Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter.

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The Lord of Grimmhaus

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The only thing exciting about the parties were that they were coveted and the talk of the cities ─ but the house wasn't really located in the city, it just resided in the forest of a Fire Nation, between towns and villages, just a lone house stood on its own in the middle of the forest. She had found it odd that a man was allowed by the Daimyo to set up a house in the middle of the forest, but that's what happened and the deed was signed and the man just owned a sizable lot in Fire Nation which he built his home on.

Naruto adjusted her 'uniform', to be inconspicuous and not alert anyone of there being any hired assassins in the premises. It would dampen the mood the mad had told Tsunade during the mission briefing. So now she stood in the room in a ridiculous dress, it was long and made of multiple layers in the skirt that made it incredibly hard to reach for her actual weapons ─ she would have to tear it up if there was a fight, which she wouldn't say she would mind so much.

Naruto swept the ballroom with her blue eyes, she flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, her hand signal hidden under her tresses but completely visible to one of her teammates on the other side of the room. It was her turn to go and monitor down the halls. She definitely didn't mind leaving the ballroom, it meant she would be able to leave the men that were stubborn and ceaseless in their attempts at asking her to dance.

A resounding crash was heard as she walked past the closed library doors. It wasn't a loud crash, but to her ears it might as well have been. Muffled curses were clearly audible once she opened the doors to inspect the room. In the pale moonlight and a few dim lamps, the host was completely sloshed and sprawled on the carpeted floor of the library, an upturned grand chair laid beside him.

She rolled her blue eyes at the scene, technically, this would be all she would be doing in the party, and what the mission would turn out to be in the end ─ the man had been living alone in the forest with no one to protect him from danger and he was still alive. However he had ensured that, she was just here for show ─ even with the disguise. "Are you okay?"

The man, in his fine clothing, looked up at her through his softly curled dark hair, blue grey eyes watching her intensely from beneath the fringe. He gave her a sloppy smile. "Nothing to worry about kitten. Just having a little drink."

"I can see that." Naruto went over to help him up, but the man waved a sloppy hand for her to stay, and she watched him as he struggled to get up on his two legs. Naruto had righted the decorative chair, for the man to sit on once he realizes that there was no way he would be able to stand on his own two feet.

"You're very sweet." The man threw her a flirtatious smile. "You can sit on my lap if you wish."

"I'm fine where I am, thanks." Naruto leaned against one of the tables in the room, it was littered with many scrolls and books of all kinds. From fictional stories to those of the histories of the Elemental Nations.

"You're loss darling." He took a swig from his glass, the gold liquid quickly downed in few gulps, he let out a satisfied sound as he finished his drink. "You're not enjoying the party?"

"Are you?" Naruto caught the glass when it slipped from his loose fingers.

He leant his head back on the chair, staring off at the starry sky out the tall windows. "Too much noise. Too many unfamiliar faces. Too much smiling and dining and entertaining." He flung his hand around to emphasize his point, head never leaving the full moon than hung from the sky. "I just want a little quiet."

"You shouldn't have thrown a party."

"I don't want to be lonely." He said it quickly, like it was the worst thing that could ever happen to him.

Naruto will never understand drunk minds ─ he must have just had too much to drink. She sighed, some drunks were fun and some drunks were just depressing. Jiraiya had never wallowed, and Tsunade was just obnoxious and gambled readily once she was drunk. "Well I can't help you there ─ I'll go back to work."

"Stay."

"I'm on the job."

"Yes, exactly. Stay with your boss. Keep me company." The man looked around him, and once spotting the open bottle of whiskey, he made a grab at it and with a twist of one hand a new glass appeared and he poured himself a drink. He must have forgotten her presence for a minute, because upon seeing her in between gulps of the liquor, he brought a finger to his lips. "Clan secret, keep it hush."

"Of course."

She watched him drink away his loneliness, whatever it was that haunted him. Actually Naruto could take a guess at what that could be. It was exactly what caused Tsunade to drink ─ before she became Hokage, it was now just occasionally that she would drink for lost love and family, but most of the time she would drink because of paperwork. From the paintings that littered the room, and the fact that he was the only one that resided in the mansion he built in the middle of the forest, the man lost his family. Lone survivor. Possibly lost from the end of the Fourth Ninja War.

"You want to talk about it?" She was a bleeding heart for sad people ─ something that was cultivated in her due to her own tragic past.

He lazily rolled his head towards her, eyes more silver under the moonlight, before turning his attention back towards his refilled glass in his hand. "Kind of depressing."

"It won't add to the mood you've already set." Naruto uncrossed her arms and settled them on the surface of the table on either side of her.

"First time I'm horrible company to a woman." He laughed by himself, taking another swig of his drink.

Naruto just watched him, just providing him company as he asked, and she didn't feel like leaving a depressed man alone in his own party, surrounded by paintings of his lost family.

"I hate the full moon." Something that Naruto found a little strange as the man can't seem to take his eyes off it, and the curtains were kept open on all the windows of the room, without him ever having ordered her to close them for him. "Reminds me too much of the friends, brothers really, that I made because of it. We were right animals at night, couldn't keep us down, partied all night. The three of us."

He offered her a drink, raising the bottle by his head with a questioning eye to her, before pouring himself another glass. Probably not a smart idea for her to keep him drinking, Sakura was around anyway to burn the alcohol in the system if it got too much for his liver.

"I had a shit family, so they─" he pointed at the painting with three boys on it, one looked like a younger version of him, "─became the only family I gave a shit about. My mother was horrible, glad that bitch was dead." Naruto made a face, which he had caught. "You wouldn't make that face if you ever met her. She would've hated you right on the spot by not being pureblooded ─ nobility." He clarified. "Would've thought you were scum of the earth, and cut your pretty head off, but it wouldn't have the privilege of hanging on our walls ─ only the devoted servants get that honor."

Naruto didn't know if the man was lying or telling the truth, but then there were clans in the elemental nations that treated their branch clansmen horribly ─ Fuji clan wiped themselves out by killing too many of their male heirs due to their tradition of the strongest being fit to lead the clan.

"They were my family." He gave a toast to the portraits and drank his glass dry. "They died though ─ I don't know about my godson or my bestfriend, but probably should consider them dead to me." He threw her a sad smile. "There is no hope in finding them, you see."

She stayed quiet. Silently watching as the man drank the last drop of his bottle of whisky, under the light of his hated moon, trying to get drunk in his own party full of strangers to not be alone. She didn't know what else to do anyway, she can't beat the man senseless like Gaara when he was hurting people who hurt him and gave him a shitty life; can't cheer him up like Sasuke either, because she also had to beat some sense into him as well; Tsunade... well can't do that, because she almost died with Tsunade.

"Go enjoy the party." He made a shooing motion at her towards the open double doors of the library, the faint sounds of laughter and music wafting in through the doors. "Show off that beautiful dress of yours."

Naruto dragged a chair towards him, settling it right beside his, and sat beside him. He was watching her lazily, gaze curiously set on her as she offered him her own empty glass ─ one that he had dropped on the floor earlier in their meeting. "If it's alright with you, Mr Black, I'll stay right here."

"Still find me charming then?" Mr Black poured her a drink, new bottle retrieved from wherever it was hiding beside him, clinked their glasses together, and drank the night away.

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Sirius is on my mind.