AN: I'm back! I survive Nanowrimo! I even finished! A first for me. If you're interested, it's at the FictionPress site at the path: /s/2860781/1/Finding_a_Faithless_God

And ohmygod, I'm so sorry I haven't updated! Now that Nanowrio's over, I'll be focusing once more on this story.

"What a mess," Harry announced as he and Naruto came walking up to the house. Sasuke paused long enough to look up from his work. It hadn't taken much to convince Naruto to take on the responsibility for watching over Harry for a few hours. Not that any of them had worded it quite that way. Sasuke was quickly learning that certain approaches were not only not going to help but were actually making things more difficult. So he was trying. Really. Phrasing it as if Harry and Naruto ought to take advantage of the time to catch up on some sleep and grab some food worked much better than exerting a firm vow out of Naruto not to leave Harry's side for even a moment during the time it took Sasuke to piece things back together at home.

He'd made good progress in the couple of hours he'd had to himself. The outer defenses had been disabled at some point. He'd replaced most of them, and even improved a couple. Cleaning out all signs of the fight from what was now Harry's room was the next priority. Doors were the third thing on his list, and the one he was currently in the middle of completing. The inner doors that had been damaged or destroyed during the fight had been easy to replace with supplies readily available in the village. The front door was a little more complicated. It was designed to take more strain, and accordingly took more time to repair. The work was fairly straight forward, however. Support beams ran along there, and this ledge fit snuggling in with that. Sitting on the front porch, half in and half outside of the house, with a hammer in one hand and a nothing to focus on but the task in front of him had been strangely relaxing. Even the sun was cooperating as it slowly warmed the wooden floor boards beneath him.

It was no secret Sasuke preferred to work alone, though some might be surprised how much he'd taken to enjoying the simplicity of household repairs. Half the compound was in danger of collapsing any day now. In the process of slowly piecing it back together over the past few months Sasuke had managed to develop a number of specific skills related to carpentry, plaster work and even plumbing. While it had taken much longer than Sasuke had originally anticipated, it had also been much more rewarding than any D-rank mission he could remember.

Still – as nice as it had been to get some work done, Sasuke couldn't deny feeling relieved to see his cousin walking towards him. He was even willing to ignore the stupid knowing grin all over Naruto's face. The yard was still a total mess, and he watched as the other two boys had to pick their way around all of the pot-holes and uprooted shrubbery. "I see you managed to survive this long without killing him," he called out in greeting before he went back to his work.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled back. "I resent that! Stupid teme. I'm damn well capable enough to take your cousin to lunch. Geeze, take a chill pill already or something."

Sasuke didn't bother to look up. "I wasn't talking to you," he answered. There was a momentary pause as the two stopped walking and Sasuke risked a glance up out of the corner of his eye. At first, both of them were frowning, but slowly Harry's mouth twisted into a smirk before he snorted quietly. They shared a look, and for once it was just the two of them in on the joke. Then Naruto started yelling again. Sasuke devoted only as much attention to his teammate's rant as it deserved and went back to patiently sanding down the edge of the fresh frame in front of him so that it would slide smoothly and silently.

Harry laughed as he stepped up onto the porch. "We had a good time," he said as he sat down by the edge. "Naruto told me stories about when you guys were younger."

It was convenient that Harry was angled away from him – he couldn't see the faint grimace on Sasuke's face. Naruto did, however. And of course, the idiot had to make a big deal out of it by grinning that stupid grin and winking. All of these years and yet the dobe still didn't understand the meaning of subtle. "I still say the best one of my pranks was that time, in class, with Iruka-sensei and the super-glue. You remember?"

"You mean the week we were supposed to be studying the basic construction and tactical uses of explosive tags?"

"Yeah! Exactly!" Naruto exclaimed happily.

Sasuke shook his head. Like everything else, Naruto had to take a creative approach to learning. At the time, it had been anything but entertaining to Sasuke. He had had more important things to think about than the class idiot. The ensuing chaos had not only disrupted class for the rest of the day but had also resulted in class being held outdoors for the next week while the mess was cleaned up. Looking back however, while it still had been stupid and useless, there may have been a certain entertainment factor involved. It was certainly demonstrative of some of the latter tactics Naruto would develop. More importantly, it certainly made for a better story than any Sasuke had to share from that time.

Harry shook his head as well with a light laugh. "Your poor teacher."

"Hey, his eyebrows grew back!" Naruto replied. "Oh, come on. It was hilarious. You just wish you'd thought of it first. Haven't you ever wanted to do something like that to a teacher at least once?"

