Chapter 4 – Observations
Hermione kind of liked this new country. It was warm and filled with nature, the villages were small and peaceful, and the people were friendly and kind. The food was exotic and tasted a bit odd to her, but she was not too picky – Ron was the one she felt embarrassed for every time they wandered into a small food stand or a restaurant and the redhead loudly complained about the looks of every food that was brought in front of him. After the first three embarrassments Snape finally lifted his wand and silenced the boy, earning for the first time in history a feeling of true gratefulness from someone else – namely every other person of their little group. As a thanks Sirius didn't even this time mock the way Snape ate.
Every time they met villagers or stopped in a town they asked about the boy with the 'stick of miracles'. The boy was actually quite famous, and it was only five days after their arrival when they heard his name. Though the name, Harii of the Southern Wall, did make Ron burst into uncontrollable fit of giggles, they were all immensely pleased to hear that indeed, the boy they were looking for was almost definitely the Harry they wanted to catch. The farther they went into the countryside, the more stories they heard about the boy and his group. All of the stories were not very flattering, though most of them were about pranks and acts of mischief Harii and his other friend, a blond guy called Naruto, had committed. Harii's other friend and the third member of his team was considered to be calmer and more composed, and was usually responsible for getting the other two out of trouble. Every time someone mentioned the boy's surname Uchiha, people widened their eyes and nodded knowingly. Hermione had yet to figure out what that was supposed to mean.
It was on the seventh day of the trip when they got their first piece of really valuable information. They had stopped into a small roadside restaurant to eat something before entering the large fields ahead. The owner was a busy looking man with weirdly thick eyebrows and a rather unfortunate bowl haircut, but to them, who had been contaminated by the eccentrics of Dumbledore it was rather easy to ignore these facts. The man seemed friendly enough, though there was a hint of cunning in his eyes. He waited through their first course before politely inquiring as to what brought such extraordinary gentleman (and such a fine lady) to this part of the world. They glanced at each other, and then their holy leader opened his mouth and replied with a pleasant smile: "We are looking for someone."
The owner let out a low noise of understanding. "I see, I see… Looking for someone." After a moment's pause (and a second serving of sake) he continued: "Am I correct to assume they are hard to find?"
"Not… exactly", Lupin smiled. "They are talked about a lot, but still we have no idea as to where we should search."
The owner winked knowingly. "And you are wondering perhaps I would know?"
Lupin gazed the man steadily. "Would you?"
The owner shrugged, as though trying to appear stupid and harmless and failing spectacularly. "Who knows, after all, I'm just a normal businessman, nothing special. I have been around, though… just a bit."
Lupin's lips curved into a smile again. "Is that so?"
The man showed them a set of disturbingly white teeth. "Yes." They stared at each other for a moment longer, then the man casually slipped to sit on the last open place around the table, bumping into Snape and making the other man shift uneasily at this uncomfortable invasion of his personal space. Sirius and Ron smirked openly, Hermione made an attempt to hide her smile behind her hand. Lupin didn't even blink. "We are looking for a boy called Harii of the Southern Wall."
The man looked surprised and then started to laugh. "In that case you are very lucky, sirs, because this is where they live!" He lifted his hand and waved in the direction of the enormous fields. "The Country of Field! A country with no official ninja village, so it is inhabited by the outlaws, missing-nins, runaways, village-less clans and those thirsty for power and therefore drawn here like moths to the flame." The man grinned. "This is the place where the scum of the ninja society live, under the watchful eye of his snakelike majesty, one of the legendary sannin and a missing-nin from Konoha… Orochimaru."
Hermione suddenly felt very uneasy. "The scum of the society?"
The man shrugged carelessly. "Well, most of them are worth less than a piece of something I won't repeat in a presence of a lady, but the elite… they are great warriors no doubt, but they are hardly the type you would call respectable, if you know what I mean?" Another dashing smile.
"What is a 'sannin'?" Sirius asked curiously at the same time as Snape breathed: "What do you mean 'snakelike'?" They glared at each other, but the owner just smiled jovially. "You don't know what a sannin is? You must really come from far away… Sannin are the three brilliant students of Konoha's third Hokage." Seeing their confused looks, he sighed and added: "Hokage, as in the leader. There are five kages, one for each of the five official ninja villages."
"Interesting", Hermione said with a smile. "What are the other leaders called?"
