Disclaimer: Same

Author's Note: Not very happy with this chapter, but here it is anyway! XD The fighting scene was too short for my taste. I'll try and do a longer one the next time there's a fight. As usual, suggestions are welcome, and reviews and greatly appreciated. I love all my reviewers!! X3 Here's Chapter 9, enjoy!


Chapter 9 – Some Moments and the Attack

After Divination, it was time for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Umbridge was waiting in the classroom, brooding over Gaara's enigmatic responses. She immediately pasted on her sickly sweet smile and welcomed her class in. The red haired shinobi was the last to enter. He shut the door behind him and stood guard beside it.

As the lesson progresses, Gaara noticed that the situation between Harry and Umbridge was turning sour. Harry's indignant posture said it all.

"Oh, you do, do you?" said Professor Umbridge, straightening up from Hermione's desk. "Well, I'm afraid it is Mr Slinkhard's opinion, and not yours, that matters within this classroom, Miss Granger."

"But – " Hermione began.

"That is enough," said Professor Umbridge. She walked back to the front of the class and stood before them, all the jauntiness she had shown at the beginning of the lesson gone. "Miss Granger, I am going to take five points from Gryffindor house."

There was an outbreak of muttering at this.

"What for?" said Harry angrily.

There was a hiss of sand, and Harry heard Gaara's voice whispering to him

"Do not get involved."

Harry glanced around, but no one noticed. Gaara was still standing guard beside the door as though nothing had happened.

"For disrupting my class with pointless interruptions," said Professor Umbridge smoothly. "I am here to teach you using a Ministry-approved method that does not include inviting students to give their opinions on matters about which they understand very little. Your previous teachers in this subject may have allowed you more licence, but as none of them – with the possible exception of Professor Quirrell, who did at least appear to have restricted himself to age-appropriate subjects – would have passed a Ministry inspection – "

"Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher, said Harry loudly, "there was just that minor drawback on him having Lor – "

"Harry, silence." Gaara's voice hissed to him again through his sands. "Do you wish to have your hand cut open again and to have the students ridicule you regardless of the truth?"

Harry snapped his mouth shut immediately, his face red.

There was a silence. Umbridge grinned widely, showing her pointed teeth.

"Yes, Potter?"

"Nothing." Harry muttered, calming himself. "I'm….sorry."

The grin on Umbridge's face grew impossibly wide.

"You should be. Disrupting the lesson. But since you apologized, we shall continue."


After the lesson, Gaara escorted the trio out of the classroom. Harry was glaring at the ground.

"Have you calmed yourself yet?" Gaara asked the sullen teen.

"Yeah…" Harry took a deep breath before saying. "Thanks Gaara. If you hadn't stopped me I might've gotten another week of detention, then Angelina would've gotten onto my case."

"What? Gaara stopped you?" Ron turned a startled gaze on Harry. "How?"

"All we saw is you talking back to Umbridge and then you stopped suddenly." Hermione said.

Harry looked at the stoic guard.

"I used my sand." Gaara explained simply. "I communicated him through it."

Seeing his hard expression, Harry, Ron and Hermione let the matter drop, knowing they wouldn't be able to get anything out of him about how he did it.

The week past by in a blur without any interesting things happening, until their Transfiguration class that is. Naruto was accompanying them that day. After Charms, he had followed the trio to Professor McGonagall's class while bickering with Ron. The minute they stepped foot into the classroom, they saw Professor Umbridge sitting in a corner with her clipboard.

"Excellent," whispered Ron, as they sat down in their usual seats, "Let's see Umbridge get what she deserves."

Naruto was snickering in anticipation as he stood beside the door, having known McGonagall's strict personality, and he hated the frog woman anyway.

Professor McGonagall marched into the room without giving the slightest indication that she knew Professor Umbridge was there.

"That will do," she said and silence fell immediately. "Mr Finnigan, kindly come here and hand back the homework – Miss Brown, please take this box of mice – don't be silly, girl, they won't hurt you – and hand one to each student – Mr Uzumaki, please be silent over there – "

"Hem, hem," said Professor Umbridge, employing the same silly little cough she had used to interrupt Dumbledore on the first night of term. Professor McGonagall ignored her. Naruto had stopped his snickering at McGonagall's request, but had this insanely huge grin on his face.

