japanese
english
Kanaki cowered on the polished floor in one of the many rooms of the manor. The sky outside was grey with thick clouds not letting a singe ray of sunlight pass. The wind picked up and made the trees infront the window dance and the morsh wood of the tree trunk creaking.
Before a nice looking leather armchair kneeled a musty looking man, his head hung low as he listened to his masters talks. His fingernails long and sharp, one finger completly missing and his face resembling that of a rat with unruly hair framing it.
Kanaki was not a person who bowed to anyone but his own master but the creature in the armchair, he didn't even cought a whole glimps of it but he knew it was far from human, send shivers down his spine, the atmosphere thick with fear, terror and death. One would think it was nothing for a shinobi like him, someone who has seen all the cruel things the world has to offer but today he was weak.
Suddenly he wished Pain would have choosen someone else than him to try and close an alliance with the dark wizard infront of him.
"It is not often that i have visitors from so far away.", croaked the voice in the armchair. "You said your master is interested in an alliance, yet i neither know who they are nor what power you have to offer."
"My lord,", Kanaki hesitated not wanting to anger anyone, "My master, Pain, is powerful and feared in our lands. We are able to assist you in reaching your goal if you help us with his."
"And what would your goal be then?"
"We want the Nine Tails in our possesion. His current location is Hogwarts and he is surrounded by powerful fighters. I'm afriad my master is unable to travel as far as i did but other subordinates of his will arrive soon."
"Hogwarts you say? Then our goals have a similarity. I, too, need to get to someone who attends Hogwarts, some extra help in destroying this damn school wouldn't hurt.", the voice responded and Kanaki heard it move around, "You will show me your abilities, after that i will make my decision."
"Thank you, my lord, thank you.", said the shinobi with low hangig head, even though he feared the unknow power of the creature, it was humiliating to kneel infront of someone who does not command him.
"Wormtail!", the kneeling man infront of the armchair raised his head, "Give our guest a place to stay, he must be exhausted."
"Yes, my lord."
The man, Wormtail, walked towards Kanaki grabbed him by the arm and led him out of the room, downstairs to the kitchen. Kanaki tried to keep his breathing under control even when a gaint snake passed by which reminded him all too much of Orochimaru.
Sakura sat hunched over a book in the library once again. The weather outside was anything but nice and it would probably rain through the night which made patroling on the ground a pain in the ass. Good that it was not her turn then.
The small lamp next to her made it able to see the words written down. She was the only one who sat at this table which gave her privacy so she could write an letter home to Ino. She could talk all that much about the mission but decided to decribe all the magical things that were possible to here and Sakura was sure she would enjoy it.
The pink haired kunoichi didn't know where either of her teammates nor her teacher were right now, so she enjoyed the silence that surrounded her for once and kept on finishing the letter and reading her book.
Tomorrow morning Yamato will arrive at Hogwart to help Naruto with his training. Sakura was excited to see another familiar face again.
All of a sudden a bag is slammed on the table and the chair is drawn back as someone let themselved fall on it. Sakura starteled and looked up only to see the bushy brown hair of Hermione Granger across from her. Sakura was slightly embarrassed at the fact that she didn't noticed the other arriving but she quickly focused again.
The angry and concerned look on the brown haired girls face was obvious and it was not often that you could get someone like Hermione to loose her temper.
"What happend that made you so furious?", asked the kunoichi.
"Not what, rather who happend.", responsed the young witch, "Umbridge is out of control! Why doesn't Dumbledore do something about her?"
"His hands are tied, Hermione. If he could i'm sure he would but right now...", Sakura drifted of, not so sure what else to say, "What did she do anyway? I mean just her presence can be angering but that can't be it."
"Harry landed himself detention again after he got angry at her saying that You Know Who's existens is just a scam.", she signed, "I knew that there was something not right in her head but she freaking tortures the students!"
Sakura frowned at that. They were absend for most classes today as Dumbledore requested their assistance but she didnt think that Harry would manage to get tortured when they are not around to keep an eye on the teen.
"How?"
"She has these quills that write with the writers blood. Harry didn't want us to know, it was pure coincidence that we found out.", explained Hermione.
"Have you talked to Dumbledore about it?"
"No, not yet.", she mumbled.
The kunoichi looked at her in concern, "Go to bed Hermione, you look tired. Tomorrow is also a day, we'll figure something out."
It took a bit more than that to convince the witch to finally give in but soon she was on her way to the common room of Gryffindor.
Sakura continued to read for a while before she too put the book back where it belonged and made her way to the rooms.
