Hm, a game! Sasuke's the target! Ten points if you hit him, a hundred if you chalk up his face!

Anyway, I uploaded the sidestory chapter with Madoka and her new babysitting slav—ahem, friend in chapter 20. Yes. Friend. Make sure you read it before you get confused later when all of a sudden, she's not with Voldie anymore and she's...somewhere else.

DEATH! YOU'RE ALIIIIIVE! (a paradox...) Anyway, I don't see why Hinata can do whatever she did and not Neji... well, that's cool anyway. I just like Neji better. But only because he is totally more awesome. But more awesome and better are pretty much the same, so what the hey, it doesn't make a difference and those two previous comments don't make sense. Anyway, I don't think Sharingan can copy bloodlines, so it's all just Hinata's. Yay, she has something of her own! (wipes brow in relief until I find...) "Oh no! I killed Al's best friend! Aaaaah!" Seriously, does that make me a serial killer now?

Update pie, eh? Reminds me of a random quote: "In the presence of pie, there can be nothing wrong."

Anyway, there was a reviewer who said 'yaaay, almost sirius's chat with harry' or something like that... um, you remember, i had to change the dates. that'll probably be in a few more chapters. Anyway, Siri's convo with Harry took place on November 22, and the interview was about two weeks before it.

Oh, and I love this review: "...my guess is guy 'cause I'm a guy and there needs to be more guys on so with the power of my mind and quantum physics, YOUR A GUY!
if your not, thats cool to..."
Haha.

(FYI: This is later in the evening after the wand weighing, still Friday)

Chapter 21: Halloween Prank

"You know, you aren't supposed to be in here," Gaara said to Naruto.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked him.

"In the Slytherin House."

"Oh. Since when have we started listening to the rules here?" Naruto asked Gaara with a grin.

"I never broke any of the rules."

"Well, they do say no fighting in the hallways. Technically, you didn't fight anyone. You tried to kill them, mostly in their sleep. There's no fighting back when it comes to you, Gaara," Sasuke commented. "Naruto, I asked you to bring more Gryffindors," he said to the blond. "As in everyone you can bring in as possible."

"Yeah, they're all coming as soon as they finish their work and stuff," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Don't you have any homework to catch up on?" Kankurou asked Naruto, turning around from his desk to face him.

"No."

"Oh. Well be quiet anyway, I'm trying to think."

"Really?"

"You're not one to act surprised," Kankurou said. "I'm not the only one who lacks intelligence around these damn geniuses."

"Ah, you think I'm a genius," Temari said. "I'm so happy!"

"Shut up, Temari."

"No."

"Why is everyone in here?" Gaara asked.

"Ah, well we're having a small 'shinobi-only meeting'," Sasuke said.

"...You're doing this to piss of Malfoy again, aren't you?" Gaara said.

"Of course," he replied. Frowning, he activated his Sharingan for a split second. "Hey, you guys don't suck at infiltration after all," he said.

There was a loud, constant popping sound and the room was suddenly full of twelve shinobi and they all moved to a comfortable place in the room, perching themselves in chairs, beds, and a windowsill for Sasuke.

"So what happened?" Kiba asked Naruto. "At the wand weighing thing? Was that Fleur girl there?"

"Yeah!" Naruto said. "And she's part veela too! Her grandma was one, so, um... she's um...one-half veela?"

"One fourth, Naruto," Sakura corrected.

"I bet that means she gets really ugly too," Tenten said bitterly.

"I'm not into pretty girls," Neji said. Tenten slapped him. "Ow! What was that for?"

Ino laughed at them. "Neji, you just don't know how to talk to girls, do you?"

"I talk to Tenten," he said, holding up Kankurou's textbook to block a rain of flying shuriken. ("You're paying for that book, Hyuuga!")

"Tenten, please stop that," Ino said. "He only means that he isn't into bimbos. Like, girly-girls who can't stand on their own two feet. You know that."

Tenten shrugged. "You're ruining my bad mood," she said.

"Well, I would prefer it if you kept it quiet," Shino said, looking up at them only for a moment. Once everyone settled down, he went back to reading and writing.

"Psst, Shino's been writing a lot hasn't he?" Naruto said to Sakura. "Think he's got a girlfriend?"

"Don't be stupid, Naruto," Sakura scoffed. "Shino's not the type to attract...well, maybe."

"No way," Ino said. "I know all the couples in Hogwarts, and Shino's not one of them. Hinata. What's he writing?"

(start stutter) "If Shino doesn't want us to know what he's writing, then I shouldn't look at it," (end stutter) she said.

"Ooh, I wanna know!" Ino cried, excitedly. She moved her hands, but Sasuke shook his head.

"No possessing each other, please," he said. She giggled when she looked at him. Sasuke sighed. Well, it was his fault he had a bubbly girlfriend anyway.

"Let's get down to business now," Shikamaru said. "First: Harry again. Hinata says that he cast magic in the hallways when fighting with Malfoy, correct?"

(start stutter) "Yes." (end stutter)

"But he wasn't able to cast anything before."

"Yeah," everyone said.

"Anyone notice any other changes?"

"His energy completely changed," Neji said. "It's more like ours now. But it moves around throughout the whole body. It's color is still like a wizards. It also seems a bit more mobile now."

"So... Harry's making new magic now?" Temari said.

Shikamaru shrugged. "In a sense. Like I said before, it's a purge. It's like turning on a bathtub and opening the drains. The water goes down, but not fast enough to completely empty it. An certain amount of water entering the tub and an equal amount of water exiting it. Nothing is going to happen. Charms require too little energy, and Harry lacks the control to let out only enough to activate a charm. Like Naruto. Naruto and Harry have no control. The fact that they both have a large amount of energy stored in them makes it even harder. When you try to let out a little and can't manage it, you do either one of three things: you don't do anything at all, you blow something up, or you oversuccessfully manage to pull it off. Harry's at the first, Naruto's the first and second and—"

"Oversuccessfully?" Kiba echoed. Was that a word?

"For instance...take the Summoning Charm for example," he said. "You could either not manage to even move the object. Or maybe just a tiny bit. You could blow whatever you're trying to Summon up. Or you can have it fly at you so quickly, it'll knock you down and out. Actually, I suppose Naruto's managed all three of them, hasn't he...? That crack in Flitwick's door was from his Banishing, right?"

"It was an accident," Naruto said.

"Yeah, and the imprint next to it was when you Banished Kiba, yeah?"

"That wasn't an accident..."

"I hate you Naruto. That time, it really hurt."

"Alright, alright, but anyway, so the 'newer water' in the tub is like the new energy that takes over."

"That doesn't sound good," Naruto said.

