Prologue

Hadrian frowned as his sleepy mind registered bright sunlight behind his eyelids and he turned to the side, silently cursing Ron for forgetting to close the curtains again.

It only took a few moments for him to realize that he didn't hear Ron snoring, that he seemed to be lying on hard ground, and that he could feel a light breeze brushing over his face.

He lay completely still as he tried to remember anything that might give him a hint of where he was and whether he was in any danger, but a nudge of familiar feathers and a soft trill had him abruptly opening his eyes and sitting up.

Hedwig sat next to him on, what looked to be, his trunk, which he'd packed a few days before on the twins' insistence. His eyes widened as he lifted his arm and noticed that he was still clutching the dog tags that the twins had gifted him for his birthday.

He frowned and leaned to the side to remove the note that had accompanied the gift, from his pocket. It read:

Dear brother (Yes, we mean you, Hadrian),

Please read this letter to the end before you open your gift. We've been trying to find something like this ever since your second year and that fiasco with the basilisk. Truthfully it started out as a way to repay you for saving our sister, but as we noticed how each year seemed to become more dangerous than the last, well, we decided to do what any family would do and to protect you.

Unfortunately, we only stumbled upon it a few months back, and with Voldy already gone we thought that it wouldn't be needed after all, but then the Ministry started that BS about needing to keep you in line to stop you from going dark and we (and the rest of the family) decided that you really needed to go somewhere where they couldn't find you.

First, we ask that you pack your trunk and place all of your possessions within. We know it sounds crazy, but trust us, all right? Further instructions will be revealed as you comply with each instruction.

Are you done packing? Good.

Next, we need you to shrink Hedwig's cage and keep her with you.

Now, open your gift, but do not touch it yet. There is a pouch to the side of the box, please place that in your pocket.

Ok, so explanation time…

The original form of the amulet really wouldn't suit you at all so we decided that, as a war veteran, you needed your very own set of dog tags (blame Hermione for the war movies). We also happened to add a few protection charms and also a charm that connects you to our clock (yes, your photo has been added as well so don't even think of getting into any more dangerous situations…er…well…anything Fluffy level is fine, but Dragon and Basilisk level is out!).

The necklace is a one-way ticket that has been charmed to take you to a place where you would be able to live out your life as you want. No one will be able to follow you because the enchantment will take them somewhere else, but we will still be able to stay in contact with the mirrors that we placed in the pouch.

You may think this is all overkill, but Percy warned us that the Ministry was planning on restricting your magic in some way after your 21st birthday so we all worked together to set this all up.

We all have mirrors and we can chat anytime so please do not think that we are abandoning you or some shite.

Stay safe,

From Everyone (yes, even Draco)

Hadrian lay back and shut his eyes as grief and anger threatened to overwhelm him. Percy had been correct.

Barely a day had gone by after his birthday before a few Unspeakables appeared at his door. At first, it had been under the pretense of having some new intel on Voldemort, but the moment they noticed that he was alone, they tried to stun him.

He had hidden behind the kitchen cupboard where Hedwig had taken to sitting on his trunk before pulling the dog tags from his pocket and saying the activation phase, which brought him back to his current situation.

He carefully reached into his pocket and removed the pouch, which held a few carefully packed mirrors in a box. Each divider had a name so it was easy to locate the Twins' mirror. They didn't answer and Hadrian left a magically recorded message before putting the pouch away again and standing up, "Hey girl, want to keep an eye on me from the skies? We do not know what type of place this is."

Hedwig hooted seriously and landed on his shoulder. She nipped his hair affectionately before taking off with a soft hoot. Hadrian smiled at her then shrunk his trunk and set off in a direction that he hoped would hold civilization.

His broom had been shrunken and placed in a special pocket on his wand holster, but he didn't dare use it before he figured out what type of place he'd landed himself in.

He'd been walking for about three hours when a young, yet enraged voice, reached him and he quickly rushed towards it because it sounded like the child was in trouble.

He froze just before he stepped out from behind a tree as he saw a small boy fighting a guy with a huge ninja star. An injured man lay to the side, but before Hadrian could draw attention to himself, the boy made a few strange hand seals, and more than eighty clones suddenly appeared of him.

The guy with the ninja star didn't stand a chance and Hadrian was left wondering about the type of world he'd landed himself in as he noticed that the two men had worn the same headbands.

