Ron glared across the fire at the Iwa hunter squad. All of them sat there, laughing raucously at his "pathetic" killing intent as he inched a hand slowly closer to his right sandal, and the tiny knife they had overlooked when searching him, praying they didn't pay him enough attention to notice what he was doing. He needn't have worried—they were arrogant enough that they hadn't even posted a guard, and all of them were so close to the fire that they couldn't possibly see further than the ring of light extended.
He had just closed his fingers around the knife's handle when he heard a rushing noise, and a wave crashed down onto the fire and the four kidnappers. Their shouts of surprise and the hissing of the doused fire covered him hastily withdrawing the blade and cutting his legs free. Before he could twist the knife to free his hands, the ropes there suddenly fell away, and an arm wrapped around his waist. He began to struggle, but a hissed "Stay still!" and the click of teeth on steel made him freeze.
"Genma-sensei…" he breathed. Genma covered Ron's mouth with one hand as he backed slowly away, speed increasing.
"What's the matter with you all?" barked the voice of the kunoichi who had taken him. "It's not that difficult to strike a light! Shakuton: Kajousatsu!" The darkness was pushed back by the pinkish fireballs that sprang into being at her command, but the hissing noise increased tenfold as the water flooding the campsite evaporated all at once, neatly covering their escape.
Genma gave a chuckle deep in his throat as he made his way around the camp, still holding Ron. "This is why you use Jinnei Hikari no jutsu when you need to see at night," he whispered. The 'camp light' was a simple katon jutsu, akin to striking a match.
"Are you hurt?" Genma added, as they came to a stop by a huge white rock. Ron shook his head, but Genma's sharply indrawn breath kept him silent. "Where did they go?" he demanded in a low strangled voice.
"Helping," came a sarcastic, huffed reply. The rock extended a furry limb to point in a direction just away from the camp, the opposite way from which Genma and Ron had come. At the same time, they heard another cry from the Iwa nin in the same direction. Belatedly, Ron realized that the 'rock' was an enormous crouching polar bear, and he nearly whimpered as Genma dropped him unceremoniously beside it.
With a curse, Genma vanished again. But 'they' were missing while 'helping', Ron realized, his fear fading slightly as the bear did not move. Which presumably meant Harry and Hermione. The two of them must have tried to sneak closer in case Genma needed backup freeing Ron. Stupid, but not surprising. And now they needed help themselves. Ron got instantly to his feet, but a sudden weight against his knees made him look down. A gigantic paw was held in front of him.
"Genma-dono does not need his attention split another way," the bear rumbled.
"My team needs help!" Ron exclaimed quietly, as if that explained everything. And really, didn't it?
"Already they return," the bear replied. "Climb up on my back."
Ron hesitated, looking toward the direction where Genma had disappeared, when suddenly the world tilted, and he grabbed a handful of white fur to not fall over. The bear had scooped him up with its neck, and a moment later, he felt Hermione's arms around his waist, and Harry's around hers, as they were deposited behind him.
"Move!" Genma growled, and the three of them were almost unseated as their furry conveyance shot away.
The battle had been short, but intense, and Harry couldn't believe how quickly it had spiralled out of hand. One moment, he and Hermione were creeping closer, having counted all four enemy at the fireside and realizing they had nobody on watch. The next, all light had vanished, and Harry's foot caught a tripwire, sending him crashing to the ground. There were shouts from the camp, and flickering, palely-red light illuminated the area, revealing a thick mist that had appeared from nowhere. Hermione dragged him back to his feet, and they both backpedaled rapidly, aware that they needed to put space between themselves and the noise Harry had made, but not carrying the thought far enough to realize that 'farther away' was exactly where the enemy would look for them.
By the time this occurred to Harry, he was already frantically trying to dodge, and too distracted to even shout for help. The enemy's half-seen fists were glancing off him every few seconds, and from what he could hear, Hermione was likewise occupied. The two of them were acting on pure recently-ingrained instinct, doing their best to return blows against the two large Iwa-nin, but it was clear that they were outclassed as the hits kept raining in.
