"What do you have to report?"
"The Hokage has received a mission, from a stranger not from our world, my lady."
A tall, tanned man with a small ponytail crouched on the ground, his head bowed in respect to his mistress hidden in the shadows of the dark, cold chamber.
A soft, delicate hand that you thought had never seen battle emerged from the shadows and tapped on the handle of her chair.
"Interesting. The details, if you please." The voice soft, sweet and melodic, yet dangerously toned spoke quietly above the kneeling man.
The man nodded slowly, and raised his head so that his face caught the little light that came in from the barred window of the chilly dungeon.
"The stranger has requested three bodyguards for a boy called Harry Potter, my lady." The man said. "The Hokage has appointed Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Neji, and Uzumaki Naruto for the posts."
His mistress's face was behind the darkness, but the man could sense a frown on her face. He recoiled immediately, in fear of his mistress lashing out.
But his fears did not come true; instead she continued to pry on for more. "What are their ranks?"
"A-ANBU, my lady."
Her soft, pale hand gripped the arm of the chair quite tightly in frustration. "ANBU? This is…rather…a surprise. I had no idea they had progressed that quickly."
"Y-yes, my lady." The man bowed down again. There was a pause for a while, before his mistress spoke again.
"What do you mean by 'other world', Itachi?" Itachi's mistress leaned forward slightly, and the light caught her sparkling emerald eyes, making them glow in the darkness of the room.
"That man, he said he came from a 'wizard' world. He did not appear to have any ninja abilities, but he carried a carved stick, and he did tricks with it." Itachi told her, nervousness evident in his voice. He stopped, and waited for his mistress's response. The gleaming green eyes narrowed, and Itachi gasped in fear.
"I…! This is all true, my lady!" The pair of green eyes turned away from him, and Itachi relaxed.
"This is no new information. I have personally visited that place before, it was nothing special." She snorted with disgust. "Those fools care too much about being pure-blooded, and fail to see what is truly important."
Itachi gazed up at his mistress, his eyes showing fear, yet strong admiration. "I agree, my lady."
"That stick, as you said it, is actually called a 'wand'." Itachi's mistress told him. "They don't have chakra like us, but they have an energy that is born along with them, just like chakra. They call it magic, and it concentrates and streams out of the wand when they say the correct words to initiate the jutsu, or spell."
Itachi nodded, his jaw quivering with excitement with this fascinating information.
"I have one of those myself, and I'm quite familiar with the spells too. Soon you will be learning them as well."
"W-what, my lady?" Itachi asked, puzzled at what his mistress just said. "What does my lady mean 'I will be learning them as well?"
"Do you know why I'm telling you this, Itachi?" His mistress asked, disbelief in her voice. Itachi blushed and shook his head no. "I'm sorry, my lady."
"You've received the honor to come with me and Deidara to ruin that mission and crush those useless worms. Do you accept, or not?" His mistress's sparkling eyes narrowed down to slits. Itachi's eyes widened in horror at the thought of not accepting, and instantly replied "O-of course, my lady! I wouldn't dream of having such a privilege, to participate in a mission with you!"
His mistress's beautiful green eyes bobbed up and down, and Itachi realized she was nodding in approval. "Excellent, excellent. Go and alert Deidara, and remember the both of you have to transform into two completely new forms at age 15. Meet me down in the waiting room when you're done."
"Yes, my lady." Itachi vanished in a puff of smoke. His mistress's foam green eyes surveyed the spot where Itachi had vanished for a minute, and disappeared into the dark.
Itachi stood in the waiting room of the Akatsuki base, anxiously waiting with Deidara, another member of the Akatsuki organization. Deidara kept fidgeting, and continuously wrapped his hair around his fingers.
Just when Itachi was about to go and look for his mistress, she appeared. A breathtakingly beautiful woman entered the room. Itachi and Deidara immediately stopped moving, overwhelmed by her presence.
She had porcelain pale and unblemished skin; her long silky pink locks draped on her shoulders and clung to her back, and her figure godlike. Her emerald green eyes glittered with malice. She was wearing a black dress that reached the floor, the sleeves reached her elbows and the sleeve edges were frayed and tattered. The dress hugged her wonderfully. She walked forward.
"Is everything prepared?" Itachi nodded.
