Wild child

Story: Wild childStorylink: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6841502/1/Category: Harry Potter + Naruto CrossoverGenre: Adventure/FriendshipAuthor: esamaAuthorlink: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1137344/Last updated: 03/22/2011Words: 11769Rating: K+Status: In ProgressContent: Chapter 1 to 1 of 1 chaptersSource: FanFiction.net

Summary: Harry nearly dies in the fangs of the basilisk and in desperate act to save him Fawkes tears him away fromthe world he knows. Harry Potter x Naruto crossover, some OOCness and randomness.

*Chapter 1*: Wild childWarnings; FFnet was being a stick in the mud and not letting me upload on proper categories, which are Harry Potterand Naruto. Will change later when it works again. Also, mild OOCness and nakedness in non sexual manner.

Wild child

Fawkes cried at the sight of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, lying in the teeth of the dead, broken basilisk. He hadcame to the boy in his hour of desperation to be his helper, his guide and his saviour if need be - but the boy had rushedforward too quick, too desperate and too reckless. Now he just hung there, bleeding and already more gone than there,dark veins of poison running beneath his pale skin, his eyes hazy with the upcoming death.

He had done what he had meant to, the Phoenix knew. The cursed diary was on his chest, pierced by one of the fangsthat had pierced the boy, leaking ink like blood into the boy's already mortal wounds. The ghost was gone, ruined bypoison and blood and will too strong to live in such a young body. The girl on the floor was recovering, slowly comingback to consciousness - while her saviour died a painful death.

This wasn't what had meant to happen. Fawkes didn't know what had been fated, but this was wrong - and he didn'tknow what to do. His tears could heal even basilisk's poison, he knew, and he was certainly horrified enough to cryenough of them to heal Harry Potter's every would but the boy was still pierced on the teeth, his breath rasping in ashredded lungs, his blood flowing down from his back, where the fang that entered his chest reappeared. No matterhow many tears Fawkes would cry, it wouldn't make any difference - not when the fangs were still in the boy, pumpingtheir venom inside him.

He could remove the boy, Fawkes knew that, he had the strength - but the moment he did, what was keeping the boy'sblood inside him would give in. The fangs, the horrible venomous fangs, were keeping him from bleeding out while thepoison, so determined to reach every part of him, kept his heart beating. Remove him and death would be instantaneous.

Desperation more than certainty of knowledge send the phoenix to the boy, to clutching onto his shoulders, dragginghim off, all the while enveloping himself, and the boy - and eventually the dead basilisk too, connected as it was to theboy - into flames. It was the only way - only way to remove the boy without crushing him. In the flames, Fawkeswould be able to cry his healing tears and -

But no, it didn't work like that. There was too much blood loss, too much venom - the basilisk was there too, still andlifeless and hanging onto the boy's corpse, ripping him into pieces. Fawkes cried and in desperation dragged all three ofthem into the Dimension of Flames, desperately try to free the boy, to heal him and save him and keep him alive - to cryhis healing tears and will the basilisk to release its lethal grasp on the boy's body. But there was so much venom, insaneamounts of it, it needed to go, it needed to vanish - it needed to be replaced.

Fawkes cried into the eternal fires of the Dimension of Flames, and in last act of desperation he broke the basilisk finallyfree of the boy - and then, in order to get to the venom, he broke himself and the boy apart.

x

When Harry woke up, he was lying on cold ground with his body burning. At first he thought it was fever - or venom,basilisk's venom - but as he wrenched his eyes open he saw it was more than that. His fingers, covered in odd paleveins, were actually burning, with a faint flame flickering over his skin. More confused than frightened, Harry stared atthe flame for a long while, before noticing that it ran down his arm and onto his shoulder - and as he tried to pull himselfup, he noticed that his other arm was burning too, as was his legs.

Before he could muster the strength to panic, however, the fires begun sizzling out, first on his fingers and then on theback of his hand, up his arm and shoulder, until he was left there with naked, slightly smoking body and skin covered inpale, almost silver veins that an over all his skin like black net. He still felt hot, feverish even, but as all the flames wentout, he found to his surprise that he didn't actually feel bad. Actually, he felt the complete opposite of bad - he feltincredible.

Only he couldn't understand why. Just moments ago he had been dying. He was sure he had been dying - the basiliskhad bit him, no, chewed right through him before he had managed to get the Gryffindor's Sword through the top of its

mouth. The basilisk had died, as had the diary which Harry had been holding against his chest, but it had bitten rightthrough him

Shivering at the memory, Harry hastily touched his chest, feeling the places where he had been bitten. Just next to hisheart and onto his shoulder except the holes he had been expecting to see weren't there. Gasping with surprise, heglace down to see great round patches of pure white where the great serpent had bit him - the sources, it seemed, of thewhite veins all over him. But, aside from the odd discoloured patches and the veins, he wasn't actually hurt. There wasno hole, no scar, nothing, aside from the discolouring his skin was completely smooth, unblemished. And he couldbreathe easy, his lung was fine too. And as he reached back to touch the exit wounds, he couldn't feel anything either -not even the white patches, if there were any.

He was fine. Harry blinked with shock and then laughed with disbelief, patting his chest. He was fine. A bit weirdlooking, but alive, healthy, whole! And feeling incredible too. Shivering more with excitement than anything else, Harrystumbled up to his feet and stared down at himself. He looked really Merlin damned weird with all the white blood veinsgoing all across his skin, down to his toes even, but he was alive so he didn't really care.

"Ginny, did you -" he stared, turning to look around him, expecting to see her somewhere near by. He stopped - froze inplace - as he found out that not only was she nowhere near by but that he was not where he expected to be. Thechamber, the stone floor, the water, the pipes - the great corpse of the basilisk - none of it was anywhere to be seen. Instead there was a forest and -

"Oh my god," Harry whispered, as his eyes landed on small, fragile creature, lying in a pile of red and orange feathers.Kneeling down, he pushed aside couple of long tail feathers, while the naked baby chick that was Fawkes peeped at himweakly. "Oh Merlin, Fawkes, what happened to you? Where are we?" the little bird chirped again, unable to offer anyanswers or reassurances. While Harry watched helplessly, the little chick wobbled its head weakly from side to side,trying to get up, trying to look around.

"Here, let me-" Harry murmured, and gently picked the bird up to his palms, scooping up some of the ash and feathersto keep the bird warm in the cold, gloomy forest. Together they looked around themselves helplessly, and while Harrytook in the great trees, he was fairly certain that neither of them had any idea where they were. "It's not the DarkForest, is it?" he asked quietly, and Fawkes peeped mournfully in answer.

