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), brief references to acts of a sexual nature, 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 38: Sucker Punches
Monday, January 05, 2004, Morning
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Harry bemusedly watched as Inari, Akihiro, Hikaru, and Kazuki all scrambled about the apartment as they got ready for their first day at the Shinobi Academy. Seeing them rush back and forth as they hunted for misplaced belongings brought back memories of the Weasley family on September first during his first six years at Hogwarts. The wizard felt more than a little nostalgic at the comparison and a brief flash of worry filled him when he realized that he still had not received a response to the letters he'd sent out back in September.
"Tousan, why are they acting so crazy?" Teddy inquired from his perch on Harry's shoulders; his voice bringing Harry back to the present.
"They are nervous and excited about their first day at the Academy," Harry explained with a chuckle as he watched Inari hopping about on one foot as he tried to put on his shoe at the same time as he tried to pull on the backpack that Harry had purchased for him to carry his things in.
"Weird. I didn't act like that on my first day of pre-school."
"No, you didn't; you were too busy being extra shy as you buried your face against my shoulder."
"Tousan!" Teddy complained in response to the teasing.
Harry only chuckled again as he reached up to poke his son in the side. The five (and a half!) year old giggled and squirmed away from his finger. He spent another three minutes entertaining Teddy with the tickle-poke fight before he glanced at his watch to check the time. Seeing that they were quickly running out of time, Harry stopped messing around and let out a sharp whistle that drew the attention of all four boys.
"The four of you need to calm down and grab your things; we need to leave now or we will be late to the opening ceremony."
There were four eeps and another mad scramble before all four children were dutifully lined up in front of Harry and ready to go. Harry quickly inspected the children to make certain they were presentable before he ushered them out the door and down the stairs. They would arrive at the Academy fifteen minutes later and Harry was taken aback by the sheer number of six through ten year olds that had gathered outside of the building for the opening ceremony with their parents or guardians. Several more adults with children in tow would arrive over the course of the next seven minutes.
Another ten minutes would pass as both the adults and children mingled. At the end of those ten minutes, a hush fell over the entire group as the Sandaime Hokage made his appearance at the head of the stairs leading up into the Academy. The aged shinobi let his gaze wander through the crowd for a moment, his eyes briefly catching Harry's eyes before flicking up to the child still perched on the wizard's shoulder, before he addressed the group.
"Good morning, ladies, gentlemen, and students," Sarutobi intoned as he nodded to the crowd.
Harry's attention was drawn from the Hokage's speech at that point when Teddy asked the one question he had never wanted to hear his son utter, "Tousan, can I go to the Academy too? I want to be a shinobi like you and niisan."
"You're not yet old enough," Harry automatically replied as he tried to remember how to breathe around the knife that had pierced his heart at the mere thought of his precious godson, his son, taking up a hitai-ate.
"When will I be old enough?" Teddy demanded eagerly as he wriggled impatiently on his perch.
Never, Harry screamed internally before he cleared his throat and hoarsely replied, "Six and you'd still have to wait until the next open enrollment period before you could join."
"Does that mean I can go soon?"
"We'll discuss it later," Harry deflected in an effort to buy himself time to regain his equilibrium.
"When…?"
He was saved from having to continue the discussion right then and there by his four wards as they surged around him to say goodbye before they joined the rest of the children streaming into the open doors of the Shinobi Academy; he'd missed the Hokage's entire opening speech after being blindsided with his son's announcement. Harry watched them go before he scowled at the Sandaime who was standing off to one side of the doors smiling at the children as they lined up to become the next generation of children soldiers. The wizard stalked away a heartbeat later in order to deliver Teddy to his pre-school.
As soon as they arrived at the preschool, Harry set Teddy on his feet and he watched the young metamorphmagus dart towards the group of children that he'd befriended. He kept his feet rooted to the ground as he watched his son greet his friends before joining in whatever game the children had been playing before he arrived least he give into the urge to destroy the Academy. It wouldn't do attack the place while it was full of children. Nor did he have any desire to end up as one of Ibiki's permanent guests.
