AC_D6: Hidden in Shadow (Part 2)

Before we get into today's post, I want to wish you all a 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Also, this isn't the last of this year's advent posts.

Now onto this post.

This AU had the most requests for an update. And considering I only had a tiny snippet of dialogue for what came after the first chapter, it took a long, long while to make a coherent chapter for this (most of Advent actually). But I got it done, lack of descriptions and all. 

Hope it lives up to the hype.

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Still feeling the effects of that unnatural wail, from whatever Harii’s light guardian had destroyed before it disappeared, Shikaku took longer than he would have liked to process the teen’s words. “A real curse? What is that supposed to mean?”

Eyes still searching for something among the trees, examining every visible shadow, Harii glanced at him for an instant before he said, “You know.”

Shikaku swallowed an unkind retort. But he turned to Shikamaru, “Take the fawn and this deer to the Inuzaka. Ask them for a full check-up and thorough inspection.”

Shikamaru’s pale face twisted. He wanted to argue. A full inspection would keep Shikamaru out of the Nara compound for at least half a day. Shikamaru knew that. And he didn’t like it. If Shikaku was in his position, he wouldn’t like being sent away on any pretence, no matter how logical, either.

Shikaku shot him a stern look.

This wasn’t up for a debate.

Shikamaru had to be off the property until Shikaku had a better idea of what was going on. Of what they had uncovered.

“Hyūga Neji,” Shikamaru said, the fight in his eyes dimming with a weary resignation.

Shikaku appreciated Shikamaru’s logic. An extra pair of eyes, especially Hyūga eyes would be useful in the situation. And Neji, though he was the nephew of the Hyūga clan head, could visit without them having to talk to the Hyūga main branch.

Naruto, his blue eyes wide, looked between his the two of them and his cousin- who was still scanning their surroundings with his hands raised, ready to call his ethereal guardian at a moment’s notice.

AC_D5: Prompt Fill: Curse-Maker, Curse-Breaker

For the 5th post of my 2018's Advent Calendar, it's a prompt fill for this prompt sent in by

SilentReader: How about Curse-Breaker Harry, as the job he chose. It could be interesting. He could also threaten people with curses, and just like put a jelly-legs curse, tap-dancing hex etc. Or something that makes you clumsy which would be really bad for a ninja.

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The ninja looked up from his papers and then with a wary look passed his papers on to another ninja.

Harry grew even more worried when this same reaction repeated a few more times, with each ninja looking at Harry with strange cautious looks.

The fifth ninja looked at the papers at least five times before he spoke to Harry. But even he had a cautious look. “On this paper, you’ve listed your job as a,” he hesitated.

“A curse breaker,“ Harry finished the sentence. He didn’t know what had pushed him to blurt that title out as his job when getting his paperwork but he had to deal with it now.

“You have religious training?” the ninja asked in a hushed voice.

“Not really,” Harry said, surprised that that portion of his paperwork worried the ninja.

“What exactly do you do?” the ninja asked.

Harry shrugged. “Exactly what it says, I break curses.”

The ninja’s lips pursed and his eyes twitched at the word curse. “What kind?”

Harry would have liked to use Bill’s actual job description as the basis of what he did, but that would be a complicated facade to maintain even in the short term. “Curses on people.”

“How do you know if a person has one?”

“I don’t,” Harry said. “If people think they‘re cursed, then I’ll work with that.”

“And how do you break them?” the ninja asked.

Harry hesitated. But the ninja’s reactions inspired a crazy idea. “I curse them.”

The ninja stared at him with wide eyes. “What?”

AC_D4: The Red Flame (Part 2)

For Day 4 of my 2018's Advent Calendar, it's the secong chapter of my newest Uchiha-centric AU.

Here's Part 1, in case you missed it.
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Walking away from the obsidian sculpture, showed Harry that he was in a different place if not time. Instead of the pond that had surrounded the obsidian sculpture's small patch of land, there was only solid ground with coarse grass.

Harry was just thankful that he didn't have to depend on Madara to jump over the water to reach the other side.

In the dark, Madara led the way through a thick cluster of trees with sure steps.

And unlike Harry, Madara didn't falter when a large shadow dropped down from the tree and straightened to the looming figure of an armoured man.

“Madara-sama?” the man said, red eyes visible in the darkness and fixed on Harry.

With a commanding edge in his voice that brooked no arguments, Madara said, “You need to pay more attention to the newcomers from our distant properties. It won't look good if a guard like you can't recognize your own clan members.”

The man scanned Harry once with red eyes, but turned to Madara and bowed. “My apologies for the disturbance, Madara-sama.”

Madara walked away.

Harry gaped at the exchange, even as the guard disappeared back into the trees without a sound. Left without any other option, Harry followed Madara into the clan property.

