The Red Flame (Part 1)

What's this?

A post after 7 months of inactivity on this blog?

Yeah, I'm easily distracted, but at least I'm back with a new AU which will be centered around the Uchiha.

Let me know what you think.

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In the dark night, a flame flickered inside the obsidian monument. 

A flame as red as blood.

It wasn't the reflection of the lantern that Harry had previously assumed. The red hue reassured Harry that there was something inside of the obsidian itself.

Because the red flame was moving, even when Sakura and the lantern in her hand were moving away from the obsidian sculpture.

The flickering red flame was an impossibility.

And a curiosity.

Harry brushed his fingers against the obsidian.

Instead of the cool stone surface he had expected, a hungry warmth raced up his fingers and engulfed his entire body.

Just as quickly as it came, the sensation vanished, leaving him confused as he snatched his hand away from the obsidian monument. Harry shook his hand to get rid of any lingering sensation and frowned at the monument.

There was no red flame in the obsidian.

“Who are you?” An unknown voice, low and filled with a threatening menace, asked from behind Harry.

An Alternate Path to Konoha (Part 2)

A sequel to this.

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“Harii,” Danzo greeted from his spot beside the metal gate. “Shikaku.”

Walking beside the tall and white specked Rikumaru, Harii waved back a greeting. “Hope you don't mind Nara-san tagging along. He was worried about Rikumaru.”

“It would be good to have the Nara clan head along,” Danzo said. “I'm sure it will be educational to see the deer be more than just a grazing animal.”

Though Shikaku didn't say anything and didn't even look at the older man, the already uncomfortable air between them turned ever more sour.

With an enthusiasm that he didn't actually feel, Harry ignored their silent exchange and looked into the sinister forest beyond the chain-linked fence . “Shall we go in, then?”

Past the gates, the sticky humidity under the trees coupled with the tense silence between the older men made Harry regret ever agreeing to the trip.

AC_D4: Hedwig to the Rescue

This is a prompt fill for Haley Novak “Hedwig delivers a letter to one of Harry's ninja friends just in time to save their lives in a serious situation(Harry is not involved)”

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“They asked for me?” Shikamaru asked. “Me, specifically?”

His father nodded as he sipped on his steaming tea. “You must have made an impression people while you were in Suna.”

“I was in meetings the entire time.” Shikamaru felt the need to point out.

“We can't say no to the request without a proper reason.” His father, the heartless man that he was, grinned.

Shikamaru ignored his father's amusement. “You think they're finally open to making a proper deal with us?”

“It's a possibility.”

“Then do you really want me to go? I haven't even finished aunt's lessons on clan trading and negotiations.”

“Your aunt would say that nothing teaches better than first hand experience. Besides, I'm sure you know the basics. Don't sign any paperwork. Don't insult or threaten them openly.”

Shikamaru stared at his father with something like disbelief. “Harii was right. You do think that you have a sense of humour.”

AC_D3: Behind the Scenes (Part 3)

This is a continuation of my “Behind the Scenes”-verse and also a partial fill for a prompt that came in a while back. In September to be exact, but I never had a chance to work on it.

The prompt was “Can I request a scenario where the "fairy-tale" that Harry was asked to give circulates around Konoha and soon books, a fanbase, etc. start to pop into existence. Harry is then given another movie role, but as the creepy/snake/diary/evil man?”

To whoever sent this prompt in, I hope you don't mind seeing it so late.

Fyi, the fairy-tale thing that the prompt is referring to, is from a much older prompt that I filled out ages ago.

AC_D2: Scraps from AtO 15

For today's post I thought I'd post some rough/un-edited bits of chapter 15 that I cut out while revising- stuff that just didn't fit in anymore.

1. A conversation between Naruto and Harry

"Are you still complaining about Jiraiya'ss food choices?" Harry asked in amusement.

"Everyday for two years, nii-san. Two years!"

"Couldn't have been everyday if he visited the brothels as often as you said he did," Harry said.

"Nii-san, whose side are you on?"

"The most amusing side," Harry replied primly.

Naruto groaned. "Those two free-loaders have corrupted you."

"They're not free-loaders."

"But they have corrupted you!"

"Corrupted me with what, exactly?" Harry asked, his lip twitching upwards.

"With ridiculous one-liners," Naruto said. "They've taken away all your super niceness."