He more than a little tempted to apparate to the nearest training ground and turn it into a crater but that would only see him being fined for destroying public property. And, if he followed through with that urge, Yamato would give him the stink eye for ruining a perfectly good forest and for creating more work for him since he'd be the one required to regrow any damaged trees. That would probably also net him a visit with Ibiki so that the man could pry deeply into the reasons why Harry felt the need to destroy a training ground out of the blue.
Harry considered just going home for a moment before he vetoed that idea as well. He didn't want to inflict his black mood on Naruto when the blond was so sensitive to his negative emotions. He would need to avoid the Ranch for pretty much the same reason; since the horses would be unsettled by his anger – especially the younger ones.
Sighing, Harry spun on his heel and headed for the Red Light District. He normally avoided that part of the city but it was the only place that served cheap liquor at this time of day. Sure, he could have gone to the Retreat and dug into his private stock of magical alcohols but he didn't feel like wasting good alcohol when he knew he couldn't get drunk. And what he really wanted right that moment was to be drunk; so he wouldn't have to think about the fact that Teddy wanted to be a shinobi.
It wasn't that he had anything against shinobi, he didn't. He had learned to respect shinobi during the time he'd lived in Konoha. It wasn't even the idea of Teddy becoming a child soldier in four to six years that bothered him (though he wasn't exactly comfortable with that idea either). He'd watched his cousin and those children that wore a hitai-ate over the past few years and knew that they typically faced far less danger than Harry had during his years at Hogwarts.
No, what bothered him was the fact that Teddy's new dream would rob him of his heritage.
Harry had always intended to find a way for Teddy to return to England so he could attend Hogwarts but if Teddy took up a hitai-ate, then he would not be allowed to just disappear for seven years. Even if (by some miracle) the Hokage could be convinced to give permission for Teddy to leave, Harry would be forced to send him off alone because he knew the Hokage would not allow him to go with Teddy. Not with half of the Kyuubi stuck in his gut. Nor would Harry wish to leave Naruto alone for seven years.
He could, theoretically, ask Arata and Eri to go with Teddy but he knew they wouldn't want to uproot their family. Not when they were so happy here. He also wouldn't feel right asking his cousin to take over his responsibility to Teddy.
Yet, if he told Teddy no, then his godson would be very angry with him. It would also make him look like a hypocrite because he himself was a shinobi. As was Naruto. The four orphans he was sponsoring would likely end up earning their hitai-ate in two to four years, as well (unless they chose not to actually take up a hitai-ate once their education was finished).
Irritated with the direction his thoughts were taking, Harry growled at himself and shoved his worries to the back of his mind as he entered the first open bar he saw. He paused in the doorway for a split second to give his eyes time to adjust to the dark interior before he strode up to the bar. The bartender appeared before him a moment later and Harry didn't even wait for the man to greet him before he ordered three bottles sake. The man gave him a skeptical look but said nothing as he set three bottles on the bar and accepted Harry's money in return.
Harry then collected his sake and ignored the sake saucers that the bartender had offered him before he retreated to the unoccupied table in the far corner of the bar. He dropped heavily into the corner chair so that he had his back to the wall and could keep an eye on both the room and the door. Once seated, he deliberately lined up his sake bottles in front of him before he opened the first bottle and took a large drink. He easily ignored the rather unpleasant taste of the alcohol as he swallowed; twelve years of drinking foul potions had pretty much deadened his taste buds.
The twenty-three year old wizard would spend the rest of the morning steadily working his way through those three bottles and another nine exactly like them. The bartender had tried to cut him off after the fourth bottle but Harry hadn't been in the mood to cooperate. There had also been a small handful of customers that tried to evict him from his seat but he paid them no mind. The only reason why Harry hadn't been kicked out of the bar for getting snarky with those that approached him was the hitai-ate tied around his left leg; which the bartender had seen when Harry first entered the bar.
Even after twelve bottles of sake, Harry wasn't drunk. He didn't even feel slightly tipsy thanks to his magic and the Kyuubi's chakra burning the alcohol from his bloodstream almost as soon as it entered. It was actually rather depressing to still be stone cold sober despite the large amount of sake he'd drank on an empty stomach. Worse yet was the fact that he couldn't stop thinking about Teddy's request to join the Shinobi Academy.
