*A thank you to sydni for betaing this*

Chapter 2

Harry was bored. He was so bored, he decided to go through and clean the whole apartment…twice. He even cooked, and had everything set up, ready to go, and he was still bored. Staring at the clock, he slammed his head on the table. He still had another hour to go until the Academy was done for the day. This was so annoying. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't actually exist, he would have probably went and looked for a job or something.

While the civilians themselves were quite dim (probably the same if not dimmer than the wizards of his time), the ANBU and the ninjas themselves were not. The less attention he brought to himself, the better. Unfortunately, almost every adult knew about the massacre (though not the true cause), and kept giving Sasuke pitying looks. Because of that, there was no way Harry could be seen publicly with him. Sasuke, though obviously not pleased, understood (a little). However, that didn't stop him from giving a glare to anyone who gave him a pitying look.

Harry was able to do a few things about that situation though. Seeing that he was a spirit, he could turn invisible, and almost non-detectable (which amazed Sasuke). That way, he would be able to accompany the nine year-old unseen, though the drawback is that they really couldn't talk to each other, and Sasuke had to, every so often, reach out to make sure Harry was still there.

Another thing Harry was curious about was his magic, or rather, could shinobi sense it like they could sense chakra? Though Harry could still use his magic, his reservoir of magic, oddly enough, depleted easily. He had no idea why, and no matter how much he examined himself (both with the sharingan and a little magic), he couldn't find out the reason why. Also, it was obvious to him, that some sort of combination of chakra and magic allowed Harry to be invisible. If shinobi could sense magic, then Harry was screwed. To confirm or deny this, Harry had to create a way to test this.

This led to him doing a few experiments (pranks) on the few ninjas that were by themselves. His results so far were that genins couldn't sense him at all no matter what he did, and chunins couldn't sense his presence when he was nearby. However, Harry had yet to test whether or not they could sense him using magic.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Harry glanced at the clock and stood up. He had another half hour to kill until Sasuke was done at the Academy, and he had a good idea of what he wanted to do. Stretching, he transfigured his clothes into something more suitable and placed a few notice-me-not charms on himself before leaving out the door. During first few months after the massacre, there was always at least one ANBU member watching the apartment, forcing Harry to apparate in and out of the building (he and his magic weren't pleased by this). Since one of them would still come by every so often, the barrier Harry created around the apartment (which depleted even more magic) had to stay up, lest they discover that Sasuke wasn't living alone.

Once out, Harry headed straight towards the market place. He needed somewhere crowded, and that place never failed him on that. Scanning the area, Harry tried to locate the soon-to-be helper (victim) of his experiment. Grinning, Harry walked towards the unfortunate chunin. Scanning around again, he eyed a falling leaf headed towards the man. Using his finger, he guided the leaf to land on the chunin's head. He waved his finger and the leaf was immediately transfigured into a small snake. Harry watched as the chunin continued to walk around, not noticing anything until a few of the civilians started screaming and pointing to his head. The chunin reached to touch his head only to start screaming (like a girl) before swatting it away. Intermingled in the crowd, Harry roared out laughing. In his own way, he was carrying on the Marauder spirit.

Turning away from the scene, Harry headed towards the Academy, having spent the half hour on his experiment. Stopping some distance away from the entrance, Harry waited patiently for class to end. As he waited, he turned to stare at the Hokage Monument. He smiled wistfully at their faces as he remembered them. They were all brave people, each with their own achievements. As much as Madara would deny it, the first Hokage was indeed a respectable and strong shinobi, despite their, ah, differences.

Harry scowled. Now is not the time to think about him. His old clan head can just go and–, oh the bell. Harry let the negative thoughts fade away as he waited for Sasuke to come out. After a few minutes, Sasuke indeed came out, though he was being followed by girls. Harry tried to stifle his laugh as he watched the poor nine year-old's eyes dart around, coming up with some sort of a plan to escape.

Stopping, Sasuke stood his ground, and waited for the group of boys to get close. When they finally did, he sprinted around them and used them as a distraction for the girls while he escaped. Unable to hold it in longer, Harry burst out laughing. He waited a few minutes before going after him.

On the third alleyway he checked, he located the panting Sasuke. Seeing him like that made Harry start laughing again. Sasuke glared at him.

"I think that scene right there made my day," Harry said, allowing the nine year-old to rest against him.

