*A thank you to sydni for betaing this for me*

Chapter 6

Biting his lips, Harry stood right in front of the gates leading in and out of the village, and watched as various other people (mostly shinobi) passed the gate to either enter or leave, but Harry couldn't care less. The four he was waiting for had yet to enter through the gates. He had reached out with his senses, but they weren't in the Land of Fire, so Harry had to assume that they were still either in or near the Land of Waves.

Walking right up towards the gate, Harry reached out with his hand to pass through the gate only to hit something solid. Curling his hand into a fist, he banged on the space in front of him, but as before, the invisible barrier in front of him did not give way. Swearing, he kicked the barrier and walked away, ignoring the startled looks from the nearby people who heard the disembodied swearing.

Now nursing his pained toes, Harry slowly limped in the direction of the Hokage's office. He couldn't be the only one concerned that Team Seven was late, and if there were any reasons why, the Hokage would be the first to know, right?

Halfway there, however, Harry spotted a group of jonin. Remembering that Kakashi had sensed him a little, Harry kept his distance and waited for the group to leave. Unfortunately, after a half an hour of waiting, the group had yet to move, and in fact, more jonin went in and out of the building during his wait. Harry debated getting his Invisibility Cloak, but decided against it. People kept moving in and out of the building, and that group had yet to leave, so while he wouldn't be spotted, he would still get walked into by someone, and ANBU wouldn't take kindly to someone walking around unseen. Gritting his teeth, Harry turned around, and made his way back to the apartment.

Closing the door behind him, Harry pulled out one of the chairs at the table, and slumped into the seat. There was a fine layer of dust in some parts of the apartment, but Harry was too frustrated to care. What the hell was taking the group so long? If anything happened to Sasuke─ no, not just Sasuke, but Naruto and Sakura too, Harry was going to kill Kakashi. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Harry closed his eyes and slowly took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He kept this up for a few minutes until he felt a bit calmer. He could really use someone to talk to right about now. Placing his left hand on the table, he stared at the dark stone ring on his finger. Shaking his head a little, he sighed and removed his hand off the table. He didn't have enough magic for that; even less so after jinxing the shinobi that had been trailing after Itachi.

He couldn't deny, though, that he was starting to get lonely. He had been so used to talking with Sasuke for the past few years, that though it had been merely three weeks, Harry missed talking to Sasuke, the only person in the village that knew of his existence. Blinking at his train of thought, Harry slammed his head onto the table. He was starting to get overdramatic. It's true that ever since his spirit (soul? He didn't even really know) was sealed away into scroll, he had been lonely.

He desperately missed his family. Harry couldn't count the number of times a day he thought of them: Ginny, his compassionate and understanding wife; James, Al, and Lily, his kids that were his pride and joy, especially when they work together and become the three monsters (according to McGonagall) who are the pranking masterminds at Hogwarts (even better than the Marauders apparently) with Lily being the creative mind, Al being the planner, and James being the instigator; then there's Ron, his ever hungry and carefree brother; Hermione, the ever worrying sister that was almost like a second mother to him (or third... He didn't want to insult Mrs. Weasley now, did he?), and many, many others.

Massaging his head, Harry laughed at himself bitterly. He hadn't been like this before. It looks like he got too used to the past few years of being around and talking to someone.

'What are you doing, Harry?' he thought to himself. Something bad could've happened to Sasuke, and here he was wallowing in his self-pity at being 'lonely.' Standing up, he grabbed the large scroll from above the doorway, and unrolled it on the table. He knew it was pointless, but Harry, once again, examined the seals on the scroll, hoping this time to find any sort of weak spot that could let him go. After a near hour of examining the entire scroll, Harry rolled the scroll up, and kicked it across the room in anger. Regretting that he used the same injured foot, Harry sat back into the chair, and put his head down on the table. He was feeling very tired.