"Right then, everyone, listen closely – Dean Thomas, if you do that to the mouse again I shall put you in detention – most of you have now successfully Vanished your snails and even those who were left with a certain amount of shell have got the gist of the spell. Today, we shall be – "

"Hem, hem," said Professor Umbridge.

"Yes?" said Professor McGonagall, turning round; her eyebrows so close together they seemed to form one long, sever line.

"I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspec– "

"Obviously I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my classroom," said Professor McGonagall, turning her back firmly on Professor Umbridge. Many of the students exchanged looks of glee. Naruto stuffed his fist inside his mouth to keep himself from laughing in the shadows. "As I was saying: today, we shall be practising the altogether more difficult Vanishment of mice. Now, the Vanishing Spell – "

"Hem, hem."

"I wonder," said Professor McGonagall in cold fury, turning on Professor Umbridge, "how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking."

Professor Umbridge looked as though she had just been slapped in the face. She did not speak, but straightened the parchment on her clipboard and began scribbling furiously.

Looking supremely unconcerned, Professor McGonagall addressed the class once more.

"As I was saying: the Vanishing Spell becomes more difficult…"


Naruto was laughing his head off when they walked out of Transfiguration. They were now on their way to Care of Magical Creatures class. Naruto finally calmed down enough so that he could walk properly.

"It's so good to see that gama being put in her place by Professor McGonagall." Naruto said with a satisfied sigh.

"Gama?" Ron asked.

"Toad." Naruto replied, grinning foxily. He spotted a familiar figure standing with Professor Grubbly-Plank. His grin slid off his face like sap.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

Naruto was pouting, that much was obvious.

"The toad is here again. Didn't you tell me that you usually have this Hagrid person for this class? Maybe she wanted to find out where he's been." Naruto said. He perked up when he saw who's at the field with the Professors. "Sakura-chan!"

He raced off, leaving the trio to walk at their leisure as he jumped with his usual hyper-ness towards the pink haired medic. Sakura scowled.

"Naruto, you're suppose to be with Harry!" Sakura admonished Naruto in their language, not wanting Umbridge to hear what they're saying. Drinking the language potion does not mean they couldn't communicate in their former language, as the shinobis had found out they day after they drank the potion.

"Ma, they're just behind me, see?" Naruto pouted. "And now they're here! See? Nothing happened."

"But something could happen you idiot." Sakura glared.

"Hem, hem."

The shinobis twitched as they recognized the annoying and trademark cough. They turned to face Umbridge.

"Yes?" Sakura asked.

"Please speak in English." Professor Umbridge stated pompously.

"Why?" Naruto narrowed his blue eyes.

"So everyone can understand. Speaking in another language is rude." Umbridge smiled. "It excludes people, and makes you seem unsociable."

"Oh, in that case," Naruto turned back to Sakura, his grin in place again. "We are unsociable, aren't we?"

Sakura smirked back.

"Yeah, who wouldn't want to be when you're talking with the toad?"

The two laughed. Umbridge bristled. The class was discreetly looking at the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and the two guards, paying half an ear to what Professor Grubbly-Plank was saying.

"Hem, hem."

The Konoha shinobis ignored her, and chose to amble to their right where the class was taking place, chatting in a language Umbridge didn't understand and brushed past her.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, the toad looks like it's gonna blow." Naruto said, snickering.

Sakura nodded solemnly.

"Yeah, poor thing." She giggled.

Naruto suddenly thought of something as they watched the class studying the Bowtruckles.

"Oh, yeah, did you get any action last night?" Naruto nudged her while grinning lecherously.

"Get what action?" Sakura frowned. "Was there another break-in?"

"No, no." Naruto sniggered. "You and Neji were on the first watch until eleven weren't you?"

"Yeah…" Sakura looked at Naruto in confusion, not getting his meaning.

"Then after, did you get any action?" Naruto was still grinning. "I thought I heard a thump and some sounds coming from your room when it's my turn for night watch."

"Get any ­­– NARUTO!" Sakura whacked the back of his head so hard that his face slammed into the soft ground from the impact, blushing furiously. "Don't be such a pervert! Neji's back was tense so I gave him a massage!"

"What kind?" Naruto asked, lecherous grin still in place, his face raised from the ground. His only answer was a foot coming down on his head, planting his face back into the dirt.


