AC: Auryn Chapter 13

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.

Sasuke's reaction was immediate... and to be expected.

He lunged forward with an inarticulate shout of rage, sounding more like a wounded bull than a twelve year old boy, his arms still pinned behind his back by the golden links of the Chakra Chain. She had been expecting it though and he had barely managed to take three steps forward before her free hand snapped out, a second golden chain sailing through the air, past him, around one of the support struts of the water towers and snapping around his neck like a choke chain – stopping him dead with a rasped yelp.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed from somewhere behind the eldest Uzumaki sibling, on the right.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelped.

"What would you know about my mother?" the black haired boy snarled, rasping against the chains around his neck. Everything he knew about Chakra said that this should be burning, blistering, even outright scorching his flesh – Chakra in such concentration to manifest in a physical, non-elemental substance, shouldn't be possible! And it was around his neck.

"Not a lot," Harry admitted, memories of Uchiha Mikoto, Jounin Genjutsu specialist filling her mind. "Jounin Uchiha Mikoto though, her I knew of pretty well. After all... she was my mother's Genin Team-mate."

Sasuke froze, his eyes widening as he stared at the woman in front of him. She... he would have liked to think her nothing more than one of Naruto's dumb clones but the steadily reddening bandage around her waist said otherwise. Clones didn't bleed. Aside from that idiot running around in his disgusting Henge, he had never seen her face before and even then, that henge was different. It was subtle and small, but the faces were different and even though Sasuke knew he'd never seen her before, he knew he'd seen her face somewhere. Was she speaking the truth? Was he distantly remembering someone else, the idiot's mother? He was an orphan though, it was well known that Uzumaki Naruto had no family. If his mother really had been on the same team as his own then Civil Law would have placed him with the Uchiha Clan unless the other member was from an even more prominent Clan with better finances. It was an unwritten law that if the orphan in question had no clan, their godparents were not to be found, then the genin team-mates or sensei of the parent would take the child in themselves. Otherwise they would end up in the Orphanage.

This girl was lying. Clearly. Otherwise he would have grown up with the idiot.

Anger flared hot and dizzyingly through him as he strained against the chains. "Don't lie to me! If they were Naruto would have been in the Uchiha Clan!" he snarled, trembling in fury as all the blonde woman did was tilt her head.

"That would have been the case, yes... If a member of your Clan hadn't been the one to murd- MFMTH!" She was cut off. A broad, tanned and calloused hand quickly slapping over her mouth. Sasuke felt his eyes widen in shock. He'd had his Sharingan open the whole time, he hadn't seen the old man move! He was just suddenly... there. Broad-shouldered, thicker than Kakashi with the same thick, wild mane of white hair, this time extending well past his shoulders and down to the back of his knees, an odd Hitai-ate bearing the symbol for oil etched upon it. His hands were huge, cupping the girl's face almost entirely as he loomed over her by at least two feet. He was clearly a Shinobi. A powerful one, especially if he had lived to that age. His face was lined and mature possessing two red streaks running down below his jaw line, a heavy chain-mail under-shirt half hidden below green and red cloth. He was eccentric and old. Therefore, a threat.

"Now, now, Hari-chan. Can't go talking about that night," he told her in a gruff voice that sounded like gargling boulders. "Its an S-ranked secret and if you say a single word more, both Kakashi and I will be obligated to execute you," he explained apologetically. "Now, be a good girl and release the Uchiha. We don't need another mess like the one you made of Kabuto." Could he get any more patronising?

"Kabuto?" Kakashi asked, jerking his head at the white haired man. He was pale from what little was visible of his face and he'd lost the laziness that usually permeated around him. "What mess?"

The old man laughed a little wryly. "Hari-chan here took exception to his attempts at killing Naruto. She tore him limb from limb and even Kabuto can't regenerate if his limbs are thirty feet apart from each other," he stated with a shake of his head. "Not a pretty way to go."

Sakura went white and even Sasuke started to sweat when he realised that he had his throat in this woman's grasp.

His fears came to nothing as the chains faded away into golden smoke that just faded away into the light.

