2

So…" Kakashi said, once they were back at the camp that Fudge left them at. He was still reading Icha Icha Paradise. "You got a good look at the kid, yeah?"

"Hn…" Shikamaru frowned. This was too troublesome. It seemed that each year this Harry Potter boy had returned to Hogwarts, he nearly got himself killed. Curiosity killed the cat, but that was only because the cat was stupid. Hopefully Harry wasn't stupid. He wasn't stupid, right? Wait, yeah he was. According to the information Dumbledore had given him it was his friend Hermione Granger who was the smart one of the group. Nope, on a range of smartest fo stupidest, it went from Hermione to Harry to Ron. The Weasley twins that he had heard so much about where somewhere either in front of Hermione or behind Ron. He could deduct from the information he had recieved that, like Naruto, they were geniuses when it came to creativity, but had the common sense of an infant.

"What you think?" Temari asked Shikamaru.

"This mission…didn't seem too troublesome before when I first heard about it, but it is."

"Yes, because that makes total sense," Sakura said sarcastically. "Come on, how much information could you have gotten from this one meeting anyway?"

"Well, the whole group obviously disliked those Malfoys. You can tell just by being in the same room with them. The moment the Malfoy family arrived, hackles were raised and everyone was on the defense. The Malfoys are purebloods, which basically means they're inbred and are probably obsessed with keeping it that way. They're probably prejudiced and close minded, judging from the alleged 'conversation' they had with Harry and his friends. And since Mr. Weasley is poor and Harry Potter most definitely is not, from all of this, I can determine he is not judgmental and haughty when it comes to choosing his friends. Either that or that he has a reason that I can not understand to befriend the poor. of course, Weasleys do breed like dogs. They don't have a child. They have a litter of kids. Nonstop. Anyway, the fact that his hair is brushed partly to the side, although not obvious, shows that he's hiding his trademark 'lightning-shaped scar', which means that he either has had too much attention his whole life, or is not used to it. Or maybe he's just naturally... untidy. But the fact that he's a stick shows that he's probably not fed as well as most kids his age, therefore I am assuming it could be both. And, according to the information given to us, he has a knack for getting into tight spots and barely making it out alive."

"You…use to many big words of English," Temari moaned.

"I understood most of it!" Sakura said proudly. Naruto, the only one of them with a vocabulary of three English words, was ignoring the conversation and waiting silently for three minutes. Listening to this language gave him a headache.

"Yeah, great," Shikamaru said. "His girl friend Hermione is the smart one who is more sensible about things. The boy friend Ron is the stupider one, it seems."

"It's rude to talk about work at dinner!" Ino said, heartily placing homemade bento boxes on the table. "Food!"

Naruto grinned. The hated three-minute wait for ramen was over! "Ramen!" he said.

They all sat inside the tent, where it may have been too small on the outside, but there was plenty of space on the inside, complete with a small living room, two kotatsu (1) pushed together in their mini-kitchen, and a closet with their futons. Oddly enough, it reminded Naruto of a larger version of his own apartment.

"Yeah, so Chocolate's like, they work right under the Kazekage! I mean, if you're trying to impress people, at least get your facts straight!" Kankurou snorted. "He is the Kazekage, idiot! And then he does all these hand-waving things as if we don't get what's going on. Well, Naruto doesn't, but still, it's like we have our own personal mime!"

"Yeah, and then they're all wearing flowery dresses and suits. What's up with that?" Naruto asked. "Half the guys here are crossdressers!"

"Hey Ino," Kiba said. "Just wondering, but you don't happen to be part veela do you? I mean, you're not that pretty, but you sure can turn vicious and gross like a rabid chicken when—"

Ino decked him, knocking him across the room. Impressive, as she had not even been trained by Tsunade.

Almost everyone was laughing and just having a good time. They ate, drank, and talked until…well nobody knew what time it was. Oddly enough, Gaara mused, everyone was falling asleep like dominos, one person after another. It didn't really take long until he was the only one left awake. Spotting a bright orange object that was not Naruto, Gaara stood up and took a better look at it. It was a book. The one that that silver haired jounin was always reading.

He picked up the manga ((I think it's a manga...)) and opened a page. ...Stupid, useless trash. Maybe he should get one for Kankurou, he seemed to like that kind of stuff. Nothing but naked girls. He frowned. Naked girls—no! Kages do not waste their time thinking about romance or porn!

He lounged around this 'Wizard tent', doing nothing in general—looking around at the inside and outside and wondering 'what the hell?'

Something moved inside the tent. Gaara frowned and looked inside. Rock Lee was awake, standing up. As he walked towards Gaara, he swaggered side to side. Gaara backed away warily, and a trail of sand gathering towards him protectively. With a smile, Lee went up close to him and…walked right past him. Gaara almost audibly sighed in relief; Lee wasn't the type of person to hold grudges anyway, and his legs were perfectly/almost normal too. No, Gaara was just being paranoid. Lee was just...sleepwalking. Yes. Sleepwalking. Wait…

"Haha, you looked so freaked out when Lee was coming at you," a voice said. Gaara looked at the source and found Tenten, sitting next to a sleeping Neji. "What, 'fraid he's gonna atack you?"

"If I could beat him while he's awake, I could beat him in his sleep."

"I don't know about that," Tenten said, "It's like saying, 'if I can beat him while he's sober, there's no way in hell he'll beat me while he's drunk'. Believe me, Neji thought Gai was joking when he told us about Lee's 'Drunk Fu'. Anyway, be glad all he does now is sleepwalk. He used to sleepfight, sleepeat, sleepdrink, and sleep train. It was crazy. And he nearly killed himself each time he tried to eat and drink in his sleep."

"…It would explain how he managed to stand up while he was unconscious when we fought in the chuunin exam preliminaries…"

Tenten grinned. "Yeah, Lee's crazy like that. Almost beat Neji."

Neji frowned, but continued to sleep.

"Sleepscowling, too? What do you do in your sleep?"

"Nothing. Just talk."

"You aren't asleep, are you…?"

"Perhaps," Tenten said with a grin. "I surprised Neji a few times answering some questions in my sleep. I could probably hold an entire conversation!"

"Right…"

All of a sudden, there was a sound of screaming wizards.

"Oh no! Is Lee sleepfighting again!" Tenten cried. "Neji, up!" She pulled him.

"No…" he moaned, crawling further under the kotatsu.

"Up, NOW!" She tugged his ear and his hair.

"Let go, or I'll kill y—hi, Tenten," Neji said, facing his angry girlfriend.

"Lee's missing and people are screaming and something's up," Tenten said. She dragged Neji out of the tent. "Gaara, if Lee comes back without us…I don't know, stick him in sand or something!" She and Neji started running. "And don't kill him...!"

Gaara scowled. People were screaming, and there was still nothing to do. And then he smelled smoke. Looking around, he found that Naruto was still sleeping. It didn't seem like he was cooking anything, but…where was that smell coming from?

Akamaru woke up, whimpered, and bit Kiba's arm firmly. He woke up, kicking his kotatsu, half of the room.

"Hey, there's a fire somewhere!" Kiba said. "And...Gaara, you're doing nothing."

