In The Corner of Your Eye
Abby Ebon
Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Naruto. If I did…-coughs- obviously we'd still be waiting for the "last" HP book to come out, and likely, Naruto would be chasing Sasuke with Jiraiya….hmmm, slashy undertones abound…
12. A Truth That Lies
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Harry woke to morning light pressing like a weight against his eyelids. He had a splitting headache, his body felt chilled – as if he had just broken a fever, but otherwise – physically, at least, he was as healthy as he had been when his fingers had first curled around the Elder Wand and it had been raised to slay a Dark Lord.
Slowly, he sat up – the room wobbled a bit, seeking to break the laws of gravity within his own mind. A sick feeling curled in his gut, but it was one he could ignore. After so long, he no longer wondered what had happened before he went to sleep. He knew he had destroyed a demon – and he knew the physical signs of magical exhaustion.
If Hogwarts still stood he would be locked in the Medical Ward until properly lectured and his magical aura had healed. No matter that his magical aura was the strongest among Wizards and Witches alike. Ifs, he had learned to loath ifs in his existence.
Sunlight played against his skin, he imagined that with the shadows in the room, he likely looked as if he had a halo of light around him. Harry hated that thought – it was the encouragement he needed to push his knees over the edge of the bed, to get out of the halo of light.
Harry tilted his head back, letting the room swim about him. He hated killing. Even if it was just a demon, and people were grateful and thanked him; it was an honor – respect – based on killing. Harry dragged the blanket around him, finding himself cold despite the warm weather.
That'd be a bad sign, if I were...normal. Harry reflected glancing around the room, it was sparse, but Kakashi was not the type to show his weaknesses – or strengths, even within his own home. Likely pictures and other mementos of the past were locked away in a box, to be looked at when Kakashi chose to. Harry did not begrudge him that – in all the time that had passed, his own moving pictures – his own personal treasures, all of it had turned to dust. That did not mean he did not remember the past – rather, he was haunted by it.
A woman walking on the street in a certain way brought memories of his long dead wife, even if these people did not resemble those of his teenage years. If he heard a child cry in the night – he thought of his own children, before they had grown and decayed. That was why…why he could not see Gaara, in mental anguish, and do nothing. Those who had known him before Konoha called it "hero syndrome" – Harry supposed they were right. Then they had died – it had changed nothing, rather he had wandered thereafter, helping – saving, doing all he could do for a world that mirrored his own in early memory.
Then the very earth he walked on changed, and he had rushed to find the old things – the things from his ancient past. What was once his homeland was ocean – and much of what had been flatland was inland ocean – or lakes – all of it wasn't what he remembered.
People with magical abilities had changed too – somewhere along the line, some step that he did not recall was taken, magical people seeing certain doom in a changing world, unchained themselves from the bindings of ancient marriages. They married freely into the "muggle" populace – but, not all of them did that.
Some that were from powerful ancient families – making them as powerful as Harry himself was – but they held to their beliefs in magical marriage; and only saw what was happening as certain doom to their way of life. By then, they were a barren race whose only hope lay in the fidelity of the humans possessing no magical ability.
So, as panicking people often did, they acted hastily, using their own bodies as vessels of power – they changed themselves while in their Animagus forms. Channeling magic – magic tapped from the very life-lines of the planet, made you practically immortal. People, Harry knew all too well, were not meant to be immortal. That was the answer though, the only way Wizards and Witches could remain as they were for all time – to turn into a demon.
It was the first part of the truth that Kyuubi sought. Once changed though, the Wizard or Witch was no longer exactly human – they no longer remembered being human; sometimes the weaker ones forgot humanity altogether and became utterly animalistic, though an animal with human cunning, that was what it meant to be demonic.
Other times, like with Kyuubi, they retained intelligence – power, but all they recalled from memory was their hatred of people – it made no difference to them if a person had magic, or not.
Harry had not known until it was too late that that had happened to those who had not bent to nature's whim. While the magic of the Earth was still the same – well, how magic affected people had changed, evolved. Evolved so much, that magic was considered something anyone could do with the proper training and a talent for it. Magic was what ninjas did everyday, and did not question – no one did.
The mirror across from him reflected a bitter sort of smile.