Then there was the sound of a body slumping to the ground, and his heart plummeted. "That'll be your friend caught," the man he was fighting growled. "And you'll be next." Harry aimed a palm strike in the direction of the voice, but hit nothing as the enemy slid smoothly underground. Harry whirled on the spot, trying wildly to see an attack coming through the mist and the dark.
There was a flash of some kind under him, and he flung himself away as hands burst from the ground where he had been standing, groping for his ankles. They vanished again quickly as he lay still, praying that he couldn't be found if he didn't move, and wondering desperately if Hermione was all right. Another flicker made him jerk around, rolling back to his feet.
The silhouette of the man he'd fought was behind him, but before Harry could even react, the enemy crumpled to the ground. Behind him stood the familiar, but blank-faced figure of Genma, who hissed, "Fool!" and grabbed his arm. There was an almighty wrench, which nearly pulled Harry's arm from its socket, and suddenly they were back beside Kumakita. Genma all but flung Hermione off his shoulders and onto the bear, where Ron already sat. An instant later, Harry was thrown up behind her.
They barely had time to grab hold as the bear took them from the scene, Genma flickering in and out of sight beside them, still growling imprecations under his breath.
This went on for hours as they quickly approached the border, until Genma suddenly stumbled and fell. Kumakita skidded to a halt, claws digging trenches in the earth, and the three students jumped down at once. Genma was facedown, panting hard, but fortunately still conscious.
"Keep going," he croaked as they knelt beside him, but they ignored him.
Instead, they picked him up between them and wordlessly deposited him on Kumakita's back, where he wound his fingers into the fur. They had to move slower after that, since Genma would have fallen at high speed and none of the students could perform Shunshin, but they managed to leave the land of Earth behind them by dawn.
They were all exhausted, but also unwilling to stop, so they forced themselves onward, Kumakita slowing more and more along with them as fatigue caught up with even the huge bear. By the time Kumakita led them back to the place where he had been summoned, and where they had dropped their backpacks, all of them were stumbling and could go no further. Kumakita flopped down, and they leaned themselves and Genma against him, listening to the sound of the great bear's heavy breathing and pounding heart.
When Kumakita spoke, they felt the rumble against their backs. "I can remain awake. You should rest. We will have to run again in a few hours." The students were all asleep before he even finished.
"Insubordinate little brats," Genma breathed, cracking an eye open to look at his deshi, Harry's and Hermione's heads resting on either of Ron's shoulders.
Kumakita huffed an ursine chuckle. "Your cubs are brave and loyal."
"To a fault," Genma groaned, almost too tired to keep the senbon in his mouth.
"Such is the fatal flaw of Konoha-nin," Kumakita mused.
Genma gave a weak snort, his eye closing once more. "Not too long, Kumakita," he mumbled, and the bear rumbled an assent.
The sun was still high when Kumakita woke them by vanishing, his summoning ended. Their support suddenly gone, the three students tumbled to the ground, rudely awakened. Harry was just rubbing the sleep from his eyes when he froze, as the air around him seemed to fill with tension. It wasn't paralyzing, but he looked up in alarm to see Genma leaning against a tree a short distance away, glaring down at the three of them.
"Sensei," he said, a quiet acknowledgement.
The fury in the air intensified, and Ron and Hermione both drew back slightly, though Harry did not move.
"You call me sensei, yet you think you know better than me," Genma said. His voice was quite as drawling as ever, but his eyes told the whole story. He was furious. "I've told you that other squads could be months in taking their first mission outside the village, and I told Hokage-sama that you three were ready. Yet at the first sign of trouble, I find you rushing off against my explicit instructions."
Neither Harry nor Ron said anything, so Hermione spoke up. "You also told us that Konoha prizes teamwork above all else." She quailed as Genma's eyes bored into hers.
Genma snorted. "You can keep pace with a couple of genin and you think you're ready to tangle with Iwa hunter-killers? The only help you could have offered was to stay put, so I wouldn't have to risk going back for you. Exactly as I told you to!" His voice was still low, but the pressure in the air cranked ever higher, and his voice was intense.
Harry stared up at Genma for another moment, speechless, then twisted his knees under him to sit seiza. He bowed forward, nearly pressing his forehead to the leaf-strewn forest floor. "I'm sorry, Sensei," he said simply. The other two echoed him, even though Ron hadn't technically done anything wrong.
