Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Warnings: AU for parts of both worlds (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), mild character bashing, mild to moderate violence (there are shinobi involved after all), and a few others that will be announced as they crop up.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 8: Naruto's Story
Friday, August 13, 1999, Night
No. 12 Grimmauld Place, London, England
Naruto was having trouble processing what his cousin had just revealed to him. Part of him couldn't believe he hadn't seen the answer earlier because the moment Harry told him that he was the boy hero from the story, it became glaringly obvious based upon everything he'd learned about his cousin over the past week. Raised in a shinobi village like he was, Naruto understood war far better than most children his age did (though that didn't mean he knew the darker side of war) and therefore had a good idea of what Harry had been through during the course of his war.
He also understood his cousin's pain of growing up alone and unloved, surrounded by cold and hateful eyes. Naruto's blue eyes shimmered with unshed tears as he recalled the terrible hours he'd spent locked in the closet before Dudley had let him out. He could only imagine how much worse it would have been to have to live in that tiny closet for ten long years with no one to talk to him or let him out. Naruto glanced up as Harry stirred and the moment he saw the pain and loneliness in Harry's eyes (something he'd not noticed earlier because of how well Harry had hid it), he threw himself at his cousin and hugged him for all he was worth.
Harry tensed the moment Naruto's arms had wrapped around him and Naruto immediately began to think that he'd done something wrong only to feel the man suddenly relax and wrap his arms around Naruto in return. It was the first hug the two of them had shared and for the first time in his life, Naruto finally felt like he'd found his one true home. He'd found his family at last and he just knew that he would be staying with Harry and Teddy for a long, long time.
The two of them sat there holding each other for a long time before something that had been bothering him for a while had Naruto asking, "Harry, what is magic?"
"It is a form of energy."
"But what does magic mean? I don't know that word."
"Oh," Harry exclaimed as he looked at Naruto in surprise. "Are you saying that you don't what magic is because you don't know what the corresponding Japanese word for magic is?"
"Ano… I don't know? Maybe?"
"I am such an idiot; I never once considered that the reason you weren't asking me questions about all of the spells I used was due to the word magic being lost in translation. You speak English so well that I sometimes forget that you are still learning the language. Now, what was the incantation for that translation spell that Hermione taught me the other day… oh, yes, I remember now. Naruto, once I cast the spell on myself, I want you to start talking in Japanese so that the spell can pick up enough of the language to properly translate; it won't matter what you say so long as you keep talking. Alright, here we go; Reddo Lingua."
"How will you know whether or not the jutsu you just used will work or not?" Naruto curiously asked in Japanese as he eyed Harry carefully as he tried to determine whether or not anything had happened. "What exactly is it that the jutsu you used is supposed to do anyway? And how long am I supposed to just keep talking? Sometimes the things you do and say make absolutely no sense at all, itoko."
"That was why rule number four was the most important rule for you to remember; I won't know that I'm confusing you if you don't tell me," Harry dryly pointed out in perfect Japanese with just the slightest trace of an accent.
"Whoa… when did you learn Japanese, itoko?"
"I didn't; the spell I cast on myself allows me to speak and understand Japanese for as long as the spell is active. The only drawbacks are that I can only use the spell one time per day, for only one language at a time, and the first language I hear is the language that I will hear and understand. So, if I use it and someone speaks the wrong language, then I will have wasted an entire day because I can't cast the spell again to pick up a different language. On the plus side, the more I use the spell for a single language and the higher the number of different people I hear speaking the language, the faster I will be able to learn that language until I reach the point where I no longer need to cast the spell; at least that was what Hermione told me."
"Sugoi. I didn't know that there were techniques that could do that."
"I didn't either until Hermione found the spell for me after I mentioned that you were still learning English; she thought it would be useful in case there was ever a time when you and I had trouble getting our point across due to a simple misunderstanding in translation between Japanese and English."
"How come you can only use it once a day?"
"Any spell that affects the brain is dangerous because it is very easy to mess up someone's mind if you make a mistake and the translation spell actually temporarily rewires the brain of the individual it is cast upon in order to replace the person's native language with the first language they hear. The person won't ever forget or lose their native language but for the duration that the spell is active they will have difficulty speaking or understanding someone speaking any language except the one that the spell targeted. Hermione would be able to explain the theory behind the spell better; I just know how to cast it and the basics of what it is supposed to do."
