A/N: Wonderful, A fic that I can actually write more than one chapter at a time on! It's amazing! I realize this chapter is much shorter than the last one, and I'm sorry. This chapter seemed really choppy, even by my bad-choppy-ness standards. Oh, well.
Here's chapter two.
Harry's Demons
Chapter 2: Kohona's Light, A Hero Returns.
Harry, Naruto and Jiraiya had spent the last few days trekking through the forests that surround the Hidden Village of the Leaves. Harry had originally wondered why that was the name of their town, but after being in these forests for the last only-god-knows-how-many days, he understood it perfectly.
Jiraiya dropped his supplies onto the ground, and stretched for a moment. "Okay, this is where we'll stay. Unpack," he said. Pointing at Harry, "and you come over here, I need to talk to you."
Harry stood up, stretched his legs for a moment, before following Jiraiya off into the woods. After a few moments, Jiraiya stopped and turned suddenly. "Tomorrow we will be arriving at Konohagakure. I'm warning you before hand, the guards won't let you in easily, even if you are with me."
Harry frowned. "Alright, what should I do then?"
"Leave the talking to me, I might be able to get you a conversation with the Hokage, who will most likely understand and help you like I did. She's one of my old friends, from my Genin team. Hopefully, she won't cause you too much trouble. If you impress her, she may allow you to get a ninja license. That is, if you want one."
"After learning all of this stuff about ninjas, I'm not so sure I want to be one. Maybe I could find something else to do in the village." Harry sighed. He didn't really want to pledge loyalty to the town, even if it is a nice place. He may have become rather attached to Jiraiya and Naruto in the short space of time he had been with them, but he didn't know whether it was enough to make him spend his life trying to save them.
Then again, he also had his 'saving people thing,' even after all these years. Hermione, before she had been killed with everyone at Hogwarts, had said that once, when he had gone to fight Death Eaters one time. It had surprised Harry, to say the least, that she sounded so upset about him leaving, but he couldn't do anything else but help the people attacked by Death Eaters.
The same 'saving people thing' could influence his decision once he saw the people, and found out a little bit about what was going on in this world. Since he was attached to Jiraiya and Naruto, he may end up feeling the need to save them if they ever got into a tight situation. So, because of that, he may end up becoming a ninja.
'Arrgh, I can't decide right now. I'll figure it out later!' he cried inside his mind.
"I'll figure out if I want to be a ninja later. Once we come to the village I'll have time, won't I?" Harry asked, hoping they wouldn't kill him if he didn't decide then.
"Of course you'll you have time, moron! What, you think the village is just going to kill you if you don't decide right away to become a ninja or not?"
"Well, the thought did cross my mind." Harry said with a smirk.
"Ahh, you're nearly as annoying as Naruto is, and that's saying something!"
A cry came from nearby. "I HEARD THAT, ERO-SENNIN!"
"SHUT UP! DO YOU WANT ANY ENEMIES TO KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE! YOU LACKWIT, MORON!" Jiraiya shouted back.
After Jiraiya's shout stopped echoing around the empty forest, everything seemed very quiet. No birds were chirping, no leaves whispered in the wind, no noise was made anywhere around them.
The last time Harry had heard such pristine, empty silence, was right after Hogwarts had collapsed.
Harry was sitting in the Minister's office, talking with Minister Fudge himself. They were arguing over some point or another in their agreements. Fudge was trying to keep Harry from performing underage magic, and Harry himself was arguing for it. Harry needed to perform magic during the summer so as to practice everything he needed.
After tricking Fudge into agreeing with him, he left. Going to the Apparition points, Harry jumped to the area outside of Hogwarts grounds.
Harry stood outside of Hogwarts gates, which were open, as if in invitation. He walked quickly through them, since they were never open unless the Headmaster opened them, or they were forced… not the easiest thing to do either.
What he saw sickened him. All around him, bodies, lying in pools of blood. Some were carved up, other burned to a crisp. Everywhere, the bodies were everywhere.
Harry looked up at the castle. The large empty castle. There were several large holes blasted in it, as if cannons had been shot at it. On the wall, stained in green, was the Dark Mark.
The ink that was used to make the Dark Mark was obviously linked to a spell, because almost the instant that Harry laid eyes on it, a loud rumbling noise started. The whole castle had started to collapse.
The towers fell first, tipping sideways before crashing to the ground. The noise nearly deafened Harry.
Next the walls started to fall apart. Large portions just broke off from the main walls, falling to the ground and shattering into individual blocks. Harry could see some pieces of the strange living paintings among the rubble.
