Family Bonding
There was an awkward silence at the dinner table as they ate with their newly discovered uncle. Naruto and Harry discussed silently, glancing at each other and then back at Hayato. Hayato looked unbothered while he ate his food as if this wasn’t the most tension-heavy family dinner ever: “So… You’re the clan head of the Namikaze?” Harry asks curiously, he wasn’t sure how clans worked, but he was sure it was at least slightly similar to pureblood families, at least the way they function. Hayato's eyes brighten at Harry’s question and he looks happy to answer.
He nodded as he swallowed his food elegantly, “I was, once, before the Namikaze clan became extinct,” Hayato answered with a gentle smile, but there was slight bitterness in his voice. Harry blinks confusedly while Naruto glares with squinted suspicious eyes. “I’m not much of a clan head anymore.” Hayato chuckles softly, even if it wasn’t funny.
Harry opens his mouth, but Naruto beats him to it, not bothering to beat around the bush, “Who’re you? And how come you didn’t take me in?” Naruto questions rapidly as he glares at Hayato with mistrust, “I’m having a hard time believing that you’re my ‘uncle’, like you said, dattebayo!” Naruto scowls as Harry leans to Naruto's side.
“Naruto, I hate to say it, but you guys look like you could be related.” Harry whispers to Naruto, a tic forms on Naruto’s forehead from Harry’s words and he side-eyes him.
“Four-eyes.”
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
Naruto shoves Harry away from him and he turns his attention back to Hayato. Hayato had an amused expression at the banter between Naruto and Harry, “To answer your question, I wasn’t allowed to do so because of Danzo,” Hayato spat the name out with distaste, “he made it clear that no one should be allowed to take you in, even with family relation. The Third Hokage had agreed, he thought it would potentially endanger you if you were living with me,” Hayato explains with a frown, “and after that… I’ve became a shut-in, I was heavily depressed… I haven’t been in society for years, until well, now.”
Harry and Naruto share a glance then they look back at Hayato, it doesn’t sound like he’s lying, so the two boys have no choice but to believe him. Hayato continues on with his explanation, “I’m your father’s uncle, I raised him when his parents sadly died in a mission, taught him practically everything he knew,” Hayato adds with a grin then he pauses with a pondering expression, “Well, not everything, but some of the moves he learned from me.” Hayato concedes but the broad grin doesn’t waver.
“So what? You’re our grand-uncle? Why didn’t you say so the first time, dattebayo!” Naruto exclaims as he crosses his arms with a huff. Hayato blinks at Naruto’s behavior, then he laughs and reaches forward, ruffling the two boys' hair.
“Ah… You behave just like your mother,” Hayato remarks as he finishes laughing and removes his hands from the boy’s hair, “Anyway, do you two have any questions? I’ll try my best to answer whatever you may be wondering.”
“You mentioned a man named Danzo, who is that exactly?” Harry asks with a curious expression, however, he is met with a disappointing response.
“No one you’ll have to worry about.” Hayato responds ambiguously, but his response does nothing but worsen Harry’s curiosity about who this mysterious “Danzo” may be. From Hayato’s explanation, he may be connected to the Third Hokage in some way, an assistant perhaps? Or maybe more…
While Harry’s thoughts ran wild, this time, Naruto asked a question, “Are you a shinobi?” From his observation of Hayato, he looked like any regular old man, but appearances are only disguises, they never tell you the real personality behind a person’s facade. Naruto was a victim of this tactic, his appearance made him stick out, and it was loud because Naruto wanted to be noticed. He was glad he didn’t have that type of thinking anymore.
“I was a shinobi, I’m retired now,” Hayato responds, “I used to be well-known, but now? I’m not so sure.” Hayato adds absently.
“Well-known?” Naruto echoes with a confused expression and he cocks his head to the side. Harry shares the same confusion with Naruto, listening silently to the conversation. “What do you mean well-known? Like you were popular?”
Hayato blinks, then he seems to realize something, “Oh, right! I forgot you two wouldn’t be aware of this,” he chuckles sheepishly, “There are ranks for shinobis, D-rank, C-rank, and S-rank. S-rank is considered to be a title for competent and powerful people. You two, of course, are currently D-Rank, which means you’re Genins,” Hayato explains, his voice sounding quite similar to Iruka-sensei when he’s lecturing them on a lesson, “You have to go through tough exams to become a chunin, then a jonin!”
