Chapter 1

-Battle of Hogwarts-

-The Train Platform-

"So I can go back?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore nodded pleasantly.

"But what if I don't want to?"

Dumbledore's eyes lost of bit of their twinkle. "I suppose... you could go on in that case. But, my boy-"

"I walked into the forest to die, Professor," Harry said quietly. He looked up at Dumbledore's silent face. "I went to Voldemort to die. I accepted it, do you really think I can just go back?"

"No, my boy," the professor said sadly, looking more like an old man in that moment than the day he had died. "I suppose you cannot."

Harry nodded and stood. "I wish I could do something for him," he said as he looked over to the weeping piece of Voldemort. "There's really nothing…?"

"No, Harry." Dumbledore stood as well. "The wounds on his soul can be healed by none other than himself. He is too far gone now to benefit from any kindness you might give him."

"Then, I guess there's nothing left for me here," Harry said, hesitant now that the moment was truly here. This was both easier and harder than walking into the forest had been. He turned to face Dumbledore. "Will I see you again?"

"Should you ever look for me, I am certain I will be there to be found," Dumbledore said with a sad smile.

Harry nodded. That was good enough for now. He turned to the train platform. Now that he felt more sure about his choice, he knew a train would be coming soon. It would be good to see his parents again, and Remus, and Sirius. Harry smiled. Especially Sirius.

-Chunnin Exam Invasion-

-Konohagakure-

Sarutobi gasped for breath around the blood filling his mouth. The Shinigami should have pulled the rest of Orochimaru's soul out by now. Why was it only hovering in place between his student's body and his own? He couldn't risk the jutsu failing now!

Orochimaru glared and hissed curses as he tried to call his sword further into his teacher's gut. Enma was doing his best to keep the blade from inching forward, but tied up as he was it was a losing battle. Just as Sarutobi thought he should send whatever reserves of chakra he had left into the jutsu, a cold voice spoke, breaking not only his own concentration, but that of the only other who could hear it as well.

"You have no chakra left."

Orochimaru glared over Sarutobi's head, a flash of terror covered quickly with a smirk. "It seems you're finished, Sarutobi-sensei."

Sarutobi coughed. "It's not… the end…" The Shinigami had hold of his student's soul! That should be enough to seal him, shouldn't it?

"Would you please die already, Sarutobi-sensei," Orochimaru mocked. Now that the Shinigami had revealed his teacher's weakness, his confidence was returning. But he still flinched when the Shinigami began speaking again.

"You ran out of chakra a while ago, Sarutobi Hiruzen."

Sarutobi was too exhausted to do more than pant and clutch Orochimaru's stiff shoulders, but the horror that swept through him when the being he thought was under his control revealed otherwise sent a shiver down his spine.

"Why then, do I remain here?"

Sarutobi risked a glance over a shoulder to find the Shinigami grinning widely.

"I have an offer for you, Sarutobi Hiruzen."

Sarutobi's eyes widened. An offer? This shouldn't be possible. Minato-kun's notes on the Shiki Fuujin said that the Shinigami was only brought to the mortal world temporarily to seal the target of the jutsu. The Shinigami should be bound so tightly by the will of the jutsu's caster that it would act only to carry out the jutsu's goal.

Except Sarutobi was all out of chakra to control the jutsu...

"You summoned me to seal three souls for the price of your own." The Shinigami's frigid voice rang out again, and Saurtobi was certain he could detect a tone of smugness beneath the harsh words. That only made listening to the being more terrifying. "Three souls are not equal to one."

Sarutobi felt a pain, greater than the Shinigami's icy arm passing through his chest, stab into his heart. He had risked this jutsu with it's desperate price so that Orochimaru might be eliminated or at least weakened, but now it sounded as though his efforts would be for nothing.

"Of course, one soul is not equal to one soul either," the Shinigami said flatly, "but I was willing to overlook that before."

Before? Sarutobi thought, That must be a reference to Minato using the Shiki Fuujin on the Kyuubi. The possibility of someone else who had managed to summon Death itself for a task was too troubling to consider.

"But now, not only do you trade the prices of souls, you do it without any power to hold me."

Sarutobi was certain he could hear the vicious grin at the end of that statement. His eyes fell closed while Orochimaru's lit up.

"However, I am still willing to take all three souls if you wish, but for a more adequate price."

"NO!" Orochimaru screamed and the hand he'd relaxed as he began to think the Shinigami would kill his teacher for him, twitched up. A trickle of chakra seeped out of his fingers to pull the blade in his teacher's stomach a little deeper.

