Chapter 5: What next?

When Harlor woke up, he had the mother of all headaches, more so than when he was trying to remember the mantras for Auri-el (Why did they have to be so long?!). He was tired, and the cuffs were starting to itch. Not to mention that they took his sword, the last thing his father gave him, the sword that he had forged.

The door opened, and in came the Hokage, who looked more tired than Harlor felt. He sat across from the young snow elf, and looked him directly in the eyes. Harlor was unnerved. The scarred man was terrifying, but the Hokage was on another level. He didn't seem that dangerous, but he practically radiated power. Harlor could see the lines on this man's face, and his eyes told of knowledge that came from many years of battle. The young elf knew that if he were on the battlefield and this man were his opponent, he would lose before he blinked.

The Hokage cleared his throat. "My name is Sarutobi Hiruzen. I am the leader of the Village Hidden in Leaves. Here's what we know: you are an elf, who is able to use magic, your people found a powerful object in a city called Saar-thal, and in trying to obtain said object, your people destroyed the city. Am I correct?"

Harlor was stunned. He didn't know how the Hokage knew this information, seeing as how he didn't say much. "Y-yes, but that object… it would have destroyed the entire world if it were in the wrong hands." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. What was this object?" Harlor then tried to explain what it was: the Eye of Magnus, an object that held so much power, it would destroy everything if misused.

"Forgive me, but are you saying your people, the Snow Elves, were keeping power away from the populace?" "N-no! They would have misused it! It contains the power of a god! If it broke… it would destroy not only Tamriel, but all of Nirn." "So," Hiruzen pulled out a pipe and started smoking. "You were trying to keep power away from the unworthy?" "Y-yes," Harlor said, trying to keep a straight tone.

"I… see." Hiruzen made a scene to ponder what was being told to him. "You will not be allowed to roam around the village. You will be staying with one of my most trusted individuals: Yamanaka Inoichi. Your movements will be very restrictive, seeing as how we don't have elves here. While we could write you off as a summon, people will start to ask questions, and when they don't get the answers, disaster would be inevitable. Not to mention Naruto." Harlor perked up at that name. "Oh," said Hiruzen, noticing the expression on Harlor's face. "You are familiar with Naruto, then?"

"Y-yes. He was the one with the orange outfit." Hiruzen smiled mirthfully. "Yes, it is rather eye-catching, isn't it? Not exactly what one would expect a ninja to wear, much less a short one." "I-I'm sorry, a what? What is a ninja?" The Hokage shook his head. "That's for Inoichi to explain, not me. Now if you will excuse me, Harlor, I have paperwork to finish. One of these days, I'm going to fire that assistant of mine."

"B-but I didn't tell you my name." Hiruzen only smiled slightly. "No, you didn't." And with that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. One of these days, he's going to have to ask how that works.

Just then, the door opened. The almost-nord was waiting there, an apprehensive look on his face. "Hello. I am Yamanaka Inoichi. As the Hokage probably told you, you will be spending your stay with me and my family, no matter how long that may be."

Harlor noted that he didn't look too happy about that. If he had to guess, this decision was a spur of the moment decision. He stood up shakily, and waited for this Ya-man-aka to explain further. "Come on, we have to go before my wife expects something." 'Aha,' thought Harlor. 'That would explain it.' It seemed that even here, the wives held all of the power. A universal constant, if you will.

He walked forward, and his arm was taken by Inoichi. In a blur, he was rushed outside. He closed his eyes so as to ward away the motion sickness that followed. Horseback riding was one thing, but running that fast should have been next to impossible. How their muscles didn't rip themselves apart doing that was beyond him.

One second, he was being dragged along, the next they were standing outside a… flower shop. It was around 6 in the morning, judging by how high the sun was. He was pulled inside before he could question what they were doing there.

There was a woman in the kitchen standing over the stove. She was wearing a rather fancy teal coloured dress, with dark brown hair pulled into a bun with a red ribbon. She was rather fair skinned, and when she turned, Harlor could see that she had brown eyes with no pupils, and slight wrinkles near her mouth. All-in-all, Harlor would have seen that she was beautiful, were it not for the scowl she had on her face, that practically had death written all over it. She wielded a wooden spoon in her hands, and she was smacking it slowly.

"Where have you been, Inoichi? You left in the middle of the night, without so much as a note. And who is this?" Inoichi, for his part, kept a straight face although it was hard to do so at six in the morning, in front of a wife who was angry. "The Hokage told me to bring him here until we find out what to do with him. And also, he'll be here for an undetermined amount of time." His wife's face turned sour, but she held a smile on her face. It was a terrible thing to see.

"Well then… I'll go and wake up Ino-kun. I'm sure that she'll be so glad to have a complete stranger here. See you soon, love~." And with that, she practically skipped over to the stairs and went to go get Ino.

Inoichi seemed to deflate as she left. It was becoming abundantly clear that this was not how he wanted this to go.

His wife came downstairs some minutes later with a girl in tow. She was wearing a nightgown, and had platinum blonde hair in a ponytail (why did everyone have one of those?), light blue eyes without any pupils, and clear white skin. Her face was a slight oval shape, and she was currently rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Mom, Daddy," she said while yawning. "Who is this?" "Yes, Inoichi, tell us, who is this stranger you have brought to the house?" Inoichi sighed, and finally said, "This is Harlor. He's going to be here for an undetermined amount of time. He's not going to be allowed out of the house, nor should anyone be allowed to see him. People are already asking questions, and the Hokage wants to keep this under wraps as long as possible."

His wife looked at Harlor, and realised that something was off about the young elf. "Why are your ears pointed?" As Harlor was about to open his mouth, he was hit with another question, this time from Ino. "Just how old are you? I'm not going to be seen around a full grown man! That would just ruin my chances with Sasuke-kun!"

"I'm an elf, and I'm 14, maybe 15. Also, who is Sasuke-kun?" Inoichi face-palmed. This was going to be a pain to explain. His wife and Ino looked at him incredulously, before Ino shrieked, "WHAAAAAAT! How do you not know who Sasuke-kun is?!" Then her mother said in an equally surprised voice, "Really? An elf? I thought that Uzumaki brat was insane. Who would believe that they're an elf?"

Inoichi cut her off, saying in a tired voice, "He is an elf, a Snow Elf, to be exact, and he is quite possibly the last of his kind. The rest were wiped out." That one sentence shut up both Ino and her mother. "What? What do you mean "wiped out"?" "Inoichi, you can't possibly tell me that you believe this?" He only held up a hand, silencing them. "I looked through his memories… they are… unlike I have anything that I have seen before. And Ino… a group of people called Nords wiped out the Snow Elves. All of them."

The next thing they knew, Harlor was wiping tears out of his eyes. Inoichi's wife looked at Harlor in a different light, her eyes soft. Ino was speechless; she had never heard of something like this happening before. Tears were starting to streak down her eyes, and cheeks. She turned and ran upstairs and slammed the door to her room shut. Ino's mother walked over to Harlor, and said. "Allow me to show you to your room."

Harlor turned and followed her. His room was bare, except for a futon on the floor. "Thank you, ma'am." He lay down on the bed, and fell asleep. His dreams were filled with dark, and death. His ears filled with the screams of his family.