"Are you ready Naruto? Tomorrow's the day. You will pass the test." Harri said with certainty as she made dinner. This is it. The big one. The one we've all been waiting for. The pre-quidditch pep talk rose to mind and Harry allowed a moment of nostalgia before turning back to the dinner. She was making something that she had always enjoyed back in England. Plain old fish and chips; although the ingredients hadn't been obtained in the most legal of ways. Harri, however, refused to feel guilty about the stolen ingredients, not when it was so blatantly obvious everyone hated the ball of sunshine. Because honestly, if they just took the time to look, they would see that Naruto was just a normal kid. A lonely kid with a bigger heart than should have been possible, but a normal kid nonetheless.

"But, Harri, what if I don't? This is my third time taking it." Naruto looked more stressed out than usual, his legs bouncing up and down as he thought anxiously about his graduation test tomorrow.

Harri rolled her eyes, although the action went unnoticed by Naruto because she was facing the stove, her back to the kid, "We've been over this. Since you finally got everything straightened out, you've been improving in leaps and bounds. You may still be dead last, but the gap is a lot smaller now. You have just as much a chance as any of the other dead-lasts. And you know that term isn't even correct because the other dead lasts are easily going to become ninja."

"But…" Naruto started to protest, looking down at the ground.

Exasperated, Harri turned around, her hand going for the kitchen towel before throwing it at Naruto's head. Harri was pleased when it did manage to hit Naruto clean in the face, making him look up in surprise at her.

"What happened to Mr. Optimistic? Just do your best and you'll be fine." Harri said, turning back to the food, "Think of a positive outcome and you will achieve it. Allow doubt to enter your mind, and the doubt will become self-fulfilling."

There was silence, so Harri looked back at Naruto. He was staring at her with a blank expression on his face as he tried to figure out her words, "Honestly Naruto, just think about it for a moment. You have to act confident and believe in your abilities." Harri said.

"Oh, I get it!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet, "Like how I will be Hokage! Believe it!" his fist pumping the air again as he got himself excited.

Harri scowled at him good naturedly, "Oi, no yelling in the house. It's not polite."

Naruto shot her a sheepish look and lowered his fist, "Sorry. Do you want me to set the table?" Harri nodded distractedly as she turned back to the food. It was a lot harder to make it than she remembered. Harri blamed the fact that she was trying to cook a very English meal in a very not English world to be the problem. It looked like it was progressing nicely, but without a reliable timer, she was basing it off of looks and smell.

"Done!" Naruto said soon after in a slightly louder voice than was probably polite for indoors, but at least it wasn't yelling. Harri had mostly cured him from yelling indoors, mainly due to a couple of well-aimed stinging hexes. But Naruto's natural enthusiasm was difficult to curb, and so Harri had eventually settled for damage control at the least.

"Good. I think the food's done too." Harri murmured as she glanced at it suspiciously. It smelled and looked like normal at least. She carried it over to the table and made Naruto sit down as well.

"I'm a little worried because you keep looking at it strangely." Naruto announced when he saw her eyeing it. Usually he dug into whatever food was placed in front of him, and he was taking her wariness as a sign.

Harri squared her shoulders and called upon the Gryffindor pride that existed in her somewhere. After seven years living in the Gryffindor tower, she would naturally take on some of their stupid courage. …Right?

Bravely, in Harri's mind at least, she dished some out and stuck it in her mouth.

Naruto was watching her closely, no doubt reading the small signs that would indicate disgust to him.It's sad, Harri thought, that he can tell what disgust is from the minutest of expressions. He's too young to have to be dealing with this sort of hate.

To Harri's great relief, the fish and chips were good. Just as good as when she would make them in England. Harri let out a moan of delight before eagerly digging in, forgoing polite manners and eating in a way reminiscent of Naruto. The blond in question had taken her moan as a good sign and had attacked the food as well. He seemed to enjoy it just as much as Harri if his sounds were anything to go by.

