"Blah": Talking

'Blah': Demon speaking/ Inner Sakura

'Blah': Naruto's Thoughts/other people's thoughts

'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto

Naruto Uzumaki wants nothing more than a challenge in his missions. Being a genin student under Kakashi Hatake, along with his new teammates Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, Naruto and his team are expected of so much less than what they deserve as all their missions are nothing more than menial tasks. But all of that is about to change as they are given the task to bodyguard a grumpy old man, known as the Bridge-Builder in the Land of Waves.

As Naruto and his friends set out on their quest to the land of sea and fog, they run into a mysterious mist where fresh torments and horrors arise from out of it. Turning their supposedly simple mission to ensure one old man's safety soon turns into a quest for survival as the fate of an entire land falls upon the shoulders of each member of Team 7.

And out of the mist comes forth a new enemy and a person that causes Naruto to question the very reason why he became a shinobi.

Reviews are welcome and wanted!

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto,

Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling,

Chapter 1: A Brand New Life

{{Prologue Book II/Harry Through the Window by John Williams}}

As the evening sun began to fall down past the mountains in the distance, it's powerful rays of orange light descended upon the forests and buildings that comprised the entire village of Konohagakure no Sato. The famous village that was built upon a barren wasteland that grew a massive and endlessly rich forest around it that stretched on for miles, spreading out through the whole country. As the village slowly began it's journey to settle down with the sun, the rays of powerful tangerine light fell upon the endless woods and blanketing it with a last burst of heat before it would slowly start to cool. It was summer, which was a time of hot days and chilled nights.

As twilight approached, the shinobi of the village began to return to their homes from long and arduous missions that involved them leaving their families and friends to wonder and worry over them. As the sun was beginning to fall down upon the western horizon, shinobi husbands reunited to their wives and children as rookie ninja came back home to their worried parents and were treated with care and comfort. One particular boy walked back home from a long day of missions without anyone there at his apartment to greet him. While this would normally be a sad sight to see, the boy seemed happy and contented as he walked around his enraged apartment manager and locked himself behind his door.

Once there, he dropped his beaded backpack on the floor and detached all of his accessories, including his weapon-holsters, pouch, and headband. He wrapped the jacket of his orange and blue tracksuit around his waist while the walked into his bedroom and over to his desk. As the sun finally fell behind the mountains and forests and darkness enveloped the village, the young boy promptly turned on his lamps with a click of his fingers. And as if it were through magic, the lamp that hovered over his desk switched on as the lights of the city outside began to light up as well. The child then grabbed a red-leather bound book from his shelve in front of him and opened it up as he smiled and sighed with delight.

Naruto Uzumaki had returned to his home, alive and well from a day of laborious missions.

He looked down at the pages that were lined with old photographs of his memories and people related to his past. Naruto flipped a page and found his mother sitting there with him as a baby no older than a few weeks, give or take a few days. Naruto's eyes turned glassy as he smiled warmly at his mother and watched as she cradled him and smiled up at the camera. Naruto flipped to the next page and found a new photograph of himself and his older brother, Iruka Umino, smiling at the camera with twin facial expressions. Iruka had his arm wrapped over Naruto in a hug as they both closed their eyes at the flash of the camera while they both smiled and showed off their wonderful sets of pearly-white teeth. Despite their different skin tones and hair color, these two shinobi looked as if they had known each all their lives and were just messing around and having the time of their lives, which they were when this picture was taken.

Naruto ignored the sounds of busy villagers and barking dogs from outside as he reminisced over the wondrous past few months, ever since Naruto found out that he was somewhat adopted by someone. He couldn't even remember when he was this happy outside of the mindscape. Not even the time when he graduated from the Academy did he feel this free and at peace.

While he was reminiscing about the past, Naruto's blissfulness was stopped when he heard someone call out his name in blood murder.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI!"

The boy sighed and furrowed his brow when his name was screamed out. It sounded like his landlord wanted something this time, instead of just wanting to bully, harm, or belittle him. For having interrupted his time alone to relax and admire his photo collection, Naruto grunted angrily and cursed at his landlord's name. He closed the album and stored back in the shelf before he aggressively pushed his chair back and answer the call. He heard the Toshi's fat fist strike against the door over and over until he opened it. He looked up to see his overweight landlord towering over him with a cigarette in his mouth. Naruto covered his nose from the smoke and entered the hallway.

"You need something, Toshi?" he asked.

