Chapter 4
Kakashi was sort of amazed that Hari could still feel such intense emotions even as he noticed Kushina. He hadn’t thought much; why would he even react, but he did, in such a way he hadn’t expected.
He didn’t even know the village, but he went out and just walked randomly. It didn’t matter what the area was; he walked through it without anybody noticing. Thankfully, he stayed clear of some areas and ended up in a park. He removed his shoes, stuck his feet in the water, and sat there looking down at his feet in the water. It wasn’t dark enough to see stars, so maybe watching the water calmed him. He still stayed up late every night to see the stars. Even when it obviously hurt to look, he still looked. He got a few hours of rest before he inevitably woke from a nightmare and kept staring at the stars when they were visible.
If it hurts so much, why keep looking at them?
He ventured closer and sat close by but didn’t say anything.
He reclined onto the grass, removing his glasses and shielding his eyes with his elbow.
“She… she looks a lot like the pictures of my mother… the eyes are wrong, but she looks like her.”
“The eyes?”
“I don’t really remember my mother. She died when I was just 15 months old… I was placed with another family… they didn’t like me, but they were supposed to be family. They told me she died in a stupid accident. I found out later that they lied. They died protecting me… I found so many things, found my first friends, and they gave me an album filled with pictures of my mother and father. They died protecting me… I kept meeting people who knew them, and they all started with the same lines… ‘You look like your father, but you have your mother's eyes,’ they always say that, but they never bother to tell me anything else. So, seeing her… it’s like seeing a ghost. How am I not supposed to react? What would have been the right reaction?”
“I think you kept to your senses. I’m not sure I would have if I ever encountered something like it.”
There was quiet. Some birds were singing, and Hari pulled his legs out of the water and sat up. He moved under the tree, forgetting his shoes, and began plucking the grass blades that cut when pulled wrong. He made ribbons, tied one end together, and began braiding them.
“I never knew my mother. I don’t even have pictures.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I remember my father. He was one of the Great Shinobi, but according to the rules, he made a mistake. He was publicly shamed for it. I understand why he did it… I found him dead at home one day. He had taken his own life.”
"Public opinion is a fickle thing."
"What?"
"I've been at the wrong end of the rumour mill. It's terrible when they all blame you for something you couldn't even control. I guess mine wasn't as bad as your father's, but the public... they don't know anything. They judge and point fingers, but place them in the same situation, and they would fold under the pressure because they only know how to point fingers but not how to actually do better."
The green braid grew in his hand as his fingers deftly moved each strand, adding more when one line became too short.
Neither spoke.
“Why were you so injured when we met?”
“I was forced to participate in a competition. It was supposed to be voluntary, and I didn’t even register, but someone else did. My name was called. I wasn’t allowed to quit… well, I could, but something that made me, me, would have been taken from me. So, I took part and had to deal with stuff way over my head again. It turned out the whole thing was so they could kidnap me right under everyone's nose so they could raise a dead person back to life. They just wanted my blood… since they got my blood, they decided to kill me, but through some miracle, I managed to get away and woke up some distance from where I found you.”
“Was that all that happened?”
“No, if that was all… then I… it would just be one person, but now it’s everyone I come to care about.”
“What?”
“I keep staring at the sky… we study stars in school… we look at stars two times a week, map their movements, the patterns in the sky are not there. The sky is wrong… and I have no one… The few true friends... I should fight, I should learn, and I should do things. I should figure something out, but all I can think right now is that I miss them. I miss them so much it hurts.”
Tears fell from his eyes again. His hands shook, but he continued with the strange green braid. It was growing even as he continued.
He had said, ‘The sky is wrong, ' and Kakashi knew what that meant. It wasn’t just that he got lost in the elemental nations. No, this meant he was lost, like lost in a different world.
No wonder he was grieving. He had no one here, and… he might be unable to return.
Well, at least he was sure he was no spy or enemy ninja. No one could fake that kind of grieving, losing everyone… he wasn’t far from it, really. He only had a few people left, and now him…
“Come, let’s head back,” he said simply. Hari left the braid, pulled on his shoes, and they returned to a home-cooked meal. Hari still struggled to eat with chopsticks, but he slowly got better.
Later, when they were in the back. Hari asked if there were metal chopsticks.
“Why?”
“Don’t know, just are their smaller weapons?”
“There are senbon,” he said, pulling a few from his back pocket. He wasn’t interested in them, but Hari took them and played with them a little.
“Can I keep them?” Kakashi nodded. “Anything else you might have on you right now?”
“Just the wire. We mostly make traps with them.” He pulled out a spool of it and showed it to him.
“Can I?” Kakashi simply handed the spool of ninja wire over to him. He wasn’t about to do anything with that, right? He was wrong. He had no idea how he could have such capable hands and fingers, and he wasn’t a ninja. He had no idea what he was doing with the wire, just that sometime later, he was somehow braiding the wire. It wasn’t just three strands either; it was five.
