Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 9: The Count Down Begins
Satoshi ended up falling asleep an hour after dawn; his young body exhausted from his recent stint on the boarders, his efforts to make the preparations for his yearly vigil, the twenty-four hour vigil spent without any sleep or food, and the several hour long emotional meeting with the Outsiders. Kakashi, upon noticing that the ten year old was literally asleep on his feet, had scooped the boy up into his arms before he toppled over. It was a testament to just how tired Satoshi was that he didn't react to being picked up; something he would have done if he'd only been dozing lightly, like he usually did when he slept.
"So… you referred to Ha… Satoshi as your little brother earlier," Lupin murmured as he moved to stand beside Kakashi so that he could study the now sleeping ten year old without the fear of being rebuffed a second time. "Are you related to his adoptive family through marriage?"
"No, you could say that Satoshi-kun adopted me almost five years ago after spending close to three years mostly disliking me because I didn't get along with his favorite person. He's a rather persistent little bug and once he sets his mind to something he is not easily deterred."
"Prongs or rather James, his biological father, was the same way. I take it you've known him for most of the time he's lived here then?"
"Yes, I met him about six months after Shibi-san adopted Satoshi."
"Has he been happy here?" Remus asked as he looked up to meet Kakashi's single eyed gaze (the gray-haired teen having long since hidden his left eye beneath his hitai-ate once more).
"Yes, for the most part he has been very happy. He didn't open up to new people right away but once he did, he was always smiling and laughing; especially around those he considered family."
"You said was… you've been using past tense; is he not happy now?"
"He is still happy," Kakashi asserted as he lightly frowned down at the sleeping kid cradled in his arms. "He is also still grieving. Three years ago there was trouble in the village and we lost a lot of good people that night; including a number of individuals that were family or as good as family to Satoshi-kun. As you might imagine; the loss of several people close to him in such a short period, hit him hard."
"Sadly, yes I can imagine. It's been nine years and I still miss James, Lily, and Peter. I was lost in my grief that first year after their death and it was only the thought that James and Lily's son was safe that allowed me to carry on day after day. I'll never forget the day I first learned someone had taken little Harry from his aunt's home. Rage replaced grief for two years before fear began eating away at me because of the growing speculation that he had been killed by those that had taken him. I cried in relief the day Dumbledore informed us that Harry, or rather Satoshi, had given off his first large scale burst of accidental magic in almost five years on February eighteenth, nineteen-eighty-seven; it was solid proof that he still lived."
"How did you know he used his magic that day?"
"Dumbledore has a device that is tied to Ha… Satoshi's magical core. It monitors and tracks any large scale magical output that Satoshi gives off and is what ultimately led us to Japan and then to the Hidden Countries in our efforts to find him. That's also how he'd known Ha… Satoshi (it's going to take a while to get used to calling him by his adoptive name) had disappeared from his relatives' house in the first place; he'd given off a large flash of accidental magic and then disappeared. It was believed the outburst was caused due to him fighting an unknown assailant; not that his magic had torn him from a borderline abusive home life."
"It could not have been used to track him even when he was not using his magic?"
"No; there are limits to what magic can and cannot do and when monitoring a child's magical core it only measures the accidental magic that a child gives off when experiencing extreme emotions or I suppose if they learn to manipulate a large enough amount of their magic wandlessly as it appears Ha… Satoshi has been doing. There are ways to physically track a child but they are only temporary spells that have to be reapplied frequently which is not really practical when monitoring a child's health from a distance. We can trace a person's magical signature through residual magic that builds up over time but that also requires us to be within five to ten miles of said residual."
"I see."
The conversation between the two ended at that point as they both focused once more on the negotiations taking place between the Sandaime, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Shibi. It was well after nine-thirty by the time the meeting ended and an agreement had been reached. In order to prevent Satoshi and those that would be going with him to protect him from being declared missing nins, Satoshi's years at Hogwarts would be treated as seven long term missions; or rather three long term missions in one for each year Satoshi would be attending the magical institution.
