I just want to mention, in response to a review, that I do not count Naruto or Ron as fools, really. Although they may seem like it, it is mainly society that forces them to act the way they do, and when they are in situations where their friends are in danger, they loose their facade, and truly protect their friends, and protect them well... but they still are forced to act that way in general, and that is why they are similar to each other... yeah...

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter... wouldn't want the stress.

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Harry had been running for a long time. His legs felt like lead, and his breath was coming in short gasps. Yet he was still far behind the other three. If only I could apperate... He thought grimly.

He was a wizard. There had to be some sort of spell that could help him. He wished that Hermione was there. She would almost certainly know one. Perhaps a spell that could charm his legs to move without any effort on his part.

Suddenly Kakashi appeared behind him. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin. Looking ahead he saw that Kakashi was also running up with Sakura and Naruto.

"How did..?" Harry asked, bewildered (and breathless).

"It's a water replacement clone." Kakashi replied. "Here, eat this." He held out some sort of pill. "It will increase your strength for a short while." Harry took the pill. "Go on. Eat it." Harry turned to Kakashi again, only to find that he had disappeared with a splash of water. Looking at the pill suspiciously he put it in his mouth and swallowed. Suddenly he felt a burst of energy. He found that he could easily catch up to the others. His arms fell behind him, pushed back. For once in his life, he didn't have to worry about adjusting his glasses.

After a while they reached the village. Harry was especially glad as the effects of the pill were starting to wear off. He looked enviously at the others. They just carried on as if they had not just spent the last day and a half running at full speed, although admittedly Sakura looked a bit on the weary side.

"We are here." Kakashi announced, as they reached a small house. Kakashi entered without knocking, and strode purposefully into what was presumably the living room. There on the couch sat a little girl, no more than ten. She had large brown eyes, and she looked up from staring at her shoes. She didn't say anything, but looked at them blankly. After a few seconds she stared at the wall and avoided any further eye contact, swinging her feet so that they hit the side of the couch every few seconds.

Looking around the room, Harry noticed that it was completely bare, apart from the couch that the girl sat on. Kakashi approached the little girl. Suddenly an elderly woman appeared at the door.

"Who are you. What are you doing here?" Her voice was rough and her words sharp. She was slightly overweight, and leaned heavily on the door frame. At the sound of her voice the little girl looked up again and her eyes widened slightly. Other than that she remained still. She stopped swinging her feet.

"We are the ninjas from Konoha. We have been assigned to protect this girl until further notice, or until the murder has been found." Kakashi replied. He has an air about him, Harry realized. One that doesn't overwhelm you, but leaves you with no room for argument. However, the old woman didn't seem to think so.

"This girl needs no protection." She said, with a mirthless laugh. "It'd be better for you if you left, shinobi." She stood and appeared to have a staring contest with Kakashi (although it was kind of uneven), who just stood still. After a few moments, she gave another short laugh. "Have it your way then. You, girl. Watch yourself. Hear me?" The woman said, pointing her finger. "We don't want any more accidents to happen." The woman left, picking up a bulky bag and heading out the front door. The girl then turned back to staring at her feet.

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After transfiguration, in which Sasuke had admirably failed to turn his hedgehog into a pincushion (or do anything to it at all), he walked with Hermione to the Great Hall.

"Harry, don't tell me you're thinking of skipping detention. It won't do you any good." Hermione stated.

"Uhhh... yeah. I'm going now." Sasuke said, and started walking away from her, pushing past all the other students flowing into the Great Hall. He felt someone roughly shove into him and looked up to see a shock of red hair going into the crowd. Ignoring it, he started walking in the general direction of the dungeons.

Sasuke felt inwardly proud of himself. He had been doing pretty well at figuring out where he needed to go. So far, only the moving staircases had been confusing. He couldn't get on one that would take him to the right landing. But now Sasuke realized that he was in some difficulty. He must have taken the wrong turn somewhere. He seemed to be faced with staircases that only went upwards, and he needed to go downwards to reach the dungeons. Sasuke decided to turn around and go back down them. If he retraced his steps, he might be able to figure out where he went wrong.

Turning back around he walked to the previous staircase, only to find that it too was going up. Frowning at it, Sasuke turned back to the one he was originally walking towards. It was as it was before; going up. Pacing back and forth along the hall, Sasuke decided to just walk up one of them. He reached the landing, and waited for a few seconds. He turned around and, as he expected, the previous staircase was now going up as well. He ran up a few more staircases. Every time he reached a new landing, the staircase behind him instead of going down, was going up. He clenched his hands. A ninja always did his best not to show his frustration.

This must be some sort of illusion. He walked up and down the length of the hall, trying find a tare in the illusion. It was seamless. Going back to the base of the stairs he had come up (down), he concentrated, performed a few hand-motions, and shouted, "Dispel!"

Nothing happened... bloody staircases... He sat down to think.

"Oi!" A voice said. Sasuke started. He hadn't sensed a presence. He looked around for the voice. "I wouldn't have expected a fourth year to have been caught in a simple spell like this." Sasuke identified the voice as belonging to a small, grubby looking man, in a portrait. It was in a dark patch of the hallway, not illuminated by any lantern. He had a red nose and drooping eyes. His round belly protruded from a tatty green tunic. "I'm glad you came along this way. Most people know to avoid this hallway. It gets lonely up in my wooden frame." The man started walking and disappeared from his frame. He soon reappeared in the frame below, the ladies seated there for an afternoon tea at once getting up and moving to the other side of the frame. Taking a slice of pie from the table in the picture he soon moved out, and walked horizontally through the frames, munching loudly. Sasuke followed him.