He was the last of an ancient flip of a coin in evolution. Mother Nature kept him around as an irony. Harry was not without his uses, and killing – killing demons which were once his own kind, was one of them. Harry wondered if he killed all the demons – every one of them – would he be let alone to die. Probably not, probably there would be something else for him to do.
Harry looked up as he heard movement outside the door, shaking off his melancholy, putting to mind what he still had yet to do. He noticed then what he had not before – someone was knocking on the door, rather excitedly. Harry narrowed his eyes, green glinting in the mirror; he remembered as well the three day trial (beginning today) the Elders had challenged him with.
"Gaara…Naruto…what are you two doing here?" Kakashi kept his voice quiet, perhaps it was meant to be a hint for the two to take into consideration that people might still be awake. If that was the case, it was utterly ignored.
"Kakashi! Where's Harry? I've got to ask him something really important!" Naruto's voice could have waked the dead, and Harry found he was glad he had woken before the blond had come a calling.
"Naruto – have some respect, Harry could still be sleeping." Kakashi didn't sound too awake as it was. There was a rush of footsteps past the bedroom and into the living room, then a predicted lingering silence.
"Kakashi! Where is Harry?" Harry stood, letting the blanket fall to the bed and softly padded to the door. Before he could open it, and reveal himself to be in relatively fair health, Kakashi answered Naruto.
"In my room." It was obvious Kakashi hadn't gotten as much sleep as he should have.
"Geez, Kakashi, couldn't you move a little slower? The guy just got here yesterday!" Naruto's tone was lecturing and Harry raised an eyebrow, his fingers frozen midway to the doorknob.
"What are you talking about, Naruto?" Kakashi asked blandly, not really sounding interested in what Naruto was implying.
"I'm talking about you doing the naughty-naughty with Harry last night!" Very softly, Harry snorted in amusement, his lips twitching into what could be called a smirk. There was prolonged silence. Harry wondered if Kakashi was awake now – or if he was resisting the urge of throttling his former student. Or a perhaps it was a mixture of both.
"That is none of your business." Kakashi spoke sternly enough, though he was clearly either annoyed or embarrassed.
"Ah –ah, so you don't deny it?" Harry's lips twitched into a smile, his hand falling from the door as he closed his eyes, tilting his head to the side and imagining what was happening just beyond his sight. He could have called the real image to his mind, but he found using his imagination somehow more amusing.
"Deny what?" Kakashi all but snarled.
"Having, ah – erm…" Naruto was stuttering, likely red in the face at the prospect of having to say 'sex'. Even having been exposed to Jiraiya's lecherous ways, the boy was still very much an innocent. Harry had to wonder how Gaara was taking this conversation.
Harry's eyes snapped open when he heard the bedroom door being jerked open. A baffled looking – if flushed –Gaara was revealed, and looked all too relieved to see him.
"Harry, ah, I – we – well, I have a …a question for you." Gaara began awkwardly, how much of that was due to Naruto and Kakashi's "talk" and how much to his own unease of asking a direct question, even Harry could not guess.
"You are welcome to ask." Though Harry partly hoped it had nothing to do with his sexuality – then again, he had never said he would answer.
"It – it's about my power over sand…it's still there, does that mean…ah…" It was clear what Gaara was struggling to ask, and Harry waved a hand for Gaara to cease speaking. Gaara looked partly annoyed, but more relieved at the interruption.
"Your power over sand was likely amplified by Shukaku, but I do not think it originated from the demon. If you still have power over it, consider yourself blessed, rather then cursed. Either way, it is you solely who controls the sand – not the demon." Harry assured softly, partly because he did not want to make the vulnerable looking teen retreat from him. There was something about Gaara that forced Harry to take notice, to want to help.
"Ah, thank you, for…everything." Harry nodded, taking the thanks without question – to reject it, to say that it was nothing, would be a lie. So, as he had learned to do in the past, he accepted it, but did not draw it out into a debt, as some might have. He wanted nothing in return, nothing but to forget, or to die. It would be unfair to place those wants onto Gaara, so he simply turned his attention to the watching blue eyes beyond the door.
"Did you want something, Naruto?" The blond flushed at being caught listening, then became excited, bouncing on the balls of his heels.