AC_D3: Behind the Scenes (Part 5)

For Day 3 of 2018's Advent Calendar, it's another old AU getting an update. (For Book14Reader and CosmosQueen- hope you guys enjoy this update.)

In case you've never read it, in this AU, Harry becomes a movie star and starts collecting a very worrying set of fans- not that Harry knows that yet. 

Previous Parts of this AU
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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“Where are you going?” Kisame asked.

Itachi straightened his coat.

“Are you going to inspire that old director to make a sequel?” Kisame asked with a long-suffering internal sigh.

Itachi didn’t react, but that was enough of an answer to Kisame.

“Your sharingan probably doesn't work on him properly. He’ll just make a new film instead of a sequel,” Kisame didn’t have to say ‘like last time’ out loud. Itachi was still sour that the first film, his favourite, hadn’t gotten the sequel he’d planned for.

“They teased a sequel, this time. They should be filming it,” Itachi said.

“You don’t know how they do things in the film industry. Maybe it takes a while to start a sequel.”

“It’s been three months,” Itachi said.

“Since the movie came out,” Kisame retorted.

Itachi’s eyes gleamed red.

Kisame didn’t look away. “You know I’m right.”

Itachi stared at him for a moment longer. Then with a deliberate look of dismissal, he turned and walked away.

“What do I tell Leader if he assigns us a mission?”

Itachi disappeared from sight.

AC_D2: Sound's Strange (Part 8)

For Day 2 of 2018's Advent Calendar, it's time for a little more of our favourite Otokage's illogical adventures.

Previous Parts of this AU
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6 
Part 7

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“We should go check what that was, right?” Harry said, when no other explosions followed the first.

“There’s no we,” Suigetsu retorted. “You ain’t going anywhere near the explosions.”

“You’re not supposed to head into danger!” Karin screeched at Harry at the same time.

Not one to be silent, Hideo also said, “Nidaime-sama, it would be much safer to wait for someone to bring us proper intel of what’s going on.”

All three of them shared unhappy looks, as though surprised they were all thinking the same thing.

Harry didn’t like their new found common synergy. “It’s probably something to do with Sasuke.”

“Sasuke is still unconscious in the west, Nidaime-sama,” Hideo reminded him.

“You don’t have to be conscious to cause trouble,” Harry said.

“Nidaime-sama,” a grey-masked man knelt in front of Harry. “There are missing-nin in the west.”

“Missing-nin?” Harry asked in confusion.

“They’re criminals who have defected from villages and live a life of crime,” Hideo explained helpfully.

“Missing-nin from here?” Harry asked.

“No, Nidaime-sama,” the masked man replied. “It’s Akatsuki.”

AC_D1: Prompt Fill: The Uzumaki Heir

Happy 1^st of December and welcome to the start of 2018's Advent Calendar. 

Today's post is a prompt fill, but it's not an advent prompt fill. This anonymous prompt came in when I wasn't updating the blog, but the potential for crack with this had to be explored.

"I was worried about lack of drabbles/updates when I saw you updated on fanfic. And now with the latest chapter read 6 times over, and now I wonder, what if that excuse was to force Harry to pick another clan heir. And then I thought, what if he just make hedwig the clan heir. I would love to see everyone's reaction to such thing. Especially if Hedwig sits in on meetings."

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“You can't make an owl your clan heir.” Koharu said, the wrinkles around her eyes deepening as she squinted at Harry.

Thinking about a transfiguration formula that he could never understand so that he could have a genuinely confused expression on his face. “Why not?”

“Because she's an owl?” Seated beside Koharu,

“And?” Harry said.

“How can an owl be a clan heir?” Koharu asked, the hair pin in her bun glinted as she punctuated her question with a shake of her head.

Harry shrugged. “Can heads test their heirs constantly to see if they're a good choice.”

“And?”

“And I was being lax. Just because there's no one else in the clan, doesn't mean that I shouldn't test Naruto.” Harry said. “People need reassurance that the clan heir can take on the clan head's position in the future, right?” When no one could argued against his logic, Harry continued, “So I decided to test Naruto. But the only way to make things fair was to have someone to compete against him.”

“And you chose your owl as his competition?” Homura asked.

“It's not like I could test someone from outside the clan. Then I'd have had to adopt them into the clan or something, and the paperwork for that was intimidating. So I chose the simpler solution.”

Koharu frowned. “Your owl was the simpler solution?”

“She was the simplest solution,” Harry corrected himself.

The three elders were silent for a long moment but Harry couldn't tell whether it was disbelief or outrage that kept them so still and silent. Maybe it was humour, something that they didn't know how to deal with.

“What tests did you use?” Danzo finally asked.