Chapter 6: Exchange
Ino wandered around Hogwarts, unsure of what exactly to do. She had memorized the floor plans already, though it was quite difficult for her to do so with the constantly moving stairs and the doors that were really walls in disguise or wouldn't open unless you tickled it or something.
This place was crazy!
Luckily, though, she wouldn't be staying here too long, since it seemed to be the last day of the school year. Or perhaps it was unlucky.
She didn't know where she was supposed to go.
"Malfoy! Hey, Malfoy!"
Two large and bulky goon-like boys approached her.
"Yeah?" she said to them, unsure of whether these two huge and probably intimidating boys were friends or enemies, though they did sound friendly by unfriendly standards.
"It's almost dinner. Aren't you coming?"
"Oh," she said, nodding. "Sure..."
The boys walked behind her. Ino, for a moment, was almost scared that she wouldn't remember where the Great Hall was, but she remembered that, according to the map, it was on the ground floor and was impossible to miss.
She walked into the Great Hall and glanced through the six hundred odd students warily out of instinct. Students were seated by the colors of their ties, it seemed.
She almost wished she had listened to Shikamaru's complete speech on the system of how students here functioned. Ino felt the slight stab of guilt at how unappreciative she sometimes was for Shikamaru. He and Sakura were constantly working on sorting information. They had pulled several all-nighters to translate the book that was over one thousand pages and managed to do so in fourteen days without decent rest, even though Sakura herself was often a stickler for proper health.
She seated herself at the end of the table, where she seemed to have the most room for her host's two friends. ...Jeez, if these two were all the friends he had, then this boy was just pathetic.
Ino thought through her mission. Maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as she thought it would be. Shikamaru said that he would have preferred that Ino killed Malfoy. It would be much easier for her friends if she did.
Of course, no one here seemed to be 'evil' enough for her to consider 'frame-able'.
Without anyone here to take the fall, she could always just as easily resort to her next option: to make Draco Malfoy ever forget that he had encountered Ino and her friends.
It wasn't mind-wiping exactly. She wasn't erasing his memories. She wasn't removing them. All Ino's unnamed technique did was "move" the memory to the back of his mind, where he was less likely to think about the event ever again. Sometimes, if she was efficient enough in removing all details of the memory, the person's mind would almost automatically confabulate it—creating a memory to fill in the blank.
Of course, there was always the risk that the repressed memory would resurface. Sometimes one might get struck in the head and remember the event. The 'possessee', as Ino put it, might be forced to remember it in a time of great stress and/or trauma. Or, he or she might just suddenly reach an epiphany.
Removing one's memory was just as risky as removing the problem itself—the witness.
The repression could always be reversed. A person who had his memory moved a second time was twice as likely to remember again, compared to when he had a memory moved only once. Mainly because she would then have to remove two memories: the original memory and the memory of remembering the memory. The more often she had to repress a memory, the more likely it was to resurface.But killing him outright would raise questions. There had been several risks in which Ino had been forced to kill the witness. It wouldn't be the first time if authorities had retraced the path of the victim all the way back to when the witness had first met them.
It had taken several memory translocations on different people and careful treading while they had been investigated. Times like these made Ino glad that all the shinobi trapped in this world with her were rather talented when it came to creating genjutsu. Most, anyway.
Okay, so Sakura was the only really skilled person when it came to making illusions, but that alone was enough, as well as Naruto and his kage bunshins.
In any case, for Ino to remove the memory, she had to be in Draco's body, but in a different 'mode'. First, she would have to quickly transfer her soul into another person's and just as quickly re-enter Draco's body in the form in which she could look through his mind. In other words, she would need to move quickly, flickering between bodies as quickly as possible to pull this trick off.
In her first form, she was able to control his movements and put the host's mind to 'sleep'.
In her second form, she was unable to control his motor skills, but she could look through his memories, modify them to an extent, and move them around in order from what he thought about on a daily basis to what he's rarely give a second thought to.
Of course, she was unable to do both at once. So then she'd probably have to enter the mind of one of his two friends once she was able to get one of them alone. And then, before he could react, she'd make her second entrance in her second mode.
Of course, if she didn't want to risk leaving this body and missing her next target's, she'd have to either be very careful in her second type of transfer or aim very carefully if her target was in motion.
Ino was able to travel through the air very slowly. That was how she used to travel when she was younger. However, when she was older, her father taught her how to travel almost instantaneously. All she had to do was focus a large amount of chakra in her skin (preferably in her hands) and then send her spirit out via skin contact.
The only downside of this was the large amount of chakra it took. However, since she was controlling his motor skills as well as the rest of his physical body, she was also able to access a small amount of Draco Malfoy's chakra as well. She hadn't expected a person to have so much. Civilians who were unaware of magic or chakra seemed to have a great deal less of it. This wizard had an almost equal amount of chakra as the average shinobi.
Either way, she'd have to work carefully here. After erasing the memory, she'd go back to her body, as that would be the only way out of one's mind while she was in that mode.
Gathering chakra in her hands, she casually reached out for the wrist of the large boy on her right when—
"Ahem..."
Ino turned around slightly to see an old man standing behind her. Albus Dumbledore!
