I'm sorry this is so late! I've been trying to stick to updating every other week, but I kind of ran head first into serious writer's block. O.O Hopefully it's all fixed now.

As always, thank you so much for all the great support and advice. ^^

Power raced through Sasuke's veins as he shoved chakra into seals and out of his body. He could feel it in his hands, his arms his legs and his feet as he and Naruto crashed into each other. He needed it to with stand Naruto's blows. His powerhouse of a teammate had only gotten stronger as he got older. Oh, his stealth skills where still the most pathetic outside of the academy, and he would be never noted for his careful chakra control, but years of channeling insane amounts of tainted chakra had not only given him access to impressively destructive ninjutsu's, but it made hitting him like punching a brick wall.

Sasuke could feel the smile stretching across his face as he pushed and shoved and was pushed and shoved back in return. He could feel the steady trickle of chakra leaking out of him into his summons. He had to concentrate to keep that bond whole. But this was light sparring, and there was time enough to let himself enjoy the feel of straining muscles.

He'd never let himself make that mistake again.

How stupid could he be? A lifetime of training and years spent surrounded by the most dangerous psychotic shinobi of his time, and he let his concentration slip like that!

It was Naruto's distraction that made him pause. Naruto hated the snakes. He knew that. And they hated Naruto. Which was part of why he insisted on training with them. If he was ever going to get back to full proficiency with his summons, then his teammates were going to have to learn how to work with them. The best way to learn how to work with anything that came out of Sound was to learn how to work against them.

When Naruto's attention perilously shifted to the snake behind him and not the shinobi in front of him, Sasuke backed off. He could have ended the fight there, but he was learning how to retrain himself too. Konoha shinobi did not strike down their teammates in a spar, even if said teammate foolishly left himself open. It was an important difference from Sound shinobi that Sasuke sometimes had to remind himself of.

That momentary lull gave him time to check on Sakura. She was toying with one of his snakes but still conveniently occupied.

Then he checked on his cousin.

Harry was supposed to be sitting safely by one of the greatest nin to ever come out of Konoha. There was little in the world that could get by the great Copy-Nin easily. He was far from infallible, but certainly reliable. Even as lazy and easily distractible as Kakashi was, he was more than enough protection for his cousin on a lazy Konoha morning.

Except Harry wasn't sitting by Kakashi. He was halfway across the field, within striking rang of several possible jutsus. He was sitting relaxed but focused, eyes wide behind thick bulky glassed, mouth curved into a small delighted smile.

Except he wasn't alone.

Somewhere in the confusion of kicks and punches and feints – he'd lost track of one of his snakes. One of his most poisonous snakes. Rakta-Najadika-Kapala was its name, if he recalled correctly. These damned snakes and their names longer than they were. Rakta was not the snake he thought he had to worry about. It was young enough it didn't care much about the change in masters.

He truly was a fool.

He knew better than to trust a snake.

For one long frozen moment, Sasuke's eyes locked on the distant form of his cousin. A warm-bodied lump in the middle of a grassy field. A cold-bodied killer hidden in that same grass. Sasuke's eyes had more than enough time to take everything in. That's what the sharingan did. That was what his family and his body were valued for. The ability to see everything and anything and know it at once.

He'd never make it across the field in time. Not even a translocation would get him there fast enough. He couldn't be certain that its will to kill would not over power his command to banish it.

Sakura moved, but he moved faster. Pushing as much chakra down into his legs as possible, his feet barely brushed the ground. The field was too wide.

The snake lunged.

His eyes had time enough to see the poison dripping from its fangs but his body could not match such speed.

And in the blink of an eye, it was over. The snake lay draped across his vulnerable cousin, jaw shut – bloodless.

Harry stared down at it, frozen. Had he even know? The other teen opened his mouth and said something that Sasuke couldn't quite hear and the sharingan could quite decipher. He didn't look scared. Which was good. Snakes, like almost any other animal, knew better than any shinobi what fear tasted like. Hope rushed through Sasuke like the cold tingle of a medic's chakra. That calm might just be enough to keep Harry alive. With one last push of muscle and chakra, Sasuke cleared the distance and landed silently, motionlessly at his cousin's side.

He had to get the snake away from Harry. But Harry was curled around the snake like he was more afraid of Sasuke. For someone who knew so little about the shinobi world, Harry was certainly disturbed by the sharingan. A Uchiha shouldn't be. All of his life, it had been something Sasuke was proud of. As much as he had hated and feared his brother, he had never felt the same way about the sharingan.