"But you were the one who kept telling me to be less nice."

"To other people, not to me!" Naruto huffed in indignation. "You're supposed to be nice to me forever!"

Harry rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Even when you make fun of my hair?"

"Especially then," Naruto said.

"And when you make me eat too much ramen?" Harry asked.

"Even then," Naruot nodded sagely.

AC_D1: Deleted Scene Episode 8

It's Day 1 of 2016's Advent Calender. I'm not sure how many posts I'll be able to put up this year, but hopefully more than 8, at least.

I thought I'd start things off with a deleted scene from Gaara.

Warnings: Very un-edited.Takes place during chapter 14

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Chapter 15 A/N

Ugh, this chapter.

There was a lot of future plot things that I needed to set up in this chapter. And that was the biggest hurdle I had because I wasn't sure what route I wanted to take.

If you visited my blog over the past year or so- you know I decided to go crazy and write a rough draft of AtO till the final chapter. The draft is terrible and needs ruthless revising and editing but it helped me decide which plot points I liked better.

Speaking of editing, this chapter's editing was... an experience.

Maybe I was just super out of practice with editing AtO because it took embarrassingly long to get through even one page of this chapter.

On top of that I cycled between two different docs, one that I had written much earlier. So some conversations that are friendly in the earlier draft is completely different from what I wrote in the newer version of the chapter.

Having to read through and merge conversations was tedious but I think overall it came out rather well. If nothing else, I hope that my writing quality has improved and is more noticeable.

Now onto chapter specific notes- of which I don't really have a lot of.

AtO Timeline: Important Story Dates

I'm still very much in editing hell with AtO but one of the upsides is that I've had to revisit and solidify my story time-line.

I thought it would be interesting to put up a rough time-line with the days where big story events happens.

Obviously, I'll keep adding to this post with every chapter update.

July

10- Lands in Whirlpool. Meets Akira.

17- Leaves Whirlpool. Meets Itachi.

20- Parts ways with Itachi and reaches Wave Country.

31- Celebrates his birthday while travelling with Isshin's caravan.

August

1- Reaches Konoha and gets an apartment.

3- Hedwig gets injured after Harry messes with seal.

4- Meets Asuma and Shikamaru.

5- Meets Shikaku.

6- Meets Naruto.

9- Gets confirmation that Naruto is related to him.

15- Meets Ichigen and leaves Konoha to go to the Temple.

18- Reaches Temple of Fire

21- Akatsuki attack the Temple.

24- Asuma dies.

26- Asuma's funeral.

27- Hidan and Kakuzu are defeated.

29- Jiraiya shows up.

30- In Yugakure. Harry tells Naruto about magic.

September

1- Naruto finds about about Kushina

3- Jiraiya gives Harry his notes and leaves Konoha.

7- Harry starts trip to Suna.

14- Harry reaches Suna. Meets Gaara.

15- Meets Ebizo.

17- Leaves Suna. 

21- Harry is back in Konoha. Meets Iruka.

22- Kankuro learns that Harry and Naruto are related. 

27- Temari in Konoha. 

28- Meets Sentoki in the morning. 

30- Farmer drops them at Crossroad

October

1- Reach the top of temple mountain

2- Meets Itachi

 

AC_D5: Ask Box prompts (Part 1)

Super late due to the hazards of Christmas prep. After some epic bad luck, I got a cut right across my finger pads and had to use band-aids which made everything- including typing- very clunky and rage inducing.

Typing still isn't as fast as I would like, but at least I don't have to backspace every other letter now. I'll try to finish and upload my remaining Advent Calendar posts today in between today's Christmas movie marathon.

This post will be two prompts that I got from the ask box.

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“Harry and Itachi with some angsty interactions. Or just any interactions between them. Doesn't matter what kind.”

AC_D3: 'Monk' Harry

Prompt requested by DreamOfStories... and I sort of mixed up two different prompts for this. The two prompts were “Alternative job: Harry the Priest / Monk (Harry really does go off to the temple and stays for a bit - just a bit - cause reasons)” and “Harry gets handwriting lessons”

Also happy belated birthday, DreamOfStories.

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Staring around at all the items he had repaired, Harry took a deep breath and ventured out of the room. 

Even though Ichigen hadn't told Harry to stay in the room, Harry had thought it best to stay out of everyone's way while he repaired things. 

