Three more weeks of classes flew by. Between being tutored (or tortured rather) on the accursed English alphabet, lying awake in bed late into the nights, meditating, and fiddling with hand seals, inspiration for her new genjutsu finally struck in the form of food poisoning. Two mornings prior, Millicent had filled her pockets with boiled eggs at breakfast to snack on throughout the day and consequently spent most of the previous night running to the loo.

It was perfect. A perfectly disruptive, unpredictable body function.

Dressed in a crisp nightgown and standing in front of the washroom sink with the water running, Sayuri set down her toothbrush and flipped through the genjutsu hand seals. She focused on the desired sensation. The open washroom door led to their dorm room and Millicent was right on the other side chatting with the other girls. Sayuri needed to disrupt her chakra flow just so.

She hoped it was enough. She didn't want Millicent to notice an outside force was doing this, but needed her to feel the effects.

Millicent suddenly jumped up and ran past Sayuri into the washroom while producing a series of distressed grunts.

"Are you still sick?" Pansy called. "I thought Madam Pomfrey gave you something for that last night!"

A few minutes later Millicent returned and flopped onto her bed. "Ugh, I would have thought those eggs would wear off by now. At least nothing came out that time."

"Gross! We didn't need to know that," Pansy yelped.

"Maybe you should let up on eggs completely until it's better." Daphne suggested. "You did pile a lot of them on at breakfast this morning too."

"Those were fresh!" Millicent protested.

"Stick to fresh pancakes tomorrow then." Pansy threw a pillow at Millicent. "Nobody wants to smell that all night again."

Sayuri mindfully smoothed the grin off her face as she turned off the tap and returned to her bed. This was promising. "Don't worry Millicent, I'm sure you'll feel better after a good night's sleep," she reassured the other girl as she padded silently through the room.

"You're probably right," Millicent mumbled. "Thanks."

Feeling a little guilty for what she'd just done, Sayuri pulled the satiny covers back and curled up with her old stuffed cat, the white cat, she'd been given years before. It still smelled a little like The Hog's Head. Pansy complained about that once so Sayuri had washed it in the sink. Nobody had said anything since then though.

Breakfast in the Great Hall would be a good time to try the genjutsu on Captain Flint. She'd have to think of a suitable name for it too. Breakfast was also when the owls brought in mail, and she was anxious to see if Sasuke had sent a reply to her latest message yet. She had the same owl carry a note to Sasuke a little over a week ago. Not with any gifts this time, just a simple,

"Be safe."

It was unnecessary. The act of sending the healing potion already told him she wanted him to stay safe. But, he didn't have a way to get messages to her without an owl available and she was anxious to to know how his C-rank mission had gone. Maybe she'd check the Owlery tomorrow and see if the owl had returned yet. It was possible Sasuke had sent no reply.

The thought was depressing. Sudden anxiety gripped her. What if something went wrong during his mission? What if he was hurt?

Or worse?

The next morning at breakfast, Pansy elbowed Millicent and hissed, "Pancakes only!" Millicent elbowed her back, making the smaller Slytherin girl double up in pain. Today was Hallowe'en, and there was a wide variety of once-a-year delights to eat even this early in the morning.

Nothing was going to make Millicent Bulstrode voluntarily miss out.

After Sayuri loaded her own plate with a variety of apple and pumpkin based pastries, and some fresh sliced persimmons Millicent had charitably added that were just out of her reach, the young Uchiha put her hands under the table and focused on Flint's jagged presence. Went through the hand seals, disrupting it just enough to make him get all flickery. His eating slowed. Dropping his fork with a clatter, he groaned and jumped up from his seat at the table making a run for the entryway.

Carefully keeping what she hoped was a neutral face, she tried it out on a random Hufflepuff at the next table over. They reacted much the same way.

Yesss. She settled for an inner victory arm pump and resisted the urge to try it out on even more random students. If everyone suddenly had bowel problems it would look suspicious. She couldn't wait to ask Captain Flint what he thought of it.