Glaring at the twelve empty bottles stacked on his table (as if blaming them for their failure to take his mind off his current problem), Harry raised his arm to flag down the bartender for another round. His arm would drop a split second later when an unfamiliar shinobi approached his table with a bottle of sake and two sake saucers in hand. Harry studied the man intently as he walked towards Harry without any hesitation.
The man had long black hair tied back in a loose ponytail at the base of his neck, pale skin, and aristocratic features that almost reminded Harry of the Malfoys. Then again, that could have just been the way the man held his back ramrod straight without any effort. His eyes were dark and it was rather hard to discern their actual color in the dim light of the bar. The most notable feature of his face though was the stress lines and Harry figured he must be older than him. Like most of the shinobi in the village, the man wore the standard shinobi uniform with a green flak jacket over top. The only difference between the man's uniform and Harry's was that instead of a red spiral on the arm, he had a red and white fan inside a silhouette of a shuriken.
As the man came to a stop at Harry's table, the wizard discovered that the man was far younger than Harry had originally thought him to be. In fact, Harry was now pretty certain that the man was actually still just a teen. Harry tipped his head to one side upon that realization; the younger shinobi acutely reminding him of himself during his late teens.
"May I join you, Namikaze-sama?"
Harry frowned slightly over the fact that the teen knew who he was while he had no idea who the teen might be. He was half tempted to tell the teen no because of that until he realized that the teen just might distract him long enough for him to bury the image of Teddy wearing a hitai-ate that was looming in the back of his mind. Decision made, Harry used his foot to push out the chair across from him as he replied, "Sure, why not."
"Arigatou, Namikaze-sama," the teen replied as he hooked the chair with his foot to straighten it out before he gracefully sat down.
"You seem to have me at a disadvantage here; you know who I am but I have no idea who you are outside of the fact that you are a shinobi of Konoha," Harry declared as he watched the teen crack open the sake bottle and pour out two shots of sake before he slid one of them towards the wizard.
"Your reputation precedes you, Namikaze-sama," the teen quipped with just the slightest curling of his lips. "And my itoko has spoken fondly of you and your family."
"Ah, I suppose you're seeking a formal apology and potential restitution for a prank then," Harry mused as he ignored the saucer of sake sitting in front of him.
"Chigau, I merely wished to meet the man that amused my itoko; it has been years since the last time I heard my itoko laugh so often and so freely," the teen countered before he gestured to the untouched sake in front of Harry. "The sake is not poisoned; I assure you."
"Oh, I'm not worried about being poisoned… I'm just waiting for you to introduce yourself, since it would be rude of me to accept a drink when I still don't know your name."
"You truly have no idea who I am?"
"Not a single clue."
"How odd," the teen murmured as he studied Harry for a moment. He then inclined his head and added, "My name is Uchiha Itachi and I am the Head of the Uchiha Clan and the newly elected Captain of Konoha's Military Police Force."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Uchiha-sama," Harry replied as he lifted the saucer of sake from the table and toasted the younger clan head before downing the entire shot. He then carefully set the empty saucer down on the table before he folded his arms on the table and leaned over them as he idly commented, "You know, I find it rather strange that you are the first and only Uchiha I've spoken to, at least that I am aware of, since I moved to Konoha just over two years ago."
"I would have been surprised if you had had contact with a member of my clan before now," Itachi stated on the heels of a small sip of sake. "Our numbers and our reputation are not what they once were."
"And yet, according to your earlier statement, I have amused your itoko."
"He has merely observed you from a distance while performing his duties."
"Ah," Harry murmured as he recalled his masked watchers from his first eighteen months in the village. "That would certainly explain why your cousin hadn't introduced himself. On the other hand, it doesn't explain why the Uchiha Clan as a whole has avoided the Namikaze Wheelhouse."
"As I said earlier, your reputation precedes you and to my everlasting embarrassment, my clan was amongst those who turned their back on the Yondaime's legacy," Itachi revealed in a measured tone and Harry frowned in confusion for a moment before he blanked his face of all emotion when he realized that the teen was referring to Naruto. Itachi inclined his head in response to Harry's change of expression before he continued, "We did not actively seek to harm him but neither did we make any attempts to help him. We had been ordered, by my predecessor, to ignore him entirely."