Gaara ignored Kiba. He wasn't quite doing 'nothing'. He was gathering chakra and embedding it into nearly every single grain of sand in the ground.

"Be quiet, mutt," Kankurou said good-naturedly. "This is our great and awesome 'Kazekage-sama' at work."

"Anyway, we ought to get those fires out," Sakura said, still groggily rubbing her eyes. Just what time was it anyway? "Hey, Kakashi-sensei and Shikamaru aren't awake."

"Shikamaru's awake, alright," Temari said threateningly. She approached him and he jumped up, with the panicked look of a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic.

"Troublesome woman," he muttered both before and after he was forcibly removed—or rather, violently tossed—from the tent. He sighed, backing away from Temari, who was looking rather irritated. "Hn, Lee, Neji and Tenten are not present," he said. "Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and Naruto should be in the first group. Hinata sees far and heals. Shino's bugs track information, since Hyuga's don't see as well in the dark. Kiba can smell the presence and coming of people, Shino's back up, and Naruto will be the all-around back up with his doppelgangers. Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Chouji, and I are in the other group. Sasuke has the Sharingan and his jutsus. Sakura has Tsunade's strength. Ino has her mind-penetrating techniques. Chouji is the best in terms of brute strength. And I'm smart."

"Those two Sasuke fanclub members in one group with Sasuke?" Temari asked, a bit annoyed Shikamaru didn't group her with him.

"Sakura and Ino tend to keep each other on their toes. Sasuke's naturally gifted when it comes to tracking, fighting, and spying. Chouji and I are making sure no one—Sakura and Ino—don't kill each other. Besides, Chouji, Ino, and I worked together a lot, so we have a few more tricks than you all know of," Shikamaru said. "You, Temari, and your brothers are sticking together. You guys have most experience working together. Anyway, Gaara knows how to handle himself, and you can show all the wizards how weak the Sand are not."

Temari grinned evilly.

"What about Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"We'll leave him here and show him what it's like to have people wait on you!" Naruto said grinning.

"That doesn't make sense..." Kiba said. Kakashi wouldn't wait for them. He'd wake up, see he was alone, and go back to sleep under the kotatsu. "But let's just leave him anyway."

Gaara shrugged. He was still working, gathering all the sand within a three mile radius, just in case. They were lucky they were camping right next to the Quidditch stadium too. The other shinobi spread out, searching for Lee, Tenten, and Neji.

Kiba led the way, with Naruto following close behind. "Outta the way, Naruto! I'm the leader of this group!"

"No way!" Naruto said. "Then leader stays behind me! After all, we gotta 'keep the leader safe'!"

"Bite me!" Kiba growled.

"I did! In the chuunin preliminaries! You taste like dog in a parka!"

"Yet, you're the one that makes the most stinks!"

"Ano…t-t-this isn't the greatest time to fight…" Hinata said.

"Ah, look, a fire," Shino said, pointing ahead.

"And frenzied crowds," Kiba said, snickering at wizards running left and right in their nightclothes. And sometimes a little bit less or nothing at all.

"This is gonna be fun," Naruto said.

"Are you kidding?" Kiba snorted. "We aren't even getting PAID for this!"

'This is my big chance to impress Sasuke-kun!' Inner Sakura and Ino thought. 'I won't like Ino-pig/Forehead-san ruin our future!'

'Women...' Sasuke and Shikamaru thought. Chouji didn't say anything.

"Oh look, a mob," Chouji said in a thoughtful tone, pointing just ahead of them. And they hadn't even ran that far. Leaving the forest, you could almost see their tent, which was the direction that the mob was heading from. But…

"Damn, the tent's on fire!" Sasuke said.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura gasped.

But the silver-haired man just left the tent, his hair mussed, his doped looking eyes half shut, and carrying his orange book. The Sand siblings who had barely left looked at Kakashi skeptically.

"What?" they heard Kakashi say. Sand shinobi pointed at the tent Kakashi had just left, which was burning quite nicely by now. "Holy Mother of all kages! The tents on fire and the kids are gone!"

"In case you haven't noticed, there's a rampage of wizards going on," Temari said.

"We're wasting our time," Shikamaru said. The crowd that had torched their tent was heading in their direction. "Are we just going to stand here or are we going to take any action?"

"Shikamaru sounds like a leader," Chouji said.

"We can't kill them," Shikamaru said. "Just stop them. The Ministry of Magic will come soon enough. They don't see us. Ino."

"Got it!" Ino said enthusiastically. She kneeled and put her index finger and thumbs together.

"What is this?" Sakura asked.

"My dad and I found a better strategy for crowds," Ino said mischeivously. "Just look and see." She grinned. "Shintenshin no jutsu!"

She passed out. Sasuke caught her as one of the masked men tore off his mask, stuck a wand up the nose of a man next to him. She swiftly kicked the feet out from under another man, only to make the sign again, pressing it against the figure of the one who had just falling.

The masked men, believing that he had just attacked a fellow conspirator, ganged up on that man. Meanwhile, Ino, in the body of the man who just fell, backed away. Soon, in another place in the crowd, she attacked another man, and escaped in a third person's body. She repeated this process several times until someone noticed the growing pattern. By then, Ino returned to her body.

"While they're fighting each other, move it!" Shikamaru said. Sasuke already had a thin thread out. Sakura slipped on her gloves and ran out.

"What about you three?" Sakura asked as Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino stayed in the bush.

"Too much effort," Shikamaru said.

"Um, what he said," Chouji said.

"I did my job, you do yours," Ino said encouragingly. "Show Sasuke that you're as strong as a man!"

"I will kill you after this!" Sakura growled at Ino, running towards the wizards.

Gaara frowned at the sleepy Kakashi-sensei. No wonder Naruto's team was so strange. Their teacher must have been a bad influence on them.

"Sirs!" a voice said. "Are you okay?" It was that red-haired man and two of his red-haired sons.

"Well, I wake up to find the tent on fire and I'm a bit singed, but otherwise I'm fine," Kakashi replied, scratching the back of his head. "Most of my kids ran off somewhere."

"Well you're an adult! Help us round up these people and get them down!" Bill said. The red-heads (minus Gaara) began to run in the direction of the mob where Sakura and Sasuke were causing chaos. Gaara shrugged and was about to turn away. Sasuke and Sakura could handle it, despite the number they were up against.

Of course... for some odd reason, they probably wouldn't risk killing them. Gaara frowned when he thought about it. And it was true. Sasuke and Sakura wanted live prisoners, or something of that nature. They were only hitting them! And Sakura didn't seem to be using her newfound, abnormally dangerous superstrength.

Gaara sighed.

Shikamaru frowned. There were people from the Ministry of Magic there. But they weren't attacking or helping Sasuke and Sakura. Instead, they were gawking at the sky like idiots. Shikamaru looked up and yelled at himself. No wonder they weren't taking action! Those people had captives!

"Sasuke, Sakura!" Shikamaru said.

"What?" they asked, still trying their best not to accidentally kill anyone.

"Shikamaru, you're ruining our cover. Everyone's looking!" Ino said. It was true. The wizards causing all of these problems saw Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji.

