Disclaimer: The red curtains open up once again, revealing the author dressed in a school uniform, "Eh... Sorry about the wait, this'll be quick... I don't any of the elements related to Harry Potter or Naruto those are the possessions of J.K. Rowling and Mashashi Kishimoto..."

The authorsoon ducks and runs off stage motioning for the curtains, fleeing from the numerous amounts of pointy objects thrown at said author.

Chapter 2

Harii mentally groaned. He was on his seventh mission, one in a series that was beginning to bore him excruciatingly. They came in a mundane order: catching a lord's wife's cat, tilling fields, catching the lord's wife's dogs, cleaning the roads, catching the lord's wife's bird, taking care of said bird, and now catching the lord's wife's precious collection of dogs. Harii groaned, why couldn't that lady just learn to not open cages when the door's open?

Now he found himself hiding in a very thorny, very dense bush of roses. He mentally sent a curse to whoever twisted his life this way. That Hyuuga kid just had to take his spot, he cursed again as he felt a thorn poke him in the arm. Really though, why did the gardener have to plant a rose bush in the middle of a daisy field. Rikou was in the trees observing the grounds of the lord's manor; apparently her family had great eyesight from spotting potential birds to breed. The Hyuuga guy was comfortably nestled in an advantageous place to subdue the target. He had pushed Harii away, leaving him to pick the next best place: a rose bush.

Oh, how he had wanted to slice this bush into weeds, but he wouldn't it was someone's property. He had discovered the denkou no tan no jutsu when he had woken from the coma. He remembered that his hands were aflame with pain, then himself falling unconscious as his hands started to spasm. When he woke, he felt pain arise from the back of his head; the pain ran trickled down to his hands. Harii remembered his hands move on their on accord, forming seals. His hands spread apart and pain raked through his hands once more. He fell unconscious once more from the intense amount of pain. He woke for the last time as the sun set, he looked down, to see his wrist sprouting out a curved bolt of electricity. He promptly fainted at the sight of said palms slicing through his bed.

A high whistle roused Harii from his fuming. It was his signal that Rikou saw their target, and she was right, Harii could see the white brute stumbling along. The dog seemed to wander from one patch of daisies to another, all the while heading closer to Harii. Seven meters away from Harii, the dog sniffed the air seeming to notice something amiss. Harii paused and counted to three: one… two… three! Harii jumped from the bush, biting his tongue as a few of the thorns were ripped off from the stems, preferring to stay with Harii's body. The sight of Harii surprised the dog, which in turn followed his instincts and ran away from the thorny boy.

The dog only managed several steps when it was tackled by Hyuuga. Spittle was flying everywhere as the dog wriggled in the Hyuuga's grasp. Harii cringed back as Hyuuga walked up to him smiling, covered in the dog's spittle. Harii stared at Hyuuga, no stared at the goop of saliva threatening to drip down his nose. Hyuuga stepped closer as Harii stepped backwards, another step another cringe. Harii spotted Rikou in the corner of his eye grinning at him, gulping, he stepped back once more, right into Kokuei. Harii raised his gaze and saw Kokuei's toothy grin. Harii dropped his head and muttered,

"At least there's only one left…"

The lord was a bastard.

And no, he didn't forget the child part of it.

The lord was an utter bastard.

Even with the work the team had done for his wife, he still didn't let them rest in a spare room. Harii shook his head; the team had to camp out in the woods in the grounds for the night. What a waste of perfectly good oxygen, thought Harii, seriously if it were some other lord, then they'd be grateful to shelter some ninja of their village, but no… Harii's thoughts were interrupted when the Hyuuga asked him something.

"Hmm?"

"I said; how old are you? Can't you hear or are you deaf as well as filthy?"

Harii snarled, "Well at least I don't need to spout off some stupid clan bigotry."

Kinji looked puzzled at this, "What ever the hell you said, isn't worth my attention, sharp-nose."

Rikou placed her head in her hands as the Kinji stood up, "Why don't we fight, taijutsu only no weapons, I'll show you how much better I am."

"Guys don't, Kokuei might get mad, when he comes back from gathering kindle."

"I don't care, Rikou, this is between sharp-nose here and me."

Rikou's mouth twisted at him, but sighed as she watched Harii and Kinji fight each other. Kinji had fell into his Jyuuken stance, as Harii fell into the standard taijutsu stance taught by the academy. Rikou shook her head, Harii was going to lose.

Kinji charged at him, palms aiming for Harii's chest. Harii blocked the attack, but was shocked to find a painful needle sensation coursing through his arm. He jumped back, a questioning glint on his eyes. Kinji sneered,

"Heh, my family's taijutsu style, Jyuuken, it targets and damages the chakra system of the body instead of the body itself. You can't win against it!"

Harii's mouth narrowed and jumped back dodging every attack Kinji dished out. Kinji drew back and lowered one palm, while raising another. Rikou's eyes widened as she saw the stance completed, Harii was in trouble. Apparently Harii noticed the change in stance too, and lowered his body. Kinji rushed at him, his hands streaking through the air. Harii's body tensed and flew around the dangerous fingertips. Around and around they went, Kinji striking as Harii dodged the previous ones. Rikou noticed both were tiring, though Harii was tiring faster.

Harii back flipped narrowly dodged the most recent attack that Kinji launched. Kinji rushed to meet Harii again, Harii's body tensed again. This time however, Harii's body barely moved as each strike neared it. Kinji's breath increased with every failed attack, though Harii seemed to be steadying his. In desperation Kinji struck out at Harii's heart, only to find his hand caught by another's. Kinji looked up, finding Kokuei staring down at him. Only Kinji saw Harii's hands trembled more and his eyes turned a darker shade.

