XS 4: Summoning Contract

The toddler sized toad stared at Harry for a long moment and then shook his head. “You can’t sign our summoning contract.”

“What? Why can’t nii-san sign the contract?” Naruto yelled. “Are you being mean because he’s got less chakra than me?”

The toad threw it’s pipe at Naruto’s head with unerring accuracy. “No you idiot. We would have been happy to have such a sensible summoner, especially now.”

“Then let nii-san sign it,” Naruto said.

“I already said he can’t,” the toad countered in exasperation. Before Naruto could argue the toad said, “He’s already in a contract with something else. I can’t tell exactly what, but I can tell they won’t share.”

Naruto blinked and turned to Harry with a questioning look.

Harry shrugged. “I don’t remember signing a contract with any animals.”

The toad in front of them huffed. “Some might still follow the old ways. Before written contracts came into common use. Maybe you had a face to face agreement?”

Harry frowned in concentration. “I really can’t think of anything,” he admitted after a long moment of thought.

The toad hummed thoughtfully and said, “Then just use a summoning technique and see what appears.”

With Naruto’s encouraging nod, Harry went through the seals for the summoning technique. Energy from his body connected to something distant and familiar. In fact it connected to many familiar somethings that Harry couldn’t quite name. Before he could fully examine or understand them, one of the connections pulled and raced towards in.

As the smoke cleared in front of him, Harry was greeted with vibrant orange eyes surrounded by stormy grey feathers.

“Buckbeak?” Harry said in wonder. 

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The last post for Xmas in the last hours of September, mostly because I wanted to end with something a bit more positive drabble wise. Also I really need to sleep.  

But keep a look out for blog content in the upcoming weeks.

XS 3: Role Reversal

 “So you activated this,” Harry hesitated for a moment before continuing, “seal even though you didn’t really know that it would take you to a blood relative?”

The blond on the swing beside him shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it? I’m here and I found you, cousin.”

Even though Harry wasn’t completely sure he believed that this blond was an actual cousin of his, he felt a trickle of worry at the other boy’s carelessness. “If it didn’t work, what would have happened to you?”

“Nothing much,” Naruto said with a careless shrug. “I’m strong enough to shake off any damage. Even if that damage is from crossing dimensions or whatever.”

“That sounds,” Harry wanted to say stupid. But instead he sighed and said, “Must be disappointing to cross dimensions and end up in Little Whinging of all places.”

“Could be worse,” Naruto said with a slightly doubtful tone, as though he didn’t want to offend Harry.

Harry snorted.

“But you believe me?” Naruto asked.

Harry looked up at the sky. “With all the things I saw you do since you arrived here, even though they all looked like magic, nothing you did brought the Ministry of Magic out here. How can I not believe you?”

“And you believe I’m your cousin?” Naruto asked.

Harry hesitated.

“What about the photo?”

“What photo?” Harry asked in confusion.

“The photo that, oh,” Naruto paused with wide eyes and reached into his sand coloured backpack. “I didn’t show you the photo. I should have shown that to you first.”

Before Harry could ask anything, the blond shoved a photo of a couple in front of Harry’s face. The blond man in the photo shared a startling resemblance to Naruto, but Harry’s attention was drawn to the red haired woman in the photo. A woman who shared many features with his own mother.

“This doesn’t mean we’re cousins,” Harry said in a low voice, even as he pulled the photo closer for a better look.

“I have a scroll that only another Uzumaki can open.” Naruto pulled said scroll out of his bag. “If you can open it, then I’ve got my proof that you’re my cousin.”

XS 2: Dealing with the Devil

“Jashin-sama!” the white haired Akatsuki member gasped and fell to his knees, dropping his large red scythe and pulling off his silver chain as he started chanting a strange litany that Harry could only assume were prayers.

Harry spat out a mouthful of blood and glanced up. A gigantic white skull with glowing red eyes peered down at them from a black tear in the otherwise blue sky. As though to emphasize just how unnatural it’s very presence was, the air in the ruined Temple of Fire buzzed with an energy that made Harry feel like he was slowly being boiled. Even breathing seemed like a bad idea when each breath made his lungs burn.