The next morning Naruto and Sakura woke up pretty early but instead of staying in bed they decided (it was actually mostly Sakura who did, Naruto just tagged along) to already go to the Great Hall. In front of the huge doors they met a tired looking Sasuke who constantly tried to supress a yawn.
They didn't really say anything just nodded at each other as a greeting and pried open the huge double doors. The Hall was empty, except for the five tables and the two people standing at the end of the room. They immediately recnogized the grey hair of their teacher and the brown mop of hair tamed by the metal of the forhead protector belonging to Yamato.
"Yamato taicho!", shouted Naruto excitendly all fatigue forgotten and threw himself around the olders neck.
Yamato chuckled awkwardly at the blonde and padded his back a few times before Kakashi took his student my the collar and peeled him off of the other.
"Na na Naruto, let him be. He just arrived and must be tired from the journey.", reasoned Kakashi.
"Sorry sensei, Yamato taicho. I was just so excited.", grinned the blond, not sounding very sorry at all.
Yamato ressured him that it was fine and slowly the other two also arrived at the end of the hall, walking in a normal pace and not straight up running like Naruto did. Both greeted the shinobi, Sakura more enthusiastic than Sasuke.
After catching up for a bit, they noticed that it was almost time for breakfast so Yamato excused himself and went with one of the house elfs who showed him the room he would stay in. He promised to meet them for lunch and after school for the training Naruto couldn't await.
Draco wanted to vomit as his legs slowly started to get numb and his lungs protested against the hastily breathing. It also didn't help that he barely ate anything for breakfast this morning, so running around the Quidditch field felt more like torture than a lesson.
After another round where the feet of the students trampled on the fresh grass, Professor Hatake seemed to take pity with them and ordered them to stand in the middle of the field.
"Today will be the last day of practical training for now. The next weeks we will meet in the classroom to study the theory.", he explained with a rather passive voice and bored eye, "As soon as you have that down we can start for real."
Around the students you could hear most of them breath out with relieve with the promise of lesson inside instead of the training they had to endure.
"I expect you to not slack of in the meantime. I don't care if you run around in the hallways or up and down the stairs, as long as you don't just procrastinate we're good."
That, the other way, made some groan. Draco did not care though as long as he passes all his classes at the end of the year he will be able to withstand the exhaustion and cramps in his body at the end of the day.
The class was dismissed shortly after and everyone started to pick up their belongings that were just thrown to the ground at the beginning and made their way inside to get to the next class.
He watched silently as the group of Gryffindors chatted while walking away. Beside him he could vaguely hear Pansy and Blaise talk about the homework in Potions that they still had to do but his concentration belonged to the retreating students.
Draco wasn't surprised that Harry and the others made friends with the newcomers. Well, maybe Sasuke made him wonder but seeing that the stoic Slytherin was friends with the two sorted into Gryffindor it made sense.
Since that one night he couldn't stop thinking about his new housemate after hearing him waking up from a nightmare when he himself kept himself awake to escape the terrors.
When the curtains of the bed were drawn back he at first wanted to say something but quickly decided to shut up after seeing the glaring bottomless black eyes of the other. After he left the room, he didn't come back the whole night and only at breakfast he saw him again.
Sasuke never once looked at him and either he seemed to not notice the Malfoy heir starring or he simply did not care and said nothing.
Draco was curious. He wanted to know what managed to shake the otherwise emotionless boy but he knew that getting answers was as easy as making Snape like a Gryffindor.
The Slytherin signed once and begann to walk towards the next class not waiting for his friends to follow him. The thought of the Uchiha was not the only thing keeping him up. The images of the Dark Lord wandering around the hallways of his home, his loyal snake always by his side, made Dracos stomach twists more than the training lesson. The whole summer break was spent with the looming fear everytime he turned a corner or entered a room.
Often he considered telling someone about the evil residencing at the Malfoy Manor but who had he to tell. All of his friends parents were Death Eaters and it was sure enough that they would continue their legacy. At night he asks himself if maybe he should tell his Professors, like Dumbledore or McGonagall, or god forbbid maybe even Potter. But every time he backed away, the chances that he would be believed were dimm thanks to the way he behaved himself the last few years towards everyone who wasn't a bloody pureblood and a Slytherin.
For the first time he felt powerless.
They sat in the DADA classroom, waiting for the pink nightmare to enter trough the doors of her office when Naruto turned towards his bench neighbor. He stared for a few seconds waiting for the other to notice his desire for a conversation.
The others left eyes twitched in annoyance when he felt the blondes gaze on him.
"Just say what you want to say."
"Ne Sasuke, does Malfoy has a crush on you or why does he seem to always look at you.", the innocent tone of Narutos voice hid the snicker that threatened to leave his mouth when he saw the tip of the raven haired boys ears turn red.
