Hey everyone, I know it's been a while. Things have been hectic lately, and still are to be honest. Sometimes it feels like I barely have any time or energy for writing.
Thank you so much everyone for sticking with this story. It feels really good to see new alerts despite the amount of time since the last update.
Naruto watched Sakura fling herself onto a just awakened Sasuke and start sobbing into his shoulder. Part of him wondered if she'd ever do the same if he was badly injured. But he was starting to realize she only ever noticed Sasuke no matter what he did.
"Come on, you're not done," Naruto said, beckoning for Lady Tsunade to follow him.
Gai-sensei appeared in front of them wringing his hands. "Kakashi's still resting at home, but my student, Lee, he's just down the hall. Just down the hall!"
"Naruto, do you know where Kakashi lives?" Grandma Tsunade asked.
"Yeah." 'Why wouldn't he know where his jonin sensei lived? Then again, a lot of shinobi were crazy paranoid.'
"Why don't you go let whoever is watching over Kakashi know that I'm coming?"
Naruto nodded and scribbled down the address for Tsunade before running off. He reached Kakashi-sensei's clan house and knocked on the door. It didn't take long for Sumire to open the door.
"Hey neechan!" Naruto said. "There's someone coming to take a look at Kakashi-sensei. She's already fixed Sasuke up and she's looking at Lee now."
"Who are you talking about Naruto?" Sumire asked.
"The Fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade."
"The renowned medic and one of the Legendary Sannin? Where did you find her?"
Naruto bounded onto the sofa and told her everything about his recent trip including his encounter with Itachi, the bet he made with Tsunade, and the battle between the three Sannin.
There was a knock on the door and Naruto offered to answer it. He let in Tsunade and Shizune.
"You must be Lady Tsunade," Sumire said, greeting the blonde woman before turning to the other woman. "So, according to Naruto, you would be Shizune."
"Yes, and you are?" Tsunade asked.
"Sumire Hatake-Potter. Tou-san is upstairs in his room. I was going to take him to the hospital in a couple days if he hadn't woken up by then. He hates it there and one of the ANBU stops by regularly to make sure he's doing alright"
"I see," Tsunade said before following Sumire upstairs.
"You seemed to know who Lady Tsunade was right away," Shizune said.
"Most kunoichi know who she is. Her reputation as a fighter and medic is something many aspire to."
"You make it sound like you don't," Shizune said. Tsunade gave Sumire a sharp look from beside Tou-san's bed.
Sumire shrugged. "Only because I have zero capacity for healing jutsu."
Tsunade stared at her for a moment before turning to her comatose patient. She placed a hand on Tou-san's forehead and focused chakra. After a few moments of the pale green glow his eyes opened with one shutting right away to prevent chakra drain from the Sharingan. He slowly sat up, taking in his surroundings.
"To be taken out so easily by a couple lowlifes," Tsunade said. "I thought you were supposed to be a genius."
"One of them was a prodigy who used to be from Konoha," Sumire said in her tou-san's defense. There was a knock on the front door. "Excuse me, I'm going to answer that."
She scampered downstairs glad to be out of Tou-san's searching look. He probably remembered seeing her arrive with Gai at the fight with Itachi. Sumire opened the door to see Professor McGonagall standing there.
"Oh hi, McGonagall-sensei, I wasn't expecting you. The Fifth Hokage is here right now." Sumire led her Transfiguration professor upstairs. She remembered after the Third's funeral McGonagall-sensei said that she'd need to talk to the new Hokage when they were appointed.
"Tsunade, it's been a while," Professor McGonagall said when she saw her friend's former student.
"Minerva? What are you doing here?" Tsunade asked in surprise.
"Couple reasons. I need to speak to the Hokage, congratulations by the way, and deliver this to Sumire. I realize it's a little late."
Sumire shrugged and accepted her letter and portkey. "It's not a big deal. I've been busy this summer so I probably wouldn't have gone to Diagon Alley until today at the earliest anyway."
"Naruto, why don't you change into civilian clothes and go with Sumire," Kakashi suggested.
Her friend grinned and bounded off down the hall to his room. Sumire ignored her feeling that Tou-san didn't want her to be alone and opened up the letter. 'Oh, that's why Hagrid said that book he sent me for my birthday would come in handy. It's one of the required texts this year. And a Hogsmeade permission slip. I'll talk to Tou-san about that later.'
"You ready to go neechan?" Naruto asked, reentering the room now wearing a simple t-shirt and pants with a light jacket over the top to hold some weapons just in case.
"Just have to grab my bank key," Sumire said. "We'll be back in a few hours."
A few minutes later, Sumire and Naruto landed in a side alley of Diagon Alley used for Apparitions. Sumire landed on her feet used to the uncomfortable feeling. Naruto, on the other hand, landed hard on his butt and he looked a little green around the edges.
