Chapter 2 - Early Lives
The case of Naruto Uzumaki fascinated Harry, or Konyo as we shall now refer to him. With an adult's perspicacity, he witnessed the young orphan shunned by all adults he came across, for seemingly no reason, which was quickly copied by peers of his age, and that made him curious about the boy that he otherwise might not have taken much interest in.
And with the old Gryfinddorish tendencies of old Harry's past life not yet forgotten, he was determined to help the boy if he could, or at least mitigate the harm that he saw inflicted unjustly upon an innocent child. And he wished to solve the befuddling mystery of course, and befriending him was probably the best course of action.
Konyo, having much of the maturity of an adult was having a difficult time forming bonds with any of the orphans, as children did not especially interest him as much as adults did, and so it was somewhat of an acted out friendship at first, but Naruto being desperate, took any affection that he could get.
And in some ways, the mature Konyo was the perfect friend for an orphan who was subtly detested by every adult he ever met, and it did wonders to install some discipline, common sense, and sound principles in him. Konyo who felt at first more of an adult's affection towards a cute child, than a potential relationship between equals, taught Naruto the basics like tying shoes, helped him read better, calmed him down when he grew too excited, and steered him away from potential dangers posed by unfriendly peers and adults.
By being this sort of protective older brother/parent and guardian that he never had to Naruto (who referred to him as his nii-san despite Konyo's protestations), it would be much later before he gradually grew to respect him as an equal. But Naruto undoubtedly benefited from his influence and grew much more mature than he otherwise would have, with a greater respect for book learning as well as subtlety, learning from a young age to not always see the world in pure black and white.
Konyo after all had an adult's knack for staying out of trouble and calming the other kids who might otherwise team up to bully them, talking his way out of trouble serenely and diplomatically, turning back a child's taunts before things could escalate or a fight could break out. This did not escape the attention of his caregivers who grew gradually afraid of his abnormality, because Konyo had to act more like an adult in front of the kids if he was going to spare Naruto being bullied often.
Naruto and Konyo had been born exactly one year apart, and they celebrated birthdays together. And the first clue for Konyo was that on this particular day, the neglect that Naruto often experienced would heighten to near abuse by adults, and this was a recurring pattern along the years. And there was only one particular anniversary worth commemorating on this day, the day he had lost his parents.
So Konyo logically concluded Naruto was somehow connected with the Kyuubi attack, but lacking any knowledge of shinobi matters he could not conceive how a mere infant could have had anything to do with it. He did not think it wise to ask any of his caregivers who clearly disliked Naruto for just this reason.
And so things progressed in just this way to Konyo's seventh birthday, and Naruto's sixth, which was when things of his previous life began to come to the surface for him. As the birthday boy of the day and aged seven finally, Konyo was allowed to spend the day outside with a caregiver taking him to a local fair. He had been allowed to invite two other children, but when he asked for Naruto, the woman's face darkened and she said that Naruto was ill and Konyo knew better than to push things.
So he went out for the day and largely pretended to enjoy himself but when they returned in the evening, he had been too late to stop Naruto being beaten up by the other orphans, who knew that for some reason this was the day when they could expect no intervention from their caregivers.
Righteous anger had flowed from Konyo, which was particularly surprising as he had never felt this angry in this life before, and old Harry was been quite serene in his final years, he rushed up to Naruto's tormentors and shoving them aside came to a stricken Naruto covered in bruises, cuts and close to fainting.
"YOU FECKLESS CUNTS," swore Konyo surprising all of them present with a seemingly, oddly magnified voice, though they were almost all too young to comprehend him except for a pair of the eldest who fell on them and then it happened.
With a burst of electricity it seemed as soon as the two nine year olds attacked Konyo and Naruto grabbing their collars, there was a tremendous discharge that shocked and burned their fingers that they immediately fell to the floor hollering in agony.
As three more came forward angrily with raised fists there was a gigantic crack and even though Konyo had never intended anything of the sort, they were upstairs. Shouts of disbelief were echoing from below and Konyo quickly locked the door to their dormitories.
Naruto was still babbling, saliva dripping from his mouth as he simultaneously apologized and blamed the kids for taunting him. He had thrown the first punch, nearly knocking one of them out and then they had all attacked him.
