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, some mild to moderate character bashing where unavoidable (mostly Dumbledore & Danzou with some Sakura & potentially lots of Sasuke), alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), OCC behaviors and personalities, a number of original characters and obscure canon characters to flesh out family trees, random chosen last names to give a number of characters surnames, and who knows what else.
AN1: Partial credit for the Story Prompt/Challenge used to create this one-shot goes to the Guru of Challenges; Challenge King. For details, see the first author's note at the top of the first chapter.
AN2: 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 Thirty-Eight: First Meeting's Fallout
May 21, 1990, 01:33 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Elemental Nations
Tenzou took a moment to 'scan' Kasai's office for extra chakra signatures before he slipped through the ceiling and lightly dropped down on the floor in front of his boss's desk. The grumpy old bear (and Tenzou really needed to stop allowing Haruo and Naruto to influence him with the inane nicknames they come up with for the people they interact with) glanced up from his paperwork to see who was disturbing him and the moment he recognized Kuma, the ANBU Commander gave him the stink eye.
Two seconds later, the man raised a temporary privacy barrier in order to ensure their conversation wasn't overheard before he demanded, "Well…?"
"Haruo's first meeting with Black and Lupin went about as well as expected this morning," Tenzou promptly answered as he tried not to wince beneath his mask over the fact that the man was already irritated with him when he hadn't even gotten around to providing his boss with a summary of everything he'd learned recently.
"And…?"
"Haruo is… cautious of both men; he fears that they'll take him away from Konoha and Naruto. Both boys did, however, tentatively bond with Black over a couple of harmless pranks that they played on each other when Black's childishness reared its head early in the meeting. Haruo is also inordinately fascinated by Black's ability to transform himself into a dog and I suspect that he'll eventually attempt to talk the man into teaching him how to change himself into an animal."
"Such a skill could be useful on future missions," Kasai allowed after a moment of consideration.
"Unless he ends up with a form that's impractical; such as that of an aquatic creature that is incapable of surviving out of water or an animal that's not native to the Elemental Nations and would therefore stick out like a sore thumb."
Kasai hummed a wordless acknowledgement of a potential drawback to a Trueborn's ability to change their shape before he changed the subject slightly, "As fascinating as it is to know that your son may be interested in learning a potentially valuable infiltration skill; we both know that wasn't what you're here to report on. What's the status of your son's core?"
Tenzou sighed and dutifully revealed, "Haruo's core is currently warped, unstable, and stressed due to a partial binding that was applied to his core prior to his placement with his former guardians. Lupin named two potential suspects and two potential reasons for the bindings being placed on Haruo. The first suspect is Dumbledore Albus; the Trueborn who had placed Haruo with his maternal aunt and the headmaster of the Trueborn's academy. The second suspect is Pomfrey Poppy; a Trueborn medic that works out of their academy under Dumbledore."
"The binding was likely targeting a specific skill and based on the difficulties that Haruo has had with various aspects of his Mokuton over the past six years, the skill targeted was his ability to grow wooden beams; a skill that Haruo had consistently been incapable of performing prior to the mission to Nami. The two potential reasons that Lupin gave as to why a single skill might have been bound were in the event that the skill was believed to be life-threatening or if the skill would draw too much attention from the wrong people."
"Was either man able to remove the bindings?"
"Haruo actually broke the bindings on his core at some point, most likely during the mission in Nami when Haruo felt something in his chest 'snap', and the remnants of the binding were removed this morning to prevent them from being 'repaired'."
"What's the gaki's current status?" Kasai demanded once he'd digested the information Tenzou had just given him.
"Exhausted and sore from having the remainder of the bindings removed. His core will also be vulnerable and easily stressed for a period of time. Lupin projects that he'll make a full recovery and that his core will heal the damage that was done to it but he was unable to give me a time frame for how long it will take for that to happen other than that it should be fully healed by the time he turns eleven. He's requested weekly access to Haruo in order to chart his recovery over a period of at least two months but I suspect that was more about making certain Haruo visited them regularly than it was about a need to constantly monitor his core's recovery."