"Mizukage of the Village of Hidden Mist, Raikage of Hidden Cloud, Kazekage of Hidden Sand, Tsuchikage of Hidden Rock… and the village in the Field Country is called Hidden Sound, with Orochimaru in the lead."
Lupin crossed his long fingers in front of his mouth and leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Tell us more about this Orochimaru."
"He can't be you-know-who, can he?" Ron interrupted.
"Voldemort, huh? I doubt it", Sirius muttered.
The owner lifted his thick eyebrows at this. "Voldemort? Weird name. Never heard it before. No, Orochimaru is a born and bred konohan, like I said, pupil of the Third. He left the village after he was not chosen to be the Fourth, and I heard that before that there was some trouble with him kidnapping other ninjas and using them as guinea pigs for his twisted experiments…" The man flashed them a brilliant smile. "At some point after that he started collecting the misguided, who have not been yet revealed the immense power of youth and the – "
"Owner, get a grip", muttered a voice behind them. They all swirled to watch at the newcomer, and met the oddly white marble-like eyes of a teenaged boy. The boy had a white apron and a slightly disapproving frown as he stared down at the owner. He was being followed by another boy, who looked disturbingly like the owner – maybe his son? – and was wearing a lime green apron with sickly yellow dots and a pink frill, outdoing even Dumbledore's most hideous outfits. Both of the boys were carrying trays filled with the second course of food the owner had conveniently forgotten to pick up.
"Ah! Neji! Lee! I see powers of the youth have not failed you!" if anyone of the group had been watching, they would have noticed the owner's eyes were filled with tears. Luckily they were spared from this sight, as all of them were still ogling at the pearly eyes and smooth skin of the first boy, and trying hard not to look at the apron of the second one.
The pearly-eyed boy's eyebrow twitched alarmingly. "Don't you mean Hatsu and Ryota, owner?"
The owner had the nerve to look embarrassed as he laughed aloud and rubbed his head sheepishly. "Ah, of course! I see the power of youth definitely hasn't left you, um, Hatsu!"
'Hatsu' looked miffed. "We will take care of the rest, owner. You go to kitchen. Minako might need help."
The owner looked alarmed. "Minako? Who the h- oh, ah, Minako! Yes! Minako. Right." Another round of boisterous laughter, and the man was up, giving the guests one of his flashiest smiles. "I'm sorry, but the kitchen girl is calling. Enjoy the rest of your meal!" He lifted his thumb at them in a supposedly encouraging way and made his way to the back of the store, the second boy lifting his thumb too, crying: "That's the way, Gai-sensei!" and managing to drop the tray. 'Hatsu' closed his eyes with an expression of forced calmness, ordered the other boy to do the cleaning, let out an irritated huff and approached the table with his tray.
"I apologise for the missing half of your meal", he said emotionlessly, refusing to pay attention to the other boy, who was screaming 'yosh, I'll clean this up in half a minute, or Sakura-san won't love me!'. He arranged the food neatly on the table and then stated: "If you have other questions, I'd be happy to fill your curiosity."
Hermione frowned. The boy didn't sound happy at all; in fact he sounded like he was pulling teeth from his mouth. He didn't wait for permission, he just seated himself in the place the owner had vacated and turned his eyes at Lupin, as though he already knew he was the leader.
Lupin smiled softly – after all, this was only a kid, barely older than Ron. "Do you know anything of Orochimaru… Lee?"
Perhaps this casual approach was a big mistake, since the boy's eyebrow twitched again and he all but growled: "HATSU. WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW."
The tone made Lupin back away slightly. "We are searching for Harii of the Southern Wall… and we heard he is working under this person called Orochimaru."
The boy was expressionless as ever. "Yes."
"So, do you know anything?"
"Yes." A pause. "Why are you searching for Harii?"
Lupin glanced at the others. "Well…"
"Work?"
"No."
"Bounty?"
"No."
"Revenge?"
"…No." Lupin sighed. "Look, we… he hasn't been here all his life, now has he?"
The boy eyed him carefully. "No."
"In that case, he might be one we once knew. We want to find him to confirm this."
"I see."
After a moments silence, 'Hatsu' said almost softly: "You know next to nothing about this place. Have you any idea how dangerous it is to wander around aimlessly?"
Ron sniffed indignantly. "We have talents", he replied with casual arrogance, tapping his wand lightly.
