Harry Potter/Naruto crossover

I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own Naruto. I make no monetary gains from this piece. All places, people and ideas that I do own will be listed at the bottom of the chapter. I own this story so no touchies please. Try to sue and you'll just get the dead moth in my wallet 8)

WARNING: Naruto being smart/philosophical, slight Sasuke!Bashing, slight Uchiha!Bashing, Jiraiya being a pervy rake and Amaya being oblivious and adorable.

A Mile in Your Eyes

Chapter Eleven

Last Time: Tsunade confronts the Advisers, Amaya begins the basics of Chakra Control, Ino spreads gossip.

Now: The truth revealed, a retrieval mission begins, realisations made and Jiraiya discovers how useful children can be.

When one survived as a Shinobi for as many years as Gama-Sennin Jiraiya, one developed some very finely honed instincts regarding your well being.

So the moment he stepped foot inside Tsunade's office, every single one of them went off as he took in the sight of his old Teammate sat on the floor surrounded by old files and glaring hot death at him. His eyes flickered around the office only to land on the picture of their sensei, a picture that had been removed from the wall revealing the Storage Seal behind it. The storage seal that had all of their SS-ranked secrets hidden within.

His blood ran cold.

"Tsunad- "

"You're a really terrible liar Jiraiya," she interrupted with a glare. The Sennin bristled slightly in anger, he was a fantastic liar! His speciality was infiltration, stealth and information gathering! He was Konoha's top Spy Master! "You looked me in the eye and you told me that Uchiha Itachi wasn't your informant on the Akatsuki," she continued, looking him sternly in the face, "You looked me in the eye, Jiraiya," she repeated, "If you're going to lie, make sure your eyes remain on my chest where they usually are. At least then it won't be so obvious."

Jiraiya blinked and then choked, what! He had given himself away by not being a pervert!

"Look at this," the blonde woman ordered, holding out a folder towards him, "A small excursion to hunt down the Uchiha Jutsu library to boost the battle capabilities of our Shinobi turned up a secret underground bunker where this was discovered. Operation: Birthright. We've looked it over quite thoroughly, and the only conclusion we could draw from the data is that someone of a high rank within the village has been helping them with their little Coupé," Jiraiya read through the information. It wasn't much of a shock to him, he had been there when Itachi had explained his family's plan to the Sandaime, but the knowledge of just how thorough and extensive their planning had been was a surprise, and a disturbing one at that because his experienced and admittedly embittered mind could draw no other conclusion other than the one Tsunade had already arrived at. There had been someone outside of the Uchiha Clan, high up within the chain of command, aiding them in their endeavours.

"Any idea - "

"Majority of the money is on Danzou," she answered promptly.

"Of course it is," Jiraiya muttered, smart money anyway. The Sandaime had made certain that everyone in the village knew of Orochimaru's Kekkei Genkai obsession and the Uchiha were as zealous as the Hyuuga about protecting their blood line. The only reason they hadn't branded their clansmen with their own variation of the Caged Bird seal was because the Sharingan was CRAP at memorising Fuuinjutsu and none of them were willing to put the effort in to learn it the old fashioned way. Lazy bastards.

The white haired Sannin crouched down beside her and picked up one of the files, scowling when he realised it was the plan in which the Uchiha had been detailing how they would handle the Hospital and everyone within it. It basically boiled down to keeping all the Medic Nin alive, killing all the Jounin and ANBU and holding the children hostage against their parents. Bastards!

"What are we going to do?" he asked, looking up at his teammate and feeling all the hairs on his arms stand to attention again at the look on her face.

Kaachan hadn't let him go and see Sakura-neechan off.

Amaya stared out of the rain soaked windows, hugging his rabbit plushie tightly, he hoped she didn't get a cold, it looked horrid out there.

The four-year-old wrinkled his nose as he absently chewed on a long fluffy white ear; he wondered what they were doing now, were they alright? Were they warm enough? Did Neechan remember to take the lucky pebble Amaya found for her? The pretty red and pink one that he asked Lee-san to carve her name into. He hoped she did. It was lucky, and missions were dangerous.