"Did your predecessor give you a reason for that order?"
"Aa, he feared that our clan would be accused of trying to control the Yondaime's legacy. In the wake of the Kyuubi's attack, our clan had been accused of being responsible for the Kyuubi's rampage due to the abilities of our doujutsu. The village, in turn, began to mistrust us and most of our clan did not appreciate the open suspicion nor did they enjoy the subtle ostracization that took place in the wake of the attack. So we went out of our way to pretend that Uzumaki Naruto did not exist."
Harry let out a snort of derision as he dryly quipped, "Most societies are made up of mindless sheep that are incapable of logical thought. The fact that a single Uchiha was responsible for unleashing the Kyuubi therefore means that the entire clan is responsible for the actions of a single man."
Itachi's entire demeanor turned cold and stiff and Harry suspected the teen had either misinterpreted Harry's comment or he'd felt insulted by the revelation that an Uchiha had been responsible for the Kyuubi's rampage.
"So, you too seek to accuse us," Itachi flatly stated and for the briefest moment, Harry thought he saw a flash of red in the teen's eyes accompanied by a small spike of chakra.
"You know, I really dislike it when people put words in my mouth, Uchiha-sama," Harry lightly countered as he leaned back and signaled for the bartender to bring him another round of sake.
"He will not bring you any more alcohol; you have had enough, Namikaze-san."
"There isn't enough alcohol in this village, let alone this bar, to get me drunk; which is a real tragedy, I tell you, because I'd love nothing more than to be drunk off my ass right now. Though, I really shouldn't be surprised that the bartender called you in to kick me out," Harry retorted as he climbed to his feet so he could leave now that his welcome had been worn out; he hadn't missed the fact that the younger man had dropped the more respectful honorific that he'd used when he'd first addressed him. "I had thought it odd that an unfamiliar shinobi would approach me so casually and without any real reason."
He took a moment to crack his back and stretch out his legs after sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair for several hours before he offered his counterpart of the Uchiha Clan a bow.
"If you'll excuse me, it appears that I will need to find another bar or, in the event that you've already spread the word to all of the bars in town and told them not to sell me anything, perhaps I should hit a couple of the local liquor marts and see if I can't buy me a bar's worth of sake instead."
Harry then took three steps forward until he was standing beside Itachi's chair as he leaned down to quietly state, "And for the record, Minato fought off Uchiha Madara before he dealt with the Kyuubi. Whether or not you still claim him as a member of your clan, you can't deny that he was born an Uchiha and that he both has the Sharingan and a history of using and controlling the fox in his attempts to destroy Konoha. That is not based upon guesswork; it is fact."
Itachi sat frozen in his chair but Harry couldn't even begin to guess what the teen was thinking but he didn't particularly care so long as the teen wouldn't cause any trouble for his family. Message relayed, Harry began strolling towards the door intent on finding himself another source of cheap alcohol and a quiet place where his brooding was less likely to be interrupted by nosy, if well meaning, civilians or on-duty police officers.
"Please do not leave yet," Itachi calmly requested before Harry had gone more than two steps and Harry glanced back over his shoulder in time to see the teen stiffly climb to his feet. "How do you know that? What proof do you have that he was there that night?"
"Simple; Minato told me."
"The Yondaime is dead."
Harry resisted the urge he felt to roll his eyes as he resumed walking as he raised his voice to add, "So's his wife but I've spoken to her as well and she was present that night too." He'd just stepped outside of the bar when he felt a hand land on his shoulder and he let out a soft sigh as he asked, "Something else I can help you with, Uchiha-sama?"
"How is it possible for the living to speak with the dead or for the dead to attack the living?"
"What makes you think any of the dead have attacked the living?" Harry countered with some confusion as he turned to face the younger man and at the same time absently pulled his shoulder free of the light hold.
"Uchiha Madara was killed by Senju Hashirama at the Valley of the End not long after Konoha was founded."
"Was his body brought back to Konoha as proof? Or was he buried in an unmarked grave?"