A rare beauty in the North
She's the finest lady on earth
A glance from her, the city falls
A second glance leaves the whole nation in ruins
There is no city or nation that has been more
Cherished like a beauty like this
"Yes, my lady."
"Good, then we leave."
"As you wish, my lady."
The door swung open with a flick of his mistress's wrist, and the two men shot out as quickly as an arrow, with their mistress in the lead.
(Sasuke's POV)
I slouched into the Hokage's office, avoiding irritated glares when I slowly seated myself on a chair in front of Tsunade's desk.
"Uchiha," Neji growled. "You're late. You're half an hour late, to be exact." I glanced at him without interest. "Oh, spare me, Hyuuga." I spat at him. I never liked Hyuuga Neji, and never will. Apparently Naruto had told me he and Sakura were going out before I came back to Konoha and Sakura got kidnapped by Akatsuki. But that has nothing to do with my dislike towards him, and it was a few years ago anyway. Naruto, who was sitting on my left, chuckled, but stopped when Neji wacked his arm painfully.
Neji snarled indignantly at me and was about to retort back when Tsunade cut across us. "This isn't the time to argue!" Tsunade half-yelled at us. Neji glared at me, but relented and sat down again with a huff.
Tsunade cleared her throat impatiently. "You three, are going on an S-ranked mission, seeing that you all are the village's best. You are staying in a foreign world for a year, and no less." She paused to watch our reactions, but none of us showed any emotion whatsoever, and Naruto was only fidgeting excitedly, so she continued.
"Please try to fit in," She told us in an exasperated tone. "Because those people are very different from shinobi. That's all the information I can give you, so stand back." She ended the conversation suddenly, and jumped up.
We were surprised by this, so we also jumped up and away from the desk by instinct. She did a series of complicated seals which I recognized as the "dimension-rip jutsu". A crackling blue hole opened up next to her and started to make sucking noises like a vacuum-cleaner.
"JUMP IN NOW!" She roared at us. I wasted no time in reacting, and grabbed Naruto's head. "OI!" Naruto yelled in protest, struggling to get free. "LEMME GO!"
I lobbed him into the hole, and he went screaming all the way down. I reached for Neji, but he recoiled in disgust, almost spitting at me like a cat, and dove headlong into the portal. "SASUKE!" Tsunade shrieked my name. I wheeled around to face her.
"I FORGOT TO TELL YOU THREE THAT THE AKATSUKI MIGHT TRY TO INTERFERE!" She yelled over the noise of the sucking blue hole. "BE CAREFUL AND STAY ALERT!"
"HAI HOKAGE-SAMA!" I screamed back at her, and I jumped into the hole like a frog, because half of me was afraid that it might be painful.
It didn't hurt when I went in, but I felt something grab my leg as I went in after Hyuuga and Naruto. Strange, I thought when I swung my arms rapidly to catch up with my teammates. Is somebody behind me?
I tried to look back, I was accelerating so fast I couldn't move my head. Casting the thought from my mind, I shake my head and thrust my arms behind me to go faster. It worked, and soon I caught up with Hyuuga and Naruto.
Naruto was screaminghis head off, while Hyuuga's hair band had come off and now his hair was swirling around him like a maniac. Normally, others would've laughed and laughed and laughed but I'm an Uchiha, and Uchihas never laugh.
We finally reach another portal-like exit, and it was glowing with a bright blue light. An old man's face with half-moon glasses was smiling at us. It was sort of creepy, but naturally I didn't admit that to anyone.
Naruto was the first to collapse out of the hole. He screamed again and fainted in a pile of orange at the old man's feet. The old man chuckled, and Hyuuga followed Naruto's example, only not fainting. Instead, he hit the ground face-first like a couple of bricks and groaned as though he had broken all the bones in his body.
I suppressed a laugh in my head again, and when I came out of the hole, I landed a perfect landing by concentrating chakra into my feet. As always, I never lose my cool, unlike the Hyuuga teme and Naruto the idiot.
"Well, I-" The old man tried to say, but he was cut off when a blur of pink, aqua and red came shooting out of the portal before it closed. I shouted with alarm. "IT'S SAKURA!" I screamed. Who wouldn't scream when suddenly your old comrade pops up after disappearing for 3 years? The old man, who was as shocked as I was, stood with his jaw hanging open.