For a long while neither of them made a sound, just watching the old, foreign forest around them. With the odd fire inveins keeping him warm, Harry didn't really truly notice the fact that he was naked until droplet of water hit his bareshoulder - and rain started slowly dribble down from above. Cursing softly, Harry glanced around until he noticed acrook in one of the tree's roots - and odd hole, almost like a cave, just below it. It was small, but it looked like it hadenough a roof to serve as a shelter.

Quickly the wizard scooped up all the feathers and most of the ash Fawkes' had dropped, before jumping to his feet andrunning to the small cave. He barely noticed how easy it was, to run and jump over the roots - how little it hurt to stepon a sharp twig or a rock on his way - too concerned over tiny Fawkes and not keen on getting wet. Soon, though, theywere in the cave, which Harry found to be even smaller than it looked, but twice as comfortable. It was filled with oldleafs, that rustled dryly as he sat down onto them, now safely out of the rain's reach.

"That's a little better, isn't it?" he murmured, taking some of the leafs and making a pile of them, before arrangingFawkes' old feathers onto it like a nest, and then gently placing the baby phoenix down. Fawkes peeped softly withgratitude and settled down while the wizard peered into the rain, wondering what to do next.

"Clothing," he murmured, as the rain begun in earnest to wash down across the forest. He needed clothing. What hadhappened to his previous ones, anyway? He had had robes, shirt, pants, shoes and everything, and now he was nakedlike in the day he had been born. Frowning, he ran a hand over his face, shocked to find that his glasses were one - aswere his eyelashes, his eyebrows, and - "Oh, come on!" he murmured, running his hands over his naked scalp. Not asingle hair remained, only naked skin.

What had happened? He had been burning when he woke up, so his clothes had burned? And it hadn't hurt that much,which was good but also worrisome. And Fawkes was a chick now, had he

Frowning, Harry dropped his hands down and touched his c hest. The wounds were gone, as if they had never been

there - replaced by silvery blotches. "Phoenix tears, of course," he murmured, remembering what Dumbledore had saidand turning to the baby phoenix. "Phoenix tears have healing powers! You healed me, Fawkes, didn't you?" he beameddown to the chick, as it beeped softly up at him. "Thank you! But is that why you're a chick again - is that why youburned? Wait, burned"

Fawkes had had a burning date - a premature one at that, judging by how young and magnificent the bird had been. Anddidn't phoenix's travel over great distances by teleporting with fire, like wizard did with apparition? They weren't in theChamber of Secrets anymore, so they had obviously teleported. Fawkes had teleported them away, while healing him."Wow, Fawkes. You're brilliant. It's just that where are we, exactly?"

The chick looked up to him helplessly, and only chirped morosely in answer.

"You don't know?" Harry asked softly, his stomach sinking, and as the little bird hung his head, he swallowed andlooked around. Well if those things hanging from the trees were lianas then it was pretty safe bet to say that theymaybe weren't in Britain anymore. But they had to be on earth somewhere - in some exotic rain forest or something. Ifthat was it, then they should've been able to find their way back someone.

If not immediately, then once Fawkes would grow, they would be able to teleport back, right? How long did it take for aphoenix to grow? Some weeks? Months?

The young wizard stared into the rain just beyond their simple shelter and frowned. If it was months then he was maybein trouble. Or most certainly in trouble. Definitely in trouble. How did one survive in a rain forest anyway? Were theresome fruits around that he could eat? And, oh Merlin, what did Fawkes eat? And how would he get the food, he didn'teven have a wand -

"Oh, crap," Harry murmured. He didn't have a wand. No clothing, no wand, no idea where he was, no idea when orhow or if he could get back. This was a level of trouble he wasn't quite adjusted to. "Well," he murmured, turning toFawkes who looked like he was dosing off. "We're alive, we're semi healthy. We'll figure something out, right?" heasked, and peeping feebly in answer, Fawkes fell asleep.

x

The rain lasted for hours - and thorough those hours Harry was certain that he would've been frozen and well onto hisway to having a cold, if his blood hadn't still been burning. While the rain went on and Fawkes slept in his simplefeather-leaf bed, the wizard examined the white veins all along his skin, soon becoming certain that the heat was reallyemanating from them. There was white, silvery stuff inside him and it was really warm.

It was a clear testimony to all the things he had seen in the Wizarding world that the concept didn't scare him as muchas it probably should've. It was something Fawkes had done, and the phoenix hadn't seemed worried, so it was okay -and definitely better than having basilisk venom inside him. And after loosing all the bones in his arm, silver veins werenothing, really. Besides, unicorns had silver blood too. Maybe his blood was now like theirs.

He worried about it for couple of hours, before finding the sharpest stick among the leaves that he could find, and usingit to poke his finger. It took few tries before he managed to make actual wound into the soft bad of his forefinger, butonce he managed, he found to his relief that he was wrong. His blood was normal red - maybe a little lighter shade ofred than usually, but that might've been his imagination. The relief was followed by a shock, however, as the woundclosed up right before his eyes, leaving a single bead of red blood onto perfectly healthy finger, like a red jewel.

"Fawkes' tears are still running in my system, I guess," he murmured, rubbing the blood with his thumb until it wassmeared all over his fingers. He couldn't help but shudder at the though of what if his blood had been silver - or white orsomething like that. Would've it been like unicorn blood? The thought of wraiths like Voldemort trying to drink his bloodwas not appealing in the slightest, so he supposed he ought to be grateful for having normal blood.

He determinately pushed that thought away, and instead stared into the rain, wondering what had happened back inHogwarts. The basilisk was dead, he was sure of that. What about Ginny? The diary had been pierced, so, Tom Riddlewas maybe dead, hopefully anyway. So, maybe she had recovered? And Ron had been there somewhere hopefullythey would figure out a way out - or someone would find them if they didn't They would tell what had happened toDumbledore - and maybe, just maybe, the old Headmaster would figure out a way to summon him and Fawkes back

home.

But how long would that take?

He shook his head, wrapping his arms around his bare knees. He didn't have the time sit around moping. He needed toto find clothing, somehow, at first. And then, once he had something to wear, he would take Fawkes and they would goout and see if they could find some people. Yeah. Maybe they were in magical area and could find some help, that wouldbe good, right?

But where would he find clothes? Frowning Harry peered into the forest, now with new intent. He looked left and rightend up and down, trying to see if there were any signs of people anywhere. There wasn't. No marks on the trees, nopaths across the foliage, nothing. Apparently this wasn't a part of the forest that people walked in often. Thinking aboutit and trying to figure out an easy way to find something, anything, Harry concluded after a moment that he needed totake a look from higher ground. He needed to, somehow, see above the forest. That way he would be able to tell if therewere any roads near by, any buildings

In short, he needed to climb a tree.

