Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 11

Sasuke barrelled into Harry's room, heart racing, but there was Naruto. "Harry?"

"He's here, he's okay," Naruto pulled the shorter teen out from behind him, and Sasuke finally felt like he could breath again.

Harry looked a bit ruffled but un-injured, and while there was a tear in Naruto's shirt there was no blood on it, meaning he'd dodged in time. Good, that was good. He tensed as a figure appeared in the window, relaxing when he recognised an Anbu member. Where had they been?

"Injuries?" The man asked.

"We're fine," Sasuke answered, glancing at the other two again to be totally sure. Harry's eyes had gone wide at the sight of the Anbu and he supposed they would look strange, intimidating, to a civilian, especially a foreign one. "Harry," he called, and his cousin shifted so he could see the Anbu and Sasuke.

It was obvious Harry was wary of the newcomer and Sasuke could pick up a slight tremor to his limbs, adrenaline from the attack probably, and while he hadn't screamed or anything, he had to be terrified. "It's alright, he's a member of Anbu, they protect the village." He took another look himself at the mask, recognising it, though he had no clue who was behind it. "This is Bear."

Bear nodded at them. "We've cleared the compound, no further hostile forces found. Thank you for leaving us a survivor."

Sasuke glanced at the unconscious ninja, there wasn't a mark on them. He looked up at Naruto, how had he knocked them out?

"Have fun with him!" Naruto grinned but there was something…

Bear grabbed the ninja and left, letting Sasuke look to Naruto for answers.

The blond shrugged slightly and then slung an arm over Harry's shoulders. "He's definitely your cousin Sasuke, knocked that guy out." He grinned, obviously proud.

Sasuke looked to Harry, shocked. Harry had taken out an enemy shinobi? How? Yeah, they were training him but there was no way he could beat a genin yet, not without a lucky shot. He swept the bedroom, seeing the weapons in the bed and walls and then something odd…a small bird lying near the wall, dead. It was night and he didn't even recognise the species. Clutched tight in one hand was a kunai, at least Harry had gone for what weapons he had when under attack, that showed good instincts.

Seeing how pale his cousin was, that he was still shaking slightly, Sasuke made the decision to ignore the questions. He moved slowly towards Harry, taking his arm to lead him from the bedroom, he went to go out to the living areas but then changed to the main bedroom, there were more signs of battle out there after all.

"Sleepover!" Naruto cheered, realising what Sasuke was doing.

"What happened?" Harry asked. "Who…who was that? You're bleeding."

Sasuke gently pushed Harry down onto the futon he'd been sharing with Naruto, it was a good thing none of them were overly large, it was meant for two adults so three relatively skinny teens would fit well enough. He carefully pried the kunai from Harry's clenched hand.

"It's just a scratch," he assured his cousin even as Naruto tossed him a small bandage from Sasuke's own medical pack, it'd do till morning. He'd get Sakura to heal it just to reassure Harry, normally he'd leave it to heal on its own.

"There's two teams of Anbu out there Harry, no one else is getting in tonight," Naruto added.

"We can talk about what happened in the morning." Sasuke finished securing the window and moved to sit beside his cousin. "Just try and sleep, okay?"

Harry looked between them and then nodded, lying down on his side. Sasuke lay beside him, Naruto on Harry's other side. With him in the middle, they could be utterly sure Harry would remain safe. He wanted to talk to Naruto but it would have to wait. Naruto said Harry had knocked that enemy out, but how? Sasuke sincerely doubted the team had brought a genin along with them and that was the only level of ninja Harry would be able to face though he still shouldn't be able to defeat one, not yet.

Any interrogation would likely reveal that, but that worried Sasuke. What would Tsunade do if she found out Harry had taken out a ninja, and without any injuries? What was his cousin hiding?

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Harry was confused to wake and find himself tangled up with two other bodies before going bright red as he realised he was squished between his cousin and Naruto. And then he remembered why they were all squished onto the one bed, mentally swearing. The Village and its ninja seemed much more efficient than the Ministry which meant that person was going to be questioned. That meant those in charge would find out he'd knocked the ninja out in a way Harry couldn't just explain away…but what would happen if he explained? Sure, the Ministry was back to liking him, for now, but that could change in a second. And breaking the Statute of Secrecy wasn't just a big deal in Britain, it'd get him in trouble world wide.

