A/N: I've forgotten to mention that this fic is slightly AU in that Naruto dragged Sasuke back from the Valley of the End. Also, grammar mistakes in Naruto's and Sasuke's dialogue are intentional, to reflect their difficulty with the English language.
They managed to get their shopping list items all crossed out and soon they were back in the world they knew, though with more vehicles and less trees, also known as Heathrow Airport. Giant Fuzzball said his goodbyes to them at Diagion Alley, claiming it was dangerous for him to walk amongst the muggles.
"You know, I once outran a train," said Naruto as they tried to locate the platform from which their train departed.
"I didn't know exactly what it was back then, but I ran in a tunnel and it moved damn fast. I carried the snow princess and she said things like 'give up' and 'you're not fast enough', but I kept on running and running and just when I felt the train at my heels we were at the end of the tunnel and I jumped to the left and we made it!"
Sasuke sighed and checked the parchment he held, just so he could ignore his teammate waving his arms about as he told his tale.
"I know, idiot, I was there. But why not jump to the top of the tunnel? There's always enough room at the top to at least admit one person."
"Because… because… like you're such an expert on train tunnels all of a sudden."
"Common sense, Naruto, though with you it's not as common as the name implies. Come on, this is our platform."
Before his insult resulted in the usual 'what? I'll get you!'-brawl Sasuke walked off, leaving his teammate steaming.
The train was shiny and metal and moving quite fast. A lot faster than the only other train Sasuke had ever encountered, which had been a giant armed fortress with on-board machine guns which spewed kunai. This train was meant for passengers and as such whizzed through the forest-less landscape. Naruto once again glued his eyes to the window as he watched the terrain pass by, complete with strange buildings and highways and cars and other signs of an unfamiliar civilization.
Sasuke grew bored after seeing the umpteenth highway run along the train tracks and kept himself busy with one of his scrolls.
The other passengers left them alone, most likely because they emanated an air of 'foreigners who don't speak one word of English' and that seemed to scare off anyone wanting to converse with them. At every stop people got in and out of the train, but gradually the train became less crowded. The terrain started to change too, with more valleys and peaks in the distance and less highways cutting through the ground.
It was growing dark, and Sasuke felt the tug of sleep at his eyes. After all, it was 2am for their bodies. In the plane he hadn't slept at all, making this his 34th hour of being awake. He had gone longer without sleep, but the burning in his eyes annoyed him.
He wondered how much longer he'd have to stay awake. Not long after that thought the train pulled in at the final station and a tired voice announced that they'd arrived at the last stop, please get out and mind your luggage. And take it with you as well.
Sasuke got up, pulled his backpack from the luggage rack and let it fall down onto Naruto's snoring head. The blonde chuunin awoke with a "what? What?" before his eyes met the fallen backpack and he glared. "Damn you Sasuke!"
"Hurry up, idiot, before they lock up the train."
"Yeah, yeah, keep yer pants on," drawled Naruto and gathered his backpack and some other bags. The station looked like Heathrow like water looks like coffee. Two train tracks connected it to the rest of the world and a few dispersed lights illuminated a bare platform. A few other travelers stumbled from the train and made their way to the stairs leading down into darkness. The two chuunin followed those who seemed to know where they were going and halfway down the stairs Sasuke whipped out his dictionary to decipher which word meant 'taxi'. The pictograms on a sign depicting different kinds of vehicles only confused them further and after waiting for Sasuke to struggle through his dictionary Naruto walked up to the nearest man and asked "taxi?".
The man pointed to one of the exits and Naruto walked outside, took a look around and yelled for Sasuke to "get your ass over here", to which Sasuke replied "stop yelling", but still made his way over to his teammate.
A lone cab waited outside, with a shifty-eyed lanky man leaning against it. The man talked into something he held (a mobile phone, Sasuke deducted) and gestured wildly with his other hand. When he spotted Naruto and Sasuke he promptly hung up without so much as a goodbye and approached them.
"Daiki Sato and Hideko Tanaka?" he asked in a loud voice and Sasuke internally winced at the way this man mangled his codename, but nodded his assent.
"Alright, put your bags in the trunk," the man talked slow and now mimed picking up a bag and pointed at the back end of his car, "and get in. I will take you to the forest."
