Chapter 3: An Awkward Encounter

Tam is not a main character, therefore not a Man-Sue. ...Though he does play a bit of a role.


With Ino in his arms, shrieking in his ear, they both ducked out of the way of a blond reckless fool and his blue swirling Rasengan, protesting loudly.

"Naruto!" Ino yelped, pushing Shikamaru off from on top of her to yell at the other blond. "That was close! Too close! Are you trying to kill us?"

Naruto grinned, scratching his head. "Well, only the real... Seven could dodge something like that!" he said laughing. And then Ino leaped up to her feet and jumped on him. Needless to say, he wasn't laughing any more.

"Not if we're INJURED!" Ino cried in a shrill voice, twisting bits of Naruto's hair at the roots, much to his distress.

"Aaah! Ow! Help me, someone!" he cried until Ino was dragged off of him.

"So are you alright?" Sakura asked her friend with a concerned look on her face.

"I'll have you know I am not," she scoffed, lifting her wrist.

"...What?" Naruto said, seeing nothing wrong.

"My bracelet! We fell and my bracelet broke!" she moaned.

"That's very horrible," Sai said with his usual false smile. It had taken a while, but after several months, Ino—like everyone else—finally understood the real meaning behind Sai's words.

"Oh shut up," she said. "I'm serious."

"Well, while you two moan over a broken present," Kiba said, "I suppose I'll just recover from a concussion and Naruto from his broken leg."

"His legs aren't broken," Ino said, glancing at his torn pants.

"Well not anymore," Naruto said, wincing at the sight of his clothing. "I suppose we'll have to thank the Kyuubi that my legs are just bruised now... Oh, how're my seals?" Naruto asked Sakura as she healed various cuts on his face.

"They're fine," she said idly. "I told you before, they won't wear off until one of us activates it, and then only our part would be weakened, which is easily fixable."

"How did the mission go?" Neji said to them from the other side of Ino and Sakura's room.

"An hour wasted," Shikamaru said. "We failed."

There was a pregnant moment of silence as everyone took this in.

"I guess that means we stick with our day job," Naruto said with his usual false cheer.

"We'd be stuck at the teahouse even if the mission succeeded," Shikamaru said. "What time is it?"

"It's only been an hour since you've left," Sakura answered, pointing at a shabby clock on the wall that read nine forty-five in the morning. Shikamaru groaned. Their shifts started in an hour and they were exhausted.

"I've still got some energy left so I could take your shifts," Naruto said.

"Thanks," Ino said gratefully, looking around at the others. She laid back down on the bed she shared with Sakura, only to immediately sit back up. "Oh man..." she muttered under her breath.

"What is it?" Sakura asked her.

"Doesn't matter whether Naruto takes over my shift, I still have work to do," she said, walking over to the kitchen table and pulling out papers and pens.

"It can wait," Shikamaru said. "It's not as if we have any actual schedule and deadline to work with, so mission reports don't really matter too much.

"Not really," Ino said, starting the blank pages, unsure of where to start the mission log entry. "There's actually quite a lot for me to do..."

"More information?"

"Information regarding our client," she said darkly, remembering the false information that Akui had given them. "I'll be done in an hour."

"Fine," Shikamaru said, pulling up a chair to sit next to her. "I'll help. But after this, we can all relax. It's over now."


At nine-fifty in the morning, most of the teachers of Hogwarts were yawning in staffroom, weary but concerned. Hogwarts had never been infiltrated before, and certainly not by young children, according to Tonks and Hagrid's statement of what had happened in the forest.

It was hard to believe that a handful of people had managed to cause such a huge amount of damage to the forest, to Bill who was most definitely not an ordinary wizard to be trifled with, and to Grawp (a giant for Merlin's sake!). Not to mention holding a mediwitch, handfuls of children, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor himself.

"I'm worried for the students' safety," Minerva said to Albus, with a rather concerned expression on her face. "These intruders have managed to enter and exit Hogwarts safe'y and we still don't know how they did it."

"Actually," Albus said to them, "several students, though they had not seen the actual event, managed to formulate a rather clever guess how our late night visitors had arrived in Hogwarts."

"How?" Professor McGonagall asked him with wide eyes.

"By an ingenious use of the Vanishing Cabinet, which has recently been restored after it's unfortunate fall in 1992 when Peeves dropped it near Argus's office," Dumbledore said calmly. "For those who don't know, the Cabinet transfers objects which go into one cabinet to a second paired and identical cabinet where our little friends emerged. Montague, I believe, had been trapped inside of it for a week last year. Apparently, someone went to great pains to restore the Vanishing Cabinet so that the intruders were able to easily override the security of Hogwarts."