"That is so cool, dattebayo! I wish I'd had a technique like that when I was first learning English. It took me and my Kage Bunshin weeks before I could read, write, and speak it even a little bit and the lessons were so confusing at first."
"It takes most people years to learn how to speak any new language fluently; so the fact that you can speak English well enough to pass as a native English speaker after studying the language for less than a year is nothing short of impressive since you didn't use magic to speed up the process," Harry pointed out with noticeable pride.
"Magic…?" Naruto asked skeptically.
"Yes, magic; what else did you think it was I was doing each time I used my wand?" Harry inquired as he held up said wand and wriggled it back and forth to draw Naruto's eyes to the stick for the first.
"I thought you were just using chakra… like the shinobi back home do," Naruto weakly replied as he continued to stare at the wand in Harry's hand. "You aren't just fattening me and Teddy up so you can eat us for dinner; are you?"
"What!? No! Where would you get an idea like that!?"
"You just said you were a witch and I read that witches feed kids lots of candy until their fat enough to eat and then they push them in the oven to cook them up for supper," Naruto nervously replied. "And you've been giving me and Teddy lots of candy and stuff lately."
"Ah, the story of Hansel and Gretel," Harry murmured in understanding. "That was a German fairy tale written by a pair of brothers that traveled all over Europe collecting folk tales. The tale of Hansel and Gretel is actually based upon a hag, not a witch. And the word 'witch' refers to a woman that can perform magic; men are typically called wizards. So there will be no eating of children by me or any of my friends; I much prefer treacle tart."
Naruto eyed Harry carefully for a moment before he relaxed and muttered, "Okay."
"I'm rather curious as to what you meant when you said that you thought I was using chakra. What exactly is chakra and what is it that a person does with chakra?"
"Iruka-sensei said that chakra was made up of a person's mental energy and a person's physical energy. When a shinobi combines both mental and physical energy in the correct amounts it creates chakra. A shinobi uses his chakra to perform different kinds of jutsu. He can make himself stronger or faster or use it to climb up a wall or walk on the water. Iruka said that everyone was born with a chakra network but not everyone develops their chakra coils."
"You're talking about a person's life force," Harry gasped as he sat up straighter. "Someone taught you how to use your life force to affect the world around you!? Merlin, Maeve, and Mungo preserve me from the idiocy of others! You could have seriously injured yourself if you drew too much at once or worse, killed yourself because you used up your entire life force and didn't leave yourself enough physical energy to keep your heart beating."
"All shinobi learned how to mold their chakra as soon as they were old enough to attend the Academy," Naruto pointed out as he eyed Harry carefully since his cousin was obviously upset. "The earlier a person starts learning, the easier it is for them to learn and the easier it is for them to increase the size of their chakra reserves. If you're too old when you start learning, then your chakra coils will stay rather small and you'll get tired really quickly which means you'll never be a very good shinobi."
"That's not entirely true…" Harry started to counter before he trailed off. "Well, I suppose it would be true for someone without a magical core since they don't have the ability to heal the internal stress caused by forcefully expanding the coils of your life force." Harry paused again and frowned as he recalled the strange clones that Naruto had made. "You went to one of those academies. How old were you when they sent you to the Academy?"
"Six."
"Six? And just how long do you have to attend lessons at the Academy?"
"At least four years but most people stay in the Academy until they're at least twelve. You can't graduate unless you can pass the test."
"Okay, that's not as bad as I thought it was… for a moment it sounded like the village you lived in was turning children into soldiers. Well, it still sounds like that but I don't suppose I have any room to complain seeing as how I was basically trained as a child soldier from the moment I entered the wizarding world and I was only eleven at the time."
"Ano… what is magic? Is it like chakra at all? Where does it come from? Can anyone use it?"
"No, magic is nothing like chakra; what you call chakra is what we call life force. Magic, on the other hand, is a form of pure energy that allows the wielder to alter the world around them. Every single life form, including plants and animals, are born with a life force while only a small number are born with a magical core. The magical core is where a person's magic is made and stored; the larger a person's core, the more magic they can produce and store. And only those who are born with a magical core can use magic."
"Do you think it's possible that I have one of those core thingies?"
