Author's Note: The sole reason I'm posting another chapter so soon is because of an amazing piece of fanart I received from Red Crow. It's of Ron and Kidoumaru playing chess, it's beautiful, and it's posted here (though be sure to take out the spaces when you trying and link to it): http / www . deviantart . com / view / 25005756 /
Yes, I know. I'm a fanart/review whore. I don't really care. This was worth another 3,000 odd words of crack.
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As Sakon from across the room watched Kidoumaru fall face-first into his oatmeal, he came to the somewhat comforting conclusion that the energy drain he'd been feeling ever since they'd arrived in this castle wasn't limited to himself. Of course, his lethargy was due to the fact that ever since Orochimaru-sama had forbidden him and Ukon to combine, he hadn't been able to sleep, but still, comforting. What wasn't so comforting was the fact that no one at the Gryffindor table seemed to notice Kidoumaru's rather ill-fated dive into the warm cereal, and even though Kidoumaru's good cheer was occasionally grating, drowning in oatmeal was just too undignified a death for one of Sound's elite. So in the end, it was Sakon who gave an irritated sigh, which earned him inquiring looks from his new housemates, pushed himself to his feet, walked over to the Gryffindor table, ignored the hostile looks from the resident Gryffindors, and pulled his teammate's face out of what would have been his breakfast if he'd stayed awake long enough to eat it.
Instead of the thank you Sakon expected (unlike every other member of the Sound Five, Kidoumaru made an effort to use manners most of the time), all the pale-haired Sound-nin got in return for his rescue was a weak cough and a low mumble of/Just five more minutes, Kabuto-san…/ and a sudden switch to English that made absolutely no sense and sounded something like, "Pawn to… F4…" Sakon made the only response to this he could think of; he let go of Kidoumaru's ponytail by which he had hauled his teammate out of the muck, and Kidoumaru's forehead promptly smacked the edge of the table. Needless to say, that got a reaction.
/Damn it all to hell!/ Now having been mostly awoken by the sudden blow to his head, Kidoumaru rubbed at the bump already forming near his left temple and glared at Sakon. /What was that for?/
Sakon snorted. /When you started to rant incoherently, I figured it was time for your wakeup call./
Now Kidoumaru looked confused. By now they were getting more than a few stares, both for the unexpected appearance of a Slytherin at the Gryffindor table and for the conversation they were having that no one could understand. Sakon didn't care. Kidoumaru might have, but he didn't notice. /What did I say?/
"Pawn to F4," Sakon said, not bothering to translate it to Japanese. It helped that he had no idea what the Japanese equivalent of 'F' was, but therein lay one of the biggest problems with trying to learn a phonetic language.
The bemusement on Kidoumaru's face melted away in favor of a rather goofy grin. Inwardly, Sakon groaned. He knew that grin. It spoke of bad, bad things, at least for anyone who didn't share Kidoumaru's rather peculiar… interests. /Did I tell you I learned a new board game last night?/
It figured. It really, really figured. One of the few highlights of being sent to this godforsaken country, at least in Sakon's opinion, had been that it was far away from Go, Shogi, and all the other games that Kidoumaru forced his teammates to play on a regular basis. Sakon hated board games. There had once been a time where he actually didn't mind them so much, but after being trumped by Kidoumaru for the hundredth time, he had rapidly gotten sick of them. And here they were, thousands of miles of miles away from the nearest Shogi board, and Sakon still hadn't managed to escape.
He was going to kill whoever had taught Kidoumaru this new game. /What game?/
/It's called chess, and it's amazing. More than amazing. It's better than Shogi./
Better than Shogi. Crap. Forget kill. More like torture, slowly and painfully. /Really?/
Kidoumaru nodded, still grinning. /Really! I'm not very good at it yet, but Ron promised me he'd teach me proper castling techniques tonight and-/
It was then that Sakon stopped listening. He had a name. As soon as he found out who this Ron was, the idiot was going to be in a shitload of-
Orochimaru-sama's last words to his students just then decided to run through Sakon's head, which abruptly and permanently ruined all of the pale-haired Sound-nin's plans for retribution. (('You are to attract no attention. None. You are going to this school to learn western magic, and that is your sole purpose. If I hear that you have been causing trouble…')) Orochimaru-sama hadn't bothered to finish his sentence. The Sound Five had enough imagination to finish it for him.
Sakon felt his fingernails bite into his palm. He couldn't believe this. Distantly, he could still hear Kidoumaru chattering on about his new obsession, but it was easy enough to ignore. They were stuck in this place for a year at least and it was just, just so-
From behind Sakon, a voice drawled/The freak's found a new game to bore us over, hasn't he./
Sakon turned to see Tayuya, who was scowling as usual as she walked towards them from the Ravenclaw table. Though quite a large percentage of the school was now watching them, the teachers were quite pointedly not paying attention to what was going on. Sakon suspected they wouldn't interfere unless it came to blows, though one of them, an extremely fat woman with bad hair, was whispering furiously to Dumbledore-sama, who was in turn smiling politely and not listening at all to what she was saying. Sakon quickly returned his attention to the shortest member of the Sound Five in time to watch Tayuya's scowl deepen. /You think, Tayuya?/
Even with his eyes off the dark-skinned shinobi, Sakon could tell easily just when Kidoumaru decided to return Tayuya's scowl. /Chess isn't boring./
Tayuya snorted and seated herself beside Kidoumaru, spooning some oatmeal for herself into a bowl. /If you like it, it's probably as dull as all hell./
Just then, one of the westerners, a thin boy with a heavier accent than most of the students, decided to interject, rather stupidly choosing Tayuya as his target. "Only Gryffindors are allowed to eat at the Gryffindor table."
