Ch. 9. Things Start To Fall

The wind had stopped. That was never a good sign. The fact that the blonde man next to her had gone deathly still was an even worse sign.

"Anko."

"Wait!" It was too late he had already apperated to his mate's side.

Clutching the boy in her arms tighter she ran. She had to find Kakashi. Something was wrong very wrong. Anko was overseeing the exam today if she was in trouble the kids could be too. She could feel Kakashi's energy signal coming from a café.

Once inside it was easy to spot him. He was sitting at a table with Asuma, Kurenai and Gai who she had recently met. Making her way over to them quickly she grab his sleeve.

"Draco sensed Anko was in trouble." She said in a rush. His visible eye widened slightly, "The kids." He brought his hands together and with a poof he was gone. She sank into his now empty chair in relief. He was going to them and Draco and Anko were there to help, the kids would be fine.

Draco had arrived to see a very snake like man stretch his neck almost six feet and land a bite on Sasuke's neck. Anko was fighting a pair of kids that were far more skilled then they seemed. Out of pure protective instinct he thrust his hand out towards her attackers. They were crushed against the side of a tree movement restricted by the ropes he conjured.

Before she could yell at him for interfering he turned his attention towards the snake man and separating him and the raven haired boy. Anko immediately jumped in shouting at the man for daring to come back. From what he could hear they used to be close, he pushed down the jealous Veela in him and went to Sasuke.

There was a mark on the boy's neck, one that gave off the same energy as the mark on his left arm. Whatever it was, it was causing the boy a lot of pain. There was angry cursing from above them when he looked up Anko was shouting orders that the forest be searched, the man had gotten away.

She glared at him but he was racking his brain trying to think of something to help the boy.

"We have to go." Her voice hide barely suppressed rage.

"He's hurt." His own rage barely managed.

"The test continues." She grabbed him roughly pulling him out of the forest. The image burned into his mind as they got further away was of an unconscious Sasuke lying in Sakura's arms who's green tear filled eyes begged him to stay and of the betrayed hurt look on Naruto's face.

They reached a building in the middle of the forest Granger was there worry written all over her face. She must have left the brat with the Nara's. The instructors for the teams of the leaf were there as well wanting to know what happened. Anko explained that the man, Orochimaru, had come for Sasuke. As she explained he could feel Granger's mind against his, he let her see what he had seen. After the last image he felt her mental reassurance that the kids would forgive him.

"What is he to you?" Draco asked once Anko was done. The whole room fell silent. "I can find out even if you won't tell me."

"You can't if I don't want you to." She growled.

"Actually love this man is a threat to you, which means this over rules the 'you get whatever you want' clause."

"And how are you going to get the information? No one will tell you."

"Like this. Legitumus!" Instantly her memories of Orochimaru flooded his mind. He saw how the man had used her, abandoned her and understood why she feared the love Draco offered.

"Bloody hell." He breathed he sent the images to Hermione and heard the witch grumble "What is it with bad guys and snakes?" under her breath he bit back his scoff.

Hermione broke the silence, "So this guy wants Sasuke what do we do now?"

"You do nothing." Everyone turned to see the Hokage. "This is not your fight it is the job of the leaf shinobi to keep Konoha safe. They will do their job."

They had no argument for it. They were not ninja they didn't know if their magic could hold up against one of that caliber. So they left the ninja in the building in the middle of the forest and returned to the house they hadn't realized became their home.

With even Teddy silent the three magical beings sat in the living room wondering what would happen next. The next few days where much the same neither Kakashi nor Anko where around much. The ninja were tightening security around the village and the witch and wizard were adding to their wards.

Finally the second part of the test was over, Sakura had not made it past her opponent to qualify for the final round but Naruto and Sasuke had. They had a month to prepare. Kakashi had not let them return to their apartments he had spoken to Sakura's family, all three would be staying at the Hatake compound.

Kakashi had wanted to take Sasuke of to train while a man named Jiraiya had shown up and offered to train Naruto. Hermione had put her foot down telling them there was more than enough room for them to train on the compound and in the village where it was safe. Draco also needed Sasuke near in order to find away to get rid of the mark.