A short while later the mail arrived in a cloud of swooping, screeching owls. The trusty school owl she'd sent away landed again in front of her plate, clacking its beak in annoyance at the lack of sausages. Sayuri pulled the paper from its fuzzy leg and it excused itself in a rush of wings.

"Blaise, can you please do the charm for me? I'm afraid of messing it up and this is probably important."

"Sure. Give it here," he reached across the table. "Oi, this is a long one." He muttered "Pellegemanus," while tapping the paper with his wand, and handed it back. "Who are you writing to anyway?"

"Thanks," she said, deliberately ignoring his question. She ran her fingers over the paper, quickly finding her name in the upper right hand corner.

"Dear Sayuri.

The medicine came in handy on our mission. It was only supposed to be a C rank, but the client didn't disclose all relevant intel so it turned into an A rank instead. We succeeded in our objective though.

We went to the Land of Waves and fought a jounin named Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist. He had a kid named Haku working with him. Haku was impaled on my sensei's lightning jutsu. We stopped fighting after that because Zabuza's client betrayed them.

I wanted to test the medicine, but Zabuza asked us to give it to Haku instead of him. I didn't want to do that because I thought it was a waste. Haku already looked dead, but it worked. Zabuza died after that. We invited Haku to come to Konoha with us but they chose to travel alone instead.

It would have been nicer to let Haku die too. Zabuza said he'd rather die than be without Haku, so I don't know why he thought making Haku be alone was okay.

Your sensei must be really strong if they can make medicines this powerful. Study hard under them and honor the Uchiha name.

I learned something mysterious on the mission too. My sensei has a sharingan eye. I don't think he was born with it. I'm worried about where he got it. My father used to warn me that other shinobi would try to steal our eyes. Make sure to protect yours.

Sasuke"

Sayuri's heart hammered against her ribs. She went over the last paragraph three times to be sure she hadn't read it wrong. Sasuke's fucking sensei had a sharingan? Would Danzo have taken on a genin team? Or was it someone else completely? How many people in Konoha could there be running around with stolen sharingans? What if Danzo was watching what Sasuke was writing to her? What if Danzo was reading what she wrote back? Even if his sensei wasn't Danzo, maybe Danzo was distributing spare sharingans to his underlings.

Why else would he need her eyes if he already had tou-san's?

Did that mean Sasuke's sensei had her eye?

"Chikusho," she hissed under her breath. Swallowed the vomit that reflexively tried to come up, tainting the sweet flavor of pumpkin tarts with curdled stomach acid. She folded the creased paper closed.

"What happened?" Blaise asked.

"Nothing. Nevermind." She didn't feel like eating anymore. Or being in a crowded room. Picking herself up off the bench, she hurried out of the Great Hall, passing Captain Flint as he slowly made his way back to the Slytherin table.

Draco exited the hall after her, doggedly tailing her down the corridor. Sighing, she slowed enough to allow him to catch up.

"Why did you run out like that? Did something happen to your cat?"

"No." She immediately wished she'd said yes, because that would have been a good excuse.

"What happened then? Your letter was pretty long. And don't try to tell me you're happy, or that your stomach hurts or some other stupid thing. I'm not an idiot."

Sayuri silently cursed the fact that mail was delivered so publicly at Hogwarts. Next time she wouldn't read it in front of anyone.

If there was a next time.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, wishing she'd taken a sip of water to rinse the taste of vomit out of her mouth. "Whatever. I just suddenly lost my appetite. If you don't believe me you're welcome to smell my barf-breath for proof."

"That's disgusting, and I said I'm not an idiot," Draco reiterated stubbornly.

"Then leave me alone," she sniffed, before taking the stairs leading to the common room. She hopped down five or six at a time.

"Merlin slow down before you break your bloody ankles doing that."

"Nah."

He struggled to catch up, then caught her sleeve loosely in his fingers. "Would you hold up? I'm trying to be nice you know."

She slowed, not willing to risk tearing her sleeve to ditch him. Was this how friends were supposed to act? She honestly didn't know, as she hadn't really had one before. At least not a human friend her age that she interacted with regularly. As much as she liked them, bowtruckles probably didn't count.

