AC: Auryn Chapter 12

Fandoms: Harry Potter / Naruto
Rating: Mature
Languages: English, Japanese, Latin, Greek
Genre: Adventure/Action
2nd Genre: Humour
Character A: Harry J. Potter
Character B: Uzumaki Naruto
Summary: (Based on esama's "Subject of Change", continued with her permission) When Harry Potter died, he didn't expect to end up meeting a giant fox, a pervert, get changed into a girl and end up with some kid who had was capable of giving Snape the warm and fuzzies.

WARNING: Genderbend, Gore, Character Death, Canon Divergence, Jiraiya.

He had to whistle in admiration. Inoichi enjoyed his work exploring people's minds, it was utterly fascinating, he liked to keep records of the more interesting minds he had encountered in his career but never had he ever seen one so complex in its construction, conception or defence. He had never seen a structure like it.

The huge stone castle that loomed up to the heavens, wide glass windows with wooden frames, grotesque statues with wide open gaping mouths that leered down at the people below. Behind him stretched an almost endless expanse of short grass, distantly the shimmer of water. He would feel the wind and hear the distant found of bird call. Truly, it was less like a mind scape and more like a section of a place had just been taken and planted into the young woman's mind.

"Are you going to stand there gaping or come in?" demanded a voice. Inoichi tensed and glanced over, seeing a set of steps leading up to a huge heavy oak door six times taller than a man and three times as wide – head to foot. Leaning against one of the open doors was the girl, Uzumaki Hari. She was dressed in a manner he had never seen before, black robes with a high collared shirt, a red and amber tie around her throat and a similarly coloured patch on her left breast bearing a rampant lion and a symbol he had never seen before.

"Uzumaki-san?" he questioned, stepping forward.

"Come in. The sooner this is over with the sooner I can find Naruto," the girl declared, pushing herself away from the structure and leading the way into the building. Inoichi wished he had eighteen other eyes just so he could see everything. He was in a huge hall made almost entirely out of creamy coloured stone, torch brackets and candelabras provided warm light in which to see by. The girl turned to face him.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, more commonly known as Senjutsu in Konoha. Lying is impossible within a mindscape so ask your questions, say what memories you want to see and then leave," she explained gesturing around herself. But already Inoichi was busy exploring the huge hallway behind her, five tables stretched through the room, all of them covered with golden plates and cutlery, random things littered the tables , foods and objects he had never seen. Hanging from the large ceiling was four large tapestries, one bearing the same golden lion as on the girl's chest. The others had a black and white bear like creature, a bronze raven and a silver serpent on backgrounds of yellow, blue and green.

Harry sneered a little in frustration. "The Great Hall," he stated, bringing the blond's attention back to him. "Where we had our meals and the Headmaster would give announcements. When Kaachan and Tousan died... I was brought here. The people who raised me were my mother's," and here he used quotation marks with his fingers, "sister and her husband. They hated people who could naturally use Senjutsu so they treated me quite badly until I was accepted to Hogwarts. It was the first place I called home, despite how dangerous it was."

Inoichi stared at the ceiling, the ceiling which showed the sky and a strange mixture of weather patterns. If he had to guess... this was where the emotion nexus was, this sky was displaying what the girl was feeling.

He looked around again, spotting a rather rough hewn wooden cup next to a stool with a patched and ragged hat on top of it, curious, Inoichi picked the hat up and popped it onto his head, ignoring the sharp angry inhale from the girl and the ominous crackle of lightning overhead.

"Hmm," a small voice said into his ear. Inoichi tensed immediately. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?" Inoichi didn't think it described him well at all. Then a second voice, younger, softer, frightened. 'Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.' it pleaded. It was hard to tell the gender but Inoichi would guess that the owner was the young girl, back when she was very young. "Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you're sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!" The Yamanaka winced at the sound of the hell in his head and the following roaring cheer of many many voices, many children, filling the air.

He pulled the hat off. The girl wasn't happy at all.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't go nosing into everything that didn't concern you," she hissed.

"What's the problem with this Slytherin?" Inoichi asked, not bothering to answer, he had to assess everything to make sure she wasn't a threat to Konoha, make sure there were no hidden triggers or sleeper seals. And he was abominably curious about the way her mind worked. He'd never seen anything so complicated.

