The month leading up to the final battle of the Chunin Exams were busy for the genin. Harry was up against Shino first in the finale, and he was nervous about keeping all the bugs away from him so they wouldn't steal his chakra.

Kakashi-sensei found Ebisu-sensei to teach Naruto, and he was teaching Sasuke personally, but he didn't have a specific person for Harry. "I can split my time between you and Sasuke," Kakashi offered, "but I don't have anyone in mind who fits your specific skill set."

"That's alright, I'm best at self-studying anyway," Harry said. He didn't want to take any of Kakashi's time away from Sasuke, who was up to fight against the terrifying sand ninja Gaara.

Harry checked out a book called '100 Uses for Chakra', a book for those with good chakra control. He sat down in a sunny clearing to read.

"What use is there in putting the Hyuga technique in here?" Harry grumbled. "Only a Hyuga can use it!" He looked up from the book to see a snake basking in the sun a few feet away. "Ah, snake!" He jumped back farther than a ninja should, but since the last snake he met was Orochimaru's, he was nervous around them.

"Ah, human!" the snake mocked.

Harry flushed. "Well, as long as you're a summon animal, I guess you're fine," he said, taking a closer look at the snake. It was brown with orange splotches and cream outlines on the orange.

"I'm not a summon animal," the snake said. "You've mastered my language?"

"Uh, no."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes. You're obviously speaking right now."

"But how would I do that?" Harry asked.

The snake tilted its head. "I don't know. But most humans can't do it."

"So, what does that mean?"

"Do I look like I care? You stay over there, and I sun bask over here, and we don't have a problem. Got it?" the snake asked.

"Okay," Harry shrugged.

He studied until the sun started going down. The snake started slowly slithering towards Harry. Harry didn't care until it pressed against his leg.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"You're warm, human. Don't move," the snake said.

"How would you defend yourself against an enemy with hundreds of tiny minions?" Harry asked aloud.

"Sounds like a parasite problem," the snake said. "They can't get a grip on me because of my protective scales."

"Protective scales, huh?" Harry said. "Thank you." He stood up and stretched, and started walking out of the clearing.

"Hey speaker, wait up!" the snake said. "You're not going to leave me out in the cold, are you? I just helped you."

"Well, it's not like you can come home with me," Harry said.

The snake stared at Harry for a long and uncomfortable moment.

"Do you… want to come home with me?" Harry asked.

The snake slithered across the grass. When it started climbing up Harry, he had to fight the instinct to slap it away. It ended up wrapping itself around Harry's neck. "This is not okay," Harry said, even though its grip around his neck was loose.

"You're an oddly shaped tree," the snake grumbled.

Harry was going to need a change of wardrobe if this became a permanent thing. But perhaps it would only last the night.

Harry didn't see Sasuke that night. He must have been in training with Kakashi-sensei until late.

The next morning, he asked the snake how its scales fit together. "Heck if I know," the snake said. "But I know someone who can help you. A snake summoner I've heard of."

"Who?" Harry asked. Hopefully the snake wouldn't say Orochimaru.

Harry found Mitarashi Anko on the roof of a dango shack. He jumped up onto the roof beside her. "Can I interest you in another round of dango?" he asked, holding two sticks of the sticky dessert.

"Beat it, kid," Anko said.

Harry handed her one dango stick. Surprisingly, she took it. "What do you know about how snake scales interlock?" he asked.

"They overlap each other slightly," Anko said, rapping the tiled, dull-orange roof beneath them, "like this."

"But snakes aren't square," Harry said.

Anko cackled. "The adjacent rows of scales are diagonal to each other."

"Would it be possible to mimic snake scales with chakra?" Harry asked.

She propped an elbow on a knee and put her fist under her chin. "Heh," Anko said, "It hasn't been tried." She glanced at him from the side of her eye. "Kid, I don't babysit."

"Do you accept payment in dango flavors?"

Anko ordered Harry to meet her the following morning. She started him off by making him sign a summoning contract with snakes. Harry smiled because the process reminded him of the time Fugaku Uchiha, then a total stranger, used Harry's blood to determine whether he was an Uchiha or not.

Using his chakra, he summoned a 10 foot snake that was brown with red and black patches in a zigzagging pattern. Harry flinched. "Who summoned me?" the snake asked.

Harry glanced at Anko, who made a shooing motion at him. She wasn't going to help him.

"I did," Harry said. "I've just signed a summoning contract and wanted to meet a snake."

"Do not use me for your personal entertainment," the snake hissed.

Harry's snake popped out from around his throat. "This boy is a speaker with a bright mind and a warm body. He is most useful."

"Speak, boy," the zigzagging snake said.

"I already have," Harry said. "What is your name, snake summon?"

The snake slithered towards Harry. Harry was hard-pressed to stand his ground, but he did. "You can speak- properly, the snake language, I mean. Very impressive, although you're not very aware of it. I am Sarpa. I may demand a price for my help, speaker, but you may call me to your aid."

"Thank you," Harry said. "It was nice to meet you."

The snake, Sarpa, left. Harry's snake turned to face Harry. "I am called Vincent. I'm leaving so I can hunt. Be here when the sun goes down so I can steal your warmth. I have done you a favor, so you will return it." Vincent slithered down Harry and started moving into the brush.

"Heri, you can hiss like a snake and understand them?" Anko asked, so surprised she forgot to call him a brat.