"Can we go now?" Sasuke grumbled, straightening up. Coughing slightly to hide a chuckle, Harry nodded. Sasuke led the way back to the apartment, taking the back roads to get there. Harry started humming. Sasuke gave him a weird look.

"What did you do?" he asked suspiciously. Harry smiled mysteriously.

"Nothing," he sang. Sasuke sighed.

"Really?" Harry made a show of looking around to see if anyone was eavesdropping; seeing that they weren't walking on the main streets, there was no one around. At this, Sasuke let out a begrudging smile.

"Just a small prank…" Harry said, still smiling mysteriously. Sasuke sighed.

"You're acting like Uzumaki," he muttered under his breath. "Make sure it doesn't get traced back to you," he told Harry, who shrugged indifferently. Magic didn't exist here, and since no one knew about it, he was safe.

"I just made a chunin and a few civilians scream like a girl. It won't get traced back to me!" Harry defended himself. Sasuke started laughing.

"What exactly did you do?"

"It was simple really," Harry said, "But I'll tell you about it while we eat, alright?" Sasuke pouted, but grabbed Harry's hand and started dragging him back to their apartment, while Harry thought of a non-magic explanation.

••••••

"How old are you?" Harry turned his head to look at Sasuke. Deciding to stay outside for a bit, Harry placed a subtle notice-me-not charm on the two of them, and they both had wandered around for a bit before ending up sitting at a bench near a park. Since they did not encounter anyone, Harry was able to stay visible. Currently, they both were watching the sunset, or they were when Sasuke asked his question.

"How old do I look?" Harry questioned. Sasuke blinked.

"Um, well, I would have to say about 23… I guess…"

"Then I'm 23," Harry stated. Sasuke gave him an annoyed look.

"I meant that… you're a spirit, right?" Harry hummed in confirmation. "How long ago was it since you were sealed away?" Harry gave him a blank look. Sasuke flushed and looked away. "Just that one question…please?"

"Why do you want to know?" Harry asked. Sasuke fidgeted.

"You know everything about me, and yet I know close to nothing about you…" Harry smiled and reached over to mess up Sasuke's hair. Sasuke protested loudly and glared at him.

"You know, you're really quite cute," Harry said, grinning. Sasuke turned red and glared at him even harder. Harry chuckled once, before becoming stoic again and looking up towards the sky. "If you don't mind, I'll tell you more about myself when you're older and more mature." Sasuke looked at him in surprise.

"Will you really?" he asked, disbelief coating his words. He has been trying for the past year to get Harry to say more about himself, but Harry wouldn't breathe a word.

"I promise," Harry said, holding out a pinky finger. Smiling, Sasuke wrapped his own pinky around his and they shook on it. "I never go back on my word."

"Don't worry, I believe you." They sat in silence for a number a minutes before Harry decided to speak.

"I was around when this village was being founded." Sasuke stared at him, stunned. He didn't think Harry would start so soon. "What?" Harry said, raising an eyebrow. "You did ask, right?" Sasuke nodded, blinking away his shock.

"Wasn't that around 80 years ago?" Harry nodded. Sasuke wanted to ask more questions, but he held his tongue. He knows that Harry will eventually give him more details later. Sasuke, instead, just nodded in acknowledgement. Harry stood up.

"I think it's about time we head back." Sasuke agreed and stood up as well. He walked ahead of Harry and left the bench area. Harry followed him as they passed the park entrance. Something caught his eye, and Harry stopped while Sasuke kept going. Realizing that Harry wasn't following him anymore, he turned around to see Harry staring at something inside the park. Frowning, Sasuke backtracked to where Harry was.

"Did something happen?" When Harry didn't answer, he looked inside the park himself. With the exception of a person on the swing, the park was empty. "What happened?" Sasuke asked again.

"Do you know him?" Harry asked. Sasuke's eyebrows rose in confusion, but nonetheless, he looked at the boy again. A familiar mess of blond hair revealed his identity to him.

"Naruto Uzumaki… why?" Harry nodded absent mindedly before snapping out of his thoughts.

"Let's go." Startled, Sasuke followed Harry out of the area after giving Naruto one last glance.

••••••

Naruto blinked. It almost felt like someone was standing just outside the park, but when he looked, no one was there.

Sighing, he went back to the swing. He desperately wanted to be with someone that his mind was starting to imagine people. Wait till everyone hears about that. They'll then have the confirmation that he is, in fact, insane. Naruto shuddered. Seeing that the sun had fully set, he slid off the swing and started his lonely trip back to his apartment.