Harri naturally didn't eat as much as Naruto, but she was a cook, and all cooks loved to see their food enjoyed by others.

"That… was amazing." Naruto groaned, "It tasted almost like perfection!" he said after he had finally finished, the dish empty of all things edible. His plate was scrapped clean too, and Harri idly wondered that if she hadn't been here then he would have licked the plate clean.

Harri raised a slim eyebrow at that, "Almost?"

"Well, yeah. Ramen is first of course. Ramen is food of the gods. This can be second though." Naruto proposed after a second to think.

Harri laughed and shook her head, "Sure kid. Whatever you say. Now come on, help me wash up." Naruto eagerly bounded up and grabbed the dishes, proceeding to chatter her ear away as he washed up as Harri dried and put the dishes away.

It seemed as though Naruto's worries had disappeared, but Harri could see the extra jitters that plagued Naruto as he worked and she just pursed her lips in thought. Harri wouldn't be going with him tomorrow, just so that way she didn't accidently cheat for him, and then hopefully if he passed, they would go to see Teuchi. With actually studying for once, Naruto had been hard-pressed to convince Harri to go to the ramen shop. Harri had instead set it up as his reward for passing.

The only problem was, Naruto seemed to have inherited his own version of the Potter luck. If something could go wrong tomorrow, it would. Just like how at Hogwarts the stuff had always come to a head at the end of the year.

Harri grimaced at the thought of Naruto's graduation exam going bad, but ultimately decided to do nothing about it. If Naruto had indeed inherited his own version of the Potter luck, then he would most likely scrap by the skin of his teeth, pulling something truly incredible out of nowhere.

Harri just prayed that nothing would happen tomorrow.

{{LINE BREAK}}

For most of his life, Naruto had been ignored. It was why he had started to become truly obnoxious and pulling off grand pranks on everyone around him. Granted, Naruto loved pranks anyway so in his mind he was killing two birds with one stone, but the results of his attempts had been… not as good as he had wanted. Sure he had gotten attention, but no one ever bothered to really look. So Naruto remained alone most of his childhood.

Then in his typical Naruto luck, he had managed to get hit on the head with a dirty old lamp. Naruto had looked around angrily as he rubbed his head, one hand holding onto the lamp. He was surprised though, because no one was around. As though the lamp had just fallen out of the sky. Now, Naruto knew he wasn't the smartest person around, but he did like to think that he had some common sense at the very least. So when it seemed like there was no other option beyond the lamp falling from the sky, he scampered home, not really thinking about the dirty lamp in his hand.

Then he remembered the story Teuchi had once told him a long time ago and although it seemed the stupidest thing in the world to do, Naruto rubbed the lamp.

And his life was changed for the better. With the introduction of Harri to his life, Naruto had found himself truly being acknowledged. He had at first thought that it was only because no one else could see her besides him and Teuchi, but she had proven him wrong with all that she had done.

Now the graduation test was here, and thanks to Harri, he was more prepared this time than at any other moment in his life. Since Naruto was now tied for dead-last, he had just as much chance as Harri had said last night.

But when Naruto sat down at his desk, all that he had learned over the past month, all that Harri had crammed into his brain, seemed to have disappeared. Naruto felt frozen as he stared at the paper, the words turning into scribbles as his brain tried to process them. Of course his test anxiety would come back on the graduation test. It couldn't have come on any other test, no, just the freaking graduation test!

As his breathing started to quicken and his fingers started tapping faster, a sudden ball of paper hit him in the head. Naruto jerked back as though burned, his head whipping up to see everyone writing diligently on their tests, although Iruka was reading a book.

With cautious fingers, Naruto opened up the ball of paper, spreading it out to read the short message on it. Calm down and don't give up. Was all it said and Naruto looked up again to see if whoever had sent it would give him a sign. The only thing he saw out of the ordinary, and even then it was normal, was Shikamaru yawning widely.

