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 21: Information Overload

Monday, November 26, 2001, Evening
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

The moment Harry had announced which bijuu he contained pandemonium filled the office for several minutes as the shinobi protested his claim or spluttered in shock. It was actually kind of amusing to witness because shinobi were usually so unflappable and Harry's inner prankster just loved spreading chaos.

"That is not possible," Jiraiya blurted out the moment the furor settled down enough for the man to make himself heard; the Gama Sennin frowning intently at Harry. "Naruto-kun carries the nine tailed fox."

"How could you possibly be carrying the Kyuubi if Naruto is still obviously carrying the Kyuubi?" Shikaku inquired on the heels of Jiraiya's protest while everyone else fell silent in order to hear Harry's response. "We have solid proof that his seal has not been tampered with at any point in his life."

"In order for me to answer that, I have to ask; how much do you know about what happened the night Minato sealed the Kyuubi into Naruto?" Harry asked instead of immediately answering the question as he buried his amusement over their temporary loss of control.

"We know that he summoned the shinigami in order to exchange his soul for the power and strength to seal the Kyuubi within his son," the Hokage answered with a puzzled frown. "There was no one present aside from those involved in the sealing, so we don't know exactly what transpired, we only have hints that we used to deduce what we could of the situation; such as the fact that both Kushina and Minato had been fatally wounded at some point before the Kyuubi had been resealed."

"Okay, that at least gives an idea of just how little you know about what happened. Rather than go into a detailed explanation, I'm going to summarize the relevant information into a chronological list of facts as I know them to help you understand. If you want the detailed information, you're going to have to ask Minato because he can explain it better. And, because your question was rather broad, my answer is also going to be worth a full three questions due to how much information I'll be giving you," Harry stated as he focused his gaze on the floor to better concentrate on his answer.

"Fact one; Kushina was dying because the Kyuubi had been forcefully extracted from her by an enemy. Fact two; Minato and Kushina argued about sealing the Kyuubi into Naruto before they came to an agreement. Fact three; only a newborn or another Uzumaki with Kushina's abilities could have survived the resealing. Fact four; the entirety of the Kyuubi's soul and chakra were far too powerful to seal inside of a newborn child – hence why Uzumaki Kushina was selected as Mito's successor instead of a newborn baby."

"Fact five; the shinigami ripped away the Kyuubi's yin chakra and half of its soul through Minato and the Kyuubi's yang chakra and the other half of its soul through Naruto with Kushina's help which is how half of the Kyuubi ended up sealed inside of Naruto. Fact six; the Kyuubi's yin chakra and partial soul that the shinigami ripped from the Kyuubi were devoured alongside of Minato's soul when the shinigami's task was completed. Fact seven; in my ignorance and in pursuit of the knowledge I needed to know in order to understand why Naruto claimed he was a demon, I mistakenly summoned the shinigami that had devoured Minato's spirit when I attempted to call upon my cousin's soul."

"Fact eight; I challenged the shinigami without fully understanding what the being was capable of and the end result was that the shinigami freed Minato's soul and shoved the second half of the Kyuubi's chakra and soul into me – forcefully expanding my chakra coils at the same time. And let me tell you, that hurt like a bitch too. Fact nine; both halves of the Kyuubi's soul can now be considered separate entities due to the fact that the half within me experienced a form of death while the half inside of Naruto did not. And fact ten; without my Kekkei Genkai, I would have died instantly."

Harry finally looked up at the gathered individuals as he added, "You get one more question about the Kyuubi."

"I suppose that's only fair," Shikaku murmured with a slight pout that almost made Harry burst out laughing. "There's something I don't understand… how is it possible to split a bijuu's soul? And how do you know you have exactly half? Does that mean that the light half of the Kyuubi's soul rests in Naruto while the dark half resides in you?"

"That's three questions… not one, Nara-san," Harry dryly pointed out which drew a slight blush from the older man and amused chuckles from the rest of the room. "I suppose I can let is slide though since you at least kept them to the same topic and it's not as if I know the full answer to the first question you asked…" The wizard trailed off for a moment as he considered the question. "I suppose you could say that the reason it was possible for the Kyuubi's soul to be split was the same way it was possible for the Rikudou Sennin to split the Juubi's soul into the nine tailed beasts."