"Yeah – yeah, I did, Gaara says you killed Shukaku, could you do the same with Kyuubi?" To say he had not expected the question would be a lie. Instead, he did not answer right away, drawing in a breath and walking to where Naruto stood, hope shinning in his eyes.
Harry knelt in front of him, purposefully putting himself into a position of submission. He watched the boys blue eyes shift to confusion, watching a person who was supposed to be more powerful kneel in front of him.
"Naruto, I know you listened yesterday – when I spoke to Kyuubi." Harry began, and Naruto nodded, biting his lower lip – biting off his questions.
"I let you listen, you know now Kyuubi and I have a pact – he knows of how demons came to be, now it is time you shared that knowledge." Harry did not have to turn his head to know Gaara and Kakashi's eyes were glued to him.
"Long ago, people like me lived – people with my …magic…they saw what they thought to be an end to us. In a way, they are right – I am the last, but they were also very wrong. Magic lives on in today's world, though it has evolved within humans to an extent that envelops all, something my people never could imagine. The last of my people, those that considered themselves pure blooded changed themselves using their inborn magic – changed into animals that closely mimicked their personalities. Then they did something very dangerous – the Earth around us is the most powerful type of magic – they tapped into that magic. Too much of that kind of magic can kill – or turn you into a God, or Goddess, what they did was an in-between, a demon." It was painful, unbearably so, to admit that aloud. There was silence for a time.
"I…I don't understand, are you saying…saying that Kyuubi was once…" Naruto could not finish his own sentence.
"Once like me. Like us. Human." Harry finished it for him, eyes locked with the small blonds.
"Was…was… Shukaku…?" Gaara's voice came very soft from behind him.
"Yes." Harry did not flinch from it, and glanced to Kakashi who stood silent and accusing beside Naruto.
"Was there no way to reverse it?" Kakashi asked, though there was no open accusation in his tone.
"Would you rather they die, be at peace – or become insane Gods or Goddesses?" Harry asked in turn, he let nothing of his own feelings seep into his own words. They were bland, tasteless.
I know which I would choose. Kyuubi purred softly, pressing into their minds like a weight. Harry pressed right back, throwing the demons mental ability off. Bitterly, Kyuubi retreated from them, alike a storm bidding its time.
"I have not given you the second part of the secret, Kyuubi. Leave, and be grateful that I am too tired to strike at you." Harry spoke aloud, fingers clenching into his palm, nails biting into the soft flesh – blood reinforced his words, blood was power. Power, being magic – compared to the threatening demon it was a drop in the ocean.
You are too weak to do me harm, too sympathetic to kill me. Go on; tell the boy the rest of it. Kyuubi taunted as he retreated, and Harry let him, closing his eyes and rejoicing that his aching, dizzy head was his own again, empty of all but him.
"Forgive me, Naruto, but in this Kyuubi speaks the truth. I can not kill him, he holds too many cards in the game that we play even now. I promise you though, I will not – if I can help it, let his wicked whisper be the last thing you hear." It was indeed a grave promise – the promise that he would remove Kyuubi from its vessel without killing him, without killing Naruto. Somehow, he had to undo what a Hokage had done, and do it in such a way that neither would die.
Harry bowed his head then, letting his hair fall over his shoulders and face. It was a mark of trust – one which Naruto and the others could recognize. Let the fox demon wander at his words – Harry intended to keep his promise.
"Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to live with the Fox till then." Naruto was being purposely brave, to hide his fear, neither of which Harry begrudged him. Without looking at any of them, Harry stood, still not looking – or seeing – either of them, he turned to the door, beckoning.
"Until then, there are still things you need to learn." Harry spoke as he walked to the door. He could feel the mood lift at the prospect of training, it was a form of release, but this was also something they needed.
"We're going to train?" Gaara asked from just behind him, closely following.
"Yes." Harry answered simply, letting him consider what the boys would have to learn.
"But – you're not a ninja, are you? How are we going to train with you if we can't do what you can?" Naruto's question made Harry smile, just a little.
"Ah – but you both have something in common that no one else does. Both of you have felt a demons power – how they draw it, how they control it. I dare say that you've been trying to mimic them before you were trained as ninjas." Harry lectured, remembering that Kakashi also heard his words. He wondered for a moment what he would make of them, and then shuffled it to the back of his mind.
"Well, yeah – but we obviously never got that right…" Obvious, Harry supposed, because the boys were ninja.