"I'm afraid not, the magic in our family was passed down through my grandmother's side of the family and not through our common ancestor."
"Does that mean that I will have to leave?"
"Absolutely not!" Harry adamantly declared as he reached out to cup Naruto's face. "It does not matter to me whether or not you have magic; all that matters is that we are family. And we will always be family; no matter what."
Naruto stared up at his cousin with wide blue eyes that glistened with suppressed tears as he felt an unexpected warmth fill him in response to his cousin's declaration. Fear filled the eight year old a heartbeat later as he recalled the terrible monster that was contained inside of him and he pressed his hands over the hidden seal on his stomach. Guilt ate away at him over the knowledge that he was hiding the presence of the Kyuubi from his cousin. He was also terrified that his cousin would hate him the moment he learned about the nine-tailed fox.
"Is there something wrong, Naruto?"
"I don't want you to hate me," Naruto confessed in a tiny voice as he pulled away from Harry and curled in on himself.
"I could never hate you, Naruto," Harry gently corrected as he reached out to run his fingers through Naruto's hair and Naruto flinched away from the contact out of habit. The hand fell away and Naruto swallowed thickly and squeezed his eyes closed as he just knew he'd made his cousin angry. "I might get upset once in a while over something you say or do because every one looses their temper from time to time but just because I get angry doesn't mean that I will hate you."
"That's only because you don't know what I am."
"And what is it you think you are? Because all I see is a boy who had enough courage to make a journey halfway around the world all alone to meet with distant relatives he didn't even know."
"I'm a monster; a… a demon and a freak."
"No you are not," Harry firmly stated as he scooped Naruto up onto his lap and wrapped his arms around him. "Aunt Petunia was wrong to call you those names."
"It wasn't just cousin Petunia that called me those things," Naruto confessed as he burrowed his face against Harry's chest; he was feeling torn between basking in the comfort his cousin was offering him and suffering under the guilt, pain, and fear he felt over his past treatment at the hands of the villagers and most of the shinobi of Konoha. Two seconds later, he gave into the need and desire for someone to accept him for him and he began to pour his heart (and therefore his life's story) out.
"Everyone always hated me and called me names or beat me up if I couldn't get away from them when they chased me. I didn't know why they hated me until I found out the truth about the Kyuubi and learned that jijii lied to me! He said the villagers were just angry because I played pranks on them but they hated me long before I started playing pranks. He let them beat me up, chase me out of the stores, charge me extra money for rotten food, and call me terrible names when he could have ordered them to stop because he was the Hokage. He said he cared about me and told me that the villagers would like me one day but if he lied about everything else, then he could have lied about that too."
"I know he lied to me about my parents; he said he didn't know who they were and he let me think that they hated me like everyone else. All I ever wanted to know was if I belonged to someone and he let me think that no one wanted me. After I learned the truth, I couldn't stay there any longer. I was so angry… I took back everything that belonged to my parents before I tricked the AnBu on duty with a Kage Bunshin and ran away to find my uncle. I was so scared that he wouldn't want me either but I had no where else to go and no one I could trust."
"I was so scared once I escaped the village. I thought for sure someone would figure out that I'd run away and hunt me down to drag me back to the village. There were so many times I feared I got lost as I made my way to the portal to the Outer Countries and I was chased by bandits once. I almost turned back a couple of times because I was so scared but I didn't want to give up and I was more scared of the trouble I'd be in if I did go back. I was also scared that everything I'd read about the Outer Countries was nothing more than a trick that someone was playing on me."
"I was so happy when I learned it wasn't a trick after I found the portal and opened it with my chakra. Once I was on this side of the portal, I got scared all over again when I finally saw my first city. It was so huge and the air was dirty and smelly and the cars were frightening and loud. I almost wanted to run back through the portal but I was determined to find Kichiro-oji. I was there for a couple of days before one of my clones ran into Naoki-jijii and he asked me to meet with him so he could help me; he said it was his job to help those that traveled through the portals."
"Naoki told me my uncle had passed through the same portal that I did and he spent a long time looking for him while I was being taught all kinds of things they said I would need to know to stay on this side of the portal. They even let me practice the stuff I learned in the Academy and showed me the right way to do all of the taijutsu stances I was supposed to have learned at the Academy; only I had been taught wrong by my old instructors because they all hated me. It took Naoki-jijii a long time to find out what had happened to Kichiro-oji and he told me that Kichiro married a girl named Rose and they had two girls before they died in a car crash."