Naruto entertained the thought that Shikamaru had sent the note, but quickly dismissed it. He was too lazy.

{{LINE BREAK}}

After his moment of panic, the rest of the test went smoothly. Then came what Naruto liked to call the Academy two plus the devil. The jutsu portion. The Academy always tested three specific jutsu's because of their usefulness, even with the most powerful shinobi. It was a good start to working with an Academy student's chakra. Naruto could get the substitution and Henge just fine. Those two were the Academy two. The devil one was the clone jutsu. As much as Naruto had practiced and practiced, he could never get it. Harri hadn't been able to help because even though she had her weird power, she wasn't a shinobi and didn't understand how chakra worked at all.

Hopefully he could still pass though.

When he put his hands together for the hand sign and pushed his chakra out, he could tell almost immediately that the clone would not come out looking nice. Sure enough, once the smoke cleared, the clone was standing, but still looked utterly pathetic. At least he had improved. Naruto cast a hopeful and pleading look to Iruka.

Iruka looked stuck, but his face hardened with resolve as he told Naruto, "You fail!"

Naruto felt absolutely crushed as he staggered out of the room, completely missing Iurka's look of pity and compassion and Mizuki's look of victory and hatred.

Naruto thought about just going straight back to his apartment, but then remembered that Harri would be there. Harri who had actually believed in him. There was no way he could face her. Instead, Naruto just sat down on the swing by the Academy, watching sad and jealous eyes of all the other kids who had passed. Who had passed and had someone to greet them.

"Hey, isn't he the kid who-?"

"Yeah, that's him. The only one who failed!"

"Serves him right, can you imagine someone like that become a shinobi?! I mean, think about what he is…"

"Don't talk about it! It's forbidden!"

Naruto reached up and grabbed ahold of his goggles, pulling them a little bit lower over his eyes so he could wipe the tears away without anyone seeing. It really did hurt when they talked like that. He wished that they could just see him, see him as the normal kid he was!

A shadow fell over Naruto and he looked up to see Mizuki standing over him. In Naruto's distressed state, he failed to recognize many of the signs he would have normally noticed. As it was, Naruto felt like he was drowning, and so completely misread Mizuki's face.

{{LINE BREAK}}

"You know, Iruka-sensei, he's tough, but he's not against you." Mizuki said conversationally.

"Then why? Why only me?" Naruto asked dejectedly as he swung his foot back and forth.

Mizuki paused before answering again, "He's like you, you know. No parents, no family. And he wants you to be strong with all his heart so there's no way he would let you graduate if he feels like you aren't at you best. He cares about you almost like a younger brother."

Naruto thought of Harri and how over the past month she had become like a sister to him and his face burned with humiliation. Iruka cared for him like Harri did?

"But… I this time I really wanted to graduate." Naruto said softly.

There was a moment of silence as the two stared up at the clouds before Mizuki let out a soft chuckle, "Well then, I guess I have to tell you."

"Huh? Tell me what?" Naruto asked, giving Mizuki an extremely confused look.

"It's a secret, but I'm going to let you in on it."

{{LINE BREAK}}

Harri paced nervously around the apartment. Naruto definitely should have been back by now. There was no question about it. It was dawn, the whole freaking night had passed by. The only problem was that she was stuck here in the apartment until someone moved the lamp. Harri couldn't even cast a spell to help Naruto wherever he was in case he was someplace crowded and she ended up blowing up a monument. Not that that had ever happened before or anything with a different Summoner…

But blast the magic that was keeping her bound to the lamp!

"Death!" she snapped at thin air, waiting for the elusive being to appear. She hadn't attempted to call him before because Death and her had had a rocky relationship ever since she had been dropped into worlds that weren't under his domain. She could still call upon him, but it cost him a lot of energy and he hated wasted energy. He still had to come when she called though. But when nothing appeared, Harri felt her patience finally snap, "θænətɒs!"

Instantly, Harri felt the room darken and go a few degrees colder as the being was forcibly pulled from wherever it was that he had been hanging out.

