"Born to the man who would give his life for his people, born as the tenth month nears its ides…"

"Can I help you?" The breath caught up in his throat, and he glanced up at the wielder of the hand on his shoulder. He swore under his breath, and stood up slowly. Hands held level with his head, he eyed the man, who still had a wand held against his throat and that same hand still on his shoulder. The dark haired man squinted at him, then leased his arm with a painful wrench.

"Watch where you poke your nose, Snivellus," growled his antagonist. "You never know if you'll get it back." With that omen, he spun on his heel and vanished with a crack. Snape stood there for several moments, thoughts whirling through his mind a mile a minute, then spun off in a similar fashion, though his destination was very different. Threads of thought were ripped from his mind as he forced himself into nothingness and back again. The sleepy town of Hogsmeade was now replaced with a shadowed cavern, decorated with greenly burning tires in conches, and a single stone throne. Seated on the garish chair was a pale man with gaunt features and dark silver hair. The long limbed man smiled thinly at the appearance of his subordinate, who quickly crouched to one knee and bowed his head.

"Young Snape, I must say I am surprised at your presence. What brings you to my chamber, little potions master?" asked Tom Riddle leisurely, lazily fingering an elegant dowel of yew. Snape shivered at the sound of that voice; his newly found master had been growing less human since he first sought the Dark Lord out with thoughts of childish revenge still hot on his mind.

"There is a new prophecy, my Lord," murmured Snape from his position on the floor. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to the man who would give his life for his people, born as the tenth month nears its ides… I am sorry, my Lord, but Sirius Black prevented me from hearing the rest." Snape did not dare look up at his master, but he could feel the effects of his words. A wind picked up and coursed angrily throughout the chamber, and stalactites above quivered with gravelly friction.

"Nothing more? That's all you heard?" The usually sibilant voice was suddenly harsh. Snape winced, and attempted to suppress the overwhelming urge to release the contents of his stomach. "Hm. An irritating setback." The wind died down, and Snape released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Truth be told, I'm thankful that they gave me a warning. At least now I have a chance to retaliate." Tom Riddle chuckled darkly, and Snape was suddenly very glad he couldn't see the expression on the older man's face."Yes! A sporting chance! Ha! Let's see that fool Dumbledore try and find this 'man who would give his life for his village'! And he shall lead me right to him! You shall help me, will you not? Severus?"

And then there was pain, sensory neurons tricked into working overtime, and Snape collapsed on the floor. "Yes, my Lord! Oh, god, yes! I will help you!"

Voldemort laughed, loud and high and unlike any mortal man. The game was on, and he would ultimately win, for he already had defeated death; neither fate nor prophecy was any match for the likes of him.

-----ONE YEAR-----

"What do you mean, 'Dumbledore's dead?'" Not that it was particularly surprising. The mission had gone to hell and beyond the moment they set foot on this rock. James sighed, ran a quivering hand uselessly through his sodden hair, and cast a look at the survivors still standing quietly in the gently falling rain. Above the sound of water falling windily on a hundred trees, two voices were raised in a grotesque duet of uncomprehending fear. Lily was trying to steady the cries of the child in her arms, but no one moved to halt the screams of the other source, still wrapped in the soaking rags they found it in.

Finally unable to take the horrible non-silence, Hagrid broke out in his deep, rumbling voice: "Yew-know-who killed 'em, sir. He was tryin' ta protect tha babe, an' he just pushed 'im out o' the way -- there was a great crackin' sound when 'e hit ther wall, an' ne'er moved agin --" The half-giant's narrative stumbled to a halt as he finally broke down in his sorrow. Something like pity fluttered in James' chest, but he pushed it back down; grief could wait until later.

"What are we going to do about the child?" asked one unlikely source. James turned around to face his former Transfiguration professor with a steely gaze.

"We let it live. The thing has already fulfilled its part --"

"James, really!"

"He's gone off the deep-end --"

"He's been in the deep end since he met Black, I told you --"

"What the hell are you thinking, Prongs?"

"He's not dead." All discussion halted at those words, and the group of thoroughly soaked wizards turned to the source, who had a strange look on his mousy face. "Not Dumbledore, I mean. You know who. Do you really believe someone like that could really die?"

"Pettigrew's right, James. You might be afraid of the boy, but we can't throw him away right now." The dark haired wizard looked up at his friend incredulously. Did he not see that filthy red energy tear the dark lord's body to infinitesimal particles? Did he not feel that had that being the ability, it would have done the same to every one of them?

"Lupin, what?--"

"Where's this boy's family?" interrupted his wife. The babe in her arms had calmed down, but the red haired woman still had a distressed look about her. "He's not a piece of meat, he's someone's son. Where are they, shouldn't they have a say?"