It made staying calm himself much more difficult than he ever thought it could be. He was used to people following his orders. Even Naruto tended to do what he wanted if pushed just right. Harry seemed determined to do the opposite of everything Sasuke wished for. And it had never been so important before to have complete obedience. The alternatives were unthinkable. At the same time, however, Harry was not a fellow shinobi that he could over power in order to gain respect from.

He also, apparently, had no fear.

Even though something about the sharingan obviously bothered him very keenly, he still refused to give up the snake. He smothered it like a small child with a dog and yelled at Sasuke. Damn it, damn the snake and damn everything. He couldn't take the snake by force without endangering his cousin, and Harry seemed to have lost his mind, screaming at Sasuke to leave the snake alone. It wasn't the fucking snake he was worried about!

"I can't –" he swallowed those words before he could say them. Harry didn't understand. This was his fault. Sasuke's fault. "It's not – I can't control it," he finally admitted, trying to clarify just how quickly this could all go seriously, fatally wrong. "It's poisonous," he explained. "Please. Just let me have the damned snake before it kills you."

If he had to beg, he would.

Harry still refused. Sasuke wasn't going to have any choice. He was going to have to risk taking the thing by force. If he was fast enough, this could all be forgotten. If he wasn't, he could only hope Sakura was truly as good as Tsunade.

And then his cousin Harry went and did perhaps the last thing Sasuke expected. He talked to the damn snake. And not in the way addle-brained idiots talked to dogs as if the stupid mutts understood. No, he hissed at the damned thing and the damned thing hissed back at him.

The sound sent a crawling shiver down Sasuke's back. His fingers inexplicitly itched for a kunai. It was one thing to hear his snakes talk among themselves, but they never spoke to him in a hiss. It was the beauty of summons, they came equipped with the capacity for human speech. Humans were not meant to learn the summons's communication methods. The only person Sasuke had ever seen talk to a snake had been Orochimaru, and even then he typically limited it to whenever he was feeling particularly sadistic.

Those were not fond memories – and they clashed terribly with the picture of his civilian cousin cradling a living deadly weapon to his chest.

Harry's head snapped up and his eyes darted back and forth. He knew he'd done something he shouldn't have. His face paled before their eyes. "What?" he asked. It was a passingly decent attempt at sounding nonchalant. It might have worked if they hadn't all been focused so intently on him. He could have written it off as their imagination, or simply silliness, but they'd all heard him do it and even more disconcertingly, they'd all heard the snake reply.

Sasuke's mind raced. Harry had no chakra. Or at least, nothing trained. A good ninja could feel the difference. He had no previous exposure to shinobi as far as they knew. There was no clear logical explanation.

Or at least none that Sasuke wanted to even consider. After all, he'd never been able to confirm whether or not he was the first sharingan user Orochimaru had gone after. It was conceivable that a vulnerable outcast like Harry could have come to the attention of the sannin. If there was one thing Sasuke had learned over the years, it was never to doubt any of them.

The sour taste of bile filled his mouth. If Orochimaru did anything to his cousin…he'd find a way to bring the bastard back from the dead and show him the real meaning of sadism.

"Well, isn't that interesting," Kakashi finally drawled.

Sasuke's eyes stayed focused on Harry as the other young man paled even further. He looked well terrified, the way Sasuke had expected to find him when he first realized something was wrong. Oddly enough, the return to something expect was not as comforting as it usually was. Harry flinched back from all of them. He shifted his weight to free one hand and got his feet under himself finally, ready to bolt.

Sasuke couldn't escape the idea that only the guilty tried to run. Harry knew what he'd just done was a skill best kept hidden. How many other secrets was he hiding?

"Creepy," Naruto announced. "That was creepy, not interesting."

Sasuke could hear the scowl in his voice, could imagine the expression on his face. He didn't need to turn around to know how his teammate was reacting. Even if they hadn't spent years together, he would have had a fairly good idea just based on the way Harry reacted. He went from looking scared to pained so fast Sasuke almost flinched along with him.

He didn't correct Naruto, however. It was true after all. It was creepy.

Sakura was, perhaps, more sensitive. She smacked Naruto upside the head and yelled at him for being rude.

Sasuke ignored them. "Where did you learn that?" he asked darkly. He would have rather waited until he had no witnesses but time was of the essence. If his cousin was somehow connected to Orochimaru, even remotely, Sasuke would have to get him out of the village. He couldn't risk turning him over to Ibiki. The interrogator and the rest of the Council would be relentless and unforgiving if they thought Harry had anything that would help them defend the village.