Shikamaru ignored them. "Stop it and leave! If you knock out a certain person, four civilians are going to fall!" Shikamaru said. Urgh, he should have made sure there was nothing like this.

Sakura and Sasuke saw the figures in the dark night sky. Understanding his command, they headed back to the forest. Several of the other wizards followed. This probably meant that the ones controlling the bodies in the air were probably still in the larger crowd.

A spell hit Sakura as she fell down. She seemed unable to move.

"Damn." Shikamaru said. He extended his shadows. A simple task when everything was covered in darkness. But it wasn't needed.

As another spell, possibly more dangerous the the first that had hit her, followed, a body crawled out of the ground, similar to the ghost in a movie that everyone (Gaara) had watched prior to going West. The Ring? It was something like that. They had come to learn that Gaara liked scary, horror, and gory movies. But yes, with the body dragging itself out of the ground as the girl had left the Television Set, it got hit full-on by the blast.

Ino gasped as the figure that had saved Sakura was torn up. But Chouji actually dropped his bag of chips when the person's body rearranged itself from the fallen...sand.

"It's Gaara!" Ino said joyfully.

They were idiots. Complete and utter idiots. Running straight at the enemy, only to leave? Kankurou pointed at the sky and showed Gaara that there were hostages. But Kankurou knew what to do.

He attached chakra threads to the hostages in the air. It wasn't quite enough, as perhaps about four other wizards still had a hold on them, but it was enough slowly drag them out of the air. It was like a game of tug-of-war. It was probably uncomfortable for those being pulled down, but now that the victims would probably not fall to their deaths with Kankurou having a hold on then, Temaru and Gaara readied their attacks. The Sand Gaara grew larger and wrapped Sakura in a protective sphere as several tons of more sand rose from the ground.

Temari waited for the red-haired man and his sons to get just out of the way before unfolding and flapping her fan. Violent torrents of wind and even more sand flew at the people. Streams of wind tore at the men. The sand carried in the air didn't fall as so much as the surrounded all of the men. Had Gaara's targets been normal muggles or even shinobi, this attack probably would have been inescapable. Even Kimimaro had barely survived. There was a muffled sound of loud popping inside.

The sand pressed. Everyone gasped. They were probably dead now.

"G-G-Ga-Gaara, y-y-you killed them!" Temari said, stuttering like Hinata. Great, did her brother create ANOTHER international conflict? First Konoha and the Sand, then the Sound and the Sand, and now the wizards and the Sand? What was next, the rest of both worlds?

"No, I didn't," Gaara said irritably. "They aren't inside. Besides, even if I did, it was purely out of Sakura's defense. That spell nearly shredded her to pieces."

Kankurou snorted. "As if you needed a reason to kill someone," he said.

"Very true," Gaara said.

"Did you do that?" one of the red-haired men (Charlie) asked them.

"How could we?" Kakashi asked logically as the three Sand shinobi left without another word. "We have no wands."

The sand fell off of Sakura. She shook her head, tossing the sand from her hair and her body. "Wow," she said. "That was just lucky."

"Honestly," a voice said. "If you rely on luck as bad as yours, you're going to die." The sand Gaara stood up.

"You TALK now? I thought you were just made of sand!" Sakura yelped. No way. Sand does NOT have vocal chords.

"He is made of sand, girl," the voice said. The real Gaara was standing behind her. Sakura was now sitting between a very irritated Sand Gaara doppelganger, and an even more so irritated Kazekage-Gaara. The real version.

"Hehe, hi, Gaara-sama," Sakura said nervously. "Y-you didn't just kill those people, did you? Beyond recognition?" Gaara frowned and scratched his head.

"You all think the worse of me," he said. "I've changed. As Kazekage, I am much more sophisticated and less bloodthirsty. And no 'sama'. Just Gaara. I have enough idiots calling me that, bowing down to me and kissing ass all the time, and I don't need another snivelling sycophant."

Temari, who was following behind, snorted. "He probably would have killed them if he could," she said. "But they left before he got a chance to do anything big."

"Normally," Shikamaru said, leaving the bush, "I would say about three metric tons of sand might be a bit big."

"You know, Temari's Boyfriend," Kankurou said, lowering the bodies, "You could have helped Sakura and Sasuke over when they were fighting."

"Waste of time," Shikamaru said. "I am of much better use as a commander. One who doesn't fight. And just watches."

"A lazy commander, you mean," Kankurou replied. Temari would have whacked him with her fan had he not been handling the bodies of airborne muggles.

"Shut up, Kankurou," Temari said threateningly with her fan in hand. Ministry wizards were now swarming to meet them.

"I think we should leave," Shikamaru said. "Unlike them, we don't require the use of wands, and we don't want to attract too much attention. We'll meet back at what's left of our campsite." They all nodded and immediately left. To the wizards, it almost seemed as if the mysterious 'heroes' disappeared into the darkness.

Neji, Tenten, and Lee were going through trees and searching for the platinum haired boy who had Silenced Lee. Neji was regretful to admit it, but he much preferred it this way. Not he and Tenten could talk without his butting in. However, it would be dishonorable to leave a teammate in such a state. Thus they went wizard hunting.

"Oy, Naruto!" Tenten said, finding their blond companion peeing on a tree near their camp. The tent looked a bit scorched, but there was a layer of sand on it too. What had happened while she was gone? Oh well, who cares?

"Hey, Tenten!" he said. "Did you see the flying people?"

"I know, it was so strange and funny. Everyone's making such a big fuss out of it though…"

"Yeah. Hey you see someone with shiny yellow hair?"

"Ino's not here."

"A boy in a dress like everyone else here. His name is Draco Malfoy."

"Nope. Should we help look?"

"Go ahead. He took Lee's voice. Bring him back if you find him."

"Alrighty then! Mission time!" Naruto cheered. "Sakura-chan! Hinata-chan! Sasuke-bastard! Kiba! Shino! Did I forget anyone…? Anyway, I'm going to find a blond boy!"

Kiba snorted. "So you gave up on girls, did you?"

"Shut up!"

"Henge no Jutsu!" Tenten became Malfoy. "Whoever gets him first doesn't do chores!" Tenten changed back to her normal body.

"I'm going too," Sasuke said.

And so the happy assassins went hunting for a wizard.

Naruto make a countless number of Kage Bunshins, spreading them all about. Neji activated his Byakugan. Sasuke, followed by Ino, followed by Sakura, followed by Lee, followed by Tenten, went searching on foot. They all set out their traps.

Chouji was eating, Kakashi was reading. Kiba was doing nothing, and the Sand siblings didn't give a shit about the great Malfoy hunt. Oddly enough, Kankurou, who was relieving himself near another wizard's camp, was the one who found Malfoy first.

"Hey, what are you doing taking a dump on our place?" Malfoy demanded. Kankurou, a bit irritated, pulled up his pants.

"I'm returning to the trees," he said. "Ever heard of fertilization?"

"You're a freak!" Malfoy said, staring at his face paint. "What's with the make-up?"

Makeup…just as 'fat' was Chouji's red 'no-touch' button, make-up was Kankurou's. He summoned his puppets. "This is not make-up! It's an art!" He wanted to kill this insolent fool! However, if this kid turned out to be important, he might end up screwing over any relationship between the wizards and the shinobi. Was there one?

