[Note: Originally published 2010-05-08 in other places, reposted here. If you've encountered it already, my apologies.]

"All right," Auror Malfoy said as he clambered down out of the tree in which he had landed. "I dare say that this has been a day of many helpful lessons."

"Right," Auror Potter agreed, sitting up slowly from his own spot in the tall grass. Nothing seemed to be broken, good.

"Yes." Draco brushed at the front of his robes, fastidiously picking a few leaves out of his bright hair. "So. What have we learned?"

"When chasing an evil genius, it's helpful to wait for back-up." Harry eyed the hand Draco held out, decided it wasn't going to strike him, and took it. He grunted as Draco hauled him to his feet.

"Anything else?" Draco looked around the clearing, and then struck out for the edge of it; they appeared to be on top of a massive, rocky cliff.

Harry followed him, saying meekly, "When said evil genius throws a strange object and says, 'catch', it's best to let it fall."

Draco gave him a sour look. "Exactly. Especially when said evil genius has been known to experiment with merging Time-turners and Portkeys. We even have evidence of him researching the Muggle theory of black holes, Potter, and you just grabbed that dodgy thing out of the air as if you were trying to win the game... good Merlin."

Harry had to agree with those last two words in Draco's rant. The view from the edge of the cliff was breathtaking. Oddly-shaped buildings radiated out from a central point near the cliff, which had huge faces carved into the side of it.

"Where are we?" Harry whispered in wonder. They obviously weren't in London any more; it had been rainy spring evening when they had been chasing down Pratt and this strange place was almost blindingly caught up in summer.

Draco's wand slid into his hand out of his sleeve, neat as anything. "Point me," he commanded. The wand spun in his palm, and showed no inclination of stopping. "What the hell-"

A quick movement out of the corner of his eye was the only thing that alerted Harry to the fact that they were not alone anymore. He spun around, letting his own wand slide out. Where there had been nothing but grass, two men were staring at them quite openly. There was nothing hostile about their stance, but Harry had the feeling that they would jump into action if necessary.

"Hello," Harry said and the two strangers looked quickly at each other, then back to him and his partner. They were dressed in odd clothing, green flak-jackets over long-sleeved dark shirts and dark trousers. There were odd white wrappings around their ankles and thighs, and metal plate attached to a cloth which was tied around their heads; the metal plate had a stylized image of a leaf. For their part, they stared with great interest at Harry's jeans and Draco's trousers.

Draco stepped forward. "Who are you? Where are we?"

One of the strangers, a man with impossibly yellow hair, shook his head and said something in a foreign tongue. His companion looked completely bored now, but Harry's Auror instincts screamed that he was one to be very careful of.

Harry leaned close to Draco."What language is that?"

Draco said, "It sounds like... Japanese."

They stared at each other for a very long time, and then raised their wands. The two men stepped back, but not to run away; their bodies were radiating a ready defensiveness.

"Wait, no," Harry tried to explain. "We're just... wait," he waved his wand at his own throat. "Verto Japanese," he said, and made a face at the spell as it washed over his face. When Draco did his own spell, he said, "Can you understand me now?"

"Yeah," the yellow-haired man said in surprise. "I can. Who are you? Is that a jutsu that made you change your speech?"

"We're Aurors. From England." Harry blinked. "What's a jutsu?"

"Where's England?" The man asked, his blue eyes bright with curiosity. "Is that one of the other Five Great Countries?"

"I doubt it," the other man finally drawled, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I've never heard of it before." His dark eyes locked on Harry coldly. "State your name and purpose."

"I'm Harry, and this is Draco. And we have no idea where we're are now, much less any purpose."

"Oh, you're lost!" The blond man grinned at them and Harry couldn't help but smile back. He had weird thin markings on his cheeks, like whiskers, but that didn't detract from the fact that he had a very nice face. "I'm Naruto. This is Sasuke." He jerked a thumb at his colleague. "He's a frigid bastard, don't mind him."

"I've had my own experience with frigid bastards," Harry laughed and received an elbow to the ribs from Draco, so hard that he had to cough a little. "We... we were chasing down a criminal and ended up here... wherever here is."

"Well, this is Konoha." Naruto spread out his arms, his smile still wide. "You guys set off the perimeter alarms! We got sent up here to inspect and destroy if necessary, but you guys seem cool."

"You trust people too much," Sasuke muttered, folding his arms over his chest.

"I have good people-senses!" Naruto bellowed and Sasuke turned his head away. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the side of Sasuke's face and then looked back at Harry and Draco. "Are you up to no good?"

"We're up to plenty of good," Harry said with deep earnest, at the same time Draco said, "We just need to go back where we came from, right now. Other Aurors... our kind of policemen, they're probably working on it as we speak."

Draco's timing could not have been better. As soon as he said that, a slender pillar of white light suddenly blazed into existence a few meters away; it stretched and widened a little, revealing a dark slit at its core.

"Harry! Malfoy!"

Harry darted forward at the agitated yells which echoed out of the crackling light. "Ron!"

"We can't hold this open for long, we need more power!"

"Hurry, Potter," Draco said and pointed his wand at the column of light; blue light shot out of the tip, hitting the shadowy center. It widened just a bit more, and the darkness seemed to flitter away when Harry added his own energy, revealing Ron and about seven other Aurors doing the same in the dark dungeons that Pratt had been working in. The light wavered and nearly collapsed on itself; it dimmed, and seemed on the point of disappearing.

"More!" Ron's shout was now very faint. Harry had no idea where they were going to draw more from; sweat was pouring down his back and he could see Draco's wand-arm shaking with exertion.

"Wind release! Rasengan!"

Harry stumbled back in surprise; two Narutos raced past him, their innermost hands raised; a perfect blue sphere spun in the middle of those two hands, kicking up gale force winds. The Narutos slammed this ball into the pillar of light, which immediately flared to life and stabilized.

"Wow," Harry said. "That's like... magic."

There was a high-pitched twittering sound from behind them, and lightning shivered through the air and struck the dark aperture that had appeared again, forcing it open even more. Harry and Draco both turned to stare at Sasuke, who was standing calmly as he gave off incredible amounts of energy.

"Potter, do hurry!" Draco grabbed him by the arm and hustled him forward as the lightning died away.

"Thank you!" he said, waving back at Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto (only one now, how extraordinary) was waving back quite cheerfully, but Sasuke was glaring at his partner in a fairly possessive manner.

They burst through onto the other side, rolling on the stone floor; the opening in time and space slammed shut with a ringing clap.

Ron had a sulking Pratt firmly in hand. "That was amazing!" Ron exclaimed and gave Pratt a hearty shake; Pratt, who weighed about eight stone soaking wet, rattled around like a toy. "Pratt here says you two got sent to a different dimension, how wild is that? And where did you get all that power?"

"We got by with a little help with new friends," Harry laughed and turned to haul Draco up. "So! What have we learned?"

"That you're weak for any type of blond, you wanker," Draco snapped and grabbed their culprit out of Ron's meaty grip, stalking off and followed by the other Aurors; Ron gave Harry a puzzled look.

Harry shrugged. "It has been a day," he said as wisely as he could manage, "of many helpful lessons."

fin