"The fact remains you know more about magic – how it used to work for the ancients – then anyone living. If you do the same, well, I do think you could change the way you channel magic – or rather, as you call it – chakra. Change it to a mix, a mix of what ninja can to – and what I can. Do you think that experiment worth a little training?" It was just an idea, but as long as Naruto and Gaara thought it possible – well, it was at least feasible.
"This will do nicely," Harry stopped at a clearing, it was surrounded by trees – but otherwise silent, "we'll start with meditation." Harry finished setting onto the dewy grass, ignoring the way the wetness stuck cloth to skin.
"Why mediation?" Gaara asked sharply, though he and Naruto had sat down; Naruto peered out at him with one eye, waiting for his answer.
"It will help calm you – help you concentrate. Also, once a demon leaves a vessel that person becomes vulnerable." Harry let their minds fill in what they would be vulnerable to – it was likely far worse then what he could tell them.
"How…how do you meditate?" Naruto's question was timid, the way a person who was used to being shuffled into the background would answer.
"You see the world around you?" Harry asked in turn, Naruto nodded, a "duh" expression firmly in place.
"Try to sense it in your head. Let your mind settle, put everything everyday in the background. Try to think of one thing – one goal – it could be for life, or just to be accomplished in a week. Think of all the ways you can solve it until you grow bored with it. Then, think about the sense of the world you have right then. How do you fit into it?" Harry knew they weren't really listening to him right then, they were trying to follow his instructions. That was fine, everyone approached meditation differently – the key thing was to relax and to try to understand your self better.
Harry merely watched them, unseen, the feel of their power – their chakra, went from a throbbing twisting thing to something calmer. It was their natural power – Naruto's was as blue as an ocean, it was as wild as a whirlpool – but there was potential there for the more Naruto focused, the more power he channeled.
Gaara was earthen – golden brown, alike the sand he controlled. Unfocused his power reminded Harry of a sand storm, now though, it was settled, strengthened – but it still had the flexibility to be sink sand, to be a trap, a defense. That was very good news indeed.
Harry did not expect them to learn magic the way he had been taught – merely to improve the ability they already had.
The most important thing was they leant the self control necessary to defend against what would sense them, what would come to investigate, once it was known their demons were gone. What they did after they learnt that – well, that was in their hands.
"Good. Now, open your eyes." Harry's voice cut into their minds like a whip, it was a demand, laced in power. At his words, they obeyed, their eyes widening at the impossibility of what they saw. What they saw, Harry knew, was the color of their chakra – perhaps even his own magical aura. It was a curse and a blessing that Harry could not see his own aura.
"What are all the…colors?" Naruto asked, watching them in a childlike awe, it was a moment Gaara shared – such a moment, Harry knew, would bond them. A bond they would need to face whatever was to come in the future.
"They are you – the blue is more Naruto, the brown and gold is Gaara, The rest, I suppose, would be me." Harry answered; the two boys glanced between each other, seemingly confused.
"You do not know what color yours is?" Gaara asked then being the more tactful of the two, Harry shrugged one shoulder, carelessly.
"I suppose it would be green, but I do not rightly know, and I do not care to." Harry answered abruptly, seeing Naruto beginning to open his mouth – likely to tell him. Harry feared the color of his aura would be something stained, twisted – as torn up outside as he was inside.
"Well, whatever – I think yours is very beautiful." Naruto muttered, a light blush flushing his cheeks when Gaara turned to regard him.
"Thank you, now – shall we begin?" Both boys nodded eager to learn what he had to tell them.
"We are going to manipulate our colors – our personal power, without word or gesture. The goal is to overcome my power – to wrestle it, if you will, and from there – well, you may practice this on your own. It may save your life one day – if you cross one of those things that will come to hunt you once they know you are unprotected by a demon. They are not the sort of thing another person can help you with. Though you maybe able to help yourselves against what is to come." When he was finished speaking, there was no "ready, set, go" – they were both eager pupils, beginning to roll their power toward his.
Naruto stuck his tongue out of his mouth, pressing it between his lips as he concentrated. Gaara had simply closed his eyes, as if meditating – of the two, Harry was not surprised that Gaara had figured out the trick of it first. Naruto, he knew, would learn better through experience.