The boy's panicked shout as he rushed to the injured man brought him out of his thoughts and he rushed forward, only to suddenly freeze at the sensation of having a kunai (that name he atleast remembered) pressed to his throat.

It seemed the boy hadn't canceled all of his clones and he slowly raised his hands, "Sorry for scaring you. I heard your shout and followed it. I can heal him."

The boy's eyes narrowed, "Where do you come from? I haven't seen you around the village before. How did you get here without anyone stopping you?"

Hadrian turned his head slightly, "Village? I come from a place that is quite far away so I've been traveling for quite a while. I can tell you everything after I heal him if you would like."

The boy watched him skeptically, "How will you heal him?"

Hadrian slowly reached into his pocket and wordlessly accio'd a vial into his hand before drawing it out, "I have medicine that can heal him. I can even take a sip of it first to show that it isn't poisoned."

The boy still seemed wary, "You could have already consumed the antidote…"

Hadrian sighed, it seemed that he would have to do this the hard way. He didn't want to, but the longer the boy delayed, the more blood the other man lost and it seemed that he'd already lost consciousness.

"Sorry about this…" He wandlessly petrified the boy and quickly stepped forward to catch him before helping him lean against the tree to ensure that he could see everything.

"Just give me a few moments, I will free you as soon as he is healed. He's lost too much blood already." The boy glared at him in cold fury, but his expression soon softened before morphing into one of pure curiosity and amazement as Hadrian continued to remove potions from his pocket and the wounds visibly cleared up.

Hadrian even removed the spell on the boy halfway through the treatment just to see what the boy would do, but he merely moved closer.

A whistling sound suddenly echoed through the clearing and Hadrian heard a 'twang' sound before he registered that the boy had moved to protect his back from an unknown attacker and the sound had been the result of one kunai bouncing off another.

Someone in a dog-like mask stepped from the trees, but before Hadrian could move to protect the boy, the boy waved his arms and shouted, "He's a friend!"

The figure seemed to pause before nodding and seemingly stowing away his weapons but Hadrian had a feeling that the man (as he was sure the other figure was male) would still have quick access to other weapons.

The figure made a small motion with his hands and two more masked people stepped from the trees. All of them were silent and it put Hadrian on edge. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, but one of them merely cuffed the guy the kid had beaten while the other moved to help the newly healed, but still unconscious, man that the kid had protected.

He froze for a moment and sent a hand signal to the guy with the hound mask before both men disappeared with their respective burdens. The kid was still standing protectively in front of Hadrian, but the man in the hound mask merely made a sweeping motion with his hand as he looked in Hadrian's direction, "The Hokage would like to meet you."

The man seemed to believe that Hadrian would follow the order without question and he moved forward to pick him up in one swift move as the kid hesitantly stepped to the side, but Hadrian's magic acted on instinct, and the man abruptly let go of him as a jolt of electricity surged through his body.

The man stepped back into a crouch with his kunai in his hand once more but Hadrian merely glared at him, "Last I checked, I didn't agree to go anywhere or to meet anyone."

They glared at each other…well…Hadrian was glaring at the mask…when two claps echoed in the clearing and an old man stepped out from the trees. Hadrian instinctively stepped in front of the boy, but the old man merely smiled and the boy ran out from behind him with an excited cheer, "Ojiisan! Did you see?! I can become a ninja now, right?"

The old man seemed to be surprised for a moment before he glared back in the direction of where the enemy ninja had been taken, but then he seemed to sigh and turn to the boy, "Well, Naruto, it seems you have indeed overcome the problem with your clones, so…"

The boy, whose name seemed to be Naruto, didn't give the old man any time to finish because he rushed off with a cheer, but when Hadrian tried to follow him, the old man cleared his throat and he turned back to see what the old man wanted, only to be surrounded by a few more of the masked ninjas.

The old man couldn't seem to figure out what to do with him and Hadrian wasn't about to be thrown into some kind of ninja jail, so when the old man asked him about his healing abilities, he wasn't about to lie…at least not too much, "My people have learned a variety of skills through plants and some of us become healers so that is what I have learned, though I don't know if this place has the plants required to produce such potions."

The old man's gaze was very skeptical, "You trained as a healer?"