"Naoki thought Lily had died because she disappeared after she turned eleven but he found Petunia and he bought me my tickets and made sure I had all my paperwork and stuff so that I could meet her. I was so scared at first when I got on the plane but it was so cool to see everything from so high up in the air. And the world was so big! I didn't think it would be that big but it was and there were so many big cities; I could see all of the lights at night and it looked like someone had spread fireworks all over the ground."
"Everything was so perfect and then… and then Petunia was so mean. She knew what I was the moment she looked at me. She called me the same names that the villagers had called me and looked at me with those cold eyes. Then she shoved me in the closet and Vernon talked about killing me and burying me in the backyard when I yelled at them to let me out. They were just like everyone else… except Dudley. Dudley was nice and he gave me food and let me out of the closet and he let me stay in his room. And even though he told me you were really nice, I was so scared that you would hate me too."
Naruto paused as the memories of the week he spent with the Dursleys flashed before him and he couldn't quite suppress the shudder that ran through him. He was so wrapped up in those terrible memories that he forgot he wasn't alone until he was drawn back to the present by the feel of a hand rubbing circles on his back. Tears burned the back of his eyes as he imagined his cousin shoving him away once he learned the truth about the monster inside of him.
"Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon used to call me all kinds of names when I lived with them," Harry quietly confessed as he continued to rub Naruto's back. "The one they used most often and the one I hated the most was freak. At the time I didn't understand why they kept calling me a freak and telling me that I was unnatural until I learned about my magic and that they had been aware that both of my parents were magical. Aunt Petunia was jealous of me and my mother and the things that magic allowed us to do and that jealousy eventually turned to hate."
"The reason why she called you those names was because she thought you were a wizard just like me after your clone was destroyed when she hit it. All she saw was another person that had been granted an ability she'd desperately wished had been hers and she took it out on you. She was wrong. They were all wrong. There is nothing wrong with you and you are not a monster or a freak; you are a child. And like any other child, you deserve to be protected and cherished."
"I'm not like other children," Naruto protested as he leaned back to meet Harry's gaze with turbulent sapphire eyes.
"What makes you think you are any different than any other child out there?"
"I have a demon inside of me."
"Naruto, just because a bunch of stupid people called you terrible names, doesn't mean that you…"
"It's true! My father made me a demon the day I was born!"
"What are you talking about, Naruto?"
"The day I was born the nine-tailed demon fox attacked Konoha and nearly destroyed it. The Yondaime Hokage, my father, fought the demon and he was supposed to have killed it. The instructors at the Academy told all of the children that the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi but they were all lying. Demons can't be killed. The Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi inside of me so he could save the village. That's why the village hates me; I'm the Kyuubi. My father turned me into the Kyuubi."
"I'm not buying it. There is no way you could possibly be a demon; for one thing, you don't look anything like a fox aside from the whisker marks on your cheeks and those look more like tattoos. You also haven't attacked any one during the time we've been together and I'm pretty certain a demon would not laugh and play with Teddy."
"But… but I have the seal on my stomach and… and the notes and stuff I found in my file said I was the container for the Kyuubi and that my mother had the Kyuubi in her until it got out and tried to destroy Konoha and she died."
"Okay, now I'm really confused. What exactly is this demon fox supposed to be? How exactly is a demon supposed to be sealed inside of a person and why the hell would anyone seal a demon inside of a person?"
"I don't know," Naruto nervously replied as he sensed Harry's growing frustration.
"Do you know who will be able to answer my questions?"
"The old man probably knows but I don't want to go back there. My parents would probably know too but they're dead."
"What about the files you mentioned? Would they have some of the answers I am looking for?"
"Maybe… oh, I know! I have a bunch of scrolls and stuff I copied that might explain things better," Naruto replied as he jumped up from Harry's lap and darted out of the room.
He rushed up to the bedroom that Harry had allowed him to stay in since they first arrived and tore through his things until he found the giant scroll that he'd sealed all of his things into. The moment he wrapped his arms around the scroll, he headed back down to the parlor where he found Harry sitting right where he'd left him. The eight year old dashed right up to his cousin and dumped the huge scroll on his lap.