The basic mission, the one that Satoshi had been assigned, was a training mission to learn to use his Kekkei Genkai (or as the Outsiders called it; his magic). The second mission was for the three shinobi that would be going with Satoshi, which was to guard Satoshi during the course of his training (Shibi refused to allow his son to be sent off alone for the duration of the first mission). The third and final mission, assigned to all four shinobi, was to gather as much information about the wizarding world as they could (this mission a long term infiltration that Sarutobi personally assigned the group and a mission that the wizards would be unaware that the group was undertaking).
During the year leading up to the start of the first mission, Satoshi would be tutored three weeks a month by Remus Lupin (with one week off each month during the week of the full moon; not that the shinobi would be aware of that little detail). Lupin would be testing Satoshi on his grasp of the English language and his writing skills, catching him up on the current events in the wizarding world, teaching him about English and wizarding culture and traditions, and introducing him to English cuisine so he'd have no trouble fitting in at Hogwarts. Over the year of tutoring, Satoshi's missions would be limited to in village missions during his lessons on English wizarding culture and short out of village missions during the rest of the time.
The three shinobi going with Satoshi would be Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo since all three of them spoke English fairly well and they were all very close to Satoshi (though Kotetsu and Izumo hadn't really spent much time with the ten year old since Kushina's death). Kotetsu and Izumo were also both very open and friendly individuals which meant that their presence would not alarm the wizards like most of the other Jounin would. That meant the three teens would also sit in on Lupin's English lessons to make certain they could read and write English as well as Satoshi could in addition to speaking it fluently.
The wizards (and one witch) ended up agreeing to stay another day in order to see the offered demonstration of Satoshi's skills and a limited tour of Konoha. While Sarutobi kept the wizards occupied and set them up in a hotel near the Hokage Tower (complete with two teams of AnBu to monitor their every move) Shibi and Kakashi took Satoshi home so all three of them could rest and give Ibiki and Tenzou a chance to rest. Kumade joined them as well while Kakashi informed the other Jounin on Satoshi's guard detail of the changes that would soon be occurring thanks to the newly signed agreement between the Hokage and the Outsiders.
Satoshi woke up about noon when Naruto and Shino pounced on him. He had a short moment of disorientation over finding himself in his bed when the last thing he remembered was standing in the Hokage's office but the memories of his swarm provided him with the information of what had happened. He was a bit perturbed to know he'd be required to go and learn magic at Hogwarts but quickly realized that knowing how to properly use his magic could potentially give him an edge on future missions. That was one of the reasons that Sarutobi and his father had been willing to consider allowing him to spend nine and a half months a year for the next seven years away from the village.
The ten year old soon pushed aside his musings as he allowed his brother and self-adopted brother to pull him out of his room and into the kitchen for lunch. On a whim, Satoshi dressed both three year olds in warm clothes, gathered up two of his guards (Ibiki and Tenzou since Kakashi and Kumade were still sleeping), and took the two boys to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand for lunch instead of making something himself. Naruto was especially thrilled to have ramen as that was the blonde's absolute favorite food. After they ate their fill (Naruto managing to scarf down two full bowls on his own), Satoshi took them to one of the less popular parks to allow the two boys to run around for a while and burn off some energy.
They'd only been there for about twenty minutes when Ko turned up with Hinata and Neji in tow and Satoshi greeted the almost three year old and four year old warmly before pointing them in the direction in which Naruto and Shino were currently playing. Once the sun started setting, Satoshi invited the three Hyuugas to join them for supper and the group headed back to the Aburame Compound after sending a few Kikaichu to his father to warn him they'd be having three extra guests for the evening meal.
As they ate, Satoshi couldn't stop thinking about how much time he'd be missing out on spending with the three children that had somehow integrated themselves so thoroughly into his life (his little brother a given since they were family). He also couldn't help but recall how Naruto had been treated prior to him rescuing the little blonde out of the trash can and how Hinata had almost been kidnapped by a Kumo Shinobi just a couple months ago. As he watched Naruto excitedly telling Kakashi about their day, Satoshi recalled how he'd been just under three years old when he began his ninja training.
Satoshi suddenly sat up straighter as the beginnings of an idea formed in his mind and gave all four children a searching glance before addressing his father, "Tousan?"
"Nani, little bug?"
