Chapter Seven - …And One Begins to Understand

"I am not crazy Hermione!"

A tired sigh followed that exclamation. Hermione sat at the kitchen table in the little apartment she shared with Harry and Ron, all the while watching Harry pace up a storm and saying nothing. Ever since the green eyed boy had told her and Ron about the dream he had had two days ago, they had been desperately trying to figure out what the 'prophecy' meant.

"Did I say you were?"

Even that didn't help to slow the boy. They hadn't gotten much out of their research other then the fact that there were at least fifteen figures in the verse that could represent people or possessions. Also since they received a letter form Naruto yesterday asking for help on the same thing made them want to figure it out all the faster.

"No… but Ron did"

"Hey, I was only trying to be helpful!"

Both Harry and Hermione turned and glared at their redheaded friend. Ron was currently perched up on the counter by the sink waiting impatiently for his three-minute wait until breakfast was up. Raman – hell he didn't seem to eat anything else.

Harry snorted with distaste. "I don't think that calling a person crazy really helps much"

"You'll get over it" Ron smirked with a small wave, and jumped down from the counter with a little dance as the time went off.

Hermione just sighed again.

"We'll figure it sooner or later, 'cause the way we worked together as a team last year let us keep Voldemort from returning to power"

Point for Hermione. Harry slowly stopped pacing the kitchen, hope retuning to his eyes as he sat down next to Ron who was busily slurping up his breakfast with zest. And as he did, something clicked.

"I think the first line is about me"

"Huh?" Hermione gapped. "What do you mean?"

"It said 'One child born of Summer High" - my birthday is July 31st and that's the height of summer!"

"So what about 'One child born of Winter Nigh'?"

"Umm… maybe it's Naruto"

"How so?"

"I don't know, just a hunch. Maybe we should ask in the next letter"

Hermione smiled and dug into her pocket. Pulling out her written version of the prophecy, she began writing in Harry's and Naruto's names next to the first two lines.

"Okay," she grinned. "Two down, thirteen more to go!"

Her grin widened as she turned towards an unsuspecting Ron.

"Wahat?" he garbled through food, swallowed and then repeated himself "What?"

"Three words 'Ronnykins' – Library. Research. Now"

And there was no way out of it for him either.

.-

Ten minutes later Ronald Weasley found himself looking through so many boring books, scrolls and old documents. While his research for anything revolving around Hermione's long list of things to find, he had picked up some pretty cool books about all sorts of different jutsus as well as some that explained in detail about the different bloodlines, active or dead, that some of the clans in Konoha possessed.

He was really interested in the Hyuuga clan bloodline of Byakugan and the Uchiha bloodline of Sharingan. Compared to the rest of the bloodlines in the village, these two were the coolest so far.

"I wish that I had something like that" he groused as he placed the book back and started on something else.

The red headed boy scrolled for the next ten minutes, finding nothing of fancy and so decided to once again crash in a chair for some R&R. This time, he was thinking about the new ninjutsu techniques that he had created (albeit the sever problems that he was still having with it. The Burning Cyclone technique or rather Nenshou Teikiatsu no Jutus, was his favorite. All he had to do was concentrate long enough and get the hand signs right and it would be prefect. Dragon, Tiger, Snake…

"Who are you?"

Ron snapped suddenly out of his daydream, shocked by the appearance of a boy that looked to be about nine years old looking at him. The kid had porcupine spiky brown hair, a pair of green goggles strapped to his forehead and wore a yellow t-shirt with the leaf symbol of Konoha in red on the front.

"Who are you?" he echoed.

"I asked you first" the kid protested and crossed his arms defiantly.

"Do you think I care?"

"… No"

"Then why do you persist?"

"Because I can"

"Well I think you just met your match squirt" Ron grinned. "'Cause I'm not going to budge"

The boy huffed.

"Fine then" he growled. "I'm Konohamaru"

"Oh… is that supposed to mean something to me?"

If it were at all possible, the kid's eyes enlarged ten times.

"You mean you don't know who I am?"

"Should I?"

"I like you!" Konohamaru smiled.

Ron sat back, away for the strange little boy.

"Why?" he asked, trying not to be nervous when he asked.

"Because! I'm the grandson of the Hokage and everyone treats me like I should be revered or something. I want to prove what I'm worth, not have it given to me. The only person who's ever seen me for me was Naruto-niisan and now he's gone of to some other country"

"Then I'm sorry" Ron replied. "Since I'm here, your friend isn't. It was my team that traded places with his…" he trailed off, thinking hard. "Wait a minute! You can help me!"

"I can?" Konohamaru asked uncertainly.

"Oh course! I was sent here by my teammate Hermione to get some information that we're going to be sending to Naruto. If I don't come back with any, she'll kill me"

"You mean that bossy chick with the bushy hair and the abnormally large front teeth?"

"Bingo"

"Ooh, I pity you" the boy winced.

"You have no idea" Ron sighed. "So can you help me? This place has turned up nothing"

Konohamaru paused, putting a hand to his mouth as he thought. Then a smile came to his face.

"Anything to help Naruto-niisan. How you like access to the Hokage's personal library?"