Chapter Text
"I see." Sarutobi grunted in thought. "I'm sure you understand that this is a lot to process Dumbledore-san."
The old man with the long white beard and strange, foreign robes nodded in understanding.
As Hokage, Sarutobi knew of the outside world as well as the magical side to it, but he didn’t understand it as much as he was comfortable with admitting. He knew that a long time ago their worlds had separated and were hidden from each other through magic and chakra and that around 60 years ago a strange foreign man— the same man that stood before him now— had broken the barrier and entered their world. The same man that was now telling him that there was a witch within the walls of his village.
"There has never been a case of someone from our land being able to use magic. You are sure she is one of your kind?" he asked.
Dumbledore nodded again. "There is no mistake, Hokage-sama."
“It is rather extraordinary,” Dumbledore hummed. “To survive this long, the child must be exceptionally willful and strong.”
Afterall, on the shinobi side of the barrier, there was very little magic energy to absorb. Her entire life, she’d have been relying solely on the power of her own magical core. A truly incredible feat.
“Yes,” the old Hokage agreed, his eyes softening the slightest bit with fondness and perhaps something sadder. Willful and strong were perfect words to describe Naruto Uzumaki.
….
In his long life, Dumbledore had unfortunately met plenty of orphans and muggle-born wizards who had lived hard lives full of discrimination by those who didn’t understand. However, he had yet to meet someone with quite a story as Naruto Uzumaki, a child who was plagued with misfortune since the very day she was born.
Sarutobi had led Dumbledore to the poorer part of the village, where the buildings were old and rundown and packed tightly together. Some were incredibly damaged or completely demolished, never having been repaired from the *Kyūbi attack all those years ago.
On the top floor of a decrepit building, they made it to the apartment that housed the jinchūriki. Their gazes became somber as they took in the fresh coating of paint on the door that hadn’t yet managed to dry completely nor cover the cruel words underneath. The near-empty bucket of paint was resting close by in preparation for the next coat and Dumbledore couldn’t help but wonder how often the child had to repaint her door. By the thickness it was caked with, he concluded it was quite a number of times.
Sarutobi did well not to show the anger he felt as he knocked on the wall beside it.
They waited awhile but there was no answer.
Sarutobi knocked again and after a moment added, "Naruto, it is me. You can open the door."
They waited only a few seconds more before the door was opened just enough for the person inside to see them.
Sarutobi noticed the questioning and wary gaze that Naruto quickly shot at Dumbledore and understood.
"This is a friend of mine," Sarutobi assured. "May we come in?"
The fear and wariness were skillfully masked with a big smile as she pretended that she wasn’t previously worried that the people at her door were the same ones who had painted the cruel words on it earlier.
“Hey, *Jiichan! Sorry to keep ya waiting, ‘ttebayo,” Naruto greeted loudly as she opened the door wide. “I was in the bathroom.” She grinned sheepishly.
He didn’t bother to call her out on the lie. If he didn’t know her better, he would have even believed her act.
“Come on in!” She motioned them in with a wave of the hand and a welcoming smile as she led the way inside.
Frankly, if Dumbledore didn't know she was a girl he would have guessed she was a boy with how her hair was butchered into short spikes. The baggy hoodie and shorts she wore were multiple sizes too large for her tiny body. She was small for her age, skinny and frail from malnourishment.
His observations of the young girl were forced to discontinue, however, once the door was closed behind them and they were shrouded in darkness.
“Sorry, about the lights! I’ve been meaning to get new bulbs, ‘ttebayo!” she hastened to explain. She picked things up as she went deeper into the dark apartment with an embarrassed chuckle. “And about the mess.” She scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. “Don’t get many visitors.”
Indeed, there were clothes thrown haphazardly, scrolls and books laid open and empty ramen cups everywhere. There wasn't much furniture, but what there was was old and worn down, torn in some places and rotting in others. The walls and ceiling were stained and cracked, with black mold growing in areas. And what windows there were were broken and crudely covered up with boards.
However, there was one thing that looked very out of place in the broken and decaying apartment: beautiful green plants that were very well kept and healthy despite their surroundings. They provided the only color in the dull home and although only slightly, they brought a spark of life to the place, which was, Dumbledore assumed, the reason they, out of everything, were so well cared for.
Dumbledore made it to the kitchen table and stood beside the Hokage. It was a small table, only meant to accommodate one or occasionally two people. The rotting wood was covered up with a tattered cloth that may have once been considered white. Only one chair— that was kept from tilting to the left by a book under the shorter leg— was pulled up.