"Good girl," Jiraiya exclaimed as if rewarding a particularly difficult dog on a trick well done. He patted her on the head again and Harry's patience snapped. One silent Levicorpus later, as Jiraiya's hand had still been attached to her face, and he was hoisted up by his ankle in mid air, leaving Harry to retreat a few paces and scowl at him.

"WHOA?" he yelped, loudly.

"I don't appreciate being treated like an errant puppy Jiraiya. Perhaps you and Tsunade should have told me what was and wasn't allowed to be spoken about before we got here. Its not like I was even in the Hidden Countries when those Laws were passed," she snapped scratching irritably at her hair.

Jiraiya chuckled awkwardly, "Alright, alright, I'm sorry Hime-chan. Can you let me down now? My Senjutsu isn't good enough to dispel this myself," he admitted, giving her what was most possibly the most disturbing Puppy-Dog eyes since Ron attempted to steal the last slice of Treacle Tart. She cringed back in disgust but never the less pressed a finger against the bare skin of his foot and released it, allowing him to tumble back down onto his feet with a clack of wooden Geta. "You've got to teach me that stuff later, alright?" he declared pointing at her.

"Later, not now," she said brushing past him to face the trio of twelve year olds. They stared at her in varying expressions. Expressions that quickly turned to ones of pain and surprise when she clonked all their heads together.

"Neechan! What was that for?" Naruto wailed, cradling his sore skull.

"I don't know the whole story but I can guess at it. Naruto, you need to keep a cooler head. Don't rise to the taunt, a good Shinobi needs control. What would have happened had Hatake-san and I not jumped in? You and Sasuke would have killed Haruno." Naruto hung his head, uncertain about the feeling in his chest, it felt like the same one when Jiji got upset with him. He always used the same phrase as well and even though Neechan never said it, he knew she was thinking it. He'd disappointed her and he felt that same heavy cold and choking feeling now as he did whenever Jiji said it.

"Haruno, did you think at all when you plunged in there? No. No you didn't. You nearly got yourself killed and your Team-mates drummed out of the Shinobi courts. No, no it wouldn't be that good. They hold more military value to the village than that. They would be split up, their minds destroyed and then rebuilt. Everything that made them who they were would be done. All emotions would have been conditioned out of them and nothing left but the guilt of your death, which would be used to keep control of them for the rest of their lives, to manipulate them into taking missions that they shouldn't even touch. Your team-mates are incredibly important both politically and militaristically, you need to double check yourself before you plunge in and do something as stupid as getting between an Assassination technique and a variation of a Biju Ball." Sakura cringed in on herself. She knew Sasuke was important because he was the last Uchiha, but she had no idea that Naruto was important as well, though now she thought on it, he was surprisingly close to the Sandaime. Not only that, but he was also known to Jiraiya of the Sannin and judging from the gi- from Hari-san's words, he was also known to the new Hokage, Tsunade-sama whom had healed both Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei.

"And you Sasuke. I don't know what set you off but you need to buck your ideas up, where the hell is fighting your team-mates like this going to get you? A whole lot of nowhere and trouble, that's what. You need to play to your strengths. Everyone starts out somewhere and chasing someone else's shadow isn't going to help you improve, it's going to slow you down and lead you down roads you may not be suited for. If what I got out of Kabuto is right, then you're obsessed with revenge against Itachi-cha- against Itachi." It was hard, the -chan endearment that both Kushina and Mikoto and even Minato had often used in his memories nearly slipped through. A lot of endearment terms almost had, it was a battle trying to control what came out of his mouth. And judging by the way Sasuke's eyes had just narrowed, he caught the slip.

