Shiranui Genma was not a stupid man. His carefree demeanor and tendency to crack wise meant that many people didn't take him seriously—even enemy shinobi who should know better. He had been one of the Yondaime's elite personal guards, for kami's sake! Yet apparently, even when he was standing behind the Hokage, all anyone ever saw when they looked at Genma was a smirk and a senbon.

Just as well, he supposed. It meant they were more relaxed around him than they were around the silent Raidou, or the stiff-necked Aoba, or the ever-formal Iwashi. He could tell that even the genin, who should have been straight out of Academy lessons not to take anybody at face value, thought they had him pegged. Genma's answer to it all was to simply smile and joke to keep anyone from wising up. So be it.

He'd gotten the kids settled, made his report to the Hokage, and left. No point trying to raise again the argument he had already lost earlier in the day. The Hokage had made up his mind, and when the Hokage asked, he didn't exactly have to say 'please'. He had said please, of course, and had probably meant it, but the nature of the order was perfectly clear to both of them: whether he liked it or not, Genma was now officially relieved of his guard duties, and was a jonin-sensei to the three foreigners.

There were a few people that Genma knew he didn't fool with his casual façade. Raidou, for one, was far more perceptive than he let on. Hayate didn't miss much. Nara Shikaku and Morino Ibiki saw through everyone, and Hatake Kakashi wasn't far behind them. Then there was the Sandaime, of course, and the Yondaime—but who could expect to fool the greatest shinobi in the land of Fire? And…there was Kushina. Habanero-hime…

Yuuhi Kurenai also knew the truth, though for a rather different reason. She was sharp, but she hadn't seen through the front—rather, he had seen through hers and had approached her when she was promoted to jonin. After the accident that had befallen her genin squad, she had lost herself in her study of genjutsu, psychology, and basically anything else she could get her hands on. Genma, who happened to share her philosophy that there was no such thing as useless knowledge, had pulled a few strings to help her get access to the Hokage's private library when she wanted. In return, the reserved kunoichi began slowly warming to him, and Genma had a confidant. That the Sandaime had convinced or connived her into becoming one of the new jonin-sensei was all for the best, since Genma needed someone to commiserate after his meeting with the Hokage.

He sought out Kurenai right where he had known she'd be: having a solitary meal and some warmed sake at her favorite restaurant. Genma had been there with her once or twice—the owner was a friend of her old sensei; a retired shinobi who had lost half his leg to an explosive tag trap during the war with Iwagakure. Genma nodded to the owner where he sat behind the bar, and slid into the seat opposite Kurenai, knowing full-well that half the men of Konoha would have killed to sit down across from her…and would have been killed if they'd tried. There was a second saucer for sake on the table, and bottle was large enough for two.

"You were expecting me," he said slyly.

"Of course," she said acerbically. "Who else would you complain to? Raidou?"

At this Genma started laughing. Kurenai always did know what to say.

"And how about you?" Genma shot back, a gentle smirk playing across his lips and making his senbon dance. "No complaints about being strong-armed into the gig?"

"It's high time we had a proper reconnaissance team," she said simply. It wasn't an answer to his question—not by a long shot—but Genma knew enough to realize that it was all he was going to get.

"Hell, at least you're getting Academy graduates," he said, still chuckling. "I've got to take the foreigners through basics that a four-year-old could do."

"You know, you say that, but I've got a strange feeling about this years' test scores."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" she hesitated, glancing around, but nobody was near their table. She went on in a low voice. "I've spent most of the week watching them. The kids. And I'll be damned if the pass rate makes any sense. That Uchiha brat who the Sandaime assigned to Kakashi? Itachi's little brother? Total headcase. Highest grades in the class and no friends, no fire to him, just obsession. Haruno and Yamanaka are both airheads; the Hyuuga girl has blatant social phobias; the Nara is lazier than his father; and the Inuzuka might actually be louder than Uzumaki. And that's not even addressing Uzumaki himself!" Her voice dropped even further. "You heard what happened. I saw Mizuki being dragged up to Ibiki today; damn near every bone in his body looked broken before Ibiki started in on him. We're supposed to believe that a kid who can produce two hundred Kage Bunshin failed the Academy graduation three times?"

Genma made himself shrug, conscious that they were still in public. "So they're a quirky bunch. Is it really any different than any other group of shinobi?" Genma asked gently. She knew what he meant. He himself had been on a genin squad with Ebisu—now a Tokubetsu jonin personal trainer and closet pervert—and Maito Gai, who…spoke for himself, really.

Kurenai and Genma had a theory that the more talented the shinobi, the stranger their personal habits and quirks became. Asuma with his smoking, Genma with his senbon, Maito Gai with his Power of Youth rants, Kakashi with his chronic tardiness… Both of them knew full-well why Kakashi was late everywhere—it wasn't exactly a secret, and they both understood—but he was as squirrelly as he was brilliant, with one eye in the present reading Icha Icha, and one eye always on the past.