“Ah, right! A chair!” the girl exclaimed. She repeatedly said the name of the object under her breath as she searched, as if the chant would miraculously make it appear.
“Naruto,” Sarutobi called softly.
“I know I have one here somewhere, Jiichan. Just gimme a sec, ‘ttebayo,” she called back, her voice muffled from wherever she had stuck her head in.
“AHA!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “I knew I had one.” She grinned cheekily as she handed Dumbledore a plastic chair with a large crack down the backrest. “Never underestimate Uzumaki Naruto, Future Hokage! Dattebayo!”
“Thank you very much Naruto-san.” Dumbledore smiled kindly towards the young girl whose eyes grew wide at the gesture.
In that moment of shock— shock at being smiled at and thanked— he was able to see into her eyes, into her mind, and see just how much pain and sorrow she hid behind her squinty smiles. It was only for a moment before she awkwardly averted her gaze with a wipe of her nose and a fox-like smile. But in that moment, Dumbledore was able to see just how broken the young girl in front of him really was.
“No problem, Jiichan, ‘ttebayo.” Then she seemed to jump with an exciting realization.
“Oh! Oh! Tea!” she blurted, smiling brightly at them as if expecting the two men to share her enthusiasm for the beverage. Before they even had time to respond to the exclamation she had jumped to where she kept the dry tea leaves excitedly.
She had them ever since she learned that it was polite to offer it to your guests. But this was the first time she had ever had such an occasion.
The two men stayed silent as they watched her jump around the kitchen, trying to make tea for the first time. They were able to recognize that it was something important to the girl, so they sat politely and waited for her to finish.
Naruto’s smile first faltered when the faucet sputtered on and they all watched the brown water halt every once in a while from thick sludge. The girl, noticing their gaze, blushed slightly in embarrassment before filling the kettle with the dirty water.
“Don’t worry.” She smiled reassuringly. “I drink it all the time. It doesn’t look very pretty but the tea will cover the taste, dattebayo.”
They said nothing but neither of them were very assured by that, only saddened.
She then brought the kettle to the rusty stove but despite her tinkering, it never lit. They watched as her head bowed so that her short blonde hair shadowed her features, but she continued.
The Hokage quietly sighed through his nose after a time when he saw her shoulders begin to tremble. “Naruto.”
She turned her dull blue eyes toward him and he saw the unshed tears glistening with shame and frustration.
“She turned it off again, didn’t she?” he asked calmly, referring to the landlady.
Naruto’s mouth opened to deny it, to come up with another explanation but nothing came to mind quick enough to quell the old man’s suspicion.
He closed his eyes in order to hide the controlled rage that flashed behind them.
“I shall have a word with her.”
Her already too big eyes widened with a spark of fear— the landlady always got angry with her when the Hokage spoke to her about her ‘mistreatment’— but she quickly hid it with a sheepish laugh as she scratched the back of her head.
“It’s ok, really!” she claimed. “It’s like training, ‘ttebayo. I mean it’s important for a ninja to be able to see and work in the dark and it’s not like I’d have access to clean water or gas when I’m on a mission, right?”
Sarutobi’s lips thinned but he dropped the subject.
"Naruto, the reason I came here is to introduce you to a friend of mine. This is Dumbledore-san." He gestured to the strange man beside him who had smiled so kindly at her before.
Dumbledore took it as his cue so he stood and bowed. "Hello Naruto-san. I am *Dumbledore Albus, Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Naruto’s eyebrows furrowed as her mouth twisted in skepticism. Had she heard right?
“Did ya jus’ say ‘a school of witchcraft and wizardry’?”
“Yes, that’s right.” He smiled at her with a twinkle in his blue eyes.
“Like magic?”
“Precisely.” His smile widened.
“I don’t get it.” Her eyes were squinted like a fox and her lips pulled down in a confused frown.
The old man chuckled softly. “You see, Naruto-san, you are a witch, like I am a wizard.”
She turned to the Hokage. “Jiichan,” she covered her mouth from Dumbledore's view with her hand, her brows furrowed in concern, “is he okay?”
Dumbledore chuckled lightly. “I am actually quite well, thank you.” He adjusted in his seat as if to show that he was comfortable, causing the girl to sweatdrop.
“Tell me, Naruto-san,” he settled his piercing blue gaze on her, “has there ever been a time you were angry or scared and something happened that you couldn't explain?" he asked.
The girl paled but stayed silent, and with a stubborn gaze she gave a single shake of her head in denial.
"Naruto," Sarutobi urged.