Draco's grip tightened. "If someone's threatening you we should tell a grownup."

"Why would you think that?" she snapped.

"Why else would you be scared then?" he countered. Something must have shown on her face because he crowed, "You are scared! I knew it!"

"Shut up!"

"Sayuri," Draco said with mock hurt in his voice. "I thought we were friends."

"Draco, are you really my friend?" she asked. She shrugged his hand off her sleeve and folded her arms, waiting for his answer.

"We're housemates," he said. "At Hogwarts that's practically family."

She knew that wasn't really true. Besides which, Itachi was family. That didn't stop him from betraying the rest of their clan even if he hadn't murdered her parents directly. He was solely responsible for Sasuke's suffering and isolation. Draco had far less of a connection to her than Itachi ever did, notwithstanding all the chocolates he'd distributed at breakfast for the past couple of months.

Sayuri shook her head. "It's not right to burden friends or family with dangerous secrets. So I'm not going to do that to you."

Draco huffed, not expecting her to twist his declaration of friendship back on him like that. "Oh come on!" He plead, unwilling to accept her refusal. "You should tell someone anyway. Like I said before, my father is very influential. Adults have a lot more resources than we do. You should make better use of them."

For the length of time she'd been acquainted with Professor Snape, she hardly knew him. She had never even met Mr. Malfoy. Jiji was really strong, he was absolutely terrifying when the patrons fought or acted like assholes and he had to throw them out. But, she couldn't get him involved in this.

She couldn't bear to lose him too.

Speaking of which, she'd feel horrible if Draco also lost his father because of Danzo. Or if anything bad happened to Professor Snape. This just wasn't something she could burden others with.

As if on cue, Professor Snape appeared at a bend in the corridor ahead on his way to breakfast. Draco tensed up with excitement. "There he is! Tell him now," he whispered, "or I will."

"You will keep your fucking mouth shut," Sayuri snarled as menacingly and quietly as she could manage.

Draco waved his arm and called, "Good morning Professor Snape! I'm so glad you're here because Sayuri's having a bit of a proble-EURRRK!"

Sayuri tripped herself in desperation, flattening Draco underneath her. The two first years flailed in a tangle of limbs and robes. Draco let out a high pitched wail when she pinched his armpit. "Shut. Up. Or. Else." she hissed into his ear.

"Sorry Draco," she said just loud enough for her voice to carry down the corridor. "Are you all right? I lost my footing."

"Get off me you dolt!" He scrambled to his feet and brushed himself off. Then, somehow sensing the irritation rolling off their approaching head of house he made nice and offered Sayuri a hand. "I mean, you're not hurt are you?"

Snape's silky voice washed over them. "I hope the two of you aren't this embarrassing in public. Draco, your father would be appalled."

"Sorry sir, it's my fault," Sayuri said. "I took the stairs too quickly and got a bit dizzy."

He made to sweep past them, but Draco stopped him with a, "Professor, someone's threatening Uchiha but she's afraid to say who."

He paused to regard them. "Is this true?"

"She got a threatening letter. Ask Blaise, he saw how upset she was."

Fuck you Draco, she thought. "Draco is making assumptions," she said in a tired voice. "I got frustrated because I was having trouble reading it. He just doesn't believe me." Neither of those were strictly lies.

"Were you threatened?"

Sasuke had sent no threats. At all. It was just the implications of what he'd written that spooked her so badly. "No sir."

"Then both of you stop wasting my time." His robes shifted and rustled as he left them in the corridor.

At least he hadn't asked to see the letter. She didn't think he knew Japanese anyway, but if he somehow could read it she didn't want to try and explain why she'd mailed away the potion he gave her. "How could you?" she seethed, once Snape was out of earshot. "That letter is my private business."

"How could you pinch my armpit?" he retorted hotly. "That body part is my private business. That hurt! And you weren't joking about having barf-breath. Go brush your teeth."

"I did warn you."

"You could try to be a little more grateful," Draco said acidly. "Professor Snape told us to look out for you. He said it would be an embarrassment if anything happened to any of of us, and that we'd all get punished if you fell behind."

