"So your story has ended too, hasn't it, Naruto?" I asked the empty room after reading the final page of the seven-hundredth manga chapter.
In any case, everything published after the point when he learned the Golden Cloak on Turtle Island was purely the author's invention. It was noticeable to me, of course. Kishimoto had tried, but reading it still left a sense of dissatisfaction, of falseness in certain episodes—especially for someone who had personally known Uzumaki Naruto. The man who changed the world. In every sense. Including the fact that he persuaded me, in the summer of 1996, to join that adventure with the Muggle writer.
As though deliberately timed, the first Harry Potter book entered mass publication only six months after Voldemort's defeat.
Merlin's biscuits, the entire magical world turned upside down! 'A leak,' 'a violation of the Statute of Secrecy,' 'who dared?' And then the shock and disbelief that the 'hero of magical Britain had lived in a cupboard under the stairs. Apparently, once people believed the sugar-coated fairy tale about me, they simply continued believing it. It was devilishly satisfying to dunk certain people into 'the truth about the hero' and shatter their illusions. Naruto had been right: 'straight from the source' was more reliable. No one ever found the 'leak,' and soon the second 'true book' appeared, about the Chamber of Secrets and the basilisk at Hogwarts. That triggered investigations and inspections on an entirely different scale.
Yet despite all the alarmists, the Statute of Secrecy wasn't broken, exactly as Naruto had predicted. Quite the opposite. Now you could walk through central London in wizarding robes and everyone would assume you were 'cosplaying.' Muggles always found an explanation for miracles. The children who received Hogwarts letters also arrived at least somewhat prepared for the realities of the magical world, which might be a fairy tale but certainly wasn't especially magical or pleasant. On top of that, interest in Muggle culture and integration with Muggles increased sharply among wizards because of the books.
Naruto had been right about that too.
When the book about the Tournament and Cedric's death appeared after the year 2000, I remembered Ron taking great offense at me. Just like before. Though by 1996 I had already outgrown that schoolboy friendship emotionally. I wanted to be like Naruto: strong and courageous rather than merely recklessly brave, someone who used his head. In the few days that boy spent in my world, he showed me what friendship, self-sacrifice, and duty truly meant. He changed me. Made me believe in my own strength. And when I learned his story...
"Harry, have you read this already? It arrived by owl post from Tokyo today!" Sirius entered the room carrying the familiar manga.
"Ha!" I held up my own copy and winked at my smiling godfather.
He and Naruto's clone returned in the spring of 1999, on the first anniversary of Voldemort's final death. It became a double celebration. My shinobi friend had been right about the Veil: it was something like a one-way portal. What he hadn't known was that wizards lived far longer than Muggles, and far longer than many shinobi. The clone he sent through found Sirius and used his chakra-magic to locate an exit from that world—though the exit led into a neighboring world instead of ours. In short, it took them almost three years after my godfather's 'death' to reach us. For Sirius, nearly sixty years had passed. At least he returned considerably more mature, and 'constant vigilance' had become his personal motto. He had grown attached to Naruto too. The clone, a sort of material chakra ghost containing a matrix of memories and skills, hadn't aged by a single day. That wasn't especially surprising.
The real Naruto returned to his world on the morning of July 3, 1996, after we had 'filled' that writer—who became my involuntary biographer—with everything she needed.
It happened suddenly and quickly. He only had time to say that he had to go before vanishing with a pop. When his clone returned, however, I learned Naruto's entire story from him. As it turned out, a Pensieve worked perfectly well with chakra, and it was... simply incredible. It was only a pity that afterward the clone ended his technique and returned to Naruto, saying that his mission had been completed.
At first I considered arranging for someone to write a book about him, just as one had been written about me. But those battles, those techniques—they couldn't be described! They were too spectacular even for a wizarding world accustomed to 'miracles,' never mind the Muggle world. So Sirius and I traveled to Japan. 'Ninjas, after all, had lived in Japan. Perhaps Naruto came from a parallel magical Japan where magic had transformed into chakra. It was difficult to say.
I remembered Sirius and me wandering through Tokyo for a long time before entering a bookshop, where I noticed comics on one of the displays. Unlike American comics, however, they were black-and-white, with red appearing only on a few pages. The bookseller explained that they were called manga. One Japanese comic caught my attention because its cover showed animals and people with red eyes, as though they belonged to the Uchiha clan of Naruto's friend Sasuke.
"This is the work of a young manga artist named Masashi Kishimoto," the bookseller said. "The manga won a promising-new-author award. A very talented young man, and he handles battle scenes particularly well."
After thanking him, I bought the comic and several others about martial arts.