There was a pregnant silence, then the tension abruptly drained from the air. They all sat up slowly, remaining in seiza, waiting for orders. Genma chewed his senbon for a moment, and when he spoke, the anger had bled out of his tone. "Genma's Rule Number Nine: Be able to take orders. I understand you're independent thinkers and I prize that, but there are limits. You three are shinobi and I am your commanding officer; that denotes a measure of authority. I do not like barking instructions, but when I give one, I expect it to be obeyed."
"Yes, Sensei," they murmured together.
Genma turned away to stare westward. "With any luck, they've given up. But I don't want to squander what lead we have. We need to get deeper into Fire country, fast."
There were no more words spoken as they retrieved their packs—dropped when the team was attached by the Iwa kunoichi, what seemed so long ago.
It was a few hours' silent travel before Harry found the nerve to break the silence.
"Sensei?" he asked hesitantly.
"Mm?" Genma seemed to have largely gotten his displeasure out of his system, because his voice had regained its usual lazy quality.
"I wanted to ask you about…something that happened during my fight," Harry said awkwardly.
Genma just nodded for him to continue.
"Well, er…" he scrambled for the right words to describe the repeated flashes of not-light he thought he remembered.
Genma looked mildly surprised at his fumbling explanation, and when Harry at last fell silent, he said, slowly, "That sounds like a chakra sense, Harry-kun." He chewed his senbon a moment, then sighed. "I'm not a Sensor-type myself, so there's a limit to the help I'll be able to offer. Maybe Inoichi can spare some additional time to work with you on that."
Harry nodded, accepting this. Frustrating though their Occlumency sessions were, he rather liked Inoichi's calm manner, and Genma's brief summary of a chakra sense did seem to fit with what he had felt.
And was currently feeling, he recognized, now that he knew what it was. Quite aside from seeing them, or his awareness of them by their scents and quiet movements—something he knew he would never have noticed before their training—he could also feel something from each of his teammates, like a slight glimmer from just past the corner of his eye. He had to focus hard to interpret what he realized he was sensing: Ron's chakra felt different to Hermione's; his was sharper somehow, and more frantic, while hers was steadier and smoother, but he could feel them both, reassuring him that his teammates, his partners, were with him.
Genma, by contrast, was all but invisible to his new sense. When Harry asked about it, he merely shrugged. "ANBU are trained to suppress their chakra," he drawled, senbon clacking as usual. "Hard to melt into the shadows if anyone sensitive to chakra can point straight at you. It's a habit I never got out of."
"Is there any drawback to suppressing your chakra, Sensei?" Hermione asked, still a little timid after their dressing-down.
Genma considered the question for a moment before replying. They were growing used to this—it was a quirk of Genma's that he would prefer to give a precise answer after a pause than a stumbling explanation—so they no longer often wondered whether he would refuse to answer.
"Suppressing and controlling are more like two different things," he said finally. "What I am actually doing is tightly regulating my chakra so that I don't broadcast any, while still using it internally to energize myself." Being that they were currently tree-hopping, this made sense. "I cannot use any jutsu without calling up a good deal more chakra, but on the other hand, only a very talented sensor or someone very familiar with me could still discover me like this. I am still using chakra, after all, but Harry-kun is too inexperienced with his new talent to sense it. Contrarily, I can fully suppress my chakra so as to disappear, but that requires concentration and additionally would make jutsu impossible to perform until I let it circulate through my entire body again, so it's a risky maneuver." He tilted his head the other way. "But if the alternative is being detected on an infiltration…" He ended on a shrug, leaving them to ponder his words as he often did, though he began to let some chakra slip out so that Harry could grow familiar with it. Genma's chakra felt cool and fluid, and Harry soon felt confident that he would be able to recognize any of them by feel.
They met with their replacements halfway back to Konoha. Genma had decided the previous night that they were deep enough in Fire Country that they could have a good campfire. This was a comfort in both light and warmth, and simply meant that whoever was on watch would have to be far enough outside the ring of firelight that their night vision wasn't destroyed. Genma himself pulled an eyepatch from his pack and fitted it over his left eye with no explanations. It was during Harry's watch—he had drawn the first again—that he sensed someone approaching, a blurry flicker at the edge of his developing chakra sense. Several someones, he mentally corrected. They had seemed like one chakra source at range, but he was able to distinguish slight variants as they approached.