"Well it's not bad. It's just there," Shikamaru said. "In any case, you can expect some improvement in his training, though not his magic. But one of us is going to teach him chakra control. I have him on Mondays, but Temari and I teach him strategizing. Naruto, you are not teaching him chakra control. Your rasengan is nice and all, but you have to have another kage bunshin help control it for you. And no you are not going to show him how to use the Kage Bunshin. Making one is risky enough. Making a shitload like you would kill most ninjas. Tenten and Ino are giving shuriken and kunai lessons. Shino and Kiba help him learn to rely on basic instincts and taijutsu. Neji and Sasuke show him taijutsu styles, help him develop his own, and keep him from getting a big head, so that leave..."

Everyone looked at Kankurou, who noticed this and looked up at them himself. "What? No. No way. I am not teaching that guy chakra control."

"You're not teaching him at all!" Temari said, whacking the back of his head. "All you do is play with your dolls and let Harry do whatever he wants.

"But...I don't know chakra control. I have it and make strings, but I can't just, like, show him how to make chakra threads..." he whined. "I'm busy."

"No you aren't. You've been working on that letter for how many weeks now? Just break up with her!"

"She's like a tick! She sticks to me no matter what!"

"Talk quietly," Gaara ordered. He, Shino, and Kankurou were each working on something. Not together, but both were busy enough with their own projects. Shino was, as usual, writing some sort of essay. He had a copy of Witch Weekly in front of him, for some odd reason. Kankurou was still working on his break-up letter to his obsessive girlfriend. although he was currently caught up in the conversation the moment they mentioned him. And his new task. Gaara... his owl was constantly flying in and out of the school every hour with messages from the Makotos and he often received letters from the Sand. He opened yet another letter, this time neither from Mikoto, Mariku, nor Baki and Fuji. He glanced through it.

"Naruto, the wand thing is tomorrow."

"But the weird Hyuuga-man said—" Naruto said, but Gaara cut him off.

"I don't care what he said—" Gaara said, but Neji cut him off.

"For the last time," Neji said irritably, "Hinata and I are the only Hyuugas in this world. Just because he has pale eyes does not mean he's a Hyuuga. Harry has green eyes and so do Sakura and Gaara, but are any of them related? No, see—?"

"Yeah, but Harry doesn't have red or pink hair?" Naruto said cutting him off. "And how many people have eyes like that—"

"Nobody cuts me off!" Gaara shouted and everyone in the room cringed. "Ignore me like that again and I promise to whatever old guy these people worship that I will kill the next person who cuts me of—!"

"We're sorry," Sakura cried, cutting him off. Another person! Gaara took a deep breath.

"It's fine," he said in a strained but still relatively calm voice. "But it's rude to interrupt people when they are talki—"

"Oh my god!" Temari cried out, cutting him off again. "Gaara forgave her! He forgave someone!"

Gaara didn't say anything for a minute. He just sat there with his arms crossed over his chest, taking quiet deep breaths. He wasn't moving to kill anyone. That was good. Except for the fact that after several years of experience, he could control most of his sand minimum movement.

Outside in the Slytherin Common Room

Girls were constantly lurking in the Slytherin common room nowadays. As usual, it was filled with students who were trying to study and finish their work, students plotting against Gaara and his mail, and students who were stalking Gaara, Shino, and Sasuke.

It was always quiet in that room, the room that the Japanese students had to themselves instead of their fellow yearmates. It was mainly so silent inside because the people in that room were quiet themselves. Shino rarely spoke unless he absolutely had too. He even hardly ever uttered a word, even when called on in class. It wasn't that the Aburame was shy. It was just that, if he spoke, then he would be completely out of character and lose most of his 'coolness'. Kankurou was the bully in there—the louder one. But when he was with Gaara, the more frightening of the two who never spoke unless he was threatening someone. Kankurou was quiet with Gaara, like what Crabbe and Goyle were to Malfoy. Only he was smarter than Crabbe and Goyle combined. And his 'Malfoy' was Gaara who was not a useless pain in the ass who faked injuries. Sasuke was always quiet. He watched, but said nothing.

The boy's dorm for the Japanese students was always quiet, save for the times when Temari came in and she and Kankurou fought. Of course, when they did fight, they'd step outside of the room and fight in the common room, where they wouldn't break something of their own. And where it was safer, since Gaara may get annoyed and try to toss them out the window like last time.

Otherwise, their room was the quietest room in the entire school. But the thick silence that day was suddenly broken by panicked screams.

"AAAAAH!"

"Gaara! Please stop it!"

"You were nice for just one moment! It's so nice to be around you when you're nice!"

"Please don't kill us!"

"I just became a chuuuuuniiiiiin!"

"We didn't interrupt you!"

The screaming continued for several minutes.

Two students glanced at each other for a moment.

"I don't understand what's going on in there..." the first said.

"...and I don't really want to," the second said, finishing the first's thoughts.

"Okay," Temari said, holding her hands up as if it would help save her from Gaara's sandy wrath. "Now we all know...don't interrupt Gaara when he's talking..."

Sand that covered the floor was retreating back into the corner where the empty gourd of sand lay.

"I already learned that," Kankurou said. "Instead, I was attacked and Sakura wasn't."

No one said anything as Gaara brainstormed for an excuse. Any excuse. "She apologized," he said.

"But I didn't do anything!" Kankurou whined. "I was quiet and sat in my corner and did my work!"

Gaara shrugged. "But you're still an easy target. That, and some of you provide amusing prey with the high-pitched voices you scream in," he said, staring at his brother, Neji, and Kiba.

"I'd tell you to shut up," Kiba said weakly, "but you're not Naruto, I'm not Naruto, and you might try to kill me again."

"And why was I a target?" Shikamaru complained. "I'm the one who's brain this mission depends on."

"Yeah, but you're brainwashing my sister. Do I need another reason?"

"Mendokusei..." Ugh... dating Temari pretty much meant agreeing to any target practice her brothers wished him to be a subject of.

"What else?" Tenten asked them. "Oh yeah, Gaara, did you figure out what your friends made Harry sign?"

"Nope. When I ask them, they only say it's a summoning contract. When I threaten them with death, they pass out, wake up, and say, 'what summoning contract?' It's frustrating."

"Talk about it," Kankurou retorted. "When they hid Karasu, they were like, 'oh, there is a crow in the sky right there!' And the moment I turn away, they run for their lives. Those damn twins."

"You do realize that Mariku and Mikoto are not twins, right?" Temari said.

"The point that I'm trying to make is that all three of them are as annoying as hell," Kankurou said.

"Oh, that weird orange claw thing that Naruto made," Ino said. "What the hell was that?"

Naruto shrugged. "No idea. I got pissed, said asshole, and it came out."

"What, so 'asshole' is some kind of wandless incantation for a spell?" Sasuke said incredulously.

"You wanna try it?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke held up his wand uncertainly. And then he stuck it back in his kunai pouch. "Nah," he said.

"Good," Shikamaru said. "Because it's not a spell, or any kind of wandless incantation. It is literally a lot of chakra. Tell me, what is different about Naruto from now and, let's say, before he went to the sand and became a chuunin."

"Easy!" Naruto said. "I'm a chuunin now!"

"No, you idiot," he replied. "Not your status."

