An Honoured Shinobi

by: Alfred Juumonji

Disclaimer: I don't own these works.

Now that it's March break, I'll have until Friday to get out chapters, so I'm going to attempt to do one every day until then. Or does anyone want me to try doing a new story at the same time as this one? I already have a few ideas, so if not this week, then I might do it soon, but I'm still unsure.

Also, I just read an amazing fic; Fairy Tail by Araceil. I highly, highly recommend it as an example of a near perfect fan story (at least in my opinion), and it is what I hope to achieve one day.

Chapter 7: The order meeting.

Per Sirius's advice, Asuma did end up sleeping an hour longer than he usually did, wanting to be both well rested for the upcoming meeting and also wanting to ensure any alcohol in his system was gone. The drink last night had been nice, but he didn't want any lingering effects to be noticed, no matter how miniscule. When Asuma did awake, he studied his room a minute before making his way to the attached bathroom to start his regular routine.

Sirius greeted him in the hallway not 10 minutes later.

"Good sleep?" The older man asked amicably, leading Asuma down the stairs and into the kitchen. "You'll need it, I can tell you that much. With all the order here as well as Molly's kids, we'll be completely full. Too bad my old man never put in a meeting room…" Sirius looked momentarily frustrated, and then it was gone as he directed Asuma to the table. "Eggs good enough for you? I'd offer coffee as well but I can't really go out shopping, you know."

Asuma did. "If you have tea or water, that would be just as good. Eggs are fine too, I'm used to rice in the morning, but I've gone without on missions before." Sirius nodded sagely as he started the stove up and grabbed the kettle; he wasn't as good as Molly but he could at least make this much. "If you don't mind me asking, why don't you go for an appeal so you can clear your name?"

Sirius nearly dropped the egg he was holding at Asuma's interest, but he recovered fast. "Ah, well, the only witness is still presumed dead, damn rat…" Sirius threw out the egg shells with more force than was necessary, causing pieces to ricochet onto the floor. "Besides, what with the Ministry still denying You-Know-Who's return, they likely wouldn't even let anyone bring an appeal up."

"They're desperate for public favour?" Asuma asked, having seen cases like this on missions in the past. Sirius grunted an affirmative and passed Asuma the tea pot and two cups, both of which the shinobi immediately filled. "Well, I have to say, I'm glad you're out of wherever you were being held. I've seen worse torture victims, but not many."

Sirius stilled then, and Asuma cringed minutely. Though he was used to doing it with Shikamaru, Ino and Choji, there were times that he really wished he didn't have such a blunt personality. Maybe he had been wrong about the torture? Sighing, Asuma took a sip of his tea and mentally calmed himself, they were both adults, and it wasn't as if the man were going to sock him like Kurenai did on occasion. Thinking of Kurenai, Asuma barely noticed when Sirius slid into the chair opposite, placing a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him. He noticed the tired gaze Sirius leveled him with though.

"Sorry, Sirius." His godfather had insisted that he leave out any honorifics while addressing him. "Sometimes I assume things. I'm used to not having to censor my words." Sirius waved his apology away, still looking tired.

"No, you're pretty close. Might as well be called torture." Sirius paused to collect his thoughts. "I was in Azkaban prison for 12 years until I broke out 2 years ago. The guards there are creatures called Dementors, wraith like things that eat human happiness and cause depression and despair to anyone near them. It's not a nice place to be, and there are few I would wish it upon."

The sound of the two men eating was all that was heard after that.

-line-

A few hours later, Sirius told Asuma to wait upstairs while he shuffled the order into the dining room, therefore leaving all questions about his presence until everyone was there. Sirius noticed Mad-Eye's magic eye kept an almost steady fix on the direction Asuma was in, but thankfully the old auror didn't say anything. Dumbledore and Minerva were the last two to arrive, directly after Remus, and Dumbledore was the one to call the group to attention once his deputy was situated.

"Hello everyone, thank you for coming on such short notice. I hope you weren't too inconvenienced." Snape scoffed from his spot in a back corner, but otherwise there was no reaction. Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued on, an odd look in his eyes. "As I'm sure you're all aware, this meeting was called to introduce you to Harry Potter, whom we've managed to locate after so many years missing."