Toshi hacked and coughed before he spat out, "I have a bone to pick with you, Uzumaki. For the past three nights, I hear you movin' around in your apartment. Like there's a hundred of you workin' on somethin', and I don't like it. Not one bit! It's like you're workin' on some crazy science experiment or somethin'! I want you to cut it out or I'm doublin' your rent this month!"

With that said, Toshi threw Naruto back into his apartment and slammed the door so hard that it almost broke off its hinges. Naruto growled at his landlord, steam almost billowed from his nostrils as he picked himself up and realized his situation. He slowly calmed down as the loud footsteps of his manager began to fade until he was back downstairs. Once he was definitely gone, Naruto went back to his room and got undressed from his tracksuit and got ready to take a shower as he stunk almost as much as his landlord.

The reasons for Toshi and a whole lot of people disliked Naruto like this was because he contained a powerful demonic animal spirit called the Kyuubi no Kitsune; the demon fox that nearly destroyed the village twelve years ago. The Yondaime Hokage sacrificed his life to seal the demon away into Naruto's navel and save the village from oblivion. He also did it to make Naruto a hero for having taken him away from his mother after being born and placed the burden of being a jinchuuriki on him against his will. But instead of seeing him as a savior to the people, the majority of the villagers and shinobi saw Naruto as a living plague, because he contained the monster that almost destroyed everything they held most dear to them.

Toshi particularly hated him because his business as an apartment manager was almost completely destroyed ever since the Council of Elders forced him to rent to Naruto. The other people that used to live in this apartment building decided to flee to other places to live, since they couldn't stand living under the same management as the village freak. Toshi ended up losing a lot of money with giving Naruto an apartment here, even though the elders provided him proper compensation for his lost rents. But ever since Naruto graduated from the Academy, the council stopped paying him and he lost even more money.

'Too bad for you, eh, Little one?' said a soft voice in Naruto's head, 'Let's be careful in our step when we're up in the middle of the night making potions, eh?'

'Looks like I gotta work better on keeping quiet when I'm walking around my kitchen.'

'Might I suggest that you use something to soften your feet? Some socks maybe?'

'Socks? I don't own any of those. I don't even have shoes! I just wear zori sandals, Nii-san!'

'Yeah, well, try a Cushioning Charm on your feet. That might work...'

The demon fox inside of Naruto's body wasn't the only thing that usually concerned him. Because he contained something inside his body that he connected with better than some giant, violent animal. Naruto contained the soul of a man named Harry Potter; a deceased wizard who was responsible for finally ending the Second Wizarding War. At the end of the war, Harry was mortally wounded. He had meant to keep his soul Earth-bound, to stay with his friends and family. But instead, the attempt to stay alive failed and he was forced to serve in purgatory until he escaped and was sucked into Naruto's body, turning him into a wizard as he once was. Eventually the two crossed paths and they learned to live and learn together as two souls trapped in one body.

Throughout the years Harry and Naruto grew as close as family and kept their abilities and Harry's existence a complete secret from everyone in the entire village, including the current Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Together the two wizards secretly worked to make sure Naruto would be able to survive in this world by learning magic as well as ninjutsu, while at the same time making it seem that Naruto would be the last person to suspect of any unusual activities. Since the village already hated him so much, they would just use his true intelligence and remarkable abilities as an excuse to say that he's too dangerous to be kept alive. Harry helped Naruto to purposely fail at almost all of his subjects in school to make him truly seem as if he were just another class dobe. With a reputation as an average idiot, no one in the village suspected Naruto of any of the mysterious library thefts that took place several years ago.

Naruto was not happy with his reputation and false attitude, but he didn't mind it too much, as he would soon be able to drop the mask once he was given more difficult and life-threatening missions: the sort of assignments that would allow him to show off his true colors. But even that time for him seemed out of reach with all the menial D-Rank missions he and his team were given lately.

'Tonight...' Naruto said to Harry as he walked back into his bedroom and ducked under his bed for the loose floorboard, 'I think this time I can finally succeed in creating a real potion to help me if I'm ever in danger on a mission...'

He removed the loose floorboard and reached in to pull out various containors full of strange liquids and powders. Naruto pulled out a dozen jars and carried them with him to the kitchen to hide in his cabinets.

'I've got the ingredients and some substitutes to the ones I can't find here in this world...'

'Again, I can't be entirely sure that that blue powder in jar labeled No. 3 will even work...'

'We have to try, Nii-san. Otherwise we'll never find out...'

