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 9: Deathly Miscalculations

Friday, August 13, 1999, Late Night
No. 12 Grimmauld Place, London, England

Harry watched his little cousin head off to bed with mixed feelings. He wanted to hex someone for putting the child through the hell he'd been through. He also wanted nothing more than to wrap the kid up in his arms and promise him that everything would be alright. Harry knew that it would take time for Naruto to accept and trust him though; too many people had hurt his cousin (emotionally, mentally, and possibly physically) for him to take anything Harry said at face value just yet.

Sighing, the emerald eyed wizard ended the translation charm and promptly winced as he was hit with the backlash of information that his brain had collected while under the spell. That was one aspect of the spell that he hadn't mentioned to Naruto; forcefully rewiring one's brain with magic in order to understand or learn a new language was painful and the longer the spell was held, the more pain that it would produce when released. Harry had a higher tolerance for pain than most people due to his past though, so the headache he was currently feeling did not actually cripple him in any way.

Once the pain had faded to a dull ache, he sat back and contemplated everything he'd learned about his cousin over the course of the evening. The more he learned, the less he actually understood and it was beginning to irritate him. After another hour of running his mind in endless circles, Harry reluctantly climbed to his feet and made his way upstairs to his bedroom; stopping twice to briefly check on both children. Once in his room, he locked the door and approached his old school trunk. Kneeling down in front of the rather worn wooden trunk, Harry lifted the lid of the trunk and pulled back the pile of his old school robes to reveal a locked box made from iron and leather nestled in a pool of shimmering fabric.

The moment his eyes fell on the leather wrapped iron box, Harry pulled out his wand and began unraveling the many spells that protected and sealed the box. Harry pressed his lips together as he carefully collected the box with both hands as soon as the final spell had been released. He sat back on his heels and scowled at the box in his hands as he tried not to think about the two items that he knew were held inside. Despite his wishes, it wasn't long before Harry was pulled back to his memories of the day that he'd left Hogwarts to hunt down the third thief that had stolen the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb and ended up taking possession of both the Wand of Destiny and the Resurrection Stone once he'd returned to the school after reclaiming the wand.

The first person to steal the wand from the tomb had been Voldemort shortly before the Final Battle. Harry had already been the master of the fabled wand at that point. He had won allegiance of the wand after he'd defeated Draco Malfoy during their brief imprisonment at Malfoy Manner; the wand's allegiance had belonged to Draco until that point because the other boy had defeated Dumbledore at the end of their sixth year. The day Harry defeated the Dark Lord once and for all was the day that the world learned that the Elder Wand truly existed because someone had spread the news about Harry turning the wand against Voldemort while Voldemort was using it.

Harry had been a little too free with his taunts during that last fight.

He'd had more than eighteen people challenge him to a duel in the first week after the last of the memorial services had been held for those who had died during the course of the war because of the information about the wand getting out.

The second person to steal the wand from Dumbledore's tomb had been the thief Mundungus Fletcher. Harry had sent Kreacher to hunt the man down for a second time so that Harry could reclaim the wand from the thief (and punch him on the nose for good measure). He'd then had the man delivered to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement along with all of the stolen goods he'd had on him at the time after that. Fletcher was still serving a fifteen year stint in Azkaban for the numerous crimes he'd committed during the course of the war (including swindling, theft, and grave robbing).

The last person to break into Dumbledore's tomb had been Renaldo Lestrange; an ambitious low level Death Eater that had been looking to take up Voldemort's cause. He was also the younger cousin of Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. Twenty-three innocent muggle children had died as a result of that theft before Harry had managed to reclaim the wand once more. It was the guilt of knowing that those children would still be alive if he'd just kept the wand after Fletcher had stolen it that prompted Harry to keep the Elder Wand instead of placing it back in Dumbledore's hands yet again.

