Of Fists and Sticks
"I'm so pumped!" Naruto yelled, throwing his fist in the air, "the 12 of us haven't had a mission together in a long time!" Sasuke snorted, pointedly ignoring the blonde's exclamation.
"Naruto you baka, we haven't ever had a mission with the 12 of us" Sakura said.
"Of course we have Sakura-Chan, remember that time we helped Gaara out, and that time old man Genou was trying to blow up the village…" Sakura shook her head.
"There were only 11 of us both times" she corrected. Naruto paused for a moment to think.
"Oh yeah" he said after a while, "the bastard was too busy being gay with his snake lover" At that point Sasuke lunged at the blonde, having had enough of his stupid remarks. Sakura jumped quickly in between the two, her back to Sasuke preventing him from hitting Naruto, her hands gripping his wrists.
"Honestly you two, the day has barely just started and you're already at each others throats" Sasuke let out a low mumble of curses before relaxing, Naruto smirked casually and threw his hands behind his head and walked to the other side of the room.
"Gosh Haruno, you stopped it at the best part" Kiba remarked, him being one of the many enjoying the entertainment Sasuke and Naruto provided.
"Kiba-kun" Hinata reprimanded effectively silencing the boy. The Hokage cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, I've called you all here as you are one of the only large groups of shinobi that work fairly well together" Tsunade began, "and I have an important S-rank mission for you"
"Well obviously baa-chan, you certainly didn't call us here for a tea party" Naruto snorted from his corner. Unfortunately he was standing next to Neji who had lost his patience for the blonde and had proceeded to smack him upside the head.
"Che you smack like your hair…" Naruto said smiling devilishly, "girly"
"Naruto!" Tsunade screamed, Naruto hushed up immediately.
"Before I was so rudely interrupted, we have recently received intelligence of places beyond the map we know of now" the ninjas nodded, "A place known as 'Hogwarts' wishes our assistance in protecting one of their protégés"
"What kind of a gross name is Hogwarts" Ino asked, "it sounds like a foot disease"
"Actually, when I was still learning under the third we have already been gathering intelligence about that place…I happen to know to know the principle of the school of 'Hogwarts'" Tsunade explained.
"A school?" Tenten inquired.
"Yes…they, believe or not, teach magic" Tsunade said rather hesitantly. Naruto, Kiba Ino and Tenten burst out laughing, they were laughing so hard they had to lean on nearby objects and people for support. Neji and Sasuke snorted in disgust and disbelief.
"How youthful of them, they express their bountiful youthfulness through witchcraft" Lee exclaimed, stars in his eyes. The rest were quite indifferent in their expressions, but one thing was certain, nobody believed Tsunade.
"Shishou have you already started drinking?" Sakura asked. Tsunade smacked her head with the palm of her hand.
"I know this sounds very unbelievable, but you have to trust me, now I will appoint a leader" Naruto's hand immediately shot up in the crowd, but was ignored by the fifth Hokage.
"As the only ANBUs on the team, Sasuke, Neji, Tenten, I have decided that between the three of you Neji will be captain, Sasuke and Tenten you two will be co-captains as this is a fairly large operation" the three ANBU nodded.
"Also I will need to send couple of you undercover, and according to the rules that regulate housing in that school I have chosen Lee, Naruto, Chouji and Hinata" Naruto's whiney groan could be heard above Hinata's gasp, Chouji's chip muffled protest and Lee's proclamations to be 'youthfully undercover'.
"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, I don't believe that Naruto makes a very good undercover operative" Shikamaru spoke up. Tsunade nodded.
"I know, but due to certain circumstances, that are hard to explain, these three were the only three that met the criteria"
"Perhaps we can ask the principle to fix the rules a bit so that maybe someone more competent can be used" Shino suggested, speaking for the first time. Tsunade scoffed.
"Trust me I've tried everything, we'll just have to hope Naruto doesn't mess up too badly" an indignant cry was heard from behind and everyone silenced.
"For the final touch, you guys are to act as bodyguards, but you may not communicate with Naruto, Hinata, Chouji or Lee, we will give you guys any info they have gained"
"What, you mean I'm not allowed to talk to my friends" Naruto yelled.
"Well you will be able to communicate with Hinata, Chouji and Lee, but no you are not allowed to talk to the others" Naruto had a devious look on his face so Tsunade added as an afterthought, "and you cannot 'befriend' them either" Naruto quickly settled into a pout.