'Very well... But let's be careful, shall we?'

'It's a done deal.'

'Don't forget to charm your feet, Little one.'

'I know... I know...'

{{Norbert by John Williams}}

Later that night, as the landlord and his dysfunctional family slept in peace, Naruto was up and about while he was busy hovering over his cauldron placed over-top his stove. He had the pewter cauldron moved over it and blasted the gas-fueled fire to maximum. He had already added the substitute Flobberworm mucus as his starting base and already added most of the ingredients that he had purchased and found that shared the same qualities as those found normally in the magical world. So far, the potion was reacting as it should be and the ingredients from The Jungle Brought to You worked perfectly. Naruto added a few lionfish spines to the dull-blue mixture and watched as the potion slowly turned a different color with each fish spine he added.

Naruto reached out for a stirring rod and started to mix the radioactive-green mass while he popped open a small bottle and added another liquid to it that looked like mud, making the potion bubble and fizz like crazy. Naruto quickly decreased the heat, turning it purple. The contents settled down some before Naruto reached back behind him and held a jar of clunky blue powder, labeled No. 3, that he cautiously held it over his glowing cauldron. It was a good thing that he closed the blinds on his windows before he started, otherwise someone could see the constantly changing glow coming from his home. He waited and started to sweat a little when he wasn't sure if he should pour any of the blue powder in yet.

'Be very careful, Little one... This was the substitute for the Mandrake juice we need for this potion... I won't lie to you, if it doesn't work, that potion might explode...'

Naruto hesitated and then gulped, 'Let's hope it's worth the risk...'

The boy's hands grew very sweaty and the jar almost fell from his hand. But Naruto gasped and grasped the jar fast and careful. His hands trembled and he froze when he saw a few samples of powder tip out of the jar and fall into the cauldron. To Naruto's amazement, the potion changed color, as it would be expected when Mandrake juice was added. He added a few more morsels and the color continued to change. He then poured in the contents he was required to compensate for the lost Mandrake and held his breath as the contents bubbled like mad until they slowly settled and thickened into a thick green substance.

Naruto turned off the heat of his stove and smelled the contents. He smelled a bittersweet fragrance that caused his eyes to water a little. He reached back for a spoon he had laid out at his little under-the-sink laboratory and slowly dipped it into the liquid. He scooped some of the potion out of the cauldron and gasped as he saw the utensil there in his hands, in the same condition it was under before he dipped it in. Harry inspected the spoon from his view in the mindscape and reached out to feel if it was right. Naruto felt the magical surge of energy that was his brother's touch make contact with the spoon and the potion. And once he was finished and the strange sensation faded out of the child's arm, Harry clapped his hands in applause.

'Success! Your Wiggenweld potion is perfect! Substitutes in the world of shinobi are just as good as those in the magical world!'

Naruto silently jumped up in the air in victory, and noiselessly cheered in the same manner. He then danced like a complete dork when he was so proud that his theory on brewing potions was correct. He continued to hum and dance to himself even while he poured the contents of his Wiggenweld Potion into phials and special storage jars he also bought from The Jungle Brought to You. He placed each of his containers of healing potion into his refrigerator as well as in his beaded backpack on the kitchen table.

'Yes! Yes! Yes! Now whenever I'm on a mission and if one of us gets hurt, no problem! Wiggenweld potion is a number one healing brew!'

Once he finished storing away his secret stash of lotions and potions, he continued to jump and dance in celebration, not worried about making noise, seeing as he still had time before his Cushioning Charm would wear off. But once he was finished, he decided to clean out his cauldron with a few simple charms and then get ready for bed. Naruto looked over to his clock and noticed that it was already nearing one o'clock in the morning. Upon that realization, drowsiness kicked in and the desire to collapse and shut down for the next several hours hit him like a train. Naruto quickly finished up and put his cauldron back under his cabinet and carried his potion ingredients with him to his bedroom where he hid them away underneath the old floorboard where several of his personal items were kept hidden.

Without another thought or action to distract him and keep him up late, Naruto collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.

{{The Burrow by John Williams}}

The following morning, Naruto woke up at the same time as yesterday, only this time he felt dead-tired and there were bags under his eyes. He stretched his muscles and clicked his bones before he pushed his blankets to the side and crawled over to his window. He reached out and pulled the window out to another beautiful morning in Konoha. He opened his window wide, letting in a pleasurable breeze of fresh forest air to rush in and wake him up. The bright morning sun blazed into his eyes from the eastern sky, causing him to rub his eyes and reopen them to the lively city below him. Naruto took in a deep breath of fresh air and sneezed before he looked out into the city and watched the people move out and about; men and women going to work, young children getting ready for school and racing each other, and elderly citizens taking walks and talking of memories past.

