Chapter 25

D.A. lessons were going very well. Harry and Hermione had taken out quite a few library books that showed some more advanced spells than they had been teaching. They were spells they would probably need. Ron wasn't really helping much and seemed slightly outcast. He was the one who never thought any of it was a good idea.

Shikamaru made a list overnight of all the basic skills they would probably need. Naruto and Sakura weren't sure if they would actually have enough time for all of them.

Along with their D.A. meetings, they also had to worry about the upcoming OWLs. That was sure to be real fun, though Hermione was enjoying all the work she had to do.

As a month went by and it dragged into February, then March, all the fifth years were starting to panic. Loads of homework was dumped onto them. They were hardly staying on top of it all along with D.A. lessons two to three times a week. When the next D.A. meeting came, they had to make a decision.

When everyone entered (a few said they weren't coming due to too much homework), Hermione stood. "It seems like the majority of this group is made up of fifth years. We have our OWLs this year and the professors are giving us more and more homework in order to prepare us. Ron, Harry, and I have all decided that we are going to limit the amount of D.A. meetings we have to one every other week-"

She was abruptly cut off when a huge uproar began. Nobody wanted to have to wait two weeks to have a meeting.

"We aren't all fifth years!"

"Some of us really need the improvement!"

"It's not fair to those of us who want to anyway!"

The uproar continued until Naruto jumped up and yelled, "SHUT UP AND LISTEN!"

The room grew silent instantly. Harry gave Naruto a grateful look before standing in front. "Look, we know you all really want to keep doing the D.A. anyway, but fifth years are getting swamped and we can't keep up with the homework and studying. We will still do it, but it has to be limited. I'm sorry."

That ended the meeting. Most of them stormed out angrily. Harry rolled his eyes. Ginny took out her wand, looked at the cushions still piled up and flicked her wand. The cushions went flying in all directions.

Ron yelled at her, but she only slammed the door behind her. Hermione sighed. "Well, that could have gone better."

They all left the Room of Requirement and went back to the common room. Hermione and Harry didn't really want to, since they were going to be blamed for it, so they detoured to the library. It was only 6:40, since they didn't have a full meeting.

Shikamaru followed them and left Naruto and Sakura. Ron had wondered off when he saw Naruto and Sakura getting closer and closer together, lips brushing against each other.

They were alone and used that to their advantage. Quickly, their tongues found each other and battled for dominance. Naruto was getting slightly ravenous as he started sucking her lip. She moaned in happiness.

His hand slid down from her face and slowly made its way down her side. It suddenly squeezed at a certain area and Sakura jumped back. She got ready to slap him, but he ducked.

"What was that? Why did you do that?" He slunk back a bit. "I love you so much. It just kinda happened."

"Well, I don't like it. It's way too soon to do anything like that. Sasuke would never have-" Her eyes widened when she realized what she had said. Naruto's, on the other hand, narrowed.

"...I should've known you were never over him. Why did I ever believe you were truly over him?" He turned away and started walking, Sakura stuttering his name quietly.

"N-Naruto, please, N-Naruto!"

The room was pitch black by the time Naruto finally went back to the dormitory. Shikamaru had come back earlier. He heard Sakura crying and saw Naruto not there. He said nothing and went straight to bed. Sakura had cried herself to sleep.

Naruto grabbed some pajamas and went to the bathroom. He looked at the mirror and saw his tear-stained face, his eyes red and puffy. He sighed and washed his face. Quickly, he changed and left the bathroom. He laid down on his bed, but sleep refused to come to him, no matter what he tried.

Eventually, he gave up on sleep and left the room. On his way downstairs, he heard voices. He stopped at the doorway and listened in.

"...you doing Dumbledore's Army. I'm only passing on the message." A familiar but garbled voice said. Ron replied, saying, "Well, tell my mum to bugger off. It's my choice."

There was a laugh, then coughing. After the coughing fit, the voice said, "I think it's a brilliant idea. I'm not really sure why Molly doesn't like it. You're going to have to learn it some way or another. It's better if it's with someone like you. You really have James' traits."

"Thanks, Sirius, but I'm really not all that great." There was a small outburst in protest then Sirius left. Naruto hurried back up the stairs and went back to his room. He suddenly felt much more drained, but still didn't manage to fall asleep again. The thought that Sakura was in the same room just made him feel...

