Chapter 9 : Snape's Rejuvenation Potion
Kurama opens his eyes and looks down at the fading runes below his feet.
He sighs out loud and turns to look at the wizard sitting patiently outside of the runic circle. The man lifts a questioning eyebrow at him.
"Well?" the human asks.
Kurama shakes his head and responds, "He's really gone mad."
"I couldn't reach him at all. That stupid tanuki just kept ranting about killing all humans and going on a rampage, I doubt he even heard a word I said," the fox adds.
Severus sits back and ponders on this information.
A while later he asks, "What if we removed him from his jinchuuriki?"
"It might kill his human container," the fox says with a shrug.
"Even with my help?" Severus questions.
"His seal is vastly different from the seal containing me in Naruto. It feels immensely unstable and any slight deviations could trigger complications," the kyuubi informs him.
"You would need to study the seal in detail and even with that, there would be no guarantees that the young child would survive the separation process," the fox continues.
"We could just kidnap the boy and then study the seal in detail," Kazu croaks out from his perch on Severus' shoulder.
"We'd have the whole of Suna going on a manhunt for their jinchuuriki," the wizard says with a sigh.
"It's better than letting the Akatsuki get their hands on the Ichibi," the raven responds.
Severus rubs at his temples and questions the kyuubi, "Do you have enough power to contact the nibi yet?"
"No, I'll need more time," the fox tells him with a shake of his head.
Kurama used to brag that he was the strongest of the tailed beasts not because he had more chakra or attack power but because he had the strongest mental capabilities among the nine. This allowed him to contact any of the nine from vast distances in his own mindspace at any given time and in his prime, he could draw all eight of them into a meeting between all of the tailed beasts. But as sealed up as he was, he had only been able to contact the Ichibi; the one with the lowest mental proficiency.
There was a reason the nine of them were numbered and that the Sage had appointed him as the leader of the nine after all.
'Not that I've been acting as a leader to them,' guilt pricks at Kurama as these words pop into his mind.
He'd been devastated at the death of the Sage and in his grief he'd turn to running away, from even his own family. Not once had he stopped to look back at the other eight which he had left to fend for themselves.
Even now, the loss of the Sage who was like a father to him left a gaping wound. 'But I should have kept in touch with the others,' he admits to himself with regret.
With the looming threat of the Akatsuki, Kurama finally admits that he feels a sense of remorse for not reaching out to his siblings and how that might have caused them to be as powerless as they were now.
"I'll need more time to gather my power to contact Matatabi," he informs the wizard. The longer his mind stays outside of the boy, the more powerful his mental capabilities become. But he doesn't know how long it'll take until he'll be able to contact all eight and if it will be in time to warn all of them about the threat of the Akatsuki.
"You could just release me from my seal now," the fox grumbles.
Severus just scoffs at the fox and reminds him, "Konoha is watching Naruto closely and the moment they detect that you've left the boy, there will definitely be a massive search for you. It's too much of a risk so early in the game."
"My contacts should already be moving to put protective measures around the other eight," Severus tells the fox. He had planned on just passing on information about the Akatsuki to the village leaders and to let them handle it from there but Washi had warned him that some of the village leaders are likely to be allies of the secret organisation.
"And they might be suspicious of the information they get from some unknown source and will likely try to find out more about us," Washi had said over a communication mirror.
Kazu had cawed out, "We're a secret organisation too!" and proceeded to croak in laughter.
Severus had glared at them both and said through gritted teeth, "We are not a secret organisation."
"But we are a secret," Washi had smugly pointed out before quickly shutting down his communication mirror to avoid Severus' poisonous glare.
Kazu had continued laughing at him.
"A friend of mine is already headed towards Suna to gather information on the boy and the seal," he tells Kurama. "We'll find out all we can and see what we can do about the seal before making any decisions," Severus adds.
The kyuubi nods at him.
Nara Shikaku walks into the tea shop one morning and after briefly glancing at the tea shop owner, heads directly towards where Uchiha Fugaku is sitting.
"Nice establishment," Shikaku comments and pulls out a chair to sit at the same table as the Uchiha head.
Fugaku raises an eyebrow at the tactician and then continues sipping at his tea.
