Crossovers

Violet Potter had not thought that she would be snatched from battle. Oh, it had certainly been attempted before and sometimes even almost succeeded but this was not a mission the Unspeakable had thought would include something of this nature. Given the anonymity of the Unspeakables, be they in Field or Research and the murky gray titles between them she usually didn’t have to worry about the occasional cult or obsessive fan trying to snatch her away in the middle of a mission. She supposed she had gotten too comfortable. Nonetheless, now she was here, strapped down and vulnerable and being used in some ritual or another. Not the first time since she’d been taken but none of their previous ones were meant to cage and hide her. But well, after what she had managed to do after the last ritual probably gave them a good enough scare that they were attempting, very hastily, to seal her away. It was all very last minute and they scrambled around to put finishing touches on everything. From what muttering she could hear, they planned on throwing whatever vessel she was stuck in into the Veil.

A man burst in the small room they were in, holding up what she could barely see even with her enhanced eyesight was a…Teapot. A small round teapot that looked like it might have seen better days. In a sort of dark watercolor lagoon blue with faint gold trimmings and the trace of what seemed to be Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Almond Branches in Bloom’ on it. It looked quite lovely actually. She supposed there were worse things to trap herself in.

Like a diary, or a ring.

Shaking off the memories of her youth returned her wandering eyes to the ceiling. She had been counting the stones that made it. It had become a pastime when here in the ritual room. She was really craving a nice hot cup of mint tea right now but her enhanced body could go long periods without proper food or rest so it was mostly for the sake of her tastebuds. Stale bread and water gets quite dull after awhile. Before she knew it, she was falling fast into a forced oblivion.

When she…‘Woke’, she was a- oh, how to put it. A mist. A conscious mist in an unending mass of space and she had to work quite hard to pull her scattered self together to form a ‘body’ for herself.

Despite her age, her body was clocked at twenty-six. She had stopped aging after seventeen, whether because her body had died in that battle or because of the Hallows who could tell. Naturally, she hadn’t wanted to just be living in a scrawny waif seventeen year old body ravaged by the war. She, and many others who were on the run or under the radar during the worst of the war, had to be put on a potions regimen and physical therapy to help regain her health. She had built up her muscle again and her hips filled out nicely, as well as a good handful of a bosom which was nice on her petite, gamine frame. She was leggy despite her height, and her arse and thighs were also rather nice, strong and plush enough to entice.

(From knobby-kneed bedraggled Freak to strong powerful Violet.)

She had to take a specially tailored potion to age her body and that had stopped working after she began the enhancement rituals on her bones as an Unspeakable. She had skipped from an Auror, to a Mediwitch and finally found her place with the Unspeakables.

She had never been as book-hungry as Hermione but after her soul (sort of and completely on accident) ate the rest of Tom Riddle’s (what little had remained) and assimilated his knowledge and more of his skill onto her, she had found herself curious on magics beyond the spells and potions and the like taught to her in school. That curiosity of course, was an adventurer’s and being stuck in a strict Auror job or stationary Mediwitch career couldn’t sate it. Being a Field Unspeakable? Oh yes.

Of course, being an Unspeakable, no one but her higher-ups knew who she actually was beneath the standard Unspeakable robes and cloaks. To even her closest friends, she was a Ministry contracted adventurer. In so many words, anyways. A slew of skills were drilled into field researchers like her and while her moral compass had mostly been on a set path when she was younger it had become a mass of gray like when she had been Freak under the stairs, murky and depending on circumstance. Without guides like her friends and the Gryffindor emblem on her chest, she easily sunk back into it.

And she needed to, given that she was occasionally part of a sleeper cell in magical communities hidden from even other wixen communities. That was valuable knowledge some of them had after all, and the sole purpose of the Unspeakables and Department of Mysteries was to find out everything about magic they possibly could get their needy little paws on. Anything from the purest forms of magic, or the ‘holiest’ White magic to the blackest of Black Arts and everything in between. Little words like ‘light’, ‘dark’, ‘immoral’ and ‘shouldn’t’ meant nothing. Necromancy? They had at least forty-three different branches worldwide. Alchemy? Pah, just extremely advanced Transfigurations. And she had usually been a pretty dab hand there. ‘Eldritch’ or demonic magics? A little sketchy sometimes but they were fairly certain they were pulling creatures from dimensions separate from their own and that was pretty powerful magic in its own right. Shamanism? Wily and complex with a need for innate talent.

Despite all her skill, she thought neutrally as she floated in the absence of anything, she had still managed to be bested. By a group of prepared lunatics, but bested nonetheless and to be honest, it stung at her pride a little bit. She was far from all-powerful, she knew, but it still grated.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been in when she had started constructing rooms and places out of her endless space. Mountains she’d been on, jungles she’d been through or swamps she’d slogged in. Tea rooms she especially enjoyed, or her own homes throughout her life.

The replica of the Dursley house she had destroyed in multiple ways. Hogwarts, both as a student and after. Durmstrang, which she had visited every so often as a guest or during a mission. Other schools as well. Including their massive libraries. She was sure after a little while that it wasn’t just pulling from her memory of those places either, which was nice. Especially nice for those ancient tomes and the like hidden in offices or museums that couldn’t be touched. After that realization, places she’d never been to, or were lost to time were at her fingertips.

She also learned she could create duplicates of herself. Her conscious was spread out among them all, so she was and was not them but a singular self among them. They were just illusions here after all, she had no body in this space. No brain to overwhelm.

She read books written from figures worshipped as deities. Walked halls claimed as the halls of gods.

But there was nothing alive. No animals or bugs, no people. She could manipulate her image into those creatures, could conjure illusions and images of them but couldn’t give them sentience that was not her own.

(She still had those forms of herself running about in her massive own world.)

She may have, a few times, fought herself as a replica of Voldemort for fun. Or had tea with Merlin. Or danced with that fit actor bloke.

Or ridden a dinosaur.