"So you will leave tomorrow at 6:00, meet at the front gates and I will have your transportation ready"
"Hai!" the group of ninjas chorused as they filed out of the Hokage's room.
The sun had barely peeked over the horizon, when 12 of the village's most elite shinobi gathered at the front gate of Konoha. Most were groggy and dishevelled having only woken up minutes before arriving. Naruto was slurping, loudly, on his cup of instant ramen; beside him were Sakura and Ino who sat back to back with each other, their eyes closed. Kiba was snoring loudly a ways off, having collapsed on a poor Hinata who was now stuck poking her fingers awkwardly. The rest stood or sat haphazardly around the gates.
*POOF*
"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura yelled jumping up and pointing at the familiar puff of smoke. Ino was mumbling curse words at Sakura, who had caused her to fall backwards hitting her head on the floor.
"Sorry a little old lady was buying some groceries and I just had to stop and help her" he said smiling sheepishly.
"LIAR!" the two exclaimed. Kakashi laughed from behind his mask, before producing a long chain from one of his weapon scrolls.
"Alright guys hurry up, times almost up, everyone, grab a part of the chain" The ninja's did as they were told quickly and immediately they felt a sinking feeling in their stomachs. The last thing anyone saw was distorted face of a rather amused Kakashi.
The group of Nins were dumped from the swirling vortex that they had travelled through. A couple of the more graceful ninja's managed to land on their feet. Unfortunately, Naruto, Chouji, Kiba and Ino were not among that group.
"Ow, next time I'm calling for a cab" Ino moaned rubbing her sore back.
"Amen" Kiba said getting up as well.
"So…where's house number 12?" Naruto asked as he stared at the two buildings before him, one labelled 11, the other 13, "honestly you think these people would at least know how to count" Sakura elbowed him as the people walking by gave him weird stares.
*Pop*
Immediately the ninjas jumped into their trademark fighting stances, weapons and fists the ready, only to come across an old man with a long grey beard. He held one hand up in a 'stop' gesture and all the ninjas relaxed, slightly.
"I'm sorry to appear so suddenly, welcome to 12 Grimmauld Place" he said sweeping his hands in the direction behind them. Everyone whipped around as the building, which clearly wasn't there before, now stood proudly before them.
"Okay, that was so not there before" Kiba said staring in awe at the crummy broken building.
"Please come in" the old man spoke again. Neji nodded and walked in, the others following behind him. A group of people were already sitting around a table, talking quietly amongst themselves. There were a group of gingers, most likely a family, and a bushy brown haired girl sitting in the corner of the room. They all looked up when the ninjas walked in.
"I'm sorry I haven't introduced myself yet, my name's Albus Dumbledore" Naruto snickered and turned to whisper to Kiba who was beside him.
"Ha, a dumb-old-door indeed". Kiba snickered, but quieted, as he felt the looks coming from Sasuke, Neji and Tenten. Dumbledore waved his wand, casting a spell over the 12.
"We would like to continue this meeting in peace" Tenten said, speaking in perfect English, she eyed the other occupants of the room, who, quickly and quietly, exited the room.
"These four" Neji began, as he pointed towards Naruto, Lee, Chouji and Hinata, "will be undercover as students"
"The rest of us will be on guard around the school" Sasuke continued, "Our alibi right now is we're escorts for our four undercover ninjas, and it will remain that way"
"May I request another task?" Dumbledore asked. Neji nodded.
"I would like that you not only protect Harry, but the students at my school as well"
"It'll cost you" Tenten advised.
"I am willing to pay an extra million in return" Neji could practically see the twinkling eyes of Tenten, who smirked as she extended her hands towards him.
"Then we have a deal"
*Knock* *Knock*
"Come in" he beckoned. A young boy, about the same age as the ninjas, walked in. Alongside him were the two kids they had seen earlier.
"You called for us Professor?" the boy, whom the ninjas assumed was Harry, said.
"Yes I would like you to meet four exchange students from Konoha" Naruto, Lee, Chouji and Hinata stepped forward; Naruto's whiskers were covered by a simple henge as well as Hinata's eyes. The girl was sending Sasuke covert looks, which did not go unnoticed by the boy. Harry stared sceptically at the new kids.
"Uh, hi" he said uncertainly.
