Chapter 7: Staring Into the Abyss
Things were hard. Harder than Harry had experienced in either of his lives. If he had to compare, he would said that this would be like mixing his second year when everyone thought he was the heir of Slytherin, with the Hogwarts from his last year alive in that universe, crawling with Death Eaters as teachers but cranked up to the extreme on sadism level.
Tori's death had really shaken what faith they had on him and everyone was reeling from it.
It wasn't just because he was yet another person to die. Too many had already died for that to have been the issue. It was because Tori had done something. He'd fought back. Sure, he was dead now, but that was enough for the kids to start to wonder if, maybe, they tried to fight back together, they might just overthrow Root.
Things weren't that simple, of course. Sure, they could overthrow this batch of trainers, but then what next? As Tori's death had proven, Danzou wasn't one to let anyone get one over him go unpunished. Sure, he cultivated their talent for his own use, but the moment said talent was escaping his grasp, he cut it down harshly. And this plan of action could end up with everyone, even the ones not participating in the mutiny, dead. Or perhaps he wouldn't order everyone killed. Perhaps he would only order the leaders of the revolt killed. But the ones that would still be alive by the end of it? They would probably all wish they were dead anyway. That was Danzou's MO, after all.
They were all kids, so Harry understood why they thought that winning a battle was the same as winning the war. Harry used to be like that too, before he was faced with just how corrupt the wizarding society was.
Which was why he had to endure all their harsh words and anger. Because he was them once, but he also knew that he was the only one who could protect them from the consequences.
Knowing it didn't make it easier for him, though. Especially when he put it on himself for not being faster.
He had so much he wanted to do, so much he needed to get ready for their great escape, and still he felt he could have done more if he'd just tried. He still felt he could hurry things along somehow. Make it so that the time they still had to wait could become shorter.
Only to turn out that him alone couldn't do it. And it frustrated him beyond measure because he wanted to do more.
But things had changed in more than those negative ways.
Niji was working hard on every sort of seal they could need for the safe house and had even come up with a few very useful ones that could monitor the entrances for any sort of chakra activity so they would know when it was safe to leave without being noticed and seals that could form a small orb of light for night time.
The plumbing was still a work in progress.
He managed to create a seal that would teleport the waste some place else, it was just a matter of placing the other end in a place where it wouldn't clog up the sewage systems in the village because that could cause for the seal to be found out. The problem was that it had to be sculpted in both places because a paper seal or a painted on one would disappear pretty fast.
He was now working on one that would draw water from the air around them for things like shower use, and one to purify the used water and return it to the water reservoir Harry had built. The purifier was simple enough, the problem was making sure that the other one would stop pulling water into the reservoir after a certain point so as to not make it overflow.
Kyoukan was more determined than ever on learning iryojutsu whenever he could to save as many lives as possible. Root had definitely noticed his interest, but so far hadn't tried to discourage him, though the trainers had doubled down on offensive jutsu all the same.
Shirayuki was far more discreet on her efforts. She'd taken to borrowing his cloak to gather information on all Root movement.
Harry had been hesitant at first, but then she'd taken to try and sneak up on him all the time just to prove she could go undetected. It didn't work on him. While he wasn't a natural sensor, and therefore had a harder time identifying single chakra signatures, he had honed his skills enough that he could still feel her, no matter how much she disguises her presence. The only thing her attempts did was for him to not immediately recognize her chakra.
She did manage to keep her presence from being noticed by Root members, though.
Harry didn't quite understand why they didn't notice her. Sure, when she suppressed her chakra it would feel different enough to him that he didn't recognize her, but he could still feel her. He wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. Not when they needed all the information she could get, as much as he hated to admit it, so he'd allowed her to borrow his cloak at night.
She was very fruitful, mostly because Niji had designed a copy seal and, so long as she had enough empty scrolls and papers to copy the reports into, she could gather a lot of information in a very, very short time. And since it was Root files, there was nothing useless or redundant in there. It was just a matter of having the time to sort through them, which Shirayuki was more that willing to do for the sake of letting him focus on getting everything ready to get them out.
Yon had taken to helping Shirayuki sort through everything, thought neither Harry nor Shirayuki herself let her stay up too long at night.
There were surprise additions to their small resistance that Harry hadn't expected and some that perhaps he should have.
Hai had decided to join them in whatever was needed. She was still silent and overall grieving, but joined Kyoukan in learning iryojutsu. She made sure to keep the others healthy when Kyoukan couldn't since they weren't on battles at the same time. She was also trying to learn a Kirigakure jutsu that filtered the oxygen from the water, so that she could help with the water seals. At the very least in placing them, since her earth affinity would be helpful in carving them out.