She felt her cheeks turn slightly red for several different reasons. Her skills as a kunoichi seemed to be rusting much more quickly than she had feared, being unable to detect the presence of an old man with a bad hip! A guess, of course, but old men tended to have them. Plus, seeing this man, she couldn't help but remember how close they had been to becoming murdering an important figure in a secret society of potentially powerful enemies.
"Hi?"
"Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you," the supreme 'mugwump' said to her. "You may want to step into my office before you eat..."
"Um... okay," she said, getting up to follow him up a series of flights of stairs.
"Fizzing whizbee," Dumbledore said to his statue.
This must have been the very same place that Naruto had gone to kill Dumbledore, Ino mused as the gargoyle leaped to the side and the wall split into two to reveal a spiral stone staircase. She stepped on the first step but found herself put off balance when the floor moved swiftly beneath her feet like an escalator.
Ino and Dumbledore rode up on the staircase. Ino noticed the gargoyle entrance close behind them. Finally, the steps left them in front of a polished door with a brass knocker. Inside, Ino realized as Dumbledore opened his door, was a nice looking circular room. Ino noticed with some morbid amusement that there was an almost Naruto-shaped hole in the window. It wasn't a perfect shape, but it was obvious that a person had jumped through.
"Ah, I haven't had the chance to gather the pieces down below to fix it," Dumbledore said sadly, putting a hand on some sort of invisible force that covered the hole in the window. It probably kept drafts, wind, and rain out of the hole from entering his office.
The sun lit up the room. Ino could clearly see pictures of chatting portraits.
Odd.
"Have a seat," Dumbledore said, moving behind his polished desk as he waved his wand. Ino nodded and sat down in the cushiony chair that Dumbledore had provided for her.
"Something to eat, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked her.
"I thought you wanted to tell me before I had a bite to eat?" she responded.
"Well, I'll have you know that the pumpkin juice is laced with a Calming Draught," he admitted gravely. "I thought you might need it before I break the news to you... I know how you distrust potions, but I had Severus make it especially for you, so there's nothing to fear if it's poison that you wish to avoid."
Ino couldn't really see any way out of it, so she hesitantly took the goblet and sipped it.
"So what is it that you wanted to tell me, sir?" she asked him, feeling rather lightheaded.
"Lucius Malfoy has gone missing from Azkaban. And Narcissa has not been responding to any of the letters sent to her. And..." He paused, his previously gentle, twinkly blue eyes hardening slightly as their glances met. "I know who you really are."
Odd. She really should be concerned at this point.
"You are not a wizard, nor are you a Muggle. You are a trespasser in Draco Malfoy's mind. And, by the way, that was no Calming Draught. It was a delicate potion mixed especially for someone like you—a truth serum and a special sedate for the mind. Though I guess you could almost say that it's calming, in a rather twisted way. You cannot move, am I correct?"
Ino realized suddenly that she was not unconcerned. It wasn't a Calming Draught or anything. Therefore, she was not calm. She was thoroughly panicking. But she couldn't move either.
"The truth serum part of the potion should have you telling the truth for a few minutes, and you will answer the questions that I ask of you."
No. Ino was trained against that. She knew what to expect in interrogation. Prepared for the worst or not, this was a nightmare come true.
"I know how mindbenders work," Dumbledore said. "This... is how you trap a Yamanaka."
...Shit! He knew her name!
"You are Yamanaka Ino," he said simply. "Tam told me."
...And he was reading her mind too!
"I am a Legilimens. I cannot read the mind as simply as I would a book, but your guess was right in the general direction. I understand what you're feeling and your basic thoughts and emotions and some flashes of your memory."
"The sedative I gave you is one for the mind. The body is completely mobile, but the person controlling it would be paralyzed. It was a potion that I myself had created recently in an attempt to reverse the effects of an Imperius. I've had help from St. Mungo's, of course. Herbert Chorley is almost showing signs of recovery.
"The Imperius Curse is a curse that controls the mind and body of another living being. A wizard casts a spell over another person. The person will be aware of what he or she does while the spell is cast, but usually only slightly so. By taking this potion, the positions are reversed. Sort of.
"The mind of the person controlling the second will become only slightly lax, but he or she will lose control of the body. In this case, you—the controller—are actually currently sharing bodies with Draco Malfoy—the controlled. Because of this, your mind is still present in his body but your control over it is slightly diminished. However, you are rather stubborn and will not relax and return Mr. Malfoy's body back to his control.
"But it doesn't matter. I have made contact with your friends. You will be used in my negotiation. I'm sorry, my dear, but the public is in danger. From what I have seen so far, you and your friends go all out for each other. All of your powers will be useful. I hope you will not hold a grudge."
-
Eleven days after the 2nd wizard encounter and Ino's capture
July 1, 1997
Charing Crossroad
Shikamaru watched the small, shabby-looking inn on Charing Cross Road, London. It was an ugly place, sandwiched between a large bookstore and a record store. Many people passed by the building every single day without even giving it a second glance. Others would walk inside and, according to Neji, they'd walk through some sort of chakra portal.
Aside from the apparent lack of a need for an ID, it was an ordinary pub and inn, as far as Shikamaru was concerned. A bit on the shady side, perhaps, but definitely not something.
"Shikamaru..." a tired voice said into the headphones. He could hear Sakura yawning over on the other end. "How much longer?"
