The nins congregated in front of Ollivander's wand shop. They had finally decided to split up and get their stuff that way, and it had ended up going faster. They eyed the small, dusty shop dubiously.

"Do we really need wands?" Naruto complained.

"We have chakra. Isn't that enough? Why do we need sticks of wood?"

"It's for appearances, I guess," Neji shrugged. The nins walked into the shop a little warily.

"Helloooo?" Naruto called. "Anyone home?"

"Hello, young man," Naruto yelped and jumped about a foot. There stood Ollivander.

"Where'd you come from?" he cried.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. Sand shifted invisibly. Something about this man just was weird. He couldn't place it. It wasn't a bad kind of weird, though, it was a feeling that the man was old.

You're right. The human is ancient. Not older than me or fox over there, but pretty old, for a human. No danger, though. The sand ceased.

(a/n They got their wands. To me, it doesn't matter what wand they got, so we'll skip that.)

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"Train station, train station, train station, train station…" Naruto turned the new word over in his mouth.

"What's a train station?" Kankuro asked, ignoring Naruto. He was sitting on a chair in Neji's and Gaara's room in the Leaky Cauldron. Since they'd gotten pets just yesterday, there was a fox, a raccoon, a weasel, and a white bird in various places around the room. It had practically turned into a zoo, Temari had commented. Now the demons were using the animals as vessels so they could use physical bodies. They were still trapped in the humans, but a part of them could move independently now.

"Well, a train is a machine that humans in London-and around most of the world, in fact-use to get around over long distances, kind of like a car-"

"Oh! I know what a car is! It's one of those metal things with wheels that they won't let me get into because I'm only fifteen! " Naruto grinned, it had taken him forever to master the concept. Sasuke sighed.

"Let Saazra finish," said Neji.

"Okay. As I was saying, they are kind of like a car, except that they are much bigger and longer, they are made of many 'cars' strung together- a train of cars-hence the name train. They also need tracks to run on, they cannot run on the open ground. This is because their wheels are not made of rubber, like a car's, and that is because the train is so heavy it would pop its wheels."

Hinata's eyes widened as she imagined such a thing.

"These people are truly ingenious." she said. Her cousin shrugged.

"A train station is a place where a train stops to pick up or drop off passengers." Saazra added.

"So we go to this train station, get on the train, and it will take us to the Hogwarts school for juts-magic?" Sasuke asked, just to be sure. He didn't like the idea of getting lost in this strange city.

"Yes," said Saazra, "and Neji might have to help you find it. The station has a hidden entrance because they don't want peole without chakra to see it."

"Strange…" said Naruto, shaking his head.

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Too. Many. People.

Shukaku the raccoon growled (if you can imagine a raccoon growling) as he sat on Gaara's shoulder. Several people looked strangely at the seven ninjas, who were still in their ninja clothing from Konoha (or in the Sand sib's case, Sunaga). Neji had also activated his Byakugan, which made things rather worse. He was currently scanning the stations, looking for anything hidden. He now had 360° vision, so he could see not only through everything, but everything around him as well. It was disconcerting, but he'd gotten used to it over the summer. Suddenly he stopped.

"Found it." he said quietly.

Just then, a bunch of people with red hair passed by hem, heading in that direction, straight towards the barrier that led to Platform 9 ¾ . The ninjas stopped as one and stared. Every last one of them had red hair! It was a natural phenomenon. The miracle of genetics! They approached the red family cautiously. Maybe they had a family jutsu (like Byakugan or Sharingan or the Inuzuka's dog bond) that turned their hair red.

"Excuse me-" Temari started to say, about to ask about the red hair thing, but the woman turned around.

"Oh, you must be the new transfers! Dumbledore told me all about you! Do you not know how to get on the platform? Here, you run through it like-"

"Oh, no, okusama, we already found the platorm, I just wanted to ask you-" Temari was flustered. One of the red-haired boys looked interested.

"How'd you find the platform?"

Temari pointed to Neji.

"He saw it." The boy looked impressed.

"Really? How?" But Temari didn't want to reveal Neji's secret technique. She silently gave up on the red hair question. The boy, unphased by her silence, persisted.

"Say, what's your name?"