"Um... I might have grown a bit..." Naruto stood up next to Sasuke and sat back down, sulking. "Nope..." he said sadly. "Still shorter."

"Baka..."

"Naruto hasn't changed at all," Shikamaru said. "But..." He grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled him into the middle of the shinobi circle. "Look."

"Ow. Yes, I have a hand, Shikamaru," Naruto said. "Sorry, but I don't hold hands with guys—"

"Idiot! Chakra beads!"

"What are those?" Naruto asked.

"They eat at your chakra," Shikamaru said. "It's—"

"They what at my chakra?"

"Think of it like a version of Shino's bugs," he said with a frown. "Shino's bugs eat his chakra and stay inside his body. It's like a contract. Shino sacrifices a certain amount of chakra and, in return, receives control over the thousands or millions of insects nesting in his body."

"I don't want things living inside of me!" Naruto whined. "I'm not a house!"

Shikamaru sighed. "The beads don't live inside of you. There are certain magic crystals in this world that absorb energy. Pearls, actually, are a weak version of them. Those beads are like super-charged pearls. More commonly found in this world rather than our own. It's rarer that the Makoto's had given Naruto such a thing, but I met them last week. They're not brilliant like that. Here, these are considered magic-absorbing crystals."

"I think I get it," Naruto said, "but—"

"Don't interrupt, I'm on a roll here," Shikamaru said. "Now...damn, I lost it. Okay, so the beads absorb your chakra... yeah. They take in your chakra, like a...storage. They store your chakra away. With enough control or whatever you used in the hallways, you could release the chakra and create whatever shape you need."

"Like what I did in the hallway!"

"No, not exactly, but it's close enough," he said. "You're probably one of the few who have enough chakra to actually fill up the beads, considering you have, what, twenty-four of them on there? Anyway, you need to learn chakra control with Harry and Kankurou."

"What?" Kankurou said. "I never agreed to that!"

"But you will," Gaara said.

"Fine..."

"Okay, we need to cut this short before curfew starts," Shikamaru said. "I updated the Shinobi Chronicle from parchment to a book. Limit your notes to one page a day. Less if you don't have enough information. Naruto, you report for your animal too. Update at least once a week if possible. I have the 'mother' book. Everything you write will be copied and transferred to my own. Try to keep it in Japanese. I don't want too many people reading our work. I have sent a request to Dumbledore for a list of every single student in Hogwarts, as well as one to Maxime for her students and Karkaroff for his. I am also looking up information on Dumbledore's current staff.

"There are too many books in the library for me to read in one school year, so I have here a list for each of you to research. These are books on spells, charms, and potions. Look up each and if there is any information on Confundus Charms, spells to change appearance, affects minds, anything. Don't be detailed. Just write down the name on the first several pages, which are reserved for things like this. First page is charms, second is transfiguration, third is potions, fourth is dark spells, fifth is miscellaneous. Write it like a list. Small but legible, please. When you write the name of the spell or whatever, it rearranges itself to move in alphabetical order, so make sure no one has already written it down before you. Don't write everything down at the same time. Write one spell, wait for it to rearrange itself first before you break it. I spent time working on the magic of these books, and if you break it, too bad, you write on a separate piece of parchment.

"And when you write it in the book use a pencil. I cannot stand these damn quills. To submit an entry, tap the page five times with the top of the pencil. If for some odd reason you can't do so, you could always bite your thumb and leave an imprint of your thumb on each four corners of the page. Am I clear on all this?"

"No," Naruto said hesitantly. "Not really." Ino nudged Hinata.

"Hinata'll explain it to you later," she said.

"That's all for today. But I kept the original pieces of parchment of our Shinobi Chronicles list. They'll now be communication parchments. Each of you have one. We talk to each other from long distances with it. Don't lose it. There's no submit button. It's like talking, only on paper. So if you stop in midsentence or word and leave it that way for several moments, we'll assume you dead or attacked. It automatically erases after ten minutes. If you want to go back and read your conversation, you can scroll up and down. To save it, tap it and say, 'imitatus sum'. This way, we don't have to communicate face to face. It's could be like a private conversation or a chat room. Try not to bump into each other in the hallway, or if you do, start something. Not a big fight, just show aggression. And Neji, I'll need your list of reactions from the Great Hall. Are you almost finished?"

"No. How about you try to memorize everybody's expressions after only a second's glance?" Neji asked irritably. "Nevermind. You probably could."

"Yeah," Shikamaru said. "So is that all for tonight?"

"That's all," everyone said eagerly, getting up.

"Thank god," Naruto said. "I've had enough of this thinking stuff."

Saturday, Halloween Morning

Naruto woke up with a huge grin on his face. He looked at the clock on the wall. 6:00. Well, he was supposed to get that wand today. He had plans for today, but with this whole wand weighing junk, he had to move it up earlier in the morning. He crept into another dorm.

"Harry," Naruto said, poking the boy. "Heeeey."

"No...no more training," Harry muttered in his sleep.

"Screw that," Naruto said, "I'm borrowing your broom."

"Okay..." he said, turning over and going back to sleep. In the Common room, Naruto hovered slightly on the broom and headed towards the girl's dorms. Careful not to touch the walls and alert the castle that there was a boy in the girl's dorms, he slowly floated up the stairs.

"Ino..." Naruto whispered innocently. "Can I borrow something of yours? Pleeeaaase? I wanna surprise someone with something."

"...Okay," she said, turning over in bed. "Jus' go 'way..."

Naruto, careful still not to touch the floor, hovered on the broom, rummaging around in Ino's trunk with her clothes in it until he found what he had been looking for. He grinned from ear to ear, already with his plan in mind. The ultimate prank.

Naruto put Harry's broom back in his room and crept out of the portrait, careful not to wake anybody at all. He ran down the castle towards the dungeons and to the Slytherin room. He said the password, 'Parseltongue' and the wall opened up. Naruto ran through the doors and...

Ran into Gaara.

"Aagh!" Naruto shouted, falling backward. "Ow... what are you doing awak—oh, yeah, it's you. Never mind."

"What are you doing in here?" the kazekage asked him.

"Playing."

"Oh." Gaara frowned. Did he want to know what Naruto was doing with that box?

"I'm going to use your bathroom," Naruto said. "Can you make sure no one comes in?"

Gaara raised an almost nonexistent eyebrow. "...Sure," he said suspiciously, with a hint of curiosity. What was this guy planning? He must have clogged the Gryffindor toilet, the idiot.

Naruto locked the door tight and Gaara kept a watch for early risers. Like Malfoy, who would wake up at ridiculous hours in the morning just to wash his hair. About thirty minutes later, Temari had woken up, and Shino was as well. The fangirls were stalking the corners of the common room, but they were paid no attention. Temari and Shino regarded him Gaara strangely, watching him guard the bathroom like an angry sentry.

"Gaara, what are you doing?" Temari asked. "I need to use the bath—" She gasped. The bathroom door had opened. "Oh...my...god..." she whispered, her face pale. The sand kunoichi looked faint, and Shino was too horrified for words.