He drew a kunai and gave a screechy whistle, imitating a tiny Fire Country wood owl; that night's chosen signal for 'intruders, multiple'. Genma was at his side immediately, lifting the eyepatch whose purpose was suddenly clear, and he could feel Ron and Hermione waking and readying more slowly.
"…Six, I think," he hissed to Genma, pointing. "Stronger than us, but hiding."
Genma held a tiger seal, then pursed his lips and blew out a stream of water, which formed a water clone. The clone leapt off in the direction Harry had indicated.
A moment later, they heard another bird call, presumably from the clone, indicating 'all clear'. Genma relaxed very slightly, and Harry did too, trusting his sensei not to test them after the ordeal this mission had become. Genma was a fan of surprising his students to keep them on their toes, but this wasn't the time.
The chakra signals Harry had sensed drew nearer, seeming less…blurry as they did, coming into focus like an object approaching a sheet of frosted glass. Then, with no warning except Harry's, six ANBU seemed to materialize at the edge of their clearing, without their usual cloaks. None of them had weapons drawn, and none made any sound or move to draw nearer. The one who seemed to be the leader reached into his pocket with exaggerated motions, drawing out a scroll sealed with red wax and the Hokage's personal mark, which he tossed forward. Genma caught it, passed a hand over it, then handed it to Harry, never taking his eyes off the newcomers.
Understanding the silent instruction, Harry broke the seal and read the scroll quickly. "Hokage-sama approves our actions and urges discretion. If we must kill…" Harry swallowed. "…lay the trail toward Rain if necessary. Cat, Lizard, Crane, Owl, Grasshopper, and captain Boar are sent to assist us, and the latter four to take up our original mission." He glanced up from the scroll to see Genma and the ANBU exchanging handtalk too fast for him to follow. "That's all."
Genma nodded, finally relaxing fully and looking away from the ANBU squad for the first time since they appeared. "Hokage-sama is always succinct in his orders," he said. "And that seal indicated that the orders are genuine." He glanced at Boar. "Come in to the camp; we no longer need backup, but I need to brief you on what happened."
"…and together we retrieved Ron-kun, meeting your relief squad on the way back," Genma concluded.
The Hokage said nothing for a while, merely watching the three English genin shifting awkwardly under his gaze. When he finally spoke, he said only, "Genin Potter, Weasley, and Granger, you are dismissed. Take tomorrow for rest and meet your sensei as usual the next morning."
They bowed, and made to leave, but Genma stopped them. "To the hospital, all of you. Standard procedure unless you've got a medic on the team. No excuses."
With a chanted "Yes, Sensei," they trooped out.
As the door shut behind them, then heard the Hokage murmur, "Standard procedure? If only I could get my jonin to believe that…" Genma only laughed.
Despite this, Hermione insisted they visit the hospital anyway. "I think we've disobeyed orders enough."
"I still think he was too harsh," Harry mumbled mutinously. "He's the one who said he was proud of our teamwork."
"Yes, but honestly, Harry…" Harry and Ron exchanged a grin at the resurgence of Hermione's favourite word. "You also can't deny he was right when he said we were outclassed. What we did was like if we tried to go after the Stone back in first year without our wands, or–"
"Or only knowing first-year magic?" Ron asked quietly. He was trailing a little behind the other two, looking uncharacteristically pensive. "You ever realize how lucky we've been?" he added, when he noticed Harry and Hermione looking back at him. "Maybe a lot of things come down to luck in the end, but have we ever really come up against something we flat-out couldn't do?"
"You mean besides Divination?" Harry asked, half-glancing at Hermione, who sniffed disdainfully.
Ron snorted. "I mean it," he said seriously. "The closest we've come to an insurmountable obstacle was figuring out the basilisk and the Second Task, and both times, the solution was waiting for us."
He had evidently given this a great deal of thought. "What're you getting at?" Harry asked him as they entered the hospital.