"You're not Uchiha Itachi. You're not a traitor. You're not a Kin Slayer and you never will be. You. Are. Better. Than. Him. Better than that," she told him firmly, jabbing him in the chest with every word, staring him firmly in the eyes. His startled, young and lost black eyes. "The best revenge isn't always killing the bastard who wronged you. Where does it get you afterwards Sasuke? It leaves you with just one more dead body and an empty life afterwards. Fugaku may have wanted you to avenge the family, a fair few of your Clan likely would. But Mikoto wouldn't have. She loved you, with all her heart. She used to sing to you when she was pregnant and giggle about all the things you and her could do together because Fugaku was so determined to make Itachi-chan the perfect Uchiha Weapon she rarely got to see him and he was always too tired or hurt though he did try so hard for her. She would rather you lived happily. It's the best revenge after all. Living well." Nothing had pissed Voldemort off more than being forced to hide in the forests of Albania scavenging for food while piggy-backing on the soul of a snake while he was at Hogwarts enjoying feasts and warm beds, laughing, joking. Living well often was the best kind of revenge, nothing pissed someone off more than basically being told that they weren't worth the time and effort or the heartache of being hated.

"Focus on yourself first Sasuke. Forget your brother, forget your father, your mother, your clan and think about what you want for a change. What would your aim be? To be Jounin? To follow your father's footsteps and become Chief of the Police department? Become a Decoder? Learn how to dance?" He cast around for an idea. "Chief editor for Icha Icha? The quality control taste tester at a Sake Brewers? What? Professional Quidditch Player? Honeydukes stock manager? Your brother is nothing more than a traitorous Kin Slayer and he will get what's coming to him sooner or later. I know you're determined to kill him, that much is easy to see. And you can. You can kill him. Just not yet. There's no need to go running in pell-mell and cave your skull in on a brick wall you can't surpass yet. Everyone starts somewhere, we're all born into this world red, weak and squalling, unable to even hold the weight of our own heads up. Some adapt before others, some need a little more time. There's no shame in either way. That's just the way it is. When there's something you can't do, trust your team-mates to do it for you. Just as they trust you to do what they can't. That's what makes you strong. You may not be able to kill your brother yet, but with help," she said, gently pushing the three preteens shoulder to shoulder, "you're three steps closer than yesterday when you were alone."

Sasuke stared at her briefly before glancing at the other two. At book smart Sakura who he would often consider useless and weak, yet always had the mission objective in mind, always hung back to protect the client, always came up with a plan that worked on little information, who remembered the little details like geography or economy. Sakura who had stayed by his and Naruto's side for two days guarding and providing medical support constantly and without sleep, who fought tooth and nail, until she was bruised, bloodied and ruined against three superior opponents. All for them. She smiled, looking a little uncomfortable with the idea of killing someone, but nodded, pressing her shoulder firmly against his. She was with him.

Dumbass Naruto who was too stupid to know when to give it up, who struck from the most unlikely of places, the pre-teen who personified the term maverick, free and wild but... every time the chips were down he pulled through, every time either he or Sakura were threatened he pulled out all the stops. He gave everything. And then some. He sacrificed himself, heart, body and soul for the people he cared about and somehow forced up the power to fight and defeat Sabaku no Gaara and that monster he turned into. He ploughed that giant snake away from him when he saw it bearing down on him. When it came to him and Sakura... he would throw himself in front of a death-blow, just as Sasuke had done for him in Wave. Naruto didn't grin at him, that disconcerting somewhat blank grin that fell short of true happiness and showed far too many teeth to be sad. He smiled, eyes clear, face set, and roughly bumped him with a shoulder. Nothing short of a crowbar and a Jounin was going to pry him off. He was stuck with the knuckle head even if he hadn't wanted him.

Sasuke looked up at the green eyed girl, Naruto's sister, and she smiled before drawing all three of them into a tight hug that, for the first time since his family met their ends, Sasuke managed to return, feeling the arms of both Sakura and Naruto banding around his shoulders and waist, warm and strong.

000

Genma couldn't help but chuckle from where he was leaning against the doorway to the stair well, bloody shirt in one hand. He was getting flashbacks, a man at his age, already reminiscing about the old days. It was rather sad actually. He glanced over and smirked a little at the expression on his cute little Kohai's face, poor Kakashi looked like he'd been clipped with one of Kushina-hime's haymakers which he could say with experience were not fun. Jiraiya though looked like a proud papa as he watched the four Gakis hug and have their moment.

Quietly, so as not to ruin the moment (he was quite certain that Sasuke needed this. Any interruption could ruin everything and snap him back into his old thought patterns), he slipped over to the older Jounin.