But now that he had finished that, Harry was bored. And he couldn't stand being in the room any longer. 

While exploring the Temple's layout, Harry stopped at every wall filled with carvings. Even though he couldn't decipher any of it, Harry couldn't help but admire the sheer amount of skill that had created the carvings. 

Absorbed by the carvings, Harry didn't realize that he had entered a room until a throat cleared.

Harry started. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

A short little tidbit of a thing for Naruto's birthday because I didn't want to miss my chance to post on the day.

And I needed a bit of a small break with some non-important nonsensical writing.
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“If you blow out the candles in one breath,” Nii-san said, his green eyes brightening with each word. “Then your wish comes true.”

“Just like that?” Naruto asked. 

“That's what they say,” Nii-san said without hesitation as he lit the final candle. The bright neon candles on top of the large orange cake looked even better than Naruto had anticipated. “So think of something good before you blow them out.”

Taking the advise to heart, Naruto closed his eyes and searched for a good wish. He couldn't waste a free wish on something that be could or would accomplish eventually. That ruled out wishing for the Hokage position or Sasuke coming back or a date with Sakura or, actually that ruled out everything.

Wait, Naruto opened his eyes, there was one thing he could wish for. 

 

The flames flickered enticingly as though urging him to get on with it. 

AtO: Adventures in Suna

This is a what-if deviation for Chapter 14. The basic premise is that Harry can't go to Konoha (after fixing the puppets) for some reason or the other and is stuck in Suna with nothing much to do.

This is an experimental attempt to flesh out Suna and it's inhabitants for any future use in AtO. Not sure what its I'll use for AtO world building, but I figured it would be good just to see what comes out of this series.

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Harry squinted through his telescope and held his breath as he observed the star-studded sky. With a quick check, Harry straightened and added more notes to his paper. 

“You're not waiting for your owl tonight.”

Harry clutched his chest and glared at his visitor in annoyance. “Gaara.”

A Wild Uchiha Disappears

I was going through some of my old fanfiction story notes and found this gem "Madara just being a dramatic shit"... and well, I just had to write something with Madara in it.

This is a sequel to A Wild Uchiha Appears
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Harry felt a whole new appreciation for his magic as a peaceful and much-needed quiet settled over his apartment for the first time in two days. A quiet that was only interrupted by two sets of soft snores. 

Having to be a mediator between Naruto and Madara's constant squabbling had been a test of patience and sanity.

When they had started arguing because the other was apparently 'breathing too loud', Harry knew the usual head smacks just wouldn't be enough and finally resorted to magic.

While the two had been completely absorbed in their argument, Harry shot the bickering pair with a few spells. 

Alternate Route to Konoha

If you haven't done the 'Choose your own story' that I posted before, then this extra will be completely new to you. 

And if you did that, you probably know how this story goes.

Either way, I hope you enjoy this story bit.

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Five hours after entering Fire Country, Harry understood where the country got it's name. Even with spells to make the stifling heat and humidity manageable, Harry felt completely drained when he stopped for lunch. 

As he gulped down his icy water, Hedwig woke with a start. She tightened her grip on his shoulder and tilted her head in curious caution. 

Harry cast a Homenum Revelio but the spell didn't show any people in range. 

Something else had caught Hedwig's attention.

But other than the rustling of trees and droning buzz of insects, Harry couldn't hear anything to be worried about. 

Hedwig hooted, sounding more concerned than cautious now. 

Harry stood. “What is it?”

Hedwig jumped into the air with a hoot and zoomed forward.

Trusting her, Harry followed her through the forest and sped up as he heard faint sounds of distress. 

The forest shifted into a swamp-like terrain that seemed unnatural. With no swamp plants or creatures like flies and frogs, the swamp seemed like it had been plopped down there as though someone had set off the Weasley's Portable Swamp. 

It didn't take long for Harry to find the source of the distressed cries.

A small fawn struggled in the swamp's thick dark mud. It looked worn out, exhausted and resigned to it's fate. But the moment it caught sight of Harry, the fawn perked up and made a tired snuffling sound. 

CYOS: An Alternate Path to Konoha

So today's post will have something a bit different. I converted an upcoming AtO alternate omake thing into a different story format. Instead of a plain old linear story format, I wanted to try doing a “Choose your own story/adventure” type format where you, the reader, choose what Harry does and see what happens.