Okay, that would be easy enough. The trees were oddly twisting and crooked so there wouldn't be any lack of footholds. And the trees near by looked like they were pretty tall - maybe even taller than the trees in the Dark Forest. Heprobably could see the entire forest from the top branches of any one of them.

Nodding, he decided to do just that - once the rain would stop.

By the time it did, though, it was even darker than before, and Harry couldn't tell if it was because the cloud coveragewas thicker or because the sun had gone down. Fawkes was awake by then and chirping pathetically, opening andclosing his mouth in clear display of hunger.

"Sorry, buddy, I have nothing for either of us to eat," Harry sighed, while crawling out of their simple shelter. It wasdarker but he found to his relief that it wasn't quite pitch black - and it seemed like moon or something was out, becausethe upper branches above them seemed to be lighter than the lower ones. "Tell you what, I'll check if I can see wherewe are, and in the mean while take a look at those trees, see if there's anything in them we can eat," he suggested,kneeling beside Fawkes and carefully tugging him away into the tightest, smallest corner of the simple shelter in hopesthe little chick would be safe there. "You stay here and stay really quiet. There might be beasts in here; we don't wantyou to be caught, okay?"

The little phoenix cooed quietly and then settled down. Smiling, Harry used some of the leaves to hide the little bird evenbetter, before looking around again for a good tree to climb. Eventually he decided to go with the one they had beensleeping under - it had a trunk full of bumps and twists, perfect for climbing - and with that decision made, he startedmaking his way up.

Climbing was easy, he found. Incredibly easy - ridiculously easy even. He barely had to put any effort into it and he justflew over the trunk, not entirely sure if he was using his feet or hands. He felt so light - or maybe strong it was hard totell which, but it was really unbelievable. Before he knew, the trunk was getting thinner and thinner and he was climbingby using the branches more than the trunk, until finally he was at the top, where the branches grew too thin and weak toclimb and where he could see at incredible distance.

...and where he saw within few seconds, that they a little more than lost. It wasn't only that there were no visible streetsor buildings, just forest as far as the eye could see at either direction. It was the starts - and more than that, it was themoon. It was huge, white - and all the craters were completely wrong.

Harry stared up to the sky wordlessly for a moment, carefully forcing himself not to panic because he was onprecarious perch - literally - and falling from this height would break a lot of bones. Instead he kept as still as possible,freezing his body while his mind raced.

The moon, the moon was wrong. How could it be wrong? Nothing could change the moon - there was no magic thatbig, that expansive, that powerful, that it could actually affect a stellar object. And it wasn't just to moon, either. Thestars were wrong too - and he was pretty decent at Astronomy, so he could tell. None of the star systems they had

studied, none of the patterns, none of the familiar stars were there. And there was no milky way either, which should'vebeen just above them. In stead there was whole bunch of strange stars, some of them bright and some weak and all ofthem wrong. Just like the moon.

He shuddered slightly on the branch, not out of cold because it seemed he was incapable of being cold, but from thesheer unnerving impossibility of it. Stars and the moon couldn't be changed. So, they hadn't been. And instead he wasseeing some other moon, some other stars - and below him, was another world.

Taking a hold of the tree's trunk, Harry swallowed. Okay, transportation to another world. He had seen stranger things,hadn't he? Man with two faces, that was strange. Dragon in a hut. Sport played on broom sticks. Ghost in a diary.Basilisk, giant spiders that talked, unicorns, for Merlin's sake. Wizards, goblins running a bank, centaurs!

Okay, none of it really beat a whole another world, but he had only been in the wizarding world less than two years -there probably was whole lot of other weird stuff there. So, there was no reason to panic. He was just in another world;he wasn't dead, or in immediate risk. Fawkes had just, somehow, transported them to another world. And once hewould be big and strong again, he could transport them back. Nothing to worry about.

All he needed to do was to keep them alive and fed and healthy until that time. Nothing big, just survival in a wholedifferent world. It couldn't be that hard, right? Well, it could, but not impossible. They'd manage. People managed all thetime in wilderness - and he was a wizard too, he had some tricks in his sleeve. Given, he didn't have sleeves. Or a wand.And he didn't know any wizardry that could be done without one. But it still wasn't the end of the world. Right?

"We're in so much trouble," he whispered, swallowing again. With a last look at the moon, he shuddered, and droppeddown to a lower branch, and begun making his way down - this time taking his time to look around and see if he couldfind anything to eat. It didn't look like the tree had any fruits - but he did find clusters of hard nuts, rather like acornsbut bigger and not at all acorn-like, which he gathered to his hands, wishing he had a bag or a shirt or anything to putthem on. Just by holding them in his hands, he didn't get that many.

But maybe it didn't matter - maybe the nuts weren't edible anyway. Shaking his head, he filled one palm with the nutsand continued making his way down, now using only one hand. When he dropped down to the ground, he took amoment to glance around himself, relieved to see no movements around the area. Maybe there were no predators - thatwould've been nice.

"Hey there," he greeted Fawkes, after uncovering the chick from beneath the protective leaves. "I found some nuts, butI'm not sure if they're good to eat. I don't suppose you would know?"

The chick chirped and awkwardly wobbled around in his little nest to look at the nuts. He tilted his head this way andthat before peeping and bobbing his head awkwardly in approval. Harry sighed with relief - now they had at leastsomething to eat, even if wasn't much.

"Okay, let's see if I can crack these somehow," he murmured, tapping the nuts hard shell and then looking around for arock to smash it with.

The nuts proved out easy to crack - and fairly tasteless to eat. Fawkes seemed to enjoy them, eating the crumbs fromHarry's fingers eagerly and cooing in approval. After the phoenix had had his fill and started to look like he was about tofall into content slumber, Harry covered him gently again and climbed back up the tree, to get some more of the nuts. Ahandful wasn't enough for him, after all, and he had been hungry already when he and Ron had headed down to thechamber

After getting the nuts - and eating some which had been partially open in the tree - he headed back down. He ate most ofthe nuts, but crushed a couple, setting the crumbs aside for Fawkes if he would wake up hungry. After that he curledup in the small shelter, throwing some of the leaves over himself and intending to try and get some sleep. There waslittle he could do, when the forest was so dark, after all.

As sleeping places went, it was fairly comfortable - certainly better than the cupboard had been, before he had beengiven an actual mattress - but the noises of the forest and the sheer foreignness of the place kept him awake for a long,long while.

xWhen he woke up, it was to find Fawkes chirping as the little bird waddled awkwardly around. "Hey there. Feelingbetter?" Harry asked, and got a happy chirp and excited flap of still developing wings in answer. Harry snorted withamusement and carefully sat up, stretching his neck a little to ease the stiffness there, and then glancing around.

