Harry turned in the direction of the question and noticed a teenager with spiky black hair and pale skin, who looked strangely familiar. "Hey, yeah, that's me. Sasuke I presume?" It took him a second, but then he realized why Sasuke seemed familiar, he had an uncanny resemblance to Fugaku.
Of course, the second that thought crossed through his mind, he heard a familiar voice calling his name. Looking in the other direction he saw Fugaku approaching, which let Harry fully appreciate how similar they looked. They weren't twins, but if they weren't brothers Harry would be very surprised.
The fact that Fugaku did not seemed pleased to see Sasuke was further evidence they were brothers. Only a sibling should warrant that kind of irritation.
Finally Harry noticed a more familiar, and in his opinion pleasant looking, person arriving at the meeting place. Leaving the brothers to settle things, he turned to her with a smile.
Of course, as he'd suspected, she honed in on his gloved and bandaged hand, the attention causing it to throb in pain once again. Focusing in her first question he replied, "Yeah, I'm all set whenever everyone else is." He looked down at the hand for a second, then replied, "Hurts, but by the time we get back I think one of the others should be free to take care of it. It's not like I was doing much with that hand anyway."
Sasuke nodded to confirm his identity, grateful that he'd managed to find the man on his first try. He was about to ask the exact nature of the expedition -- how did this 'spell' work (it was difficult for Sasuke to believe in magic that wasn't simply genjutsu trickery, even after this long spent in Manhattan)? -- when a voice that was more familiar than he liked interrupted.
This kind of awkwardness was not exactly what Sasuke had been looking forward to, especially at this point.
Fugaku's less-than-enthusiastic greeting didn't help matters. Before he could stop it, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the man who supposedly would become his father, speaking with just as much coldness. "The same as you, most likely. Looking for food."
He registered that a woman had shown up and was speaking with the wizard, but focused on dealing with Fugaku for now.
It was extremely tempting to form ninjutsu seals and call up enough fire to blast Sasuke’s face off. Or at least attempt to-the brat was a shinobi, which meant he’d likely be able to dodge-because fuck, there were people Fugaku just did not like, and Sasuke would be one of them until the situation changed. Changed drastically. But you didn’t fight Konoha-nin without reason, even if they were Avengers, and Fugaku only scowled, eyes narrowed, but still dark.
No Sharingan without a reason. Just a rule.
One way or another, they’d deal. Get the food.
If the brat stayed out of his way, Fugaku would do the same.
“Unless you get hurt, I’m ignoring you,” Fugaku announced. “Do the same. Or we can fight. Rather not fight, though. Wastes time.”
Riza looked at Harry for a moment with a steady gaze before finally looking away, "As long as you get it taken care of soon."
That said the woman turned her attention to their companions on this little mission: two men who were obviously relatives and apparently did not like each other at all. She frowned slightly, "I would prefer if you were going to fight to do it elsewhere we're not here for that sort of thing and maybe you could take it to a place where you could knock out a few crabs while you were at it." Riza's 'no nonsense' face was in full swing now.
There was a part of Sasuke that was identifying pieces of his father in this surly teenager, but there was a part just as large that was refusing it. Uchiha Fugaku as Sasuke had known him was head of the police force in Konohagakure, a man well-respected and well-connected, and it was difficult to believe that he had managed such a thing with the assets he had now.
Especially since Fugaku was the one who was being antagonistic. Sasuke was fairly sure of this: he'd done nothing to the man but help heal him and drag him to a safer place once he'd arrived.
(There was a very small part of Sasuke that wondered if Fugaku would have disliked Sasuke just as much had he lived -- but he suppressed it. Not important, not anymore. And Fugaku had ignored Sasuke anyway. Not worthy of attention.)
"I have no interest in fighting you," Sasuke said shortly, and very deliberately turned his attention to the woman and the wizard who'd arranged this thing in the first place. "Or in fighting anything that isn't attacking. I'm ready to get to business."
“Good,” Fugaku said shortly, and then turned to Dresden, waiting for orders. This wasn’t his gig, wasn’t his command. Despite what people thought and sometimes said, Fugaku was damn good at following orders. He was a good shinobi, fully deserving of his jounin rank.
It wasn’t really that Sasuke had done anything, per say, but the idea of him being…..well, what he claimed to be (and fuck if it wasn’t true because he looked like Mikoto too fucking much) was a bit much for Fugaku. His intentions were to survive the war. Nothing else. That was hard enough as it was.
No matter what Sasuke said, he’d never become the Clan Head. Maybe the Military-Police Captain. Fugaku could see that happening. He was good at commanding combat-operations, had been given a leadership role early on, but that didn’t extend to politics. It wasn’t even close. Fugaku was something of a failure in that area. He admitted the fact easily.
