Chapter 63: 4-11: Calling
Disclaimer: Being neither British nor Japanese, it should therefore come as no surprise that I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor anything from their respective franchises.
It was a couple days after Gamato's monthly visit for March, and an uninformed observer would think that Iruka was some kind of narcissist. An informed observer would know that the mirror he was holding was part of a linked pair, that the other half of the pair had been sent back with Gamato, and that the chuunin's monthly report had instructed the Seventh Hokage to hold his mirror and speak Iruka's name at 2PM today. He'd pulled his mirror out and gotten ready around 1:30 - years of putting up with the Sixth's chronic tardiness had left his successor with a deep appreciation for punctuality, so Iruka knew it was better to be ready a bit early. It had nothing to do with any sort of eagerness to see the face of someone from home for the first time in half a decade, obviously.
At two on the dot, he felt the mirror suddenly warm and start to vibrate in his hand. A tap of his wand later and his reflection was replaced by the familiar sight of the Seventh Hokage sitting at his desk, albeit from a lot closer than Iruka was accustomed to. «Whoa!» Naruto's voice came through, «This is cool! It's like a pocket-sized version of a video call, y'know? Anyway, hi, Iruka-sensei! Reading that you were okay was good, but it's way better to see it, y'know?»
«It's good to see you too, Naruto,» Iruka smiled warmly at his former student, «and it's good to see Konoha again. How's everybody doing?»
«Pretty good,» Naruto replied, «Shino's kinda taken over the Academy at this point. He's a solid teacher, no question, but he's not exactly the most expressive person ever, y'know? Sometimes the kids just need a few kind words to perk them up, or the Giant Head of Doom to scare them back into line. Oh yeah, and Ayame's been asking about you.» His smile turned predatory. «Do I need to have words with you about being a proper gentleman when you get back?»
Iruka chuckled, shaking his head. «No, no, we're just friends. I'm afraid you'll have to keep saving your Shovel Talk for whatever boyfriends or girlfriends Himawari-chan eventually brings home.»
«Oh, don't worry about that,» the Hokage laughed, «I've got a few of 'em already written up for when that happens. There's even a couple for Boruto's first date, y'know! Granted,» he said scratching the back of his head with a wide grin, «I'll probably ditch the whole scroll and just wing it, but it was still fun coming up with creative threats.»
Laughter echoed in two offices, literally worlds apart.
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After a bit more small talk (well, the Hokage's official records listed it as «Verifying the Functionality of Communications Equipment»), the two shinobi had arranged for the next mirror-call to occur during S.E.N.'s next weekend training session, before signing off. Iruka had promptly dashed off notes to Albus and Filius to let them know about the opportunity to meet Naruto, at least after a fashion.
Thus it was that five students and three Professors gathered in the Room that Sunday. The Room itself had provided a set of chairs, and Albus had conjured a stand to hold the mirror. The Headmaster was calmly sitting there as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, but there was no way he'd chosen bright orange robes by accident or coincidence.
As with their first conversation, Naruto called exactly on time. «Hey everybody!» he half-shouted, as boisterous and friendly as always. «I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the Seventh Hokage y'know?»
"Greetings, Hokage Uzumaki," Albus intoned with a formal tone that didn't quite match his warm smile and twinkling eyes, "I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. Might I say, your English is excellent."
Naruto looked as confused as Iruka felt. «Um, I'm not speaking English Albus-sensei.»
The expression of bafflement spread to the entire group for a moment, until Luna's eyes lit up. "It's the Room!" she explained, "Iruka-sensei wanted a place we could train, as usual, but he must have been thinking about somewhere to talk to Naruto-san when he called up the door. The Room didn't just provide chairs; it's somehow translating for us!"
"That seems the most likely explanation," the Headmaster acknowledged with a smile. "I have spent a full century practicing magic, most of it in this very castle, and yet even now it still manages to surprise me. There are times when I wonder whether we will ever fully grasp the wonder the Founders worked here."
«So that's that room you told me about,» Naruto asked, «the one that turns into whatever you need? This magic stuff is awesome, y'know?»
"It certainly makes life easier," Iruka agreed, "now why don't the rest of those present introduce themselves?"