"Everyone's Sorted according to their personality. Gryffindor was for those who were Brave and Noble. Ravenclaw was for the ones who loved learning and were particularly intelligent. Hufflepuff was for the loyal and the hard working and Slytherin... Slytherin was for the cunning and ambitious. It had a bad reputation. A lot of the people in Slytherin were from old blood families, the ones who thought they were better than everyone else because they could trace their ancestry back hundreds of years. They took it too far and started a civil war, trying to murder everyone they deemed unworthy. The groundskeeper once told me that 'there's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin'. The man who murdered my parents was one of them. And getting a look at Orochimaru, it wouldn't surprise me if he fitted in quite nicely as well."

"Your parents?" Inoichi demanded, giving her a sharp glare.

"Lily and James Potter were my parents on this end. Follow me. I'll take you to them," she declared and began to walk away. Inoichi was torn. On the one hand, given how complicated this mind was, he couldn't be entirely sure he would find the memory on his own, but at the same time, he really wanted to explore! "Hurry up or the Castle defences will throw you out," she called back.

Inoichi hurried after her.

"This is a castle? I've never seen one of its make before," he admitted, fishing for information.

"And I doubt you ever will. It is a British Castle, built a good thousand years ago at least." To Inoichi, who lived in the Shinobi world where things rarely stayed the same for ten years, the concept of something still standing after a thousand was utterly mind boggling! "There are three known dimensions. Yours, the Summon Realm, and the one I was raised in. There are no Ninja in the place I came from."

Inoichi was fairly certain his jaw had just dropped open as they stepped into the marble corridor. The stair cases were moving. The portraits were moving. He stared, slack jawed as what was unmistakably Jiraiya-sama got his ass kicked by Tsunade, the background looking remarkably like a hotel bathroom. He followed the girl who lead him unhesitatingly through the corridors, occasionally there were portraits of people in similar uniforms as she was wearing here and there. They would smile and wave. Occasionally he would get a glimpse of what was unmistakably a classroom and inside would be books and objects and portraits of people and events. They passed a library and he had to stop himself from plunging in as he witnessed the rows of strange books in languages he couldn't read and scrolls in different colours along with a display case with an odd golden glow.

They passed a large tapestry with a blood red nine tailed fox, too detailed to be anything but a memory and the blond man shuddered, unable to hide his unease. Phantom laughter filling his mind as he recalled the huge beast that would forever haunt his nightmares.

"Here. Both sets of parents. Their deaths." He jerked and stared up at the two large portraits the girl was gesturing to.

Minato and Kushina impaled upon the Kyuubi's tail, both of them having thrown themselves in front of the javelin-like tail to protect their new born son, wailing on a bed of blankets beneath them, his mother's blood decorating the sheets and his whiskered cheeks. He could see Kushina's lips moving, the expression of pain that twisted Minato's face. Inoichi felt sick as he stared up at the portrait. Very few people knew the exact details of how Minato and Kushina died, no one really even knew they'd had a child. No one, no one, knew they'd had two.

He looked at the other picture.

A woman stood protectively in front of a crib, her long fiery red hair framing her face and her green, green eyes. Her water filled eyes. She was crying as her mouth moved wordlessly. Pleading. The man opposite her, visible just over her shoulder, white faced, scarlet eyed, balding and dressed in ragged black. The twisted look of contempt and disgust written across his face as he raised a wooden stake and snarled a single word. Green light flashing through the picture and then the woman falling, her red hair a scarlet banner behind her as she crashed to the floor, motionless. Dead. The red eyed figure looming over the crib with a toothy grin that displayed yellowing and crooked too-long teeth. Another flash of green light and the portrait went dark. Only for the crying woman to appear again as she scooped what had to be an infant into her arms and ran for the stairs, passing a dark haired man in glasses, he held a stake in his hand as he pushed her towards the stairs, mouth moving fast as he brushed a hand over the child in the woman's arms. She ran up the stairs, leaving him stood there, his hand still outstretched as if to touch them, face anguished before the door exploded and different coloured lights splashed and glowed across the walls. The woman burst into a nursery and paced around desperately, hugging her child to her chest. She set it down in the crib and pulled her own stake.