"I thought there were only three bodyguards coming!" The old man boomed, genuinely amazed.
Naruto and Hyuuga had come to their senses, and now were gaping at Sakura and two other shinobi we did not know. What I noticed, was that Sakura was now breathtakingly beautiful, a woman like no other. And the two shinobi with her were very handsome. Jealousy boiled up immediately, but I suppressed it. I won't unleash it yet, not until I figure out their relationship.
"Neji-kun, Naruto!" Sakura greeted brightly when she looked up at us with swirling, innocent jade eyes. I flinched slightly when I noticed she had added the "kun" suffix to Hyuuga-teme's name, and she didn't even mention mine! I felt as if a lightning bolt struck me, and I clenched my fists.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto yelled, and flung his arms around her, and dramatically started to bawl his heart out. Hyuuga smirked slightly, and added his arms into the hug. I growled at what the teme did, but didn't move. I'm not about going to destroy my reputation with a hug, at least, not YET.
The old man smiled, and shut up for the time being. I think he finally guessed that this was a personal thing going on.
"Tsunade-shishou let me in the mission when I came back unharmed from the Akatsuki!" Sakura told us happily. "She said I could come since I wanted to see you two again!" I opened my eyes with shock when she said "two" and not "three" again.
"Sakura…" I started to say, but was silenced when a hiss. "YOU SHUT UP!" Sakura roared. Naruto looked as if he had been stabbed in the stomach, and Hyuuga-teme looked the same. I never knew she could be capable of such hate, venom and loathing, all piled into two words and two syllables.
"You…! You never talked to me before, teme, so why should you start now?!" Sakura snarled again. I wished she would yell bloody murder instead of hiss at me in this low voice filled with hatred, because I would rather endure years of her yelling rather then hear this harsh, heart-breaking hate come out of her soft and shiny pink lips.
"Sakura, I-"I tried to say, but I couldn't say anymore when I saw her colder-then-ice glare. "I hate you, and that will never change!" She hissed. "I hated you to the bone ever since the day you left me on the bench for that weak snake pedophile!"
I was shocked even more at the last sentence. Before, Sakura trembled at Orochimaru's name, but now she was calling him weak. Naruto laughed at the last word of her sentence, but went quiet almost immediately, realizing this wasn't a happy conversation.
"I was better off without you, and much happier with Neji-kun! SO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE AND DON'T RUIN MY LIFE AGAIN! I HATE YOU!" She screamed the last bit, and lashed out with her sharp nails. Her swipe at my face was so quick I didn't even see it, and I shouted with pain when her nails hit their target, leaving five deep red scratches on my face. Blood spurted out automatically, and I fell to the floor.
Sakura snarled and hissed like a cat and tried to lunge at me while Hyuuga-teme and Naruto held her back with all their strength, but they still only, just only managed to keep her a few inches away from me.
"Enough." The old man behind me spoke gently and sadly, and waved a carved stick. A soothing and slightly glowing pale pink light shot out of the tip and entered Sakura's chest. She gasped, and fell forward with her eyes closed.
Naruto yelped and grabbed the pink-haired kunoichi before she hit the ground. "What did you do to Sakura-chan, old geezer?" He half-screamed at the old man out of worry. Hyuuga did not say anything, but he death-glared at the old man all the same. I just clutched my face, wondering what on earth just happened. I removed my hand, and saw blood all over my palm. The scratch really was deep.
"I did a soothing spell on Sakura." The old man replied gently. "She's now in a dreamless sleep to calm her raging emotions for the time-being. We have four hours till she wakes, so lets get introduced."
The two shinobi that had come with Sakura finally moved, and unclamped Naruto's tight fingers that were wrapped around Sakura's arms. They silently acted, and the aqua haired teen that looked my age bridle-style carried her to the red-haired ninja. Both of them stood silently in the corner, and waited.
The old man cleared his throat. "You've arrived at Hogwarts, a wizarding school for witches and wizards." I couldn't believe my ears. Witches and wizards? Was this guy nuts or something?
"That's not possible." I murmured, but the old man overheard me. "Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Then explain the pink light I shot into Sakura." I recoiled, speechless and embarrassed.
"Here, wizards and witches thrive, without the knowledge of other existing worlds." The old man continued, smoothing down his beard. Hyuuga's eyes widened.
