Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 15

Itachi listened intently to his little brother, the boy still holding on tight to him. He was shocked that Potter-san had left them alone but the idea that someone would trust him so much felt…nice. He gently led his brother over to an old log, sitting down on it and Sasuke burrowed into his side. He lifted his hand, hesitating, but then carefully ran his fingers through messy black hair.

His brother looked healthy and strong which he was very thankful for after years thinking he was dead. How had no rumours of a child who looked so much like him ever reached him? He had so much he wanted to ask, to say, but their time was limited.

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Harry said nothing when he sensed Itachi shadowing them all the way back to Konoha, he had the feeling the team would gain their shadow whenever Itachi could get away with it. Not that he blamed him for wanting to stay as close as possible to his brother, especially with the way tensions had been rising since the invasion.

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Kakashi was getting a bit annoyed, he'd barely seen Harry over the last few weeks, his partner spent all his time with the Sannin and Sarutobi, or training with the kids. Sure, Kakashi was there for training too but they couldn't exactly talk and make out in front of them! He didn't know what Harry was discussing with the Sandaime's group, but he figured it had something to do with either Orochimaru or Itachi. Kakashi knew if or when his input or help was needed he'd be called upon but still… Harry looked over from where he was working with Sakura and frowned at him but Kakashi waved it off and went back to helping Sasuke with his Sharingan.

At least he had finally been cleared to return to the field, not that they'd had any team missions out of the village since the one Harry had led. He'd been sent on two solo missions and Harry had gone on one with a team of chūnin and jōnin.

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"What's wrong?" Harry whispered, arms wrapping around Kakashi's waist and the shinobi relaxed into his embrace.

"Nothing," he murmured, and Harry tugged him around to stare into his natural eye.

"Liar," Harry teased softly, and Kakashi sighed.

"Just missing you. You've been so busy…" Kakashi trailed off, feeling bad for mentioning it and Harry kissed him softly.

"I'm sorry Kakashi. I'll be here more now, plans are all done, and they don't need me for the rest," Harry promised. "Ask Sasuke, I can get a bit preoccupied when busy with war plans," he admitted, and Kakashi frowned.

"So it's to be war," he muttered, and Harry sighed but nodded.

"Yeah, Konoha and Sand versus Sound. Everyone's going to be busy soon," Harry admitted.

"Should you be telling me this?" Kakashi asked, and Harry nodded, leaning his head on Kakashi's shoulder.

"Sarutobi said to let you know. They're gonna hold back the genin teams as much as possible but, we'll you're the Copy-nin…"

"I'll be on the front lines. Our kids?" he asked, and Harry smiled at that.

"We'll trade off, one on the front lines, one with the kids," he explained, and Kakashi's eye went wide.

"Harry…." He started but Harry kissed him.

"Konoha is home now and I will defend my home and those I love," Harry swore to him.

Kakashi smiled at Harry calling Konoha home but tightened his grip on Harry, hating the idea of him on the front lines.

"Come to bed with me?" Harry whispered mischievously and Kakashi nodded.

He knew what Harry was asking and why, with war looming either one of them might not come home, better to have as few regrets as possible. So he lifted Harry off the ground and carried him down to the bedroom, making him laugh and pretend to swoon, glad that Sasuke was staying over at Iruka's with Naruto for the night.

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Naruto stood with his team, listening to the announcement of war, not sure what he was meant to feel. War was scary but also maybe a little exciting? A chance to prove themselves. They were genin though so it sounded like they'd be kept back from the main fighting, something he could see relieved Sakura.

They would be held back but what about Kakashi-sensei and Harry-sensei? Would they be sent out to fight without them?

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Harry parried the other's sword and the lashed out with a kick to the shinobi's side, making contact and sending him stumbling back even as Harry heard the distinctive sound of Kakashi's Chidori. Magic, his own and Sasuke's, soaked the air along with the rage tinged chakra of Naruto's tenant as they fought against the large group of Sound ninja.

Their missions out of the village since the invasion had gone so well that Harry had been waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Apparently it had chosen this mission to do so, looked like the war was finally truly starting.

Sakura was down, the boys protecting her, even with the training she now eagerly participated in she was still behind them when it came to fighting ability, and she was paying for it now.

Harry twisted out of the way of a fire jutsu and then hissed in pain as a shuriken lodged in his shoulder. That hurt!