"As for the other questions… props… I need props…" Harry muttered as he patted down his cloak until he located the pocket where he kept his blank scrolls and drew one out even as he drew out the Elder Wand once more with his other hand. He then transfigured the scroll into a three foot tall replica of the Kyuubi that he placed on a small waist high table he conjured as an afterthought to make the demonstration easier for everyone to see. "Okay, the nine bijuu were formed when the Rikudou Sennin sundered the Juubi and while they are sentient and have souls; they are usually considered constructs of potent chakra rather than beings of flesh and blood, correct?"

"Yes," Tsunade answered while everyone else was studying the amazingly lifelike miniature kitsune sitting on the stool in front of the wizard.

"A soul is somewhat intangible but it requires a physical form in order to remain on this plane of existence; in a living being, that is their body… for a ghost, they are usually tied to a place or an object. A person's chakra is made up of both physical energy and spiritual (or mental) energy and both types of energy are tied to both the soul and the body and that is what holds the soul in the living body. For ghosts, their mental energy has latched onto the physical energy of the place or object that they are tied to."

"The two types of energy mix freely within the body and the soul and it is that mingling that forms a person's life force or what you call chakra. Chakra can be further broken down into yin and yang which are both made up of a mixture of both energies and which represent light and dark but light and dark does not equate good and evil… the best way to describe them two types of chakra would be positive and negative; both have their uses but neither is good nor is either evil. A person feels both positive and negative emotions throughout their lifetime, after all, and getting angry does not mean that you are evil and being happy doesn't necessarily mean you are a good person."

"With both types of energy and both types of chakra freely mingling inside of a person, the splitting of a soul is not as simple as cutting it in half down the middle," Harry continued as he used the Elder Wand to create a non burning dark red flame to represent the Kyuubi's yin chakra and a pale yellow flame to form the yang chakra with both types of flames possessing blue and green tongues of flame representing the mental and physical energies and allowed them to mingle before he cut the model in half. "As you can see, if you just split the soul right down the middle, you'll get an uneven mixture of both types of chakra and both types of energy on top of two unstable soul pieces but will have exactly one half of the Kyuubi's energy."

"Instead, the shinigami grabbed hold of the Kyuubi's yin chakra using Minato's soul as a conduit and the Kyuubi's yang chakra using Naruto's soul as a conduit and pulled the two chakra types apart while Kushina physically restrained the Kyuubi to prevent it from escaping," Harry explained as he repaired the model.

He then added little ghostly replicas of Minato, Kushina, Naruto, and the shinigami and set them up so the shinigami had grabbed hold of the dark flames with one hand through Minato and the light flames with the other through Naruto and pulled while Kushina chained the model in place with chakra chains. As the model was torn asunder once more, the Kyuubi's soul was pulled from the body and split into two identical copies of the Kyuubi (one wrapped all in dark flames and other all wrapped in pale flames) while the Kyuubi's body turned to dust.

"As you can see, forcefully separating the yin chakra from the yang chakra split the Kyuubi's soul into two seemingly identical halves while the body was destroyed by the backlash of power required to sunder the soul. The difference between the soul fragment that I carry and the soul fragment that Naruto carries, is that Naruto received the Kyuubi's consciousness and yang chakra while I hold the Kyuubi's subconsciousness and yin chakra. Both halves are equal even if they are not the same and both halves can now be considered independent of one another since they can function alone even if they were both formerly part of the whole."

"Both halves have the full range of emotions, despite the separation of yin and yang, and both halves have exactly half of the Kyuubi's chakra so they are equal in power. The difference between them would be that Naruto's half of the soul will have the drive to actively try to corrupt him while the half I carry will potentially try far more insidious methods in order to get to me once the beast awakens. However, because I am far older, more mature, and have fewer insecurities than Naruto, the Kyuubi will have a harder time influencing me. At the same time, I am far more jaded than Naruto and less willing to see the good in everyone."

Harry banished his little aides at that point and returned the former Kyuubi model back into its original form of a blank scroll and tucked it back into his pocket while he waited for the others to assimilate the sheer volume of information that Harry had just given to them. For a brief moment, Harry was afraid that he'd broken the older adults in the office with his explanation on how it was possible to separate a soul into two pieces and how the souls had been split to create two new equal entities due to the silence that had fallen over the office in direct contrast to the earlier pandemonium over the revelation that he held half of the Kyuubi.

