AC_D5: A New Travel Companion

Every year, I forget just how tiring and hectic December can be.

Today's post is another crazy idea- one small change at the start of Harry's jouney that would lead to numerous good, bad and even terrible changes.

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With the knowledge that no boats would be leaving the island of Redpool till the next day, Harry had a lot of free time on his hands so he decided to explore and enjoy some of the beaches. A few hours from the fishing village, Harry found a secluded stretch of beach surrounded by rocky cliffs.

Content to be well away from any person, Harry sat on a rock and closed his eyes as he took in the calming sounds of the ocean- the rhythmic crash of waves against the cliff rocks, the cry of seagulls in the air, and a loud exhale from the water.

A loud exhale from the water?

Harry opened his eyes and looked out at the ocean in confusion.

As he watched, another loud exhale from something in the water, created a high spout of water in the air. The spout of misted water created a faint rainbow.

Maybe it was a whale, Harry told himself as he squinted, looking for a fin or tail to confirm his suspicions even as seagulls circled above that area.

Another spout of water, much closer to shore than before, created another temporary rainbow in the evening sunlight. A large khaki head of something broke through the water surface for an instant, but Harry still couldn't tell what it was.

With the next spout of water, Harry realized that the creature was heading straight towards the shore at an impressive speed.

And more importantly, it wasn't a whale.

It was too late to leave the area without being seen by the incoming creature, Harry scrambled off his temporary seat and hid behind a tall collection of rocks.

Staying as low as possible in his hiding position, Harry watched as a giant creature, that was much taller and bulkier than a Hungarian Horntail, pulled itself out of the water and onto the beach.

Though it had the general shape of a turtle, it didn't look like any turtle that Harry had ever seen or heard about. Under a crab-like shell covered in jagged spikes that looked sharp enough to impale, the giant turtle's body looked like red muscles. It's head, sandwiched between rows of spikes above and below, showed one single red eye open as it looked around.

Harry wasn't sure if he could keep calling the giant creature a turtle, especially when he saw the two human like arms in place of front limbs and the three prawn like tails that swayed behind it.

“Stop it,” the pseudo-turtle whined as one of the seagulls that had followed it, swooped down to peck at it's head. Instead of a monstrous growl befitting it's image, the creature sounded like a teenage boy. “Why do you always bother me like this? I don't have any food.”

More of the gulls dived at it.

“If you don't stop, I'll,” the pseudo-turtle's voice shook. “I'll do something you won't like.”

The giant pseudo-turtle, the one that looked like an intimidating monster and had actual hands with which it could have dealt with the bothersome seagulls, was letting itself be bullied by a bunch of seagulls.

If Hagrid had been here, the man would have already been beside the giant creature, trying to help it. Or talking to it. Probably both.

“Please stop,” the pseudo-turtle begged the seagulls even as it slumped down into the sandy beach, face down in the sand.

The talking really broke the image of it being just a monstrous creature. If it had the ability to talk, then surely it had the ability to reason. And Harry could use that to get away without being eaten. Even though it's head was in the sand, Harry had no doubt that it would notice him the moment he moved.

After some thought, Harry cast a spell that made the seagulls race away from the area with panicked sounds.

The pseudo-turtle glanced at the retreating seagulls and the moment Harry shifted to stand, it's single red eye turned to Harry with unerring precision. After a long moment, it rose and pushed itself backwards from the beach and into the ocean.

All of Harry's fear and uncertainty disappeared as he watched the giant pseudo-turtle try it's best to get away from Harry. Even though he should have been happy that the giant creature was leaving without attacking him, Harry just felt guilty. “I'm leaving, so you don't have to go.”

The pseudo-turtle paused with half it's body back in the ocean, as though it had heard Harry.

Keeping the giant in his line of sight, Harry stepped backwards to leave the area.

“Why?”

Harry paused his escape at the question. After a long stretch of silence, he said, “Why what?”

The pseudo-turtle moved in the water, as though ready to dart away at any moment, but said, “Aren't you here to catch me?”

Harry snorted. “How can I possibly catch you?”

“You,” the pseudo-turtle squinted it's single eye at Harry. “You're not a ninja!”

“No, I'm not,” Harry replied.

“So you're really not here to catch me?”

“I'm not,” Harry said. “I promise.”

“Why did you talk to me?”

“You talked to the seagulls,” Harry pointed out. “So I thought I should tell you that I'd leave so you didn't have to.”

“You saw the seagulls and me,” the pseudo-turtle said with an embarrassed slump.

“Seagulls can be very annoying,” Harry tried to reassure the giant creature.

The giant groaned and slumped down even further. “How did you send them away? I didn't sense any chakra in the air.”

“I don't use chakra,” Harry replied. “I don't even know what chakra actually is, let alone how to use it.”

“That's weird,” the pseudo-turtle said. Before Harry could reply, the giant continued, “Then what were you doing here?”

“Exploring,” Harry said. “I'm leaving the island tomorrow. So I thought I'd spend the rest of my time on the island looking around.”

“Where are you going?”

Harry couldn't believe that he was actually having a conversation with the giant monstrous looking pseudo-turtle across the wide expanse of the beach. At least they weren't shouting at each other to be heard across the distance. “Konoha.” Realizing that the creature probably didn't know about human villages, Harry added, “it's a village somewhere in Fire Country.”

“I haven't been to Konoha in a long time. But I think my brother is still there.”

Though stunned that the creature had been to Konoha, Harry said, “Brother? It must be hard for a turtle like him to live there since it's so far inland.”