"May I have permission to start training Naruto and Shino? I mean, I was not even three when you and ojiisan began teaching me how to train my body so I could be stronger and started teaching me chakra control exercises. I'm certain the Hyuuga have their own training schedules for Neji-kun and Hinata-chan but I'd be happy to work with them on simple chakra control exercises or even just basic strengthening exercises if they were interested too. I know I'd also have to speak with Hiashi-sama and Hizashi-san to get permission first."
"Neji-kun began his training this past January and Hinata-chan will be starting this January," Ko stated simply. "I don't think their fathers would mind if you were to help them with basic chakra control and simple physical conditioning exercises but I can ask them for you if you wish. Taijutsu and Ninjutsu training are closely monitored by the clan though, so they'd not be allowed to participate in those but everything else would be fine, I imagine, so long as they were closely supervised."
"Please, oji?" Naruto begged Shibi as stars began dancing in his eyes at the mere thought of spending more time with his niisan (and the promise of training wasn't anything to turn his nose up at either).
"I'll be spending most of this next year stuck doing D Ranked missions inside of the village," Satoshi reminded his father. "Meaning I could spend a couple of hours a day, five days a week working with the boys (and Hinata if she and Neji are allowed to join us) and give them the weekends and the one week a month I'll be allowed to leave the village to rest. By the time I have to go on that ten month long mission, I'll have been able to establish an easy to follow routine for them and when I'm back in the village I can check their progress and help them with the next step if they are ready."
"If their fathers are willing, I would be there to help monitor their training sessions," Ko added as he noted how interested both Hinata and Neji were in the proposed lessons. "In that case, I could also continue to supervise the lessons during the times that Satoshi-kun is out of the village to make certain they don't injure themselves and they don't slack off while he isn't there to supervise."
"I have no problem with you teaching our little tick," Shibi announced after taking in the expectant faces all around the table. "However, you would need the Hokage's permission to include our little mite in the lessons in addition to the Hyuugas' permission to include Hinata-chan and Neji-kun. I think you should include your cousin Shinichi as well since you've not really spent any time with him these last three years and his mother has not shown any interest in training him. You would also need to find a relatively safe place for them to practice."
"I don't mind including Shinichi-kun with the other children and I have several hidden places around Konoha where we could practice safely; I'd just have to key the children and their minders into the barriers," Satoshi revealed. "I made them a while ago and rarely ever use them. I can show you where they are and key you into them as well, tousan."
"Then you have my permission to ask the Hokage for permission to train Naruto-kun alongside your little brother and cousin tomorrow after your demonstration."
"Yosh!" Naruto cried excitedly to the amusement of the adults, teens, and one preteen gathered about the table.
"I will approach Hiashi-sama and Hizashi-san on your behalf, Satoshi-kun."
"Arigatou, Ko," Satoshi replied with a smile at the older teen before he returned his gaze to his father and inquired curiously, "Demonstration?"
"Hai, it was agreed that you would give our guests from earlier this morning a demonstration of your skills before they left. Our… clients want to see a sample of what you are capable of doing aside from the little trick you showed them last evening."
"Oh, I'd forgotten about that," Satoshi replied as he checked with his Kikaichu for the exact memory; since he'd been sleeping when the offer had been confirmed. "Do you know when we are supposed to meet them and where the demonstration will be held?"
"Yes; you'll be meeting the Hokage and your future clients on Training Ground Fifty-Three tomorrow at eight."
"Wakatta."
The rest of the meal passed by fairly quickly and Satoshi bid the trio of Hyuugas goodbye before he gave Shino and Naruto a bath. The ten year old then took Naruto back to the orphanage (the blonde for once not fussing like he usually did since he now had the future lessons to look forward to – Naruto not wanting or willing to believe that the Hokage would turn down Satoshi's request) while Shibi tucked the youngest Aburame into bed. Satoshi crawled into bed beside his brother the moment he returned, still feeling rather tired from the past two days and wanting to spend as much time with his brother as he could knowing that he'd not get much of a chance once he started Hogwarts.