Shikaku looked particularly constipated and Harry imagined the man's brain must be working overtime as he could practically see the smoke rising from the man's ears. Kakashi appeared to be bored and reading his ever present orange book but Harry knew the Jounin hadn't so much as turned a single page since he'd pulled the book from his utility pouch. Jiraiya was muttering to himself as he scratched the back of his left leg with the top of his right foot and Tsunade was fiddling with her necklace pendant as she stared out over the village seemingly lost in thought.

The masked Kasai was difficult to read behind his mask but he was obviously observing Harry through the eyes of his stylized flame mask. Ibiki was practically drilling holes through Harry as the man undoubtedly analyzed everything he'd learned so far and used that information to further psychoanalyze Harry's mental and emotional state. Sarutobi's two former teammates were as lost in thought as Tsunade, though they were both focused entirely on Harry and had near calculating gleams in their eyes.

And Yamato…? Yamato was currently inspecting one of the wooden chairs that Harry had conjured earlier and Harry got the distinct impression that the man was trying commune with Harry's conjured chair like he does with the trees and plants scattered about the village. As he watched his mentor and minder, Harry saw the man grow another chair that was identical in every way to the one that Harry had grown with the exception that Harry's had been made with pure magic while Yamato's chair had been made with pure chakra. Harry was forced to smother a snicker when the man actually leaned down and started sniffing the two chairs as if he sought to determine whether or not they both smelled the same.

"Mendoukusei, you have no idea how many questions I have clamoring about in my head right now," Shikaku complained eventually; drawing everyone's attention from the private little worlds they had slipped into in their efforts to process the information Harry had given them. "I've half a mind to accuse you of intentionally offering to answer a handful of questions just so you can generate thousands more and confuse us so thoroughly that we forget what we were originally looking to learn."

"Has it worked, Nara-san?" Harry asked cheekily as he ducked his head and ran his index finger over the tip of his nose so that he was watching the man from over the top of his glasses.

"Are you certain that you aren't related to Kushina instead of Minato? She was the consummate prankster with the hair trigger temper," Jiraiya complained as he made a face at Harry.

"Positive; though, I am the son, godson, and honorary nephew of three of the greatest pranksters to ever grace the halls of… my boarding school. I also still own a joke shop and am the silent financial backer slash partner of a second joke shop in the Outer Countries; the money I earn from those two investments will pay for the upkeep of the properties that I couldn't bring myself to sell because of the heritage they represent. "

"Just how rich are you, anyway?" Tsunade inquired with affected casualness.

"Irrelevant… I only brought enough money and tradable commodities with me to insure that our family could survive for up to a minimum of five years while we established ourselves here in Konoha – something that we knew would take time."

"In other words, the man is filthy stinking rich and he's not going to share any of that wealth with you so that you can finance your gambling habit and alcohol addiction," Shikaku snarkily translated; something that had Harry choking on air as he whipped around to stare at the man. "How else do you explain the fact that you bought an entire apartment complex with ready cash and paid half up front when you purchased two abandoned estates and a large track of prime forest land… with more than enough cash on hand to pay the full price, Takeshi-san?"

"Bloody hell, you're like a female version of Hermione," Harry complained in English as he hunched his shoulders and pouted at the man. He at least had the satisfaction of knowing that he'd just confused the man entirely in return by using a language that he was obviously not familiar with.

"Aren't you a little old to be pouting…?" Ibiki inquired with a drawl that made it sound like he was laughing at Harry.

"Aren't you a little too old to stoop so low as to pick on the rookie in the room?" Harry fired right back without missing a beat.

The tension in the office eased as everyone laughed at the short exchange before making themselves comfortable once more as they waited for Shikaku to wrap up the short interrogation. The man in question sighed as he dropped back against the wall once more and readopted a lazy pose before he complained, "I suppose we might as well wrap things up here before my troublesome wife yells at me for staying out late and accuses me of drinking with Chouza and Inoichi instead of attending a meeting with Sarutobi-sama."

"The last topic we have to cover is your Kekkei Genkai and since we know so little about your ability aside from what you've told us and what you've shown us and you've requested that we not ask you what your ability is called… why don't you give us ten words that apply to your Kekkei Genkai that we can use to determine which missions your skills will be of the most use on?"