"If we know all of this, then why haven't we sent people inside the cabinet to the other side?" Horace Slughorn demanded.

"Because if we entered, our enemy would be waiting to ambush and perhaps even kill us before we may even react," Dumbledore said gravely. "Also, the cabinet on the other side of the connection has already been destroyed. Perhaps the very moment the last of their friends had safely arrived on the other side."

"How do you know?" Severus asked him.

"Because one student already tried going inside the cabinet after him," the headmaster said wearily. "He was stuck inside until we were able to find him and remove him from inside the cabinet. It is definitely broken."

"So tha's all?" Hagrid said incredulously. "Studen's attacked, Bill down, and even Snape captured—"

"Only for a moment," Severus muttered darkly between gritted teeth, still nursing his ego.

"—and these people are still gettin' away scotch-free fer attackin' yah?"

"Of course not," Dumbledore said, surprising everyone. "Luckily for us, when the woman seen leaving the infirmary had left, she decided to leave a hair pin in the doorway to trap the patients inside. This hairpin alone," he said, holding up a purple and green jeweled pin, probably bought in a child's store, "is a major clue to their current location."

"How?" Professor McGonagall said.

"Why, by use of a simple location charm, of course," the headmaster said.

This comment was met with a brief moment of complete silence. The staff was used to Dumbledore's casual overstatements, but it still wasn't the easiest thing to deal with, feeling left so far behind by an old man, whether he was Dumbledore or not.

"...Only you would call a location charm, of all things, simple," Severus mumbled.

"Why thank you," Dumbledore said, taking that as a compliment. He conjured a map of the world with his wand onto the table. Holding the pin in one hand and the wand in the other, Dumbledore closed his eyes to concentrate and pointed the wand at the map.

"Obfendierus," he said. (Literally 'find owner')

The pin shot down to the map and stabbed the map with the strength of the spell and the spell caster. It was embedded deeply in Japan. Dumbledore picked up the pin, zoomed in on Japan, and cast the spell a second time. It flew to the Aichi Prefecture.

He did this a third time and it landed in Toyohashi, Japan.

"I believe," Dumbledore said, "that we have found out culprits."

"Shall we go right now?" Minerva asked him.

Albus shook his head. "Leaving at this moment would alarm students, after hearing the rather loud declaration of an intruder in Hogwarts. Tomorrow, Severus, you shall give the house elves an Obliviation Draught for the students so that they will not recall the events that have transpired tonight."

"And you will go tomorrow?"

"Actually, the day after tomorrow," Dumbledore said. "On Sunday. At twelve-thirty."

"Why that time in particular?" Minerva asked. "And how will you keep suspicion of your disappearance a secret from the students? You know how quickly rumor spreads around with them."

"Ah, that is where Horace comes in," he said.

"Me?" the chubby, walrus-like man said in surprise. He wasn't a part of Dumbledore's secret organization and he didn't feel like endangering himself unnecessarily. He was, after all, a Slytherin at heart, and Dumbledore of all people ought to know that.

"Yes, you," Albus said to him, nodding. "You came to me earlier this night—or should I say 'last night'?—with a letter from Gwenog Jones, am I right?"

Horace's eyes widened and he grinned. "I sure do," he said, understanding Dumbledore's plans. "A letter and three tickets to the Quidditch World Cup Preliminaries."

"Yes... on Sunday, Slughorn, myself, and possibly Alastor Moody—if I can manage it—will attend the preliminary match between the Holyhead Harpies... and the Toyohashi Tengu."


Draco Malfoy sat alone in the Slytherin common room, hunched over sitting in his bed. He had inscribed the date of the infiltration in the galleon and had been waiting for any signs of chaos or death when he heard one of the things he feared the most.

'An intruder in Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement!' he heard Potter shout from the seventh floor.

Upon hearing this, Draco had immediately left his hideout in the bathroom and had gone straight to his bed, though not to sleep. He kept the curtains of his four-poster bed drawn tightly shut, straining his ears for any sound at all. Once or twice, he may have heard a girl screaming. It almost sounded like Granger, but he wouldn't count on it. Why would a Gryffindor be wandering around in the dungeons?

Nevertheless, he waited for any sign of... of anything. The suspense he felt weighing down in his chest was almost unbearable. Crabbe and Goyle looked curiously through the curtains. They had been worried about their 'boss' ever since it seemed that Malfoy had started cracking under the pressure. As much as he appreciated the fact that they were actually worried for his well-being, friends or no, he was not in the mood to entertain fools.

He just needed to be alone.

For a moment, Malfoy considered killing Dumbledore himself. Surely they must have weakened the old man at least a bit? But he banished the thought as quickly as it had come to him. Going one-on-one with the man whom the Dark Lord was most wary of? Definitely not!

