Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't care. Writing this for free.

AN: I just wanted to say how sorry I am for the delay. Hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait. It took several tries for me to be satisfied. Truth is, it went in an unexpected direction and many things I had planned were dumped because they no longer fit.

Also, an apology to the reader, I promised a specific OMAKE in the end. The feeling just wasn't right with the change of direction this took.

Have fun!

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Originally betaed by: 123paco

Edited: 27/07-2015

Chapter 5: Hairdoe

Not ten minutes after Shikamaru had decided to search for Kiba, the genin Ino-Shika-Cho team was seated with said ex-classmate on the traditional, beige-colored tatami mats in one of the Inuzuka's compound living rooms. The reunion seemed to have taken a surprisingly ceremonious feel as some steaming tea had been delivered by none other than Kiba's mom, Tsume Inuzuka, before they were left alone there. As soon as they were alone though, Kiba got out of the formal kneeled-down position and adopted a more comfortable cross-legged one.

"Finally! Alone at least!" Kiba practically shouted to the ceiling in relief. His fellow genin looked at him in confusion.

"What was all that about?" Choji asked, seemingly the first to get over the bizarre welcome they had received by the normally wild and friendly clan. The tea and cookies might have had something to do with the fast recovery of the Akimichi.

"Hell if I know!" He threw his arms to the air dramatically, "One day mom is her normal violent self, the next she comes back all furious, declaring I should be learning some formal crap and stuff... I think she said something about discrepancy... or was it diplomacy? Whatever, she is driving me crazy! She even tried to teach me table manners! Can you believe it? Table manners! To make matters worse, Team Kurenai is out of commission until Hinata gets out from the hospital - damn Neji - and we are trapped here in Konoha until god knows when!" Kiba somehow managed to tell all of that without pausing for breath. It was actually quite impressive as far as ranting went.

Once Kiba blew enough steam by complaining and bitching about his horrible fate, his attitude gave a one-eighty as a shimmer of something akin to hope shone in his eyes.
"Please tell me you are here to take me away," he begged. "I don't know how much more I can stand it! Next thing I know she might try to teach me how to fold napkins, or worse... teach me how to dance!" Kiba made a pause as he managed to horrify himself with the mere idea. Ever since he lost the Chūnin exams his mom had been bat-shit crazy over the prospect of the new Hokage sending Kiba on diplomatic missions, and him becoming the reason of an inter-village conflict that might or might not be the start of the next great shinobi war...

Yeah, right, like any Hokage in their right mind would ever send an Inuzuka for anything remotely diplomatic.

Truth was, Tsume had bet good money that Kiba would pass the Chunin exams, and despite the bet having been born in a hot-headed argument with a fellow Kunoichi, Tsume decided to take out her anger on Kiba by teaching him how to behave in situations she knew his son had a snowball's chance in hell of getting into.

Not to mention the face his son had made when she decided to make Akamaru look "formal". It had been totally priceless for Tsume, though Kiba would be decidedly less amused when her mother showed him the picture later.

"Right," Ino spoke, trying to break the rather odd atmosphere that lingered in the room after Kiba's tirade. "Look, Kiba, we are here because we need your help."

"Help?" Kiba perked up intrigued. "And this help... does it involve some backup for a mission? Please tell me that whoever is in charge until the next Hokage comes around wants me to do a long, long mission somewhere very far away from my mother" He begged with wide puppy eyes.

"Er... no" Ino replied. Kiba deflated.

"This is so unfair..." He whined.

The atmosphere in the room became dense once more and Shikamaru sighed, "Mendokusei."

It was one thing to recruit their former classmate while he was conveniently unscheduled to take missions, but it was another to try to pry the son of Inuzuka Tsume from under her overdeveloped nose when she was purposefully making him suffer with useless training - something Shikamaru figured out the kunoichi was doing, even if he wasn't privy of the reason. After all, everyone knew it was the stuck-up Hyuga that were in charge of any missions in which formalities were needed.

Sadly, Kiba's help was beginning to seem very unlikely in the immediate future.

"What did you want help with, anyway?" Kiba asked with a dejected tone. Shikamaru considered not telling him right there and then, but being impeded to come with them to help verify his theory in person shouldn't make Kiba completely useless since the Inuzuka might be able to find something in his clan's library, which was only ever open to clan members, and he could rely the clues he might find with a note attached to his dog Akamaru, if not in person.