The next morning, Satoshi arrived at Training Ground Fifty-Three at seven-thirty (fully decked out in his shinobi gear with the pair of wakizashi blades that Kushina had given to him on his seventh birthday strapped crosswise across his back) in order to start warming up. His current team of four guards was there as well; Kakashi and Tenzou to help him give his demonstration and Ibiki and Kumade to watch over him to make certain there were no further attempts to kidnap him. At five minutes till eight, the Hokage and the visiting wizards and witch turned up with an entourage of unseen AnBu guards that Satoshi's swarm could sense. The ten year old finished the kata he'd been in the middle of performing before he turned to face the Hokage and bowed respectfully to the Sandaime.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Sarutobi intoned as he included all three of the visible shinobi in the greeting. "I am pleased to see that you are here on time and well prepared for your demonstration. Please start with a simple one on one taijutsu spar moving onto a two on one spar after the first ten minutes before you give a brief display of your grasp of kenjutsu and ninjutsu."
"Hai, Hokage-sama," Satoshi murmured as he bowed a second time and waited while Kakashi and Tenzou flipped a coin to decide who would start the spar and Sarutobi led their audience back to the edge of the clearing.
Tenzou won the toss and Kakashi stepped back out of the way to allow the two plenty of room. Once both Satoshi and Tenzou were ready, Kakashi started the match and Tenzou quickly lashed out with his foot. Satoshi blocked and countered with a flurry of punches and kicks that were also blocked. The ten year old's speed allowed him a slight advantage over the heavier Jounin but Tenzou's longer reach and extra years of experience made up for any advantage that speed would have given the Chuunin in a regular match.
It also didn't help that the Jounin had been sparring with Satoshi for well over a year now and therefore knew most of Satoshi's taijutsu moves. The fact that Satoshi had memorized Tenzou's moves in return did help though and allowed the ten year old to anticipate which move Tenzou was most likely to use in any given sequence. Not that it really mattered all that much since they were simply giving the outsiders a general idea of Satoshi's skills. Once Kakashi joined in against Satoshi, the ten year old was really put through his paces as the two older teens coordinated their attacks.
If not for his speed, flexibility, and his swarm, Satoshi would have been hard pressed to block or dodge the majority of the kicks and punches thrown his way. As it was, the ten year old would end up with more than a couple of bruises before the Hokage called out for them to switch to swords. Tenzou dropped back as Satoshi pulled free both of his wakizashi blades while Kakashi pulled out the katana that he'd replaced his father's tanto with when the shorter sword had been broken during the mission on which Obito had died.
Satoshi used his left sword strictly to defend against Kakashi's attacks while he attacked in return with the sword in his right. The two of them danced back and forth across the clearing for close to twenty minutes and Satoshi was soon sweating from the intense workout while Kakashi almost seemed to be playing around (which he probably was since he had more training than Satoshi when it came to kenjutsu). It wasn't until Satoshi drew first blood on a lucky thrust that scratched Kakashi's arm that the two of them ended the sword fight and put away their blades.
Satoshi then took a short ten minute break to catch his breath while Tenzou rejoined them on the field in preparation for the ninjutsu demonstration. Knowing that he still didn't want to show the outsiders everything he could do, Satoshi decided to limit the jutsu he used that day to nothing more powerful than a high C ranked jutsu and avoid using his concrete release jutsu and his family jutsu. By mutual agreement, all three of them avoided using any clones since they didn't want the wizards to know they had ways of tricking people into believing that they were two places at once.
That still left the three of them with a large range of jutsu to show off though and Satoshi gave as good as he got as he used his E, D, and C ranked jutsu to great effect. Throwing in elemental manipulation of earth and water made it all the more impressive even if he didn't use any of his more devastating moves. After an hour, Satoshi ended up tied up in Tenzou's Mokuton and while he could have easily broken free from the wooden bindings, his ability to counter the Mokuton was considered a clan secret and therefore not something to display to Outsiders (or the hidden AnBu standing guard around the clearing).
It was nearly ten o'clock by that time and Satoshi bowed to the Hokage and his audience before he spent a good twenty minutes cooling down. During that time he also asked the Hokage about the possibility of training Naruto in just the basics and was given permission when Satoshi explained that he'd be training Shino, Shinichi, and possibly two of the Hyuuga as well; after the Hokage asked for and received a promise that he'd teach them nothing more than the basics until they earned their hitai-ate.
After asking a few questions about the demonstration; Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Shacklebolt took their leave while Lupin remained behind to start Satoshi's tutoring.