-----EIGHT YEARS-----

Everything was in place, all the stage was set -- the key to the masterpiece, though, was the actors.

"In this next piece, Maestro Uzumaki will demonstrate his prowess in the art of pissing people off." Whistling in the dark, he knew, but it didn't feel right not to say anything. "The setting is dawn, at the compound of one of Konoha's most prestigious clans." Vibrant gold threw the dignified palace into a silhouette highlighted with the morning's vivid colors and dark, blue black shadows. "The cast consists of seven male members of that selfsame clan…"

Nine alarms sprang into existence with a synchronized shriek soliciting seven very ticked off groans; hidden in the shadows, he grinned, and adjusted the binoculars so he could observe the still closed doors more clearly. "…And the premise concerns the perfect prank--NOW!" All seven doors opened. All seven boys glared with pale eyes at the offending racket. Seven bare feet smashed the mechanical noisemakers to bits, whereupon seven buckets of fluorescent orange paint emptied their contents onto the seven oblivious boys. All according to plan. After that, though, his play quickly became an unplanned improvisation when nine heads turned as one to glare at him with eighteen creepily pale eyes.

Said the one nearest to his hiding spot, with enough killer intent to give an old man a heart attack, "Run."

So he did.

Laughing and whooping crazily, Uzumaki Naruto led all seven of his actors all across the city at five o' clock in the morning. Were anyone insane enough to observe the chase scene at that ungodly hour (such as Maito Gai and his equally screw loose student Rock Lee), they would be shocked and amazed at the beautiful, elegant grace that most definitely did not accompany any of the boys, seven of which were supposed to belong to the most respected and refined clan in Konoha. They would have been even more astonished at the giddy laughter and broad grins they all shared.

"Gai-sensei, why have you ceased in your instructions?" Gai looked back down at his youthful pupil with a look of honest surprise on his square face.

"I… think I just saw Neji-kun… Nevermind! In punishment for my ignoring your training, I will now run one hundred times around Konoha! Lee, forgive me!"

"Gai-sensei!"

Thankfully, no one was there to see the horrifying sight the two taijutsu experts made, and no one became blind that day.

Meanwhile, Maestro Uzumaki was still leading the merry chase from the boys promising painful death.

"Gyahaha, you idiots will never catch me! I'm the greatest mastermind in this village!" he crowed raucously, jumping from tree to tree branch. When his band of pursuers did not respond with various death threats or even an insult, he finally stopped on a crouch and looked behind him. No bright orange antagonists, no wearily familiar buildings…

"Crap. Did I leave the city limits?" The morning light didn't penetrate this part of the forest, and everything was silhouetted trees and dark blue shadows.

"Neji? Bushoumono? Kioshi?" No one answered. Concentrating on a long ago vague explanation of how Genjutsu is dispelled, he brought his hands together in a seal and focused a spike of chakra throughout his body. "Kai!"

The forest remained unchanged.

"Crap." He jumped down from the branch onto the ground, and began walking back the way he thought he came.

"Neji! Iruka-sensei! Sasuke-teme? Kiba? Sakrua-chan?" He kept yelling as he strolled along; he'd heard somewhere the more noise you made, the sooner someone would find you. "Old man? Anyone?" Unfortunately, he hadn't put that together with the fact that if your friends can hear you, so can your enemies, and that is why the lost little boy smiled at the masked man walking steadily towards him with assumed recognition.

"Mr. ANBU guy! Man, am I glad to see y--" The smile didn't have time to wipe off his face before the masked man drew a slender stick and shot a red light at the boy. More out of luck and surprise than actual skill, Naruto fell flat on his backside, and the light fled harmlessly into the woods. The blond boy scrambled to run away, narrowly dodging several more lights, and finally escaped to the trees. The masked man muttered something under his breath that was probably a swearword of some kind, then took off running in the same direction.

"That was close," muttered Naruto, dispelling the henge he'd put on himself to look like a bush. No sooner did he do so, however, that yet another ANBU look-alike came bursting out of the underbrush and focused another light t him, this one bright green. The boy yelped, and began running for real. He heard the masked man shout something in a strange language, and then his pursuer's footsteps were joined by many.

"I'm sorry, it was just a joke, I swear," Naruto cried, taking more wild and unfocused leaps to the next branch in desperation to get away. "If I'd known orange was that offensive, I would've just used pink!"

The ninja in training landed on a particularly dry branch, and it snapped with a loud CRACK.

'Well, damn, I didn't get to have lunch at Ichiraku's today,' was his last thought as he tumbled to the forest floor. His next one was, 'Why ain't I a squishy ninja pancake on the ground?' The answer to this was not immediately evident, but it felt like a hand was wrapped sturdily round his wrist.