Sarutobi blinked. "What price?" he coughed out, ignoring the pain of a blade sliding inside him.

"I will take the souls you wish, if you take a soul from me."

"A soul... from you?" Sarutobi choked as the edge of the blade scraped a rib. Enma grunted as he tried harder to keep the sword from moving.

"Accept it and keep it safe, and I will not claim your soul now."

Was the Shinigami really offering to let his soul go free? Could he trust a Shinigami to uphold such a deal? And what soul did it want him to take? What sort of soul would Death itself not want to keep? But he had no way to control the jutsu without chakra, so his only hope was the word of the Shinigami...

"Deal..." Sarutobi gasped. The last thing he saw was his prized student screaming at him in rage before darkness overtook everything.

-Konoha T&I prison-

Harry sputters in shock as icy wetness washes over him and blinks droplets of water out of his eyes to look blearily at the bright light above him. Had he been asleep?

"Awake now?" a harsh voice asks.

Harry's eyes widen and snap down to focus on the man before him. A frown stretches deep scars that run across his face, and cloth with a metal band is tied around the top of his head. His eyes are dark and unfriendly.

Who the bloody hell is this and what happened to the train?

The man watches him emotionlessly with his hands folded quietly on the table between them. Harry blinks again and looks around, more confused than ever.

He's in a small, bare room, seated at the table with the man. Or rather, Harry corrects as he pulls his shoulders against the scratchy rope, the man is seated at the table. Harry himself is tied to the chair in front of the table.

"What's going on?" Harry asks angrily. "Who are you?"

"That's not important here," the man says flatly. "What matters is who you are."

"I already know who I am," Harry snarls. "Who are you?!"

The man smiles, pulling the scars into harsh shadows. "That's good, you know who you are. It should make it easier for you to answer my questions. I hate getting prisoners who don't know anything."

Harry glares at him, thinking fast. Something had gone wrong. He doesn't know what happened exactly, but somehow he hadn't moved on as he thought. He must have come back to life.

Unfortunately, wherever he is, he is unwelcome. The only good thing Harry can see in the situation is that the people holding him have no idea who he is, meaning they couldn't possibly be Death Eaters or, really, anyone from the wizarding world. The rope around his arms and, Harry glances up at the light- a lightbulb, make him think perhaps these people are muggles.

"Oh, now don't go quiet on me this early," the man says and he stands to come around the table. "We have lots of ways to make you talk, and all the time in the world to wait for you to run out of things to say."

A shiver goes down Harry's spine as the scarred man leans over him with a grin. Well, that solidified Harry's desire to get out of here, now. He seems to be wearing the same torn and dirtied clothes from the Battle, and he can feel the cloak in its pocket inside his robe, so surely the wand would still be inside his sleeve.

A wand is indeed inside Harry's sleeve, coming to his hand the moment his fingers twitch for it, but it didn't feel like the wand he'd stolen from Draco, it was far too knobbly for that. Still, a wand was a wand, and a silent Stupefy directed through it is just as effective as any spell sent through a wand should be.

The man before him falls to the floor unconscious, and Harry is just twitching the wand to cut the rope away from him when a door he hadn't realized was behind him bursts open. Harry lunges away from the chair, under the table and spins to send two rapid Stupefy's! at whoever had entered the room.

A man in a white mask dives to the right, while another with bandages across half his face, covering his eyes, dives to the left. Knives fly from them both to clang and bounce off a hastily erected shield.

"Incarcerous! Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus! Locomotor Mortis!" Harry sends as many non-lethal spells toward the two muggles trying to reach him as fast as he can draw breath. The masked man flips over and around the ropes of Harry's first curse, but lands right where his third was aimed and falls to the floor like a log. The bandaged man trips as the Impediment Curse flashes by his leg and a swiftly sent Stupefy has both him and the masked man safely unconscious.

Harry lets out a tired sigh at the sudden quiet and takes a moment to look over the wand he'd wielded. He gasps and stares at it in shock. This is Dumbledore's wand, the one Voldemort stole, this is the Elder wand!

Harry wonders how it could have ended up in his sleeve when his last memory of it was watching as a green light blazed from the tip right towards him. Unfortunately, soft echoes from the open door tell Harry there are still more muggles between him and freedom so his contemplation will have to wait. One quick tap over his head sends the cool waves of the Disillusionment charm over his body and the tops of his shoes vanish just as several more muggles, both masked and not, leap into the room throwing knives and spinning shards of metal.