••••••

"Harry? Harry." Harry grimaced, and shoved the hand that was shaking his shoulder. He was having a good dream, dammit. He was celebrating with the Weasleys, and even Sirius was there along with─ "Harry!" Harry, almost jumping out of his seat, looked up and owlishly stared at the person in front of him.

"Sasuke?" Sasuke looked at him in concern. "When did you get back?" Harry asked slowly.

"Just now," Sasuke said slowly. He yelped when Harry grabbed him, and pulled him into a hug. Protesting a little, Sasuke gave up when Harry showed no signs of letting go. Slowly patting his back, Sasuke absentmindedly looked around, and raised his eyebrow at the dust in the place. He knew Harry wasn't a neat freak, but he got bored easily, which was why Harry usually cleaned everything (since he couldn't do anything else.) Sasuke felt a slight surge of guilt, before deciding that he should at least extract himself from Harry first before he did anything else.

Harry finally let go. Holding Sasuke at arms length, he looked him over from head to toe. Sasuke was immensely thankful that they waited until he was fully healed before they left. He didn't want to know how Harry would react if he found out about his senbon injuries.

"Why were you guys so late?" Harry asked when he was done. Sasuke's mind raced. How was he supposed to explain this to Harry in a way that he didn't get angry?

"Well," Sasuke started, "our C-ranked mission kinda became an... A-ranked one..." Sasuke mentally cringed when he said the final word. He should have phrased that better, and sure enough, Harry's eyes hardened.

"And how exactly did that happen?" Harry asked sharply. Sasuke knew that Harry's anger wasn't directed at him, but he couldn't help but cringe a little. As if noticing his reaction, Harry's eyes softened, and he pulled out a chair for Sasuke to sit in. "How did that kind of mistake happen?" Harry repeated in a gentler tone.

"The man we had to escort, Tazuna, lied about some details, so..." Sasuke continued to tell Harry what had happened. Part of the way through his story, Harry went to make some tea, and holding the warm cup in his hands, he continued to talk. Sasuke almost laughed when he was able to correctly guess Harry's different reactions throughout his story: Harry had looked horrified when he mentioned Zabuza, he felt slightly pleased when Harry looked impressed at his and Naruto's plan to free Kakashi, Harry had became worried when he mention Gatou, became impressed again when he mentioned that he and Naruto were both able to climb trees using their chakra (He left out that Sakura had gotten it immediately so that Harry didn't rub it in his face that he was right about her, but a small smirk from Harry told him that Harry knew), and so on.

When it came to the final fight, Sasuke hesitated. Besides just unwilling to tell the soon-to-be irate/worried Harry what happened, Sasuke himself didn't really have an idea about what happened (never mind that he was unconscious towards the end). Kakashi didn't tell him anything, and all he got from Sakura was that Naruto did something. Of course, when he went to Naruto, Naruto stayed tight lipped, and just offered a relieved smile that Sasuke wasn't dead.

"Just tell me," Harry said groaning. "Might as well get it over with..." Sasuke took a slow sip of his tea in order to stall. When Harry cleared his throat, Sasuke placed the empty cup down, and raced through the events of the battle. Breathless by the end of it, Sasuke watched as Harry stood up.

"Harry?"

"I will kill that man." Sasuke jumped out of his seat and raced to the door just as Harry reached it.

"There's no need to go and kill Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke said hastily. Harry's eyes narrowed.

"He allowed the mission to continue when you guys should've aborted and come straight back," Harry hissed.

"It was our idea to continue the mission," Sasuke said, not budging from the doorway.

"He's a higher rank than you, so it was up to him to decide whether or not to abort the mission. He should've had the brains to know that this was a dangerous mission that almost got all of you killed. If it wasn't for the sheer dumb luck you guys had, you all would have been killed!" Harry took a deep breath. "You should be aware of the fact that in any other circumstance, you would've been killed. That man should've known that you three couldn't handle a high ranked mission like that." Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed.