Naruto’s expression changes into sulkiness, “Oh, that’s totally lame,” Naruto groans with a frown. “I thought we wouldn’t have to take any more boring exams after graduating from the academy.” Naruto grumbles and scowls, he may have been more studious, but it doesn’t mean he liked to study. It was absolutely boring and a chore to do.
However, Harry disagreed with Naruto, “I mean, it makes sense, if we’re raising a rank, then obviously they would have to test our skills to see if we fit the expectations.” Harry said with a knowledgeable nod. Naruto squints his eyes at him:
“Nerd.”
“I’m not a nerd, you—”
And just like that, the room filled with the chaotic sounds of the two boys arguing. Hayato only smiles as he continues to eat his food, he is happy to have the estate filled with noise again…. After such a long time of loneliness and depression, Hayato felt light again. While Harry lunges forward, tackling Naruto, and they wrestle on the floor.
“Ah, such peacefulness.” Hayato remarks, sipping his cup of water.
“Aha! My beautiful katana!” Harry cheers, carrying his newly crafted katana, it is clean and has not yet experienced a battle. “It’s so beautiful.” Harry murmurs with awe, staring at his katana a bit longer, enjoying the way the sun gleams off of the katana’s surface. Naruto, however, decides to ruin the moment.
“It looks basic,” Naruto remarks, as they leave the swordsmith, like always The sun is shining brightly with no gray clouds in sight. It is an ordinary day for the two boys before they go and meet their team tomorrow. They’ve settled in nicely with Hayato as well, today, he had promised that he would train them. Which was something both Naruto and Harry were looking forward to.
Harry sputters with outrage, “Basic?! This is an original design, I’ll have you know!” Harry exclaims and Naruto hates to admit it, but he may have a point. Harry’s blade was a smooth sliver color, similar to the moon, while there were cravings of a dragon embedded into the steel. The hilt was wrapped in deep green silk with subtle lighting bolt patterns in the material. A bit too fancy for Naruto's tastes but it fits Harry's personality. Harry had spent ages practicing how to fight with a katana by using a wooden form of one, it wasn’t long before he had developed his own fighting style. The way Harry fights reminds Naruto of a bird, always weaving and dodging, like how a bird is hard to catch. It’s why Naruto hated sparring with him.
Naruto snorts with a dismissive wave, “Yeah whatever.” He said as walked with his hands in his pockets. Harry cools down and he sheathes his katana, with this katana, Harry may be able to push his magic into the weapon, using it as a replacement of a wand. Harry had tried it once with one of the wooden katanas but it exploded in his face, which annoyed Harry that his experiment had failed. But maybe, this time it won’t.
Suddenly, a child, with spiky brown hair and sun-kissed skin ran into them, “Oi! Watch where you’re going!” The child exclaimed while dusting himself off. Harry blinks while Naruto’s eyebrow twitches.
Harry points at the child with a blank expression, “Whose lost child is this?” Harry questions with a confused expression. The child scoffed and he puffs his chest out with pride:
“I am the Third Hokage’s grandson, Konohamaru Sarutobi! And I demand an apology for running into me!” Konohamru declares expecting them to bow down and apologize like he demanded. Expect, things didn’t go as Konohamaru expected.
“The Third Hokage has a grandson?” Harry questions curiously.
“The Third Hokage reproduced?” Naruto said with disgust. Harry deadpans at Naruto with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s the thing you’re focusing on?”
“Well, yeah, what type of woman would be attracted to the Third Hokage? Have you seen the amount of wrinkles he has?”
“Maybe he looked better when he was younger.”
“I highly doubt that.”
Konohamaru’s patience ran out once he saw that they were speaking over him like he didn’t exist, so he rudely interrupted their conversation, “Oi! Don’t ignore me!” Konohamaru snaps with a scowl, “You have to apologize for running into me! I’m The Third Hokage’s grandson! You have to treat me with respect.” Konohamaru spoke arrogantly as he glared up at them.
Harry only huffs out an amused chuckle, not bothered by Konohamaru’s attitude, “You ran into us–” Naruto did not share the same amusement with Harry as he stomps over to Konohamaru, looming over him, showcasing their height difference.
“I don’t care if you were The Hokage’s granddaughter! I’m not apologizing when you were the one that ran into us, dattebayo!” Naruto glares back down at Konohamaru and the brown-haired boy blinks with surprise as if he had been expecting a different response, “How about you take accountability for your actions and apologize to us!”
A few seconds of silence passed by as Konohamaru stared up at Naruto with surprise and awe, “I–” Sadly, Konohamaru was interrupted by his tutor, Ebisu, a man who wore black circle shades, with his hair covered by the leaf headband.
