Nin Study Magic

Disclaimer: None of these cut scenes 'officially' happen in the Connections series, so they may contradict what the original story shows.

"You're going to poke your eye out with that."

Naruto's head jerked up. "Will not!" he argued. He was a ninja, damnit! Ninja didn't poke their own eyes out. They poked out other people's eyes. When necessary. Because while it might sound cool in a badass kind of way, eyes were gross and really really messy when ruptured. Goo everywhere.

"Staring at it like that isn't going to help you any," Sasuke informed him, being about as helpful as ever.

"Can't hurt," Naruto muttered back. He stopped staring at it up close. Squinting at the wood grain wasn't helping him anyway. He spun the wand in his hand, twirling it around one finger sort of like the way he would a kunai. The balance was crap, not nearly enough weight for the size, but he was used to it now and it didn't take any thought to weave it in and out of his fingers.

It had been a few weeks now, a few mostly wonderful weeks of Sasuke having a cousin and Team 7 being unofficially grounded to help out with making Harry feel welcome and safe. And making sure no more evil wizards showed up. So far, it had been really quiet. Harry's old professor, the sad looking soft spoken man, had gone back to their village to let Harry's friends know he was safe and to talk to Harry's teachers about what to do for the next school year. Despite Sasuke's best efforts (and sometime very vocal hissy fits) Harry was determined to go back. Said his schooling was important. That he liked it. Which Naruto found hard to understand, but then again, he hadn't been able to get this magic thing to work yet and it did look kind of awesome.

He jerked his wrist and snapped up the wand in the traditional hold Harry had shown them. The grip was awkward as hell since most of the grip relied on the weak pressure of pinching it between his fingers. But Harry insisted it was important how you held the wand for certain spells. "Alohomora," he tried again for about the tenth time that day.

There was a loud sigh from the figure slumped over the dinner table. "That's an unlocking spell," Harry mumbled. He had his head pillowed on his arms and didn't bother to look up.

Naruto shrugged. It wasn't like he expected it to work anyway. He was just practicing so that when it did work, he'd look cool doing it.

"And he's more liked to blow his eyebrows off than poke out an eye," Harry grumbled.

Naruto grinned. "Really? Cool."

Sasuke snorted. He also hadn't looked up, his nose instead buried in some book about pre-Konoha history, like anyone cared what happened all the way back then. "Considering we have not been able to get so much as a spark out of your wand, I have my doubts."

Harry groaned and sat up, rubbing at his neck and grimacing with each new spot. The poor guy was one walking sore muscle. That wasn't normally a problem Naruto had to worry about but it looked painful. They tried to take it easy on the guy in the afternoon, letting him moan and groan to his heart's content after dinner

Finding out that there was more than just Itachi to worry about when it came to Harry's safety had been a shock. This whole war thing was not good – and it was clear they weren't going to keep Harry out of it. At least not without kidnapping, and to be honest, Naruto kind of suspected that wouldn't work so well anyway. Sasuke seemed to have come to the same conclusion because he hadn't once suggested it. At least not seriously. No, instead he'd come up with a Plan. Like all Uchiha plans, it was genius and likely to make other people miserable. In this case that person was Harry.

Sasuke had come up with a training plan. One to get Harry in defense shape. The goal wasn't fighting shape, because that was something they had all worked years to achieve and frankly required the ability to manipulate chakra, but at least the kid would know what to do to protect himself. And have some of the muscle to back it up. Once Sasuke got through with him.

Poor bastard.

Harry shook his head at Sasuke's negative assessment. "It's got to work. There's no way you all are muggles or squibs. We just got to figure it out."

"We still haven't figured out how