A/N: something I've been wanting to do for some time…

Definitely been watching and reading too much Naruto. And Yu-Gi-Oh.

And now, the much-awaited appearance of The Create Card!

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Card Captor Harry

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Card 20, The Glow: The Naruto Create Card Adventure! Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. I think the girls are cute. All three are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me. Partially inspired by The Itch's For Your Dreams, and my own Uzumaki Harry.

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Harry sighed as he sat on the desk assigned him randomly. Idly, he started writing on the margins of his test paper, thumb-nailing a future scene for one of his fanfics, before he stopped himself, scowling. Writing fanfics was exactly what had gotten them into this mess!

He didn't look up as a kunai imbedded itself on the test paper of the person next to him. Said person and his genin team were promptly kicked out of the room.

Sighing again, Harry though back to how this whole mess had started...

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It had all started innocently enough. Really. Winter had been showing them these things she'd whipped up…

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Harry looked down at the strange device Winter had presented to him, then up at Winter, then at Lee (who was also holding a device similar to what Winter had handed him), then at the device, then at Winter again. "Uh, Winter…"

"Isn't it great?" Winter gushed, grinning widely with the pride of a mad scientist showing off her doomsday weapon of the week. "I just finished them last night! It's got backlighting so it can be used in the dark, and a built-in light! The top is plated to protect the Cards, and I specially molded the mount so it doesn't move around on your arms!"

"That's great and all, Moon," Lee said. "But what is it?"

Winter blinked, before giving herself a soft knock on the head. "Silly me. I forgot to tell you. It's a deck holster."

At their still blank and confused looks, she rolled her eyes. "Here," she said, grabbing the device in Harry's hands and putting it on her own. Closing the shackle-like fastener over her right forearm with a firm 'click', she reached into her pocket and pulled out a deck of Duel Monster cards. She slipped the cards into the slot in front, and there was another 'click' as the cards seemed to lock into place again.

Winter grinned. "Now this is the cool part," she said.

With a seemingly practiced double-flick of her wrist, the cards all snapped open, the lower half flicking out one way and the top half going the opposite, coming out in a sort of wide fan shape. Since the cards had been loaded face-up, the names and a small part of the illustration was visible.

"Great, huh?" Winter said, grinning widely with pride. "I made it to hold your Clow Cards. It's got low-level securing Charms on it to keep them from falling off, or getting wet or damaged. The features are still manual since I haven't found an appropriate charm that'll let you activate it on verbal command or anything, but the current mechanism keeps it from opening accidentally. Plus, it looks wicked cool!"

Lee was looking at her holster with interest now, turning it over in her hand, before putting it on her right forearm and locking it into place. Reaching into her robes, Lee drew out her Clow Cards and slipped it into the slot. There was a click, and she smiled. Doing her own double-flick caused the Clow Cards to fan out, the Cards distributed such that they were easily identifiable as well as accessible. "Interesting. Do you think you could modify it so load my ofuda as well?"

"I don't see why not," Winter said thoughtfully, unlocking the holster from her arm and handing it back to Harry, who eagerly clamped it on to his own forearm. "The Clow Cards and your ofuda are about the same size, right?"

While Lee nodded, closing the fan with another double-flick, Harry was admiring the way his holster looked. "Nice paint job," he commented, and indeed, the deep crimson and gold trim of his holster was certainly impressive. Winter had even put a small golden outline of Clow Reed's magic circle on top of where the Card's intersect!

Lee nodded her agree, admiring the green and silver colors of her own holster (hers had a yin-yang in place of a magic circle), before pulling her sleeve down over it, hiding the holster from view. The holster was compact enough to be worn without arousing interest.

"How'd you make these things, anyway?" Harry asked curiously as he 'loaded' his Clow Cards into the slot.

Winter grinned. "Who do you think designs and makes most of the props and costumes for the Theatre Club?"

"Those mecha weren't so great," Lee pointed out.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who made them!" Winter pouted. "You want to get that thing fitted for your ofuda or not?"

Lee smiled as close to apologetically as she ever got as she removed the holster from her forearm and handed it back to Winter.

"What about you, Harry?" Winter asked. "You want anything special done?"

