Years ago, a dark sorcerer of great power had risen in the Wizarding World and with his followers, the death eaters, terrorized the people. With a single curse, Voldemort could strip a person of their life, drive them to insanity with pain, or control their minds. The Wizarding World was in chaos as Muggleborns and half-bloods were slain and whole families were destroyed.
In retaliation, a group who called themselves The Order of the Phoenix, lead by one Albus Dumbledore, made contact with a continent that had long been separated from the outside world and sort out the greatest Shinobi-warrior, the Hokage of Konoha and hired Shinobi from that hidden village in order to defeat the Dark Lord. There were many battles, with no end in sight, until a prophecy was made about a small child that could lead to the final victory of the war. However, until the time was right, this child and his parents, the Potters, were forced into hiding, until the child was old enough to take up his wand and see the end of the battle.
However, this was not meant to be. The Potters were betrayed by a man they saw as a friend and Voldemort attacked, killing both the boy's parents. In order to finish it and secure his hold on the Wizarding World, he turned his wand upon their son. Yet that spell, which had taken the lives of his parents and so many older and stronger wizards, somehow bounced back off the child and rebounded upon its originator.
Voldemort, terror of the Wizarding world, was destroyed in that one moment and the boy, who had somehow, remarkably, survived the curse with little more than a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, was from that day forth, named a hero.
His name was Harry James Potter…
Namikaze Minato, Yellow Flash of Konoha and Fourth Hokage let out a sigh as he leaned back from all the paperwork in front of him. He rubbed at his temples and threw a dirty look at the still large stack of paper that graced his desk, before he sighed again, allowing himself a moment of self-pity – a luxury he didn't often have time for now that he was Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. When Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, had stepped down from his post last year and had nominated him – him! – for the position of Hokage, he had been on top of the world. It was a great honor to be named the Hokage – the strongest of all Shinobi in all of Fire Country, and Minato had immediately agreed.
Now, however, he was seriously considering murdering the old coot for even suggesting it. Even if he was the sensei of his own perverted teacher.
Grumbling under his breath for a moment as he ran a hand through his thick blonde hair, the Fourth leaned forward again to continue writing, wondering if he was going to get a chance to actually grace his wife with his presence at all that night. However, he froze when he felt another presence in the room. Not letting himself seem startled, the young Hokage moved his hand slowly to the kunai pouch strapped to his leg and flipped it open with a finger, his blue eyes scanning the room for any signs of the perpetrator.
Nothing…
A slight shimmer out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and Minato's eyes narrowed. He sent the kunai flying. It whizzed towards the distortion, closer and closer until-
-it turned into a butterfly?
There had to be something wrong with that picture. Just plain wrong. There was only one person the Fourth knew who would meet the attack of a flying dagger by turning it into an insect. And no, it wasn't the Aburame, although he knew that they would kill to learn such a jutsu.
He never did understand that clan…
"Yo, Dumbledore you can come out now," Minato chuckled, not caring if he sounded rude. After all, he was friends with the old man, even if it was through Konoha's resident old coot and the perverted Ero-sanin that he had met the guy.
There was a slight chuckle as the air distorted a little more and a man appeared, dressed in the most extraordinary clothing that Minato had ever seen worn by someone in the hidden countries. In fact, the man was just plain out of the ordinary. He was tall, thin and, by the silvery coloring of his extremely long beard and hair that were tucked into his belt, had to be at least as old as Sarutobi – perhaps even more so. He was wearing long robes with a purple cloak resting on his shoulders that swept over the top of his high-healed buckled boots. His long nose looked as though it had been broken at least twice, on them rested a pare of half-moon spectacles. Behind them, azure eyes that seemed younger than the man was sparkled and shone. In one hand he held what looked like a polished wooden stick, while in the other he held what looked like a bundle of blankets.
"Minato, I had heard you became the Hokage from Sarutobi," Dumbledore said in slightly accented Japanese, a smile on his face as he slipped the stick somewhere within his robes. "I must say congratulations."