"Stay quiet, and get on the broom," hissed a voice with a strange accent. "I'm here to help!" Something invisible was jerked aside, revealing a section of wood floating in midair. Naruto swung his other hand to grasp the wood, and the invisible person helped him up. "Swing your leg around -- there! I'm going to put the Cloak on you now, okay?" He nodded dumbly, and suppressed a gasp as some sort of fabric was draped over his head. Now there was a boy directly in front of him, resting easily on the rest of the revealed stick and smiling mischievously.

"All set? No limbs left behind? Right, let's go!" The long stick of wood shot off like a rocket, with the new boy holding the front lightly with one hand, the other making sure the fabric covered the entire affair, and Naruto grasping desperately with his hands and his legs gripping the twiggy end tightly.

"Who--are you?" gasped Naruto. It was rather difficult to talk, as his rescuer was fond of weaving the branches very fast and with many sudden adjustments.

"Call me Harry," was the nonchalant reply. "Harry Potter. It's nice to meet you, Naruto."

It took several moments of dodging trees and trying to lose their pursuers (who despite the boys' invisibility, were still able to track them) for Naruto to realize that his new friend already knew his name. However, the moment he opened his (admittedly large) mouth to question this fact, the flying stick suddenly plunged straight up in the air.

He felt like he was in heaven. There was something incredibly right with the feeling of the cool thin air washing over like soft water, something that was indescribably wonderful with seeing the trees from far above. All thoughts of suspicious mysteries were washed away with the revelation, This is where I belong!

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" sighed Harry. He had finally stopped the stick, and now they simply hovered invisibly over the trees of Konoha. "Fire Country is much prettier than England; at least, that's what my parents tell me."

"Is that where you're from?" asked Naruto, only mildly curious. His attention was still caught on the idea of heights, and he idly wished he could take control of the stick and see what he could do with it.

"Yeah, but we left when I was little so we could keep… an eye…" The strange boy glanced at Naruto, then went back to gazing at the landscape. "Never mind. We'll be going back when I turn eleven, so I can go to school." Harry became somber, and Naruto wondered if he didn't want to go at all. "We should go back--you can meet my parents!" With a wide grin that seemed only a little forced, he boy directed the stick in a new direction, and they were off once more.

-----FIVE MINUTES-----

"James, where's Harry?"

"Oh, he's just hiding somewhere."

"Why?"

"He got into the cookies again. He'll be waiting it out for an hour or so with the Invisibility Cloak, and come back hoping that we'll have forgotten about it. Don't worry."

"James, the Death Eaters have been seen! It's not safe, we need to get the boy soon so we can prepare him for Riddle!"

"I've seen the boy in town, Lily, he can take care of himself."

"He's underfed! The only place that will give him fair food is a decrepit ramen stand! He lives in the filthiest part of town, none of the children will play with him! What if that was Harry?"

"…Fine. Once Harry gets back from wherever he's skulking, we'll go to the Hokage and talk about it. Alright?"

"That's my man… James! Death Eaters!"

"Don't worry, Lily, the Fidelius charm is… still…"

"It's not working, they're still coming!"

"When I get through with these dolts, Peter is dead."

"Not before I get a chance at him. Go get 'em, Honey."

"Right!" Snatching his wand from the holster strapped to his thigh, James ran out the door, and landed at the bottom of the stairs in a crouch. "Righty-o, you bloody bastards, who's first!" he roared, and began laying waste to the Death Eaters come to bring death to the Potter house.

A Stunner smashed one inexperienced villain through a tree, another sent one sprawling into the underbrush. Some miscellaneous curse was sent bouncing back with a Protego, and he quickly dispatched the source with a Banished boulder.

He caught sight of bright purple in the corner of his eye, and he dodged it narrowly -- he could practically taste the curse, a sharp bitter essence that made his nose run.

"Is that the best you SOBs can do?" he laughed, returning the curse to its owner. The Death Eater choked, and tore off his mask to reveal a face bubbling with blood. The remaining Death Eaters turned to the one cupping his face, then fled for the trees.

"Yeah, that's right, you louts! Get out of here!" crowed James. Lily finally came outside, and began collecting wands and encasing the defeated Death Eaters in cords, humming a light song as she settled the debris.

"One of these days, you're going to meet an enemy that won't be distracted by your quips, and then you'll be in trouble," she said idly as she examined the wands and snapped the ones that felt particularly nasty in her hands.

"Wow, dad, that was awesome!" James looked up sharply, and met the awed, slightly guilty face of his truant son, hovering a few feet above the ground and accompanied by an intimidated youth.