"Not long," he said, feeling slightly regretful. They had been camping out for a little over a week, watching Muggles and wizards alike, studying their every move. Shikamaru was determined not to make any more mistakes. Two was already too many, and that was only this month. "A little longer."
"You said that yesterday," Naruto claimed, yawning. "And the day before that. And the day before that..."
"We've all made an appearance around the Leaky Cauldron already. Not a single person gave us a second look."
"Yes they did."
"Well, not a look of suspicion anyway," Kiba said, joining in on the conversation. "Girls are always giving me a second look."
"Mainly because they're wondering who taught this dog to stand on two legs," Sai said.
"Be quiet, nobody likes you," the Inuzuka said jokingly. Or half-jokingly anyway. It was hard for a person to naturally like Sai, considering how abrasive his personality—if you could call it one—was.
"Anything to report?" Shikamaru said.
"No," Sai said.
"Nope," Naruto answered.
"There's nothing," Neji reported.
"I see a whole pack of cute girls passing by and I am doing my best to restrain myself," Kiba said.
"Oh, well if you're having a lot of trouble, then I guess I'll help out a little," Sakura said.
"Wait, wait, it was a jok—Ow!" they all heard Kiba yelp.
Shikamaru sighed.
It had been a long time since Ino had been captured. Or, they hoped she had been captured. There were worse things that could happen. It seemed their numbers were dwindling and, considering the few shinobi they had to spare, that was not a good thing.
After their arrival on Charing Cross road, Shikamaru immediately set a perimeter around the area. Neji, Naruto, and Sai were posted around various areas near the Leaky Cauldron. Sakura and Kiba were fifty meters to the west, and Shikamaru was watching the Leaky Cauldron—like Neji, Naruto, and Sai—as he watched for any possible signs of a fight or an ambush.
He had also made a few daring moves, allowing each one of them at one point or another appear in public at various times, with and without their genjutsu. Each time, no one had shown any sign of recognition to the shinobi, aside from one point in which a stranger had remarked on how Sakura's hair reminded them of some nymph or something. Said person, according to Neji, carried a wand in his pocket. Probably a wizard.
Naruto, Sai, and Neji took turns taking shifts as they watched for suspicious movements and when Shikamaru could, he joined Sakura and Kiba, who were watching as well, but with Ino's body.
He frowned, looking at Naruto's group to the right and Sakura and Kiba to the left. They were all definitely getting tired. Tired shinobi made mistakes. He himself was also exhausted. And he knew this.
He also knew that the silence between them in the radios was also making them feel... self-conscious? Awkward? Distant? No, alone.
Shikamaru silently calculated the probable costs and the amount of cash that they had left. Hopefully, the workers at the Leaky Cauldron wouldn't overcharge them like their previous landlord.
"I'm going in," the genius announced, stretching out his legs and crossing the street as he headed towards the Leaky Cauldron.
"You're going where?" Naruto said sleepily.
"The Leaky Cauldron. I'll look around inside. Reserve a room. And, ah... when I get there, I'll open a window. You guys can come in through that way."
"You're giving us a break?" Naruto asked in surprise.
"Might as well," Shikamaru answered. "Tomorrow is the meeting with Dumbledore. I'd rather us be a bit more alert than we are now."
He received a chorus of 'I'm alert's and 'I'm not tired!' and sighed, continuing forward.
"Hey, kid," a bald and toothless man said. Shikamaru knew from previous observations that this man's name was Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron. "Renting out a room?"
"I'd like a room for three for about... three days," Shikamaru said.
"That'll be twenty-two galleons and three knuts," the old man said.
He froze. Twenty-two whats?
Nuts... ?
Garrions—wait, not garrion. Gal—
Wait.
Oh.
Shikamaru remembered their client had paid them in gold. What he had called 'galleons'. So it wasn't some sort of ordinary English currency. These solid gold coins were wizard money.
Glad that he hadn't pawned off the gold, Shikamaru counted out large gold tokens he currently had in his pockets and found that he had more than enough. Tom handed him back his change. "That'll be Room Eleven. Enjoy your stay..."
"Thank you," Shikamaru said, leaving the bar and going upstairs.
Hm... he wasn't really in Japan anymore... Plus, they were in some wizarding dwelling... And this place was bad enough that they wouldn't check for ID anyways.
Shikamaru headed towards their room number, pulling out a pack of his cigarettes and inhaled deeply.
Fumbling slightly with the keys, he unlocked the door and found himself in a rather pleasant looking room, contrary to the pub down below and the very hallway he had just been walking in. Shikamaru opened the window, letting in the sunlight and several shinobi.
Kiba clutched his nose. "You start smoking the moment you get a chance to relax again?" he said in a nasally voice that he'd never use around the girls.
"Shikamaru, that's really bad for your health," Sakura chided, snatching the cigarette from his mouth and putting it out on the polished wood floor. Shikamaru just pulled another one out.
"Try not to waste it," he muttered, watching as the shinobi bickered about who stayed where.
"Sakura probably gets her own bed," Shikamaru said, interrupting them before the girl could beat them senseless for trespassing in her personal girl-space.
"Naruto, you room with Neji, since neither of you could ever manage to spend so much time with Sai without killing him. It's easier for me to deal with Sai anyway. I'll room with him."
"I want the bed," Sai said automatically.
"Of course. I don't want to share it with you," Shikamaru said without a blink.