Naruto walked with Harry to Umbridge's office. During Care of Magical Creatures' lesson, somehow, Harry had landed himself in another detention (Naruto didn't know when, he was too preoccupied with spitting dirt and grass out of his mouth).

"Ahhh, Harry-kun, why did you get another detention?"

"It's nothing." Harry replied glumly, not looking forward to another night of splitting his hand open.

"I'll do it with you if you like, Neji did it." Naruto said.

Harry shook his head furiously.

"No! Don't get involved because of me! You don't have to!"

Naruto was now nodding to himself.

"Yup, I'll do it with you. Hah! I bet Neji came with you just so he could be mothered by Sakura by the end of the day."

"But I thought Sakura was always hitting him for it?" Harry said.

"Nah, that's just on the surface. Later, Sakura would pamper him a little." Naruto laughed. "Ha, ha! Neji looked so content when Sakura was fluttering over him. I've never seen his face like that."

Harry grinned as he imagined the stoic but polite Hyuuga, sitting in a squishy armchair with fluffy pillows placed around him, and Sakura mothering him, getting what he wanted. Then he realized the conversation was getting off-track.

"Still, you can't do the detention with me." Harry said.

"No, I'll do it with you. It will be a part of my training!" Naruto suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" Harry started.

"I'll bear the pain the silence! Training my resilience to such things!" Naruto stopped, then paled. "Oh god, I sounded like Lee."

"Lee?"

"A guy you'll be lucky not to have met."

Naruto pushed open the door to Professor Umbridge's office. Harry didn't even notice that they've arrived.

"Anyway, c'mon, I won't leave a friend to suffer alone."

It was nearly midnight when Harry and Naruto left Umbridge's office that night. Harry's hand was bleeding so severely that it was staining the scarf he had wrapped around it. Naruto was looking furious and ranted on about the 'crazy, sadistic, toady old hag' while clamping a hand around Harry's scarf encased hand, staunching the flow of blood. Harry glanced at Naruto's hand, and just like any other time he saw it, there's no trace of it having being cut open. Umbridge hadn't noticed anything, having had no inclination in looking at Naruto's hand, but was positively quivering with glee when she saw the state of Harry's hand.

"Naruto?"

The blonde paused in his ranting and turned his concerned blue eyes towards the teen that was only a year younger than him.

"Yeah? Is your hand still hurting? In just a few minutes we'll get to Sakura."

"Uh…I'm alright…but…how come you're alright? I mean, not that that's a bad thing, it's great, but," Harry faltered. "Your hand seemed to be healed…"

Naruto glanced down and gave a sigh.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I…uh…heal very fast. It's just one of my tricks I guess." Naruto grinned falsely. Harry decided to drop the subject, seeing the look that flashed across the taller youth's face.

"Ah, we're here." Naruto said. The knight in the painting was cleaning his sword. At the sight of the two, he straightened.

"Password?"

"Lemon drops." Naruto said. "By the way, what's your name?"

The knight huffed.

"Only now you asked? I am Sir Lancelot!" The portrait then swung open.

"Thanks Landslot!" Naruto said loudly and cheerily as he ushered Harry in ahead of them.

"It is Lancelot, peasant! Lancelot!" The portrait yelled after them in indignation as the opening closed.

Harry looked around the room. Kakashi and Neji was nowhere in sight, no doubt patrolling the grounds. Sai was in a game of chess with Gaara in front of the fireplace while Sakura was engrossed in a thick volume next to them. Her head snapped up as Naruto and Harry entered. Her eyes found the bloodstained scarf around Harry's hand. She flew out of the armchair.

"Oh my god, Harry! That toad woman did this to you?" She asked in concern as she appeared in front of him in a flash, and was now gingerly unwounding the scarf from his hand. The cut on his hand had stopped flowing, but it still hurts. Green light surrounded Sakura's hand as she healed the cut, muttering curses at Umbridge that would make a sailor blush as she did so.

"We've told Professor McGonagall about this but…"

"What? You've told her?" Harry asked in alarm.

Sakura nodded.

"We have. We've told her the week of your first detention with Umbridge. She was furious. She wasn't able to do anything about it though. Kakashi-sensei had to calm her down enough so she wouldn't charge into the toad woman's office and shriek at her." Sakura finished the healing. "There, all done."

Harry looked at his hand and mumbled his thanks.