"Okay?" Naruto yawned, shifting at his back.

"Stuck," he grumbled, making the blond snicker but begin to disentangle himself.

Once Naruto was free of the tangle it was easier for Harry to carefully begin freeing himself from his cousin only for dark eyes to snap open, Sasuke tensing, but then he relaxed, brow furrowing in concern.

"Harry?"

"Sorry, was trying to not wake you," he answered.

Sasuke blinked and then looked to find where he'd wrapped around Harry, shifting to move free. "Sorry." He sat up, running a hand through his hair, and Harry couldn't help grinning. "What?"

"Nice to know the messy hair if a family trait."

That got a laugh from Naruto. "I'll start breakfast!"

"No ramen!" Sasuke yelled after him.

Harry smothered a laugh at that, Naruto was seriously obsessed with ramen. Harry had to admit, the stuff found here was a lot better than the cup stuff back in England. But he still didn't think it was a good breakfast food either. He got up and stretched before heading back to his room, needing clothes, only to stop in the doorway and stare. He…hadn't realised quite so many weapons had been thrown at him during the fight. His own spells hadn't really done any damage thankfully, but that would probably make things even harder to explain.

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Ibiki stared at the sole survivor of the attack on the Uchiha compound. Thanks to this ninja and his comrades, they'd lost two Anbu, had another badly injured who would live, and a mystery. It had taken a log time for him to come around and once he had, his answers had been very confused, despite a medic clearing him from head wounds. He'd had a Yamanaka look but they hadn't gotten anything clear from him either. It was like his mind had been muddled somehow.

The clearest memory they had gotten was of the young Uchiha managing to roll out of bed before the thrown weapons could hit him, kid had good instincts but according to the Hokage he'd had a tough life for a civilian. Being attacked by birds inside surely hadn't happened. Anko had thrown out the idea that maybe the newest Uchiha's Sharingan had manifested due to the threat, even if only briefly, enough to initiate a genjutsu without the boy knowing what he was doing. So far, it was the best theory they had unless the guy had managed to scramble his own brain? Could he have tried a genjutsu on the kid and it'd backfired on him?

The Hokage was not going to be happy with the lack of concrete intelligence. They at least knew where they had come from, Kumo was up to their old tricks of trying to steal bloodlines. They'd increased the Anbu on the compound, but it wasn't a feasible long term answer, they couldn't have that many teams tied up with one security detail. Team 7 had done a good job once they were aware of the attack, it might be a good idea to have the whole team within the compound. They also couldn't just let another village take the boy, who knew what they could learn from him or how powerful his children might be.

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Naruto sat at the table, able to feel the tension in the air. It should be happy for the most part, they'd defeated their attackers after all. But the question was how? He'd congratulated Harry last night but even he knew the other teen shouldn't have been able to take out someone who could evade or kill Anbu members. They all knew it. And from the way Harry was picking at his food, he knew they wanted to ask…and didn't want to answer.

He glanced at Sasuke and bit back a frown as he took in his expression, Sasuke was tense, face drawn, and Naruto stretched in his seat, nudging his leg with his foot. Sasuke started ever so slightly but his expression cleared some even as he nudged Naruto in return. Whatever Harry wasn't saying, they could deal with it.

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Tsunade scowled as she went over the reports. What was A thinking? The relationship between their Villages had never been good, but had they taken the teen or those with him…the only response possible was war. Then again…sensei had folded when they denied the attempt on Hinata and had demanded Hiashi in return. It was only his brother taking his place that had spared the clan head. Did A think she would follow in Sarutobi's footsteps? She wasn't her teacher, she was the granddaughter of the Shodai, grand niece of the Nidaime. She might hate war but she would protect her people. And the Uchiha were her people.

All reports on Sasuke proved he wasn't the same boy who had left the Village, or even the same as he'd been at the Academy. She wasn't going to be clearing him for anything beyond D-ranks for at least a while yet, unless there was an emergency, but he had come a long way since collapsing before the Village gates. Kakashi had reported he was getting better at recognising when he was having an emotional fluctuation and getting it under control, but it was too dangerous for him to go on missions until he could either stop it immediately or they stopped happening at all. As for the newest Uchiha, he was a civilian, not even an adult yet. To allow another Village to take him would be unconscionable, he had come to Konoha with the promise of being protected.