Absently trying to ignore the nagging voice that pointed out how odd it was to see Kiba without Akamaru (lest Kiba went on another rambling tirade to explain said absence), Shikamaru finally decided to let the Inuzuka know about a certain troublesome doe.

...

Akamaru was not a narcissist dog. In fact, he rarely ever cared about how he looked; so it was common to see the puppy drenched in sweat or covered with mud, sometimes even blood and rests of food. Akamaru didn't like to bathe either. Usually the closest he came to getting clean with soapy water was the occasional trip to the bath house with his owner, and he kept himself dry unless it was for the sake of relaxing in the hot water on those rare days he got truly roughed up with ninja training.

The occasions in which Akamaru's fine white hair was brushed were even more rare than his occasional water soak. In fact, those were practically non-existing since his breed neither lost fur nor had it grow to long... so imagine Akamaru's surprise when his companion's mom came to him with an arm full of smelly the bottles humans outside the clan used on their heads and bodies.

At first Akamaru was just innocently looking at the brush, not knowing what it was, but then he went through the torture of hair pulling, getting drenched for no apparent reason, then suffer under an odd device that made a lot of noise and spat hot air.

The above-mentioned torment, however, was nothing compared to the reveal of the final product. His head's fur had been fashioned into a white mini-afro, his legs had been fluffed, and his tail had been reshaped into a thin road most of his length, but the tip was done up in an unnaturally-perfect puffy sphere.

All in all, Akamaru now resembled a dreaded nin-poodle.

Akamaru would never forget the horror in Kiba's face, only surpassed in intensity by his own dismayed shame.

Disgraced, Akamaru went to hide himself from the world until the hair spray let go of its hold on his virility.

...

In another part of Konoha, another very smart animal stripped of his virility chased after the skirt of Nara Yoshino, all the while sporting the bright green ribbon that matched her eyes. The Wizard-reborn-as-a-doe was happily looking around the ninja village with a feeling of accomplishment, the doe's good mood being a direct product of having Yoshino become her new primary owner.

Not to mention having the kunoichi order her son to back off since Mendo now belonged to her (though she hadn't exactly worded it like that) gave Harry-doe a taste of victory she hadn't gotten since being reborn.

To make the morning even sweeter, Nara Yoshino was takin Harry away fron the Nara complex for the first time... even if it was because she wanted to take "Rai-chan" shopping with her. Harry liked shopping at all, though. In fact, he shuddered at the mere thought of it because of his past life just hearing the word.

Ginny Potter Nee Weasley was a crazy shopper, which had been surprising to Harry at first, but he had latter figured it made sense: Ginny had grown up without a penny to her name, getting her brother's hand-me-downs, and never getting anything that wasn't 100% essential, so having her own salary (and a rich husband) allowed her to get whatever she wanted without remorse. With her as a role-model, their daughter, the sweet Lily Luna, had also grown up into a shopaholic, and Harry had often been forced to carry all their bags and fearfully watched mountains of Gringotts gold being tossed to the wind by the females in his life.

Harry hadn't been sure if he should be thankful that his wallet was as deep as the red sea, or truly regretful that what he had inherited allowed those two to shop from dawn to dusk whenever they pleased.

Apparently, the Potter's had been one of the few pure-blood families that had increased their wealth more and more with every generation.

The horrors of shopping would chase the males in his family for generations to come.

Surprisingly, it turned out that shopping with Yoshino was actually a pleasant thing to do. All they did was walk around the Konoha market and shop for groceries and other necessary items while Yoshino cooed over his doe-self every now and then, while she asked what 'Rai-chan' thought of what they were purchasing. They rarely spent a coin, and the woman fortunately wasn't the type to window-shop.

Harry also considered it a good thing to expand his horizons. After having the option to travel around the world in a blink of an eye because of his vast magic, being cooped into the Nara forest was starting to give him a claustrophobic feeling... and a borderline passionate hatred for the color green.

Begrudgingly, Harry would come to admit to himself, after seeing shinobi doing what could pass as magic, that the concept of being reborn in a ninja village was brilliant.

Or at least it would have been brilliant if Harry weren't a doe.

He couldn't help but wonder what things would be like if he had been born as Yoshino's son instead of her pet. He would probably have been able to use his magic to do anything short of conquering the world, and maybe even that if he learnt the local techniques on top of his own experience and knowledge.

