The train came in at precisely seven in the evening the next day. Harry and Naruto were made to sit at the huge Gryffindor table before the students even began to file into the great hall and both felt the scrutinising gases they received. For once Harry was not the main topic of conversation, most of the students wondering about Naruto. Who was this boy, what was he doing here? A couple of the girls even whispered about how cute this new guy was, at which Naruto blushed lightly, a foxy grin plastered on his face.

He had not as yet mentioned their spat from the night before and had greeted Harry with the utmost cheerfulness in the morning, displaying an unhealthy amount of energy at the time of day he had woken Harry so he could go train. Harry had then spent the entire morning watching Naruto work out his body until the blond had complained about being hungry. Naruto had complained loudly until he had received Ramen, his favourite food as he boasted proudly, and then the rest of the day had been spent with Naruto learning new spells and Harry reading the standard book of spells grade 6.

He had to admit, for only learning magic for a month, the kid was already good at it. He had already mastered all of the basic things that needed to be learnt to just pass up to the fourth year.

"Harry!" Exclaimed a happy voice behind him and he turned to see Hermione racing up to them looking thoroughly relieved. She stopped, hands clasped over her chest in front of the pair before noticing Naruto. Ninja and girl stared at each other for a long moment seemingly sizing each other up before Harry broke the silence. "Oh, Hermione, Ron," He added the others name as he too walked up to the table, "Meet Naruto Uzumaki. He's moved here from Japan." And that would be their cover story since they weren't allowed to say anything about it out loud in such a crowded room.

Instantly Hermione's eyes lit up and she smiled politely, thrusting her hand out for the chuunin to shake. "Nice to meet you, Naruto! I'm Hermione Granger and this is Ronald Weasley"

"Ron Weasley." Put in Ron, embarrassed by Hermione's use of his full name. He too shook Naruto's hand and then the duo sat themselves down opposite Naruto and Harry. "So you're that kid, eh?" Asked Ron in a whisper, leaning over closer to Naruto so none of their other friends who were starting to sit down around them could hear.

Naruto nodded, his grin becoming lopsided. "Nice to meet you two, too. I guess my stay here won't be so bad if I'm to hang around people like you guys."

"Your English is so good! Not even an accent!"

Naruto waved it off, "Na, I'm under a spell. I only knew a few random words of English and I didn't even know what language I was speaking. The move was unexpected to say the least."

"You'll have to fill us in tomorrow night in the common room. After the feast we'll be too tired and we don't want to be late for breakfast tomorrow; we get our timetables and then have to go to class." Said Hermione in an overly perky way to talk about school work. Harry and Ron just groaned while Naruto looked curious. This girl seemed to like learning as much as Sakura did.

Before anything else could be said Dumbledore called for hush and the first years entered for the sorting. The sorting hat's song this year wasn't nearly so extravagant as in all the years Harry had heard it. Just four lines of verse:

In times like these

Were darkness looms

Together we will triumph

Separate we will loose

Those four lines, though, weighed heavily on the students as it sank in. Naruto nodded his head slightly, that had been the point of Kakashi's first ever test on team 7. Teamwork had been an important factor to him for years, always working with one person or another in missions. Naruto came back to reality just as the last name was called (Zhanders, Emily) and Dumbledore stood up.

"Dear students! Hello and welcome to or back to Hogwarts! I see none of our number is missing as of yet, good, good. I would like to start by introducing our newest Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Yamiko Hino." Gesturing to his left and down a bit along the teachers table a woman stood up at the introduction. She was slender and looked very Asian and somewhat frail, unlike Naruto who didn't look Asian at all. Her dark hair was cropped to her shoulders, framing her pale face elegantly. She smiled regally and passed a hand over the crowd in a small wave of greeting. She didn't say anything before sitting down again and staying almost perfectly still while she looked out at the school.

"Also I will remind you all" continued Dumbledore "that the forbidden forest is indeed as its name suggests, forbidden unless accompanied by a teacher. Also a new rule, no one is to be outside after classes have finished for the day. If you cannot see a teacher, go back inside and lastly, please, I beg all of you to be very careful this year. The temptation of evil for some is too hard to resist. Do not give in to Lord Voldemort's will!" With that said and done the feast appeared filling up tables with steaming plates of almost any food you could think of. The house elves, much to Naruto's delight, had put ramen on the menu this year and said boy instantly dug into his favourite food like the Thestrals had ravaged the rabbits the day before.