"I know," the former member of the ANBU said. "You'd much rather sleep with Ino, am I right?"
"You are. I'd rather sleep with Kiba, in fact, rather than you."
"You would want to sleep with Kiba."
"If Kiba heard you, he'd probably pee in the bed that you'd sleep in just to spite you."
"In that case, you can have it."
"Inuzuka Kiba does not pee in beds!" they heard Kiba announce from Sakura's room as he made himself comfortable on her couch.
Sighing again, Shikamaru drew in a deep breath of smoke and waited for the next day, where he would meet Dumbledore face-to-face for the first time.
-
"Anything fer either o' ya two?" Tom asked Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape as the old man took a seat in the corner.
"Nettle wine," Severus said.
"And red currant rum," Dumbledore answered. "Two of them, please."
"Expecting someone?" Tom said, nodding, knowingly. "Sad to see that you're still running out of teachers..."
"Of course we're expecting someone," Severus said. "I wouldn't be anywhere near here sitting idly if we weren't."
"Please pardon the sharpness of Severus's tongue. He's still the Defense Against Dark Arts professor at this moment," Dumbledore said as Tom hobbled away huffily. He turned back to Snape, who was sitting next to him"You know, Severus, I do wish you would stop antagonizing strangers," he said to him.
"You just don't want them spitting in our drinks."
"I'm not worried about that. I'm on good terms with Tom. It's your drink he would spit in. Ah, there is our companion now..."
"Where?" Severus said immediately, scanning the crowd for any suspicious faces.
"There," Dumbledore said, nodding to a gangly looking wizard in Muggle clothing.
"...You aren't serious."
"I'm afraid I am," he said with mocking seriousness.
The wizard in question wore baggy dark cargo pants, a thin and loose green vest, and a gray T-shirt. He was vaguely familiar and had a lit Muggle cigarette in his mouth and pierced ears. The slight bags under his eyes were barely visible but not completely clear, and he had a ridiculously tiny Muggle contraption on his head.
Severus would have thought that Dumbledore was just pulling his leg. This person—the so-called 'assassin'—couldn't be any older than twenty!
But when the boy looked at Dumbledore and Severus, his eyes widened slightly in recognition. Not the usual 'Oh, look, it's the headmaster and the scary ex-potions professor for that world-renowned Hogwarts school'. It was the 'Oh shit, it's really them sitting here' look. Of course, this was rather strange. After all, the young man should have known that he was going to meet the headmaster. But then why...
Oh.
It was HIM.
"Calm down, Severus," Dumbledore said, the moment he realized that the professor was losing his temper.
"This was the 'man' who attacked me, Dumbledore," he said, recognizing him.
"I could have sworn that you had told me your attacker appeared to be in his mid-thirties," he replied amiably as the wizard approached their table.
"It's definitely him!"
"Now, now, calm down, I said. I told you before, I will not allow any violenc—"
A knife embedded itself deep in the table.
Dumbledore looked up to find himself staring into tired, angry eyes. Yup. This was definitely one of them.
"Where is my companion?" the person Dumbledore knew as 'Nara Shikamaru' said.
"Now, now, Mr. Nara, I was just telling my colleague that I would like to keep it peaceful in Tom's pub."
"You didn't mention you were going to bring someone," Shikamaru said.
"I'd say it would be fair foolish for someone to come to a negotiations with a possible enemy alone," Dumbledore said. "Mr. Malfoy—or I should say, Ms. Yamanaka—told me that you wouldn't come alone either."
"Well that means Yamanaka and you are both wrong," the boy said, lying almost flawlessly. "I am alone."
If it hadn't been for the fact that Dumbledore was an expert Legilimens, he probably would have believed these words. All that he required to delve into this man's mind was a brief moment of eye contact.
"I'm sure," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. Shikamaru glanced at Tom as the landlord put down three drinks, one for each of them. "Rum?"
"I can't as you well know," Shikamaru said irritably. "I am underage."
Severus looked mildly surprised, but hid this just as well.
"Ah, you caught me," Dumbledore said. "I do know. I just thought you wouldn't care. After all, you're too young to smoke as well."
"This conversation is too casual," Shikamaru said changing the topic back to what he had been obsessing over for the past several days. "Where is Ino?"
"She's not safe, if that's what you're asking," the headmaster said.
This probably wasn't the best way to get the boy to settle down.
"Where is she?"
"You're not in a position to make demands," Dumbledore said.
Shikamaru scowled. "Fine," he said, rubbing an eye tiredly. He took the Muggle contraption off his head and turned it off, placing it on the table. "I have a feeling I know, but... what are your demands then?"
"Your service," Dumbledore said, not bothering to dillydally any further. He spoke in Japanese this time. There was no need to give Severus any more information than he needed to have. "For an entire year. You and your team will guard my school."
"No can do," Shikamaru said immediately in the same language, much to Severus's annoyance.
"And why is that?"
"If you have us guard your school, you'll need something to keep us in check. We've attacked the school once and you know that we probably won't give a second thought to doing it again if paid a certain price. Well, perhaps a second thought, but we'll have no third. Anyway, the only reason I'm here, as well as the only thing you have going for you, is the fact that you have our friend. So, to keep us under your hand, you'll have to keep her wherever she is now. Even if she's currently safe in your hands, we still have her body.
