Disclaimer: Hm, you get it.

Warning: Aha! A warning, and this is important so I'm gonna go ahead and say

IMPORTANT: I have decided, THIS WILL NOT BE SASU/NARU. SO THAT MEANS NO SLASH, sorry. Please still read!

Thanks: Loony, dear, you are… Ravenclaw and Slytherin – the best one I know ^_^

Old Wizards, Young Assassins and that Annoying Building of the Plot

"So, if you don't mind me asking," Dumbledore said, smiling in a grandfatherly way, "How old are you two?"

The two wizarding boys were surprised at the casual question; Harry stared at their headmaster in astonishment and Ron's jaw dropped open. Their thoughts were in unison, 'Why in Merlin's name would he start there?'

On the rush down the couple of flights of stairs, Hermione had managed to calm herself down enough from her panicked and guilt-stricken state to inform Dumbledore and Mad-eye Moody (both of whom had been talking in the dingy kitchen) of the situation a couple of floors above them.

She'd explained – a little hastily – how they'd attempted to help the Order against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and how they'd ended up with the two 'shinobi' named Naruto and Sasuke due to some sort of strange accident.

To Hermione's surprise, Professor Dumbledore had taken it quite well and, following his respected friend's lead, Moody had also been surprisingly accepting. Well, in a grumbling-about-security-and-young-wizards-these-days sort of way. The old headmaster had simply asked her what she knew about the strangers and to guide him to the room.

Which was how they'd come to be standing in the, now crowded, room with the strangers.

The question of the foreigners' age was a good one. Hermione had to admit, she was curious and, seeing as Dumbledore already knew their names and the situation – if not the reason – of how they got there, asking how old they were was the next logical query.

The thoughts whirling through the bushy-haired witch's head almost drowned out the quiet answer from the dark-haired stranger – Sasuke – who was still standing by the blonde within the entrapping circle.

The man had bowed shallowly – in respect, she supposed – and kept his facial expression neutral, though Hermione thought she saw slight curiosity and disgust as he eyed the Headmaster's robes.

"I have lived 222 moons," he said in his dark voice. It was funny how different he was to his companion, even just by their voices. The blonde – Naruto – his voice was gravelly and warm, caressing the listener; Sasuke's voice was reserved, and it made Hermione dread hearing it raised in anger.

Naruto laughed lightly at his answer, "Most people measure in years, bastard," he said to him before turning toward Dumbledore (without a bow, the astute girl noticed, and she wondered if he somehow out-ranked the other stranger), "Seventeen, we're seventeen years old. And, if you don't mind me asking – how old are you, Grandpa?"

His last question was more than a little incredulous, as though he'd never imagined anyone could possibly be as old as the man in front of him. Hermione thought he was over-reacting. Sure, Dumbledore was old but there were plenty of muggles she'd seen who looked much older.

But that wasn't really what had caught the bright young witch's attention. No, it was their answer that had. They were seventeen. Seventeen. It was difficult to process, to fit their hardened eyes, obvious battle-readiness and maturity with that age. Hell, they were the same age as the twins!

"Quite old, my dear boy," the Headmaster answered, interrupting to Hermione's inner turmoil, "Well," he began, before his expression quickly changed to one of sheepishness – at least, as sheepish as the old man could look, "Oh! I do believe I haven't introduced myself. My name is Professor Albus Dumbledore, and I am Headmaster at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. I take responsibility for the three who summoned you – with their permission of course."

The old wizard turned back to look questioningly at Ron, Hermione and Harry. The three teenagers nodded back, stunned but grateful that Dumbledore had taken charge. Hermione had the feeling that just maybe everything was going to be alright.

Sasuke nodded in return to Dumbledore, dark eyes rising to meet the Professor's stare directly – no mean feat, most of the magic-folk in the room noted.

"Very well," the exotic seventeen-year-old said calmly, stepping slightly in front of his companion and making their chain jingle lightly, "We will answer to you. Whatever the details of this contract, I assume that once we complete whatever task it was that caused you to summon us, you will send us back. We are skilled in combat, intelligence gathering and assassination. It is imperative we return to the Fire Country as soon as possible so I ask for the details of the mission now."

