Chapter two
Chapter two
The past twenty-four hours had admittedly been some on the weirdest Uzumaki Naruto had experienced, and for a shinobi who had done the things he had, that was saying quite a lot.
After the old man's proposal, the room had been in absolute chaos. It seemed the people present were of varied opinions; he remembered the mother-hen –as Naruto had started calling her in his head- protesting that Naruto was just a kid and he shouldn’t get involved with the dangers the job entailed (which had offended Naruto, again). On the other hand, the fake-eyed grump had objected, declaring Naruto incompetent for the job (which had offended Naruto even more). It had taken quite a while to calm down the members of the so called Order or whatever they called themselves.
After that followed a long hour of explaining on the old geezer's part. It was basically torture to sit through the wizarding history and the life story of the boy he was to protect, but once Dumbledore started explaining their wizarding abilities, Naruto had perked up.
Afterwards, he was quite surprised, and he made one deduction from the information he received; this was going to be easy.
The wizards did not have chakra, instead they possessed magic, which had to be channeled through the sticks they wielded; whether for shinobi, their bodies and chakra are their weapons.
They also started training from a much older age, and lead sheltered lives.
From what he could gather, their battles mainly revolved around quick-thinking and dodging, and they were not familiar with close combat.
Basically, they were no match for shinobi.
After Dumbledore had seen the look on his face, which probably screamed have mercypleasestop, he dismissed Naruto to rest for the night in one of the rooms of the huge creepy house he'd had the misfortune of appearing in.
Albus Dumbledore hummed to himself as he entered the room the order had gathered in to discuss their little interrogation after the young man went to bed.
All conversation halted and he felt the eyes of the rooms occupants on him. He took a seat, and right as Mad-eye Moody started to speak up, the professor held up a hand.
"Those of you who have your objections, please hold on to them for a few moments," he looked around the room "I believe I have some more explaining to do."
At this, the room fell silent. He had caught their attention.
Albus took out his wand and cast a silencing spell to the room they were in, and started.
"While what I told our guest earlier -about there being very few resources on shinobi- is true, what I did not mention was that I had personally met one of his kind before, many years ago."
He heard some small gasps around the room.
"while everything he said was the truth, the young man was quite.. humble, in the way he described his profession."
Dumbledore felt the curiosity in the room intensify. No one dared to interrupt.
"Shinobi are trained killers and warriors. Their world and their magic is completely different from ours, and there is a reason we don’t know much about them; which is why I urge each and every one of you to refrain from mentioning our new guest's profession outside this circle," his eyes glinted as he looked at their faces with a knowing smile.
"They have magic too?" Sirius asked, looking troubled.
"it's not quite magic, like ours, but an energy called chakra. From what I have gathered, it is stored inside their bodies and it helps them enhance their senses and perform some actions; however, my knowledge on it is still quite limited," He sighed, "I'm hoping in time Mr. Uzumaki will help me understand it more." He added as an afterthought. He looked around the room again and prepared to answer all the questions that were sure to come his way, to the best of his abilities.
Said Mr. Uzumaki was having a hard time sleeping. Naruto tossed and turned in the comfy bed that was provided to him –a bed far comfier than any Naruto had ever slept on- but the realization of how truly fucked he was, was slowly settling in.
As if that wasn’t enough, now that the adrenaline of waking up tied in a room full of wizards was dying down, he could remember the events that led to his teleportation more clearly.
That damn Rinnegan.
Naruto's heart ached again, eyes heavy as he thought about the memories.
Six months ago
The war had just ended; after his fight with Sasuke, Naruto lay exhausted in the Valley of the End. his body was in so much pain that he couldn’t even process it anymore; but it was okay, because Sasuke lay next to him, and Sasuke was back. He was finally coming home with him.He glanced down, and saw that they both were missing an arm, the result of their last stand together. Naruto couldn’t help but think it was poetic.
Five months ago
Naruto had not expected the transition to be as hard as it did, and he certainly did not expect his own personal revelations about a certain Uchiha. The villagers avoided the raven haired boy, and most of his –no, their- friends were weary around Sasuke. It did not help that the last Uchiha was being his usual anti-social, sarcastic self, reeking of arrogance. His left eye and bandaged left arm did not help others feel at ease around him.
These were all the more reason for Naruto to stick to Sasuke's side like glue, much to the boy's disdain. Nothing could stop a determined Naruto. He would make their bond, the bond he had worked so hard to protect, stronger.
However.
Naruto had not realized how his feelings for his best friend had changed from friendship to something much deeper until he started dating Hinata.
Three months ago
Naruto had just broken up with Hinata, and he was heartbroken; he really did love her, but he had realized that his love was platonic long ago, when thoughts of a certain black haired boy filled his head whenever he kissed her, when he imagined how Sasuke's pale skin would feel under his touch as he caressed her body. The guilt had been immeasurable. How could he have these thoughts about Sasuke?