"Her mind and body are separate. We have our medic preserving and taking care of her body right now, but we only have so long until our medic becomes exhausted, and then Ino's body, without proper food and water for days, will almost immediately die. And then you will no longer have a hostage. And then we'll attack you."
"Well then," Dumbledore mused, feeling rather pleased with these turn of events. He had been very fortunate to find the shinobi. The boy was just as quick as Ino had told him. "I suppose you wouldn't like to switch hostages?"
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru said quickly. He didn't like the idea of trading people. Lives weren't meant to be traded. They were much too valuable to give up at a time like this, and losing one person could seriously hamper their way of living, as well as losing the already deteriorating 'team morale' that they had.
"I wouldn't be separating anyone from their body or holding them like I would Ino," Dumbledore assured him. "But there is another way to keep you in your place, at least. And since you seem to be the leader, I believe this may be the best choice for our side yet. I am completely aware that keeping Ms. Yamanaka too long may result in her death. I have a much better way. We can switch her for a different hostage. You may have Ms. Yamanaka back. However, she'll have to be replaced with someone else..."
-
"Ugh, why can't we go with him?" Naruto complained to no one.
"Quit your complaining!" Kiba said from the living room, where he was currently staying.
Naruto rolled his eyes and found himself unsure of what to do. Sai was asleep, thank the gods. Shikamaru had said that he was going to put up with Sai, but Naruto denied this piece of relief. He was one of the few able to put up with him without trying to kill him.
Everyone was tired and irritable. Neji was asleep in his own room as well. Sakura was frequently borrowing chakra so she could 'refuel' Ino. Kiba was in Naruto's 'living room' just lying around with Akamaru, both tired.
Naruto glanced at himself in the mirror and leaned in closely to look at the whiskers on his face in curiosity as he often did. No signs of growth in his whiskers, no fading seal, and no sudden bursts of chakra (aside from the incident a week and a half ago in which he tapped into the Kyubi's chakra again to heal his body after he fell and faked Ino's death.
Things were looking rather peaceful again. All Shikamaru had to do was convince the very person he tried to kill to—
"Ooh la la, you look positively delicious," a voice said in English.
Naruto stared at the mirror, too shocked to say anything.
-
Kiba jerked out of his stupor when he heard Naruto screaming bloody murder. The Inuzuka immediately got to his feet for Naruto's room when the door opened, slamming Kiba to the side, as a blond blur came zooming past him.
"Wait a minute!" Kiba said, grabbing onto Naruto's sleeve, causing the blond to go in a circle. "What happened?"
"The mirror!" Naruto said, thoroughly freaking out. "The mirror is hitting on me!"
Kiba sighed. If Naruto was choosing now as the time to go through the "there's a summon hiding under my bed" phase now of all ages, he was going to literally chew his friend out. Of course, the blond could have just been tired, achy, and hallucinating. Heck, Kiba wouldn't be surprised if Naruto was delusional or something. They've all been dead tired lately.
"Come on," Kiba said, pulling Naruto into the room after him. "Look! The mirror. It's not—"
"Hey there, big boy..." a woman's voice said, coming from the mirror. "I see you're back. Ooh, and with friends too. Me likes."
Kiba and Naruto ran out into the hallway screaming at the tops of their lungs.
-
Shikamaru was walking up the stairs, hands in pockets, deep in thought. There was no taking back his decision. Maybe it was the right thing to do. Not the smart thing, but—how would Naruto put it? Oh, he 'followed his instincts.' Wait, that was more of an Inuzuka thing—
Well. Speak of the devil. Shikamaru was knocked down the stairs by the two people he had just been thinking about.
"Shikamaru!" Naruto cried, jumping up to his feet and helping his two friends up. "The things in the room are haunted! I think the mirror wants to molest me in my sleep or something!"
"If you're talking about the enchantments," Shikamaru said, "that's just for the lonely wizards who travel alone and have nothing to do but talk to objects meant to stay inanimate."
Naruto shuddered. "...Oh hey! You're back!"
"Am I?" he asked with a tinge of sarcasm. "Didn't notice."
Okay, not quite a tinge, but the sarcasm was definitely there. Kiba and Naruto looked at Shikamaru strangely.
"One of the people I met with was a really sarcastic bastard," Shikamaru mumbled, managing to look rather sheepish at his uncharacteristic response. "He must've rubbed off on me."
"Speaking of which, how'd that go?" Kiba asked as they headed back to their rooms.
"Fine," Shikamaru said vaguely. "It could've gone better, but it definitely could've been worse."
He held up a sack of gold.
"Hey, wasn't our gold up in your room?" Kiba asked.
"This is our gold now too. I've got us a new job."
"Awesome," Naruto said. "What do we gotta do?"
"What kind of job? A lift? A hit? Something somewhere in between?"
"Neither," Shikamaru said. "I'll explain to you once everyone's here. Go to the back of the pub. I'll meet you guys there. Bring all our things."
Naruto and Kiba nodded. As usual, this was business. They rounded up their friends, waking them up, and having them all leave their rooms quietly.
They met Shikamaru downstairs in front of a grubby bare brick wall.
"Are we going to the place behind there?" Neji asked.
"You can see it?" Shikamaru replied.
"Vaguely. I see a normal empty alleyway and some alleyway full of people. Both at the same time."