"Just…back in England it's usually a pretty fair game. Even when we get in over our heads, we've got a chance. But here…there's so much stuff we haven't even heard of, and everyone is so much better than us. It's like a game of chess where all you have are three pawns and the opponent has all queens." He fell silent as Hermione spoke to the receptionist.
A few moments later, they were brought to a small examination room and told to wait on the next available Iryo-nin. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, each contemplating Ron's words.
"I guess…it just means we've got to keep training and getting stronger," Harry said eventually, as though there had been no gap in the conversation. "But at the same time…" His gloves creaked as his fists clenched, and he trailed off. "I've been meaning to tell you two," he began instead, and filled them in on his conversation with Genma the night before the mission. "I want to be stronger," he finished a little while later. "But not a killer."
"Sometimes it strikes me that Sensei is a killer," Hermione said in a small voice, staring out the window. "That all of our sensei have killed. And yet…I can't think of them the same as Voldemort."
Ron flinched at the sound of the name, but to his credit, it was far smaller than it would have been just a few months ago. He didn't speak.
Harry hummed in agreement, a habit he realized he'd picked up from Genma. "But like Sensei said, it's a choice we have to make every time. I'm just making the choice now."
"What about You-Know-Who, though?" Ron asked, still subdued.
"There is a difference between soldiers following orders and a monster like Voldemort," Harry growled. Then he sighed. "But even him…I'd rather see him thrown in Azkaban than kill him."
"But what if there was no choice?" Ron pressed him.
"There is always a choice, Ron!" Hermione snapped.
Harry waved a hand to calm her down and defuse the potential bickering by drawing their attention back onto himself. "That's my point," he said softly. "That's why we're better than the Death Eaters, mate."
Ron was silent a moment before he nodded, though he continued to rebut, "Sensei would say he'd sooner kill than see us die."
"But he doesn't need to kill," Hermione replied. There was no anger anymore, they were merely debating. "Maybe he was fighting to kill in his first battle against that Iwa kunoichi, but his priority later was rescue, and he didn't kill any of them when he went in to get you, or when he came back for us."
"Seeing Sensei mad was scary," Ron said, changing the topic. "And it wasn't even aimed at me."
"I didn't think he even had a temper," Harry chuckled, and the other two grinned.
Further conversation was halted as the door opened and a rather large medic-nin entered, followed by a trainee. The medic introduced himself as Ugai, and his apprentice—a pretty girl only a few years older than them—as Kasa. With their permission, he went on to rumble, he would prefer Kasa to handle their examinations as a test in her apprenticeship.
Harry and Ron shrugged, nodding. Hermione looked about to object, but Kasa had already moved over to Ron, flipping through hand seals. Rat, Ram, what looked like a modified Ox, then Tiger. Her hands glowed with a pale light as she passed them over Ron's head and shoulders, not quite touching him.
This, Ugai narrated, was the Chiyu Kensa no jutsu—the 'Healing Scan'—which would discover and diagnose any abnormalities that needed to be healed. A moment later, Kasa finished with Ron, offering that he had a chipped tooth and several bruises, and needed a good meal to regain his chakra. Ugai confirmed this, laying his own glowing palm on Ron's head for a moment. After a moment, he shifted his attention to the bruise on Ron's cheek, and the glow on his hand shifted to a soothing green. He had used no hand seals, so Harry turned his attention back to Kasa as she scanned Hermione.
Hermione, too, was free of injuries, though Kasa this time recommended a floral tea with dinner, due to an accumulation of stress hormones. Once more, Ugai concurred.
Harry watched Kasa's hands intently as she neared him, fingers itching to mimic her movements…but the thought of what Genma would say if he caught Harry testing undoubtedly complex jutsu without first asking for help dissuaded him. Still, he thought he understood the modification to the Ox seal. If he folded down the second and third fingers…
"Stop by during your free time and you can apply for a part-time apprenticeship with your sensei's permission," Kasa told him, smiling slightly. "You are also well, my friend."
"Thrilling," hummed Ugai as he checked behind her, then finished healing Ron. "There is always demand for Iryo-nin. Now, you are all dismissed, and be sure you eat well!" He shooed them out, smiling.