Gaara was almost afraid to turn around. He did anyway. Temari: O.O... Shino: -.-... Gaara: O.o

What was the cause of their horror? Gaara twitched.

"Na-Naruto?" Temari said. "Is that you?"

"Sorta. Do I still sound like me?"

"Yes."

"Oh." The pale boy cleared his throat. "Ahem... fufufufufufu... How about now?"

"That's...just...perfect..." Shino said in both amazement and fear. This was so... weird.

"If I ever fall asleep, this is what I would have nightmares of," Gaara said. Naruto now had pale—almost grayish—skin, long black hair, and dark rings around his yellow eyes, almost like Gaara's, but only sharper and more defined. But that's not what frightened the three normally stoic shinobi the most. It was because 'Naruchimaru'...was wearing nothing but... but lilac colored, satin bathrobes. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Hey, can you guys do me a favor?" Naruto asked.

"Just...just as long as it doesn't involve any skin contact whatsoever," Temari said, backing away from him.

"Yeah, yeah, it doesn't," Naruto said. "Okay, I'm going to each something, and you're casting 'impedimenta' on my tongue."

"What?"

"Yeah. Just a weak one. Only my tongue, alright?" Naruto said. "Oh, and Shino?"

"...?" -

Naruto grinned. "We're going to need pictures of this. Lots and lots of pictures."

Sasuke couldn't tell if he was awake or not. He was currently laying in bed, sitting there with his eyes closed, just thinking. It was starting to get chilly. He should start sleeping with a shirt on.

"Saaasuke-kuuun," a familiar voice crooned. Sasuke, who had been sleeping peacefully in bed just moments before, stiffened at the sound of That Voice. No, no, no, it was probably just Ino... Just Ino. Ino with her creepy man-woman voice. Yeah. 'It was just Ino...' Sasuke thought. 'Either that, or this is just a horrible dream...'

But Sasuke's denial was cut short as he felt 'something' licked his arm.

"Wake uuup, Sasuke-kuun (heart)..."

That sounded like Sasuke's 'You-know-who'.

"...Come rub lotion on my baaack..."

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Sasuke shouted, jumping out of bed. Damn, is was that damn...pasty... Sannin snake-bastard...! At Hogwarts!

"Aw, Sasuke-kun, don't run awaaay," the pale 'Sannin' cooed, chasing after Sasuke. "Come baaaack!"

Sasuke ran away with a 'fufufu'-ing snake sannin following closely behind until... all of a sudden, there was aloud high pitched squeal, resonating throughout the Slytherin common room. Uh oh...

"Naruto," Gaara said in a low voice. He, Shino, and Temari were in the corner, watching Naruto pull the prank on Sasuke. "That was cold, even by my standards. You killed him. I could crush people with my sand without a second thought, but that was undeniably cruel." He shuddered at Sasuke's fate. Death by fangirls. Ugh...

"Eh?" Naruto looked out into the common room, where a countless number of girls were jumping Sasuke. Crap...he was right... And then Sasuke was going to come back to kill him.

"Wha's goin' on...?" Kankurou muttered, sitting up. The first thing he noticed the moment he opened his eyes was the satin robes. "...Hm..." And then he saw the pale 'man' wearing it.

"Orochimaru!" Kankurou said, as he took out his large scrolls from under his pillow, bed, and covers.

"Eh? No, don't kill me, it's me!" Naruto shouted, backing away. "Me!"

"...Sarea?" Kankurou paused and then shouted melodramatically, placing the back of his hand on his forehead. "Oh my, you're a man! I can't believe you lied to me. How could you! Now I have to break up with you!"

"Uh, no. It's me. Naruto."

"Dammit, Naruto! I almost broke up with her too!" he groaned. "What are you doing?"

"Um... I was trying to play a prank on Sasuke," Naruto said hesitantly. "And I think I may have killed him."

"Hn?" Kankurou looked outside at the man-eating, Sasuke-glomping crowd.

"I don't think I want to know what they're doing to him," the blond sighed, hearing Sasuke's screams.

"Ah, I always told him he should sleep with his shirt on..." the puppeteer said sagely.

"Haha, so it's not my fault then."

"Actually, yeah, it is."

"I am so dead."

"Or Sasuke is," Temari added, not very helpfully.

"I'll save him!" Kankurou said. "Hey Shino, you don't have anything expensive or breakable on you, do you?"

"...Aside from Creevey's camera, no."

"Good." Kankurou grabbed 'Shino's' camera and his top layer of coats, pulling them off all in one motion, as he kicked the off guard Aburame out of the bedroom and into the common room. More girls let out screams like a supersonic explosion as Shino, without his top layer safely covering his face, made his appearance to the public, the first time anyone here had ever seen him completely without the top layer.

"..." Naruto wasn't sure what Kankurou had done exactly, or why he had done it, until he saw that the girls were everywhere. They were scrambling for their cameras, away from the crowd as Shino and Sasuke, with disheveled hair, scrambled back into the room on their hands and knees with a manic, fearful look in their eyes as they slammed the door shut and locked it with a spell. For extra protection, they both barricaded themselves inside, using Kankurou's bed, the bookshelf, and Gaara's desk. Gaara inconspicuously removed a box from his work table. People kept on finding it. Luckily, no one ever paid any close attention to it. Where should he hide it now...?

"Naruto," Sasuke said in a menacing voice.

"...Kankurou," Shino said, almost inaudible. Although you could barely hear it, you could literally feel the anger emanating from him. Or maybe it was just the swarm of insects raging inside the human beehive.

"H-Hey..." Kankurou said, nervously, backing away. "It...it was for both of your good! I mean... Sasuke needed help out there and you were the perfect distraction!"

"And you can't blame me! I haven't played a prank in forever, and I was just about to burst from that!" Naruto said. "It was a do-or-die situation, I swea—!"

"How did you do this?" Sasuke said, somewhere between calm and psychotic, his red eyes gleaming. "My sharingan does not work with this genjutsu."

"It's makeup," Naruto said, eager to lead the Uchiha's attention away from what just happened. "I got it in Sunagakure. And um..."

"..." There was a brief scuffle, and then...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Naruto and Kankurou's screamed echoed throughout the school.

"Those idiots..." Gaara muttered under his breath, leaning on the wall outside the infirmary with Sakura. "They're so... idiotic." He shook his head, annoyed that he couldn't come up with a better comment.

"Hey, that's circular logic," Sakura said, joking. "So what happened in there?"

"Naruto pranked Sasuke," Gaara said. "And Kankurou tossed Shino out into the common room without his sunglasses and his coat. Now look." Kankurou was completely swathed in bandages, unable to escape the wrath of the two shinobi.

Sakura paused and looked inside one more, finally understanding why the blond was brought unconscious to the infirmary wearing nothing but satin lilac robes and grayish, smeared makeup with a three foot long tongue lolling about outside his mouth. That was when she realized what had happened.