"We couldn't handle a high ranked mission like that?" Sasuke repeated. Harry took a deep breath, and seemed to calm down a little, but Sasuke was just getting started. "I think we handled that mission just fine," Sasuke said heatedly. "Sure there were some close calls, and yes, I wish I did a few things differently, but at least Kakashi-sensei had enough faith in us to know that we were actually capable enough to do this mission," Sasuke said, almost shouting. Harry raised an eyebrow, and his eyes darkened, but he didn't say anything. "Unlike you who keeps treating me like a baby, Kakashi-sensei actually acknowledges that I am a capable shinobi; I'm not an eight year old kid anymore." Now Sasuke was the one who was breathing heavily. His hands were shaking, and he realized that he needed some time alone, and had to get out now. Turning around, he threw open the door.

"Sasuke, I─" Sasuke shrugged off Harry's hand. When Harry made to follow him, Sasuke got angry.

"Don't move. Just stay here and don't follow me!" he ordered. He slammed the door behind him shut, and almost ran away from the area. To his relief, Harry didn't follow him. Rubbing his eyes furiously, Sasuke picked a random empty path and started walking. Why couldn't Harry understand that he wasn't that scared eight year-old anymore? Sasuke greatly respected and admired Harry, but for him to say that Sasuke wasn't strong enough to do such a mission aggravated Sasuke. Even Kakashi-sensei (who at times was even worse than Harry at treating them like kids) knew when to have faith in their skills. Sasuke dimly noted that he lost his chance to question Harry about Kakashi-sensei having the sharingan eye.

By the end of the day, Sasuke was still fuming slightly, and had no desire to return to the apartment. Noting where he actually was, Sasuke began to run and head towards the rather rundown apartment building. He would just spend the night at Naruto's, no big deal.

••••••

The next morning, Sasuke was fully calm and had started to feel a bit guilty for yelling at Harry. Surprisingly, Naruto had yet to ask him why he wanted to spend the night, and after a few hours of thinking of some kind of answer to the unasked question, Sasuke decided that Naruto wasn't going to ask, and that he should give Naruto more credit. After a quick breakfast of ramen (he really needed to convince Naruto to eat something else), they made their way towards the meeting spot that Kakashi told them to go (a few hours later than the actual time naturally). Seeing no one else, they waited. After a few minutes of silence, Naruto decided to start talking about a prank he had in mind. Sasuke slowly shook his head. Naruto needed to be more creative.

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei isn't here yet?" Sakura said, running up to them, slightly out of breath.

"So you took our advice," Naruto said cheerfully. Sakura blushed.

"Well, there's no point in just sitting here by myself," Sakura mumbled. "But I would've been here earlier if my parents didn't stop me," Sakura added, before looking at them horrified, and slapping her hands over her mouth. "Uh, sorry I said that... J-Just ignore me." She turned her back towards them, and determinedly looked at everything but them. Sasuke raised his eyebrows, and Naruto just shrugged.

"Why did your parents try to stop you?" Naruto asked. Sakura looked a little surprised at the question, and looked between the two of them for a moment.

"I didn't go into details obviously, but I told them a little about our mission, and..." Sakura laughed nervously.

"They didn't like what they heard," Naruto finished. Sakura nodded.

"They do know that you're a shinobi now, right?" Sasuke said. "You're going to have a lot more missions that are going to be even more dangerous." Sakura sighed.

"I know, but it doesn't change the fact that they're still going to worry over me, and continue to treat me like I'm five." Sakura was smiling a little now. "But they are parents after all. It's kind of their job to be fussy and worry constantly for me. I can't really blame them for that, can I?" Naruto was smiling wistfully, and Sasuke was feeling guilty again. Harry was only worrying for him, especially since, yes, they did almost all die. There was no reason for him to snap like that.