Over the next two weeks, Satoshi, Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo were extensively tested on their grasp of the English language; Lupin had them write numerous essays, translate several children's books (from Japanese to English), and speak nothing but English during their language lessons. Kakashi and Satoshi had no trouble passing those tests due to their Sharingan and photographic memory respectfully while Kotetsu and Izumo were a little rusty because it had been three years since they'd really spoken to anyone but each other in English.
The two fifteen year olds, while sad over the reminder of their language lessons with Kushina, were thrilled to once again be working with Satoshi. Satoshi soon found himself opening up to the gregarious pair once more after a few days thanks to his memories of their years together as a team under Kushina (memories that represented some of the happiest years of Satoshi's life). The three of them often traded stories back and forth about missions they'd taken during the past three years or spent time reminiscing on those missions they'd taken together as part of Team Four.
Once he was finished with the morning tutoring sessions, Satoshi would complete one or two simple D Ranked missions on his own while Kotetsu and Izumo had guard duty at the main gate. While he worked, two of his guards would watch over him as none of the shinobi trusted that Fudge fellow after Kakashi and Satoshi provided a complete transcript of everything that had been said over the course of that eight hour meeting with the wizards. Occasionally, one of the four Jounin would step in and give Satoshi a hand with the chores he performed, though usually the ten year old had no trouble doing the work on his own or with the help of a pair of clones.
Each afternoon, Satoshi would finish his last mission no later than three-thirty so he could rush to the orphanage to pick up Naruto before the two of them would collect Shino and Shinichi and meet Ko at the hidden refuge Satoshi had set up that was roughly halfway between the Aburame Compound and the Hyuuga Estate. Satoshi would then use shadow clones to work with each of the five children; teaching each of them the proper way to stretch (except for Neji who already knew) and helping them learn to recognize the spiritual and physical energy inside of them. Once they had learned how to find and recognize their internal energies, he slowly began teaching them how to mold them together to form chakra and how to form the basic hand signs.
After several weeks of practice, Satoshi would go on to teach them how to perform the leaf sticking exercise. Naruto would have the toughest time getting the hang of the simple chakra control exercise simply because his chakra reserves were more than three times larger than the other children because of his Uzumaki heritage and the presence of the Kyuubi. Satoshi ended up helping Naruto the same way his father had helped him when he was first learning to channel his chakra; he set his Kikaichu on the three year old and drained him to more manageable levels while being extra careful not to drain him to the point of exhaustion least he wake up the Kyuubi by mistake.
Ko helped tremendously during this period of training as his Byakugan could monitor Naruto's chakra levels to make certain there was no risk. After the excitable three year old managed to successfully stick the leaf to his forehead, Satoshi began to slowly drain less and less chakra during the exercises until Naruto no longer needed the extra help (something that would take close to six months to accomplish).
Once their hour long training session was over, the group would either eat supper at the Aburame Compound or the Hyuuga Estate before Satoshi took Naruto back to the orphanage. The rest of Satoshi's evenings were spent working on any assignments that Lupin had given him or helping Kotetsu and Izumo with their assignments. He was then in bed by nine so he could be up before dawn to get in a couple of hours training before he started his next session with Lupin. Weekends were spent running short missions within Fire Country in order to allow Satoshi to stretch his legs and keep his skills from growing rusty with disuse.
Seventeen days after the other wizards had left; Lupin said a temporary goodbye and gave a promise to bring plenty of reading material with him when he returned in seven days. While he was gone, Satoshi and his team of four guards spent seven days running two back to back missions to outlying outposts to deliver supplies and gather reports from the shinobi based in those outposts. It was a nice change of pace for the ten year old since he'd been getting bored with the simple English lessons and mind numbing D Rank missions he'd been performing (training the five children the only thing he had to look forward to outside of his weekend missions).
On day eight, when Lupin returned, Satoshi's routine changed slightly again. After his morning workout, Satoshi would spend two hours reading through one of the books that Lupin had picked up for him and a third hour being quizzed on what he'd just read. Those books covered the recent history of the United Kingdom and the wizarding world, wizarding traditions and etiquette, current wizarding laws, and other pertinent information that would help Satoshi integrate himself into the wizarding world once he arrived. Satoshi would then head out to do his missions for the day while Lupin worked with Kotetsu and Izumo on their English. His afternoons were unchanged at that point since he'd still finish up by three-thirty so he could grab his little brothers and cousin and meet the three Hyuuga at their hidden training ground to practice.