"Ten words huh…? I think I can do that," Harry murmured as he dropped his head back to stare up the ceiling for a moment while he scratched his chin. When he began speaking again, each word was weighed and measured before he spoke it out loud, "Versatility, unpredictability, sentience… no… intuitiveness maybe, um… willpower, raw power, responsibility, belief or maybe confidence would be the better word, balance, healing and health… they're close to being the same thing but not quite, and… and… death."

"At what age did you activate your ability, when did you start training your ability, and how many years of training has it taken you to master your abilities?"

"In order; the day I was born, shortly after my eleventh birthday, and I never stopped learning or training my ability as it takes an entire lifetime to master it."

"I suppose that brings us to the last question… does your son and Naruto also have the same Kekkei Genkai?"

"Naruto…? No, my Kekkei Genkai was passed down through my maternal grandmother and not mine and Naruto's common ancestor. My son, on the other hand, does have the same Kekkei Genkai… though that doesn't mean that we will both be able to use it the same way and there are specific skills that we each have that can't be taught to another because they are inherited; such as my son's ability to change his appearance without the need to use a henge and my ability to speak to snakes."

"I don't suppose there's anything else you'd be willing to share…?" Kasai asked with a mixture of resignation and hope.

"Hmm… I suppose that I could tell you that out of those individuals born with my Kekkei Genkai, I am the strongest of my generation within the land of my birth and potentially world-wide, though I've not met enough people from around the world to know for certain and that assumption was based upon a test that was taken five or six years ago. I might be willing to admit that I haven't even scratched the surface of what my Kekkei Genkai can do and could potentially do in the future with the proper training. It might be prudent of me to admit that my Kekkei Genkai is in no way connected to my chakra and therefore allows me to continue fighting even after I've exhausted my chakra reserves."

"My secondary reserves are currently between six and nine times larger than my current chakra reserves and will continue to grow until I reach my twenty-fifth birthday, which means that I could continue to function for days while suffering chakra exhaustion. Conversely, if my secondary reserves are exhausted, then I'll be completely useless no matter how much chakra I have available. And lastly, I should warn you; if I hear perfect strangers or worse civilians discussing my abilities on the street, I will remove all knowledge of me, my abilities, and my family from the minds of everyone on this side of the portal using a seal that is more complex than the one that holds the Kyuubi at bay."

"I grudgingly provided a wealth of information today because I realize that I have to be willing to trust you up to a point, if you are to trust me in return and because I am aware of the tactical advantage it would be for you to have an idea of what I am capable of doing. It helps that aside from the occasional idiot or bigot; most of the villagers show none of the open hostility that Naruto had told me about when I first met him. I also like living here far more than I thought I would and I find it relaxing to walk or ride down the street and not worry about being mobbed by rabid fan-girls or fan-boys. Blessed anonymity agrees with me just as much as I'd hoped it would."

"You have my word that no one outside of this room will learn anything about your abilities that they don't already know or what they have seen you do with their own eyes," the Hokage solemnly intoned as he filled the bowl of his pipe with tobacco, tamped the tobacco down, and lit the pipe with a long match that he struck on the graphite strip glued to the outside of his ashtray. "I certainly have no desire to jeopardize the working relationship that we've developed over the past two months. The only noteworthy point of contention would be the feud that you started with Tokubetsu Mitarashi."

"I started nothing; she was the one that had been glaring at the boys simply because they'd tagged along with me to buy some dango the moment they heard where Yamato-san was taking me. If that wasn't irritating enough, the damn woman had the gall to attack me in front of my son while my back was turned. She terrified my son and because he still can't control his Kekkei Genkai when he is emotional, my son's ability was on full display for every single person in that damn stand! Something I most certainly did not want to happen. That she also pulled that stunt in front of Naruto was sheer stupidity on her part. Naruto is highly protective of Satoshi (whom he sees as a little brother) and he is more than a little vindictive when it comes to pranking those that he feels harmed or slighted his precious people in any way."

"Are you trying to tell me that an eleven year old is the one pranking Anko two and three times per day?" Ibiki demanded in disbelief.

"Yes he is; his skills in pranking and trapping have grown by leaps and bounds since I first met him," Harry replied with a cheeky grin that was a little on the feral side. "Besides, is a Genin pranking a Tokubetsu Jounin without getting caught really any different than a half trained Chuunin pranking one of the Sannin and getting away with it?"

"What are you talking about?" Jiraiya asked curiously at the same time as Tsunade demanded, "You did that?"