The point was, her world was massive depending on her whims. At some point however, since there was no real concept of time or the passage of it, it was like a massive interwoven planetary disaster.

Her conscience had scattered again like it had in the beginning and nothing was anything but everything was void.

Rightly, she wasn’t sure how she had managed to pick herself together but it happened nonetheless. Only, now there was a new influx of information.

Hm.

She was thrown through the Veil finally? And the Veil was a-

Oh yes! Something of a door to other dimensions! Of course, most died when going through it and haunted the physical entryway as a result when they couldn’t stand to leave it. But it seems mostly like a sort of…Soul recycling bin, throwing out souls to reincarnate in different dimensions. Being that she had no physical body and was bound in a teapot, and perhaps a few other things, she wasn’t in a body that might have perished (who really knew with her?) under the strain of magic her soul wasn’t rinsed clean of herself. Or, rather, her knowledge of herself.

She was still stuck in the teapot, but now she had a new dimension and was voraciously devouring knowledge.

Weirdly, it seemed like the world she was thrown on used a universal language, which while handy, was certainly baffling.

xXx

Naruto had been rooting again (sneaking around and taking ‘trash’ in a stealthy manner were second-nature by now and hey, she was training to be a ninja along the way!) when she came across a strange teapot. But, it was pretty enough she supposed. Naruto didn’t drink tea, since it was expensive and she could barely step foot in those buildings without people glaring at her, not of much use to her that way. She was however, getting a little more invested in plants. It was a little difficult given that she couldn’t really ask anyone and the local libraries she could reach within a day wouldn’t let her in unless she managed to sneak in which was dangerous if she were caught, so there were a lot of failures under her belt but she was learning! Sometimes she spied on farmers or people with nice gardens or gardeners, watching and eavesdropping (more ninja training!) to gain more knowledge. She’d seen a few times when people would put plants in things other than normal planters or the ground and beneath the grime on it, Naruto could see the teapot was pretty. Into her worn furoshiki it went and she went on rooting.

By the time she got home, she hurriedly made and inhaled three cups of instant ramen and very diligently didn’t eat any more of them. They had to last after all. Then she set about cleaning her newly acquired things.

Seeds and bulbs were easy to get, even if she had to occasionally sneak into Training Grounds or other people’s property to collect them. She hummed as she grabbed a thin little rag that used to be part of her old orphanage shirt- the fabric was sturdy and meant to last even though she grew out of it and even better, it was orange!

(It was the only color she wore- less out of preference and more out of necessity. The shop she got her clothes from had looked down their noses and only pointed to the bright orange thing. But they let her in the building without muttering nasty things that made her want to run away, so it was a step up from most places as it were. Orange was the color of orphans and her clothes ensured everyone knew what she was. But it was a sturdy material, and the bright colors only made sure she was even sneakier and stealthy to not get caught!)

She cleaned the cups she was able to salvage carefully, then the few plates that maybe had a few chinks or cracks but were still perfectly usable! Household items were usually what she looked for most so she didn’t have to worry so much about trying to buy them. She didn’t use plates very often considering most of her diet consisted of ramen but sometimes she got food packages from jii-ji-san. She didn’t get to see him often, but he gave her money every week and paid her rent.

She set to work on the teapot and after rubbing especially vigorously at a stain, the lid popped off. Naruto blinked and before she knew it, a thick smoky fog was rolling out of it.

“Now what,” a low velvet voice wound through it, “Have we here?”

xXx

Violet, now dubbed Sumire to avoid any butchering of her name, looked at the little girl thoughtfully. Her basic evaluation diagnostic spells gave her strange information about the girl but she would suppose that was because of the…Chakra. Something that seemed like a strange parallel of magic in this world. At least her magic wasn’t reacting adversely or vice-versa, so that was a plus. Strange readings aside, the girl was malnourished and looking around, it was obvious that the girl lived here alone. At only six years old.

A six year old living alone in a flat all by herself with no guidance or authority. Even she had the Dursleys.

And, well, the girl must have done something right to be able to draw her out of her teapot. She crouched down to get a better look at the girl. She wore bright orange and had a shock of sunshine yellow (not blonde but actual yellow) hair, had dusky skin and what seemed to be…Whisker marks? On her cheeks. A round face and the tilt of her eyes struck her as vulpine. Her entire cherubic little face did actually. How oddly specific.

“Well aren’t you cute.” she smiled at the girl. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Uh- whoa- what kind of jutsu was that dattebayo?!” the girl breathed, big blue eyes amazed and glittering under the dim lighting. She grinned at her excitement. There was a slightly green tint that made them more an ocean-like aquamarine than like the sky.

“No jutsu. I don’t have any chakra after all.” she told the girl who blinked, thought about that for a moment and then puffed her cheeks out with a frown.

“Everyone has chakra though, ‘ttebayo! Even if they can’t use it!” she disputed.

“Hm. Maybe. But I’m not from this plane of existence.” she told the girl plainly. “And since you freed me, little sunflower, I think I’ll stick around.” she smiled again as the girl contemplated her words.

“Freed you from…The teapot?”

“It’s a very special teapot. You must have a good eye to have gotten it.” she praised the girl who beamed up at her for a moment, the smile making her eyes squint shut and she most strongly was reminded of a fox animagus. Strangely, combined with a sunflower. Sun fox? “What’s your name, sunflower?”

“Naruto, dattebayo!” the little girl burst happily. “Uzumaki Naruto! Who’re you, dattebayo?!”

“You can call me Sumire, Naruto-chan. Can I call you that?”

The girl’s smile was so wide it might well split her face. It brightened the whole dingy little flat around them.

“Sure thing Sumire-oba-chan!” she cheered, practically vibrating in place. “Ne ne, how’d you get stuck in a teapot anyways dattebayo?!”

“Oh that’s a very interesting story but not one for now I think. We are in your home, aren’t we Naruto-chan?” she looked around. It was messy and sparse. They were stood in the kitchen and the door, she would assume, led out of the apartment. It was small, perhaps cramped but frankly Sumire had always preferred closer dwellings. Made her protection wards more concentrated. She would need to scope the apartment out properly.