Sasuke wanted to reply that he spoke and understood English and that the man could stop talking to them like they were idiots, but refrained when he took a good, long look at the car. If such a hunk of metal would crash and burn, he didn't know if even he could get out in time to avoid serious injury. Best not to aggravate the driver.
"Why didn't they let us run to the forest?" complained Naruto as he deposited his backpack in the opened trunk.
"Because the employer doesn't know our skill set. Yet."
The ride itself was uneventful. It was the first time Sasuke had ever sat in a car, but he didn't understand the appeal of it. Sure, you remained dry, had a radio to listen to and traveling like this didn't tire you out, but in the case of an enemy attack a car would be crushed in an instant. He saw no quick escape routes, and it also ran on an highly flammable liquid.
And it was noisy, smelled like oil and petrol and metal and plastic and could only travel on flat roads. And if it broke down, it was useless. And… Sasuke gave up after naming another shortcoming and focused on the outside world. In the dark there wasn't much to see, especially now that the highway they traveled on was deserted.
His eyes unconsciously followed the interrupted white line until he slipped into a kind of trance. Alright, he dozed off and Naruto had to wake him when the cab pulled over and the man announced "this is your stop, lads."
Sasuke resisted the urge to rub his eyes. Naruto was already grinning at him, no need to give him further ammo (or get bonked on the head in retaliation to his 'slip' earlier).
A man stood on the side of the road, dressed in a colorful robe and he sported the longest beard Sasuke had ever seen. His eyes were kind, and Sasuke felt at ease with this man. And that put him on guard. The man might be manipulating his chakra to give off pleasant vibes in order to lure them into a false sense of security.
"I'm Tanaka Hideko and this is Sato Daiki," Sasuke said in his native tongue and added: "It was a long journey."
The old man smiled and responded: "But the rewards are reaped."
Sasuke and Naruto nodded in recognition of the password they had agreed on and relaxed a bit. At least they managed to travel to the right employer.
"Alrighty then, I'll be on my way," said their chauffeur. Before he got in his car though, the employer pulled a thin stick from his robes and waved it about.
"Obliviate."
The chauffeur's face immediately took on a glazed look and he stopped halfway into getting into the car. After two seconds of imitating a dead fish hung up on a wall he shook his head, got in his car and drove off without further comment.
"What did you do?" Sasuke asked in a carefully neutral voice and kept his eyes trained on the stick. He resisted the urge to let his eyes flow into the Sharingan. Best not to be identified yet.
"I'm afraid I had to erase the man's memory of this ride," said the employer. "This setting is too conspicuous and the wizarding world has forbidden almost all contact with Muggles. Now, please, follow me. Oh, and I'm professor Dumbledore, in case the name was so foreign to you you'd forgotten it."
"Wait. Are you planning to erase our memories after this year?" asked Sasuke sharply. Dumbledore chuckled and shook his head. Sasuke looked closely for clues the man lied, but either he spoke the truth or he was an expert at lying.
"You aren't muggles. Plus by the time I've uttered the first syllable I know I'll have my throat cut."
Well, at least he was aware of a shinobi's skills. Dumbledore turned his back on them (a stupid move with two shinobi behind them, but then again, he was their employer) and led the way.
Sasuke gestured for Naruto to come, who tried his hardest to understand the conversation but was left behind as soon as Dumbledore said 'conspicuous'. Sasuke made it clear with his body language that he'd tell Naruto later and his teammate grudgingly agreed. He had grown up after all, a little bit.
Dumbledore led them on a long walk, through a thin stretch of forest and finally they spotted something aglow in the distance. The forest made way to grass and as they passed a tall gate Sasuke saw somebody had gouged out letters in the stone. They were unreadable in the dark though.
Dumbledore had been silent for the whole walk but finally he said in their native tongue: "I'll show you to your room. I'll set up a meeting in the morning, so you can introduce yourselves to the rest of the staff. Please wear your masks, because your age will be frowned upon in our culture. You'll have one week to become familiar with the basic layout of the castle. I'm sure the rest of the mission parameters are familiar to you. Do you have any questions at the moment?"
"Yes," said Sasuke. "How do you intend to keep to the last clause of the contract?"
Dumbledore looked back over his shoulder as he answered.
"I have instructed my staff to be on the lookout for anyone wearing a black cloak with red clouds. If they are found, you will be notified immediately and I have placed an emergency Portkey in my office, leading straight to Heathrow."
