I know I have several stories still in work... Phoenix Rising especially... but when i have tried to work on them either nothing come or if I do have inspiration it's for way down in the timeline. I have three different versions of an event that takes place six/seven years later in the timeline for Phoenix Rising. I'd also hit a writing slump, probably due in part to working two jobs and the stress of working on my masters degree. But this one I've been working on off and on for a while and I've got pretty much all the way through chapter nine written out and through chapter fifteen outlined. Which makes this the most planned out story I've written.
Anyway, some quick notes about the story as a whole. The events of Sumire's first year followed mostly as canon. Naruto's mission to the Land of Waves does have some changes from canon which will come up later. Naruto himself is smarter and less alone than canon and has been best friends with Sumire, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru, and Chouji for years. Dumbledore has a tendency to manipulate events to fit his plans/ideas. If something else comes to mind I'll mention it in another chapter.
"Text" - Spoken word (English in England, Japanese in Konoha)
"Text" - Spoken word (language not usually spoken in the country)
'Text' - Thoughts
Spells and Jutsus will be in italics as well (Shadow Clone Jutsu, Expelliarmus)
Sumire leaned against the damp wall breathing heavily. She made sure her scent was masked and stretched out her sense of hearing. The whisper of scales of on wet stone was faint so she knew the basilisk wasn't nearby. Since she had time, she opened her kunai pouch to take stock of her remaining weapons.
She put her head back and immediately regretted it. She felt the slime seep into her hair bringing with it several kinds of mold and mildew that had undoubtedly grown rampant in the damp underground cavern. It had been sealed up for the past 50 years after all. Sumire shook her head to physically dislodge the thoughts of how depressing the Chamber of Secrets had become.
She refocused on the task at hand. All her attacks, both with physical weaponry and with magic hadn't worked. Admittedly she didn't use many spells but that was due to her only being in second year and both of her Defense teachers had been hopeless. The Cutting Curse she taught herself a few months ago bounced off the snake's skin. If it was because her spell wasn't strong enough or the Basilisk was magically resistant, she didn't know. And while the other subjects here at Hogwarts had battle applications if you were creative enough, she hadn't learned anything that could help her in this fight. Those that could be helpful were impossible for her to get the power needed behind them because her core wasn't developed enough.
During her independent studies she'd learned that magic was theoretically very similar to chakra. Some spells couldn't be performed until a witch or wizard was older much like how an ordinary genin couldn't perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu, it was just too dangerous. Sumire didn't understand why it wasn't explained in any of her Hogwarts classes. The Ninja Academy spent weeks explaining it as well as teaching both chakra control and chakra building exercises.
Sumire recoiled as the scent of a snake that been trapped in a small underground chamber for far too long assaulted her sensitive nose. While she was lost in thought the basilisk had gotten closer to her hiding spot. It wasn't close enough to be a problem, but Sumire cursed her lapse. As a chunin of Konoha she should know better.
She stood to draw the giant snake back to the main chamber. Her next couple attacks would be better off done in a more open space so they wouldn't collapse a tunnel. Sumire jogged past the pool of blood from where Fawkes had pecked out the deadly eyes of the snake, which she was grateful for. While she could manage temporarily without one or more of her senses, thanks ever so much sensei, she didn't like being at such a disadvantage.
Ignoring the teenaged Voldemort standing over Ginny Weasley, she turned to face the tunnel she could hear the basilisk in. Tom Riddle wasn't a threat right now, not compared to the giant poisonous snake. Sumire's hands flew through her hand signs. Once the basilisk emerged completely from the tunnel, she raised one hand to her mouth and breathed out a massive fireball engulfing the snake.
When she saw the jutsu wasn't having an effect on the scaly skin, Sumire canceled the flow of chakra and readied her new plan B, more like plan F. She tuned out Riddle's demands to know what kind of spell she'd used. If she thought about how she learned the Fireball Jutsu, she'd get distracted which would be deadly right now.