A ripple of excited murmurs went through the assembled wizards, with a few exeptions; Sirius had to briefly hide his face for fear of bursting out laughing, and Minerva looked amused as well, though she hid it admirably. Dumbledore raised a hand and the room gradually became silent again. "Due to unforeseen… circumstances, we had to make some last minute changes to how we got him here."

"Professor?" Tonks asked meekly.

"Well, we were already aware that he had a job that allowed him to be hired for various tasks, so initially we were going to hire Harry to come to Hogwarts and perhaps be an assistant teacher, him having gone so long without formal magical training. But when Minerva met with him…" Sirius chose that moment to let out a bark of laughter, making a few people jump. "…yes, well, why don't we just show you. Sirius, if you would?"

The other man nodded vigorously, moving to the open door and calling out into the hall for Asuma to come on down*. Most of the wizards looked confused at the foreign name, and more that a few let out startled squawks as a lazy cyclone of wind and leaves appeared in front of them, depositing a strangely dressed man in the middle of the dining room. As the wind died off and the leaves fell to the floor, the bewildered wizards took a moment to study the newcomer.

The man was tall and broad, built of a lot of muscle and little else, and was probably in his early thirties. He was smoking a cigarette and standing very relaxed, surveying them in turn. He had coarse black hair and a dark beard, and on his forehead rested a metal headband with some sort of swirling design on it. His skin was very tanned and his eyes were a dark green, nearly matching the dark green vest that was covered in small pockets. He had on a plain black long sleeved shirt and pants, odd toeless boots, gloves, and a piece of fabric around his waist with a foreign symbol on it. All in all, he was an individual completely different from most of the wizard present, and caused them all to go on edge.

"Hey." Asuma greeted, the hand not in his pocket raised in a small wave. "I am Asuma Sarutobi, a jonin ranked shinobi of Konoha, assigned to be the Defense professor at Hogwarts this year. Inexplicably, I am also Harry Potter." And with that said, he turned and situated himself against the wall beside Sirius.

And then the room exploded.

"Now, now, please calm down!" Dumbledore had to use his wand to amplify his voice in order to be heard over the torrent of shocked and angry voices of the order. It took a few more of his demands for the wizards to sit down, and even then the majority looked ready to go right back to yelling if given the chance. Asuma had to wonder if a Naruto-esque explosive temper was normal in wizarding society. Sirius laughed as if this was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

"I understand your confusion, but what Mr. Sarutobi has said is true." Minerva said primly, irritated at having her eardrums nearly blown out. "I myself cast both the family tree spell and the point me, while Sirius had Mr. Sarutobi drink a small amount of veritaserum. We don't know how, but he is Harry Potter." All eyes moved from the professor to the shinobi, who noticed and waved again.

Dumbledore spoke again, clearly also amused. "This is why Harry is not going to be an assistant teacher, but instead the DADA professor. We'd rather not have the only other option*. Harry here will also be attending order meetings, for safety's sake." When no one kicked up a fuss, the old wizard smiled brightly. "Alright, I'll leave you all to it. Minerva, we must head back to Hogwarts." Turning to the fireplace, Albus was mildly surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder. It was Asuma, and the order watched the exchange tensely.

"Dumbledore-san, you are my client, yes?" The old man nodded, and Asuma stepped back, bowing slightly. "It is good to meet you and I hope to work well with you, but I do have one immediate request."

"What is it, my boy?"

Asuma placed his hand back in his pocket at the familiar term, assuming Dumbledore was one of the clients with whom professionalism took a back seat to ease of communication. "I have noticed the reaction my…birth name…garners in these parts. I would very much appreciate it if you could not reveal such information to anyone else. As well, if you could refer to me as Asuma Sarutobi, I would be quite grateful. I grew up with that name for 27 years, you see."

Dumbledore was visibly taken aback, but soon smiled again, the twinkle back in his eyes. "Of course, Mr. Sarutobi, those seem like reasonable requests, though forgive me if I slip with your name, I am quite old." Nodding, Asuma went back to Sirius, and once the two professors were gone, the shouting began again.

"Are you really Harry?"

"Where did you come from?"

"What do those symbols mean?"

"Sirius, how come you didn't warn us?!"