Then again, if things went well in that terribly one-sided battle, he might die a quick death at Dumbledore's hands. Better death at Dumbledore's wand than the Dark Lord's.

Of course, being a Slytherin to the end, he at least wanted to cling to live, no matter how pathetic it seemed. Dumbledore may give him a more merciful end to his life, but if he ever faced the Dark Lord... well, he'd probably have a few days before the Dark Lord went demanding his head on a plate.

On more than on occasion, he had considered going to the 'Light' side, but... his mother and his father were still in the Dark Lord's clutches. Of course, Lucius Malfoy was still in Azkaban, but rumors confirmed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's far reach, with the huge number of 'disappearances' and deaths that had occurred as of late.

Susan Bone's mother had been blown to bits. According to rumor among Death Eaters, it was a gruesome death, with bits and pieces all over the place. Dozens of Muggles had been killed when someone had destroyed a bridge with some sort of 'bomb'. The Durmstrang headmaster had been killed and his body left in a shack, though his head was completely missing. Hannah Abbott's mother—dead. Mr. Ollivander—missing. More than likely to be dead. Fortescue, the ice cream vendor of Diagon Alley, who was rumored to have been a powerful wizard (being the possible descendant of one of Hogwarts many previous headmasters)—also almost definitely dead. Octavius Pepper—dead. Killed in the early spring.

The mounting list of these bloody deaths mystified even the Death Eaters. In fact, even the Dark Lord's Inner Circle was unaware of the identity of You-Know-Who's newest henchman.

Rumor had it that the Dark Lord had a powerful organization under his own command, almost similar to the covert group that Draco had turned to for Dumbledore's assassination. Which didn't seem to be going so well so far by the sounds of it.

There were no sounds of a struggle, no signs of mourning over an old man's death.

It had been an hour later, after everything was over, that Draco deducted that the assassins had escaped danger but hadn't even harmed the old man. Draco Malfoy knew he was in deeper trouble than he had ever been in before.

Leaning his head back in despair over his mother and father, Draco stared at the ceiling for the longest time. He had failed to perform the task the Dark Lord had assigned to him, and now the illustrious name of the Malfoy lineage was coming to an end.

Needless to say, he was not looking forward towards his arrival home.

Draco wondered vaguely for just a brief moment if the assassins hired by the Dark Lord would be kind enough to grant him a quick death.


June 20, 1997
Toyohashi, Japan

Li Tam smiled at the blond man as he stuttered an excuse as to why he was late. He waved his hand dismissively.

"That's alright," he said, interrupting Naruto before this could get too long. "Things happen," he said, shrugging. "Besides, I know you all well enough to trust you and your friends not to arrive on time."

"Thank you, Ri-san," he said with a grin. Tam bit back a comment. It was not Ri, it was Li.

But, he knew them—'them' being Naruto, Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Sai—well enough to know that they probably couldn't say his name correctly out of pure habit. Being the person who took the responsibility of teaching them English, he knew how they disliked the pronunciation of certain letters. Like 'L' for instance.

So it was out of pure habit that they always pronounced his name incorrectly.

Years ago, he had left Britain out of envy of his younger sister and cousin, who were invited to attend some illustrious boarding school that selected only those who showed certain abilities. Out of his entire family, he was the only one to have shown such little signs of magic. Sure, he was definitely no Squib, but at the age of twenty-three, he could barely light a candle. It was actually rather pathetic, really.

Cho and Su had managed to become talented in the Defense Against the Dark Arts. He had even heard that Cho was able to create a Patronus, a goal that many qualified adult wizards had failed to achieve.

Was Tam envious? Of course he was.

His immediate family lived closer to their father's side of the family. They were Chinese wizards and damn proud of it. There weren't many wizards who spoke with more than just a British accent. The Changs were actually an ancient line of wizards, not quite pureblood, but ancient nevertheless. Their mother's side, however, was of nonmagical Japanese descent.

And so it was his mother's side that Tam had retreated to so he could escape from the taunting world of magic.

After staying several weeks at his cousin's home, Tam was tired of becoming a burden and decided to open his own tea shop. Almost immediately, he managed to find a group of children, barely even of age, in need of work.

They showed no signs of magic, but didn't react to strangely when they spotted some certain wizard attributed things, like a few products of the recent 'Weasley Wizard Wheezes'.

They never mentioned magic at all, but Tam understood why. Like him, they were also practically or really were Squibs. It wasn't hard to spot signs of what Tam called 'dead magic' in them. There was one with eyes almost exactly like Mr. Ollivander's, the wand maker. He must have been a relative who also showed no sign of magic.