Instead, Harry had transfigured a branch of elder into a replica of the wand, hollowed the replica out, and stuffed the inside with a few strands of tail hairs from a thestral to make it look more authentic before he snapped it. The professors of Hogwarts had served as witnesses to the 'destruction' of the Wand of Destiny in order to make the snapping of the wand more believable. The front page article in the Daily Prophet the next day, complete with a close up photo of the broken wand, had further spread the news that the Elder Wand had been destroyed.

Harry had originally tried to destroy the actual wand but the wand never remained broken no matter how many pieces it was snapped into; hence why he'd created the fake one to destroy in its place.

Just before he'd headed back into the castle after replacing the broken remains of the fake wand in Dumbledore's tomb, Firenze had intercepted him and pressed the Peverell Ring with the cracked Resurrection Stone into his hand. The pale centaur had then gravely informed Harry that the herd had grown weary of the souls of the dead wandering through the trees before telling him to keep his possessions out of their forest. It had been a rather surreal conversation in that it was the most direct statement that any centaur had ever given him that did not involve threatening his life.

That had been almost nine months ago and Harry had sealed the two most dangerous Hallows into the leather wrapped iron lock box before tucking them away into his old school trunk at the end of the school term in order to protect them and to help him resist the temptation to use them; he didn't want anyone to know that he had officially claimed all three Hallows. Not even Ron and Hermione knew that he had both the Wand and the Stone, though they were well aware that he still had the Cloak; the Invisibility Cloak had sentimental value after all, since it had once belonged to his father.

Shaking his head to clear away the unwanted memories, Harry lifted the lid of the box to reveal the bone white wand nestled in a bed of red velvet with the ring holding the Resurrection Stone sitting just below the wand. Harry reached out and let his fingers dance along the length of the wand as his mind was assaulted with all of his memories of Dumbledore wielding the Elder Wand. A ghost of a smile briefly flashed across Harry's face as he pulled his hand away from the wand and lifted the ring out of its resting place before he set the open box on the floor beside him.

He stared at the innocent looking ring for a long moment before he closed his eyes and focused all of his thoughts on the one man he was certain could provide him with the answers he needed. Once he had a clear image of Minato Namikaze in his mind based upon the picture that Naruto had shown him and the things his younger cousin had told him, Harry rolled the ring in his hand over three times in order to call on Minato's spirit before slipping the ring onto his right index finger in order to maintain the connection.

His decision to summon that particular soul would have unforeseen consequences though, for he'd not been privy to one all important fact regarding the location of Minato's soul; the Yondaime Hokage's soul had been sentenced to an eternity of torment within the stomach of the Shinigami that the man had summoned when he'd traded his soul for the power to seal the Kyuubi into his newborn son.

"Who dares to summon one of the shinigami?" a powerful voice demanded as the room was flooded with an oppressive chill.

Harry stiffened as he slowly spun on his heels to stare at the demonic being that was filling up more than half of his bedroom, "Who…? What the hell are you? Why are you here? How did you get through my wards?"

"You summoned me without even knowing who I am?" the being demanded incredulously.

"I did not summon you! I called upon the soul of my dead cousin because I needed answers from him."

"What is the name of the dead soul you called upon?" the being asked as he focused his gaze on the ring on Harry's hand and narrowed his eerie black and yellow eyes.

"Minato Namikaze."

"That soul belongs to me."

"What do you mean?"

"Namikaze traded his soul to me for the power to seal the Kyuubi into a new vessel. I consumed Namikaze's soul and the Kyuubi's yin chakra in exchange for sealing the spirit of the Kyuubi into the chosen child."

"You destroyed my cousin's soul?" Harry demanded in disgust and despair.

"No, I consumed his soul. He is still here, inside of me," the being replied with a grating laugh that hurt Harry's ears.

"Still…?" Harry parroted as his eyes dropped to the being's stomach as his mind immediately drew parallels between the creature standing in front of him and the dementors. Anger filled him a heartbeat later as he recalled the pain and desolation of nearly having his own soul eaten by the foul demons back in his third year and the summer prior to his fifth year at Hogwarts. "I demand that you release him at once!"