Shikaku had been hearing about the strange behaviour of the Uchiha clan which had started a few weeks ago but had left things as they were to observe what would happen. The out of norm actions of the Uchiha clan tailing and frequently circling around the tea shop owner, whom he had been hearing about through various gossip circles, piqued not only his own curiosity but had garnered the attention of many of the upper brass in the village.
The Hokage himself had been trying to find out more about this strange turn of events from the Uchiha clan head but to no avail, Fugaku merely kept mum about the clan's intentions and reasons behind them closely tailing the foreign tea shop owner.
The Hokage had then requested, after many rounds of frustrating Go matches with the taciturn Uchiha, for Shikaku to poke his head into it and to find out more.
"So, I hear you play Go?" Shikaku asks the head of police and then takes out his own travel-sized Go board.
Fugaku just stares silently at the Nara across him and finally answers with a brief, "Hn."
They then begin their game.
Severus eyes the newcomer from his tea counter and thinks to himself, "I don't give a hoot about what happens but this weekend, I am going to build a large vanishing cabinet come hell or high water. And no one is going to stop me."
The appearance of the Uchiha around his sensei doesn't escape his notice for long as Naruto sees them frequenting the tea shop and tailing him, sometimes even openly, around town.
It confuses him and when he asks Kuro-sensei, his sensei just sighs and tells him that he supplies medicinal brews to the clan.
"But why are they following you all the time?" he questions, wondering why the Uchiha would follow a simple tea brewer.
"Who knows what goes on in their heads?" he tells Naruto before adding in an exasperated voice, "I wished they'd stop."
Naruto even asks Sasuke about it but Sasuke merely tells him that he's unsure.
"They won't tell me anything," the dark-haired Uchiha had told him with a shrug.
"Even aniki is following Snape-san around," his best friend tells him, highly perplexed.
'I hope they don't mean to do anything bad to sensei,' Naruto thinks worriedly and when he voices his concerns to his teacher, the man tells him not to worry.
"They'll probably give up after some time. I'm sure they have better things to do than following me around all the time," he pats the blond locks gently and shoos the boy off to his own apartment after dinner.
Naruto obediently goes back to his rented apartment but tells himself he'd keep watching the Uchiha and that he'd ask Hokage-jiji for help if they ever wanted to hurt his sensei.
Uchiha Itachi had been tailing him silently from the shadows ever since he'd told the boy weeks ago to do some soul searching.
The boy has kept himself out of his sight but he can always sense the familiar chakra signature somewhere close by. Severus ignores his presence and goes about his daily routines, patiently waiting for when the boy will finally decide to show himself.
A month in, he opens his home door one evening to find the Uchiha standing outside with a determined look in his eyes.
'He probably waited for Naruto to leave before knocking on the door,' Severus thinks.
"Come in," he tells the boy and gestures for the boy to head to the kitchen.
They sit across each other at the dining table and Severus starts a brew of chamomile tea. He offers a cup to the boy and the Uchiha sips at it before steeling himself for the conversation ahead.
Severus waits in silence for him to start.
"You said that in another future, I would have killed my clan and my family," he begins.
Hearing that, Severus merely nods.
"I asked myself if I could have done something like that and surprisingly even to myself, the answer which came up was a resounding yes," Itachi continues.
He falls into silence for a moment and looks down glumly at the table.
Severus sips at his tea and waits for him to continue.
"I've been asking myself these past weeks about the person I am or have become to do something so heinous such as murdering my clansmen in cold blood," the boy says.
"And have you come up with an answer?" Severus asks.
The boy shakes his head.
"The answer is that I don't know who I am. I don't know who Uchiha Itachi is and perhaps I never have," he continues and looks up at the wizard.
Severus nods at that and says, "I see you've made progress."
"Who can truly say that they wholly know themselves?" the wizard adds.
He questions the boy, "Then have you at least thought about who you want to be?"
The Uchiha nods and answers, "I want to be a person who will not resort to killing people to reach my goals."
Severus smiles at the young man, "Very well."
"If I offered to be your teacher in the mind arts, would you accept?" he asks the Uchiha.
Itachi looks surprised at this.
"I tried to use Mangekyou Sharingan to interrogate you," the boy points out.
"Which only worked to prove how terrible you are at mind arts," the wizard scoffs at him.
Itachi frowns at this and questions again, "Why offer to teach me? You gain nothing from this and you're already doing your best to help the clan."