Harry seemed to stop to think about the question seriously. His eyes drifted down to stare at the cracked stone steps leading up to the house as his smile slowly faded away. He flicked a bit of dead twig off of the edge beside him and muttered, "Worse, I guess."

Sasuke paused in his work and slowly shifted so he could clearly see the other boy. "I thought this school was important to you," he said carefully. Diplomacy certainly was not one of Sasuke's strong points, but these past few days had clearly drawn his attention to a deficit in his abilities. So much had changed since the night before and even though he had had the past few hours to work through some of it, there were still far too many variable for him to feel comfortable. What small comfort there was to be had in the knowledge that his cousin was capable of a form of basic self-defense was lost in the myriad of new worries laid at Sasuke's feet. There were few things worse than an unknown opponent. Furthermore, any hint of a new bloodline would have the vultures circling faster than Sasuke could take them down. It would certainly draw more attention than the two of them needed at that point.

And that was not even touching the fact that his cousin was clearly still holding back information from them. The Hokage had been kind enough not to call him on it at the time, but it was obvious to anyone who lived in the profession of lying that there were still things that Harry refused to tell them. Like the fact that he obviously planned on fighting in this "wizard's" war and revenging his parents. Goals Sasuke could whole heartedly agree with – right up until they involved getting his cousin killed. But as long as he had Harry here….

Distance alone ought to keep him safe. The only problem with that theory was he doubted anything short of brute force would keep his cousin from this school of his. Harry had fought too hard to keep it a secret for it not to be important. But if there was something about that place that made Harry unhappy… maybe he could be convinced to consider some alternative, more local options.

"Do you not like your instructors?" Sasuke asked calmly as he set to lining up his tools.

Harry laughed – but it was not exactly a friendly kind of laugh. It had that kind of sharp bitter edge to it that was meant to cut into something. It certainly didn't fit into the previous conversations and had Sasuke itching to shift into a more defensive position. "Not exactly," Harry explained. "Well, not all of them, I guess. Hagrid's great. He was my first friend, you know? And he's always been great to talk to."

Friends. Sasuke wanted to growl to himself. Yet another complication to add to his list. Something else to have to work around. Though hopefully there were not too many of them. One or two, surely could be easily replaced. Even if Sasuke had to personally see to providing replacements. He glanced over at Naruto. Now would be a bad time for the usually oblivious boy to suddenly demonstrate his sporadic ability to see through people. Sasuke certainly did not want to have to endure yet another lecture from his teammate about the importance of connections. But the dobe's mind was obviously elsewhere. His smile was still firmly in place, but Sasuke did not miss the slight tightening around the eyes that meant Naruto was holding it in place.

"Iruka-sensei was like that for me," Naruto agreed. "He was the first person to ever recognize me, even if I'd sometimes wished he'd notice me a little bit less in class, if you know what I mean."

"What about the rest of your teachers?" Sasuke demanded, wanting to move away from this topic of friends until he came up with a better solution. The teachers, however, that was an opening he could easily exploit.

Harry's head jerked up suddenly, and Sasuke could have cursed himself. Apparently, he needed to control his voice a little better and remind himself about the merits of subtlety. "Most of them are okay," Harry quickly reassured them.

Naruto was just as quick to jump to Sasuke's aid. His grin shifted into something a little more feral. "Most means not all, which means at least one of them really deserves what's coming to them. Come on, Harry, don't hold out on us. How'd you get back at them? You did get back at them, right?"

It worked like magic. Harry's shoulders relaxed slowly and he leaned back against the side of the house. Sasuke would owe the dobe a bowl of ramen for this.

"Oh, yeah," Harry finally announced. "You could definitely say that." At Naruto's silent but enthusiastic encouragement, complete with wide eyes and clasped hands, Harry continued. He leaned forward suddenly, almost conspiratorially, and Sasuke was quick to follow Naruto's lead in leaning in as well. He wasn't going to pass up this opportunity to encourage a more forthcoming nature in his cousin. "The thing is," Harry told them, "there's a position at school, Defense actually, that they say is cursed."

Naruto's head jerked back suddenly. "Cursed?" he yelped.

Sasuke didn't hesitate. He reached out and smacked his teammate in the back of the head. "Grow up," he hissed.

Naruto ignored him. "Cursed, as in haunted, as in ghosts?" Naruto asked in his best imitation of a whisper.