Hermione began to fill in Harry on her holidays, Ron having already heard all there was to tell on the train. He listened for a little while but eventually zoned out. Her chatter was just mindless anyway, not like he would get a quiz on what she did during the summer. His eyes wandered to the teachers table, drifting past Professor Flitwick lingered on Snape and then settled on Professor Hino. She wasn't talking with anyone else like all the other teachers were, she just played with the dumplings on her plate with the chopsticks in her elegant and pale hand. Then she looked up and their eyes met for a single second before a loud clatter brought him back to his table and he turned to Naruto who had dropped his knife and fork.

Naruto laughed and picked up the offending cutlery. "Gomen, gomen. I'm still not used to using these. It doesn't help being a klutz and I'm a slow learner when it comes to things like this." Fixing his hold on said items he went back to eating the roast beef Hermione had made him try. If Harry hadn't known better he would have been sure the other was shaking slightly, but Naruto had nothing to be scared of.

"Oh, yes, you would have used chopsticks your whole life, right? What do you normally eat?" Hermione asked, always one for gathering knowledge.

"Well I usually just eat ramen all the time because it's my favourite food but sometimes Iruka-sensei makes me eat something else like dumplings, but we still use chopsticks for that."

"'Sensei? That's 'teacher' in Japanese, isn't it?"

No longer caring for the conversation once more Harry returned his focus back to Professor Hino who was now chatting politely with Professor Sprout on her left. Before Harry could think any further into it though, the food disappeared and everyone left to go to bed.

Harry and Naruto made their way up to their dormitory with the other Gryffindor 6th year boys who had all taken a shining to the teenaged shinobi. Every time Naruto met a new person Harry found it harder and harder to believe that the other boy could possibly be mass despised by his entire village to the point that he got hate filled glares. Naruto's life before coming here was still basically an enigma and the Ninja had made an effort to keep it that way, not even telling Dumbledore too much about himself. This fact made him wonder what made the old Headmaster trust the teen so much as to trust Harry's own life with him.

The boys were all too tired to talk as they changed into their pyjamas and got into bed. Sleep came quickly to all concerned and Harry was left to his dastardly dreams about evil that was yet to come.

XXOO

"Double charms, Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts." Quoted Harry as he read his schedule for the day. "Damn, we don't get to see what the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is like 'til the end of the day."

Naruto tilted his head to the side questioningly, his bright blue eyes wide making him look like a child wanting something explained to them that they didn't quite understand. It made Hermione laughed before she answered. "Every year since we came here there has been a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. First year there was Quirril, Harry disintegrated him," She began to tick them off in her fingers, "Second year there was Lockheart, he was a phoney who got rich and famous off other peoples deeds and got hit by one of his own memory charms when he tried to use Ron's broken wand to spell Harry and Ron. Third year was by far the best with Lupin as our teacher."

"I know him," piped in Naruto, waving one hand in the air like he wanted to answer a question. "He came to check on Harry when I ap-er-came to visit unexpectedly."

"I think I heard about that from him too." Hermione smiled. "Anyway, fourth year when things started to get bad we had Moody, or rather we thought it was Moody. He actually turned out to be some crazy supporter of Voldemort-Ron I thought we were over this." She scolded as the red headed teen flinched slightly at mention of the dark lord's name. He muttered a small 'sorry' before going back to eating his bacon and Hermione continued her explanation. "He was the one who got Harry to the graveyard, oh dear, has he told you the story yet?" When Naruto nodded she looked relieved. "Yes, well, Fifth year we had this toad of a woman called Umbridge."

"Hey! I like toads, I'm friends with quite a lot of them."

"Well I'm sorry but there is no other way of describing her and what do you mean you're friends with toads?"

"I'll tell you later, alright. It's not really a story I should be telling here."

"Oh, ok…Well she ended up being chased out of the school. Oh the crazy bunch of Defence Against the Dark Arts teaches we've had…" She trailed off at the end with an odd mix of amusement and disgust on her face.

"I only ever had one creepy teacher and he tried to kill me after tricking me into stealing a forbidden scroll."

Harry could barely contain his laughter as he recalled the way Naruto had actually stolen the scroll and the effect the same technique had had on the potions master. Hermione looked at him oddly but obviously wasn't going to interrupt him. She had not heard him laugh in months so he knew she wasn't about to risk blowing it. Oddly enough it was just the effect Naruto had on him. His mere presence seemed to bring up his mood. She then gave a questioning glance at Naruto who merely gave the same excuse he had given the toads.

"We'd better be off if we want to get to class." He said in his annoyingly cheerful tone.

By the time they reached Defence Against the Dark Arts Naruto was in desperate need of a few laps around the lake. He had never had to sit still and pay attention to anything for so long before, let alone something as complex and new to him as sixth year magic. He'd only had about an hour in total to exert his energy outside and that had been interrupted by Hermione, Ron and the other sixth years asking him various questions about his life back home.