"My god..." Sakura sighed. "He ran into the Slytherin house... dressed as Orochimaru."

"Naruchimaru," Gaara said with a shrug. "It sounds less..."

"Evil?" she said with a smile.

"I was going for weird, but yes. Evil is fine."

"...How on earth can he sleep with that thing in his mouth?" Sakura said. "We should take it out."

"I would advise not to," Gaara said. "That's his real tongue."

"...Oh."

"Zzzzzzzzz..."

Gaara glanced back inside the room and Naruto, and then the clock, and shook his head. Naruto's leg twitched a bit. He snorted in his sleep. Irritated, pale green eyes glared down at the sleeping target.

"Any minute now..." he said. The fire turned green. "We need to go now, I guess," he said to Sakura. With a wary eye out for Pomfrey, he quickly walked inside the room and, after shrinking his massive tongue, lightly covered his face with a pillow. Naruto, suddenly cut off from his precious air, woke up with a start.

"Aaaaaah!" Naruto shouted, suddenly seeing Gaara there, believing he was trying to kill him. It was a perfectly reasonably response, considering Gaara had been a mad killer before. "What are you doing? It's Saturday!"

"Do you not remember anything that happened this morning? This is the second time you've woken up, and the first was of your own accord."

"...Oh yeah!" Naruto said excited, laughing about his Halloween prank.

"Get up."

"Why?"

"Does this remind you of anything?" Gaara asked him picking up Naruto's wand off the night table. It was snapped in two places again, with on end dangling by a thin splinter of wood.

"Mm...Sorry. No."

"You're getting your stupid wand today," Gaara said impatiently. "Up!"

"Ugh, now I know how Harry feels when we drag him out of bed," he muttered, pulling on a white T-shirt with the Leaf symbol on it. "But yay! I don't have to dress up!"

"That shirt is disgustingly plain," Gaara said disdainfully.

"And yours is disgustingly black," Naruto replied, not at all offended by Gaara's look of contempt. "Anyway, do you want me to go back to orange and black?"

"Stick with the T-shirt," he said.

"You went back to your old robes?" Naruto asked Gaara incredulously. Gaara looked down at his outfit, the same he had usually worn at the Sand.

"They are much more durable and comfortable than my others," Gaara said stiffly.

"Well, I'm not sure about comfortable, since you've got that giant gourd hanging on your back, but I know they're durable alright. That Deidara dude blew you up, and it was still in one piece, even though you weren't."

Gaara just shrugged, still a bit touchy about his 'resurrection'. "I wasn't the one 'in pieces'. It was my face. And the sand armor."

"Eh. Yeah, that always looks creepy. I didn't see it anyway. It must've been a pretty damn good fight," Naruto said cheerfully as they left the common room..

"The fire's green. Let's go," he said, ignoring Naruto's question. He was a ninja. Did he really need to explain? He and Naruto, went through the fire, expecting to end up in Dumbledore's office when, instead, they found themselves entering another room, this one filled with dusty racks of boxes.

"Gah!" Someone was there! Oh wait... it was just that wannabe Hyuuga.

"You boys are luckier than most," Mr. Ollivander said, walking out from behind a rack. "Dumbledore's paying for both your wands. Now, wand arm?"

"Huh?"

"Writing hand, Naruto," Gaara said to him.

"Oh."

Naruto and Gaara lifted their arms and found themselves having a measuring tape flying through the air, taking several measurements.

"Hm, okay, a ten and a half inch for you," Mr. Ollivander said to Naruto, "and a eleven inch for you," he said to Gaara.

"Hey, why is his wand is longer than mine?"

"He's taller than you. Wands are made proportional to the user's height," Mr. Ollivander said, leading them down a row, labeled "10-11".

"Nuh-uh! I grew! I'm taller than Gaara! Or at least we're the same height! Look!" Naruto said, standing in front of Gaara, putting a hand on top of his own head and trying to evenly reach for Gaara's to measure their heights.

"You're hand is going down," Gaara noted, somewhere between amused and annoyed (1).

"Take a wand, and give them a swish," Mr. Ollivander said.

"But I grew," Naruto said sadly, picking up the first wand under 10 1/2 inches. He waved it. A shelf from the back of the shop collapsed. "Hey, Mr. Ollivander, I'll take this one."

"Keep on going," Mr. Ollivander said.

"You're average," Gaara said impassively. "Just be glad you weren't as ridiculously short as you were before, the shortest in your team." He waved a wand. Someone outside the shop screamed. Gaara made a shocked 'Oops-I-didn't-(mean-to)-do-it' face and put it back in the box and mercilessly crammed the box back into the shelf.

"Hey, you were the shortest on your team too!" (Bang!)

"Ah, pardon me for being smaller than my older siblings." ("Aaaah!")

"It's not as if you were that much taller than me anyway," Naruto muttered. "What, it was a one inch difference?" (Crash!)

"I don't think I was that short." (Bam!)

"How tall were you when we first met? I was four feet nine inches." ("Help!")

"I was four feet ten—wait...dammit." ("Someone get us a medi-wizard! This man is dying on us!")

"Hah! I'm right and you're wrong!" ("What the fuck?" a familiar voice said.)

"Well, there's a first for everything," Gaara said thoughtfully. (Bash!)

"That was mean," Naruto sighed. (Fwoop?)

"That's enough!" Mr. Ollivander said hastily, after almost an hour of destruction and chaos.

"But we haven't found anything that isn't destructive yet," Naruto said.

"And I have a feeling that should I allow this to continue, more destruction shall ensue," he said. "I know..."

He reached forward and grabbed a strand of Naruto's hair, pulling it out. "Ow!"

Mr. Ollivander went for Gaara's only to have been stopped. He pulled out his own hair, making sure it didn't hurt himself in any way. "You wouldn't like the results if you brashly caused me pain yourself," Gaara warned. All of a sudden, they were shoved out of the wand shop and onto the streets where injured people laid on the sidewalk, victim of mysterious attacks, waiting for the mediwizard to heal them. Naruto and Gaara exchanged guilty glances.

"Stay," Mr. Ollivander said. He waved his own wand, and the doors swung shut, the windows closed, and the room inside went dark.

"How degrading," Gaara said. "What are we, dogs?"

"What are we supposed to do?" Naruto said. "Sit outside?"

Gaara frowned, seeing a familiar dark-haired stranger pacing in front of the Magical Menagerie. "I'm not sitting or waiting for nothing," he said. "Come on."

"Why?" Naruto followed Gaara, who walked up to the unsuspecting victim and grabbed a handful of hair.

"Aaah!" the person screamed.

"Gaara! He didn't do anything to— ...Kurogane?"

"What the fuck?" he hissed at them. "Who the hell do you think you ar—Naruto? Gaara?"

"We specifically ordered for you to stay with the Makoto girls," Gaara said firmly, not relinquishing his hold on the older boy's hair.