"That was not fun," he groaned. "And we have to use that to go home?"
"Yeah, you get used to it though," Sumire said. She laughed at Naruto's disbelieving look. "Come on, first stop is Gringotts otherwise I can't buy all my supplies."
After Gringotts, they went to the Apothecary, so she could restock some of her potions ingredients, Scribbulus Writing Instruments for new quills and parchment, Madam Malkin's for new robes since she'd outgrown hers, and then they stopped at Quality Quidditch Supplies to see why there was a crowd there. The new broomstick, the Firebolt, was nice and all, but her Nimbus worked just fine so there was no need to replace it. Maybe if something did happen to her broom since she wouldn't get the Two Thousand and One.
"Aren't those the same as the vicious book you got for your birthday?" Naruto asked, pointing the cage of books in the window of Flourish and Blotts.
"Yeah, it's the textbook for Care of Magical Creatures."
They walked in and the manager bustled up to them. "Hogwarts? Come to get your new books?"
"Yes," Sumire said. "I– "
"Get out of the way," the manager said. He put on a pair of dragonhide gloves, picked up a knobbly walking stick and proceed to the Monster Books' cage.
"I've already got one of those," Sumire said quickly. "And Naruto doesn't need one either."
"Thank heavens for that. I've been bitten five times already this morning– "
A loud ripping noise came from the cage. Two of the books were pulling a third apart.
"Stop it!" the manager cried. He used the walking stick to knock them apart. "I'm never stocking them again, never! It's been bedlam!"
"You could tie some string or wire around each of them," Naruto suggested. "It's how we stopped Sumire's from biting everything in sight. I could give you a hand by holding them shut while you tie them."
The manager looked about ready to cry. "Do you think that would work?" When Naruto nodded, he summoned a large spool of string he used to tie up packages.
"Neechan why don't you do find your books while I help him out," Naruto said. He eyed the books for a moment before opening the door and snagging one by the spine.
Sumire nodded and wandered off to find her two books for Ancient Runes, her new Transfiguration book, and The Standard Book of Spells: Grade Three. She flipped through her Defense text when she located it. Seems the professor might actually teach them something if the required text was anything to go by.
When she returned to the front of the store, Naruto and the manager were finishing tying up the last of the books. A few minutes later, the manager was ringing up her purchases and, despite her protests, giving her a hefty discount because of Naruto's help making his job easier.
"Need to get anything else, neechan?" Naruto asked.
"I've got all my school supplies, so how about we get some ice cream?"
Naruto's grin could have blinded half the passerby if they looked directly at it. They headed to Fortescue's where they found Neville, Hermione, and Ron sitting outside. So, once the two of them got their ice cream they joined the other three and Sumire introduced Naruto to them.
"What are those?" Sumire asked, gesturing to the overflowing bags by Hermione.
"Well, I'm taking more subjects than you, aren't I?" Hermione said. "Those are my books for Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies– "
"What are you doing Muggle Studies for?" Ron said, rolling his eyes. "You're Muggle-born! Your mum and dad are Muggles! You already know all about Muggles!"
"But it'll be fascinating to study them from the Wizarding point of view," Hermione said earnestly.
"Personally, I think you'll end up being bored," Sumire said.
"Or overworked," Naruto added. "Since you're doing two or three more classes than everyone else."
Hermione shrugged and checked her purse. "I've still got ten Galleons. It's my birthday next month and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."
"What are you thinking of getting?" Neville asked.
"Maybe an owl that way I can write letters home."
"Why not just use the school owls?" Ron said. He pulled Scabbers out of his pocket. "I want to get Scabbers checked over. I don't think Egypt agreed with him."
"Magical Menagerie is just across the street," Neville said. "They've got all kinds of pets and supplies."
They finished their ice creams and headed across the street. Inside Naruto was fascinated by the pair of enormous purple toads in one cage. This led to him and Neville talking about Trevor and toads in general while Hermione browsed, and Ron waited in line at the counter.
"It's my rat," he told the witch when the wizard ahead of him left. "He's been a bit off color ever since I brought him back from Egypt."
"Hm." The witch picked up Scabbers. "How old is this rat?"
"Dunno," Ron said. "Quite old. He used to belong to my brother."
"What powers does he have?" the witch asked, examining Scabbers. She looked from his tattered left ear, to his front paw, which was missing a toe. "He's been through the mill this one."
"He was like that when Percy gave him to me," Ron said, as if the witch was blaming him.
"An ordinary common or garden rat like this can't be expected to live longer than three years or so," she said.
Sumire's eyes snapped over to the rat. No, she wasn't suspicious of it because she never liked it. She was suspicious because that rat was at least eight years old. Unless Scabbers had some sort of hidden ability, there was definitely something abnormal about him. It would explain why for the last two years something had always felt off about Scabbers.