"I do not know; that information was lost prior to my birth."
"Then there is a chance that he did not die at that time; there are hundreds of ways to fake death, after all."
"It is also possible that the Shodai Hokage cremated his body to prevent thieves from taking it."
"True… it is also possible that Madara's body was replaced with a clone at the last second if Madara had an accomplice working with him at the time."
"That is something I had not considered and I am sure we could sit here all afternoon and share conspiracy theories but I am far more curious as to how it is possible for the living to speak to the dead."
"I'm surprised you aren't already aware of that little trick of mine… I was certain that the rumor mill would have spread that one far and wide over the past two years."
"Are you referring to the prevalent belief that Minato-sama's shade follows you around like a lost pup?" Itachi inquired as he skeptically glanced right and left as if searching for Minato's ghost.
"Actually, he's more inclined to following his son around like a lost puppy," Harry corrected with a soft snort. "But for the most part, yes, you could say he's a bit of dead weight that I have to drag around with me; only he's a bit more useful and no where near as heavy. He's rather good at scouting and standing watch too, since walls are not an inconvenience for him and his stealth skills as an invisible ghost are rather impressive."
"That was your worst pun yet, itoko," Minato complained as he suddenly popped up beside Harry as if called; which he sort of had been since he could sense when Harry needed him through the connection they shared with the Kyuubi.
"Meh, I wasn't really trying; I'm not exactly in the best of moods at the moment but I was attempting to be cordial to my contemporary here," Harry replied with a shrug of his shoulders as he watched Itachi try to break a genjutsu in response to Minato's sudden appearance.
"Contemporary…? Oh, hello Itachi-kun; you've certainly grown up into a fine young man."
"How are you projecting an image of the Yondaime?" Itachi demanded as his mouth curled down into a slight frown.
"I'm not."
"I'm not a genjutsu, Itachi-kun," Minato informed the teen when Harry made no attempts to explain his presence. "I'm a ghost. If you need proof that I'm both real and who I say I am, I'm certain I can think of something that no one else but you and I would know. Such as the time you stole a box of strawberry pocky from my pocket when Kushina and I visited your mother about three weeks before your brother was born."
Pale pink dusted the younger clan head's cheeks in response to the teasing tone that Minato had used when revealing that the teen was a pocky thief and he muttered, "I was five and you weren't supposed to notice."
"You were five," Minato agreed with a laugh, "and the pocky was meant to be yours; which is why I never said anything when you liberated it from my pocket."
Harry snorted in amusement at the chagrined look that passed over Itachi's face upon learning that he had not been as sneaky as he'd originally thought as a child. His mood abruptly plummeted when he recalled that Teddy was only five at the moment and that he wished to be a shinobi.
"Minato, Uchiha-sama wishes to hear about your fight with Madara twelve years ago," Harry abruptly stated as he turned away from the two of them. "I'll leave you to answer his questions while I go make a second attempt to drown out reality in cheap sake."
"Nani…?" Minato inquired in confusion.
"Namikaze-sama, it is unseemly for a shinobi of your station to continue disturbing the peace," Itachi chided as he once again grabbed Harry's shoulder with his hand.
"I haven't been disturbing the peace."
"I've had no less than eight civilian complaints that state otherwise."
"Damn it, why in the hell did I have to end up in the one bar with a bleeding heart for a bartender?" Harry rhetorically demanded as he threw a pouting glare in the direction of the bar he'd just exited. "Look, regardless of the complaints you've gotten; the only thing I'm guilty of is wasting my money on inferior sake. I haven't gotten into any fights, I've not destroyed any property, and I've not committed any acts of public indecency. All I want is to be left alone to drink in peace in the hopes that alcohol content in my bloodstream might increase fast enough to negate my body's ability to filter it out."
"You're trying to get drunk!? Are you out of your mind, itoko!? Chikushou, do you have any idea of just how much damage you could do if you lost control!?"
Harry opened his mouth to tell his dead cousin to get a grip on himself (because it wasn't like Harry could actually get drunk enough to lose control) only to snap his mouth shut when a slightly irritated Yamato dropped down from the rooftops. Harry frowned at his teichou trying to think of why the man might be upset with him. The older man didn't bother waiting for him to figure it out on his own though.