Sumire finished wrapping a paper bomb around a kunai. She then threw several into the snake's mouth when it reared up to bite her. She proceeded to cure fluently in Japanese. The explosions and sharp objects only managed to scratch the soft flesh, but she didn't have enough kunai let alone paper bombs to cause any significant damage. Her katana was hidden in her dorm room because it was too conspicuous to carry around a civilian school where only one other person knew she was a shinobi. More portable storage scrolls would probably be something to investigate.
"I don't suppose you have any advice?" Sumire asked the old hat. If Fawkes brought the Sorting Hat down here, then it must have some other uses besides sorting eleven-year olds based on personality traits. Sort of.
A silver hilt encrusted with rubies shimmered into existence inside the Hat. Sumire dove down and pulled out the sword. She smiled and said, "That's more like it." She saw Godric Gryffindor's name engraved on the blade. "And ironic."
Sumire ran up the front of the statue of Slytherin. The size of the basilisk meant she needed the height to get a better shot. She stood on top and waited for it to attack, exposing the vulnerable roof of the mouth.
The snake reared back and struck, mouth wide open. Sumire brought Gryffindor's sword up in one smooth motion. The blade did what her previous attacks could not. It pierced through the palate and venom glands into the brain.
Unfortunately, it wasn't an instantaneous death. The basilisk thrashed around as she started to pull out the blade. The familiar, yet uncomfortable, feeling of warm blood drenching her arm was overcome by a white hot, searing pain emanating from just below her elbow. Sumire stared at the white fang driven into her arm. She wrenched the sword free and bit back a cry of pain as the fang scraped against bone before it snapped out of the skull.
Sumire stumbled as she landed by the corpse. She yanked the fang out of her arm, though it was too late to stop the poison she could feel spreading through her body. She could even see her veins darkening as the poison passed through, at least until her vision went dull and foggy.
"You're dead, Sumire Potter," Riddle said. His voice came from above her so she must have fallen to her knees. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing Potter? He's crying."
Sumire could see a fuzzy fiery red blob near her arm, but everything was so out of focus. Strangely she was less annoyed by Riddle asking if she could see while dying, than by how he pronounced her name. It rhymed with ray, not tire.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Sumire Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."
There was something wrong with those words, but Sumire was too tired to figure out what it was. The room was spinning and forming the familiar figures of her friends and family. Well one of them she was surprised to see since his betrayal had cut deeply especially since she had seen him as an older brother.
"So ends the famous Sumire Potter," Riddle said, still monologuing and crowing about his victory like a cliché movie villain. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by her friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord she so unwisely challenged. You'll be with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Sumire… She bought you eleven years of borrowed time… but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must…"
Sumire's mind and vision cleared to reveal Fawkes resting his head on his arm. A ring of pearly tears surrounded the red mark that was all there was left of the wound. Fawkes flew off after Riddle let off a bang from Ginny's wand.
"Phoenix tears…" Riddle whispered, staring at Sumire's arm. "Of course… healing powers… I forgot…"
He peered into Sumire's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Sumire Potter… you and me…" Riddle raised the wand but before he could get a curse off Sumire moved to Ginny's side.
She swore at how slow and sluggish her movements were. She still moved faster than the civilian eye could see but by her normal standards… Well, with Anko Mitarashi as your sensei… you learn to move fast."
"Hey Riddle," Sumire called. She took the diary that started all this from Ginny's hands and placed it on the ground. "I wonder what happens when the source of the memory of a psychotic serial killer gets stabbed with a basilisk fang?"
Sumire plunged the fang she'd pulled out of her own arm down into the heart of the book.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, steaming over Sumire's hands and flooding across the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and cursing and then –
He was gone. Ginny's wand dropped to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence that was broken by Sumire saying, "That wasn't entirely unexpected." She stared at the sizzling hole in the diary and prodded it a couple times.
A faint moan came from beside Sumire. Ginny sat up and her eyes traveled from the huge corpse of the basilisk, over Sumire, in her blood-soaked robes, then to the diary on the floor. She drew in a great breath.