Inoichi looked away and towards the girl who was staring at the portraits with dead green eyes.

She looked over at him, "Are we done?" she asked quietly. She looked as if she were on the verge of tears.

He nodded. He'd seen enough to confirm it. She'd been there for Minato and Kushina's deaths, her memories confirmed her story about being sent else where to learn like Summonings did and, as she'd said earlier, one couldn't lie within a mindscape.

She nodded in return, "I took several memories from Kabuto when we fought against one another. They're in no order though. I need to categorise them before they can be reviewed. Is there any way of arranging some kind of meeting so you can collect them at a later point?" she asked.

"We'll discuss it with Ibiki-san," he informed her.

"Alright. Now, get out," she ordered and Inoichi grunted as he felt the walls of the Castle snap down upon him.

000

"Whoa!" he inhaled sharply as he jumped up, the forceful ejection from the girl's mind jolting him back into his own with more force than he was used to. Ibiki gripped his shoulder to steady him, "Thanks."

"Well?" the gruff man asked as the girl opened her eyes to glare at them.

"Well," Inoichi began, rubbing his forehead, "She's got the most complex mind I've ever had the fortune to encounter. Moving staircases, portraits and wall scrolls that move like a film, and the sky for an emotional nexus. But its true. She has the memories to confirm it, not to mention its impossible to lie within the mind," he explained, closing his eyes briefly as he pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes until stars exploded across his vision. Impossible, unless you were lying even to yourself, but that had very tell-tale markers that he learned how to identify as a pre-teen, like everyone in the clan did.

Ibiki nodded, "Understood. But she's still a problem. Publicly, the Yondaime never married and never had children. The Uzumaki clan officially also ended that evening. Uzumaki Naruto was given the clan name for reasons unknown to the general public. So soon on the back of an attack and the inauguration of the new Hokage, the last thing we need is the Civilian sectors descending into chaos, if not outright civil war," the scarred Jounin pointed out with chillingly flat tones.

Hari's lip curled, she wanted – desperately – to tell them that if her brother was such a problem he had absolutely no problem removing him from Konoha as a whole. As far as he was concerned, this place was the worst thing that had ever happened to the Uzumaki Clan since the sundering of the Jubi. But he was more intelligent than that. They would never let him near Naruto if he expressed even the slightest desire to take him away from their village, but judging by the way Ibiki's dark eyes were glittering and fixed directly on his own eyes, he already knew what direction the Gryffindor's thoughts were going.

"Loyalties?" the scarred man demanded.

Hari bristled and drew himself up to answer, but it was Inoichi who saved him the trouble of opening his mouth.

"To Naruto. Only Naruto. She respects and trusts Jiraiya-sama to a degree but there's a lot of disgust and wariness mixed in there and not just because of his research and writing habits," the blond explained, pulling his hands away from his face. "Hari-san, while I can see absolutely nothing that would prevent you from obtaining citizenship, things regarding Naruto-kun are... complicated," he began, looking uncomfortable under the lazer-like stare of his scarred superior officer. He was very close to skirting the lines of treason by even insinuating Naruto's Jinchuuriki status.

"I'm aware of Kyuubi," Harry pointed out flatly. Inoichi blinked, Ibiki's face could have been carved from stone for all it moved. "I am Uzumaki. Who did you think was going to be the Sandaime Jinchuuriki after Kaachan died?" he demanded with a raised eyebrow. "Trust me, Kyuubi won't be a problem. If anything, he provides even more reason for me to be close to my brother because he actually likes me."

"You're certain of this?" Ibiki asked, sitting forward for the first time since this whole thing began. Green eyes latched onto his face and fearlessly glared into his eyes. He would give the girl respect for that, she hadn't even inhaled at the sight of his scars, she had been unhappy about the whole situation and cut to the chase. She was as apparently unimpressed with mindgames as her mother yet just as adept at noticing and playing them as her father. Such a shame. Minato could have made for a very good interrogator. Then again, he could have made for a very good anything with that kind of mind, ability and Chakra Control.