It was so not fair that he got the "doe-rebirth card" for getting the Hallows when Voldemort was the one who chased after immortality and split his soul to avoid Death; that nose-less bastard was the one who deserved getting punished by the entity!

A moment latte, Harry couldn't help but snort as he imagined Voldemort becoming a doe.

Harry-doe had been so immersed in trying to picture doe-Voldemort that he failed to notice the moment in which three genin began to shadow Yoshino and him/her.

Nara Yoshino had been in the middle of buying sweet potatoes for today's supper when she felt the weight of eyes on her back. Discretely, she turned to look towards where her acute ninja senses were pointing, only to see her son making the hand-gesture that signified she should pretend she hadn't noticed. Yoshino had no idea what his son was thinking when he decided to shadow her -certainly he couldn't have hoped for her not to notice him since she had years of experience on him- so the only logical conclusion was that Shikamaru, her baby boy, was trying to spy on the doe next to her.

Again, Yoshino had no idea what his son was thinking.

The most worrying part was that his son was rarely motivated to do anything remotely... well, anything, to be honest, so the fact that he took it upon himself to do something as "troublesome" as shadow a doe, being as lazy he was, made her very unsettled.

A memory of her husband making a comment about his son trying to teach Rai-chan to play shogi popped to the front of Yoshino's head. 'Could it be...?' A pair of innocent green eyes looked up to her as she stopped to look down, and she dismissed the idea. It was actually a very silly picture, her Rai-chan playing Shogi.

And yet, for some reason, the idea of the little doe playing the game wouldn't leave her mind. Then again, that might be because she hoped it was true. Otherwise, she would have to admit to herself that her son had become mad, and Yoshino, as her mother, owed her son the benefit of the doubt at the very least, so she wouldn't immediately dismiss her son as crazy, no, not at all.

She only hoped thinking it enough would make it come true.

...

Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were watching Nara Yoshino have a long, boring conversation with some civilian in a vegetable stand. The civilian woman was looking relaxed as the two of them exchanged pleasantries and complaints about their lazy husbands. Sure, none of them were actually interested in the conversation in the slightest, but there was only so much time you could spend watching a doe do nothing before everything around it starts pulling your attention.

Even if that something just happened to be two women cooing over said dumb, green-eyed animal.

Honestly, when Ino had heard about the mysterious Mendo, she had been so excited to follow it around. The idea of being able to observe a potential first generation summon, one that had been able to defeat Shikamaru in a game of strategy, sounded extremely promising. In her head, she would follow it around for a bit, focusing all her attention on the mysterious Nara doe, then start discovering little actions that she, and only she, would be able to pick up because she was a Yamanaka, and all Yamanaka knew more about reading behavior than any other ninja clan in existence.

The only interesting thing the doe had done so far had been tilting her head every time Shikamaru's mom spoke, which was actually pretty adorable, but not a sign of superior intelligence by any stretch of the imagination.

So far, observing the doe had been dull to the point of tears. Ino wanted to pull her hair out in frustration after two hours of the boring, self-appointed mission. Not that she would actually pull her hair out for that. It was bad enough that she had the stupid impulse of cutting it with her own hand, using a sharp kunai, while said hair had been in a ponytail.

To say she had gotten a horrid hairdo would be an understatement.

It was making her grumpy that this mission that she had been so eager about turned out to be a total joke. What was Shikamaru thinking by asking them to follow the doe? It was obvious to anyone with eyes that Mendo was nothing special. And the only thing that she might consider remarkable was that the doe followed Nara Yoshino around like a lost puppy, and that behavior was easily explained as an imprint. There was a book in the Yamanaka library about how some animals mistake the first person they see when they are born as their mother and stick to said person.

That was probably what had been truly going on.

Not that she knew whether or not Yoshino was the first person the doe saw, but that theory had a lot of merit. The again, Ino knew nothing about deer in general, this doe in particular.

Maybe Shikamaru had picked up some behaviour that was unlike other deer and became obsessed with the idea that there might be something more? Maybe the anomaly mixed with the pressure to succeed (that must have originated from being the only genin to get a promotion during the exams) were making her teammate feel the need to make some big contribution, and what would be a bigger contribution than discovering a new summon clan? A summon clan that had its origin in Konoha would be convenient, especially if the study explained the origin of such clans.

