Author's Note: An OC will be introduced here who will play a part on this story.
Chapter Three
Harry was staring at a blonde haired man beside him in their compartment. Ron and Hermione weren't with them at the moment.
"What is it, kid?" the man turned around. Brown eyes stared at his emerald eyes.
"Is this truly your face behind that mask?" Harry ignored his anger at being called 'kid' by the man with the face of a thirty years old male.
The blond snorted. "Of course not. I'm not that stupid to use my real face. It's just a simple illusion."
"If you're not a wizard, how did—"
"Magic isn't everything. There are other things to disillusion things other than using magic."
"Like metamorphagus?" he asked, hoping he wouldn't kill him for asking.
The man started to get annoyed by the boy he recently dubbed as 'nosy kid'. "Yes, like metamorphagus for example. Now shut up, and mind your own business!" Harry shut his mouth. He was starting to think perhaps it was a bad idea and a rash decision to hunt horcruxes with this man.
The dark haired wizard pulled out a book from his trunk, while his employee seemed to be asleep, eyes closed and all. The book was one of the books the man bought using his money. He had asked him some obscure books that he thought would be needed. Hermione had a copy of each of the book. The girl was practically salivating at the sight of the books in front of her. Harry didn't know where the man bought them and didn't dare to ask, though he thought the man buy them in Knockturn Alley, just like where he bought the enchanted parchments.
Ten minutes later the train started to move and Harry wondered where the hell Ron and Hermione were. As if on cue, both best friends opened the compartment door. He noticed that the mysterious man was already waking up and was alert.
"—nestly Ron! Next time you should prepare! We almost missed the train because of your tardiness," she yelled angrily at him.
"Well perhaps next time you shouldn't bother to help me," he shot back scathingly.
"Fine! Next time I won't bother to help you packing at the last minutes!" the bushy haired girl roared. She dumped her trunk in the corner and almost greeted her dark haired friend when she noticed the man sitting beside him, apparently uninterested with them and had gone back to sleep.
"The guard," Harry mouthed. Her eyes widened and she looked up to stare at his appearance. "He said it wasn't his real appearance, Hermione," he said when he saw her entranced curious look, as if she was memorizing his face.
"…oh," said Hermione dejectedly.
"Listen, Hermione. I want you to check out R.A.B. person for me. If we know who he is, perhaps we'll be able to find the real Locket of Slytherin. It seemed that the man was Voldemort's former death eaters, so probably you can search him from Daily Prophet or something. And also search about Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's things, please. We need to know what exactly the horcruxes are."
"Um…Harry, if you don't know the location of even a horcrux, what will you do with him during your…escapade?"
"I'll most likely train in my way and then also search for any information of horcrux. Dumbledore got his hand cursed when he destroyed it. I don't know the method to destroy the horcrux safely. I'm thinking of going to Romania, and before you ask, Romania is famous with the vampire clans. Blood magic, soul magic are still used there and there is no restriction of such dark arts. There will be a high chance to dig information there."
"You're going straight to the heart of Vampire Empire?" Ron asked with his jaw dropped.
"Of course not! I'm not that stupid! There are plenty of places to visit. Though if the vampire is willing to help me, it will be useful. They're old and thus have more information than us, particularly about dark arts."
"…If it's helping, I know the leader of clan Devath in Hungary. He's old, compared to human anyway." The three jumped in surprise when they heard his voice. The blonde man opened a pair of two bored eyes.
"And what make you sure you'll be able to get out of there alive?" Hermione inquired with suspicion. She wondered if this was a move to kill Harry, before she quickly dismissed the thought. It was absurd. The man had many opportunities presenting themselves to do that, and he never took any of them.
"He owed a favor to me. He won't kill me. Although whether or not he agrees to help you is another matter entirely. You have to show him something he likes or needs. He isn't a vampire that'll just answer your question when you ask him. Oh, and he doesn't like rude people, so make sure you don't offend him."
"Are you telling me I'm rude?" Harry's anger started to rise.
"You're just a brat, kid. You act before you think of the consequence," Naruto told him bluntly. "Or can you prove me wrong?"
"I—" Harry stopped himself from shouting. Images of his rash actions were brought upon his mind. "Fine. You're right. I'm still a brat!" both of his friends didn't say anything. If there was anything they knew about him, it was that he was as stubborn as a mule. It must be hard to admit that.
The ninja snorted. "At least you admit it, unlike him," an image of a raven haired ninja came to his mind. The three teens looked at each other and decided to not ask him about this 'him' person. It wasn't their business and according to the contract, Harry wasn't allowed to ask about his past.
"So, are you going to go back to the Dursleys, Harry?" the brown haired girl spat his relatives' surname.
Harry shook his head. "No, I'll go to Diagon Alley to pick up some money and then rent a hotel room in muggle world, make it harder for Voldemort to search me. And yes, I know Dumbledore told me that I should at least spend my last days before I turned 17 there, but I don't see the point. What will I do there?"
"He's right, Hermione."