"Where the hell have you been, Takeshi? Did you forget we had a mission this morning?" Yamato demanded as he gave the Chuunin an irritated glare.
"Kuso," Harry cursed as he slapped a hand over his face; he had completely forgotten about the escort mission that Yamato had picked up for their team the previous evening. "Sumimasen, teichou; I completely forgot about the mission you picked up for us last night. Will we still be able to take the mission or did you have to hand it off to another team?"
"We're still taking it; in fact, the original me and your teammates have already left the village. I was left behind to hunt you down so that you could catch up to the others. I was not expecting it to take me all morning to find you, though."
"I can meet you at the gates in six minutes; I just have to grab my pack and let the others know I'm leaving," Harry replied as he pulled his shoulder free of Itachi's grip a second time. "Uchiha-sama, I'm afraid I'll have to steal Minato for the duration of my mission; I'll have him haunt you for a day or two when we return."
Without waiting for a reply, Harry apparated back to the Namikaze Apartments to grab his pack and called half a dozen clones into existence to remind everyone that he was on a mission and so that they'd be able to pick up his wards from the Academy and his son from preschool that evening. He also took a moment to replenish his cash supply since he'd spent a small chunk of it on sake this morning. Once he was certain he had everything, Harry popped himself to the main gate where he found both Minato's shade and Yamato's clone waiting for him.
"I have informed the original me that we are on our way; he is currently channeling his chakra into one of the Hiraishin tags you gave him to carry."
"I guess that means that I'm supposed to take you with me?" Harry inquired as he signed himself out of the village.
"That is correct; the original me will need my chakra back."
A minute and a half later, Harry and the clone appeared beside the rest of his team on an empty stretch of road a good twenty miles out of Konoha in a yellow flash. Minato appeared beside him a split second later and Harry studiously ignored the spirit as he apologized again for his slip up that morning.
"Sumimasen, teichou; it completely slipped my mind that we had a mission this morning."
Yamato studied him for a moment as he reabsorbed his Moku Bunshin before he asked, "What happened? It's not like you to forget about a mission. It's also not like you to hide yourself away in the Red Light District, either."
"The ahou was trying to get himself drunk," Minato growled out in an snide tone before he stalked off into the forest that lined the road; a clear sign that the dead man was truly irritated with Harry at the moment.
"S'not like it worked," Harry grumbled as he shoved his hands in his pockets as he scowled back in the direction of Konoha while he kept hearing Teddy's request to join the Shinobi Academy running through his mind.
"What drove you, of all people, to drink? Did Tsunade-sama tease you about your virginity again?" Izumo asked with a small smirk on his face.
"No, not that she can tease me about that now anyway," Harry retorted with a soft snort as he grabbed the new topic with both hands in an effort to think about something other than his son's new career choice.
"Wait, did you just imply that you actually stuck around a girl long enough to get laid?" Kotetsu challenged in disbelief; Harry's reputation for avoiding those individuals looking for a relationship with him practically legendary by now.
"Actually, she convinced me to stick around long enough for her to convince me to make her my girlfriend."
"You, Mr. Cold Shoulder, have a girlfriend? When did that happen? Who is she? And why are we only just learning about it?" Izumo demanded as his visible eyebrow disappeared beneath his bandana in surprise.
"A true gentleman never kisses and tells."
"He's been dating Yuugao since the beginning of September," Yamato interjected on the heels of Harry's little quip and Harry frowned at the man. His captain saw the look and gave him a small smirk in return as he explained, "Yuugao and I are friends and we were teammates for several years; she confessed to me not long after you two got together. I didn't say anything before because I know how much you like your privacy but I figured you deserved every bit of teasing those two will to put you through for keeping that information from them after your stunt this morning."
"Yuugao, you are dating Uzuki Yuugao? One of the top ten hottest kunoichi in Konoha? How the hell did you manage that?" Kotetsu wondered as he threw an arm over Harry's shoulders and began guiding Harry along the road as Yamato's final comment reminded the group that they were currently supposed to be on a mission.