"Nah," Harry said, wondering how he was supposed to take out his Clow Cards. "I think it's perfect the way it is. Although… could you please tell me how to get the Clow Cards out?"

Chuckling, Winter twisted an innocuous stud and gave it a press. The Clow Cards closed from their fan shape. Another twist and press on another innocuous stud, and the Clow Cards seemed to pop out of their slot slightly. Carefully taking them out, Winter handed them to Harry as she depressed a third stud. The slot seemed to collapse flat against the bracer as the outline of the magic circle slid into the center in a sequence that would make the Duel Disks proud. "There you go," Winter said. "Those all have corresponding movements to them, since it's a lot cooler to have them all happen instead of pressing buttons."

Harry held out his arm, admiring the way the bracer looked in it's collapsed form. "I hope they're all as easy as the wrist flick," he said. "I don't think I'll be able to take it otherwise."

"Weakling," Lee jabbed. Harry sent a muted glare at her.

Winter smiled indulgently, looking amused at their antics. "By the way, Harry, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Hmm?" Harry said succinctly as he stuffed the Clow Cards back into his robes.

"Well, I remembered the shape of the thing Windy made to trap The Sleep Card, and I was wondering…"Winter said trailing off, as if unsure what to say.

"Yes?" Harry prompted.

"Have you ever considered teaching Windy how to reproduce the Rasengan?"

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And that's how Harry ended up trying to reproduce a Naruto jutsu. An offensive jutsu.

A few days later, there was a trip to Hogsmeade planned out. Harry, for once, opted not to sneak out and decided to help Windy work on her Rasengan, and maybe Capture a Clow Card without Lee around. Winter managed to wrangle a promise from him and Keroberos to meet up with her and Lee at their tree-topped rise.

Come late afternoon, Harry was sitting back against the trunk of the tree, looking out over the lake and letting himself get hypnotized by the way the water was shining under the low-hung sun. Kero, curled up next to Harry and using his size to block the view of anyone watching from the castle, was reading a manga and chuckling every so often, which was getting on Harry's nerves a little.

Idly, he traced the magic circle on top of his bracer. After a little practice, he'd become pretty good at activating the holster's movement-triggers. He wore the thing nearly all the time, and kept it covered under his long sleeves. Currently, the Clow Cards weren't locked in, as he wasn't really comfortable with sticking them in there for long. Still, he found it fun to practice using some pasteboard he'd managed to get from Winter.

Feeling a familiar presence coming closer, Harry idly reached into his robes and pulled out his Clow Cards, popping the dock open with a gesture and snapping the Cards into place. He pulled his sleeve over the active holster, trying to conceal it.

"Locked and loaded already, Potter?" Lee drawled as she came up within hearing range a little while later. "My, aren't you jumpy."

"I don't trust snakes," Harry said, ready to fan out his Cards at a moment's notice.

"What are you doing here, priss?" Kero demanded as he looked past Harry, a scowl on his face.

"I was invited, plushy," Lee sneered. "What's your excuse?"

As Keroberos seemed to internally debate whether or not to jump Lee and Harry debated whether or not to let him, he caught sight of Winter out of the corner of his eye. She was walking slowly from the castle, head bowed over a book she held in one hand as she wrote furiously with the other.

Sighing, Harry let his head fall back against the trunk of the tree. "She's at it again! I swear, I don't know which is worse; her reading as she walks or her writing as she walks!"

Lee looked over her shoulder at the scribbling Ravenclaw. "Looks like she got a new…"

Lee's eyes went wide, and a split second later, Harry and Kero felt it too. The three were suddenly scrambling to intercept Winter, feeling the power that was starting to build up around her book.

"Winter, STOP WRITING!" Kero cried, trying to fly fast enough to reach the girl and stop her.

No such luck.

"Huh?" Winter said, looking up from her writing even as her right hand made a made a certain pushing gesture.