"Are there any long term headaches I can expect to crop up as a direct result of those bindings being removed?"
"Iie, the only possible complication that could arise would be if Haruo further stressed his magical core while it was in the process of healing itself."
"And just how are we supposed to prevent the gaki from stressing himself out?"
Tenzou closed his eyes for a brief second to brace himself (because he knew the answer was going to irritate the man) before he replied, "We'll need to cease any attempts to separate Haruo from Naruto while his core is recovering, avoid pushing him beyond his current physical limits, and make an effort to keep him out of situations that will cause him to experience extreme negative emotions. In other words; he needs to be kept safe, healthy, and happy to avoid him losing control of his mahou since those uncontrolled outbursts are what could potentially stress his core."
Kasai growled. Literally. And if Tenzou had been a lesser man, he would have flinched in response to the threatening sound. He'd expected his boss to be unhappy though and he stoically stood his ground. Once Kasai calmed down and ceased growling like a bear, Tenzou presented his commander with the final exploding tag.
"Based on the information I collected from Black and Lupin during the meeting this morning combined with the data collected from the scan Lupin performed on Haruo's magical core, Haruo's magical core had potentially been unstable and stressed from the moment his mother and step-father died or as soon as the partial bindings were placed on his core with his core being slowly warped over time due to the bindings. The mistreatment he received at the hands of his former guardians would have exacerbated the situation for the short time he lived with them."
"And while a stressed core is enough of a problem on its own, it's the fact that Haruo's core was unstable that was and is the real problem. An unstable magical core, according to Black, is a magical core that has difficulties producing mahou and a strong likelihood of producing imbalanced mahou as a result. Three major symptoms of an unstable core included extreme mood swings, poor judgment, and noticeable shifts in personality; such as an outgoing child suddenly becoming withdrawn and shy."
Kasai growled a second time before he demanded, "Can the gaki's core be stabilized?"
"Lupin is of the opinion that Haruo's core will stabilize itself in time now that the bindings have been fully removed from his core."
"If that's the case; then what's the big deal with his core being unstable?"
"Trueborns with an unstable magical core tend to be rather unbalanced individuals; Black is one such example as his magical core was damaged during his childhood and that damage left him with a permanently unstable magical core – he admitted as much shortly after learning the status of Haruo's core. Black also stated that Trueborns don't like feeling unbalanced and so will latch onto an 'anchor' to ground themselves. Being 'grounded' in such a way doesn't stabilize their core; it only mitigates the symptoms and reduces the amount of stress they feel from being 'unbalanced'."
"Haruo's step-father was Black's primary anchor and Haruo is his secondary anchor. The loss of his primary anchor and the separation from his secondary anchor played a significant part in why he ended up in prison as the actions he took as a result of the loss and separation and the poor judgment he made at the time were what saw him being tossed into prison without a trial. So, part of the reason why Black has been so focused on being reunited with Haruo is due to the fact that Haruo is his secondary anchor."
"And just how is the fact that your gaki has an unstable core going to affect Black?" Kasai curtly inquired with more than a little annoyance coloring his voice. "For that matter; what kind of an effect will Black's unstable core have on Haruo's unstable core? Will the fact that Black is using him as a so-called 'anchor' further destabilize his core? Or will Haruo's unstable core destabilize Black's core instead? Is it possible that Haruo will choose Black as his anchor? And if he does, how will that affect the two of them?"
Tenzou considered how best to answer the flood of questions his boss had fired at him before he stated, "When I spoke to Lupin on the matter just before I took the boys to the Academy after lunch, he was uncertain how Haruo's unstable core would influence Black's unstable core due to Haruo being Black's new primary anchor. He did promise to monitor the situation and let me know immediately if there was a problem."
"What of the affects that Black's condition will have on the gaki? I noticed you also didn't say whether or not Black was Haruo's anchor."
"Black will have far less influence over Haruo's core due to the fact that he is not Haruo's anchor."
"Did Black or Lupin say how we can go about finding an anchor for your gaki?"
"He already has one."
"Who is it?"
