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 18: Survival Training
Saturday, October 06, 2001, All Day
Training Ground 44, Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
"Welcome to Training Ground Forty-Four or as those who have dared to venture beyond the fence call it; the Forest of Death," Yamato declared in a dramatic voice as he gestured towards the thirty foot tall fence that separated the dark and foreboding forest from the rest of the world.
"Are there any soul-sucking demons, whose mere presence can suck the happiness out of an entire village, living in there?" Harry asked as he peered into the shadows beneath the trees and fondly (and in a few cases not so fondly) recalled his many adventures in the Forbidden Forest.
"Ano… no, no demons," Yamato awkwardly replied as the normally unflappable man faltered for a brief moment; the man obviously uncertain over whether or not Harry was being serious when he asked his question. "Just lots and lots of vicious man eating forest dwellers and deadly poisonous foliage."
"Sou desu ka?" Harry asked absently as he reached up to scratch his chin thoughtfully. "Sounds like there's nothing we really need to worry about then, ne?"
Yamato blinked at him in surprise (or possibly disbelief) before he shook his head and unlocked one of the forty-four gates through which most individuals accessed the interior of the dark and foreboding training ground. As Harry followed the slightly older man through the gate, he couldn't help but smirk; he bet the man had hoped to intimidate or shock him by revealing the alternate name of the forest and the fact that the denizens were known to attack humans. Too bad his new instructor slash minder apparently hadn't gotten the memo that deadly creatures and plants were pretty much old hat for Harry. After all of the adventures he'd gotten into though the years, Harry figured the Forest of Death would be a cake walk in comparison.
"Right, since the main objective here is for me to evaluate your survival skills, I'm going to be observing you from a distance for a time; though I will step in if at any time your life is in real danger and it becomes clear that you will be unable to deal with the threat," Yamato explained as he closed and locked the gate once they were both inside of the forest. "Do you have any questions?"
"Last night you mentioned something about a mission that we'd be completing while we were here; what are we supposed to be doing for that?" Harry inquired as he glanced upwards to take in the towering trees that were even larger than those that had lined the road that had brought him and his small family to Konoha.
"The mission itself is rather simple and straight forward; we're to clear out the trash from the river that cuts through the forest. The danger lies in the various creatures that we will inevitably run into while working and traveling."
"We have to clear the entire river?"
"No, we just have to clean the half of the river that runs south from the tower at the center of the forest. The mission to clear out the northern half of the river has been taken by another team."
"Ah, got it. I take it that means that we are not the only shinobi running wild through the forest?"
"That is correct, though it is doubtful that we will cross paths with any of the other Chuunin and Jounin that are currently training or completing a mission inside the Forest of Death. At least not until we reach the Tower at the center of the forest where we may or may not run into the team clearing the northern half of the river."
"Am I going to have to worry about any of those other teams 'attacking' me in order to test my survival skills?"
"No, interference in another's training is highly frowned upon and all joint training sessions will be announced prior to commencement so that everyone involved is fully aware of who they are supposed to be working alongside during the training exercise. If you are attacked by another human while we are in here, chances are the person is a traitor, a spy, or an assassin and I will intervene so that the person can be captured and sent to Ibiki for interrogation. Unfortunately, there's also a chance that you might run into other shinobi training and get caught up in their attack by accident, in which case I suggest you apologize and beat a hasty retreat."
"Joy," Harry murmured with a mildly sarcastic undertone that drew a smile from his companion… handler.
"Any other questions, Takeshi-san?"
"Are there any endangered creatures that I should avoid killing if at all possible?"
"No, the conservatory is on the other side of the village."
"Then I guess I'm good to go."
"This is where we part company for the time being then," Yamato stated as he jumped up into the branches of the nearest tree and quickly vanished from sight.
Harry stared at the place where the man had disappeared, almost one hundred percent certain that he'd just watched the man melt into the tree, before he shook his head and glanced around him once more. He then sighed and pursed his lips as he considered his options; head straight for the tower at the center, follow the fence line to find the river, or wander aimlessly through the forest until he encountered something deadly. Knowing that their mission involved clearing out the river, Harry eventually decided to follow the fence line; it was far more logical to clear the river by moving upstream because the trash would be shifted by the current (meaning that if they started upstream and worked downstream, more trash would be washed down behind them and make it seem like they hadn't done their job properly).