Suddenly, there was a flare of light, and Harry knew, just knew they were in trouble…

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When Harry found himself able to get out of unconsciousness, he very determinedly did not open his eyes. He remembered enough of what had happened to know that, A) he probably wasn't at Hogwarts anymore and, B) the way his luck held, he was probably some chosen one whose coming had been prophesied as a signal of the end of the world and would probably have to spend as much time running away from and fighting the people he was supposed to save as much as the enemy, all the while having to put up with an abusive love interest and multiple girls who have a crush on him, interspersed with epic-scale 'boss' battles he'd probably win because of some power coming by to intervene (which isn't a very reliable way of winning a fight and saving the world, in his humble opinion).

Either that, or he got pulled into some other world for absolutely no reason, with no way of getting back, and completely over his head to boot!

And Harry would have gladly just lay there, pretending he was dead to the world… if someone wasn't currently tickling his nose with a piece of grass! He could have actually kept up the pretense–barely– if said piece of grass hadn't suddenly gone up his nose!

"HEY!" Harry cried, his hand rising up involuntarily to remove the invading piece of flora.

Winter, on the other end of said piece of grass, giggled. Behind her, Lee was smirking at him, idly flipping a kunai in her hands. And behind her…

Harry blinked. The apparition was still there. "Who's the blond Sephiroth? And… what am I wearing?"

Now that Harry wasn't trying to reproduce sleep anymore, some things out of the ordinary (more than usual, anyway) about himself were becoming apparent. For one thing, he was wearing well-fitted black cargo pants that were secured tight around the ankles, a sleeveless black shirt, fingerless black gloves with a metal plate on the back and metal stud inserts on the knuckles, various straps and buckles in various places (mostly on his left forearm), bandages on his hands and arms, a… utility belt(?) around his waist, pouches strapped on to his calves, thighs and biceps, and a black trench coat with lots of pockets. Lying next to him was what looked like an absurdly oversized bottle (it was almost as big as he was!) filled with… water? And why was he wearing what felt like… black sandals?

"3…2…1…" Lee counted down.

Harry had enough time to wonder what she was counting down for when he suddenly felt dizzy as something seemed to happen to his mind…

A few minutes later, Harry was rational again, and staring at his hands like he didn't know what to do with them. Slowly, he raised a hand to his forehead, feeling a piece of metal bolted to a cloth there. "You've got to be kidding me…"

He started at the three before him. "WHAT HAPPENED?"

The blond Sephiroth, who looked exactly like the Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children Sephiroth except he seemed to be slimmer and was wearing deep blood-red instead of black with a holster strapped to his thigh and a pouch at his waist opposite the Masamune, pointed at Winter. "Blame her," he said in a deep but strangely familiar voice.

It took a few moments for Harry to recognize it. "KERO?"

The Sephiroth clone raised a hand to his chin, posing. "The one and only! Now even cooler and sexier!" the transformed Kero said, light flashing off his teeth.

Harry turned in horror to Winter, who was looking as guilty as the time they'd caught her around Christmas. "What did you do?" he hissed.

Winter– wearing (Harry now noticed) baggy white pants secured at the calves by bandages, a tank top under a thin plate of armor (which sort of reminded Harry of the armor that Sesshomaru guy wore, except this was slimmer and more feminine) with long, baggy pieces of hose-shaped fabric that functioned as sleeves that went well past her wrists attached to the arching-shoulder parts (there was a hint of something under the sleeves, but Harry couldn't make it out…), two crossed bandolier containing tons of shuriken, a giant four-pointed shuriken at the small of her back (it looked almost as tall as she was! How did she manage to crouch on the ground with it on?), and the generic holster and pouch– was looking somewhere between embarrassed and proud. "Well, you see, I was sort of writing a fic…" she said, trailing off.

"'Sort of writing a fic'?" Harry repeated.

Winter slipped a hand from out of her ridiculously long sleeves and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. "Maybe Kero should explain after all…"

"That book we saw Winter writing in," Keroberos said, arms crossed solemnly as he usually did when explaining Clow Card business (although in his current form, the look was more effective), "was The Create Card. It has the power to make anything written in it real."

Harry's eyes widened as he immediately realized the implications of that statement. He already suspected what might be going in– it's hard to miss a whole slew of memories swimming around your head. Combine that with what Kero had just said about the Card's abilities and Winter's admission of what she'd been writing…

His head whipped around to look at the silver-haired girl in disbelief, eyes horrified. "WE'RE IN A LEMON SELF-INSERT?"