Naruto looked up to the sky and admired how beautiful and clear the skies were today, blended with a few white clouds that scattered across the sky for miles, constantly changing shapes and creating images for anyone who wished to lay back and stare at them all day, primarily Shikamaru. Once Naruto had enough early morning admiration, he turned away, closing the window and got ready for the rest of the day. He ate a simple breakfast of cereal and toast, took a shower, brushed his teeth, and dressed into a clean orange and blue tracksuit. He slipped on his sandals and gathered the headband that Iruka had gifted to Naruto for graduating from the Academy. Naruto wore it proudly, even though it would occasionally irritate his scarred forehead.

Once he was all gathered and prepared, Naruto jumped out of the window of his bedroom, not wishing to confront Toshi about the rent again.

{{Introducing Colin/The Howler by John Williams}}

Naruto ran through the streets of his village, slipping past the growing crowds of people who all shot him nasty glares. He turned several corners and ran down a number of different streets until he arrived at his teams meeting place: at the bridge over by the village reservoir, the one that had the red arches. Once Naruto arrived, he was met by one of his two teammates, Sakura Haruno, still just as vibrant and flowery as she was since the first day he met her, despite her unusually hot temper. Naruto gasped when he saw her and blushed happily once he realized Sasuke had not yet arrived; giving him the opportunity he had been waiting for. He slowly made his way over to Sakura, walking confidently with a swing in his step. Naruto tried his best to act cool in front of her and make his move to maybe at last get to know her on a more personal level.

'Maybe I can get her to go on a date!' he thought excitedly, 'Time for the old Potter family charm to kick into gear for this Uzumaki!'

Harry moaned and hit himself in the head when he heard his little brother say that through his thoughts and tried his best not to start gagging. The older wizard despised Sakura for obvious reasons; she was snobbish, loud, rude, hypocritical, pretentious, and selfish down to the bone. He kept asking himself why Naruto even liked her, seeing as she didn't like him in return and treated Naruto as if he were some mutated freak. But Harry kept on answering his question with the fact that Naruto was attracted to Sakura's fair attractiveness, such as her jade-green eyes and her vibrant pink hair, as well as her impressive ability to memorize almost anything that was presented to her. Harry could do nothing except perhaps smother himself with a pillow while this scene played out.

"Hey there, Sakura-chan!" greeted Naruto kindly.

Sakura turned to her teammate, but she sighed and rolled her eyes when she saw him, "Hello, Naruto."

"So," he slid over to the stone railing of the bridge and talked to Sakura while he tried to act cool, "It's a lovely morning today! It's an excellent way to start off the summer, don't you think?"

The pink-haired girl rolled her eyes again, furrowing her eyebrows and had just mumbled something rude while she kept looking around for someone else. She didn't even care about what Naruto had to say as she kept on waiting for their other teammate to arrive.

"You know," started Naruto again, "It's around this time of year, the legends say that the phoenix arrives from the sun to spread their wings and bring their fortune to the downtrodden and-"

"SASUKE-KUN!" she suddenly cried out.

Naruto jumped at her outburst and looked over to the other side of the bridge to see his archrival walking at a steady pace to the meeting spot along with Sakura and Naruto. Sasuke looked just the same as he did when he graduated from the Academy. He wore the same blue and white clothes, had the same hair, and the same bad attitude that made Naruto wonder why Sakura even liked someone as unlikeable, egotistical, and cold as Sasuke Uchiha. The heir to the most illustrious shinobi clan in the village approached Naruto and rudely pushed him to the side to stand where Naruto was standing a few moments ago.

"What was that for?" he grunted and growled.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with those same calculating black eyes of his and said, "You were in my spot, dobe. I don't have to be the one to tell you that."

"I don't see your name written on it, teme!" he said back.

The Uchiha looked at him and said back angrily, "Why don't you pick another spot to wait? You know, be a dobe somewhere else?"

"Why don't you just come to terms that you got such a pole shoved right up your-"

Sakura looked displeased and growled at her blonde teammate just before he finished his statement and bopped him on the head with a fist like rock, "KNOCK IT OFF, NARUTO-BAKA!"