"Let's get you back to the Gryffindor Tower." Naruto said as he jumped towards the portrait hole. Harry followed.


It was the first weekend of October. Naruto was strolling around on the grounds in boredom with Gaara. In two weeks, their's been no activity, and the shinobis days are a routine now. Eat breakfast in the common room, guard the school and follow Harry, eat lunch in Great Hall, guarding again, eat dinner, night watch, and then sleep, only to start all over again the next day. Today half the school was empty, being the Hogsmeade weekend. Naruto pouted. He wanted to go. He'd heard so much stuff about the village that he was just itching to go into Zonko's Wizarding Jokeshop. Kakashi had assigned Gaara and Naruto to stay back to guard the remaining wizards in the castle. Gaara doesn't care, but Naruto had whined about it to Kakashi for several minutes. The jounin didn't relent, and left with the rest of the shinobis and the students to Hogsmeade.

The two friends were now walking back from the lake. Naruto was still pouting, kicking a stray pebble ahead of him at each step. Gaara rolled his eyes discreetly at the childish display. This was a Kyuubi container, and one of the most powerful shinobis in Konoha?

"Hey, Gaara."

"Hn."

"What do you think of Harry teaching DADA?"

Sakura was accompanying the golden trio to the library last week, and heard their plan about letting Harry teach the subject separately. In Hogsmeade, in a bar called Hog's Head is where Harry and his friends would be right now.

"Dangerous. But I approve." Gaara said.

"Dangerous? Why?"

"Professor Umbridge would be displeased."

Whatever Naruto was going to say next was cut off by a scream.


Neji sighed beside the trio in Hog's Head as a large group of people came in. He had warned Hermione that a quiet place would more likely be overheard than in a crowded place, such as The Three Broomstick. She didn't listen. For a smart girl, she's dense and stubborn and insisted that the Hog's Head was better. Besides, Hermione had said. Even if someone did overhear, who're they going to tell it to? The Three Broomstick was crowded with students and teachers, even. This place will be safer. Neji rolled his pale eyes. Overconfidence was unbecoming of that girl. But she's so used to succeeding in grades and spells, that she was loosing focus of what should be obvious. The two boys didn't help either. They had been unsure about going into the nearly deserted bar when Neji had raised his point, but when Hermione retaliated, they had gone along.

'Civilians,' Neji thought in disgust. 'They're all the same the world over.'

Meanwhile, Harry was aghast at the amount of people that had shown up. First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho and one of her usually-giggling girlfriends, then Luna Lovegood, then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff girl with a long plait down her back whose name Harry did not know; three Ravenclaw boys he was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Boot, Ginny, closely followed by a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom Harry recognised, vaguely as being a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and, bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan.

Neji's eyes were wide. How foolish can these children be? He thought crossly, conveniently forgetting that he was only two years older than them. If this large amount of people had arrived in The Three Broomsticks, sure people would be suspicious, but it's normally a crowded place, so people would less likely to spare another thought about it. At Hog's Head, however, it virtually had no customer! If the few people that were in the bar had talked about the odd occurrence of dozens of people arriving at the same time, Umbridge might easily had gotten wind of this. Not that the shinobi thought she could do anything about it, but they had a bad feeling, and wanted to keep this meeting as quiet as possible. Obviously, that's not going happen. He saw Harry turned to hiss at Hermione.

"A couple of people? A couple of people?"

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily. "Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?" She saw the irritated glare that was sent her way from Neji.

"Oh, relax would you? Nothing's going to happen."

"I beg to differ." Neji said in a barely controlled tone, his irritation apparent. "I only relented in you having this meeting here because you said it was only 'a couple of people'. As Harry had obviously seen, your mathematics and possibly your language needs work." Neji turned to her fully, his formally crossed arms now beside him.

"How do you expect this large amount of people in a almost empty bar at once would go unnoticed?"

Hermione's eyebrows snapped down. She opened her mouth about to retort when Harry cut in, also irritated and on the verge of being furious.

"What have you been telling people?" he said in a low voice. "What are they expecting?"

"I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say," said Hermione soothingly, her argument with Neji temporarily forgotten. "You don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first."