Severus thinks of another dark haired boy who he had once been forced to teach the mind arts to. He had been a terrible teacher at the time, filled with bitter hatred for the bully of his school days. The boy had needed help then but he had not done anything to help even though he had been the boy's teacher. He wonders if that is why he is offering now.
"Because someone once gave me help when I needed it the most," he tells the boy as he thinks of the ravens who had helped him when he first arrived in the shinobi continent and who have now become his family.
"And I have already agreed to be your ally, what's one more student in the long run? You'll need to use your skills in the mind arts for the days to come to defend those you hold dear," Severus reminds him.
Itachi hears those words and thinks to himself that he has never had anyone truly be his teacher besides the clan members and academy teachers who had been mere passing instructors. He had found all of their teachings easy enough to replicate and had graduated early as a shinobi without really having a mentor to confide in or to look up to.
He looks at the wizard seated across him and thinks that based on what he had experienced in the dream world before, he certainly will not be graduating early from this apprenticeship.
He suspects he'll be put to even more harrowing experiences before he even gets to a level acceptable enough for the other man. It certainly will not be a walk in the park like the other shinobi skills which he has picked up.
Surprisingly, he feels a sense of anticipation instead of dread.
"Are you sure?" he asks again, staring into the eyes of the wizard.
"My question to you is, are you sure? I won't be going easy on you and you'll have to agree to be my apprentice until I deem you ready," Severus smirks.
Itachi stares silently at the other man and after a while, nods.
Severus holds out his hand and Itachi reaches out to shake on it.
"Say, "I agree to be the apprentice of Snape Severus" and a pact will be made," he tells the boy.
Itachi does so and in a flash, he feels a tingle of strange energy tying them both together. When Snape releases his hand, he spots something that looks like a white glowing tattoo on the inside of his wrist. It bears the shape of a crow with its wings spread open in flight.
"That is the mark of our apprenticeship, I will know when you are in danger and you may call for my assistance by evoking the mark," he informs the boy. He lifts up his sleeves to show the boy a similar glowing crow that had appeared on his forearm.
"How do I evoke the mark?" he asks, studying the fading mark that is slowly disappearing from view although Itachi can feel the energy still on his wrist.
Severus then takes the opportunity to begin a lesson and Itachi finally learns to do so.
'Bright one, this one,' Severus thinks with a satisfied smile after the lesson ends and he shoos the boy off.
He hopes the boy will go straight home and get some sleep but soon sighs to himself when he feels the familiar chakra settle in a tree near his backyard.
Perhaps he'll insist as his teacher that the boy will no longer be allowed lurk about.
He tells the boy that the next day when the Uchiha shows up for more lessons.
But the boy just nods at him and then continues to lurk about in the shadows every night regardless.
Kazu laughs at him when he complains about it.
He's been teaching Itachi about meditation for a few evenings now when he decides that since Sunday was about to arrive, he would take the opportunity to introduce his two 'students' to each other.
"This is Itachi, he'll be learning about tea and brews from me as well," he tells Naruto as they are having dinner together in the kitchen on a Saturday night.
"You're Sasuke's brother!" Naruto shouts out loudly in greeting and smiles sunnily at the Uchiha.
Itachi nods back and shakes his hand when Naruto bends over the table to offer it enthusiastically.
"He'll be staying over tonight as well and we'll all head to gather ingredients for the brews tomorrow morning," Severus says as he passes a plate of Chicken Karage to the blond.
"Ok!" Naruto agrees happily. He had become used to staying over his sensei's home on the weekends and heading out to pick ingredients in the morning.
Severus had briefed Itachi about the blond boy and had asked the Uchiha to play along about learning tea and brews.
Itachi had merely said that he would be more than willing to also learn about the different brews if his teacher was willing to teach him.
Kazu had commented, "You'll do," and had flown over to land on the Uchiha's shoulder in approval.
Itachi had simply bowed respectfully at the raven.
They finish dinner and Severus tells Naruto to show Itachi to a guest room upstairs. The boy is more than happy to do so and grabs onto the Uchiha's hand and enthusiastically drags him upstairs to the room beside his own .
Kazu lands on his shoulder and says, "They're good kids."
Kurama stays silent in his pocket, still unwilling to appear before the Uchiha.