It was light now, and the forest looked completely different. The gloomy atmosphere of the previous night was gone,and the undergrowth looked almost merry, as it gleamed in the few beams of light that made it pass the thick leafcoverage above them. It still didn't look all that habitable but at least it didn't look so intimidating now.

"Okay. Let's get some more nuts and see what we do after that, shall we?" Harry murmured, and after stretching andnoticing that the white veins looked a little lighter in the sunlight, he made his way to the tree trunk. With Fawkeschirping after him, he quickly made his way up, getting more nimble as he got used to the climbing. Being naked, asembarrassing as it was, was oddly helpful - there were no robes to get tangled on broken branches or anything like that,no shoes to make his footing unsteady. He was weirdly getting used to his nakedness anyway - it was oddly noimportant now. It wasn't like he was cold, after all. Clothing probably would've only made him feel too hot.

"Maybe I hit my head or something," he murmured thoughtfully, as he reached the branches that had most of the nutson. He made mental note of it, and then kept going until he reached the top and could see the forest. His previous night'sassessment had been pretty spot on - the forest stretched as far as the eye could see and, by the looks of it, it didn'tchange much. There were no breaks, no empty areas, nothing, just endless greenery of the foliage and nothing else. Nostreets, no buildings. Nothing.

With a sigh, Harry headed back down to collect the nuts, after which he descended the rest of the way and to theground, where Fawkes was waiting.

"So. It looks like we're on another world. No clothing, no proper shelter, no wand..." he mused, while cracking the nutsand crushing some for the phoenix, who had already eaten the previous crumbs. "We're in bit of a trouble, aren't we? Itwouldn't be so bad if I had my wand, but but I don't, obviously. I wonder what happened to it" he trained away,frowning. Had it burned too? Or maybe been left behind when the basilisk had gotten him. "Oh bother. I really liked thatwand," he murmured to himself - and then glanced down as he heard a muffled chirp.

Looking absolutely ridiculous, the little phoenix chick dragged one of his feathers towards Harry, holding it - or trying toanyway - in his beak. Harry blinked at him with surprise and then took the feather from him, looking at it. It wasn't thelongest one - those were the tail feathers, which were mostly longer than Harry's arm was. This, by the looks of it, wasone of the feathers of his wing - long, wide, but much smaller than the tail feathers.

Fawkes chirped eagerly at him, awkwardly nudging at his knee and looking up to him with anticipation, like waiting himto get it. And, with a slow surprise, Harry did. Phoenix feather. Those were used in wands - they conducted magic!

"Oh, blimey, Fawkes, you're brilliant! Do you think I could do it?" Harry asked, leaning down and holding the feather sothat the phoenix could see it. "Make a wand out of this? How are wands made anyhow?" he thought about it, whilerunning a finger down the feather. It was really smooth - a little ash-stained, but that was given. "They wood with aspecial core, so. so maybe if I carve a wood stick hollow, I might put a feather inside it, and turn it into a wand?"

The little phoenix bobbed his head in agreement, while Harry straightened his back. Carve a stick hollow. Now how washe going to do that? He had no tools, no knife, nothing. He thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. He'dfind a way. Maybe he could use a sharp piece of rock, if he could find one. There was no shortage of wood anyway;he'd be easily able to do test versions. It was no use despairing about it in any case - all he really could do was try.

"Alright," he said, nodding. "First things first, I need something to carve wood with. A piece of rock - maybe sharp,hard piece of wood might to the trick too," he glanced down to the small phoenix and smiled. "Let's see if we can findone, shall we?"

Fawkes chirped in agreement and scooping him up to his hand, Harry stood up and started exploring the area, kickingthe ground with his toes in search for something he could use. As he did, he noticed, more so than he had in theprevious night, how little walking hurt. Usually when he went barefoot, smallest rocks and sticks and even leaves couldbe painful, poking and stabbing the soles of his feet. Not anymore, it seemed - even when he stepped on a stick that

should've hurt, maybe even given him a cut, he barely felt it.

"What ever you did to me is awesome, Fawkes," he said to the little bird. "I'm not cold at all even though I'm literallyrunning around naked, and my feet feel amazing. And the climbing too! So easy. I felt like a monkey!" he grinned, andthe blinked as he heard something. "Is that water?" he murmured and while Fawkes cooed curiously, he made his waytowards it.

It was water - a small river to be exact. It was surrounded by bushes full of berries - but what Harry was most curiousabout was the bottom of the river. The water was clean and he could see, plain as day, the rocks covering the bottom."Our lucky day, it seems," he grinned at Fawkes, and left the little bird to the bank to inspect the berry bushes while hehimself waded into the water and started checking the rock.

He did find some sharp ones, but the jack pot came only when something actually cut the bottom of his foot. Hissing acurse, Harry jumped on one foot and lifted the other to check the sole - just in time to see the wound rapidly closing,and the water washing away the few droplets of blood that had managed to come out. "That's so handy," he murmuredbefore peering down to the water and into whatever it had been, that had cut him. Frowning, he crouched down and feltaround the bottom of the river with his fingers, until they encountered something hard, and sharp.

It was a knife - a strange, black knife with a thin handle and a ring at as the handle's hilt. There had been, by the looksof it, some sort of fabric around the handle, but the currents had worn most of it away, and the rest broke when Harrytouched it. But it was still a knife, albeit slightly rusty one, but with a sharp edge.

"Look at this, Fawkes!" Harry held the knife up. "Now I have something I can carve wood with! Wicked, isn't it?"

The bird chirped around a berry he had just plucked fro the bush and threw his head back to swallow it. Grinning, Harrywaded out of the river, holding onto the black knife tightly, not wanting to lose it now that he had it. "I guess the berriesare edible?" Harry asked, crouching down beside the little phoenix. He reached for one of them and threw it into hismouth, grinning. Now they had nuts they could eat, and berries they could eat. Maybe, if they were lucky, the riverwould even have some fish.

"Lady Luck likes us," he decided, after they had eaten their fill. "Come on. Let's see if we can find a fallen branch Icould try carving. The sooner I manage to make a wand, the better," he said, picking contently cooing Fawkes up sothat they could make their way back to the little shelter.

Making a wand, it turned out, wasn't as easy as that. For one, the knife Harry had found was obviously not meant forcarving - what it was made for, he had no idea, but it did not perform all that admirably against wood. It took him wholeday trying to figure out how to cover wood with it - and even then the end result was fairly awkward.

And, when he put one of Fawkes' feathers inside it, it didn't work. No spell came out, no spark of magic, nothing. Itremained nothing but an awkward stick, with a feather awkwardly poking from inside it.