Naruto frowned at the precautionary measures taken for his safety, but when Sasuke threw him a Look he wilted and shook his head. Now was not the time to complain that they could take on Akatsuki-members on their own.
"That was all," said Sasuke.
But more questions did pop in Sasuke's head as they neared the school. Or should he say: humongous castle. Light shone behind a few windows, but most windows remained dark, making the castle look ominous. They were going to have a hell of a time guarding it, especially considering the many twists and turns the path took. Sometimes the castle disappeared behind the trees and hills surrounding it, so that meant that the path wasn't fully visible from the castle either.
Sasuke noted this as the first flaw in the castle's defense. He heard Naruto breathe "wow" as they neared it. The castle looked impressive indeed, with all kinds of towers and windows and its sheer size was intimidating enough. And the castle felt alive, buzzing with ancient chakra (or magic, as they called it). Sasuke let his eyes slip into the Sharingan and he actually saw the residual wisps of chakra in the air, flowing like the wind.
Dumbledore led them through huge doors, up a marble stair case until they hit the third floor. Here he led them through all kinds of hallways and corridors until they came to a heavy wooden door, indistinguishable from the other wooden doors. Dumbledore opened it and Sasuke immediately spotted two beds, a table with two chairs and a nightstand.
"This'll be your room for the duration of the mission. This door," Dumbledore gestured to another wooden door, "leads to a bathroom."
He explained the times when food was served in a place called the Great Hall, but he promised them that Rubeus (so that was Giant Fuzzball's name!) would give them a tour of the place tomorrow.
"For now, please rest. Rubeus'll come collect you in the morning."
After exchanging some polite goodnights the employer left, and Naruto was finally able to burst free from his self-imposed silence. Apart from a couple of "wow"-remarks, his teammate had been unnaturally silent the whole time. Sasuke didn't know if that was because Naruto couldn't express himself in English, or if he was growing up, but probably the former. But now everything he'd held back came out like ash in a volcanic explosion.
"Did you see the giant lake? And the castle? It's huge! I can actually feel the chakra in this place, I bet you can see it. I noticed you used the Sharingan. Can you see it, huh?"
Sasuke gave a curt nod and dumped his backpack on the first bed. The room was large but for the most part empty. Two four-poster beds graced the room, both with red curtains. A single window showed a view of the lake and a red-golden rug lay on the floor. At the foot of the beds stood a trunk large enough to stuff Naruto in and still have room to spare. A nightstand with drawers stood next to the bed and on the wall hung a tapestry depicting some war concerning an unicorn and a leprechaun or some kind of magical creature Sasuke hadn't ever laid eyes on. A fireplace coated with black charcoal and ash was embedded into the wall and a heavy-looking table with two chairs completed the room.
Naruto still babbled away as he walked towards the bathroom, so all Sasuke had to do was grunt sometimes or say "hn". He gave the bathroom a quick glance, but it wasn't a bathroom to brag about. A clear white bath tub, an unassuming toilet and a sink along with a mirror was all there was to it, along with a small glass shower cubicle embedded into the wall.
He'd better start unpacking before sleep claimed him, and he hated rushed unpacking when you had a giant fuzzball banging on your door.
He paused at the first item he grabbed. His mask.
No way. This was Tsunade's way of getting revenge on Naruto for some perceived (or actual) sleight, but for once his teammate had been sneaky and had pawned the mask off onto Sasuke. Without checking what the mask represented he had chucked it into his backpack and had kept on packing in a hurry.
After seeing the look on Sasuke's face Naruto almost laughed himself into a coma (or a Chidori-induced one) but that still didn't change the mask.
It pictured a chick. Not a girl, but the cute little yellow balls of feather that children want to hold in their hands and cluck at. Or at least, that's what Sasuke had observed. He'd been too busy flinging yet another kunai at the target painted on a tree to pay much attention to the chirping chicks in the neighbor's back yard.
Since they weren't ANBU (yet) they were given masks which didn't exist within ANBU. Such as the fox mask Naruto currently examined, and the chick mask. The fox mask wasn't used for an obvious reason, which sat across from Sasuke on the bed.
As for the chick mask… Sasuke doubted any self-respecting shinobi would willingly wear a mask that represented a fuzzy yellow creature. A very non-deadly creature, if you overlooked the salmonella thing. Silently Sasuke let the hidden kunai in his sleeve slide into his hand and with it he scraped off the paint.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Naruto asked.