Hadrian nodded, uncertain why the old man didn't seem to believe him even though he had just managed to heal the other man, "I did. Learned enough to get by to be able to take care of myself and others."

The old man's eyes narrowed, "Yet you have not developed the chakra coils needed to hold chakra, so how is it that you were able to heal that man?"

Hadrian held out one of the empty potion bottles he'd pocketed, somehow suspecting that they wouldn't be able to sense magic since no one had reacted to the magic he'd cast on the kid at all, "My family learned how certain plants work together to create different results, so it is difficult for me to explain."

The old man watched him warily, "Where are you headed? And what are you doing within the village borders? I'm certain that you didn't come through the front gate."

Hadrian sheepishly scratched his cheek, "Of that I am unsure. I was attacked in my home and the only thing I was focused on at that moment was to get away. I didn't really pay attention to where I was going and I have been traveling during some nights as well so I must have stumbled over the border at some point."

The other man looked quite skeptical at that, "So you have nowhere else to go?"

Hadrian shook his head, "I was merely traveling until I found a place that I liked so that I could settle down and build a new life for myself. I'm quite new to these parts so this is the first village I've actually come across in quite a while."

The old man seemed to hesitate for a moment before he eyed the potion bottle in his hand once more, as if weighing his options before he spoke, "If you can show us one or two of these...potions...of yours, then you may be accepted into the village under the provision that you agree to be monitored for the time being."

Hadrian didn't like it, but it wasn't as if he hadn't gone through something similar in the past so he nodded his agreement since he wasn't sure whether the next village he came across would be as accommodating as this one, especially since it seemed as if this world seemed to have a few quirks of its own.

The old man nodded before he motioned toward one of the figures behind him, "Hound, see to it that he gets settled in at one of the spare housing units close to the tower. We'll settle the paperwork tomorrow."

The man in the hound mask nodded and motioned for Hadrian to follow him, and so he did, having no other choice than to follow along with their plans for the moment.

Sure he could have lived in his tent for a few months longer, he had enough supplies to last him for quite a while so it wouldn't have been a problem, but if he were to be perfectly honest with himself, living in the tent again after everything that happened in their last year was causing him to get quite a few flashbacks of things he'd been trying to forget and he'd woken up more than once clutching the Elder Wand in his hand as he prepared to defend himself against nonexistent threats.

So he chose to follow the man to his new home, knowing that Hedwig would be able to track him down due to their bond and that she was probably taking a nap right about now.

The one the old man had called Hound didn't talk much, instead, he used hand signals more than anything else to point out a few stalls before leading him to an apartment that was at least a bit bigger than the tent, but still on the smaller side when compared to the usual houses that Hadrian was used to.

He didn't really mind it though, given that he didn't need a lot of space in any case, and settled in, though he made sure to keep all things related to magic in his trunk, which he kept on a necklace that permanently hung around his neck with the usual charms to ensure that it wouldn't get dirty, break, or even suffer from wear and tear.

He didn't see Hedwig that night, but sensing that she was fine through their bond, he allowed himself to get some sleep, only to wake up before the sun even rose and notice that there seemed to be someone sitting on his windowsill and watching him sleep; the figure wore a very familiar hound mask.

Despite the creep factor he merely groaned and turned around, having expected something like this to happen since the old man had seemed very worried about the information they lacked on him.

It also explained why Hedwig hadn't returned to him yet.

Hadrian sighed and turned on his back when he realized that he wasn't going to fall asleep again, "You know, I thought Shinobi are supposed to be stealthy or something. Watching someone sleep and getting caught doing it doesn't seem like something a real shinobi would do unless you are trying to intimidate or scare me, which isn't going to work."

He swore he heard a light chuckle before the figure disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving Hadrian to grumble to himself, "Could have at least closed the window..."

The sound of the window closing had him rolling his eyes and shaking his head in exasperation, "Yeah, that's not suspicious at all."

He hadn't warded the room before bed, knowing that the shinobi would become suspicious if they couldn't enter a room, but he did ward the area around the bed, so instead of trying to determine where the other person was, Hadrian simply fell into a fitful sleep.

The next morning went a lot easier than he expected it to, especially since he had been very certain that the shinobi had numerous techniques to either drag or torture information out of people.