"Okay, there's some other trick to this than just that," Harry murmured while eying his awkward carved wand."Something else than just wood and feather." Of course, he hadn't really thought it would be that easy. If it was, peoplewouldn't need to buy their wands from a shop - they would've just made their own. There were also different woodsand sizes and such and the whole wand chooses the wizard thing, and all.

"I guess I just will have to keep on trying," Harry murmured, setting down the failed wand and lying down alreadyslightly dozing Fawkes. "I've got the time in any case, so it'll give me something to do at least," he added, beforereaching for the black knife. Hanging it from his finger by the odd circle in the hilt, he considered it thoughtfully. A knifein a river. It had been lucky that he had found it, but pretty strange. It wasn't like there were knifes usually in rivers,right?

"At least know I now there might be people here," he murmured, whirling the odd knife around his finger. Someone hadhad to have made the knife, after all. Hopefully that someone wouldn't be too mad to have him in their world. Though, itbrought another problem. Harry was still completely naked.

The wizard sighed, dropping the knife beside him and resting his hands behind his neck. He had been trying to figuresomething out, but he hadn't been in that big of a hurry - he still had fire inside him, keeping him so warm that idea of

clothing was actually a little bit uncomfortable. Besides, there was nothing around he could use - and even if he had hada wand, he wouldn't have been able to do much. He didn't know that many good charms and all the transfigurationcharms used house hold objects to make house objects. When he thought about it, Hogwarts hadn't been too good atteaching survival.

But propriety's sake, he needed something. Closing his eyes he thought about all the things he had seen around. Grass,moss, some lianas and such, lots and lots of trees - but all of them with leaves too little to be useful. There were somethick reeds growing by the river bank, but he wasn't sure if they were any good. Unless he wanted to make a skirt.

Well, at this point a skirt would better than nothing probably - and probably overall better than running around buttnaked, as it was.

"Alright," he murmured, yawning. "Tomorrow, I will make a reed skirt. Right. After that, figuring out the wand."

x

The reed skirt ended up being mix or reed and grass and nimble branches from a bush next to the river - and Harryfound to his surprise that, despite all his previous suspicions about stuff like that, weaving was actually pretty easy. Hebroke plenty of the reef leafs and sure, the result wasn't exactly high fashion, but it was very obviously as skirt. Madeof leaves with branches and grass for a belt, and such.

"Well, at least I'm not running around naked anymore. Mostly not, anyway," he mused, giving his upper body a look. Hecouldn't tell if it was the veins getting less white, or if his own skin was getting paler, but it was hard to see thedifference between the white veins and his skin in the sunlight. Well, either way it was good - despite the fact that hedidn't exactly mind, he still preferred the way he had looked before.

Now if only his hair would decide to grow back magically fast like it had back when Aunt Petunia had shaved himaccidentally bald.

Shaking his head, he turned to look at the reeds banking the river side. There was still aplenty of them, and after thesuccess with the skirt thingy, maybe he could make use of them. Actually weave something this time. A pouch ofsome sort could be handy - for carrying the precious phoenix feathers, and when he collected the berries and the nuts.

"Which do you think it's more important, trying to figure out how to make a wand, or gathering food efficiently?" heasked from Fawkes, who was happily chomping his way through the lower branches of the berry bushes. The phoenixgave him a chirrup over its bony, downy shoulder and went back to the berries. Harry gave him an amused look, beforetaking the black knife and stepping back into the water and wading his way to the reeds.

That was when he found the second knife - in more or less the same way as he had found the first one. As he pickedthe black blade, slightly rusty and handle equally worn as the first one, he had to wonder. One knife in a river was weirdenough, but two? He could defend himself now, if something happened, but why were there knifes in the river? Werethere more of them?

"I need to start watching where I step," he murmured, and went to work, cutting the reeds and carrying a bunch ofthem to the shoreline. Setting the knives aside to be pondered upon later, he sat down with the reeds and started to tryand figure out how to make something in which he could carry something with.

It turned out that when the weaved thing had to be secure enough to keep something in it, it was slightly harder to doright. While Fawkes are his fill and fell into sated slumber on Harry's knee, the wizard kept at the weaving, tryingdifferent things and destroying lot of reeds, until he managed to make a loose satchel that might be able to holdsomething in it. Not anything small - the berries for one would've all fallen through the cracks - but maybe the nuts. Andif he tied the precious feathers together with piece of grass, or something like that, they might stay in the satchel too.

"That's something, I guess," he murmured once he was done. He would need to keep an eye on the satchel to make sureit wouldn't leak, but it was a start. "Now, back to trying the wand"

He didn't have much luck with it that day, but once he had left Fawkes into the security of their small shelter andclimbed the tree to bring down more nuts than they could eat at one go, the day still felt like a small success."Tomorrow I will see if there's any fish in the river," he mused, while crushing the nuts for the small phoenix, who

accepted the crumbs eagerly. "Some fish would be a welcome change, what do you think?"

Fawkes gave him a disgusted look, and laughing Harry handed him the nut crumbs. "I guess you don't care for meat.Vegetarian, huh. I guess it makes sense, for phoenixes," he murmured, watching how the little bird went aboutdevouring his share of the meal. Actually, not that little. When they had arrived Fawkes had barely been big enough forone hand, now he was enough to fill two. He was growing faster than Harry had thought he would. "Do you alwaysgrow this fast? Is it some sort of phoenix thing?" the bird didn't answer, but then, Harry really didn't expect him to.

If magical birds grew faster than the ordinary ones, though, that was only good for them. Maybe that meant they couldget home sooner.

x

A week later, nothing had really happened. Though Harry had found that there were fish in the river, he could only findthe up stream where the river forked into the small one he knew from much bigger one - and since the trip there tookcouple of hours, he wasn't sure if it was worth it, especially since the fish were small, spiny and kind of smelly.

Fawkes turned up his nose for the fish entirely, sticking to nuts and berries with some flower buds here and therethrown in, though most of his diet was made of the nuts, as they were biggest and easiest to get to, not to mention thatthey grew everywhere in the forest. On the power of the nuts, he grew, doubling his size every two days it seemed,until he was almost the size he had been before burning. His feather coat remained soft and downy with only somelonger, harder feathers at the crown of his head, though, so he was still a ways from being an adult phoenix.

Harry himself, while figuring out how to weave more efficiently, had no luck with the wand. He tried every wood typehe encountered, he tried to cut them more efficiently, not make as much damage, but the result was the same - evenwhen he found more knifes and other, stranger blades, in the forest, none of them did any better job. The sticksremained dead and cold in his hand, and he felt none of the warm, sparkling feeling he had felt when he had held hiswand for the first time - or any other wand, for that matter. For reasons he didn't quite understand, he couldn't makemagic run through the wands he tried to make.

