"Clear your mind..."

This was one of the hardest things Harry had ever tried to do. It was right up there with not losing his temper when he stayed with the Dursleys and being civil to Severus Snape. On occasion though, Harry had somewhat managed to do both of the above. Clearing his mind, however, and not allowing his emotions gain the upper hand was something he felt he could never accomplish. As much as Harry wanted to give up, he knew he couldn't. On the night that Dumbledore died, when Harry had chased after Snape, he had realized how important it was that he learn to close his mind. His attacks, one after another were blocked again and again. Afterwards, Harry had cursed himself for not working harder when Dumbledore had made him study Occlumency. Now he faced the enormous challenge of learning it by himself.

Unfortunately, it was exceedingly difficult to concentrate or focus on anything when his Uncle Vernon was thundering around the house spluttering and shouting in fury.

"The nerve of that boy, who does he think he is, bringing home two of those people! I tell you Petunia, we'll be murdered in our beds or worse, wake up as toads!"

As per Dumbledore's wishes, Harry returned one last time, to Number Four Privet Drive. His Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had no choice but to grudgingly accept him, for the last time, into their home. The Dursleys had dreaded Harry's arrival, imagine their surprise when Harry informed them that his two friends would be accompanying and staying with the Dursleys as well. Mr. Dursley's face went purple with rage and disbelief.

"Now wait just a second!" he thundered, "What makes you think you can just come and order me around like that?"

Harry then proceeded to firmly inform his uncle that his two friends had come of age and that they could perform magic at any time they desired. Upon hearing this, Mr. Dursley paled considerably and with a painfully forced smile he led Ron, Hermione, and Harry to the van.

It had been almost a month since the day Mr. Dursley had picked up the three wizards at King's Cross Station. He vaguely remembered "the old coot", Dumbledore, telling him that Harry only needed to stay one night to renew the charm. The Dursleys had expected him gone by the next morning. What they hadn't expected was seeing Harry and his two friends day after day for almost a month, and showing no signs of leaving. Finally, Mr. Vernon had had enough and confronted Harry with it.

"I have let you and your friends stay for a month. According to that old coot, you could have been gone the day after I picked you and your freak friends up at the train station. You ungrateful brat, I want you out of this house as soon as possible."

Harry gazed coolly at Uncle Vernon, "'That old coot' is Dumbledore, and I wouldn't stay here a second longer than I needed to."

"THEN WHY THE HELL HAVE YOU STAYED HERE SO LONG!"

"I'm not seventeen yet. I still can't perform magic. I might as well stay and be protected instead of trying to protect myself and getting my wand snapped." Harry explained it patiently as though Vernon were a small child, which only made his uncle turn a darker shade of purple.

Truth be told, Harry found this arrangement almost as unbearable as his Uncle Vernon. The words he used to explain why he was still there were almost word for word from the letter he had received at the beginning of the month from Moody. He had been crossing the days off of his calendar since the day he arrived. One more day...and I'll be free.

"...but why?"

Tsunade's eye twitched, the morning wasn't even over and she was already in desperate need of a bottle of sake and a very long nap.

"You will do the missions assigned to you Naruto," Tsunade said through gritted teeth, "The village is already swamped with missions and I can't afford to send anyone off to look for Sasuke, who willingly went to Orochimaru."

"You old hag," Naruto muttered under his breath. He then spun around and was out the door, "I'm going to train."

Tsunade clenched her hands and resisted the urge to hurl the desk out the window. A moment later a smile began to appear on her face and she then started to search feverishly through the large pile of paper on her desk.

"The nerve of him, who does he think he is? All those genin brats deserve a rude awakening. I'm going to send them as far as possible. A D-rank mission far, far away from here,"Tsuande's smile grew wider as she found what she was looking for, "Aha! Perfect..."

QingLi: What did you think? I'm sorry it was so short but I'm still trying to work it all out. I also know that HPNaruto crossovers are a bit overdone and it gets tiring reading the same things and seeing the same plot over and over again, and I'm sorry if you didn't like it. Please leave a review though and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the characters from the book are not mine. Naruto and the characters from the anime/manga are not mine either. SO STOP HARASSING ME!