He found out later that they did have techniques in both categories and even one that was almost equal to those of legilimens, luckily for them, they didn't think to use any of those on him otherwise he truly didn't know what he would have done.

Instead, they had him answer questions with one of their shinobi in the room, after warning him that the shinobi would be able to tell when he lies.

Given that they only asked basic questions about his intentions in the village, it was quite easy to get past most of it until they asked whether he had ever killed someone, which became a bit harder to answer until he realized that this was a shinobi village, "In order to save my life and the lives of many others, I did."

He tried to explain it in such a way that it was the truth, but also in such a way that the shinobi would be able to understand and it seemed to have worked, though he was still a little worried about their decision.

Hadrian had at least expected some kind of wariness over the last bit, but instead, the shinobi had given him the clear and he was allowed to stay in the village if he agreed to be under surveillance for a while.

Which -given that he was trying to act as normal as possible- wasn't as hard as one might think, especially since most of the civilian residents of Konoha tended to be friendly and they always seemed to invite him to places where he would be able to learn more about the culture around him, which also served as something to preoccupy his mind with.

He spent weeks learning about the culture of Konoha and soon stumbled upon Naruto again as he went about the jobs that he called D-rank missions.

It was quite funny watching them chase down a cat all over the village, but then he got tired of seeing Naruto getting scratched up every time so he handed him a ball coated with a potion that worked a lot like catnip.

Ever since then the trio often made their way to his place since he became the go-to person when someone ended up with the dreaded mission of having to catch the poor cat again and again, though Hadrian sometimes felt sorry enough for Tora that he turned something nearby into a copy of it, just to give it a break for a few days.

The result thereof was that the genins quickly learned to look around his place when Tora decided to disappear once more since the cat always seemed to be lazing about the structure that Hadrian had conjured for him.

A few weeks after that, the Daimyō's wife asked him to make a more elaborate one for her, since it seemed as if Tora really enjoyed playing on it and he ended up making a few that would be able to slot together to form a larger one.

It seemed to be enough to get the shinobi to tone down the whole surveillance thing and it didn't take long before the Hokage called him in to tell him that he had been accepted as a legitimate resident of Konoha.

It was some time after that, that he realized he needed a shinobi's help to deliver some potions that he'd made for the hospital and the orphanage and he decided to look for Naruto, only to realize that people either seemed to shy away from him in disgust, or they seemed to ignore him.

The biggest problem he had was that no one seemed to know where he lived so Hadrian had to use a point-me spell to find him, which just happpened to be right after Naruto came home from an escort mission and the teen barely blinked before he let him in, only to practically fall asleep on the bed as they talked, thus allowing Hadrian the time to really look at the apartment and to be honest, he didn't like what he saw.

Due to personal experience, he immediately knew what neglect looked like and he made up his mind then and there that he would take Naruto in so that the teen didn't have to return to an empty home.

Decision made, Hadrian started packing the teen's things, only to find that the teen owned nothing more than the bare basics so it didn't take very long.

By the time Naruto finally woke up, Hadrian had almost paced a hole in the floor and when the teen finally made his way into the kitchen with wide eyes, the older man wasted no time in telling the teen that his living circumstances were unacceptable and that he would be moving in with him for the forseeable future.

Given that Naruto's only condition was that Hadrian wouldn't limit his intake of Ramen, it was quite easy to get the teen to move in with him.

News traveled fast in Konoha though and before the next day was out he found that he had already been visited by the Hokage to learn of his intentions, and some villagers that tried to warn him that he would either get tainted or murdered in his sleep.

Given that the Hokage saw him putting quite a few villagers in their place as they hung their heads in shame, the visit didn't take too long before he was made Naruto's unofficial guardian, though it was only unofficial because Hadrian felt that Naruto was too old to have a parent, instead, he needed a brother or a friend, and within a few weeks, Hadrian easily became Naruto's fiercest protector as well as his closest confidant.

Naturally, this meant that the masked shinobis started keeping an eye on him again, the Hound in particular, though given that the Hound and Naruto's sensei seemed to have the same energy, it made sense.

Naturally, Hadrian never revealed that he knew of course, but it confused him that the man seemed to follow him whenever he had some spare time.