"Thanks, Ron. Um, can I ask you a favor?" the red head nodded. "Your father was an order member when Voldemort was still active decades ago, can you ask him about his death eaters? Ask him that you'd like to know who you'll probably deal later so you will not get any nasty surprise. Search someone with the initial R.A.B or perhaps just R.B., because your father probably doesn't know his middle name."
Ron frowned for a moment before nodding. "I'll do that."
"If both of you see something weird, no matter how insignificant it seems, report it to me. I don't want you to take any unnecessary risk—"
"Like you're currently doing, Harry?" Hermione asked him scathingly. She still hasn't gotten over him telling her not to come with him.
Harry sighed. "Look Hermione, it will be better for me to go alone. Smaller party will not draw as much attention as bigger party. Beside I need both of you here to report back to me. I'll probably visit you later when I can."
"When you can?" the blonde shinobi rose from his seat and walked away from the compartment when he felt that a fight would be broke out soon between them. No one seemed to care.
In the end it was hours later that Naruto came back. By then the fight was already over and the children were preparing to leave the train, as it would enter the station soon. The shinobi chose to sit on top of the train roof, so that no one would badger him. During those hours he decided that he would need to use his extensive information net he had set up for years during his days as mercenary and that they couldn't rely on his current client's best friends for reliable information if they wanted to succeed. He waited them to gather up their belongings before climbing down the train. Naruto had taken Harry's trunk without saying anything, much to his client's surprise.
"Er, thanks." The mercenary shrugged impassively.
Harry found his uncle and aunt were waiting for him agitatedly in the King's Cross station. Vernon's face turned purple when he saw his nephew from his wife's side.
"Hurry up, freak!" he snarled.
Harry bristled inwardly. "I'm not going back with you. Ever. This will be hopefully the last time we meet."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Petunia scowled. "That headmaster of yours told us that you'll need to be with us until you're 17."
"Need? What're you talking about? I don't need you. And Dumbledore can't say anything about it anymore, since he's dead. Voldemort killed him," not exactly, but Snape was Voldemort's death eater.
"WHAT?" his relatives' faces were ghastly white.
"I'm sure that Dumbledore had told you that Voldemort was back, hadn't he? Well guess what? This time there is no Dumbledore to hold the maniac back from doing a killing spree," the color turned yellowish red. Naruto tapped his shoulder.
"We have to go now," Harry nodded.
"I have to go. Good bye, hopefully forever," the teen followed his hired bodyguard, leaving his relatives in a shocked state.
The blonde man led him to Diagon Alley and they went to Gringotts to solve Harry's financial problem. Harry converted half of his trust vault into muggle money and put them in a bank that had many branches all over the world for back up incase something wrong happened and they couldn't go to the magical world. They then went to a muggle hotel in the heart of London and rent a double room.
'What now?' Harry asked himself. He was at loss of what to do, as he sat at the edge of his bed.
Naruto put down the trunk on the corner of his bed and took out something from his jacket. He threw the object to Harry who caught it in reflex. The boy's emerald eyes widened when he saw the small handgun on his hands. "For your protection," Naruto simply said.
"You're expecting me to use it?"
"I don't see why you're afraid. Your wand is a weapon too after all and I don't see you freaked out."
"Yes, but a wand isn't just a weapon. It can be used for something else, unlike gun."
Naruto stared at him in silence, causing Harry to be nervous. "It will be a long term mission, Potter. And I assure you there will be times where I won't be there to help you. I just want to make sure my client didn't die when I wasn't with him. You can't expect me to be there with you all the time. You need to know how to defend yourself, both with magic and without. Are you expecting me to kill all of your enemies, while you do nothing? If your resolve isn't as strong as I first thought, it will be better to cancel this mission."
Harry was silent, knowing that he was right. No matter how much he wanted it, he couldn't avoid it forever. There would be a time where he would kill someone, especially after the war officially broke out. It was better to accept it now rather than later. "Alright. But I don't know how to use it."
"How good you are with your wand?"
"I can hit any target accurately, provided they don't move too much, if that's what you're asking about."
"Then you'll have no problem learning how to use the gun in your hand. I know someone I can ask to teach you."
"You're not going to teach me?" Harry asked, surprised.
"No. He knows how to use gun better than me and he's a muggle who knows nothing about the magical side of the world. He's also a weapon dealer and has the right resource for helping you to learn, so he's perfect to be your teacher," Naruto answered.
"When can we meet him?"
"Tonight is possible. I had contacted him" he noticed that the younger man didn't seem to like that Naruto had done it without speaking with him, but said nothing.
True to what Naruto (or 'Fox' as Harry knew) had said, they went to a bar called 'The Swan' at night. Suspicious eyes greeted them when they entered it. Their eyes were focused on Harry who looked to be underage. Ignoring them, Naruto grabbed Harry's hand and led him to the table in the dark corner of the bar. A black haired man with a mustache raised an eyebrow when they approached his table.
"The wolf has eaten the moon," the black haired teen eyed his bodyguard questioningly.