"Now, Ron, you can chitchat on the bus. Go through the barrier, now, or you'll be late." His mother, Temari assumed she was, herded the kids through the wall. The nins went last. Gaara and Kankuro were annoyed at the red boy-Ron-for flirting with their sister. (a/n He wasn't really flirting, just curious, but Temari's brothers are overprotective) Shikamaru they could stand, Ron, they silently agreed, they couldn't.

They boarded the train without a fuss, lifting their luggage with total ease onto the train, mentally laughing at the people who had trouble. Kankuro even offered to help some kids, but they were first years and took his face paint and impressive physique the wrong way and told him, quite firmly, that no, they were perfectly fine. Kankuro looked at the huge trunks and then at the skinny twelve year olds heaving them onto the train, then shrugged and decided that to each his own. Maybe they were training, and this was a test from the school- to see who was strong enough to haul their luggage onto the train. It would be great for screening out weaklings, Kankuro mused as he walked down the hallway of the machine, which was now blowing purple smoke and tooting alarmingly. Last-minute people were running on. He pulled out a puppet and began playing with it absentmindedly as he walked towards the nin's compartment. He suddenly caught snatches of a conversation behind a door.

"No! Really? You can't be serious!" A girl's voice-shocked.

"No joke. I swear he's gotten a new ally. I think its name is Orochimaru."

Kankuro stopped dead. Orochimaru? Here? He had to find out more about this. Without a sound, he dropped the puppet, switching the actual strings to chakra strings, attached a dab of chakra to the eyes and ears of the doll, and slid it unnoticeably through the half open door, all in the space of about five seconds. He then began to run back to the compartment that housed his companions.

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Harry Potter sat in the train, looking at his friend, Hermione. Her eyes were round, and her mouth was open.

"No! Really? You can't be serious!"

"No joke. I swear he's gotten a new ally. I think its name is Orochimaru." he replied.

There was silence for a few seconds, as she digested his information. Harry heard the rather muffled sound of a person running past their compartment door, but that was the only noise.

"But Harry, that is really bad. With new allies, who knows what You-Know-Who will be able to do? We know absolutely nothing about this Orochimaru!" She looked a little panicked. They both jumped when a few moments later, the door opened considerably forcibly.

A kid with a weird black hat and face paint on, another with slightly spiky black hair, and a third with longish black hair and unnerving white eyes came into the room. Harry reached for his wand. Neji put up his hands.

"Relax, we're not going to attack you or anything," he said.

"We just want to know what you were saying about Orochimaru." Harry blinked. How did they know what the had been talking about? He watched the guy with the face paint walk over to him, crouch down, reach under his seat, and retrieve a doll. This was, according to Harry, very strange behavior. He looked at Hermione, who looked equally confused. But the students standing across from them looked as if this happened every day. The teenager looked up from where he had apparently been cleaning the doll.

"Sorry." he said. "My name's Kankuro, this is Neji, and this is Sasuke. We just, um, overheard you saying something about an Orochimaru and a…You-Know-Who?"

Harry decided to tell them.

"Yeah, Voldemort's gaining power. He's got a new ally, Orochimaru." He watched the other kids look at each other darkly. They hadn't winced at the name Voldemort, which he was mildly surprised at, but his answer came soon.

"Who's Voldemort?" Hermione gasped.

"You don't know who Lord V-Voldemort is? Where are you from?" she asked incredulously. The others, excluding Harry, all looked at each other again.

"Konoha is where Neji and I come from, and Kankuro comes from Sunaga."

"Never heard of these places. Are you sure you're from England?"

The nins shook their heads.

"We're from Japan." Neji said, using the country that Saazra had told them to say.

Harry 'oooh'ed.

"So, about Orochimaru-"

Just then, the compartment door slid open for the second time. In the doorway stood Draco. Harry started to wave, but was interrupted.

"You!"

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accolay: Well, there you have it. My longest chapter yet, and it still looks short. I hope this pleases those who asked for longer chappies!

chibi-me: Please review! It makes a difference! It saves the enviroment! It helps starving children across the world!

accolay: …

it does?

chibi-me : Not really, but sshhh. Anyway, please review!