"Now Kinji, no need to kill Harii, now. I think it's a good time to calm down, and eat dinner eh?"

The boys blanched and nodded, joining Rikou near the fire. Rikou glared at the two, "I told you two would get into trouble!"

Kinji glared at her, while Harii just shook his head chewing his food. Rikou spoke up again, "But that fight was intense, at first I thought Harii would lose, then when he kept dodging you I thought Kinji was going to."

Kinji puffed up his chest, "Well it was obvious that I was going to beat sharp-nose over here, I was merely going easy on him."

Harii shook his head again, placed his plate down and drew up his knees; it seemed a good idea to not comment on that. Rikou instead did it for him, "Right, that's why you were out of breath, when Kokuei interrupted your attack."

Kinji reddened and raised a hand as if to smack her, Harii grabbed the hand and twisted it.

"I advise you not to do that, Hyuuga, while it is alright for me to lose to you; it is not moral for one to injure a lady." Harii's whispers seemed to echo around the campsite, his voice suddenly vicious.

"And if I don't, what will you do sharp-nose?"

Harii didn't answer, but his eyes darkened further. He drew back his hand and quickly hurried through the seals. His forefinger curled, and lightning grew from his wrist to his middle finger. Kinji and Rikou's eyes widened at the sight. Kinji gulped and dropped his arm. Harii canceled his jutsu and bid them goodnight. Never once did his teammates see his eyes flicker with fear and pain.

The smoke from the snuffed fire continued to rise from the pit as the sun rose above the horizon. Rikou was an early riser, like most of her family, after all one of their mottos was that the early bird gets the worm. She yawned and dressed herself, all the while packing up; it was highly probable that they would complete the current mission today. She opened her tent and noticed that Harii's tent was already packed. She was surprised; Harii was usually the last one to wake, even after Kinji. It was weird for her to find out that Harii was so… inept at waking early. He seemed to her to be the perfect image of a ninja of the old tales: silent, deadly, quick, and an enigma. He was every bit of that, well at least any time other than in the morning.

She looked around and spotted a distinct footprint near the edge of the clearing they camped in. She got up and left her pack by a tree to go and investigate. Following the footsteps she found herself at a lake. She turned her neck and found Harii at the right end of the lake, gazing serenely at the surface ripples.

Rikou walked to Harii wondering what had overcome him last night. She sat down next to him and stared at the lake, trying to find what had caught Harii's interest. Harii seemed not to react to the recent addition, but kept staring into the lake. She turned from her gazing to Harii; he seemed to search the lake as if to find the answer to his troubles. Obviously he had experienced some sort of trauma in the past, most likely the incident that had landed him in the hospital. A tremble caught her attention; she looked down to see Harii's hands in those black fingerless gloves of his, the ones that had never left its post. The hands were twisted and clenched, his unnaturally pale skin underneath flirting with her curiosity. At first she had thought the trembles were just from the clenching and unclenching of his hands, but then she noticed how his hands had shook when not urged. His hands, they are twitching and spasming by their own accord… He was a puzzle, Rikou decided, one that Rikou was determined to figure out.

A twig snapped and Rikou twisted her neck to see Kinji standing there, arms crossed, a troubled expression marring his countenance. Rikou looked back to see that Harii had not responded at all to the sound. Kinji walked over to them, and hesitated, hovering over them. Kinji had apparently made his decision and joined the two by the bank. He drew his breath in, and exhaled through his teeth. He's attempting to say something difficult for him, conjectured Rikou.

Kinji opened his mouth, but closed it suddenly clenching his jaws. Harii still didn't react, only moving to clench his hands. Kinji had either had enough of the silence or had gathered enough courage to speak.

"Rikou… I'm sorry about threatening you and uh… trying to hit you…" Kinji paused as if to recollect his thoughts, "Harii… I'm… uh… sorry… about my… uh… previous actions… Please accept my… uh… apologies…"

Harii stopped wringing hands, but they still shook like they had possessed an extra mind. Rikou closed her eyes, trying to tap into some kind of precognitive ability. Harii would most likely turn down Kinji's attempt at an apology, then they'd get into a fight, then-

"I'm ten," whispered Harii.

"What?" asked a bewildered Kinji.

"I said I'm ten," replied Harii.

"WHAT!" exclaimed Kinji. Even Rikou was surprised at the answer; both had assumed he was small for his age, not young.

"But I'm twelve!"

"So you are,"

"Whoa… Well let's start over alright? Hi, I'm Hyuuga Kinji."

"I'm Tougeika Harii."

Smiling, the two of them shook hands. Rikou was beaming behind them. Kinji opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Kokuei's sudden appearance.

"Sorry to break this up, but if you guys want the day off then we have to get his mission done quickly. No objections? Good. Alright let's go, we're all packed up so let's get moving! Dismissed!"

A/N: Phew, sorry to keep you peoples (that's right peoples) waiting, but finals had caught it's peak and now I'm stuck with 6 projects and 6 finals waiting... -.-Well that's my first excuse, my second is that this is actually not the original Chapter 2. Yeah, the original Chapter 2 (now dubbed Chapter 3) will come soon. When I wrote it, it felt really off, rewrites after rewrites I realized I needed a filler between them so... here we are. Chapter 3 will be triple this size and will come soon!

Thanks to my Beta!

Translations
denkou no tan - edge of lightning

Before I go and work on Chapter 3: About the incident and his hands, well let's just say it'll be all explained in Chapter 4 which is almost done.

AibohphobiA