"I guess. I sort of found out yesterday by accident," he said.

"Well, it's a good thing you can, because your body language said you were terrified. If you're not confident with a snake summon they will eat you alive, literally and while you're still struggling."

Harry paled. "Why didn't you say that before I summoned?"

"I thought it might be entertaining," Anko said eventually, but her voice was uneven.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Harry said flatly.

"Well, anyways, nice job on the snake summon! Let's get working on that scale technique before the Aburame bugs eat your chakra in the finals."

Harry trained so intensively with Anko that he often made dinner and passed out in his room without seeing Sasuke or Naruto (by now it didn't matter whose house he cooked dinner at, Naruto and Sasuke both ate whatever Harry made wherever he made it).

Harry also changed his outfit. It turned out that those ridiculous, wide-collared shirts that Sasuke wore were perfect for Vincent to fit into without strangling Harry. He sewed a fat pocket all the way around the neck and it fit the snake.

The week before the finals, Harry, Sasuke, and Naruto finally arranged a time to meet after training. Harry slumped into Ichiraku ramen. Anko had kicked his butt that day. He had so many viper marks from where whe'd done her snake-arm attack (he had got to learn how to do that) and his protective chakra in a scale-like pattern had failed to hold up against it.

"Heri!" Naruto cheered, sitting down next to Harry. Harry noted with satisfaction that Naruto had dirt and bruises all over as well. "It's been forever!"

"Hey, Naruto. How's training?"

Naruto scowled. "Pervy Sage is the worst! I mean, he's got all this awesome power, but he's such a jerk!"

"Pervy Sage?" Harry asked. "You mean Ebisu?"

"No, he's this total egotistic old man named Jiraiya. I guess he's a better teacher than that Ebisu guy, though."

Sasuke slipped in while Naruto was telling Harry about how he'd come to have such an odd teacher. Harry nodded at Sasuke, who nodded back and ordered some ramen while Naruto talked.

"Of course," Naruto nodded wisely, "I'm not going to give away all of my secret ninjutsu Pervy Sage has taught me to you and Sasuke. I'm going to fight the both of you in the Exams," Naruto gleamed a predatory smile.

"Finally thinking like a real shinobi," Sasuke said. "I want to fight you both, too."

Harry grinned. "Just don't get too upset when I wipe the floor with you two."

"You with your self-study?" Sasuke scoffed. "I'm trembling."

"I've been having Mitarashi Anko train me."

Sasuke's mouth dropped open.

Naruto scrunched up his face. "Who's that?"

"That was the examiner in charge of the Forest of Death," Sasuke said.

"WAIT! The psycho-chick is training you?" Naruto asked.

"Scared yet?" Harry asked.

"You wish," Naruto said.

Harry left his house for the tournament. The final week passed quickly when it was filled dawn-to-dusk with training, and it was now time all that effort paid off.

Someone rubbed Harry's hair, hard.

"Anko," Harry squawked. His already unkempt hair fluffed out like someone had stuck a balloon to his head. People were going to think he didn't care about the Chunin Exams.

"Hey, Heri. Don't forget what I've taught you now. If you humiliate me, I will swear undying vengeance," Anko smiled sweetly.

"You called me by my first name?" Heri asked.

Anko shrugged. "Well, you're not my student anymore. But let me take your snake friend off your hands." She reached out, and Harry unwrapped Vincent from his collarbone.

"You just want to take him home yourself," Harry accused.

Anko chuckled.

Harry nodded and went down to the competitor's entrance. It overlooked the field where the fighting would occur, which was cream with some slight vegetation on the sides. Shikamaru, those weird sand dudes, one of the sound ninja, and the rest of the Konoha shinobi were there. Except Sasuke. Harry frowned. Sasuke had left this morning before he had.

"Heri!" Naruto clapped him on the shoulder. "Good to have you here. Did you bring Sasuke with you?"

"No." Harry sighed. "We shouldn't have left him in the hands of Kakashi-sensei, the Copy-Cat Can't-Show-Up-For-His-Life Ninja."

Naruto sniggered. "Figures."

The proctor of the final stage of the Chunin Exams cleared his throat. "We will now begin the Chunin Exam Final. Would Sasuke Uchiha and Sabaku no Gaara please enter the center of the field."

"Come on, Sasuke," Harry muttered.

The sand ninja, Gaara, looked pissed at being stood up.

"Well," the proctor said after the long and awkward pause, "we will move his match to the end- seeing as that's the match everyone came here for. Gaara, if you'll head back into the competitor area. Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Neji, to the center of the field!"

Naruto grinned and clapped Heri on the back. "I'm going to take this uptight prissy ninja down! Sasuke can eat my dust!"

"Or your gas," Heri teased. Naruto stuck out his tongue and leaped over the railing.

Naruto's fight showed an incredibly powerful ninjutsu called a 'rasengan' that Harry was almost envious of. Naruto had put hard work into his training for the last month. Naruto also learned to control that red chakra of his- and just what was that? Harry's eyes hardened. The strange chakra had to be a kekkei genkai. It was impossible for it to be anything else. Was that what the Uzumaki clan had been known for? Where did the Uzumaki clan even come from, and why was Naruto the only one left?

Sasuke would be sorry he missed the match. If he had to fight Naruto, he would have no forewarning of what their blond teammate had achieved in the last month.