"Did you really think that I was going to just let your merciless teasing go unpunished, Tsunade-sama?"

"What did you do?" Kasai inquired as the volatile kunoichi glared murderously at the younger shinobi.

"The little gaki made my hair fall out and it took me almost three weeks to grow it out again!" Tsunade hissed as she drew back her fist to punch Harry; the wizard saved from the brutal beating by Jiraiya grabbing hold of his teammate's fist.

"At least I didn't prevent you from covering the loss with a glamour… which I could have done."

"Jiraiya, let me go so that I can give the gaki the beating he deserves."

"You can try but that doesn't mean I'll just let you hit me; I may be reckless but I'm not stupid enough to just stand still and let you punch me when I'm fully aware of just how much damage you could do to me with your chakra enhanced strength," Harry stated as he took two steps away from the angry woman and palmed the Elder Wand once more. "I respect your abilities as both a medic and a kunoichi but that doesn't mean that I'll just sit and take anything you dish out; including embarrassing the hell out of me just because I chose not to sleep with any of the girls and women that threw themselves at me from the moment I hit puberty."

"Wait… did you just imply that you're still a virgin!?" Jiraiya demanded in shock as he let go of Tsunade to twist around to stare at Harry it utter disbelief. The fact that Harry turned bright red and refused to meet the man's gaze appeared to be answer enough. "Oh you poor, poor boy; we can't let that stand! You'll come with me tonight and so we can cure you of that terrible injustice…"

Tsunade's fist sent Jiraiya flying into the nearest wall as her ire immediately switched targets. Harry blinked at the spot where Jiraiya had been standing before his eyes slipped sideways to take in the now unconscious Sennin pooled in an undignified puddle at the base of the wall. He then turned to eye the still irritated woman that hadn't hesitated to pound her teammate.

"Tsunade-sama, perhaps I owe you an apology for seeing your teasing as annoying when it has just become obvious that there are some things that are far more horrifying that a little friendly teasing."

"I'll let you make it up to me by allowing you to take me out for dinner and sake tonight."

"I'd be happy to treat you to a meal at a restaurant of your choice, however, tonight is not a good night as I promised Arata that I'd help him work on the blueprints for the restaurant once I was finished here," Harry replied with a slight frown. "In fact, he's probably wondering where I am since this meeting has taken a bit longer than I anticipated. Was there anything else you needed from me or may I go now?"

"I believe that we are finished with you for the time being," the Sandaime allowed after a brief, and silent, exchange with a couple of the higher ranked shinobi in the office. "Thank you for sharing as much as you did… I believe we've learned far more than we expected to when we first negotiated tonight's meeting."

Harry nodded absently before he spun on his heel and vanished from the office without a sound as he chose to apparate himself back to the wagons in order to save himself the walk. Naruto and Teddy were both waiting for him when he arrived and Harry soon found himself hauling both boys towards the vardo where Dudley and Eloise were waiting for him. As they ate a small elf-made feast and poured over the blueprints for the ground floor of the old apartment complex they'd purchased, Harry filled the others in on how much information he ended up sharing with those that had been present at his meeting.

A similar discussion was being held within the office he'd just left; though the Hokage and his shinobi were breaking down and analyzing the wealth of information that they had been given. It was a conversation that would last well beyond midnight as they also included all of the previous information they'd learned from the wizard and his family or through the observations of the AnBu Guards that had been watching over the family.

Tuesday, November 27, 2001 ~ Monday, December 31, 2001
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

With the deeds to their new property in hand, Harry moved the wagons and their horses into a large clearing that sat between the former Shizen and Hattori Estates first thing in the morning of the twenty-seventh. He then created an army of Kage Bunshin that he set to clearing out the ruins of the Shizen Estate while he and a dozen more clones walked the property line and warded the entirety of the new Namikaze Estate. He kept the wards fairly simple at this point; setting up a proximity ward to alert him to intruders and laying down a hostile intent ward that would prevent anyone that meant harm to anything or anyone inside of the ward harm from entering the property.