Outside on the street, they looked at each other, wordlessly deciding to eat dinner together. They walked a little ways to a restaurant Genma had mentioned once, nodding to the crutch-bound retired proprietor.
They were led to a booth in the back wall, only one space from the end. Kurenai sat in the corner booth, and they bowed before seating themselves. The sounds of the restaurant were muted slightly as they sat down, and Hermione immediately twisted in her seat to examine the carvings over her head. They looked decorative, but Harry thought he could feel the tiniest flicker of chakra from them.
"These are similar to the seals in the Dead Room," Hermione muttered. "I've got to look these up…"
"Think there's a proper library here?" Ron asked.
"There must be, city this size," Harry said thoughtfully. "Maybe ask Sensei about it when I ask about the hospital," he offered to Hermione, and she nodded.
"The seals remind me a bit of Ancient Runes," she said pensively. "Maybe there's a connection there between chakra and magic?"
"The runes I saw you studying last year didn't look Japanese," Ron said, confused.
"No, those were based on the Elder Futhark, but the system for control and activation of runic magic seems very similar. For instance," she turned to Harry, "Did you see the seal when Sensei did his summoning?"
"No," said Harry honestly. "I was a bit distracted by the massive great bear." Ron laughed. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Well, there was," she huffed. "A very complex seal appeared for a moment when he slammed his hand down, then there was a plume of chakra smoke, and the creature appeared. I'd imagine the seal helps to determine what and who you summon, the same way that a different runic matrix would produce heat or a binding field."
"Wonder if we can learn to summon?" Ron said, plainly following his own train of thought.
"You'd need to find a summon animal willing to let you sign its contract," Hermione answered at once. "And there are only so many. Each village has certain ones, supposedly, though not all the summon species mentioned in the histories and legends are accounted for. Konoha is known for the toads, the slugs, and the snakes, but those are possessed by the Sannin."
"Read all that already?" Harry smiled.
"No such thing as useless knowledge," Hermione shot back. Then, since Ron appeared to be sulking over his chances of obtaining a summoning contract, she offered, "There are also individual contacts, to summon a specific creature instead of a species. Kakashi is known for his pack of dog summons, but as far as anyone knows, there is no overarching canine contract."
Ron looked marginally happier, and their discussion of which animal they might be compatible with lasted most of the night.
They were relegated to D-ranks for the rest of the following week, and the pace of their training redoubled, but none of them raised any complaints. The nightmare of a C-rank mission underlined just how outclassed the three of them were, and they were all determined to redress the balance somewhat. Still, there were other good things that had come from the failed mission—for one, it hadn't been marked as 'failed' on their records, simply an approved tactical withdrawal. Harry had discovered not only a new sense to explore—Inoichi was quite pleased with his progress—but was also fascinated with iryojutsu and tried to find a little time each day to visit the hospital.
Ron had visited Tenten's family's weapon shop—which he could now identify as Kotetsu Ryuu or 'Steel Dragon' thanks to the finally-improved translation charm—to get a new sword which he could use with less worry of accidentally striking a killing blow. He'd had to put in a custom order, which had baffled Tenten with its description until her father grunted the single word "Sakabatou", giving the red-haired boy a considering look. He and Ron dickered good-naturedly over the final price, and Ron happily left a down-payment.
Hermione, meanwhile, they had hardly seen outside training since Kurenai-sensei had offered her a library pass, and she was looking up all that she could find on fuuinjutsu. Genma was amused, and encouraged her to practice, but made her promise solemnly not to attempt any genuine seals until he could obtain a teacher—"Seals are not to be toyed with, Hermione-chan. One wobbly arc or misplaced line, and a simple storage seal may take off your hands, or a ten-second detonation fuse might become a tenth-second."
The three of them were also called upon to meet with the Hokage and an ANBU wearing what looked like a peacock mask, who was apparently the Bingo Book's official sketch artist. Between them, they provided a description of the Iwa bomber, Deidara—"No, the nose was shorter, and his fringe came down to there"—to which Genma added some details they hadn't noticed—"Yes, I mean actual mouths on his hands. With tongues."