After supper, once Naruto had been returned to the orphanage, Satoshi would then spend the evening listening to Lupin tell stories about his birth parents, teaching the wizard how to play Shogi, and tentatively getting to know the older man. This included telling Lupin some stories about growing up in the Aburame Clan and his life as a shinobi; though there was still much that he refused to reveal due to the information being classified or because he felt uncomfortable discussing the topic (this would include missions he'd been on and anything touching on his time with Kushina, Obito, his grandfather, or his mother). Lupin was more than a little shocked when he finally learned that Satoshi played host to well over forty thousand bugs during one of those nightly sessions after the start of the New Year.
On the morning of January seventeen, in the middle of Satoshi's fourth tutoring session, Lupin was once again shocked when he saw the ten year old walking around with a not quite fully grown Fawkes sitting on his shoulder while feeding the phoenix pomegranate seeds. He was further stunned when he learned that Satoshi and the rest of his family had believed the bird had been attacking Satoshi and he was quick to inform them that Dumbledore had sent the bird with a letter tied to his leg.
Unfortunately, the letter hadn't been seen and the flames of the phoenix's rebirth had incinerated the letter before it could be found. Remus was hard pressed not to laugh when he heard Kakashi calling the magical bird a self-roasting duck which earned the gray-haired teen a glare from said phoenix. When he left at the end of the month, Lupin took the phoenix with him to return him to his rightful owner and Satoshi was a little sad to see the strange bird leave as he'd grown attached to it over the months he'd cared for the bird after getting over his initial worry that the bird would harm him or kidnap him or worse, eat his swarm.
The rest of his tutoring sessions moved along quickly due to his perfect recall and Lupin was hard pressed to keep up with Satoshi as he steadily plowed through the books he brought. In order to prolong the usefulness of the tutoring sessions (so that he could spend more time with his pseudo nephew), Lupin began bringing in more and more obscure history and law texts for Satoshi to read through in addition to popular and classic English literature, magical plant encyclopedias, extensive rune dictionaries, and numerous books on magical theory. On the flip side, Satoshi and Kakashi also helped Lupin learn rudimentary Japanese since he was spending so much time in Konoha; something the English wizard greatly appreciated.
The money Satoshi earned from his numerous missions during that time was put towards purchasing supplies for the first of his long missions; warm clothes (since Lupin had warned him that it would be colder than he was used to in Scotland), extra weapons, additional medical supplies, plenty of blank scrolls for messages and sealing, and several new scrolls containing water and earth jutsu as well as a handful of A Ranked non-elemental jutsu that he could use to round out his arsenal. Any money left over was diligently saved so he could purchase his school supplies for his upcoming school year as he'd not yet been informed about the inheritance he'd been left upon the deaths of his biological parents.
The closer it got to August, and subsequently the closer it got to the day he was scheduled to leave the Hidden Countries for the first time since he'd been found in the forest and brought to Konoha, the tenser Satoshi got as he constantly worried over the upcoming training mission. He especially worried about leaving the children behind as he'd grown extremely attached to the four youngest (Shinichi being kind of standoffish since Satoshi had never really interacted much with him after the Kyuubi's attack) and didn't really want to leave them and his father behind.
During this time, Shibi was making arrangements to take him to Snow Country after his final tutoring session in order to acclimatize the young shinobi's Kikaichu to the cold so that they could better protect Satoshi while he was gone and help him keep his mind off his rapidly approaching departure.
When Lupin returned for what would be Satoshi's final tutoring session with the wizard, he brought with him Satoshi's Hogwarts letter, his ticket for the Hogwarts Express, and an early birthday gift for the magical shinobi in the form of a photo album containing pictures of James and Lily Potter (and their various friends) from their Hogwarts years and a few rare pictures of Satoshi from before that fateful Halloween night.