"Even so," Kurenai went on, her voice returning to normal. "For instance…I have a hunch about the Aburame I was assigned—his grades were in the bottom third, but I think he's way better than he lets on. At everything. I've worked with his clan before; they're all very reserved, but that doesn't mean they're stupid."

Genma considered this. "Well, if we're going to teach children to be shinobi, we shouldn't be surprised if some of them treat the Academy like an infiltration, should we?" he grunted finally.

Kurenai nodded. "Exactly." She took a drink, and the conversation became a little more normal. "You know, I actually requested Uzumaki for my squad. Replacing Inuzuka."

Genma's eyebrows rose. "I don't remember him having any particular talent for reconnaissance," he said mildly. He wasn't prejudiced against the kid, and neither was Kurenai; they were too clever and knew better anyway.

"Maybe not," she said, "but his stealth and pursuit evasion could easily be chunin level or higher. He painted the Hokage monument in broad daylight, and nobody noticed until he set off an explosive tag to draw the village's attention. At least a dozen shinobi tried to chase him down, and he got away from all of them—even the ANBU pair the Sandaime set to keep an eye on him couldn't stop him or catch him."

"You know, you may have a point. The brat might have some potential, at that," said Genma. "He's already damned handy with Kage Bunshin, you know. He used it to clean up his apartment so my students could tour it."

"He used Kage Bunshin for his chores?" Kurenai said incredulously. "Now I'm upset that I let the Hokage talk me out of it. He's going to be wasted on Kakashi's squad—neither Haruno nor Uchiha respect him at all, and Kakashi…well, even in the best case scenario he's going to have his hands full dealing with the Uchiha brat."

"Well, maybe you'll get a chance anyway," said Genma. "I spoke with the Hokage just now about a special order of training for my assigned squad, since they'll be taking everything from the top."

"Special training?" Kurenai asked, curious.

"Remember what Gai said the last time we all went out drinking? That he'd take pity and teach any student of Kakashi's?"

Kurenai smiled. "And Kakashi looked up, blinked, and asked if he'd said something." Genma's answering grin made the senbon clack.

"Well, the idea stuck with me. 'Power of Youth' aside, there's no better taijustu instructor than Maito Gai, and all of my students are going to need help with the basics. If I can pin Kakashi down to teach them a little about ninjutsu, so much the better. You get the idea."

"And you asked the Hokage about this?" said Kurenai, sounding incredulous.

"I phrased it as getting them acquainted with everyone in the village, and encouraging them to make new friends among the genin at the same time." Genma smirked. "Worked like a charm. Of course, Hokage-sama told me that what I was asking wasn't actually forbidden, just not done. If I have anything to say about it, it's going to start being done. Interested?"

"Oh, my, yes," Kurenai said, smiling slightly back at him. "You think any of your students will take an interest in genjutsu?"

"Maybe the girl?" he replied vaguely. "She's definitely clever enough for it. I'll have to let you know once I get properly acquainted with them tomorrow. The tall one with the red hair, I'm looking forward to introducing to Asuma. Ron reminds me a bit of the Nara brat that Asuma took such a shine to. He's also expressed an interest in bukijutsu."

"And the third? The one with the scar and the glasses?"

"Dunno yet," Genma admitted. "The other two look to him instinctively, so he's gotta have his own strengths, but I haven't seen anything extraordinary yet. Time will tell. Action before words, y'know."

Kurenai nodded. "If that's the case, I'm definitely going to take you up on the offer if I can get you to take on the Hyuuga girl. More friends can only be more encouragement to break her out of those social phobias."

"I think that was the Hokage's plan when he put Uzumaki on Kakashi's squad with Uchiha, you know," said Genma, watching Kurenai out of the corner of his eye as she stood to leave.

"Yes, it was…and I hope it doesn't backfire like I think it will," she answered darkly. She nodded to the owner, left enough money on the table to cover her food and all of the drinks, and left without another word. Genma wasn't offended. It was how Kurenai was. He too nodded to the owner, rose slowly, and ambled back out of the café. No sense in damaging his usual casual demeanor just to get to sleep a few seconds earlier.

The sight of Voldemort, rising from a steaming stone cauldron the size of a dragon's egg, filled Harry with a nameless terror. The Death Eaters cackled around him, but the sounds of their laughter faded away, until there was nothing but Voldemort, stalking toward him. And then, Voldemort seemed to shudder and split, not unlike a snake about to shed its skin.

