Chapter 006: The Cost of Training
Harry jumped up out of his knocked out state as ice cold tap water was poured rudely on to his face, he looked to see it was Kurama, but instead of a hand holding the now empty cup, it was a furry red tail. Harry stared blandly for a second before realizing who it was and back peddling to the wall hyperventilating, eyes wide in fright, while Kurama just smirked at him, eyes gleaming predatorily like he just found a nice rabbit to torment and eat. Kurama probably would have continued to mind fuck with Harry if Naruto still in her new form hadn't just come in from upstairs and smacked him upside the head.
"Knock it off, you might actually kill him this time if you continue doing that." She chastised him, and annoyed expression on her face.
Kurama coughed in his hand in slight embarrassment, "err right..."
She then sent an annoyed look at Harry who was still hyperventilating in the corner, "O grow some balls, and he isn't gunna hurt you until training starts. Now get off the floor and sit at the table so we can talk about what's going to happen during training."
Harry still sat in the same spot, but was quick to get to his previous chair when Naruto gave him a threatening glare from across the table, nodding in content she motioned for Kurama to start talking. Giving an arrogant snort towards his impatient ex-jailor, "Well you're probably wondering how I'm going to cram years of training in three days…"
"Why only three days? And is that you Naruto? Why do you look like that?" While Harry was busy spouting out questions, Kurama had a very obvious eye twitch, making it obvious he didn't appreciate being interrupted so before continuing with what he was saying bopped Harry painfully over the head, getting a loud 'OW' from the boy.
"Only three days because I know for a fact you'll be going back to Hogwarts after the summer ends, YES that is Naruto, and she looks like that because she's a Metamorphmagus." Harry's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and as he opened his mouth to ask how a clawed hand slapped on his mouth holding his face tight, "Wait till the end of the explanation to start firing questions out at me hmm?" It was more rhetorical than an actual question for Harry, "Nod if you'll wait till the end." Harry was quick to nod his head, still feeling an opposing aura from the red head, and as Kurama slipped his hand away he felt a silk like touch of nails coming across his cheeks, making him blush for he thought it felt good. "Good now as I was saying, in the next few days you two will far exceed anything this world has to offer ," Both Harry and Naruto showed excitement at this but Kurama wasn't finished talking, "Unfortunately this will cost you a few years away from your life here." Seeing the confused look emanating from the green eyed wizard he continued, "What I mean is that I have a forbidden box used only for training that takes three days and turns those three days into three years via time space manipulation. In those three years I will teach you everything you will need to know about Magic and maybe if you're a good little gaki, Chakra then after those three days/years we will spend the rest of the summer months traveling, finding new things and such. For now I have something for you Harry, a little test if you will." Kurama leaned over to the side that Harry wasn't on, opened a highly decorative chest before pulling something out. When he leaned back up Harry could see it was some type of large egg. It was black but when the light reflected off it gave off the gas multicolored look to it. Placing the large egg in Harry's hands he instructed that he wanted Harry to cut his thumb and place the blood on the egg before pushing some of his magic into it, while Harry wondered what could be in the egg he did as instructed. For a moment it didn't seem like anything was going to happen when a cracking sound cut through he air. Harry looked closely and nearly dropped the egg in fright when a crimson scaled head popped out of the egg and gave a loud high pitched animalistic scream.
"IT'S…IT'S A DRAGON!" The shocked words flew out of Harry's mouth as he just sat there shell shocked almost to the point of speechlessness, and was about to get the tiny creature as far away from his as fast of possible, but the little creature seemed too fast for the wizard as it quickly got the rest of its body out of the egg and went straight for Harry. Harry not enough time to react closed his eyes expecting the worse from the tiny dragon but what he didn't expect was it curling itself under his chin its tiny little claws digging into his shirt as it rubbed itself against his body and let out a sort of purring noise. So Harry did what any other wizard would of done in his position he froze in his spot and didn't move, this time his mind couldn't wrap around what was going on in this situation, all dragons were supposed to be vicious to humans even when this small so having a baby dragon coddling him was just not adding up in the teens head. Finally getting out his shock somewhat he choked out, too scared to move. "Wha…what's it doing?" He turned his head slightly to Kurama's direction to see the red head laughing at his reaction, Harry wanted to glare but he wanted answers first because his back muscles were starting to twitch madly at how stiff he was so he didn't know how much longer he could sit still for.