His tone brooked no room for argument, but it seemed as though Dumbledore's eyes lit up at his listing of their skills. Hermione barely restrained a gasp – assassination? They were barely two years older than her and the boys!

"I'm afraid the – ah – mission that we need you for is time consuming," the old headmaster said in answer and the bushy haired witch noticed that he did not mention to the strangers that there was no 'contract', nor the fact that they did not know how to send them back to their 'fire country'.

"An evil man and his followers are a danger at the moment and if you are skilled in combat, it may be advantageous for our side to have you in position at my school. In any case, considering your age, you will be attending Hogwarts whilst we begin the – uh – necessary arrangements to send you back, once we allow you to go, of course."

Hermione wasn't sure if Dumbledore hadn't noticed the deep scowl which suddenly overtook the cheerful blonde's face when 'time consuming' had been mentioned, or if the old man had, and had simply ignored it. The young witch didn't know if she was quite comfortable with the situation as he'd stated it, but she supposed it was for the best.

Sasuke nodded slowly, an outward sign of accord, but his voice was quiet and deadly, "Mr Dumbledore, though we are obligated, I think you should know that Naruto and I are not happy with these conditions."

This time they all clearly saw his demonic red eyes as his narrowed gaze swept around the room, leaving shivers in its wake.

Naruto's scowl deepened. Sasuke's Sharingan was activated again and the blonde could tell that his friend was worried, and for good reason.

The old man had said, basically, that the mission they were required for had an indefinite timeline. Who knew how long it may take them to be released and get back to the village? Disappearing without a trace when one was supposed to be training was not looked upon lightly in the shinobi world. But disappearing without a trace when one was supposed to be training and said one was a Jinchuriki (demon container) who was guarding a high-class ex-missing ninja, well… He wondered sadly if it would be worth going home at all.

It had only been perhaps an hour since they'd arrived, but the blonde knew that when they didn't report to Tsunade's office for their daily check in, a couple of Chuunin would be sent looking for them. And when that effort turned up nothing, Jounin with the intention of search and recover would be sent out. Finally, though Naruto knew the Hokage would postpone it as long as possible, they'd be marked as missing nin and found in the ANBU's bingo books under 'Kill on Sight'.

After all, all the evidence would point to them choosing to leave. For a start, there was no sign of a struggle, which they would've made enough of when they were alone. So, with them being chained together, who could possibly force Sasuke Uchiha, the last Sharingan user and master of the Chidori, and Naruto Uzumaki, container of the nine-tailed demon fox and wielder of the Rasengan, to go anywhere they didn't want to? Let alone quietly.

Plus, it wasn't like any of their personal enemies were still alive. With the Akatsuki and Orochimaru dead, there weren't any prime suspects for their disappearance.

'So, it could be safer to never return,' Naruto thought, 'after all, there may well be an entire village looking to get rid of us once and for all.'

But the idea of never returning to the Fire Country made something clench painfully around his heart. No, they had to get back home! Sasuke had only just come back, why did this all have to happen now?

At the whiny thought, an onslaught of guilt washed over him as he thought, for the first time since arriving in this weird place, about their friends back in Konoha. Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Sakura and everyone else would be so worried. Naruto cringed. He hoped they didn't believe that he and Sasuke would just up and leave.

The blonde could feel his shoulders slumping and forced himself back into his usual state of physical awareness as he berated himself for getting lost in his thoughts. He turned his attention back to listening in on Sasuke's (the Sharingan had once again been repressed, though Naruto didn't know when that'd happened) conversation with the old – really, really old – man.

It seemed he hadn't missed much; after the short silence as Naruto's best friend's message sank in, the old man had been mostly chatting – almost seeming sincere – about them all becoming good friends and about various traditions and customs in what he referred to as 'The Wizarding World'.