Filius and the five students each gave their names and greeted Naruto, before someone else in Konoha decided it was time for his own introduction.
«YOSH!» A deep-voiced bellow blasting out of the mirror caused everyone to flinch back in their seats, and Naruto visibly cringed at his end. «I am Jounin Maito Gai, Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey! Iruka-san has told us of his students and friends, and how brightly their flames of youth burn!» A few words in, Naruto shifted his mirror to point at the bushy-browed taijutsu master, so everyone saw the visible gleam of his grin at the end.
«I figured he should be here for this meeting, too, since he was in charge of the research team trying to find you,» Naruto explained, before turning to the rest of the group. «Gai's not exactly the research type, but just about nobody can beat him for motivating people, and I knew he'd be fair with everybody and not just ignore the junior researchers. A few of the team also mentioned that it actually helped having somebody that didn't know their field asking questions - it brought a new perspective, and apparently explaining what you're doing and where you're having a problem is a great way to find a solution. Something to remember when you're doing your homework, y'know?»
"Indeed," Albus nodded, "I have found much the same. You and your research team are to be commended, Mr. Maito, both for your success and for the tremendous effort it must have required to achieve."
«Thank you, Dumbledore-sensei,» Gai replied, «and I will pass your thanks on to my youthful team, but I was merely aiding a comrade as any shinobi of Konoha would.»
«And speaking of Konoha,» Naruto chimed in, «I know it's a small window, but I figured I could give you guys a bit of a look around. I'll be back, Gai.» The image in the mirror was little more than a blur of motion for a moment, ending with the familiar setting of the roof of the Hokage Tower. «Come on in close, get a good look. We're on top of the building I run the village from, and those are the faces of the Hokage.» The mirror's view veered around briefly before settling on the stone face of Senjuu Hashirama. «Here's the First Hokage, one of the founders of Konoha and a generally awesome guy. Next up is the Second, his brother, a bit cold but super smart; he came up with the jutsu that helped my dad and me kick ass!» Iruka nearly face-faulted at that line. Naruto's voice turned fond and wistful. «Third is jiji, the Third Hokage, a.k.a. The Professor, The God of Shinobi, and various other titles. He was one of the first people to acknowledge me. After him is my dad, the Fourth Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash, fastest guy ever no matter what A-ojisan says. He and my mom gave their lives saving me and the village. This is baa-chan, the Fifth Hokage, who loves gambling even though she basically never wins. She's an awesome medic, though, and she taught Sakura. Kakashi-sensei's next, and I still half-expect his carving to not be finished yet every time I look up there. And finally, me! I'm usually not that serious-looking though. If you guys want to know more, you can ask Iruka-sensei later; he could use some practice so his lectures on Konoha's history don't get rusty, y'know?»
The view blurred again, presumably a shunshin. «Of course, if you want to see the village itself, you want to be up high.» Judging by the angle, Naruto was standing on the carved head of the Fourth, as was his custom. The village looked just as it had at the time of Iruka's unexpected departure, the great walls and vast forests surrounding it visible in the distance as the view panned around. «We don't really have time for a full-on tour today, but that'd be better when you guys can come here in person anyway.»
Another shunshin-blur took the mirror and its holder back to the Hokage's office. «So, Albus-sensei, Filius-sensei,» Naruto said, stumbling more than a little trying to pronounce the foreign names, «I've been hearing and reading a lot about magic, and those potions and stuff Iruka-sensei's sent have been really neat, but he hasn't exactly been studying it for long enough to be able to really show it off...»
Albus nodded, understanding immediately, and with a smile and a flourish of his wand conjured a large oak table with beautifully-carved sides and legs. He then turned to Filius with a 'go ahead' gesture, and the Charms Professor obliged by animating the table to prance around the room. The somersault at the end was particularly impressive and drew laughs from many of those watching.
"Hey, Naruto-san," Luna piped up, "could you show us some ninjutsu?"
«Sure!» Naruto responded. «What've they seen from you so far, Iruka-sensei?»
«Mostly fairly basic stuff,» Iruka answered, «the Academy Three, tree-walking and water-walking, Water Clones, some Suiton and Katon, and a couple genjutsu.»