"Harry…"

"Harry James Potter, you are in so much trouble!" The boy's grin quickly faded into horror.

"Whoops."

"Where have you been?!" Lily was furious. Harry with the Invisibility cloak, AND James' broomstick, and who IS that brat looking guiltily over Harry's shoulder?…

"Well, see, I saw this kid running away from the DE's and it looked like he was in trouble, so I decided to give him a helping hand, you know? Only, when I got a good look at the kid -- it's him, mom, right?" Naruto nodded eagerly, and tried to look innocent; he had no idea what was going on, but there were some awful good smells coming from that weird tent thing wrapped around that huge tree.

Lily's eyes softened; sure enough, there was the jagged scar carved into his already marred face. She still had no idea where those strange whiskery scars came from, as she'd seen the infant's face moments before the killing curse, and it already had the six scores across his chubby cheeks by then.

She smiled kindly, and held out her arms to the two boys. "Oh, come here, you troublemakers, let me see you properly." Harry, heedless of the look of utter confusion on the other boy's face, heaved a sigh and swung the broom to the ground, and they were instantly engulfed in a tidal wave of motherly concern.

"Goodness! Harry, are those your good trousers? How many times do I have to tell you -- dear, your hands are filthy! A pity about that tear in your shir -- HARRY! A moment, dear, I'll fix you up in a moment -- Harry, go and fetch my wand, would you? My ear? Aha!" She drew the wanted apparatus from its precarious position behind her ear with a flourish, and set about -- Naruto dropped his jaw. With the aid of a reddish looking wooden stick, this strange, beautiful, kind woman had erased the six inch gash courtesy of the trip through the forest in his favorite, most brightest orangest shirt!

"What the --!" She did not stop there, but continued making little adjustments; fixing up the grass stains in his shorts, vanishing the dirt from under his fingernails, and at the end of the casting, even his hair felt freshly washed for the first time in a week.

"There, now, isn't that just about a hundred times better!" said Lily with a satisfied air, and indeed, the dirty scoundrel was nowhere to be seen, in its place a young fresh boy in whole and bright clothes, an uncertain grin on his bewildered face. Harry was cleaned up in a similar fashion as well in the next moment, and then Lily was hustling them along into the strange structure at the tree, half tent, half home.

"Come along, now, I've got a stack of pancakes in the oven, all sweet and hot, and we can have bacon and eggs to go with it. Have you had pancakes before, dear?"

Naruto shook his head no. "Well, we'll put an end to that, won't we, I'm sure you'll adore it, I learned it myself from Grandmum Iris…" Still prattling, the housewife flew about the small, comfortable kitchen. Naruto seated himself cautiously next to Harry at the dining table.

"Sorry about this," said Harry conspiratorially. "I didn't know she'd get so excited."

"Is she your mom?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Yep. You can call her Mrs. Potter."

All at once, though, there was no room for words, because a white plate had appeared under his nose full of intensely exciting brown patties cut and drenched wiwth butter and some sort of sweet, goopy honey. He knew eggs, and these were delightfully fluffy, but there was a mound of glistening browny red strips of crispy meat that smelled even better than the brown patties.

Naruto stared at the small feast, more than he had ever seen at one sitting, until Harry nudged him.

"It's not poison, you know."

"How much do I need to pay for it, though?" Though mischievous in nature, Naruto knew it was best to know whether he had enough money, lest the storekeepers complain to the Hokage and he got in trouble.

"What? Pay? You stupid or what? She made it for you! Eat!" He needed no further encouragement.

The foreign meal did indeed prove to be every bit as delicious as it had smelled.

-----MEANWHILE-----

Lily entered the bedroom just as James clicked the mirror case shut.

"There's Peter taken care of," he said with a bone weary tiredness, the adrenaline-driven joviality having been drained from him. He fell back onto the bed, clutching the little case close to breaking. "I just talked to Remus about it. The rat's been missing for a week now, and they had already been investigating his hours for the past year now. They didn't tell me about their suspicions because they wanted to make sure I wouldn't go running back home."

"Oh, James." Lily sat down next to him, and began stroking his hair. "I am sorry."

He closed his eyes and smiled, and if it looked like it pained him, she didn't comment. "Don't worry about it. We haven't been close for years. I haven't seen him for a decade, there was bound to be some changes of heart. Besides, we're all safe together."

"Two more years, and then we can go home."

-----

Later that afternoon, the Potter family plus prankster paid a visit to the Hokage. The prankster had to do some inspired switching around in order to avoid the wrath of seven Hyuuga boys whose mothers had failed to get all the orange from their hair.

So, yeah. That's pretty much everything I've got on this idea that is worth reading. Feel free to pick up and run, so long as you tell me what you're planning on doing with it.