"Hey!" Naruto returned enthusiastically, "I can't believe it's really you, you're quite popular where we're from" Naruto could practically feel the disbelief radiating off of the others, he smiled.
"And these 8 behind them are bodyguards that I have hired for our school-"
"What?" Harry exclaimed, interrupting the headmaster "Look I don't need babysitters"
"We're not babysitters" Neji corrected, "We're bodyguards" but the boy wasn't listening.
"Just send these kids back where they came from, I can handle this by myself"
"Almost getting killed 4 times, yeah he can take care of himself" Tenten scoffed.
"Harry" the girl admonished.
"No let him speak" Shikamaru said, almost daring the boy to continue his rant, but Harry didn't say anything, "well then let us 'kids' speak then"
"That's it, Stupefy!" Harry pointed his wand at Shikamaru. At the last minute the boy craned his neck to the side letting the red jet of light pass him harmlessly.
"Expelliarmus!" the girl yelled as she shot the wand out of Harry's hand.
"What are you doing mate, you could have hurt him" the red-head said. Harry didn't respond, instead he chose to glare at Shikamaru who was smiling at him.
"Psh, like he could" Ino said laughing.
"Everyone, please we have details to go over so let's just try to get over our differences" Hinata whispered shyly. The headmaster who had been standing there throughout the whole exchange, coughed and agreed with the timid girl.
"Harry, they aren't here only for the protection of you, but that of the whole school" Harry, who had calmed down significantly, nodded but made no move to apologize to the ninjas.
"So this is Kyo" Neji said pointing at Naruto, "Kisaru" pointing at Lee, "Kotaro" pointing at Chouji "and Kari" finally pointing at the sole girl.
"So I guess we should introduce ourselves, my name's Tenten" the brunette girl began, gesturing to the people around her she began to name them off, "this is Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Neji and Aburame Shino and Uchiha Sasuke"
"Any questions?" Sasuke asked. Nobody raised their hand and a silence settled into the room.
"Now Harry, go rest up, you have a rough couple of days ahead of you" Dumbledore instructed. Harry left the room slamming the door behind him.
"I'm sorry for his behaviour, he's having some tough times, my name's Hermione Granger and this is Ronald Weasley, it was nice meeting you guys" she said quickly before pulling the boy out of the room with her.
"I'm guessing they don't like us very much" Chouji mused.
"You think?" Kiba scoffed.
"Don't worry they'll warm up to you soon" Dumbledore assured, "Now I have some business to attend to so I will be off, feel free to ask anyone if you have a question" and with another pop, the headmaster disappeared.
"I'm feeling a long boring protection mission coming, complete with a whiney ass bitch" Naruto said, Sakura smacked him for his foul language.
"Sheesh Naruto you act like all your clients are sunshine and rainbows" Sakura said.
"Well I don't like how he thinks he's all badass but in reality he's just a scared little boy AND he called us KIDS!" Naruto continued to rant.
"Technically we are" Shikamaru mused.
"Yeah, but I can punk his bitch ass any day"
"Hn, dobe you guys should start heading out with them or they'll get suspicious of us" Sasuke said.
"Sasuke-san is right, Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan, Chouji-kun let us youthfully blend into their fascinating world" and with that Lee yanked the other two out of the room, leaving the nine shinobis to plan. As soon as they left Neji pulled out a floor plan of the school and rolled it out onto the table. Many of the places were already mapped out and labelled with colours. He then pulled out small slips of paper labelled with each person's codename.
"I've paired everyone off according to your abilities" Neji explained, "Only four of you will actually tail Potter around to class, while the others are in charge of school safety"
"We've chosen the four that can best help Naruto and the others out when confronted about their magical abilities, so it will be Tenten and Shikamaru, Sasuke and Sakura, you will alternate shifts and do patrol when the other group is on Potter duty"
"Ha, ha, Potty duty" Kiba joked, nobody laughed, "man if Naruto was here he'd keel over"
"Anyways, as Shino, Kiba and I are best for reconnaissance, we will be on patrol duty, Ino, as the sole Chunnin, is assigned to look after Granger"
"Your night shifts are listed on the sheet Neji has given out" Sasuke said.