Using Karasu the Crow puppet, he chased Malfoy and stuffed him inside Kuroari the Black Ant puppet and carried him away back to camp where he could discuss this situation with the rest of the group and receive permission to kill this guy.

"Dude!" Kankurou said to Gaara. "I'm just taking a shit and this idiot goes up dissing my face!"

"What'd he say?" Temari asked him.

"That I was wearing makeup!" he said irratably.

'But...you do...?' Temari thought to herself.

"Lemme out!" Malfoy said. "Release me at once!"

Kankurou opened the 'door', shouted "NO!" and shut it back up. Malfoy whimpered.

"That's all?" she said.

"It's an insult to my manhood and my face paint, calling it makeup. Makes me sound like a woman."

"Ah, the irony. That's Draco Malfoy," Shikamaru said lazily. "The ones Neji and Tenten were looking for."

"Seriously? Whoa shit! This funny."

"Wow, Malfoy," Shikamaru said, knocking on the cover. "You lucky guy, you. You have a handful of elite shinobi after you and you get caught by the Sand siblings. At least they don't kill people outright anymore."

"W-what do you want?" Malfoy asked them.

"Oh, you cursed a friend or something and he can't talk. They want him normal."

"Fuzzy eyebrows? Fine, I'll undo it! I'll use my wand! I'll undo it! Just let me out! It smells funny in here!"

"That's probably the blood," Kankurou said. "It's probably dry, but you'll just have to bear with it. At least it's not as bad as Gaara's sand. It's been soaked in blood.'

Who ARE these people?

"A-ano...Naruto-kun is fifty meters over there..." Hinata said, pointing out into the forest. "And Lee-kun is twenty feet to the right."

"I'll go get their attention," Temari volunteered. She needed the practice. It would be nice to release some of the excess chakra anyway. Raising her large fan, she stepped outside and used the Kuchiyose Kirikiri Mai. It tore through the trees and shredded them apart.

"Temari-san...don't you think that was a little bit excessive?" Hinata asked.

"I think they know to come back now," Kankurou said weakly. Malfoy whimpered again.

"Are you trying to kill them?" Shikamaru asked her.

"It's a warning to you," she replied mischievously, obviously thinking about the Veela Incident. Shikamaru shuddered inwardly at the threat, althought he didn't show it.

"What was that?" their prisoner whimpered.

"Temari."

"Huh?"

"Oi!" Naruto cried, running out of the fallen trees with sticks and leaves stuck in his hair. "What's up with you guys?"

"We found your Malfoy. You can do our work," Kankurou sneered.

"Kuso! You serious? You didn't even move from your spot!"

"We got skills," Kankurou said smugly.

"Damate! No fair!" he cried.

Lee jumped out of the fallen trees behind Naruto, nearly knocking him over. The beautiful green beast of Konoha has arrived! Lee cried. His teeth…sparked. And he gave them a thumbs up sign. And then he began ranting on and on about something.

Not that anyone really cared anyway. They were glad he was Silenced.

"You know…" Kakashi said, lazily looking up from his book. "We aren't the only ones here. There are plenty of wizards over in that direction. Don't kill anyone."

"Yeah, yeah," Temari muttered. Why was everyone mad at her? (Gee, wonder why… -.-). "I haven't done anything fun in ages. Aside from watching little genins fight to try become chuunins in the exams. That was funny." Temari tended to look down on younger and lower class shinobi the way a senior would to a freshman in high school…

Neji appeared behind them.

"Those winds of yours almost hit me." Of course. Neji would never let himself get hit by an enemy wind, would he?

"You! I'll undo the charm! Let me out of here?"

"Nani?" Naruto didn't understand.

"Malfoy wants out of Kankurou's cage."

"Ah... We aren't actually going to, are we?"

"Let him out," Neji said to Kankurou. Malfoy ended up falling out of the puppet looking disturbed and seriously freaked out.

"I-I got the spell," he said. Although he was busy plotting. 'My father's going to kill them! Raaahr!' Yeah…

But…for some reason, Malfoy was unable to reverse the charm.

Am I doomed to be silent forever! Lee cried silently. This is horrible! My youth is in danger!

"You know, Neji-kun," Tenten said wryly. "This part might be your fault."

"What do you mean?" Neji said irritably.

"You sealed his chakra points…"

Oh…oops.

"Well I didn't really do it on purpose. They've got only three open holes! Literally."

"Soooo," Kakashi said, finally looking up from his book. "What's going on here?"

"I've become a mudblood!" Malfoy cried. "A squib!"

"This guy silenced Lee. We can't get rid of the charm."

"Oh." Kakashi took a wand out of his pocket and reversed the charm.

"You got one too, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked him.

"He made a light!" Naruto cried.

"You can do that and you didn't even tell us?" Sasuke asked.

"Hm. Yeah."

Everyone facevaulted. Except for Gaara and Shino because they're too dignified to fall on their face. No, all they had were large sweatdrops on their head. After several moments of silence, Kakashi sighed.

"You should return the kid."

"Why?" Kankurou demanded.

"Because he's not ours."

"Can I kill it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because that is Lucius Malfoy's son."

"Who?"

"Some rich guy in the wizarding world."

"Oh…why not again?"

"Shut up," Gaara said.

"Why?"

"Because I—" They were interrupted by screams.

"An attack!" Naruto cried.

"What's that?" Sakura said, pointing up. A giant green skull with a snake coming out of its mouth stood out from the dark sky.

"Dark Mark," Shikamaru said. "A sign of a guy named Voldemort. He stuck that thing above the house of everyone he killed."

"Looks more like an Orochimaru thing," Sasuke said. "Only the thing is eating the snake."

"Our prisoner has disappeared!" Naruto said.

Shikamaru sighed. "In a room full of chuunins, jounins, the Kazekage, and Naruto, too," he said. "How troublesome."

"Or pitiful," Temari suggested.

"You know," Tenten said, "That mark is hovering almost right above us. You said it was used as a sign that someone was murdered?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru said.

"Alright, who's dead?" Kakashi asked. "If you're dead, raise your hand."

"We're all here," Sasuke said, "but that blond kid disappeared."

"Oh. Okay then—"

Kakashi didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as stunning spells shot out towards their camp.

"Kuso!" Naruto swore.

"Eep!" Hinata ducked.

"..." Shino cried!

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke muttered, getting up and looking around. Gaara was completely covered in his sand shield.

"Where's Temari?" Shikamaru asked looking around.

"I'm in here with Gaara," she answered. Her voice came from the spherical sand shield where only Gaara usually stayed safe inside.

"Stop hugging me, Temari," they could all hear Gaara say quietly from inside the sphere.

Kankurou was sitting inside Kuroari. Neji and Tenten shared Lee the Human Shield together. Naruto had kept Hinata from getting stunned and was stunned himself, along with Lee and Ino who was Sakura's human shield. Chouji was still eating, and Shino was...Shino. Kiba looked alarmed, yet overall fine. And Kakashi was gone. In his place was a large log.

"...Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura and everyone who was conscious looked around.