"And who are you to order one such as me about, mortal?"

Harry drew himself up to his full height and wrapped his magic around him in a mantel of authority as he replied, "I am Sir Harry James Potter, a Knight of Her Majesty's Realm [Order of Merlin (First Class)], Head of House Potter, Acting Regent for House Black, and both owner and master of all three Deathly Hallows. I care not who or what you are; the soul of Minato Namikaze will be released right here, right now, or so help me… in the names of Merlin, Maeve, and Mungo and all that is unholy, I will make you wish for death before I am finished with you."

"Your threats mean nothing to me; I am immortal."

"I am a level five mage who owns and wields the Deathly Hallows," Harry retorted as he held his hand out over the iron lock box and wandlessly summoned the Elder Wand into his hand without taking his eyes from the being. "And you would not be the first immortal being that I destroyed."

"You are a brave and powerful little worm, I will give you that. However, that does not change the fact that I can not fulfill your request."

"Why?"

"The soul that you wish for me to release is not alone and should I release his soul here and now, then I would be required to release the destructive essence of the Kyuubi that was tied to his soul the night he summoned me to seal the demon inside of a child. To release the Kyuubi in this world would see this world destroyed."

"Isn't there a way to separate the Kyuubi from Minato's soul without letting the Kyuubi escape?"

"Yes, but the connection they share would remain whether or not they were separated; they have been tied to one another too long for the thread that connects them to be severed entirely."

"That's good enough for me because it means that there is no reason for you not to release my cousin and do what you have to do to deal with the Kyuubi in order to protect this world from the supposed demon," Harry firmly stated as he crossed his arms and leveled an imperious glare at the being.

The shinigami stared at Harry for a long minute with his otherworldly black and yellow eyes before it grinned down at him (revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth) as it replied, "As you wish, mortal."

The being then reached into its stomach and pulled free the shimmering soul of a blond haired man that was tangled up with a glowing ball of reddish orange power that vaguely resembled the shape of a giant fox with nine long tails. Harry tensed as he suddenly felt a wave of apprehension wash through him as he warily watched the being grasp his cousin's soul in one hand and the power of the demon fox in his other hand. The being then ripped the two entities apart before he set Minato's soul off to one side.

Harry then made the mistake of taking his eyes off of the demonic being as he turned to make certain that Minato's soul was intact (and take the opportunity to study the man; he was family, after all). Harry had just enough time to see the resemblance between Minato and Naruto before his attention was forcefully drawn back to the shinigami when the being grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up off the floor. Harry attempted to cast a spell at the shinigami using the Elder Wand, only for the being to slap the wand out of Harry's hand before he could think of an appropriate spell to use. The nineteen year old wizard attempted to pry the hand from his neck while lashing out with his feet but his efforts to escape proved futile.

"You are an arrogant and ignorant fool," the being rasped as he tightened his hold on Harry's neck; causing Harry's vision to go dark around the edges as his air supply was cut off further. "The only reason I am not ripping your soul from your pathetic body in retribution for your arrogance in thinking that you have the right to command one such as I, is that the Hallows have hidden your soul from me and my kin so long as you command their allegiance. However, that will not prevent me from punishing you for your follies."

The moment the being stopped speaking, it plunged the corrosive power of the Kyuubi that it had been holding in its other hand straight into Harry's stomach. Harry had just five full seconds to stare at the shinigami in shock over what it had just done before his entire body was suffused with searing agony as the Kyuubi's chakra and the shinigami's power flowed through his body like molten lava. On top of the pain, he could feel his magic rapidly being drained. If he could have, Harry would have screamed in response to the agony but the hand wrapped around his throat was preventing him from making a single sound on top of denying him oxygen.

A seeming eternity later, the molten lava of corrosive power flowing through his veins contracted and pulled itself down into his stomach before it disappeared altogether as the Kyuubi's essence was locked behind a seal within him. Harry went limp in the sudden absence of pain and hovered on the verge of unconsciousness as he hung limply within the grip of the shinigami. The wizard was jarred back to wakefulness and reality when he was unceremoniously dropped back onto the ground without any warning just a couple of seconds later.