Gensui wanted to help, but there wasn't anything she was particularly good at aside from her kekkei genkai and her small arsenal of combat oriented jutsu, so she mostly used the threat of losing it and accidentally killing everyone to keep the rowdiest kids in line.
Then there were Hitori and Negai. They had noticed Harry's efforts of trying to lure the pedophilles into choosing him instead of them and they were thankful that he even bothered trying, since no one else did. So, since they were already partners and knew each other very well, they had taken to having Hitori use his kekkei genkain to enter Negai's body and try to command it as best as he could while she used her ability to aura-project herself and sky on the highest ranking members of Konoha to try and discern who was in on it and who wasn't.
It was an odd sight, since Hitori couldn't actually command her body and had to resort to materializing his arms and legs under her sleeves to keep her upright and moving which was why they only did in the evening when it was less likely they would be asked about it since it wasn't official training time. If asked, they could simply say they were working on combo-attacks or something.
Go had taken to keeping Ningyou and Genkaku company whenever she could as a way to try and cheer them up, which Harry was thankful for.
Meanwhile, Harry continued building on the cave system to add more rooms, especially when Yon read about the women that had been used to birth them still being housed in the same base, but on another floor below them, and wanted to save them as well. He also kept snatching anything that was broken but magically fixable to furnish the safe house.
He was also concerned with getting them food and had to steal quite a lot of things that could hold out for a long time since he was sure they wouldn't be able to actually buy food for a long while as they had no way of income and he doubted he could get it in such a big amount without causing a bigger state of alertness than he did.
And yes, his food snatching was certainly getting noticed, considering the number of genin teams being dispatched to investigate.
It was a lighter load than before, he supposed, but with Danzou upping the training and battling once more, he really could do with less on his shoulders.
Two months until the due date and Shirayuki made another discovery.
"Yurara." She had said out of the blue.
"What?" Harry asked, trying to make sense of the word.
"That was my name. Yuki Yurara." She stated a bit too blankly to not be a front to hide her volatile emotions.
She had found the files detailing everyone's identity.
"Really!? Hey! Hey! What's my name?" Niji, that had been drawing a seal while sitting next to her, asked, vibrating in excitement.
Shirayuki- Yurara now- riffled through the files some more before pulling one out.
"Shinkisai. Uzumaki Shinkisai." She stated, her emotions starting to leak through her façade.
"My first name sound kind of lame…" He commented. "Cool last name, though!"
Several kids, having taken notice of what she was saying, flocked to her to find out their real names.
Hai was quickly renamed Utatori Nageki, Hitori was Baizoubatsu Aoi, though he preferred to only be called by his first name, as he didn't like his family name. Negai's was Seishin Mari. Gensui was Shakuren Kana and Kyoukan was Yuuto. Just Yuuto, as he was apparently a nameless orphan.
They were all unsurprised that he and his sisters had no name designation aside from the number, though Shi- Yurara could tell there must be more documents about them that were stored someplace else.
They were surprised, however, that Shinku had managed to get away with remembering their own name and using it instead of their code name, which was Kettei. They didn't explain how they had managed that, which made everyone warier of him in case he was working with Danzou. Harry found that unlikely. He searched through the files and found the one he was most interested in.
Aokaze Jon. Tori's real name.
'I wish he was here to learn his name.' Harry thought and then he felt his wrist burn with power.
So that's my name! Harry suddenly heard Tor-Jon's jovial voice saying.
He froze in place so as not to react. Discretely looking down, he realized he'd accidentally used the Ressurection Stone with his longing.
So… I'm not sure why I'm here since I'm supposed to be dead, but it's good to see everyone once more. It seems like things are almost ready. Thank god for that! I was worried.
To-Jon floated around for a bit as he observed everyone. It's good to see that they are all mostly ok, even if there's too many of them missing. I'm going to miss them all. At least I can now go in peace.
With that, he faded away as the burning in his wrist stopped.
Harry cried that night.
The days after that he felt tempted on calling Jon back. It would be so easy to give into that wish. But he wouldn't let himself. Harry still remembered the lesson behind the Resurrection Stone and how it's power could ruin the living. He also remembered the Mirror of Erised and how it's temptation had overpowered his good sense for a while before Dumbledore talked him through it.
This was the reason he'd never even considered using the Stone before. The Wand was fair game. He wasn't about to go bragging about it. It wasn't in Harry's nature to brag. The Cloak was his for so long that using it came as natural and he'd already walked to his death like an old friend enough times that it wasn't really a concern for him. But the Stone? The Stone had always been a symbol of his Achilles heel. He valued his friend and family above all… and most of them were dead and reincarnated without memories of him or still alive in another universe he couldn't reach towards. This would have showed him a shard of who they were.