"Hi, Harry," said Neville, beaming and taking a seat opposite of the bespectacled youth. Neji watched the proceedings with his Byakugan activated. He noticed some people had edged away from him (and his eyes) as time passed, but shrugged it off. He rolled his eyes at the reaction the majority of the people in front of him gave when Hermione mentioned Lord Voldemort's name. Weak. Neji decided. Very weak, to get terrified by name alone, no matter how powerful the enemy is, there is no reason to freak when hearing the name.

There's a sudden transmission from his headphone.

"We've got trouble." Gaara's grave monotone voice said.


The scream came from the direction of the lake, where Naruto and Gaara had just patrolled before. They raced back. As they rounded a corner and into the view of the lake, they saw what was going on. A Gryffindor second year girl was clawing at the bank, a hand grasped firmly by her two friends. Water tendrils gripped her legs, dragging her down towards the water. Naruto dashed forward to help. He had managed to pull the girl free in one burst of strength, and the water tendrils retreated.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto exclaimed. The lake water rippled, a bulge appeared in the middle of the lake, and was growing bigger.

"Naruto." Gaara said. He concentrated in gathering the sand from the ground. It's not the desert, so there won't be as much sand in his command, but there is more than enough to get by. Naruto nodded.

"Kage Bushin no Justu!" Dozens of Naruto clones appeared in a cloud of smoke. One of the clones hurried the shocked girls up onto their feet and herded them to the castle. The rest of the clones dispersed, finding other students to take them back into safety.

The bulge is forming a shape now. A water dragon was now staring at the two shinobis. Rustling came from the trees on the other side of the lake. A number of shinobis emerged, weapons at the ready. Naruto tensed. He heard Gaara speaking through the headphones.

"We've got trouble." Gaara said. Naruto took this opportunity to better acquaint himself with the enemy.

"Oi, bastards! What the hell do you want?"

The enemy did not reply vocally, and chose to attack instead.


Neji's suddenly tensed stance alerted the group of wizards.

"Is something wrong?" Fred asked.

Neji shook his head, not answering the question, but he was now talking very fast into his communicator in his own language.

"Kakashi-san, what shall we do?"

"Neji, you stay with Harry and be on the lookout for anymore trouble with your eyes. Sai?"

"Hai?"

"You keep patrolling Hogsmeade, I doubt the intruders will come here, but just in case. Let no one, including the teachers, leave the village and back to the castle. Use your ink to cover more grounds. Sakura?"

"Here."

"We're going back to the castle to assist Naruto and Gaara. I'll contact Neji and Sai when it's safe to go back to Hogwarts. All clear?"

"Hai."

"Good, let's go Sakura."

Neji looked at the group who was staring at him nervously.

"What's happening?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." Neji smiled reassuringly. "Just receiving some news, that's all."

"What kind of news?" Hermione asked.

Neji shrugged.

"Just a report."


Naruto was flung back from the lake and onto the bank hard. The force of it making deep furrows into the soil as the blonde skidded into a halt. Gaara had just disposed three of the Nins in his Desert Coffin and was now defending as a barrage of weapons and attacks were attempting to cut through his sand shield. There are ten missing-nins from Mist and Rock, Naruto and Gaara had found out. All of them around Chuunin level. It won't be hard for Naruto and Gaara if it was just a few of them, but the odds are weighing against them. There are six left, including one heavily wounded, but still fighting. Naruto was only able to dispose of one. He jumped back up and threw a kunai to his right, hitting a Mist Nin. It turned into water.

"Dammit! When is Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan gonna come?" Naruto exclaimed frustratingly.

"We're here." Sakura zoomed passed Naruto. She hit the ground with chakra-enhanced fist, making dirt pillars rising from the ground. One of the pillars hit a stunned shinobi; Sakura then used this chance and killed him with an explode-tag attached to a kunai. Noises were heard from the castle. Kakashi spared a quick glance at the windows as he slit a throat open, and saw horrified students staring out of the windows. He saw teachers trying to usher the students away from the window, but they themselves are not moving from their spot beside the windows. Tsk, nothing he could do about it. They'll just have to get traumatized.

The remaining four shinobis were now gradually retreating. Kakashi's eye snapped back to his opponents.

"Naruto, Gaara, Sakura, don't let them get away."

Before the Leaf Nins could move, Gaara had summoned a wave of sand and had cut off the enemy's escape route. Before they could teleport away, the sand wrapped itself around them, separating one of the shinobi, leaving the other three in a group. More sand had come until the three Nins are encased in a sand ball. Gaara disposed of them the same way he did to the Mist intruder. He tightened his fist and spoke in a murmur.