Naruto nodded. «Well, I guess I could show you guys a few things, though I can't exactly cut loose in my office.» His voice trailed off into a grumble. «One little accident and everybody's yelling at me and making me do extra paperwork...»
«Naruto,» Iruka sighed, «you blew a three meter hole in your office wall with one of your Rasengan experiments.»
«It was an accident, y'know!» Naruto said defensively, «And it was just the one time! How was I supposed to know that chakra mix would be unstable?»
Albus coughed politely, interrupting the brewing argument. "May I ask what this 'Rasengan' is?"
Naruto smirked and held up his hand, before forming the characteristic orb of swirling chakra. «This is the Rasengan, one of the most powerful ninjutsu in the world. My dad spent three years developing it, and you can count the number of people that can use it on one hand. The idea's pretty simple in theory, just spinning your chakra in a bunch of different directions in a tight ball. In practice, well, it's like trying to look left and right at the same time, and it takes loads of power to boot. I've got my own versions, various upgrades and variants, but most of 'em tend to result in big craters.»
"It's rather beautiful, in a way," Filius commented, "particularly if one forgets its lethal purpose. Quite mesmerizing to look at, really."
«Yeah, a lot of ninja stuff is like that. It looks cool just showing it off, just try not to think about how it's meant to be used.» Naruto let the jutsu dissipate into rapidly-fading wisps of chakra. «I've got one exception I can think of that's pretty flashy, or should I say we've got one...» Between one instant and the next, his entire body flared yellow as he engaged his jinchuuriki cloak. «This is what happens when Kurama and I are working together. Say 'hi' to everyone, fuzzball!»
Two arms of glowing golden chakra emerged from Naruto's shoulders. One waved its clawed hand at the mirror, while the other smacked Naruto on the head. «Yeah, yeah, laugh it up big guy. No, I can't bring out a full manifestation; we're in my office y'know! Do you have any idea what kind of mess that'd make?» Everyone in the Room went from quietly chuckling to sweat-dropping as Naruto's argument with his tenant quickly devolved into one side of a shouting match filled with increasingly-juvenile insults.
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The Horcrux-hunting team had gathered once again, as Albus still had two more memories to show. "Information about Riddle after his time here at Hogwarts is extremely sparse, and much of what can be found is of at best dubious reliability. Outside of his schooling, Tom went largely unremarked by most, keeping a low profile until his emergence as Lord Voldemort. Of the few who did note him, quite a few have died and most of those who still live are or were loyal to him and thus unlikely to divulge any useful truths. Records have been lost or destroyed. In short, it is almost certain that he has made some effort to eliminate any trace of Tom Marvolo Riddle, leaving only the enigmatic Voldemort."
"Makes sense," Sirius commented, "he hated his Muggle roots, along with anything else that didn't set him apart from and above everybody else. Plus it'd be hard to get the blood bigots behind him if they knew he was a half-blood."
Albus nodded. "That is my assessment as well. Now, to set the scene for this first memory, we must look at what Tom did after graduating from Hogwarts. Given his charisma, his ambition, and his love of power and adulation, one would expect his first move to be into politics. With the influential following he already possessed and his complete lack of conscience or scruple, he could well have effected a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the Ministry or Wizengamot. It is therefore noteworthy that he did not even attempt this route, but instead gained employment at Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley."
"Judging by the location," Iruka queried, "I'm guessing that this is something of an unsavory business?"
Remus scoffed. "That's one way of putting it. Another would be that it's Wizarding Britain's primary clearinghouse for Dark artifacts, stolen goods, and other contraband. Of course none of the items you'll find on display are strictly against the law, even if a few are borderline, and they also do a brisk trade in more legitimate antiques, but everybody knows where they make their real money. Even the DMLE knows, but proving it and pulling off a successful prosecution is hard given how many people in the Ministry are bought by those who make use of the shop's more illicit services. They also keep things low-key and don't get involved in any dealings that are too far over the line, so the Aurors tend to just figure better the devil they know."
"After all," the werewolf continued, "Borgin and Burkes have been at it for so long that they're basically the only game in town, so to speak. Shut them down, and at best you'd just get a near-identical replacement taking over in under a month. Just as likely, you'd get half a dozen separate operations that'd be heaps of trouble to track down and monitor, and some of them might start buying things stolen from murder victims, or dealing in the really nasty stuff that Borgin and Burkes have the sense not to touch, or they might end up in a turf war with their competition, or who knows what else."