"As certain as I'm sat in front of you," she told him softly, but no less truthfully. He could read that truth in her body language quite clearly. She turned and looked at Inoichi, "Can we arrange a second day in the future for me to turn over that information?" she requested, "I would like to get everything out of the way today so I can concentrate on my family."

"Ah yes, of course. How long do you anticipate it taking to organise the information?" the Yamanaka asked, before frowning briefly, "And for that matter, will you need any assistance?"

She shook her head, "Thank you but no. I'm quite adept at sorting my mind out. I may not be able to stop you from coming in, but whether you get any information or even leave with your mind intact is another matter."

"I didn't see any defences," Inoichi pointed out, suddenly sounding wary as the girl smiled.

"No, you wouldn't have. The Castle Defences only kick in when I command them to," she told him and it wasn't just Inoichi who felt a chill run down his spine when her eyes glowed in the semi-gloom of the interrogation cell.

000

Harry stretched languidly in the sunlight, sighing as he pushed against the small of his back and groaning in pleasure at the numerous juicy pops and cracks his spine gave. He was drawing more than a few looks from passers by but couldn't find it within himself to give a damn. It was mid afternoon already, once Inoichi had finished with his mind-walk, Harry had been forced to play word games with the scarred interrogator Morino Ibiki. Damn the man was a beast. Not only did he have a mind as sharp as a bacon slicer he was smarter than Hermione and just as observant and irritatingly all knowing as Snape and Dumbledore rolled into one with all the paranoia and suspicion of Alastor Moody. And that was just his mind, physically he was a beast as well. That much muscle wouldn't have looked out of place on Hagrid. On someone who barely capped 6'4" he ended up looking like a brick-shit house.

Still. Everything had checked out. He just needed to head to the Hospital to get a blood-test to confirm it all and to get several vaccinations for various local ailments he'd never heard of. Also, arrange for two appointments, one with a trained Medic Nin to assess his physical health and a second one with a councillor in order to assess his mental health. That last one being Inoichi's idea. Evidentially, Harry did not have the right mind-set for an active Shinobi and they were concerned that his actions to one Yakushi Kabuto, not to mention the memories he tore out of the Spy's mind, would eventually cause some dangerous psychological damage that would compromise him.

Harry didn't mind. It gave him time to find his brother, get a bite to eat and then have Whiskers take him to the hospital before heading home. He wanted to see what kind of place his brother had and whether or not he was going to have to find a job sooner rather than later.

Relishing the warm sunlight for a moment, the Gryffindor eventually began his trek through the village, ignoring the looks of passers by, the majority of disgust that quickly turned to confusion, thinly veiled hostility made him uncomfortable for a moment before he remembered the instinctive Apparation he had been given. It would get him out of the way of anything fatal.

Pretty soon she could hear her brother loudly bragging in one of the food stalls, smirking slightly she ducked under the flaps and waited for him to notice her. He didn't, but the man he was talking to did, his eyes widening minutely when he spotted her. He grinned and pressed a finger to his lips while pointing to Naruto. It took a second, but the man turned his attention back to the blond, only very occasionally glancing at her as she stood casually behind the oblivious blond Genin.

She snorted and caught him in a headlock, rubbing her knuckles in his thick blond mane, "And just where am I in this story, huh, Whiskers?" he demanded as the boy struggled and eventually squirmed free, only to tackle her to the floor in a rib cracking hug, shrieking about how she was okay and he knew Tsunade-baachan wouldn't let him down. "Yes, yes, I'm fine Naruto. Just need a quick stop off at the hospital so they can confirm the blood-test and to organise some appointments for vaccinations and assessments. Why don't you introduce me to your friend?" he continued, patting the blond on the head as if he wasn't being crushed to the breaking point.

Naruto hopped to his feet and hastily hauled his Neechan up, grinning and chuckling self consciously, "Neechan, this is Umino Iruka-sensei. He was my Academy Instructor and he's one of my most precious people, he saved my life," the blond admitted proudly, scratching his cheek happily.

Harry smiled, "In that case, you have my most heartfelt gratitude Umino-san." He bowed as deeply as possible without getting on his hands and knees.