Near them they heard Harry chocke in his own spit, he was clearly listening. Ron didn't held back and snorted while Hermoine tried to get Harry to breath normally again.
"Don't be ridiculous, dobe.", the indifference in his voice betrayed no emotion, "He just doesn't know how to keep his nose out of others buisness."
"Hmm if you say so.", murmured Naruto and turned his head to the side. Sasuke immediately noticed the change in his friends behavior but before he could find out what was bothering the blonde, the squeaky voice of the devil in pink interrupted all the chatter and made the silence echo through the room.
"She really makes my embarassed about having pink hair. The thought that we have something in common...", Sakura murmured into her palm, a grim expression on her face while she stared daggers at the Professor.
While said Professor let some of the students in the class read out loud from one of the useless textbooks, Sasukes mind wanders to many possibilities of how he would be able to shut that woman up once and for all.
"Mr. Uzumaki, continue reading please."
Naruto begann to sweat next to him. It was obvious that he didn't pay attention to the lesson and Sasuke wanted to slap the back of his head at the fact that he slacked of in the class of Umbridge. Instead he pointed at the part of the text the student infront of them stopped reading.
"Mr. Uchiha if you would please keep to yourself.", stated Professor Umbridge sweetly, "Mr. Uzumaki, is there a reason for you to not pay attention in class?"
Naruto swallowed and stared at the woman infront of him. It was clear to Sasuke what he wanted say but he dearly hoped, for everyone in this room that the dobe would keep his cool and not snap at the old hag.
"I need to, uh, pee." It was more of a qustion than an answer and Sasuke wanted to slam his head against his desk as the class snickered at the blondes words.
Umbridge seemed to be taken back but quickly sorted herself out and didn't say anything else, just gestured for the shinobi to start reading the paragraph.
As soon as they left the classroom of today's last class, Naruto jumped in glee and Sakura had to hold him down before he could accidentally fall down the staircase.
"Let's meet up with the others.", she whispered into his ear.
Naruto nodded and they said goodbye to the trio and then quickly went to change in their dorm rooms out of the school uniform and into more fitting clothes.
They met on the border of the forbidden forest. Kakashi, Yamato and Sasuke stood there leaning against trees, waiting. The jounin wore their typical attire. Sasuke decided to trade his for a pair of black pants and a loose black shirt.
"Now that everyone his here, we can begin.", said Kakashi.
"Sakura and i will go to the lake, i already talked to the headmaster to make sure everything happens without incidents.", he paused for a bit and Sakura nodded, "Naruto and Yamato will go to our typical place in the forest. It should be secluded enough. Sasuke, i want you to go with them. In case something should not go as planned you will immediately contact me."
Kakashi clapped in his hands and let his lips form a smile under the cloth of the mask. "Let's go."
So the group split up and went their seperate ways. Naruto and Sasuke ended up showing Yamato the clearing they've been training on for the whole time and said man made a quick process in setting barriers for their and the forests safety.
He then sat down near the border with Sasuke standing behind him, his arms crossed and gaze fixated on the blond shinobi in the middle. On the mans hand was a symbol drawn with the brush in his pocket and he stretched his arm out. With his other hand he stabilized his outstretched one.
Formated in a square stood four wooden bars with carvings that resembled the heads of animals.
"Alright Naruto, you know what to do.", spoke Yamato, his voice serious and his eyes concentrating on the happenings infront of him.
Naruto nodded and let himself fall to the ground, he sat himself comfortably and put his hands on his knees. His blue eyes hid behind the closing eyelids and his features began to relax slowly.
Now they had to wait.
When Naruto opened his eyes he wasn't in the forest anymore, with Yamato and Sasuke looking at him expecting.
The water covering the floor reached to his ankles. He stood up and faced the large ceiling high metal bars with the seal keeping them shut and secure. Behind them was darkness and a single red eye, burning with anger and hatred, stared at his vessel.
"Look who we have here.", the deep voice of the fox echoed through the space. The water ripples as he moved behind the bars and the red orange fur came into view. "The little brat decided to visit once again. What, was last time not enough for you?"
"Ne Kyuubi, i thought we established that i wouldn't give up so easily. "
"Big words for a child like you. Do you even have the slightest idea what i'm capable of?"
"In this moment, nothing Yamato and the others couldn't handle."
"And with the others you mean that damn Uchiha brat.", the Kyuubi never took his eyes off of the smaller figure infront of his cage, "You really think you can trust him. What makes you so sure that he doesn't just uses you to gain my power?"
"You don't know Sasuke. He would never."