"It's got something to do with dimensions, actually. You are seeing two things at the same time," Shikamaru said, nodding. He tapped a handful of bricks and opened up a wall, leading them into a rather busy street corner with a large amount of merchants and sellers. "But before we go, you did lock our doors, right?" he asked the others, who nodded.
"And booby-trapped them too," Kiba said with a grin.
"Good. I don't want anyone messing with Ino's body or anything. I'm sure she'd be rather annoyed if we let her body get kidnapped," he said.
"So what's the job?" Sakura asked Shikamaru.
"We're going to do the opposite of what we were going to do before," Shikamaru said.
"A rescue mission? We're... rescuing a pretty young girl?" Kiba asked eagerly.
Everyone stared at him.
"No, we're guarding the school that we infiltrated before," he said as they walked past various wizards and shops. It didn't seem so crowded as before. People looked rather wary of one another and spoke in low voices.
"And what does that have to do with shopping?" Sakura asked.
"Our new job requires for some of us to maintain frequent contact with these magical beings," Shikamaru said. "There's a dangerous wizard on the loose recently. His name is Voldemort and, apparently, he has a decent amount of followers. About fifty years ago, they were known as the Knights of Walpurgis. The Knights were originally known as a group that supported a pureblood status. Now, they are known as the Death Eaters, who terrorize 'Muggle-borns'—people with magic even though their parents were not. I'm sure we could all handle ourselves well enough in a fight against wizards, but the fact remains that we're sorely outnumbered if the masses rise against us. The more we know or seem to know about magic, the better off we are."
"Oh, so we're just keeping the fact that we're nonmagical a secret so we don't make too many enemies," Sakura said, waiting for a confirmation.
"Close. You're right about the fact that we don't want to make enemies. But not about the fact that we're nonmagical. I read Hogwarts, a History a little bit more closely and found that Hogwarts is warded heavily against intruders. One of the wards is an 'Anti-Muggle' security system. The castle is bewitched so that if a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a molding old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying 'Danger: do not enter, unsafe.' Those who attempt to enter the castle regardless of the danger signs need to go through another ward. Once in the ward, they feel the sudden urge to leave. At a certain distance, they realize that they had forgotten something and need to go back home. The further into the ward, the stronger the urge to leave gets.
"Now, when we went inside the Vanishing Cabinet and into the Room of Requirement, we were far past the wards, but we felt nothing. No abnormal urge to go back to where we came from. We are, technically, wizards. Untrained wizards, perhaps, but magic-capable nevertheless. And when you think about it, wizards and shinobi both have chakra. They use it in different ways, but they still both have the same source of energy, I think."
"I think I get it," Naruto said. "So what are we doing? Right now, I mean."
"First, we'll get the correct clothing," Shikamaru said, pulling out a piece of parchment that had a list of clothing. "I've gotten our pay in advance, so money shouldn't be a big deal. Some of us are going to be needing specific clothing."
"I'm not going to complain about that," Sakura said happy for an excuse to find new clothing, "but why exactly?"
"If you haven't noticed, there's a difference between the Muggles—normal people—and the wizards. One of the main differences, aside from the obvious lack of magical skills in one, is their clothing," Shikamaru said. "Robes are almost mandatory if we're going to be trying to fit in. We'll first stop at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, since it's closest."
Madam Malkin was a squat witch with a cheerful looking demeanor, despite the dreary feeling outside.
Naruto wasn't sure he liked the idea of being measured. None of the shinobi were used to close contact with another person outside of a fight. Of course, he was even less comfortable when he realized that the measuring tape was actually moving by itself.
"Three sets of school robes for a year and two casual robes," Naruto said, forgetting about Ino.
"No, three sets of robes for casual and semi-formal wear, and three sets for teachers. Hogwarts attire," Shikamaru corrected.
"Oh, that's right... What are you again?"
"I'm not a teacher, but it's all the same anyway," he said, dismissing the question.
It didn't take long for each of them to be fitted with enough proper robes to last them the school year. Shikamaru shifted slightly to pull money out of his pocket.
"This should be enough," Shikamaru said.
"That's more than enough," Madam Malkin said.
Shikamaru shrugged and left.
"Anyone think he's acting a bit weird?" Naruto said, glancing warily at Kiba, who looked dumbfounded. Kiba was a natural miserly moneyhog who rarely spent more than he needed to, and Shikamaru had taken after the Inuzuka's habits to save money. Giving away more money than they needed to was unheard of. Either Shikamaru was really cheerful at the moment or he had gone crazy. And considering just how happy Shikamaru looked all the time, the latter seemed to be more likely.
Exchanging nervous glances, they moved on.
"We all need our supplies. Namely books. We need information on basic wizarding lifestyles, traits, characteristics, etcetera," he said, handing them each a list of items.
"What's this?"
"It's a list of the things you're going to buy. Neji, Kiba, you'll get potion supplies from the Apothecary. Naruto and Sai, you're getting these lists of stationary supplies, and I don't want you guys making a scene, got it?"
They nodded.
"Sakura, you can come with me. Let's try and finish in an hour. In front of this... I think it's some closed ice cream parlor. Anyway, we'll meet up here when we're all done. You all have more than enough money to buy whatever we need. No drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves, no stealing, no shopping splurges, no fighting—"
"We get it," everyone said quickly before Shikamaru bored them to death with orders. Without another word, they all dispersed into the crowds.