"You mean there are other worlds besides ours and yours?" He asked. The old man nodded, and Naruto's mouth fell open, amazed.
"There are hundreds, maybe thousands of other worlds out there, undiscovered!" The old man told Hyuuga with relish. "But now is not the time to discuss that matter. Now, we must get you school supplies, then get you familiar with Harry! It's quite a tight schedule!" He said, surveying us with electric blue eyeballs. They weren't as blue as Naruto's, but they were piercing, as though they could see right through you. I suppressed a shudder, because I knew Hyuuga would humiliate me he saw me trembling in front of an old man.
"I'm Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, or you can call me Professor Dumbledore." Dumbledore beamed, and he looked proud of his long name.
Hyuuga bowed and said, "I'm Hyuuga Neji." I snorted. He's trying to suck-up to the old geezer. I hate it when he tries to be everyone's pet, or maybe he deserves to be under someone for the rest of his life, seeing as he tries so hard to prove it with his fate crap. Hyuuga glared at me, which I returned with ten-fold the intensity.
Dumbledore nodded. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Neji. You see, I met your father, Hiashi Hyuuga a long, long time ago, when he was your age." Hyuuga's eyes widened for a moment, and then those annoyingly blank orbs seemed to soften. "I'm…glad to hear that." Hyuuga whispered. Dumbledore patted him on the shoulder with sympathy, and looked at Naruto.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, about-to-be Hokage!" Naruto grinned his trademark fox grin, which involved showing off his brilliant white fangs for canines. Dumbledore smiled. "Hello, Naruto. You're the famous happy-go-lucky nine-tails wielder, am I correct?" Naruto's smile instantly vanished.
"Yeah, what about it?" Naruto glared over defensively. "My dear boy, do not be mistaken!" Dumbledore said hastily. "I was merely asking, and I do not despise you of the sealed demon inside you." Naruto's smile returned, but a little faded compared to the one earlier.
"Sorry, old man." He rubbed his head. "I just…well, its nice to meet you!" Dumbledore chuckled.
"Uchiha Sasuke." I shoved my hands in my pockets, a habit of mine that came to surface over the years when talking to people. I fixed my eyes on him. Dumbledore smiled. "How are Mikoto, Fugaku and Itachi doing? I missed them."
I stiffened. He knew my parents. Well, it wasn't surprising, seeing how he knew Hyuuga's dad anyway.
"They're dead, the whole clan's dead. Itachi killed them, and now Itachi's a missing nin, in the most dangerous S-ranked organizations in the shinobi world." I hissed. "Oh dear." Dumbledore sighed sadly.
"I met your brother when he was eight." He explained. "I was staying in Konoha for a month when I met him. I befriended him, and I spent almost every hour of the day talking to him. You see, he trusted me like no other person, because I understood his feelings so well. Then one day, he spilled out everything to me. He told me the clan only acknowledged him for his skills, and not himself. He told me his little brother was getting no attention at all ever since he was promoted to chuunin, and it made him very angry."
I was taken aback. Itachi never cared about me, and I had no memory of him doing so throughout my entire childhood. "It was a lie!" I told Dumbledore angrily. Dumbledore shook his head. "I disagree. Itachi was never the sort of person to lie. He never did, not even on missions! Of course, this behavior did endanger most missions, but with his skill all of the assignments came through successfully. There was only ONE time when he lied, and that was when he accidentally wounded his teammate, and he lied to Fugaku about it."
"Keh!" I snarled in disgust. The old man was really wrong in the head, alright. He wouldn't say this if he saw what happened on the day my clan was murdered by my brother.
Dumbledore acted like he didn't hear my furious outburst.
"He was growing up in acknowledgement, but it wasn't acknowledgement for himself. He hated the clan, but not his little brother. He loved him, but treated him coldly, so you, Sasuke, wouldn't grow up like him after he trained you to success. Being acknowledged for your skills but not for yourself is a painful way to live. I don't know how to explain it, but it's always better when people love you for who you are, and not for what you can do." Dumbledore told me softly. I glared at him. He still didn't understand!
"He showed me what he did with the Sharingan! He killed everyone without mercy! He even killed my kaa-san, and she did nothing but love him! Itachi is selfish and heartless, Professor. I've seen that for myself!" I shouted.
