A/N: Hehe, did I say tune in next week? I totally meant TWO weeks. Yeah, definitely... I think it was wishful thinking, saying that I could get this out within a week. I had a bit of writer's block halfway through, and then my computer was having some issues. So, let's just say that the next chapter will be within 2-3 weeks, eh? Okay, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
Chapter 6
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple." – Oscar Wilde
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Konoha Village, Harry and Luna's new apartment, the kitchen
Harry and Luna probably knew what they were getting themselves into when they invited Sasuke and Naruto to breakfast. Probably. Well, at least they knew that they couldn't invite the two young men without finding themselves with an additional, pink haired guest for the morning. They had an extra setting out on the table by the time all three arrived at their door, and simply welcomed the group inside without any questions asked about Sakura's presence.
Naruto was a little disappointed to find that their cups for breakfast did not change color, though Sasuke looked visibly relieved – something he quickly attempted to hide, which drove him into another silent brood as it reminded him of Harry and Luna's words from that night about concealing emotions. Sakura on the other hand stared at Naruto, bewildered as he sipped at his cup again and again before realizing its' sky blue exterior wasn't going to change. She slapped his hand when he tried to reach for her own cup, and then turned a sweet smile to Harry and Luna while Naruto blew on his hand to calm the red mark left there.
"I hope I'm not intruding," Sakura said politely.
"You're more than welcome," Luna said. "The more the merrier."
The breakfast feast laid out before them on the table made all the young ninja's salivate. It wasn't a typical Hidden Country breakfast, but Team 7 recognized cooked eggs, meat and even pastries piled in front of them in very large portions. The amount probably could have fed twice as many people, but Naruto had no trouble trying to prove that wrong.
"Whaff ah ooh dooffin tooweh?"
"Naruto, don't talk with your mouth full," Sakura said. She would have hit him, but didn't want to risk her teammate choking or spraying them with chunks of food. Naruto quickly chewed and swallowed, repeating what he'd said.
"What are you guys doing today? Are you going to see Granny Tsunade?"
"She'll be there when I start my work with the sword," Harry answered.
"I don't want to be nosy, but, what are you hoping to find by studying the Second Hokage's sword?" Sakura asked.
"Answers mostly," Harry said. "Sometimes artifacts like the sword have been, for the most part, dormant for many years. Their original user may have passed away or it simply fell into the wrong hands. In this case, both happened."
"Ano, Harry-san, wasn't it working when that jerk had it?" Naruto asked.
"If it had been, I wouldn't have been able to take it so easily; maybe not at all."
"Is it that powerful?" Sasuke asked. It was the first time he'd said anything since arriving. Harry's brow raised and he was about to answer when Luna did that for him.
"It has the potential to be, but the potential isn't really its own." she said.
"I'm not sure I understand. Does this have to do with what you mentioned before, about your heritage, Harry-san?" Sakura asked. Harry nodded.
"The objects I'm looking for, including the sword, were all made by one very unique group of people."
"I don't get it," Naruto mumbled, scratching his jaw sheepishly.
"He's obviously talking about his ancestors, Dobe."
"Hm, jerk," Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms.
"Your family made the Sword of the Thunder God?" Sakura asked, wide eyed.
"No," Harry said, deflating Sakura's amazement. Naruto snickered and then stuck his tongue out at Sasuke who looked back at his teammate with annoyance.
"Then how—"
"How do I fit into all of this?" Harry finished for Sakura. The young kunoichi blushed, but nodded.
"Neh, Harry-san, tell us," Naruto said, leaning forward eagerly. A spark of humor shown in Harry's eyes as he mimicked the boy's posture, getting caught up in the energy and excitement rolling off of him. It reminded the raven haired wizard of the times he'd spent whispering about theories and secrets with Ron and Hermione, in the Great Hall and the Gryffindor Common Room.
"You really want to know?"
"Yes!" said three voices at the same time. Harry and Luna tried hard not to laugh at the united front before them. Since they'd met the three ninjas, they hadn't actually seen much team work; something of which they'd talked about that morning while making breakfast. They figured that though they were supposed to be a team, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were getting along about as well as Slytherin and Gryffindor students forced to raise flobberworms together. To see them now, all with uniform expressions and ignoring the fact that they'd all spoken at the same time, was amusing as well as a hint of hope that they might work out some day.
Harry and Luna exchanged looks, and then turned back at their guests who looked like they were now holding their breath. Harry drew in a breath and then halted, his shoulders tensing as he turned towards the direction of their apartment door. Luna was already looking in the same direction.
"Perhaps another time," Harry said, his tone a little distant. His words were quickly followed by a quick exhalation of air, and then groaning – mostly from Naruto.
"Waaah, you can't leave it like that!"
"Sorry, Naruto-kun," Luna said. She stood from the table, heading towards the front door. The three shinobi only had a moment to wonder what she was doing before Luna opened the door to reveal a figure behind it. Shizune stood there, fist raised to knock on the door that was now out of reach. Her eyebrows raised, but she didn't ask any questions. She didn't get the chance, anyway.