"Yeah, and now I'm stuck doing all this paperwork that does. Not. Seem. To. End!" the young Hokage grumbled as he glared at the paperwork again. Dumbledore's eyes followed where he was looking and chuckled as they landed on the littered paper that was in various stages of Origami construction filtering between the documents. Minato pretended not to notice, although he wasn't sure that he pulled it off very well. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Suddenly, a cold feeling hit the pit of his stomach. "Has the war taken a turn for the worse?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "No, no. In fact, the war has ended. We won. Voldemort was defeated." The older man gave a sigh and the twinkle in his eyes seemed to dim somewhat. "Unfortunately, there were losses. Potter James and his wife, Lily, were killed in the final battle."
Minato looked over sadly. He had not known the Potter's overly well, although he and James had hit it off quite well when they had met. "I'm sorry. They were good people. Its sad to hear that Uchiha Tsubame's son was killed." He looked back at the old man, a slight frown on his face. "But didn't you say that James had a son? Harry, wasn't it? What happened to him?" he eyed the bundle in Dumbledore's arms suddenly.
The old man nodded and pulled back the blankets. Minato stared at what met his eyes.
A small child lay within the blankets, almost lost within a sea of cloth. His eyes were screwed up for a moment, as if startled by the sudden light, before startling green eyes blinked up at him innocently. However, Minato's eyes were drawn to the child's forehead, where he could still feel the shadowy traces of chakra. Under a tuft of jet-black hair was a crimson red, tender-looking, but already healed scar, shaped like a lightning-bolt that stood out against his Uchiha-pale skin.
"What on…what happened?" Minato asked as he stared at the scar. What on earth could have left traces of chakra like that after what must have taken hours for the wound to have healed? It would have to have been one powerful jutsu…
Dumbledore looked down at little Harry for a moment. "Voldemort attacked the Potters last night and managed to kill James and then Lily, from what I could gather," he said, "and then turned his wand onto young Harry here. He then used the killing curse on him."
"The Killing Jutsu?" Minato gasped, his head snapping back to the child. "Dumbledore, this kid shouldn't even be alive from what our Jonin reported of that jutsu!"
"Yes, he shouldn't have, but he did," Dumbledore said, his eyes surveying the small child for a moment. "How he survived, I cannot say, but not only did he survive, but he also managed to turn the curse back onto Voldemort. This child is the one who defeated the Dark Lord."
"Dear god…" Minato flopped back into his chair, staring. Just how powerful did that make this child?
He was certainly glad that no one else was there to see this. He would never live it down. Correction, if Jiraiya ever found out, he would never let him live it down. After a moment, he managed to pull himself together. "But…why have you brought him here?" he asked in confusion. "Surely he would be better off in your 'Wizarding World'?"
Surprisingly, Dumbledore shook his head. "Unfortunately, that could not be possible. You see, right now, Harry is famous in our world. He just survived a spell that no one has ever survived before. Not only that, but he defeated Voldemort. If he were in the Wizarding world right now, he would grow up in a place where ever Wizard would know his name – it would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he could walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember!"
"And that could be deadly," Minato finished, thinking of the Ninja battles he had faced before he became Hokage, where the opponent had got big-headed, overestimating their skill and died because of it.
"Before they went into hiding, James told me about his mother being from the Uchiha clan. I believe that makes him the cousin of Uchiha Fugaku, doesn't it?" Dumbledore said lightly.
Minato was temporarily thrown for a loop at the apparent change in topic. "Huh? Oh…well, yes, but what's that got to do with…" he trailed off as it started to dawn on him.
"James asked me that if something happened to them and the man they named as Godfather cannot, for some reason, look after Harry, then I was to bring him here to Konoha to be brought up by Fugaku as an Uchiha."
"Are you sure about that?" Minato asked. "I mean, the guy might be the clan's leader, but he's not the easiest man to get along with. After all, I did have an Uchiha in my Genin team years ago, so I did have to deal with the man enough to know."
"I did have some thoughts on that," Dumbledore admitted. "I had thought to take Harry to his mother's sister and husband to look after, as I know how difficult it must be to grow up to a shinobi life. However, Minerva watched them for a whole day and informed me that they hate anything out of the ordinary and would never treat Harry right. I trust Minerva's judgment."