Much to his displeasure the perverted greasy man who he had given a nose bleed to back when he had first came here seemed to be the type to hold a grudge and taught potions. He had spent the entire session trying to read the writing on the board which got harder as he went. Cooking, which is what potions appeared to be, was never one of Naruto's strong points as he had always just eaten cup ramen. No one in his childhood years ever cared enough about him to teach him how to cook, even if he did live on his own. Who would want to bother with the 'brat', the 'demon'? He would never amount to anything, would probably even die on his first mission and be out of their hair forever.

Naruto scowled at the front of the room at his memories, the curtains were drawn, only letting in the barest minimum of light making it near impossible for him to be able to see the blackboard, even if he wanted to. He was over classes for the day and was very tempted to leave a clone in his seat and go train. But then he would be abandoning his mission and that was one thing he just wouldn't do, even if he had to sit through hours of sitting still.

The mood in the room was bad to say the least. The room could have rivalled the dungeons or even professor Trelawney's divination tower in its dark aura. It permanently put you on edge, which, Naruto presumed, was a good thing in a class where you were supposed to learn how to defend yourself from the unexpected.

"Good afternoon class…" Breezed Professor Hino as she glided from writing on the blackboard to stand in front of the mass of students. Her movements were rather slow and exact. As if she followed the code of the Geisha. Her voice, too, was somewhat distant, every word pronounced so it was impossible to mistake. "If you do not remember, my name is Professor Yamiko Hino and I am to teach you this year…" Quickly she scanned the class then a small smile crossed her dark lips. "I can see I may be able to have some fun with this class in the year to come. This year I will take you deeper into the dark arts then even your fourth year teacher took you. I have studied what I was told you have learnt and devised a plan for the year for optimal improvement. First we will start off with the text book I asked you to all buy. I trust you all have a copy each." After a quick round of nods from the class she went on. "Then for homework I will ask you to read pages 40 to 45 and memorizes at least ten facts about the monster covered on them. For class today though we will begin work on the theory of the first spell I am to teach you…"

And so the class went, and Naruto got boreder and boreder until finally the bell went and they were able to retire for the day.

XXOO

Naruto was unable to train that day because of all the homework they had been set and his promise to update Hermione and Ron on his situation. He already had an essay to write in Potions that only he got to 'assess your level of skill in this field' as the potions master had said. Though he knew it was just revenge. Making a mental note to put something slimy Down Snape's robes and make it look like a Slytherin had done it he took out his parchment and, spell renewed, began to write using notes Hermione had lent him. They had already had their little chat and Hermione had insisted that he show her the summoning jitsu, almost screaming when the chubby toad had demanded food in Japanese which Naruto found he could not understand. The spell really did change his native language. Shivering at how cold it was getting as the sun's light disappeared completely he moved himself a bit closer to the fire.

Harry was now being bombarded by his two friends with questions about his summer and any further knowledge about their newest companion.

"This is simply amazing don't you think?" asked Hermione once they had squeezed every last drop of information out of Harry.

"Yeah! It's not every day you get to meet a ninja! I mean he knows how to replicate himself and everything!" added Ron enthusiastically. "And change his appearance and blow things up and make frogs appear."

Harry sighed and leant back in his armchair, it was getting pretty late now and all of the students below the fifth year had already gone to bed, along with the morning people leaving them almost alone in the common room. "Yeah…but that he has to follow me around all year…"

Naruto's ear twitched visibly but he didn't say anything. Abandoning his half written essay that he still had another night to write he reached for his copy of Ancient Monsters, reapplied the language spell he had been taught a few days ago so he didn't have to keep finding teachers to do it and began flipping through it to find the pages he had to read.

"But it is for your own good Harry. I mean having someone to protect you this year sounds like a good idea. This year's Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher seems normal but we've had too many shifty ones to not be suspicious of foul play." reasoned Hermione.

"And then you have the fact that you get to be near a ninja until he goes." Ron crossed his arms. "And he's hanging around us as well. At least you're not only in his company."

"I s'pose…"

The book dropped to the ground with a loud thud and the three friends spun in their seats to find Naruto doubled over and gagging, red beginning to seep through the gaps in his fingers that covered his mouth. Ron swore loudly being the first to react and he and Harry jumped forward to the shinobi's side. Hermione broke away from her frozen state of shock and quickly headed for the exit, opening it and yelling for the boys to help the wounded walk so they could get him to the hospital wing.

Just before they left Harry glanced at the text book laying open on the floor to see if it could have possibly provoked this. "Page 40." He read softly, "Kyuubi no Kitsune, the nine tailed demon fox."