Kurama ceased his laughing if just for a moment to explain to the frightened wizard, "That my friend is possible the most powerful dragon of its kind. I found it one day just randomly when I was exploring uncharted areas in the magical world, the egg had been abandoned, I'm going to guess when wizards starting putting them in "protective" reservations the dragons couldn't hide it before they were taken so it was left out in the open for someone to find. I had studied extensively dragons and never saw an egg such as this, I knew that the dragon inside was alive, but the egg wouldn't hatch unless it had blood connection with another being, it's a symbiotic dragon, but it won't actually hatch for just anyone, for some reason it will only hatch for those who have a good heart and powerful magic. I found this info out when using powerful and extensive medical diagnostic magic on the egg for years. While in the egg the dragon lives off of magic in the air, and they never die they just stay in stasis until the right wizard comes by. Unfortunately I did find out that because them being reliant upon wizards for hatching and living, and the egg is vertically impossible to break, dragons will hide them because their hate of humans of all kinds. So this might be the only one ever living of its kind, ever to be documented." As Kurama explained this, Harry got an astonished look on his face and Naruto looked at the red little bundle still cuddling the wizard in curiosity. They both jumped when Kurama clapped his hands loudly together with an evil smile on his face, "So with that said, you are now to be my little guinea pig Harry Potter for the next three or so years because I gave you such a wonderful gift, and you cannot refuse."
Harry faced twisted to one of pure shock and outrage before saying the only thing to come to mind. "WHAT!?
After Harry calmed down about being Kurama's guinea pig after being explained he wouldn't dissect him or anything just watch him to see what changes will happen with him formally bonding with the little dragon who still persisted to cling to the wizard much to his dismay and embarrassment. Kurama shook his head and went back to his explanation of what the next few hours were going to look like. "So at midnight we will officially start training by entering the box, closing the lid and not coming out for three years. Before that though we need to gather everything were going to need to train, so that means everything learnable needs to be put in trunks and ready to go before midnight, and considering the size of this house, we best start now, so take these trunks and head to the library and get cracking. I want nothing viable left. Got it." He looked at the two teens with a stern looking saying he was serious. Nodding in response both teens took the hundred or so shrunken trunks that they were assigned and followed the directions they were given to the library. They opened the twin doors and gawked at how many books were crammed in like the five story library.
Naruto grunted in annoyance staring down the bane of her existence, "He's got to be fucking kidding me if he expects us to read every single one of these books."
Standing off to her side was Harry who stared at the walls upon walls of books the baby dragon sleeping curled up upon his shoulder like a scarf, "Uh from the little I know of Kurama I do believe he will make us read every single one of these…."
Face palming Naruto let out a long sigh knowing this to be true, taking a moment to cuss in her head she did a familiar cross like sign with her hands, and ten clones of Naruto came into existence via a white puffy smoke, scaring Harry out of his wits, he leaned over holding his chest, hyperventilating slightly trying to calm his fast beating heart. 'Bloody hell will these two ever stop scaring me out of my wits.' The tiny crimson dragon lifted its head slightly to rub its head against Harry's cheek bone as if to calm him down, which surprisingly enough it did. He watched as the ten Narutos' sprang into action, each grabbing a handful of shrunken trunks from the original Naruto and began by unshrinking the trunks and quickly and efficiently taking books from the shelves and stacking them into the chests. Taking after Naruto's lead, he made his way to the other side, reversing the shrinking process of one trunk Harry started stacking books in, not paying much attention to the titles of the books. It took about four hours of ten Naruto clones, the original Naruto, Harry and a tiny baby dragon to get all the trunks filled to the brim with books, some books were not so friendly on the transfer, particularly a nasty book that tried to bite Naruto and got thrown every violently into the trunk, making it let out a whining whimper while being left to sulk in the trunk. It was around four pm when they finished up, both teens and the little dragon's stomachs growled loudly almost simultaneously. Laughing, Naruto made sure all the trunks were shrunken and back in the bag they came in.
"Come on lets go see what we can find in the kitchen to raid, with all the work we did I think we deserve a break to eat and replenish our energy." Naruto motioned for him to follow her out, and wearily he did without much complaint because he thought a good sized snack sounded good.
When they reached the kitchen, both started drooling at a heavenly smell drifting from the kitchen. Opening the doors, they peaked in to see Kurama basically flitting around the kitchen, going back and forth between stirring stuff on the stove and a pan with stuff frying in it. He looked over his shoulder at the two still standing at the door, "Well don't just stand there looking stupid you two, come on in. Food will be ready here in just a few minutes."