"Uzumaki Naruto. Or possibly the Kyuubi."
Kasai froze for all of two seconds before he launched the empty coffee mug on his desk at Tenzou's head and swore up a blue streak in response to Tenzou bringing up the Kyuubi. Tenzou reached up to catch the mug before it hit him and calmly set it back on the desk (well out of his boss's reach) since dodging the projectile would have made the man angrier when the mug hit the wall and broke. A metal paperweight, a large stapler, and six kunai would follow the mug in rapid succession and Tenzou caught everything but two of the kunai that would end up stuck in the wall behind him.
He then quietly waited for the ANBU Commander to calm down and kept a careful watch for any other projectiles that might be launched at him. It took a good eight minutes for Kasai to finish venting and the moment he was semi-calm, Kasai pinned Tenzou with a flinty glare through his mask before he demanded, "What proof do you have that Uzumaki is your gaki's anchor?"
"Black specifically stated that an anchor is a person, place, or thing that has an abundance of 'wild' energy. He also claimed that it had been Potter's larger than normal chakra reserves (though he called it a wellspring of life force) that had been his anchor. Naruto's chakra reserves have always been significantly larger than other children his age and his chakra has always been dense and chaotic due to his Uzumaki heritage. On top of that, the Kyuubi is the largest source of 'wild' energy in the village and the bijuu is sealed within the blond; making Naruto a prime candidate for an anchor."
"That still isn't definitive proof that your boy has claimed him as his anchor."
"The proof that either Naruto or the Kyuubi is Haruo's anchor is in the fact that Haruo had latched onto Naruto from the moment he met him and balked at any and all attempts to separate him from his friend. Haruo's refusal to spend time apart from his friend was most likely due to the fact that being separated from his anchor made him feel out of sorts due to the imbalance in his mahou. Another indication that Naruto or the Kyuubi is Haruo's anchor is the extreme differences between Haruo's moods when he's with Naruto as opposed to when he's separated from him."
"When I first extracted Haruo from his former guardians, he was quiet, overly shy, easily startled, and very hesitant around new people. The moment he met Naruto, it was like someone flipped a switch and he became talkative, excitable, all but fearless, and far more active. After he'd met Naruto, any time the two of them were separated for even a short amount of time, Haruo would become despondent, start jumping at shadows, and be far more likely to snap and snarl at anyone not named Naruto. It also got progressively more difficult to separate the boys each time they spent time apart."
The masked commanded leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest as he considered the information and examples that Tenzou had just given him. Tenzou relaxed slightly since his boss wasn't ranting and throwing things at him this time. Oh, he knew Kasai was still far from pleased with him but the man was at least in complete control of himself and therefore unlikely to attempt to injure or maim him again. Not that Kasai had tried all that hard in the first place but the intent had been there.
"I can see one flaw in your theory; why didn't the Toads and other summonses notice the state of Haruo's core?"
"It's possible that they did notice it but didn't recognize it as a problem; Haruo, Black, and Lupin are the only Trueborns that the Toads have encountered to date. So, they might not have noticed anything off since both Haruo and Black have unstable cores while Lupin's status as a werewolf undoubtedly affected his core on some level. Tokage hadn't noticed a problem either and he's been treating Haruo for years."
"Okay, let's say you're right; what exactly does that mean for both gaki?"
"Only that it would be unwise to separate them for the time being; since pulling Haruo away from his anchor while his magical core is recovering from the trauma it suffered would only acerbate the problem and hinder his recovery. Once Haruo's core is fully healed, it should be possible to wean the boys away from their dependency on one another since the underlying reason Haruo has clung to Naruto so tightly should no longer be an issue."
"Did Lupin or Black confirm that the gaki's core will stabilize itself once it has healed?"
"Lupin believes it will since Haruo's core is still young and flexible enough to 'bounce' back from the trauma; though any further stress could increase the likelihood that his core is permanently damaged. The closer Haruo is to his eleventh birthday, the higher the chances that any damage done to his core will be permanent; since a Trueborn's core loses a good percent of its flexibility about that time."
