Hello everyone! You are probably going to kill me for the really long wait... I actually have an excuse, but it involves school and lots and lots of tests... However, good news to all! Yesterday was my last day of school until next year! Hopefully, I will be able to update more frequently than I have this past year... I know I haven't updated this since January, and I'm really, really, really sorry about that! ^_^"

I've been working on this somewhat in my computer class that I had, and had half of this done as well as the Midnight Twilight fic.

If anyone who reads this and Midnight Twilight, then MT will be updated soon as well seeing as how that is about half-way done. I just need to add a few more things to it, and it will be ready to be posted... However, I can't work on MT or this until next week seeing as how I'm going shopping for a black dress (again) tomorrow, I think. On Saturday, I'll be at a beach watching the boat races, and on Sunday, I'll be attending a school function since I had the top average of 5% of the students in my class. So, like I said, I won't be able to start on this again until Monday or Tuesday... depends on how much I can get done in a few hours time...

Plus, I also I have two other school functions to attend to on Thursday and Friday, seeing as Friday is GRADUATION! I'm going to miss some of my friends... :(

Well, enjoy the new chapter, and I hope you all review! I will try to get the next chapter out soon, but please just bear with me if I can't!

Disclaimer: I will never own Inuyasha, Harry Potter, and/or Naruto. They belong to their respected, brilliant owners that I have no relation to!

Recap:

Sango left towards the Hospital Wing to help Madam Pomphrey and Sakura while the others left to join the students and other guards on duty. Kagome blended in with the walls on either side of the Great Hall while Itachi and Orochimaru walked up towards the teachers' table and began eating and talking with the Potions Master about some of the most deadliest brews. Some of that could give ideas on how to kill targets more efficiently.

In a far away house… (Not sure how far away it really is…)

In Riddle Manor, the same snake-like creature sat in his throne like chair and considered all the ideas on what to do with the pests at Hogwarts. He had some ideas about just storming the school and forcing them out of their hiding places until the school is left wide open for attack, but figured that they would probably be expecting that in the first place.

The other one was that he could see if Severus was able to get some of his most loyal Death Eaters inside the school without the old goat and newly acquired pests knowing it.

However, Voldemort knew that he had a spy in his mists, but he didn't know who he could trust and couldn't trust. He didn't want to trust Severus with this important information in case he was the spy but knew there wasn't any other adult Death Eater there without them getting caught by someone or something.

He decided to just test his Potions Master's loyalty as he called out to his rat servant, "Wormtail!"

He heard the quick padding of shoes on floor and things getting broken as someone made their way towards his rooms. Once the sounds of breaking things stopped, he heard a small creak of the door opening to allow a small rat-creature inside.

"You called, my lord?" asked a quivering Pettigrew. He waited until his master held out his hand for Wormtail's left arm.

He gave it to him and waited until he felt the tip of a wand touch it to start flinching a little. It didn't last long as he felt the ongoing stab of pain go through the mark calling the Death Eater that his lord wanted.

Once that was done, he was dismissed to go greet the incoming minion that he would test out. As Wormtail scurried out of the room, he only heard the reoccurring sound of Riddle's laughter following him down the hall.

He didn't have to wait long before he was facing a pale white Snape walking quickly towards him. He bowed to his waist and told him to follow him to Tom. Pettigrew took Snape into the manor and directly to their master before any of them could get the Crucio curse for lateness.

End Recap

Chapter 9: Pranks and Talks

While dinner in the Great Hall was progressing, there was one student who didn't know what to think after what had happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. He had a lot to think about since one of the guards, Shippo, left him with a scalding remark about homeless families where they came from. He figured that since Kagome's father came here a couple of days ago that the guards all had parents. He never guessed that it wasn't true.

He thought he was alone in the parentless department…

He didn't know how wrong he was until he felt the glaring look from Fox since he happened to be in hearing range when he said that. He figured that no one would really care about him saying that since everyone pretty much knew their parents.

I guess I was wrong to think that, especially around Fox and Professor Kagome… but what would you think if you heard them saying that they didn't have to be here unless ordered to? Harry thought to himself. Would I really think that they were homeless or at least didn't know who their parents were or are?

He quickly looked around the room and saw that every guard was in the hall surrounding the students who were happily eating their own meals and talking about the lessons that they attended or the amount of homework one of the teachers gave them.

He quickly tuned them out to see that Tiger and Fox were talking quietly and Phoenix was grinning wildly like he accomplished something that was probably a prank or whatever in the eyes of his fellow ninjas.