Genma also gave a description of the kunoichi he had fought, talking right through the stunned silence when he mentioned her using Shakuton —"In a way, I'm not even surprised; she looked just like her, even down to the hair. Dead ringer, I swear." None of them, not even Genma, would explain who they were referring to, so they only had Hermione's assumption that Shakuton must be a rare kekkei genkai. Further discussion was stymied when Genma clapped his hands and declared that they were due for another D-rank, vanishing in a Shunshin before they could even groan.
The passing time also brought its own worries, however; not the least of which was that they hadn't heard from Hogwarts, and the new school term was fast approaching. Still, this concern was driven out of their heads late one Saturday. It was lunchtime, and the three of them were just leaving Ichiraku's when Harry paused, shutting his eyes and turning to face toward the gate. "What the…?" he muttered.
There was a glare on his chakra sense, like someone had unshuttered a spotlight, and it was incredibly distracting. When he began moving toward it, he felt Ron and Hermione fall into step behind him but every other chakra signature that he had vaguely felt was now completely overshadowed.
The source of the incredible not-light turned out to be Naruto, who concealed both his teammates until Harry was almost near enough to touch them. They were all hunched with exhaustion, waiting for Kakashi to sign them in at the guard gate, and there seemed to be a pall hanging over the group.
"You three all right?" Ron asked as they drew level.
"Huh?" said Naruto, plainly distracted. "Oh. Um, yeah. Thanks…" He blinked, apparently mostly lost in his own thoughts.
"Mission get tough?" Harry asked quietly. The three kids looked about how he had felt when the ANBU squad had found them. Sasuke just nodded.
Hermione moved forward, resting a hand on Sakura's shoulder until the roseate girl finally looked up and focused on her face. She spoke quietly, and Sakura whispered something back. Harry looked at Ron, then jerked his head at Naruto. Ron nodded, and launched into a story about the sword he had ordered. Naruto, as ever, perked up at the mention of ninja tools, becoming more animated. Harry simply stood beside Sasuke, close enough to brush shoulders, watching Kakashi bantering with the gate guards—two chunin that Harry recognized on sight and by their chakra, but whose names he couldn't recall.
At length Kakashi turned, giving Harry's team an eye smile for engaging his students, but gathering them up again so they could report. The genin still looked drawn, but seemed less grim than they had. At the last moment, Harry nudged Sasuke, and murmured, too softly for anyone else to hear, "I'll come round for dinner?"
Sasuke blinked at him, then gave a tiny nod.
A/N: Hi. This was delayed, wasn't it. Um. Welcome back, and sorry for leaving you dangling off that cliff for so long. This was sitting done for a month before I could post it, because I've managed to bust my laptop. And now I've cracked my phone. Ugh.
Genma wasn't quite as exhausted as Kakashi was in the Land of Waves, since he isn't using anything foreign to him (i.e. the sharingan), but he's still drained from all the crap he had to do. (Two summonings plus two fights plus repeated shunshins equals tired ninja even for jonin, and he was crashing from a soldier pill ending.)
If he seemed uncharacteristically harsh in his reprimand, I hope you realize it's out of concern for them (and the fact that the two of them sneaking off to help in direct violation of their last spoken orders is insubordination and could have seen them benched from missions or even jailed once they returned to Konoha if he was so inclined.)
Ugai is a canonical Konoha medic. Kasa is an OC name meaning 'umbrella'. Neither is likely to be important to the story. A Sakabatō is a 'reverse-blade sword' (thank you Rurouni Kenshin).
I'm still toying with the timeline here, so it's kinda compressed. But! The kids are back. Harry will get the story next time, and I expect we'll start the Chunin exams pretty soon. (Remember that Team Genma isn't taking them, so their focus will be on something else…or rather, on several someones else.)
Finally, it occurred to me that you nice folks might want a compilation of Genma's Rules. Or, at least, the ones revealed so far in-story. (Oh, yes, there are more.) Without further ado:
6. Always be aware of your surroundings.7. There is no such thing as useless knowledge.
8. Prepare for everything, before it is too late to prepare for anything.
9. Be able to take orders.
11. Always have a plan.
23⅓. If you've got it, flaunt it. [May not be a real rule.]
24. If you lose control, you're already dead.
25. Don't waste time.
If you need a more detailed explanation of any of the rules, don't hesitate to ask.