Severus wakes up the next morning to a raven hopping on his stomach.
"Ugh, Kazu stop," he groans out sleepily.
"Wake up, it's almost time to go pick ingredients," the raven croaks at him and jumps on him one more time in emphasis.
He can hear Kurama snickering from his bedside table.
Severus wonders why he bothers to set the time to pick ingredients so early on a Sunday morning. He could have slept in as the tea shop was closed on Sundays.
"The deer sent a message saying that we can go pick up the Dawn Wood for the vanishing cabinet anytime we want. They've kept a fresh bundle aside," Kazu tells him.
Severus sits up from the bed and replies, "We can do that tonight after we send the two brats home."
He heads to the bathroom and gets ready for the day.
They're in the forest picking purple Konoha berries when he hears Naruto shout excitedly, "Kuro sensei! There's a deer over there!"
Itachi stands up from where he's picking some berries and glances over to where the blond is pointing.
Severus too looks over and spots a majestic stag with large horns staring at them from a few meters away.
Naruto barrels over to his side and asks, "Do you think it wants some berries?"
Severus raises an eyebrow at the blond and then goes back to studying the deer. The deer sees the man staring and stares back before slowly making its way closer.
"It's coming towards us," Naruto comments excitedly.
"Wild deer don't usually approach humans in the forest," Itachi comments, tilting his head.
The stag walks closer and Severus can tell that even their ANBU watchers are perplexed at the strange behaviour of the creature.
The deer soon stops steps away and then bows its head at them before looking up and staring at Severus with intelligent eyes.
'It must be a deer-summon,' Severus thinks and bows back on instinct.
Kazu caws out a greeting from Severus' shoulder.
Naruto watches his sensei doing so and bows in imitation at the deer. Itachi sees them both doing so and follows along.
The deer then walks closer and starts sniffing at Severus' hair in the usual deer-summon greeting and the man bears it with dignity by not squirming.
'I haven't met this deer-summon,' he thinks.
The deer soon judges that all seems to be well with the man and pulls back. It turns its back and starts walking away before turning to look behind at the trio.
"I think it wants us to follow it!" Naruto says with stars in his eyes, probably thinking it'll be the start of an adventure.
Itachi merely glances at his shishou questioningly.
Severus sighs and then says, "Let's go."
Naruto pumps his fist in glee.
And so, they follow the deer deeper through the woods. The ANBU guards tag alongside them from a distance.
After some time, they soon spot a wooden fence among the trees and there were signs around that read "Nara Property, Keep Out."
"Sensei, we can't trespass on Nara land," Itachi says as they eye the deer that had decided to ignore all the signs and had simply leapt over the fence in its way.
Severus is about to reply when they hear footsteps approach followed by a voice that grumbles, "Stop pulling already, I'm following aren't I?"
And pretty soon they see a doe pulling on the clothes of Nara Shikaku as she pulls him forcefully towards the fence where the three of them are standing.
"Alright already!" the Nara complains but the doe doesn't let up.
Severus watches this spectacle amusedly, enjoying the flustered expression the Nara is making as he tugs at his clothes.
"Nara-san," Itachi greets politely when the man spots the three of them.
Shikaku looks surprised to see them for a moment before asking, "What are you all doing here?"
"We're following the nice deer!" Naruto answers pointing at the stag who had been looking at them as though to ask what's keeping them from jumping over the fence.
The doe finally lets go of Shikaku's clothes and he turns to look at the stag that the boy was pointing at.
"Akaji-sama," Shikaku bows politely at the stag.
The stag pointedly turns its head towards the trio standing outside the fence and then stares unblinkingly at the Nara.
Shikaku gulps, knowing that he couldn't afford to anger this deer and gets the clue.
"Please, do come on to our property," he invites them in.
"Really? Ok!" Naruto says before quickly jumping over the fence. "Come on, sensei!" the blond calls out at the man.
Severus sighs and starts to climb over the fence. Kazu clings tightly on to the man's shoulder so as to not get thrown off as the man climbs over.
When they've all made it on to Nara property, the stag gestures at them to keep following and makes its way deeper into the Nara forest.
Naruto runs off to follow behind the stag and Severus keeps up, wondering what the deer-summon was up to.