One day, a sense of premonition had him remove some of the more valuable potions from his pouch and place it in the healer's pouch that he had gifted to Naruto along with the ones he usually packed in. Naturally, he labeled them according to when he would need to use it and how instead of simply stating their names, and a few days after seeing Naruto off with a knot in his stomach, news reached him that their mission had changed to an A-rank mission.

The only thing that stopped him from interfering with the mission was death's assurance that they would make it out in one piece and even save the enemy-turned-ally named Zabuza in the process.

When the squad returned, they seemed to be in much better shape than the last report had stated and it didn't take long for Naruto's sensei, whose name he learned was Kakashi, to approach him about the strange new potions that he'd both seen in Naturo's pack, and which Naruto had used to heal them all after the fight, "You seemed to have been holding out on the Hokage, you know that I am obligated to report this, right?"

Hadrian simply shook his head and opened his own pack, "Those potions were the last supply from my homeland and I would only give it to someone who truly needed it. In this case, you have your own life to thank for it so stop whining."

With that he left the masked ninja alone, not seeing the amused grin the man hid or the intrigued expression that crossed his face before he turned away and headed home.

Within a day or two Kakashi cornered him again, and at first it sounded as if the man was merely fishing for information, but then Hadrian noted the strain around his eyes, as if the man wasn't revealing the entire truth, which wasn't as strange as one would think.

Hadrian refused to budge until the man told him the real reason he wanted those potions though and it took over two months before he woke awake one night to find Kakashi sitting on his old perch on the windowsill, yet he didn't reveal that he knew that the man had been one of the masked shinobi assigned to watch him when he first entered Konoha.

They were silent for a while as Hadrian waited for the man to speak, wanting to know what exactly was on the man's mind.

He didn't expect the man to tell him how he got the red eye in the first place, or how much of a strain it placed on his body when he used it and suddenly it made a lot more sense why Kakashi would need those potions that managed to heal him in a few minutes instead of days or weeks.

Unfortunately, Hadrian didn't have any more ingredients to be able to make those potions and he told Kakashi as much, quite a bit more reluctantly then he would have expected given that the guy had kind of been stalking him on behalf of the Hokage since day one.

The man's frustration was something he could relate to, given that the man seemed to use the eye quite a lot in battles and, as for being laid out flat after completing difficult missions, well, Hadrian had many memories of ending up in the infirmary so he understood the other man's situation.

Instead of getting angry or frustrated at having reached another dead end, the man asked for pictures regarding the ingredients so that he could find them during missions if he happened to spot some.

Hadrian didn't expect the man to find any, given that it was a different world and all, but within two weeks Kakashi had managed to find most of the ingredients, including the ingredients that Hadrian could use in a few other potions as well and he took great care in removing the seeds from them to ensure that he could make more potions indefinitely.

When the Hokage found out about it, he asked Hadrian to try and teach some of the healers, but it was soon found that the potions needed his 'bloodline limit' to be able to activate or work as they are intended to and they mostly allowed him to continue with what he did after that while ordering some from him from time to time.

Soon he had many varieties of plants and as such, the types of potions that he made grew. Of course, tales of his potions spread far and wide and it was only a matter of time before some power-hungry moron tried to kidnap him.

Unfortunately for the would-be kidnappers, they inexplicably found themselves tied up with bows around their necks and the ninja forces didn't even have to take them to the intelligence department because they couldn't seem to stop themselves from answering whatever questions they were asked.

The Hokage soon approached Hadrian about that particular skill, but Hadrian was adamant that it would be safer if only he knew the cause of it all. At first, the Hokage didn't want to give up on it but then Hadrian reminded him of the damage such a thing could do in a world that had way too many secrets, and the man relented.

They agreed that Hadrian would be the only one, except for the few who already knew, who would know about the existence of the potion and that he would also be the only one who would ever administer it, but in exchange, he'd had to vow that he would never use the potion to harm the village. It was a good thing that the Hokage didn't know how binding a wizard's vow was and Hadrian was smart enough to add the clause that he would be able to use it to protect himself and those he cared for.

With that off his chest, he started paying more attention to Naruto because it was hard to ignore the change that had occurred in the boy ever since their escort mission had gone haywire. Naruto promised him that he was fine, but Hadrian wasn't fooled so he asked Naruto if he would allow Hadrian to look inside his mind.