-
Naruto looked into the building at the various pieces of parchments, feeling rather bored at the moment. He fiddled with small 'lunascopes' and glanced at the people around him. Sai on the other hand seemed to be having the time of his life, looking at quills, inkbrushes, ink bottles that automatically refilled themselves, ink bottles that came in several colors, and ink bottles that held an insanely huge amount of ink, despite it's tiny bottle and appearance.
"Naruto," Sai said.
"What is it?"
"I think I hate quills."
...What?
Naruto looked up and face-vaulted when he saw Sai and several small versions of his picture beasts.
Naruto, though he had never admitted it before, had always been impressed by Sai's ink techniques. The things he drew were fabulous and extremely convenient, often helping the group out in sticky situations. He was able to draw at amazing speeds with the precise use of his chakra—which he often used to refine his marks—and he had the skills of a master artist.
His drawing with the quill, however, were spiky and utterly horrifying stick figures.
"What the heck?" Before anyone could see and question the 3D stick figures, Naruto slapped a notebook on top of them, squashing the ink drawings out of existence. He lifted the notebook slightly to find that the bottom was covered in ink.
"Why did you draw that?" he asked, turning back up to look at Sai.
"I was testing out the quill before I bought it," Sai said, shrugging as he put away the quill. Better stick with brushes. He pulled out several ink bottles. "I want these."
Naruto sighed, taking the bottles for Sai and sticking them in his bag with the many bundles of parchments, inks, and quills. "What's the difference?" he asked. "It's just a quill."
"You can't say that," Sai said blankly. "An artist must always use the best of instruments."
Naruto sighed. Maybe it wasn't just that he loathed Sai. Maybe it was the artist's picky-ness that he had hated.
"Of course, I can't expect someone as low class as you to understand an artist's logic," Sai said with a casual shrug. "You dickless wonder."
Nope, Naruto thought as he slammed the shopping bag at Sai's head. It was Sai. Definitely Sai.
Despite shopping with Sai, Naruto's day proved to be quite a productive day. After he found himself cleaning out the hottest prankstore in the alley, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
-
"Ugh," Kiba muttered, covering his nose at the sight of the Apothecary. It was located at the street corner, next to a 'Knockturn Alley'. "This place stinks." He backed away from the building warily. "Um, I'm just... Akamaru and I are just going to, uh, stay away from this place. We can smell it a mile away... We just need four cauldrons, right? All pewter? Akamaru and I'll just grab some of those. You can get all of the, ugh... ingredients. Potion stuff."
Neji didn't turn his head, but he watched Kiba and Akamaru run the hell away from the area gagging and holding in possible vomit.
Sighing, he walked into the building. There was an assortment of different types of odd items he was supposed to get. A lot of them. There were four kinds of beetle legs, newt eyes, an assortment of roots, and so on and so forth.
It took a while to find each of them, as this apothecary was poorly managed, watched by a new and inexperienced clerk whose boss was on break somewhere out in Diagon Alley.
"Hurry it up please," Neji said impatiently, glaring down at the poor man,
"Yes, sir, sorry sir," the man said, gathering the many ingredients for him. Moments later, Neji had his arms full of creepy crawly pieces of creatures and roots. It was disgusting. No wonder Kiba shied away from the task. The Inuzuka's sensitive nose could have picked this up from miles away.
Neji glanced around at the entire area around him and frowned. Some Asian kid was getting the stuffing beaten out of him by other kids. These wizards... Feeling a bit sympathetic for the boy, Neji made a turn down Knockturn Alley, bags in hand, and saw the kids brawling.
"Stop that," he said, easily knocking them off one particularly scrawny looking kid. He glared at them until they ran off. Shaking his head at 'the youth of today', he looked down at the boy and...
"You're a girl."
"You didn't notice?" the girl asked him skeptically, picking her glasses up off the ground and dusting them off before putting them back on her face. They were slightly uneven and cracked. It looked funny.
"I didn't look," he said dismissively.
"...You're a guy."
"What?"
"You sound like a guy!" the girl said, grabbing his hair.
"Get off of me," he said, putting down his bags to pull his hair free of the girl's iron clasp grip on his precious hair. "Let go, you stupid little girl."
"Too-tall he-she."
"Bratty midget."
"Weird old guy."
"I'm not old!"
"I'm not a brat! I'm thirteen!"
"Yeah? Well I'm nineteen now. You're a brat! And a midget! Thus a bratty midget." Neji was about to leave when his eyesight dimmed slightly. Standing completely still, he waited for the results. Would his eyes go completely blank on him or would they recover and go back to normal? He could practically feel the girl staring at his back. "So," he said, standing completely still. "Uh, why were they beating you up?"
"Because I kicked their friend in the groin," she said simply.
"Why would you do that?"
"They were making fun of my brother because he can't do magic. One side of our family is really old, but the other is a Muggle family. So he's technically not a squib. And he can do magic," she said. "Just not very well."
"Oh."
Awkward silence.
"Are you stuck in that position or something?"
"No."
"Oh."
Ah, and there went his eyesight.
Either that, or someone hid the sun because he couldn't see.
Curses.