Two ghosts flanked Harry, watching along with him as the castle fell apart. The Bloody Baron and Sir Nicolas de Mimsey Porpington. They stared with sad eyes as their home of many years fell to the ground. Slowly, they themselves started to vanish.
Harry questioned them on why they were leaving, and why they couldn't stay. They had said they completed their mission. They had stayed until the destruction of their castle, and until their need had been completed. The castle no longer needed its original owner and protector near it anymore, since the castle was gone. The Semi-Consciousness of the castle no longer existed, its magical golem-mind shattered, so it could no longer hold them there.
Harry nodded along with that reasoning, and spoke sadly. He wished them well in whatever came next, and to talk to him when he came to greet them. They nodded their thanks, and disappeared into an ethereal dust, which faded away after a few minutes.
As the castle finished falling apart, all of the foreign rumbling ceased, leaving dead silence. Unnatural quiet. That was all that was left of his wonderful home.
He was, once again, lost without family.
He fell to his knees and began to weep, tears of sadness, and tears of anger. After crying for hours, his tears were all worn out, and anger flooded him. No, not anger, it was too powerful to be anger. This was pure, unadulterated hate. He hated the people who did this.
Moments later, a cry, filled with anguish and hate flowed outward from the grounds. Nearly everyone in Britain could hear the heartbreaking sound, as if it was coming from a few meters away from them. It was heart wrenching.
The pure emotion in the sound caused people to burst into tears.
Some suddenly became afraid, as if this scream was the cry of an angel of retribution. And it was, in a way.
Thousands of miles away, Voldemort heard a terrifying cry come from somewhere around him. Everything stopped, and Voldemort felt something he had never felt before.
Fear.
Voldemort feared whatever made this horrible cry.
It was enough to paralyze the so called 'Dark Lord.'
This was the power of the hate of the 'Boy-Who-Lived-And-Survived.'
Voldemort wasn't so sure he could win anymore.
Harry shook himself out of his remembrances. It wouldn't do to be remembering other times while under attack. That is, if they were under attack.
The only thing Harry saw was Jiraiya looking at him strangely. "What's going on with you, boy?"
Harry felt a tear run down his cheek, before answering. "Just remembering a time in the past, Jiraiya-san. Nothing to really worry about."
"If you say so, boy. I won't ask you what happened, since I doubt it'd make any sense to me, you coming from a different world and all."
"The silence reminded me of something, brought back bad memories. I'll be fine."
Jiraiya and Harry walked back towards the area where Naruto was. After getting there, they started to remove everything from their bags, and set up camp.
The next day, they reached the village swiftly. Once arriving, Naruto ran up to the gates, in way too much of a hurry to get in. Jiraiya and Harry followed along at a much more subdued pace.
Once all of them reached the gates, the guards immediately saluted Jiraiya, scowled at Naruto, and looked at Harry with apprehension. Harry merely raised an eyebrow at the general aura of fear around the village. It was like the village was waiting for something horrible to happen.
Jiraiya conversed in hushed tones with the guards, and managed to get Harry passage into the village. That is, as long as he went directly to the Hokage person right away.
The guards pushed the doors open, and Naruto was gone in a flash. Harry gaped as he jumped up at least thirty feet, onto a pole, with a perfect landing.
Naruto opened his arms wide, and felt the breeze wafting through the area. "I missed this place! It hasn't changed one bit!"
Harry smiled, remembering the feeling of missing a place so much for a long period of time, and returning to it later.
Jiraiya and Harry continued walking down the street, stopping only when Naruto was pulled into a conversation with a strange man wearing a mask, and one of the strange forehead protectors over one eye. Naruto immediately shouted the guy's name, "Kakashi-sensei!" and he responded with a rather bland "Yo."
Naruto jumped over the roof that the man was sitting on, before handing him something that looked like a book. The man's one visible eye went wide when he saw the title. He started talking quietly after a minute, too far away for Harry to hear what he was saying.
After a few minutes of conversation, Naruto and Kakashi jumped down, and started to walk with Jiraiya and Harry. Kakashi only sent a questioning glance towards Jiraiya and Harry before nodding.
After a few minutes of walking and conversing between Jiraiya and Kakashi, Naruto took off at a run towards two people with their backs to the group.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" he shouted as he ran away.
The younger, smaller girl spun around, before her eyes widened.
"Naruto! When did you get back?"
"Just now! It's so great being back here!" he laughed, nearly spinning with glee.
The other woman turned around, and Harry's eyes widened. There was no way that woman's bust was natural. Those things had to be at least fifty pounds each! They had to defy physics!