"Sabaku Sousou."

To the occupants inside the castle, looking at the events happening outside, it seemed as if the sand ball had merely tightened. A few of the older wizards knew better. The sand had tightened because the sand had compressed, crushing the enemies. Naruto ran across the lake to reach the man. Just as he neared the missing-Nin, an explosion had knocked him off his feet, causing him to skid across the water. The sand returned to the ground, revealing scorched grass and a few specks of blood.

"Suicide explode-tags." Kakashi said. "They were used for so long I didn't expect him to have it."

"How do they work?" Sakura asked as Naruto hurried back.

"The holder infuses his chakra in a tag. The tag will be kept somewhere on the user's body, and when the users wills it, the tag will explode, him along with it. It's commonly used when the enemy number is great, therefore, when the user exploded, those around him would be caught in it also. But this is a small explosion, therefore nothing to worry about."

Gaara was stowing his sand (the ones he originally had) back into his gourd when Professor McGonagall hurried up, her face pale. Before she could speak, Kakashi turned to her.

"It is all taken care of. But perhaps next time, you could turn away the students, they don't look to good." He pointed a thumb at the castle, where numerous faces are looking green, and most had disappeared, probably retching somewhere.

"Do you know who's behind these attacks?" McGonagall asked, lips slightly trembling as she eyed the corpses and blood that had stained the banks of the Black Lake.

"No, we only know the minions are missing Nins. The enemy had suicide explode-tags on them. A pity, we could've questioned them." Kakashi looked to the direction of Hogsmeade. "Please ensure that the students are kept inside the castle for the next day or two. I shall summon the rest of the students from the village."

The Transfiguration teacher nodded, and strode back to the castle, already barking orders at the few students that had ventured out to get back in.

"I've just told Sai and Neji to come back with the other students." Sakura said. Kakashi nodded.

"While they're getting back, let's check the grounds for any more threats. Split up and each take a side. I'll take the Northern part of the grounds."

The shinobis soon head off, moving in a blur to get to their assigned area.


Neji sighed as his hand dropped from his ear. Earlier, he had stopped the group from going out when the meeting had finished, saying that they would go back to Hogwarts. Neji was now standing guard at the door, with dozens of eyes glaring holes into him.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" George exclaimed.

"Why're you keeping us here?" Fred said.

Neji sighed and massaged his temples. He wished Sakura here, she could do amazing massages, and he desperately needed one.

"The castle was attacked a while ago." At the chorused intake of breath, Neji ploughed on, not allowing them to speak. "I knew that if I said my reasons, you would immediately want to go and help. Let me say this now. You will only hinder us." Neji's glare made the group shivered. "I don't care how old you are, how capable you are with your wands, but you are no match for us. It was shinobis that attacked. Before you could even blink, you'd be dead with a blade in-between your eyes. You can go now, but wait at the entrance of the village. Sai is there. After I round up the rest of the students, we will go back."

Neji opened the tavern door.

"Now move it."

As the group jogged towards the distant silhouette figure of Sai, Ron muttered to Harry and Hermione.

"Cripes, who would attack Hogwarts?"

"Do you think it's Voldemort?" Harry asked. Ron tripped.

"Not sure. Neji did say the ones who attacked were ninjas, like him." Hermione said. They arrived where Sai is. A few minutes later, the students have been gathered, along with Professor Flitwick and Hagrid who was in The Three Broomsticks. The group set off back towards Hogwarts – Neji taking up the rear while Sai lead in the front. The wizards were nervous. They bunched up together; chatting in low voice while eyes darted everywhere around them. Neji rolled his eyes. Please. He could spot danger a mile away before any of these dimwits do.

When they arrived at the castle, Sai continued to lead them up the stone steps and into the castle while Neji reported to Kakashi, who had arrived the minute they stepped foot into school grounds.

"Any trouble?" Kakashi asked.

Neji shook his head negative.

"What do we do now?" Neji asked.

"For now, we search the grounds, and we'll do a brief scan a few miles into the Forbidden Forest. Meet back into the rooms in two hour's time."

Neji nodded. This mission is getting into more trouble than it's worth. The Hyuuga suddenly had the urge to say a favourite phrase used by a certain Nara.


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