“You never ask about me?”
“I hate prying. I don’t like talking about myself. I don’t like attention. Since the moment I met you, you seem to be of a similar kind. If you wanted to share something, you would.”
“Everyone usually wants me to talk about things.”
“I usually start talking when I’m done processing.”
“Oh,” he had no idea what to say to that. Was he like that?
He said nothing more and let his fingers twist the metal in his hand. It looked very pliable in his hands, yet he knew it wasn’t.
“The blood on my hand… the hand you washed. It belonged to a friend and a teammate.” Hari hung his head a little but didn’t say anything, and his hands continued to work without pause. “Her name was Rin, and she… I was supposed to protect her. It was a promise to another friend who died… I couldn’t keep it. She got kidnapped, and something terrible was done to her. She heard their plans, and when I finally got her out, she told me to… she told me to kill her. I refused. There had to be another way… but she… we were surrounded, and I was preparing to fight them… but she… she stepped into my lighting-covered hand. She looked so… kind. I never cared for her, but that moment… I can’t forget what she looked like.” He expected him to say something, but he was sort of glad he didn’t.
The silence stretched.
“People would say it isn’t your fault, but you still feel it. No matter how many times they say it… you still feel it, right?” He asked instead.
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t alone when that madman kidnapped me… We reached the goal at the same time. Since we helped each other over time, we thought about finishing together. But he wasn’t needed, so he was killed. I think it is my fault – if I made a different choice… would he have survived? If, for once, I had been selfish, he would have survived.”
Kakashi had nothing to say, pulling out another spool of wire and starting his own.
Kakashi began to talk about his father… Hari talked about his friends.
Harry Potter
It had been weeks since he had been in the village. He had gotten used to being around Kushina. She was just like Mrs Weasley always was… overbearing. It was suffocating but also calming. Someone who just didn’t leave him alone to suffer in silence.
About two days after she got back, she discovered he couldn't read or write. She immediately rushed out of the house and returned with some supplies to help him learn. It helped a lot; his mind began to get busy figuring out the written language. It was challenging but not completely unmanageable.
Now that his basic skills had improved, he was sent to the academy. Kushina was with him, and he was writing down his information when his eyes landed on the calendar.
He hadn’t paid much attention to the passing of time. He just moved. He kept moving and learning as best he could. But now, seeing that it was August… he returned to the paper and finished his writing.
“You are fifteen?” the woman at the table said. “Most come much earlier.”
“He’s new in the village.”
The woman frowned. “And he is safe?”
“He passed the T&I. What more do you need?”
“Right. When did you get 15? It says in your papers that you stated you were 14 upon arrival.”
“Yesterday.” Even the woman looked up at the boy for his almost numb voice. She blinked in surprise and shock. Then, she looked up at Kushina.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” she scolded.
“Lost track of time.”
“Okay, let's get him tested.” The woman composed herself and took him to another room, where a man sat while young children took tests.
Hari picked up the pen and began to answer the questions. The writing was still difficult for him, but he could manage. It turned out that the math of it all was the easiest for him to deal with, and history was something Kakashi and Kushina told him about. Minato lectured him about village law. He was pretty much covered in all the aspects necessary to pass the test; just the speed of his writing was the problem.
After that, there were some physical tests, and he got them done without much of a problem.
Kushina made him a cake that evening and wished him a happy birthday. Both Kakashi and Minato had been out.
It turned out he had to sit in the academy as a formality for some time. He didn’t mind much and sat quietly, practising his reading and writing skills. He would pick up one of his practices when he got bored. He hadn’t really thought it was necessary. Playing with the two kunai had been a distraction to him.
But Kakashi said it was a good skill. He didn’t get it. He still doesn’t.
He had been in the academy for about a month when he met a man with long hair and make-up around his eyes. The man had noticed him playing with his blades one day and gave him a small challenge.
To pickpocket. To steal as many wallets as he could without getting caught, and if that wasn't challenging enough, return them to the owners without them noticing that it was lifted or returned.
He knew it was wrong, but he was also a little intrigued.
So, he tried, and upon getting five wallets without anyone noticing, he went to the police station and gave them up as found wallets. They looked at him suspiciously but didn’t say anything.
He went home and spoke about it to Kushina. She scolded him for doing such a thing… Minato frowned and Kakashi wasn’t here yet. He didn’t meet the man again, but strangely, Minato told him to continue. It was weeks later when he figured that Minato had told the Uchiha Police Force about it, and they were also trying to catch him in the act.
They never did, but Hari always brought the wallets back intact and didn’t take anything.
He finished the academy and was given a headband about two months after starting it.
Hari kept himself occupied, and it was only at the end of September that he began to feel like his old self again. He hadn’t been assigned to a team and only had a few village tasks to complete. He didn’t mind. Kushina had started to teach him some seals. He had discovered early on that these seals were not easy. In fact, they were quite challenging to master.