It was tempting to just forget that they weren't here anymore. But even calling them wouldn't completely hide the fact that they weren't really there, no matter how much he tried to delusion himself into thinking it. That was, after all, why the brother who asked for the Stone had killed himself.
Even this was more the stone reacting to what he wanted than him actually using it, and it was already messing him up.
But he endured it because he had no time to waste on thinking on the past when he was needed in the present.
The reveal of the names had brought with it a small change. It calmed the darkening mood a tiny bit, though the reactions to that were varied. Some kids were eager to go by their real names, especially after learning that Shinku was doing exactly that.
And, really, so long as they didn't call each other by their real names while the Root trainers were around, they would be non the wiser since they didn't bother calling them by their code names. Usually they called them up by pointing and saying 'You.' while their face showed the same amount of personality as a blank sheet of paper.
Yurara was one of those people.
Others felt that they had gone through too much to still be the same person they had been when they were last called by that and decided to keep the code names as proof of what their had gone through, such as was Shin's case.
Others simply didn't feel any attachment to their former names and had no special feelings towards their current name and just kept it like Sai.
Then there were others that didn't want their code names, but didn't like their real ones either. That was Uzumaki's case. For now he only wanted to go by his surname until he chose a better first name for himself. He didn't particularly like being called Rainbow as his code name, but he also didn't like to be called Hue either. Sai, however, really liked his name, but that was because he was an artsy kid.
Then there were Harry and his sisters, who were still without a name. Harry already knew his name. He didn't need a new one. But his sisters didn't. It was easier than it should have been, when it came to naming them.
Go he named after his mother. Not completely since Lily was Yuri in Japanese and he called his sister Sayuri instead. Well, she was a smaller lily anyway.
As for Yon, he initially pondered on if he should name her after Hermione. Though his best friend's name didn't really translate into Japanese, he could have named her something related to poetry or theater. But neither of those defined Hermione as a person and made it sound like he was being needlessly pedantic or something.
Naming her after Ginny wasn't an option. Who wants to name their sibling after their lover.
That had left Luna. All in all, she was a good person to base a name on. He had liked Luna a lot and sure was missing her quirky behavior right there and then. And so, Yon was renamed Tsukimi.
Harry had tried to get them all to call him by his name as well but no one was too enthused to start calling him Hari.
One month left until the deadline.
Slowly hope was starting to set back in. Mostly due to Yurara's intel and Sayuri's cheer. It didn't mean things were easy. They were far from it. Danzou now seemed intent of crushing Harry's protective instincts. He'd definitely realized what he'd been doing by trying to attract all the child predators towards him and had gradually starting handing him to stronger foes. Harry now had a hard time holding back from showing his true strength and was being forced to end his fights sooner than he'd ever have liked.
There was also something else afoot. Not regarding the trainees. Harry wasn't quite sure what it was. Yurara told him that Danzou had sent one of his prized operatives for a mission. Apparently it was someone whose existence he liked to keep on the down low which made the whole thing a big deal since apparently he was tailing someone who was pretty trusted by the Hokage.
She was frustrated because she was curious about both of them but there were no pictures in those files or even names aside from the operative's code name, which meant that, if she wanted to find out more about them, she would have to keep searching for the files.
Two weeks until D day.
Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
There was something off with this situation. His opponent was too strong. Sure, Danzou wanted to crush his protective instincts by threatening an 'either it's their butts getting it or it's yours' kind of situation, but he'd never actually want to ruin him. If there was one thing Harry was sure of was that because he hadn't been able to get more sperm from his male doner, and because Harry was such a fine little soldier for him to mold, that he would never actually ruin him unless he openly did something to piss him off in a big way.
So what was wrong today?
The man in front of him was definitely a jounin, or at least a jounin level shinobi. And the only reason Harry hadn't been downed yet was because he liked to play with his food.
Harry didn't want to be raped. But he couldn't afford to show his hand. Not yet. Not when they were so close. Not when it wasn't just his life on the line. He needed to keep his abilities hidden so that he could keep a trump card over the old man. He was too powerful and smart for Harry to risk giving himself away when he was sure he would need every trick he had and the other didn't know about if they even had to fight eachother.
The fight took over and hour and, by the end of it, Harry was covered in cuts and second degree burns, his clothes nearly falling apart from how ripped up they were. He was desperate. His magic lashing at him wanting to be free to protect him, his terror over what he knew was coming.
He was underestimated and that was had saved him. The man had seen him weakened and lowered his guard. All Harry needed was a second of distraction and then he hit him with a purposefully wrong 'Night night tap' to give him a slow agonizing death.