When did he meet with everyone except me? she thought sourly. Was that the only reason any of her housemates had been even remotely friendly to her lately? "If that's true then why am I being tutored by a Gryffindor and not one of you?"

"Because that muggle-loving McGonagall foisted Granger on you," Draco sneered. "Filthy mudblood upstart thinks she already knows enough about magic to tutor a proper witch. I bet she'd never even eaten a proper candy before she got her letter. Just common muggle things."

"Really?" Sayuri frowned. Every civilian in Konoha had some exposure to jutsus and seals. The entire place was crawling with ninjas after all. The thought that someone could live their entire life without ever encountering magic was bizarre.

"Really. Muggles are barbaric. You should be grateful you've never had to associate with them."

The only muggles she had met in this country were Harry's unfortunate relatives, which did nothing to convince her Draco was wrong in his assessment. But back home, her old home, the civilians were pretty nice. They worked hard, appreciated the shinobi, and were generally good neighbors. At the academy they'd emphasized the importance of protecting civilians and the fact that they could be valuable sources of intel or assistance on missions.

"Hermione is kind of a pain," Sayuri said. "But someone needed to help me with reading English, and that's not really magic."

Draco clicked his tongue. "I suppose. Just get what you need out of her and move on. I'm going back to finish breakfast."

"I'll be in the common room." She sighed. This morning was defense against the dark arts again. For the first time ever she was going to skip class. If any of the other students came looking for her she'd make sure they couldn't find her.

She needed to stop writing to Sasuke too. If Sasuke knew more about the situation, his life would definitely be more in danger than it already was. Danzo would no doubt kill him to keep his secrets secret if he was pushed. She was writing anonymously, but they probably already knew she was alive because Sasuke had addressed his letters to her by name.

Her stomach lurched uncomfortably again. She could not under any circumstances allow Danzo to find his way to Hogwarts. Or The Hog's Head. Or anywhere near anyone else she cared about.

Instead of staying in the common room Sayuri snuck down to Hagrid's to avoid her housemates that morning. The giant groundskeeper was busy preparing pumpkins and things for the Hallowe'en feast and she wasn't technically supposed to be out, but it wasn't hard to conceal her presence and just let the crisp air clear her head a little.

She thought she had more time to get strong before confronting Danzo. That her goal could strictly be one of revenge. She was definitely used to navigating without sight at this point. But him getting too close to Sasuke meant she had to accelerate getting stronger. That she needed to be strong enough to protect him.

Learning to fly was a priority then, because even with the crows helping her navigate back she needed a way to evacuate with Sasuke. If she could convince him to leave. She suspected it would take far more chakra than she currently possessed to summon Miu long enough to make the journey from Konoha to Hogsmeade, even if Sasuke didn't have anything against crows. It wasn't like her birds would be able to reverse summon him like they did with her.

What if he refused though? What if he insisted on staying, even after finding out what Danzo had done? Or what if she was too late?

THE CROWS! She slapped her forehead. They had told her Itachi was having them surveil Sasuke in Konoha, so she could just ask them for updates on his situation. She did the summoning jutsu, this time pushing twice as much chakra into it as usual.

With a small poof both Tsuchibue and his sister Komabue appeared.

"Good morning, Sayuri-chan," Komabue said. Her voice was very soft. She did not know any English yet, so all three of them fell back into using their native language.

"Hi Komabue-chan. Tsuchi-kun. Can you take this letter and keep it safe? It has intel I don't want anyone getting."

The soft spoken bird gently took it from her fingers, and with a poof disappeared.

"Do you have another reading session today?" Tsuchibue asked.

"Uh huh. I'm planning to skip lunch and head straight to the transfiguration classroom, so if you want something to eat you should stop by the Great Hall first."

Usually she and Hermione would collect their lunches then eat in the empty transfiguration classroom while Hermione tutored her. The ambitious Gryffindor's schedule was otherwise crammed full of studying. Tsuchibue let her know when the sun had risen high enough to indicate it was noon, and they parted ways. It was easy to avoid her housemates when they were all headed to lunch from Quirrel's class.