"I bet there's some sort of trade secret in making these," Harry sighed after the fourteenth failure. "Something a normalperson would have no hope of figuring out." Fawkes, sadly enough, had no answer to give and could only croon andnudge at his shoulder and make him try again.

There was something very good about the week, though. After it, Harry was sure his hair would grow back. He wasalready starting to have awkward stubble on his scalp, and it was growing back more every day. Hopefully soon hewould have enough hair on his head so that he wouldn't look like, well, bald kid in a reed-loincloth. Which he had beenfor several days, now.

He couldn't wait to get back home, but he had to admit, it could've been worse. He and Fawkes had a good source ofwater, plenty of food and though the area they were living in wasn't exactly comfortable, not as far as he knewcomfort, it was still liveable. It was probably mostly thanks to his higher body temperature. It still hadn't gone down,and though the white veins had faded more, they were still burning.

He was starting to think that it was more or less permanent, what Fawkes had done - and considering the damage hehad, it was pretty probable that part of him was now completely made of phoenix tears. He didn't mind it, of course, itwas actually pretty cool when even during the coldest nights he wasn't cold at all, and the healing thing was prettyhandy - not to mention about the physical strength and odd limberness. He had once fallen from a tree and landed nearlyfolded backwards and it hadn't even strained him. That was pretty Merlin damned wicked, if he so said himself.

Of course, he would've given it up in a heart beat just to be home and have magic again, but yeah, without it, it could'vebeen so much worse for him. And for Fawkes too, since he couldn't fly and still needed Harry to fetch him the nuts andsuch.

"What do you think, Fawkes?" he asked, while cracking the shells of the last patch of nuts for the phoenix. "Do youthink the people back home are trying to get us back? I mean, Dumbledore's got to be doing something. He'd want youback, if nothing else."

Fawkes warbled a reassurance while plucking the nut from his fingers. Before swallowing it, though, the phoenix raisedhis head, tilting it sharply like listening to something. Blinking, Harry did the same, tilting his head and straining hishearing, trying to pick up what the phoenix was listening. He couldn't hear anything unusual for a moment, just the windin the upper canopy and the distant birds - and, some ways away, the stream where they got their water.

Then, so distant that Harry didn't quite know how he was hearing it at all; whistling. And not the sort of sharp,repetitious chirps and songs of the birds, but actual whistling - human whistling with vague melody and tempo.

Harry jumped to his feet, the nut he was holding cracking in his fist as he concentrated, trying to listen harder. Whichway was it coming from, what direction? Where? He turned his head left and right, but it was Fawkes who found thedirection. The phoenix chick cooed and warbled, getting to his feet and flapping his still developing wings, before takingoff into the forest.

"Okay, that way," Harry agreed and, hurriedly picking couple of the many rusty knifes he had found, and taking offafter the phoenix. Fawkes, while still growing and clumsy because of it, was probably at least half as fast on his feet ashe was on wing, so it was a bit of a task keeping up with him, but in the last week as the phoenix had gotten more livelyand eager to move, he had gotten used to it. It helped that Harry could now jump farther than he ever could've evendreamed of jumping before.

Trying to keep Fawkes's fire red form in sight and the whistling in his ears, Harry ran and jumped over roots and rocks,as they soon went into territory they hadn't yet gotten the chance to investigate. They had mostly stayed around theriver and followed it up and down as the berry bushes seemed to prefer to grow near it. Harry soon realised that maybethey should've ventured further away as they found something he had been looking for, but had never expected to findso winding.

A road, thin and slightly over grown but obviously still in use, went through the forest floor, going around trees withouthaving single one of them cut, circling even around rocks. It was more of a path; actually, than a road, except for a pathit was wide. And, by the looks of it, it was used by some sort of wheeled vehicles. Carts or carriages, maybe - thetracks were too thin and too smooth for rubber tires.

That, though, wasn't as important as the fact that there was a man - a human man walking along it. Or he had beenanyway, he had stopped and was now staring at Fawkes, who had stumbled into the winding path, losing his balance atthe sudden change in terrain and tumlbing over. Harry, unable to stop his own momentum in time, crashed to the streetas well before he could even consider staying back and watching the man for a moment. He, though, didn't lose hisfooting, and managed to stop before crashing in to Fawkes.

The man stared at the pair of them with open astonishment, while Fawkes warbled with indignation and struggledhimself back to his feet. Harry, on other hand, kept his eyes on the man, gripping his rusty knifes tightly. The man wasdefinitely human. White haired, tall, probably older than Uncle Vernon - but infinitely in better shape, by the looks ofhim. He wore odd clothes - red vest, green pants, odd white wrapping around his ankles and most of his calves andwooden sandals - but Harry hadn't really expected to see anyone in wizard robes or muggle jeans here, in another world.The man was obviously travelling; he had a heavy backpack and a bedroll with him.

He didn't look like he might attack or anything - he looked too shocked to do anything by the looks of him - but Harrystill stayed on defensive. You never knew, after all. He could understand the man's surprise though. Him, nearly bald,wearing reeds and with white veins all over him - and Fawkes, great big chick who at times looked more like red ball offluff than an actual bird. They probably made a pretty weird sight.

The man said something - and Harry realised another thing he should've considered, as he listened and couldn't pick asingle word he knew. He should've thought of it before, really. Another world was another world - the stars and themoons and the plants were different. Even if the people living here were humans, what were the chances of themspeaking even remotely similar languages? Pretty low.

The man took a step forward, and Harry quickly scooted back, lifting one of the knives just in case. Frowning, the mansaid something, holding his hands up in sign of surrender - or to show he had no weapons, who knew - but Harrycouldn't understand him any better this time.

"I can't understand you," Harry said, shaking his head and feeling Fawkes coming to his side and nudging at his knee

comfortingly. He glanced down at the bird and then at the man who eyed him with a thoughtful frown. The youngwizard shrugged a bit over dramatically and the man frowned harder, folding his arms and stroking his chin for amoment.

Finally, after a moment tense of silence, the man pointed a thumb at his chest. "Jiraiya."

Harry raised his eyebrows and then nodded slowly. "Jiraiya," he repeated awkwardly, getting the pronunciation a littlewrong, but the man nodded with satisfaction regardless. After that, Harry motioned at himself. "Harry," he said, makingthe man frown.

"Har - Harii?" he asked and Harry nodded slowly, figuring it was close enough.