They never asked why he didn't ask about their past. He never brought it up.

Instead, having a bit more of an education dealing with Muggles, he taught them their 'ways'. They were not to reveal anything 'out of ordinary' to their customers, they couldn't talk about their village so idly in public, and they most certainly could not tell anyone that they never went to a Muggle school even once in their lifetime.

It was as originally as a gift from one not-quite-a-wizard to another that he gave them all jobs, paid them well, and even taught them English and anything else he had at hand to spare.

Of course, it was only recently when he mentioned a Chinese cousin playing on a Japanese Quidditch team that, as he had received no response, that he learned that these children were not squibs, were not from the magical world, and did not know what the hell Quidditch was.

It had originally come as a surprise to Tam, but after that, he never mentioned magic again. And, despite his curiosity, he never asked why they knew so little about the world, why that despite their strange habits they were nonmagical, or or why they didn't have any other familial relations.

He knew enough about them to understand that some things were not meant to be questioned. For instance, the eight of them, plus a dog, lived in only two separate apartment complex: one for the girls, and one for the boys. It was very decent of the men, considering how there were more of them than the women. After all, they could always split up the rooms evenly, without dividing between the sexes.

He knew that they were currently around their late teens, having met them two years ago when they were generally about fifteen.

He knew that they were always broke, looking for ways to get money to support themselves, despite the fact that they were always saving money, particularly on their apartment which was somewhere in the shadier side of town.

He knew that one of the eight young adults was now missing, and that the other, whom he knew vaguely only because the man never worked at the teahouse, was still rather upset about it.

He knew that these people were also sometimes involved with a bit of shady business.

He knew that one of them was a wicked gambler.

And he knew that the one named 'Yamada Taro' was definitely not really a 'Yamada Taro', or else his parents were unjustly cruel to him when they were in the process of naming him (1).

Anyway, recollections aside, it was a rather busy day for Tam. The very day that Naruto and his friends had appeared late—and some of them none at all—as they often did, he was also receiving a huge amount of visitors streaming in from all over Japan and even England.

Why was that?

Because tonight, the Quidditch preliminaries of the local Toyohashi Tengu and the Holyhead Harpies was going to take place.

Tam was torn between letting himself fall even further behind with orders from customers and possibly exposing magic to his... friends? Calling them subordinates when they were only a few years younger than him seemed rather demeaning. 'Friends' would suffice. Either way, there was the possibility of allowing the four to work and at least catch up slightly on their customer's orders, or he could let them have the day off and fall even further behind.

"I have a huge amount of people here today," Tam said to them urgently. "They're, um, coming for a convention."

"A convention?" Naruto said excitedly.

"It's not for anything real big. In fact, it's a convention for... for magicians. Street magicians. They're doing all sorts of tricks and things like that," Tam said, lying on the spot. "Anyway, um, let's see how we'll deal with this..." Tam looked at the group.

"Alright, Ino, Sakura, and Kiba will be waiting on people and delivering orders. Sai, Shikamaru, and Naruto will be in the back cooking and making drinks. I'll deal with handling the money."

"Alright," Shikamaru said, nodding, though he was somewhat surprised that Tam was taking the job involving numbers for him. Everyone working at Tam's Teahouse knew that Tam was pathetic with money and numbers. Nevertheless, he didn't question the boss.

Tam didn't really want his waiters wondering why his customers were paying in gold and silver coins..

"Oh, and where's your friend?" Tam asked, looking around for the seventh member and wondering if he had left as well.

"Neji? Ah, he's out there somewhere," Naruto said, shrugging.

"He's watching my dog," Kiba said.

"Ah, okay," Tam said. "Well, thank you all. I'll, um... well, you'll be paid for overtime today, I guess."

"You don't have t—" Naruto was about to say when Kiba covered his mouth.

"Don't listen to Naruto, he's delusional," he said. "Of course we'll take the money."

Tam laughed. "Right, right," he said to them. "Thanks again! And if you see anything weird, just remember, these are guys who specialize in making magic tricks. So don't pay anything odd any attention, alright?"

"Right," they all said and immediately got to work.


It had been four hours of work since they had arrived that morning at nine, and the orders were just now lessening.

"Tam!" one person said. "You here!"

Tam turned around to see a young girl, probably around twelve or thirteen, standing behind him.

"Surae!" Tam said, grinning widely at his younger sister. He picked her up and she suddenly struggled to get away.

"Tam-fool, let me down," she squealed, turning red. "I'm not kid anymore!"

"You're my kid sister," he said with a grin. "Your grammar is horrible."

His younger sister rolled her eyes as he put her firmly back on the ground.