Harry spent almost a full minute coughing and choking on the sweet, sweet air as he gulped breath after breath now that he was no longer being strangled by the demonic being that was still looming over him. Once he could think clearly enough (and his body no longer felt quite so weak), Harry snatched up the wand that had been knocked out of his hand and crawled backwards in order to distance himself from the shinigami in the hopes that it wouldn't grab him a second time. The grating laughter of the shinigami rang through the room once more in response to his transparent ploy and Harry near cringed as the sound grated painfully on his ears.

"Congratulations, little mage; you are now host to exactly half of the Kyuubi's soul and power. While the other host was given the Kyuubi's yang chakra and the Kyuubi's consciousness, you now carry the Kyuubi's yin chakra and the Kyuubi's sub consciousness."

"You turned me into another horcrux!?" Harry hoarsely demanded in horror.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. However, the fragmented soul you now carry inside of you is so much more than a mere horcrux. After all, immortal demons have no need to shatter their souls in order to tether their spirits to the mortal plane when they cannot truly die. Destroying the fraction of the Kyuubi you hold will not kill the Kyuubi, nor will it turn the Kyuubi into a mortal creature that can be killed. Attempting to destroy the part of the Kyuubi that resides within you will merely kill you and set that part of the Kyuubi free."

"What else did you do to me?" Harry demanded as he tried not to vomit over the revelation that he was once again carrying around the soul fragment of a monster inside of him.

"I forcefully expanded your chakra coils in order to allow your body to accommodate the influx of chakra that you will receive from the presence of the bijuu within your belly. If I had left them as they were, your coils would have shattered within twenty-four hours of the Kyuubi being sealed within your body. I was tempted to leave your coils as they were but I did not wish for your suffering to end quite so quickly."

"And my magic?" Harry quietly asked as he felt only a gaping emptiness from where his magic used to reside within his core.

"Your core has merely been drained as your magic was required to prevent your chakra coils from rupturing during the expansion process. As much as I would have loved to have stripped your magic from you, I could not touch your core because your soul is still hidden from me and a wizard's core is directly tired to their soul."

"So, what's the catch? I thought this was supposed to be some sort of punishment?" Harry inquired curiously now that he no longer feared that his magic had been ripped from him. "I don't see how sealing half a demon inside of me could be construed as a punishment if all you did was give my life force a boost; aside from the physical pain and the fact that I am once again playing host for yet another monster's horcrux, that is."

"The partial soul that resides within you will be unleashed upon this world in the moment of your death and there will be no one in this world that will be able to stop the mindless rampage of the Kyuubi. Your punishment will be in knowing that your death will destroy everything you hold dear and that there is nothing you can do to stop it because you will already be dead. There is also no one in this world that can teach you to control the immense chakra reserves that you will be cursed with due to the presence of the Kyuubi and as such, your body will die within five years time while your soul is forever trapped upon the mortal plane by your magic and the magic of the Hallows and you will be forced to watch the world burn around you."

The demonic being cackled madly for several minutes over Harry's proclaimed punishment before it vanished without a trace; its grating laughter lingering for another minute before silence fell over the room. Harry stared at the spot where the supposed shinigami had once stood before he let out a snort of amusement as a wry grin twisted his lips.

"I suppose it's a good thing that my little cousin seems to like me enough that I could probably talk him into teaching me how to access and use my life force then, hmm?" Harry asked rhetorically as he pushed himself up off of the floor and wearily climbed to his feet; his aching body protesting against the need to support itself. "I guess that particular shinigami forgot to do his research properly. Although, I must say I'm not exactly pleased to be housing another damned horcrux. The first one gave me more than enough problems."

"It is not wise to mock the death gods," a solemn voice stated from behind Harry.

