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Poll standings: Boggart: YES!

Competitor: Naruto- 100%

Tipsy-time: YES!

Animagus forms: You guys really love the clichés, don't you? Oh well, I do too :).

Chapter 4: Arrival and Highly Dramatic Entry

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exited the express chatting amiably with the two ninja. After the tension was removed, introductions made in a more understandable fashion, and the basics of shinobi status explained, they all became friends of sorts. Harry couldn't help but feel as if the boys were hiding something, and occasionally one of them would be hit by a memory or something.

Take, for example, the subject of Voldemort. When the connection to snakes was revealed, Naruto and Sasuke stiffened. Sasuke's hand twitched slightly, and both pairs of eyes suddenly seemed cold. Naruto muttered something that sounded rather like 'a roach tomorrow', but Harry was fairly certain that he had heard wrong.

Then there was Ron's similarity to some person named Gaara. Apparently Gaara was extremely frightening, seeing as they would sometimes flinch slightly at Ron's movements. It was exceedingly odd.

As the quintet moved toward the carriages, Naruto and Sasuke stopped. They exchanged glances, and then suddenly were gone. Hermione gasped, Ron made an expression resembling that of a fish, and Harry just stared. They were there . . . and then they weren't. Wasn't apparition supposed to be impossible this close to Hogwarts? He shook it off and grabbed his friends by the elbows. "Just ignore it," he muttered. Thankfully, they did so.

A few minutes later the carriage was rolling toward the school.

-Destiny-

Two shinobi hung upside down from the ceiling in the back corners of the front hall, watching as the students filed in. Lurking in the shadows, you couldn't see them unless you were looking for them specifically, and even if you were looking you couldn't see their faces behind the pearl white masks of a fox and a raven. They weren't actually ANBU masks, just similar. Neither boy was quite that level yet.

The masses of students surged inward in great waves, and the noise gradually increased to a roar of chatter. Naruto cringed, his Kyuubi senses beginning to ache with the assault on his eardrums. Masses of black writhed and slowly sat down at the tables. After several more minutes the flow ceased and the doors closed.

Dumbledore stood. He gathered attention with a rather loud clap, and said a small speech before the back doors swung open once more and revealed the first years. Naruto could hardly begin to imagine how purple his face was by the time they finished the ceremony. As the last of the students took their seat at a house table, Naruto caught Sasuke sending him hand signals.

Time?

He nodded. Time.

As one they flipped forward, sailing across the vast room. They landed about halfway between the doors and the front table, and in the aisles that were one table from the wall (if I's are tables and - are shinobi, the layout is I-I I-I) in dramatic crouches on one knee. They stood, perfectly synchronized, and Naruto grinned behind the non-ANBU mask. This would be fun.

They flipped forward, a complicated series of tucks and front handsprings. They stopped at the front of the room, facing the doors, and pivoted to face away from each other. Now the hard part. They had to do this without killing each other or causing too much damage.

They both ran with astonishing speed up the wall and stopped at the joint between ceiling and vertical wall. Sasuke powered up a Chidori, and he a rasengan. They ran down again, gathering momentum, and the world seemed to slow. They carefully maneuvered their techniques to clash, and they did.

The rest of the room watched in unconcealed awe as the two balls of pure energy smashed together. A light, the brightest white laced with blue, and for some odd reason, black, exploded from the collision point. Some shielded their eyes, while most stared straight at the glow to see what would happen next. After a full twenty seconds the light began to die and the whole room leaned forward.

Two teens, a blond and a raven, stood hand in hand (I know that it's OOC, but I couldn't resist. SasuNaru handholding? SO CUTE!) where the center of the light had been. In their free hand they each held a mask, the same ones that the incredibly powerful strangers were wearing moments before.

The blond grinned. "Yo," he said, saluting with his free left hand, "Was that cool or what?"

Professor Dumbledore stood, clapping. "Thank you for that wonderful performance Naruto, Sasuke. Students of Hogwarts, I would like you to meet our special guests that will be here all year. Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. They are ninja, otherwise known as shinobi, and were sent here by a mysterious force that we have yet to identify. Feel free to approach Naruto, as he is very friendly, but beware of Sasuke. He bites. If you irritate them enough they will kill you, so don't get on their bad sides. They will now be sorted into houses for the sake of simplicity. They will not be involved with house points. Naruto, would you be so kind as to put on the hat?"

Naruto let go of Sasuke's hand and walked forward excitedly to slam the hat on his head. He stared ahead for a few seconds before a voice seemed to whisper in his ear

Hmm, a shinobi, eh?

He jumped, looking around wildly, hand straying to his kunai pouch.

Oops, should have known. Shinobi reflexes. I'm the hat, here to cause you mental anguish as I tease you about what house I put you in. Stay quiet, let me do my job, and for heaven's sake put that knife away!

Naruto did so sheepishly. Sorry.

Good. Killed plenty. Only reason you're not ANBU is because of the council preventing you from advancing? Why . . . ah, I see. Kyuubi's container, tormented by stupid blind idiots. You have my sympathy.

Thanks.

You're welcome. Like I said, you've killed much, but it's all been for your friends. I see that you hold the Uchiha in a special place . . . Ohohooo, and you haven't figured it out yet.

Figured what out?

. . . Nothing. Extreme loyalty, always keep your promises, unique and pure nindo . . .

GRYFFINDOR!

Naruto grinned widely and ripped the hat off his head. He practically skipped to the Gryffindor table, where total strangers clapped him on the back. Odd.

Sasuke stepped forward. Calm he placed the worn piece of fabric on his head.

Well hello there.

I'm assuming that you are the hat?

Smart one here. Ravenclaw? Oh no, far too much of a dark past. Betrayal, deceit, killing, lack of mercy, snakes . . . Do you have any idea how perfect you are for Slytherin?

NO! Not the snake house. Bad memories. Trauma. I really don't want to have those pulled up every time I look around.

Ah yes, now I see. That man, Orochimaru. That was truly terrible. And you still carry the mark?

. . . Yes.

I see. But still, I don't know. You truly fit in with the people there, even if your reforming makes you much better than you were a year ago.

Please don't separate me from Naruto. He's practically all I have left.

. . . I see. Very well. If you are both so loyal to each other, why not.

GRYFFINDOR!

Sasuke walked over to the table with a small smile on his face. Naruto wore one that was equally small, but a thousand times more genuine than the usual grins. And as the raven took a seat, he knew for certain that the hat was wrong. He wouldn't belong with the Slytherins.

He belonged wherever his best friend was.

Yay! Couldn't help the cheesiness of the last line, Wobs made me do it.

I think the boggart scene might end up being in the next chapter. If it isn't, it's in one of the next four.

Review! We have ice cream today and it's chocolate with lots of sprinkles! I was going to make more cookies, but I forgot to buy the butter.

-Dragon