Chapter Four

There was another moment of that terribly awkward silence that follows such introductions, and then Har…Hideaki as he called himself, nodded again to Dumbledore in what could be interpreted as an extremely abbreviated bow. With his arm still wrapped around his companion's waist, the boy sat down again, gesturing with his eyes that Dumbledore and Sarutobi do the same. Somewhat uncertain as to how to proceed, Dumbledore sat down, acting more out of instinct that any cognitive process.

He wasn't sure how to proceed here, the situation was not one he understood whatsoever. He had had the perfect plan with leaving Harry with the Dursleys, where he would have been under Dumbledore's constant observation. Furthermore, although he would not wish any cruelty upon the boy, the disinclination towards magic or anything unusual which had been so obvious in Petunia and her husband would have prevented the boy from becoming too big-headed and would have made him a less unpredictable player in the game, he had planned that Hogwarts would have become the love-starved boy's first and only home and loyalty. From what he had scene of the twisted domestic scene he had stumbled into, there was no doubt that Harry's kidnappers had made a first home for him here and made him into their own weapon. Worst of all, from what he had scene and heard of these ninjas, their first loyalty was almost always to their village and their kage. These kinds of loyalties would make the boy a very unpredictable element indeed.

As he sat there ruminating on these troublesome facts, Dumbledore became aware of the force of two glares pressing against his back with the force of a strong Stupefy. Just as he was wondering where such anger could be directed from, Harry's companion spoke up,

"Naruto-kun, otouto, stop directing your killing intent at our…guest."

The hesitation before the last word was obvious, as was the lack of sincere chastisement; the strange teen was blatantly more amused than angry, though you could not tell it from looking at his face, which remained as blankly expressionless as before. Nevertheless, with much eye-rolling and obvious sighing, the angry force at his back lessened. Then Harry himself spoke up and Dumbledore found himself leaning slightly forward to hear more of that softly musical voice.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, would you go make some tea for Hokage-sama and our…guest."

Harry's voice showed the same dubious hesitation before attributing Dumbledore the title of guest, as if questioning his welcome and this made the venerable Warlock frown in dissatisfaction. None of his plans would be effective if the boy refused to trust him. The blonde boy pouted at Harry, whining,

"But niisan…"

Harry's expression was implacable,

"That was not a suggestion Naruto-kun."

Scowling furiously, the two boys slouched out of the living room, only speeding up when Harry sent them another chastising stare. Even so, they both stopped to send another furious glare at Dumbledore before disappearing out of the room. With a sigh, Harry settled back down into his companion's embrace and Dumbledore sighed himself as he sensed the beginning of what promised to be another torturous round of small-talk that would delay his purpose.

Breakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreakbreak

Under the supposed cover of the boiling of the kettle, Naruto and Sasuke argued fiercely in hushed voices. The noise of the kettle would at least cover their voices from the interloper's ears, but there was no way in hell that Itachi-nii or Hideaki-nii wouldn't hear them, they had special sensors or something. But the point was that they at least had the decency to pretend to find a covering noise before being rude about the stranger. Sasuke started the debate with the simplistic statement that summed up both of their emotions.

"I don't trust him."

Naruto scowled in empathy,

"He's not nice, I can sense it."

Sasuke snickered under his breath,

"You can sense it, what kind of trashy manga have you been reading now?"

Naruto stuck his tongue out,

"You should know, I nicked 'em from your room, Sasuke-chan?"

Sasuke snatched the largest hatchet from the counter-top and made to stab Naruto with it,

"I told you not to call me that, Naruto-baka."

Just as Naruto was about to grab his own knife and get down to the fun stuff, a voice sounded from the living room,

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, what have we told you about trying to stab each other in the kitchen? It's not hygienic if you get blood on the counter tops."

Frowning, the two boys put down their knives and turned their attention back to the tea preparations. Itachi and Sasuke liked it black, as did Hideaki, but he liked an obscene amount of sugar. Naruto on the other hand liked it with milk and enough sugar to send someone into a hypoglaecemic fit from even smelling it. Hokage-sama took it with some milk but not sugar, and no one really gave a damn what that man took with his tea anyway.

When the tea preparations were complete and Naruto and Sasuke had had a scrappy little fight over stealing the best biscuits. As Sasuke nursed a bruised chin and Naruto's broken nose healed at an unfairly fast rate. Seeing them returning to the living room in this state, Hideaki and Itachi rolled their eyes, at least Hideaki did, Itachi merely quirked his left eyebrow by a fraction of a centimetre, but that was the Uchiha equivalent anyway.