If Harry and the others around him knew what he was like in the Leaf Village, then they would have run away the moment they saw the grinning little fox next to the wall on the far left… Instead, they weren't able to leave since they were practically frozen in their seats.

Harry looked up slowly and saw four dark spots hovering above the four House tables. Each one had the House crests and was matching in colors: emerald green, crimson red, bright yellow and dull purple. Each balloon matched Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw respectively.

He quickly tapped Ron, who was on his right, on the shoulder before pointing to the air with a weird look in his eyes. He didn't know what was in those balloons, but he knew that it wasn't good.

Ron and Hermione looked up after Harry got their attention and saw the exact same thing. They wondered if this was part of Peeves' plan to get back at the other students for ruining his fun with the first and second years going to their classes.

However, one look from Phoenix confirmed that it wasn't Peeves, but him. They didn't have much time to let the other Gryffindor students before Fox made a sweep of his hand and released the invisible strings that were holding the water-filled balloons on top of the unsuspecting students.

Every guard on duty just stood there waiting until Shippo and Naruto commenced their plan before jumping on the high table to avoid getting hit with the large amounts of water. They were the ones who figured that they deserved some pension since they were the ones insulted by the main figure of the Golden Trio.

Every student jumped up one hit with the large balloon, but didn't leave like some would have thought they would. They instead looked towards the laughing figures of Fox and Phoenix at the Head table. The students figured that the resident prankster would do this and not the new guards.

"What in the blazes were you thinking about doing this to the students? You could have hurt them with that much amount of water!" yelled Itachi. "Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

Naruto and Shippo looked towards each other than at Itachi. They shared another look with the students and sighed.

"They deserved it. They practically said that all of us have parents and shouldn't be here in the first place! They think we should just return home to our own war with the Akatsuki before even helping them!" Naruto said. He changed from English to Japanese without even realizing it. He didn't really need all the other students knowing what had transpired between the sixth year Slytherin and Gryffindor DADA class.

"That still doesn't excuse you for what you have done! Since you decided to take matters into your own hands, you will face the consequences for your actions. Since Shippo is on Kagome's assigned team, she will deal with him accordingly. Naruto, however, will be dealt with by me," said Itachi. He turned to Dumbledore and said, "They will be dealt with by myself and Captain Wolf."

The headmaster just agreed and sent all students back to their respective dorms and those severely injured to be sent to the Hospital Wing. He took one look around the Great Hall and sighed. He summoned some house-elves to serve food in the common rooms for the students when they arrived. They had to at least finish their dinner.

Itachi and Kagome walked out of the Hall with the rest of their squads and headed towards the entrance and left the school. They walked towards the lake and pointed to it. Shippo and Naruto soon figured it out and gathered chakra to their feet and began running along the lake as punishment. Too bad that that wasn't the only thing they were doing as punishment.

~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru followed the Golden Trio to keep an eye on them. Since the others were busy with punishments and training, he would have to keep an eye out for the little troublemaker. He followed them towards the Fat Lady and walked in when the others entered as well. He was caught just as the other students already there turned to see who entered the room.

"What's he doing here?" asked a third year. She had just gathered some food from the tables alongside the back wall when she saw who entered the Gryffindor commons beside the Golden Trio. "Shouldn't he be with those hooligans that caused that stupid prank?"

Everyone who heard her turned towards whom she was talking about. They soon found themselves looking at Orochimaru. Once they realized whom they were staring at, they turned back towards the tabled food and began eating or gathering said food.

Harry, daring as he was, walked towards the snake sannin and asked, "What brings you here of all places? Is there anything I, we, can help you with?"

Orochimaru turned to look at the young savior and answered, "Yes, there is. What did my team mean by what they said? I think they heard someone say that we needed to leave here and go back to our own war? Is there anyone you know of that may have said that?"

Harry suddenly looked guilty as he heard the ninja in front of him say something like what he said the guards during DADA. His face gave him away as he heard Orochimaru sigh before he offered to take the three Gryffindor teenagers to the ninja's rooms down the hall.

The three students looked at each other and followed the snake sannin towards the entrance to the common room and left to go down the hall. Once there, Orochimaru gave the slight hiss for the password, Konoha, as the trio walked towards him. He knew of the Potter boy being a snake speaker and wanted to give the password before he reached their own rooms so the boys wouldn't have it.

Once settled the snake hissed out, "So you were the one to say those things?"