Tam turned to Naruto and his friends. "This is my younger sister Su. She's spoiled and rotten and goes to a fancy school in the Scotland," he said. "Not only is her Japanese bad, but her Chinese has a British accent as well," he joked.

"Does not!" she said, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Tam laughed. "So," he said, looking a bit more serious now. "How's Cho?"

"Cousin Cho? Ah..." Surae frowned, and then started speaking in rapid Chinese. Then, she pulled out a picture and showed it to Tam, who grinned in response.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, looking at the picture.

"It's my cousin, Cho," Tam said. "A picture of her in the hospital. She's been there for about a year, but she's getting better, I think. She looks happy."

Naruto's eyes widened. Tam realized that the picture was moving slightly, waving to Naruto, and he immediately pocketed it.

"Ah, man, more orders," he said, looking around. "Ah, we've got more work to do."

Naruto nodded, but he turned to his friends before they all returned to work. It was difficult for Tam to hear, since Naruto was speaking in an undertone with all the noise coming from the wizards, but he could hear bits and phrases of it.

"...cousin looks a bit like 'You-Know-Who'..." he heard Naruto mumble.

Now Tam was really glad that they weren't wizards. That would have been a bit of an insult if they were, considering the fact that rumor said that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named looked more like something that had escaped a preserving jar for potions.

And, now that he thought about it, Cho did resemble a friend of theirs. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her in a while.

Maybe it was his cousin's uncanny resemblance to their friend, or maybe it was the moving picture, but something had definitely warranted this strange reaction from the usual happy-go-lucky Naruto.


Tam's Teahouse was a hotspot for wizards traveling in the Muggle world. Because of Japan's huge population, it was often difficult for wizards to find empty areas to gather, therefore stores and buildings like these—owned by the magic-less-yet-magic-aware—were a blessing for the wizarding folk, where they didn't have to be so careful around Muggles.

Dumbledore glanced around the teahouse and spotted several Hogwarts students, even though the school term had not yet ended. But that wasn't completely important at the moment. It was a Sunday, so it wasn't as if that student had classes. But this... pursuing his young attackers was much more important.

Horace was already attending the Quidditch preliminaries, and so only Dumbledore and Alastor were left to look for the Hogwarts intruders.

...After a spot of tea with an old friend, of course. Dumbledore and Moody had Flooed to Tam's Teahouse from Hogwarts and, after Slughorn left to the Quidditch game, they observed their surroundings, looking for free tables, which were growing in abundance as the wizards began leaving for the Quidditch game.

"Ah, Mr. Dumbledore!" a heavily accented voice said. Dumbledore and Alastor turned around to find an Asian man standing behind him.

"Ah, Mr. Li," the headmaster said. "We were just in town—"

"Oh, don't give me that," the young man said. "Shouldn't you be at the Quidditch game?"

"Ah, our friend had gone," Dumbledore said, allowing the man to lead them to a seat in the corner. "But we decided to sightsee the Muggle neighborhood."

"I'm afraid there's not much here to see in Toyohashi," he replied. "Unless, of course, you spend the night here. The lights that appear at night are like nothing in the wizarding world. The streetlights alone are enough to keep me here forever."

"You speak too highly of Japan," Moody grumbled. "I'd say it's much too inconvenient, with flashing lights everywhere and blinding you. Plus, no magic."

"Not a problem for me," he said, shrugging. "So, you must be Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody."

"It's not hard to guess," the man growled, his magical eye looking in the direction of the kitchen. "You must be Li Tam."

"How did you know?" the Asian man said in surprise.

"Well, Albus called you Mr. Li, you seem to own this place, and it's called 'Tam's Teahouse', and those kids in the back definitely don't look like they own the place," Alastor said.

"Oh yeah," Tam said, looking embarrassed. "It's not often I meet a wizard with common sense," he laughed. "But, ah, I suppose that eye allows you to see through solid walls, am I right?"

"You are," Alastor said.

"What's your range?" Tam asked with sudden interest. "Twenty, thirty meters?"

"About," he replied suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?"

"I was just wondering... There's an all-girl's school just across the street and the locker room—"

There was a crash as a stack of plates fell to the floor. Everyone in the room looked up to find a blond boy. He looked up at Tam sheepishly. He met Dumbledore's eyes and both stared at each other for a full minute. All of a sudden, a plate was flying towards Dumbledore, and before they even had time to react, it shattered. Shards of the plate continued to fly in their direction, as well as a wickedly sharp black knife.

With barely any time to cast a spell, the three (or rather, two and a half) wizards jumped out of the way. When they looked up, they found the blond had left, as well as the rest of Tam's hired help.

"Well," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "I did not expect to see them here..."