"And did the two of you have a fight this morning? Or did she break up with you?" Izumo asked as he fell in on Harry's other side and tossed an arm over Harry's shoulders too.
"No, I didn't have a fight with Yuugao and no we didn't break up," Harry replied as he allowed his teammates to drag him along.
"If you and Yuugao are not having problems, then why were you trying to get drunk this morning," Yamato inquired from his position behind the three Chuunin.
"Because trying to drown out my memories of this morning was preferable to becoming Ibiki's permanent guest by acting on my desire to destroy the Shinobi Academy?" Harry snarkily asked in response as he pulled off his glasses and briefly scrubbed at his face in an attempt to get himself under control.
"We've wanted to do that a time or two as well," Kotetsu admitted with a snort as he glanced sideways at Harry.
"But that was only because we found our lessons to be utterly boring and repetitive," Izumo added from Harry's other side. "What could the Academy have possibly done to you to earn your ire when you spent less than sixth months there?"
"Oh it hasn't done anything to me yet."
"Does your current displeasure have anything to do with the four boys you dropped off at the Shinobi Academy this morning?" Yamato inquired as Harry replaced his glasses and shoved his hands back in his pockets.
"No, it's going to do something far worse than educate my four wards."
"Is this about the Chuunin Exams scheduled to start on the sixteenth?" Izumo asked next as he exchanged a glance with Kotetsu over Harry's shoulders.
"No, this has nothing to do with Naruto or his teammates. No, this is about my not yet six year old son asking if he could attend the Academy because he wants to be a shinobi."
All three of his teammates winced in response to the bitterness in Harry's voice as he uttered that second sentence. His teammates were well aware of just how protective the green eyed shinobi was of his son and it didn't take a genius to figure out that Harry didn't want his son to be a shinobi. All three of them had not missed the fact that the pre-school that Harry had enrolled Teddy into had not had any connections to the Shinobi Academy.
"And you know what the worst part is?" Harry wearily asked as he ignored their reactions to his revelation. "I can't tell him no because then I'd be a hypocrite and I would loose his respect. And the moment I allow him to enter the Academy, I will have cost him his heritage because he will lose his only opportunity to attend his parents' school the moment he earns his hitai-ate. So, I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't."
"Why can't he do both?" Kotetsu asked with some confusion.
Harry let out a bitter laugh before he countered with, "Do you really believe that the Hokage would allow one of his shinobi to disappear for seven years?"
"What kind of school requires a student to stay there for seven full years?" Izumo wondered with a slight frown. "I know some children require more time to learn things than others but surely that wouldn't apply to every child."
"The kind that teaches the children born with my family's Kekkei Genkai how to harness their gift. And yes, it takes a full seven years for each and every child, regardless of how quickly or slowly they learn, to reach the point where they are considered fully trained."
"Why not send him to that school first before you allow him to start at the Academy?"
"He's too young; the school will not take any child under eleven years of age. Any younger and their training would only damage or shatter their core."
"Isn't it a little early to worry about whether or not he'll be a shinobi then? After all, there's a chance that your son will change his mind or even fail to graduate," Yamato logically pointed out.
"There are two problems with that statement, teichou; first, my son is stubborn beyond belief and two of his biggest role models are shinobi. And second, my son inherited his biological father's photographic memory and his mother's gift; there is no way he will fail because the moment the Hokage learns that my son wants to be a shinobi, he will insure that Satoshi is assigned to his best teacher because the Hokage wants my son to be a shinobi because he knows my son was born with my family's Kekkei Genkai."
"Would it not be possible for you to teach your son how to use his Kekkei Genkai?" Izumo inquired.
"Yeah, but I can't teach him everything since there are some aspects of our Kekkei Genkai that I was never all that good at and it's not like I studied each and every branch possible. Besides, it isn't just the formal training I would be denying him; I'd also be denying him a chance to experience the world his parents grew up in as well as a chance to make friends amongst the children of those families that his parents and I fought alongside during the war."
"How much did you drink before my clone found you?" Yamato asked once it became clear that Harry wasn't going to say anything further.