"He knew it was coming," Kankurou muttered, getting out of his puppet.

"He did the same thing on one of our first real missions when we met the Demon Brothers," Sasuke said. The log that was left in Kakashi's place was a bit scorched.

"Nani?"

"YOU!" Some men in dresses—no, ROBES—approached them.

"Me...?" Kiba said.

"All of you! You have the nerve to conjure the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't," Kiba said.

"Don't lie! You're at the scene of the crime."

Akamaru growled. "Well we didn't do it."

"You have no proof!"

Shikamaru sighed. "Mendokusei..."

"What? What was that?" The man looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He was getting really red. "Are you going to try to jinx me? I'll have you know that we are wizards with far more experience than you."

"We're Japanese...Japanese 'wizards'," Shikamaru muttered. "Mandekusou means 'how troublesome', you fool. Anyway, the only one of us who has a wand was our teacher who has disappeared."

"Where is he?"

"Right here," Kakashi said, appearing in a cloud of smoke.

"You! There is no Apparating on the premises! It's against the law to Apparate so close to a group of other wizards!"

"I wasn't Apparating."

"You could be charged with—what?"

"Our kind doesn't need wands to do our duty," Kakashi said. "Now, what is the problem...Diggory-san, is it?"

"Someone here conjured the Dark Mark!" the man shouted, turning red.

"Ah, and you think it was these wandless children who are not very well educated in the wizarding arts, let alone your 'dark arts'? The majority of them doesn't know what magic is."

"No-not magic! You allowed muggles on the premises! And who are you anyway?"

"Forgive me, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I was sent here by our leader and the order of your Dumbledore-san. We come from the Japanese community in the east. My students have been rigorously studying your language for weeks now so we can complete our mission so I thought we could have a small break and I took them to watch you guys fly on our little brooms. They found it very amusing. I mean, entertaining. Please pardon my English." Kakashi rummaged in his packs and showed them some papers.

"There's a Japanese wizarding society."

"In a sense, yes," Kakashi said. "By the way, if you are looking for culprits, you might want to start by inspecting that thing on the ground over there."

"A house elf!" they cried.

"You believe a house elf could conjure a Dark Mark? For that, it would require a wand."

"It has one."

"Hey that's mine!" Out of nowhere, Harry appeared.

"Where'd you come from?" Kiba asked. ((Yes, where?))

"You know," Shikamaru said. "This…is getting very troublesome."

"I am very sorry about the troubles," Dumbledore said to Kakashi. The students were already sleeping at the small wizard inn called the Leaky Cauldron. "Had I known such a ruckus would ensue, I would have never given you the tickets."

"No worries. When Fudge-san, Crouch-san, and Diggory-san were trying to interrogate us, the students were all pretending that they couldn't understand a thing he said or they wouldn't say anything. Well, Naruto wasn't pretending and Shino doesn't really talk and Gaara would rather go on a killing rampage, but that's not the just have a knack for irritating people. Crouch-san got so annoyed by this that he actually placed a translating spell on us for us. Of course, we didn't really tell him anything anyway. It's starting to wear off already too, but I brought their hitai-ate headbands. You said you would spell them, yes?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "And I believe your…Hokage, is it? I believe she mentioned something of a sound and an akatsuki?"

"Yes. We believe that Orochimaru may be involved with your Voldemort's plans. He has seemed to have completely disappeared from our nations. We've sent all of our hunter-nin's out into the public searching for him in your muggle worlds to no avail. We have not found him. While they are still searching for him among the normal muggles, we believe that he may have joined a community of your wizards."

"That is entirely possible, though not very fortunate for either of our people."

"Yes. And your Voldemort person seems to be a likely candidate for a…partnership between shinobi and wizards. For one, Voldemort is attempting to achieve immortality, which Orochimaru has already achieved. Our Hokage may never be killed in battle, but Orochimaru can die. However, Tsunade-sama will, eventually, die of old age, meanwhile Orochimaru will remain at large, which is exactly why we must destroy him at all costs. The rumors in the under-wizarding world of Voldemort's return at the same time that Orochimaru disappeared…that's not a good thing, you see? And about the Akatsuki…it's a high level organization formed by missing-nins from all over the Eastern shinobi world. Orochimaru was a one of them. In fact, he was a weaker member. The Akatsuki are after two of my students."

"Which ones?" Dumbledore asked. "Why?"

"Their identities and their reasons are best left unknown," Kakashi said. "It is against our law in Konoha that anyone be told. Of course, several people have found out on their own anyway, not that they're still alive to tell the tale."

"Ah, so I suppose I shall not be told until this all blows over?"

"You are most likely correct, sir. So anyway, we made contact with Potter and his companions. Once he attends Hogwarts, we'll put him under constant surveillance. So I'm thinking about having a few students in each of the Hogwarts houses."

"That sounds fine to me," Dumbledore mused. "However, there's the fact that you need a place here. You obviously can't be a student."

"I could make myself one."

"But constantly using your…jutsus, is it? It would be a bit strenuous."

"Not really."

"Nevertheless, I believe it would be best to give you a teaching position."

"That's fine with me," Kakashi said. "So, what am I teaching?"

"Hm…" Dumbledore smiled. "What, indeed?"

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Naruto cried.

"Oh come on, Naruto," Sakura said, whacking him on his head. "Quite complaining and just do it."

"I don't waaaannnnaa…" he moaned. "I'm a shinobi! I can't wear dresses!"

"They are robes," Shikamaru amended. "Wizarding robes."

"But they're stilll dresses!" he said.

They were currently at Madam Malkin's shop. She was tailoring robes for Naruto. Almost everyone else had gotten theirs. With the exception of Naruto. The girls were relatively fine with the robes. Shino was already wearing his custom made winter robes, which also covered his face, making him look like a vampire wearing sunglasses. Akamaru was content with Kiba's robes, able to comfortable sit inside without falling. Kankurou was planning on just cutting it at the waist and wearing his black pants.

"Stop complaining," Kiba muttered. "We're all hating this just as much as you are."

"No you aren't, or else you wouldn't be wearing this."

The lady measuring him sighed. "Look, boy, I don't have all day for this, so please just hold still! I still need to give you your dress robes."

"Dress robes?" Naruto repeated warily. "What for…?"

"Well you are all attending Hogwarts, are you not?"

"Yeah…"

"This year, they are holding a Yule Ball where you dress up and dance."

Dance! "No! I can't go! I'm not going to Hogwarts."

"Yes...you...are...Naruto," Sakura said slowly with glowing eyes. Everyone backed away in fear. This was the Inner Sakura, who had become more pronounced over the past two years. "Stop complaining before I stuff those robes into your mouth and out of your nose!"

"Yes ma'am..." Naruto whimpered. Sakura-chan was getting scarier every year! And her super strength wasn't helping.

And so everyone was fitted with their school robes and their dress robes. Shino was already wearing his custom-made, high collared cloak along with it. Winter-wear.

"Where is Kakashi-sensei anyway?" Sakura asked later, now perfectly calm.

"He left somewhere last night," Shikamaru said.

"He was supposed to meet us this morning, but never showed up," Kiba said.

"Happens all the time," Sasuke told him.