The woman looked over the group, before her eyes landed on Harry. "Who's this?" she asked.
"My name is Potter Harry, ma'am," he said quietly.
She turned to Jiraiya, who responded quietly that they'd need to talk in a private place for him to explain everything.
Harry looked back at Naruto and Sakura, just in time to see another, younger boy change shape into a naked girl, who was bending over, giving Harry a rather spectacular view of her behind. After a second and a flash of smoke, the boy was back in his position, smirking.
Harry wasn't listening to their conversation, but he did witness the Sakura girl belt Naruto, sending him into the ground, nearly creating a crater. Harry blinked, before deciding he didn't want to be on her bad side.
The busty lady had finished talking to Jiraiya, and turned the Kakashi, and said his name.
Kakashi blinked, and snapped his book closed with an audible clunk. Slipping it back into his waist-pocket/bag, he pulled out two small bells.
"It's been a while," he said. "I want to see how far you've come. I'll need to know, since we will be going on team related missions again. The difference is that we are no longer on teacher-pupil basis, we are now on equal terms an shinobis of the Leaf. This test is exactly like you remember. The rules are the same. If you don't come at me with intent to kill, you will never get these bells."
After the impromptu speech, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi went off in the opposite direction, leaving Harry, Jiraiya and the busty lady together.
"So, Tsunade, were you the one training that girl?"
Harry guessed that Tsunade was the big busted lady, and he turned to her for her response.
"How do you think she got my… what did you call it… 'freakish strength?'"
"Yeah, but even Shizune couldn't pull that off. That girl must have amazing chakra control."
"Well, my apprentice isn't the only one who's become more like me. Naruto is acting more like you did at that age than I care to admit. So who's this kid anyways?"
Jiraiya started to tell Tsunade about Harry and his 'travels' before telling her that Harry hadn't decided on whether to become a ninja or not.
Tsunade turned to Harry with a critical eye. "You don't have the look of a shinobi. Are you sure you can keep up?"
Harry smirked. "The last people who underestimated me ending up having his head chopped clean off, and his two hundred soldiers being chopped into tiny pieces that I used to make potions." Harry figured that the copying Snape with the 'turning people into ingredients' wouldn't hurt him, and would hopefully help with his ninja-ness.
Tsunade laughed. "That's the perfect attitude for a ninja. Chop up the opponents' body and use it as ingredients for healing potions. Wonderful. I'll need to test you anyways though, if you want to become a ninja."
Jiraiya stepped in this time. "I tested him when I first met him. He was good enough to keep up with me at three quarter's strength. He's most likely very high Chuunin or low-mid Jounin. Set him up against Anko if you really need to test him. That would be a very entertaining battle to see."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Why Anko?"
"Because he's too much of a gentleman to hit a lady unless she really does something to piss him off, and she's so bloodthirsty! It would probably be a match that goes down in Kohona's history."
Jiraiya smirked, wondering what Harry was going to do when he fought against Anko. It would definitely be a strange fight.
"So, Harry. Do you want to become a ninja?" Tsunade turned to Harry.
Harry nodded, but said nothing. Tsunade turned back to Jiraiya and asked him, "He doesn't talk much, does he?"
Harry and Jiraiya snorted, before Harry answered the question. "Jiraiya-san told me to leave the talking to him, so that's what I was doing."
Jiraiya glared at him for a moment, before laughing. "Good one, kid."
Turning away from the two, Tsunade grabbed a small controller like object, before hitting one of the buttons on it. "Anko, get in here. I have a job for you."
The door slammed open before Tsunade had even finished putting the object, obviously some sort of communicator, down.
In the doorway stood a woman wearing one of the strangest get-ups in this town. She had on a fishnet shirt, a mini-skirt, and a knee length trench coat. Her brown eyes had no pupils, and her black hair looked incredibly soft.
"What's going on, Hokage-sama? You said you needed me?" The woman said
"This man," Tsunade waved in Harry's direction, "wants to become a ninja. We've decided you are to be the examiner for him. You and him are going to be having a fight."
The woman, who Harry guessed was Anko, gave a nearly bloodthirsty smirk, before turning to Harry. "I think you should give up now, that way you won't need to suffer the embarrassment by being beaten by me. And if you don't, I hope you bleed real good."
Harry just looked at her, before turning to the Hokage. Harry raised an eyebrow and asked, "You want me to fight her? Hoo, boy."
Then two voices spoke up at the same time, one sarcastically, one happily. "This should be fun."