No matter what the brat said, he wouldn’t be the Clan-Head. Hell, Fugaku didn’t want that position. He was happy as a plain jounin.
Riza resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the two, she was quite good at resisting that urge considering how often it had come upon her in the military. Instead as soon as it looked like they were done she turned to Harry, "So, what's the plan and how are we to help you locate the food?"
Well, looks like those two had finally settled down. Harry had to admit he was curious about what was going on between them, but years of sticking his nose where it didn't belong had taught him that family conflicts were not something outsiders usually benefited from getting involved in. Besides, it was time to get to work, and the throbbing in his hand was keeping him from coming up with any really good one liners.
"Alright then, I've constructed a spell that will identify any food within a certain range. We'll be heading north, skirting the park, in search of regions that haven't been hit. I'll be focusing on watching the spell, so I need you all to keep a watch out for any crabs that might decide to show up. Any questions?"
Sounded good enough. It was a pretty big party, considering the only opponents they were likely to meet were crabs, but at least that provided some insurance that there wasn't going to be any kind of real trouble.
It might have been some time since Sasuke had last taken an order, but no shinobi could really forget how. Besides, it was a good plan; Sasuke would accept being a subordinate for this purpose.
"Understood," he said, nodding shortly, and hefted the length of scrap metal he'd brought (out of quite a few pieces he'd salvaged), testing the balance.
Fugaku nodded. The plan was neat and simple, and they could take on crabs if the little monsters decided to show. Well, unless they showed up in a swarm, in which case Fugaku would suggest they all run like hell to avoid getting eaten, but that was just how those things tended to work out.
Dresden explained what his…..jutsu…right, or spell…thing did, but not why it worked, what was powering it. Fugaku was curious, but not enough to admit it and ask. Maybe later.
“No questions,” he murmured, hand slipping back to the blade at his belt. Not long enough to be a sword, but not short enough to be a dagger. A machete. It was sharp enough, and not so different from a kodachi. He’d practiced. He could use it well enough.
"Sounds simple enough," Riza replied, adjusting the position of her shoulder holster. Her guns were loaded and she had plenty of extra rounds...but she'd also brought a knife along in case she did run out. So they were heading north...she realized that was probably the best idea if they were looking for food that hadn't been touched...of course the chances of finding a grocery store seemed slim (especially considering that had already happened).
"Let's head out then," she said, waiting for Harry to start the spell.
Harry nodded. "Alright, just give me a second to cast the spell." Harry set a can of food down and his mother's pendant on the pavement, and fishing out a piece of chalk he drew a circle around it, then sealed it to trap the magical energies within. Chanting under his breath, he began to shape the energies within the circle, enchanting the pendant to seek out any item that had the same mystical footprint as the can itself. It was tough work, his throbbing hand seeming to sap his magical strength and concentration, but he managed to push through and keep the spell from getting away from him.
Once the spell was complete, Harry broke the circle and picked up the pentagram necklace. Standing up, he held up the pendant, which immediately lifted itself to point directly at the food on the ground. "Okay, we're in business. Let's move out."
Sasuke watched the spell with a fair amount of interest. Time in Manhattan had made it clear that there were more than a few different sources and uses of power between the different worlds, but someone who claimed to be able to use magic was still unusual. The temptation to slip into Sharingan and check if it was in fact chakra that Harry was shaping was strong, but Sasuke had no illusions about how it would look to Fugaku, and how the rather twitchy jounin would react.
It was difficult to be sure exactly how it worked without the help of the doujutsu, though -- what was the purpose of the circle? And what exactly made that pendant react properly?
Outwardly, he watched the pendant and prepared to move.
Having seen Dresden work magic before, Fugaku was able to keep his face blank. Inside, though, he was fascinated. Even without sharingan, the energy being used was so clear. Well, obvious would have been a better word, but that was how things worked. Huh.
Well, people seemed to think it would work. The wizard had found his dog tags, after all. Food couldn’t be that much harder.
Riza watched as well but given that she had seen Harry perform a few spells and the fact that she didn't know enough about any sort of magic to compare it to, she kept more of her attention on their surroundings in case some crabs decided to catch up with them early. She noticed that Sasuke seemed a lot more curious about the spell and Fugaku had that neutral look on his face that rivaled some of the blank faces Riza could pull off. It would make him difficult to read that was for sure.
As soon as Harry stood up, the pendant pointing to the can, Riza nodded and waited for Harry to start leading them off with the pendant.
Harry turned in the direction of the question and noticed a teenager with spiky black hair and pale skin, who looked strangely familiar. "Hey, yeah, that's me. Sasuke I presume?" It took him a second, but then he realized why Sasuke seemed familiar, he had an uncanny resemblance to Fugaku.
Of course, the second that thought crossed through his mind, he heard a familiar voice calling his name. Looking in the other direction he saw Fugaku approaching, which let Harry fully appreciate how similar they looked. They weren't twins, but if they weren't brothers Harry would be very surprised.