Naruto seemed worried, especially since he hadn't known that Hadrian could do that as well, but he agreed in the end, and what Hadrian found there had him stomping into the Hokage's office after making the fox vow to protect Naruto instead of harming him. He made a promise to the fox in exchange that he would inform Naruto about the fox so that they may be able to interact until they found a way to solve everything.

At this point, the Hokage didn't even seem surprised at seeing him since they had spent a lot of time having tea together during the time that Hadrian had been under surveillance and afterward.

The old man simply poured two cups of tea as Hadrian ranted, since he was used to Hadrian getting overprotective over certain things "Old man, I hope you have a good excuse for not informing Naruto about his resident fox…is that why the villagers are out to hurt him so much? Why aren't your ninjas doing anything? I was under the impression that they were there to protect the village and I am sure that at least one of them had seen a group of villagers picking on Naruto more than once!"

The old man seemed shocked and he immediately started barking out orders before two ninjas he'd never seen before walked into the room with their heads down, though the disdain on their faces as they glanced toward Hadrian was clearly visible.

The Hokage stepped forward, "The two of you were under strict orders to protect Naruto from harm. Why have you not done so?"

One of the ninjas looked up with a blank face, but Hadrian could still see the hate in his eyes and there was no doubt that the old man could see it too as the ninja spoke, "We were merely asked to keep an eye on him so that he doesn't harm the villagers or cause chaos. The rest of our orders were to watch if the villagers retaliated on the beast."

The Hokage's eyes narrowed, "Those were not my orders. My orders were for you to protect him from afar, but to intervene if and when he needed it. Who gave you these other orders?"

The two ninjas were unable to answer, but the old man merely called two masked ninjas into the room and Hadrian was sure that the Hokage already suspected who was behind it all because he immobilized the two traitors and examined their tongues. Unfortunately, their loyalty to the culprit ran even deeper than suspected because they started foaming at the mouths and the other two ninjas dropped them just in time to see acid-secreting from their bodies and eating into the floor.

The Hokage ordered the two ninjas to go fetch the analysts and Kakashi, but the moment they were gone, Hadrian sighed before he took a vial and captured some of the acid into the vial before closing it, sidestepping the rest, "It seems we need to have a talk."

The Hokage nodded grimly before sitting down, but he seemed to relax when Hadrian merely placed the vial on the table. The analysts and the two ninjas were quite puzzled as they were merely given the vial and then excused, leaving only the old man, Hadrian, and Kakashi in the room.

He then looked at Hadrian, "Should I be worried that you don't seem freaked out about their deaths at all?"

Hadrian truthfully shook his head, "I lost many things back home...things I can't get back. I know that I may come across as unfazed, in reality I am anything but. The only way I cope, is being able to determine the bigger threat to the ones I care about...and they crossed the line with treating Naruto the way they did."

Kakashi seemed confused until Hadrian pointed toward the hole that the poison had made within the floor, "This tells me that someone within your village didn't take too kindly to the fact that Kurama was sealed into a baby. Or to be more accurate, it tells me that the person behind this feels like he should be in control of the village and he wanted to be in control of Naruto as well so he sent people to be able to ensure that he was alone enough to be able to mold when he decided the time was right."

He saw flashes of anger in both men's eyes at his words as if they knew who it could be, then the Hokage suddenly zeroed in on him "If there were someone like that after Naruto, how would you protect him?"

Hadrian couldn't help but see red at that question, given what he had gone through himself, and he absentmindedly clenched his fists, causing his magic to spike yet he forced himself to calm down, trying to think of a way to explain that he would be able to protect Naruto, but without revealing magic as a whole.

Although, now that he thought about it, revealing one or two things outside his potions should be fine as long as he didn't reveal his wand.

He didn't even have to say anything though, since the Hokage must have clearly read his resolve to protect Naruto from the expression on his face.

The Hokage nodded to himself after a few moments of silence and he seemed to be debating something, "What if you were officially assigned to team 7?"

Kakashi froze and looked at the man in shock. Even Hadrian was taken aback at the man's suggestion and he spent a few moments looking at the man before he found his voice again, "Firstly, I was never trained as a ninja and I would probably slow them down, and…"

He paused as the old man held up his hand, "We've been looking for ways to add medical personnel to the teams to reduce the number of casualties there are during missions. Sure you would be traveling along with the group, but you would be staying away during the actual fights."