"Kind of hard not to mock them when they overlook the obvious," Harry quipped as he turned to glance over his shoulder to take in the spirit of his dead cousin. "Besides, I'm not all that fond of soul-sucking demons and I found it offensive that he'd eaten your soul."

"Who exactly are you? And why am I here? I was supposed to endure an eternity of torment in exchange for the power I called upon to seal the Kyuubi into my son so that I could protect Konoha from the bijuu."

"My name is Harry Potter and according to everything I have learned over the past few weeks, I am Kichiro Namikaze's youngest grandson. As for why you are here, I called upon your soul using the Resurrection Stone because according to Naruto, you are one of the few who would be able to provide me with the answers I need to better understand why my little cousin believes that you turned him into a demon. Or rather, why you turned him into a horcrux for a demon based upon what I just learned."

"You're Kichiro-oji's grandson? Kichiro-oji is still alive then? Sandaime-sama was never certain on whether or not Kichiro survived after he left the Elemental Countries to seek healing in the Outer Countries. I had intended to send an expedition in search of ojisan once things were calm enough that I could spare a team for what would have undoubtedly been a year long mission. You also mentioned my son; did Kichiro-oji finally return to Konoha and bring you and your parents back to the village? And did you just say that Naruto believes that I turned him into a demon!?"

"Er, no; Kichiro died before I was born and I'm not in Konoha. Naruto left the village to look for Kichiro and he had the misfortune of finding my aunt instead. My cousin rescued him and contacted me and asked me if I would take him in. Poor kid's had a rough time of it according to what little he told me earlier tonight. And I'm not certain exactly what Naruto believes because I don't understand what it is that you did to him and he couldn't really explain it to me because I don't think he even fully understands it himself. The language barrier doesn't help, though Naruto speaks English rather well for having just learned to speak it."

"Language barrier? What language barrier? From what I can tell, you are speaking Japanese quite well."

"Actually, I'm not speaking Japanese at all," Harry countered with a small smirk. "Death surpasses all barriers and the power of the Resurrection Stone allows us to understand one another no matter what language we speak."

"Oh," Minato replied as he stared at Harry with no little amount of shock. The man then shook off his confusion and surprise and Harry could practically see his cousin donning a mantel of authority as he straightened up and pinned the wizard with shrewd sapphire eyes. "I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me about your life, the story of how you met my son, and what you know of my son's life. Once I have a better understanding of what has been happening since my death, I should be able to answer your questions and provide you with a more detailed explanation of the burden that you now share with my son as the host to half of the Kyuubi's soul and chakra."

"I'm not going to get any sleep tonight," Harry groused as he tucked both the Elder Wand and his holly wand into his robe pocket and gingerly made his way towards the door. "You might as well follow me downstairs so that I can grab a pot of tea and take a pain relieving potion before we start what promises to be a very long conversation."

Twenty minutes later, Harry was curled up in an armchair in the drawing room with a mug of black tea cradled in his hands as he tiredly repeated his life's story for the second time that day; though, admittedly, he went into far more detail this time than he had when he'd told the same story to Naruto. There was no need for him to skim over the darker aspects of his life's story for his older cousin, after all. Minato occasionally interrupted him in order to get clarification on one point or another but for the most part, the ghost just listened.

He fell silent some three and a half hours later after finally reaching the point where he'd attempted to summon Minato's soul and got the shinigami instead. His cousin had promptly called him several kinds of idiots in response to the way he had arrogantly challenged the shinigami before thanking him for bringing about the end of his torment. Minato had then jumped right into a brief history on the Elemental Countries, the rise of the various Elemental Nations, and a slightly more in depth history of the creations of the Hidden Villages. After that, Minato had gone on to speak of his childhood, his life as a shinobi (and the wars he fought in), and finally of the family he'd made for himself towards the end of his life.