"Changing my mask," replied Sasuke in an even tone. "Go find me some charcoal."
"Go find it yourself, lazy bum. I'm happy with my mask, if you want to fingerpaint all over your mask, go ahead. But don't order me around."
With a harrumph Naruto returned to unpacking and soon Sasuke lost himself in the task of repainting his mask. The small fireplace provided enough charcoal for his art project and soon the stylized chick was replaced by a more menacing crow. Sasuke blew the last charcoal from the mask and slid a thumb over the drawing. He might have to find some varnish later on, but for now it'd do. He erased the smudge his thumb left and turned to find his teammate already fast asleep.
Sasuke quickly unpacked. With every snore Naruto gave he felt his eyelids getting heavier. He had lost track of how many hours he'd been awake, but it was too long. Especially if they were expected to talk a lot of English tomorrow. He'd need his wits about him.
He bit his tongue on the remark that Naruto'd need to sleep three weeks straight to keep his wits about. No use talking to a sleeping body, but it was so automatic to insult Naruto he didn't even had to think about it. After he finished unpacking he collapsed on the bed and just managed to pull the covers over his body before his mind joined Naruto's in dreamland.
At the Academy they taught that building trust with the employer(s) was important. Sometimes Naruto was too good at that, making friends (and enemies) all over the Hidden Countries. Sasuke mainly had enemies, but he too understood the importance of trust between an employer and a shinobi.
Which is why they stood in the Teacher's Lounge, facing the teachers of Hogwarts. They were a varied bunch, ranging from a petite man to a woman with branches sticking out everywhere. The women were also far from the range the shinobi were used to. A tight-lipped scrawny woman scowled like Sasuke at them, but right next to her stood a woman whom Naruto could plant a 'vacancy' sign on and she wouldn't even notice.
Naruto bowed to them and said: "Daiki Sato, Chuunin of Fire Country, code-name 'Fox'." He bit down in time on the automatic 'future hokage', but he managed to squeeze his rank into his introduction anyhow.
"Hideko Tanaka, Chuunin of Fire Country, code-name 'Crow'," introduced Sasuke himself, also making a small bow towards the assorted teachers.
Dumbledore took over from them and addressed the teachers. "Since the Dementors turned out to be … unsuccessful last year, I hired new guards for Hogwarts."
Most of the speech was lost on Naruto, but he caught the gist of it: that they were shinobi from Konoha, and why he had chosen to hire guards from a hidden country. During the speech his mind wandered to the chosen names. To remain somewhat incognito they had settled on a fake name. They would still be Fox and Crow to the students, but the teachers thought that they'd given their real names. That meant a basis for trust, and trust was important for a mission this long. They'd have to work alongside the teachers, and the sooner they got along, the better.
Naruto hoped he remembered to react to the fake name, or the teachers would find out real quick.
"They will patrol the grounds at night so you won't have to anymore, and I've asked them to teach some duelling classes for any interested students."
Asked? Naruto remembered the mission parameters. More like 'put in there and granny Tsunade was forced to accept because of the incredible sum of money Konoha would receive upon successful completion of this mission, and here's a down payment of two times an A-ranked mission, to coerce you into sending your best shinobi'.
The old man sure knew how a hidden village worked, especially one recovering from an invasion.
"I thank you for your time. I'll see you all at dinner, then."
The old man smiled a dismissive smile and watched as the staff slowly dispersed, some of them talking amongst each other, but the majority openly stared at Sasuke and Naruto, who stood at attention like the trained shinobi that they were. Naruto knew that the teachers must be curious, but they held it back. They might have to deal with that later. Giant Fuzzball approached and nodded at them.
"Morning fellows, I'm your tour guide this morning. If you'll follow me, please…"
To a Konoha-born shinobi, the castle felt dark and huge, made from unnatural stone and lacking in plant life. There were plenty of other things around to look at (such as the moving, talking paintings and the enchanted torches), but they were all man-made. The castle was too square, too impregnated with the order imposed on natural elements that Sasuke didn't feel at home here.
Giant Fuzzball seemed to feel at home though, judging by the way he spoke about the various paintings and showing them secret shortcuts, sometimes with traps built in to capture an inattentive student.