He scowled unhappily. Living with the Dursleys, he had always been more interested in protecting himself. They had never shown him any familial affection, any tolerance or kindness, they hurt him, they neglected and forgot him, he had to fend for himself when he was with them, they were just cruel strangers he happened to live with. But Sakura, Sakura-neechan and Kaede-kaachan and Takeshi-touchan, they weren't, they treated him like family. Called him son, called him brother, called him theirs. And he didn't want that to end, didn't want Sakura-nee to die, or Kaede-kaachan to hate him or Takeshi-touchan to hurt him.

Getting to his feet, Amaya dropped his rabbit and went to find his mother.

"Kaachan," he said, finding her in the living room reading an orange coloured book – didn't Kashi-ji read those? "I want to go to Ninja Academy," he announced.

Kaede could only sigh and nod her head.

The rain was thick and heavy, the sky dark with ominous black clouds as if foretelling what was to come. The only way the scene could get more dramatic is if the sky occasionally growled and lit up with thunder and lightning – thankfully for Kiba and Akamaru's eardrums, it didn't.

The group left Konoha at some speed, moving towards one of the unmanned outposts so that they could begin their mission planning away from prying ears.

After all, Team 8 would need to be brought up to speed regarding the Uchiha Massacre and their Operation: Birthright in relation to Itachi and Akatsuki. Right now, they thought that Itachi was the enemy and they were trying to use him as bait to bring Sasuke back into Konoha – not using Naruto as bait to bring Itachi back into Konoha. Speaking of Naruto, since Tsunade and Jiraiya explained the truth he had fallen into a state of turmoil, going quiet at moments with a far-away look in his eyes and at others becoming unduly aggressive.

"Alright then," Kakashi called as the group landed atop the roof of the abandoned outpost, "Pull up a tile, we need to explain the mission in detail," the Jounin explained, watching as Sakura, Naruto and Sai sat down immediately and without question. All three of them were already aware of what their full Mission was, Naruto having explained everything to Sai straight up the moment they met up after speaking with Tsunade. It seemed as though the blond had changed somewhat with the Uchiha revelation, Kakashi's eye lingered on his most troublesome student, at was as though he had been startled into thinking before he acted for once. He had even shown up armed with Fuuinjutsu scrolls hidden upon his person and Kakashi had no idea what was in them.

"So, what's happenin'?" Kiba asked leaning up against the monstrous Akamaru.

"First, I need to explain the situation in full," the silver haired Jounin declared, "As of three months ago, there was a certain incident involving an overly curious four year old managing to get into the Hokage's private record room," Sakura flushed at this point when everyone looked at her, after all, her little brother was the only four year old who had pretty much unrestricted access to the Tower, Kakashi just eyesmiled, "This four year old stumbled across an error amidst the scrolls and brought it to the Hokage's attention, not long after, someone rather unsubtly attempted to cover this error up. However the damage was done and several things were called into doubt. Most prominent of which being the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre."

"The truth? What's there to know! Itachi went psycho-crazy and butchered 'em all!" Kiba exclaimed, waving a fist.

Kakashi shook his head, "The truth of which being that the Uchiha Clan were executed for High Treason, for attempting to depose the Hokage and the Council, assassinate the Daimyou and take forcible dictatorship over Konohagakure no Sato and Hi no Kuni on the whole. From that point, it would not be far out of the realms of possibility that they would have turned their attention to other countries in an attempt to conquer them, thus starting the Fourth Shinobi War.

"Itachi was ordered to execute his Clan by the order of the Sandaime Hokage and the Council of Elders, after which, he left Konoha and joined Akatsuki as a Spy in Jiraiya-sama's circle."

The collection of Chuunin were silent, Team 8 staring at him in varying levels of shock and horror, Team Kakashi silent and avoiding eye contact.

"Wait, wait, wait, back the 'What The Fuck' train up a sec," Kiba hollered, waving his arms comically, "You mean to tell me, Itachi's on Deep Cover as a Spy in Akatsuki and to get in, they had him kill his Traitorous clan?"