There are 8 unique endings (which is probably a bit excessive) and multiple paths to them. It's an experiment with google forms, so don't expect too much from it. It's not very complex with plot or choices. And it's probably too obvious and easy to reach the 'true' ending. But I hope you enjoy it none the less.

Here's the link for it: An Alternate Path to Konoha

If you dislike the CYOS format or don't have the time to mess around with this, don't worry I'll post the linear story in a separate upcoming post.

Any feedback, corrections or suggestions would be appreciated.

Replies for Ask-box comments

1. Have you ever considered writing a book? Or an original piece of fiction? Your descriptions are a little confusing sometimes but you certainly have a lot of ideas (and i enjoy all of them!) so have you ever considered it?

Ugh, descriptions. The bane of my writing life. It's right up there with writing romance. Levelling up that aspect of my writing is a slow and painful process but one day... one day in the very far future I shall be able to describe a scene properly.

I do write original fiction. The biggest challenge with any writing for me, especially the big projects, is completing it. So while I do love the idea of putting out a book in the future, I think I need to be a bit more serious about my writing schedule and habits before that can happen.

2.Hey there! I just wanted to tell you that i sometimes have trouble seeing the comments after a bog post. And since i can't see them i also can't leave comments there either. Other than that i pretty much love everything you post!

I'm not sure why that's happening for you. Maybe if there aren't any comments on the post then the Disqus comment section just doesn't show up? I don't know what I can do for that but I'll look into it.

3. You know, in your "Against the Odds" story, I'm certain Naruto would go to great lengths to make sure Harry doesn't find out about his "Sexy-Jutsu"! Thoughts?

I actually do have something about the sexy-jutsu coming up (It's in the draft, don't know if it will survive all the edits before being published). I haven't gone with this route in the story, but I think it's definitely possible. Naruto would probably have a clone close to Harry at all times. And the instant someone tries to mention the sexy jutsu, bam. A clone rushes to interrupt/knock the speaker away/drag Harry away to some sort of fake emergency.

That's all for now,

Polar

Alternate Jobs: Bartender Harry

First, some quick replies to some messages sent in through the ask box.

1. Did you change your settings?I can't see your blog properly. I'm not sure if you can see this either.

I do break the coding a lot on here when I experiment with the layout. Over the past few weeks, I've deleted and moved some things as part of a much needed clean-up. But nothing seems broken to me. Could you be more specific about what you're having problems with?

2.So good to hear from you! LOVE all the excerpts you post and the many many interesting tangents you're brain goes through. Good luck with you're writing and that you finally reach the epilogue you had written years ago!

I'm glad you're enjoying the crazy tangents. They're fun to write because I'm never sure how they'll turn out. But they're also super distracting because they always pop up when I'm trying to add to my AtO draft.

Anyway on to bartender-Harry.

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“I didn't know that Soma hired anyone so young here,” the new customer said, his barely concealed confusion easy to hear as he sat at the bar. “You must have impressed him."

The dull green vest, the strange headgear that framed his face and the trained watchful air made Harry straighten in interest. His first ninja customer. Topping up the last glass, Harry pushed the tray to the waitress and said, “I own this bar now. What can I get you?”

The ninja blinked, the only outward sign of his surprise before he shrugged. “Anything that will silence the bad memories for a while.”

Harry couldn't help feeling sympathetic. “I've got just the thing.” Scanning the shelves behind him, Harry bypassed the bottles of bright multicoloured alcohols- the crystalline blues, the blood reds and even the glittering black ones- and grabbed an unlabelled bottle filled with dark purple. The strong berry smell that wafted up as he filled a glass reassured Harry that he had gotten the right bottle. 

His ninja customer eyed the purple drink that Harry had placed in front of him. “What's this called?”

Harry shrugged. “It doesn't have a name yet.”

Instead of the wariness that Harry had expected, the ninja downed the drink without hesitation. “That was good.”

“I had a lot of trouble making that one” Harry said, feeling his tension ease as he filled another tray of drinks and handed it to the only waitress who worked at the bar. 

 

“You made it?” the ninja said in wonder. 

Life-Coach (Part 2)

A continuation of the life coach idea with a little more Kakashi. Not much because I still don't have a proper feel for writing him.

