3 Chapter 03

Harry's first impressions of Richards gift were quite mixed. The whole 'problem' that existed in his head was because he already had an idea of what 'real' ninja were supposed to be. They were silent, swift and deadly assassins, not flamboyant weapons of mass destruction. It took a few days before he was finally able to get his head around how the ninja in Naruto functioned. But eventually the child in Harry finally managed to do the simplest thing any child ought be able to do, simply believe. And in that moment, the simple acceptance of stated fact nudged the power that lay dormant in him ever so slightly in a new direction. Indeed, it could be said history itself was rewritten, all because of the power of a child's belief in the impossible.

The first complete reading of what he had in his hands took two weeks of careful and covert activity. He read at night under the cover of the same moldy sheet of nastiness the Dursleys had passed off as his blanket. The small flashlight he had been given ensured that he was able to spend his nights in a much more productive fashion than cursing the Dursleys and imagining their bloody painful demise would possibly allow. There were a few close calls of course, like the time Vernon had sleepily poked his head in, attempting to see if his freakish nephew was up to no good. After that Harry began to regularly check his surroundings, attempting to divine if the Dursleys were astir. Needless to say, by the end of those two weeks, Harry was quite the paranoid fellow. Unfortunately, he was quite justified, because they really were out to get him.

After his initial disbelief, and subsequent "conversion", Harry's intelligent and inquisitive mind slowly began to churn out an understanding of what he was reading. He slowly built up an awareness of the mechanics of the Naruto universe, the way people thought, the elementary assumptions that everybody made about everyone else. He was slowly integrating the mindset of the 'proper' ninja of a hidden village. Of course, at this stage it was more of the childish enthusiasm for the whole thing, as evidenced by the swirly leaf designs he idly lightly carved in the remote corners of his...space.

That however was not the end of it. He had already made the connection to the parallels that existed between Harry and Naruto, that of orphans that were treated horribly by the very people they were entrusted to. Indeed, a certain perspective, the only real difference was the lack of a tailed beast in Harry's belly(he'd checked, thoroughly). They called one demon. They called the other freak. What was the difference anyway?

But that was not exactly the most earth shattering discovery he made. No, what was truly mind blowing was the correlation he made between Naruto's own healing and the one he exhibited. Both kicked in when the person involved was highly injured, and both were truly accelerated healing. Two days worth of thinking later, Harry finally began to wonder...

What if, what he had was chakra. After all, when everything was said and done, the Dursleys were right about one thing - he had something uncommon, if not unnatural inside, and whatever it was that was healing him was just begging to be used.

With that question in mind, Harry decided that he just had to find his inner power. So, keeping in mind long forgotten methods for meditation, he attempted to see what he held within. And he failed is only so much a 7 year old could focus before his mind wanders to other things.

So in a sudden feat of misguided brilliance, that was in retrospect quite foolish, he decided that the best way to quickly find out what this power of his was to get hurt and watch it heal him. Perhaps now that he was actually looking for it, he would actually find it! It was a deaf, dumb and blind leap of faith, but unfortunately for our good friend, common sense had decided to take its own mandatory vacation that day.

Harry did not fancy cutting himself. It was just plain wrong; why hurt himself when there was enough and more of that from the Dursleys? So in another feat of misguided brilliance, he decided that if he was going to get hurt, he might as well do it in a way he was intimately familiar with.

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The next morning, while Vernon was watching, Harry 'accidentally' scratched the car while washing it. It had been done in as accidental a manner as could be accomplished of course. No need to get killed over it after all.

Like clockwork, Vernon's face began to purple. His hands curled to fists and as Harry watched and prayed to some higher power that he wouldn't die that day, Vernon swung his arm. A good three hours later, Harry woke up from his unconscious state, mentally wondering exactly what had prompted him to attempt suicide. He tried to move himself in a practiced manner, trying to see exactly where he had been damaged. After the fifth fracture he found, he sighed and lay back, trying not to fall asleep while waiting for his "miracle" to happen.