"Yes, though the idea of becoming a Spy came after arrangements for the Uchiha's execution had been made. In truth, Itachi was to be the only survivor, Sasuke was to die along with the rest of his family leaving Itachi to repopulate the clan alone," the Jounin explained, "Our mission," Kakashi continued, "is to make contact with Uchiha Itachi and inform him of his reinstatement as a Konoha Ninja and issue his Return orders from Tsunade-sama. If he refuses, then we are to take him by force."

Naruto pulled out the Storage Scrolls, "In there are a number of things that may be useful, Drug Pellets full of sedative or paralysis agents, wire netting, Flash tags, Concussive tags, Chakra Seal Tags and they each carry a copy of Tsunade-baachan's official orders, signed and sealed by the office of the Hokage," he explained, handing out each tightly coiled scroll to his comrades. "Don't look him in the eye or look at his hands, he's a Genjutsu Master on the same level as Baachan and he doesn't need seals to trap you," he warned.

"Good thinking Naruto, but I don't think these will be very helpful. Itachi is of S-rank," Tenzou pointed out, scratching thoughtfully under his head guard.

Naruto shook his head, "I noticed something weird last time I met Itachi. His eyes hardly moved, at all. Back when we were younger, he was a lot more mobile, he visually checked his surroundings a lot... But last time... He must've trained his Sharingan to the next level. Meaning he's allowed his other senses to dull – Sasuke had that problem too," the Jinchuuriki explained unravelling one of the scrolls and releasing the Seals, showing each item in it to his Group.

"These Flash Tags are designed to let out a flare of light similar to looking directly into the sun. It'll blind him for a good five minutes. The Concussive Tags are similar to an explosive tag but they store the force and not the explosion, set this off and he'll be deafened. The Wire netting is one of Tenten's creations, it can't be cut because it's threaded with Chakra conductive monofilament – I got the idea when I saw Hinata's defensive Jutsu, if you channel your Chakra through it then you can control it as long as you keep contact and feed it. The Chakra Seal tag needs to go on the stomach or chest or the small of the back, somewhere near to or just above the primary Chakra Coils. This'll prevent him from using Jutsus. All we need to do is implement them in a way he can't avoid it."

There was a moment of silence while everyone stared at Naruto, taken aback by how... intelligently he had prepared for this mission.

"Wow, Dickless, did you finally figure out where you put your balls or something?" Sai asked, diffusing the situation with all the finesse of Sakura in a bad mood – which got him a punch to the back of the head from the afore mentioned girl.

Naruto didn't rise to it, "Probably. Sasuke's trying to murder his brother, he doesn't know the full story. Our first priority is getting Itachi out of the way and back into Konoha where he'll be safe from Akatsuki and then using him as bait to lure Sasuke back home where we'll explain the full situation and PROVE it to him. Otherwise he won't believe a damn word and just try to kill everyone," the blond explained bitterly.

Sakura frowned, "Naruto, what are you – " she began only to get cut off when the blond shook his head again.

"Let's just do this," he requested, not looking at her.

To tell the truth... Sasuke, he was...

Beyond hope.

It wasn't something Naruto wanted to admit, he never wanted to admit it, to give up on his friend, his brother, but... truth was a bitter pill to swallow and it was also one he couldn't avoid.

He'd been forced to swallow a lot of those bitter pills in his life – he knew when he had to man up and accept it.

But no matter how much he 'manned up', he didn't think he would ever be able to handle the look in Sakura's eyes if she knew about his traitorous thoughts, about the budding doubts and dark revelations he had been discovering about their ex-Teammate. Those doubts and revelations he tried so hard to shield her from.

She still remembered Sasuke as the quiet and slightly shy boy who would snort and call him Deadlast before dragging him off to where ever it was they were supposed to go next, she still remembered the twelve year old with the delicate face and soft hands who had never taken a life nor experienced True Killing Intent. She remembered Sasuke.