Course set, Harry drew his holly wand and cast the Point Me Spell to get his bearings before he turned to his left and began trotting alongside of the fence (the pair had entered on the easternmost side of the forest). As he moved, Harry periodically cast a pair of revealing spells in order to search his immediate surroundings (one to search for humans and the other to search for animals) to see if there was any one or any thing nearby that he'd need to be concerned about (there wasn't). He then created a pair of Kage Bunshin to act as forward scouts and another pair to act as rear guards (a trick he started utilizing after the bandits had ambushed their caravan).
Feeling better now that there was less of a chance of getting ambushed by one of the forest dwellers, Harry let his eyes scan his immediate surroundings as he steadily moved through the very edge of the forest. He took careful note of those plants he recognized as either being edible (or bearing edible fruit) or having medicinal properties and took the time to harvest them since he'd been instructed not to bring any food with him (he needed to prove that he could live off of the land, after all). Harry felt a little nostalgic as he traveled and worked; the entire exercise bringing to mind the year he'd spent on the run with Hermione and Ron while they hunted for the horcruxes and hid from the Death Eaters (only with far less fear and tension).
The wizard would encounter his first forest denizen during his second hour in the forest. The moment that he realized what it was he was seeing, Harry had stopped and stared at it with fascination; he'd never seen a ten foot long centipede before (though he had seen spiders as big as cars). His interest in the creature turned into grim resignation when the monstrosity finally noticed his presence and promptly attacked him. Not wishing to find out the hard way whether or not the thing was venomous, Harry drew his holly wand and killed the centipede with a well placed Severing Charm that sliced the creature in half vertically from head to the very last pair of legs.
The large spider that tried to drop on him from the trees above half an hour later was thrown back using a Banishing Charm and obliterated completely with an overpowered Blasting Curse. Harry loathed spiders with a passion (especially man-sized spiders intent upon having him for a snack) ever since the Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest had sided with Voldemort during the final battle at Hogwarts. The small, vicious wild boar he stumbled on was a bit more difficult to deal with due to how fast the one foot tall pig could move and Harry ended up sheathing his wand and drawing his broadsword to take the creature down. On the plus side, he wouldn't have to worry about catching something for lunch later.
Not long after he'd skinned, gutted, and butchered the wild boar, Harry finally reached the point where the river flowed through the fence some four and a half hours after he'd entered the forest. Knowing that it would be best not to camp right beside the river (because the wild animals would come to the river for water), Harry retreated several meters into the forest and looked for a small clearing to set up camp. While he was doing that, Harry sent his clones to scout the river in order to take note of the dangerous creatures currently in the area and determine just how much trash had collected in the riverbed.
An hour later, Harry had the wild boar wrapped up in a section of aluminum foil (from his supplies) lined with damp dock leaves alongside the wild onions, garlic, carrots, and nettles he'd harvested. The entire parcel was buried in the embers of his camp fire next to a smaller foil wrapped bundle holding several handfuls of wild chestnuts that he was roasting. The smells filling the small clearing were mouthwatering and Harry was eagerly looking forward to the meal. As he kept a close eye on his lunch (so it didn't burn), Harry occasionally wondered where his minder was hiding; he'd not once sensed the man near by and he'd never shown up when Harry scanned his surroundings for human presence.
The two reasons he was certain that the man was close by was because the man had said that he would be watching and because he'd often felt eyes on him throughout the course of the morning (above and beyond those eyes that he knew belonged to the creatures of the forest). That made Harry wonder if the man intended to hide and spy on him the entire time and that if that was the case, if it meant that he'd be required to complete their supposed mission all by himself. Before Harry could decide on how he felt about that possibility, Yamato turned up in the middle of his camp quite unexpectedly.
"You've had a very busy and productive morning," Yamato stated with a smile as he joined Harry by the fire.
"It's been rather relaxing too," Harry murmured as he used a stick to flip the packet of chestnuts over. "I don't usually get much time to myself because the children require so much of my attention; though Eri and Arata are always willing to lend a hand and Naruto is rather self-sufficient. I've also not really had much of a chance to relax since the day Arata contacted me with the news that we had a little cousin that appeared from out of nowhere quite unexpectedly."
"You are the first person that I have met that considers wandering through the Forest of Death a vacation. Not even Mitarashi Anko considers this place relaxing and this is her favorite training ground."