The giant stared at Harry for a long moment before he said, “My brother is not a turtle like me.”

Harry didn't know what to make of that. “But there are other three-tailed turtles, right?”

“What?” the pseudo-turtle asked in a flat tone.

“My grandmother had a figurine of a turtle with three tails,” Harry admitted. “But it looks a lot different from you.”

“Figurine?” the pseudo-turtle tilted it's head in curiosity.

Harry hesitated but eventually said, “Do you want to see it?”

“Can I?” the pseudo-turtle asked, stepping forward onto the beach and out of the ocean.

“Yeah, give me a minute to find it first,” Harry said as he turned to his belongings. After a bit of searching and under the watchful eye of the giant pseudo-turtle, Harry triumphantly pulled out the figurine. Realizing he was too far away to actually show off the tiny figurine, Harry hesitated but seeing the giant's badly hidden curiosity, Harry finally stepped towards the giant creature.

The pseudo-turtle lowered it's giant head, it's red eye focused on the figurine balanced on Harry's upturned palm. “It really doesn't look like me at all,” the giant said with wonder, all traces of it's previous worry gone. “But it's made of something interesting.”

Harry lowered his hand to get a closer look at the figurine. “Really?”

“It's old. Very old.”

“What is it?” Harry asked. Even with his knowledge about rocks and jewels, he couldn't tell what it was.

“I don't know the name of it,” the turtle replied with a shy tone. “But it's easy to tell that it's much older than me. My chakra won't even put a scratch on it.”

Harry stilled at the thought of the giant creature trying to put a scratch on the tiny figurine he was still holding.

The turtle sighed. “No matter how small I shrink or even how much I try to transform, I'll never be able to hide what I really am.”

“You can change sizes?” Harry asked.

The giant tilted it's head, red eye glancing away from the figurine to stare at Harry, as it slowly shrunk. From the towering size of a high building, to the size of a small dragon and then down to the size where the pseudo-turtle was comfortably at eye-level with Harry. “I'm still scary, right?”

“It's the sharp spikes,” Harry replied with a shrug, even as his heart raced.

The pseudo-turtle looked at the figuring once more. The air around it wavered and glimmered until the spiky tan shell shifted into a dark green smooth shell. The three tails behind disappeared, even as the lower half shifted to match the figurine completely. Even the red eye was now two plain black eyes.

“Less scary,” Harry offered.

The transformed turtle sighed. “Maybe I look less scary, but I very much doubt I feel less scary. Anyone who uses their chakra would notice my chakra.”

“There's no way to hide your... chakra?” Harry asked.

“If you had a bigger figurine I'd probably be able to hide in it and use it as my disguise.”

Harry blinked. “You can go inside this figurine?”

“I could go inside most items. But the material of that figurine would hide my chakra.” The turtle shook his head. “But I don't want to hide in something that small.”

Harry didn't even know that the turtle creature had wanted to hide in the figurine. “Why would you want to hide anyway?”

“To travel on land without scaring people. When people get scared, they fight. It's... unpleasant.” The solemn weight behind the words hinted at past experience.

Harry looked down at the figurine. “So if this was bigger, you could use it to travel?”

“You have another one?”

“Not quite,” Harry said. “I can make this one bigger if you really want to travel.”

The turtle stared at him for a long moment. “You'd do that for me?”

“If you just want to travel, I don't see the problem,” Harry replied, turning away from the sheer weight of emotions in the turtle's tone. No monster would be able to have such emotions.

“But I'm the three tails.”

Harry shrugged. “Everyone should be able to travel where they want to.”

“Yeah,” the turtle agreed in a whisper.

Moved by the longing in the creature's voice, Harry concentrated on the figurine. With a spell, the figurine grew from being palm sized to something that needed to be held with both hands. “Is this an okay size.”

“Yes!” The turtle creature said in wonder as it leaned forward only to pause. “Can I use it?”

Harry smiled. “Yeah, it's yours.”

The turtle creature in front of him shifted, the image of it wavering for an instant before it's solid body turned into bright and flickering greyish blue light that vanished completely into the enlarged figurine in Harry's hands.

“It holds my chakra well,” the figurine said, it's body warm with life as it's limbs moved in Harry's hold. A flicker of something rose from the statue and prodded Harry's fingers. “And changes it to something less scary.”

Harry knelt and placed the animated figurine down on the sand. “Is that good?”

“Yes, I think I'll be able to hide much better now. No one will be scared of me when I'm like this.” The figurine moved it's much smaller limbs, making tiny tracks in the sand.

The genuine pleasure in the turtle's voice, at not scaring anyone anymore, warmed Harry's heart. “Where are you going to go first?”

The figurine paused and looked at Harry. “Maybe... Konoha?”

Harry heard the unasked question behind those two words. Harry didn't see any reason to hesitate. “It'll probably take you months to get there when you're so much smaller and slower now. So, you want to come with me?”

“You're really okay with that?”

Harry shrugged. “I don't really want to lose my grandmother's figurine. And sticking together is the only way I'll be able to get it back when you're done using it.”

“Yeah,” the turtle nodded after a long moment. “I'll travel with you. Thank you, uh...”

“I'm Harii.”

The turtle stared at Harry for a long moment before he said, “I'm Isobu.”

Harry smiled. “Well Isobu, what do you think about getting something to eat and figuring out our route to Konoha?

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I just like the idea of Harry carrying around a disguised tailed beast. And then losing his mind when he learns the true significance of a tailed beast. Also the best part- all the danger.

Polar