"Harii," the man repeated, motioning at the boy, then at himself, and then shrugging his shoulders and giving him aquestioning look. When Harry could just stare at him in bafflement, the man repeated the gesture with someexaggeration, until Harry got it. The man wanted to know what Harry wanted from him.

Harry frowned for a moment, not entirely sure. When he and Fawkes had arrived, finding people would've been amazing- people meant houses and real food and comforts - but now he wasn't sure. They were pretty comfortable in the forestand since he didn't know the language it could be bad. He would never know what people were saying to him orabout him - he could get bamboozled so easily, abused even easier. Not that he had anything anyone could bamboozlefrom him, but still.

But a real bed, real clothes, real food - meat - did sound awesome. Bath with actual soap, that would've been prettynice right about now. The river was nice and cool but couldn't get all the grime off. And Fawkes well, Fawkes wasprobably perfectly happy in the forest, but he had to be sick of berries and nuts by now.

After moment of thought, Harry kneeled on the ground, looking at the bird. "Do you think we should try and see if wecan find a town, or a village or something?" he asked.

Fawkes cooed gently, butting his chin with his beak and clawing the ground with his talons. Harry smiled and glancedup to the man who was eying him and the bird with fascination. Harry nodded, and then flipped one of the knives in hishand, before using it to draw a picture to the ground. A house which looked more like a box, then another beside it, athird behind them and so forth, until he had a crude representation of a settlement.

The white haired man nodded slowly and first pointed at the path ahead of them and path behind them, shrugging hisshoulders. Harry couldn't quite tell whether he meant that there was village in both directions - or that he was hopelesslylost and had no idea. Harry frowned at him until the man crouched down and begun drawing into the direst with hisfingertip. First he drew a circle, motioning at Harry and himself, we are here, and then he drew two lines going back andahead of the circle. The path behind the circle was longer than the one ahead of it - in both ends the man drew samesort of box house Harry had.

"So, a village in both directions and the one onwards is closer," Harry murmured, looking ahead thoughtfully. "Fawkes,what do you think?" he asked, turning to the bird, who was resting his beak on Harry's bent knee. The phoenix let out athoughtful croon, but didn't really give an opinion, leaving the decision into his hand.

The white haired man, Jiraiya, gave the pair of them a look, before starting to draw another picture. Harry watched withconfusion as the man made a complex display of stick figures - going as far as to draw a stick figure bird - whichseemed to be attacked by some other stick figures. There was a separate image with the attacking stick figures carryingaway some things, it was hard to tell what, while the smallest stick figure and the bird were left behind, lookingdesolate.

Harry stared at the pictures in complete incomprehension for a moment while the man gave him a questioning look.Then he got it - and snorted, shaking his head. No, they hadn't been robbed - by stick figures or by other things. Heshrugged his shoulders exaggeratingly and wiped the picture of the stick figure robbery away. The man looked at himincredulously, pointing at the reed loincloth-skirt and raising his eyebrows.

Harry flushed and shrugged, shifting his weight from one food to other. How did you explain in pictographs how youhad woken up in middle of strange forest completely naked? He had no idea, so he settled onto not trying to explain. The

man seemed to take it for an answer and gave him a sympathetic look, making Harry seriously wonder what he had justaccidentally conveyed, when the man hoisted his pack back off, and went to rummage through it. While Harry andFawkes watched with curiosity, the man pulled out a white cloth - some sort of shirt or short robe by the looks of it,and then offered it to him.

"I guess I'm a charity case now," Harry muttered, accepting the cloth and examining it. It wasn't too odd looking -rather like shirt or a jumper which was open from the forth, though the cloth wasn't exactly shirt or jumper material.Shrugging his shoulders, Harry pulled the cloth on, standing up and looking down to it. It was so big on him, that ithung on him even worse than Dudley's old shirts had, reaching his knees easily. Thoughtfully Harry pulled the front shutand shrugged his shoulders, trying to get a feel to it.

He got overly hot within seconds, a wave of heat running over him and making him break out in sudden sweat. Hefrowned slightly opening the front a little, but it didn't much help. His body was now so warm that wearing anything buthis own skin made him too hot, it seemed. Grimacing, he quickly struggled out of the odd shirts, handing it back to manand shaking his head. When the man gave him a confused look, Harry made a fanning motion towards his face, sighingheavily.

Frowning slightly, Jiraiya held out his hand, expecting Harry to take it. Awkward, the boy did and then watched how theman tested the skin of his palm and the back of his hand before checking his pulse, obviously finding his temperatureobviously surprising and giving him a worried look. Harry managed to only blink, before the man raised one large palmto his forehead, to test his temperature there.

Before the man could make the decision that he was ill, though, Harry raised his hands to stop his thought proves,waving them downwards, trying to make the man calm down. He motioned at himself and then made a smoothingmotion, smiling widely and trying to show he was perfectly normal. He patted his chest where the biggest white blotchwas and smiled again, trying for soothing.

The man said something, asked something, now looking thoughtful. Harry shrugged, having no idea what he had said,and then watched curiously as the man went back to rummaging his backpack. After a moment, he pulled out a pair ofpants - his own, by the looks of how big they were. He raised his eyebrow questioningly and Harry tilted his head inanswer, not entirely sure. The pants were huge and would be pretty loose in him, but he wasn't sure if he could wearthem any better than the previous cloth.

It would be much better than the reed skirt, though - less likely to display his family jewels to the world.

After a moment of thought, Harry accepted the pants - and a fabric belt to tie them with, before examining them to seewhich way they would go. Jiraiya motioned to a near by tree, raising his eyebrows. Harry nodded, and with Fawkestrailing after him, he went behind the tree to change.

The pants were huge. On Jiraiya they probably only reached him just below his knees - after which his legs werecovered with the white wraps - but for Harry the pants easily reached his ankles, and on his much smaller legs, thepants were baggy and loose. They only stayed on after he tied them with the cloth belt, and after that he nearly gottangled in the pant legs, before discovering yarns there to tighten them with. Quickly he tightened the cloth around hisankles so they wouldn't get in his way, and found to his surprise that once everything was more or less secure, thepants weren't that bad. They were a bit too warm, but with his chest and arms bare he wasn't that hot, and thanks tothe loose material, his legs didn't immediately get sweaty.

"Not bad, huh?" he asked Fawkes while, arranging the folds of the waistline of the pants a bit more comfortably. Thephoenix cooed in appreciation, before shifting closer and jumping a little beside his leg. Smiling, Harry crouched downand offered the bird his arm. After lifting him to his shoulder, Harry went around the tree again, to find Jiraiya sitting onthe road side with a long pipe in his hand, smoking by the looks of it.