Immediately after telling Harry his life's story, Minato began telling Harry the story of the Rikudou Sennin, the Juubi, and the creation of the nine bijuu. On the heels of that information, the blond ghost spoke of Uzumaki Mito's role as the first host of the Kyuubi and Uzumaki Kushina's roles as the second host to the nine tailed fox. He also spoke more in depth about the Shodai Hokage, Uchiha Madara, and the histories of the Uchiha, Senju, and Uzumaki Clans. The very last thing that the man spoke of was the night of the Kyuubi's attack; the night that he and his wife died.

"My dying wish was for the citizens of Konoha to see my son as a hero," Minato finished wearily.

"People need heroes but the only thing that society as a whole wants is someone to blame for all of their insecurities and inadequacies," Harry cynically pointed out with more than a little bitterness due to his own less than pleasant dealings with the wizarding society turning on him more than once at the drop of a hat.

"Did you still have any questions?" Minato asked after several minutes had passed.

"A few… Do you know why the shinigami said that I would die in five years if I do not find someone to teach me how to control my chakra? From what I understand about the way a person's life force works, not developing the ability to control chakra shouldn't reduce my life expectancy."

"In most cases, it would not matter whether or not you learned how to control and mold your chakra. Unfortunately, because you now house half of the Kyuubi's soul and its chakra it is imperative that you learn how to mold and use your chakra in order to develop at least a Chuunin level of control over your chakra. The reason for that is because the seal that was used to lock part of the Kyuubi's soul into you will continuously siphon chakra from the Kyuubi's soul that it will convert and feed into your reserves; that is the seal's method of preventing the Kyuubi from gathering enough power to break the seal as the bijuu's soul continuously produces chakra."

"If you do not learn to mold chakra, then your coils will not be exercised and they will grow weaker as you age. In that case, the constant influx of the converted demon's chakra will place undue stress upon your weakened coils which would result in your chakra network rupturing in approximately five years time. If the rupture is severe enough to shatter your coils completely, then you would die a very painful death. In order to avoid that, you would need to regularly exercise your chakra coils and to do that you must at least learn how to use the basic three chakra control exercises."

"Okay, I suppose that at least makes sense…" Harry murmured as he tiredly ran a hand over his face. "Next question; is the fact that I am now holding the other half of the Kyuubi going to cause any problems with Naruto? For example, am I going to have to avoid all physical contact with him out of fear of the two halves of the Kyuubi trying to reunite itself into one being?"

"No, the split is permanent; one does not sunder a soul lightly and a soul that has been sundered is not so easily fused back into a single soul. In some ways, the two halves of the Kyuubi's soul are no longer part of the whole due to the nine years that your half of the soul spent tied to my soul on top of the time spent inside of the stomach of the shinigami. Your half of the Kyuubi's soul has experienced a form of death while Naruto's half of the Kyuubi's soul has not. It is even possible that both halves of the Kyuubi's soul could now be considered separate entities; despite the fact that they are both incomplete. The seals would prevent the two halves of the Kyuubi escaping even if that wasn't true."

"I'm not sure whether to consider that a good thing or not. At least I won't have to push Naruto away; he's been starved of positive physical contact and comfort for far too long for me to deny him a hug whenever he needs one. Moving on, I am still a little confused on what you mean by seals… What exactly are seals? How do they work? Do the seals holding the Kyuubi have any weaknesses that I need to be worried about? Do I need to worry about someone attempting to break the seals?"

"Seals are the building blocks we use to mold chakra; there are hand seals that aide one in using a wide assortment of jutsu and there are written seals that allow us to create timed explosions, barriers to protect our homes, store supplies inside of a scroll, or lock one of the bijuu into a living host or non-living vessel. I suppose you could liken the basic components of all seals to the pieces of a puzzle that has a million different solutions and the order in which you connect those pieces determines what the end result is."

"To answer your final two questions; yes, there are weaknesses in all seals and yes, there are those that would seek to release the Kyuubi from you or Naruto in hopes of using its power. There are certain triggers within the seal that will unlock those portions of the seal that prevent the Kyuubi from influencing its host; so long as the trigger is not activated, the Kyuubi will slumber on undisturbed. Once the Kyuubi has been woken, he will undoubtedly attempt to talk you into freeing him by breaking the seal; doing so will kill you and unleash the Kyuubi. The same thing applies to Naruto."