"Don't worry, teichou; I'm not drunk. The furball's chakra burnt the alcohol out of my system practically as soon as it hit my bloodstream."
"Good. Are you going to be able to concentrate on the mission? Or is your conflict over Satoshi-kun's desire to follow in your footsteps going to be a problem?"
"It won't be an issue."
"Then let's get moving; we're supposed to meet our client in Port City this afternoon and we're already running behind."
"I could jump us straight there to make up lost time," Harry offered as he winced over the reminder that he'd not met the others at the gate after dropping his son off at preschool like he was supposed to.
Yamato considered the offer for a moment before he replied, "Do it."
Harry nodded in response to the order before he created three clones and left the three of them to transport his teammates to Port City while he apparated to a secluded spot he remembered from past missions to the coastal town. As soon as he arrived, he dug a Hiraishin tag out of the inner pocket where he kept a ready supply of the handy little tags and began channeling chakra into it so his clones could lock onto the seal's signature. His teammates arrived in ten second intervals just a moment later.
"How were you able to transport yourself here without using a tag?" Yamato inquired as soon as all four of them were present.
"It's a technique similar to the Hiraishin; only it doesn't rely on seals but only lets me 'teleport' to those places I have visited. It is also a technique that my clones are incapable of performing since they are made out of pure chakra and the technique draws on my secondary reserves. I also prefer not to use it to transport others because it is disorienting for passengers and the excess energy needed to transport another makes it impossible to muffle the sound of my arrival."
"How many other little tricks like that have you been hiding?" Yamato demanded in exasperation as the four of them headed towards the docks where they were meeting their client.
"Thousands," Harry quipped with a small smirk that turned into a grimace when he realized that he was going to have to bite the bullet and reveal the full details of his 'Kekkei Genkai' to the Hokage if (when) he enrolled Teddy in the Shinobi Academy; if only because there would be no one at the Academy to hide Teddy's accidental magic like Eri did at the preschool. He shook off his displeasure a moment later as he added, "You've seen me use dozens of the less obvious ones on missions, though."
Yamato gave him an unimpressed look in response to that but refrained from commenting on Harry's tendency to keep secrets. Harry couldn't help but grin a little at that; it was nice to know that Yamato trusted him. That trust would probably see him sharing the truth of his 'Kekkei Genkai' with his captain after he'd spoken to the Hokage and would likely include his two teammates as well. It helped that he'd grown to trust them after working with them for months (or years in Yamato's case).
Letting out a soft sigh, Harry pushed all thoughts of magic and Teddy's wish to become a shinobi out of his mind so that he could focus on their mission to escort a traveling merchant to Konoha; one of a dozen such merchants that would be flocking to the village over the course of the next few weeks in order to take advantage of the Chuunin Exams to make a profit.
Translations: Japanese to English
Chikushou – damn/damn it
Kuso – swear word
Sumimasen – I'm sorry (formal)
AN: So, lots of stuff happening here. The Wave Orphans have officially started at the Academy, Teddy's chosen his future career, Harry is stressing over Teddy's desire to take up a hitai-ate, Itachi has made an appearance, Harry has finally revealed his relationship w/ Yuugao to his teammates, and Harry is contemplating coming clean with the Hokage and his teammates about his magic to protect Teddy.
This chapter was a slight pain to clean up and the only reason I didn't post it sooner was because the last 650 some words were holding everything else original chapter had Harry demolishing a training ground w/ magic and then trying to get drunk but I felt he needed a little more self control than that because he is maturing. Hence why he didn't do anything destructive aside from try to get drunk. He also wasn't originally skiving off of a mission but that just sort of popped up and I left it as is.
Anyway, the next chapter will officially start the Chuunin Exams Arc and the entire arc will mostly be from Naruto's PoV with a few cameos from some other canon characters that will finally be making their debut in this story. I'm not sure when I'll start posting that as I'm still writing it. I do know that it will be somewhere between six and ten chapters long do to how much is going to be happening. I will keep a progress report up on my author's page so you can check the status of the arc but I'll tell you now not to expect anything any sooner than April, if not closer to summer.
On that note, I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews, favorites, alerts, and community adds. HAPPY HOLIDAYS ~ Jenn