Once the wards were up and running, Harry sent one clone to open a mission request for three Genin teams to haul away the garbage that his clones were busy separating out from the reusable materials. Sure, he could do it himself using his clones but he had been asked to share a portion of the work to convert the land he'd purchased into a functioning farm slash horse ranch out amongst the village shinobi forces in order to help bolster the economy. Another clone was sent to the local mason to place a large order for the bricks, mortar mix, and concrete mix that would be needed to build the walls that Harry had planned. The steel rods he needed for the support framework of the walls would be purchased from the Outer Countries and secretly transported during the dead of night via house elf.

The other ten clones that had helped him raise the wards were then sent into the forest on the former Shizen Estate to mark those trees that needed to be relocated or cut down and mark suitable locations for the trees that were to be moved to (all residents required by law to maintain a specific number of trees per acre within the village). After his clones were properly occupied, Harry headed off to complete his usual daily routine; which included spending half of the morning training with Yamato, the other half of the morning at the Academy learning Konoha's recent history and laws (basically anything that had happened after the Yondaime's death), and the afternoon either completing a mission or being dragged about on tours of the village so that he could learn the layout of the village and be introduced to other shinobi.

Every Friday afternoon would find Harry in Tsunade's office for his scheduled treatments while the mornings on the last Friday of each month were dedicated to his therapy sessions with Ibiki.

The next six days would see Harry visiting the former Shizen Estate each morning before training in order to set an army of clones to work. On the third of December, the same day when the last of the tenants had finally moved out of the apartment complex, the last of the debris had been cleared from the ruins and Harry had requested and promptly received permission to take a couple of days off to do some landscaping. He was rather surprised when Yamato turned up at the estate on the fourth to teach him a couple of doton jutsu that were often used to repair damaged training grounds.

The Mokuton user even went so far as to help Harry level off the land centered within the roads around the former Shizen Estate, move or remove the trees Harry's clones had marked, and grow the fence to mark off a training arena for the horses. Harry suspected that the offer of help was both to allow the man to keep an eye on Harry and for him to monitor the work being done on the new estate but he didn't mind. The reason for that was because with Yamato's help, he had done three days worth of work over the course of a single day.

December fifth would see Harry's clones begin building a brick and concrete wall to enclose the land inside of the road loop that bordered that section of land. The ten foot wall would run right up against the inner edge of the road, have cement posts every twenty feet (to hold and hide the ward stones), be reinforced with magically enhanced steel running though the interlocking bricks that made up the sections between the posts, and be a full foot and a half thick. The interlocking pattern of bricks (which was not unidirectional like most wall patterns) and steel framework inside made for a stronger wall that would be much harder to break through than a normal brick or block wall; especially with magic enhancing and strengthening the structure.

The same day also saw a Genin team turning up at the apartment complex to help Dudley gut the ground floor of the apartment complex. It would take two days to gut each floor with a different team turning up each day to take the mission assignment (a total of twelve teams would end up working on the on-going mission). At the same time, another team was hired to transport the bricks, mortar mix, and bags of concrete out to the Namikaze Estate every three days as each shipment became ready (Harry's order far too large to fill in a single day and the main reason he'd placed the order long before he started building the wall).

During that time, Eloise would watch over Teddy and handle his lessons. She also planned out the layout and interior design for the restaurant now that the three adults had made a final decision on which type of restaurant they would be opening (which was based upon what they had learned of their current competition). Harry's elves were not idle during this time either.

Each night, the magical beings would transport goods back and forth from Harry's house in the Elemental District to the new estate, seed the newly formed pasture land with an appropriate mix of wild and domestic grasses that would provide a healthy and balanced diet for the horses, weed out any potentially harmful plants from the pastures, and use their magic to strengthen the growing wall (all without being seen by passing shinobi). The elves also helped with the renovation of the apartment complex; using their magic to reinforce the structure so that the building didn't collapse on their heads as they ripped out the non load-bearing walls, eradicate any and all pests that had been living in the building, and clean up the dust and debris that was missed by the young shinobi that hauled away the trash.

Once the entire apartment complex had been completely gutted on the fourteenth, Dudley hired an electrician to rewire the entire building, a plumber to do the same for the plumbing, and a contractor to convert the two bottom floors of the former complex into a restaurant and attached stable slash carriage house. Harry didn't have the time to be there every day but he did at least make it a point to have a few clones around to help Dudley deal with everything (something that his cousin appreciated). Each night, after the hired workers went home, Harry's clones would swarm the construction site and carve the runes for the protective wards that would shield the wiring from magic, reinforce the new plumbing, keep out pests, protect the restaurant from natural disasters (such as foul weather), and keep the smell of the horses that would be stabled in the carriage house from seeping into the restaurant.

