Hello again, dear readers! What? No, of course I'm not dead! Although I admit I haven't updated when I said I would, I apologize. I've been busy lately, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. I will, however, vow to have a chapter out at least every two weeks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. On with the story!

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" Harry called, holding his hand to his mouth as he tried the fireball jutsu. Again.

"Urgh!" He flinched as his pathetically small stream of flames burned his mouth and hands.

He swore loudly, sitting down. He was standing on a dock that was situated on a large lake, a town over from Little Whinging. He'd been coming here for the past week or so to practice the fireball jutsu, after mastering the basic jutsu, of course. One had to work up. Harry stared at the sunset, contemplating all that had happened recently.

He found it was incredibly easy to master the basics, and he had fun transforming into Dudley and having the Dursleys buy him things. And whenever Dudley got it into his head that he could go Harry Hunting, Harry just created a clone for him to chase and relaxed in his room.

After mastering the basics, another scroll had appeared in his room. This one detailed the martial arts fighting style of his family, using taijutsu. It also contained a work-out for him to do every day in order to properly condition his body for fighting. Harry hadn't noticed any physical changes as of yet, but he knew that would come in time. He was, however, happy to note that his speed and endurance while running was increasing at a steady pace.

Harry crossed his legs as the sun continued its descent. He wasn't entirely sure why he was doing as the scrolls said, he didn't even know the author, but he felt a sense of genuine care and -dare he say it?- love in the writing of the scroll. He often stayed up late at night reading and rereading it, trying to piece together the identity of the author. Predictibly, he hadn't made any progress.

Harry rubbed his hands together as a cool breeze rushed past him from the lake. This was the third time he'd burned himself attempting the fireball jutsu. Instead of being discouraged by his failure, he found a strange enjoyment from struggling to master the jutsu. He knew that when, not if, he succeeded in mastering the jutsu, he would feel an elation like no other.

"Guess I should get home," he muttered to himself, rising from his position.

As he started an uneventful journey home, he allowed himself to once more admire his clothes. The dark T-shirt, leather jacket, and dark pants that he'd tricked the Dursleys into buying him/Dudley were a wonderful fit compared to what he had forced to wear previously. When Harry got home, he headed straight to his room and shut the door, not saying a word to his relatives, not that they'd want him to.

Harry sat on his bed, surveying his organized room, sight resting on his luggage, sitting in the corner. He would go to Hogwarts tomorrow morning, and truth be told, he was excited. Learning magic sounded like an amazing experience, no matter how much he tried to act indifferent. But what Harry really wanted to learn was more jutsu. For some reason, he seemed to prefer it to magic, though he didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he knew a bit more about jutsu and how it worked than magic.

He brushed that thought aside for the time being, it didn't matter as of now. He yawned, stretching before leaving his bed and sitting on the windowsill next to Hedwig. She eyed him intelligently for a moment before Harry reached out his hand, allowing her to rub his hand with her beak affectionately. The Dursleys had at first objected to the presence of an owl in the house, but Harry had simply mentioned his book on horrible curses offhandedly on his way to bringing Hedwig to his room. They hadn't said another word about it.

"Tomorrow is the big day, girl," Harry said to her as he pulled his hand back. "Hogwarts had better be ready for me," he smirked as he moved to go to sleep. Tomorrow would be a long day.

The next day found Harry up early, eating breakfast as his aunt and uncle came down the stairs on their way to the kitchen. Harry had greeted them with a cold stare. They said not a word about their lack of food on the table.

The drive to the station was quite amusing to Harry; Vernon was constantly reminding Harry that the only reason he was taking him was because he had an appointment in town.

'Whatever floats your boat.' Harry had thought.

When he arrived, Harry found he was at a loss as to what to do, as there was no Platform 9 3/4.

"See you next year," Vernon said, smiling nastily.

Harry ignored him as his uncle went back to his car, hastily leaving the area. He could take care of himself.

"Perhaps there's a wizard here to help people who don't know how to get onto the platform," Harry said to himself.

He stopped a passing security guard and asked him if he knew were Platform 9 3/4 was.

"Think you're funny, do you?" the guard responded, walking away.

'Well, that was a bust.'

Harry set about wandering the station, aware that the train would be leaving soon. He was about to lose hope of finding the platform when he spotted a large family of redheads talking nearby.

'What was that?' Harry had thought he'd heard something about Platform 9 3/4.

Having no other leads, he approached the family, coming to a stop a few yards behind them. He left room for people to walk between them as he covertly listened to their conversation.

"I'm only joking, I am Fred," one of the older males, apparently the twin of the guy who looked just like him, said as he made a run at a wall.

Harry watched in surprise as the boy ran right through the wall, his twin following him.

'Of course, to get into a magical train station that will take you to a magical school, simply run headlong into a brick wall.'

Harry shook his head as the rest of the family disappeared through the wall. He waited a minute for them to disperse onto the train before running at the wall himself. A moment before he collided with the wall, he wondered if all of this was just a sick cosmic joke, and he was about to crash headlong into a brick wall. Before he could think on it, he was on the other side.

Harry had to admit, this place was breathtaking. There were countless people milling about a big, scarlet train that seemed, to all intents and purposes, to be a normal train. He carefully picked his way through people, trying to keep his bangs over his scar. He didn't feel like getting stopped by everyone in the train station right now.

After putting his luggage up, he boarded the train, looking for an empty compartment. He found one near the back, and gratefully sank into a seat, staring out the window for a moment before bringing out his Defense Against the Dark Arts text. Might as well get ahead while on the train.

Harry briefly wondered where he would be able to practice his jutsu and taijutsu at Hogwarts, but figured he would find a place suitable to his needs when he got there. He was just finishing the fourth chapter when he felt the train give a lurch, and then start moving. He was off!

And that's a wrap! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, it isn't my favorite. Next chapter will have Harry making friends and arriving at Hogwarts. It will probably end with his sorting. As for his meeting Madara, that will not happen for a long time, probably directly after year two. I'm still unsure. On a completely off topic and random note, if Daisuke had a theme song, what do you think it would be? I have no idea why I'm asking this, I'm just crazy, I guess. Until next time!