Harry blinked slowly. "Eh?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The idiot is afraid of ghosts," he explained. What an embarrassment. One would think that a shinobi of his skill level would have eventually outgrown that ridiculous fear.

But Harry just smiled back. "Don't worry. Most ghosts are quiet nice."

Yes, yes, moving along onto naming names, Sasuke wanted to say. But then what his cousin was saying fully sunk in. "Excuse me?" he asked carefully. At worst, he might have expected his cousin to share some of the same childish fears as the dobe. While regrettable and somewhat annoying, that would have been at least understandable. "Nice?" Sasuke echoed back. That was the last word Sasuke would ever used to describe something returning from the dead. He'd seen enough reanimated bodies to know they were usually disgusting, violent, unnatural things, and whatever "ghosts" that might be reanimating them little better.

Harry eyes widened. "You don't have any ghosts?" he asked.

"You do?" Naruto yelped back. He flailed his arms as well in emphasis. It was a sentiment that Sasuke could emphasize with. What the hell?

Harry blushed and gave a small strangled laugh. "I just thought, you know…"

"No," Sasuke snapped.

"None?"

Sasuke shook his head.

Harry's shoulders slumped. "Great. I'm just oversharing all kinds of things, aren't I? I just assumed you would too, what with all the sort-of magic you guys do. I mean, I thought ghost were everywhere."

"Not here," Sasuke replied, feeling distinctly grateful for that fact. How the hell did one fight a ghost? "Reanimated corpses, maybe. With a number of distasteful jutsus, and maybe a human sacrifice or two…"

"Eeewwww," Naruto added eloquently. He had had enough experiences with some of Orochimaru's projects to know exactly what Sasuke was referring to, even if he had not had the dubious pleasure of seeing some of them made from up close.

"God, no," Harry added. "Nothing like that. Ghosts just kind of happen. And they're a lot like normal people. Other than the dead part. And the see through part. And the cold. And the whole, not really solid bit. And they're kind of forgetful, but come on, they're dead. They're allowed to be forgetful, right?"

Sasuke stared back at his cousin. "Yes, perfectly normal," he drawled out. "I am beginning to seriously question the kind of people you associate with at this school of yours."

The moment those words came out of his mouth, Sasuke knew it was a mistake. He didn't need to see the scowl that immediately appeared on Harry's face, or to watch as Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "There's nothing wrong with the people at my school."

And once more, they were back to square one. Sasuke grimaced and quickly started trying to backtrack. "That's not – "

"Are – are ghost really people?" Naruto interrupted, his voice once more hushed down into what passed as a whisper for him. He had finally stopped flailing about over this latest revelation, and had instead come to crouch down beside Harry. Naruto's eyes were wide, his hands clasped together, as he stared up at Harry as if waiting for great wisdom to pass from him to the dobe's eagerly waiting empty shell of a head.

Harry's temper faltered as he turned back to face Naruto. "What? Oh! Um, I would think so. It certainly wouldn't be very nice to suggest otherwise, would it?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "No! Oh, no, you're right. Definitely wouldn't wanna say otherwise where they could hear ya. Might make them mad."

Harry laughed. "No, I wouldn't. I've heard the Bloody Baron can be quite frightening when he wants to."

"There's a Bloody Baron?" Naruto gasped.

Sasuke scowled. This was starting to disintegrate into one of Naruto's little episodes and was not providing the kind of information Sasuke needed at the moment. "Focus, Dobe," he hissed as he jabbed the blunt end of one of tools into the blond's side.

"But he's bloody!"

"So are we on a fairly regular basis," Sasuke snapped back. "Really, dobe. You are getting worked up over a hypothetically bloody ghost at some school halfway around the world in a land that up until recently we've never even heard of much less had any reason to be concerned over. I assure you, your pea-size brain does not need to be wasting any of its precious energy panicking over someone stupid enough to get himself killed! You are a shinobi! Try acting like one and shut up!"

"Sasuke!" Harry yelled back over him, his voice sharp with disapproval and disappointment in a way that Sasuke had previously only ever heard out of Kakashi-sensei. No one else had ever dared take that tone with him. With damn good reason too. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

Then Naruto giggled. The blond would have called it a manly chuckle, but it was difficult for Sasuke to perceive it as anything like that. He watched the other boy flop back down to sit on the grass, a stupid grin on his face and his hiate slightly off-centered. Naruto laughed lightly, seemingly ignorant of Harry's obvious anger and Sasuke's own scowl. "Yeah," he said as if replying to some unasked question. "Totally not something to worry about, right?"