"Good morning," Luna said, gesturing for her to enter. "Would you like some pumpkin juice?"
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Hokage Tower
Harry and Luna found themselves in one of the less used rooms of the Hokage tower about an hour from Shizune turning up at their door. Team 7 had grudgingly gone to train once they found out that she was there to escort the witch and wizard. The Hokage herself was waiting in the room when they got there, deep in concentration over what looked like a medical book. She had the sword next to her though, still in its case and within reach. Harry and Luna knew that even if she looked distracted, she wasn't going to let someone just snatch up the precious item.
"I hope your first night in Konoha was comfortable," Tsunade said, looking up from the book as she closed it. "I understand that you've found housing in Naruto's apartment building?"
"Yes, it was very nice of him," Luna said. Tsunade nodded a smile ghosting over her lips.
"That's definitely one of the kid's qualities," she said. "Now, shall we begin?"
Tsunade watched carefully as Harry sat with the sword in front of him. She wasn't sure what he was going to do. He hadn't touched the sword in the last few seconds, and hadn't even leaned in to examine it. Instead, he was taking slow, deep breaths with his eyes closed. Tsunade leaned towards Luna, who was silently sitting next to her.
"Does he usually do this?" she asked. Luna nodded.
"He's just getting ready. This can take a lot out of him," Luna said.
"Does he use this… magic of yours?"
"It's more of a branch of it, actually. What Harry does isn't something I or any other wizard I know can do." Tsunade thought about that information for a moment. She was new to the concept of wizards – at least how Harry and Luna had described and demonstrated – but with the information fresh in her mind, she thought she understood.
"You mean his abilities that brought you here. I didn't realize that they were connected."
"They're like different rooms in the same house," Luna explained. "You could say that there's just the matter of having the right key to access it."
"And Harry has the key?"
"The only one," Luna chirped. Then, she frowned. "Well, there could be others. If you think about it, it's much like he doesn't have the original key but a copy and if there's one there can be more…"
Tsunade sweat dropped. She was beginning to lose track of where the conversation was going. "I think you're taking this key metaphor a bit far."
Luna's eyes widened. "Oh, sorry. I got a little carried away. Must have Fogwursts on my tongue."
"Fogwursts?" Tsunade asked, immediately regretting asking as the younger blonde perked up at the opportunity to explain a strange and fascinating creature. Luna was just getting into the details of mating rituals for the creatures – how that's what often caused a trip of the tongue in their hosts, which was easily fixed by rolling the ailing tongue into the shape of a three leaf clover and humming – when Tsunade noticed Harry had opened his eyes again.
From a medical perspective, Tsunade could see that his pupils were dilated and that his breaths were now shallow, barely lifting his chest. As a ninja and one of the Sannin, she saw the faint glow within those irises that wasn't normally present. And, Tsunade could feel something from him, but it wasn't chakra. Her brow raised as it washed over her body. The sensation was much like the prickly feeling you get when an unseen hand hovers at the point between your eyes, just above the bridge of your nose.
It was more than a bit surprising for the Fifth Hokage. None of the ANBU had reported being able to detect anything like this from the witch and wizard since they'd been put under surveillance. Most of their detection concerning the two had been based on their six senses, which some of the ANBU had been more than a little frustrated with though they hadn't dared complaining.
The issue didn't have anything to do with an inability to track the two. From what they'd seen so far, a genin with basic tracking techniques would be able to keep an eye on the two visitors – barring any surprises the two may still have up their sleeves. What really had them on edge about the two was that they hadn't been able to detect their so called magic. A Hyugga had been assigned to the surveillance, but they had reported that both Luna and Harry had average chakra coils which neither of them seemed to access more than any other civilian.
No one had been able to pick up on anything, however, when the two seemed to perform bizarre and impossible feats like materializing furniture and repairing floorboards – something of which bewildered ANBU had reported occurring last night. So, the questions that lingered in Tsunade's mind now as she continued to observe Harry and feel the sensation wash over her were whether or not this was how magic felt, and why she was only feeling it now.
"Luna-san," Tsunade said, drawing the attention of the younger blonde. Luna took one look at her expression and smiled.
"You're wondering about that strange feeling you're getting."
Tsunade nodded, not surprise at Luna's close guess. "Is that what your magic feels like or is this something else?"
"How does it feel?" Luna asked, and Tsunade promptly described the feeling as best she could to the younger woman.
"That's quite interesting," Luna answered. "But that's not how magic feels I'm afraid."
"Then what am I feeling, and why?" Tsunade asked.
"You can't really feel magic unless you have some of it yourself," Luna began to explain. "And the same goes for any other energy based ability, such as your chakra. What you're feeling is more like interference occurring. Harry is opening a part of himself up right now that's usually tucked away and it's letting that energy clash with others nearby it."
The Fifth Hokage's brow crinkled as she listened to the explanation. This information could be useful. For some, learning that you can't directly sense something that could be a potential threat might be discouraging. Tsunade wasn't a legend for nothing though, and not just for her skills as a medic-nin. If she could find some way to detect the so called interference when their magic was hidden away, it could help the shinobi gain some advantage in the future. She just hoped that there would never be a point where anyone in Konoha would have to need an advantage over the two travelers. Tsunade was personally hoping for an alliance rather than more enemies, though the old bats that called themselves advisors might not be so welcoming.