She had already decided to stay with the girl after all.

xXx

She swung her feet in the chair in front of the Hokage’s desk, Sumire’s teapot in her arms and Sumire standing firmly behind her. No one seemed able to see her, which was weird but Naruto didn’t mind as she eagerly told jii-ji-san about why there was that strange smoke-fog that had apparently seeped out from under her door and ‘alerted’ some people. He regarded her patiently.

“A woman came out of the teapot?”

“Sumire-oba-chan, dattebayo! She came from a different- different-”

“Dimensional plane.”

“Yeah, ‘ttebayo! Dimensional plane!” she grinned up at the woman who smiled back kindly.

“I…See. And what does this…Sumire look like, Naruto-chan?”

“Uh- she got really curly black hair and green eyes and skin darker than mine! And lightning on her face dattebayo!”

“A scar.”

“She says it’s a scar!”

“Is she here with us now?”

“Yeah, dattebayo! Ne ne, why can’t they see you?”

“Who knows, Naruto-chan. But, I suppose I can show them something. If only to wipe that look off his face.”

“What look, dattebayo? Whoa!” she breathed in awe as Sumire transformed into a sweetly small Fennec fox. Her animagus form was of a sloth bear but she was adept at managing to transform into other animals as well. But this particular form was when she was first testing out her skills and it sort of mutated a little bit. Her pale green eyes glowed; brightly and obviously and her fur was more a bronze color than the typical pale sandy-yellow. Giving it a fairly somber, other-worldy effect. “You can turn into a…Cat? Fox? Rabbit? A cat-fox-rabbit dattebayo!”

She purred playfully, ignoring the man who’d blinked and raised his eyebrows at her very sudden appearance, lips pursing. She landed delicately in the girl’s lap, careful not to dig her small but notably sharp claws into her legs.

He set his hands on the desk, keen dark eyes watching her. “And you said she…Came from a different dimensional plane from the teapot?” he asked slowly.

“That’s what she said, dattebayo! She said she don’t have no chakra and when I told her that everyone had chakra, she said it was because she wasn’t from this plane, dattebayo! But she can do all sorts of cool stuff!”

“Oh?” he leaned forward just slightly. “Like what, Naruto-chan?”

“She can make things clean themselves and can cook things like that too, dattebayo! She even got rid of that weird mold in the corner!”

The old man blinked, straightening up but he no longer seemed overly suspicious.

“Naruto-chan…Are you telling me you have a morinji-no-okama in your possession?”

Sumire metaphorically rose her eyebrows as she tried not to fidget, long ears perking. She always had so much excess energy in this form, always wanted to run around. He thought she was a tsukumogami? Well, she supposed that was a tidy enough answer for her anyways, no reason to spill her cards when such a neatly delivered façade was supplied to her. But which belief of tsukumogami did he mean? The hundredth birthday and gaining sentience item or the fox that reached a century and turned into one? Well she was in the form of a fox right now.

“Hah?” she could practically feel the spritely blonde scrunch her eyebrows together. The old man leaned forward, now eyeing her in blatant curiosity.

“A morinji-no-okama. A sort of spirit inhabiting that teapot. Speaking of, it certainly is a strange looking one. Where did you get it?” he asked her lightly, eyes falling to the dainty little teapot in Naruto’s hands. She ducked her head sheepishly and Sumire got up, setting her tiny paws over the girl’s hand.

“One man’s trash is another man’s profit.” she told the girl. “My teapot was discarded and you had the good sense to take me in.”

“Sumire-oba-chan says one man’s trash is another man’s profit, dattebayo.” the girl recited dutifully. “And that Sumire-oba-chan’s teapot was dis-disca- thrown away and I had the good sense to take her in, dattebayo.”

“I see.” the man said easily, having easily caught that it was one of Naruto’s pilfered items. “Naruto-chan, would you mind lending me that teapot?”

“Huh? What’re you asking me for, dattebayo, it’s Sumire-oba-chan’s teapot!” the girl’s head cocked to the side.

“He can, Naruto-chan. I will remain with you regardless of where it goes, though I would like to have it back in a timely manner.”

“’Kay, ‘ttebayo!” the girl turned her round little face to the old man watching them avidly. “She says she wants it back but that you can borrow it!”

“Is she not bound to it?” he asked as Naruto bounced to her feet to trot over and Sumire deftly leapt to the arm of the chair she had been in as Naruto placed the teapot carefully on his desk where it wasn’t full of paperwork.

“To a degree. I do have some amount of mobility outside of it.” she blatantly lied.

“Sumire-oba-chan says she has some mobility outside of it, dattebayo!”

“Will she remain with you, Naruto-chan?”

“Yeah, Sumire-oba-chan promised, ‘ttebayo! Or uh, said it was an oath or something, it sounded really important dattebayo!”

“An oath from a tsukumogami huh?” the wrinkled man murmured to himself thoughtfully. “Well Naruto, this is certainly astounding. I will be sure to return this.” he said, pulling the teapot closer.

xXx

She carved runes and sigils into the walls- not physically, that would be much too obvious. Rather, on the secondary ‘imprint’ of the room. It was a standard protection ward to Unspeakables, and the base for more complex ones. Naruto had been adamant on staying in this little flat and it wasn’t like Sumire couldn’t manipulate around it to mold it to her liking. The kitchen comes first, she thought to herself. The counters were worn, chipped a bit and looked so beaten up that Sumire wanted to balk at whomever owned the building. But then, most of the furnishings seemed if not a bit broken then secondhand. Or, fourth or fifth hand.