"Yo." The three of them wordlessly turned their heads towards Kakashi's direction. Sasuke made a mental note to go straight to the apartment as soon as they were done. "I'm guessing you guys weren't waiting long." When he got no reply, Kakashi sighed. "Well, we're back to D-rank missions─" At the collective groans, Kakashi laughed. "You guys really shouldn't be surprised considering what happened to our last 'C-rank mission'"

"We know," Naruto said dully.

"But just because we understand," Sakura said.

"Doesn't mean we have to like it," Sasuke finished darkly.

"That's the spirit," Kakashi said with a closed eyed smile. "Let's see how many we can get done before the sun sets." Team Seven groaned in unison.

••••••

They managed to finish only two missions by the time the sun set. Admittedly, they were long and tedious, but either way, Sasuke was impatient. He was anxious about returning, but he knew he had to, so when they were done, he walked back towards the apartment. When he got near the door, he hesitated. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the doorknob. Momentarily surprised that it was unlocked, Sasuke pushed the door open, and recoiled back and almost shouted. He hadn't expected Harry to be right behind the door.

"Don't scare me like that," Sasuke muttered, calming his racing heart. Harry gave him a shaky smile.

"My apologizes," Harry said softly. Sasuke frowned.

"About yesterday, I'm─"

"Before we do that," Harry interrupted weakly, "Could you..." he gestured to himself. Sasuke frowned in confusion. Harry was trembling, but why? Harry sighed softly. "Could you release me first?" Sasuke blinked.

"Release you? Release you from what..." Sasuke recalled to their last conversation, and immediately paled. "Uh, you can move now!" Almost instantly, Harry collapsed onto the floor. Closing the door behind him, Sasuke rushed to his side.

"I'm fine," Harry said when Sasuke made to lift him up. Taking a step back, Sasuke watched as Harry took deep breaths. He was still shaking a little, and now, not only was Sasuke feeling guilty over their argument, but he was now ashamed of himself for leaving Harry like this for the past 24 hours.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke whispered. Harry looked momentarily confused before he gave Sasuke a weak smile.

"Don't apologize," Harry said softly. "It's not like you did this on purpose."

"I didn't know I could do that," Sasuke said in a quiet voice. Harry laughed a little. Harry motioned to Sasuke to come to him.

"I think I want to lie down a little," Harry said dryly. Sasuke helped Harry up, and supported him to Sasuke's room (which was the closest), and as soon as Harry settled onto the bed, he gave a small sigh of relief. Sasuke dragged in a chair from the other room, and Harry snorted. "I'm just tried, not at my sick bed. There's no need for you to sit vigil at my bedside." Sasuke flushed a little, but still sat down in the seat, and gave Harry a stubborn stare.

After a few minutes, it was pretty obvious that Harry wasn't going to say anything, so Sasuke took a deep breath.

"About yest─"

"There's no need to talk about it," Harry said, cutting him off. "I over stepped my boundaries, and I realized that I coddled you too much." Harry smiled at him. "You're a shinobi right now, and I should expect you to get into dangerous situations, and I should have at least a meager amount of faith in Kakashi." Sasuke could hear the distaste in Harry's voice. "As your sensei, he should know your capabilities better than I would as well as help you hone them better than I could ever do." Harry snorted lightly, before he shook his head a little. "My children were basically civilians." Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Really?" Harry nodded.

"Because of that, as well as the war that had been going on then, I was over protective of them, and I transferred that to you since they weren't here, but you were here." Sasuke flushed again. "In the future, I'll try to be more considerate of your feelings." Sasuke nodded and smiled a little.

"And you yourself...?"

"I was a civilian also," Harry said. Sasuke gaped at him. This whole time, he had imagined that Harry had been some powerful shinobi before becoming a spirit... "Nope," Harry said, grinning slightly. "Full civilian here."

"But you have the sharingan..." Sasuke said slowly. Harry's eyes hardened slightly.

"Despite being a civilian, I still had undergone a life or death situation," Harry muttered, "like you─" Harry stopped speaking, and stared at Sasuke.