Konyo was barely listening as he was staring at his bare hands trying to comprehend all that had happened and come to the gradual realization that all the things in his dream, they were actually true. Or at least they were possibly true and he had just demonstrated it. He remembered old Harry's accidental magic in his youth alright and how he would get punished for it by his relatives.
He never breathed a word of this to anybody and unbelievably Naruto was in such a state that he never thought about it, assuming that he had blacked out and his nii-san had delivered him to safety. All the kids went hollering to their caregivers who never gave them a minute after they claimed that Konyo and Naruto had just disappeared.
None of the kids bothered them again, rather they were avoided like the plague which suited Naruto and Konyo better in truth. But although there were no ramifications for what the kids had seen, it was a very different state of affairs with the ANBU that always kept a close watch on Naruto unbeknownst to Konyo. Sandaime Hokage was informed immediately and a few days later, he paid a visit to the orphanage.
Jiji as Naruto often called him, visited the orphanage to see Naruto about four times per year but he had very little time for any of the other orphans. Konyo knew enough by know to realize that he was the head shinobi of the village, and this deepened the mystery that he was trying to unravel about Naruto's origins.
This time, the Hokage came inquiring of him, which made him realize what this was all about. And so he had been ushered in for an interview with the Sandaime himself.
"Konyo Tokuda Hokage-sama," he said introducing himself as asked, and gave a stiff bow which made a caregiver behind him scowl. Etiquette did not come naturally to him as he had old Harry's memories to consider and old Harry had never subordinated himself to authority that willingly.
He was trying to put on a cute, childish demeanour, and not succeeding. The Hokage nevertheless proceeded to question him about what happened the day he had rescued Naruto from a fight.
Konyo answered as truthfully as he could, not daring to lie or embellish in front of this clearly powerful and very important figure. And he saw no reason that he should, the sooner it was let out that he possessed unique abilities, the sooner the Hokage would become aware of him and he would fall under his protection from the more insidious elements of the shinobi. For he was well aware that orphans were being recruited by certain shinobi who came under the guise of adoption, but up-close Harry could see that they had a certain evaluative gleam in their eyes.
For Konyo, he had been trying to replicate his magic with some minor success. He couldn't do anything controlled at all, as he needed a wand to channel magic, and so his efforts were meagre. Yet he showed everything he could do to the Hokage and watched as his eyes grew large as he fought to hide his amazement. Enlarging, shrinking, colour change, telekinesis and levitation, and a very crude apparition that was totally inaccurate and had him hitting himself on surrounding objects regularly as he tried to teleport himself some place.
Konyo wasn't personally that enthused with being a shinobi which sounded like it involved a lot of killing and violence in a way that becoming a wizard never did, at least not inherently, in old Harry's world. But learning to defend himself and gain power was simply a prerequisite if he wanted to improve things at all in this world, he would need to become a figure of consequence to have any influence over the depressing state of affairs.
Old Harry had succeeded by becoming a great war hero and vanquishing dark wizards, and he had helped greatly to reform the wizarding world for the better, and from what Konyo saw this world needed a lot more work, and he supposed he owed it to this world to use his unique abilities for its improvement.
The Hokage had left extremely confused, uncertain as to how this particular kekkei genkai had manifested himself, scrounging up old files of Konyo's parents and their parents and grandparents before them and finding nothing unusual at all. Konyo subsequently paid a few more visits to the Hokage's office at his request, escorted by ANBU and he confessed to him about memories that he possessed about a previous life and how he wished to be of service to the village in light of these unique developments.
The Sandaime Hokage was ultimately forced to believe Konyo as it was obvious that he acted unnaturally mature like an adult, in addition to all the "magic" that he could perform in front of him, without any doubt these were not simple tricks. And so he would now speak to Konyo much like he would to any adult, to the best of his ability at least. The next thing that he did was immediately enrol Konyo into the Academy to become a shinobi.
Konyo left these interviews feeling that the Hokage was undoubtedly unsettled by his most un-childlike presence and he wondered whether he might be mistaken for being sociopathic as Voldemort in his youth clearly was to Dumbledore, but then again he had come to the defence of a child, not tormented them, and that had to put him in good graces with this Hokage.