Another silent wave of the Elder wand sends these arching around him to land all across the room and Harry waits a moment for the muggles to become distracted with their fallen comrades before carefully slipping past and out into the hall. One of the muggles races from the room around him to call out a prisoner escape to the rest of the building. Harry shrugs it off, adds a Notice-Me-Not charm on top of the Disillusion, and continues walking. He's bound to find an exit sooner or later.

-Konoha Hospital-

Sarutobi woke slowly, the white ceiling above coming into blurry focus. A guard beside his bed leans forward anxiously and sends a chakra flare for the medics.

"Sandaime-sama! Thank goodness!"

Sarutobi turns his head to regard the shinobi. So, he is alive. "Cat, report."

"Yes! The joint Sound-Sand forces have been expelled and defenses are being reinforced as we speak. All civilians are accounted for and none are dead. Shinobi force suffered a loss of less than five percent, and roughly seven percent of the remaining have been injured. Also..." Here the ANBU guard hesitates. "Also, Orochimaru has escaped."

"What?!" Sarutobi gasps and tries to sit up before the pain stabbing through his abdomen and across his chest forces him to lay back.

"Hokage-sama!" The ANBU barely had time to reach for him before the room doors slide open to admit several medic-nin who swarm the bed, cautiously shooing the guard a few grudging steps back.

"Hokage-sama, it is good to see you awake," the head medic-nin, Hondo Iyashi, says. "Please allow us examine you to be sure you are healing correctly."

Sarutobi coughs weakly and waves permission before turning to look at the ANBU again. "Orochimaru escaped?"

ANBU Cat kneels behind the working medic-nin. "Yes, Hokage-sama. His followers carried him and we were unable to pursue immediately due to a strange web jutsu."

"But, Orochimaru," Sarutobi coughs and pauses to let a medic-nin pass a glowing hand over his throat and chest before continuing. "He was alive when he left?"

The ANBU bowed his head further. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi frowned. So the Shinigami had lied. Except... he was still alive as well, and after sealing the Shodaime-sama and Niidaime-sama, there should be no way for him to still be here. So, perhaps Orochimaru had managed to escape sealing because Sarutobi had fallen?

He shook his head. It was useless to wonder about that now as the only ones who could possibly have seen what the Shinigami had done were himself and Orochimaru.

"Are ANBU tracking him?" he asked instead.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Only one team though; the damage to the village walls is extensive and the Council Advisors thought it best not to weaken our forces too much."

Sarutobi nodded. Of course Koharu and Homura would keep the village under control while he was unable.

"However, we were able to capture one of Orochimaru's men," the ANBU continued.

Sarutobi perked up. "Oh? They did not escape with him?"

"No, Hokage-sama. He was left unconscious by your side while the others fled."

By his side? There was something odd about that, something Sarutobi couldn't quite place. "Which of the four was he?"

"He was not one of the four who formed the barrier jutsu, Hokage-sama. He was a new, unknown young man who simply appeared there when we found you."

Sarutobi's eyes widened. "A soul from me..." the Shinigami had said. "Where is this unknown man now, Cat?" he asked quickly, pushing himself up from the bed despite the medic-nins' protests.

ANBU Cat looked up. "At the T & I Center, Hokage-sama."

"Send word that he is not to be harmed and is to be released to my custody immediately!" Sarutobi, feeling much better now that he'd rested and had some adrenaline coursing through his veins once more, shoved the bedsheets roughly aside and moved to stand.

"Hokage-sama!" Medic-nin Iyashi complained. "Please return to bed! You are not fully healed yet!"

"Hokage-sama?" Cat said uncertainly. ANBU should respond to all the Hokage's orders, but Sarutobi felt he could forgive this slowness as he understood why his order seemed strange. The young man- the soul the Shinigami entrusted to him- would have seemed like no more than an ally of Orochimaru's, abandoned when he fled. As an enemy to the Village, he would be imprisoned and interrogated, and giving an order to counter that would be insane.

But he'd been told to keep the soul safe and regardless he had never condoned bystanders being treated as enemies simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being found next to an unconscious and badly injured Hokage was possibly the worst place the man could be, but certainly wasn't his fault.

"I gave an order, Cat," Sarutobi said harshly, even as Iyashi was carefully forcing him centimeter by centimeter back down to his pillow. "The unknown man is not of Orochimaru's corp. He is my responsibility now."