"N-no, don't thank me. I- Naruto is," he stuttered, embarrassed and flushed, happy that someone had acknowledged his actions but confused that it was a clone, especially one within the Oiroke-no-jutsu. He thought Naruto's Shadow Clones had all the same experiences as him? Had something gone wrong with this one, it could certainly explain the change in gender and the difference in her Chakra presence compared to the Genin.

"Iruka-sensei, this is Harii-chan. She's my older sister, she managed to track me and Ero-Sennin down when we were looking for Tsunade-baachan. She really, really is! She even knows about," he made a pointing gesture to his stomach that made Iruka's blood turn cold, "and she still came looking for me!" Naruto exclaimed gleefully, latching onto the girl's side.

She hugged the boy to her and gave the Academy Teacher a smile that seemed both equal parts sad and pained, "I was supposed to be... Well, I should have been the one to take that burden when the time was right, I had the Chakra and I had the training but... Circumstances were more complicated and I ended up being sent away from Konoha and far out of reach for even Jiraiya. I found my way back quite by accident. It seems as though I have Okaachan's luck though," she joked, giving her brother a squeeze. Naruto only giggled and burrowed his face into her side.

Iruka however, was a little more suspicious, "Have you been confirmed by Yamanaka-san?" he asked warily.

She nodded, "Ibiki as well. Tsunade and Jiraiya were aware of my circumstances, they were there for my birth. Interrogation and medical examinations are simply to confirm what they already know for everyone else's peace of mind," she explained as she absent mindedly ran a hand through Naruto's hair. "Can't have an unknown element getting close to the Seal for subverting the Host's mind and all that rot," she added with a bitter snarl that made the Chuunin flinch a little. He knew exactly what she was talking about. The value that Konoha placed on his troublesome little student wasn't on the fact that he was Naruto, but everything on the fact that he was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

It dawned on him then that he was being very rude. "Ah, would you like to join us, Uzumaki-chan? Naruto and I were just having some ramen, my treat," he offered, gesturing to the stools.

"Ichiraku Ramen is the best, Neechan!" Naruto piped up, tugging on her clothes.

She chuckled, "I wouldn't want to intrude. You've not seen Naruto in a while, Umino-san. As much as I would love to steal him away," she said, bending to kiss the blond on the forehead, "I imagine that out of everyone in Konoha you're the one he wants to spend time with the most."

Iruka was torn. On the one hand he did kind of want to keep Naruto to himself, but on the other hand, he knew how much this girl meant to his young student. He frowned when he caught sight of a yellow crested Konoha sparrow as it landed on the ground in front of him, it looked like he wouldn't have to worry about stealing Naruto away from his sister anyway. He was being called for a mission.

"It looks like I may have to take a rain check on today, Naruto. I've been summoned to the mission office," he explained, nodding to the little bird as it chirped and promptly flitted off once again. The little birds were trained and had tiny recognition Seals tattooed onto their legs that responded to anyone in a Flak jacket. Sometimes a member of the Yamanaka clan would possess on if a certain Shinobi needed summoning discreetly, but in this instant, it was a general Chuunin summons for whomever was available. "I'm sorry, maybe another day?" he offered as he threw down the cash to cover both his and Naruto's bowls toward Teuchi-san.

Naruto drooped a little but nodded, "Yeah! Is... is Neechan allowed to come?" he asked hesitantly, gripping her clothes tightly.

Iruka nodded, he wanted to get to know the young lady anyway. "Of course, you know where I live Naruto, don't be a stranger." And with that, he moved off, jumping quickly to the roofs and powering his way towards the mission office.

"Bye Sensei!" Naruto called after him, waving wildly. He then quickly turned around and hugged his sister, burrowing into her stomach. Hugging her had quickly become one of his favourite things to do, right next to eating ramen with Iruka-sensei. Since he'd been deprived of one, he was going to damn well enjoy the other since no one else was even going to try and stop him – and if they did then Neechan would kick their asses like she did to Kabuto-yarou.

"Not that the hugs aren't appreciated, why the sudden attention? Is everything alright, Naruto?" he heard his sister ask, her hands gently running through his hair and rubbing his back. She sounded concerned and even though he knew, technically, Harii had been born male in the other place, he was the perfect sister. He was soft and sweet and he cared. He thought about all those little things that he knew Kiba never did and Sasuke certainly never did. He'd seen the list she'd made one night, a to do list, one of which was circled and underline: "Get a job – support Naruto".