"Sumire – oh, Sumire – I tried to tell you at breakfast, but I couldn't say it in front of Percy – it was me, Sumire – but I – I swear I didn't mean to – R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over – and – how did you kill that – that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary- "
"It's alright," Sumire said. She was reminded, though, of why she didn't like dealing with civilian girls. They tended to turn into a hysterical blubbering mess. "Riddle's gone."
Sumire gathered up the Sword of Gryffindor and the Sorting Hat before she escorted a wailing Ginny out of the Chamber. The two traveled back up the tunnel until the reached the wall of rock that had come down when Lockhart's Memory Charm ricocheted off Sumire's Shield Charm.
"Ron, Neville, Ginny's safe," Sumire called.
"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the hole he and Neville had created. He pulled his sister through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How- what- where did that bird come from?"
Fawkes had flown through the gap behind Ginny.
"He's Dumbledore's," Sumire said as Neville helped her through.
"How come you've got a sword?" Ron asked, gaping at the glittering weapon in Sumire's hand. Jealousy and desire shone in his eyes as they lingered on the large rubies.
Sumire mentally sighed. She had tried to impress on Ron that money wasn't everything and if you put in the work you can earn your own. Sometimes it was better that way than getting riches handed down from your ancestors. One just had to look at Malfoy to see how it can have a negative impact.
"I'll explain when we get out of here," she said.
"Are you alright?" Neville asked, seeing the blood covering Sumire's arm and dripping to the floor.
"I'm fine. You?"
Neville held up his wand. Well, the pieces anyway. "It broke during the rockfall. Gran won't be happy. It belonged to my dad."
"Better your wand than your neck. Your Gran will probably understand. Besides I remember Ollivander saying the wand chooses the wizard. Your spells will be better with your own wand." Sumire looked around. "Where's Lockhart?"
"Back by the pipe," Neville said. "He's in a bad way so I sent him there, so he was out of the way."
The four walked back to the mouth of the pipe. Fawkes led the way and Ron had his arm around his little sister. Lockhart sat on the floor, humming placidly to himself.
"Hello," Lockhart said. "Odd sort of place, this isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No," Ron said, incredulous and a little insulted.
Sumire bent down and studied the pipe. It was too long and steep if she could turn it into stairs, at least for Ginny and Lockhart in their conditions. She could climb using chakra to stick to the pipe, but the others could not.
Fawkes swooped past her and fluttered in front of her, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers.
"He looks like he wants you to grab hold…" Ron said, looking perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there."
"He's a phoenix," Neville said as Sumire avoided giving Ron a dirty look. "They can carry all of us with no problems."
Sumire instructed them to join hands and a few minutes later, Lockhart had taken some wrangling, they were soaring up the pipe. They landed on the floor in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Fawkes led the group through the corridors to Professor McGonagall's office.
Sumire knocked on the door and pushed it open. They stood in the doorway in silence for a moment.
"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley screamed. She had been sitting crying in front of the fire, but once she saw her daughter she leapt to her feet. She and her husband pulled Ginny into a tight hug.
Sumire looked past the family to see a Dumbledore beaming and Professor McGonagall who was taking great, steadying gasps, but she did not seem surprised to see Sumire. Her observations were cut short by Mrs. Weasley sweeping her, Ron and Neville into a tight embrace.
"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"
"I think we'd all like to know that," Professor McGonagall said.
Sumire knew the professor was compiling her own report to be sent to her old friend, the Third Hokage. Officially Sumire's attendance at Hogwarts was a missions, the ranking of which would normally be B-ranked, but would be determined at the end of the school year after the fight with a Voldemort possessed Quirrell last year made it A-ranked. The troll on Halloween and her broom being jinxed contributed as well.
