A/N: The newest installment of the epic tale! Sorry it took a while, but I am lazy, so I get an excuse. If there are any changes in formatting, spelling, or such, then it's because I couldn't be bothered to look at the old chapters to find the original spelling. I'm sticking with it. Anywho, you all know the disclaimer, so I'm not gonna bother. Enjoy!
Chapter 4- Precious People
The first to react to seeing Naruto standing at the gate in an Akatsuki cloak was, surprisingly enough, Kiba.
"Damn. That takes bal-oof!" The dog-loving boy was cut off by a swift backhand from Shino. Akamaru let out a noise surprisingly similar to a chuckle, drawing an odd look from Harry. 'Chuckling dogs? What the hell is this place?'
The six Akatsuki members moved forward. Tobi, Deidara, Kisame, and Itachi simply looked bored, while Jiraiya flexed and flirted with the kunoichi on his left. Naruto tried to focus on the meeting, but his eyes kept straying to the group standing away on the side of the gate.
Itachi spoke for the first time. His voice was low and emotionless, as Naruto had discovered it always was.
"Naruto. Why don't you walk with your comrades. They seem to want to speak to you."
"Hai, Itachi-sempai!" Naruto brightened, and caught the almost-twitch of a smile on the Uchiha's face. He flicked out a quick hand sign and vanished in a swirl of smoke. He reappeared next to Sakura, startling the group with his shunshin.
Naruto grinned at the sudden spike of anger from the startled kunoichi.
"Naruto…" Sakura ground out between gritted teeth. She squeezed a tight fist before relaxing enough to flash a smile at her team mate. That was enough to scare the blonde. Sakura never smiled like that.
"Eh-heh… Hey, Sakura-chan!" The teen rubbed a hand over his spiky hair. "How's it going?"
"Naruto. It's good to see you again." Gaara defused the situation, drawing the attention of his fellow jinchuriki.
"Gaara! Hey!" The group slowly walked along the road following the black robes ahead. The shinobi quickly fell into a rhythm of reintroduction with their loud blonde friend.
Naruto turned to look around, noticing two people had yet to greet him. One was a black haired youth, glasses reminding him of Kabuto glinting in the sun. A small lightning shaped mark adorned his forehead. The other was shyly hiding behind Kiba and Shino. The girl was taller than he remembered, and her clothes, while just as nondescript as before, had definitely required larger sizes.
'Damn. Is that the same Hinata I remember? She's…'
"Beautiful? Hot? Sexy? Attractive?"
'All the above? Yeah… Sweet Kami, where have I been all these years, under a rock?' Naruto never even realized he was staring until Ino nudged him with a lecherous grin.
"Enjoying the sights, Naruto-kun?" Naruto knew instantly that the girl had seen his train of thought.
"Maybe," His smirk caused the girl to stumble. Naruto had never been this witty before! The blonde girl watched as he slowed his walk to greet the shy Hyuuga.
Harry watched this Naruto boy live up to his reputation as unpredictable. The blonde boy walked up to Hinata, smiling broadly, and simply started up a conversation while the rest of the group watched in awe. The boy even used innuendo properly, and was conscious of it! Sakura had said the blonde boy was as dense as granite when it came to the matters of the heart, but here he was, flirting with a girl who had a crush on him from early childhood.
'Maybe he's an even better actor than me…'
Even with Hinata's years of practice and improved confidence, she still only lasted a mere four minutes next to Naruto. The moment she realized he was flirting with her, she promptly passed out. Of course, Naruto expected this.
"Same Hinata…" He shook his head as he caught her before the Hyuuga girl could hit the ground. He lifted her over his shoulder so her feet dangled behind his back. Of course, every girl present glared at the act. The girl was supposed to rest in his arms, daintily! Not like a sack of potatoes! Naruto simply ignored the killing intent directed his way. He turned to the last member of the group.
"Who're you?" He asked Harry bluntly.
"Naruto," Shino spoke quietly, as he always did. "This is Harry Potter-san. He has come here from Eng-land," Here the normally unflustered shinobi stumbled over the foreign name. "For training and protection."
"Protection? From what?" Naruto seemed avidly interested in this boy, whose eyes held the same kind of pain as his, and who held himself with a proud grace that seemed out of place among shinobi who tried their best to not stand out.
Harry sighed as he began to retell his story, secretly glad for a being in another place that ignored his fame. He had relished the anonymity of being just another person, training hard to just survive. The pain Anko-sensei had put him through, though incredibly sadistic, had shown that these people didn't care who Harry was, just that he needed training by any means necessary. He was extremely grateful.
As Harry finished his long tale, Naruto seemed to shrink a bit. It was like watching the sun go behind a light fog. The happiness and brightness was still visible, but it was clouded with sadness and pain.
'He's just like me. No parents. People hated him for the first decade of his life. Forced into a higher destiny before he was even born. Yet he acts more like Sasuke-teme. Could I have been like that?' Naruto suddenly realized the quiet attention he got from the crowd. His brightness came back tenfold, but now it was more like a fluorescent light. Artificial and forced.
"That really sucks!"
"Naruto," Sakura stared at her teammate with sadness in her eyes.