"I'm just happy. I never had anyone I could hug as much as I wanted to. And you smell nice," he admitted with a shameless grin.

Harry chuckled, a little nonplussed and confused, "Thanks, I think," he said, giving the boy's shoulder a squeeze. "Have you finished eating?" he asked and received an exuberant nod. "Alright, think you can lead me towards the hospital then? The sooner I get my shots and get these blood-tests confirmed we can talk to Tsunade and Jiraiya about our next step."

"Okay, this way," Naruto agreed and began to pull him through the main market place – the roofs weren't supposed to be used if you weren't on active duty, it was one of Konoha's little safety measures, if there was an unknown face roof hopping then chances were they had an infiltrator on their hands.

They had barely managed to get halfway through the Markets before someone called Naruto out on his Neechan. It was just his misfortune for that person to be Haruno Sakura, his team-mate. And she wasn't happy. He could kind of understand, she had been stressed quite badly with the recent events. The Chuunin exams, the invasion, Gaara nearly killing her, Sasuke nearly getting killed by his brother and now in a coma, him vanishing, and now she sees him messing around with what everyone had been assuming was a Kage Bunshin in Oiroke no Jutsu while his team-mate was still rather messed up and traumatised in the hospital. Yeah, he would be pissed off as well, he decided as he saw his pink haired team-mate, brown paper bag in arm, storming over with that ugly look on her pretty face that promised pain.

"NA-RU-TO!" she bellowed, enunciating every syllable of his name with her anger.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the tiny pink haired spitfire on her way over. This must be the wonderful and beautiful Sakura-chan that Naruto spent most of his time gushing about. The Hermione to his Harry if what useful information he'd managed to glean from the boy said. Though that look on her face made him think more of Ginny than Hermione to be honest.

"Sasuke-kun's laid up in hospital and you're here playing with one of those disgusting prank Bunshins of yours?" the rosette haired girl screamed as she finally drew level with them. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, baka!" she scolded furiously.

She didn't even look at Harry as she flipped out a kunai and jammed it into the blonde Gryffindor's stomach.

"Even Kakashi-sensei's still in hospital! Do you think of no one but yourself?" the girl continued furiously as she yanked the now bloody kunai free and moved to land one of her hay-makers on the now horrified blond boy.

"NEECHAN!"

Harry hadn't felt the stab. It didn't even register that he'd been injured until his stomach felt unusually warm and he looked down and saw the thick spread of crimson from a tear in his clothing. What he did see, was the pink haired girl raising a bloody hand, a knife clenched within it, to attack her brother.

The response was immediate.

His leg snapped out and his knee rammed itself firmly into the twelve-year-old girl's stomach, flinging her like a rag doll across the street. And tearing his wound open further.

Harry groaned in pain, pressing a hand against the now gushing wound, gritting his teeth. Oh god, it didn't have the burning sensation that the basilisk fang had but it fucking hurt none the less. He was vaguely aware of Naruto fluttering around him, already tearing one of his sleeves off to make a compress for her. He was near enough in tears as he tried to pull his hand away so he could use his sleeve to stop the bleeding.

"You'll be okay, Neechan! You'll be okay, don't die, please don't die, I only just found you, please don't die Neechan!" the blond Jinchuuriki begged rapidly.

Harry gave him a strained smile, "I'll be fine. But let's get to the hospital sooner rather than later, ne?" he suggested tightly.

Naruto nodded rapidly and looked around, there was no way he could carry his sister comfortably without pulling that wound and she couldn't make her own way there before she bled out. "Proctor-san!" he bellowed, spotting the brunet who'd been the examiner for the last portion of the Chuunin exams, the one with the senbon between his teeth. "Proctor-san! Please, you gotta help!" he exclaimed, waving the now mildly curious Special Jounin over.

"I do have a name, y'know. I'm not just the examiner for the Chuunin Selection," the brunet stated as he sauntered over, and then spotted the blood seeping from between the Bunshin's fingers. Blood that it shouldn't possess. His eyes widened as he realised this was actually a person. A person bleeding out in the middle of the Konoha market place.