"So, basically, what you're saying is that we'll have to put up with the gaki's annoying clinginess for at least one more year, ne?"
"Aa."
"I hope you know I'm going to take the headaches I get for the next year and some change out of your hide."
Tenzou mentally snorted in response to the threat but didn't comment on it; his boss had been chewing strips out of his hide for the last six, nearly seven, years. He was pretty certain the man would be chewing strips out of his hide for yet another six to seven years regardless of how many headaches Haruo did or did not instigate. At least these days he could share the 'blame' with Kakashi since the former ANBU Captain was his son's Jounin sensei and therefore responsible for keeping Haruo out of trouble.
Not that it was possible to keep the gaki out of trouble; Haruo found trouble just waking up each morning.
"Is there anything else you need to add?" Kasai inquired once it became clear that Tenzou wasn't going to comment on his threat.
"Iie."
"Have you spoken to Inoichi about what you'd learned this morning?"
"Iie, not yet; I came straight here after I dropped Haruo and Naruto off at the Academy. I intend to have him view my memories from this morning later this evening."
"Good. Now get out of here! I'm sick of looking at you."
Tenzou inclined his head and immediately dropped down through the floor before Kasai could change his mind. Five minutes later, he was back outside of ANBU Headquarters and he took the time to mask his chakra signature before he returned to the Academy in order to keep an eye on his son and make certain that Black was behaving himself. Upon arriving at the training yard behind the Academy, Tenzou would easily spot his son and the animagus sleeping curled up beneath the trees; kind of hard to miss them when they were both colored so brightly.
As annoyed as he was with the man, Tenzou could at least appreciate that the man was behaving himself.
Of course, he'd be far happier if the man was far less inclined to snuggle with his son while in his dog form.
And no, he wasn't jealous of the man.
He wasn't.
He was annoyed that the man was using his ability to transform himself into a dog to get close to Haruo by exploiting Haruo's love of animals.
Putting his irritation with the older Trueborn out of his mind, Tenzou settled himself on the roof of the Academy where he had a clear view of the training yard. He then took a moment to check in with the two Moku Bunshin he had active (one shadowing Lupin back at the hotel that the two men were staying in and the other one down in the trees a few yards away from Black). Both clones reported no suspicious behavior from either of their charges with the clone shadowing Lupin reporting that the werewolf was researching magical cores.
Tenzou didn't know if that was a good sign or not. On one hand, it meant that the man was determined to help Haruo (and most likely Black as well). On the other hand, it also meant that the man was potentially unsure of his facts and therefore might have given them false hope as to whether or not Haruo's core would heal itself in time. Tenzou would reserve judgment for now since he didn't know the man well enough to know if jumping straight into research mode was a coping mechanism or not. And Lupin had been concerned about the state of Haruo's core.
The rest of the afternoon was spent alternating between keeping an eye on Black (the man in dog's skin never once stirring – not even when Naruto's clones broke out a dog grooming set and teased his fur into frizzy mess that made the dog look like it'd been struck with a raiton jutsu) and getting updates from the clone watching Lupin. Once the students were dismissed after shurikenjutsu training, Naruto would spend another hour cleaning up the training yard before he and Haruo were dismissed for the day.
Tenzou then watched as Umino collected Haruo off of the ground and woke Black up at the same time. Black growled at the Chuunin Instructor but Naruto flicked him on the nose and told him to behave before he snagged the clone leash and dragged the transformed Trueborn off towards the door; much to Tenzou's amusement. A chuckling Umino with the still sleeping Haruo cradled in his arms would trail after the pair a heartbeat later with Tenzou's clone ghosting along unseen behind them.
As soon as they exited the front of the Academy and headed in the direction of the hotel where Black and Lupin were staying until they were given clearance to find a permanent home, Tenzou would follow the group from the rooftops until they reached the hotel. Tenzou then dropped down into the hotel so that he could be present when Black was handed back to Lupin to ensure that there were no attempts by either Trueborn to keep the boys any longer. He timed his arrival so that he was stepping out of the wall beside the door to their room just before Naruto knocked on the door.