The man nodded with appreciation at the sight of him - and then gave him the thumbs up, which surprised Harry for amoment. It was such familiar gesture, but not one he had expected to encounter here. Regardless, he grinned back whilethrowing the reed loincloth away. Though it had been fun to make - and remake after he had managed to break the firstone while tree climbing - he wasn't sad to see it go.

x

Jiraiya smiled to himself, while watching the weird kid, Harii, lifting his legs and kicking the air, testing how well hecould move. The pants didn't look bad on him - certainly better than the weird skirt he had been wearing before - thoughhe still looked pretty awkward and scrawny. Well, at least he didn't look like a barbarian anymore.

When the kid had stumbled to the road, he had seriously thought he was some sort of wild creature - maybe one ofthose feral kids one sometimes heard in some villages. Kid who had grown up all alone in the forest without any humaninteraction - it happened probably more often than anyone knew, with the ninja world being the way it was. Parentsdying in ambushes and robberies, kids being left behind out or mistake or mercy or whatever. And of course, there wereprobably hundreds of parents who abandoned their kids for who knew what reasons. This kind could've easily beensomething like that and Jiraiya probably wouldn't have surprised.

But the kid obviously knew humans, and could talk and understand - except the language he spoke wasn't the sameJiraiya spoke. Who knew how a foreign kid had ended up in the southern forests of the Land of Fire, not to mentionnaked, but by the looks of his dirt stains and how he behaved, it had been at least couple of days ago - long enough forhim to overcome the shock. And yet he hadn't died - he didn't look weakened or starved and despite having high bodytemperature, he didn't look sick. So, he had obviously figured some sort of way to survive.

And not just to survive, but to care for a pet too, Jiraiya added to himself, eying the great bird balancing on the boy'sshoulder. When the bird had shown up and the kid right after it, he had for a moment thought that the kid had beenhunting the bird and trying to kill it. Apparently he had been pretty wrong - looking at the way they acted like best palls,they had probably been together for a while. Harii even had a name for the thing - Fokkusu, or something like that. Thekid had to be pretty good at handling the bird too, just by feeding it he wouldn't have gotten it to follow him so tamelyand to sit on his shoulder without making any fuss. Unless of course he had been there when the bird had hatched andnow the thing thought the boy was its mother.

The veins though Jiraiya looked down at the boy's chest and the great white circle there, and the other on hisshoulder. When the boy had headed behind the tree, he had seen matching circles on his back - much smaller ones,though, but still there. Like entry and exit wounds, which had been healed. What was with the veins, though? Theywere everywhere on the boy's skin - his feet and hands, and even on his face, all originating from the white blotches.

It was like blood poisoning, except the veins were white and, if Jiraiya was right, pretty old. If the blotches werewounds - and they were so smooth - then they had probably happened years ago, and had healed perfectly since,without leaving anything but the discoloured skin behind. Whoever had healed the kid had some serious talents, if thewounds had really been that big - and if the kid had been younger back then. As it was he barely looked ten years old, sohow long ago could've it been? And what kind of healing left behind that sort of markers?

A bloodline, maybe? He had seen stranger markers of bloodlines, but stuff like high body temperature was prettycommon with some Bloodline Limit clans. There was the fact that the kid, despite having sticks for arms, was prettystrong too - Fokkusu was the size of a swan, and yet the kid seemed to barely notice it, as it sat on his shoulder.

Sucking a breath through his pipe, Jiraiya sighed. He would've loved to ask the kid, but he doubted he could've gottensomething that complex easily across. It wasn't any of his business anyway.

As he thought, the boy got used to his new pants, marvelling the pockets for a while and grinning. Then he looked up toJiraiya and turned serious again, picking the rusty kunai he had been waving around, and holding them both in one hand.After a moment of silent staring, he glanced at the way Jiraiya had been heading, frowning thoughtfully.

"If you go there, you're going to get screwed over," Jiraiya said, knowing the boy couldn't understand him. The villagehe was heading wasn't exactly the finest of the bunch - the complete opposite. The place would eat the boy alive -someone would probably steal his pet and put it on sale or something like that, and who knew what would happen to theboy himself. Probably something much, much worse.

But for someone who had been stranded on a forest with no idea where to go, as this boy probably had, it was stillprobably preferable option to staying in middle of nowhere. However it had happened, the kid was hopelessly lost andprobably needed some help. Probably more than some.

"Tell you what," Jiraiya started, gaining an odd look from the nearly hairless kid. "How about we go together? It's aweek's way until Fukyuu, and I wouldn't mind the company," and it would give him some time to see if he could find

where the kid was from and maybe make sure he got there, unmolested.

Jiraiya might've been an unredeemable pervert and a lout, but he had some morals too - and limits, on occasion. Helplesslittle kids being abused or abandoned was right at the top of his list of things he didn't much like.

Saying what he was suggesting was whole different thing to actually conveying it. Jiraiya was degraded from words togestures to near shadow puppetry, before he finally drew childishly simple sketch of him the kid and the bird goingtogether along the road. Finally the kid seemed to get it, but he didn't accept immediately, and instead thought about it,and talked to the bird, looking like he was seriously considering the bird's thoughts. Jiraiya finished his pipe and emptiedit while the kid finally came to decision.

Harii made the universal sign for wait - and then dashed to the forest, Fokkusu warbling excitedly as they went. Jiraiyastared after them in bafflement, not sure if he had just been ditched - before realising. However long the kid had been inthe forest, he had been surviving somehow. He had probably found the old kunai lying around - which wasn't thatstrange, the forest had been the field of one of the greatest battles of the Third Shinobi War just fifteen years earlier -and who knew what else. He had made the loincloth probably himself and who knew what else. So, probably, he washeading back to where ever he kept camp to get his things.

The legendary hermit snorted at himself while putting the pipe away. This was probably going to be pretty interestingtrip

xx

So, I was looking over some Naruto crossovers and I went meh. And then I wrote my own. Harry is OOC like whoa,but I don't care. I wrote this mostly for lulz. Might continue this if my inspiration keeps up, but I got kind of dozenother irons in the fire, so, who knows. If I don't continue this go ahead and imagine the continuation as Jiraiya teachesHarry speak ninjaese or whatever, teaching him how to fight, and stuff, and how one day Harry will make a woodenweapon which is secretly a wand - in my head it's a tonfa, but it might be something else too, who knows - and then,about year later, they head to Konoha where the Chuunin exams are going, and Harry and Naruto bond over pervertteachers - and everyone will marvel Harry's awesome summon/ninja animal Fawkes who is awesome. And so forth.Run-on sentences optional.

Edit; hah, managed to upload despite severe difficulties. Take that, system!

My apologies for possible grammar errors

*Chapter 1*: Wild child