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Kakashi hesitated for the tiniest second when he saw Harry stumble, but the wizard kept fighting, obviously not injured badly. He took out his last opponent and turned to find Harry trying to remove the shuriken from his shoulder while walking towards the teenagers. Harry dropped to his knees beside Sasuke and the two worked steadily on Sakura to heal her. Kakashi put his hand on Harry's shoulder and then yanked the shuriken free, causing Harry to hiss in pain. Kakashi gently cleaned and bandaged the wound and then pulled Naruto away to help him search the bodies for anything important.

They got Sakura stabilised and took off back to Konoha. Harry put a hand on each teens shoulder as they watched Sakura rushed off into surgery and Kakashi shifted slightly so that their arms brushed. "Come on, let's go get cleaned up and something to eat."

Harry finally managed to get to the two boys to leave and they headed to the Potter home where they all showered, and Harry cooked them a nice hot meal. They then sent the two teens off to bed and collapsed on the couch.

"How's the shoulder?" Kakashi asked as he tugged his mask down.

"Healed already," Harry assured him; laying his head on the taller man's shoulder.

Kakashi smiled slightly at the move. "Will Sakura be alright?"

"Yeah, the surgery will fix what Sasuke and I couldn't out there. She should be fit for duty again in a week or so. And then we get to kick her ass into shape huh?"

"She's improved a lot since you started helping with training. I…"

"Don't Kakashi, it's the past now and you're making up for it," Harry comforted him softly. "Now come to bed." Harry stood and tugged Kakashi along to his bedroom, just to sleep this time since they were both worn out.

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Harry watched from the doorway as the three teens chatted away, Sakura sitting up in bed and looking much better than she had when they had carried her into the hospital only three days before.

The room was filled with vases of flowers from friends and old classmates and it made Harry smile, remembering what his own bed in the infirmary had often looked like when he woke.

Hearing footsteps he turned to see a couple coming towards the room and from their appearance they had to be related to Sakura, especially the woman. No two families could have such distinctive pink hair. They walked past him, the woman sneering and muttering something about foreigners and Harry winced, this was not going to end well, he could see that.

"What is that…delinquent doing here?" A female voice demanded, and Harry sighed, feeling like bashing his head into the wall. So much for a nice quiet visit. "Sakura this is the last straw! You will be quitting this silly ninja business immediately and we will start looking into finding you a suitable husband. Hopefully you won't scar too badly."

That had Harry stiffening in anger, and he stepped into the room to see an embarrassed Sakura turning red while Sasuke glared at her mother and Naruto glared at the floor.

"That is quite enough!" Harry snapped angrily and the teens relaxed as he revealed his presence. "This is a hospital madam, lower your voice. Your daughter is three days post-surgery and instead of expressing your concern you scream like a harpy."

Sasuke smirked slightly as his brother ripped Sakura's mother apart verbally.

"How dare you!" She snapped and Harry silenced her.

"I suggest unless you can keep a civil tongue in your head that you leave," he warned the couple, magic itching to be used.

Sasuke was forcible holding Naruto back from attacking the civilians, the blonds hands balled into trembling fists.

"What is going on in here?" A voice demanded and Naruto grinned at hearing the familiar voice.

"Baa-chan!" Naruto greeted, and Tsunade nodded at him.

"Well?"

"Apparently Sakura's parents do not approve of their daughters career or teammates," Harry answered her, and Tsunade glared at them, making them both wilt.

"Sakura made a commitment to this village, one that is not easily severed. As for her teammates, both are loyal shinobi and were the ones to protect her when she fell."

"She is our daughter! We will not have her involved in this war," Sakura's father finally spoke, a lot more calmly than his now silenced wife.

"It's my choice!" Sakura argued, and Tsunade nodded, studying the girl.

"With Naruto learning under my old teammate and the extra training Sasuke receives from his brother, you could use some extra tutoring yourself. How do you feel about training as a medic-nin?" She asked and Sakura's eyes went wide in shock.

"You mean it?"

"Of course."

"Then yes, thank you."

"That's settled then." Tsunade nodded and then herded the two civilians out of the room.

"You ever need somewhere to stay for the night…" Harry offered and she smiled.

"Thanks Harry-sensei."

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Kakashi looked over at the message Harry was examining, seeing the image of an icicle on the back. "Harry?"

"Not sure, only one I can think of would be Haku."