"Understood, Hokage-sama." Cat bowed his head and Shushined out the window and away from the hospital. Sarutobi could feel four chakra signatures, ANBU, move around his room to allow the hole left by Cat's path to close up.

Iyashi huffed as Sarutobi finally sank back to the bed and relaxed. "You almost didn't make it you know."

"I know," Sarutobi said quietly.

"No, you don't." Iyashi glared at him, angrier than Sarutobi could ever remember seeing the medic-nin. "When the ANBU found you, they performed field healing techniques until I could reach you. When I got there I was surprised you'd made it that long. I spent four hours on the roof patching you up while medics were brought to share their chakra and every minute I thought you were going to slip away."

Sarutobi watched the midic-nin as he paced around his bed and ranted at him.

"I still don't know how you made it through all that!" Iyashi continued, throwing his hands in the air and turning to the Hokage. "You shouldn't have! It wasn't medically possible with the injuries you sustained! The blood that you had lost!"

"I know," Sarutobi said again.

"No! You don't!" Iyashi shouted back. Sarutobi raised his hand and the man quieted but still had a desperate, fearful face.

"I do know, my friend," Sarutobi said softly. "I used a jutsu that was meant to claim my life."

"What?!" Iyashi was livid, but settled as much as he could when the Hokage waved him down again.

"Obviously the jutsu went wrong." Sarutobi smiled ruefully and Iyashi snorted. "But the manner in which it went wrong ensured I would live, so long as someone went unharmed."

"Someone?" Iyashi frowned. "How is that possible? You were dying! How could someone else not being hurt have kept you alive?"

"I'm not sure I can explain it," Sarutobi said. "However, as soon as our unexpected guest joins me I shall try."

"Unexpected... But!" Iyashi stopped and did his best to compose himself. "You mean to say that man who was beside you is the one who kept you alive? That he turned on Orochimaru to save you?"

"As far as I know, he was never on Orochimaru's side, so I do not believe he could turn on him," Sarutobi smiled ruefully. "So it really is a pity I wasn't awake to tell the ANBU not to arrest him."

Iyashi stared at him, obviously not quite believing his Hokage. "But… then, where did this man come from?" he asked. "Supposedly only you, Orochimaru, and that four-man team were inside the barrier until it fell. If the man wasn't part of Orochimaru's ilk, how could he have gotten inside with you? The ANBU couldn't even scratch it!"

"I'm afraid I am the one who might have brought him there." Sarutobi let himself rest back into his pillow a little more. The rush from the adrenaline was wearing off fast and he was beginning to feel more aches in his bones now.

"How?" Iyashi asked, even as he shoos away two lingering medic-nin who hand him the Hokage's chart.

"I told you, it was my jutsu that went wrong," Sarutobi says tiredly.

Iyashi, noticing his patient's failing attention, chooses to remain silent despite his continued confusion over what happened. He instead glances over the new notes added to the chart, makes one of his own, and moves to pull the curtain on the window. Unfortunately, just as he has it half closed, an ANBU darts through and is already kneeling beside the Hokage's bed when Iyashi turns around.

"Hokage-sama!"

"Now, just a minute!" Iyashi interrupts, harsh and low as he can to not disturb his patient. "Hokage-sama has only just now begun to rest! Unless this is an emergency, it can wait until later!"

"No, no, Iyashi-san," Sarutobi's voice pauses over a yawn, so close to sleep but just awake enough to not let a report escape his attention. He shifts so his head rests a little higher on the pillow while Iyashi crosses his arms and glares at him. "Report, Turtle."

"The prisoner we found with you-"

"Guest," Sarutobi interrupts firmly. Labels are important in the shinobi world, he needs to make sure the right ones are applied to whoever he accidentally involved in this.

The ANBU looks up briefly and repeats "Guest," slowly, voice flat and even but somehow implying his utter doubt of such a sentiment, then continues. "The, guest, we found with you has left the T&I department. All ninja in the Intelligence, Jounin Station, and Foreign Relations Divisions are alerted, but so far it appears he is no longer in the building."

"What?" Sarutobi sits up quickly, pulling something and cringing as warmth spreads down his back and across his abdomen. Iyashi is already lunging forward with glowing hands to try and stanch the flow from the Hokage's reopened wounds. ANBU Turtle scoots out of the way without appearing to move and manages to look ashamed behind his mask.