"I mean, having this guy," His voice increased in speed, ignoring the pink-haired girl.
"Naruto," Gaara tried to get his friend's, his first friend's, attention as well.
"Volder- whatever after you really must blo-" Naruto was cut off by the loud voice from Sakura.
"NARUTO!" The girl shouted, silencing her blonde friend. She coughed lightly, and continued at a quieter volume. "We all know. Tsunade-sama cleared it, and Gaara told us. We know about the fox."
The blonde demon container gaped at his comrades, expecting to see hatred and anger.
'But hadn't they welcomed me back? This makes no sense.'
"Maybe they don't care, brat." The deep voice of the demon fox seemed to rumble in his head.
"We want you to know, we never doubted you for a minute. A demon wouldn't be nearly as nice as you are. Anyone who thinks differently isn't worth your time." Choji said, sagely holding a finger aloft like a professor lecturing. The tense mood was instantly broken by the silly action. The solar-intensity grin returned to Naruto's face, brightening the whole group.
"Yosh! Your youthful strength and joy brings happiness to my heart!" Lee nearly broke into another youth speech before Sakura simply smacked him up the side of the head. He whimpered slightly before the girl giggled and drew him into a hug.
"Lee! You didn't!" Naruto caught the affectionate exchange. "You lucky dog!"
"Naruto?" Sakura never expected the boy who had so predictably tried to glomp onto her to be so unaffected by the loss of his affection.
"Hmm? Oh, right. I should be weeping over my lost love, right? I stopped being like that back before Sas… I mean, I left. Sorry, Sakura, but your not my type. Much to violent." The boy laughed at how Sakura clenched a fist before she realized she was proving him right. She slowly relaxed.
"If that is so, then where do your affections lie, now?" Neji joined the conversation. Naruto was shocked to see a sly grin adorn the Hyuuga prodigy's face.
"Is the apocalypse here yet? Neji just made a joke!" Naruto chuckled at his own quip before sighing. "I dunno. Maybe there's someone out there waiting for me." He glanced over at the girl adorning his shoulder like a fashion accessory. "Maybe she's not that far away." Several of the girls seemed to melt at the romantic idea. Most of the boys rolled their eyes at the antics.
"Now, enough of this mushy crap!" Kiba spoke up, drawing attention to himself. "What the hell did you do while you were gone?"
"Ano… N-Naruto-kun," A soft stutter brought his attention to Hinata, who was waking up to find herself slung over Naruto's shoulder.
Naruto softly deposited the girl on her feet before flashing her a grin and returning to the question at hand.
"I trained for a good deal of time. Jiraiya taught me some new techniques. I met with my tenant, and learned some interesting things. The damn fox…" Naruto was interrupted by a grumble in his stomach. "Ahem. The wonderful and ever- wise Kyuubi no Yoko, may his fur always be fluffy, apparently wants me to be the best damn demon container out there so he won't have to die again so soon. He respects me for my determination, though my damn emotions are slowly making him feel actually less bloodthirsty. His own words. So the perverted fox has taught me some of the things he learned from being eternal, or some crap like that." The boy waved a hand in the air. "After a couple months, we met Ero-sennin's contacts in Akatsuki. Tobi is a big kid, but he's apparently from Konoha. He wouldn't say his real name, only that he was supposed to be dead. Deidara-niisan is amazingly cool, but way too much of a pyro. He was a terrorist in Iwa during the last war, fighting in the resistance. We joined Akatsuki after it was revealed that a good number of the members were all for breaking away. A good number of the loyal faction died. Only the leader and three others are still alive, and they were stranded off the coast of Water last we saw. Itachi and Kisame were the other two ringleaders, so they came back to deal with Tsunade-baachan."
"Wow. Nice story." Kiba muttered, watching the boy with raised eyebrows.
"Yeah, but the real question is," Ino said from the back of the group. "Have you ditched the orange?"
Naruto simply grinned as he pulled off the Akatsuki cloak, revealing his new clothes. He laughed at the dropped jaws all around.
"That is impressive, Naruto," Tenten spoke up. "But you're still bright! Don't you want to blend in?"
Naruto simply smiled again, before responding.
"The brightest animals are often the ones who are the most dangerous."
The insightful response floored the majority of the group, seeing how intelligent the supposedly dead last was really.
Slowly, the talk devolved back to mutterings between pairs, and Naruto was content to just walk in the sunshine with his friends. Nothing could make this day bad.
'Well, maybe something could.' Naruto reflected, shivering as the demon sealed into his chest growled softly. He continued to walk next to Hinata, hands clasped behind his head. His other friends, however, saw the smile begin to slip from his face again.
Harry silently noticed several villagers glaring at Naruto as they passed by.
'Not everyone is happy at his return. Intriguing…'
"Harry, right?" He turned back, noticing Naruto had walked up to him. Hinata was watching the two with avid eyes from Naruto's other side.
"Yeah." He smiled quickly at the two similarly aged teens enjoying the calm weather. Naruto broke the silence again with a terse comment.
"Don't worry about them." Harry looked at the other boy in confusion. "The villagers. Just ignore them."