The kids and dragon sat around the table silently waiting for the food to be finished, which happened not to be a very long wait considering how much stuff Kurama was working on all at once in the kitchen. They all looked up to Kurama at the same time as he strolled through the kitchen swinging door supporting four plates on his arms, and he stiffened for a second at the simultaneous look on hunger coming from the two teens and dragon. In the back of his mind, the word 'creepy' came to though.
Shaking off the creeped out feeling from the looks he was receiving he placed down the big white glass plates in front of his previous jailor and two in front of his new student and his dragon. On the plates, were a heaping amount of spaghetti and meatballs, and starving Harry dug into the food, but stopped at one bit as his mind got flooded with most fantastic tasting spaghetti he has ever had, he looked over to Naruto to see what she thought of the food, but only saw her staring intently at it and kind of jabbing at it with her fork, as if expecting it to jump off the plate and attack her.
"What's wrong Naruto? Don't you like spaghetti?" Harry asked, confusion written on his face.
"Uh well no actually we don't have this stuff where I'm from, honestly the only thing I've really eaten most my life has been ramen." She confessed a slight harsh laugh at the end as she stiffly poked at the food on her plate.
Kurama understood, the only people who would give her decent food or even really acknowledge her when she was younger was the father and daughter team that ran the Ichiraku ramen stand, so Naruto felt guilt about the current situation and the fact that she won't be able to share a meal with them ever again. Look down for a moment he reached over to Naruto hands that wasn't poking at the spaghetti and grasped it tightly, making her look up in his eyes. "Those two wouldn't want you to dwell on it, you know they loved you with all their hearts and always supported you the best way possible. Now go ahead and eat, and make sure to always keep them in your heart and never forget."
While tears did swell on the edge of Naruto's eyes she quickly got rid of them before Harry saw and dug into the food that smelled so good, and the taste didn't disappoint.
Ten plates later, Harry sat on the other side of Naruto wondering if he should be impressed or disgusted that she can put away that much food, but forgetting how much food she just ate in one setting, he did enjoy the look of content that spread across her face. A blush spread across his face when her eyes hit his. Realizing he had just got caught staring intently he looked away quickly to a random area in the dining hall, face red as a cherry. He jumped when he heard a giggle, and peaked out of the corner of his eye to see Naruto laughing, he liked the sound of it, and was a little sad when she had stopped.
His slight dismay was broken when Kurama made a distinct 'pay attention to me you twats' cough in his hand. Both teens looked to him, "So what's going to happen is that we're going to enter the box at midnight tonight and then leave on the stroke of midnight on the third day. I will have one of the house elves posted outside the box to tell us when it's over. The box also houses my magical creatures, and I haven't been to see them in over thirty-five years so it'll be interesting. So until than you two are free to wander the house and such but do not leave the manor, I can't guarantee any protection from the council or Moldy-butt's minions if you step out."
Harry covered over a laugh with a strangled cough at the name Kurama gave Voldemort, but nodded and got up to look around the house and check out everything that the house had to offer, not noticing that when he left his little dragon friend wasn't hanging off him anymore. He walked around the house for about an hour an half and noticed that from what it looks like wasn't much of a house since Kurama left it hadn't been updated really, there wasn't even a TV there was an old stereo that he only sees in museums now, he was about to walk past another room he thought was empty but halted when he something shiny out of his corner of his eye. Opening the sliding Japanese style door, he found what he thought was a dojo he saw in all the old ninja movies. While he was stunned about how nice the room looked with the Japanese art work on the walls his eyes made their way to two swords hanging on the wall. When his eyes connected to a Katana about three feet long in a red sheath with a black dragon etched in it, and a golden dragon hilt. He felt tug at his subconscious, his eyes slightly glazed over and he reached over to touch it, but nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a warm breath fanning against his neck. His head snapped to the right to see a predatory smiling Kurama, before he could sputter out an apology, warm lips fell upon his. His face turned beet red, but instead of feeling disgust about a guy kissing him he oddly felt warm and then he felt a rush of what he can explain as adrenaline, power, and pain all at once. He would have screamed in pain and shock if it hadn't been for Kurama's lips silencing him. The moment only lasted a few minutes but for Harry it felt forever where both his lips and body were being assaulted by Kurama. When Kurama pulled away, Harry sputtered and tried to get of the fox's grasped but all Kurama did was giggled at his futile attempted and gently picked up the red katana that he was eying earlier and held it in front of them.
"Well this is quite surprising Harry, I'm surprised that Shi no dorogonburedo (Dragon blade of death) had called to you, he hasn't done that in a very long time you must have a god of luck on your side to receive of all this magnificent gifts in one day." Kurama praises, a smile of laughter at the struggling boy in his arms.