Harry shook his head in agreement. He didn't know what to expect from the sannin, but he thought that being questioned wasn't one. He couldn't think more into his thoughts as he heard Ron answer,

"So what if he said those things? You shouldn't be here if you have your own war back home anyway! Why would you come help us if you have your own kind to protect?"

Orochimaru sneered and answered, "It is because you are at war that we are here. We do have our own citizens to protect, but we have plenty of other ninjas who are more than capable to protect them as we are here. We have had more wars than anyone could probably count."

He thought about the Kitsune attack on October 10th and some wars that each Hokage had to deal with while leading the village to greatness. There were treaties to be signed and death to deal with as well, but they always got that done within a few months to years.

However, these wizards couldn't even handle a war that has lasted fifteen years! You would think that they wouldn't leave an enormous burden on a young boy and his friends, but the wizards do that anyway.

"What did the guards mean that they have lost loved ones as well? Are they still losing them as we speak? What about their families?" asked Harry once he got over what Ron and Orochimaru said.

"We have lost a lot of people, both ninja and normal citizen. There are some ninjas that have grown up with an orphanage or on their own. Naruto, Shippo, Sesshomaru, Naraku, and Sango are prime examples," answered the famous snake sannin.

"What do you mean they are examples? Examples of being left alone after, what, a few years of their life?" asked Ron. Hermione, however, was silent as can be since she was soaking up all this information to question later on.

Orochimaru sighed for a moment to gather his thoughts. He then answered, "Naruto lost both his parents in one night: his mother to child birth, and his father during an attack on the village. His father was the Fourth Hokage, the fourth leader of our village. He was also my teammate's pupil.

"Shippo was found by the village after he lost his family to some missing ninjas that were after them from where they came from. He may be a pain in the neck prankster along with Naruto, but everyone in the village still loves him, but the could live without their pranks.

Sesshomaru lost his father to a war as well, but his mother was still alive when he died. I believe he lost her when he was just a genin, a new shinobi, at age six. He graduated the academy with Kagome. They were the only members of their team until they became chunin and Naraku joined then.

"Naraku, however, was an experiment for some creep until he killed him after four years. His own village sold him to this creep at a tender after of three, and the human kept him until Naraku was seven years old. By then he was close enough to Konoha to get rescued by us and joined Kagome and Sesshomaru.

"Lastly, Sango was probably the only one who actually knew her entire family. She lived with them until she was ten. When she was about to turn eleven, their home was attacked by rogue ninjas and killed off every single one of them. All that was left was her cat familiar Kirara and her little brother that was only able to live before he died two years ago.

"You ask if there are still people dieing as we speak. Do you really want to know the answer to that as this part of the world is also in a war? You think that people aren't dieing because there is a pause in the war? Let me tell you: there are no pauses in war and some may die just to satisfy the needs of others. So, yes, there are still people being killed even as we speak."

~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~.

After the meeting with his Death Eaters, Voldemort sat in his chair and thought about everything that he learned from both Lucius and Severus. He gathered lots of information on the guards that Dumbledore had hired for the school year, and yet, he didn't have enough.

He didn't have the information on the type of magic they used or what they were capable of doing during battle. Since there was only one fight between a Hogwarts student and one guard, he wasn't able to tell if all the guards could do the same thing as that little girl or something entirely different.

If that was the case, then he was screwed as he only had one plan for the little girl. He would try to capture her and gain information by torturing her until she finally talked. He wished that Severus had received more info on the guards since he was to work with them this year, but it seemed that it was useless. The potions master wouldn't be able to get info on people that Dumbledore hired as protection for the school, even if he was included.

Lucius didn't have that much news as well since this was pretty much the first time he heard about the guards, besides the fact that Draco lost to the eleven-year-old girl captain. His son constantly filled him in on the guards' doings, but nothing helped to analyze what those ninjas were capable of since he was always in class and wouldn't be able to see them except when on breaks, but even then the guards are only doing their job: protecting the students and watching everyone that may cause harm to others.

Voldemort would have to have most of his little Death Eaters spy on the guards using their children, but it would be worth it once he gains enough. By then he would be able to take over the school and take down Potter, Potter's friends, and, finally, Dumbledore.

Well? Was it worth the wait or not?

You know the drill: please review and let me know what you think about this. If anyone has any ideas on what should happen next, please don't hesitate to tell me! I would like your ideas if you have any, or just what you want to happen next... I'm thinking about ending this soon, but that may not happen just yet.

Please reveiw!

Ichigo Mirai