"Why do they hate you? Is it the…" He seemed unwilling to bring up anything possibly painful.
"What? The demon? Yeah. The older generation remember what happened when the demon came, and treat me like crap because of it. Punishing it vicariously, I guess. Retards."
"It wasn't your fault." Hinata said sadly, remembering several painful events she had witnessed. "You didn't choose this. And you're not even the demon. They should be glad you can use that power to protect them."
The formerly-orange ninja laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah. They should be grateful, bow at my feet and worship the very ground I walk on. That sounds like my kind of thing." The sarcasm was evident. "I honestly don't give a shit about them. They've hated me for so long, I could just keep ignoring them. But Kyuubi wants me to stand up for myself, and get my wishes. He sees these scumbags and wanted to destroy them. That was why he attacked. I, apparently, am one of the best hopes for the village. Or that's what Kyuubi-san and Tobi-san say. The fox says… heh…" Here the boy paused to chuckle evilly, slightly creeping Harry and Hinata out. "The fox says I should become Hokage, just to torment them." The two burst out laughing at the new torture devised for the villagers.
"So you still want to be Hokage?" Gaara spoke up from behind Harry, startling the black-haired teen.
"Yeah. But things would change." Now Naruto was much more serious. "I wouldn't give in to their hatred and bigotry. We shinobi fight and kill and die for the village, and get no thanks in return. I've nearly died three times defending this place. I had a Chidori shoved through my chest, for Kami's sake! No, when I'm Hokage, that'll change. They'll look up and shout 'Save us!'" The whole group had gone silent, listening intently to the blonde boy's speech. "And I'll look down and whisper, 'No.'"
"I've tried to be patient, but these scumbags leave me no choice. I'm going to rule them, and show them just why that is right." The boy finished with a self-satisfied nod. He opened an eye closed during his passionate speech, only to blush as he realized nearly a dozen people were staring intently at him.
"Heh…" He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment, "Sorry. I get a bit carried away sometimes!"
"Impressive," Shikamaru said, somehow not tripping as he watched the clouds while walking, "Troublesome, but impressive."
"Yeah, well. I still need to actually do it all. Now that'll be troublesome. Dattebayo!" Sakura groaned at the return of his catchphrase, only to smack him as he burst out laughing. The boy could sure push her buttons. "Anyway, my first step will be to get back that teme, Sasuke." He was startled as the formerly happy pink-haired girl next to him drove her supercharged fist through a wall. Her voice was low and full of pain as she spoke.
"You don't have to worry about him. He broke my heart. If he comes back, I'll break his legs."
Naruto watched his teammate with a small frown. "Then I'll bring him back just so you can. Besides, Itachi wanted to talk to the idiot. Said it was an S-class secret, though. Hush-hush and all that. Plus, I never go back on my word. That's my nindo!" Naruto finished with his own version of Gai's 'nice-guy' pose. The differences between the green Jonin and Naruto were glaring. While the smile from Gai was enough to blind children and make men cry, from Naruto it was a pleasant reminder that the boy was as unpredictable and mysterious as his namesake. The pose just seemed to fit.
'If that actually makes sense.' Sakura told herself. Surprisingly, her inner-conscience remained silent.
"That's nice and all, but how're you gonna do anything?" Kiba walked backwards, Akamaru by his side, "You're still the loud, bright, dead-last genin from three years ago!"
"Kiba-kun! Stop picking o-on N-Naruto-kun! Besides, I like the brightness…" Hinata blushed at her own daring and courage, as she traced a finger over the spiral symbol stitched onto the breast pocket of Naruto's vest. Everyone else gaped at the usually shy and introverted Hyuuga.
'Damn! When'd she get so damn…'
'Sexy, attractive, and foxy?'
'Yeah! She's gonna drive me crazy! I'm so screwed.'
'That might not be bad…'
'SHUT IT, ERO_KITSUNE!'
The teen shuddered at her touch before returning to the question at hand.
"Heh. Who are you talking to? The number one unpredictable ninja! I passed mine at the Lightning Country test two months ago, first place finish. Finished 3 S-ranked missions, killed my share of S and A ranked Akatsuki members. Even got myself a title in the Iwa bingo book. Tobi-san thought it up. The Demon of the Forest. I'm embracing my other half, moving up through the ranks, and achieving my goals. Now, are we going to eat, or do I have to go on my own?" He laughed at the gob smacked expression on the faces of his friends.
'This will be fun. Especially the new guy, and Hinata. Very fun.'
'I think you're starting to pick up my habits, kit.'
'Maybe. But is that such a bad thing?'
'This will be fun.'
A/N: Hopefully, you all liked my introduction arc. Don't worry. There is a reason this is a Harry Potter story. The reasoning will return in a few chapters. Got 'em written, just gotta type em out. Review, please, or I might die! Authors are like plants. Just substitute stories for leaves and reviews for sunlight. Don't let me die!
Next Chapter: A Prodigal Traitor. The Return of the Uchiha. Sasuke Gets His Butt Handed to Him by a Girl.
Pick your favorite title, and send it in a review! I'll pick the best one! I'm really desperate, if you couldn't tell.