"So the DMLE leaves them alone, more or less, preferring an ugly but stable status quo over the unpredictable and likely chaotic aftermath of trying to actually improve it?" Iruka concluded. "That's not that unusual. Arrangements like that were pretty common before the Fourth War, and even afterward they've not exactly disappeared."
"As interesting as this digression is," Albus cut in, "perhaps we might return to the topic at hand?" At the three younger men's chastised nods, he continued. "Borgin and Burkes was not actually Tom's first choice, but his second. His first attempt at finding employment was here at Hogwarts, where he sought to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. In what I feel was a fortuitous decision, then-Headmaster Dippet refused citing Tom's youth and lack of experience, suggesting that he return and reapply once had become more seasoned."
Sirius looked horrified. "Bloody hell," he breathed, "imagine having You-Know-Who right here at Hogwarts. I don't even want to think about the stuff he'd do to the Muggleborns."
"I don't want to think about how many impressionable children he'd have been able to indoctrinate," Remus retorted.
Albus nodded gravely. "It was the only decision Armando made regarding the young Riddle that I agree with," he stated, earning an irritated huff that the portrait of his predecessor unsuccessfully tried to pass off as a snore. "Regardless, with that avenue at least temporarily closed to him, Tom took a position that granted him access to a wide variety of items from Dark artifacts to rare tomes to valuable antiques. However, Voldemort was no mere assistant. Polite and handsome and clever, he was soon given particular jobs. Voldemort was sent to persuade people to part with their treasures for sale by the partners, and he was, by all accounts, unusually gifted at doing this."
"The memory which we are about to watch," the Headmaster continued, "comes from a house-elf named Hokey, who worked for a witch by the name of Hepzibah Smith."
Entering the Pensieve, the four wizards found themselves in a room that Iruka would describe as 'cluttered' were it not for the fact that 'clutter' implied a disorderly mess. This room was very ordered, very neat and clean, but also very... full. Shelves, cabinets, tables and the like occupied nearly all of the available space, and were themselves occupied by numerous varied and expensive-looking items. It was so packed that there was hardly anywhere to stand, and Albus was compensating by taking advantage of the memory's insubstantial nature to actually stand in a table laden with polished crystal orbs in ornate stands.
Before them stood a woman of considerable age and even more considerable girth, wearing an unconvincing ginger wig and garish pink robes that even Dolores Umbridge might consider overdone. She was applying excessive amounts of makeup while barking orders at her elf Hokey, who looked even more elderly than her mistress. Judging by the aged witch's behavior, she was clearly besotted with the male visitor she was expecting.
It was little surprise that the guest led in by Hokey was none other than Tom Marvolo Riddle, a few years older than the version Iruka had faced in the Chamber and grown into a very handsome young man. The young Voldemort-to-be easily charmed his host, who fawned over him and lapped up his attentions. Iruka would have been interested to see the goblin-made armor that Tom's employer sought to buy, but instead two other items were brought forth in leather boxes lined with silken cushions.
A harsh red light flickered in Riddle's eyes briefly as he reached out for a golden cup - a sign, perhaps, of his extensive delving into Dark magics? Regardless, his polite mask slipped briefly, as he bore a look of unvarnished greed while examining the item. The reason for his avarice was made clear when the cup was revealed to be a relic of Helga Hufflepuff. His expression momentarily turned even darker than before when Smith took the cup back.
Sirius audibly sucked in a breath as the next item was brought out. Iruka didn't blame him for reacting so strongly to seeing the locket his brother had died over. In the memory, the young Voldemort also reacted more intensely than he had with the cup. There was no real way to tell if this was because the locket was associated with the Slytherin line, because of its connection to his mother, or both. Regardless, even the elderly witch noticed that something was off about her young guest, but the moment soon passed.