Minato winced internally at the thought. I would have been like giving a child with the Sharingan, Byakugan or some other Kekkei Genkai to one of the villages who feared all bloodline-limits. It would have been the death of the child. He had heard of it happening many, many times.
"And here, he will at least have a family who will watch out for him, and help him to grow strong," Dumbledore concluded.
Minato sighed. "Alright, you old coot, you win. I'll talk with Fugaku and have him raise the kid. If not, I should at least be able to get him to give him to someone in the clan to raise him – especially considering that he might activate his Sharingan at some point, seeing as he does have Uchiha blood in him. Perhaps I can use that blood-dept that he owed his cousin on him…" Minato trailed off, thinking of ways that he might be able to convince the stubborn man to take his cousin's son and raise him as his own.
Dumbledore chuckled at the young Hokage's line of thought. "I'll leave that up to you," Dumbledore said as he passed Harry over the desk and into Minato's arms.
Minato looked at the boy for a moment, wondering what type of Uchiha that Harry would turn out to be. If he was anything like his father (and looking so much like him it was a distinct possibility) then Konoha was going to become much livelier very soon. He looked up again to see Dumbledore watching them, his eyes lacking their customary twinkle. "Thank you, my friend. I'll come back in ten years to drop of his Hogwarts letter so he could train in wand magic. But until then, don't tell him about this. I'd like for him to have a normal childhood…" suddenly, his eyes twinkled once more. "Of course, if you can call a Shinobi's life normal."
Minato laughed and waved his hand, "don't you worry about it. Just leave everything to me – except the paperwork. I have enough paperwork to do as it is."
That caused the old man to chuckle as he grasped Minato's hand. "Well, I must be going now. Unfortunately, there's still much to clean up. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Dumbledore," Minato said, watching as the man called for something named Fawkes and in a burst of flames a brilliant red and golden bird the size of a swan appeared, perched on the man's shoulder. With a small bow towards Minato, the bird trilled, causing Minato to feel warm inside and in a burst of flames they were gone.
Minato couldn't help but chuckle, shaking his head. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that," he muttered with a laugh.
It had taken some time, but Minato managed to make the child comfortable in a Kage Bunshin henge shaped like a crib, before he called for an ANBU on the intercom to bring one Uchiha Fugaku to the Hokage tower, yesterday. Absently, he wondered what the clan leader would do after being called this late…ano…early. Somehow, he thought that the man would be pretty pissed off with him when he got here. Especially after Minato had finished with him. He wouldn't know what hit him.
Minato snickered, his eyes sparkling in a way that would have made Dumbledore proud, amused at the thought as he pulled out his Kage seeing globe to see what would happen.
This was going to be fun.
Of course, for any normal person, this would be a rather insane thought at the moment, but the young Hokage was definitely not your normal person.
For a moment, the orb showed nothing, before finally the mist cleared and showed the Monkey-masked ANBU leaping over the roofs towards the Uchiha complex, momentarily pausing at the entrance, where he exchanged words with the two guards that stood at the gates. After a moment, he entered and moments later was pounding on the door of the Uchiha Mansion, home of the Uchiha clan leader, his wife and young son, Itachi.
There was a moment of silence when the door was finally thrown open by an irate looking Fugaku, who, if looks could kill, would have slaughtered the poor ANBU on the spot.
"What is it that you need me on such god-forsaken night?" he snarled, making known his irritation. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
The ANBU bowed to Fugaku in what Minato guessed was either a respectful or apologetic manner – he couldn't tell properly because the mask covered his face but for two small holes for his eyes. But then again, he didn't care all that much. He listened as the ANBU addressed the clan leader "I apologize, Uchiha but I come on the orders of the Hokage. He requests you come to his office immediately."
Fugaku frowned, confusion warring with his previously annoyed expression. Unfortunately for the former emotion, it was drop kicked off a cliff and the latter emotion snapped back into place. "Do you have any idea what time it is, ANBU?" Fugaku demanded. "Tell him that I will report to him promptly first thing."