"Gah! Don't do that, koneko-chan!" Naruto gasped as he dramatically clutched at his chest in response to Tenzou unexpectedly stepping out of the wall while Black dropped down onto his belly and covered his face with his paws for some strange reason.
"Your situational awareness still needs work if something as simple as me stepping out of a wall is enough to catch you off guard," Tenzou lightly chided the still purple pre-teen while he ignored Black's un-dog-like behavior.
"No one else ever steps out of walls," Naruto grumbled as he finally reached out to knock on the door.
"There are plenty of techniques that allow people to pass through solid obstacles and you will potentially cross paths with the people capable of using such techniques once you start taking more missions out of the village. And you won't always be able to reply on Haruo to sense those people before they attack; so you need to start paying more attention to your surroundings lest an enemy catch you off guard."
Before Naruto could open his mouth to respond, the door to Lupin and Black's room opened up and Lupin stuck his head out of the room. The moment he spotted the group in the hall, he opened the door wider and stepped out into the hallway as he stated, "Ah, right on time. I trust Padfoot behaved himself for you boys?"
"Your ninken was very well behaved," Iruka answered before Naruto could come up with an appropriate insult for the disguised Trueborn. "He spent all afternoon sleeping and didn't disrupt my lessons once."
"That's good to know; I had worried that he'd get into mischief if I let him out of my sight," Lupin replied as he glanced between the orange fluff ball and the sleeping Haruo a couple of times. "He loves kids though and I didn't have the heart to pull him away from his new friends when he was just so happy to have the chance to play for the first time since we arrived in Konoha. Oh, where are my manners, I'm Lupin Remus; and you are?"
"Umino Iruka."
"A pleasure to meet you, Umino-san," Lupin politely replied before he glanced at Tenzou and quite obviously changed what he was going to say next as he turned to Naruto and prompted, "If you'll pass me Padfoot's leash, I can take him from here."
Black whined as he pushed himself up off of the floor and shifted closer to Umino due to the fact that the Chuunin was still holding the sleeping Haruo. Tenzou was not impressed and he leveled an annoyed glare at the faux dog only for the mutt to completely ignore him as he pawed at Umino's leg.
Lupin noticed though and the werewolf's smile grew a little strained as he cleared his throat and declared, "I believe he just wants to give the young man a kiss goodbye… he is, as I mentioned earlier, rather fond of children."
"I'm not surprised; most animals tend to like Haruo-kun," Umino stated as he crouched down to allow Black to say his 'goodbyes' while Tenzou tried not to be irritated with Lupin for suggesting the 'goodbye kiss', Umino for allowing it (since the Chuunin wasn't aware of Black's true form and status), and Black for slobbering all over Haruo's face and neck.
Haruo briefly stirred and muttered a few grumbled complaints about being disturbed from his sleep even has he patted the dog on the head. He then curled into Umino's chest and promptly went back to sleep. Black huffed but ceased licking the nine year old as he allowed Lupin to pull him away from Umino using the leash. The disguised Trueborn did pause just long enough to drag his tongue across Naruto's face as well (much to Naruto's disgust) before he slunk into his hotel room with his tail tucked between his legs.
"Well, thank you again for keeping an eye on my friend for me," Lupin offered once Black was out of sight. "Please feel free to come back and visit as often as you'd like; Padfoot would greatly appreciate the company."
"I'll bring them both over again tomorrow morning," Tenzou grudgingly announced (in order to allow Black to spend the rest of his required twenty-four hours with Haruo). "I make no promises for the rest of the week though as they both have other commitments that need to be fulfilled."
"Fair enough."
Farewells were soon exchanged and Tenzou readily collected his son from Umino before he and the clone that had been following Black escorted the two boys out of the hotel before they took them home via a quick Shunshin where the clone was left to keep them out of trouble while Tenzou made his way to the Yamanaka Flower Shop to show Inoichi his memories.