Harry's eyes closed with horror, but he forced them open again. When he did, there were two men where Voldemort had stood—both tall and thin; both paler than a corpse, with slanting, staring eyes and vertical slitted pupils; both with flat nostrils and wide, lipless mouths that recalled a serpent; both smiling the same mirthless smile, and glaring with the same hatred at any who would stand in their way.

The only differences between them was that where Voldemort was bald, the other hand long, lank, greasy black hair that fell to his waist; and that the stranger's mad eyes were yellow, where Voldemort's were red.

They hissed at him in unison, and Harry realized it was Parseltongue. Both said the same thing:

"I am coming for you, boy…"

Harry woke with a strangled yell, as he had done most nights since the Third Task. Disoriented again, he flailed for his glasses and his wand on the bedside table. His hand smacked into a very hard wall, the jolt of pain bringing him properly awake. He looked around blearily, and saw that the room he was in, and the sky out the window near the foot of his bed, were both very dark. He felt cautiously toward the other side of the bed with his uninjured hand, and found a bedside table. He put his glasses on, but his wand wasn't there. Belatedly, he remembered putting it under his pillow as he went to sleep. He slipped his fingers under the pillow long enough to feel the narrow wooden stick, but did not pull it out.

He looked at the alarm clock that he had purchased yesterday, which looked basically the same as the ones back at Hogwarts. It was nearly four in the morning. He really needed to stop waking up like this.

Genma had told them that they were to go to the Academy—the building where they had first arrived yesterday—at noon. There, they would be introduced to the other genin by Iruka, and then Genma would pick them up.

That Harry would have a nightmare about Voldemort was nothing new. He had experienced those for years now…though the events in the graveyard of Little Hangleton after the Third task had intensified them of late—he had nearly cursed Madam Pomfrey his first night in the Hospital Wing. Who was the other man, though; the pale man with long black hair and yellow snakes' eyes, who spoke to Harry in the language of serpents?

Between the pain in his hand and the nightmare, Harry found himself staring out the window for a long time, until the sun rose, and he heard Hermione bustling around through the wall he was leaning against.

Umino Iruka pinched the bridge of his scarred nose as he leaned on his crutches. The level of noise from the genin in the classroom behind him never seemed to get low enough to be called a dull roar, and it was hopeless trying to give them a final lesson when they were all far too excited about having graduated, and about being assigned to their jonin-sensei later today. So instead, he simply stepped outside the classroom to ponder the teams and await the jonin.

Team 8 would be on the fast-track for scouting and recon. They didn't know it, but they were assigned to Yuuhi Kurenai, one of the few jonin that Iruka really respected for not being prejudiced against Naruto. Team 10 was, of course, the new generation's Ino-Shika-Chou, and would shortly be picked up by Sarutobi Asuma, the Hokage's son. Team 7, Iruka could see having a hard time. Uchiha Sasuke, who spoke little and seemed to think only of avenging his clan. Haruno Sakura, who spoke plenty and seemed to think only of Sasuke. And, of course, Naruto, who talked nonstop and thought little, unless it was about ramen or becoming Hokage. Three obsessives, shortly to be placed under an equally-obsessive sensei. Iruka shook his head.

As Iruka waited, he saw three people come around the corner. Not recognizing them, he started and began to reach for a kunai, before he realized that it was the three foreign kids that he and Ebisu had lectured yesterday. They had evidently been shopping, because they were all wearing ninja gear in forest colors, and sporting Konoha hitai-ite.

Iruka didn't quite know what to make of the Hokage's decision to declare what amounted to three foreign civilians to be shinobi of the leaf. He'd had to explain what chakra was to them, and how it was channelled, three times before they all seemed to get it. At least, before the two boys got it. The bushy-haired girl—who, he saw as she approached, had tied her hair carefully back today—seemed to pick it up almost instantly, and had spent the rest of the lecture with her eyes shut and a look of intense concentration on her face. She wore a similar look now. In fact, they all did as they approached Iruka, who smiled, trying to set them at ease.

"Welcome," he greeted them. "This is the room where your sensei will meet you. Let me introduce you to the other genin." He started to turn, and grimaced. "You might want to cover your ears."

He slid the door back and led the three youths inside. The appearance of three strangers managed what Iruka himself could not—the room fell quiet as everyone stared at the newcomers. Not wishing them to feel too awkward, Iruka called out, "Class, I'd like to introduce you to three new peers. This is Pottaa Harii, U-iizurii Ronarudo, and Gurenjaa Haamaionii. They've come a long way to train as shinobi of the leaf, and they will comprise Team 9. I expect you all to make them feel welcome."

Before anyone else could say anything Naruto had bounded down from his seat to greet them, and began to usher them toward empty seats nearby. Iruka smiled, and began to call the roll for the other teams.

"Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto—" at this, the excitable boy let out a whoop, "—Haruno Sakura—" Naruto raised his arms in triumph as the rosette kunoichi hung her head, "—and Uchiha Sasuke." Now Naruto hung his head and Sakura leapt up. She turned to stick out her tongue at Yamanaka Ino, several rows back.

Iruka chose to ignore this, and went on, "Team 8 will consist of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba—" Iruka was interrupted by a high-pitched bark, and Kiba called out "And Akamaru!" Iruka nodded, which placated him.

"Team 10 will consist of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji!" None of them looked surprised at this, which he supposed was fair. They must have expected it as much as everyone else.

"That is all of you, of course, so I will leave this list here," he pinned the roll to the wall beside the door, "and leave you all to get acquainted with our new friends, and await your sensei. They should be arriving shortly. It has been a great pleasure teaching you all this past year, and I wish you the very best of luck as genin!" His eyes lingered on Naruto for a moment, before he bowed to the room at large, and left.

Ron and Hermione immediately began fending off questions and asking their own, and Hermione had soon launched into an impromptu lecture on how to properly pronounce their names. The kids all picked it up fairly quickly, but Harry had a feeling it would be another story when it came to the adults, who would be more stuck-in-their-ways as far as linguistics. After that, Hermione found herself cornered by two of the other girls—the blonde and the rosette.

Ron, meanwhile, was deep in conversation with a black-haired boy who had his chair tipped back on two legs. He had asked the room at large if anyone played chess, but none of them knew what it was. When he began to explain the rules, the boy—who Harry suddenly remembered was called Nara Shikamaru—had cut in, saying it sounded like a game he knew called Shogi. Ron, of course, had never heard of it, but he listened raptly as Shikamaru explained how the game went. He had a faraway look in his eye that Harry recognized from his own games of chess with Ron. It was the look Ron got when he was getting absorbed in the game, starting to think six moves ahead, and planning Harry's inevitable defeat. Beside them was a large boy who offered Ron a bag of crisps, which he quickly accepted before asking Shikamaru another question.

Harry looked around. After greeting them, Naruto had sat back down and folded his hands over his stomach, looking ill. Presently, he had his head down on the desk. The boy with the hooded jacket on Harry's right was intent on playing with his dog…or was he talking to it? There was a scowling boy with black hair almost as untidy as Harry's sitting in the first seat by the door and apparently brooding; and a taller boy wearing a long coat and sunglasses despite being inside on a warm day. Neither looked very approachable. Sitting directly behind Harry though, at the back of the room in the seat Harry would have taken for himself if he had come here for class, was a girl wearing what looked like a parka. She had short, dark hair that seemed almost blue in the light, and which hung down in front of her eyes. Her cheeks looked a little flushed, and she was pressing her forefingers together nervously. Frankly, she didn't seem like a much better prospect than the others, but she did seem less likely to snap at him if he just said hello.

He twisted fully around in his chair and said, hesitantly, "Hello?"

She looked up, startled, and he was shocked to see that her eyes were entirely white. Was she blind?

"A-ano…" she stammered. The translation charm didn't interpret that, it was more like she was stalling for time, or marshalling her thoughts. "G-good day," she said, finally.

"Did Iruka-sensei say your name was Hinata?" Harry persisted.

She ducked her head again, blushing. "Hai." An affirmative.

He soldiered on. "My name is Harry. It is good to meet you." He approximated a bow from his chair.

She blushed, if possible, even more fiercely. Her eyes glanced to the side—toward Naruto, Harry thought—before she took a deep breath and her color normalized a little. "The pleasure is mine," she said. "Are…you and your friends…are you friends with Naruto-kun?" Her voice was pitched so that only he could hear her.

The translation charm rendered her chosen suffix in several ways at once, before latching onto the likeliest interpretation: 'an extremely close or childhood friend, or to an emotional attachment'. He blinked, and shook his head. There was a lot of meaning in those little suffixes. Then the question caught up with him. She wanted to know if they were friends with Naruto. Did that mean she was a friend of his? But then why was she sitting away from him with her head down? From what Harry had seen, Naruto didn't have any close friends, which seemed to rule out the first half of the translation. Which left…emotional attachment.

Harry smiled. "Of course," he said. "Well, I mean, we only met him yesterday, but we had dinner with him and he's pretty friendly."

"H-hai. Naruto is always cheerful and kind but…most people are not friendly to him."

"Why not?" Harry leaned forward, because her voice was getting even more quiet.

"I do not know. He—he is known as a prankster, but that would not account for the treatment he receives. I had wondered…had wondered if you were his friends, if you could explain."

"Search me," said Harry, as the bearlike Sarutobi Asuma leaned in through the door below and called for Team 10. "We could probably ask him, though. It's not like he can't have noticed—"

But she shook her head furiously. "No, no. That would only hurt him. I—" she hesitated, glancing at Naruto again. "I saw him after the graduation exam yesterday. The first one. He didn't pass. He sat outside alone while everyone else greeted their family. Even there, when he was just sitting quietly and looking so sad, I heard parents telling their children to stay away from him."