The young ninja set the Sorting Hat, sword and diary remains on the desk. She gave her report from the beginning with hearing the disembodied voice in the walls, realizing it must be a snake because she'd known for years that she could speak to them in their own language, how Hermione discovered it was a basilisk in the pipes, the trip into the forest with Ron and Neville to speak to Aragog and his tale of where the last victim had died, and how she figured out Moaning Myrtle was the one killed by the basilisk and that her bathroom must contain the entrance to the Chamber. She took a breath and went into an abridged version of the events in the Chamber leaving out her nonmagical attempts at taking down the basilisk. Professor McGonagall was the only one at Hogwarts who knew she was a shinobi.
Sumire worried about what would happen to Ginny. Yes, she should probably not have trusted a diary that wrote back but she was an eleven-year-old civilian girl against a young Voldemort who'd already killed someone. She'd been possessed and forced to carry out the attacks. But how could they prove the possession?
"What interests me most," Dumbledore said, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."
Relief swept over Sumire, but so did confusion. If he knew where Voldemort was hiding, why didn't Dumbledore tell the Ministry and the law enforcement so a mission could be put together to take him out once and for all? Also, how did the diary slip under the radar and none of the teachers found anything wrong with Ginny? And why wasn't Voldemort's true name made public? The whole incident could have been avoided if Ginny and everyone else knew Tom Riddle became Voldemort.
"W-what's that?" Mr. Weasley said, stunned. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not… Ginny hasn't been… has she?"
Sumire explained about the diary. Dumbledore called it brilliant for some reason before explaining Riddle's background and his transformation into Voldemort.
"But, Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said. "What's our Ginny got to do with – with – him?"
"His d-diary!" Ginny sobbed. "I've been writing in it and he's been w-writing back all year- "
"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley said, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic-"
"I didn't know," Ginny sobbed. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it-"
"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort. Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that sheers me up. You will find Madame Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice. I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment. There's been no lasting harm done, Ginny."
Ginny's parents led her out of the room as Sumire considered Dumbledore's words. Ginny needed more than bed rest and hot chocolate. She'd need therapy of some kind and those petrified might do as well. But the Headmaster made no mention of it. Shinobi would always have to visit a therapist after a possible traumatizing mission, especially genin, and certain types of missions always warrant a visit.
"You know, Minerva," Dumbledore said. "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"
McGonagall nodded and left, leaving Dumbledore to deal with the three students.
"You realize, of course… that in the past few hours, you have broken perhaps a dozen school rules," the headmaster said. "There is sufficient evidence to have you three expelled. Therefore, it is only fitting that you three receive Special Awards for Services to the school and – let me see – yes, I think one hundred and fifty points apiece for Gryffindor."
Ron and Neville both turned as pink as Lockhart's valentine flowers.
"Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said to Neville and Ron after they explained about his memory loss. "I'd like a few more words with Sumire."
"Sit down, Sumire," Dumbledore said after the door closed. "First of all, Sumire, I want to thank you. You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you."
Sumire smiled weakly at that. It had not been her intention at all. She was just saying things to push Riddle's buttons. After the events of last year and his lack of action this year, she wasn't a big fan of Dumbledore.
"And so, you met Tom Riddle," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "I imagine he was most interested in you."
"Creepily so," Sumire said grimacing. "Riddle said I'm like him. Strange likenesses he said…"
"Did he now?" Dumbledore said, looking at Sumire with a look in his eyes that she couldn't place. "And what do you think, Sumire?"
"I don't think so. Aside from the fact we both like snakes, the Hat considered placing me in Slytherin and people thought I was the Heir for a while because I can speak Parseltongue."
"You can speak Parseltongue, Sumire, because Lord Voldemort – who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin - can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure…"
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Sumire said, thoroughly creeped out.
"It certainly seems so." Dumbledore misread Sumire's expression. "The Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor. You have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his handpicked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue, resourcefulness, determination, a certain disregard for the rules. Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was?"
"I asked it to," Sumire said. She vividly remembered talking with the Hat and convincing it not to place her in Slytherin where it was going to. It was understandable with her life as a kunoichi and tutelage under Anko Mitarashi, but as the 'Girl-Who-Lived" she didn't think it would be a good idea for her to join the 'evil' house. So, she asked the Hat where people expected her to go and asked to be put there to fly under the radar.