So, that was what Harry gave them – lots and lots of experience. Lost within the challenge the two presented - he did not notice time, only startling out of his trance when he heard the screech of a night critter.
"Enough." Harry spoke, lacing his words with his power. The boys flinched to awareness; it was abrupt and shocking the first time to come out of a trance. It was never gentle, but Harry had at least given them warning in his pause.
Naruto, not surprisingly, yawned – mentally exhausted, Gaara merely blinked, rubbing his eyes before he could stop himself.
"I don't get it," Naruto muttered as they walked through the village to his apartment, "we just sat there all day – why are we so tired?"
"Mentally, you engaged in a sparring match that lasted until now." Harry let that seep in, before nodding towards Naruto's apartment. The blond needed no urging to get to bed, and left – Harry and Gaara waited until they saw the light in Naruto's apartment flick on before they left for Gaara's apartments in the nicer edges of Konoha.
"You were magically exhausted when we came to the apartment this morning. Was that because of me?" Gaara asked softly as they walked, Harry could have said he hadn't heard – but that would be a lie.
"No, it was mostly Shukaku. No demon wants to die." Harry allowed as they came to Gaara's temporary residence. Gaara did not look back once he went inside – not that Harry blamed him. He continued along the route, wondering if he would recognize Kakashi's apartment in the darkness.
"Harry, I'm beginning to worry that Jiraiya is right about you." Harry paused in his tracks, turning to regard his grand niece. How she had found him, he did not question, she had eyes in Konoha.
"Oh?" Harry retorted softly as Tsunade fell in step beside him, guiding him.
"Yes. I know very well what you did for young Gaara. I also know that you are too stubborn to show how much pain you're in because of that stunt you pulled with them today." Harry shrugged one shoulder, looking up for a moment at the stars just beginning to shine.
"Felt that, did you?" Harry had wondered, and smirked slightly as Tsunade rolled her eyes.
"You know damn well anyone with a bit of charka felt your all day battle with those boys, who I know you kept in the dark over just what you were doing – it was enough to send out your message loud and clear." Tsunade cracked her neck for empathize; Harry winced in sympathy, though it didn't seem to pain her.
"What message would that be?" Harry asked then, still paying clueless. It was hard to get a rise out of the people around him, they took everything he said and did so literally.
"Don't get cute with me; you know damn well what you've done. You've set yourself up as their protector. If that wasn't enough for them to chew on, you've got them both terrified and baffled at your limits. Some of them think the old legends are true. I'm sure you're pleased with yourself now." He was, but he wasn't going to just tell her that.
"I don't know what you mean, dear grand niece." He smirked while he spoke, belying his own words.
"Damn you." Tsunade said in sing-song, grinning just a little bit.
"I love you too." Harry practically cooed, and Tsunade laughed, it was the sort of thing Harry lived to hear from those he lived for.
"Oh – before you get me too furious to remember – what did you do with the figurine of Shukaku?" Tsunade asked then, and though she knew what Kakashi had heard – she wanted to know if it was true.
"Killed him." It was as if he was commenting on the sky above them, for all the emotion he put into the words.
"Oh, Harry…" She was sympathetic, though she had suspected this to be true.
"Leave it alone, Tsunade. You summoned me; you must have known how I would react to finding them haunting these boys." There was a warning, and Tsunade let it drop, her eyes falling to the ground before them. Only a bit of darkened sidewalk separated them from Kakashi's apartment.
"I knew. What do you intend to do tomorrow?" Tsunade asked softly as they paused at the entrance, Harry turned to regard her, and when he spoke all playfulness was gone.
"Pay my respects to the family of an old friend." She knew without asking who that was – she did not let herself reach out to touch his shoulder – he would not appreciate the gesture.
"Don't spend too much time in the Uchiha Clan Compound; it isn't good for you to linger on the dead." Harry nodded to the wisdom in her words though he did not say he would follow it. Without so much as a goodbye, he left her, walking into the apartment only to lie down on the couch. She was not hurt; he had always been one to avoid saying goodbye, even if it was only for the night.
Harry paid no mind to the fact that there was a light on shining under the door in Kakashi's room, or that the silver haired man had likely heard them.
Note; well, don't expect a chapter this size again, I only felt inspired today. Nonetheless, do tell me what you all think of this?