May 21, 1990, 05:07 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Elemental Nations
Remus let out a silent sigh as he closed the door to their hotel room after he'd watched Kuma carry a still sleeping Harry out of the building without so much as a backwards glance. He wanted to be annoyed with the man for limiting their contact with Harry but he couldn't fault the man for protecting his son. That didn't mean he was happy about the current status quo. His discontent was nothing when compared to Sirius's frustration with the situation though but that wasn't at all surprising since Harry was both Sirius's godson and his new primary anchor.
Pushing his dissatisfaction to the back of his mind for a moment, Remus glanced around the hotel room in search of Sirius and quickly determined that the other wizard was in the bathroom. The mess on Sirius's bed from where he'd dumped out half the contents of his trunk in a desperate search for something was a clear indication that the other man was attempting to rectify his current orangeness. A small smirk curled the left corner of the werewolf's mouth upwards as he recalled how easily little Harry and his buddy had pranked his old friend.
Knowing it would be a while before Sirius was finished, Remus dropped a note on the table to let Sirius know that he was stepping out for a moment to pick up something for supper from the hotel's cafeteria style restaurant. When Remus returned roughly thirty-eight minutes later, he found an annoyed Sirius pacing back and forth in front of their beds. The moment he got a good look at Sirius, he had to fight a snicker as while Sirius was no longer strictly orange, he hadn't quite been able to fix his appearance completely.
His skin was a faint orangish-brown that was reminiscent of a poorly made Suntan Potion (or those muggle tanning creams) and his hair a light gray with streaks of orange-brown.
Remus's amusement faded fairly quickly the moment that he realized that Sirius was upset about being separated from Harry once again and not about his pranked appearance. It didn't take long for Remus to deduce that Sirius had not heard Kuma grudgingly agree to bring Harry back first thing in the morning so that they could spend another day with the nine year old. Letting out another sigh, Remus conjured another table and deposited their evening meal on the magical construct before he placed himself in Sirius's path in order to get his friend's attention.
"Come sit down and eat, Padfoot," Remus instructed in English the moment Sirius stumbled to a stop before he could plow into Remus.
"Not hungry. Want my godson," Sirius curtly growled in response.
Rolling his eyes, Remus reached out to slap Sirius on the back of his head before he dryly asked, "And just how do you expect to see him if you end up in the hospital because you failed to take care of yourself?" Sirius pouted at him but Remus ignored the look as he gave the older wizard a shove towards the table. "Sit down and eat; you can see Harry first thing in the morning."
"Yeah, if Cat-Face isn't being a bastard and hiding him from me again."
"Kuma already promised me that he would bring the boys back to see you again tomorrow."
"He did?" Sirius demanded with more than a little surprise.
"Yep, he made no promises for the rest of the week but he all but guaranteed they'd be here in the morning."
Sirius bounced over to the table in a far better mood now that he had Haruo's next visit to look forward to first thing in the morning. Remus joined him at the table just seconds later and pulled one of the two trays of food that he'd brought back with him towards him so he could dig in. After the first couple of bites, Remus drew Sirius into a conversation in order to distract his friend and give him something to focus on other than his separation from Harry.
"Did you sleep the entire time you were with the boys this afternoon or did you fake it most of the time?"
"I slept. Best sleep I've had in years. Was nice to have a break from the nightmares."
"That certainly explains how you ended up with frizzy fur," Remus lightly commented with a smirk as he recalled the way it had looked like Padfoot had run face first into a Fluffing Charm for feather pillows. "Was it Harry who pranked you while you slept or was it his friend?"
"It was a couple of his friend's annoying duplicates; Harry didn't wake up at all. I think he needed the sleep more than I did. He smelled exhausted."
"Removing those bindings on his core did take a lot out of him."
"He smelled exhausted even before we did that."
"Well, based on what little we learned about that job they were out of the village on when we first arrived, he probably hasn't been sleeping too well. It wouldn't surprise me if he was having nightmares about what happened. The stress he's been under due to the bindings probably hasn't done him any favors either."
Sirius growled under his breath in response to the reminder of the state they'd found Harry's magical core in before he muttered out an irritated, "Fucking Dumbledore."
"You don't know that it was Dumbledore that bound his core."
