Sorry but this is unbetaed, and I mostly uploaded it as soon as I finished writing it – because I was so excited! Sorry about any mistakes! (P.S if you want to Beta plz contact me I'm looking!)
MARCH 6th year
Sarada growls at the Gryffindor table from across the Great Hall.
"Stupid Uzumaki." She snaps. "Look at him, eating like a fool."
"You really like him, hu?" Mitsuki grins slyly, sitting next to her serenely.
Both Slytherin are wondering about this morning, when Konohamaru – their Charms professor, decided to group them together with the Headmaster's son on their project.
"I think it'll be fun. Gryffindors are amusing to observe, and as the Headmaster's son, he's bound to be interesting." Mitsuki says, ignoring her glare. "To live up to someone like Naruto Uzumaki, I bet he'll either succeed or fail in a spectacular manner." His eyes were gleaming dangerously.
Himawari, the Headmaster's youngest, sits across the bench from her big brother and catches Sarada's eye. She smiles politely and waves.
That causes Boruto to look back and see who she's waving at.
Blue eyes widen in recognition for a split second before his expression clearly says 'Ugh' and he turns back around to chat to yawning Shikadai.
Sarada's eyebrow twitches.
Mitsuki chuckles. "He's definitely brave."
"Or stupid."
"Probably both, I understand it's a house requirement." Mitsuki says.
"If he's an idiot how come you're third in all of your classes with that little Griffin?" An older Slytherin student demands at her, annoyed. Sarada knows he's Shin something, due to him being one of quadruplets all in Slytherin house.
Sarada glares at him without blinking. "How's your dad, Shin?" She asks icily.
Shin scowls at her and turns away.
"I like our house; it's why I chose it." Mitsuki whistles. "Eat or be eaten is a good way to live by."
"Like I care." Sarada says, feeling a pang of guilt for bringing Shin's background story which she witnessed with her parents against him, but he challenged her in front of the whole house at lunch – he shouldn't have picked on a younger student anyways.
"Wait… you chose it?" Sarada blinks in surprise and looks away from the Gryffindor table where Inojin Yamanaka (a childhood friend whose mom is close to Sarada's mother) has been grinning at her in a way that promises mischief.
"Mm." Mitsuki, who transferred in second year, was a late sorter. "I like snakes. Four O'clock." He says sharply, appearing uncaring.
Sarada glances at the two girls approaching.
"Oi Sumire! No Puffs allowed." An older Prefect calls in disapproval.
Sumire waves him off without a glance, slapping her long purple braid behind her back from her shoulder (knocking the Prefect's Pumpkin Juice on his student robes as she does so).
"Hey guys, how have you been?" Namide, a Hufflepuff girl their year Sumire was paired up with at the project, along with Wasabi from Gryffindor, smiles kindly while taking a nervous seat across from them.
Knowing Mitsuki isn't likely to bother answering; Sarada feels bad for the girl and nods.
"I think Konohamaru -Sensei is trying for House Unity with his pairings up for this project." Sumire chats, sharp eyed with a light smile.
"Yep, but it's not too bad, right?" Namida grins shyly.
"Oi! Sumire, Namida! Let's get this over with!" Wasabi screams from across the Hall, bag slipping off one shoulder in a messy way.
Sumire checks with Namida if she's done eating and they both take their leave.
"Later."
"See you at the common room." Sumire tells Sarada and Mitsuki.
"Hey, check it out; I nicked it from Kawaki's dorm before the House Elves had a chance to clean up his stuff." A voice calls triumphantly, smug.
Sarada glances from the sideways to find an older student showing some thin letter to his friend, looking pleased.
"Think it says something about why he ran off before school ended and never came back?"
"I hear he's with Kara now."
"Hey keep it down, someone will hear you."
"So what, it's the Slytherin table –"
Mitsuki starts packing up and looks at her. She nods, showing she's done too and they get up.
Across the Hall the Gyffindor boys their year are getting up as well.
Inojin, Shikadai, Metal, Iwabee (an older boy who got held back for failing most of his O. ) and Boruto.
Sarada nods Mitsuki along as they creep up behind the two older boys from their house. Mitsuki doesn't question her and plays along (he's good like that).
Near the doors leading out of the Hall there's always chaos and the students from all houses and years are always shoving and pushing. Sarada delicately casts the summoning spell as Mitsuki's hiding her wand with his body from the teacher's table.
The letter flies from the guy's pocket smoothly to her hand, and no one is any wiser.
Or at least so she thinks. Sarada notices Boruto and Shikadai Nara staring at her sharply from a while away.