Just as the saleswitch was offering a rat tonic to Ron, a large orange animal used Ron's head as a springboard to attack Scabbers. Naruto snagged the rat before he could escape out the door. The cat calmed down once Scabbers was out of sight in Ron's pocket. Despite the redhead's protests, Hermione decided to buy the cat.
"Stop worrying," Hermione said. "Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, what's the problem?"
All five of them headed to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with the rest of the Weasleys before going their separate ways. Inside, Mr. Weasley was sitting at the bar, reading the newspaper.
"Sumire!" he said as they joined him. "How are you? And who is this?"
"Fine, thanks," Sumire said. "This is my friend, Naruto Uzumaki. He offered to come with me since Tou-san was busy."
Naruto gave a little wave, but his hand moved to rub the back of his head when Mr. Weasley offered his hand to shake. "Ah… I don't mean to rude, but where we come from we don't shake hands. It's a cultural thing."
"I understand," Mr. Weasley said, putting his hand down. "What is it like where you're from? Is your school anything like Hogwarts?'
"Konoha is great. We're one of the five main villages, each of the five Great Nations has one, but the smaller nations have their own villages. We're all different so we don't have one big school like Hogwarts. Each village has its own Academy. We generally start the at eight, some people start younger, and then around twelve we get split into groups of three that are headed by a single sensei. Not every group of three gets to move on though. My year only had three groups that passed the test the sensei's give. The rest went back to the Academy."
"Fascinating," Mr. Weasley said. "Why'd you choose Hogwarts, Sumire?"
She shrugged. "It was my parents' school, and I can still do independent study at home." 'Plus, Mahoutokoro is decidedly anti-shinobi.'
"Her sensei is crazy," Naruto said shuddering.
"She thinks training in our version of the Forbidden Forest is fun," Sumire explained. "And her training can be intense. But I've learned a lot from her and her colleagues when she's been unavailable."
"Who's that?" Naruto asked pointing to the long-haired man on the front page of Mr. Weasley's newspaper.
"Hmm? Oh, he's Sirius Black, You-Know-Who's right hand man. He somehow escaped from Azkaban the other week…"
"Would we get a reward if we caught him?" Ron asked. "It'd be good to get some more money- "
"Don't be ridiculous, Ron. Black's not going to be caught by a thirteen-year-old wizard. It's the Azkaban guards who'll get him back, you mark my words."
The rest of the Weasleys showed up at that moment. Sumire was greeted solemnly by Percy and boisterously by the twins. Fred and George saw Naruto and, knowing who he would be, bounded over to introduce themselves.
"Hello, Sumire, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, putting down her shopping. She pointed to the silver badge on Percy's chest. "I suppose you've heard our exciting news? Second Head Boy in the family!"
"And last," Fred muttered.
"I don't doubt that," Mrs. Weasley said frowning. "I noticed they haven't made you two prefects."
"What do we want to be prefects for?" George said, looking revolted at the very idea. "It'd take all the fun out of life."
Sumire wondered why Mrs. Weasley though Fred and George might have become prefects. Only one boy and girl from each house became prefect in their fifth year. And it wasn't likely that only one of a pair of twins in the same house would be chosen.
She checked the time and stood up. Sorry to break this up, but Naruto and I need to get home."
Naruto made a face. "We're using that portkey thing again, aren't we?"
"Yes, but at least you know what to expect now." Sumire pulled out the aforementioned portkey and Naruto insisted on carrying some of her shopping. "It was nice to see you again Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and I'll see the rest of you on the train or at Hogwarts."
Once Hermione, Neville and the Weasleys said their goodbyes, Sumire activated the portkey. Everything whirled around them until it came to a sudden halt in a spare room in her home. Naruto managed to stay on his feet this time… just.
That evening after Naruto had headed back to his apartment, Kakashi turned to his daughter. "How was your trip?"
"I learned that Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban, and he was apparently Tom Riddle's right hand." Since she now knew Voldemort's true name, she decided to use it instead. She refused to pander to his ego by using the name he created for himself. A plus was it would annoy him when she would face him and could cause him to make a mistake.
Her tou-san's visible eye narrowed. He would be just as confused as she was. She knew from his stories about working with her father that he and Black were like brothers, almost inseparable, to the point that Black was named one of her godfathers. So, either he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of, or he was so good he managed to fool his best friend and not make her tou-san suspicious of his motives.
"McGonagall mentioned his escape as well. Find out what you can but carefully. They believe he's after you," Kakashi said. "There is something else we need to talk about. Itachi. Last week was the first time you'd seen him since he left."
Sumire curled in on herself. "I trusted him and looked up to him. If someone would have told me what he was going to do, I'd have had Inoichi see if their minds were right. But he did it and it still confuses me."
"I know. We might never know his reasons," Kakashi said.
Double update today so the next chapter should be up shortly.