Naruto's jaw tensed as she gulped. "Well, sometimes," she began hesitantly, "when the villagers..." She stopped with a clack of her jaw. "Things happen... They blame me for it. But I didn't do it!" she claimed, "I didn't touch them! I promise, dattebayo!" She looked at them, pleading with her eyes to believe her.
"You may not have touched them, Naruto-san, but you did do it."
Naruto looked appalled and hurt at the calm statement and her skin had turned an ashy grey.
"No! I didn't do it! I promise!" she cried. "There's no way I could've! I didn't touch them, ‘ttebayo!”
"You didn't need to touch them. You did it with magic, Naruto-san,” Dumbledore explained patiently. “You see, young witches and wizards don’t have much control over their emotions or magical cores and will sometimes have spurts of what is known as accidental magic, especially if they are angered or frightened.”
“No.” She shook her head in denial. “I couldn’t have done that because magic’s not real, ‘ttebayo.” Her voice sounded desperate as her face set stubbornly, not wanting to believe what the old man was telling her.
“I assure you that it is, Naruto-san.” And as soon as the words left his mouth the lights flickered on and the kettle she had left on the unlit stove began to whistle. The old wizard’s eyes twinkled merrily behind his half-moon glasses at the stunned look on the girl’s face.
“This is why I am here to invite you to attend my school—"
Naruto stumbled back and when she grasped for the chair that wasn't there, she fell hard onto the floor.
Sarutobi instantly shot up with his quicker reflexes and Dumbledore quickly followed to see if the small girl was alright.
She, however, didn’t even seem to acknowledge that she was on the floor or that she had fallen. Her eyes stared blankly in front of her.
"A witch.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Her glazed eyes, so full of pain and horror, looked up to the older men. “Is that why they hate me?" Her eyes began to fill with tears as her face twisted with dolor. "Is that why they're scared?” her voice cracked. “Because I'm a witch?"
Her scared and pleading eyes turned to Sarutobi. "I-I promise I didn't mean to hurt them, Jiichan. I promise I didn't!"
Something pulled uncomfortably in the old ninja’s chest and he found it hard to look into the child’s desperate eyes. He reached his calloused hand out to her in a wish to comfort her, but his hand and heart dropped when she flinched violently away. With careful motions, he laid it gently across her small, dirty hand instead.
"We know you didn't,” he assured her. “There are many children like you, Naruto. You are not alone. Hogwarts is a place where they teach children like you to control their power and they can teach you as well.”
Naruto’s gaze darted up from where she was looking at his hand on top of hers with eyes that tried to hold back on the hope slipping in. “There are others like me?”
The old wizard nodded with a kind smile. “Indeed there are Naruto-san, and it is my job to educate them. And if you so wish it, you as well.”
Her face lightened at the idea but then fell in consideration. She turned her concern to the Hokage. "What about becoming a ninja?" she asked worriedly.
To be a ninja and acknowledged by the village was her dream. It had been her dream for so long. It had been what drove her, what defined her existence. There was absolutely nothing that could keep her from wanting that, not even finding out that she was a witch.
"Of course you would continue your ninja training while at Hogwarts. Dumbledore-san and I would make arrangements so that you could practice efficiently on your own.”
Dumbledore nodded. “Of course, Hokage-sama. But, understand, Naruto-san, it will not be easy. You will have a larger workload than any other student and it will be up to you to balance it all.”
Naruto nodded her head in understanding. “I can do it, ‘ttebayo.”
By the smile and eye twinkle she received, it must have been the correct answer. “Very good.” He reached into his robes and pulled out an envelope with a writing she didn’t recognize and a crest of some kind with four animals on it. It was held closed with a red, waxy seal with an “H” stamped into it.
“That is your acceptance letter,” the wizened wizard explained. “It has a list of everything you will need for classes.”
Naruto took it without a word, still trying to decipher the unknown scripture and process everything that had so suddenly changed.
“You will meet Dumbledore-san in my office tomorrow morning. He will take you to get the supplies you need and has offered to provide everything. The trip will last only a day so packing is unnecessary.”
“Right.” She looked to the kindly old man and tried to return the smile he was giving her. “I guess I’ll see ya then, wizard-san, ‘ttebayo!”
“Indeed. It has been a pleasure, Naruto-san.” He tilted his head to her. “Farewell.”
He left with Sarutobi and as soon as the door closed behind them, she turned her attention to the letter once more. She eagerly broke the seal to see what kind of stuff she would need at a magic school.
Her face fell in exasperated horror.
“IT’S ALL GIBBERISH, DATTEBAYO!!!”