It was wrong.
More importantly, how stupid was he to not realize his true feelings sooner?
he was brokenhearted for a love he knew he could never have.
So he had kept his distance from the Uchiha, no matter how much it hurt, until the previous day, when he was approached by a furious Sasuke in The Valley of the End, demanding an explanation.
Naruto was jolted awake by aggressive knocking on the rooms door. Instantly alert and on guard, he relaxed slightly when he realized it was just one of the wizards, demanding he go downstairs to be briefed on the mission once again, as his charge would be coming there in a few days.
He sighed and stretched his arms. His eye caught the bandages on his right arm, starting from his elbow and extending to his fingertips. The artificial arm made for him and Sasuke using the first hokage's cells. The sight always reminded him of his comrade who shared the same arm.
He shook his head. He couldn’t be all depressed in front of these wizards now, could he? He grinned widely and left the room.
------
3 days later
"…Are you listening, Mr. Uzumaki?" Dumbledore asked the boy tentatively.
Remus looked at the 'shinobi' in question. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he was a trained warrior and deemed dangerous by Albus; They had been weary in the beginning. They avoided the boy, but Naruto was not making that easy on them. It was hard to ignore him, the boy just looked so lively, with that gigantic grin he always had and the way he tried to befriend anyone he met; the boy had even dared try his luck with Mad-eye.
It made Lupin almost forget the danger he himself had felt from the boy.
His attention was diverted back to Naruto as he heard him groan in protest.
"Yes, Dumbledore-sama. This is a part of my every day job ya know! You don’t have to run the objective over with me again, one time was enough.." the last part was murmured as Naruto put his arms on the table they were sitting around and rest his head on them.
Uzumaki Naruto was to attend Hogwarts as a part of an exchange program, meant to strengthen their bonds with a magical school in east Asia.
Lupin's sharp ears picked up the slight rumble of the building, meaning the doors were opening –probably for the Weasley children and Hermione granger, who were to arrive this morning. Harry would get here by nightfall. Remus smiled fondly, he had missed the boy. He noticed Naruto looking around too, but before he could explain anything, the blonde boy leaped over the table with unexpected grace, and ran up the stairs, the sound of a door shutting following. Lupin frowned.
It concerned him how little they knew of the ninja's abilities, or if they could even trust him. But Dumbledore strangely seemed to trust the boy, so Remus was willing to follow along for now.
Naruto decided that he would meet the famous friend group tonight, which is when the boy he was assigned to would be arriving. He didn’t want to go over introductions twice; plus, he had things to do.
He hadn’t been able to confirm his abilities in this world without chakra, and now that everyone was distracted by the arrival of the loud kids downstairs he had the perfect opportunity.
He had already confirmed that his chakra build up was much slower than back home, although he was relieved to find out he still had his massive resources. He had tried talking to Kurama before, but it seemed the demon fox was not fond of this world, opting to sleep away deep in the jinchuriki's consciousness for most of the time.
Now he had to try his jutsus.
An elated whoop left his clone's mouth when kage bunshin no jutsu was a success, and so the process continued; Naruto testing everything he could get away with in the small room near the attic. Sage mode was also a success, although it felt different. Even the nature energy in this country was different than his own, it somehow felt tainted.
He would have to try his summoning jutsu later. he silently prayed that it would work; his summon toads were one of the only ways he could think of to contact home from here.
He noted with a pout that he could not get into Kurama's chakra mode here. He was about to try again when he heard the weird rumbling again.
Potter-san was here.
"Oh, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" was the first thing Harry Potter heard as he entered Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, finding himself in Mrs. Weasley's bear hug.
"I'm sorry dear, but dinner will have to wait until after the meeting," she turned back to analyze the gang of wizards who all filed into the kitchen. Harry was about to follow them but was stopped by Ron's mother. "Sorry Harry, but the meeting is for the members of the Order only. You go on upstairs, Hermione and Ron are waiting for you, and I suppose you'll be introduced to our guest during dinner."
He was shoved up the staircase to the left before he even had time to protest. What guest?
Naruto was surprised to hear the sound of Harry Potter yelling at his friends only moments after he arrived. Naruto sat on his bed near the attic and tried to make sense of their argument; He was mad that they hadn’t written to him, and the friends blamed it on Dumbledore. Interesting. Then the female voice proceeded to explain what the Order actually was, which Naruto already knew. He sighed and hopped off his bed, changing into his no-longer-in-tatters clothes. He silently thanked Mrs. Weasley for fixing them again and made his way down to the kitchen.