She could imagine the ninja in charge of the research trying to copy the conditions that made Mendo special. Konoha would be able to mass-produce nin-animals with chakra power and heightened intelligence. Ino could see the way the research could prove invaluable. The information that could be adquired if they could replicate superior intelligence in nin-birds, or the spying tool it could bring if, for example, mice -or another kind of vermin that never looked out of place-were trained to spy.

It would give Konoha a whole new edge over the other villages.

So the Yamanaka genin concluded that stress and wishful thinking were making Shika imagine things.

Ino's analysis of Shikamaru's possible reasons for acting weird (or maybe even going mad) came to a stop as Mendo froze in place in front of a jewelry shop and stared at a... broom? That couldn't be right. Why would a doe be staring at a broom?

Ino, Choji and Shikamaru exchanged glances and gave each other a nod, then turned back to look at the doe. The way its eyes widened slightly, perking up in alert, while it approached a broom that had been seemingly forgotten on the outside wall, was not normal. If the parallels Ino was drawing between the doe's behaviour and what she knew of human gestures were accurate, then this doe was displaying both sadness and nostalgia towards the cleaning instrument.

'Maybe it had something to do with what Shika said about the doe helping his mom with the chores?' Ino wasn't sure why, but she got the distinct feeling the doe didn't want to use the broom to sweep the floor. Which was a silly thing to think, because that was the only thing brooms could do.

In a move that made Ino realize that Shika's doe was abnormal and that Shikamaru might be onto something after all, Mendo bumped the broom with it's nose and put two of it's hooves on top of the wood stick, then steadied the four of them on top of the broom before losing its balance and stepping down from it. Mendo's eyes narrowed in what seemed like an intelligent expression of contemplation.

"Rai-chan?" Yoshino called and Mendo was now sporting a doe-eyed dumb expression, head tilting to the side as Yoshino looked at it with confusion.

The change in behavior made it obvious the doe was acting. Why? Ino didn't know, but it made the ninja in her stiffen and rise her ward.

The confusion look in Yoshino's face didn't last long, the woman seemed to dismiss the whole thing as ridiculous thought, and Yoshino walked to the doe and petted her in the head.

Had the doe gained the trust of the older kunoichi to the point of having its abnormal behavior shrugged off?

"Let's go home... Shikamaru, when you are done hiding in the alley come home, I don't want you to be late for dinner," she ordered.

'Great. When we were finally onto something Shikamaru's mom busted us to the doe.' Ino was well aware how weird that thought sounded in her head.

The Ino-Shika-Cho team stepped out of the alley one by one, and it gave Ino the feeling that the doe was mocking them with its innocent face... that is, until Ino herself came out of the alley. As soon as Mendo's eyes landed on her, the doe tensed, eyes growing wide and pupils widening as it jumped into a protective stance in front of Yoshino letting out a long, deep hiss that wouldn't be out of place coming out of the throat of a giant serpent. It sent all ninja in hearing distance jump and move to the top of the nearest building to search for one of Orochimaru's abnormally huge snakes.

Contrary to those most ninja around, Yoshino and her son's team had instantly figured out the true source of the hiss, and stayed put, slightly bewildered, but atentive to any hostile movement. Then, as doe-eyed green eyes bored into Ino's blue ones, a word, a thought that was not Ino's own echoed in her head.

'Malfoy'

Then, faster than she could say 'Who the hell is Malfoy?', the doe ran backwards, eyes never leaving Ino, until it bumped into Yoshino with it's rear. The second the doe was touching Shikamaru's mom with its butt, a loud 'crack' filled the air, and the spot in which Nara Yoshino had been standing along with the doe was empty.

Mendo and the Nara kunoichi had vanished without a trace.

Shikamaru's screaming for his mother was something that would feed Ino's nightmares for weeks to come.

...

The moment Nara Yoshino was Apparated into her own kitchen she stumbled to the floor, nausea coaxing her stomach to throw up. Startled and anxious, the kunoichi looked around for the doe that she now suspected to be a threat.. only to spot a trembling doe surrounded by an odd golden-colored chakra. The posture and attitude of the animal wasn't threatening towards her at all, in fact, Rai-chan stood with it back towards her, looking for threats, seemingly terrified.

"Rai-chan?" Yoshino asked, still nauseous, and now utterly confused. The shock of having a doe forcefully shunshin her had yet to wear out when Rai-chan moved it's head to look at her. A familiar warmth was soon pressing against her stomach, golden chakra enveloping her, clinging to her, as if she were a rock in the middle of a storm.