Sumire didn’t usually care about the newness of items, preferring practicality overall but she appreciated having a tidy homebase with functioning appliances. The technology of the world was far behind the muggles of her old world and so laughably behind the magical she could cry. She might cry regardless actually, out of frustration at a six year old living alone. It’s not that she hasn’t seen orphans living on their own at a young age, but that was usually street rats that lived in packs. This girl was living in a flat. She sighed to herself before conjuring up a spy-orb. About the size of a small marble and invisible and undetectable outside of a few specialized units of the Unspeakables, they were invaluable little pieces of ingenuity. Her magic swirled around it before seeping in; it would keep her connected to it. Then, she multiplied it until two dozen of the gleaming black things were floating around her. With a dismissive wave, they were all darting away, easily sinking through walls and going out into the massive village she had found herself in. Then focused for a moment, making an outline of her figure before smearing her blood in a small set of runes. The outline bubbled before a carbon copy of herself stepped out. It smiled at her and she grinned, nodding and watching it set off to explore more in-depth. The spy-glass orbs couldn’t interact with their surroundings after all, only observe. Her double, the golem, had the same precautions she herself had; although Naruto wasn’t excluded this time. Not conducive for sneaking around when a little girl who might not know any better says something she shouldn’t. She repeated her process, making a few more.

It really was a big village. If that wasn’t what they called themselves, she easily would have called it a small metropolis.

One was sent specifically to get groceries, another to scout stores for proper home goods. She might be a dab hand at transfiguration and conjuring, but it would last longer to buy the materials and make things herself. Like good quality quilts.

(Molly had swooped her up after Voldemort’s Revival War, stuffing her with home and homemaking skills and spells and charms in an effort to both keep her from falling further into desolation and depression and probably to help distract herself. Sumire would admit that she slept most comfortably with heavy weighted handmade quilts.)

She sat down, having already fed Naruto who was now diligently folding different origami to keep her both distracted and to keep the hyperactive girl busy. Idle hands and all. She sat in one of the creaky old chairs, ignoring the splinters digging in through the liquid leggings she wore under her dress as she conjured proper paper to begin creating a basic layout of what she intended to turn Naruto’s flat into. She was no architectural natural or anything but basic stuff and the very complex magic to make it happen were well in her arsenal of skills. She would just need to consider a bit more the classic architecture of this world. Which, easy enough. She was fairly versed in popular architectural styles, given her very adventurous position in the Unspeakables.

She wasn’t building the outside of it anyways, and not like she was building from scratch. Rather than that she was building into it, making a hidden space and extending the size like a wizarding tent. It would be most strange if the flat was suddenly three times its size of course, so it will be a hidden area at the very least. Entrance in the bedroom and at least two escape routes would be nice. Should probably create a greenhouse as well, one floor for her own things and one for Naruto’s handy interest in it. In fact, she would probably just double the layout of her current flat and create more off of that if need be. And instead of the small balcony Naruto has, she can build the greenhouse.

Training area for Naruto? Practice makes perfect…

Still, creating a wizarding space like that is usually done by a team and regardless that she was incredibly powerful and knowledgeable, it would still take some time to construct and that wasn’t getting into the prep work and then furnishing that needed to be done. For now she would focus on renovating what already existed. That meant replacing things and getting things mostly which was easy enough. She eyed the disgraceful counters again.

She didn’t need anything too fancy. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be tasteful or unnecessarily extravagant. Naruto would have plenty of times where she wouldn’t be able to enjoy such luxury goods when she became a ninja, so she might as well enjoy them now. She nodded to herself, rolled up her papers and checked on Naruto.

She had gone onto the dog one after finally making three reasonably decent cranes.

“Naruto-chan, what sort of things do you like?”

“Huh? Oh! Ramen and orange and pranks and ninja stuff, dattebayo! And plants too!” the girl told her brightly. Sumire nodded. That had been parsed fairly quickly.

“Do you like any animals? Have any favorite clothes or patterns?”

The young girl frowned before shrugging.

“Well that’s alright. We have time to learn after all.” she smiled at the girl.

xXx

She hummed as she imbued the wood with thick bursts of magic from her fingertips, carving and cutting away at pieces using her magic coated hands. Naruto watched in abject fascination as she did it, big blue eyes shimmery and keen. The kimekomi doll she was making would be one of the keystones to the rest of the wards she would build into this flat. It was, all told, fairly innocuous which was the point. It was easily overlooked, especially in what she had planned for the interior design. She loved smaller spaces and had found many tricks outside of magical enhancement (though she employed that just as heavily) for space saving and organizing.

“What should she look like, Naruto-chan?” she questioned the girl who glanced up at her, then fastened her eyes back onto her hands. It was a small, knelt figure for the moment.

“You, dattebayo!” the girl grinned at her. Sumire grinned at her.

“Ah, then I should make another as you too. Maybe as a model eating ramen.” she teased as she sat down the body to then create the head. It wouldn’t be as round as typical dolls, more along the shape of her own face. She grabbed a small brush, focusing now on creating the baby hairs she had before she would add actual hair on the doll, then on her features. The eyes she decided to go a bit more in depth on, carving out small spots for small delicate chrysoprase to settle in. A very small spy-glass slid on as well to keep an appropriate eye on their homestead. The wood she had chosen was similar enough to her own wheatish skintone that she only needed to lightly modify and smooth it out and then very carefully recreated her lightning bolt scar. It really did look like a bolt of lighting on her face, silvery depending on how the light hit it against her brown-tan skin, and trailing down over the center of her left eyelid to end on the top of her cheek. She was also careful to include the very small, hard to spot scar towards her ear on her jaw, and the one just under her other ear on the head before figuring that was enough fussing and colored the lips to match her own and then getting started on the hair. Her hair was quite long when it was down, as wild and messy as it was and she considered that before shrugging and undoing the bun she kept her winding braid in.

Even her hair had magical properties and uses from her extensive foray into enhancing rituals. Speaking of, she should find out how compatible her magic and Naruto’s chakra were. It if worked well enough together, the options for her new young charge were virtually endless. She would need to do research before she even contemplated rituals for the girl though.