"I – " Harry stuttered. He refused to meet Sasuke's eyes. He looked ready to run. It would a futile effort, but it wouldn't be a pleasant one either.

Sasuke grinded his teeth together for a moment, before forcing himself to narrowly relax. Just enough so that with a focused effort he could release the sharingan. He didn't like the fact that Harry would not look him in the eye. If the small concession would help smooth things over, then Sasuke could manage it. After all, it would only take a second to bring it back into play.

"Harry," he said carefully but firmly. "Who taught you that?"

Harry's eyes darted back again. Apparently releasing the sharingan was a good idea, because this time his cousin's gaze caught and stayed on him. Harry frowned. "No one taught me," he replied.

Sasuke curse silently. "Harry, this is important. You have to tell me who. Now."

Harry just shook his head and frowned even more. "I told you, no one taught me how."

Great. His cousin had apparently gone back to being frustratingly contrary. What timing. And Harry still refused to hand over the little monster in his lap. "I need to know," Sasuke repeated, trying to keep his voice calm. "I have to figure out what to do."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kakashi raise his one eyebrow. "Do, Sasuke-kun?" the man asked. "I certainly hope you're not thinking anything drastic. You're still on parole, after all."

"Parole?" Harry parroted and Sasuke once more considered doing himself a favor and ending his teacher's life. Kakashi did that on purpose, the bastard. Although it was an effective distraction. Momentarily.

Harry's eyes narrowed once more. "Yeah, what'd you mean to do, huh? I – I didn't do any thing wrong," he said, and he almost sounded like he believed it.

"No," Sasuke agreed through clenched teeth. "Technically, you haven't. That doesn't mean it's not important," his hissed.

"Sasuke's right," Kakashi announced, suddenly sounding much more professional and much less like the idiot he was. "We need to know how you learned to do that, Harry-kun. I'm afraid this is one secret you're going to have to share with us."

Sasuke spared a glare in Kakashi's direction. He said that like he knew something about Harry that Sasuke didn't.

"I told you!" Harry yelled back, face flushing. "No one taught me how! I just – " he tapered off for a moment before glaring at all of them. "I just did it one day," said quickly before fixing his gaze very firmly on the snake in his lap and not at anything else.

Sasuke glanced over at his teacher. He'd have said his cousin was lying, except nothing in his posture or tone suggested as much. And he seriously doubted his cousin had mastered the fine art of hiding his lies that well. Most shinobi took years of practice to get that good. "How?" Sasuke finally asked.

Harry started petting the stupid snake and the thing put up with it. If Sasuke had ever tried to pet one of the foul-tempered little beasts he would have certainly ended up with a perforated hand. Harry made it look so natural it was kind of disturbing on its own new level. "I don't know," he finally said. "Not for sure. I mean, apparently I've always been able to, but I didn't know it till I was 11. We went to the zoo, and there was this snake." He smiled slightly. "I thought I was just talking at it. I didn't realize I was talking to it until it replied. Shocked the bloody hell out me, actually." He glanced up again and grinned. It was a vast and sudden improvement over his initial panic. "It's freaky. I do know that. I thought so to, you know? But most snakes really are very nice. Just like this one," he concluded before proudly hoisting the poisonous thing up into the air like a child's toy. And the snake put up with it.

Sasuke, however, had to fight down the urge to slaughter his own summons. "Put. It. Down," he growled out.

Of course, Harry wouldn't. He simply tilted his head to the side and smirked. "Scared of snakes?" he asked.

Naruto snickered and Sasuke added him to his list of people to kill today. "No," he grounded out. "It's my snake."

That seemed to throw Harry off balance. He finally lowered the snake and glanced back and forth between it and Sasuke. "Really? For someone who owns a snake, you sure don't like it very much."

"It's a weapon," Sasuke snapped back. "A tool. Nothing more. It's dangerous and you should not be handling it like a toy!"

Harry glared at him. "You shouldn't treat it like that."

Before Sasuke could retort with something appropriately scathing, the blasted snake decided to join the conversation. And only so that Harry could understand it. Harry listened carefully, his head tilted towards the animal as it hissed at him. After a moment, he opened his mouth and hissed back at it. His teeth locked together as he hissed out between drawn lips. It was not natural looking and seemingly impossible to follow. Harry didn't seem any happier with the snake, however, than he was with Sasuke. And Sasuke didn't know whether to take that as a good sign or not.