The last question caused some laughter, as well as Sirius yelling back that it was to get back at him for the prank last week. Asuma waited until Sirius had quieted everyone before answering a few of the questions.

"Yes, I'm Harry. My village leader performed her own tests and it checked out. I come from the village hidden in the leaves, Konohagakure no Sato, in Fire country. The symbol on my forehead is the symbol of my village, and the one on my hip is the character for fire, and it means that I'm one of the twelve shinobi guardsmen for the Fire Daimyo. Anything else?"

Turns out most of the order were very curious people, and so Asuma sat at the big table, answering whatever questions he was able to. Molly Weasley started on dinner in the background, while the kids did last minute homework or chess. Asuma mentally noted that he should challenge the youngest male redhead to a shogi match… or maybe put it in his class curriculum. Another hour passed in which questions were flung around like kunai; what were his parents like, what was the village like, how old was he when he graduated the academy again, what sort of missions had he gone on with his genin, what were the magic sights Asuma should see, how he was liking his stay. The conversation picked back up as Snape reluctantly asked about his genin.

"Ino is the only girl, and lately she's been concentrating a lot more on her family's techniques, whereas before she was pretty much just a loud mouth fangirl. But she's a also good friend to the other two, they're a good team. Choji still eats a lot, but then again it's detrimental to his jutsu, so Ino doesn't care as much. Choji's quite kind, at first I wasn't sure whether or not he was suited to being a shinobi, but he can get the job done if he has to. Shikamaru was the first to become a chunin, when he was twelve. His shadow jutsu is getting quite versatile. He's quite smart, a genius really, but I never had a lazier genin. Of course, ever since he had to go on that retrieval mission with Choji, he's been a lot more dedicated. Part of the reason I took this job was so they could grow up a bit without me there. After all, I can't always be the one to take out the target, they all need to get used to it if they're going to-"

"What?!" A sudden shriek caused the room to freeze as Molly Weasley left her pots and made a beeline for the table. Asuma momentarily thought she was going to slap him for something, but to his relief (and confusion) she just glared at him and put her hands on her hips.

"What did you say about taking out the target!?" The woman looked furious, much like Kurenai when she saw Hinata's injuries from Neji back during the chunin exams.

"Ah, they are all chunin now, and so I won't always be there to back them up. Shikamaru has already taken on two or three low level assassinations with me, and if he wants to succeed his father-" There was no way he was going to mention what Shikaku did, but this much was fairly vague."-then he's going to have to get used to it. Choji has already had experience due to his involvement in that retrieval mission, and Ino's father has been training her personally ever since her promotion." Molly shook with her contained anger, but Asuma chose to wait for her to reply.

"How old are they?! You said one of your students was promoted at twelve?! How could children possibly be allowed to assassinate people?!" Molly's face was red and the entire room's attention was focused on them, a few others nodding in agreement. Asuma finally saw the problem; Molly had the mentality of a civilian who had only seen peace, odd given the current and previous war. The jonin decided to explain it now rather than facing more problems of this sort in the future.

"Weasley-san, as soon as a student graduates the academy, they are considered adults. My genin all graduated at 12, I myself graduated at 9, and a friend of mine, the youngest to graduate, did so at 5 years old." The woman in front of him sharply gasped, but he went on. "When children enter the academy, they know what they are being trained for. It can't wait either, or they won't be able to mold their chakra properly. Countless shinobi have lived and died for the village, one day I will too. If my students hadn't learned that early on they wouldn't have gotten far. It may seem crude, but this is the world we live in."

Asuma looked at the stunned faces around him and sighed, inwardly cursing the figurative grave he had dug himself. He stood, making his way to the door, and then gave them one last statement.

"To protect your family, your village, that's what my father died for, that's what we'll all die for. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should go write my report to the Hokage." And so once again, Asuma left a group of stunned wizards in his wake, but this time he felt really quite old.

-line-

*let's just disregard Mrs. Black's portrait for comedy's sake, shall we?

*Dolores Umbridge, who Asuma was originally supposed to be the assistant to, or something

Wow, it kind of took on a life of it's own at the end, but I hope it's satisfactory.

Next: Remus Lupin!

After that: To Konoha?