Naruto couldn't forget the Uchiha. He couldn't forget the look of malice and hatred in his eyes, the flowering darkness that wrapped so lovingly around him in that split second when he entered into Naruto's mind and flexed his power – dispersing Kyuubi's caustic influence. Naruto couldn't forget the tang he could taste in the air, the coppery iron film that coated the back of his mouth when Uchiha's scent hit him like a Katon to the senses, ozone and blood and metal, not the old scent of smoke and jasmine and polish that used to cling to Sasuke when they were younger. Naruto couldn't forget the feeling of the Uchiha's fingers clawing into his lungs, reaching for his heart, trying to grasp the fluttering organ and rip it out even as the electricity scolded and burned at his flesh. Naruto couldn't forget the look in his eyes when the Uchiha raised his weapon again and spoke such pathetic words in his ear.

'Whim'. No, not by your whim, by your Master's ego more like.

And that was the crux of the problem, Naruto wasn't stupid, he didn't have the intelligence of Shikamaru or even Sakura, he wasn't manipulative like Ino or steadfast like Chouji or instinctive like Kiba.

He was cunning and perceptive. He knew that much.

So he knew.

He knew that when he looked into the Uchiha's eyes, those obsidian empty eyes and felt the touch of his mind and power, heard about his actions and the demise of Orochimaru.

He knew...

Sasuke was beyond saving.

At this point... Naruto could only save the memory of the little boy who leaped in front of him, taking a blow from an Angel hidden beneath a Monster's Mask(1).

He would rescue that little boy – by destroying the Monster that held him hostage.

The new Academy Term didn't start until next month so Amaya was left to his own devices for the most part.

He was too young to get into the Library on his own and the Ninja in there always caught him when he tried to sneak in – the lady behind the desk thought he was adorable and often treated him like an idiot, Amaya didn't like her and continued to try and sneak in. He could tell that he was getting better because her hair got more and more messy the better he got.

But before he could make his latest attempt he found himself being scooped up under the armpits from behind.

"Lemme go!" the four year old howled, flailing around and grabbing at the hands holding him up, trying to bend the fingers back or tear their fingernails off.

The man holding him laughed and promptly dropped him, grabbing him by the ankle and lifting him up again before he could hit the ground. Amaya swung up and sank his teeth into the stranger's hand growling in a fair imitation of Minato when he got angry.

"Hey, hey, hey, enough of that!" the man exclaimed, shaking the four year old off and glowering at him, "Jeez, you're even more troublesome than Tsunade said you were," he complained making the four year old stop squirming and stare at him.

"Tsuna-chan?" he asked, immediately forgetting about his misplaced aggression on the stranger.

He was a very strange man, very big and broad with funny clothes and long spiky white hair and a silver thing on his nose and red lines coming down from his eyes. He had a big scroll on his back, kinda like Naruto's when he was off somewhere. There was a symbol on his head-guard that Amaya hadn't learned yet.

The big man grinned, "Tsuna-chan?" he echoed, "Well I can see why she likes you. Names Jiraiya kid, the Great Sage Jiraiya, Naruto's Sensei," he added as he recalled this child grew up outside of the village and had probably never heard of him as anything beyond Naruto's teacher. It never failed to amuse the Toad Hermit that his student was so popular with little kids, Tsunade had been practically cooing over how adorable the younger generation were when following the blond around like chicks after a mother duck (Tsunade cooing like that was the SCARIEST fucking thing Jiraiya had ever seen). If he hadn't seen it himself then he wouldn't have believed it but it was true, the Pre-academy brats worshipped the ground his student walked on.

Good thing too, they would be the Chuunin and Genin of Naruto's Village when he became Hokage. He would need soldiers he could rely on.

"The one who writes the naughty books Kashi-ji reads?" the green eyed child asked before pointing at him, "PERVERT!" he wailed, wriggling in his grasp and howling – attracting the attention of every woman in the area.

'Cheeky little – ' He didn't have time for grudging admiration as an off duty Kunoichi – he recalled her as one of his inspirational muses for Icha Icha Tactics – threw a hail of kunai and Shuriken at him, snarling at him to unhand Haruno-kun. Laughing and telling her it was Hokage's orders, the Sannin flipped the child until he was curled against his chest – now attempting to claw through the protective mesh armour he wore – and Shunshined out of there before he got stabbed in the back of the head by an incensed mother of three using the fishmonger's knife.

Really, women and their protective reflexes over kids. Scary thing.