'Hatsu' smirked. "I see", he replied with an almost evil, knowing look in his eyes, his mouth twisted crookedly. "And do you have any concept as to our talents?"
Ron blinked. "Well, that is…"
'Hatsu' nodded in a belittling way, his tone leaving no doubt how much he looked down on them. "I see", he said silkily. "Then your fate is to perish in an unknown land." The boy stood up and moved away with the tray before they had even time to register he had moved.
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All in all, they were rather pleased to get out of the restaurant and away from its creepy workers, especially since their last course had been served by the other boy, Ryota, and they had had an uncomfortably close view of his hideous apron. They had tried to milk some information from him too, but it seemed that they boy was rather clueless as to what went around him, or then he was too distracted to focus on what they wanted. After all, the boy had noticed he had left a broken piece of a cup lying hidden next to Lupin's left leg and therefore had failed his task, and therefore Sakura-san (whoever it was) would NEVER love him. After that he had spent nearly half an hour sobbing on Lupin's shoulder, until 'Hatsu' had returned and ushered him back to the kitchen and politely thrown their customers out.
So now they were wandering down nearly untrodden path between the fields, going towards a large forest waiting in the distance. They were silent, all of them thinking about the information they had just received.
Hm, Snape though with a superior sniff, the first one to break the silence is either Weasley or the dog.
So wrong: it was Hermione. "Scum of the society, huh?" she said softly.
Lupin jumped slightly with surprise. "No, I'm sure that's not true", he said hurriedly. "After all, we all know Harry. He would never fall that low, now would he?"
Sirius smirked. "Of course not. He is my godson, and besides, he is not like Snivellus."
Lupin coughed. "Um, that's certainly true… " he started, but was shortly interrupted by Ron. "Why has he allied himself with a snake?" he hissed. "What the hell is he thinking? He HATES you-know-who!"
"Orochimaru is not you-know-who", Hermione said firmly, though her voice wavered slightly. Ron turned to give her a knowing look. "No", he replied unnaturally sharply, "but you fear it too."
Sirius snorted softly. "Who wouldn't?" he said almost sadly. "You've had the pleasure of knowing him, but I only knew him when he was a small child. People change, and I don't even have the comfort of knowing what he was like to begin with."
"I would hardly call knowing Potter a comfort", Snape said rather loudly, clearly trying ton rile up Sirius. Hermione interrupted this by adding: "Yes, we knew him… but I would not have thought even then that he could possibly leave us so without even a goodbye. So now that I hear he has joined people regarded as criminals, allied himself with a person that sounds awfully like you-know-who and goes around causing mayhem… I really don't know what to think anymore."
That made everyone quiet down again. They had reached the forest by then, and continued to follow a bit more used way between the trees. They walked on rather aimlessly in a rather morose silence, until Sirius suddenly smirked, slapped Snape's shoulder and declared: "We are lost, aren't we old boy? Good job with the map!"
Snape bristled. "What?"
"No reason to be modest about it! You have been secretly leading us until now, and look where that got us!"
As Snape opened his mouth to an indignant reply, Hermione rolled her eyes and walked ahead, Ron following her quickly. Hermione smiled at him approvingly, and he gave her a rather nervous grin in return.
Lupin watched them leave with a resigned sigh. So they left him to his fate, now did they? Oh the hardships of being a leader! He turned to look at Sirius and Snape, who were standing a mere foot apart all but screaming at each others faces. Honestly. And they were supposed to be the respectable adults of the trip?
He had just managed to get the two of them relatively silent and moving again, when Hermione suddenly screamed.
The road ahead was blocked by a group of strangers. Strangers that had just casually jumped down from a tree as high as an apartment complex.
Lupin gasped. "Dear Merlin", he murmured. "This will be awkward…"
"No shit", Sirius breathed. "I just missed a Kodak moment of a lifetime!"
"Silence!" Snape hissed. The first stranger had just taken a step forward, his face an expressionless mask as he slowly lifted his hand.
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A/N: Hee, cliffy :D Finally, I've wanted to make one for ages.
If you happen to find any mistakes, kindly inform me of them and please remember that today is Monday, the worst day of the week :P and that means that absolutely nothing is foolproof.
So yeah, I'm writing this again. I already know how this should end, but we'll see just how I'm going to get there… Chapter 5 is well on its way. This time the update will come faster ;)