"Did you plan this, Jiraiya-sama?" he questioned softly.

He shook his head grinning, "Nah. Hoped, sure. Hari-chan's upbringing wasn't as safe or as pleasant as I'd hoped when I sent her off with the Summons. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Whatever happened over there made her into the person she is now and if she can help the Uchiha off his self-destructive path, well, I can't think a single soul here would hate her for it."

"Where did she come from? She looks just like..." Kakashi couldn't even bring himself to say his Sensei's old name and Genma felt a sharp sting of sympathy and pity for the younger man.

Hari-chan was just like Minato, not just in looks either (though she'd definitely inherited her mother's curves). That blond bastard had been charismatic too, he always seemed to know exactly what to say to make everything seem alright, to make the world seem a little brighter and kinder than it really was. He inspired people, for no other reason than he cared. As abrasive and seemingly apathetic as Hari-chan tried to be down in that hospital room, clearly she was a lot more like her father than she was willing to admit. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her to be there when he died, when both of them did. That night, October tenth, was a nightmare that would never let him rest.

Genma sighed, "She's had a blood test. They're confirming the results right now but she's already had the work-up from Ibiki and Inoichi. She'd be in a cell right now if Inoichi was even the slightest bit suspicious. He only seems like a soft-touch at first." Minato wouldn't have asked him to head up Torture and Interrogation if he were anything but. Being part of Minato's personal guard had been the high point of Genma's life, of his career. That one shining year he had been amidst the Hokage's most trusted, his best and brightest, he wore his Flak Vest with pride and remembered being among the first that the blond bragged about Kushina's pregnancy with. He bought everyone drinks and dragged them off down the bar with Jiraiya. They kept the reason for their celebration hush-hush but never the less, they celebrated and Kushina decked him for bringing her husband home unconscious and reeking of Sake. He remembered waking up the next morning on their couch because she'd knocked him out then and there on their porch. He ended up having to run for the toilet and vomiting copiously at the smell of the fry up she'd made, Minato looking as fresh as a daisy, as if he hadn't drunk three times more than Genma, laughing his ass off from the kitchen table as his youngest guard paid his respects to the Porcelain Throne of the Hang Over Gods. Having Jiraiya for a sensei gave him an alcohol tolerance a Mist Nin would be jealous of.

And then October Ten... and it all fell apart. For everyone.

Whispers pointed the finger at the Uchiha Clan. The only ones known to possible be able to control the Kyuubi aside from the Shodai's Mokuton Kekkei Genkai. Genma didn't want to believe it, not when he remembered picking up a trembling and sobbing Uchiha Itachi, the four year old barely up to his knees, dirty and splattered with someone else's blood, his eyes red and wide with the Sharingan. Sure they were arrogant bastards half the time and some of the arguments that Kushina and Fugaku got into could be down-right vicious – if it weren't for Mikoto and Minato there would have undoubtedly been a throw down that would have ended with body parties in the hospital. Though Genma was fairly certain that the two probably would have become best friends afterwards, that was just the way Kushina worked and Fugaku needed to square off with someone before they earned his respect.

For both Kakashi and Genma... if was as if the world ground to a halt. It was almost as if he were frozen in time but for Kakashi... Kakashi started going backwards. He held on too tightly, everything he'd known, everyone he'd loved was gone and he couldn't look to a future without them, so all he could do was cling to the past. And while his skills never stagnated, it wasn't as if they got any better either. The fourteen year old just... broke. It took Jiraiya slapping some sense into him before he would stop his suicidal mission rates. The following two months after Minato's death, the young Jounin had taken a total of six missions a day when he could, he very nearly worked himself to death.