He left again and went downstairs, this time with no one else down there. He looked at the smoldering remains of the fire. As he thought back, he realized Harry, Hermione, and Ron were talking to the fire.

'There's no way. My mind is too tired to comprehend anything of importance right now.' Naruto laid down on the couch and instantly fell asleep.

Morning brought Naruto out of his slumber. It was Saturday, and he had never been happier. He stretched out and saw no one else there yet. He looked at his watch and saw that it was seven in the morning.

Grumbling, he stood and left the common room. He would rather go upstairs and get some more sleep, but he refused to get near Sakura.

He didn't understand why he was so mad at her for it, but he couldn't help it. He just hated the fact that he was hopeful enough to think she had gotten over Sasuke. 'I bet every time we kissed, she was imagining him in my place.'

He suddenly felt sick and decided to get some air. Leaving the castle, he made his was to the forbidden forest. He planned on getting some practice in while he could.

Naruto found a sufficient tree and practiced kicks and punches. Before he knew it, the tree was falling over. He somehow made Rasengan and punched it through the tree. He blinked at the falling tree.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Naruto spun around and saw Shikamaru standing there. Naruto shrugged, which made Shikamaru sigh. "Come on, it's time for breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," Naruto said and turned back around. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Look, Naruto, Sakura feels horrible about what she said. It doesn't mean that she still loves Sasuke. You need to forgive her for her mistake."

Naruto turned back around. "Why didn't she say all of this to my face? If she's really that sorry, she should be telling me, not you."

"She knows that you will ignore her if she tries. She's going to talk to you at breakfast. Now, lets go." Shikamaru grabbed Naruto's arm and started pulling him along. Naruto attempted to get away, but realized that he wasn't moving of his own free will. Shikamaru let go of his arm and a shadow was formed.

"That's just plain mean!" Shikamaru smiled. They made there way back to the castle, Naruto really wishing he could run away. He didn't like the feeling of his body moving on its own.

When they arrived in the Great Hall, it was bustling with activity. Shikamaru lead Naruto over to the Gryffindor table and sat down across from Sakura, who was picking at her food.

"Now, you two need to talk." With that, Shikamaru delved into his food, keeping his jutsu on Naruto just in case. Sakura noticed that and almost laughed before she saw Naruto's face.

"Are you really over Sasuke? Please, don't lie to me." Sakura looked away from Naruto's stare. It was penetrating her skull. "I will never be over him. He was my first crush. He was one of my best friends. I can never truly be over him."

Shikamaru felt his clutch on Naruto slipping. 'Dammit, Sakura, hurry up!'

"I am, however, over him in terms of wanting to marry him and have children together. I will always love him, but it will be more like a brotherly love than anything." Shikamaru relaxed when Naruto calmed. Shikamaru let Naruto go from his jutsu.

Naruto smiled. "I love you Sakura, but maybe we need some time apart. We can build up our relationship again. It'll be stronger next time."

Sakura felt her heart crack, but she said, "Of course. As long as we're together again."

They ate in peace. No tension was sizzling between any of them. Shikamaru felt better as well, since he wouldn't feel so left out. He really couldn't wait to get back home and see Temari again.

He shook his head. 'I really do like her, don't I? She's so troublesome.'

After breakfast, they went to the common room and started their homework. Naruto's pile was three times the size of Shikamaru's and Sakura's. "Um, can you guys help me on some of this stuff?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and smiled, "I guess so."

Harry and Ron were in the same boat as Naruto at that point. They had huge piles of homework and couldn't believe they had so much. Hermione, of course, was already finished and was busy reading about some new defensive spells.

"Hermione, couldn't you help us at least a little? We can look up new spells!" She glanced up at Harry's and Ron's pathetic, begging faces. "No."

They both groaned and looked down at Divination homework. All they had to do with that was to write down their dreams. That was the easy homework, since making dreams up was easy.

They quickly finished that and moved on to the essays in Astronomy, Transfiguration and Potions. Both of them asked Hermione one more time to get another denial.

Four hours later, they finished them. They then gave the essays to Hermione to look over. She almost blew a gasket reading them. "Ronald, why did you think Saturn was made up of pixie dust? Honestly!"

Automatically, she ended up pretty much re-writing their papers. Neither complained. After she was done and had angrily thrown the essays back at them, she realized what she had done.

"You two better get out of her quickly. I may be forced to behead you." They gathered their things and ran upstairs. Laughing, they dropped their bodies onto their beds.