"Your current disguise, eh Fox?" the man eventually spoke with a twitch of his mustache. A couple of eyes stared at the group when they heard Naruto's codename. The mustached man then eyed Harry from head to toe. "Your client? He looks really young and it's not common for you to bring your client here," he then gestured the people around him, who was actually his bodyguards to leave them.
"I need your help," the thirty years old-looking man simply said.
"Oh? What is it? Guns? Ammunitions? Those weird ninja weapons of yours? Data pad?" Fox shook his head.
"None of those, though I'll probably ask you for another shipment of…those weird ninja weapons of mine," Naruto smirked, before his face went passive once again. "I need you to teach him how to use guns, Jake." The man, Jake, raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"You know that I simply don't teach anyone, right? And why don't you teach him by yourself? I know you're no slouch when it comes to gun and explosives."
"Because you're one of the best in the field. And I'm busy with something else," he replied. Harry looked back and forth between them, nervousness was attacking him, and it seemed like both of them forgot that he was there.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Fox. Beside I'm also busy with my own schedule," the black haired man poured his vodka into a glass and gave it to the blond. He offered the alcoholic drink to the young man, but Harry shook his head. Jake shrugged and turned back his attention to Fox.
"Do it for me then. You can consider that your life debt is paid," Jake who was on the verge of drinking the vodka from the bottle stopped short and this time he really looked at Naruto.
"You're serious," he stated.
"I am." The weapon dealer then watched Harry, a calculating gleam could be seen from his black eyes. He wondered why the assassin insisted of having a client—of all things, to be taught to the point of using the life debt he owed him. What made this lanky looking teen special in his eyes?
"You want him to learn till what level?" he asked, his eyes still not leaving the nervous teen who felt like a trapped rat.
Fox raised his eyebrow. He was expecting Jake to refuse it for a little longer. "Until he can kill someone in the dark."
"…" he put an envelope on the table. "Kill them for me and consider my debt is paid, and I'll do it, but no more than 5 months, even if he can't reach the level you asked me to teach him and I'll leave the basic lesson to my men."
Naruto reached for the envelope and opened it. There were photos of different people inside and papers of data about them. He shuffled the photo and watched it one by one, before he put them back to the envelope. "Agreed. What kind of death you want me to inflict upon them? Clean death?"
Jake smirked. "Whatever, Fox, as long as you don't attract too much attention from the police, it's okay by me. So, no high explosive," he warned lightly.
The Kyuubi vessel snorted. "When can you teach him?"
"Where are you staying right now?"
"Brand Hotel."
Jake nodded. "My men will pick you up tomorrow and you'll go to my place. My mean will teach him the basic lesson first. Hm…Nick will be up to the task," the n he turned toward Harry. "What's your name, kid?"
Harry glanced at Naruto who nodded his head. "Harry Potter."
"Well, nice to meet you. My name is Jake Roland and I'll be your teacher soon, provided you pass your basic lesson," he added the last part and smirked.
It was an hour later Naruto and Harry exited the bar and caught a cab to their hotel. "You do know that I have no time to waste months to learn how to defend myself without magic, right? I have horcruxes to hunt."
"Then you simply have to excel your lesson. It's not as if we have much information about those horcruxes in the first place to make a search, unless you want to search them blindly. And it's not like I'll stay idle either. You don't think I'll stay and watch you learn for the whole 5 months, do you? I'll do other missions from others from time to time and I'll contact people for information about Voldermort and his movement, along with his horcruxes. The only thing I want you to do it to learn to the best you can, and if you want to learn spells you have to do it in secret. Jake and his men didn't need to know about the magical world. Understand?"
"…I guess."
"Good. Since we'll be together for a long time, I might as well let you see my real face," it was so unexpected that Harry's jaw dropped to the floor. "Tell it to others and I'll kill you," he warned, causing Harry to gulp.
Needless to say that Harry's jaw dropped further when he saw Naruto's real face. "Y-you're still young!" he exclaimed when he saw his strangely whiskered face.
"And you're younger than me," Naruto pointed out, fingers running through his spiky blonde hair. His bright blue eyes carefully watched the young wizard's reaction. "Naruto Uzumaki, yoroshiku. But always call me Fox or other names when in public, so you won't slip out my name."
"Then you shouldn't tell me your real name," Harry commented, still in disbelief over the fact that his bodyguard was this young. This was the man who had butchered those death eaters as if they were cows in slaughter house? Unbelievable!
"I do whatever I want, Potter."
"Harry, call me Harry. Like you said we'll be together for a long time."
Naruto stared at the younger boy, before he eventually spoke, "…Alright. Harry then. You better sleep now. You'll need the energy tomorrow," he advised and laid on his bed, covering his body with the blanket and turned his body so his back facing Harry.
The-Boy-Who-Lived sighed and did the same after he switched off the lamp on the room. All of his thoughts were driven toward Naruto before sleep claimed him.
TBC…
Well, that's it for now.
From this chapter you'll gather that Naruto actually knew how to use guns. But he preferred not to use it and instead mostly using his ninja weapons or hand-to-hand technique.