A week later, after researching every young and promising' creator I could find, I asked my Japanese colleagues to locate Masashi Kishimoto for me.
I used almost the same method as my friend. After giving the Japanese artist the necessary potions, I immersed him in a Pensieve containing selected fragments from the clone's memories. Only the things that could be shown. I disliked people intruding into my private life, so a great deal—an enormous amount—remained 'off-screen.' And Naruto's childhood... That was too personal. For the most part, what I showed was the life of a boy soldier in a military village, all the way up to his training on Turtle Island.
In the end, the results exceeded my expectations. The manga was even adapted into animated films and television series.
"I wonder what really happened to him after that," Sirius murmured.
"I'd like to know too." I smiled. "But I'm certain someone like Naruto will achieve everything he wants."
"Speaking of that..." Sirius grinned. "I recently reread all the Harry Potter books and still don't understand why they paired you with Ginny Weasley—especially with a blood traitor."
"Authorial invention, I suppose." I shrugged. "Ginny still can't forgive me for choosing someone other than her, because the books say otherwise. But I swear by Merlin, I don't remember ever giving her reason to expect anything."
"I noticed something else in the books," he said thoughtfully. "They're written as if the author doesn't understand many things about the magical world, yet the characters use the proper terms in conversation, or the narration mentions them... as though someone dictated it to her." Sirius spoke cautiously and looked at me intently.
"All right, I admit it. It was me. Satisfied?" I raised both hands. The question still surfaced now and then and continued to disturb the magical community despite more than fifteen years having passed. Everyone understood that the source had to be someone from the 'hero's inner circle.' Many suspected Neville, which meant there had never been any direct accusations against me. I heard Joanna had secretly been tested for Seer abilities, but naturally they found nothing.
"But how? When?!" Sirius dropped into the neighboring armchair.
"Do you remember the book about the Half-Blood Prince?"
He nodded.
"It's the only book that says nothing about how I spent that summer. It was after your 'death.' Everyone abandoned me. I was desperate... I had a hysterical fit and smashed half the contents of Dumbledore's office after you fell through the Veil. Yet in the next book I'd suddenly 'come to my senses.'" I snorted. "Can you imagine, Sirius? I was so angry and distraught that, like a complete idiot, I summoned a demon to pull you out of the Veil."
"What? A demon?" Sirius's eyes widened. "But you could have—"
"Yes. I know that now." I smirked, interrupting his sudden panic. "I was lucky something went wrong and Naruto entered our world instead. He isn't exactly a demon; he's a jinchūriki. I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I'd seen what had been hidden inside him all that time..."
"Quite," Sirius snorted.
"In the summer of 1996, we tried to retrieve you from the Veil. As you know, he sent his clone after you. After what we believed was a failed attempt, Naruto and I decided to distract ourselves and traveled to Edinburgh. That's where we met Joanna Rowling. Naruto showed me his chakra—a sphere called Rasengan—and Rowling's daughter saw us. She decided Naruto was Harry Potter because he was a wizard."
"That is amusing," Sirius said with a grin. "But wait. How did they know about Harry Potter in the first place?"
"I suspect we can thank a pair of gossiping witches who talked too much at a railway station while waiting for a train. Joanna overheard fragments of my story, invented much of the rest, and was trying to publish it. We were lucky to encounter her and prevent another Rita Skeeter with wild speculation and a Quick-Quotes Quill. Though the end of the story turned out rather peculiar... and she added a great deal... including my unexpected 'wife and children.'"
"That was sensible..." Sirius said after considering it. "But in 1996..."
"I told her the story of the Boy Who Lived through the end of his fourth year," I explained.
"And then the book was accepted for publication." My godfather nodded in understanding. "Harry Potter's story became popular..."
"It's fortunate that happened after Voldemort had been defeated. Otherwise, I think events could have followed a very different path..."
"I remember the writer having a long creative crisis after finishing the fourth book. So it happened because she had written everything she knew?"
"Yes." I nodded. "The magical community was disappointed by the delay in the 'continuation' too. For me, reading a continuation in which you died—and all the rest of that filth, the Ministry, Umbridge, accusations and mockery in the newspapers—was a severe trial. But Naruto helped me again." I smiled. "In 2002, the animated adaptation of his story began, and I found the strength to visit Joanna and tell her the final part of mine."
"Thank you for telling me." Sirius smiled.
"Why not?" I shrugged. "So many years have passed that there's no reason to hide the truth anymore."
"I think Naruto will be all right..."
"Yes..."
"Harry, is he also the reason you prefer blue-eyed blondes?"
"Sirius, dattebayo!"
"Ha-ha-ha! Mischief managed!"