Harry suddenly flinched, drawing their attention quickly back to him. His face was pale, immediately inciting the medic-nin in Tsunade as she rose from her seat. Luna beat her to Harry's side though. She raised a hand to the back of Harry's neck, as she handed him what looked like a thick piece of chocolate. Luna brushed her fingers along the bare skin between Harry's collar and hairline while the dark haired wizard obediently began to nibble on the chocolate. The color began to return to his face.
"Are you all right, Harry-san?" Tsunade asked.
"In a manner of speaking," Harry answered, his voice sounding a little shaky. "I'm fully intact, at least."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "I take it you're 'studies' of these artifacts can sometimes be dangerous?"
"Yes."
"I would have appreciated it if you'd warned me before hand." Harry nodded, aware of the worry and authority laced into those words.
"My apologies. I didn't think there would be such a backlash this time," Harry said. Tsunade folded her arms, tapping her manicured fingers along her forearm as she leaned in to examin Harry. Even though he seemed to be recovering, the medic-nin in her was always a bit of a pessimist. You sometimes had to think the worst to catch the fatal injuries though.
Luna didn't seem too concerned with her colleague's current condition though. She had removed her hand from Harry's neck and had even popped a square of chocolate into her own mouth. The young witch was, at the moment, playing with a tuft of Harry's dark hair. Harry's cheeks, in turn, tinged pink but he didn't move away from the touch. Tsunade smirked. At least that put more color into his face.
"You seem to be recovering well," Tsunade finally said. "If there are any lingering side effects though, I would just like to request that you come to me personally or Shizune if I'm unavailable. We can help if it's a medical issue and if it's magic related…"
"You want to make sure there are as few eyes on the issue as possible in that case," Harry finished for her. Tsunade nodded.
"Don't worry, Tsunade-sama," Luna said. "I'll keep an eye on him."
Harry snorted. "And I find myself receiving attention for possible injury rather than my good looks once again." Luna flicked the side of Harry's head in response, drawing a chuckle from the Hokage and choice word from Harry at the sting of the new – though small – injury.
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A few hours later, Tsunade returned to the Hokage office to go through paperwork that she'd been hoping to avoid. She'd run out of excuses to keep her out from behind her desk though, so she resolved herself to a few hours of documents and signatures. As she worked through the piles on her desk, Tsunade's thoughts were still partially on her time with Harry and Luna earlier that day.
"There is a lot of information imprinted into this sword. Memories, mostly, of its use and the battles it's been through. I'm going backwards through it though, so it's going to take me a while to reach what I'm really looking for."
"And what's that?" Tsunade asked.
"The sword's exact origin and who gave it to your ancestor," Harry answered.
"I thought you knew that."
"Possibly, but as I mentioned before things have gotten a bit complicated since the artifacts were… distributed."
Tsunade sighed as she half-heartedly leafed through a folder. By distributed, he meant stolen and given away without permission. Not all the artifacts he encountered were like that, which was why Harry had been willing to trust her with the sword while he learned more about it. There was still the possibility that her own great uncle's prized weapon was, in fact, a pilfered item though and Tsunade didn't like the thought of that at all. It didn't make the Second Hokage the thief – Harry assured her of that at least – but it certainly sullied the glorious stories of his battles with that sword.
"Shizune!" Tsunade suddenly called as she shoved the piles in front of her away. The raven haired assistant arrived within seconds of her bellow, standing ready for any emergency or order.
"Is something wrong, Tsunade-sama?"
"Contact someone in records about digging up anything and everything that has to do with the Second Hokage. I don't care if it's the diary of a nursemaid or his personal log, I just need some results."
"Right away, Hokage-sama," Shizune replied, bowing hastily before leaving. Tsunade watched as the doors closed before she reached for the bottom drawer in her desk. If she was going to start digging into her own well honored and respected ancestor's past for dark secrets she'd need to get drunk first.
1892, Mould-on-the-Wold, England
"What's your name, young miss?"
"Ariana Dumbledore. Who are you?" she said.
"I have something for you, young Miss Dumbledore," the old man said. He pushed a weathered hand into a side pocket, and drew something small out. Ariana cocked her head.
"I don't know you," Ariana said to the old man.
The old man, who had yet to give a name and never would, nodded and chuckled. "Yes, not many do."
"What is it?" Ariana asked as she tried to peek at what was still hidden in the man's hand.
"Something special; A present," he answered.
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A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews, by the way. Now, this is the part in the story where things start to get… confusing? Strange? Topsy-Turvy? I know people already have lots of questions. Why are Luna and Harry traveling to other dimensions, how can they do this and that? There's a lot of back story in my head right now, most of which you may only see in glimpses or hints throughout this story. The rest… it's possible that a prequel(s) of sorts may pop up once this story is finished. I won't think about that now though. Writing prequels before you've even finished is just a bad idea.
p.s. To those in the U.S., hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that no one experienced any deep frying accidents.