"You guys don't know what it's like being under their...their servitude! Do you know what I went through in that little hellhole? They made me clean up the whole goddamn place, and they tested their products on me, and... and they..." he shuddered. "They dressed me up..."

Gaara winced, but shook his head. "I'm Kazekage, and my word is law," he said, almost feeling sorry for the older boy.

"Only to the Sand!" Kurogane insisted. "I'm not from the Sand! Technically from the Sound. But that's not even the reason I left! I mean, I've gone through worst things than that before. It's just that...I, um...Madoka..."

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"Who's Madoka?"

"His girlfriend—"

"My servant! ...Ex-servant. Whatever"

"Same thing, I guess."

"So what happened?" Naruto repeated.

"I, um, I kinda lost her dog," he said. "And she got mad at me. And she sent back a letter for me. I really think she's angry. The letter yelled at me and blew up."

"And what does that has what to do with this?" Gaara asked.

"Well, I left to find a dog that looked exactly like hers. I sent her the letter yesterday, by the way. I gave up. People kept on saying there is no kind of dog like that. Only some grim thing."

"Well why didn't you go back?"

"I decided I would make one last stop," Kurogane said, pointing at a trashed looking building. "But something weird happened. I was about to enter the Magical Menagerie place, and then the hole front part of the building collapsed on me. I mean, it just suddenly fell. It was a miracle I came out in one piece, you know?"

"...Oh." Naruto and Gaara guiltily looked away.

"You'll go back to Hogsmeade," Gaara ordered. "But there is one thing left that I need to talk about."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Kurogane. You're purpose is to bring together Jinchuuriki?"

Kurogane paused, trading glances with Naruto, who looked a bit nervous. "Yes," Kurogane said uncertainly.

"Out of curiosity, who have you gotten so far?" Gaara asked.

"Um, the Nibi Nekomata, Haruka. I was planning on getting her. And then she was taken by the Akatsuki. And killed. And later cremated," he said. "Um, I was approaching Shichibi Kaku, the contained inside Deikuon. But then he was killed too. And later cremated. And then I was going to approach you. But then you were defeated and captured by Deidara. And then you were killed. And I gave up, bit Chiyo-san brought you back to life."

"Oh. And when did you meet Naruto?"

"Some time last year. Between the time Deikuon was killed and before you were. Naruto was on a training trip with Jiraiya."

"Oh."

"What's the point of this?" Naruto asked.

"I know you're a Jinchuuriki," Gaara said to Naruto who froze.

"...Oh. How'd you find out?"

Gaara shrugged. "Apparently, my underlings knew and never told me until recently."

"Ah. Um, okay."

"Well," Kurogane said, staring hard at a bug. "This is rather uncomfortable." (2)

"Don't look so shocked," Gaara said. "Does it really matter whether I know or not? We're both the same, and my opinion of you hasn't changed, and I don't think it ever will. You're nothing but an 'irritating beast of burden' who won't stop pranking people and tend to think positively way too much for your own good."

Naruto stared at him.

"That's a good thing, by the way," he added.

"Ooh, okay."

"Just so you know, you helped me before in the exams. My first actual friend (who hasn't tried to kill me). And just so you know, I'm not going to act any differently around you just because I realize that you are more alike than you admitted to me the day you beat the hell out of me," Gaara said.

"Hehe, I did beat you, didn't I?" Naruto chuckled.

"I bet you can't anymore," Gaara said. "Anyway, I lack colleagues that I can trust not to stab me in the back. My mother died hating me and the rest of the village. Even my uncle Yashamaru, while my father was Kazekage, even tried to kill me when I was six. All because my father forced the demon Shukaku of Sunagakure into my body. You were the first person not to try to kill me while my back is turned for some idiotic reason, so you can trust me not to tell anyone about your demon. And I suppose it's nice that I can find something I can share with someone. Or more than one person. And backup at times like these would be appreciated..." What else was he going to say...? He should've made note cards.

"I'm done," Mr. Ollivander said, opening the doors, to find the two boys gone. He looked around and saw them across the street. "I told you two to stay!"

Gaara frowned. Screw remembering the speech. Speech was for kages with time on their hands. "Alright, Kurogane, we've got to cut this short. To sum it all up, I'm interested in what you've got in mind. I support you with this small, three-man organization—"

"Aw, are you serious?" Naruto asked. "Now look, Kurogane! You're infected his mind!"

"What do you mean infected? I'm not contagious! And it's not just three—"

"—but I'm not involving myself in any war," Gaara continued forcefully. He flicked a bug off his sleeve. "All I'm doing is providing safe shelter and hideouts for Jinchuuriki. That's all. Now you go back to Hogsmeade, or I will hunt you down and murder you, thus omitting and contract and/or promises I have made."

Kurogane nodded smugly. "Got it." He disappeared in a cloud of smoke as Naruto and Gaara were ushered back into Mr. Ollivander's Wand Shop.

"Where are you sending—?" Gaara started to ask as Mr. Ollivander pushed them toward the fireplace again and tossed some Floo powder into the fire. Gaara and Naruto were handed two narrow boxes and were shoved into the fireplace and fell out in a very strange environment.

"Where the hell are we now?" Naruto asked, looking at his surroundings.

Sakura sighed in the library. Hermione was looking up more information for her SPEW project. Sakura liked studying with the girl. She was smart and caught on to things quickly. Unfortunately, she was currently somewhat obsessed with her SPEW organization. Viktor Krum was in there as well, almost as if he were looking for Gaara for guidance. Girls kept on coming in and out of the library, giggling and stalking him. Sakura sighed, getting out of her chair and walked up to him.

"If you're always alone like that, you're easy prey for fangirls," she said to him. "Come on." She grabbed his arm and was relieved he didn't refuse to go with her.

Actually, he tried, but with her strength, she didn't notice him pulling back.

"...Anyway, you need our help too," she said, pulling him over to a table at the back of the library near Hermione's 'lair' of stacks of books.

"Vot do you mean?" he asked.

"The fan clubs," Sakura said. "They're getting out of control around here. It's like a bug. Or a virus. Or a pandemic. Either way, they're dangerous. Shino here—the guy with the shades—has a 'photography' fan club. Basically, all members included chase him around with a pictures after an unfortunate event in CoMC—Care of Magical Creatures—with Hagrid. Whoever gets a clear picture will get a fifty-five galleon prize. The price is going up as more people join and as Shino manages to avoid more and more photographers.

"Kankurou's club actually is mainly consisting of Slytherin guys. It's not as if they love him or anything, but... they're all obsessed about beating up small people. Or people who annoy them. Or anyone in general. There's also some kind of club called Kiss or something. It's weird...

"Gaara's club is full of people who are scared of him. Some really like him, some are trying to think up of ways to catch him 'off guard'," Sakura said. She laughed. "Good luck with that...It's the same thing with Sasuke's fan club. Guys hate him, girls love him. Last is Neji. It's the hair and the eyes. There's a club that's stalking him with the white eyes. One for him and Hinata. Another one for long haired guys, also including Sasuke. And then, there's the last club, including most of us, but only because we're 'geniuses'. With you and Fleur and Cedric... well, you three were the last straw, and now people are getting jumped everywhere. In short, this is all your faults."