"I wonder what his excuse is now?" Naruto wondered.

"Who cares?" Tenten said. "Let's go do something fun while we're here! We've already got our books. Let's do sightseeing."

"Aren't we supposed to have wands?" Temari asked. "I mean, everyone else does in this world and we don't."

"Kakashi-sensei said he's giving us some for cheap. Someone's spare wands. I feel so second-hand."

"I'm going back to the Leaky Cauldron," Chouji said. "I'm getting something to eat."

"I'm going too," Shikamaru said.

"No, let's go there!" Kiba said, pointing at a building called the Magical Menagerie.

"What do you need there?" Naruto asked. "You've already got Akamaru."

"Akamaru wants to see what they've got to eat here, right boy?" Akamaru, sitting in his jacket, barked enthusiastically, wagging his tail. Shikamaru, Temari, Chouji, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino returned to their rooms in the Leaky Cauldron. Neji, Lee, Tenten, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Naruto, Gaara, and Kankurou went inside the animal shop.

The walls were lined with a countless number of cages where feathers and fur stuck out in some places. Akamaru sniffed at a snail that growled back at him. Akamaru barked excitedly.

"No, Akamaru," Kiba said. "The sign right there says that the orange snails are poisonous. You can't eat that."

Shino was looking at a few bugs in disgust. Why? Because they were food for frogs. Frogs! What were the use of having frogs! They ate bugs! Those vile, toady creatures with warts covering every inch of their bodies. In Shino's opinion, frogs should be the ones that are eaten. Evil frogs...

Tenten was playing with a black cat and Neji pretended to be interested.

"It's sooo cute!" Tenten cooed at a cat that was barely four inches tall.

"Yeah."

"Don't you like it?"

"Yeah."

"Are you pretending to be listening to me?"

"Yeah." Wait a minute... "I mean, no! I was listening, I was listen—"

"No fighting in the corridors please," the owner said absentmindedly as she flipped through the pages of the Daily Prophet. Hm…poor security at the World Cup.

"Gaara-san," Lee said, running towards Gaara and Kankurou, who began to walk faster.

"Ignore him," Kankurou muttered.

"I am."

"Gaara-san! You must have not heard me! Did you see the—"

"No."

"But I didn't even fini—"

"No."

"Bu—"

"No." Sand trickled from the cages. Lee backed away.

"N-N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "The animals here are so strange."

"I know!" Naruto said excitedly. "Did you see the skipping mice? And the poisonous snails? And the singing owl?"

"H-hai! There's also a fox here. It reminded me of you."

"Really? I wanna see I wanna see!"

"It's over here…" He followed her to a cage. Inside was a sleeping fox wth reddish orange fur. It had a gold earring too. That was weird.

"Wow…" Naruto said.

"S-see? It's got an orange coat and whiskers and it's all…foxy like."

Naruto grinned at her description. "Yeah."

"Hey, kids," the person at the front table said. "That one's not for sale by the way. No one would want to buy it anyway. I don't know why the boss keeps it out on the counter, but she got it about…fourteen, fifteenyears ago? She says it's supposed to be some sort of spell. Won't wake up until a certain person comes by. It's not going to wake up around you so don't bother trying to—"

"AAARRGH!" The fox opened it's yellow eyes and attacked Naruto, biting his arm. "Get this monster off of me!"

"A-a-ano..." Hinata tugged slightly at it's fur. The fox immediately changed targets. And intentions.

It climbed onto her neck and into her jacket.

"Eep!"

"Get out, perverted fox!" Naruto said angrily trying to grab it's quickly disappearing tail.

"NARUTO!" Naruto was struck by to angry shinobi. Neji used his byakugan and Kiba growled.

"Fox in her shirt!" Naruto said.

"Gee, that's a nice way of putting it," Kiba retorted.

"No, look!" He pointed at Hinata, who was squirming around trying to pull it out of her jacket. And then she stopped and unzipped her sweater.

"Aaw," she cooed. "Kawaii!" The fox was sleeping in the bundle of clothes.

"It's not cute!" Naruto said. "It's a disgusting pervert fox!"

"Naruto," Gaara said, "It's an animal. Not a person."

"It's crazy! It just woke up out of nowhere! Hey clerk! Where are you? I'm suing! Your animal attacked me! Where are you!"

The clerk returned with a woman.

"See? It woke up!"

The woman put on her spectacles and peered closely at Naruto and Hinata.

"You woke up the fox," she said.

"It attacked me!"

"It's yours."

"…Nani?"

"A man had given me that fox as a donation to my store and said that whoever was able to wake up the fox was destined to keep it or something like that."

"…Huh?"

"Please, Naruto, let's keep it," Hinata said, petting the fox. It purred. Do foxes even purr!

"No! I don't wanna! I'm never going to keep that thing! You can't make me! No, Hinata, stop it with those puppy eyes! You can't convince me! No more of those eyes…! I'm not taking it and you can't make me!"

"Naruto," Sakura said calmly. "Why is there a fox biting your leg?"

"I got it for free," Naruto said grumpily. "Its fur would make a good hat and I think its meat would probably—ow! Get off!" He shook his leg wildly as the fox tightened its grip on his ankle. He swung it one last time and it managed to land in Hinata's arms.

"It's sooo cute!" Sakura said.

"Yeah!" Tenten added.

"It almost reminds me of Naruto! Only cuter!" Temari said. The girls all pet it. Shikamaru and Neji glared at Naruto.

"Hey I didn't want that thing in the first place," Naruto said. The poor boys. They had no chance in competing with the fox.

"What are you naming him?" Ino asked him.

"Iono…" Naruto muttered. But then, an idea flashed in his mind. "Wait! I know! I'll name him Kyubi!" The fox looked at him with astonishment, as did all of the girls.

"Not funny!" Sakura said, smacking his head into the ground. Naming the fox after the demon that attacked Konoha! It's too cute to be named after such a ferocious creature!

"How about Kitsune?"

"But it's a boy," Temari said. 'I think…it has no sex…?'

"The scientific name for the red fox Vulpes vulpes," Sakura said. "So his name will be Vulpes!"

"I like it!" Temari said.

"Sounds like a Pokemon," Shikamaru said.

"What's that?"

"Nevermind…" How troublesome…a pet was getting more attention than he was.

"Yo!" Kakashi said. "Playing with animals?" The fox watched him. Kakashi smiled under his face mask. This was interesting.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said. "Where've you been?"

"I was discussing the future with the most powerful wizard," Kakashi said. "You guys are to—"

"LIAR!" Naruto and Sakura yelled.

Kakashi sighed. "We've been doing everything at the last minute," he said. "You guys are to collect your belongings and head to the train station where you will leave to Hogwarts."

"When?" Sasuke asked.

"Hm, I think the train leaves in fifteen minutes."

"What!"

Everyone scrambled to their rooms, hastily grabbing their belongings. Kakashi laughed to himself. Such easily excitable children. So gullible and ignorant of the western magics that Kakashi had recently discovered.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said. She and Hinata, students of Tsunade with their super strengths, carried their packs with ease as everyone else, aside from Gaara who held his things in sand and Kankurou who stored it inside Karasu, struggled with their heavy things.

