."
"What are you talking about Potter?" Longbottom asked, looking up from the textbook he was pouring over.
"It's after curfew, hadn't you noticed."
"Curfew,…Crap. Come on Hermione we'd better get back to the common room."
Quickly the two Gryffindors started packing away all their school supplies and closing all the books creating a neat stack before heading out.
"So what were you too up to in there anyway" Harry asked letting curiosity once again get the better of him.
"Hermione was tutoring me. I need the help, especially in potions."
"What about you Potter, and why do you always call us by our last names" the auburn haired girl asked.
"Me" Harry thought quickly, "I was exploring the school… There are lots of hidden passages all over the place, some need you to speak code words, others to hit the right spot like the wall into Diagon Alley, and the only way to find them is to explore." Harry finished, pleased with his explanation.
"And using our last names?" She asked again as they walked down the hallway
"I prefer to call them Surnames, and we haven't spoken more than a hundred words to each other up till now, hardly grounds for me to be going by your first names now is it. Plus do you know how many Johns and even Nevilles we have in this school? Only way to distinguish people is to go by last name."
"He's right Hermione. Most people here address each other by last name. The only reason I don't call you Granger is that you introduced yourself as Hermione and it was only four hours later after we had been talking for a while that I learnt your last name. At that point changing would have looked stupid."
They continued to talk as they walked down the corridor until they heard Mrs. Norris, the Caretaker's cat let out a hiss at seeing them.
"Shit!" Said the two boys together as the quickly looked around for signs of Filch. Hearing the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs in front of them the three quickly turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Turning left they tried a new corridor until they reached a dead end. Faced with no new corridor to run down the three headed for the only room down that end of the corridor, only to find it locked, something that was easily remedied with the Alohamora spell courtesy of Harry as Hermione was still catching up. As fast as they could the three ran inside, locking the door behind them. Stopping, they listened to the sounds of the caretaker's footsteps fading away as he searched down other corridors for the missing pupils. Finally letting out a breath the three first years started to relax, which is as far as they got in the process, for it was then they saw it. A large three headed dog.
'A Cerberus. This must be one of Hagrid's pets' thought Harry as he looked up at the snarling animal.
"I think it was time we were leaving, and given the circumstances Potter, I think you can call me Neville."
"Thank you Neville, please call me Harry."
With that they tore open the door, grabbed Hermione by her shoulders and dived out of the room, slamming the protective portal behind them.
"Well no one can say Hogwarts is boring" the plumper boy declared as he sat on the ground trying to regain his breath.
"Yes, but I think that is enough excitement for me." With that the three made their way back to the entrance of the corridor before going their separate ways back to their houses.
Twenty minutes later Harry finally made it back to the Sett. Sitting in his bed a short while later, sorting through his memories of the day, reinforcing everything he had seen that day. It was upon examining the memory of that night that he suddenly noticed something he had not noticed the first time around, the dog was sitting on a trap door. 'The only reason for a dog that size to be in a room that small with a trap door underneath it is because it is guarding something' thought Harry, before deciding that with everything going on in his life right now, trying to go somewhere the school obviously didn't want you to go was a mystery for some other time. With that Harry lay down and went to sleep.
"Good morning Naruto. How are you doing today?" The Old Man said as he met Naruto inside his office. He had already made sure that besides himself and Naruto the only other people who would be here was Yuhi Kurenai, Konoha's genjutsu mistress. Even the Anbu had been told in no uncertain terms that they were to show up four hours late today.
"Fine Ojii-san, looking forward to seeing how strong this technique really is" the boy replied as he made himself comfortable.
"Good, good we are just waiting on one more person and we can start. So how are things going outside of the missions. I hope you are working well with your team."
"They're great Ojii-san, they train hard and they don't mind the way everyone seems to hate me."
"that's good to hear" the Hokage said with a smile even though the reminder of the boys status brought back why he was doing all this for the boy. At that moment their conversation was broken up by a knock at the door. Opening it up Naruto discovered a tall dark haired kunoichi with red eyes.
"Ah Kurenai, come in. So good to see you again. I am glad you were able to make it."
"Hai Hokage-sama, may I ask why you wanted me here so early?"
"Of course" the old man replied as he sucked on his pip, "you are here today to test a secret genjutsu defence. Everything we do here today is classified an S class secret that you can only reveal to the people in this room or any future Hokages of Konoha. That being said we are going to go into my training room through that door. Naruto" the old man said turning to the boy, "in six minutes you will also go in. We are going to launch some weak genjutsus at you when you come in, your job is to walk into the room and just describe the place to us. Understood?" Receiving an affirmative nod the old man took the young woman's arm and led her into the next room shutting the door behind him.
When Naruto's watch told him that six minutes had elapsed he slowly made his way towards the Hokage's training room, not sure what to expect. He had spent several hours yesterday working hard on his Occlumency, worried about what he might encounter today.
Opening the door he stepped inside… to see the Hokage and the Kunoichi standing in one of the corners, neither was talking to each other but both seemed relaxed as the stood there. Quickly Naruto started looking around for anything, seeing nothing on the first pass he took a closer slower look, before finally walking up to the Hokage "So Ojii-san, when are you going to start with the genjutsus?"
This statement caused a smile to come to the old mans face. "Congratulations Naruto, you did very well, don't you think so Kurenai?"
Almost as if this was a signal the Kunoichi stared directly into Naruto's eyes, just staring for a few seconds, causing Naruto to start to feel very uncomfortable.
"Is everything ok with her Ojii-san" the boy asked shifting his eyes over to the old man.
"Yes Naruto everything is fine" the Hokage said with a chuckle, "come on let's go get some ramen."
Shrugging off everything that was meant to be going on in favour of ramen Naruto smiled and headed for the door, leaving a very angry Kunoichi behind.
It was on the way over to Ichiraku's that it happened. Naruto was jogging around the Hokage talking about anything he could think about, when suddenly a tree seemed to spring out of the ground and wrap around him holding him captive.
"It seems that your defenses aren't perfect yet." Kurenai said with a smile as she seemed to come out of the tree, laying a knife across his neck.