"How did you know I unlocked my sharingan?" Sasuke said, gaping at him. "I didn't say anything about it while telling you about the Land of Wave mission." Harry frowned slightly before his expression cleared.

"You told me you almost died on that mission," Harry said, "how exactly would you not activate it in that circumstance?"

"That makes sense," Sasuke muttered. He brightened up slightly. "This means that you can help me learn how to use them?"

"I guess it would be possible to talk you through it, since I can't obviously give you examples," Harry said. Sasuke nodded. Harry being a civilian would explain why he had never seen Harry use a jutsu, or why Harry could only help him in his studies verbally. Sasuke had hoped that Harry could help him with his sharingan, but it looks like, once again, it will be verbally. Still, it was better than no help at all.

"Thank you," Sasuke said. Harry grinned, and ruffled his hair. "I'm going to go take a shower, okay?" Harry hummed. Grabbing his stuff, he quickly headed towards the bathroom. By the time he got back to his room, Harry had already fallen asleep in his bed. Staring at him for a moment, Sasuke went over and covered him in a blanket. Where was he supposed to sleep now? He didn't know where Harry kept the futon that he usually uses.

"Just get in here," Harry mumbled in his sleep. Sasuke saw that Harry left him the other side of the bed.

"I'm not some kid that needs to sleep with their parent." When Harry stayed silent, Sasuke went closer, and saw that he was asleep again. Sasuke sighed. It looks like he had no choice. He should probably put more effort into knowing where everything in the apartment was.

••••••

The next couple of days were spent doing various meaningless D-rank missions. Sasuke (as well as Sakura and Naruto if he wasn't mistaken) was hoping for another mission outside the village, though Sasuke was careful not to let Harry hear any of this. It took a few days, but Harry was once again his cheerful self, and Sasuke wasn't going to risk Harry going into a bad mood again.

However, Naruto was prone to talking about missions, especially when he was over at Sasuke's apartment, so Sasuke had to find a way for Naruto to keep his mouth shut. After a few hours of hard thinking, Sasuke face-palmed at the time he wasted. There was a simple way to convince Naruto: tell him the truth.

Sasuke explained to a wide eyed Naruto that his 'Guardian Spirit' had suddenly become over protective ever since the Land of Waves mission, so any mention about more missions might make him angry. To Sasuke's satisfaction, Naruto agreed immediately to not mention anything about missions in or near Sasuke's apartment. He even made sure to go and buy 'offerings' for the spirit. (Harry was slightly confused, but still pleased at the food nonetheless.)

It had been a few weeks after their return, that Sasuke started seeing a bunch of unfamiliar faces in the village. Naturally, when he headed towards the direction Naruto and Sakura were at, they ended up being confronted by three shinobi. Their hitai-ate showed that they were from Suna, the Village Hidden in the Sands. After being questioned, they explained that they were here for the chunin exams. After leaving, they were all able to breathe freely. Out of all of them, the short red-head had been the one to make Sasuke's skin crawl, and from the expressions his other two teammates made, they were wary of him too.

During their meeting with Kakashi (Sasuke silently cursed himself when he realized he, once again, forgot to question Harry about Kakashi having the sharingan), before any of them could bring up meeting the other shinobi or what the chunin exams were, Kakashi held out a paper.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, looking at the papers blankly.

"The form you need to fill out if you want to be entered into the chunin exams," Kakashi said cheerfully.

It's been a really long time since I've read/watched the chunin exam part of Naruto, so I don't really remember how Kakashi brought up the chunin exams...

I hope their fight didn't sound too forced and out of placed... It was added in last minute, and yeah...

Yes, I updated again in the same month, please don't die from shock... school's out for me, and I'm free until I find a job (Wish me luck!), so I'm just writing in the mean time :D

(You guys have no idea how badly I want to skip to the end of the chunin exams OTL)

(Note: This fic is staying Gen aka: no romance in the storyline)