Harry snorted in amusement as he flipped the roasting boar meat and vegetable bundle next, "You've never had the pleasure of dealing with two hyperactive kids on a sugar rush while they were suffering from extreme boredom; have you?"
"No, I can't say that I have."
"Consider yourself lucky, Yamato-san; there is nothing more torturous than two rambunctious children bursting with more energy than they know what to do with and no active outlet in which to expend that energy."
"I'll keep that in mind if I ever decide to start a family or find myself watching someone else's child."
"Seeing as how you've essentially been assigned as my keeper for at least the next eighteen months, I'm sure you'll get the opportunity to experience it fairly soon since there will be days when you will spend time around Naruto and Satoshi. Anyway, it appears that lunch is finished and I made more than enough to share, if you want some."
As the two men eagerly dug into the roasted boar meat, Yamato lightly grilled Harry on his decision to follow the fence line instead of striking inwards. He also questioned Harry's decision to remain on the forest floor instead of taking to the trees in order to reduce his travel time. The Jounin was slightly surprised to learn that Harry didn't know how to travel through the treetops and Harry had to explain that where he was from there were fewer trees and most of them didn't grow big enough or close enough together to use them as an alternate path.
After the meal, Yamato had Harry break camp and remove all traces of their presence before they headed to the river in order to start the mission (Yamato had seen enough of Harry's skills over the course of the morning to know he could live off the land and defend himself from low level threats). Harry was then given a chance to demonstrate his grasp of water walking (which still wasn't as good as Naruto's and was no where near Yamato's level). At the same time, he was given a demonstration of Yamato's ability to manipulate both water and earth as the man dredged the bottom of the riverbed and had the water spit the trash out onto the shore.
That, of course, sparked Harry's competitive nature and he couldn't resist showing off a little as he summoned all of the lost and discarded weapons that had been dropped in the area using the Elder Wand. He caught half a dozen river trout near sunset for supper in the same manner. Yamato then showed off by growing a living net out of reeds that would prevent the current from dumping more trash in the portion they already cleared when he called an end to the day. All in all, the two of them managed to clear out the entire eastern fork of the river over the course of the afternoon and they set up a new camp for the evening beside the point where the river split.
While Yamato cooked the fish, Harry sorted through the junk they'd hauled from the river; separating out the trash from the recyclables and the weapons. Those weapons that were still in reasonably good condition were split between the two of them while those that were useless were set aside to be sold to one of the blacksmiths in the village so they could be repaired or melted down and recast. He then sealed everything into storage scrolls in order to make disposing of them (or recycling them) far easier.
Before they retired for the night, Yamato began teaching Harry how to move through the trees by growing a circle of two foot tall stumps that were three feet apart around the edge of the clearing and making Harry run laps around the clearing without letting his feet touch the ground. Yamato periodically encouraged Harry to pick up his pace by throwing a slue of shuriken at him once he got the hang of jumping from trunk to trunk. Halfway through the training, Yamato removed half of the stumps so that the remaining stumps were now six feet apart in order to get him to use his chakra to increase the distance he could cover with each jump.
By the time he crawled into his sleeping bag, Harry was tired and sore from the rather intense training session but feeling rather good about how easily he'd adapted to the new method of travel (though he'd still need lots of practice before he mastered the new form of travel).
He had exactly five hours of undisturbed sleep before the proximity wards he'd set up out of habit were tripped by the biggest damn bear he'd ever seen. The damn thing must have stood close to four times Harry's height as it reared up on its hind legs and roared out its anger at discovering a pair of trespassers in its domain. The Severing Charm that Harry cast at it only did enough damage to piss it off even more and Harry chose to retreat up the nearest tree to escape its claws and teeth because he had no desire to get close enough to stab the beast with his little swords. Unfortunately, the tree offered no respite as the bear simply cut it down with three slashes of its claws.
Harry cursed long and loud in both English and Japanese as he rode the tree down (too afraid to jump because he'd lost track of the damn bear – though how one could lose sight of a bear that large was a mystery). While that was happening, Yamato was attempting to contain the bear using his Mokuton but was not having much success due to the bear biting and clawing through the beams of wood he made almost as quickly as he grew them. Yamato's efforts had at least drawn the bear away from a rattled Harry before he staggered out of the remains of the shattered branches of the tree after it crashed into the ground.