On the day that the wizard was due to leave for the last time, he was given a standing invitation to visit whenever he wished (whether Satoshi was there or not) by Shibi who'd grown to like the scholarly wizard over the course of the ten months he'd been teaching Satoshi. Satoshi had, by that time, started calling the man Uncle Moony as he had during the year and a half before his biological parents had died; much to Lupin's everlasting delight. The last thing Satoshi received before his honorary uncle left was a reminder that Professor McGonagall would be arriving to take him to purchase his school supplies towards the end of August.
Two days after saying goodbye to Moony, Shibi led Satoshi and Shinichi out of the village while carrying Shino on his back and the quartet made their way north towards Snow Country. It was the first time since the end of his Chuunin Exams two years earlier that Satoshi had actually traveled outside of the village with his father and he enjoyed it immensely. Shino and Shinichi both quite enjoyed the trip as well; this being the six year old's first time out of the village while the four year old hadn't been out of the village since he was one year old and he didn't remember much of that trip because he'd been so young at the time.
Satoshi wished he could have brought Naruto along for the trip as well but knew it wasn't wise to take the little Jinchuuriki out of the village while he was still so defenseless. The only reason the eleven year old didn't feel too guilty about leaving the little mite behind was because Kakashi and Tenzou had promised to keep an extra close eye on the blonde while he was gone; the two Jounin going so far as to promise to help supervise the on-going lessons with Ko. That promise also helped Naruto get over his depression at not being allowed to leave with the small Aburame family.
After a hard week of travel, the four Aburame caught a ship across the sea that separated the main continent of the Hidden Countries from Snow Country. It was actually Satoshi's first time riding on a ship and he spent most of the ride politely hounding the sailors for every last bit of information they knew about sailing and predicting the weather. At the same time, his Kikaichu were constantly observing the various tasks that the sailors performed as well as monitoring the ship's progress from above and below the water (his water bugs long since accustomed to salt water due to the periodical trips Satoshi had taken to Tea Country on missions over the years).
Shibi was greatly amused by his son's antics as the thirst for learning had been reawakened in his son by the several months spent tutoring under the watchful eye of Lupin; something that Satoshi had lost after Kushina and the others had died. Shibi didn't really count Satoshi's training as learning because expanding upon his ninja skills had been more of a duty than a choice and he hadn't really gone out of his way to learn new things until Kakashi and Tenzou had pushed him into it.
By the time their ship pulled into the dock in Snow Country, Satoshi, Shinichi, and Shino were all shivering from the cold and Satoshi had lost close to seven hundred water bugs to the freezing cold waters (those that hadn't died would gain a resistance to the icy water that they would forever pass on to their offspring). Once on relatively dry (if frozen) land, the quartet headed into the wilderness to set up their camp for the next week. The moment their camp was prepared, and a barrier put in place to protect them from trouble of the two-legged variety, Shibi instructed Satoshi, Shinichi, and Shino to send out a small fraction of their Kikaichu into the snow and ice for the day.
Satoshi then spent the rest of the day playing in the snow with his little brother and cousin; something they'd never done before since it doesn't snow anywhere in Fire Country except high up in the mountains. That night, just before they went to sleep, the three younger Aburame recalled their Kikaichu and Satoshi found that he'd lost one third of the fifteen hundred he'd sent out into the snow with his brother and cousin losing roughly the same percentage of their Kikaichu. He was little upset to lose quite so many but understood why it had to be done; he stood a good chance of losing all of his bugs while in Scotland if he didn't build up their resistance to the cold prior to leaving.
Their second day in Snow Country passed much the same as their first though Shibi took the time to teach the three boys about the different types of plants and trees that grew in the frozen region, the different kinds of ice that could form depending upon the weather conditions and the location, and how to anticipate snow storms and determine the severity of approaching blizzards with the help of the Kikaichu. That evening Satoshi picked up two new colonies of bugs unexpectedly as two different types of snow fleas joined his Kikaichu when they returned.
The normal, blackish blue snow fleas quickly integrated themselves into Satoshi's chakra swarm while the golden snow fleas were drawn to his magic. Shibi managed to collect some stragglers of both species and carefully stored them so they could start wild colonies back at the Aburame Compound in order to allow other Aburame to host the cold loving insects and make it possible for Satoshi to build up or replace their numbers without having to return to Snow Country each time those colonies were depleted. Two days later, Shinichi and Shino each picked up a colony of common snow fleas as well which thrilled the two boys to no end (both children had grown to love bugs nearly as much as Satoshi due to him spending so much time with the pair over the past year).