A Flashback Period
September 6, 1995
Toyohashi Japan

"Okay," Shikamaru said in a low tone of voice as he and the other seven plus Akamaru huddled at the back in an old building. "Here's what we know so far... one: we are in a different world—"

"Oh really?" Sai asked with mock surprise. "I hadn't known..."

Shikamaru glared at him but chose not to comment. This guy really annoyed him. "...Second, their technology is similar to ours, only a bit more advanced—"

"A bit?" Kiba yelped. "A bit!" He moved his hands away from his nose and pointed outside of the dusty window to the speeding vehicles outside. "Look at that! They ride in huge mechanical monsters that run almost as quickly as we do, and at a constant rate! That's not a bit!"

"Well, if you think about it, it's similar to our motor boats," Shikamaru said. "It's just an engine and wheels."

"They stink more than our boats do..." Kiba muttered sulkily, continuing to cover his nose.

"Why don't you just stop sending chakra to your nose?" Naruto asked.

"Inuzuka bloodline limit."

"You have a bloodline limit?" Naruto said, looking totally confused. Everyone else stared at Kiba as well.

He looked down at his feet, grumbling. "It's nothing that big, actually..." he mumbled. "We just naturally send chakra to our nose. And then it takes a bit of conditioning to turn it off."

"...That's all?"

Kiba glared at him. "Yes, that's all. I'd stop the chakra from going to my nose, but it'll just go back the moment I stop consciously thinking about it. It'll take a while for me to get used to stopping the chakra before it gets to my nose anyway. I'll manage it soon."

"Look, quit going off topic here!" Shikamaru said impatiently. "Look, we're stuck in another world, we've got outdated currency, we've got outdated weapons, we've got no knowledge of our environment, and Naruto's seal is acting fucked up! Anyone else here worried about the consequences or is it just me?"

'Wow," Ino said. "...Shikamaru's actually worried."

"Ino! You all! This is a serious matter! I am worried," he said, feeling a headache coming on. This was one of those times where he couldn't really afford to be easygoing and laid back. "Nobody seems to be thinking about the effects of getting dumped into a new environment. We can't get back. We're stuck without money and food. We can't keep stealing from people forever."

"Why not?"

"Because people will find out about us sooner or later," he said, as if it were obvious. "They'll up the security, and probably throw us off a bit, since it's so different from our own, and then we're caught. And, technically, we are illegal immigrants wherever we go. And somewhere out there may be an Orochimaru in a high-status place. There's always the possibility that they'll want us for experiments, though that may be getting over dramatic. I can honestly say that we are biologically different from people here. Or different on some sort of level. And then, since we've spent so little time in this world, the diseases here may really screw us up, since we might not be immune to anything here, though that, of course, may also be unlikely. Though still possible. More so than the human experimentation."

"There's also the factor of our survival once we return," Ino mused.

"What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked.

"Okay, most of us aren't in any danger," she said, "but we all know about Neji's cursed seal, right? What if, after a certain period of time, Neji is assumed dead by the main family?"

"My cursed seal is activated..." Neji said absently, putting a hand to his own forehead.

"I didn't think of that," Tenten said, she and Neji looking at each other.

"The fact that we may be in a different dimension may actually help us in this case," Shikamaru said. "It's been several days in this world. Perhaps only seconds have passed in Konoha. Or maybe the entire Hyuuga clan was wiped out by remaining members of Akatsuki. Hopefully not. But it's extremely possible that they may have defeated Kakashi, despite Akiko's help. Maybe Hinata and Hanabi managed to convince Hiashi and the other members of the main family to cease use of the cursed seal. Maybe there is a delayed reaction between this world and the next. Maybe, there is a barrier between the worlds that completely blocks the effects of the cursed seal."

"Eh?" Naruto wasn't the only one giving Shikamaru blank stares.

"As in, they may have activated the seal, and the moment that Neji returns to the world, it will be activated and will kill him," he explained. "Maybe Neji won't be able to return without dying."

That proclamation was met with silence.

"Of course, due to the fact that the cursed seal must be activated for a certain period of time and that Neji may have missed it, it's not completely likely," he added as an after thought. "There may also be certain side affects from this world. What if activating the cursed seal from the other side of the dimension may not kill him, but still cause Neji to lose his Byakugan? We don't know anything about how interdimensional travel or whatever may affect someone."

"That's enough about me," Neji said, looking uncomfortable.

"Right," the genius said. "I suppose that is enough. Though this world itself may have an effect on all of us..."

Shikamaru took a deep breath and leaned back slightly, as if trying to think of more things to stress out about. "Also, Naruto's chakra is insane. And, just to make it all clear, who doesn't know that Naruto is keeping the Kyuubi at bay inside of him?"