Shaking off his disorientation, Harry ran up another tree in order to get above the bear and ran through the long chain of hand seals needed to send a Rairyuudan at the bear. The second the giant dragon of lightning poured forth from his hands, Harry whistled loudly to draw both Yamato's and the bear's attention (allowing Yamato to get out of the way without the bear chasing after him). Harry cursed under his breath when the bear walked away from the attack with nothing more than singed fur. From his left, he heard Yamato use a few rather inventive curses that he filed away for later use.
"What the hell is that damn thing? There's no way that's an ordinary bear," Harry muttered under his breath before he was forced to abandon his perch as the furious bear rushed the tree he was hiding.
In the end, it would take Yamato dropping the bear into a thirty foot deep hole that Harry filled to the top with water as Yamato grew hundreds of thick wooden beams to pin the bear at the bottom of the pit before Harry froze the water to kill the bear. Both men had then collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and pain; both of them sporting numerous bruises and gashes from what had ended up being an hour long battle.
"You know, Yamato-san; I don't think I like the spot you chose to set up camp," Harry wearily stated as he tore his gaze away from the frozen pit trap.
"In all of the years I've been training within this forest, this is the first time I've ever run into a bear that large. The bears here also usually not that hard to kill; your raiton attack should have killed it."
"Figures; that's the way my luck usually runs."
"That would have been useful information to have ahead of time," Yamato deadpanned as he turned to stare at Harry. He then wearily climbed to his feet as he asked, "I know I saw you take at least one hit; how serious are your injuries?"
"Mostly just bumps and bruises but I think he ripped open the back of my right calf," Harry replied as he took stock of his aches and pains. "What about you? How bad is your shoulder?"
"Still bleeding but it doesn't feel too deep. I suppose this will be an excellent time to evaluate your knowledge of emergency first aide."
Harry shot a disbelieving look at his Jounin trainer that the man either missed in the darkness or outright ignored. The wizard was then caught off guard as Yamato literally grew a small one room cabin in under five minutes. Now, he hadn't thought much about the man manipulating living plants, growing stumps, or even about creating animated beams of wood during the battle with the bear but he had not been prepared to see him grow an entire building. Sure, he'd heard about Senju Hashirama's ability to manipulate wood thanks to Minato's history lessons but he'd never imagined that it could be used to grow houses.
When Harry asked Yamato if he was related to the Shodai Hokage, he was more than a little surprised when the man grew extremely uncomfortable and denied any relationship to the Senju Clan. Despite being curious about how Yamato had ended up with a rare Kekkei Genkai if he wasn't related to the clan in which the Kekkei Genkai originated, Harry let the matter drop and apologized for prying. The uncomfortable moment eventually passed as Harry cleaned, treated, and bandaged Yamato's shoulder and his own leg; using a liberal amount of Essence of Dittany to speed up the healing process.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully as they slept safely inside of the homegrown cabin.
For the first time in over two years, Harry did not wake with the rising sun (not counting the small handful of days when he stayed up all night doing research). Yamato was already awake and cooking a late breakfast by the time Harry walked outside looking for the man. Harry's attention was immediately snagged by the carcass of the bear; which Yamato had hauled out of the pit after the ice had finished melting with the rising of the sun and propped up on a wood rack. The beast looked far larger in the light of day than it had the previous night when it had been half hidden in shadows.
"What are you going to do with that? Wouldn't it have been far easier to just bury it?" Harry asked when he finally tore his eyes from the bear and joined Yamato at the camp fire.
"Normally, I would skin and butcher any bears I kill because bear meat is considered a delicacy and since so few shinobi willingly tangle with the creatures it is something of a rarity. However, because of the difficulty we experienced with this particular specimen coupled with his extraordinary size, I will seal it into a scroll once its fur has dried and deliver it to the Nara after we finish our mission in order to have their researchers study him. If the animals in this forest are developing a measure of immunity against high level attacks, the Hokage will need to know so that any missions or training exercises that are scheduled to take place in the forest are ranked appropriately in order to avoiding loosing the younger and more inexperienced shinobi."
"Oh. Would you like me to dry him out for you?"
"If you want to, you're welcome to try but the last of the water will evaporate by lunch time."
Harry's response was to use his wand to banish the water clinging to the bear's fur with a 'wringing' spell that literally pushed the fur down flat to push the water out. He then cast a drying spell on the bear to pull the last of the moisture out of the fur before he turned to Yamato and asked, "Did you already have a storage scroll prepped to seal him in or would you like me to draw one for you?"