Then he joined ANBU and Genma couldn't keep an eye on him anymore. Something he never forgave himself for. He was nineteen, he had a responsibility, none of Kakashi's team remained, he had no clan and no sensei, and Genma was the last of the Fourth Guard. He swore to himself he would keep an eye on all those things Minato considered precious. And he failed Kakashi. True, he never knew Naruto was his son, he thought the whole family had died, the Kyuubi murdering both Kushina and her child – no one knew if she'd given birth to the baby before its attack and Genma would often wake in a cold sweat, grisly images of her stomach bursting open like an overripe grape as the Kyuubi crushed her, the unborn child spilling into the world wailing only to follow his mother the same way. But he kept an eye on the kid anyway. His Kage had entrusted a powerful and dangerous entity to the boy, he would protect the child until he was old enough to protect himself. But the Sandaime wouldn't allow it. Any petition or offer to adopt was denied and the child was raised in the orphanages of Konoha. Not to mention in the aftermath, they had foreign villages sniffing around like scavengers and he was so bogged down with missions, he could barely muster a threatening glare at those who bad mouthed the kid.

It was almost as if... the sun had died.

Everything had been so bright and hopeful when Minato and Kushina were alive and in the village, things were so peaceful and content for everyone, there was a baby-boom. Pregnant mothers puttering up and down the streets, giggling and making play-date meetings with one another, comparing bumps and swollen ankles, gossiping over who was going to drop first and whether it was a boy or a girl. Old men playing Go in the park as grand-children ran riot at their feet and played their games with origami Shuriken they learned to make at playschool or from each other. For the first time in years, Genma remembered, the gates of the village were open and the markets were bustling. Even the flowers had been celebrating, bursting out of every crack, windowbox and guttering they could find. He still remembered the utter bemusing moment when he almost landed in a patch of daffodils growing out of a broken chimney. Their obnoxiously cheerful yellow trumpets somehow looking right at home.

Those daffodils were crushed in the Kyuubi's attack. The gates were closed. So many mother's miscarried or gave birth prematurely from stress, so many little ones didn't make it. So many old men and women died. So many children left homeless, parentless. There had been no more flowers growing from the scorched and broken ground for almost three years. He remembered because... the village had seemed so grim without them.

"Uh oh, looks like Hime wants us. All of us," Jiraiya muttered, eyes skyward.

Genma looked up, spotting the tawny red falcon that circled them. His eyes narrowed when he caught it snapping it's beak. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight? Yeah, all of them. Eight people, eight snaps of the beak and three circuits around the roof to hammer home the fact it was them needed before it swept away. Yamanaka controlled definitely. A private meeting.

He glanced over and nodded to Jiraiya before stepped forward and plastering the most shit eating grin on his face as possible, he had to be careful how he did this. Sasuke's mental state was still fragile.

He coughed, pointedly, and grinned when he saw the group look up, but not remove their arms from one another. He couldn't help a split second of jealousy though, the Uchiha's face was very nearly right between those magnificent tits and he hadn't a fucking clue. He nearly shook his head, he was thirty one damnit, he could admire but that was it, she was barely sixteen from the look of her, legal or not, she was still Minato's daughter, it would be creepy and he was certain Kushina-hime would kick his ass six ways to Sunday before Minato got his hands on him.

"You forgot something downstairs," he stated, lifting her bloodied shirt with a grin.

Sakura went red as she realised that YES throughout that whole confrontation, the blonde girl had been shirtless and in nothing more covering than a bra. A bra that she had been clinging too and a boob she had her face pressed against. She wasn't the only one who went red though. Naruto just blinked up at him, clearly finding no problem with being wrapped around his half-naked sister but the Uchiha... oh his reaction was glorious.

He took one look down, realised right where his face was, went scarlet right up to the tips of his ears and down beneath the collar of his hospital issue top, his eyes practically bugging out of his head and unable to move.

"If you think I'm putting that back on, you've got another thing coming. I can't stand the feeling of dried blood," Harry pointed out bluntly with a frown at him.

"Well, its better than running around in a bra. You do know that all anyone has to do to find you is follow the nose bleeds," he pointed out with a grin, jerking a thumb towards the stair well, incidentally also to the leering and giggling and dribbling Jiraiya and the suddenly rather pink skinned and damp masked Kakashi – they had been a little too caught up in the seriousness of the situation to notice the fact there was a reallyhot girl without a whole lot on in front of them. She recoiled and snatched the shirt so quickly he almost caused it to tear as he hadn't finished letting go.