Landing in one of the training fields, Jiraiya grumbled and held the four year old away from himself again, glaring into those innocent guileless green eyes.

This child...

This child was a demon in a cutesy shell.

Amaya just smirked at him.

He was being punished for something, Jiraiya just knew it.

Tsunade knew exactly how to push his buttons and the moment she started talking about the little four year old his interest had been peaked.

She probably also knew he was an absolute hellion who had the whole village wrapped around his little finger and knew exactly what to say to get any hapless red blooded males in the immediate vicinity the beating of a lifetime.

What was more, he kept getting hugged. Getting squished against all those gloriously soft mammary glands, those bazookas, the sweater puppies, all those damn boobs! He would have been more annoyed if the kid enjoyed the attention, but it seemed as though he wasn't too keen on getting smothered with all of those magnificent breasts – big ones, small ones, well shaped ones, lopsided ones, boobs, boobs, boobs!

Jiraiya was so fucking jealous.

On the other hand... A cunning plan began to form in his mind.

This could be worked to his advantage.

"Ero-jiji, why are we here?" Amaya asked, attempting to pull his hand free of the older Shinobi's grasp yet finding it impossible with the grip the old man kept on him. He pouted, seriously not cool getting stuck with this guy all day, he was no fun.

"Shut it brat, this is called Research," the Sannin retorted.

Amaya sighed, "You're just trying to get a peek on the Hotsprings," he complained.

"Nope!" the old man exclaimed cheerfully, he wasn't as a matter of fact, he was trying to pick up a date – even better than spying in his opinion, he got to have sex afterwards. Hey, hey, he'd been celibate for far too long while training Naruto. Serious case of blue balls right now.

And as he had already seen – the ladies went crazy for a big pair o' googly eyes.

"Now shut up and look cute, Brat," the Sannin ordered making the four year old blow his cheeks out and sulk unhappily at getting stuck with this old geezer when he wanted to go and play with Minato and the others.

They'd been stood there for ages and Amaya was so bored he was getting sleepy, swaying on his feet and yawning, clutching at Jiraiya's hand out of sleepy reflex so he didn't fall over. Of course the old man didn't notice, he was too busy chatting up the Civilian woman who'd wondered over to say hello to Amaya – Ero-jiji was saying stupid things, hide and seek was only fun if you did it Ninja style, you couldn't play Ninja Hide and Seek in bed, that was just pointless. The bed was too small.

"Amaya-chan? Are you alright?" sleepy green eyes peered up at a familiar brunette and he smiled, rubbing at one eye.

"Lo, Ten-chan," he chirped quietly as the bun haired Chuunin knelt down to his eye-level, he wriggled his hand free of Jiraiya and held his arms out to her, "Up, please," he pleaded.

Smiling, the Chuunin scooped the four year old up, juggling the bag of groceries as he clung to her – giving the oblivious Jiraiya a dirty look, the Chuunin carried on her way towards the training grounds, he could sleep there on the side lines and his presence would keep Gai and Lee at a more tolerable volume. She was worried that her hearing was getting bad because of their shouting about the flames of youth.

Half an hour later, when he had finished securing the time and place of his Date later that night, Jiraiya realised he had lost the Brat and promptly freaked out – rushing around Konoha calling for the brat.

He spent so long looking that he never actually made it for his Date.

(1) Angel hidden beneath a Monster's Mask: No prizes for guessing who this is – Haku.

Tell me what you think of Naruto's resolve. I tried to make it as realistic as possible to his thought processes while twisting and maturing them enough to DO THE SMART THING FOR ONCE.

Also, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I have made multiple updates as an apology for taking so long to update. Also, on my profile will be a link to a Webcomic I am working on. It should update weekly and its called Annen Rute for those of you who follow me on DeviantART, I will tell you now that I'm redoing the Prologue and redesigning several characters, I'm doing my research properly and I've been studying HTML and CSS in order to make the website look as good as possible. Sadly, not been having much luck, SO, if anyone is any good at that, I would love to hear from you. XDD Drop me a PM or an e-mail or message me on Facebook. I will pay you in Fanart ;D