"Questions?" Neji asked. Everybody shook their head, "Alright then Haruno, Uchiha, you guys are on first watch, everyone else to bed"
Harry and his friends walked up to one of the bedrooms, having been forbidden to attend a meeting the Order was having. Harry was silently fuming at the new arrivals and was getting angrier by the minute. This did not go unnoticed by his friends, but they chose not to interfere. Harry dropped unceremoniously onto the bed and closed his eyes.
"So have you two heard anything lately?" he asked, almost dreading the answer.
"Harry, you know we can't-" Hermione began.
"Tell me anything" Harry finished sitting straight up and smacking his fist on the bed, "Why not?"
"Cause Dumbledore told us not to" Ron answered, but that clearly did not bode well with the boy.
"That's a bunch of bull, I'VE BEEN THROUGH MORE THAN YOU TWO CAN IMAGINE, WHO SAVED THE PHILOSPHER'S STONE, WHO KILLED RIDDLE, WHO SAVED YOUR ASSES FROM DEMENTORS, WHO HAD TO GO THROUGH THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT AND ESCAPE FROM HIM?" he yelled, "ME THAT'S WHO"
Harry was seething in anger and all of his pent up frustration had been let out. Ron was shocked at the outburst, while Hermione was on the verge of tears. The two were trying to explain to Harry that they really wanted to let him know, but the boy was too far into his rant to even listen to them. He continued to scream and yell until Naruto burst into the room, strolling in as if he owned the place. At that point Harry had stopped and glared angrily at the blonde.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.
"I'm sick of hearing you whine so I thought I'd save your friends the trouble and stop you" Naruto returned with equal anger. Hinata and Lee were in the room in an instant to pull Naruto back before he did anything drastic. Chouji strolled in slowly afterwards, calmly eating his chips.
"Who are you to tell me I can't whine, you have no idea what I've gone through" Hinata gasped as Naruto ripped his arm from her grip, even though a little voice in the back of her head told her to let go. Lee quickly recovered and locked Naruto's arms behind his back.
"What you've gone through, from what I know it can't even compare to what me and my friends had to go through" Naruto shouted, "Because of a something I did to save my country I've been ridiculed all my life, but I never complained about it"
"Well I'm sure even your parents can't hate you" Harry spat.
"What parents, I've never met my parents ever and you always piss about how this Voldemort killed your parents, but my best friend had his whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents slaughtered by his older brother whom he looked up to the most" Naruto's eyes were starting to change dangerously red, "I have a friend who doesn't know her parents let alone her last name, at least you can hear stories of the great things your parents may have done, but she doesn't even know where to begin to look for her parents!" By now Naruto was starting to thrash around wildly in Lee's grips.
"Naruto-kun, I think you've said enough" Lee whispered, but Naruto continued to thrash around. Hinata timidly approached Naruto, she whispered a quick sorry before hitting him on one of his pressure points, rendering him unconscious.
"We're deeply sorry for our friend's behaviour" Hinata said bowing politely, Lee following suit. Lee picked Naruto up like he weighed nothing, before the three took their leave. Harry stood, staring at the space that Naruto once occupied. He briefly saw the twins pop into the room, followed shortly by Ginny who came through the door, but he couldn't pay attention to what they were saying. Really, he could hardly care because he was still trying to wrap his head around what the new exchange student said.
"Kyo…" Harry whispered. Ron and Hermione quickly turned to him.
"Just ignore him mate, that boy's clearly off his rockers, you had every right to be mad at us" Ron assured. Harry glanced at the boy briefly and smiled reassuringly, yet he was still stunned by Naruto's words.
Sakura strolled around the room, looking at various objects that floated or did things, she once, would have never believed they could do. She continued walking around the house, looking in occasional rooms to check in on the sleeping occupants. Sakura finally came upon a large wall with a giant tree engraved with names and pictures. The medic-nin ran her fingers gently across some of the burnt and blank places on the tree.
"Some family" the girl whispered, barely registering Sasuke walking into the room. Sakura turned and looked at him. His face was passive as he glanced around at the wall.
"Sasuke-" she started, but was cut off by a low 'Hn' let out by Sasuke. He left the room, continuing with his patrol, barely sparing her a glance. Sakura let out a deep sigh, turning once more to the magnificent tree on the wall.
"Maybe some day you'll have a tree like this in your house" she said quietly. Little did she know that Sasuke hadn't walked very far and had heard every single word she had said.
"Yeah…maybe" he breathed out, before picking up his pace.