Sayuri waited for both Hermione and Tsuchibue in the empty transfiguration room. She heard a raucous cawing in the hall growing closer, so hopped up from her seat and opened the door to let her summon in.

Hermione was right on the other side, her fingers on the doorknob. "Oh, how did you know I was there? Were you able to sense me?"

"No, I was letting my crow in because he's a loudmouth and has no thumbs."

There was a pause before Hermione sighed. "You do know that is a raven? He is far too large to be any species of crow."

This was a recurring conversation any time Tsuchibue was present. Sayuri just shrugged. Tsuchibue landed on her shoulder. He smelled distinctly of pumpkin spice.

"Aren't you going to eat lunch?" Hermione asked.

"I ate too much at breakfast."

They worked at the alphabet for a while, until Sayuri asked Hermione some questions about transfiguration. The entire subject made her brain hurt. She could never get anything to transfigure even with her beloved wand, and there was no way she wanted to ask any of her housemates for tips at this point.

"Hmm," Hermione said. "It appears any meditating you've been doing hasn't helped you with transfiguration at all. Honestly I've been waking up early to do it for three weeks now and haven't seen much difference."

Sayuri couldn't feel much difference in the girl's fizzing chakra, but three weeks was hardly anything. "Meditation doesn't produce instant results," she said. "Anyway, my problem is with transfiguration in general. I just can't."

"Let's see then. Do this matchstick into a needle."

Sayuri breathed deeply. She did the incantation. Made the wand movements. Felt the upwelling of chakra in her body and the shift of the energy around them influenced by her wand.

But the matchstick? Nothing.

Hermione corrected her diction. Adjusted her wand movements. She lectured Sayuri on Oxley's 2nd Law of Transfiguration which made Sayuri's head hurt even more and didn't make any difference, but Sayuri wrote down what Hermione said anyway on a spare bit of parchment.

"Wait, I thought you couldn't read or write!" Hermione exclaimed.

"In English," Sayuri reminded her.

"Is English your second language? You speak it extremely well. I had no idea! Does this mean you lost your eyesight after you learned to read in Japanese?"

Sayuri cringed, this girl was way too sharp for her own good. Or maybe it was for her own good. Just not Sayuri's good.

"I don't like talking about what happened."

"Oh." Hermione's whirling beehive of chakra stilled for the first time in their acquaintance. "Did it happen when you lost your parents?"

"Ungh! Forget it!" she said, not wanting the day to get any worse.

"Fine," Hermione said. "Something I have been wondering about is whether you had to get special permission to bring a raven to school. They're not on the approved list of pets. Is that something your head of house grants permission for?"

Tsuchibue pecked at Hermione's hand, making her yelp and drop her quill. "I'm a crow," he croaked in English.

"See?" Sayuri said. "He says he's a crow. And no, I never asked. I don't think Professor Snape really cares."

"Simply because you taught your bird to say that he's a crow doesn't make him a crow. They're just mimics. Ravens are intelligent but he doesn't understand what he's saying. Even his voice is very deep, like a raven."

He grabbed at one of her fingers. She cried out as he caught one and pinched.

"Not a raven," he huffed. "You know-it-all!"

"Did he just argue with me about his species?" Hermione said in a wavering voice.

"Yeah. Way to go Hermione! You've offended him. Don't you know that crows and ravens can't stand each other? Or is that kind of thing not written in books?"

"You taught him to say those things," she said accusingly. "Magical creatures that can speak in the first place aren't common, and not all of them even know what they are saying. Jarveys for example. You just have a common raven."

"He's a crow."

"If you're not going to take our tutoring time seriously then I'm going to spend my time getting ready for charms," Hermione snapped. "Unlike you I have a very busy schedule. Maybe if you actually applied yourself to your studies instead of teaching your pets to insult people you wouldn't be in this situation."

"Know. It. All." Tsuchibue's beak clicked sharply on each syllable.