"There is also a key that will allow the seal to be 'tightened' or 'loosened' to allow for greater or lesser access to the Kyuubi's chakra – that key is currently being guarded by the toads. The only one that would be able to access the key now that I am dead is my old sensei; Jiraiya. There are other ways to open the seal though; especially if the seal has been weakened. That was how Madara managed to extract the Kyuubi from Kushina shortly after she'd given birth to Naruto due to the pregnancy and birth of our son weakening the seal. On top of that, there are counter seals that could disrupt the Hakke no Fuuin Shiki."

"Despite the potential threat to you and Naruto, it is not something that you really have to worry about on this side of the Great Barrier that separates the Elemental Countries from the Outer Countries. There are very few individuals within the Elemental Countries and fewer still out here in the Outer Countries that actually have the knowledge, control, and power to open or disrupt the seals. If someone does manage to disrupt your seals, your best bet would be to seek out Jiraiya as he would have the knowledge, control, and power to fix or reverse the problem; if you can reach him before the Kyuubi breaks free or is extracted."

"Okay, that's a disturbing bit of information but I suppose it isn't completely unexpected," Harry stated as he stared at Minato with wide eyes as he tried to wrap his mind around the information he'd just been given about seals.

"Was that the last of your questions?" Minato asked when Harry didn't immediately ask another question.

"No, but I think I'm going to need time to process everything I've learned tonight before I attempt to cram any more information into my brain. In the mean time, I'll release your spirit so that you can return to the afterlife and just call you back when I'm ready to finish our conversation; so long as you're willing, that is."

Minato nodded to show his willingness to return at a later time and Harry said a brief goodbye before he slipped the ring holding the Resurrection Stone from his right index finger in order break the connection that was holding his cousin in the world of the living. Believing the matter dealt with, Harry pocketed the stone and wearily rose to his feet so that he could head back upstairs to his room and get a few hours of sleep. He hadn't taken more than three steps in the direction of the door when he learned there was a slight problem.

"Ne, ne; do you think you could send me into the afterlife now, itoko? I'm looking forward to seeing Kushina for the first time in almost nine years."

Harry jerked his head around in shock to find Minato's spirit still standing (more like hovering) in the middle of his drawing room. He then dropped his gaze to his right hand to confirm that he'd taken off the ring (he had) before he glanced back up to stare at his cousin in confusion as he demanded, "Why are you still here, Minato? You should have disappeared the moment I released the connection to the Resurrection Stone."

After spending close to twenty minutes trying to send Minato's spirit onto the afterlife, Harry began to suspect that the shinigami had done something to Minato's soul to prevent it from moving on. At that point, Harry's temper had grown dangerously short and he had a migraine on top of the lingering soreness he felt from the forced expansion of his chakra coils. So Harry told Minato to make himself at home while he got some much needed sleep; he'd approach the problem from a different direction the moment it no longer hurt to think.

Translations: Japanese to English

Itoko – cousin
Ne, ne – One way of getting someone's attention, can be a sort of childish way of saying hey, hey!
Ojisan/oji/jisan – uncle or mister (when used by a non-relative).
Shinigami – death god or soul reaper

Techniques/Skills:

Hakke no Fuuin Shiki – Eight Divination Signs Seal Style

Notes:

The reason why Minato did not appear as a Jinchuuriki when pulled from the shinigami's stomach was because it was just his soul being pulled free; i.e. he was not resurrected via Edo Tensei and placed into a body. And IMO, a soul can not be shoved inside of another soul so therefore, Minato's soul and half of the Kyuubi's soul were merely tangled up together and the bond between them exists because their souls were tied together through the jutsu that Minato used to summon the shinigami and seal the Kyuubi.

More information on exactly what happened (as I interpreted it) on the night of the Kyuubi's attack will be presented within the story in a few chapters.

10-24-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.