Harry was still pushing on Kurama's chest trying to escape the arm that was around him and was assaulting his personal space, "That doesn't explain why you kissed me!"
Kurama chuckled and moved the katana to his other hand, and picked up the blue and white Katana that was 6 feet long, "Watch." He commanded, "O dear Naru-channnn~!" He purred just as Naruto cleared the corner and as that happened Kurama gave the blade a toss, on reflex she caught it but was surprised to receive a sonic blast back and through several walls dust and wood trailing after her. Harry's jaw dropped in shock. "Ooohh Jensei no fenikkusuburedo (Phoenix Blade of Life) likes her. Now to explain why I kissed you, one it's funny to see you flustered you're so cute!" Harry growled in response unknowingly his eyes slitted like a cats and grew brighter, Kurama noticed but didn't say anything. "And two because if you had touched Shi no dorogonburedo without any chakra you probably would get killed right off seeing how both swords were forged from chakra steel in our dimension, though it's surprising that Shi no dorogonburedo called to you, he's very picky."
"You speak as if the swords are people." Harry questioned, finally giving up his struggle to get out of Kurama's arms.
"Oh but these swords are sentient ha ha they both have powerful demons in them, the swords were both forged from chakra steal and the blood and bones of the demons, and before you ask they chose this, they didn't want to die so being made into a sword to face battle forever is a blessing to a demon if you can get it done." Harry looked down thoughtfully. "So wanna hold him?"
Harry's head snapped up and he looked to where Naruto shot off, gulping he nodded his head. Kurama smiled in glee as he let go of Harry and placed the Katana gingerly in his open hands. Harry closed his eyes expecting to be shot off like Naruto but instead he felt a warmth spread throughout his body like a blazing fire within his soul. A voice entered his mind, 'Draw me boy!' Not hesitating he grabbed the hilt of the sword drew the katana from its sheath and gasped at the pitch black blade on the sword. "He's beautiful."
"Isn't he, he was a good looker when he was alive too." Kurama giggled, but stopped when he heard a scream of rage and looked to the hole that Naruto created.
"KU-RA-MA!" She yelled in rage, storming up to the fox, the 6 foot katana strapped to her waist, she walked up to Kurama grabbed him by the collar of his trench and shook him roughly, which was funny for Harry to watch this five foot four inch girl shaking a six foot four inch fox in human form like it was nothing, "What the fuck was the point of blasting my ass through 5 walls!"
"But Naru-chhhhaaannn it wasn't me it was the katana who blasted you through 5 walls! Aren't you happy to have a new weapon anyhow?" Kurama whined pitifully, making Naruto's tick grow larger, but turned in a huff releasing Kurama and storming out of the dojo.
Harry felt a tug on his pants leg and looked down to see his little dragon friend sitting there patiently waiting to be picked up, "O that's where you went. You know we really need to think of a good name for you." Harry bent over and picked up the happy little dragon, who surprisingly started to change different colors, while Harry looked surprised at the dragon never seeing that before, he smiled, "Hey I know I'll call you Astarot (Prince of death), you're a dragon so you should have a name that everyone fears." The little dragon shot out a little flame, showing he liked the name.
[Time Skip]
It was five before midnight and Kurama, Harry, Astarot and Naruto were waiting outside of the magical time/space trunk, all off their supplies stuffed into a feather pouch, the magical creatures that was purchased at the dark wizards shop waiting in their cages still ready to be transported to their new home. Nodding to the house elf that he charged with opening the box on the third day, they opened the lid when it was a minute before midnight, the magical creatures went in first then Harry with Astarot on his shoulders and Naruto followed after Kurama, they didn't look back as the house elf closed the lid to the box. Harry and Naruto gasped in shock as they, the area it looked to be never ending rolling green plain with a beautiful forest and a lake and over by the hill a wood cabin. They were pulled out of there shock when Kurama opened the cages for the magical creatures and watched them scurry off to safety.
Kurama turned to them with a sadistic gleam in his eye, "Welcome to three years of hellish training kids." He let out a sinister chuckle and Harry's first reaction was to grab Naruto's hand for comfort.
Naruto looked at Harry and smiled, "Were ready for whatever you throw at us fluffy!" Harry drew from Naruto's confidence and nodded his head in agreement and laughed at Kurama's sour face about being called 'fluffy'.
Kurama smiled at both though and shouted, "You better!"