"Everything I took from Konoha is sealed in there," Naruto explained when he noticed the confused look on Harry's face.
"In Japanese, Naruto; I am unable to understand English as long as the translation spell I cast earlier remains active."
"Oh, gomen, itoko; I forgot. Everything I took from the village before I ran away is inside of this scroll," Naruto stated as he untied the string that held the scroll shut and unrolled it to reveal the rice paper watercolor painting that hid the actual seals. "Oh, I forgot about the painting that Naoki-jijii stuck to the paper to hide the seals."
Naruto channeled chakra into the painting to release the seal that was holding it in place and carefully separated the painting from the scroll and rolled it up so that it could be replaced on the storage scroll if the need arose. He then bit down on his thumb hard enough to draw blood that he spread across each of the seals that were holding anything that he thought might have the information that would help Harry understand the monster he had been turned into. Tears filled his eyes and his hands shook with each seal he released as he struggled against the desire to pretend the entire thing was a prank so he could hide the truth from his cousin.
There was a part of him that needed to protect his cousin from the monster inside of him though and the only way that he knew to do that was to make his cousin understand just how dangerous it was to keep him around. Even if the older boy ended up hating him because of the Kyuubi, at least Naruto would always have the memories of the last few weeks to buoy him when the pain of losing his only family threatened to drown him. In a matter of seconds, a huge pile of books, scrolls, and folders were piled up all around the two cousins.
"That's everything, I think," Naruto murmured as he glanced at the haphazard mound of stuff he'd unsealed.
"It's going to be a long night," Harry sighed as he eyed the pile of books, files, and scrolls. "How did you fit all of that stuff inside of that scroll anyway?"
"I drew storage seals to hold it."
"Seals? What exactly are seals?"
"I guess they're kind of like special drawings made from ink, blood, and chakra that do certain things."
"Hmm, I wonder if those seal things are anything like runes; I'll have to remember to ask Hermione the next time I speak to her," Harry mused before he grimaced at the pile of information that he was going to have to sort through. "In the mean time, I guess I'd better start going through all of this stuff so that I can get a clearer picture of what you were talking about earlier. Before I can do that though, I'm going to have to see if I can find a translation spell since I can't read Japanese."
"Didn't you already use a translation spell?"
"Yes, but that spell only targets speech, not the written language; meaning it only targets what I hear, not what I see. So, unless you want to spend the rest of the night reading out loud to me, I'm going to need to make copies of everything you have here and translate it into English."
Naruto bit his lip as he glanced around him at all of the stuff he'd unsealed from his scroll and contemplated whether or not he should leave Harry to translate it on his own. A year ago, he never would have considered reading any of the stuff he'd brought with him; he'd hated book learning because it was so boring and because he didn't really know how to read very well since Ayame could only teach him so much between serving the other customers. That had been before he'd had all of his lessons with Naoki and his other instructors in Asahikawa though.
In the end, having any excuse to spend just a little more time at his cousin's side before he was chased away the moment his cousin learned the terrible truth was enough for Naruto to ask, "Which one do you want me to read to you first?"
"Why don't we start with the file on our family? I'd like to learn more about the relatives I never knew," Harry suggested as he waved his wand at the pile of stuff surrounding Naruto and caused everything to jump about until it was all neatly arranged in several organized stacks by media type.
"Okay," Naruto hesitantly agreed as he picked up the small stack of folders and climbed up onto the couch beside his cousin so that the older boy could see the pictures in the files.
The eight year old spent next three hours reading off the information provided on the birth certificates, death certificates, medical records, and other official documents tucked inside of the file he'd stolen. He also answered as many of Harry's questions as he could. At the end of those three hours, Harry sent Naruto to bed for the night and the blond reluctantly obeyed.
Translations: Japanese to English
Gomen – I'm sorry (informal)
Itoko – cousin
Jijii – old man/grandfather
Ojisan/oji – uncle
Sugoi - wonderful/wow/awesome or dreadful/terrible (depending on how it is said)
Translations: Latin to English
Reddo Lingua – The incantation for the spell that Harry used to translate English to Japanese to help Naruto learn the language better (reddo meaning answer/translate/render or restore/return and lingua meaning language/speech/tongue)
Techniques/Skills:
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone
10-24-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.