Sighing, Hideaki took the tea-tray from his younger brother and raised an eyebrow at the two scowling eleven-year-olds.

"And why are the two of you still hanging around here for anyway? Shouldn't you be at the Academy?"

Naruto pouted pathetically,

"But…niisan, it's the first time both you and Itachi-nii have been home at the same time in ages…we wanted to spend time with you…"

A smile twitched at the corners of Hideaki's mouth, but he remained firm,

"And we will, Naruto-kun, when you and Sasuke-kun get back from the academy this evening."

From an objective perspective, the fake tears welling up in Naruto's eyes were more than a little impressive. Hideaki remained mostly impassive, but after a moment and seeing the genuine concern hidden behind the tears, softened and ruffled his younger brother's hair gently,

"Don't worry, otouto, I'll still be here this evening. I'll tell you what, Itachi and I will come to pick the two of you up from the Academy this evening, and if I hear from Iruka-san that you have been behaving yourselves, and working hard, we'll all go out for dinner as a family this weekend."

Naruto and Sasuke both immediately brightened; family dinners were always special occasions and normally only reserved for particularly important events or achievements. Smiling again, Hideaki reached into a pocket and drew out a fold of bills, peeling a few off and handing some to both boys.

"I haven't had time to prepare your lunches, so take this and get yourselves something to eat. Naruto, may I remind you that you may go to Ichiraku's and have some ramen, but only if you're back in time for your afternoon lessons."

There was a moment of almost awkward silence, then both boys bounded forwards, after stuffing the money into their pockets, and together wrapped Hideaki in a hug that nearly squeezed all the breath out of his eyes. Surprised, Hideaki brought his arms up to wrap around the two boys and if he hadn't been a shinobi he would have missed the fervent whisper that Naruto pressed against his chest,

"Please don't leave us, niisan. He wants to take you away and make sure you never come back. Please don't go."

Wrapping his arms tighter around the two boys, Hideaki chanced a glance at Dumbledore-sensei, sitting in one of the chairs and looking distinctly uncomfortable. Frowning at the calculating expression ill-concealed by paternal interest, Hideaki turned his attention back to the blonde who he had always known as his brother and the blue-haired boy who had become as dear as a brother to him. Reluctantly letting them go, he smiled at them,

"Everything will be fine, now the two of you ought to be off, otherwise you'll be late to the Academy."

Smiling through suspiciously watery eyes, the two boys scampered off in the direction of their room. Hideaki sat back down by Itachi and rested his head on the older shinobi's shoulder, waiting. He was not disappointed, after a couple of minutes the expected shouting began,

"Niisan, where're the shuriken I got last week, I wanted to show them to Tenten-sempai?"

That was Naruto, who seemed to have recently developed an unusual interest in sharp point things, unusual even for a shinobi.

"It's there you baka, if you actually lifted things up you might not have such a difficult time in finding things. Though it's no surprise, your side of the room always looked like a whole battalion of shinobi had been practising their wind jutsu in it."

"Urusai. Anyway, that's not my stuff; it's one of your old socks."

"It is not, I do not own socks that are orange and have green frogs on."

"You so do, I bought them for you."

"Oh yeah, I thought I had thrown those out, ages ago."

"You did, I rescued them."

"Thanks, I needed something to clean my kunai with."

"Sasuke-teme…"

The argument continued and then to two eleven-year-olds raced headlong out of the apartment in a flurry of blue and orange, pausing only to gulp down the last of their tea, grab their weapons pouches from down the side of the sofa, where they had ended up…somehow, and wave at their older brothers before continuing their flight at breakneck speed. Smiling indulgently, Hideaki turned back to Dumbledore-sensei, whose mock-paternalistic smile was becoming more and more fixed at time went on.

Leaning forward slight, he considered what Naruto had said and fixed the man with his best glare, only the presence of the Hokage reminding him to restrain his killing intent from leaking around the room. No-one upset his little brother and got away with it, as several of the more prejudiced villagers had learned to their disadvantage.

"Now Dumbledore-san" he refused to be any more respectful than he absolutely had to, though he doubted the man would know the difference, "what precisely is it that you want from me?"

The question seemed to catch the older man off-guard and he had to pause to collect himself before answering,

"My dear boy…"

Hideaki cut him off before he could continue in that particular strain,

"No, not your dear boy, or your dear anything for that matter. I want answers, not meaningless platitudes."