Harry scowled. Why would they do that? Vaguely, he realized Hinata was still talking.

"That is why I asked; because he greeted you today. I had hoped he and I would be on the same team, but maybe we will be able to work together in future. I would be happier to know he had some friends, since nobody else will talk to him." She was babbling a little, now.

"You know," Harry said steadily, "I bet he'd like to get to know another friend."

Hinata blushed again, but smiled at him shyly. Harry decided not to push the point. Before he could speak again, though, the door to the classroom slid open and a woman's voice called out, "Team 8?"

Hinata stood up, as did the tall boy with the sunglasses, and the kid with the dog. As the latter rose, the dog jumped to his shoulder, and then settled down on his head. Harry said, "Good luck" to Hinata as she passed, and she smiled at him, the blush finally clearing from her face. Harry always jumped when he saw Team 8's sensei because of her red eyes. He had nearly pulled his wand when she was introduced yesterday, but her pupils were normal, and her eyes smiled in a way that Voldemort's never could.

Genma was right behind her. "Come on, you three," he said, as Kurenai left with her squad. Harry saw both Hinata and, curiously, Kurenai glance wistfully back at Naruto as they left. Maybe Kurenai had wanted him for her team?

Harry, Ron, and Hermione filed out of the row and headed toward Genma, following Team 8 down the hall. As they left the room, Harry looked back at Naruto and winked. "Behave yourself," he mouthed. The blond boy grinned back.

Genma led them out of the building and turned South down the street, away from the Hokage monument. Kurenai was just finishing talking to her squad. "…meet me there as fast as you can." Her hands blurred into a seal and she disappeared in a flurry of wind-blown leaves. The three genin all leapt straight up to the rooftops and tore away southward, the boy with the dog on his head quickly outstripping the other two.

All three of the Hogwarts students stared, jaws open. Three kids, who only looked old enough to be second-years at most, had just jumped at least twenty vertical feet like it was nothing. Genma chuckled at the looks on their faces.

"You'll be able to do that soon enough," he promised. "You've got to learn to crawl before you can walk, though."

They followed him along the streets in roughly the same direction, though at a walking pace. As always seemed to happen when he was out on the streets in Konoha, Harry's neck prickled. He felt like he was being watched. Knowing better than to doubt his instincts, he asked Genma about it.

"Oh, that's probably ANBU. You'll learn to distinguish between that and others watching you."

"What's ANBU?" said Ron. The translation spell rendered 'Dark Side', but everyone said it like an acronym.

"It's short for Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai," said Genma carelessly. 'Special Forces and Assassination Unit' rendered the charm, or something like that.

"They're the most elite forces; answering directly to the Hokage," Genma went on. "Even their identities are classified." They were passing an alleyway when Genma paused, and led them down it. There, in the shadows, he stopped and said, "Here, I'll introduce you. Cat!"

Cat? Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, confused. Genma had called out Neko, which definitely meant 'Cat'. A moment later, there was a flurry of leaves like the one they had seen when Kurenai disappeared, and another person was standing beside Genma.

The newcomer was shrouded in a hooded cloak hiding long purple hair, which Harry thought that might belong to a woman. Beneath the cloak, she was strongly muscled, and wearing grey armour over dark clothes She also had a sword strapped to her back that was even longer than Genma's. Most strikingly though, her face was hidden by a porcelain mask painted with three red stripes…and shaped like a cat.

"Kids, this is Cat; she's guarding you while you're here." said Genma, smirking. He turned to Cat. "Who else is assigned to the kids?"

"Lizard," she replied quietly. She sounded annoyed that he'd called her down.

"What about Ocelot?" Genma asked.

"Guarding the usual. Lizard and I were reassigned since that one will be working under Hound."

"He's not Hound anymore, Cat; he's with the regular forces," Genma corrected.

"Is there any point to this?" Cat interrupted him.

"The kids said they felt like they were being watched. I thought they should meet the watchers so they don't get frantic just because they feel eyes on them." He turned to regard his three students, a grin crossing his face. "I'm also going to be sharpening their eyes, and every time they spot one of you, they're getting rewarded."

Cat sighed heavily and vanished again without another word. Genma led them back out of the alley, laughing all the way down the street.

Genma led them to into a fenced-off area, which he declared was Training Ground Seventeen. It was grassy, and there was a small pond and a few trees within the fence. There was also a small fire pit surrounded by stones, a picnic table, and what looked like a single standing wall, and a flagpole without a flag. This was where the majority of their training would take place, so unless they were told differently, they were to meet him here at seven each morning after eating breakfast.

