Chapter Two – The Switching of Places

It was the morning of July 31st in the town of Little Winning, England and a twelve-year-old dark haired boy named Harry Potter was still blissfully asleep. Although it was his birthday, he saw no need to wake up. It would only be hindered with chores that his horrible relives would end up giving him to suffer. He still slept as a small owl flew threw his open window with a letter in its beak and a bound scroll in its claws.

The bird looked down at the sleeping boy and was very angry that person that was supposed to receive its delivery wasn't even awake. So while it began to feel particularly nasty, the owl opened its beak and let out a deafening squawk right in his ear. Harry gave a cry of shock as he bolted upright and fell out of bed with a bang. He looked up with an irritated glare at the owl as he rubbed his bottom.

"I hope you enjoyed that" he hissed at it as he accepted the letter and scroll.

If the owl could have smirked, it would have.

Sighing as he got to his feet, Harry watched as the owl departed. Sitting back down, he opened the letter that was addressed to him in the regular Howarts style.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

It is my pleasure to announce that you and two others have been chosen to travel toJapan this year to be trained in Shinobi magic. On this year's worth of education, Ms. Hermione Granger and Mr. Ronald Weasley will accompany you to Konohagakura, the Hidden Village of the Leaf. This will be a transfer exchange that will last till the end of the school year.

The three students that will be replacing you and friends shall be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. These three will be placed in all of the classes that you would be taking this year and you will be taking theirs. Your team leader upon arrival shall also be theirs, a one Hatake Kakashi. He will becoming to fetch you tomorrow evening at 4:OO P.M. – please be ready. For further information, please send an owl. A list of supplies has been added.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

After reading and re-reading the letter, Harry didn't even bother to read the attached list. Flopping back into bed, he could try to make sense of what he had just learned. Suddenly there was a banging at his door.

"Get up boy!"

Apparently Uncle Vernon had heard the noise.

"Yes Uncle Vernon" he called out as he picked himself up and changed.

By the time he made his way down to the kitchen, the rest of the Dursley family was already there. Dudley was wolfing down a plate of eggs while Aunt Petunia was sipping a cup of tea and Uncle Vernon was reading the morning paper. They paid him no heed as he entered and he knew that it had to be the best time to tell them.

"I'm leaving tomorrow"

Aunt Petunia almost choked on her tea.

"Where" she demanded, though her horse like face was already confirming that she knew – or thought she knew.

"Not to where you think Aunt Petunia" he smiled. "I've been accepted to go learn at a 'school' inJapan this year. No worries now, I wont be having anything to do with magic"

Uncle Vernon hissed when the word 'magic' was used like always, but you could see by the lack of burgundy in his meaty face that he was very much relived.

"So you won't be going to that school anymore?"

"Oh no, I'll be returning next year, but as for this one, I'll be in Japan"

"And why would someone like you be accepted anywhere?" Dudley asked through as full mouth.

Harry didn't bother to answer that question, but rather walked past and entered the back garden to start his daily chores. This was going to be a long day…

Almost twenty-four hours later, Harry could be found waiting on the front doorstep of Number 4 with his trunk and Hedwig perched beside him. He looked at his watch impatiently – 3:59 P.M…. hadn't it been that five minutes ago? The young wizard was just about to give up hope when he heard a faint pop and a swirl of smoke only two yards away.

Standing there was someone that Privet Drive had never seen the likes of before. He was tall with spiky sliver hair and looked to be about twenty six or eight years of age. He was dressed in dark blue with a green vest, a blue facemask and a headband with a strange symbol covering one eye.

"Are you Harry Potter?" he asked, his voice deep with a foreign ascent.

"Are you Hatake Kakashi?" Harry retorted without getting up.

"Wise you are boy to ask" he replied. "Yes I am Hatake Kakashi and just knowing that means I have found the right boy. Are you ready?"

Harry looked at his stuff and then back at the strange man who would be his new teacher.

"Umm… yeah…"

"Good. Lets go then"

Harry sighed, grabbed his trunk by the handle and dragged it towards Kakashi.

"So… what now?"

Kakashi looked down at him as he took his arm.

"We go get your friends"

Just then Hedwig flew down from her perch and landed on Harry's shoulder.

"Nice owl"

"Thanks"

At the same time Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto found themselves stumbling after the professor that had been sent to get them. After having experienced the worst mode of travel ever – one that had transported them through one fireplace to another – all three Genin found that they almost regretting agreeing to come.

"Will you wait up?" Naruto shouted as they tried to keep up with their guild.

"Time is of the essence children. I wait for no one" was the cold reply.

As they followed, they couldn't help but agree with each other that this man was one of the worst that they had ever met. Professor Severus Snape was by far creepy. Taller then Kakashi-sensei and at least twice his age, this man had long greasy hair, dark forbidding black eyes and a crocked nose. His icy attitude – one worse then Sasuke's – made them hope that out of all the teacher they would meet this year, that they would all be better then him.

"Through here"

They followed him though a crowed bar filled with strangely dressed people like him and out into a back ally.

"It's a dead-end" Naruto smiled dully.

"Shut up dobe" Sasuke snapped. "We are here for a reason"

"But Naruto's right" Sakura said as she waved at the wall. "It is a dead-end"

They three Genin turned to Snape. The older man rolled his eyes and extracted a long wooden rod from within his robes. He gave the wall a few taps of various bricks and then pulled back.

"Right about one thing Mr. Uchiha" Snape replied.

Before anyone could ask what was supposed to happen, the bricks suddenly began to pull in and out, rearranging themselves to form a doorway. Eyes wide the three kids gapped in wonder. That was nothing like what they could do.

"How did you do that?" Sasuke demanded. "I've never seen a ninjutsu or genjutsu do that before"

Snape sneered down at him.

"That's because it's not ninjutsu or genjutsu. Your people, save a few, have never learned the ways of wizarding magic or what is known in your language as kijutsu. Now come, we still have to get your supplies"

"Snape-sensei" Sakura piped up. "What is this place called?"

"Diagon Ally"

All Naruto could do was smile.

"Wicked!"

With a puff and a whirl of smoke, Kakashi had completed his mission. Beside him stood his three new pupils, all looking very disoriented from their trip. The boy named Ron with the furiously red hair look like he was about to upchuck from the displacement pressure. The girl Hermione with the large front teeth was practically jumping up and down with excitement of being here. And last the boy Harry with the strange curse mark on his forehead looked like he was almost glad to be not to still be at the place he had come from.

They quartet now stood in front of the gates of Konoha. It only took a matter of minutes for Kakashi to get the Anbu guards to let them pass and then it was into the village. The three young wizards (and witch) gazed around their new home for the year with wide eyes.

"Wicked" Ron breathed. "This is soo cool!"

"Ooh… all the stuff I can learn!" Hermione squealed, only to receive exasperated looks from her two best friends.

"And far away from Voldamort" Harry added.

Ron and Hermione gasped; causing Kakashi to look at him confused.

"Who's Voldamort?"

"Don't say that name," Ron hissed, shuddering all over.

A few villagers had stopped to look at them also. Unfazed by Ron's behavior, Harry grimaced.

"The Dark Lord that gave me this scar" he replied as he touched the mark. "He looks like a snake"

People all around them froze.

"He can control them too," Hermione added, having remembered what she read in Fall of the Dark Lord during the pervious school year.

"Oh great…" someone muttered. "Another person like Orochimaru"

It was only then that Harry realized that this exchange might not be the best thing after all.