Chapter 10 Ceremony

The day started out beautiful, clear blue sky, one or two perfectly puffy white clouds drifting, the grass greener that it had any right to be, given the time of year. In fact, it felt more like one of those perfect spring days that come once a hundred years, rather than the middle of winter. The lawn immediately in front of the school lake had been turned into an outdoors reception area. Hard on the beach, a large white platform of stone and been placed. It was high enough that the surface of it was level with a man's chest. Nine comfortable appearing chairs had been placed near the back, and a podium was situated on the front edge. Facing the podium, were about a little over eight hundred chairs, all of the folding variety, but well padded so that anyone who had to sit for several hours would not become uncomfortable.

In the background, two great oaken doors swung open, letting a large crowd of people out. In actuality, it was more like three groups of people, the first consisting mostly of middle aged to older men in suits. The second group was only five people, foreigners, they looked. The last group was the largest yet, children and teens ranging from 11 to 18. The three groups made their way to the stage and seats. A few of the first group mounted the stage, while the rest found seats in the forest of chairs. The second group also ascended the steps carved into the side of white stone, and the last group joined the adults in the seating area.

When everyone had seated themselves, a man with tawny hair and bushy eyebrows, yellow eyes and wire-rimmed spectacles, and heavily battle-scarred stood up and approached the podium.

"Thank you all for making the trip here today to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We are here today to honour five extraordinary young adults. As you all know, nearly two weeks ago, Hogwarts was attacked by a dragon, one of the most powerful of its species and was defeated due to the valour of Mister Hyuga and his companions."

When the speaker started to go into details of various heroic acts witnessed, Naruto tuned out. He still ached, and he sported massive black and blue bruises where his skin was not concealed by fresh white bandages. The pain was a mere shadow of the crippling agony that had confined him to the wheelchair for four days after being released from the Infirmary. Eventually, the tawny-haired man, the Minister of Magic, he recalled, though he couldn't remember his name, and the Headmaster approached the podium.

Dumbledore said many of the same things that the Minister had said, although in different words, citing Hinata's decision to block the breath of fire so that the students behind there wouldn't be harmed, despite her knowledge that she probably wouldn't be able to hold it completely. From Hinata, he moved to Sakura, who was single-handedly responsible for everyone's continued health. Sasuke was praised for warding off every single attack aimed at Naruto while he charged up the attack that killed the dragon. Finally Dumbledore told of how Naruto used, what for a normal human would have been a fatal attack to end the threat, telling of the damage the backblast inflicted upon him.

With that Dumbledore nodded to the tawny-haired man and stepped aside.. Drawing a purple box from his robes, the Minister opened it and told the ninja to approach. Handing the box to Dumbledore, he addressed the audience.

"For dedication to duty, in the face of overwhelming odds, I present Neji Hyuga with the Order of Arthur, Third Class.

For exceptional perserverance in the face of crippling injuries, I present Hinata Hyuga with the Order of Arthur, Third Class.

For steadfastness in the face of mortal injury, I present Sakura Haruno with the Order of Arthur, Second Class.

For outstanding bravery in the face of vastly superior strength, I present Sasuke Uchiha with the Order of Arthur, Fourth Class.

And for stolid defence of human life, and defeat of an elder dragon, I present Naruto Uzumaki with the Order of Arthur First Class.

Finally on behalf of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and the faculty of Hogwarts, I award ANBU Squad 012 with a Special Award to the School, for Exceptional Valour."

One by one, the Headmaster withdrew the medals, which were gold disks, about the size of a palm, the raised image of a cruciform sword partially buried in a mounded rock, and placed them over the ninja's heads. The Minister hefted a large piece of wood, two inches thick made of white oak, five shields attached, one shield bearing one of the ninja's names. Below the row of shield, the words "Special Award to the School for Exceptional Valour" printed in large gold letters.

At the presentation of Naruto's medal, the entire audience as one stood up and began clapping. Waiting for the roar to quiet down, the Minister, after saying a few more word of what heroes the shinobi were ended the ceremony. The audience barely waited for the group to descend the stairs before mobbing them, everyone wanting to shake a hand, touch their clothes, get a statement, get a picture.

The five of them finally managed to bull through the crowd, making it back to Neji's office with all ten fingers and all ten toes. Naruto kept examining his medal turning it every which way. When they reached the office, Naruto asked no one in particular, "I wonder what the sword in the stone is for?"

"It is probably some kind of symbol or sign for Arthur, whoever or whatever it was." Neji walked around to his side of the desk, opened a drawer and withdrew a scroll of parchment, a lengthy one, judging how tight it had been rolled, yet still nearly three inches in diameter. Handing the scroll to Sakura, he ordered, "take this to the Owlry in a minute, its a report to Hokage-sama." Turning Naruto, he said "Well, you seem to be doing much better Naruto."

"Yeah, Sakura and Madame Pompfrey fixed me up fine." Doing an exaggerated flex he continued, "I'm better then ever Neji. See?"

"Well, Madame Pompfrey said that you have received a clean bill of health from her, so I am returning you back to active duty. Your first assignment, you and Sasuke, will be to meet me in the Room of Requirement tomorrow. The dragon attack has made me decide that Potter and Granger are to be given private lessons for a while. Sasuke, I don't know if you have seen the Granger girl, but she is a natural with genjutsu. I want you to tutor her from now on, as regularly as you can manage. Naruto and I will be working with Potter on his ninjutsu and taijutsu. Hinata, I am returning you back to Hufflepuff House, now that Naruto has recovered. Sakura, speak with Madame Pompfrey and the Headmaster and discuss with the both of them what happened with the Daily Prophet. I don't like having information distributed about members of my team without my knowledge. Last thing, we are leaving tomorrow for Ronald Weasley's home on the Hogwarts Express. Anything else?" The others shook their heads in a negative, and Neji dismissed them.