Kiba, Neji, and Tenten raised their hands slightly.

"Well now you know," Shikamaru said. "Naruto's keeping the Kyuubi at bay inside of him."

"...That sounds a lot better than just saying I'm the Kyuubi," Naruto joked.

"Wait, so Hiashi-sama was serious?" Neji said incredulously.

"Hey, it's illegal to speak about the Kyuubi to the next generation," Naruto said.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Not too many people listen to that anyway. My dad, Ino's dad, and Chouji's dad discuss it all the time. Like politics. Not with us, but we sometimes catch bits of their conversation."

"According to what our parents say and a bit of our own moral opinion," Ino said, glancing at Shikamaru, "that since you're a friend and you're pretty much the only thing standing between us and the ninetails, we won't let anything happen to you!"

"What are we, chopped liver?" Kiba muttered.

"Dog liver," Ino corrected. The Inuzuka shuddered. Bleugh.

"Wait, I don't get it," Naruto said. "Why am I in so much danger here too? We're in a new world. Fresh new start. I understand that I might be in danger again when we get back home, but why here? No one's after me here."

"Actually," Shikamaru said, "there are several points I'd like to make while I get into this topic. How many people remember the day we came here clearly?"

They all raised their hands, feeling as if they were in academy school again.

"Good, you all do. Now, what about right before then? When, according to Naruto, Kakashi pretty much sacrificed us for the common good?"

Hands went down.

"Even I don't really remember what happened clearly," Naruto mumbled, having been one of the few completely conscious while the others were unable to move and barely able to think.

"I've been discussing things with Ino. According to both of our memories, which she has looked through and cross-referenced, we weren't the first to go. Kakashi used his Sharingan first on the person with the mask who had trapped us in that invisible box technique. That masked person is more than likely to have been sent to this world. Upon seeing that we were still trapped inside the cage thing, he did the only thing he could to and turned his Sharingan on us."

"Why couldn't he just let us pass out and figure out how to get us out without... without sending us into some other dimension?" Naruto asked.

"Because our chakra was literally being detached from us. Not absorbed, like what the Yoroi clansmen are able to do. Literally ripped out, reserve and all, thus giving this masked enemy our entire reserve. Permanently. Which also brings us to our next issue. The Kyuubi."

"What about it?" Naruto said, surprised with this sudden change in subject.

"Your chakra, like when we were twelve, is once again uncontrollable. You had shown us a decent amount of chakra control before all of this, but now you can barely channel your chakra properly. Now..." Shikamaru suddenly reached forward and lifted the front of Naruto's stolen T-shirt. "Look."

"What happened?" Sakura asked, staring at Naruto's belly.

"Hey, what's going on down there?" he asked, pushing Shikamaru's hand out of his way and his shirt down slightly to see what was wrong himself. "What's wrong with my stomach?"

"The seal on your stomach," Shikamaru said. "We all know that sealing techniques do not look like that."

"Like what?" Naruto said, not noticing any difference.

"You would think," Shikamaru said dryly, "that after about fifteen years with that thing on your belly you would notice it if the supposedly permanent ink was receding from your skin. Your seal is starting to fade."

"Do I want to know how you knew?" Naruto asked hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to be aware whether Shikamaru was some sort of demented peeping Tom or not.

"I wasn't spying on you, if that's what you're implying," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes. "In fact, the first detail that tipped me off was the fact that, even though I couldn't see your seal receding, I could see that every time you used your chakra since the day we arrived in this world, your whisker-like marks get thicker and bolder.

"Back at home, they seemed to return to normal after you finished using your chakra, but I noticed recently that... in the eleven or twelve days we've been here, the number of times you resorted to using huge amounts of chakra has totaled up to be about...sixteen times. And already, I've noticed that the originally hairline thin marks on your cheek are already two whole millimeters in width. They're also slightly longer and a bit darker as well."

"Wait..." Naruto said, as he and everyone else understood what all of this was amounting to and what Shikamaru was predicting.

"The masked man who trapped us in that cage twelve days ago used something in an attempt to steal every drop of our chakra. In the process, I believe he may have been attempting to take not just the Kyuubi's chakra, which, alone is a huge deal, but even the Kyuubi itself. Pulling on something sealed would be like tying a rope to a rock and attempting to drag that rock out of a too small hole in the wall. If you try long enough, you may succeed in tugging the rock free, but you damage the wall in the process.

"In other words, since we spent a few minutes under strenuous circumstances, with our chakra and our very essence almost being dragged out of us, our masked friend may have succeeded in pulling out a part of the Kyubi's chakra. However, due to the fact that the majority of the Kyubi remains inside you, I'm sure that by now, it has completely returned to your body and Tobi no longer has an extra amount of chakra at his beck and call."