Naruto rubbed and caressed his bruised up head, as Sakura's attention was fixated on her number one crush. Naruto sighed when she saw hearts in her eyes at the sight of her beloved. Meanwhile, Sasuke forgot about his quarrel with Naruto and leaned his back against the railing to brood and ignore Sakura while she tried to start a conversation with him.

This was one thing that really got in the way of this dream-team that Harry caught on right away. This team was not compatible for each other and mixed together unhealthily. Sasuke was a dark and arrogant genin that loved to put Naruto and everyone else below him, and he captured Sakura's attention and affection completely. Naruto liked Sakura a lot and actually cared for her, while Sasuke had her under his shinobi-spell of attraction, while she herself hated Naruto just as much as she hated every other Sasuke-fangirl. It made the team unbalanced and unable to cooperate properly. Their teamwork test given to them a few months ago proved this failure, and the fact that they were able to pass was a complete fluke. It was only after they understood the concept and importance of teamwork did they finally set their differences aside and pass. But given the circumstances and risks at the time of their test, it was only temporary as they went back into their usual habits once it was over. It seemed to Harry that they would not be capable of good teamwork and full cooperation unless their lives, dreams, and hopes for the future were threatened.

The genin team waited for over an hour and a half until their sensei finally arrived. When he got there he watched as Naruto was fuming at Sasuke while Sakura kept talking to him and even stole the premise of Naruto's earlier conversation about phoenix legends, only she changed them on the spot and tried to make a metaphor of love. Sasuke looked over at Naruto on occasion, feeling annoyed that he kept on glaring at him and decided to glare back at him, just like they did when they were in school together; enemies from the start.

"Hello and good morning, you guys!" a voice called from above.

The children looked up as their suave and immensely cool jounin instructor as he jumped down from the same archway he appeared each and every morning they met up like this. Kakashi Hatake landed in front of them as if he had teleported, leaving a trail of fallen leaves in his wake as he greeted his students kindly and read up on his current volume of Icha-Icha Paradise.

"Sorry I'm late again, but these children were trapped in a fire downtown and I had to be the one to save them!" he explained.

Naruto beamed to his sensei as he was an admirer of heroism, "I could believe that one!"

"YOU LIAR!" screamed Sakura, "That's the worst excuse you've ever come up with EVER!"

The pink-haired menace considered Kakashi's constant tardiness to be intolerable. Meanwhile, her beloved Sasuke looked just as bored and uninterested as usual. He just mumbled that Kakashi was being a poor example of a jounin instructor for arriving late and making lies like he was some child.

Kakashi stopped joking but eye-smiled anyway, "At least one person can take a little joke. C'mon gang, let's get to it!"

(Fake dramatic logo scene)

TV-TOKYO & WARNER BROS. PICTURES Presents.

Naruto Uzumaki and the Assassin of the Mist

To Be Continued...

We're BACK, baby!

I'm glad to be back and writing again, I've actually decided to take a while off from writing after I posted the final chapter of the first book so I could go on vacation. It was fun going to the east coast; with the exception of the beach I went to had the worst police force imaginable! My cousins and I weren't allowed on the boardwalk late at night. It really sucked since they threatened to arrest us if we didn't clear off. But oh well, no point in getting all worked up over a bunch of idiots that abuse their power. I still had a wonderful time and a fantastic break to recharge my batteries!

Let's see... what to inform... I guess I should start that I'm going to correct a few things with my other stories while I go along with the series from here. Meaning, I will keep writing AotM and when I reach CE you guys may as well re-read that as I'm going to correct the grammar and paragraph setup. I felt that Chunin Exams was a bit too scattered and messy. I MIGHT change up one or two fights or put a song or two out, but I'm still debating over this with Azeroth44. For now, I'm just going to be correcting the grammar and paragraph setup. After CE is finished at last, I'll move on to the Legendary Sannin as fast as I can. That's been a real problem story for me, but I'm finally getting it fixed up and ready to start posting. I can't wait to get started! It's going to be EPIC!

As for the usual commentary that supposed to be here, Azeroth44 is a bit busy with a story adoption and hasn't been all that available. We'll get started with commentary again next chapter though.

But before I leave, if you leave behind a review, I would like to hear your opinion on Bellatrix's Lestrange's demise in Deathly Hallows Part 2. Whether it made you laugh, cheer, or cry (if you were a fan of Bellatrix) I would like to hear that! If you don't want to, you don't have to, you're still a wonderful human being anyway! :)