Tayuya didn't even bother looking up from her breakfast as she replied, "Only /complete fuckers/ interrupt someone when they're eating." It was probably a good thing that Tayuya hadn't managed to learn how to swear in English yet, because the Gryffindor boy only looked completely confused instead of angry. If the boy had understood, Sakon knew he would probably end up being the one to stop the resulting fight, which would have not been a good way to start the day. Normally, acting the part of peacemaker was Kidoumaru's job, but after the dark-skinned shinobi's initial bout of enthusiasm his energy had again begun to flag and by the way he stared blankly at the tabletop, he wasn't likely to notice even if a shouting match erupted five feet from him.
Having come up with nothing to say in response to Tayuya's indecipherable (to him, at least) retort, the thin westerner withdrew, and Sakon leaned against the Gryffindor table to watch as Kidoumaru's eyes gradually began to close and the oatmeal incident almost made a repeat performance. /How late were you up last night, anyway?/
Kidoumaru started awake from his half-drowse, then gave a deep yawn before shrugging. /Don't know. I lost track of time after the sixth game./
Sakon blinked. /Sixth game?/
----
"Ron!"
Having someone shriek into your ear would have startled even the most stoic of wizards, and Ron Weasley wasn't exactly known for his stoicism. He flinched at the sudden rise in volume, and unfortunately he was leaning his head against his right hand in an effort to keep himself upright. The sudden movement of his arm resulted in the equally sudden, but far more painful, meeting of his chin to the tabletop.
It took him several seconds to spit out enough blood (most of it landing on his toast) to be able to reply. "Hermione! Bloody hell, what was that for? You made me bite my tongue!"
Hermione, as could only be expected, was unrepentant. "Why are you so tired? You haven't heard a thing I've said in the past ten minutes and your head keeps on nodding like you're about to fall over."
With the blood now rimming the edges of his mouth, Ron's grin looked slightly morbid, but it was definitely sincere. "I was up playing chess."
Hermione looked skeptical. "With Harry? Doesn't he usually quit after one game?"
This was normally the point in the conversation when Harry would have objected to Hermione's (accurate, but still brusque) evaluation of his conventional chess strategy, but the Boy-Who-Lived was currently engaged elsewhere, watching the new exchange students chat on the other end of the table, and so the conversation went on without him.
Ron shook his head. "Not with Harry. With that new kid, Kidoumaru." The grin returned. The dreamy look in Ron's eyes had Hermione somewhat worried. "He's absolutely wonderful."
Hermione was desperately hoping she was hearing this wrong. "Wonderful?"
"He's…" Ron put his fingers together in his favorite thinking position, one Hermione had only previously seen him use while participating in a particularly difficult game of chess. "He's brilliant."
This being a word Hermione had only previously heard Ron use when referring to her, the muggleborn's unease intensified. "Brilliant?"
Ron nodded. "I've never seen anyone pick up chess so quickly. I mean, he even stalemated me on our fifth game-"
Hermione's jaw dropped. "Fifth? Ron, how many games did you play?"
Ron shrugged. "Dunno. Stopped counting after our seventh go, but it was… hey Harry, how late did I turn in last night?"
Momentarily distracted from watching the red-haired Japanese girl spit something particularly venomous at Seamus, Harry echoed Ron's shrug. "It was at two, two-thirty this morning I think. At least that's what my alarm clock said when you ran into my end table and your swearing woke me up. What do you think they're talking about?"
Ron had known Harry far too long to be thrown off by his non sequiturs. "How should I know? I can't understand Japanese. But it really was amazing, Hermione. The kid was a natural. Hell, one month and he'll give me a run for my money. I haven't had so much fun playing since McGonagalls's chess set our first year."
About to point out that getting the snot beat out of him by a life-sized knight was hardly the definition of fun, Hermione in the end decided against it, knowing the surest way to get sidetracked with Ron was to try and follow up on the niggling details. "You will be playing him again, then?"
"I'm teaching him how to castle properly tonight."
After that, Hermione didn't really want to pursue the subject anymore, because even though a new chess buddy wasn't really all that likely to break up their trio, the idea of Ron making another friend that would likely take up a great deal of his time was foreign enough to be somewhat disturbing. She evaded further discussion by changing the topic of conversation to what kind of teacher Umbridge would turn out to be, an issue Ron was quite happy to talk about, though most of what he said about their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was distinctly unflattering. Meanwhile, Harry was still trying to figure out what was going on at the other end of the table. Ever since the Japanese foreign exchange students had arrived, he'd felt uneasy, but if pressed, he wouldn't be able to say why, except that for some reason whenever one of the new students passed him by, Harry Potter couldn't help but be reminded of Cedric Diggory's death.