"Can you tell me how to get out?" Sasuke asked.

"Perhaps." The man replied. "Not many people like to talk to me." This certainly seemed true, as those whose frames he went across did their best to move out of his way. "It's quite simple really..." Sasuke waited for the rest of the sentence. The man carried on walking until he had led Sasuke halfway up the stairs.

"Well...?" Sasuke prompted. The man suddenly came to a stop. He turned to him with a smile covering his face, which wasn't really a pretty site, as quite a few of his teeth were rotting and brown.

"Perhaps if I let you out of this, you can do something for me, eh?"

"What?"

"Like you, I am unable to leave this hallway. Yet whilst we are both caught in spells, yours can be broken quite a bit more easily than mine can. I need you to take me out of this hallway. As long as you take my frame, I can go anywhere. All you have to do is to release me."

"Fine, whatever." Sasuke said. He had to get out of here. He was probably already late for his detention, and he didn't want extra punishment.

"Good. Now turn around and walk back down the stairs." Sasuke did so. "There you go. You kept on running up, so the stairs themselves just went up. Now you've gone down, and gone both ways, the staircases will lead both ways." Sasuke looked and found he was right. The staircase he just came down did not suddenly change direction. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. The man made a coughing sound. "You haven't forgotten, have you? Get my frame and take it with you."

Sasuke looked for it. He reached and gently pulled it off it's hook. He then walked down the stairs and tried to figure out where on earth the dungeons would be.

"Where should I put you?" Sasuke asked the man, who was currently walking beside him through a pastoral landscape, although the potential feelings that the quiet scenery of the painting could evoke, were ruined by the sight of the slouching man squelching through mud.

"Just take me with you for the time being." He suddenly jumped back into his own frame, wiping his muddy boots on a table cloth nicked from a still life where a fruit bowl had previously been placed.

"Well, then, tell me how to get to the dungeons." Sasuke said.

"You're a fourth year. Why do you need to know how to get to the dungeons?" The man looked incredulously at him.

"Just tell me, or I'm putting the frame right here."

"Fine." The man said, and proceeded to direct him to the dungeons.

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It was now evening, and Harry felt bored, oddly enough. They had been assigned to protect this girl, yet all she did was stare at her shoes. Not that he could blame her. Although he had never met his parents, he could still connect with her, as he knew what it was like to live without them. He sincerely hoped that she wouldn't end up with this worlds version of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

They were all sitting on the floor of the living room (none of them really wanted to sit next to the girl with the constant kicking of her feet), except Sakura, who was making use of the kitchen. Suddenly the girl jerked her head up, and stared out of the window. Harry looked out of the window as well. He couldn't see anything.

Then there was a shattering of glass, and all at once two men and woman wearing what appeared to be black spandex, were in the living room. Kakashi was standing before the girl in the blink of an eye, and Sakura had appeared from the kitchen. All at once fighting began. Naruto seemed to be tackling the woman, whilst Sakura and Kakashi were taking on the men. Suddenly Harry felt something whiz by his head. A kunai stuck in the wall behind.

"Don't just stand there!" Sakura screamed, barely able to spare the second to shout to him. Her arms were locked with the man's, his kunai nearly at her throat. The woman fighting Naruto (after slinging him into a wall) ran towards Harry, the short sword in her hand raised. Harry shouted the first thing that came to his mind.

"Expelliamus!" The woman flew backwards with a flash of red light, and her sword flew out of her hand... and straight into Naruto. Harry didn't have time to think before the ninja fighting Sakura left her and came towards Harry as well. Before he got to him however, Kakashi (after ridding himself of the first ninja) intervened. He threw a kunai that knocked the ninja's knife out of his hand, at the same time deflecting three throwing stars, and another one that landed in the ninja's leg. The ninja, however just ran on as if it wasn't there.

"Accio knife!" Harry yelled. The knife came flying towards him, and he managed to catch it by the handle. The ninja was right at Harry by this time, and Harry slashed wildly at him. The ninja easily dodged Harry's swipes, and it looked as though Harry would have at least lost an arm if it had not been for a blur of orange that swept by. It tackled the ninja to the ground.

"Naruto." Harry breathed. Naruto by this time had got the ninja pinned with his arms behind his back. Kakashi then took over. The female and remaining male ninja were tied up, and left in the corner of the room. The other was carefully disposed of.

Harry's heart was racing and adrenaline was still surging through him. He was horribly reminded of how he felt when he was chased by the basalisk. Sakura and Naruto however, looked alert, but not shaken. Then Harry received a shock. Naruto disappeared in a poof of smoke as another Naruto walked through the door, dragging an enemy ninja behind him.

"You were right Kaka-senei. There was one waiting round the front." Naruto said as he plopped the ninja unceremoniously in front of him. So that explained why he hadn't died when the sword went through him, Harry thought. He can copy himself, like Kakashi.

"What shall we do with them?" asked Sakura.

"We'll wait until they come to. Then we'll question them, separately. You know the procedure." Kakshi replied. "And how about you," he said turning to the girl, "are you alright?"

It was then Harry noticed that the girl was sitting there as though nothing had happened. She didn't seem to be at all shocked that three, no four, enemy ninjas were lying either dead or knocked out in her living room. In fact she hadn't moved at all during the fight, hadn't even blinked. Now she looked up at Kakashi out of her large sorrowful eyes, and muttered a small "Fine." before returning to her prior occupation of staring at her shoes.

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I'm sorry if it isn't running as well with the Harry story. I have a better idea with what I'm going to do for Sasuke than with Harry, so bare with me until I have a suitable plot formed. Thanks!