Hadrian nodded dumbly, but then shook his head and frowned, "Why do you want me to be on team seven so badly?"

The old man turned serious, "Well, I have a feeling that team seven will be a prime target for many groups because of its members. Kakashi is known as the copy ninja in the Bingo book, Sasuke Uchiha is the last of his clan, and, of course, Naruto is on the team as well and there is a group that may be after him in the future at some point. They will need someone to patch them up after the fights since they are bound to draw a lot of attention."

Hadrian sighed, "And who decided it was a good idea to put them all together? Wait! Before that, why the hell would you ask me to do this? If what you are saying is true then I could be one of those plotting to kidnap them or something."

The old man gave him a dry look, and he didn't even look guilty at the things Hadrian had pointed out, "Firstly, we've already established that you hold no ill intentions toward either Konoha or its residents and we haven't been able to track down the only woman who would be able to teach a generation of medical personnel that could double up as fighters as well so it would make sense to put you on this team since it would save you the worry, and it will ensure that they survive."

Hadrian glanced at Kakashi, "What's your take on all this? I doubt managing a team of four is easy on missions, never mind adding on a fifth member with no training whatsoever."

Kakashi seemed to think for a moment before he shrugged, "Team seven would be one of the prime targets so your abilities would help, but the sudden change might seem suspicious. It's a shame that you don't have potions that could act like a jutsu though, such as one that could change you into an animal. People wouldn't find it too weird if we had a nin-dog walking by our side…"

Kakashi trailed off as Hadrian's face pulled into a grimace for nothing more than a split second before he sighed, seemingly debating something with himself before a sneaky grin appeared and a mischievous glint entered his eyes, "I might have something like that..."

Both shinobi frowned at him in confusion as he seemed to drink from a vial he'd taken from his pocket and Hadrian's grin widened before his body seemed to fold into itself, causing Kakashi to step forward in worry, only for him to blink stupidly at the fabled dire wolf that now stood in Hadrian's place. The wolf gave a friendly yip and Kakashi hesitatingly stepped forward, "Hadrian?"

The wolf gave another yip and Kakashi immediately recognized the familiar green eyes and the faint white fur in the shape of a lightning bolt mark as he stepped closer. Hadrian was big enough that his head reached Kakashi's chest and the man gave a surprised gasp as Hadrian suddenly nudged him with his head.

Kakashi carefully started scratching behind Hadrian's ears and Hadrian just barely stopped himself from playfully growling at the man because he knew that they were still wary of him. He took a step back and returned to his human form, "Well? Do you think that would work?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, but how did you do that? How long can you hold it before it wears off? Is it like the potions in a way that only your bloodline can use it?"

Hadrian shrugged, "It's called an Animagus form, I can hold it for as long as I want, but that isn't advised since I could become trapped in that form, and only some of my people can do it."

The Hokage took a step closer, "With your current abilities we can place you in another specialization, such as scouting. You would be quite good at it."

Hadrian shook his head with a frown, "The only reason I am even revealing any of this is because Naruto is like a brother to me and you were just telling me that some people will be after him. Hedwig has taken quite a liking to him as well and she would be able to securely deliver any correspondences if needed."

The old man smiled at the thought of the owl that Hadrian had introduced to them the day he started staying in Konoha so he completely missed the way Hadrian winced at what he revealed, but he couldn't take his words back so he tried to distract them instead, "I am not signing up to be a permanent ninja. Yes, I am going to do all I can to protect the village in my own way, but I refuse to become a chess piece."

The two men looked confused until Hadrian explained how the game worked, only to learn that they had a much more intricate version of it.

Kakashi then brought up another point, "I think that you and Naruto should move into my family compound. It seems the people you've helped were unable to keep quiet about your potions. A few of the others on patrol found another group of people lurking outside the village and they all had a picture of you with them. Maybe we can even call it special training and have Sasuke and Sakura join us there as well."

Hadrian was thoughtful for a moment, but the old man immediately nodded, "That is a good idea and it will offer extra protection."

Hadrian did not suspect for even a moment that the coming months would be something on par with his misadventures in the wizarding world…and he also didn't expect to fall in love with not one…but two…S-class shinobi.