"Don't worry, you guys," Kakashi said. "Because I've got…THIS!" He held up a kettle. Everyone stared in amazement and anger.

"What the hell is that!" Kiba said. Akamaru barked. "Yeah, you're an idiot!"

The fox on Naruto's head yawned and went back to sleep.

"It's a Portkey," Kakashi said. "Touch it. Poke it. Whatever."

Naruto hastily grabbed at the kettle and found himself lost and confused. He was alone in a giant crowd of people.

"Ah…Hinata? Sakura? Sasuke-bastard? Kakashi?"

"Right here," Kakashi answered. "Get on the train before they leave without you."

In the first train compartment was Chouji, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Lee. Ino was about to push the person next to her over for room when, realizing it was Chouji, remembered the hazards of slightly implying his overweight problem. So…she turned to the person on her left.

"Hey, Forehead-san," Ino said, pushing against Sakura. "Will you please move over a bit? You've got a big forehead and big butt.

"Well, excuse me, but can't you see you're the one taking up all the space? Besides, I can't move any more than this," Sakura shot back.

"Sakura-chan, if you like, you can sit on my lap!" Lee said cheerily.

"NO!"

"Go on, Forehead-san. You got an admirer there…and you can leave Sasuke-kun to me," Ino said, pushing Sakura to the side a little.

"Sasuke-kun is not yours," Sakura glared.

"Well he's never going to be yours." Ino glared back.

"Excuse me…but why do you two both have crushes on Uchiha?" Tenten asked.

"Oh, so you like long-haired crossdressers better?" Ino turned to reply with a pissed off look on her face. "Sasuke's hotter than Hyuga."

"Is not, Pig-san," Ten Ten growled. "At least mine isn't genderless. He actually has an interest in girls."

"What, are you calling Sasuke-kun homosexual!"

"You said it, not me," Tenten replied. Well, he wasn't quite homosexual. Just not interested in girls or boys. Maybe something in between?

"Ino-pig is stupid!" Sakura said. "Ignore her!"

"You b1tC4!'

"You b1tC41Ng W40R3!"

"Well, you're the W(&$#$!"

"#$#($&!#!"

"#$(&$(&#!" Cat fight!

"..." Ten Ten and Lee watched the two girls scratch, bite, and pull hair. Violent.

"Munch...munch...munch..." Chouji ate his chips in silence.

Neji's train compartment wasn't so swell either. Neji was thoroughly pissed. He had been saving an entire compartment for just him and Tenten, even going as far as to chasing Slytherins out with his freaky Byakugan eyes. And then…everyone else came in. Curse you, Goooood! no offense to religious people

Neji was stuck with Kiba, Sasuke, Shino, Kankurou, and Gaara. Kiba whimpered silently. It was way to quiet. It was silence all around. You could hear the creaking of the train wheels on the road and actual talking in the next room.

Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak…

Kankurou stared at Gaara. Gaara stared at Sasuke. Sasuke stared at Neji. Neji stared at Kiba. Kiba stared at Shino. You couldn't tell who Shino was staring at. He had super cool sunglasses that blocked all eye contact. Although if anyone would ever lean in very closely, ignoring the constant buzzing sound under Shino's skin, you could almost hear the faint sound of…buzzing. Or maybe it was snoring?

I can't take in another moment of this silence! Kiba thought. So, the he broke his eye contact with any of the other people and decided to rest his eyes on his lovely dog, Akamaru, instead. Kiba pet Akamaru slowly. Then he scratched harder. And then even harder until Akamaru barked, telling him to stop rubbing his fur backward, and bit his hand. Yow!

Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak…

"So, I'm excited to go to the Hogwarts, how 'bout you guys?" Kiba asked, suddenly breaking the silence. Shino moved his head slightly. Everyone else stared at him. Gaara stood up, Kiba suffered a heart attack, and Gaara left the room, gourd in hand. Where he was keeping it while he was sitting, no one will ever know. Meanwhile, everyone else was still staring at Kiba.

Whimpering slightly, Kiba went back to petting Akamaru in silence.

"Party party party!" Naruto cried. "I hope Hogwarts has ramen!

"Who knows?" Shikamaru said. "We're in the West."

Temari was sticking to Shikamaru like a...like a...like a Vulpes was sticking to Naruto's arm. After the veela incident, she seemed to be on watch for any potential dangers.

"A-ano...Shikamaru-san, do you know what time—?"

"Why do you wanna know?" Temari interrupted.

'Mandekuso…'

"She just wants to know what time it is," Naruto said. Gaara walked into the compartment with his gourd in hand. "Oh, hey, Gaa—"

Gaara left through the other door.

"—ra…Hey, Temari, is he still all antisocial? I thought someone said he changed."

"Yeah, after the Akatsuki got him, he's been…hazardous."

"We should go after him! What if he kills someone?"

"Not likely. He might be in a bad mood, but he hasn't done anything so drastic yet."

A deafening bang and the sound of screaming proved Temari wrong.

"Well," Naruto said. "That's not good."

"Mandekuso…" Shikamaru sighed. He leaned back in his chair, about to go to sleep, when Naruto pulled him by the ponytail and dragged him out, followed by Temari and Hinata.

"Gaara! You put a freaking hole in the roof!" Naruto yelled over the wind. Gaara looked pissed. Sand from the gourd was holding three students by their ankles in midair.

Gaara looked at him with a 'so-what?' look on his face.

"You're going to destroy the train and everyone with it!"

Gaara glared. Particles of sand floated to the top of the train, filling in the empty space.

Shikamaru sighed and pulled out…a wand! He muttered something ('repairo…?' Naruto thought), and fixed the hole.

"Wow! Shikamaru!" Naruto said. "How'd you do that? Where'd you get that? What is that?"

"Kakashi gave us all wands except for you because you'd probably do something stupid with it," Shikamaru said.

"How did you already know their magics?" Temari asked. Shikamaru pulled out his books.

"Kakashi made me do extra studying while we were at the Leaky Cauldron," he said.

"Alright, you," Naruto said, pointing to the captives, still wrapped upside down in sand. "What did you do?"

"We didn't do anything!" the boy said. He was the smallest, but seemed to be the leader.

"Wait a minute…" Naruto made a face. "It's you!"

"Who is it?" Hinata asked.

"It's that kid who Silenced Lee!"

"You're those people who kidnapped me!"

"You dissed Kankurou while he was taking a crap and said he was wearing make up! You had it coming!"

"He was shitting on our part of the camp!"

"I was fertilizing the place, so HAH!"

"This is getting us no where," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "Gaara, please, let him down. We'll probably get into serious shit if you kill him."

"You can't kill me! That's illegal!" Obviously. "You're just our age! Quit talking like your better than us."

"Oh, but, my dear," Temari said softly with a cocky grin on her face. "But we are better than you."

"Aaah! Stupid Vulpes, get off!" The fox was running around everywhere. Even Gaara watched in amusement as it climbed all over Naruto's face. He threw it at the window, where it bounced back and snarled at him.

Shikamaru sighed. "Look, Gaara, don't kill this guy. Naruto, Vulpes, stop fighting. Temari, please don't let your brother screw up our mission."