"Exactly," Dumbledore said, beaming again. "Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Sumire, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. If you want proof, Sumire, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this."
Dumbledore reached across McGonagall's desk and picked up the bloodstained sword. He handed it to Sumire who wiped some of the blood off Godric Gryffindor's name.
"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the Hat, Sumire," Dumbledore said.
She was skeptical. One didn't have to be in the house, as the Headmaster was implying, only embody the characteristics. At least that was her opinion as a snake in the lion's den. People weren't black and white when it came to personality traits. They couldn't be pigeonholed as one thing and one thing only.
Just as Sumire turned to leave, the door burst open and almost shut again with how hard it bounced off the wall. A furious Lucius Malfoy walked in with a house elf behind him. Sumire was shocked to recognize the house elf as Dobby. All year he'd been trying to get her to go home where she'd be safe and had stolen her mail and enchanted a Bludger in his attempts.
"So!" Lucius Malfoy said, looking unusually disheveled. "You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return."
Dumbledore explained how the governors contacted him having been threatened into suspending him. He and Mr. Malfoy discussed the diary and Voldemort's involvement in the attacks.
Sumire was watching Dobby. The elf was pointing to the diary, then Mr. Malfoy and then punching himself. She nodded to show she understood and grimaced when Dobby twisted his ears in punishment. She thought back trying to figure out how Malfoy Sr. gave Ginny the diary.
"Don't you know how Ginny got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?" Sumire said, once she remembered.
"How should I know how the stupid little girl got hold of it?"
"Because you gave it to her. In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up her old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you?"
"Prove it," Mr. Malfoy hissed. His hands clenched and unclenched.
Unfortunately, Sumire couldn't and Mr. Malfoy swept away, kicking Dobby all the way down the hall. She glared at the door before having an epiphany. She followed them and managed to trick Malfoy Sr. into giving Dobby her slimy sock. He was furious at the loss of his servant, but Dobby sent him bouncing down the stairs.
Sumire asked Dobby not to try to save her life again. The elf agreed and with a snap of his fingers cleaned all the blood and slime off Sumire and her robes. Her genuine thanks sent him into tears, and he hugged her before disappearing with a crack.
The feast lasted all night, but Sumire didn't remember much of it. Her head and arm were throbbing, and she was so drained from the fight and almost dying. She did remember convincing Hermione the canceled exams were a good thing because she lost studying time while being petrified in the hospital wing. Hermione did relax after that. Neville was grateful because he didn't have to rush to get a new wand.
On the Hogwarts Express, Sumire, Ron, Neville, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny sat in a compartment together. They played Exploding Snap and practiced the Disarming Charm. Sumire found it to be quite a useful charm. Wizards were useless without their wands and she could use it in battles once she could use magic outside school or figured out how to do it without her wand like she did with summoning objects. It took her a long time to get the summoning to work all the time, so by the time she could use it properly she'd probably be able to use her wand. Plus, she didn't know if it would be possible to learn wandless disarming now that she had training. Summoning was so ingrained in her by now, but something new…
"Ginny, – what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?" Ron asked.
"Oh, that," Ginny said, giggling. "Well – Percy's got a girlfriend."
"What?" Fred said.
"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," Ginny said. "He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was – you know – attacked. You won't tease him, will you?"
"Wouldn't dream of it," Fred said.
"Definitely not," George said.
Sumire sniggered. She recognized the look on their faces as one she'd seen plenty of times on Naruto's face and occasionally Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru's. it probably was an expression she'd worn before as well.
"Your dad will be proud, won't he?" Hermione asked, as they got off the train. "When he hears about what you did this year?"
"Proud?" Sumire said. "Maybe eventually. He'll be furious that I had to take care of things again and then he'll be worried after hearing all the times I almost died."
She waved goodbye and headed off to Portkey back to Konoha.