Finally, a Harry Potter & Naruto crossover that isn't completely braindead! ~Socrates

Chapter One - Pilot

In a forest of aspen and pine was a wide meadow, a crudely fashioned hut standing alone at its center. Its builder clearly had little in the way of carpentry experience, because its floor had a slight tilt, and there were gaps around the edges of the door that had been filled in with wedges of lumber.

If asked, the citizens of the nearest settlement would recommend giving the hut a wide berth—there was a young hermit who lived there, and he always had the strangest ideas. Who knew when such a character might snap, and do something truly mad? They could only hope that it didn't happen while the hermit was in their town.

For ages, Harry had lived.

He had become immortal as the Master of Death, which wasn't at all what it sounded. Master of Death was a title invented by eccentric groups of wizards—really, how could gathering Death's gifts allow you to become its master? Harry was more the antithesis of Death, really. Where Death was constantly dying, ending, Harry was constantly not dying. (They weren't very close even after millennia, but that was to be expected when Death was dying—ergo changing—infinitely often.)

He had tried, for several centuries after what would have been his natural lifespan, to guide humanity as their timeless protector, pushing and pulling them away from societal collapse as best he could. But there was too much to do on his own, too many people to turn onto different paths, and his efforts for world peace invariably failed. Mostly now he just hermited away in some rural country, making his best efforts to cut himself off from news, and sometimes failing and ending up indulging in a few decades of politics.

Fifty years ago, societies had collapsed globally into anarchy, every government torn down in unison and technology of all sorts trashed by massive luddite movements. Anything beyond the computers of Harry's childhood days was a target of attack, from research facilities to cloud storage server farms. Sometimes he would remember the acrid plastic smoke that trailed from the cities, and feel a fist of ice in his gut. Maybe he could have prevented all this, he would tell himself.

But once his gut thawed, Harry would always feel the same euphoria—with this new era of change, it was possible for Harry to contribute his own efforts to make the world a different place. He had developed a ritual to allow all people magic when the wizards had been extinguished, and this was his chance to implement it. In this new age, with the new suspicion against technology, Harry could begin to control the tools people regularly used, and perhaps thereby the very structure of their societies. (The ritual called for a sacrifice of the lives of millions, but when you were acquainted with Death, that was hardly an issue. Death had simply stood inside the ritual sphere for a few minutes—quite ethical.)

It was nearly time now, and Harry was counting down the minutes. The ritual was done; he only had to wait for its effects to spread worldwide. The ritual had the concept of magic to a newly created organ system, which existed only in four dimensional space. When it was activated, magic would be called upon in the exciting new way he'd devised.

There was the physical energy, which grew in response to doing the physically difficult, and mental energy, which grew in response to doing the mentally difficult. When combined, they could create magical effects. With this new system, the strongest weapons would only be directly accessible to those with brilliant minds as well as physical experience. Gone were the days when politicians could destroy cities with a push of a button, erased to make space for a new age of peace.

Harry waved a glamor around himself to look as Sage-like as possible, then apparated to the nearest town. He had work to do.

-0-

It was all damned, Harry decided.

He had made efforts for two decades to educate people on the new system, and they had already corrupted it beyond his ability to fix, besides just tearing the whole thing down.

Harry had set up schools for his gift under the pseudonym of the Sage of Six Paths, so that people could learn to discipline their bodies and minds. He'd made every effort to encourage the development of well-rounded individuals from every walk of life strengthening their abilities. And yet, somehow, a power differential had still emerged. Clans of ninja were growing in every part of the world as knowledge was hoarded and secreted away. The powerful made efforts to suppress the usage of magic by those who they ruled over.

What was this new terror that he had brought to life? Already the shiftings of war were beginning to show, and Harry had no doubt that soon the blood of children would cry out to the blood of mothers, mixed together with ash under his feet.

He'd been a fool to think that this would be better, that he could ever affect the bloody cycle of war and peace. But he had no choice but to endure, and harden himself as he watched humankind slam itself into a wall, then pick itself up only to slam into the same wall once more.

No, that wasn't quite true. Though he couldn't die, Harry did have the choice to split himself into pieces, scatter his mind and body across the lands, and enjoy a simpler existence until he inevitably gathered back together.

It was reckless, and quite negligent to humanity, but Harry was tired. An apathetic fatigue was beginning to settle over him, and Harry needed to not be needed for a while. It wasn't fair to him that he should be the only one to care about human society (for who else would have to live in it so long?); the only one to understand them so deeply (for who else could watch them long enough to learn); the only one to be always, inevitably, responsible.

Humanity could watch its own back for a few centuries.

He started with tearing off a minuscule piece of soul, just testing the waters. It had been a long time since he'd done anything like this, after all. Tearing soul was always painful, and he wanted to ease into it. He took the chunk of soul and sealed it inside of an unassuming rock, then threw the rock as far as he could. It would serve as a way for all his pieces to find each other and merge back together, when they decided it was time.

The next fraction was the same tiny size as the first, and took the form of a raccoon dog, and ran off.

The next chunk he took was twice the size, and naturally, twice as painful. It became a flaming cat, and ran off.

Next came a turtle, then a monkey, a chimera, a slug, a rhinoceros beetle, and a strange squid-bull thing, each twice the size of the last.

At last, he retained only half of his soul, half his memories, half the person he had once been. His long years had added great weight to his mind, corroding his ability to feel wonder and joy. There was no weight, now, as he stepped out of his body, only a burning fox bounding off into the night.

This has been the pilot chapter for The Benefactor, a Harry Potter - Naruto crossover. Future chapters, if this endeavor is continued, should be at least twice this chapter's length. Plot will begin as mildly AU, and quickly become divergent from canon.

As for your reviews, they are not welcome. Not only that, but if you so much as dare to think about leaving one, I shall track you down, creep inside your home as you sleep, and do nothing about it.