"But that means we'll have to get up even earlier than for class," Ron complained.

Genma's eyes narrowed, though his smile never left. "It's my job to make you three into shinobi. You're way behind the other genin and you need all the catch-up time you can get. If it were up to me, you wouldn't have weekends off; I'd have you out here seven days a week! Now, I won't hear any complaints. Isn't there a war on, where you came from?" Ron looked at the ground. Hermione's face held a determined expression.

"Now," Genma repeated slowly and deliberately. "You will all meet me here every morning at seven. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sensei," they said together.

Genma's face softened, and they knew this smile was real. "Not bad, kids; that was probably better than some of the graduates. Now, there's not a lot of time today, and I prefer to do taijutsu training in the morning, so we'll work on chakra some more. First, though, give me ten laps around the inside of the fence." Knowing better than to complain, they all set off. Harry might've had a slightly easier time of it, being a Quidditch player, but Seeking was more about sharp eyes than athletic endurance, and all of them were soon out of breath. They stayed together as they went around and around, and then tumbled to the grass in front of a smirking Genma.

"Soon enough that'll take you a quarter of the time and it won't even wind you," he promised, his senbon glinting in the sunlight. "Now, hand seals. Show me the sign of the rat. Now the ox. Now the horse."

All three of them quickly discovered that Genma was an easygoing sensei as long as they were trying their best. He always seemed to know when one of them was slacking off, and didn't hesitate to let his displeasure show. As long as they were working hard, he was always there with a smile and a quip; with a correction to their posture or another patient explanation.

They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to channel their chakra. Genma went over the Academy-standard lecture again, then started to demonstrate the things that chakra could do.

"Chakra flows through its own system of vessels and capillaries," he explained. "It's not a physical system, it just shadows the actual circulatory system. The chakra system originates here," he indicated a spot on his chest, in the soft spot between his floating ribs, "and travels outward from there. It is controlled, of course, by the brain, just like everything else. As you were taught yesterday, chakra is the energy that comes from a blending of the physical and the spiritual. The more your physical body trains, and the more you study and gain knowledge, the more chakra you will be able to generate." He paused. "You three shouldn't have too much trouble there, I think. You all already have a chakra capacity at least equal to second-year genin," he added.

"Anyway, there are three hundred sixty-one tenketsu in the body, which are like gateways or nodes along the chakra system. With practice, you can learn to release chakra steadily from these tenketsu, energizing the surrounding cells and letting you run faster, jump higher, see sharper, and so on. After long enough, doing this will become such second nature that you won't need to think about it, and you'll be at least slightly chakra-enhanced at all times." He paused. Hermione had her hand up. "Yes?"

"Could you give us a demonstration?" she asked. "Show us your own speed or jumping, with and without chakra?"

Genma nodded and shut his eyes for a moment, depressing his chakra levels. He crouched and then jumped, rising no higher than they would have expected. When he hit the ground, he tumbled and rose to his feet at a run. He reached the fence and came back, skidding to a halt. "That was just me. Normally, though, it would be more like this."

This time when he jumped, he rose easily fifty feet. All of them craned their necks, and saw him throw something in the direction of the gate. He tumbled again as he hit the ground, and dashed away almost faster than they could see. He arrived by the gate and caught the thing he'd thrown—one of his kunai.

"And that's not even using any jutsu," he called over to them as he put the kunai away. "Watch. Shunshin no jutsu." He brought his hands together in what Harry was pretty sure was the seal of the ram. He disappeared completely. In the blink of an eye, he was standing back where he had started the lecture.

"Shunshin no jutsu is a flash step technique," he explained, as calmly as if he hadn't just moved ten yards in half a second. "You temporarily flood the body with chakra in order to move at extreme speed for a moment. It's only good for one movement at a time, though; and it'll eat through your chakra pretty fast if you're not careful.

"Now, back to tenketsu. The most commonly-used tenketsu are the hands, feet, and throat. We won't bother with the throat, since you don't have the discipline to be creating any elements just yet. Chakra channelled through the hands and feet can be used for combat as well as movement, since chakra increases strength as well as speed. One of the sannin, Lady Tsunade, was famous for her chakra control, which allowed her to punch with the strength of a hundred men."

"What's a sannin?" Ron interrupted, his hand raised.

Genma paused. "That's a history lesson. I'll tell you about Densetsu no Sannin over dinner." The translation spell rendered the foreign words as 'three legendary shinobi'.

He returned to the lecture. "Chakra channelled through the feet, likewise, can make you move faster and more efficiently, and also to connect you what you're standing on or keep you from sinking into mud or water."