She added research room onto her mental list of things for the renovation. She undid the bottom of her braid to snip off some hair and magically arranged it to the doll properly. It curled and coiled and fought gravity. She charmed it to be more size-proportionate and nodded to herself. Naruto poked a finger at the inky curls on the doll’s head.

She’d always been told her hair made her resemble a sheep when she was young, though it wasn’t really coily.

“Soft, dattebayo!”

“We can make yours just as soft if you want.” she told the girl easily, grabbing the doll to interlock the head and body together. Kimekomi dolls usually used kimono fabric on them but, she didn’t think that would be particularly based off of her. She was rather fond of haoris though. She trimmed the body a bit more since the heavy layers of kimono weren’t involved though still with room for roomy clothes. In the past decade, she had a preference for mini-dresses and blazers, whether she needed to wear warm leggings and thicker trench coats over them for warmth or not. She did sometimes adopt crop tops though.

Mini dresses and crop tops. She snorted quietly and delicately folded the mahogany colored suede into the creases of the wooden doll and then going over it with delicate crimson chiffon. She hummed to herself and added a few small bronze trinkets into the hair. She liked to keep her hair up in a braid since it was simply easier that way but she did occasionally like to flaunt her well taken care of glossy curls. And when she does, she does like accessories.

“Whoa! Super pretty dattebayo!” Naruto chirped, knelt at her side and squirming practically in her lap to get a better look. She smiled and handed the doll to the girl who took it in ginger, delicate hands. She ruffled the girl’s hair fondly before taking up another block of the carefully conductive wood to begin to carve. This one, she decided, would be in motion. The girl’s skin was perhaps a shade or two lighter than hers, but still very tan and especially when compared to most of the villagers she had seen. Those with the outdoors farmer tans still had nothing on her warm golden olive skin. For as large as Konoha was, she thought to herself, there wasn’t much diversity in genetics. Plenty of course, and interesting colors certainly but not as much as one might guess for such a huge village.

On one foot, steady and balanced so as not to tip the figure when it was set down, arms out like it were dancing maybe. That was the body she made. The head this time reflected a more traditional roundness- the girl’s face was quite round and she didn’t think it would change much from the cherubic shape as she got older. Dainty whisker marks and slit eyes with a wide fox’s grin. Yellow sunshine hair in an explosion around the doll’s head, chrysocolla for what little color could be seen from slit eyes. Mostly blue in tone but enough green to make it look especially like the girl’s actual eyes. Smoothing the color to match the girl’s skin, the girl’s lips and making sure the teeth were appropriately colored as well before humming to herself. Orange, certainly, but these were dolls. The ‘clothes’ on her own wasn’t shaped like she would wear them, so neither would they be on Naruto’s.

Kimono didn’t seem particularly fitting for a to-be shinobi. Burnt orange cordura nylon with lighter orange brocade in a swirling pattern worked well, with just a bit of white plush trimming the neckline. Very thin strips imitating nin tape mid-shin and making the trousers seem a bit puffy but for the doll, relatively commonplace and the type was more of a haori than a jacket. She passed this second doll once she was finished as the girl made a fuss of it before grabbing her in a tight hug about the middle.

xXx

“Sumire-oba-chan, why are we at the library dattebayo?”

“To learn of course. Besides, the renovation means that it’s a little bit dangerous to be at the flat right now.” she told the girl, one hand curled around her shoulder. “And didn’t you say you wanted to be invisible?”

“I mean, yeah dattebayo! But, not for here!”

“Now now, we’ll be sure to play somewhere else then but for now we’re going to get you up to snuff for the Academy. Some already know how to read and write and while not everyone knows, it’s always nice to have a little edge. It’s why I had you drink those potions.”

“They tasted bad, dattebayo.” the girl frowned.

“They do, but they’re certainly worth the trouble. It will help your comprehension and grasp of subjects a bit more, help your mind understand things a little easier than they might.”

“It can do all that dattebayo?”

“It can indeed.”

“Do you have more stuff like that, ‘ttebayo?!”

“I do, but for now let’s focus on this alright? We’ll get ramen later.”

xXx

The first day of Academy Sumire came with was…Enlightening. Sumire had already seen, very clearly, how the villagers treated her. It was another matter entirely when educators treated her with the same disdain and passively sabotaged her. Ignoring her, ignoring what the students around her did to her which included stealing or taking her papers, destroying or taking her books. Naruto was left on her own, ignored by the teachers who didn’t reprimand such behavior and if they didn’t would go past scolding straight into snarling at her.

Naruto might not be getting hit or attacked, the upcharges weren’t ridiculous though very clearly unfair but she was still being horribly abused by the village as a whole. Whispers never quiet enough, glares never hidden, continuous isolation.

Bullying. She wasn’t beaten like she was by her cousin Dudley, but oh, was this girl bullied.

She was being set up for failure, be that to fail graduating or to put her on a team only to be killed quickly in her career because she wasn’t taught. And Sumire hated it. Naruto, already, showed signs of being someone who could think up plans on the spot, who could essentially wing it and prove herself to be quite cunning with a deft hand for pranks and thus, planning. She just needed to be nurtured a little and it wasn’t happening. Her ‘clones’ had heard of murmurs that Clan children got more attention and better materials and that was easy enough to see happening, not to mention the training their families must give them.

There was also, though extremely limited, some word of an Uzumaki clan, hailing from Uzushiogakure. There wasn’t much to be found in public libraries but there was still stretches of the village she had not yet explored. For now, she would focus on curtailing the worst of her educational sabotage and vowing to go over material with the girl herself.