Tsunade sighed and looked down at the paperwork on her desk. She knew she needed to send A a message about his actions. With a living shinobi, no matter how scrambled his brain was, they had proof of the attempt so A wouldn't be able to wriggle out of it like last time. What concessions should she demand for the attempt on one of Konoha's founding clans?

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Sakura fought the urge to run as she made her way through the Village. Why did she live so far from the Uchiha compound? Maybe she should move closer since she was one of their medics…having Kakashi-sensei appear in her window this morning with news of an attack was not how she'd planned for her morning to go! If anyone had been hurt, they would have gone to the hospital in the night, so the fact that he'd reported they were at home was a good sign, right? Right, it had to be. They were all fine.

She knocked and then opened the door, taking off her sandals, only to find all three at the table for breakfast…and the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. She looked them over and immediately moved to Sasuke's side, seeing the bandage on his face. He tipped his head, letting her see to it without arguing which was nice. Thankfully it was a shallow cut, already scabbed over, but seeing the worry in Harry's eyes she decided to heal it.

"There, all done. Are you alright Harry?" He didn't look hurt but it was better to be safe than sorry with civilians.

"I'm fine," his answer had the sound of a phrase he used often.

She smiled at him and took a seat beside him, taking some food since she hadn't had the chance to eat at home. From the table she could see the damage done but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Considering how destructive most of the jutsu her boys knew were, they were lucky the house was still standing. She chatted as she ate, drawing Naruto in easily but the cousins stayed mostly quiet. It was interesting how similar they were despite having such different upbringings.

Had one of the boys had to kill in front of Harry, was that why he was so quiet? If he'd recently seen his godfather killed then seeing one of them kill could be very traumatic, even if it was to defend him. She looked at Naruto in question and he shook his head slightly, so they hadn't killed in front of Harry. His eyes slid to Harry and she blinked, seriously? Harry had taken out an enemy nin? She doubted he'd killed them but even holding one off till help arrived was very impressive.

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Harry knew he was the reason for the tension, but how to fix it? Chakra wasn't magic, and while they might not be part if the ICW, he was still a British citizen. He would be the one thrown in Azkaban if he broke the law.

Eventually the meal was done and Harry moved to collect the dishes, needing something to do, relieved when they let him. Sasuke could be weird about him trying to help out around the house, so different to the Dursley's who expected him to do everything. He kept his back to them as he filled the sinks, wishing there was someone he could ask for advice. He didn't want to argue with his cousin, not over something so big. And if Sasuke did find out about his magic, would he be mad at him? He'd kept it from him after all, even after Sasuke had explained his own past and about chakra. Talking wasn't easy for Sasuke but he'd forced himself to open up…and Harry was keeping massive secrets from him.

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They kept their voices down so Harry couldn't hear them, tossing out theories for how the other teen could have taken out an enemy ninja without being a ninja himself. They were all sure of that, his chakra had been untapped until they'd begun teaching him. Had that been how he'd done it? The enemy completely underestimating Harry and giving him the chance to land a hit to their head or something? But if that was it, why would Harry be so tense?

Of course that was when Kakashi-sensei showed up with the bad news, they didn't learn anything from the captured ninja except that he was from Kumo. But it did give them a theory, had Harry activated the Sharingan without realising it?

Sasuke knew the idea that Harry had activated their family bloodline should make him happy…but all he could feel was worry. He'd be even more valuable to bloodline thieves if he had, would be more at risk. He wanted, needed, Harry to be safe. Then again, if he had activated the Sharingan, training would be easier and he'd be able to protect himself sooner.

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That was very interesting. It seemed they'd missed someone when they took out the clan. He went over the limited intel and decided it wasn't worth worrying about. A civilian in their late teens would never be a threat to the plan. Sasuke would be the only one of the two who might be dangerous but he was very focused on Itachi and now likely keeping his new found cousin safe. Though they did need Naruto and if recent reports were correct, Team 7 was growing ever closer. Still, how much damage could Sasuke do with only the base form of their dōjutsu?