Hermione raised her hand again, but rather than wait for her to ask, Genma simply paced over to the wall standing by itself, placed a foot against it, and continued to walk up it as though gravity had ceased to apply to him. He reached the top of the wall and backflipped off, which launched him toward the pond. He turned a flip in the air and landed on his feet, standing on the surface of the water as easily as he had stood on the ground. He chuckled. "You use your chakra to maintain the surface tension of the water and distribute your weight," he explained as he came back to them.

"For today, more channelling practice." Genma hopped into the tree, plucked three leaves, and then handed one to each of his students. "Once you're confident you're channelling your chakra, concentrate into your forehead. Press the leaf there and will it to stay." He borrowed Harry's leaf to demonstrate, sticking it to his forehead. He leaned over, and the leaf fluttered in the wind, but stayed in place as through glued there.

Soon they were all trying, and Harry found himself wondering if this exercise was what caused Konoha to use a leaf as the symbol on its shinobi's hitai-ite. Genma kept encouraging them, walking them through the steps of gathering their chakra until he said he could feel that they had gotten it right. It was very unintuitive for the wizards to summon up magic—or rather, chakra—but not immediately cast a spell with it.

However, Genma explained, being able to control and manipulate chakra was far more important than simply using it for jutsus…and that when they did get around to using ninjutsu, it would be far easier and they would be more efficient in their usage of chakra, and therefore less likely to run out and suffer the effects of exhaustion. Efficiency, he summarized, stood head and shoulders above raw power, and beat it every time.

It made sense to Harry. Even if you didn't have the fastest broomstick, you could still beat your opponent to the Snitch if you flew better. Ron compared it to chess, naturally. The knight wasn't the strongest piece, but its ability to pass other pieces made it easily the most versatile, and often able to capture more powerful ones. Hermione nodded. She had always seemed to be better at managing magic than the two boys, able to achieve the same effect with half the expense.

None of them had managed it by the time Genma called a halt. The sun sat low in the sky, and he led them on a few more laps of the training ground as a cooldown. When they had finished, they were all famished. Ron's stomach growled loudly, making Genma smirk.

"I'll treat you to dinner tonight, to celebrate your first day as genin," he said. "From now on you'll be responsible for your own food and finances, though. I'll give you a grocery list before we leave so you can pick things up tonight. You kids feel like barbecue?"

He took them to a nearby restaurant. "Tabehoudai no maruyaki," he said, pointing at the sign. The charm gave them a confused impression that Harry eventually sorted out as 'barbecue buffet'. They followed him inside and found a high-ceilinged, smoky room that smelled strongly and deliciously of cooking meat. There were several booths and tables of varying sizes, all of which had a grill set into them, so that the customer could cook their food however they pleased, and eat as much as they wished. A man in the back at a long table raised a hand in greeting, and Genma did likewise. Harry, following, realized that the man was Sarutobi Asuma, who was eating with Team 10.

Chouji was sitting alone on his side of the table, across from Asuma and Shikamaru. Ron slid in next to the large boy, and Harry sat beside Ron. Hermione sat down politely beside Ino, and Genma took the seat across from her. Soon they were all settled and eating. Just as he had the previous night, Ron seemed to have struck up an eating contest, this time with Chouji. At the same time, he had drawn Shikamaru and Asuma into explaining the rules to a game called Go. Hermione was nodding politely as Ino chattered about her training, her family's flower shop, and a crush she had on Uchiha Sasuke. Hermione kept trying to turn the conversation toward ninjutsu by asking Genma questions, but Ino always started talking again before Genma could. Harry saw his sensei's grin getting wider as Hermione's expression grew stonier.

Harry's mind was focused on their training from earlier, and on everything that Genma had managed to teach them so far about the possible applications of chakra. Genma had moved so fast… Voldemort and the Death Eaters would have a hard time hitting him if he could learn to move that fast. Then he remembered that Genma had mentioned a history lesson over dinner. When he reminded Genma of this, his sensei grinned.

"All right." He turned to Asuma, "I mentioned Lady Tsunade and the strength of a hundred to them during training today, so I promised to tell them about the sannin during dinner. Mind helping me fill them in?"

Asuma grunted. "Densetsu no Sannin are perhaps the most powerful and most famous shinobi team of this age. Each of them is incredibly powerful and knowledgeable in their own right, and as a team they were nigh-undefeatable. They were my father's pupils," he told the table. "His genin team, his prodigies, and his failures."

"Failures?" asked Harry.

"So he always says. He's wrong, of course, but he blames himself… Well, you'll understand once you know the story."

Here Genma picked up the narrative. "The Sandaime taught many students. He has a gift for it; people called him The Professor. But nobody ever held a candle to these three: Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. All of them were talented—they graduated the Academy together at the age of six. Tsunade was very gifted at chakra control even as a genin. Orochimaru was a true prodigy and seemed to excel at everything he did. Jiraiya was a loud and clumsy braggart of a boy, determined to outdo Orochimaru and impress Tsunade…and who never really managed to do either, as the stories go. However, once they began to work together as a team they were unstoppable.