Sakura when not training spent a lot of her time visiting their new friend Lee much to Sasuke's annoyance. The boy had been seriously injured by the red haired boy Naruto had told them about but what worried her more was what Draco had told her. The boy's name was Gaara and he like Naruto had a demon sealed within him but Gaara had let the demon take over. He had also taken a disturbing interest in Naruto but had to fight Sasuke in the next stage.

Fearing for her boys Hermione decided it was time to add a bit of her own training to the list. Outside Jiraiya and Kakashi were discussing the different things they were teaching the boys when they looked up to see the pretty witch they had both learned to fear. They say that there is no animal more dangerous than a mother protecting her young, well who ever said that was thinking of this witch in particular.

"I have an idea." She said they looked at her waiting for her to continue. "While your teachings are important I think some of mine can be helpful."

Jiraiya looked at the petite woman skeptically. "They aren't wizards what can you teach them that they can use." She gave them a serene smile and had they met her Luna Lovegood would have come to mind and had they known her they would know to run when Luna gave that smile.

All of team seven plus Jiraiya stood before her on the compound training grounds. She quickly went over what an animagus was and how they were going to reach that stage. Their excitement was dampened when she revealed they would not be working on it until night fall but if they did well on these few exercises she would show them her animagus form.

When she pulled out a tiny golden ball they were disappointed.

"That's it!" Naruto cried.

She smiled "What you have to do is catch it."

"So what you throw it and we run after it?" The sarcasm came from Sasuke.

She couldn't stop the slightly evil grin that came over her face. "Oh no, I don't throw it." As she spoke the little ball on her palm spread it wings, hovered over her hand a moment or two before taking off so fast it practically vanished.

She raised a single eyebrow at them "Well what are you waiting for? Catch it." Snapping out of their shocked state they took off in different directions hoping to find the ball.

Draco was in the dark basement of the house he had been given. Here he had set up a potions lab that his Godfather would be proud of. On the desk before him were notes made by said Godfather the brilliant Severus Snape. Despite what others said about him Uncle Sev had been the father Draco wished he had. Even with his life hanging in the balance he had still thought of Draco and the proof lay before him.

Here is where Anko found him. She had seen him come out of it before when she decided to stop by but had never gone down herself. It was dark but with enough light to work with there were various vials and herbs on shelves scattered around the room. It set her nerves on edge, this place reminded her of Orochimaru's experiments.

"What are you doing?" She asked quietly and was surprised when he jumped slightly. Normally he would know she was there before she even spoke.

He looked at her in surprise she had avoided him since he forced his way into her mind. "Just going over some notes." As she came closer he lowered his sleeve still not comfortable with people staring at it.

She was almost next to him when she saw him cover his arm. "Why do you always do that?"

He sighed deciding it was better he tell her now. He pushed his sleeve back up to his elbow showing her his forearm and the mark the defiled it. She stared at the skull with a snake wrapped around it.

"Why are you so embarrassed by a tattoo?"

"It's not a tattoo it's a brand." He said in disgust.

She was curious now for all he knew of her she didn't know much about him. This was her chance to know more.

"Who's brand?"

"The Dark Lord Voldemort." The hate in his voice surprised her. "He was a man who thought himself a god, a man the idiot that was my father worshipped. Many in my family were his followers my father was one of his most trusted as was my Godfather. But my Godfather realized how wrong Voldemort was in his ideas, Uncle Sev didn't want to kill mindlessly. He became a double agent to help bring down the Dark Lord."

"When I was sixteen my father messed up in the worst way possible and to the appease their Lord my parents gave him me. He branded me as his and gave me an assignment I was to let a group of Death Eaters, his followers, into my school, Hogwarts, and kill the headmaster. Uncle Sev tried to help me but I pushed him away I didn't want him to suffer for me. In the end I let the Death Eaters in but I couldn't kill Dumbledore so Uncle Sev did."

He was quiet and so was Anko what kind of parents gives their child to a mad man. She could see him struggling to reign in his emotions.

"I told him he shouldn't have done it that they would hate him, hunt him down to make him pay. He told me to stop being an idiot we had to run. They could hate him all they wanted he loved me more then he feared their hate."

A single tear fought its way down his cheek. Without thinking she gently wiped it from his face then looked down to see what he was working on.

"This isn't your handwriting." She had seen it before and it looked nothing like this even though she didn't understand it she knew it wasn't his work.