She’d been told before she made a good teacher after all.

xXx

Sleek concrete countertops to match the floor, covered in a thin substance that gave it a shine and sealed it, also making it far easier to clean. The undermount sink was soft white like the cabinets and the backsplash was copper-orange. The fridge blended seamlessly into the white cabinets and the oven was wall-mounted. The stove top and a grill top could slide neatly from the counter. The rickety table was gotten rid of and instead a transparent acrylic table and matching chairs with orange cushioning. Smaller appliances that might be in the room weren’t particularly necessary; Sumire knew enough homely spells and cooking spells not to really need them much, but she did get a slow-cooker/rice cooker and a few new kettles and teapots. A banner with a hummingbird on it in shades of red, orange, black and white was set up and plants of all variety were around the room and what amounted to beanbag chairs in the same copper-orange. The walls were white and crisp and the blinds were charmed orange as well. The ceiling had sunset sky on it, oranges, pinks, golds with a few hints of purple. White sidetables for trinkets and display that would fill over time, she was sure. For now there was already a framed photo that she’d managed to take of the two of them together, she in her very cute fox form. Quite a lot of cookware were either neatly put away or hung up for use, and new plates, bowls, utensils and the like were settled. A row of herbs sat by the window already, imbued with magic to sure they grew strong and fast.

Bright. Clean. Lively.

The small hall led to the bathroom and then the bedroom as well. White walled again, and then the bathroom. It was even brighter, orange, watermelon pink, and white. Plants scattered about on shelves and the storage units neatly set under the floating sink with toiletries. A big oval mirror, floral stenciling on the orange walls. Even the new tub/shower was the jubilant shade of pink, the curtain floral and colorful. The ceiling was a vivid happy yellow. Cheery and bubbly.

And then the bedroom.

Her bed was floating up the wall, accessible by a slim ladder and with a gauzy curtain separating it from the rest of the room. Underneath it sat a low set desk with shelving for scrolls and comfortable zabuton. On the underside of the platform for the bed were small but stark little lights. A chabudai and more zabuton were off to the side, a wardrobe trunk bolted to the wall. Footwear could be stored in the space beneath on tilted shelves. Soft slippers already sat there. There was also a vanity. With a tall mirror, and drawers on the side, jewelry boxes sat on them neatly.

This room, unlike the others, was colored a bit more maturely. Mahogany woods, dark and gleaming, with soft navy walls. Burnt orange made itself in accents, throw pillows on the bed, the gauzy curtain, small paintings, one or two vases of the, once again, numerous plants. The small and sweet balcony was also charmed carefully to protect it and had a sheer deep orange curtain for privacy.

The mirror was the entrance to the…More secretive part of the renovation but it was still being worked on. A replicate of the general flat was inside the mirror that was so heavily charmed and spelled not even a grenade could so much as scratch it. Not that anything so dangerous could get to it under all the severe warding and rune work on the entire apartment.

Inside the mirror, Sumire’s bedroom was done in dusky purples and green and blacks, a four-poster bed with heavy velvet curtains and bedding. Her desk was minimal and sharp, no legs and sticking out from the wall and a comfortable duo of velvet purple armchairs. Her bathroom had a sunken tub, and was done in soft Parisian monochrome. She had no need for a second kitchen when the one in the original flat worked just fine, so that was turned into the general work room for her, complete with a sectioned off potions section. From the bedroom, instead of a balcony, it led into a two-story greenhouse, a tight spiral staircase separating the floors. Alternatively, if she opened the door with a different key, the door led to a training area. It was based off of the R.O.R of Hogwarts. One that she heavily intended to use for training. And where Naruto’s flat had plants everywhere, Sumire’s had candles.

Naruto had been awestruck, barreling through, only to run back to tackle her in a tight hug. The poor thing was sobbing and they spent the rest of the day going through everything in the flat. Naruto wasn’t aware yet of Sumire’s mirror flat; it wasn’t done yet.

And, piercing Naruto’s ears, tongue, uvula like Sumire’s own were pierced and then taking a happy picture of her smiling young ward to develop in the potion that allowed their moving pictures.

And like Sumire’s own piercings, they were enchanted. While she would still need to research whether or not it would be safe to use the harmless rituals on her new ward, these would at least offer her some more protection in the meantime.

xXx

She sat in the chair in front of the Sandaime Hokage, as of course a Fennec fox again (and a big orange bow at her nape with a tiny bell on it), and watched him read the letter she had prepared for him. It brought up several concerns of hers in regards to the Academy; villagers ignoring or sneering at Naruto was one thing but the passive sabotage of her education was not something she took lightly and there was only so much she could teach her by herself in free time, no matter how effective the enhancement potions were and how much easier it made it for Naruto to learn.

“A tutor outside of the Academy?” his dark eyes glanced to her as her large ears twitched. He blinked in surprise as words scrawled themselves in a margin.

‘I can’t teach her anything about jutsu outside of reading and she’s a kinetic learner; she learns best by doing. If you find a competent tutor for her and willing to sign a contract, they can be compensated handsomely. As it is, I can’t exactly put in for a tutor myself and I don’t expect much to change at the Academy with bias running so deeply. The second sheet has my notes on where she is now, her tendencies, what she excels at and what could use more work.’

“I see. I’ll see what I can do for you…” he paused. “Sumire-san?” he tried. She bobbed her head before scampering down and apparating back to the apartment where she left Naruto practicing her genjutsu. Her teacher, the one supposed to help her learn, had often ignored her or pulled her out of the class entirely and while Sumire would like to really give him a stern talking to she wouldn’t potentially make the teachers there resent her ward any more than they already did or play her full hand.

Genjutsu, she was pleased to notice, had little effect on Sumire herself, a strange illusion she could see but could also detect as an illusion. She endeavored to help Naruto to tell when she was trapped in one.

“I’m back.”

“Sumire-oba-chan!” the girl grinned brightly. “Ne ne, I think I’m doing better, ‘ttebayo!” the girl gushed and Sumire smiled fondly, helplessly adoring of the vivid girl.

xXx

She corrected Naruto gently into the correct position. The normally energetic girl was difficult to calm down enough to really work like this most of the time but expending so much energy earlier practicing control (releasing pulses of chakra into the greenhouse made the greenery explode in growth, strong and resplendent and was a good way to work the girl’s apparently terrifyingly large chakra coils), the girl was more malleable. Twisting lithely, she helped her stretch. Sumire had been through quite a few rituals and enhancements to make her body superior and she had only recently tentatively started performing those rituals on Naruto. For ones that might cause a little too much pain, she put the girl to sleep but she wouldn’t forgo them when Naruto was training to be a shinobi. Any leg up she could reasonably give the girl, she would do her best to give. The potions to enhance her sight, her sense of smell and hearing, the ones to sharpen her mind, the ones to build her immunity to poisons and drugs. Her healing was already phenomenal but she had the same regenerative ritual done to the girl anyways; it would boost an already formidable healing rate too.