Itachi follows after them, briefly noting that the ANBU guards have stopped following as they did not have permission to enter Nara property.
He follows behind his teacher.
Shikaku walks behind them and the doe behind him keeps pushing him to walk faster. He grumbles under his breath but his mind has started to run through the different scenarios of why the deer-summon had asked Snape and the rest to follow it.
They soon arrive at a large tree and grazing under the tree were a herd of deer that looked up from their grazing to study the newcomers on their land. The stag stomps its foot and the herd of deer immediately start walking away from the tree, leaving only the small group of people, a raven and one stag standing under.
The doe had playfully licked at Shikaku's face before leaving with the rest.
"Akaji-sama, why have you brought us here?" Shikaku asks.
"To meet the rest of the elders," replies the stag.
"Sensei! The deer is talking!" Naruto exclaims, eyes wide in surprise and Severus pats his head.
Before Shikaku can further question the stag, the tree starts glowing and a bright flash of light erupts from the tree. Shikaku feels the land before his feet disappear and after a brief moment of weightlessness, is deposited back on the ground. Only years of training as a shinobi helps him keep his balance and he lands upright.
Naruto is not so lucky as he hears the boy shout out, "Ow!" and he turns to see the boy landing on his bottom.
The Uchiha and the tea shop owner seem to have also landed on their feet. The man seems to be looking amusedly down at the blond on the ground, rubbing at his bottom.
'For a civilian he's awfully calm about this situation,' Shikaku thinks and studies the man before looking around to take in where they've landed.
He doesn't think that the deer-summon would have meant them any harm so he doesn't panic and merely looks curiously around.
The Uchiha boy is not so calm as he takes on a wary stance and stands in front of the tea shop owner and the young blond with his sharingan activated.
The raven on the man's shoulder caws out at the Uchiha.
"Relax young one, we have merely brought you into our home to talk," the stag tells the young Uchiha.
Severus places a hand on Itachi's shoulder and the young man finally relaxes his stance.
"They're friends," he tells the Uchiha, patting his shoulder.
He looks about their surroundings, finally noticing that other deer have made their way into the clearing where they stand.
"Shichiji-sama," he greets a large deer that slowly walks up towards them. Its horns are rainbow-coloured, the only one Severus has seen to have such horns in the Dawn Forests of the deer-summons.
"Friend-Severus, we apologise for calling you here so abruptly," the large stag tells him and approaches to sniff at his hair.
'I'll need a long shower after this,' Severus thinks as a wet nose rummages around, sniffing at his dark locks.
"Sensei, you know this really pretty deer?" Naruto asks, clinging to Severus' clothes and eyeing the rainbow-horned deer bending down to sniff at his sensei's hair.
Shichiji lets out a snort and laughs. "Hello young one, we hope we have not scared you."
Naruto shakes his head and smiles sunnily up at the deer, "I'm not scared!" and then adds, "You have really pretty horns."
The stag laughs again and noses at the boy's hair affectionately. Kazu caws out a laugh as well.
Itachi watches all of this and wonders why they've been summoned to the deer-summons' home.
Shikaku takes in the scene and observes silently but he is soon called out by the rainbow-horned deer, "Shikaku, we apologise for bringing you here without prior notice."
"Shichiji-sama," Shikaku bows and greets the deer-elder.
"You're probably wondering why you're here with friend-Severus," the large stag says.
"Do you know Snape-san, Shichiji-sama?" he questions and looks at the corner of his eyes at the large gathering of deer around them.
The stag nods and then answers, "Yes, friend-Severus is our friend and saviour of our home from the pollutants that have been plaguing our land for centuries."
Shikaku looks rather surprised at this information and wonders if this is why the Uchiha have been circling around the man of late.
"Pollutants, Shichiji-sama?" he asks instead.
"Friend-Severus was the one to make the purifying potion that helped purify the pollutants in the earth and the rejuvenation potion that brought back nutrients to the soil. Without his potions, the land would have been further corrupted till it would have become uninhabitable," the deer tells him.
Shikaku has so many questions to ask based on just that piece of information but he knows he must be patient. The deer only ever give information when they choose to do so, after all.
"We brought you here as the head of the Nara to ask you to ally yourself with friend-Severus," the stag continues.
Shikaku hears the raven on the tea shop owner's shoulder cawing in unbird-like laughter and the man himself cursing under his breath.