"No it's Uncle Sev's." He took a deep breath before explaining. "He hated the mark and knew I did too. It seems he was certain he would not make it through the war so he left this for me. He never got a chance to test it but he was almost positive it would work. Both the dark mark and the mark on Sasuke's neck are made of the same energy if this potion can remove my mark then it can do the same for him."

She was impressed "Can you make it?"

He scoffed "Of course I can make it. It's getting the ingredients that will be difficult maybe Hermione knows who can get them for us." He looked at the clock "Might as well go ask it's about time for lunch anyway. I wonder how they did with the snitch."

His question was answered when he saw three extremely wore out genin lying on their back across the yard. He saw Granger sitting on the porch swinging her legs back and forth looking very amused. The older ninja were looking around to see if they could spot the snitch. When Draco looked he spotted the subtle golden sheen of the ball almost immediately.

With a smirk he did a partial transformation sprouting ice blue wings from his back and taking off into the sky. Startling the kids enough for them to sit up.

"Relax." Hermione called. "His animagus form is an ice dragon." Then a wicked grin spread across her face. She jumped to her feet and off the porch only to have the woman be replaced by a hulking wolf. The wolf quickly ran using it powerful legs to jump from a tree onto Draco's back and up high enough to catch the snitch.

On her way back down she returned to her human form raising her hand for Draco to catch hold of. He caught her using her weight for momentum swung her around then let go. With a perfect flip she landed in a crouch standing without hesitation and walking towards the laughing toddler headed her way.

Everyone was in shocked silence as Draco landed beside and retracted his wings. Hermione chose that moment to spit out the snitch much to everyone's amusement.

After the kid's excited chatter about what their anamagus form would be had died down Sasuke asked what all of them wanted to know.

"Have you found a way to get rid of this thing?" He asked pointing to his neck.

Draco took his time in chewing before answering. "I might have."

This surprised Hermione "Already?"

He gave the witch a sidelong glance "Snape was working on a potion to get rid of the dark mark it was almost complete when he…" He didn't finish his sentence.

Hermione nodded not needing him to she knew what happened.

"What's the dark mark?" Sakura asked.

Witch and wizard exchanged a glance before Draco nodded.

"I told you about the war, about Voldemort's followers the Death Eaters. Each Death Eater had a mark on their left arm that marked them as his follower, which is what we called the dark mark."

"What does it look like?" Naruto asked.

Suddenly feeling like the insecure boy who's only solace was to spite people Draco pulled up his sleeve baring his arm for all to see.

"Like this."

Once again shocked silence fell across the group until the unearthly sad voice of Hermione filled the room but only Draco could understand her.

"He loved you. Why do you spurn the chance that he gave you?"

He stared at her his tense body going limp slumping over the table the mark still showing.

"He dissevered it more than I do. I am a coward he fought back."

"You fought back when you let Ron and Harry go." He looked at her surprised that she knew that. "We all have done things we aren't proud of but in war survival comes first. He wanted you to live Draco don't push away the people who want you in their lives."

Their conversation had ended when Draco jerked in shock when Sakura put her hand softly over the mark.

She looked at him with concern in her eyes "Does it hurt you like it hurts Sasuke?"

He swallowed thickly from the emotions he was feeling "Not anymore since the bastards dead it hurt the most when I got it."

"Why did you get it?" Naruto asked confusion written all over his face. In the time he had known Draco he didn't seem like he would follow a guy like that.

"My parents gave me to the Dark Lord it was the mark or death and when you aunt uses the imperious on you, you don't much of a choice."

The growl that came from both Blacks made them all jump.

"What's the imperious?" Sasuke asked warily.

"It's a spell counted as one of the Unforgivables. The reason why is because it strips person of their free will. They can only do what the caster commands with no choice in the matter not even the use of their voice to let people know they don't want to do it."

He shook his head not wanting to remember the things he had done before he built up immunity to the curse.

"Alright enough of all this don't you lot have training to get back to?"

A collective groan filled the room.

"Do we have to chase the snitch again?" Naruto asked.

Hermione smiled "No you'll be going against the blugers next."

Draco grinned "This I have to see."

"Good because you're helping me heal them when this is over."

"Fine."

With that the two headed outside while the rest reluctantly followed.

Alright there it is I hoped you like it. It was kind of all over the place I know but still I don't think it was too bad. Review please.