Jiraiya squawked in pain a moment later when a golden chain flicked him on the forehead, not hard, but enough to get him to stop drooling, "Put your tongue back in," Harry sneered, lip curling half way into a snarl. Goddamnit! That pervert was old enough to be his grandfather, it was just fucking CREEPY thinking that this guy was not only a mixture of Hagrid and Sirius. It was like being perved upon by an Uncle! (Not Vernon! Oh god not Vernon!)

The exchange was partly deliberate and partly out of true emotion, it gave Sasuke enough time to calm himself down and to have both Sakura and Naruto reaffirm their presence at his side, even they seemed to sense how important it was they stick with their more emotionally fragile team-mate.

"Either way, the new Hokage's summoned us, you too Sasuke. So let's get a movin'," Jiraiya called boisterously.

"At least let the kid get some shoes!" Harry snapped in reply as the dysfunctional group of Shinobi and one misplaced Wizard made their way back into the hospital in order to sign the Uchiha out and get him his clothes and footwear back.

000

"You're covered in blood," Tsunade barked as means of greeting as the group came through the door. The place looked like a bombsite, remains of Ninja wire littered the floor, books and broken furniture, the doors were busted and there was the burnt out remains of an Exploding Tag that was interrupted before it went off. Genma whistled in idle amusement, he hadn't seen the place look this bad since Kushina-hime's hormones kicked off during her last trimester and she nearly set Minato on fire for spending more time in the office than with her. Something about how he didn't lover her anymore because she was fat with puffy ankles? The memory was a bit fuzzy. He took a table leg to the face.

"That happens when you get stabbed," Harry stated nonchalantly, "I need to go back and finish booking my vaccination and full medical examinations, I was needed elsewhere," she explained, smiling at the preteens who grinned, flushed or wobbled an anxious smile at her. Tsunade huffed and waved a hand dismissively as she made her way over.

"I'll get Shizune to do it later. Hold still, you reopened it." The blonde Kage didn't wait for permission before she was jerking the other blonde's shirt up, prompting immediate excitement from Jiraiya and Kakashi, the former of which got tackled and ravaged by a rabid Naruto. Sakura squeaked and went pink at her Kage's brazen disregard for their public location while Sasuke went red and turned away, with his eyes still fixed upon the scene. Genma tried not to laugh, instead he covered it up with a coughing fit and covered his nose as if he too were affected by the very near lesbian scene in front of him.

Tsunade casually tore the bandage from the Spit-streak's stomach, eyeing the Kunai wound with a critical and experienced eye as it oozed ever so slightly. A substandard Medic Nin had seen to them. Not enough Chakra control and not enough Chakra capacity. Half healed, muscle fibres frayed and now torn. If the damn girl hadn't exerted herself over much she would have been fine within a week as long as she took it easy and didn't do anything severe with her abdominals. Now she'd torn the frayed muscle, flesh and lost a fair bit of blood. She'd need a good meal later. Lot's of meat and no alcohol. Lentil beans too, soup would be best. She nodded and made the seals necessary, a soft green glow enveloping her fingers as she began her work. Fingers twitching with every muscle fibre she reconnected and healed, with every cell she encouraged to divide.

The Hospital needed renovating, no, it needed a revolution. A complete overhaul. An overhaul she would put into planning in a few hours after Shizune had finished helping her put this office to rights after that Gaki had destroyed it. Honourable Grandson or not, he was lucky she hadn't beaten him black or blue for that stunt. Really. Just like Naruto, he looked far too much like Nawaki. This place was going to be the death of her.

She smirked a little as she stepped away, leaving an unblemished stomach behind and severely disappointed faces – or in the case of Jiraiya a very bruised and scratched one. Naruto was still gnawing on his leg. She tossed the bloody bandage in the waste-paper bin she'd found in an abandoned corner.

"Take a seat, anywhere'll do." It wasn't like she had any chairs that weren't broken she could offer them to sit on. When everyone had found a good spot, the younger generation sitting on the floor quite easily while Kakashi found a corner to lurk in Jiraiya perched himself on a pile of junk like it was a throne and Genma joined the kids on the floor as if it were story-time. She tried not to snort at the mental image as she perched herself on the windowsill "Alright, earlier I had a few complaints about our little Spit-Streak over there." Harry scowled at the nickname and Tsunade couldn't stop herself from grinning at her. "So I figured I should clear the air first with Team 7 and you Genma, since you were a member of the Guard, and then with the Council and the rest of the Village," she explained as she rubbed an eye tiredly.