Rituals and potions regardless she still needed muscle memory.

Contortionist training, stretches and exercises meant for dance, modified ashtanga yoga, gymnastics training, things like that could be used aside from the martial arts that Sumire has picked up over the years. While it might not be up to shinobi standards, she knew Naruto would be able to incorporate them somehow. Brawling techniques were also being taught, and while she perhaps went a bit light on her sparring, it was meant for now to show her moves and using her current size to her advantage rather than fully training her. Her body was durable as it was, but she was still very young and her body was nowhere near done developing or growing.

She hummed in approval.

Nonetheless, starting the girl young wouldn’t hurt as long as it was done in moderation.

xXx

“If it weren’t for the fact that you need to attend the Academy,” Sumire grumbled as she threaded gentle fingers through the girl’s bright locks. They were silky-soft now but still just as rebellious. She imagined the only way to really settle her hair would be length and even that would still spike out. “We’d have so much more time to train and play.”

She was already pushing things with Naruto’s recent ritual; she would need very little sleep to function at full capacity. Sumire, technically, didn’t need to sleep at all. Sumire had also long since embraced that she wasn’t really human anymore though. Aside from that, she had been tinkering with a new ward set. It would be able to, if she got it right, pause time within a certain area, that certain area being her R.O.R room. That way they could spend more time training and learning.

(Sumire didn’t realize how badly she had wanted to train and teach and nurture someone and Naruto was going into a dangerous life; she needed the girl to be superior to her rivals, needed her ready and able. Needed to make sure she would never be broken.)

A chime alerted her to someone at the door and she hummed quietly, shifting the sleeping bundle of sunshine more properly onto her bed before stepping back out into Naruto’s apartment. She’d stabilized her own area and Naruto had been amazed that the mirror led into a secret space. She took, once again, the appearance of the fox, the big orange bow and bell as well as she trotted to the kitchen, leaping up to a chair, and the onto the table and settled herself before a flicker of magic opened the door. Whoever was there wouldn’t be able to get past the doorway (or any windows) without permission anyways. A man and woman stood before her.

The man was perhaps in his mid-thirties, lanky and with sleepy looking droopy eyes and pretty bottom lashes. The woman was older, enough that most of the thick hair she had was gray tinged with silver with a docile looking face and with the same small build as Sumire, and the one she suspected Naruto will grow into. Naruto of course, was already looking to be more of a sturdy build unlike the gamine one that Sumire had, one that would pick up compact muscle rather than the wiry type Sumire got.

When she had received the missive that the Sandaime had two tutors for her sweet Naruto, Sumire had been a little weary. For all the Sandaime seemed a good leader, she wasn’t sure about how he would handle the care of a singular member of his village, no matter the apparent fondness he had for Naruto. The dilapidated state of the flat and the shitty education she suffered at the Academy colored her opinion to be fair.

The man, Kohaku Eiko, worked for covert and stealth operations and while Naruto could be bright and loud and obnoxious, she was also gifted when it came to being sneaky and sly, and managing to pull sensitive information and Sumire had really emphasized that in her notes.

The woman, Takara Ume, was a recently retired kunoichi despite her age that had especially potent power in genjutsu. Once Naruto had been taught the basics and given quite a few tips and tricks from Sumire’s own experience with skilled illusions, the girl had taken to it with a vengeance. She was creative and specific when needed, with an eye for smaller details to make sure the illusion won’t be caught. And, she would layer illusions at that!

Naruto, as she grew, would be a vicious brawler type opponent for sheer mass of chakra and tactile tendencies and her on-the-spot plans but for now, while her body was so young honing her other strong attributes would only help her. She could be a frontline powerhouse but she had just as much natural talent at stealth and Sumire wouldn’t block that path from her.

“Sumire-san?” the woman called into the apartment and Sumire trotted a bit closer to the edge of the table as the two shinobi eyed what they could see. The inside, she knew, did not match the worn exterior. She barked to get their attention appropriately. “Ah…Is this what Sandaime-sama meant? Are you Sumire-san?”

Sumire dipped her head. She could project her regular voice from this form but she would be doing no such thing until they signed the contract she had drawn for them. The papers floated from where she’d sat them on the counter, floating to the table.

“And those are the contracts I assume.” the man mumbled. “Pardon the intrusion,” he said breezily as he walked in, the woman following smoothly. It was binding; not just a paper that they could carelessly sign. If they broke one of the rules she set, they would be paying for it. Most were about making sure they treated Naruto as a serious student and keep negative bias away from her while teaching her but there were also privacy issues. Like, making sure that sensitive information about their home doesn’t get out, or talking about potentially dangerous practices like her rituals or workshop. What happens in the flat, stays in the flat. And of course, compensation had already been ironed out beforehand. Replicating the currency was no issue for Sumire so she was able to pay as handsomely as needed for someone able and informed. She waited patiently for them to read the contracts, murmuring back and forth and doing little body language things that she was sure they thought they were being sneaky about. Shinobi or not, she had been trained to infiltrate and absorb knowledge. That also meant watching everything and everyone, learning little nuances and movements.

Her ears flickered as she laid herself down, waiting for their decision.

xXx

She left them alone when they were tutoring her for the most part- there were plenty of eyes and minders there, hidden from them all to make sure Naruto was safe. She instead explored the village more thoroughly. Once she recollected the shadowy golems of herself, she could assimilate their knowledge and she had already done so for the most recent three she sent out. One in particular had found something most interesting.