"Oh," Viktor said, not sure what to say in response to that.

"My fan club has gotten particularly aggressive," Sasuke, who had looked like he had seen much better days, said.

"So," Temari said, "we are here brainstorming possible solutions."

Shikamaru held up a list.

1. Hose public fan club supporters. --Ino
2. Blackmail. --Sasuke
3. Beat them up in houses. Send some of our own to Hufflepuff house to wipe them out as well. --Temari
4. Public humiliation. --Neji
5. Fan club fee. --Kiba

"That is, um, very interesting," Viktor said. He looked around, noticing two missing faces at the table of Japanese students. The ones with the marks on their faces. "But vhere is Gaara? And that uther one, Naruto?"

"Oh, there was something about rescheduling and they're getting their wands today," Sakura said. She looked at the clock in the library. "It is weird though. They've been gone for a few hours now. Does it usually take that long to just get a wand?"

"No," Viktor said. Sakura took out a long piece of parchment and took out a muggle 'pencil'.

She wrote 'Gaara' and 'Naruto' on top of the page and started writing on it.

Flower: Hey, where are you guys?

Sakura waited for a moment. The gray name 'Naruto' boldened first as she received a response.

G.U.N.: Hi --Sak--—FLOWER! Sweet! These things work! Oh yeah! Question... um, Gaara and I are somewhere in a place called Africa. I think.

Sakura frowned, looking down at the note.

Flower: WHAT?

Viktor watched as 'Gaara' boldened as well, and she got another response under hers.

Mr. Sandman: We're not really sure. We're supposed to be hunting some magic stuff on a reserve for a wand core. Like, a nunda or a kaimera or something. This might take a while. G.U.N. and I lost our guide in the jungle somewhere. Oh, and his name's Bill. And Bill asked for you guys to say hi to Ron earlier.
Flower: I could look up some stuff from the library here. That's where I am right now. Are you sure you're in ' Africa'?
Mr. Sandman: Probably. There were some dark skinned villagers holding a spear at Naruto's throat, but we took care of them fairly easily.
Flower: ((pause)) Oh. Are they dead?
G.U.N.: We'll bring you back something good to eat, Hana-chan!
Mr. Sandman: No we won't. Food here is nasty. There was some bat shit lying around that the locals ate.
Flower: Hehe, okay. Well, I'll tell the others where you are.
Mr. Sandman: One thing. Will you feed my owl for me?
Flower: Sure.
Mr. Sandman: Oh, and the Makoto girls usually send me daily mail. Can you do me a favor and check prices on inventory? They usually have me double check their stock and supplies. They're pathetic with numbers, and it was just my luck that it was the smart one that decided to stay Home. I'll pay you for it if you want.
G.U.N.: Don't do it! It's a trap! He's just giving you all his wor—

The writing stopped.

Flower: N—GUN?
Mr. Sandman: He's busy right now.
Flower: Um...okay. Anyway, feed the Yaksa, check your mail...anything else?
Mr. Sandman: Don't open anything that isn't from the Makotos. Their parcels usually say Makoto on it, but you might not be able to read it, so just look for one in tacky wrapping paper.
Flower: What kind of paper?
Mr. Sandman: I don't know. It's completely random. Last time it had purple Christmas trees on it with a green background. The time before that something with yellow hearts and orange four-leaf clovers. So it would've been either Valentine's or St. Patrick's Day's. I can't tell if they're color blind or stupid. Anyway, they're the only ones who send me packages so bright they blind you.
Flower: So DON'T open anything not from Makotos. Got it. Oh. Nice 'screen name' by the way.
Mr. Sandman: What the hell is a screename?
Flower: The 'Mr. Sandman'.
Mr. Sandman: It's not as if I chose that damn name!
Flower: Well, I don't think Shikamaru would name you something like that...
Mr. Sandman: Well he's under the influence of Temari. He might.
Flower: Ah, that's true.
G.U.N.: Hana-chan, Gaara tried to kill me!
Flower: Gaara, stop trying to kill Naruto!

"Gun and Sandman are Naruto and Gaara?" Viktor asked.

"Eh..." Sakura frowned. "Don't tell anyone," she warned him. "Um... Gaara doesn't want people to call him Mr. Sandman, you know?

Mr. Sandman: As you say, Hana-hime!
Flower: ...Gaara?
G.U.N.: No! I'm Gaara! Naruto took my parchment! Make him give it back, dammit, before I kill him!
Flower: Naruto, give Gaara back his parchment!
Mr. Sandman: But I'M Mr. Sandman! Haha!
G.U.N.: You dead!
Flower: Wait, before you guys go, what are you hunting?
G.U.N.: Hn, some goat-lion dragon thing and a really big leopard.
Flower: Ah, happy hunting.
G.U.N.: Happy... (there was a long pause) Saturday?

Sakura had to laugh at that confused response. Viktor looked slightly confused.

"I only noticed it recently, but it's kinda cute when Gaara's not sure what to say," she said with a grin. "He's like a little kid."

Viktor, or anyone else for that matter, did not know what was so funny about it. Whenever Gaara was struggling for words, he had the strangest look in the eye that said he was going to kill everyone in the room who saw him in a weak position. Of course, maybe he just looked at Sakura in a different, not so menacing way. It must be that. Because by now, even after only a few short moments of actually speaking to the red-haired boy, Viktor was sure that Gaara was one of the most fear-inspiring figures he had ever met in his life. Maybe it was the pale eyes that seemed to become completely clear like the Hyuugas' when he was angry. Maybe it was the dark, menacing circles around it, since they made him look like a menacing 'punk'. Or maybe it was the fact that his gourd, as his siblings had mentioned several times, could kill people, and he had witnessed it move in peculiar, not normal ways.

"So...Gaara is in Africa," Viktor said.

"Yes. Probably," Sakura said, taking out another book from a nearby shelf. She opened it to the atlas in front. "This is the world map...?" he could hear her wonder in a soft voice to herself, perhaps unaware that Viktor was listening to her muttering. "Okay. So Africa is a really big place," she said in a louder voice, one that was probably meant to be actually be heard. "I just don't know where they are in there."

"And... he said that they are hunting... a nundu and a chimera?"

"Chimera? Hm, they probably spelled it wrong," Sakura said. "But yeah, it looks like it. What's a nundu and chimera?"

Viktor frowned, only remembering something about a dangerous rating of XXXXX. "It may be...in the book that He-Herm...oh...ai...nine...ee has," he said uncertainly.

"Hermione? How would you know what book she has?" she asked, taking out her list of school books. "Hm... I don't have anything about here on those things, but thanks," Sakura said. "We'll look it up later."

"Ah, okay," Viktor said. As soon as Sakura started looking through her books, he left the library to find Fleur and Cedric, to tell them about what he found out. (3)

Personally, I don't mind the threats. It's fun to read, even though somewhat intimidating.