"Mr Dumbledore," Sasuke interrupted him in the middle of a long and incessantly cheerful – 'He's almost as energetic as I am normally,' Naruto thought dryly – spiel about something called Kuwid-itch, "As much as we need to learn about your culture, do you not believe it would be better done outside this barrier?" The pale shinobi raised a delicate eyebrow and the strange old man looked surprised.

It had not gone unnoticed to Naruto that they had yet to move out of the small – approximately one metre across – circle they'd been standing in since they'd arrived. He had assumed there was something preventing them and Sasuke had just proven it. The Uchiha must've seen the obstruction with his family's eyes.

Dumbledore quickly covered his shock to answer the shinobi's question.

"I was unaware you had experience with protection runes," he addressed Sasuke, his hand flicking toward the weird scratchy marks around them on the floor.

"We don't," was the flat reply. Naruto knew his friend was getting annoyed and tugged sharply on the chain connecting them as a warning for Sasuke to keep his cool.

The answer made the old wizard – as they apparently called males of their kind – look at them both with an unreadable look in his eyes.

"Well," Dumbledore said eventually, "To let you out of that barrier, as you put it, we need to settle the details of the contract."

He moved towards them and held out both his hands, gesturing them to take one each. Seeing no other options, they each raised their chained hand – Naruto's right and Sasuke's left – to the wizard's.

"Alastor, if you'd please," the old man said over his shoulder and with a start, Naruto remembered there were other people in the room.

The three teenagers were still huddled against the wall and the dark haired man – Sirius, Naruto remembered with a little bit of ridiculous glee – was near them.

The man who approached them however – this Alastor apparently – was yet another new face. Although, the word 'face' was a nice way to describe the mangled features. His scarred face, grisly hair, false eye and the chunk missing out of his nose made the blonde think nostalgically of Ibiki the torture expert who had been their first Chuunin examiner.

Alastor limped over and raised a strange stick which he tapped on each of the joined hands before nodding towards Dumbledore. The old man spoke again.

"Will you, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke, promise to fulfil the mission as defined by myself, Albus Dumbledore, in total cooperation?"

"We will," the two friends said in unison, feeling as though it was the right thing to say.

Two thin tongues of brilliant flame issued from Alastor's strange stick, which he was holding slightly above their arms, and wound their ways around their hands like red-hot wires, surprising Sasuke and Naruto. It didn't burn but the shinobi barely kept themselves from wrenching their hands away.

"And will you, to the best of your ability, protect anyone under my care from harm – including that which you may perpetrate or wish to perpetrate yourselves?"

It took them a beat, but again they answered, "We will."

A second two tongues of flame shot from the stick and interlinked with the first two, making a fine, glowing chain around each of the men's hands. Directly after them came a third set of flames, these one with a red glow which twisted around the others and bound themselves thickly in each of their clasped hand, writhing like a snake before they calmed and all the light was gone.

Dumbledore nodded, pleased, and withdrew another of the strange sticks, flicking it at the floor evidently to dispel whatever barrier had been keeping them in one spot.

The old man looked at Naruto and Sasuke and smiled.

"Welcome to the Wizarding World, boys. Now, I think it's about time we see Molly for dinner."

Sasuke had an uneasy feeling about the whole situation as they followed the small crowd of people down the stairs – presumably towards this 'Molly' – but he couldn't think of much they could do.

Besides, he was glad they were about to eat. Someone had to feed Naruto soon or the 'let's drive Sasuke crazy (crazier) game' would begin.

A/N:

~BETA-APPROVED(TM)~ Yup :P Sorry to all the SasuNaru fans, but when I began this fic, I didn't have that pairing in mind and, although I considered it, I decided in the end to go with the way my writing is ... well... going. Che, eloquent I know -_-' but, hey. Hope you guys keep on reading.

Also, sorry about the total lack of action but I need to establish some things so a 'plot building' chapter it is.

This is Fifth Year, for the Trio. Now, I know I've already messed up the timeline... but lets just say that er... that dude blew Mungdungus off about the cauldrons. Yeah, that was it... Ah, don't listen to me. I'm rambling. -sigh-

{Insert thanks + attention-whore style begging}

~Trix