"You seem to forget that i live inside you, gaki. I can practically feel the fear and sorrow seeping through you veins."
Naruto bit his lip and looked to the side. He was sure Sasuke would never betray him like that. Leaving the village and cutting all ties was one thing but never would he use him to gain more power...right?
He already got his revenge, there would be no reason. Naruto knew that, yet he couldn't stop himself from overthinking. The fear of losing Sasuke again was a constant factor in his life. When the raven haired boy returned from Tobi's claws he swore to himself to never let the other out of his sight again, that he would keep him by his side.
He felt selfish for wanting that without considering Sasuke opinion on that matter, but he suffered so much already, couldn't he have this one thing in life?
"You doubt him."
"You are wrong, Kyuubi. You are convinced that you know who he is, how i feel but in reality you are scared."
"Bold of you to asume that. I do not feel fear, i cause it and all the people in your beloved village know that all too well."
The large claws of the fox scraped against the bars which rattled under the pressure. Naruto stepped back at the sudden motion and swallowed the lump that builded in his throat.
Sasuke watched the red chakra building itself around his friend. The whiskers on his cheeks thickened and claws took the place of normal short fingernails.
He has seen him like this before, back then in the valley of the end during their fight. Back then he was confused, maybe even a bit scared about the others transformation. When he learned about the demon fox sealed away in Naruto, he realised exactly why the villagers seemed to hate the Uzumaki so much. Sasuke held himself proud for not believing Naruto was the monster everyone made him to be.
"Should we be concerned?", asked Sasuke as he eyed the boy.
"Only one tail is visible, we should be good. For now at least.", replied Yamato as sweat ran down the side of his face, "We can not allow him to grow four, the results would be dangerous and unfitting for our current environment."
"Makes sense. Heard Orochimaru got his ass handed.", the Uchiha couldn't supress the grin spreading onto his lips.
"The damage was fatal. As much as Orochimaru getting beaten is amusing, it changes nothing on the fact that it is not only critical for us and the students here but also for Naruto."
Sasuke said nothing after that and watched the frown building on the youngers face with slight unease. Suddenly a spike of chakra flared inside the barriers and made Sasukes skin prickel. It definitly belonged to the Kyuubi as Narutos own was cool like a comforting breez in the summer heat while the Kyuubis was as hot as the scorching sun.
"Don't worry, thats normal.", Yamato who sensed the Chunins uneasiness tried to resure him but it was a little hard to believe when the burning chakra met his pale skin. It felt not right, intrusive, and the young Uchiha had to supress the urge to charge forward and snap Naruto out of his mindscape.
"You think you can control me, gaki?", the foxs voice was low and threatening. "Many tried before, but none of the succeed. What makes you believe you have the power to do so?"
"I don't have power.", admitted Naruto, his eyes shining with determination as they never left the Kyuubis gaze, "I have faith. Faith in you, in me and in everyone who stands by my side."
"Then you are even more naive then i thought. Faith alone will not bring you far in this world, it's time to know you place, gaki."
"Ne, Kyuubi, just watch. One day you and i will work together, dattebayo!", Naruto shouted at the gaint fox, the trade mark grin resting on his face, his eyes determinded.
The Kyuubis own widened for a moment, suprised by the unwavering faith, before they narrowed and a short unamused sound left his mouth. He then turned around in the cage.
"Hey you petty fox, it's rude to just turn your back on me!", Naruto waved around with his arms wildly, "Are you even listening? Oi, i'm talking to you!"
"Unbelievable.", murmured Naruto and crossed his arms infront of his chest, "But telling me that i'm the childish one."
"And then he just ignored me, can you believe it?", asked Naruto with an annoyed huff and exaggarated hand gestures.
"It's pretty hard not to.", answered Yamato indifferent as the blond gaped at him.
"Yamato taicho! You are supposed to be on my side here!"
"Shut up, dobe."
"Not you too, Sasuke! How unfair!"
"Could you be any louder? We aren't really supposed to be out here so how about you turn your vioce down instead of announcing to the whole worlds that we are doing something normally forbidden.", hissed the raven haired shinobi as the three of them walked beside each other through the forest back on the school grounds.
"Sasuke is right. We should be quite. It would only cause questions when we are seen leaving the forbidden forest when no one, especially not students, are allowed in it. And for a valid reason.", responded Yamato as he looked around, making sure no creatures were hiding to attack them out of the blue.
"Hmm.", hummed Naruto in agreement. "But today went better than any other time i tried to convince the damn fox."
"We were lucky today, doesn't mean he will behave the next time.", mused the Uchiha.
"You shouldn't worry - I don't - when shit hits the fan i know that i can rely on you and the others.", Naruto grinned widely.