The rest of the week would pass in much the same way; with the three boys sending out a portion of their swarm each morning, spending the day learning about the surrounding land or playing in the snow, and spending each night counting the number of returning Kikaichu (and those bugs that were closely related to the Kikaichu – such as the snow fleas).
At the end of their week in the wilderness and snow, the four Aburame trooped back to the dock and headed home; all four of them carrying plenty of bugs to add to the Compound's collection, hosting several new colonies of snow fleas, and the three boys incubating their first generation of cold resistant Kikaichu. Most of the return trip was spent caring for the bugs they were carrying home; making certain that they were kept cool enough and that those that didn't eat chakra had plenty of food. They did run into a spot of trouble in Rice Field Country when they ran into a group of bandits. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it had just been Shibi and Satoshi but because they had Shino and Shinichi with them they were a bit restricted because they had to protect their youngest family members.
Eventually, the bandits were dealt with (a number of them being turned into statues when they tried taking the two younger children hostage at one point) and though they lost a full day of travel, the quartet still returned to Konoha with two days to spare before Satoshi and the newly formed Team Kakashi (the older teen the only Jounin on their team and therefore the leader by default) were due to head towards England and ultimately Scotland.
Satoshi spent half of those two days helping his father set up the newly collected wild snow fleas and the other cold loving insects they'd collected in a special cold box in the corner of the green house where the wild Kikaichu colonies were housed. The rest of the time he spent playing with his brother, his cousin, and the other children he'd befriended. Satoshi also celebrated his eleventh birthday now that they were back in the village; there had been no time to do so while they were traveling (not counting the dango, taiyaki, and anpan that Shibi had packed in a storage scroll for dessert after supper on Satoshi's actual birthday – which they'd eaten their first night onboard the ship on the way to Snow Country).
At nine-fifteen on the morning of the twenty-fifth of August, Satoshi entered the Hokage's Office carrying five crying children (Shinichi had finally thawed towards Satoshi during the trip to Snow Country) followed by his teammates, his father, and Ko.
Minerva McGonagall, who would be escorting the four shinobi to England, felt more than a little guilty over taking Satoshi away from his family when she witnessed the tearful children clinging to the eleven year old for all they were worth. The normally stern witch also felt much better about agreeing to leave the boy with his adopted family as she could easily see that they obviously cared for him. Out of all the children, Naruto and Shino were the hardest to console as they were the closest to their niisan and Satoshi promised he'd be back as soon as the mission was over and admonished them to keep up with their training while he was gone.
Satoshi had a moment of insecurity himself when it came time to say goodbye to his father; the eleven year old had clung to Shibi for dear life for a brief moment as he wrangled a promise from his father to spend the tenth of October helping his little brothers to honor the fallen. Satoshi then reluctantly released his father, accepted his mission scroll from the Hokage, and signed his name in the log book that the Hokage used to keep track of those shinobi that left the village on extended missions. Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo quickly followed his lead and before Satoshi knew it; their small group was heading out of the village after waving weakly to his father and the children one last time.
It only took the five of them about two hours to reach their departure point; a small clearing well out of sight of the gates of Konoha (magically warded for privacy though none of the shinobi knew that yet). Five minutes later, he was grabbing hold of a lurid orange and lime green sock that was supposed to transport them out of Fire Country and into England. He had just enough time to glance back towards Konoha (the walls of the village completely obscured by the huge forests surrounding the village) one last time before he felt something grab hold of his stomach and yank him into a maelstrom of blue lights.
Translations: Japanese to English
Hai – yes
Ojisan/oji/jisan – uncle
Ojiisan/jiisan – grandfather
Oniisan/niisan – older brother
Otousan/tousan – father
Wakatta – understood
AN: There was something I was going to say but my brain is currently not cooperating…
Anyway, current poll results will be updated in the next chapter and the poll will remain open for another six days: at which point I will close the poll and tally up the review votes to include in the final number. Any votes posted in reviews after the 31st will be ignored. ~ Jenn