Warnings: Plotholes. Not part of AtO. And short.

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As Harry took a seat at his table, the restaurant owner smiled. “Harii-san, I'm glad you could come.”

“I never say no to free food.” Harry said.

“I'm glad I can repay all the help you've given me.”

“I didn't do too much, Kimiko-san. This restaurant is running because of your hard work.”

Kimiko huffed but said, “What can I get you two?”

A grey-haired man sat on the other side of the table, opposite Harry. A man who definitely hadn't been there moments ago. 

AC_D22: Alternate Jobs- Life Coach (Part 1)

Let me start by saying, I don't actually know what a life coach does or how they go about doing their job.

I have a general and very basic idea and that's what I'm basing this bit of crack on.

Warnings: Plotholes. Not part of AtO obviously.
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"What's a life coach?" The gate guard, Kotetsu, asked looking genuinely puzzled at the job title on Harry's papers.

Glad that no one had heard of the job, Harry created his own description of the job title hoping it sounded feasible. "I help people achieve their goals by motivating them."

"What goals?" Izumo, the other guard asked as he stamped some documents.

"Life goals. Things like succeeding in work, family and other life things."

"Strange," Kotetsu said. "Who would need that kind of help?"

Harry shrugged, feeling strangely defensive of the job title even though he wasn't really a life coach. "Some people need someone who's willing to listen and help them solve their problems. With enough motivation and support, people can achieve anything."

"Sounds like something that civilians would be interested in," Izumo said thoughtfully.

AC_D15: A wild Uchiha appears

And chaose ensues, as expected.

Writing an Uchiha seemed like a fun thing to do for today- the 15th day of the Advent calendar.

Warnings: Plot holes and a very impossible scenario. Not part of AtO
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Harry had never considered himself directionally challenged but after the strange thick fog had filled the forest around him, he had lost all bearings. Even Hedwig seemed bothered by the low hanging fog and stayed perched on his shoulder.

As he moved forward in the hopes of finding some shelter from the disorienting fog, a pained groan and a wet cough made Harry pause. Feeling an intense sense of deja vu, Harry called out, "Hello? Are you all right? Do you need help?"

Just like the last time Harry had been in this situation, the person refused to answer and tried to muffle their coughs.

"I can still hear you," Harry muttered as he followed the muffled sounds. In a matter of minutes, the sharp metallic stench of blood in the air guided Harry to find a person slumped by a tree a few feet away.

AtO with Zombies, of a sort.

Happy end of September.

As if. Who can be happy at how quickly the time has passed?

I can't be happy because I'm so behind on all things fanfiction related. All my organized plans and to-do lists have been completely useless in keeping me on track with updates.

But I have shiny new plans and better to-do lists.

Which means, October is going to be interesting. Either I kick my procrastination in the butt and put some updates online, or I fail miserably and get nothing done.

In the spirit of getting stuff online, here's something fun I've had on my computer for a while. This plot bunny was inspired by a review I got for AtO's Chapter 14.

Warnings: Not as edited as I'd like it to be. Not part of AtO.

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Cramming down the last of his seaweed snack, Harry gathered his magic for a reparo spell and aimed at the crack still visible on the newly repaired doll's neck. His magic washed out onto the doll, the hairline crack glowed but remained after the magic vanished.

Frowning, Harry aimed another reparo spell at the crack. 

The persistent crack remained even after another five reparo spells. 

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Harry tugged his wand out of its holster and gathered a chunk of magic. “Reparo!”

His fingers tingled, his wand buzzed with warmth and a wave of magic shot out to his target. 

The crack glowed, rippled and smoothed out. 

His magic lingered around the doll as a visible glow before it dissipated through the doll and into the air with an audible shock-wave.

The doll's smooth surface rippled, bulged and shifted into a dark leathery surface. The leathery transformation continued until the entire doll had rough leathery skin. 

Within seconds, under a ripple of his magic, every doll in the room changed to have dark leathery skin as a thick smell of rot filled the room. 

Wary, Harry kept a tight grip on his wand as the last of his lingering magic sank down into the lifeless dolls. 

To Harry’s horror, the glassy eyes darkened with life and swivelled around in their sockets until all the dolls- no, the humanoid creatures now- blinked and turned to stare at Harry as one.