On the tenth, Harry found his daily routine changing a bit as his afternoon meet and greet tours were dropped in favor of focusing on his training. That mainly involved being taught a handful of jutsu (after Yamato tested his chakra affinities; he had a strong connection to both wind and water), undergoing stealth training (which Harry aced fairly quickly), improving his tracking skills, and joint training sessions with the endless number of shinobi that he'd been introduced to over the past several weeks.

During the second half of the month, Harry would take a handful of breaks from his new training schedule to oversee the raising of several buildings on and around the former Shizen property. Those would include two stables, a barn (to store hay, straw bedding, and riding tack), a garage (to house the wagons and harnesses), several granaries, a mill, and three water towers just to name a few. Once all of the outbuildings for the new Namikaze Ranch had been built, he would turn his attention to the Hattori ruins in order to restart the process to create the Namikaze Farm.

Due to the high number of clones Harry had running around taking care of things, his intensive daily training sessions and mission schedule, and the large amounts of magic Harry was throwing about, Harry would fall into bed each night exhausted. He was practically running himself into the ground each day in his efforts to take care of everything that he personally needed to take care of and it left him very little time to spend with his family. Dudley and Eloise were just as busy (though Eloise's days were more of a mental workout for her as she had to think of the baby she was carrying). And while Naruto had training and missions to keep him occupied, he was still no where near as busy as any of the adults.

Poor Teddy ended up with the short end of the stick. Naruto spent time with the three year old when he could but it was no where near as much time as he spent with the younger boy before he'd become a shinobi. Harry hardly ever saw either of the boys and the clones he had running around just weren't the same as spending time with the wizard. All Harry could do was promise to spend more time with both of them once the restaurant, their new apartments, and the estate were finished. Naruto accepted and understood the situation but Teddy was extremely unhappy; the toddler used to spending far more time with his godfather slash adopted father and honorary big brother.

The only break in the family's routine during the month of December came on the twenty-fifth when the entire family took the day off to celebrate the Christmas holiday. There was no training, no missions, no construction work, and not a single Namikaze clone anywhere in sight during the entire day. Gifts were exchanged, food was consumed, and Teddy was appeased. The rest of the village held its breath because a silent and unseen Namikaze meant a plotting and pranking Namikaze in this day and age and everyone was looking over their shoulders in worry.

It was back to business as usual on Boxing Day and while the Namikaze family felt far more relaxed than they had in months, the rest of the village kept watching over their collective shoulders for the expected prank – that never came.

The last few days of December passed fairly quickly for Harry and he probably would have never noticed the end of year festivities if not for the fact that the entire village seemed to grind to a halt in order to celebrate. And there was much for the village to celebrate this year; the return of the Namikaze family had brought prosperity back to the village along with a large influx of cash and ready work that revived the dying economy across the board. Shinobi and civilians alike shared the new prosperity equally since the temporary jobs they'd generated were spread about evenly between both sectors and the eventual permanent full and part time jobs they would be offering would be similarly divided.

The end of the year also marked the end of Harry's remedial academic classes; his education now on par with that of the average Chuunin. For Naruto, the end of the year marked the end of his time as the sole Genin on Kakashi's team as his new teammates were very carefully selected from the graduating Academy students. His first teammate was a fourteen year old boy by the name of Ikeda Housei with short spiky hair who preferred to dress in all black and wore mesh armor beneath his cloths. The kunoichi assigned to his team was twelve year old Tanaka Midori; she had shoulder length brown hair that she wore in a pair of low ponytails and she wore dark blue pants that ended just below the knee with a light blue shirt that hung down to the middle of her thighs.

Both older Genin were orphans from the shinobi sector (meaning one or both of their parents had been shinobi before they died) and had never really interacted with Naruto prior to his three year trip to the outer countries. They were also fairly serious about their shinobi careers, were amongst the top students of their graduating class, and because neither of them were from a clan, both new Genin could be molded and trained so that their skills would compliment and support Naruto. Kakashi had actually spent two weeks observing those Academy students slated to take the Graduation Exam in order to select the two individuals that would have the greatest chance of working well with Naruto (if only because he had no desire to draw Harry's ire should the teammates he picked attempt to bully or belittle Naruto).