From a shinobi's perspective, the castle contained a lot of openings, but in case of an attack, the castle was easy to defend. Its creators had thought long and hard on the architecture, because from what Sasuke saw, there were at most three ways in and out of the castle. Add to that the various hexes placed on it, and you got a location where Sasuke would gladly hole himself up in.
But it was still too dank.
And it had too many surprises for a shinobi. The suits of armor clanged at them, surprising Sasuke and he darted away a few steps in a decidedly girly fashion, or so Naruto told him. Multiple times.
His teammate got his comeuppance when a see-through ghost drifted through the walls. Naruto gave a shriek (utterly girly in Sasuke's opinion) and Sasuke had to physically restrain him to keep him from running off. The guy who didn't blink at fighting demons was somehow still scared of ghosts. The balding ghost seemed offended by Naruto's shriek and floated closer, wagging his finger at the shinobi.
"I may be dead, but I still have feelings."
"G-g-g-g-," Naruto said, pointing a trembling finger at the ghost. Sasuke noticed the fat man wore a habit.
"Yes, that's a ghost," said Sasuke in a calming voice. "Get over it."
But there was no venom in his voice. Better get this over with than have to deal with tackling Naruto every time a ghost floated past.
"There's nothing to be scared of, young man, we ghosts... chose to stay longer. No harm done," said the ghost in a surprisingly warm voice for a dead creature. He smiled and pointed at himself. "I'm known as the Fat Friar. Welcome to Hogwarts, I hope you have a pleasant stay here. If there's anything you need, I'm your ghost."
"You seen Peeves around, Fat Friar?" asked Giant Fuzzball. Naruto calmed down somewhat, but Sasuke saw that behind his mask he was still wide-eyed. The giant and the ghost started discussing some mutual acquaintance, leaving Sasuke to assess Naruto's mental condition.
"You gonna run off?" he asked, and when Naruto shook his head he slowly let his teammate go. He kept him in arm's reach though. He didn't fancy tracking down a shinobi who didn't want to be found in this mysterious stone maze. Or worse, track down a whole lot of Naruto's if he decided to use Kage Bunshin [1], only to have every one of them go 'poof' in his hands.
"See? They're harmless. Even Giant Fu- Hagrid thinks so."
"Easy for him to say, he's twenty feet tall."
Sasuke bopped Naruto on the head. "Get real. You're a shinobi. That," Sasuke indicated the ghost, "is a jolly fat ghost. We can hear it coming, we can see it coming, better yet; we can sense it coming. So there's nothing to fear."
The Fat Friar was done talking with Hagrid and still smiled up a storm, as if he wanted to put Naruto at ease that way.
"If it makes you feel better, I can't even touch you. So I can't harm you in any way."
Naruto nodded, but his eyes were still too large for his face. For the moment he seemed to accept that at least this ghost wasn't out for his blood. Sasuke hoped that the other ghosts were as harmless as this one, because he didn't want to deal with Naruto in this state more often. Giant Fuzzball ushered the shinobi onward.
"That was the Fat Friar. Thanks for introducing yourself, mr. Friar, we'll be on our way now."
The ghost waved at them and disappeared through a wall. Giant Fuzzball continued the tour, and slowly Naruto calmed down. They didn't encounter any more ghosts, and the tour was immensely helpful. Giant Fuzzball knew his stuff. He told them tidbits of information on pretty much every corridor. And not only that, he was the groundskeeper, so he knew every tree and every rock as if it was his own backyard. Which it actually was.
The only large unknown factor was the Forbidden Forest. Sasuke figured it couldn't be worse than the Forest of Death back in Konoha, but he already planned some expeditions into the forest in his mind. Such a large unknown factor was not a welcome risk, and they needed as much intel as possible if they were to defend this castle in a proper manner.
Once back in their rooms Naruto stretched and Sasuke suppressed a flinch at the way his teammate's back cracked.
"There sure are some weird people around here, including those ghosts," said Naruto and cracked his neck for good measure. Sasuke shrugged.
"I've seen weirder."
"Sure you have," replied Naruto and fell down on the bed, signaling that this conversation was over. Without even bothering to undress, Naruto crept under the covers and seemed to fall asleep right there and then. Sasuke sometimes envied him for that.