The monkey masked ANBU shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Lord Hokage wants to speak with you now."
The Uchiha-clan leader looked just about ready to let loose his Katon jutsu and fry the man on the spot, Minato noticed with a chuckle. However, the man closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and turned away.
"Danm," he muttered and grabbed his cloak from the hanger standing close by, pulling up the hood over his head. He was just about to go outside when paused as there was a slight creaking sound of stairs and turned round to find Mikoto, his wife, halfway down the flight, a housecoat wrapped round her and a surprised look on her face.
"…Fugaku…what's wrong here?"
"The Hokage wishes to meet with me," Fugaku told her as he fastened the cloak. "God knows why he chose now and couldn't wait until tomorrow. Don't concern yourself, Mikoto."
Mikoto lowered her head respectfully. "Yes Fugaku."
Fugaku nodded to her in return, before stepping out beside the ANBU, slamming the door behind him. He shot the other ninja a glare. "This had better be important, otherwise I'll be holding you personally responsible, ANBU" He said coldly.
"Duly noted, Uchiha," the ANBU acknowledged.
Fugaku snorted and leapt away over the rooftops towards the Hokage tower. As soon as the clan leader was out of sight, a shiver seemed to make its way down the ANBU's spine from the expression on Fugaku's face. After a moment, he shrugged it off and leapt off after the irritated Uchiha.
Minato tried his best not to burst out laughing, in case the secretary sitting outside his office thought he had cracked.
Five minutes later, irritated, cold-looking and not in the best of moods, Uchiha Fugaku stormed up the stairs to the Hokage's office behind his ANBU escort, glaring at any and all people who even glanced in his direction. The young Hokage chuckled slightly when it made the few ninja on night guard duty shift uncomfortably, or even scuttle out of the man's path. Minato watched as Fugaku reached the waiting room that is situated in front of his office, where the man eyed the secretary who looked like she was going to fall asleep, a clipboard filled with paper on her lap as she dozed and his lip curled slightly. He slammed his hands onto the desk with a loud bang, causing the half-asleep secretary to jump a mile, sending the papers in her arms everywhere, but Fugaku ignored them as she alternated between trying to acknowledge the man respectfully and scooping up her lost papers. Fugaku ignored the antics, although he thought he heard the ANBU next to him give a discrete cough, which may have been hiding a snicker. Fugaku ignored that too, although the vein throbbed at his temple. Still, he came to attention. "Uchiha Fugaku reporting, I would like to see the Hokage now," Fugaku demanded. The secretary let out a small eep and the papers fluttered to the floor once more. The ANBU's cough turned into a hacking one as he covered up his laugh. "Yes Uchiha," she squeaked under Fugaku's penetrating gaze. "One moment please." She fumbled with the intercom for a moment and pressed a button. "Uchiha Fugaku has arrived, Lord Hokage." Letting go of the button, she turned back to Fugaku. "Okay, you can go in now, Uchiha," the girl quickly packed her things, scabbing for the papers on the floor and bolted from the office. Fugaku snorted at the girl's actions before marching through the doors, looking determined not to impale the still sniggering ANBU.
"I am reporting as ordered Lord Hokage" the Uchiha leader snapped, making it perfectly clear that he was extremely pissed by the situation. "I am sure there is a good reason you woke me up in the dead of night?" he purposely put stress on the 'good' part.
A slight smile tugged at the corners of the young Hokage's mouth, but he quickly covered it up. Best not to irritate the man any more than he already was. After all, there was little Harry to think about. Minato nodded in acknowledgment to the Uchiha, before turning to the ANBU at his side. "Thank you, Saru You can go."
The ANBU seemed to perk up immediately. "Yes, Lord Hokage." He immediately made the appropriate signs and teleported from the room in a puff of smoke. Minato turned back to the clan leader once more, his face serious. Fugaku looked confused once more, the irritation on his face vanishing slowly at the expression. Well, it was well known that the young Hokage most of the time acted like a child in an adult's body. But it irked Minato a little. Dammit, he did know when to act seriously!