"…" she ignores them and shoves the letter inside of her robes, casting a non-summoning spell on it in case they try their luck with it themselves.
"Should we play with some kitties?" Mitsuki asks when it looks like Sarada's done with her thing. He won't ask her, which is great because she doesn't want to tell him. While she doesn't mind sharing with Mitsuki her plans, she knows that if it's Boruto who asks him about it he might tell him.
She shrugs and they make their way over to the Gryffindors still loitering around their table, though they're already standing.
"Hey Uzumaki, if you don't hurry up and help us with this project Mitsuki and I will finish it ourselves and hand it in without your name on it, and let Konohamro-Sensei turn you into a monkey with one of his strange charms as punishment." Sarada calls out, looking bored.
Boruto huffs at her, disregarding, though still looking curious as to what she was doing before.
"Mitsuki wouldn't do that, he likes me." Boruto smirks at her.
Mitsuki makes a non-committed noise. "I hate waiting; if you don't come with us I don't see a problem with Sarada's outcome." Mituski admits, shrugging.
Boruto looks shocked at the betrayal.
Sarada, smug, smirks. "Hurry up, Golden Boy."
Boruto shivers in disgust. "Don't call me that!"
Sarada ignores him and she and Mitsuki turn to leave.
"Hey Sarada-chan!" Inojin walks up to them from the group with his usual grin and sketchbook. "I made a drawing of you – I hope you'll like it." he says innocently.
Sarada is handed a rough draft of what's supposed to be her – it's detailed and accurate except that Inojin drew her eyes like slits.
Inojin, Boruto, and Iwabee burst out laughing, and Shikadai snorts, looking away.
Sarada hands it off to Mitsuki to glare at them all coldly. "You're dead, Yamanaka!"
"Sssssssssorry!" Inojin hisses at her like a snake, causing the rest of them to laugh again.
Inojin is about the only one at school not afraid to stare her in the eyes directly – Sarada comes from a famous, nearly extinct, Pureblood family known as great Legimicances. Yamankas are, however, great Occlumences.
"Saradaaaaaaaa!" Cho-Cho, ignoring the boys from her house, falls on Sarada's side while whining. "I have to write an essay for Shikamaru-Sensei tomorrow for Transfiguration and I haven't even started!" the Gryffindor girl cries. "Help me!"
"Can't, I've got a project with Boruto." Sarada tells her.
"Urgh! Boruto you're so annoying!" Cho Cho grows angry quickly.
"EHH! I didn't bloody ask for this!" Boruto exclaims, quick to anger too.
"Gryffindors." Sarada shakes her head.
"Sarada…I'm kind of attracted to the you in this drawing." Mitsuki says casually, looking at the paper.
Sarada stares, completely frozen.
"You… like snakes too much."
Mitsuki just grins shyly like she complimented him.
Making their way out of the Hall they see Denki, a shy Ravenclaw their year.
"Hey you two!" He smiles. "I'm waiting for Iwabee and Metal. I've got them as project partners."
"My condolences." Sarada mutters, causing Mituki to chuckle.
"I don't mind, they're enthusiastic at least. I do wish I could've gotten Sumire. She's so nice and polite." He muses.
Yeah on the outside maybe. Sarada thinks dryly. Sharing a dorm with the purple haired girl Sarada knows she's always reading books far advanced for their year, not to mention she's hiding Nua, a rare magical beast, in the Slytherin common room. The animal is completely bonded with her.
Slithering through and through.
Sarada gives an undecipherable reply and leaves to the Library with Mitsuki.
"I'll go find some books on our subject." Mitsuki says, dropping his bag on a chair and leaving. He dislikes wasting time, Sarada knows.
Using this chance, Sarada pulls out the crumpled letter. She casts a read-me-not charm, making sure she's the only one who'll be able to read what's on it before opening it and reading – she heard a rumor Boruto has a stupid Invisibility cloak, and wouldn't put it past him to spy on her to figure out what she's up to.
Kawaki,
Perhaps we underestimated you before. I, however, had every intention of making you better and stronger when I took you away from the abusive man who called himself your father prior to me. Come back, and things will be different this time. You will truly be a member of Kara. We'll change the Wizarding World, it will all be better. A new beginning. And I know you want to kill the Headmaster of Hogwarts. That will become possible if you're with us. Something big will go down soon. The Ministry will be out of its depth. They haven't realized this yet, however we have employed Muggles to our cause. The chaos that this will cause will be our chance. Your chance.
This is an invitation, not an order. Come to us, of your own free will.