Before he could sleep, he needed to take a shower, and even then he sometimes lay awake for hours, just thinking. But not tonight. He'd sleep soundly tonight, because there was too much to think about so he couldn't focus on one thing. A blessing in disguise, the tour turned out to be.
It became immediately apparent when the students arrived. They were loud, and their voices mixed into a general murmur. They were also sopping wet, tracking water everywhere. Naruto and Sasuke took their places on either side of the room and regarded the students from behind their masks.
Sasuke saw civilian kids. He was so used to throngs of shinobi that he felt decidedly out of place. The kids here weren't constantly on high alert, and he'd eat his mask if even one of them had endured hardship.
He mentally scolded himself for his lapse in attention and kept on surveying the kids. A lot of them talked amongst themselves and threw him and Naruto curious looks. Sasuke kept still as a statue.
After the students took their seats at the elongated tables the Sorting Ceremony began, or so Ms. McGonagall said. Apparently it had something to do with an oversized hat and way too nervous eleven-year old, and the various Houses in which they got placed.
He kept an eye out for the special charge, and finally found him sitting at the table of kids wearing red-hemmed robes. He applauded when a new kid got sorted into his House but kept up a conversation with a red-headed boy sitting next to him. A girl also joined in the conversation, but they became silent when Dumbledore got up and began his speech.
The Triwizard Tournament came of no surprise to the shinobi, but the students were shocked. After Dumbledore said what he had to say, he left the students to speculate and talk amongst themselves.
After the speech the food appeared and Sasuke felt thankful he had already eaten, because the scents overwhelmed him. He had to learn where that amazing food came from. He managed to cook an edible meal, but he was more occupied with cleaning his weapons than preparing an amazing meal.
It took a while before the kids were done with the (delicious) desserts, and all the while Sasuke kept his post. He had been trained for this sort of thing, but even from this distance he saw Naruto fidgeted. The idiot never had much patience, except for his pursuit after Sakura. Sasuke briefly wondered if his teammate had even noticed that the Hyuuga girl pined after him, but scolded himself for letting his attention wander, again.
The desserts vanished as quickly as they had arrived and Dumbledore got up. He made a few announcements about the forest outside (they weren't supposed to enter it? Oops...) along with some other rules, and finally acknowledged the shinobi.
"Last year we had the Dementors accompany us as guards, but this year I've had the liberty to choose guards of my own. With the Triwizard Tournament coming to school this year, they are here to guarantee the safety of every living soul on the school grounds. I introduce you to mr. Crow," Sasuke gave a quick bow to the amusement of some of the nearby kids, "and mr. Fox."
Naruto copied Sasuke but wasn't laughed at on his side of the Great Hall. Sasuke did hear some kids exclaim: "what kind of name is mr. Crow? And mr. Fox? Gimme a break."
"They are from one of the hidden countries and will remain with us this entire school year. They'll patrol the school at day and at night, so please, don't make them kill you."
The students laughed at his last remark, but Sasuke wasn't so sure the old man had meant it in jest. He at least knew what they were capable of, but the students had yet to see.
"With all that said and done, I wish you a good night, and a good year."
The students applauded politely and then, table by table, stumbled off into the school. Sasuke saw that Naruto discreetly created two more clones and transformed them into school children.
With some quick hand gestures the shinobi divided the houses between them and Sasuke followed the kids with the green-hemmed robes to their common room from a distance. Some kids noticed him, but only one halted and waited for Sasuke to catch up.
Not in the mood for any cheek from this kid (he had laughed at Sasuke's formal bow), Sasuke waved at him to keep on walking.
"The hidden countries, hm?" the blonde kid asked rhetorically, and looked Sasuke up and down. Impatiently Sasuke gestured for the kid to keep on moving.
"My father didn't know you were coming. Dumbledore must've been planning this behind the school council's back, which my father is chairman of. But no matter. If you need any help, I can show you the ropes, introduce you to some people. Let me know."
The kid threw him a smile which reminded Sasuke of Kabuto. But Sasuke kept carefully neutral. He inclined his head at the boy and finally he walked off.
The common room of the green-hemmed kids was in the dungeons. Sasuke kept standing guard there for fifteen minutes before leaving and meeting up with Naruto. They worked out a patrol schedule some time ago, and now was the first night they had to implement it.
The first night of many, many to come.
[1] Shadow Clones, for you dub-people.