"Please, Proctor-san!" Naruto exclaimed, "She needs to go to the hospital! We were goin' there anyway but my team-mate thought she was a Bunshin and stabbed her," Naruto explained as the Special Jounin handed off his bag of groceries to the distressed blond Genin and promptly scooped the bombshell up bridal style.

"The name's Genma, Uzumaki! Genma!" the brunet told him lazily, "I hope you can keep up," he told the blond before jumping onto the nearest roof.

Sakura was completely forgotten as she cradled her bruised ribs and realised just what her careless violence had cost her. She'd just stabbed her orphaned team-mate's sister. One that he must have only recently discovered.

Oh Kami, what had she done? She'd nearly destroyed what chance Naruto had at a family! She felt sick.

000

Regardless of what followed, Haruno's words had made Naruto upset. Had he really been callous by not visiting either Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke? It took extracting a promise from Genma-Proctor-san not to leave his Neechan's side before Naruto allowed himself to go looking for his wayward Sensei and team-mate, leaving his sister to the tender mercies of the Medic Nin and the amusement of the laconic and laid-back Special Jounin.

"Is he usually that clingy?" the brunet asked, watching with an appreciative eye as the Medic Nin gently ran green glowing hands across the taut muscular abdomen of the shirtless blonde girl. Built like a bombshell but possessing the muscle of a Jounin Kunoichi, damn, he was almost sorry that stab wound wasn't low enough to necessitate her needing to take off her trousers. He was quite certain she had a killer pair of legs – literally and figuratively.

Harry shook his head, "No," he admitted. "It's to be expected though, we only found each other recently."

Genma made a sound of interest, eyes tracing the planes of her body, damn, not a scar in sight. She had flawless pale golden tan skin – a little copper stained now from her own blood but fuck, not even Geisha were that unmarked these days!

"Uzumaki-san, is now alright for me to take the blood-test?" the Medic Nin asked now that she had finished tying the bandages around the girl's middle. The wound may have been sealed but it was far from flawlessly healed, her Chakra control wasn't good enough for that and even if she had all the time in the world, she didn't have the reserves for it either.

"Namikaze," the girl idly corrected, "But you may as well. Which arm do you want?" she asked.

The nurse smiled and made a note on the clipboard, she'd assumed that the girl had the same clan as the Demon Host as they were siblings but that must not be the case. Perhaps she took the clan name of their other parent? She was a remarkably pretty girl, the nurse decided as she took a needle and phial from the desk and started her work. Though she had the very nagging feeling that she had seen the girl's face before, yet she was quite certain the Demon Host had no family within Konoha, it was one of the points the late Sandaime had stressed. That name too, it was rather familiar.

"Namikaze, huh?" Genma questioned, face lazy but his eyes intense as he looked over the young woman.

She glanced at him and away from where the Medic Nin was extracting her blood, "My father. Mine and Naruto's. The blood-tests should confirm it. When that happens, we're taking back our inheritance," she declared, her eyes narrowing on him as if daring him to object.

Genma couldn't help but admire her balls. She comes into their village holding the hand of their best kept secret, admits she shouldn't even exist and then states she's going to put every single civilian's nose out of joint, give the Council the finger and pretty much tell Danzou, Homura and Koharu to go and fuck themselves. He smirked at her, taking in the way her shoulders relaxed a very minute amount. Oh good, she knew she was going to face an uphill battle and was quite prepared to be as nasty as possible about it.

"Let me watch when it happens," he told her with a grin.

She smirked and then frowned, looking up, "Something's wrong," she stated frowning. Harry could hear Kyuubi growling from somewhere within his mind. He wasn't happy. Something was happening to Naruto. Her stomach was beginning to fizz and churn with anxiousness and anticipation. "I have to go, something's happening to Naruto! Something not good!" he told the Special Jounin as he jumped to his feet, leaving his bloody shirt behind as he made for the door.

"Ah! Wait, Namikaze-san! You can't go running around in just your bra!" the Medic Nin squeaked as the blonde girl pulled open the door and took off running without paying her even the slightest bit of mind.