We'll be waiting at Hogsmeade for you, and from there we'll side along you to our base.
Well, that's something. Sarada pockets the letter, wondering what leverage this gives her. She's been working on figuring out how to achieve what she needs for months now, on her own free time. This may be the key to getting it.
Five minutes later Mitsuki and her are going through books, as Boruto shows up loudly, crashing into their table.
"I'm here, I'm here! I'm helping!" he calls.
Right in time to have been spying on Sarada then running out to take the cloak off and coming back in to pretend to have just returned from lunch.
What a coincidence, Sarada thinks to herself sarcastically. Each time she's surer that Boruto does indeed have an invisibility cloak.
When the three decided they've done enough progress for one day, they separated as Boruto ran off to the Gryffindor tower, and Sarada and Mitsuki made their way calmly through the dungeons.
The letter, meanwhile, is bothering Sarada. It's rather serious, if she's honest with herself.
"You okay?" Mitsuki asks, glancing at her.
Sarada shrugs and tells him as little as possible without revealing too much.
"So you're sitting on something important and it makes you uneasy." Mitsuki concludes.
"I guess." Sarada admits reluctantly.
"And you're turn between figuring out how to use this to your advantage and between doing the right thing and handing it over?"
Sarada tch's.
"Why not do both?" Mitsuki says lightly. "Make a plan, ask for whatever you want done anonymously, and because you know they'll do it, you'll then send whatever you've got via one of the school owls in the Owlry, and that way it gets to the proper authorities."
Sarada thinks it over. It's doable. She can use this.
But she'll have to hurry, before whatever plan Kara has plays out.
"Thanks Mitsuki. Can I count on your help?" she doesn't say 'without telling you what this is about'. She doesn't need to.
"Mm. Why not? It's pretty boring lately anyways."
That night, doing her best to ignore Nua's grumbling snores, Sarada sits at her bed and pulls out an empty letter. She copies with her wand the letter Kawaki received, except the few lines where they mention specifically what's to come, or the muggles. There's an obvious space of missing words there.
She folds it up and puts it in an envelope where she writes with a handy spell Mitsuki taught her that changes your handwriting into a random one (what he needed it for she never asked, honestly preferring not to know) and wrote:
Left behind by Kawaki after he ran.
If you want me to send the original – including the crucial missing information – this is what you need to do -
If these conditions are met publicly, meaning I'll read it in the Prophet or the legislations are accessible for public viewing, I'll send you the full letter in three days time.
Anonymous.
Done, Sarada attaches the real letter to her person with a nifty possession charm to make sure nobody can summon it or see it except her, and sneaks out of the dorms.
Mitsuki is waiting at the door out of the Slythring Common room.
"You didn't have to come with me, Mitsuki."
"I was bored."
Sarada didn't bother asking why he didn't just prefer to sleep.
They made their way to the owlry and she picked one of the brown school owls and ties it to its leg. The owl spread its wings and flew out the window just as footsteps were heard from the steps leading up to the Owlry.
Mitsuki and Sarada pull out their wands and go to check it out.
"Ow! You stepped on me, Metal! Whose idea was it to bring him along? He's too clumsy!"
"Hey be nice, Shikadai."
"Sorry, Shikadai-kun! Boruto said to be quite – and I'm not good under pressure –"
"You know," Sarada drawls coldly, as Mitsuki is grinning, amused. "Just because we can't see you, doesn't mean we can't hear you."
"I can see them." Mitsuki says. "Well, I can see their feet."
There's a moment of a lot of grumbling before the Gryffindor boys and Cho-Cho appear in the hallway, an invisibility cloak coming off them.
"I knew you had one, Uzumaki!" Sarada accuses, triumphant.
Boruto grumbles, displeased. "Yeah whatever. What are you gonna do, snitch on me?"
His tone was so annoying she might have; only they're actually childhood friends (though they've grown apart since being sorted into different houses) and he knows she won't actually do that to him.
"You have fun spying on me like a stalker?" She asks him instead, rather angry about that.
He blushes. "I wasn't – like you're so special! It's called curiosity, okay?"
"Cho Cho, aren't you Sarada's best friend? I thought Gryffindors were loyal." Mitsuki asks slyly, enjoying causing the Akimichi girl strife.
"Sorry Sarada-Chan! I went along to make sure these stupid immature boys didn't go too far, I swear!"
Inojin flips her off, and Shikadai rolls his eyes.