"They took on more missions than the other teams of their generation put together, and even when they were promoted and their genin squad was dissolved, they continued to work together often. During the Second Shinobi World War, they fought for Konoha against our enemies in the land of Wind, the land of Earth, and the land of Rain. The latter had perhaps the single most powerful combatant in the war: a man named Hanzou. It was he who named the three Konoha shinobi as Densetsu no Sannin, for being able to fight him to a standstill.

"They were heroes again during the Third Shinobi World War, maybe fifteen years ago, but by this time they were drifting apart, all seeking their own goals. Tsunade had become a specialist in the Healing arts, and Jiraiya in the Summoning Jutsu and various other Ninjutsu. At that time, nobody knew what Orochimaru was doing…that, we found out later. By the time the war ended, all of them had left Konoha. Jiraiya left to walk the lands and learn more as a hermit, as well as to keep writing his books. Tsunade lost her precious people to the war, and disappeared, completely disillusioned with the Shinobi world. Orochimaru was discovered to have been performing illegal experiments involving genetics on children of the village, and was exiled. He announced the immediate revocation of his loyalty to Konoha and his intention to destroy the village, and became a missing-nin. The Sandaime never forgave himself for allowing Orochimaru to harm the children of the village, or for letting him go when he fled and declared himself Konoha's enemy."

A long silence followed the story until Asuma added, as gently as his gravelly voice could manage, "Three shinobi who are all powerful enough to become Hokage, and all have left us…but even today the name Densetsu no Sannin commands respect, awe, and fear."

They finished their meal in relative quiet. Ron kept pace with Chouji from the moment he sat down, but of course, the other boy had been there for a while already, and so had eaten more. He made arrangements to meet with Asuma and Shikamaru that weekend to learn the games they had been talking about, and Hermione promised to visit the Yamanaka Flower shop to help decorate her new apartment.

Genma walked them all the way home, at one point indicating a chimney on a roof nearby. They squinted, and realized there was a hooded figure crouched in the chimney's shadow. The figure, apparently realizing he'd been seen, stood for long enough to salute Genma before crouching down again and vanishing. This ANBU's mask was different to Cat's, so Harry surmised that it must have been Lizard.

Ron and Hermione bid everyone goodnight and shut their doors, but Harry said, "Genma-sensei, could I ask you something?"

Genma nodded and followed Harry inside, taking his shoes off at the door. He didn't seem perturbed by Harry's lack of furniture, and sat himself easily on the floor, legs folded beneath him, waiting for Harry to speak. Now that the moment had come, Harry was embarrassed, but this was the sort of thing he would have reported to Professor Dumbledore if they were at Hogwarts, so he felt like he needed to tell someone.

"This may sound strange, sensei, but please don't laugh," Harry warned. Genma said nothing, but tilted his head, waiting for Harry to continue. Harry sighed, then told Genma about the nightmare he'd had. Genma listened to him explain about the night Voldemort had returned, and the basis of the nightmare that had plagued him since. When Harry came to the part where last night's dream differed, however, Genma blinked. Harry told him how Voldemort had seemed to split into two people, who had both hissed at Harry—though Harry kept the bit about parseltongue to himself.

"You said one of the people in the dream still looked like this…Vorudemouto that you know. What did the other man look like?"

"He was just as tall and just as pale, but he had long, black hair down to his waist and yellow eyes with vertical pupils," said Harry.

For the second time in two days, Genma's senbon fell from his lips. This time he managed to catch it. He held it in his hands and stared at Harry, mouth agape. Harry thought he was struggling not to ask Harry if he was sure.

"Have you ever seen anyone like that?" Genma asked instead.

"No," said Harry. "The only person who looked anything like that was Voldemort. Well, my Potions teacher had similar hair, but his isn't that long and otherwise doesn't look like that."

Genma was still staring at him.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked. "Who is he?"

"You just gave a perfect description of Orochimaru of the sannin. If you've never seen him before, then…" He ran a hand through his hair, then got to his feet. "Come with me. The Hokage should be informed of this."

A/N: I got a review asking for longer chapters, so...here you go?

Have I paid homage enough to Team 8? I don't think I have. You should go read it.

About their names: As near as I can tell, the katakana would be:
ポッター ハリー "Pottā Harī",
ウィーズリー ロナルド "U~īzurī Ronarudo", and
グレンジャー "Gurenjā Hāmaionī"
I just replaced the accented vowels with doubles as per usual. This won't come up often, since the characters are learning how to say their names correctly, but I thought it'd be fun to write out.

Also w00t, I managed to use Genma's catchphrase. A variation of it, anyway.