Chapter Text
Harriet Lily Potter, girl who lived, woman who conquered was 24 years old when she died for the third time. Harriet Lily Potter was 24 years old when she was betrayed by her closest friends. Harriet Lily Potter was 24 years old when she woke up for the third time after being struck with the killing curse. Harriet Lily Potter was 24 years old when she discovered that she had unknowingly become the Mistress of Death. Harriet Lily Potter was 24 years old when she decided she had enough. Harriet Lily Potter was 24 years old when she stepped through the veil – everything she owned tucked away into a bag with an undetectable extension charm.
Harriet was reborn into a new world as a dark haired, green eyed girl called Midori. She wasn’t born as anyone important. Within the first few days of her new life, her new mother abandoned her at the large gates of a village called Konoha. Within days, she had become another unimportant orphan in the overcrowded orphanage of Konoha. The first 5 years of her new life were unremarkable, the village was at peace, a war having ended shortly before her rebirth but a few months after her 5th (29th) birthday, something happened. There had been a feeling of malice in the air and all the orphans, including Midori, had been evacuated to the shelters within the village. Midori wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, all she knew was that a lot of people were dying. She could sense the souls of many people passing into the afterlife. As the number of deaths seemed to come to a halt, Midori felt a tug, instinctively, Midori knew that someone was summoning one of the servants of death – a Shinigami. The same curiosity that had gotten her into so much trouble when she was still Harriet at Hogwarts seemed to tug at Midori’s being. So, she called upon to power of Death’s cloak and slipped out of the bunker before apparating to where the summon was coming from. Death materialised beside her as she appeared within a barrier created with chains made of golden chakra. The scene before her was a fascinating one. A yellow haired man, who she vaguely recognised as the leader (4th Hokage) of the village, and a red haired woman were standing, a huge claw protruding out of their chests with a small yellow haired baby in front of them. It was clear that the pair were the baby’s parents and had shielded the baby from the claw using their own body’s.
Midori watched, invisibly, from the side-lines as the Hokage used the Shinigami to seal away the creature whose claw was protruding from his chest into his baby son in exchange for his immortal soul. A feeling of sadness welled up in Midori as she watched the parents speak their last worlds to their son before the Shinigami reaped them and claimed the Hokage’s soul for himself. She couldn’t help but be reminded of her own parents. Not the ones from this world who had abandoned her – no – Midori was thinking of Lily and James Potter who had sacrificed their lives for their young daughter despite being so young themselves. Lily and James Potter who died at 21 in hopes that their little Harriet would live a long happy life. And now she had yet again watched a mother and a father sacrifice themselves for their young child. She felt the presence of death approach from behind her as she stared at the corpses of the couple, ignoring the shinobi around her.
“Death?” She murmured. The being stepped up beside her small form and inclined its head.
“Yes, Mistress?” It rasped. Midori turned slightly to look at the primordial being beside her before asking,
“What are their names?” Death stared at Midori for a moment as if trying to solve a puzzle before responding to the question,
“Their names Mistress are Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. The baby they left behind, the new Jinchuriki of this village, is I believe, named Uzumaki Naruto.”
“Thank you” Midori murmured before wandering back to the shelters where the rest of the orphans were.
A few days after the Kyuubi attack, despite a gag order being placed on all information about it, it was common knowledge that a little baby named Uzumaki Naruto was the new host of the Kyuubi, and Midori was seething. She had experienced so much hatred as Harriet and it had destroyed her, now she was watching hatred being directed at a baby mere days old and all she wanted to do was shield him from it. But she reminded herself, she was still physically only 5 years old, and despite all of her power as the Mistress of Death, the only way to properly protect Naruto would be to enter the Shinobi ranks of Konoha and work her way up to the top. She wanted to work her way up as quickly as she possibly could in order to protect the young Jinchuriki from experiencing the life she had experienced as Harriet. This wasn’t an issue, as the Mistress of Death, she could easily summon the spectres of skilled shinobi to teach her. The issue was that she hated attention and speeding through the academy and getting into the Shinobi ranks young would most certainly draw attention to her. Unfortunately for Midori and her small amount of self-preservation which screamed at her to just become a merchant or seamstress, Harriet had been a Gryffindor and Hermione had been right when she said that Harriet had a saving people think. So, Midori convinced (read confunded) the Matron of the orphanage to enrol her at the academy. And for the first time ever, her goal was to draw as much attention to herself and make as many possible alliances with clan children as she could. The sorting hat had said she would do well in Slytherin…
Midori had been at the academy for a month by the time she began to struggle. Her auror training as Harriet had allowed her to be quickly moved out of the civilian only class and into an integrated class with clan children in. Unfortunately, that meant the training quickly became more advanced to a level beyond the training which had been necessary to be cleared for duty as an auror. In terms of knowledge, she was at the top of her class (well near the top, there was a kid who everyone called a prodigy above her) but she cheated a little for that by using wit sharpening potions while studying. The skills side of training was where she had decided she needed a little help. Midori had always used her magic since being reborn into this world and had completely ignored the other strange source of power within her – her chakra. So, she had no idea how to mould it or use it in any other way than letting it flow passively through her body. In addition to this, she couldn’t seem to get a hang of taijutsu, shurikenjutsu or any other techniques she was being taught. The only way she had managed to avoid being dropped to the bottom of the class or being put back into the civilian only class was by subtly casting a light confundus charm on the teachers and other students. But Midori knew she needed to stand out, she needed to be good in order to gain enough influence to protect Naruto. So, she resorted to using her authority over the dead. She found a training ground not commonly used by any other shinobi and summoned a few spirits. Before her, three figures formed, and Midori smiled. Standing in front of her were the three dead Hokages of Konoha, Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama and Namikaze Minato.
It took hours of shock, suspicion and sadness to convince the three to teach Midori. She could have just ordered them to, being the mistress of death, but she didn’t particularly like controlling people. The odd confundus here and there in order to achieve her goals was ok but even that left her feeling guilty. So, she used the old fashioned method of convincing. Minato was the first on board when she explained her reasons for wanting the three to train her. Hashirama followed close after, only being slower to agree because he couldn’t stop crying about her selflessness. Tobirama was harder to convince. He was suspicious of her but eventually relented with the threat that if he were to find out she was working against Konoha he would find a way to have her eliminated (of course Midori can’t die but Tobirama doesn’t need to know that). And so, the four got to work planning her training. After a few hours of discussion, it was decided that Hashirama would teach her the basics of chakra control as well as senjutsu. Minato would take care of fuinjutsu, shuriken and kunai jutsu and Tobirama would cover ninjutsu, kenjutsu. Together the three of them would work on different taijutsu techniques to help Midori develop her own unique style. They gave her a strict training schedule for her to follow in order to condition her body so that she would be able to handle the techniques they were planning to teach her. Midori wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she could have sworn she saw a slight sadistic glint in their eyes when they were talking about her physical conditioning…