"That was bloody brilliant! We got her to do them!" They laughed for what seemed like eternity before a window breaking made them jump out of bed. Something was in their with them.

They dared to breathe, afraid whatever was in their with them would kill them on the spot. Eventually, Harry started making his way to the broken window. Ron tried to stop him with hand signals, but Harry shook his head.

Slowly, he stepped in front of the window and peered outside. The wind was blowing, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Harry turned around and jumped.

"What is it?" Ron said suddenly. Harry walked forward and bent down. When he came back up, he held a scroll. "It was imbedded in the ground."

Ron walked over and stared at it. It was unlike anything they had ever seen. The parchment was covered in gold and there was a very intricate design on the seal.

"Should we open it?" Harry shrugged. He knew they should probably show it to the shinobi. They would probably be able to figure out if it was trapped.

Curiosity grew and Harry opened it. Ron held his breath as Harry unrolled it. It was rather short.

'Tell Shikamaru to go down to the forbidden forest at midnight tonight. Force him to go if you have to. Make sure he goes.'

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Ron asked, "And why do we have to do this?"

"I have no idea."

The day flew by rather quickly. Naruto managed to finish his homework by dinner, thankfully. He had plenty of help from Sakura and Shikamaru, so it was easier than it would have been.

Harry and Ron finished up the rest of their homework as well, though they had more pressing matters on their minds. They weren't sure if they should tell Shikamaru or not. He would demand to see the scroll, which would lead to a lot of questions. They would rather just not say anything.

After dinner, Harry and Ron went over to Shikamaru, who just happened to be walking alone. "We need to tell you something. It's kinda... important."

Shikamaru looked at them. "What do you need to tell me?"

"Well, it's kinda..." Shikamaru urged them to go on. "We got something earlier..."

They told him about what they found. Shikamaru thought for a moment. "Looks like I know what I'm doing tonight."

"Wait, you can't be serious? This has to be a trap! Why would you go if you know it's a trap?" Ron exclaimed. Shikamaru only smiled before leaving them. They stared at his back, completely blown away as to why he would actually get himself into trouble.

"He's mad. That's all there is to it. He's one completely mental." Harry nodded in agreement. "He never asked to see the scroll!"

Once again, they had been blown away. They couldn't comprehend why he wouldn't ask to see the scroll. They scurried away as quickly as they could. They also knew what they were doing tonight.

Naruto had fallen asleep the second he sat on the couch. He was completely exhausted from the homework he had to do all day. Sakura wasn't surprised at all. She was too busy talking to Hermione to realize that Shikamaru had never returned from dinner.

Currently, Shikamaru was in the library. It was closing soon, so he wanted to get his information quickly. He knew exactly what he was looking for.

When he had been scouring the books to see if anything important about the ministry was in there, he found something rather interesting. He was planning on getting it a while ago, but D.A. got in his way. He had completely forgotten about it.

He found it rather fast. Picking the book up and finding a comfortable chair, he sat and started reading. About half way through the book, he found it.

"The Department of Mysteries was completed in 1978. One year later, on its anniversary, there was a large explosion that destroyed a large portion of the Ministry of Magic. The experiments conducted that caused the explosion were never released. A rumor was that it was caused by a man."

Shikamaru grabbed the Daily Prophet he brought with him and opened it to the middle. Down in the corner was a small article. It said, "A long lost case involving the Department of Mysteries was solved earlier this week. A mysterious man had been spotted at the sight when the incident happened. He turned himself in today. His name is Takeru. He refuses to give his last name at the current time. He will be spending time in Askaban."

Shikamaru was lost in his thoughts. Why would someone who had gotten away from prison for such a long time turn themselves in now? And why would they not give their last name?

His mind was working on overdrive. 'He obviously wants someone to notice this. From the takeout date on this book, the last one to take it out graduated eight years ago. I was looking at this recently. Does this person want me to know what he's doing?'

"Excuse me, Mr. Nara, the library is closing now. Would you like to take this book out?" Madam Prince was standing in front of Shikamaru, looking slightly annoyed that someone was still there. She already had to kick Miss. Granger out nearly every night.

Shikamaru shook his head. "I'll put it away."

Once he managed to get out of the library, he went all the way to the Owlry. He knew nobody would be there at this time of night. When he got there, three owls stooped down to him. One stuck it's leg out, expecting a letter. When Shikamaru failed to give the owl a letter, it pecked Shikamaru's hand and flew back up. The other two followed.