"No, no, not again. The last time I agreed to something like this I had the whole Uchiha clan following me everywhere," Severus vehemently rejects the idea.
Itachi smirks a bit at hearing that.
Shichiji merely looks affectionately at the protesting man and turns back to look at Shikaku.
"The Nara have been asking for our advice for centuries, ever since we first agreed to be your exclusive summons. Hear our advice once again. Ally yourselves with friend-Severus, assist him when he's in need and ask for assistance when you are in need," the stag tells him.
Shikaku ponders about this piece of advice, knowing that the deer have never led the clan wrong. He looks at the tea shop owner who glowers at him.
"Say no," the man tells him, arms folded across his chest.
"Sensei, is that why the Uchiha have been following you?" the blond boy asks, looking at his sensei and putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
"Did you save the Uchiha clan or something?" the boy asks him with sparkles in his eyes.
"What? No, of course not. I haven't done any saving," Severus tells the boy.
"You have," Itachi pipes up and Severus sends the glower his way.
"I just gave them some advice and fed them herbal brews," he flippantly mentions.
Itachi merely smiles at that statement and Naruto looks between the two of them and then exclaims brightly, "You did save them! I knew it!"
Severus sighs and rubs at the bridge of his nose. Kazu caws out in laughter again.
Shikaku observes their interactions and then makes up his mind.
"Snape-san, would you be willing to enter into an alliance with the Nara?" he asks the man.
The man aims his glare back at the Nara and tells him, "No, I'm too busy. I've got enough people on my list which I have to help. I don't need more and I certainly don't need any help," he retorts at the head of the Nara.
Shikaku nods at that and turns to the rainbow-horned elder.
"The Nara will certainly heed your advice and convince Snape-san to ally himself with us," he tells the deer with a bow.
He'd considered it all in his mind and based on the man's reactions, he can tell that the man was without any greed for the influence that the Nara could offer him if he agreed to be their ally. The way the man objected to the alliance seemed as though he was regarding the alliance between them not as a profitable endeavour but more like tedious work which he would have to put effort in.
'None of our allies have ever been so vehement in rejecting our help,' he thinks amusedly. The man truly believed that he didn't need them and that it was he who would be doing the 'saving' if he agreed to the alliance.
'Which means he has confidence in his own abilities,' the thought runs through Shikaku's mind.
'And he's even powerful enough to save the Dawn Forests of the deer-summons singlehandedly from the 'pollutants' that the Nara have not even been told about," is another thought that follows.
'The deer summons have always been wise, their advice is never wrong,' he ponders on this and looks at the tea shop owner who looks back at him in disbelief.
Shikaku merely smiles back pleasantly at him and reminds himself that he will have to gather the clan elders to inform them of this new development.
'I'll also need to pester Fugaku on information about how this man had saved the Uchiha clan," he thinks but has a rough idea in mind based on what the tea shop owner had previously mentioned.
"Instead of having you travel back and forth between the shinobi mainland and the Dawn Forests, the Nara will be our intermediary and the ingredients that you ask for will be sent through them," Shichiji tells the wizard.
Severus sighs and grumbles, "I don't want more alliances."
"Of course, friend-Severus," the stag agrees with him placatingly but without actually taking back his 'advice'.
"We will send the Dawn Wood logs to the Nara," the stag tells him and Shikaku can definitely hear the amusement in the stag's voice.
"Dawn Wood?" Shikaku asks.
"For my vanishing cabinet which I am going to throw you into when I'm done building it," Severus tells him with a glare.
"Oh, sounds interesting," the Nara merely comments back.
Naruto laughs at that and asks, "Sensei, can I help build this vanquishing cabinet?"
"Vanishing, not vanquishing," he corrects the blond. "But vanquishing sounds good too," he adds.
"Alright then Snape-san, I'll send the logs over when I've gotten them from the deer," Shikaku tells him with a smile.
"We're not allies, I'm just getting materials from you," he retorts at the Nara.
"Of course," he says, reminiscent of the tone the rainbow-horned deer had used.
Severus sighs at this and Itachi smiles thinking it would be good to have more allies around his shishou just in case their enemies went after him.
"Ne ne, sensei, does that mean that sensei has chakra and is not a civilian? Is sensei a shinobi?" Naruto asks in curiosity thinking that his sensei must not be an ordinary person to have saved the home of the deer.