The fact that Fugaku did not seemed pleased to see Sasuke was further evidence they were brothers. Only a sibling should warrant that kind of irritation.
Finally Harry noticed a more familiar, and in his opinion pleasant looking, person arriving at the meeting place. Leaving the brothers to settle things, he turned to her with a smile.
Of course, as he'd suspected, she honed in on his gloved and bandaged hand, the attention causing it to throb in pain once again. Focusing in her first question he replied, "Yeah, I'm all set whenever everyone else is." He looked down at the hand for a second, then replied, "Hurts, but by the time we get back I think one of the others should be free to take care of it. It's not like I was doing much with that hand anyway."
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This kind of awkwardness was not exactly what Sasuke had been looking forward to, especially at this point.
Fugaku's less-than-enthusiastic greeting didn't help matters. Before he could stop it, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the man who supposedly would become his father, speaking with just as much coldness. "The same as you, most likely. Looking for food."
He registered that a woman had shown up and was speaking with the wizard, but focused on dealing with Fugaku for now.
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No Sharingan without a reason. Just a rule.
One way or another, they’d deal. Get the food.
If the brat stayed out of his way, Fugaku would do the same.
“Unless you get hurt, I’m ignoring you,” Fugaku announced. “Do the same. Or we can fight. Rather not fight, though. Wastes time.”
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That said the woman turned her attention to their companions on this little mission: two men who were obviously relatives and apparently did not like each other at all. She frowned slightly, "I would prefer if you were going to fight to do it elsewhere we're not here for that sort of thing and maybe you could take it to a place where you could knock out a few crabs while you were at it." Riza's 'no nonsense' face was in full swing now.
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Turning back to the other two, he let Riza take over dealing with them, although he made a point of looking at a nonexistent watch.
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Especially since Fugaku was the one who was being antagonistic. Sasuke was fairly sure of this: he'd done nothing to the man but help heal him and drag him to a safer place once he'd arrived.
(There was a very small part of Sasuke that wondered if Fugaku would have disliked Sasuke just as much had he lived -- but he suppressed it. Not important, not anymore. And Fugaku had ignored Sasuke anyway. Not worthy of attention.)
"I have no interest in fighting you," Sasuke said shortly, and very deliberately turned his attention to the woman and the wizard who'd arranged this thing in the first place. "Or in fighting anything that isn't attacking. I'm ready to get to business."
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It wasn’t really that Sasuke had done anything, per say, but the idea of him being…..well, what he claimed to be (and fuck if it wasn’t true because he looked like Mikoto too fucking much) was a bit much for Fugaku. His intentions were to survive the war. Nothing else. That was hard enough as it was.
No matter what Sasuke said, he’d never become the Clan Head. Maybe the Military-Police Captain. Fugaku could see that happening. He was good at commanding combat-operations, had been given a leadership role early on, but that didn’t extend to politics. It wasn’t even close. Fugaku was something of a failure in that area. He admitted the fact easily.
No matter what the brat said, he wouldn’t be the Clan-Head. Hell, Fugaku didn’t want that position. He was happy as a plain jounin.
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"Alright then, I've constructed a spell that will identify any food within a certain range. We'll be heading north, skirting the park, in search of regions that haven't been hit. I'll be focusing on watching the spell, so I need you all to keep a watch out for any crabs that might decide to show up. Any questions?"
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It might have been some time since Sasuke had last taken an order, but no shinobi could really forget how. Besides, it was a good plan; Sasuke would accept being a subordinate for this purpose.
"Understood," he said, nodding shortly, and hefted the length of scrap metal he'd brought (out of quite a few pieces he'd salvaged), testing the balance.
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Dresden explained what his…..jutsu…right, or spell…thing did, but not why it worked, what was powering it. Fugaku was curious, but not enough to admit it and ask. Maybe later.
“No questions,” he murmured, hand slipping back to the blade at his belt. Not long enough to be a sword, but not short enough to be a dagger. A machete. It was sharp enough, and not so different from a kodachi. He’d practiced. He could use it well enough.
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"Let's head out then," she said, waiting for Harry to start the spell.
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Once the spell was complete, Harry broke the circle and picked up the pentagram necklace. Standing up, he held up the pendant, which immediately lifted itself to point directly at the food on the ground. "Okay, we're in business. Let's move out."
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It was difficult to be sure exactly how it worked without the help of the doujutsu, though -- what was the purpose of the circle? And what exactly made that pendant react properly?
Outwardly, he watched the pendant and prepared to move.
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Well, people seemed to think it would work. The wizard had found his dog tags, after all. Food couldn’t be that much harder.
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As soon as Harry stood up, the pendant pointing to the can, Riza nodded and waited for Harry to start leading them off with the pendant.
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