"I didn't teach him anything-" Sayuri began, but the sound of Hermione's books and papers being clunked and shoved back into her bag cut her off. The door to the transfiguration classroom slammed behind Hermione as she stomped out.

"Why did you have to be an asshole to her?" Sayuri groaned, then did a faceplant on her open transfiguration textbook. "I don't even have a tutor now. How am I supposed to learn any of this?" she moaned. "I'm so bad at it."

"She is a know-it-all who knows nothing." Tsuchibue fell back into their native language, his claws tip-tapping on the table as he walked up to her head. "The transformation technique they are teaching is a yang-style release. Most Uchihas inherit an affinity for yin-style."

"A what-style what now?" Sayuri angled her head toward the bird, who sighed.

"Yin and Yang energy are parts of what makes up chakra. Magic. Whatever." he said. "Yin is spiritual energy. Yang is physical. Most jutsus mix them equally. These techniques where you are trying to transform one object into another are based on yang release because they are changing the physical object, not just changing someone's perception of it."

"What's yin do then?"

"Yin controls the imagination. It creates form out of nothing."

"So it creates form, but that form isn't real?" she asked, rubbing her head. Her headache was getting worse by the minute.

"No you dummy! What makes you think thoughts aren't real? Everything has to be thought of before it can exist you know!"

"Okay okay, don't be rude. So it's real, but isn't physical."

"Right! Like your genjutsu."

Sayuri was still confused because as far as she was concerned genjutsu wasn't real, but didn't want to be called stupid again so she nodded. "Okay. Well how do I do yang-release if I inherited yin-type? Or should I just expect to fail this class?"

"Why would you fail?" he snorted. "Pick up your wand. I noticed something. Hermione does techniques using different mixes of both yin and yang type energy, and she's the same age as you right?"

"Okay," she said slowly, closing her hand around the polished pine.

"I think it's the tools people use here. The inside of your wand has an affinity for yin energy, because it's an illusion crow feather. The outside is wood from a yang-type tree. They combine together to make a tool that can do both kinds."

"If I have the right tool why isn't it working then?" she asked impatiently.

"I don't know," Tsuchibue said, "that's for you to figure out." Then disappeared with a poof.

"Know-it-all," she muttered to herself after the crow was gone. What did he mean by all that? She turned her wand in her fingers. It felt so comfortable and was responsive enough in its own way. It just didn't want to transfigure things was all. At least that's what it seemed like. Maybe the crow feather core combined with her own yin nature made it extra difficult to manipulate . . . yang-stuff?

She tugged at her bangs and growled in frustration. Whatever. Today was Hallowe'en, which had been an important holiday in Hogsmeade as it was the anniversary of You-Know-Who's defeat. She had a feeling the feast this evening was going to be amazing, but wasn't sure if it was worth having to sit at the same table as her housemates. After this morning she felt like avoiding them indefinitely. Even better if they got in trouble for it.

She wondered how Harry was doing today. Today was the anniversary of his parents dying after all.

McGongall walked into the classroom, glancing around before her sharp gaze settled on the small Slytherin face down on a textbook.

"Miss Uchiha, if you feel the need for a nap your own bed would be much more comfortable."

"Well," came the muffled voice. "Since I can't seem to read with my fingers I thought maybe I'd have better luck with my face."

"Did you and Miss Granger happen to have a disagreement? She seemed quite agitated when she stomped out of here. I heard the door slam all the way at the end of the corridor."

"Yeah."

"You know I had hoped the two of you might become friends, regardless of your house affiliations. Miss Granger is a brilliant young witch but not many of her peers seem to value that."

"Oh," Sayuri said, guilt creeping up on her. It was charitable of Hermione anyway, to help someone from a rival house when the kids in Sayuri's own house were only doing it to avoid punishment.

"I'm afraid I have to chase you out now," McGonagall continued. "My 6th years will be here in fifteen minutes."

Sayuri peeled her face out of her textbook, rubbing absently at the text that was now imprinted on her cheek. She gathered the rest of her things, and slumped out into the corridor. She should probably get to charms class before it started. She wouldn't get strong enough to kill Danzo by skipping any more classes.