Severus eyes the Nara who is eyeing him, waiting for his answer.
"Fine. Do you both swear not to reveal my secrets?" he asks Naruto and Shikaku.
"Yes!" Naruto says immediately.
"I swear," Shikaku says after pondering for a moment and thinking it through.
In just under a minute, they both feel the sensation of a strange energy settle over them. They instinctively know that they will be unable to reveal to anyone what the tea shop owner doesn't want them revealing.
Severus nods at this and then with a smirk comes up with an idea. He turns to look at the Nara and Shikaku feels himself getting nervous.
"Perhaps a demonstration," he says and Itachi takes a very obvious step back and away from his shishou so as to not be in his line of sight.
Shikaku sees the man wave his hand before he suddenly finds himself standing on four legs instead of two.
"Sensei! Nara-san is a deer!" Naruto loudly proclaims whilst staring with wide eyes at the deer-Nara.
Shikaku looks down at his black hooves and stomps them to test them out. He feels heavy antlers on his head and experiences a kind of itch to start grinding them against a tree.
'Huh, so that's why Snape seems so confident,' he thinks and with another wave of the man's hand, Shikaku once again finds himself back on two legs.
"Sensei! What was that?" Naruto asks him excitedly.
"That was magic and I am a wizard. So, no, I am not a shinobi," he tells the blond.
"Magic," Naruto says and looks at his sensei with stars in his baby blue eyes.
"You were a handsome stag, Shikaku," Shichiji tells him amusedly.
"So, do you know what I can do to bribe Snape-san to get him into an alliance?" he asks the deer seriously.
Snape glares at him at this and Shikaku knows he's probably thinking of turning him back into a deer or some other animal.
The raven on the man's shoulder croaks out in laughter, looking like he's enjoying the whole episode.
When the deer summons finally transports them home via a jutsu, Snape throws one last glare at the Nara before stomping out of the Nara forest followed by his two students.
Shikaku looks at the man leaving with amusement before thinking that that had been one of the most interesting experiences he's had in a while.
'Magic, huh?' he thinks and his brain comes up with many different possibilities and scenarios about why the deer have decided to give such advice at this point in time.
Something was going on. The deer provided clues, and the many keywords popped up in his mind. 'Alliance', 'help', 'pollutants', 'potions', 'purify', 'rejuvenation', 'uninhabitable' and so on ran over and over in his brain but he knew that he didn't quite have all of the pieces just yet.
'I'll need to look for more information,' he thinks. But first, he had elders of the clan which he needed to talk to.
Severus shoos the two brats home and decides to just face plant into his bed for the rest of the evening.
He knows Itachi has gone home as he can sense another Uchiha in the trees nearby.
'The boy has probably gone home to update his clan about the Nara and the deer-summons,' he thinks with a groan.
He really didn't want or need another alliance. Why couldn't he just fade into the background and live his life as a simple tea brewer?
"Well, that was certainly unexpected," Kurama tells him with a smirk as he crawls out of his coat pocket.
"Although with your luck it should have probably been a given," the kyuubi booms out a laugh.
Kazu croaks out his agreement.
"I hate everyone, I really do," he grumbles into his pillow.
'I just wanted wood for a cabinet. Is that too much to ask?' he questions the universe.
The next morning, Nara Shikaku walks in bright and early into the tea shop.
"We'll send the logs over to your house tomorrow," he tells the tea shop owner who glowers at him.
Shikaku merely smiles pleasantly, orders some roasted black tea and plops himself to sit opposite the Uchiha head who also glowers at him from across the table.
"Well, it looks like I've evened the playing field a little, huh?" he says to the annoyed-looking man.
Severus just sighs inwardly at the two and proceeds to ignore them.
Tomorrow he'll get the logs and then the two of them had better watch out if they didn't want to be vanished to another country.
'I hear the Land of Snow is at its coldest this time of year,' he thinks evilly.
*Rejuvenation Potion*
Red dawn leaf (crushed, 15 g)
White sun blossoms (10 petals)
Dawn forest dew (20 ml)
A/N Finally got inspiration to write so here it is! I hope you all enjoyed it. Oh, and thank you for all your lovely comments . *flying kisses*