"Mmph." Sarada is unimpressed. "How did you lot know we left our common room?" For a moment Sarada wonders if Mitsuki told them, but he wouldn't; he might tell them after the fact but wouldn't actually risk an operation by inviting people without telling Sarada about it.
All five brave lions avoided her gaze and refused to answer.
"… Annoying." She says with feeling, pretending it didn't hurt that even they'll think she'll invade their minds for something small like this.
Is this how her dad always felt?
"What were you sending in the middle of the night?" Shikadai asks, sounding uninterested.
Sarada snorts. "You don't answer my questions Nara, you don't get any yourself. Now leave me alone."
She turns and heads back to the direction of the dungeons. She hears footsteps, hurrying. Knowing Mitsuki would never run to catch up to her Sarada glances and sees Boruto looking conflicted.
"…I hope you know what you're doing, Sarada-Chan."
"Hmph, I'm not like you."
"My old man is carefree, but not very forgiving."
Sarada didn't expect that level of perceptiveness, and for a split second it shows when she freezes.
Boruto grimaces, as though she confirmed something, before nodding and turning back to his friends.
"…"
"He really is interesting." Somehow, Mitsuki is right next to her when she checks. "I wonder when his destiny will unfold already – I'm getting impatient."
Sarada, used to Mitsuki saying vague things regarding Boruto, shrugs and they head back to their common room.
Two days later, on Tuesday morning, the Great Hall is buzzing like crazy over the newspapers.
Sarada, Sumire, and Mitsuki enter and go over to the Gryffindor table, where the students in their year are talking loudly about what they read.
"Good morning everybody." Sumire smiles kindly. "Is everything alright?"
"Prophet." Shikadai bites, looking uncomfortable. He hands the three Slytherins a copy of the paper.
Mitsuki and Sarada lean closer to read with her as well.
New Guardian and Emancipation Legislations Approved by the Minister Last Night
"What?" Sumire's voice is emotionless after she's done reading the title.
"It basically says that if you don't have an immediate relative who can take care of you, or if your relatives are unfit, that there are more options now for independence or choosing who you want to take care of you." Inojin says for once no smile on his face.
"So uncomfortable – It sounds logical, right? I actually thought it was already like that. But turns out the laws were pretty shitty before last night." Boruto calls, looking shook, as did most of the rest of the student body at the Great Hall.
"Logical, overall. Yet apparently laws permitted the government to take charge over kids like that before – hell, it even says a school can intervene and make decisions for you." Shikadai shakes his head, uncomfortable as he's faced with the kind for truth their society kept under the radar.
"Sarada –" Mitsuki says sharply, but is cut off by Sarada saying loudly and innocently
"Is that so?! What a coincidence, I turn 17 in only a few days! Mitsuki, Sumire, would you like me to adopt you?"
Mitsuki and Sumire stare at her, expressions revealing nothing.
The Gryffindor section they're standing next to has also become silent, staring at Sarada.
Sarada has a lot of respect for Headmaster Naruto, however she knows from her two closest friends that they've been early employed to fight the forces of evil in the Wizarding world from a young age, legally completely depended of either the Ministry or a crazy parent who uses unforgivables on them to test them.
Griffindors aren't the only ones who're loyal to their friends.
If they still want to fight, or fulfill their destiny when they're older, it'll at least be their decision.
Everyone is still silent. Mitsuki and Sumire still blank faced, frozen. The Gryffindors looking like they just finally realized how much they miss on a daily basis about the goings on of the world.
"Well? Your answer?" She rushes them.
Sumire looks down, red in the face. Mitsuki is blinking at her.
"You… didn't ask for something for yourself?" He asks so quietly she's sure not even Sumire standing next to them can hear him.
"I did. I wanted this for a long time… and after my mom died the Headmaster got a little too liberal about making some decisions for me, probably because my dad is so far away all the time. I think this could've avoided the whole Kawaki incident as well, if it was done on time."
Boruto is staring at her, telling her he at least caught the word 'Kawaki'.
Sumire suddenly gives a strange gesture and mumbles. "Thanks, Sarada." Before taking off and leaving the Great Hall.
Mitsuki blinks. "It's not so bad, with my parent."
Sarada doesn't contradict him, just waits.
"…But I could do with fewer orders. Maybe I'll find my own will. My own destiny." He glances at Boruto, before looking away. He looks at Sarada calculatingly.
"Great." Sarada says casually, turning to leave the way Sumire did. "Then I've got a letter to send."
If midway to the Owlry familiar footsteps catch up to her and a blond, blue-eyed, childhood friend kisses her on the cheek before running away, face red, then that's her business.
The End
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