"The, guest, was woken for interrogation with Ibiki about thirty minutes ago. He then used an unknown jutsu to render Ibiki unconscious, broke his restraints, then turned more unknown jutsu on Sparrow and Tobitake when they moved to restrain him. All three are unconscious and the medics are unable to wake them," Turtle reported calmly and quickly, though he still paused over the word 'guest' and, as he went on, Sarutobi became more and more worried about how to fix this problem without bloodshed. "When reinforcements arrived at the scene, the, guest, avoided kunai and vanished. Trackers indicate it was not a displacement jutsu, merely a concealment, but his trail was lost almost immediately in the hall outside the cell."

This stranger was apparently more skilled than anyone, Sarutobi included, had expected. Unfortunately, that would make dealing with him as a non-threat nearly impossible while the village was still on alert... and extra difficult besides with him being unintentionally associated with Orochimaru.

Even worse, Turtle's report wasn't over.

"When Intelligence Trackers failed to pick up the, guest's, trail, Inuzuka Trackers were brought in from the Jounin Station. Unfortunately, the, guest, appears to be using an unknown confusion tactic where his scent appears throughout the building, leading the Hunting teams in circles with no indication of a true trail. We have determined the scents are not genjutsu, however, no trace of the, guest, including scent, has been discovered yet outside of Intelligence Division. Ibiki ordered two teams out of the Village in case the, guest, used an unknown teleportation jutsu, but neither has reported in yet." Apparently finished now, Turtle bowed his head and waited for the Hokage's response.

Sadly, Sarutobi had none to give. Iyashi had managed to reseal his split wound, but the new blood-loss was affecting him badly, and the situation with the shinigami's traded soul was so unexpected that he simply didn't know what more he could do, bedridden and with a Village waiting for him to repair all the damage from the recent invasion. But one thing needed to be made absolutely clear to his forces.

"Tell Ibiki I am reducing the search to one team, of his choosing, and that this is a retrieval mission only. Our guest is exactly that, not an ally of Orochimaru's and I would like to keep it that way." Sarutobi said as sternly as he could while Iyashi was re-bandaging his back, twisting cloth around him and gently jostling his arms out of the way every few seconds. However, even through the mask, Turtle seemed to radiate a sense of disbelief and Saurtobi knew he'd have to give a reason other than "because-I-say-so."

"Iyashi, I need you to step outside for a moment," Sarutobi said once the medic-nin had pinned the bandage in place and helped him replace his hospital gown. Something in his voice or face must have finally come off as "Hokage Business" because Iyashi left without a single comment. Turtle even straightened in his bowed crouch when Sarutobi turned to him.

"Turtle, what I am about to tell you will be classified as an S-class secret, and you will relay only so much information as needed to Cat and Ibiki if you feel they are not treating this situation with the necessary care. No one else is to hear it, understood?"

"Yes Hokage!" Turtle had lowered his head enough that his mask could barely be seen. Sarutobi nodded to himself in relief. An ANBU in such a vulnerable position was one taking his Hokage's words very seriously.

"I am the one who accidentally summoned this stranger, and the jutsu I used somehow bound his life to mine. The only reason I survived the battle with Orochimaru was because he lived." Turtle seemed to freeze in place beside the bed and Sarutobi paused to let the information sink in. "It is not only that he is innocent of any relation to Orochimaru and the invasion, but also that, if he is harmed, there is no telling what the consequences might be."

For me, went unsaid, but it was clear the ANBU knew exactly who might be affected by any consequences.

"Understood, Hokage!" Turtle said. "I will relay your orders to Ibiki at once, however..."

"Yes, Turtle?"

The ANBU raised his head to look at the Hokage. "However, Cat is leading one of the teams searching outside the Village, a message may not reach him before one of the teams finds our guest."

"Then we shall have to hope this stranger's skills at evasion are even better than what we've seen so far." Sarutobi frowned as he leaned back, Turtle bowed once more before he leaves, and Iyashi comes in briefly to make sure he's comfortable. He didn't understand what the shinigami hoped he would do with this unwanted soul, and the stranger was turning into more trouble than he could have anticipated. But surely, as long as he was alive, and Orochimaru could no longer summon the previous Hokage, then surely things would turn out all right.

AN: Well, the Naruto/HP chapter got more votes, so I wrote up some more. That might be because I accidentally put Bewitched in the Naruto/HP category... oh well. This story is going in weird directions in my head, but I kinda like it. Let me know what you all think!