Shikamaru looked out over the grounds. Light was fading fast, the glow placing itself just over the tree line. As the sun sank, Shikamaru started writing a letter. He rolled it up and put his hands together. The scroll disappeared. Shikamaru looked out the window again and only saw a faint glow far away. He decided it was time to get to the common room.

On his way down the stairs, he ran into Mrs. Norris, who was quickly followed by Mr. Filch. "Aha! Give me your dungbomb form right now! I won't stand for any more of those in this castle!"

"Sorry, already sent it."

Mr. Filch got up into Shikamaru's face. "I better not smell any dungbombs! If I do, I'm going straight for you!" He wobbled off, Mrs. Norris hissing at Shikamaru and obediently following.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and went back to the common room. Most of the Gryiffindors had gone up to bed already, even though it was only just hitting nine at night. Naruto had fallen on the floor and woken up abruptly. Sakura forced him to go to bed, though he protested profusely.

Shikamaru sat down on the couch and got into a comfortable position. Harry and Ron came over and sat next to him. Shikamaru braced himself.

"Why are you doing it?" That was the only question. Shikamaru smirked. "I haven't had fun like this in a while. I was either saving someone or trying to find out where someone was. Now, I just get to not think and do something because I can."

They started to understand. They were always doing what they felt was right. They never cared about the consequences until it was over (minus Hermione).

"Well, I should get to be if I have to get up at midnight." Shikamaru left them and went upstairs. He had completely lied to them, but he didn't care. He was very curious as to who this person was.

At eleven thirty, Shikamaru woke up. Sakura and Naruto were sound asleep. Shikamaru grabbed his shoes and quickly put them on. He went over to their window and slowly opened it. He crawled out and stuck himself to the wall. After slowly closing the window, he crawled down the wall of the castle.

When he reached the bottom, he ran to the Forbidden Forest and stopped when he was about twenty meters in. Sitting on a tree branch, he waited the half hour.

He knew Harry and Ron were probably waiting in the common room for Shikamaru to go down, but he made it much easier. For him, at least.

"Good, you came. I knew you would. My kin wouldn't give up on something so interesting." Shikamaru's mind went numb for a moment. "Kin?"

"Yes, you're my great, great, great, great grandson, or something like that. I might've messed up on the greats." The man stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight. Takeru was smirking and looked as young as ever.

Understanding flooded Shikamaru's mind. "Takeru Nara. You're one of the only people in the Nara clan that went against the Hokage. You didn't get the execution you wanted for someone, right? They thought it was too gruesome to strap them down and cut out their heart while they were still alive. Shame, you were pretty talented. I'm sure old age has gotten to you, hasn't it?"

Takeru smirked even larger. "Sorry, I don't know the meaning of old age."

Shikamaru jumped down from the tree he was on and held out his hand. "I'll do what you want."

Takeru's eyebrows rose. "And what makes you think I wanted you to do anything?"

"Why else would you purposely get caught for something you did years ago? And why would you want to meet me here? Why would you want to get my attention? The only explanation would be you want me to help you with something." Takeru sighed. "Looks like you did get brains. I was hoping you didn't get my wife's genes. She was incredibly lazy, sat around all day, and never did anything. She loved watching the clouds for some reason."

"Well, then I got half of her genes." Takeru shook his head. "Fantastic."

"So, what is it you need me to do exactly?" Takeru smirked.

"I just need you to watch and gather intel on Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and your two friends. It shouldn't be too hard, should it?"

"No, it won't be." They shook hands and Takeru smirked. "I'm glad you are doing this. I have other things to do anyway."

"Does this mean you are working for Voldemort?" Takeru laughed. "No, it's more like I'm paying him to do things for me. This is his payment."

"I wouldn't think any relative of mine would ever do something so willingly." Takeru smiled. "Whatever you do, don't get caught."

"I won't." They parted, Takeru blending into the forest and Shikamaru making his way back to the castle. He quickly made his way up the wall and into him room. He laid down on his bed and then started silently laughing. He managed to laugh himself to sleep. The strange thing was, he had no idea why he was laughing so much.

I managed to finish in less than a month! Yay!

I promise to explain all of my craziness before the story is over. I will explain all of it. Please, don't freak out on me demanding answers right away. I won't give them to you. Hope you enjoyed!