Sasuke frowned. "That's what I said."

Naruto just waved his comment off. "It's alright, Sasuke. You don't have to tell us you're not scared. We believe you."

"That's not – " Sasuke's voice failed him as if someone strangled it to a halt. Who the hell said anything about him being scared? The dobe was the idiot about near having a conniption fit at the mere thought. How the hell had that idiot work it around in that empty head of his that it was Sasuke that was the coward? "Damn it," he muttered. Sasuke did not bother trying to argue back. There was no point when Naruto had some fool notion like this in his head. The only way to get it out was to beat it out and Sasuke just fixed the porch, damn it all. This was not the time or the place to remind Naruto of just how much of an idiot the blond boy really was.

The dobe even had the nerve to grin cheekily back at him, all traces of his earlier fear gone.

Sasuke grounded his teeth together. "Back to the original topic," he finally demanded. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to Harry. "What was that about your teacher being cursed?"

Apparently, Sasuke wasn't the only one who was having difficulty following Naruto's creative approach to logic. Harry was frowning as he glanced back and forth between the two of them. "But-" he started before sighing heavily. "Oh, nevermind." He turned back to Sasuke, his features looking much more relaxed, but in a way that might have been simply resigned. Sasuke could emphasis. When dealing with Naruto, resigned was sometimes the only option. "It's not the teachers, really. It's the position. No teacher's been able to hold the position for more than one year in the pass five."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Sounds dangerous."

Sasuke frowned. "Sounds like a hoax." And apparently an effective one, if everyone believed in it. He couldn't help but wonder how many of these teachers had actually left for a legitimate reason and how many of them had simply been scared off. It wasn't a bad tactic, if one had the patience to set it up. Obviously rumors of things like curses and ghost would probably be enough to keep people like Naruto conveniently away…

Harry shrugged. "If it's all some elaborate trick, sure seems to be working," he replied. "We're had one teacher possessed, another had a spell back fire and erased all of his memory, another was kidnapped for almost a year, and the last one…" he trailed off before shrugging again and smirking. "She got what was coming to her, I suspect."

Naruto stared hard at him for a moment before flinging his arms up into the air. "Argh! That face! I know that face! You're not supposed to make that face too! That's the face teme makes when he's reeeaaally done something evil."

Sasuke scowled at his teammate. Riling up his cousin was not helpful, and he didn't exactly appreciate the back-handed slur on his own character. Harry, however, only laughed. "I didn't do anything," he insisted. "She's the one who followed us out into the forest."

Sasuke laughed, once, in what was more of a quiet huff. "And you had nothing to do with setting this trap," he commented with a slight smirk.

Harry's grin grew. "Actually, it was all Hermonie's idea. I had nothing to do with it."

Sasuke snorted.

"Really," Harry insisted.

Naruto laughed. "Don't worry, Harry-kun. We understand. Totally plausible deniablility, right?"

"But I'm telling the truth!"

"You expect us to believe that you honestly had nothing whatsoever to do with the elimination of this woman from her position as your instructor?" Sasuke asked with and one raised eyebrow.

Harry cheeks flushed but he pointedly cocked one eyebrow back before replying. "There may or may not have been a student club, with the sole purpose of undermining her authority, that I may or may not have been involved in, in a leadership position."

Naruto crowed in delight as Sasuke sat back, surprised. He had not expected such clear disobedience out of his cousin. Sasuke did not know whether to be more alarmed with every new thing his cousin said or to feel a bit relieved that things were not as bad as he feared. As terrible as possessions, kidnappings and dangerous forests sounded, none of that had actually happened to his cousin. Sasuke really did not give a damn what happened to the instructors as long as Harry wasn't involved. The fact that Harry may or may not have instigated some of it was merely an added bonus. After all, if he was willing to sabotage one of his instructors, he obvious must be open to the idea of further waywardness. His cousin seemed more attached to the idea of his school than necessarily the instructors in it. Which was a very good thing. Naruto might speak fondly of their old academy sensei, and maybe Kakashi had his uses at times, when he was not busy being a perverted embarrassment to all Konoha shinobi, but Sasuke still had an instinctive distaste for mentor figures. They tended to interfere with independent thought. Harry's nonchalant disregard for his teachers suggested Sasuke didn't need to worry about that kind of complication at least. Which would make things so much easier for Sasuke to influence.

With that warming thought, it was easy to smile and suggest they retire into the backyard and maybe even practice some standard throwing techniques. After all, training was a great distraction.