Chapter one

"Guys, we got a letter!"

Kankuro looked up from his puppets.

"What kind of letter?"

Temari looked at the envelope in her hand.

"It's for all three of us."

Gaara got up and walked over from where he had been watching kankuro. Kankuro also came to Temari's side. They looked at the piece of paper in Temari's hand.

To: Sabaku no Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro

Apartment seven, Sunaga housing, Sunaga

They looked on the back. There was a sign with a badger, lion, snake and eagle all around a letter H.

"Is that the symbol of their village?" Kankuro wondered.

Gaara shrugged. They opened the letter and read it.

"Witchcraft and Wizardry? What's that?" asked Temari.

"Maybe some school for jutsu. Genjutsu, most probably," suggested Kankuro.

"But why do we need all this stuff?",said Temari.

All three stared at the long list of books and robes and materials.

"I don't know. Are they scrolls or something? Huh…"Kankuro said.

"Well, should we go?" asked Gaara. Shukaku snorted derisively at the letter.

"Sure, why not. But I guess we should talk to Baki first." said Temari.

Baki looked at the three sand nins.

"…"

"Well?" Kankuro asked impatiently.

"As long as this does not interrupt your Baki's Special Summer Extra Strength Training Routine," Baki said slowly, "you…may go."

"Aw, man," said Kankuro. He had been hoping that they would get to go to this school instead of staying in Sunaga and doing the grueling BSSESTR. Ah, well. At least he would be on shape for whatever special training the school threw at them.

What, exactly, is Baki's Special Summer Extra Strength Training Routine?

Every day, the three sand nins got up at six to run through every street, alley, and sand park in Sunaga, on a time limit. If they couldn't make it, they had to do an extra 500 pushups. After they ran, they ate a quick breakfast. Then they did thousands of various exercises that changed depending on what day it was, including pushups, situps, miles of laps of lunges, pull-ups, chin-ups, crunches, suicides, spent hours doing the electric chair and holding their arms out to their sides and wallsits. Gaara, being weak physically, had the most trouble with this at first, but after a couple of weeks, even he got used to it. Right before lunch, they ran 500 laps around the training ground. After lunch, they sparred with one another (this was supervised by Baki, who shouted instructions and criticism from the sidelines). Then they ran another 500 laps before dinner. After that, the sand sibs did more miscellaneous exercises until 9:00pm. They had one hour of free time, then went to bed at ten.

After half a month of this, the three and Baki went to Konoha to do the regime there, on the hard ground, unlike the sandy floor of Sunaga. They met the rookie nine and Tsunade, and caught up with each other since the whole Sasuke incident. Then, after the rest of the month was over, they went back home to Sunaga to train their individual jutsu and to review the basics-chakra control, walking up walls, doppelgangers, etc. After half a month, they went to Konoha again to train their jutsus. Until then, they hadn't used any of their particular jutsus and had sealed off Gaara's sand so he couldn't "cheat" as Kankuro put it. Now they unsealed him. He started to work together with Shukaku, the demon even starting to talk to him normally. He got his sand to move faster than the human eye could see, and tripled the power of both his defense and his sand attacks. His stealth, too, he developed, creating not only a third eye, but ears, too, so he could hear what was going on in another place. Temari went into the desert, took out her giant fan, and practiced until she couldn't feel her arms anymore. She created huge sandstorms/tornados, sent them speeding towards Sunaga, raced them to the village, then broke them up before they could hit. She also practiced with her weasel. Kankuro did…hand exercises.

…

Gaara and Temari: burst out laughing

Kankuro: glares Shut up!

Accolay: --;;

He, in his one hour of spare time (when he wasn't asleep, of course) went to the library in Sunaga and took out scrolls and scrolls on puppet jutsu. He was surprised at how many there were. There were even some ancient ones from the Akatsuki(sp?). He studied and practiced from them. He got his puppets to climb walls like he could, and control them from great distances. They became more efficient than a solid doppleganger. Remembering his fight with Shino, he fixed them so they were totally sealed off from any outside interference, no matter how small, with the same performance level, and at the same time, deliberately take them apart as separate weapons. He learned to use them to spy more effectively by putting a little of his chakra in Karasu's head, which enabled him to see from the puppet's point of view and hear what it was "hearing". He would sometimes use the puppets to impersonate himself, but his siblings somehow always knew it was him. Darn. Actually, his siblings and Baki made him open a puppet show on the side. He was really good at it, and the children loved it, but the biggest reason he did it was the fact he got money out of it. Or so he said.

By the end of the summer, the sand sibs were totally exhausted. On the last day of summer, the three collapsed on the worn, overstuffed couch in their small apartment. Baki looked at them in satisfaction.

Kankuro flipped him the bird.
"Well!" said Baki, unphased by this display. "You can go to this new jutsu school!"

"Oh, joy," muttered Gaara, rubbing his face with both hands.

Make the best of it, human. You might as well. I'm actually looking forward to this.

…you are?

Yeah. More people to play with!

…

In Konoha, the rookie nine were going through the same training regime, because the teachers were evil and conspired against them. But only Neji, Hinata, Sasuke, and Naruto had gotten the letters. By the end of their summer, Neji, using his Byakugan, could see through anything from feet-thick steel walls to chakra points to any illusion, spell or jutsu. He could broaden his perspective for miles and focus it to see what the world's most powerful microscope couldn't. He could see kilometers ahead or behind and had a full 360 degree vision, which was really handy when someone snuck up on him when he fought. Hinata was at the level Neji was at when he started the summer. Sasuke's Sharingan could copy movements and jutsus to the last minute detail. He learned to use it as a sort of tape recorder, to mimic someone's words. His Chidori was now as powerful as Naruto's Rasengan, which was saying something, as the fox-boy's trademark attack had tripled in power since the beginning of the summer. Naruto had been working with Kyubi and was, like Gaara, on speaking terms with his demon. He harnessed Kyubi's immense chakra and could create hundreds of thousands of solid doppelgangers at once. His chakra control and jutsus were excellent.

The Hogwarts ninjas, as they were called jokingly by their friends and teammates, felt sure that they could take whatever this new school threw at them,