When Harry entered the kitchen for dinner that night, the last thing he expected was to make eye contact with an orange-clad teenager with spiky blonde hair. Harry stopped in his tracks, having completely forgotten Mrs. Weasley's earlier mention of a guest. Is this kid who she meant?!
The teenager beamed when he saw Harry looking at him and waved enthusiastically. If Harry had been in a better mood, he might’ve returned the gesture; but in his current state all he could do was scowl in confusion. His lack of passion seemed to have absolutely no effect on the other boy though. He looked around and saw that both Hermione and Ron looked shocked too.
at least this was something that was kept from all of us. Harry thought bitterly.
All Harry saw was a yellow flash, and in the blink of an eye the boy had jumped over the table –with food on it- and had landed soundlessly in front of Harry, extending a bandaged hand.
"Uzumaki Naruto!" the boy stated eagerly, a slight accent hanging to his words.
Harry, who had been startled by the sudden appearance and the odd introduction, took a moment to respond. Hermione nudged him, and clearing his throat he took the offered hand.
"Harry potter, nice to meet you," his voice sounded coarse.
He looked into the startlingly blue eyes of the boy in front of him, and was pleasantly surprised when the boy showed no recognition for his name, and his eyes stayed locked into Harry's own instead of going up to look at his forehead.
As he looked at him though, Harry suddenly felt anxious; a chill went through his body and he resisted the urge to shiver. There was something about this boy that made him nervous. Finally, cerulean orbs broke eye contact and settled on Hermione, his hand also being offered.
After the introductions were done, harry realized how silent the kitchen was, and in a house full of Weasleys, this occurrence was rare. He noticed everyone was looking at them, breaths held.
He narrowed his eyes.
Just what the hell was going on?
Sirius beat it to him before he could speak up.
"Harry," his godfather started cautiously. His voice calmed Harry down, even if just a fraction. "I see you’ve met Naruto," the animagus did not pronounce the name the same way the name-holder had "I'm sure you have your questions, so why don’t you all sit down and we can discuss things over dinner?"
At the mention of dinner, Uzumaki's face lit up even more, if that was possible. Something in Harry's mind eased at the sight, the uneasiness he had felt earlier slowly fading away as he watched Naruto jump back to his own sit cheerfully.
Seriously, how had he done that?
"So," Harry piped up after a few minutes of uncomfortably pushing food around his plate. "Is anyone going to tell me what the hell's going on?" he asked, frustration evident in his voice.
His eyes darted around the room, noting no one was risking eye contact with him until his eyes landed on the orange being that was Naruto. Harry's eyes widened slightly when he realized the other teen had two plates already stacked up next to him and was on his third plate of spaghetti.
"Basically, I'm going to be your bodyguard for some time." Naruto said causally, while still eating; so casually that harry just looked at him in disbelief for a second.
Then he felt his blood boil.
"WHAT?" He roared, putting his hands forcefully on the table, startling Hermione next to him.
"A bodyguard? Is this Dumbledore's plan?" he looked around the distracted gazes of the order around him. Why was no one telling him anything?
He looked at the boy who was supposed to be 'protecting' him and he felt even more infuriated.
"I don’t need a babysitter! How is he going to protect me? He's the same age as me!"
At this he could see Naruto set down his plate and scowl at him. The odd chill he had felt earlier was back. Something was different about this boy.
"Hey! Ill let you know I'm perfectly capable of protecting you against some stupid wizard, ya know!" he was pointing a finger at harry comically.
Before harry could process the blonde's words, another voice spoke up behind him.
"And you would be right, Mr. Uzumaki."
The boy who lived spun around so fast he was about to turn into the boy who died; ignoring the pain in his neck, he looked up at the tall figure of Albus Dumbledore.
"I have faith in Mr. Uzumaki abilities, Harry. It would be in your best interest to stick close to him this year, as yours and your friends'," his eyes twinkled as he looked between Ron and Hermione "Safety is crucial. I would suggest against pestering Mr. Uzumaki for answers, as I know you lot have an.. uh.. curious nature, which might be bothersome for our foreign guest." He had a slight warning look in his twinkling blue eyes, which unsettled harry. He turned his attention back to the orange boy. "Mr. Uzumaki, I expect your arrival in Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry at the start of the school year, as we had discussed."
Naruto looked pained at the mention of school, but he nodded curtly.
And just like that, Dumbledore was gone again.
Harry wanted to scream; he was sick of being ignored.
Uchiha Sasuke's eyes snapped open.
Four days. Four days since Uzumaki Naruto had been transferred to god knows where with his Rinnegan's space-time ninjutsu.
four days since Sasuke hysterically searched for his best friend, harboring the hurt and confusion and worry.
Sasuke stood up, pulling his katana and cloak tighter around him against the snowstorm.
He had a dobe to find.