“Cursed one,” the giant skull said, it’s malevolent red eyes fixed on Harry. “Do you wish to hide from death once more?”

Taking advantage of the lack of fighting at that moment, Harry took slow breaths, silently using every healing spell his knew on himself.

 “Take my vows and death will not come for you, not now, not ever,” the skull said. “My servant will ensure it.”

The skull’s servant, the crazed white haired Akatsuki man’s prayers and chants rose with a delirious fervor.

“Why?” Harry asked. Why would this thing want to help him?

The skull didn’t answer his question. Instead it said, “Your devotion to me will be rewarded. I will make you an undying king once I enter these lands.”

XS 1: The Red Road

Xmas in Summer has officially had to become a one-day drabble posting bonanza on the last day of September because 2020 just refuses to calm down.

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“Nii-san, what do you think?”

Harry stared at Naruto, unable to say anything out loud. Instead of the bright and cheerful smile that Naruto always wore, the teenager in front of Harry had a cruel expression that made Harry’s mind alert with unease. The slitted purple eyes above the sadistic grin didn’t help matters. Harry desperately pinched the inside of his arm once again.

The sharp pain once again confirmed that Harry was not dreaming. Not willing to believe it just yet, Harry cast a stinging hex. He winced at the pain. This, whatever this was and wherever he was, it was all real.

 “Nii-san?” Naruto called out in a demanding tone, with a rumbling growl in his tone that really made Harry’s neck prickle at the threat of danger. The runic waves on Naruto’s red clothes spun and curled at a dizzying speed, an obvious sign of Harry’s protective magic on his clothes. “Don’t you like my plan to make Konoha suffer?”

Harry kept his eyes on the waves, not wanting to look at the unconscious but bloodied Konoha ninja that hung by their mangled wrists from the ceiling. There was no way that this was real life. How had he ended up here? The last thing he remembered was, Harry grimaced in confusion realizing that he couldn’t actually remember what had happened just before he opened his eyes to see this disturbing version of Naruto.

When Harry didn’t reply, Naruto sighed in annoyance as he threw a glowing purple needle into the only ninja that looked awake at the moment. “We don’t need another super complicated plan, nii-san,” Naruto said, his voice not drowning out the horrifying screams that echoed against the ruins’ walls around them. “Sometimes the simple ones that cause suffering are a good way to pass the time until we reach our ultimate goal.”

Harry dug his fingernails into his palm, doing his best not to scream at the entire situation. Even if he tried to launch a spell at this Naruto to stop him, Harry knew even without trying that the enchanted red clothes would protect Naruto from any attack- magical or otherwise.

“Just watch, nii-san,” Naruto said, the marks on his cheeks glowing an ominous red, as his grin sharpened with sadistic glee. “We’ll make all of  them remember the name Uzumaki.”

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All I can say about this drabble is that it's... a very 2020 vibe to me. 

Xmas in Summer

Because I need it. Actually, I think we all need it.

The past few months have been a garbage mix of post-apocalyptic hell and general unhappiness that didn’t [and still doesn’t seem to] have an end in sight.  

I don’t know about you guys, but it was a struggle for me to do anything fanfiction related. Because with everything happening in the world, reading and working on my fanfiction seemed so frivolous. I slowly stopped reading any of the updates to the stories I follow, I didn’t open my writing files, I didn’t look at any reviews/comments/PMs, and I ignored any and all dumb story ideas that came to my mind.

I missed it.

I missed it all.

Like yes, it might be frivolous in some ways, but maybe that’s exactly why I need it in my life.

So this summer, I’m getting back into fanfiction writing by working on some of the many incomplete AUs I have on here, starting some new AUs- because I just like starting things, and actually opening my AtO files- and ease myself back into editing that giant mess.

Basically there should be some posts up on this blog- I’ll be aiming for the very low bar of one story post of something for every week of summer [June 20^th to September 22^nd]. There’s no way I can fail that, right? Let’s hope for the best, I guess.

Anyway, I hope you guys are keeping safe wherever you are in the world.  

Polar