----
However, no matter what the Boy-Who-Lived was thinking about the new students from Japan, at the other end of the Gryffindor table, nothing particularly sinister was going on. Well, at least not just then.
Gazing upon the sudden congregation of most of his teammates, Kidoumaru was tapping his chin in thought. /I understand that Sakon is over here because he had to save me from the western abomination that is this oatmeal stuff, but what are the rest of you doing here? Aren't we supposed to stick with our Houses?/
Ukon, who at some point during the abbreviated conversation of his younger brother and Kidoumaru about chess had ambled over from the Slytherin table and seated himself on the dark-skinned shinobi's left, glanced up briefly towards Kidoumaru before returning his attention to the previously mentioned offending breakfast food. /I like oatmeal. And the Slytherin table is out of it. Those two dumb bastards that follow Draco around finished it off./
Jiroubou, who had chosen to sit opposite Tayuya, swallowed a bite of his scrambled eggs and shrugged. /Staying around Kimimaro so long makes me jumpy./
Stealing a bite of egg off Jiroubou's plate, scoring herself a sigh from the large shinobi, Tayuya gave the room at large a disgusted sneer. /I was sick of answering questions about you dumbasses. 'How long have you known them?' 'Does Kidoumaru like blonde girls?' 'Don't you just love how Kimimaro combs his hair?' Makes me fucking ill./
There was a pause as the male members of the Sound Four tried to process this new revelation. It was Kidoumaru who broke the silence. /I like blondes./
That earned him a sharp elbow in the ribs. /Like I'm going to act as the fucking message girl for your fan club of halfwits. Besides, any one of them found out about your arms, you think they'd care one fuck for how nice your grin is?/
Kidoumaru's grin, which even Tayuya admitted privately was rather nice, evaporated off his face at his teammate's words. In the uncomfortable quiet that followed, Jiroubou made an effort to mend the breach. /Tayuya, that was-/
/The truth, and you know it, fatass. If these weaklings found out what we really are, they wouldn't be sitting within ten meters of us. It would be stupid to get involved. We should just try and last out the year here and get out./
Ukon wasn't stupid enough to try and get Tayuya to repent for her harshness, but in his own way, he was successful at mitigating the damage done towards his more sensitive teammates. /It hardly matters. None of these people are worth it, anyway./ He pulled a slip of paper out of one of the pockets of his robe. /By the way, which electives did you choose? By what I overheard in the dungeons, it seems like Slytherin and Gryffindor have classes together and so do Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, so Kidoumaru will be with us most of the day, but the optional courses I chose at random./
Tayuya groaned. /So I'm stuck with Jiroubou and that fucker Kimimaro, then?/
Ukon shook his head. /Kimimaro is in the year above us, so you're just with Jiroubou. I'm in Care of Magical Creatures and Divination for my electives. You?/
Tayuya shrugged. /I'm in Divination with you, though that telling the future shit sounds like a load of crap to me. Just took it so I could have a class I could sleep through. Also in Muggle Studies./
Jiroubou blinked. /What's a muggle?/
/No fucking idea./
Sakon pulled his own class schedule out of pocket and examined it. /I'm in the same classes as Ukon./
/Big fucking surprise./
Sakon ignored her. /I heard Draco mention muggles last night though. Called Dumbledore-sama a muggle-loving fool, though considering his bias I'm not sure that means muggles are a bad thing./
Kidoumaru, as always, bounced back quickly enough from his previous hurt to participate in the conversation. /I'm in Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes./ He shot Tayuya a dark look. /Unlike you, I actually want this year to be worth something./
Tayuya snorted. /Have fun. I'm sure it will be great learning basic math all over again in another language./
Jiroubou tried to head off the approaching argument before it started. /I chose Care of Magical Creatures and Study of Ancient Runes. It's important to understand as much of the west's history as possible so we have some information to give Orochimaru-sama when we-/
Tayuya kicked Jiroubou under the table. /Can it, fatass. You're sucking up so much you're starting to sound like Kimimaro and it makes me want to puke./
That almost started another argument right there, but abruptly everyone began to stand up and start walking out the door. One of the older Ravenclaws paused long enough by their table to say, "Class is starting soon. You'd best hurry up."
Before Tayuya could tell the boy where to cram his advice, he was already out of hearing range and the other members of the Sound Four were putting their schedules away. Kidoumaru was the first to his feet and at the threshold of the Great Hall, shot Tayuya a dark grin. /Have you gone deaf or something, Tayuya? It's time to go./
/Shove it./ Nevertheless, Tayuya also started for the door. From what she had heard of the Potions professor, being late for her first class probably wasn't the greatest idea, and even if she was angry at Orochimaru-sama, she still felt no desire to disappoint him by messing up so soon.