"Naruto...", whispered Sasuke with slight suprise before he schooled his expression again, "Even if we are there, if you slack just because of that, i will kill you."
"Okay first of all, rude. Second, when have i ever slacked of?"
"In the academy.", the responde was immediantely and made Narutos eyes twitch in annoyance.
Just as he wanted to counter the others statement, Yamato interrupted them, "We should not make any sound from now on. We reached the border of the forest. Dinner is in half an hour so you should change quickly and avoid any questions on your whereabouts."
"Well then, see you Yamato taicho.", whisper-shouted Naruto before taking of towards the castle, Sasuke hot on his heels.
Yamato signed and also made his way towards the lake to meet up with Kakashi once again.
The atmosphere in the Great Hall was light and as buzzling as ever and Harry found himself seated between Ron and Sakura with Hermoine and Naruto across from them. He was in the middle of a conversation with the young witch when Seamus leaned in and adressed all of them, "Did you hear? Some students were seen leaving the forbidden forest just before dinner."
Sakura had to restain herself from choking on her juice as her eyes automatically wandered towards Naruto who just shrugged helplessly. She rolled her unbelievin green eyes at her teammates response.
"Really? Do you know who they were or what house?", asked Ron curious.
"Nope. But when Umbridge finds them it's gonna get real ugly. Heard she was furious and tries everything to 'catch the rulebreakers to deliver a proper punishment for their sins'.", Seamus mocked the high pitched voice of their incompetent Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.
"Well i already feel sorry for them.", said Harry as he eyed his two new friends who seemed to have a heated conversation through just their eyes and facial expressions, just mutual understanding things he guessed.
"Hey, you guys know the new guy at the teachers table?", suddenly asked Ron as he watched the brown haired man next to Professor Hatake with caution.
"Hm? Oh yeah, he is the Professors, uhm, assistant.", replied Sakura, hoping it was not all too obvious that that was a bland lie.
"Really?", asked Hermione confused, "Why wasn't he here from the beginning?"
"He had trouble with his family. Something about his aunt being in hospital.", Naruto was quick to response to the girls question. "But everything's alright now, right Sakura-chan?"
The pink haired kunoichi nodded to confirm and smiled at the three wizards who just made sounds of aknowledgement. But as she locked eyes with Hermione she could se the suspision in them and chucked down the lump in her throath with more juice. They had to be more careful around her. Hermione was smart and even if she will not conclude that they are shinobi, she will be wary of them and that could cause unwanted difficulties for the mission which they definitly not needed.
At first Sakura thought it would be easy enough to hide their origin from the others but what she didn't consider was for someone like Hermione to pop up and suspect anything. She had to make sure to warn the others later so they couldn't give the bright witch any more reasons to watch them.
Across the hall a certain blond haired Slytherin observed the happenings at the Gryffindor table with slightly narrowed eyes. No other housemate tried to start a conversstion with him which he was glad for. In the last few weeks, the desire to speak left him what also resulted in him not starting a fight with a random student, desirably Potter, in the hallway every other day. It seemed to suprise his friends greatly and they often tried to get him to speak, especially Blaise and Pansy, but his mouth kept shut and his mind raced with thoughts that gave him headaches.
"Say is there a reason for you to basically stab them with your gaze or are you just being an asshole?", came the sudden question from his right side and Draco quickly snapped his head in the direction from where it sounded, suprised to see the black haired newcomer sitting there with an unamused gaze.
"It's nothing.", he murmured absently, still progressing the fact that the other was actually talking to him instead of strictly avoiding and showing no interest in anything accept his Gryffindor friends.
The other just looked at him unimpressed, eyes so cold it send a shiver down Dracos spine and he felt like he was back in third year where he was dragged through the snow by an invisible Harry while the coldness bit through his many layers of clothes.
"What does it bother you anyway?", he snapped at him. Wow great move Draco, he thought to himself.
"Damn, brat. Knew it was a bad idea to talk to someone."
The other boy spoke in a foreign language that Draco didn't understand but recognized as Japanese. His confusion must be on plain sight because Sasuke just rolled with his eyes and turned towards his food again, deciding that all of that was a terrible idea and he would never speak to any of these students out of free will ever again.
Mostly unedited.
Wow i finally updated, SUPRISE! I hope that you like chapter. I made it a bit longer than i originally intended too because it took me so long to finally update, sorry for that. I'm also sorry for any grammar mistakes.
Thanks to everyone who supports this story, it means so much to me! Truly thank you!
If you have any feetback you are free to comment and if you want to you can leave a vote :)
-jinculty (i changed my user btw if you wondered)