From the corner of his eye, he could see Itachi's eyes curling up in a smile; as the two youngest ever ANBU captains, neither of them particularly liked being treated like children. Frowning at this exchange, Dumbledore tried again, uncomfortably aware of the proximity of the Hokage, who was watching over the whole affair and smiling in a manner disturbingly akin to that of a proud papa. He would receive no help from that or any other quarter, it would seem.

"Harry," the boy in question frowned at this manner of address, but allowed the old man to continue, "I was delighted to hear that you had received your letter at last. I've come to take you home."

However, in contrast to Dumbledore's hopes, the statement fell upon disinterested ears,

"Professor, I would first like to request that you address me as Hideaki-san or Kazama-san, that is my name, as you must be aware and we are not closely enough acquainted for a more familiar mode of address. Secondly, you must have noticed that this is my home, there is no need for you to take me anywhere."

Dumbledore had to resist the urge to gasp; Itachi had to fight the desire to snicker. Nonetheless, the Headmaster continued,

"Be that as it may, it was always the wish of your parents that you attend Hogwarts."

Hideaki remained implacable,

"And it was the wish of my otousama that I do what made me happiest, although I have been assured that he would have been delighted by my becoming a shinobi of Konoha."

Dumfounded, Dumbledore grasped at the nearest thought strand he could,

"But, I was assured that you received your letter…"

"That letter was meant for an eleven-year-old, something that I am not. Furthermore, I am quite confident that it was meant for a very different type of eleven-year-old."

Loosing all composure, Dumbledore snapped,

"Hogwarts is where you belong and I have come to make certain that you return to your proper place."

There was no hint of humour in the faces of any of the other occupants of the room. When Hideaki spoke, his voice was arctic,

"You have overstepped yourself, Dumbledore-san. I have tried to make it obvious that my place is here. But if I must I will make it clear. I have family here, people whom I love, a younger brother who needs me and whom I will never abandon. Furthermore, I am a shinobi of Konoha and my duty is first and foremost to the village and Hokage-sama."

Dumbledore seemed to deflate in incredulity. Hideaki continued,

"However, as I believe that Hokage-sama expressed to you in his letter, the family I have here has not erased all of my interest in where I come from. I am willing, with Hokage-sama's permission of course, to attend your school… with certain conditions."

Sarutobi spoke then,

"It was always the wish of Yondaime-sama that if he wished it, Hideaki-kun would be permitted to learn about his past. I am more than willing to acquiesce with his request and ensure his conditions."

Bowing his head respectfully to the older man, Hideaki continued,

"In that case, it is as I have said. I will attend your school as a normal sixth year student. I will however, return to Konoha during the holidays, or during the shorter holidays Naruto and Sasuke will have the permission to come visit if they chose. My time in your world will be limited thus and Konoha will remain my home."

Itachi spoke then, startling Dumbledore, who was starting to get the impression that he was a mute,

"I will be coming with him."

Hideaki sent his partner a true smile, which, to Dumbledore's surprise, was returned whole-heartedly.

"Yes, with Hokage-sama's permission, those are our conditions."

Sandaime nodded and all three turned to Dumbledore, who hesitated,

"I cannot object to most of your conditions, but the last…"

Itachi spoke again, nodded deferentially to the Hokage before he did so,

"As the eldest child of Yondaime-sama, even if adopted, Hideaki is in constant danger from the threat of assassination. I was long ago assigned as his guard, although it was always an honorary role, as he is more than capable of taking care of himself. But that is my mission and it is my duty as a shinobi of Konoha to fulfil my mission. Where he goes, I go."

Smiling benevolently, Sarutobi spoke again,

"Well it looks like that's all settled. If Dumbledore-san will agree to arrange transportation for the two of you to the Wizarding world in time for you to buy your supplies, then we can consider this finished. Now I have to get back to my work, as I am sure that Dumbledore-san has also. I'll escort him out."

As Sandaime rose, both the young men rose also and bowed to him respectfully. Entirely outmanoeuvred, Dumbledore could only rise dumbly and follow the Hokage out of the apartment.

After the two older men had departed, Hideaki and Itachi sank back into the sofa. Turning to his lover, Itachi spoke,

"Have I mentioned how much I love you when you're being devious?"

Smiling, Hideaki allowed Itachi to press him back into the cushions and raised his face to be kissed, whispering,

"Hmm, tell me again."

TBC.

Thus we must leave them with a little privacy!

This chapter is a little longer, but I'm not sure when I'm next going to have time to update. Please forgive me.

I was overwhelmed by the response I got for the last chapter, so please continue to Review. Hugs and Kisses, shinigamilives