Naruto introduced both older Genin to Harry through one of Harry's Kage Bunshin (because he hadn't been able to track down his cousin at the time) the same day he had been introduced to them. Harry would take the time to schedule a lunchtime meeting so he could meet the two kids properly about a week later (after he had a couple of clones watch the newly formed team's training sessions a couple of times). The wizard found himself approving Kakashi's choices and readily told Naruto that they would be welcome to join them for meals anytime so long as the blond sent a clone ahead to warn the elves to keep out of sight.

As the end of January drew near, Harry slowly began to lose contact with the wizarding world; his focus entirely on the new life he was creating for himself within the Elemental Countries. It didn't help that he'd barely had any time to write to any of the friends and family he'd left behind, though he had made it a point when he first arrived to diligently write everyone at least one letter a week (a task he'd taken to delegating to a clone due to how little free time he had).

By the time January rolled around though, he'd taken to writing every other week and writing group letters as opposed to individual letters. His elves still brought him news every now and then as well but their duties didn't really leave them much time to visit the wizarding world when they were outside of the barrier separating the Elemental Countries and the Outer Countries.

Near the middle of February, Harry had made arrangements through elf-post to convert another quarter of his vast fortune over to tradable commodities and ryō as he slowly began depositing his money into several accounts with the three local banks within the village (the Konoha Credit Union, the Bank of Konoha, and Hi no Kuni's National Bank). Each bank handled different accounts; the credit union handled Harry and Naruto's work accounts where they would deposit their shinobi paychecks and mission pay, the Bank of Konoha held the official Namikaze family account and personal accounts for each member of the family, and the National Bank handled the business accounts for the Namikaze family.

Splitting his fortune up between the three banks and between the numerous accounts also had the benefit of making it harder for anyone to figure out just how rich the Namikaze family was. That didn't include the wealth of commodities that Harry had stashed in a number of secret (and well warded) hidey-holes in each of the buildings their family now owned or the ready pile of cash that the wizard kept on hand for their day to day needs. That also wasn't taking into consideration the not so small fortune that Harry had spent on building supplies and materials on both sides of the portal over the past six to eight weeks or the small fortune he'd forked out to purchase the apartment complex and the other properties.

Harry would later regret losing touch with the wizarding world but he had been so caught up in his new life and the freedom that had come with it that he did not immediately notice that he was drifting away from the world that had been his entire life for eight years.

Translations: Japanese to English

Gaki – brat
Mendoukusei – how troublesome, what a drag, or this sucks

Notes:

My chakra theories – yes, I know that the official Naruto verse stance is that yin chakra is the spiritual/mental energy of a person while the yang chakra is the physical energy but in order for my concept of what happened the night of the Kyuubi's attack to work, I needed yin and yang to be different from the energies that make up chakra. Magic will be something different as well… meaning no, the natural energy that is gathered as part of the senjutsu arts and magic won't be the same thing and Harry won't be an automatic Sage because of his mastery over magic.

Throughout most of my HP x Naruto crossovers, I've always maintained that chakra and magic are two completely different birds that have similar properties with this story being the second time that I've explored the potential of chakra and magic being able to coexist where as all of my other crossovers for these two categories have always had magic supplanting chakra except when things go wrong. Magic will be explained in more detail later in the story… that's on top of the bit I touched on earlier in the story when Harry explained magic to Naruto.

Naruto's teammates – Housei was one of the Konoha Genin that quit when Ibiki gave the tenth question during the written portion of the Chuunin Exams; all I did was shave a couple of years off of his age and give him different teammates. Midori, on the other hand, only appears in one of the Naruto games and may or may not be considered a canon character (she is not to be confused with the Midori from Kusagakure, who was actually male). Her age and appearance were both randomly chosen as I don't own the game in question and the wiki didn't give much of a description and didn't have any pictures of her. Both of their last names were drawn out of a hat.

Harry's Information Dump – I am sure that more than a few people will be unhappy with how much information that Harry provided to the shinobi but the reason for it was already explained within the chapter; he knows that he has to offer up a measure of trust if he expects to be trusted in return. His oath will also have played a part in coaxing him into giving up a bit more information than planned but it didn't actually force him to reveal anything; which is why it wasn't mentioned in the story. He also has the option to use the Fidelius Charm to make them forget if the knowledge that he provided to them ever places his family in peril.

10-25-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.