Neji heard the sound of scuffling feet, a muttered voice, and a yelp.
"Kyah!" the girl said. There was a 'thump' as she fell on the ground. Attackers? Was it those Death Eaters Shikamaru had mentioned?
Turning around, Neji thrust his palm out and send an invisible wave of chakra in the general direction of the enemy. He heard a few cracks (possibly pieces of a nearby building) and a lot of yelling.
Oh.
They were just kids.
...Oops.
Looks like he got a bit too involved with this girl and her enemies.
A group of young wizards—guessing that he was 'on her side'—grabbed at his arms.
Annoyed, Neji rolled his pale eyes and proceeded to flipping them behind his head. He couldn't see, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight. Shikamaru wanted to avoid making a scene, so he'd just have to beat them quickly without magic and leave before he attracted too much attention.
Of course, just because he could fight without seeing for a short while did not mean he was great at it. Perhaps if he was able to use his impenetrable shield, he'd be able to do something about it, but the bright blue light would definitely draw more people over.
Someone grabbed his hair. Now, quite a bit more than annoyed, he sent this person into the wall in a lightning fast blow to the chest. Being unable to see, he'd have to rely on the fact that almost everyone here was fighting with their fists. Of course, this also meant that half the time he'd have to let someone hit him, and Neji didn't really like that.
Nevertheless, Neji fought carefully against that girl's enemies. He suddenly smelled a sweet lilac scent. His unseeing eyes widened and...
...he stumbled over some inanimate object on the ground.
Ah crapness.
Neji was about to get rid back up to avoid getting kicked in the face or something, but his instincts accurately protested against this when he ducked again as some sort of flying metal projectile flew over his head and hit someone square in the stomach.
"HAH!" he heard someone shout. Possibly his age. A young woman too. "Got it! You guys, I've got a wand and I'm old enough to use it, so go away before I hex you into oblivion!"
This person even sounded like her. Neji felt some sort of energy flying past him and heard the others shout and run away.
"Are you okay...?" the new arrival asked him.
"Tenten?" he said almost hopefully.
"Excuse me?"
"Sorry," he mumbled, getting up to his feet. As annoying as the earlier fight had been, there was no sign that he had even been involved in it. He was rather glad that shinobi seemed to be a bit more physically resilient than the wizards. "I mistook you for someone else."
"Oh," the girl said. "Well, so you don't mistake me for someone else, I'm Cho Chang. This is my cousin, Surae Li. You helped her out, right? Our school of magic is Hogwarts. Actually, I didn't graduate, but I don't think my parents want me doing anything strenuous for a long while. I don't remember too many spells anyway."
She talked too much.
"Oh. Well, I'm Hyuga Neji. Self-taught."
"Wow," Cho said, her voice full of awe. "You must be some sort of genius then."
"I have been as a prodigy on several occasions," he said, remembering with a faint feeling of pride the amazement and respect everyone had for him back in academy school years ago. Neji breathed in again. So she was the lilac smell that had distracted him in the first place.
"Hey, are you okay?" she asked. "The veins in your head are just going crazy."
"I'm fine," Neji said abruptly, rudeness etched into every syllable of his words. "But..." He paused. There was no need to get upset. Though he was getting just annoyed at the girl's mere presence. "But get the hell away from me."
"...Excuse me?" Cho said with disbelief, probably surprised by the sudden change in moods.
"I don't want you anywhere near me," he said. She seemed to stand there, astonished by his rude manners. He glared in her general direction. "Go. Away."
"Oh, well that's gratitude for you," she scoffed indignantly "Let's go, Su..."
"But my cauldron..." the younger cousin said.
"I dented it on the other guy anyway. I'll buy you a new one," she said huffily. Neji didn't turn his head to watch the two girls leave. He couldn't see anyway. And he didn't want to.
He wasn't sure how long he stood there until he heard a familiar Inuzuka's voice.
"Neji?" Kiba said, looking puzzled. "What are you doing here, meeting a girl?"
"Actually, I did," Neji said. "Two of them."
Kiba smirked. "Come on... you're looking a bit crazy. Anyway, it's time for us to go and find the others."
"Right," Neji said, feeling around slightly on the ground to pick up any fallen objects. Kiba, finally realizing that the Hyuuga was currently unable to see again, silently picked up several himself and helped Neji take the bags as they left.
Neji didn't mind that he had to depend on the dog and Akamaru to lead him around. He'd rather not see now anyway.
'Cho Chang' had sounded and even smelled like Tenten did. He felt rather pathetic, actually, that he was still upset by Tenten's 'disappearance'. He had not even seen the girl's face. He couldn't see what she looked like. Maybe she looked like Tenten as well. Or maybe she looked nothing like her.
Neji didn't want to know what this girl looked like. He didn't like the idea of there being a girl out in this world who was exactly like Tenten. But he didn't like the idea that Tenten was completely gone forever either.
-
My Thinking Corner
No offense, but I hope that last part was a big enough hint for some of you guys. Hinata is not in this story people. ...Well, I guess technically, Tenten isn't really here now either... But for everyone who doesn't get it, it's Tenten. Sorry! I guess I should have emphasized it a bit more instead of putting 'she' all the time. (shrugs sheepishly)
Gah! Finished my thinking corner and responses just in time. I'm about to go out to dinner. Ciao, people!