Kakashi nodded, they hadn't heard from the two since parting in Wave, though they had heard Zabuza's name in some reports from the Kiri area. He uncovered his Sharingan just to be safe, but it looked clean to him.

Harry opened the note and read it, smiling slightly. "Haku," he confirmed before his expression became grim and he handed the note over.

Kakashi read it and grimaced, that was not good.

"Is this because of the war?"

"It could be building up to another Shinobi World War, it's been over a decade since the last one."

Harry sighed, "wonderful."

Kakashi knew Harry was barely past fighting in a Wizarding War and likely did not like the idea of another such large scale conflict. Then again, he wasn't eager to see another either. "We need to show the Hokage the note."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Wonder if this explains what happened to you when we met? The beginnings of Kumo wanting to start a fight?"

"Could be," not that he remembered fully what had happened, he had tried but it was still mostly a blank.

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Harry ducked under an attack and lashed out in return before pausing to see how the others were doing. The group of jōnin he was with were doing well thankfully, despite being a mix of Suna and Konoha ninja who had never worked together before. Finally they pulled back to tend the injured, but the group of Sound ninja had definitely come out the worse in that fight.

"You okay?" Harry asked one of the Suna nin and he nodded warily. "Here." Harry gave him a water bottle and the man nodded gratefully, drinking thirstily.

"Thank you," he said, and Harry nodded before moving off to help with the injured, wishing he was home with Kakashi and the kids.

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Sasuke walked between his teammates as they headed for the training fields. In a rare occurrence, both of their sensei were out of the village at the same time. Jiraiya-sama was in the village and had agreed to keep an eye on their training, but he was more interested in peeping.

"Can we go for ramen after training?" Naruto asked, practically bouncing along.

"Naruto we've had ramen twice this week already!" Sakura argued.

"There's the new BBQ place," Sasuke offered in compromise and she nodded, eager for anything other than ramen.

Naruto pouted but then sighed and nodded as well. Sasuke smirked and reached over to mess up his hair, making him squawk and Sasuke ran for the training grounds, Naruto chasing him and Sakura laughing as she followed them.

He was so glad they had come to Konoha, he loved his team, and couldn't imagine living as a Shinobi in any of the other villages.

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Sakura watched in awe as Tsunade-sensei was named as the Godaime Hokage. She knew it would impact her own training, leaving more of it to Shizune and whoever was free at the hospital but that was okay. The Sandaime deserved the chance to retire again, he was old to be leading the village during another war, though everyone knew he would continue to advise Tsunade-sama.

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Harry walked through the camp, searching for his team as he went. They'd been separated during the fighting but as soon as he'd been released from the medics he'd started searching.

"Nii-san!" A welcomed voice called, and Harry turned to see Sasuke limping towards him, a bandage around his knee.

Harry pulled him into a hug, doing his own magical scan of the teen as he held him. "Have you seen the others?" He didn't need to ask after his health since his scan had already let him know, other than a wrenched knee Sasuke was alright.

"Sakura is with the Hokage helping in the medical tents, Naruto is helping shift some debris with his clones, and Kakashi-sensei is helping track down some Oto stragglers," Sasuke reported, and Harry relaxed at finding out they were all alright.

"Go get some rest kiddo." He pushed him towards one of the tents and Sasuke nodded, walking tiredly inside to find an empty cot.

Harry headed out to help search for more survivors. He hated pitched battles, this was the first large scale one of the war and they seemed to have come out of it okay. He paused as he saw a red headed teen, watching as he directed sand to gently move bodies around. That was a big change from seeing the teen in the exams. Gaara turned to see him and Harry nodded at him before moving on.

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Harry collapsed into bed, after four month out in the field he was utterly relieved to be back in his own bed. He could feel Sasuke down the hall already asleep in his own bed. All that was missing was Kakashi but the Hokage had wanted to speak with him. Harry sighed and rolled over, hugging Kakashi's pillow even as he began to drift off. He shifted and grumbled when someone tried to take the pillow sometime later and was answered with a warm chuckle.

"How about you give me my pillow and hug me instead?" An amused voice whispered, and Harry loosened his grip.

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Kakashi slipped into bed and smiled when Harry's arms wrapped around him. He kissed Harry's forehead. "Go back to sleep," he whispered even as he closed his eyes. Cots out in the field were too small for sharing and there was no privacy. He'd missed having Harry in his arms and it just felt so nice to be home again. At least they had the next two months at least back in the village. Unless something really drastic happened anyway.