"She can't possibly be- " Kakashi began in an undertone only to quiet down when Tsunade shook her head.

"But she is. I ran the blood tests myself and compared them to Naruto's. Not only that but she's got the Uzumaki Chakra nature and both Jiraiya and I have seen her using the Hiraishin. Or at least a variant of it." She lifted up a sheet of paper revealing an official paper from the Hospital comparing blood. "She's the real deal Kakashi. I didn't think she'd even survived that night so I never said anything."

"You knew?" the Jounin demanded, face almost heart broken.

Tsunade winced, "I delivered her. It was a while before your promotion Kakashi. You were only nine at the time and the art with Iwa was getting more and more heated, Minato was only just beginning to make a name for himself and he didn't want to put Kushina or the baby in danger. Only Jiraiya and I knew. Not even the Sandaime was aware. She has no records in the village at all because she was never born in it," Tsunade explained, spinning and bullshitting the way that only someone who lived her whole career as a lie could. "Plus, we didn't want another Kumo incident. Being distracted by the war, you can bet your Hitai-ate they would have tried for the baby if they knew of her existence. They certainly tried to get hold of Kushina afterwards, if I remember the rumours right. Minato had a hard enough time with A and Bee it would have been worse if he'd been forced to protect his child at the same time. Jiraiya and Minato held the seal of her Kekkei Genkai while I did the delivery. A healthy baby girl, blue eyed and whiskered, five pounds five ounces. Underweight I know, but she was already kicking and snarling so I returned to Konoha and the war and that was that. I lost Dan later that year and left completely. I only heard later what'd happened, I thought she'd died with her parents."

Jiraiya picked up as the blonde Kage fell silent and stared out of the window. It didn't hurt as much as before, thinking about Dan, but it still hurt. "I left Hari-chan with some lady friends of mine, Miki-chan recently lost her baby so she was capable of being a fairly good wet-nurse. She and Kushina really hit it off," Jiraiya explained, recalling a young civilian girl that Kushina had been friendly with during the war, apparently she made damn good tea. The woman died during the Kyuubi attack. Kakashi nodded, accepting it, no doubt recalling the few times Kushina told them she was going out to have tea with Miki-chan and she might not be back until morning. "Kushina was training Hari-chan to take the Kekkei Genkai after her, you see, the Uzumaki's have two Bloodline limits, their special Chakra, which you've seen Hari-chan use in the form of those chains, it gives them unbelievable stamina and vitality. And the other is directly tied to the first. It can only be held by one Uzumaki at a time and only ever by the one with the strongest concentration of that special Chakra, otherwise their minds will be overwhelmed and poisoned. Hari was going to hold the second Kekkei Genkai as the female child, thus far, only girls had been chosen for the role but on the night of her parents' death, when Naruto was born and the seal on his mother's Kekkei Genkai broke, he was the closest and so they sealed it into him rather than let it risk rampage. It has a mind of its own and it is very evil."

Harry made a sound of disgust, "He isn't evil," she snapped, causing the eyes of all the Jounin to swivel to her. "He's just pissed off. You would be too if someone got you thrown in what amounts to a very boring jail for eighty years for something that wasn't even your fault."

Kakashi spluttered, "He murdered your parents!"

"They got in the way!" Harry snapped back, her hand was already around Naruto's as she glared at Kakashi. "He wasn't aiming for them when they died. He was aiming for Naruto. He knew they were going to put him behind bars, he knew Hahaue was dying anyway, I heard them say it. She wasn't going to make it, she said they should seal it in her so when she died it would go with her and take a long time to reform. But Dad... They split it in half, Dad took half with him when he died and sealed the other half Naruto. So he attacked, he attacked my brother and Mum threw herself in front of him and Dad... Dad threw himself in front of her. They stopped it. By inches, but they did."