Gaara begrudgingly released his captives.

"Alright, Gaara," Shikamaru said in a calm voice. "Now let's go back to Kiba's comp—"

"No."

"What...?"

Gaara left. Naruto followed after. "Uh...I'll go with Gaara and make sure he doesn't kill anyone right off the bat!" Naruto said.

"I'll...go with Naruto," Hinata said, going after them.

"So, Gaara," Naruto said, walking quickly to catch up with him. "What do you wanna do?" They passed by several compartments with other students, although they were completely ignoring the questions like 'Who are you?' and 'What's with the gourd?' and 'I thought we could only have cats, owls, and toads…?' and 'Cool eyes!'

"Nothing," Gaara replied dully.

"Oh come on, you just had to get up to want to do something," Naruto said. Hinata pet Vulpes in her arms. Vulpes yawned quietly.

"Look food! Gaara let's eat food!" Naruto said, pointing at a witch pushing a cart full of sweets.

"Hey, Miss!" Naruto said. "How about some of that? And that! And that! And that...!"

"Do you even have any of the money to pay for it all?" the lady asked him. Naruto patted himself down. T-T Gaara sighed and pulled some pieces of gold out of his pocket.

"Wow, gold!" Naruto said.

"That's the currency here."

"How'd you get it?" Was Naruto always this loud? Yeah. Gaara remembered. He was There was never a time when he wasn't yelling.

"As Kazekage, I get paid for my work, obviously. I just traded this in at Gringott's Bank down near Diagon Alley."

"Cool! The trolls nearly killed me there, but that was awesome! There was a whole bunch of gold, I bet I could have robbed the place easy!"

"Whatever."

"Hey, Hinata," Naruto said, passing her some of the pumkpin...things. "Eat some! Gaara's treat."

"I'm not sure if Gaara-sama would want me to waste his..."

"It's not a waste! It's food! As long as you finish eating it, it's not a waste!" Naruto said cheerfully.

"Just eat," Gaara said tiredly. Of course, he always sounded tired. Or angry. But usually both. Insomnia makes people weird.

"H-hai." She nibbled the food as the three walked around in the train.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said, reaching an almost empty train compartment.

"Yo." Kakashi didn't even look up from the pages in his book. They all sat down in the almost empty room. Naruto and Hinata sat next to Kakashi. Meanwhile, Gaara was stuck sitting next to...a fellow one-eyed teacher.

It wasn't that the other man had one eye, but he only had one normal eye. Kakashi had one normal eye, and one sharingan eye. This new man had one normal eye, and one huge eyeball that was currently focusing on Kakashi. Kakashi had noticed the teacher "Mad Eye Moody" watching him. This guy seemed a bit paranoid and off... His rolling eye had been focusing on Kakashi's face for the last three hours. Moody was just being paranoid. His eye couldn't see through Kakashi's hitai-ate headband or his face mask. Now, three other students had joined him, each wearing their own metal headband, although the girl wore hers on her neck, the blond wore his normall on his forehead (no slant), and the others had his tied onto a giant…gourd?

Moody looked inside using his lopsided eye and saw...nothing. Unlike how Kakashi's face was hidden, there wasn't anything in the gourd. It was like the kid was just carrying a gourd that wasn't even hollowed out. And what was it made of?-!

The blond, the girl, and the panda-eyed redhead sat in silence.

"SOOOOO!" Naruto said. "Is there any ramen in Hogwarts?"

"A-a-ano...I don't know..." Hinata said.

"..." Gaara didn't say anything.

Kakashi giggled in his book. Giggled?

Moody didn't say anything.

"Where's the bathroom?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"At the end of the train," Kakashi answered absently, pointing back the way they came.

"Okay, seeya!" Naruto pulled Hinata and Gaara out with him. Moody frowned. Why did he take the other two then?

"A-a-a-ano..."

"Yeah, Hinata?" Naruto asked her as he ran out.

"I think she wants to know why you're taking us to the restroom with you," Gaara said bluntly. "And I am curious too. Although I'm not really sure I want to know why."

"I don't need to go! That creepy old man kept on looking at me funky like! Did you see his eye? It's like Kakashi's, only it rolls around in its head and looks like it's been dyed blue and it's yellow with an infection!" Naruto shuddered. The train slowed to a stop, nearly throwing the three shinobi all off balance.

"Look," Hinata said, pointing out into the rain where, in the distance, you could almost see the silhouette of a stony medieval castle. "We're here."

It was raining hard when Kakashi walked into a carriage pulled by mutated horses and found an old man already in there. "Oh, hello, Dumbledore-san," Kakashi said, wiping the water from his eye.

"I hear that your students already caused a ruckus in the train," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "A whole in the roof, yes?"

"Ah, the Kazekage of the Wind Country has recently recovered from an abduction from the Akatsuki. He's rather on guard as of late. You might even go as far as to say paranoid, but not to his face, of course. You might die."

"Abduction?"

"I suppose it would be best to explain things to you more in depth," Kakashi said. "I received a message from Tsunade-sama explaining that you are allowed to know of this, but the Akatsuki hare after the two demons in my students. Which, only three of them officially are my students, but it's easier to call them that. Anyway, Gaara was actually killed in the process. Fortunately, thanks to some kind of miracle involving returning the demon to the host's body within a certain time limit, Gaara was resurrected. It's similar to how the human heart stops beating, and then muggles would shock them and the heart would restart, yes? He's relatively back to normal, albeit a bit paranoid or, ah, twitchy. Hm..."

"Ah, I see. Running past the river of death only to return is a very disturbing experience. I suppose..."

"As you can see, sending my group here was the best choice we had. Not only would we be hiding among wizards to avoid the eyes of the Akatsuki, but we could also protect your school celebrity from your Voldemort and, possibly, our Orochimaru, who is still after another of my student's body. Don't ask, it's complicated. Anyway, one of our retrieval-slash-rescue mission, Naruto, the host of a demon fox, had been struck by an enemy jutsu. We don't know what its effect is, or who cast it. We had been in a three-way battle between Akatsuki and the Sound. However, since discovering more techniques with your 'wands', I do believe that it may possibly be a spell that had hit him...

"In any case, we believe that sending them here to protect Potter and hide at the same time would be the best choice. After all, it'll keep them feeling important, rather than hidden, useless that they cannot assist us in open warfare. And none of Naruto's teammates know of the demon. The Fourth wished it to be this way. You understand how things work, don't you? Sorry about keeping you in the dark. If you would like for Naruto and Gaara to return to our world, it would be perfectly fine. Although we would prefer it if we were still paid."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. He felt slightly…confused. Not that he didn't understand their vow of secrecy, not telling any of his teammates for it may cause unnecessary tension. But…was this addition to Hogwarts a good thing or bad? His eyes twinkled like Gai's teeth. Kakashi shuddered inwardly at the comparison. Dumbledore smiled. Atleast these kids would keep life interesting.

"No worries," Dumbledore said. "As long as I am here, I will do all that is in my power to keep my students, including yours,safe."

"You sound like a kage," Kakashi joked.

"Haha, do I?"

(1) kotatsu: a table-heater mix in Japan