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Sasuke flipped the pages before sighing and reaching down to scratch Sevy's head. He was bored, Harry and Kakashi had been sent off on some top secret mission and his teammates were with their individual sensei so he was at home reading.

Thanks to a broken arm he wasn't allowed to train physically for the rest of the week. He closed the book and pushed it aside before leaving the house. He paused and cocked his head to the side before smiling and vanishing from sight.

"Hi," he called softly in greeting, and Itachi smiled slightly back at him.

He sat down and Sasuke sat beside him, leaning against him. Itachi wrapped an arm around him. "You're hurt?"

"Broken arm, not allowed to train or anything for the week and everyone's away or busy," Sasuke shrugged.

"Tell me more about before you came to Konoha?" Itachi asked and Sasuke nodded, grinning happily as he began to talk about his life in England and Japan.

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Harry sat on the roof staring out over the dunes. He'd never seen the desert before, and it was taking a lot to get used to the heat, even with cooling charms, but Team 7 had been posted to Suna for the next few months to help shore up their defences as more villages got pulled into the fighting. Kumo had joined Orochimaru, as had Iwa. No surprise there, neither really liked Konoha, especially after the last war. There had been one probing attack since they had arrived, but it had been literally buried by Gaara alone. He was a scary enough fighter normally but in the desert he was all but unstoppable.

He missed the cool of the forests around Konoha, he missed his house, and most importantly he missed Kakashi. But the Copy-nin was needed on the front lines and Team 7 had needed a break from that level of fighting. And it was a good chance for Naruto to talk to someone like him for a while. Gaara and Naruto were very different in many ways but in others they were similar. Though it seemed Gaara would soon attain the rank Naruto wanted so badly, he had heard talk that the redhead would soon be named Kage.

He'd also had word from Itachi a few days ago. It seemed that Akatsuki was going to take advantage of the disorder to try and grab those like Naruto and Gaara. That was the last thing they needed, especially with the two of them in one village. Why did everything have to happen at once?

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Harry hesitated as he locked his sword against a kunai wielded by a very familiar person. Maya spun aside and attacked again. Harry ducked and sent her flying. "I don't want to kill you Maya," he called out, but she remained silent. It didn't feel right, he knew Maya, and this wasn't how she acted. "Maya stand down!" He snapped at her and then reached out with his magic to scan her.

He shuddered at the results, something strange hung heavily about her…it was the same feeling that had given both him and Sasuke a bad feeling about Kumo…that he'd picked up occasionally on missions in certain areas too. It was pure evil and seemed to have somehow sapped her free will away.

It didn't feel like the work of a certain snake which meant there was someone else out there, someone more powerful than the sannin. Great. He fought the urge to throw up even as his sword pierced her heart; it was more merciful to grant her death than to continue living as she was.

"I'm sorry," he whispered even as he set her corpse on fire.

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Harry lay curled on their bed, hugging Kakashi's pillow to him. He was finally back in Konoha but Kakashi wasn't. He needed to tell the Hokage what he had discovered with Maya, but he also wanted to talk it over with Kakashi first, it always helped him figure things out.

Sasuke was spending the night at Naruto's apartment doing teenage stuff so he had the house to himself. He wasn't used to being alone anymore. He tensed as the wards rippled but whoever it was, was keyed in since nothing else happened. He stayed where he was, not in the mood to entertain anyone but then the bedroom door opened, and a familiar figure walked in.

"Kakashi," Harry breathed before sitting up. Kakashi walked over to the bed and stood in front of him, body radiating weariness. Harry knelt so he could wrap his arms around his waist, letting Kakashi lean against him. "You hurt?"

"No," he whispered, yanking his mask down.

Harry moved him back a little and then stood, gently stripping Kakashi's uniform and weapons off before pushing him down onto the bed. Tender hands gently stroked over tanned skin, finding the new scars forming from injuries sustained on the battle field and Kakashi let him.

"It's okay, I'm here," Harry murmured before softly kissing him. "Go to sleep Kashi."

"Stay?"

"Always," he promised, moving to hold Kakashi. He gradually relaxed and fell asleep, safe in Harry's arms and behind their wards.

TBC…

Wow I had a lot of really small chapters in this section of the original.