Hokey departed with the two artifacts to return them to storage, the memory ended, and the four men emerged from the Pensieve. "It will not surprise you, I think, that Hepzibah Smith died a mere two days after these events," Albus said, "having ingested poison in her evening cocoa. Poor old Hokey was convicted by the Ministry of having mistaken a lethal and little-known poison for sugar. The whole affair was blamed on her being old and confused. She was not put to death, as would have been the case were the act deemed to be deliberate, and thus I was able to obtain this memory shortly before her death."
"It took Madam Smith's family some time after her passing to fully inventory her collection," Albus continued, "due both to its extensive size and to her habit of hiding away her most prized items. When they finished, they discovered that two particular artifacts were missing."
"No prizes for guessing which two," Sirius scoffed.
"Quite," Albus replied. "By that time, the young assistant from Borgin and Burkes who had so often called upon her had resigned his position and vanished, leaving no indication as to where he had gone." He used his wand to move the memory back into its phial as he spoke. "It would be another ten years before Tom Riddle was seen in Britain, and it is from that point that this final memory comes. This particular recollection was by far the easiest to obtain, for reasons I hope you will find obvious," he said as he brought his wandtip to his temple.
It was profoundly odd, Iruka felt, falling into the Pensieve only to land exactly where you'd been standing moments before. Of course, years of training in using, recognizing, and countering genjutsu allowed the chuunin to spot that it wasn't truly the same office. A moment's glance at his surroundings showed countless minor differences, mostly in the assortment and arrangement of books and trinkets. The snow falling outside the window was a much more obvious clue.
A knock on the office door prompted the slightly younger-looking Dumbledore of the memory to invite his guest in. As Albus had indicated, the man who entered was easily recognizable as Tom Marvolo Riddle, though gone was the handsome young man they'd seen in other memories: His skin was deathly pale, in sharp contrast with his long black cloak, and his sclera were bloodshot. Riddle's features seemed distorted, almost artificial-looking, like a good-but-imperfect mask or the face of an embalmed cadaver.
As the former teacher and student exchanged pleasantries, few would have suspected that the two could become mortal enemies in the years to come, but to the eye of a trained shinobi a subtle but distinct tension was visible. Dumbledore's posture, while seemingly relaxed, nonetheless was that of a man surreptitiously readying himself against an attack, and both held their wine goblets in their left hands, keeping their wand hands free.
The Headmaster's insistence on using Riddle's given name rather than his chosen alias heightened the tension, but it also visibly got under the Dark-Lord-to-be's skin. 'First blood for Albus,' Iruka thought. Dumbledore chided his visitor's single-minded focus on Dark magic, and Riddle adopted a smile that wouldn't look foreign on Orochimaru, again recalling the superficial similarities between the two madmen. "But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore." His smug dismissal of love was rather ironic, considering its role in his defeat at Godric's Hollow.
Words became more heated, and the thin veneer of civility quickly crumbled as Albus revealed a far greater knowledge about Voldemort and his Death Eaters than the man in question had expected. In moments, all pretenses were dropped as the Headmaster probed Riddle about his true motives in seeking a job he didn't truly want and knew he wouldn't get. The banter turned sharp-edged, before Dumbledore explicitly accused Voldemort of having some ulterior motive in his visit. Something about this shattered the Dark wizard's composure, to the point where he very nearly drew his wand, but in the end he stormed out of the office.
Once the door slammed, the four wizards left the past and returned to the present, as before landing precisely where they'd been standing before.
A/N: I'm using an idiomatic translation for Naruto's verbal tic. Appending "y'know" to everything is a lot closer than the "believe it!" used in the anime (which was chosen to more closely match the mouth movement).
The mirror-conference-call took me forever to write - you might notice that it spent a couple chapters as my current WIP back in Book 2. I got seriously stuck on that conversation for weeks, before finally getting the inspirations that produced the last third or so.
Also, huh, I did not realize that it's "Borgin and Burkes" not "Borgin and Burke's", but if that's how it's written in the book then that's how I'm writing it.
Fic Recommendation: "Light the Blue Touch Paper and Run Like Hell" by Quatermass - Loki falls from the Bifrost only to be picked up by Zelretch, who wants him to cause mayhem in the upcoming Holy Grail War. Unsurprisingly, Loki accepts and hijinks ensue.
Posted 28 July 2019
Current WIP Chapter: 79