The next morning, Naruto returned to Tsunade. He planned to beg Tsunade to let him go look for Sasuke, determined not to leave until he had achieved his goal. The last thing he expected was to find the other genin, plus Shikamaru gathered there.

"...our client has offered a great deal more than the required money for the completion of this mission..."

Naruto bristled with the unfairness of it all. If a client offered more than the required payment, then some kind of danger had to be involved. Maybe Tsunade was sending all of the others on an A-rank mission. Why else would she send so many people at once? Besides on such a dangerous mission maybe they would meet someone who could lead them to Sasuke.

"You old hag Tsunade," Naruto threw open the office door and glared at the Hokage, "Why do they get a dangerous mission? I've been asking and asking for a month now. No fair!"

Tsunade glared at Naruto, but a moment later that glare transformed into an amused smirk.

"So you want to go on this mission as well, Naruto?"

"Yeah, yeah, you bet I do!" Naruto replied excitedly.

Tsunade faked a sigh of resignation, "Fine, go."

Naruto grinned and started shouting and celebrating. Finally an exciting mission, he was bound to find some clues leading to Sasuke.

Naruto grabbed Shikamaru's and Sakura's wrists, dragging them out of the door, "...let's go! Come on hurry up!"

The others quickly followed Naruto out the door, leaving Tsunade alone in her office. She grinned and congratulated herself. Boy, Naruto was in for a rude awakening when he realized what kind of mission she sent him on.

Through his window at Number Four Privet Drive, Harry watched the sun slowly rise. He felt, that this was one of the most important sunrises in his life. It marked the day he turned seventeen and finally came of age in the wizarding world. He was an adult now, and finally able to perform magic outside of school. The sunrise also marked the end of his stay with the Dursleys, a day he Harry had been waiting for since he was first brought to live at Number Four.

With this feeling of contentedness, Harry felt a small stab of pain. Sirius should have been here. Sirius would have celebrated Harry's release from his relatives. Harry should have been going off to live with his godfather, but that would never happen. Sirius was dead.

Despite what everyone, including Dumbledore, had told him, Harry still placed most of the blame for Sirius'death on himself. On top of that, Harry also felt partially responsible for Dumbledore's death. If only he had been able to close his mind...

Snape was right. No matter how much Harry despised his former teacher; there was no denying that Harry should have learned close his mind. He could have learned to perform non-verbal spells. There was no way to learn now; there was no way Harry could go back to Hogwarts. If he wanted to learn, he would have to learn on his own.

Harry was interrupted by his thoughts as Ron and Hermione burst into the room with wide smiles on their faces.

"Happy Birthday Harry!" they both chorused loudly, Hedwig hooted cheerfully from her cage.

Harry knew that in a few moments, his Uncle Vernon would be at his bedroom door purple in the face and raving like a madman, completely ignorant, as usual, to the fact that it was his nephew's birthday. Nevertheless, Harry's face still broke into a grin. It didn't matter, anymore, really. He would be gone soon anyways.

Harry raised his eyebrow as his Uncle Vernon came thundering across the hall and appeared right behind Hermione and Ron, muttering furiously under his breath.

"...blasted bird...should have shot...those freaks...still in my house..."

"...Boy..."Uncle Vernon never finished his sentence; he didn't dare, seeing as there were now three wands pointed directly at his chest.

Harry glared at his uncle, who was now staring back petrified, his piggy little eyes darting back and forth for a way to escape or distract his nephew.

Hermione twirled around and pointed her wand at Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage, shrinking them. Harry pocketed both, and Hedwig took off through the open window. The three friends all lowered their wands and walked slowly out of the door, leaving a trembling Vernon Dursley leaning weakly against the wall. A moment later three jets of light shot back into the room accompanied by two shouts of "Scourgify!" The room was left sparkling clean and spotless. No one was there to see it though, Petunia and Dudley had wisely decided not to leave the safety of their rooms, and Vernon had fainted.

Outside Number Four Privet Drive, Harry and Ron collapsed onto the front steps, too overcome by laughter to stay standing.

"Did you see his face?" Ron guffawed.

"Priceless," Harry gasped out.

Hermione pursed her lips and tried to look disapproving, "You know, we probably shouldn't have done that."

"Oh come on Hermione,"Ron said, "you know they deserved it, and admit it, that was hilarious."

Hermione tried to frown, but ended up smiling instead, "You know what? You're right," she said, shocking Ron into silence and turning him a rosy pink.

"Come on,"Harry interrupted, "let's go, or we'll be late."

"Yeah, and mum's already worried out of her mind," Ron added.

The three ran to the side of the house, hiding in the long morning shadows. A moment later, they were gone.

Around noon that same day, Naruto, Sakura, Shikmaru, Ino, Chouji, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Neji, TenTen, and Lee met at the main gates of the village to meet their client. Naruto could hardly contain his excitement.

"Where is our client? For such an important person, he sure doesn't know how to show up on time. I want to leave already!"

They all stared at Naruto in bewilderment. How is it possible for him to get so excited about such a...lame mission?

"Naruto, do you understand kind of mission we've been assigned?" Shikamaru asked carefully.

"Uhh,"Naruto paused for a moment and scratched his head, grinning sheepishly, "No."

Everyone sweatdropped.

"You mean you didn't even ask what kind of mission this was before you volunteered yourself? What an idiot," smirked Ino.

"What?... What?"asked Naruto agitatedly, "It doesn't matter anyways, I heard the old hag Tsunade say that the client's paying lots for this mission. Someone would only do that if it was really dangerous, right? And if it's really dangerous then maybe somehow Akatsuki or Orochimaru is involved. So I can find clues leading to Sasuke too. Right? Right?"

"..."

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Shikamaru decided that it wasn't his problem and sat down to watch clouds until their client arrived. Neji watched with carefully concealed amusement, waiting for the moment Naruto would completely lose it. Hinata stepped up and tried to tell Naruto the truth, but no one could hear her. When Naruto asked her to repeat it, Hinata became too embarrassed and said nothing more. The others just stared at Naruto in stunned silence. Finally Lee walked up to Naruto and took one of his hands.

"Naruto, our client has paid us an unbelievable amount of money for this mission."

"See? I was right!" exclaimed Naruto joyfully.

"No, Naruto, that's not all. He has paid for a D-rank mission."

"Huh?" Naruto had stopped celebrating for a moment to try and comprehend what Lee had just said.

Ten minutes later, Naruto was still trying to work out what was going on. Ino, Sakura, and TenTen were all gritting their teeth and trying not to strangled Naruto for his stupidity. Finally as their client finally showed up, Kiba turned to Naruto and told him.

"You volunteered yourself to clean a school for a whole year."

"WHAAAAAT?"

QingLi: Wow it's been a while. School's taking up more time than I ever thought possible. Anyways a very late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! As usual I hoped you enjoyed it. Review and cross your fingers that I'll be able to get another chapter up by tomorrow. Otherwise prepare for a long wait...at least til Spring Break.

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!