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Harry was shocked, his spell work should not have done that! Confundus was not a permanent curse or anything, it should have worn of within an hour or two, that was why he'd been worried. So how the heck had he scrambled his brain? It wasn't possible. Yeah, sometimes he overpowered his spells but even then, it shouldn't have done what they said it did.

Looking around his room, the signs of the fight had been removed at some point which was nice. The futon had been replaced since it'd been damaged and there were small holes in the walls from where other weapons had lodged. He lay back on the futon, staring up at the ceiling, not sure what was going to happen now.

A knock sounded and he sighed. "Come in," he called, and sure enough it was Sasuke who entered. His cousin hesitated and Harry waved a hand so he moved to sit beside him.

"Activating the Sharingan isn't a bad thing Harry," he murmured.

Wasn't it? And how to explain he hadn't…or should he let them believe it? He shifted slightly and Sasuke didn't pull away, letting them be in light contact. Outside of Hermione and Mrs Weasley's hugs, Harry didn't get much positive human contact. Having a family member who allowed it was a nice change. It was obvious Sasuke wasn't comfortable with contact, not surprising with everything he'd been through, but he allowed it with Naruto and now Harry; Sakura to a lesser extent.

"I won't let anyone hurt you," Sasuke whispered fiercely.

"I don't want you to be hurt either," Harry sat up to face him. "You're the only family I've got that's ever cared about me." His parents didn't count, they had died to keep him safe but he'd never had the chance to know them. He reached out and took Sasuke's hand, squeezing, his cousin returning the grip. "You're not allowed to die." He couldn't bear to lose anyone else.

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"I can't promise that," Sasuke told him seriously. "I'm a shinobi, Harry. I serve the Village." He hated having to tell his cousin that, but better to be realistic than make a promise he'd likely one day break.

Even is Tsunade took him off active duty, he would be called up if the Village was attacked and as their chūnin exam had proven, it could happen at any time. So many people had died in that attack, an attack the Sandaime had known was likely coming. There was so much more the man should have done to ensure the people were safe, just like he should have done more for Naruto growing up. And if Tsunade did clear him for missions, he had to protect his teammates. He would fight to keep them safe, just like they'd do the same for him. Kakashi was right, team work was what made Konoha strong, he just hadn't been willing to see it before.

He could understand Harry's viewpoint though. He'd lost his parents and then his godfather, had lived with relatives that obviously didn't like him. Add in Itachi trying to kill him… Sasuke had it lucky in a way, the odds of Harry predeceasing him were slim so long as Itachi was kept away. He'd lost his whole family already, all he had now was his team and Harry. They were the only family the other had now, he didn't count Itachi and Harry obviously didn't count the Dursley's.

It made him happy Harry was too old to become a shinobi, he knew that if his cousin had been younger then there would have been pressure for him to join the ranks. At almost sixteen though it would be insane to try and have him fully trained and then expect him to adjust to such a different lifestyle. Of course, they would still train him but it would be for his own safety. If Harry had activated the Sharingan, then it would make his training easier, if he could work out how to do it again. Sasuke had had plenty of exposure as a child to others with the Sharingan, not just his parents and brother. He'd heard every story from his cousins and other clan members on how to control their dōjutsu. Sasuke had trained all of his life in hopes of activating it. Harry had none of that, he only had Sasuke to try and talk him through it, Kakashi would be no help since his eye was always active.

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He scowled at the report, irritated. He'd made use the Kumo team would breach the compound, he just hadn't planned to let them escape with their prize. He would have claimed the boy for his own uses and let Kumo take the blame. Tsunade was wary of him in a way Hiruzen had never been, but she did not know of Root. He'd stayed away from Sasuke due to Itachi's threats, hating the weakness that revealed but even with everything he'd done to ensure he would win any fight…he was unsure he could defeat the Uchiha prodigy. Hiruzen had denied him the jinchūriki and had kept enough of an eye on the container that disappearing it would have been impossible. What he could have done with so much power…

Still, there'd be other chances to grab the newest Uchiha, sooner or later Team 7 would be needed on a mission and the boy would be left with fewer defences. It would be easy enough to ensure Itachi was blamed, putting even more distance between the brothers.

TBC…