Finally, Harry shook his head, too stubborn to accept whatever the snake was saying. Then he turned back to Sasuke. "What are you going to do with it?" he asked sharply.

Sasuke considered lying, but it was beneath him. He had no qualms about lying when it served his purposes, but he wasn't about to start lying about something as maudlin as the fate of one of his summons. "Banish it," he replied just as curtly.

Harry's eyes widened. "Kill it?" he asked sharply. And once more the snake disappeared into the fold of Harry's arms.

Sasuke felt like beating something senseless. This was why he didn't like people. They argued with him and made things far more complicated than they should be. "No, you blockhead twit!" he snarled. "Banish it! That's what one does with a summons once their job is done and they are no longer needed! The things are made to be all but impossible to kill," he added darkly.

Harry didn't even flinch. "But where do they go then?" he asked relentlessly.

Sasuke opened his mouth to snap back but didn't get the chance. It was Naruto who replied. "They go home, of course," he said, then shrugged. He shifted out of his crouch and flopped down on the grass bonelessly.

"Home?" Harry asked. There was something about his tone of voice that wasn't just hopeful. It was almost slightly longing. That was the only thing that kept Sasuke from yelling at Naruto for being an idiot. Snakes didn't have homes.

"Sure," Naruto replied with a grin. "That's where my toads go, after all. Back to the rest of their family."

What on earth was the dobe talking about now? Sasuke actually turned to stare at him over his shoulder. They were toads. They didn't have families!

"You have toads?" Harry asked. He said it in the kind of voice one used when inquiring about a mildly interesting development. Normally civilians tended to take such development with a great deal more shock. "One of my friends has a toad," Harry informed them.

Naruto grinned proudly. "My toads are awesome. Way better than Sasuke's creepy snakes."

Sasuke glared at him. The whole point was for his summons to be creepy. It made them much more effective. But trust the dobe to try to turn it into some kind of fault. Just because he got stuck with something as childish as toads.

"Snake's aren't creepy," Harry repeated, but he didn't sound nearly as hostile with Naruto has he had moments before with Sasuke. "But you're sure they go home? That – that doesn't sound too bad. Can he ever come back?"

"Sure!" Naruto answered.

"Maybe," Sasuke snapped over him.

Harry glared at him for a moment, then sighed. He pulled the snake back out once more and hissed something to it quickly. The snake replied. Team 7 stood motionlessly and watched with varying degrees of wonder, disgust and apprehension. Finally, Harry carefully set the small snake down. His eyes stayed on Sasuke however. No doubt he didn't trust him not to harm the animal. His first instinct was to neatly remove the traitorous beast's head, but even Sasuke could realize that that probably wouldn't go over well. It wouldn't advance him in his mission to secure Harry's compliance in order to ensure his safety. So instead, Sasuke very slowly made the appropriate seal and demonstrated exactly how a summons was released. With a soft pop! the snake was gone, the threat removed and the world once more under Sasuke's control.

Everything was silent.

Then Naruto made an obvious show out of stretching and standing up. He moved up to stand by Sasuke's side and deliberately bumped shoulders with him. "So, know any more cool tricks, Harry?" he asked.

Harry flushed again, and ducked his head down. "No, not really."

Sasuke watched his face carefully. There was hesitation there, but honesty too. Just enough mixed expressions to make it impossible to read a clear answer. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He'd have to watch his cousin more closely it seemed. He believed Harry when he said no one taught him how to communicate with snakes. Any skill mastered without chakra and seals had to be inborn. Just because it had never previously manifested within the Uchiha bloodline did not mean it could not. There were, after all, some nasty rumors about where they got their notorious bloodlimit.

"Let's keep this to ourselves, shall we?" Kakashi announced suddenly. All four of the teenagers glanced up at him. He had his book out once more and didn't bother to return their stare.

"Sure," Harry replied first, sounding relieved.

Sasuke nodded his head sharply. "Agreed." He certainly wasn't going to argue. Kakashi's subtle order saved him the effort of threatening everyone present into silence. While Tsunade had made every indication that she intended to treat Harry as any other civilian of Konoha, Sasuke had been a ninja long enough to learn never to trust anyone. As long as no one outside of his team knew, then they could just keep his cousin's unusual talent their little secret. If no one knew about it, then no one could use it against them, Sasuke was confident of it.

Even though he was a good enough of a ninja to also know no secrets stayed secret forever.