Forbidden Scroll just really grabbed her attention the way few things did. Being trained to find secrets and a rebel prepared for danger all the time could do that.

Some were forbidden for the safety of the user; things that prove a danger to be used. One in particular her golem was interested in was the…Kage Bunshin technique. It was much the same as her golems, though perhaps just a bit less sturdy. They were physical and capable of attacking and taking hits. The downside and reason it was in a scroll blaringly called forbidden was that it consumed far too much chakra.

Now, Sumire still wasn’t exactly an expert on this chakra business but she was very aware that her sweet little ward had an absurd amount of chakra, a powerhouse in much the same way Sumire was. There were certainly other interesting things in the scroll but she was mostly stuck on that one. An ability similar to her own. And…

The physical clones were capable of learning. And once they were dispelled, the knowledge returned to the caster. Er, shinobi.

She’d just found the chakra version of her golems.

xXx

She chattered at the old man in blatant vulpine agitation. It was only a courtesy that she was telling him that she was going to show Naruto how to use Kage Bunshin and he was acting like she was being unreasonable or that Naruto wouldn’t be able to handle it. It took several pointed comments and far more sharp reprimands on paper for the man to put his hands up in surrender to her.

If he thought that she was being much like an Uzumaki he had once known, she wouldn’t know because after she had won the argument she had popped off in a huff with her snout in the air. He was in a mournful, wistful mood the rest of the day.

xXx

Sumire was in a…Violent mood.

“If you don’t do something about those garbage-spawn, I will do something myself.” she bared her teeth, fur ruffled up. Being a small fennec fox, she might not be taken to look particularly frightening. But with her furious magic crackling around her and shaking the room… “And how did enemy nin get so far into the village that they could infiltrate one of the forests where children go by?” she snarled accusingly. The old man in front of her watched her solemnly, three different nin with animal themed masks standing tensely around him. They were normally hidden in the room but she supposed the feeling of her magic roiling over the room like thick, choking smog was enough to get them out in the open.

Sumire’s own sweet Naruto had almost been ambushed in a forest because of spiteful little shits who would get another child killed carelessly. No, there would be consequences. Whether or not she would be the one dealing them was the only question now.

She would also need to add more protections. Not to the village itself, no, they have done little for her ward and so she would do little for them unless Naruto specifically requested it, but for Naruto’s home.

And, probably, for those friendly ramen stand people. They deserved protection too.

“The nin are being interrogated now,” the Sandaime said quietly and calmly, ignoring the mental alarms blaring at the frankly deathly feeling that seemed to coat everything. It wasn’t quite like KI. But it was practically tangible and it set on him, brushing him like a caress of warning and barely contained violence. She had been the one to bring them, sobbing and begging to the Tower. Three were dead. The other four had clearly been tortured in some way or another for answers even if there were no injuries on them. Their clothes were torn in ways that said they should have been. Sumire-san’s teeth looked unusually needle-like suddenly. “The children are expelled from the Academy.”

He immediately knew that this was not enough by the blast of ozone in the air and the way she snarled, far deeper and more inhuman than it had any right to be coming from such a small body.

“These little fucks tried to blatantly get another one killed and your punishment is kicking them out of school?!”

She didn’t speak like nin-animals did. Given she was a morinji-no-okama he supposed that would make sense. Her voice had an odd sort of…Accent, he supposed, and there were tones and tenors that he found odd. It made it very unsettling to hear her speak.

“They are children-”

“They are being trained to kill, maim and steal and they tried to lure another child, a younger one, to their death because she was, and I quote, a nuisance!” she shrieked and it was really otherworldly, sharper. It rang long after she finished speaking. She was growling, crouched and while he had thought before that her eyes practically glowed, now they really were glowing. Very suddenly, she calmed down. The heavy thickness in the room lifted and he hadn’t realized how much it had been closing them in, sticking them to place until it was very suddenly gone. He almost clutched his desk, dizzy at the feeling and he felt more than heard the way his ANBU swayed slightly. “Have they even been chastised? Has someone spoken to their parents?” she asked coolly. “Or were they only informed that they or their child were expelled from the Academy?”

Hiruzen remained silent.

“…I see.” she hopped down from where she had aggressively torn up the chair in front of his desk. She trotted to the door that opened for her obediently instead of disappearing like she normally did. She paused and glanced back at him. “You will not see me darken your office again for a long time, I suspect.” she told him neutrally and it sounded like a threat and promise rolled in one.

He had lost any trust or belief she might have had in him regarding the care of her ward, and she had told him so blatantly to his face.

xXx

“I think,” Sumire started slowly, “That another tutor is in order.”

“Another one Sumire-san?” Eiko asked as food floated and set itself out on the table, his chopsticks already snatching things. “Is it because Takara-san is away?”

“Partially. But I’ve been neglecting other studies in favor of purely physical or jutsu related ones and that’s remiss of me.” she said as a small dish of karaage settled in front of her. “I can teach her certain skills but there are others I would like to leave to professionals.”

“Like?”

Eiko was already teaching her about things that weren’t combative, not to say that Takara didn’t also pour in her own knowledge, even when it didn’t necessarily have much to do with genjutsu. She was too old to train a genin team, so she was pleased to be able to share her knowledge with a young student.

“Life skills.” Sumire said. “I can teach her plenty of things, I suppose, but I am not from this place and I am not familiar with everything here as opposed to my old home. Politics, since she will undoubtedly be used as a power. I want her to be able to be a power unto herself, not just a weapon to point in the right direction. And those aside…Fuinjutsu. There is only so much comparison I can give between one of my own skills and it, and there are not many scrolls readily available about it.”

“Fuinjutsu, huh?” Eiko mused. “There aren’t really any masters in Konoha. Life skills in the day to day sense Takara-san and I can handle, along with skills for coming down from dangerous or high risk missions. Politics…I’d say look at the Uchiha for laws first, and then probably…The Hyuuga for the real politics. They’re a slippery clan in that sense.”