“Honorable grandson! There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you!” Ebisu exhaled a sigh of relief, he’s been looking for Konohamaru all day, and he was almost starting to believe he would never find him. Konohamaru’s face falls when he hears Ebisu’s voice and he frowns slightly. Ebisu noticed the two boys standing in front of Konohamaru and he paused once his eyes landed on them behind his glasses, “Ah, Were they bothering you, Honorable grandson?” Ebisu immediately assumes that Harry and Naruto have been stirring up trouble
Konohamaru shakes his head, which is a surprise to Harry and Naruto, “No, I ran into them,” He responds and he bows his head respectfully, apologizing, “I’m sorry for running into you both! I’ll make sure to watch where I’m going next time!” Konohamaru smiles sheepishly once he straightens back up from his bowing position.
Ebisu blinks with surprise, this is the first time he’s ever seen Konohamaru take accountability for his own actions and apologize for it too? How odd. Ebisu focuses his gaze on the two boys, “Did you two do something?!” Ebisu accuses, pointing a finger at them, he wouldn’t find it surprising if the jinchuriki had done something to Konohamaru. That boy’s been a worthless nuisance since birth, even if he stopped doing his annoying pranks and changed his behavior, it didn’t change the fact that his troublesome.
Harry's amused expression shifts into a cold glare and he gazes at Ebisu blankly. Ebisu wavers and he takes a step back, it took Ebisu a few minutes to regain his composure, “Never mind that, Konohamaru, let’s go continue our lessons.” Ebisu walks away quickly with slight fear.
So cool! Konohamaru thought as he followed Ebisu but he couldn’t stop thinking about the two boys who treated him as a person, they didn’t care for his title of being The Third Hokage’s grandson, and the black-haired guy's glare almost made Ebisu wet his pants! Konohamaru wanted to be like that, and from there, Konohamaru formed an idolization for Naruto and Harry.
They make it back to the estate without any more incidents and Hayato had prepared with their presence because there was a bunch of scrolls on the table when they walked into the living room. Hayato turns his attention to them and he smiles brightly, “Ah! How was your outing?” Hayato asks while arranging the scrolls on the table
“It was good,” Naruto responds as he flops down on the couch, taking up all the sitting space, however, he’s forced to scoot over when Harry joins his side, “We met The Third Hokage’s grandson, Konohamaria or something.”
Harry sets his sheathed katana on his lap, “It’s Konohamaru,” Harry corrects absently while tracing the designs of the saya, “I didn’t know the Hokage had a grandson.” Naruto makes a sound of agreement with Harry’s statement.
Hayato makes a soft humming noise, “Ah yes, he… Is quite the troublesome fellow,” Hayato remarks, “But I’m sure he will grow out of such behavior.” From what they had seen a few hours ago, he might, but it was only a tiny belief that he would.
Naruto’s attention gets caught by the sight of the scrolls, “What’s all this?” Naruto questions with a curious expression as he leans forward eagerly.
Hayato’s wise eyes twinkle and his smile shifts into something sadder, “Your father’ scrolls, they contain all the weapons and jutsus he learned,” Hayato answers and he pushes them toward Naruto, “I’m supposed to give these to you when you’re older, but I believe you deserve to have them now,” Naruto’s fingers trace the scrolls, the scrolls his late father had probably made by hand, “It is your choice, of course, if you want to have them.” Hayato adds softly, he didn’t desire to rush Naruto.
Naruto hesitates but he slowly nods, “I do.” He responds lowly and he takes one of the scrolls, unrolling the scroll and a large custom-made kunai pops out in an air of white smoke, “Flying Thunder God…” Naruto read the words, the kunai fitted perfectly in Naruto’s hand like it was meant to be his. Naruto feels a hand on his shoulder and before he knows he is wrapped in gentle arms, a comforting and warm embrace, he feels the wetness on his cheek.
Oh. He’s crying.
Naruto’s chin trembled but he wasn’t able to hold back the grief that he would never be able to see his parents, not in this life, he would never get to know them, or see their smiles, their faces, and hear the beautiful song of their voices.
“Let it out, dear boy,” Hayato whispers as he rubs Naruto’s back, “It’s unhealthy to hold in your grief. You may not know it now Naruto, but I will always be here for you, no matter what.” Hayato said and he hugged Harry as well, “For both of you.” Hayato promises to the Sages that he will never let these boys suffer or feel any pain, no matter what, he’ll be there to his dying breath.
The stars in the night sky shine beautifully as a shooting star passes through without any witnesses.