He limped out of the room and towards the main dojo where the kids sparred and trained ninjutsu as they waited for their turn.
The first thing he noticed when he entered the room was how eerily silent it was. Then he saw a Root trainer keeping a firm hold on a crying Nageki who looked tired but was still struggling against her and looking at some place further in the room.
And so Harry followed her gaze.
Sayuri.
Why… why was there so much blood.
She's… she's still moving.
Why… isn't anyone helping her.
She's…
As he realized the severity of her injury (God, no! Please! It can't be too late! They wouldn't have been mortal right away. Why hadn't anyone healed her?!) his eyes slowly drifted up, to the figure standing above her.
And the first thing he noticed about it were the red, red eyes, glowing ominously with black dot-like things, tomoe he thinks they are called, as they gaze down at Sayuri, wide and shocked.
A/N: And with this in mind until the next chapter. Ok, now for real, I was looking forwards to this chapter because shit starts to go down. It's going to be Harry's lowest point, but he'll pull it through. He will because he feels like he has no choice in the matter, not when other's are depending on him.
Now for real, good night and see you next chapter.
Gensui (final look inspired in Hela from Norse Mythology, has power of Nuclear Radiation and controls it with her feelings, gets paired up with an empath for obvious reasons)|| Real name: Shakuren Kana;
Shin (you know him, he's Sai's first and best friend,, this time his sickness correlates to radiation sickness that wasn't properly healed both due to lack of knowledge and, more importantly, lack of care for what repercussions he might have, gets paired up with Sai);
Yon (One of Harry's sisters, mother unknown, definitely has a bloodline but... could she have two!? who knows! Gets paired up with her sister;|| Renamed: Tsukimi.)
Go (One of Harry's sisters, mother unknown, definitely has a bloodline but... could she have two!? who knows! Gets paired up with her sister; || Renamed: Sayuri.)
Sai (You defenitely know him, he joins team seven in shippuden, he isn't yet as socially retarded as he is in shippuden, but he still has a bit of it, gets paired with Shin);
Kyoukan (I didn't inspire his looks on anyone in particular, I just wanted and empath on the team for reasons and after I developed Gensui I had even more reasons to have him here, gets paired up with Radiation girl) || Real name: Yuuto;
Negai (someone once told me it would be a good idea to inspire my OCs inalready existing characters, well, here you have one inspired by Dreaming Mary, both in looks as well as powers, her back story isn't the same, though; she's partnered with unintroduced character with a canon kekkei genkai) || Real Name: Seishin Mari;
Shirayuki (Mentioned only, but she is the girl that screamed back at Harry last chapter, she has a canon kekkei genkai and gets paired up Niji) || Real Name: Yuki Yurara;
Niji (has chakra chains, his looks and some of his powers were inspired in a free online platform game named Rainbow, gets pai, red up with Shirayuki) || Real Name: Uzumaki Shinkisai;
Datenshi (Inspired in Twisted Angel/Allison Angel from Bendy's ink machine, Sai sort of becomes her 'Bendy' in a way, gets paired up with Chiame);
Chiame (inspired by Sachiko from Corpse Party, gets paired up with Datenshi, has Stokolm syndrome with one of the instructors and calls her mom);
Shinku (based on Frisk from Undertale; mute; gender neutral but biologically male; seems to have precog abilities and doesn't like fighting) || Code Name: Kettei;
Kyara (based on Chara from Undertale, still good with knives, still messed up from their death, even if this time is the methaforical death of their innocence rather than a literal one);
Tori (based on John Egbert from Homestuck) || Real name: Aokaze Jon;
Hebi (Heat vision, inspired on how people used to think, and still do, snake's saw this way. And, because of the way genjutsu works, basically imune to visual genjutsu because he doesn't see things the same way as normal people.);
Ningyou (Inspired on a ceramic doll looks-wise, with pheromones her power. She is more efficient against people with sensitive noses and animals);
Hitori (bloodline still a secret, has problems with his immune system and is sickly because of it, yet Danzou still finds him highly useful) || Real Name:Baizoubatsu Aoi;
Hai (inspired by the girl from Gris) - Main powers must be centered on singing, perhaps using the vibrations to stimulate chakra in the ambient around her (mostly small plants and boulders). Add abilities of turning into a square cube of stone or something, capability of holding her breath for a long time Real Name: Utatori Nageki.
Genkaku (inspired by Fran Bow) - civilian and a natural user of senjutsu, though sometimes has a hard time controling it and starts to turn into a tree because of it, because of several experiments preformed on her, she sometimes hallucinates. Her cat, Mayonaka, is a special type of summon that helps drain away the excess of natural chakra.
Jyuu San (Harry's codename, paired up with Kutsuu).