Genma grinned, shaking his head, idly he wondered if all siblings had a danger radar when it came to the little ones. He remembered that Inuzuka Hana always seemed to know when her kid brother needed bailing out. Uchiha Itachi's was even more finely developed before he went off the deep end. He wondered if he should follow, he glanced at the cute, if flustered, little Medic Nin. Hmm... nah, she probably wouldn't be all too receptive to the idea of an Icha Icha moment in the examination room – most Medic Nin weren't. Instead he picked up the abandoned shirt and told the pretty little thing that he would make sure the bombshell stayed out of trouble before following after. All he had to do was follow the slack jaws and nose-bleeds.

000

The roof, they were on the roof! Harry ignored the pain in his side as he ran for the roof, as hard and fast as he could up the stairs – leaving a rather impressed Genma behind in the dust. The sound of screaming birds and the familiar whisper whine of Naruto's Rasengan filled his ears along with an even more familiar anguished scream of a certain pink haired girl.

"BOTH OF YOU! STAND DOWN!" the girl screamed desperately as Harry came up onto the scene.

Naruto lunging forward on his right. Sakura rushing forward, centre. Black haired boy with screaming lightning around his hand to the left. They were going to kill Haruno, they were going too fast and couldn't stop!

Harry moved.

At the same time, a shadow moved with him.

He had perhaps a split second to catalogue silver white hair and a flak jacket before the shadow twisted around Sakura – whom Harry had just swept up – catch both boy's wrists and fling them away where they couldn't harm anyone. All this while Harry skidded with Haruno in his arms between the man's legs where he twisted and crouched protectively over the girl now clutched in one arm against his chest – free arm with its fingers played, prepared to unleash a Chakra Chain if needed.

"What are you two doing on the roof of the hospital?" the silver haired shadow demanded, sounding rather exasperated, if not bored, with the whole exchange.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Haruno quivered from where she was held in a surprisingly powerful and warm arm. She trembled a little as she digested the previous three seconds. Throwing herself between her stupidly testosterone fueled team-mates in the hopes that they would stop when they realised she wasn't going to let them kill each other. Realising they couldn't stop and she was going to die. Her team-mates were doing to kill her. Run her through with their Jutsus in an accident! Just a stupid little girl who got between two duelling Shinobi. And then... two people. She recognised Kakashi in the split second he stopped and threw the boys but there was another body, softer, warmer, behind her, around her and then inertia took her as she slid between her Sensei's legs, the world wheeling around until she realised it had stopped and the warmth she was held against was a rather impressive bosom. A bosom belonging to Naruto's sister.

Naruto's sister who'd jumped in without hesitation to save her.

"If you're fighting, you're getting too heated, both of you. Those jutsus aren't the kind that you should ever use against a team-mate!" the Jounin lectured. To Kakashi, the exchange had shaken him up far more than he was ever willing to admit. Not just because Sasuke had attempted to kill Naruto. Not even because Naruto was using a Jutsu he should by all rights have no idea existed – he could smell Jiraiya's fingerprints all over that one though. It was the ghost. He didn't turn to look, he couldn't afford to, not right now.

Instead, he focused on Sasuke.

"Why are you so obsessed with your superiority complex, Sasuke?" the Jounin asked, flickering over to the younger man's side. "That level of Chidori just now, isn't an appropriate technique to be used here, against your own comrade. Were you trying to kill Naruto?" he demanded, allowing some of the anger he was keeping leashed to seep into his voice. The fact that his Genin heard the anger in his voice should be warning enough as to how much this encounter and their behaviour was unacceptable. "Where did such... immature behaviour come from?" he growled.

Sasuke grunted, legs coiling to throw himself over the railings – only he never got that far.

"NO YOU FUCKING DON'T!" a female voice roared, taking everyone by surprise as a golden chain swept through the air and wrapped around the young Uchiha heir, flinging him forcefully back onto the roof. Kakashi found himself staring at a ghost, all the blood draining from his features. That face.

Angry, cold, furious, Kakashi knew that face, the eyes... different but...

"I don't care if you're Mikoto-bachan's son!" the blonde girl snarled, making Sasuke stiffen and his eyes widen in a mixture of emotions as the girl stalked forward, "This kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable young man," she sneered coldly.

"Your mother would be ashamed of you."

000

Chapter Fin...

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