Kakashi was silent and chalk white as he collapsed back against the wall behind him. He never knew the details about his Sensei's death. Somehow... it didn't seem as grim as it once was. A pressed a shaking hand over his eye as Naruto crawled into his sister's lap and sniffled. She hugged him tightly and almost hesitantly, Sakura scooted forward to offer her own support, she too was pulled in tight. It took another sniffle from Naruto for Sasuke to shift closer, he didn't join the hug, but he elbow was pressed against the curve of his team-mate's spine and it was enough.

"Who is he?" Genma asked, his eyes narrowed. He knew there was something different about Kushina, she tended to fly off the handle fairly often but he had never seen her homicidally enraged. Her emotional control was actually pretty good, but she seemed to have a pathological terror of mind-readers and certain Genjutsu that messed with her brain. He was beginning to get an idea of why. If her second Kekkei Genkai had a mind of its own... who's to say that while her mind was busy with a Genjutsu, that one couldn't take over? Or if it was locked up, the mind reader attacking her wouldn't set it free by accident?

"And earlier, you said that my clan had something to do with it," Sasuke added, frowning at the whiskered blonde. She looked up at Tsunade with a raised eyebrow.

"He needs the truth, they all do," she pointed out. There was also the small problem of neither Tsunade OR Jiraiya knowing the full truth of what happened that night. They knew bits and pieces, they hadn't been aware she retained the memory of the whole night and the person who attacked them. Both were sitting forward, their faces intense.

"Speak. No one, not even the Sandaime ever knew who opened the Seal. Did you get a name?" Jiraiya demanded, his eyes flickered to Sasuke, chances were...

"He called himself Uchiha Madara. He ore a face-mask and a black coat with red clouds printed on it." She knew that design. "Akatsuki." Kabuto knew that design. He knew it well. "Aka no Sasori... Orochimaru... Pein... Uchiha Itachi..." she flinched and cradled her head, feeling a curious stabbing sensation behind her forehead.

"Don't force it," Tsunade commanded.

"Well, aside from that second name, the others are all members as well. I take it Kabuto's memories are playing up?" Jiraiya asked with a raised eyebrow. He hadn't known that the Medic Nin was aware of the shadowy organisation. He really was damn good at infiltration, better even than him Jiraiya would wager if the youngster hadn't also focused on Ijustu.

"They are. So many names and countries..."

"Well, maybe this'll help you sort it out," the pervert offered before beginning to explain the Akatsuki to those present. He didn't have a lot of information, a few names, their countries of origin, and their goal. All the Biju, the tailed beasts like Kyuubi and Shukaku whom they faced. It did help. Harry could feel the information in his head beginning to shuffle and sort itself, the whirlwind of information dying down. Akatsuki was far reaching and vast, all the information that Kabuto had accrued about the organisation had tried to force its way to the forefront of Harry's consciousness, all tried to be acknowledged at once.

"And my brother is a part of them?" Sasuke asked, his eyes narrowed.

Jiraiya nodded, "Yes. The big fellow he was with earlier was Hoshigaki Kisame, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, he successfully assassinated the Daimyou during Zabuza's uprising. An S-ranked criminal. Akatsuki only accept people of that calibre and only after they've betrayed their villages."

Sasuke cast his thoughts back. "They were after Naruto," he stated, remembering what the Jounin had said, what his brother had said. They wanted Naruto because of their organisation and their organisation wanted... Naruto's birthday was October Tenth, same day as the Kyuubi's attack. His mother had something Sealed in her, something sentient that broke free that day with outside help from an Uchiha. An Uchiha who reportedly had the Ultimate Sharingan, one powerful enough to control a Tailed Beast.

"Naruto's a Jinchuuriki, like his mother before him, they both held the Kyuubi, that's why the Akatsuki were after him!" he exclaimed in realisation, making everyone in the room go tense before.

"Kushina-hime had the Kyuubi?" Kakashi and Genma chorused in surprise.

"What an interesting little gathering this is, Tsunade-hime."

Harry's blood ran cold at the voice behind them, issuing from the broken doorway, feeling something rising up in her mind.

Tsunade scowled, "Danzou."

000

Chapter Fin...

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