"Do you know how to link preservation seals to the storage seals in order to preserve the body?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll leave you to take care of the bear after we eat while I finish repairing the clearing."
"Alright," Harry replied as he dug into his inner pockets for a blank scroll, a quill, and his bottle of sealing ink (which had been infused with his and Naruto's chakra and blood as well as with his magic) so that he could prepare the scroll while Yamato finished cooking their meal.
By lunch time, the bear had been sealed away, the clearing completely repaired, their camp cleared away, and the temporary cabin un-grown. The two of them had then spent the rest of the day working their way north along the eastern bank of the river clearing out the trash as they went. Unlike the previous afternoon, there was little showing off as the two men cleared the debris from the water and removed large obstructions that were hindering the current. Periodically, Yamato would grow additional reed nets to catch trash so that if they missed anything, they could pick it up on their way out.
They did not stop working until the last rays of the sun had vanished. After another supper of freshly caught fish and an hour of stump jumping, Yamato had ordered Harry up into the trees to sleep in nothing but a tarp (another test as there were times when it was prudent not to make a camp when outside of the village on a mission). This time, the man was testing his ability to sleep in an awkward perch through the night while hiding his presence from the predators that would be stalking the forest below. Harry said not a word of complaint; he had no desire to face a second bear even if it might be smaller and easier to kill than the first one.
Both men were up and moving with the sun and breakfast (comprised of left over fish from the night before) was eaten cold and supplemented with fresh berries and fruit harvested from the forest as they worked. They would reach the tower in the center of the forest an hour before noon and briefly meet with the team that had taken the mission for the northern half of the river. The two of them then turned around and headed back down the river after crossing over to the western bank. This time, Yamato had Harry practice traveling through the tree tops while he traveled beneath the wizard in case he slipped from the branches or misjudged a jump.
They made good time (since there was very little work that needed to be done) and reached the fork in the river an hour before sunset. After they set up camp, Yamato sparred with Harry while there was still daylight left; the man correcting Harry's form and pointing out holes in his technique with the help of Minato and Kushina's spirits after the wizard had called forth the kunoichi upon Minato's suggestion. The Jounin surprisingly didn't blink an eye when Minato appeared shortly after Kushina's spirit stepped out of thin air; apparently, Yamato was rather fond of scary ghost stories and the proof that real ghosts existed appealed to him.
Their evening meal that night would be disrupted by another oversized creature; this one a snake that was slightly larger than the basilisk that Harry had killed when he was twelve. At the time, Harry had been skinning the pair of rabbits that Yamato had sent him out to hunt (well, he'd sent him to catch something other then fish) when the enormous reptile slithered up to their camp; the snake drawn to the scent of fresh blood. The giant reptile had approached the camp from behind Harry and he had felt his proximity ward being triggered at the same time as Yamato had jerked his head up from where he'd been starting the fire.
'I smell blood… so close… so fresh… fresh blood mixed with the scent of humans… oh the scent of blood and human makes me so hungry…'
Harry froze and closed his eyes as the snake's voice brought back so many of his darkest memories; the entirety of his second year, the vision of attacking Mr. Weasley as Nagini in his fifth, encountering Nagini masquerading as Bathilda Bagshot, and watching Nagini kill Snape to name the worst of the memories. White hot fury shot through Harry before the final memory finished playing out behind his mind's eye; he hated being forced to watch the more terrible memories of his past.
'Go away, serpent; you will find no food here,' Harry hissed through clenched teeth as he dropped the knife he'd been using to skin the rabbits and unsheathed his broadsword.
'You are not our contract holder… you can not order me to do your bidding; even if you are a filthy speaker,' the snake hissed in reply as it rose up behind Harry and prepared to strike.
'If you attempt to attack me or my companion, then I will not hesitate to kill you. Leave now and I will allow you to live.'
'This forest belongs to the snakes and filthy speakers are unwelcome here. Manda will reward me for devouring you and ridding the world of another thieving human that has stolen our voice.'
'It's your funeral,' Harry retorted as he clasped the hilt of the broadsword in both hands and thrust upwards at the same time as the snake opened its mouth and struck downwards to swallow him.