(1) When kids measure each other and compare heights, they're hand usually drifts up or down, whether they want it or not. I don't know how to explain it but... yeah.
(2) I'm not really sure how Naruto should react to that... I mean, ordinarily, I suppose he would probably freak out... but Gaara is Jinchuuriki too. So it's not as big of a deal.
(3) Anyway, no, Viktor's not a bad guy. None of the champions really are. They're just curious. I mean, who wouldn't be? They want to know if they were the ones who 'helped' Harry enter the tournament thing. Viktor don't really think he entered himself, Cedric's confused, and Fleur is positive that he did it. So, since they all want to find out, they're working together like a team! Yaaaay! Teamwork! But only for things like this. And finding out more about these Japanese people, since they're all, um... a bit strange. You know, the way they fight, no wands, bringing weapons to school, and occasionally looking like they're flying when they run through the hallways. Some might think they're strange. The champions do too.

My Thinking Corner

Wow, my fic is sooo great, that everybody's copying it! Ooooooh. Yeah. -.- Someone had copied the first 2 chapters of his fic and was probably planning on copying more. Okay, so it's not really exact anymore, but only because I had gone back and fixed all/most of the spelling mistakes. The spelling mistakes that the person who copied had failed to correct. So I spent the day writing a personal flame for them. I didn't send it or submit it or anything. Why? If fictionpress didn't get rid of the author, then I'd flame their damn ass off. I got almost four pages of flame, just on their profile. Oh, and oddly enough, this person had ALSO stolen my profile. Every single one of my favorite quotes, same order, same everything. It's too bad that they deleted that person, because if they didn't, I would've sent it.
On the other hand, I now have a wonderful idea! A flame forum! Or an anti-flame forum. Basically, writers go there to let out their steam with retarded reviews, plagiarism, n00bs, Mary Sues, etc! I hadn't made it yet, but I think it'll be fun. Then again, maybe it's also somewhat offending... whatever. Don't really care. But do you think a(n) (anti-)flame forum is a good idea or no?

The parchment they have is like a 'write it yourself chatroom'! Like, on AIM. I was just inspired by reading something about a thing that JK Rowling was planning. I have no idea what she's really thinking, but I do know that she has some sort of wizard version of the internet in mind. So I was thinking... "I have no idea how to make an internet thing...but I do know how to get them to communicate on paper altogether from completely different places!"

And no bashing in this fic. I received two kill (insert name here) reviews. I don't kill off characters without a good reason, whether it is to advance the plot or because I have no idea what to do with them (sweatdrop). Hermione isn't completely unimportant and she's not too bad in my opinion. I mean, the worst she's done is nearly kill Harry's firebolt in the 3rd book, and nothing bad happened then either, you know? As for Rita Skeeter... mehehehe...I'm sorry, people, she's not going to die... but there is going to be a bit of a series of war in Hogwarts, a verbal war and a sneaky ninja war. Okay, okay, I suppose all of you are going to be annoyed that I'm not Offing her, but... I need to keep her, so that another person on the shinobi's side could do something too. (nooo, I'm not being vague on purpose! Of COURSE not...(shifty eyes)) Anyway, her role is to help another person's role, for comedy's sake. If you think about it really really really really hard, you might figure out what I'm doing and who I am doing it with. Or, you can just IM me and catch me offguard, which you WON'T be doing! After I accidentally leaked out a bit of information (okay, not an accident, but I shouldn't have done it anyway), I'm being more careful not to do that anymore...
Oh, and there will be no duel club in this fic. I'll have to leave something left for the next rest. But I did have a weird dream involving a pillow fight recently. but instead of pillows, we were throwing giant marshmallows at each other (marshmallows, mm...). And then they somehow turned into bags of sand. Too bad Gaara wasn't there. I totally wish I could choose what I dream up. But a pillow fight: ninja style!

I hope the Halloween prank satisfies your needs. It did mine. Oh, and Dragon Man 180 helped inspire me!

Oh, and to the Violent Tomboy...your guess was completely off. Crab? Lobster? Bat? I never mentioned any of those as a puppet... Yet somehow, you actually almost got two of his three newer puppets. The fourth one he had gotten that Sasori didn't break, before the Makoto's gave him the other two.

Thank you, darkflame, for the advice about my updating schedule.

A "Just so you know" list:
-The shinobi aren't supposed to use their jutsus in the tournament. They said they won't because they shouldn't and they just want to avoid bringing attention to themselves. So, they sorta 'swore'/promised not to do anything big like that, but if you hadn't noticed, like me, they tend to break their own rules.
-Harry already has his magic back, as you can tell from that spell he shot at Malfoy, but he can't really manage it up with his lack of control over his magic.
-As for the puppet, it's not hitokugutsu. Remember that Chiyo and Sasori were the only ones (or something) who were able to pull it off, or else EVERYONE will be digging up graves to get bodies. The puppet's blond, and so are the older Makotos, buuuut, no. It's not modeled to look after them.
-Oh, and to those who asked, I have a lvl 32 and a lvl 33 cleric on Scania. And I know what you mean. I work so hard, but everyone's, like, in level 2564758052s. Oh, and to those who would actually try to play MS just to find out whether I'm a girl or a guy... too bad, because I have one account that's one sex, and another that's the opposite sex (courtesy of a friend who no longer plays), so HAH! To those who don't know what the heck I am talking about... yeah.
-Most people guessed that I was a guy... Everyone thinks I'm a guy, but AM I? Hm... Yeah, anyway, I'm not telling anyone. I mean, I accidentally told one person. He IMed me, and then we talk and then I'm extra careful using 'he/she' and all sorts of things, but then I made ONE TINY MISTAKE of accidentally forgetting to change the he or the she to the he/she and now one person is absolutely sure of what gender I am... Now I just gotta keep other people who talk to me from knowing. (twitches, paranoid-ly). I feel bad though, because I ruined the big surprise for the end of this fic... I mean, the person really doesn't mind but... (sighs), you know...

And, as you know, threats to update have become shockingling frightening (news anchorman/anchorwoman mode, complete with a microphone). A reader is currently holding me hostage. It seems I'm wanted for slow updates, so I am currently stuck in Haku's mirror trap technique (hey, that sounds kinda cool...). How much my ransom will be? It will most probably be paid off in chapters. Once I'm at chapter 25, I'll be free! In the meantime, while he's reading the next few chapters, I'll be trying to sneak away. (shifty eyes)

Anyway, I'm not sure whether two story critics of mine are still with me...I haven't heard from them since Chapter 19. You guys still alive? Then again, I haven't really been giving them too much time to edit. I guess it's too fast, usually posting my chapters 2 days after I send the rough drafts or 2 days after I get my first response back... I'm just impatient I guess. And lacking a life. I also told myself to give myself at least a week to type the chapters and a week for the others to edit, but I keep on breaking my own self-promise stuff... That's just pathetic... (no willpower...) T-T