"The Sharingan has many abilities, my dear boy." Dumbledore told me. "They can copy abilities, hypnotize opponents, predict and copy movements, and they can also create images."
I was stunned. I never ever thought that Itachi might've lied to me about the massacre of the clan by showing me fake images. But still, it was only a possibility.
"Whatever. I don't want to continue this conversation." I closed my eyes and turned away.
Dumbledore sighed again. "I just wish…I could turn back time and persuade him not to do wrong…"
Suddenly, the red-haired shinobi reached out slightly towards Dumbledore, but as soon as it came, the outstretched arm swung downward again.
I turned around, suspicion rising. Naruto put an arm around my shoulders and turned me around again, shouting at my ear "YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONVERSATION!" which I reluctantly obeyed.
"That's Haruno Sakura, my girlfriend." Hyuuga pointed at Sakura. I felt my blood boil, and I saw my hands itching to wring the Hyuuga-teme's neck when he said that. I growled and glared at him as hard as I could, but all I got was a smirk.
"She isn't your-"I began to yell, but was stopped by the annoying dobe.
"Shut up." Naruto advised me. I glared at him, but fell silent. I'm not going to embarrass myself.
What I thought when I saw his face was that this man just had a mood-swing. He was now beaming at us as if we accomplished some life-saving feat or something. I raised an eyebrow at him, and the old man smiled back at me
"I'm Daisuke Keiji." The red-haired boy said solemnly. I studied him closely, since I never really took in his overall appearance.
His blood-red hair stood out like white against black, and curled forward in loose, messy spikes.
(A/N: Like Kyo's hairstyle from Fruit's basket!)
Keiji had soul less grey eyes that stared. He was wearing a fishnet shirt, a jounin vest, and crimson red pants like his hair, black fingerless gloves and the usual ninja sandals. He had one thigh slightly bandaged, and he had a necklace that looked strangely familiar, as though I had seen it before somewhere…
"Yo!" Sakura's and Keiji's companion said cheerfully. "Akinari Hotaru's the name, yeah!"
Hotaru had aqua hair, sort of a darkish sea green color. His hair seemed to float a little, and looked somewhere between neat and messy. His eyes shone bright yellowish gold, and he also wore a fishnet shirt, a jounin vest and black fingerless gloves. The only difference was that aqua-colored pants that matched his hair-color.
(A/N: It's like Fai's hairstyle from Tsubasa!)
"Welcome to Hogwarts!" Dumbledore laughed happily. "All six of you, you right now are in my office. See those contraptions? I invented them." He pointed at some whizzing gold tubelike things on his desk.
Naruto whooped with amazement as he took in the beautiful room. Hyuuga did the same, except without whooping. His Byakugan was on. But after a minute, he switched it off, a signal saying that the room was safe. I glanced at the trio behind me. Sakura was still dozing in Daisuke's arms. Both of them were whispering softly, but before I could eavesdrop on them I was interrupted by the old man.
"Kindly line up in front of my desk, if you please." Dumbledore called, and produced a patched, dirty hat from under his desk.
Naruto pushed Hyuuga aside, and took first in the line. Defeated, Hyuuga stood behind the dobe. I let Daisuke and Akinari pass. No way was I going to line up behind that stupid Hyuuga-teme!
Dumbledore placed the hat on Naruto's head. "Hey, what the-"Naruto started to complain, but Dumbledore cut across him.
"The school operates in houses." He explained. "There are four houses, and they compete against each other for a trophy at the end of the year."
The hat just sat on Naruto's head for a moment, but suddenly it yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!" Hyuuga jumped backward in shock, and I sniggered. He shot a glare at me, but I just smirk. I love making fun of him. It's as fun as infuriating the dobe!
Hyuuga tried it on, and it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" as well. Daisuke, Sakura and Akinari were placed in this house called "SLYTHERIN!", and I was placed in Gryffindor as well.
"Well," I finally spoke after the sorting. "I guess it's us three," I pointed at myself, the dobe, and the Hyuuga, "against you three." I looked at Daisuke, Akinari and Sakura challengingly.
Akinari smirks at me, while Daisuke rolls his eyes. "I guess." He agreed, "But we're gonna beat you with two hands tied behind our back!"