The sword slammed home through the snake's brain at the same time as the snake's mouth closed around Harry. The wizard gamely hung onto his sword as the snake thrashed around in death; his entrapment inside of the mouth actually saving him from being seriously injured; since he could have been crushed by the snake's death throws if he had been on the outside. Still, it was an experience that he could have done without as being roughly shaken about while covered in a combination of snake spit, venom, and blood was distinctly unpleasant.
When the snake finally fell still, Harry wrenched his sword free and stuck it through his belt to free his hands. He then crawled to the very front of the mouth and curled his shoulders forward as he stood up and forced the snake's mouth open so he could climb out. The four rows of snake teeth lining the roof of the snake's mouth between its fangs briefly caught on his cloak but thankfully did not slice through the thick dragon hide. A split second later, Yamato was giving him a hand as a long beam of wood grew from the man's finger and forced the snake's mouth all the way open in the blink of an eye so that Harry could step out.
"You know how I told you the other day that I didn't think I liked your chosen camping location, Yamato-san?" Harry asked as he wiped snake blood, venom, and spit from his face and spat out the bit that had gotten in his mouth while he was being thrown around. "Well, I've come to the conclusion that I bloody well hate the places you pick to set up camp."
"And I'm beginning to suspect that your luck rating was mistakenly inverted when Shikaku filled out your evaluation, Takeshi-san."
"Why…? Did he leave off the negative sign?" Harry quipped with a humorless laugh as he stared down at the mess that had been made of his clothes.
"Well, at least you can joke about it. Are you injured…?"
"Just my ego; stupid snake wouldn't leave when I told it to."
"You do know that any creature whose entire species is under a summoning contract will never obey anyone but their contract holders whether they are an actually summons or not, right? And how exactly did you ask it to leave? All I heard was a bunch of hissing."
Harry shifted uncomfortably as he disliked discussing the abilities that he'd gotten from being in close contact with Voldemort's horcrux for more than half of his life. In the end, he decided it was probably best to say something now before his ability was brought up in front of a large crowd that could turn on him (like when almost the entire school had turned against him in his second year).
Sighing, he pulled out his holly wand and began cleaning himself off (before the snake's blood, venom, or saliva ruined his cloak) as he quietly replied, "I have a secondary Kekkei Genkai that grants me the ability to speak to all snakes and serpents. Usually, it allows me to order or ask them to leave me alone or in the case of the three boomslangs that I brought with me, ask them to protect my valuables for me. Not all snakes like to be ordered about though and the one I just killed was actually upset that I could speak to it using the snake language."
"It's not an ability I was born with and I rarely ever use it because I don't like the memories associated with it but it has come in handy a time or two and saved my life on more than one occasion. And no, I wasn't aware that a summoning contract affected an entire class of creatures to the point where they only obeyed those that signed their contracts; Minato only covered the basics of summoning since there were no contracts available at the time and there were far more important things for me to learn."
"What a strange ability," Yamato mused. "Being associated with snakes here in Konoha is not a good thing though, due to the terrible things that Orochimaru has done. I will have to report the ability to the Hokage but I will at least keep it out of my written report so that the information will not spread to the wrong people."
"Thanks, I appreciate that and I figured that you'd have to tell the Hokage. I would have mentioned it myself but the ability carries the same stigma from where I grew up because another person with the same ability did a great many terrible things before he was stopped so I do my best to avoid bringing it up."
"How did you get the ability if you weren't born with it? If you don't mind me asking…"
"The other person I mentioned unintentionally gave me the ability the first time he tried to kill me."
The subject was dropped at that point as the two of them dealt with the enormous snake that was cluttering up their camp. Harry ended up skinning the giant snake when Yamato declared his intention to bury the carcass. He wasn't one for collecting trophies but the snake's skin was both light weight and strong enough to deflect kunai and shuriken (if not a sword) and would make a potentially suitable replacement cloak if his dragon hide cloak got ruined and he didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of owl ordering a new cloak without the benefit of trying it on for size before he shelled out that much money or making one himself (since dragon hide was notoriously difficult to work with due to its magic resistant nature).
The remainder of their time in the forest was blessedly uneventful and short as they finished clearing the western fork of the river shortly after three in the afternoon on the ninth.
Translations: Japanese to English
Sou desu ka? – Is that right?
Techniques/Skills:
Rairyuudan no Jutsu – Lightning Dragon Projectile Technique (non-canon – created by author)
10-25-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.