Death sent her a frigid glare that had she been a normal mortal, would have killed her. Harri ignored it though and glared right back.

"Mistress." He hissed out, the words blurring together as Death looked around him distastefully, "What do you need?"

Harri glared at the being, "Is the boy named Naruto Uzumaki dead or close to dying?"

If Death had a nose, he probably would have wrinkled it as he stared at her, "This is not my world. I cannot control the fates of the people here. We have been over this before."

"I'm not asking you to get rid someone, I'm asking you to…" Harri started to physically hiss out, one hand reaching for Death's robe in order to grab it and haul him closer to her face when the door opened. Both beings froze as Naruto stopped in confusion in his doorway.

As though they had rehearsed it (and in fact they had-although both would vehemently deny it) Death disappeared, taking all aspects of his aura with him as Harri hurriedly composed herself as though she hadn't just been talking to the immortal being who controlled everyone's passage through death.

Naruto stood frozen in the doorway as what he had felt abruptly disappeared. He blinked, then shook whatever had come over him off before stepping warily into his apartment. What he had learned tonight had shaken him. Shaken him to his core. Iruka-sensei had said that he didn't care that Naruto housed the Nine-tails, but would Harri mind?

Before Harri could rush over to him and start demanding answers, Naruto blurted out, "Would you ever hate me?"

That question was odd enough that Harri stopped and furrowed her eyebrows together as she stared at the kid, "Why on earth would you ask that? What would even cause you to ask that?"

"Because I learned something really big tonight. Why everyone hates me." Naruto mumbled, "And I would totally get if you end up hating me too, even though Iruka-sensei still likes me…" Naruto broke off with a yelp as Harri's hand gentle slapped the back of his head.

Naruto looked up at Harri's exasperated face while rubbing his head.

"Kid, I can see you passed, you've got your headband thingy, so obviously whatever you learned hasn't affected your dreams in any way. And if you teacher still likes you then it's all okay. If it makes you feel any better, I had a piece of a man's soul in me for 17 years."

Naruto shot her a shocked look before mumbling out really fast, "I've got the nine-tails sealed into me."

Harri tilted her head for a moment before she slung an over Naruto's shoulder, initiating the contact for once, "You're still you and you managed to graduate. I expect the full story. Now grab my lamp kid, it's time to celebrate! To Ichiraku's we go!" she cheered.

Naruto was shocked by her complete dismissal, before a true smile appeared on his face. He ran and grabbed her lamp, stuffing it in his pocket, "Sweet! Double helping of Teuchi's ramen!" he cheered with her.

Harri took notice of what he said, but figured he would explain fully over a bowl of ramen. Besides, the kid could probably eat the entire world's supply of ramen and still be hungry. Harri's thought had proven right though; Naruto did have his own version of the Potter luck.

{{LINE BREAK}}

A/N:: Man, this chapter was a pain in the butt. It would not be written. Then I couldn't find a stopping point, blegh. I tried to work in Naruto actually fighting Mizuki, but it would have gone the same way as canon except Naruto also thinking about Harri, so it was scrapped. I also originally wasn't planning on bringing Death in, but surprise!

Speaking of Death, what Harri uses to call Death is, according to Wikipedia, the original Greek word for death. I choose Greek simply because it had the cool letters and Latin didn't. My iPod also said that was it, but I couldn't copy from my iPod so I hope that's right.

So I totally intended to put in how many more favorites/follows/reviews I had gotten since last chapter, but I forgot how many I had originally, and there was no way I was going through my email notifications to count them all, sorry! Just know that it's been a lot! And I love all you guys who do follow/favorite/review!

Also, shout out to my first Spanish review, oh yeah! Thanks eve-tsuki94!

News on pairings: they are evil. Romance is evil, so, as of right now, everyone is available as a pairing. I might just make it a gen fic.

Okay, enough rambling on my part, enjoy!