Feeling the emotions of the wild, untamed cloud of foreign chakra overwhelm her. She let muscular memory take over and simply hugged the trembling little doe closer to her chest.

Even if she was hugging the doe, a part of her was wary. Rai-chan, the innocent-looking doe, had managed to "abduct" a trained shinobi in such a swift manner, and so abruptly, she wasn't even able to escape what hat to be the most horrid instant-movement technique she has ever experienced.

Still, Yoshino wasn't blind to the fact that Rai-chan had reacted to a perceived threat (Her son't team, apparently) then took her back to the place it knew best, which most likely was the place the doe felt the safest.

It took several long minutes for the doe in her arms to call back it's golden chakra; simply staying there with it's head pressed into her stomach. The time it took Rai-chan to calm down was also about the same it took Yoshino to process everything that had happened in the last two minutes.

Now that Yoshino kew Rai-chan was no ordinary doe, Shikamaru's behavior was making a lot more sense.

"You do know how to play shogi, don't you?" Yoshino asked the doe, mouth blurting the first thing that popped into her head as her eyes met those round, green orbs.

A reincarnated Harry-doe had the decency to look sheepish.

To Be Continued.

EXTRA: Instincts

Being reborn as a female was something Harry would have worried about a lot, if he had been reborn as a female in the human species. However, "her" new female self was that of a doe. Because of that, the lack of certain something between his legs was not as big of an issue. Sure, it bothered him to lose his Little Harry, but there were a lot of things he missed more than the lack of dangling genitalia.

Harry missed being able to talk, to wave a wand and have his magic obey. Harry missed the culture he had been born with, he missed seeing the sight of Hogwarts at dawn, and so many more things. Still, if he had to chose the thing he missed the more, he would say he missed his Gryffindor courage.

Yes, that's right. Harry was not as brave as he used to be, for one reason, and one reason only: instincts.

Apparently, two hundred years being valiant couldn't brush off thousands of years of the cowardly instincts born into deer and does. As that was the case, Harry spent the first months of his second life by jumping every time a twitch snapped. And, him/her living in a forest, that was to say he was very... jumpy.

It was annoying.

If Harry reacted with fright to even thunder, how would he react when a real threat came about? He had freaked out horribly when his acute doe senses picked up any new thing. His first days as a doe had been a nightmare, and he knew his past self would have disapproved of the way he would stick to his doe mother. Orphan or not, Harry was not happy with the parents he had. They, for once, were nothing more than animals, and thus, Harry knew he would be unable to build a deep relationship with them.

Is not like they would care for Harry as an individual. Not even for a long time. After all, Harry knew animals only took care of their babies till they could fend for themselves. When "the bird left the nest" the parents started anew. They had another batch of babies to be forgotten, and every single one of those also had babies to forget about, in a rinse and repeat that some muggle labeled "The cycle of life".

Backtracking a little, Harry hated being a coward. He hated it even more than the irrational playfulness that cooed him to stick his shiny new nose in random holes, or chase around butterflies in flower fields. The whole cowardly thing was even more bothersome because he had faced things that would make your average wizard faint.

Harry inner Gryffindor battled his deer-inborn instincts with enough conviction to squash an Imperio from Voldemort in the flesh.

He still failed to overcome them from time to time.

So Harry decided to do what he always did: he would fight.

But, to think that, after so many hardships and victories, Harry's most difficult fight would be a fight with "herself".

End of the Extra.

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AN: Thanks to my new beta 123paco who helped me fix some typoes around before I re-edited the chapter.

Back to the fic: 'YAY WE HAVE PLOT DEVELOPMENT!'. I'm so proud of me *sobs*. On the downside, Shika is not seen as crazy anymore. I liked that.

AN 27/07/2015: For the sake of those that thought Harry over-reacted too much when he spotted "A Malfoy", I decided to trade the OMAKE there for an extra that could help you understand from where I was coming there. After all, you are not in my head. I did think it made sense, but you probably didn't see why -hence the extra.

I now only have one more chapter to go over and change, then I can truly focus in moving forwards.

I will tell you more about my secret plans then. Until then, be sure to review if you haven't. I would very much like to read and see what you thought of the tiny changes so far (specially the new extras).