"If it wasn't Dumbledore who did it, then it was Dumbledore who ordered it done."
"Is that what you really believe or is that just your anger speaking?"
"He left me to rot in Azkaban, Moony!"
"Most of the world believed that you'd betrayed Prongs because the stunt with Peter worked far too well."
"I still say we should have hunted down the rat before we left England."
"It would have taken years to find him because we had no clue where to start looking and the chances that someone would see you and recognize you while we searched were far too high," Remus patiently reminded his friend as he tried not to get annoyed by Sirius's limited track mind.
Sirius pouted at him again but thankfully dropped the topic of the traitor as he instead demanded, "What time did Cat-Face say he was bringing Harry back?"
"He didn't but I'd imagine they'll arrive about the same time as they'd arrived this morning. I already arranged for breakfast to be delivered to our room no later than six tomorrow morning so that we can eat before they get here."
"Why didn't you set it up so that they would deliver the food after Harry gets here so he can eat with us?"
"I suspect that Kuma will have the boys eat before he brings them to the hotel like he had this morning and I figured that we could take the boys back up to the place where we ate lunch today so that Padfoot can run around outside with the boys instead of staying cooped up inside for most of the morning again."
Sirius lost track of the conversation at that point and Remus suspected his friend was fantasizing about all of the doggish games he'd be able to play with Harry; such as Pounce and Slobber wherein he pounced on a target and slobbered all over them. Or Tackle and Poke that involved tackling a person to the ground and poking his nose in sensitive spots in order to tickle the target. The dork had created at least two dozen stupid games like that shortly after he'd managed to complete the animagus transformation and he used to torment the other Marauders with those games.
And despite how annoying some of those games were for the targets, Remus and James had never once tried to tell Sirius to stop playing them. Nor had they ever told him off for targeting them. Sirius's playful nature was just part of who he was and they'd accepted Sirius (and all of his faults). They'd also preferred it when Sirius was in a playful mood over the times when he was broody or irritated since a broody or irritated Sirius was an unbalanced Sirius. And Sirius was always at his most vicious when he was feeling unbalanced.
That was also when he made his biggest mistakes; such as when he'd chased after Peter without back up or when he'd tried to send Severus Snape into the jaws of a werewolf on the night of a full moon.
Pushing thoughts of the past out of his mind, Remus finished his supper and collected the dirty dishes once he noticed that Sirius had also finished eating. He then set both trays out in the hallway outside of their door for pick up by the hotel's staff before he returned to the research he'd been doing on magical cores in order to confirm that his assessment of Harry's core had been correct. He also needed to find the spell that healers used to test for 'anchor bonds' in cases of core instability so that he could confirm that Harry had latched onto his friend as an anchor.
He also needed to check the status of Sirius's anchor bond since there was a chance that his bond to Harry had degraded or broken during the eight years of separation or due to the extended exposure to the dementors.
Translations: English to Japanese
Aa – yes
Gaki – brat
Iie – no
Ne – used to solicit agreement or confirmation from the listener similar to using 'isn't it?' or 'right?' in English
AN: This chapter all but wrote itself, though the last section held it up a bit since this chapter was originally supposed to have Haruo's next meeting w/ Inoichi in it but I was having trouble with that bit. So, I moved it to the next chapter and added the scene w/ Remus and Sirius to show how both wizards are handling the limited contact w/ Harry as well as to briefly touch on the research that Remus was doing.
I've already got a 300 word start on the next chapter but I don't know when I'll have that finished since that was the section that was giving me trouble when it was still part of this chapter. So, don't expect to see it any time soon. As far as my next update goes, I've been working on chapters for Magic Online, The Unbound Shinobi, and An Epic Adventure; all three of which I hope to update before the New Year but don't hold your breath since my work on those chapters have been slow as sap in winter.
ANYwho, if you don't hear from me again before the holidays start, have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holiday if you celebrate one of the other yuletide holidays! You can at least expect to see my author's page updated on the 21st or 22nd though and that will let you know if I'm close to having anything else ready for posting! ~ Jenn