"And how do you know this?" Sakura asked.

"It's a not-so-simple deduction," Shikamaru said. "We all had our chakra dragged from our bodies, but we managed to survive. The moment we escaped from that prison, we were nearly powerless, with the exception of Naruto, who had, at least, a few remnants of his chakra reserves, thanks to his incredible stamina. But we survived and slowly began to regain our powers. We may still not be at full power, but I say we'll get back there eventually. In the meantime, everything that Akatsuki member had taken from us was leaving him. So long as the user is alive, the chakra still has its 'anchor' inside of him or her. Unless the user dies, it will always return to the original.

"We all still had a small amount of our chakra, and we were still alive. Therefore, we were able to pull our chakra back to our bodies. Tobi may have enjoyed a bit of his time toying with remnants of our clan abilities, bloodlines, and chakra, but as we take it back, he has to give it up. Do you all get it?"

Sakura nodded.

"...Barely," Kiba mumbled. Akamaru whined.

"Good, because we've gone off topic and I don't feel like explaining that again," Shikamaru said, rubbing his head, feeling almost as if he had a migraine. One the would probably last several years. A migraine the size of Konoha. Or 'Japan'.

"The biggest problem is very possible," Shikamaru said. "And perhaps the most dangerous to us all. Naruto's seal is weakened. Dramatically. Which means that the huge amount of chakra that almost literally floods into Naruto's body—being sent directly from the Kyuubi—may very well pollute his mind and perhaps even take over his body. That would cause a huge strain on Naruto's body, possibly shortening his lifespan, and endanger us all. I don't suppose anyone here has the ability to withstand the direct powers of the Kyuubi...?"

He glanced around at the silent room. It was a rhetorical question, of course. He hadn't expected an answer anyway. .

"On the other hand, with our combined efforts, there's still a chance that we can, at least, hold it back. Our skills are nothing in comparison to the Fourth Hokage's, who had sealed the Kyuubi in the first place. And even if we did have enough talent in sealing techniques, the effort of completely resealing the Kyuubi would probably kill one of us, and we can't afford losing anyone. Obviously, our numbers are too small," he said, glancing at the other eight, including Akamaru, "and no one here is expendable. On the other hand, merely strengthening a seal may prove to be more within our reach and skill."

There was a moment of silence as everyone pondered this.

"So," Shikamaru said, sitting up. "I don't suppose anyone here has an ability to apply our own methods of sealing to Naruto's seal? Anyone?"

Sai, who had said nothing before, nodded. "I may have something that may help."

"Why do I have a feeling that I'm not going to like this?" Naruto asked sadly. "Tell me, am I not going to like this?"

Sai smiled another fake smile to Naruto. "That depends," Sai said, almost cheerfully. This did not bode well.

"Depends on what?" Naruto asked suspiciously at the rather pleased sound in Sai's voice. The former member of the ANBU smirked, almost like how Sasuke sometimes did when they were younger..

"What's your opinion on tattoos?"

...Oh hell.


(1) Naming a kid Yamada Taro is basically the equivalent of naming your kid John Doe. ...You just don't do that to children.
My Thinking Corner

I wasn't sure where I should have even stuck that flashback. I wasn't planning on having one this early on in the story, but the chapter was so short I couldn't stand it, so I managed to push it all the way from only ten to fifteen pages. I hope Tam Li (or Li Tam?) wasn't too repelling. I didn't really want to put too many OCs in this fic, whether they were important or not, but it can't be helped. Anyway, I wanted to write something outside of a shinobi's point of view without being in Dumbledore's point of view. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that makes sense.

Anyway... not much happens here... Just a filler?

I'm hoping it was, at least, informative, if not funny.

Ugh, anyway, I went to one of my cousin's birthday party. I was so pissed. I had to leave my precious computer just to go. And then some kids threw a diaper, missed their intended target, and it nearly hit me. The diaper did, anyway. The stuffing went everywhere, so I ended up washing my arms in freaking hot water because I couldn't get the feeling of 'bleugh'ness off of me. I got so mad. I didn't mean to, but I ended up yelling at them. I don't usually yell. But I seem to be doing that a lot recently. Like the week before the party, another little kid threw a birthday card that hit me in the eye. It was so embarrassing. I ended up saying 'SHIT' really loudly. Everybody in the house heard that. And it's a pretty big house...

Anyway, I've got finals this week. Eargh... I really ought to be studying. Gotta find my textbooks, byebye.

Wait a minute... I've got finals in two days. ...Holy crap, I REALLY need to find my textbooks! O.o