"Fugaku I'm sorry to have brought you here so late at night and all, but it was something importance. I'm sorry to have to be the one to report this, but a few hours ago, your cousin, James, and his wife, Lily, were killed. They died protecting their clan"
Fugaku froze momentarily, before he closed his eyes with a frown, most likely in respect for the dead. However, he also seemed to have a slightly jealous expression flickering in there as well. Minato could understand. In the world of the Shinobi, there were three ways that a shinobi wished to end their days. The first was that they could die in protection of their clan or village. The second was in a suicide mission, like against the Biyu that had been rather active of late. The last was that they would die in their beds, in their sleep, away from the pain and war. However, they had come to realize that this was nothing more than a foolish dream that very, very few ever accomplished in Shinobi history. Anyone who did die in such a way was immediately thought of as lucky, and was often envied for weeks.
Fugaku finally opened his eyes again.
"So, James died. He was a good man. Even if he was never raised as a Shinobi, he still live 'the way of the ninja', just as Tsubame taught him. I recall he saved my life once in the outlands." He thought for a moment, his head cocked to one side. "But I had heard that James had had a son. Harry, wasn't it? You didn't say what happened to the boy."
Minato beamed, pleased with how the conversation was going, even without his prompting. However, this didn't seem to put the man at ease at all. In fact, Fugaku now looked as though he wanted to do nothing more than run off at the expression. "Well, he's here, isn't he!"
That threw the man for a loop. "Here?"
"Yup!" Minato agreed, pointing to the henge crib next to him, making Fugaku look around the desk. "Here!"
Fugaku crashed to the floor. Minato chuckled at that. The Uchiha's head snapped up and he quickly recovered himself as much as possible. "As I recall," Fugaku said rather heatedly at the Hokage, "James did not live anywhere near this Village. How on earth did the boy get here?"
Minato hummed slightly. "Well, a good friend of James – and of mine, in fact, seeing as we met briefly when I was training with Jiraiya – dropped him off here not long ago. Albus had been intending to give Harry to his aunt and uncle on his mother's side. But as they do not like anything to do with 'wand-wavers' and seem to be as bad as some of those civilians in some of the other hidden countries that hate all Kekkei Genkai and such, he thought it would be a bad idea. It seems that James had mentioned you to Albus and had asked that if anything happened to him, and that his god-father could not take care of him for some reason, then he requested that he be brought here to Konoha to be placed in your care. Did he mention it to you at all?" he added, seeing the stunned look on the Uchiha's normally stoic face.
"All right, Hokage…"
Minato ignored him for the moment, heaving a fake sigh. "Then there's also the chance that the followers of the dark lord will come searching for him in the outlands and kill him for surviving the Killing Jutsu and defeating the wizarding world's dark lord, but-"
"Hang on, what was that?" Fugaku interrupted, staring at the child with wide eyes.
"I said, 'then there's also the chance that the followers of the dark lord will come searching for him in the outlands and kill him for surviving the Killing Jutsu and defeating the wizarding world's dark lord'" Minato repeated.
"Impossible!" Fugaku said, staring at the child. "It's just not possible…That jutsu is the ultimate killing jutsu. There's not way a kid could survive."
"Well, he did, with nothing more than a scar to show for it," Minato said, before playing his next trump card. "Well, they do say that the Uchihas all produce Prodigies and Geniuses."
"If that's correct, then he could even surpass Itachi…" Fugaku muttered, mostly to himself. "And if he can produce our bloodline, then…"
"Uh-huh. So, will you do it then, Fugaku? Will you take your nephew?"
Fugaku looked up at him, literally at a loss for words, trying to form the words that wouldn't come and left him mouthing wordlessly, which was a first in and of itself - and it annoyed him. Uchiha were not lost for words. Uchiha did not gape like a landed fish! However, this was all the time Minato needed to pick the kid up and, knocking his arms upwards, plopped the boy in his arms, beaming from ear to ear.
"Congratulations, you officially became a father… again!, So what will the name be"
"Harry," Fugaku told him. "His name is Uchiha Harry."