At this, Lee's head whipped around, also staring at Winter with a similar expression on her face. Keroberos looked confused as to what they were talking about. Harry envied him.

Even as they boggled, a part of Harry's mind took note of what clothes Lee had been stuffed into. Aside from the pouch, holster, sandals and forehead protector– unconsciously, Harry reached up to touch his own, finger tracing around the leaf swirl– Lee wore camouflage green shirt with a simple breastplate over it (also in camouflage colors), loose green shorts that came above her knees, bandages up and down her limbs and a pair of wrap-around mirror shades. There was a metal bracer on one of her arms and metal guards on her shins. On her back was her sword. For an instant, she looked a lot like a boy, an image that lingered and refused to go away.

Winter was shaking her head frantically, waving her arms in denial. "NO, no! Just a self-insert!"

Harry and Lee shared a sigh of relief.

"I wasn't able to get to the lemon parts."

The two immediately flinched, thanking their lucky stars.

"Moon," Lee said, looking intimidating the way she loomed over Winter like that, her arms crossed. "what exactly did you manage to write down…?"

Winter scratched her head again. "Well, I sort of wrote a beginning and end, and implied things about the middle…"

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After a while, the SI was boiled down to this:

Harry was Potter Haru. His family originated from Mizu no Kuni, leaving some time during the wars that ravaged the country. His family died enroute, but he managed to make it to Konoha, where the Sandaime took pity on him and let him stay at the village.

Winter was Tsukino Yuki. She came from a clan that was annihilated during the attack of the Kyuubi, as all of it's members, shinobi and civilian, volunteered to be part of the delaying action that allowed the Yondaime to use his sealing jutsu. She was left in the care of a non-blood relation, who died on a mission when she was ten, leaving her alone.

Lee kept her name (there was really no need to change it, or so Winter a.k.a. Yuki, said). She was an orphan ("Welcome to our world," Harry said) who'd managed to survive by devoting herself to making the clans of her parents regret disowning her just because she was illegitimate. She'd grown up alone with only a dog to be her friend, until the day her pet contracted rabies and she'd needed to kill him in order to save herself from getting ravaged and maybe killed.

And Kero? He was an easygoing half-breed who was an anime and video-game addict, and the heartthrob of all the women in the village too old to go for Uchiha Sasuke (and some who were still old enough).

As a side note, a quick body search revealed they still had their wands and a quick test showed they could still do magic.

"How come you get the good deal?" Harry/Haru complained, glaring at Kero– or, as his form was called (what else?) Sephiroth. "Compared to you, the three of us look like the poster children for angsters everywhere!"

"Take it up with Yuki-chan," Kero smirked, jabbing his thumb at Winter.

"So," Lee said, getting them back on track. "Tsukino wrote her fic on The Create Card, with a beginning and ending but no middle. With that incomplete story, The Create Card did…?"

"It looks like it drew us into some kind of world based on the fic Yuk- Winter wrote," Keroberos said, grimacing. "I'm having the unreasonable and irrational urge to call you by your story aliases."

"Must be an effect of The Create Card," Harry said. "My instinctive desire is to refer to you as 'Sephiroth-sensei', Winter as 'Yuki-chan' and Lee as 'Lee-san'…" among other things, the Card Captor thought, making a mental note to memorize the Japanese insults and swear words floating around I his head.

"Maybe we should just go with it?" Winter/Yuki suggested. "After all, it's not really that big a deal, and if the characters in this fic hear us calling each other by our real names, they'll get suspicious– and potentially kill us."

Strangely, no one shuddered at that. Instead, everyone just pursed their lips, accepting it. Kero/Sephiroth even shrugged.

"So, we're in fic-world," Lee continued. "Next question: how do we get out?"

Everyone looked at Winter/Yuki, who shook her head, waving her over-sleeved arms. "Don't look at me! I just wrote the thing!"

Harry/Haru thought. "I could try Sealing…"

"Worth a shot," Kero/Sephiroth said.

Reaching towards his neck, Harry/Haru was thankful his key, like the deck holster and Clow Cards on his forearm, were still there. "Key of power, show me your true from! I, the one to whom you are bound, command it! RELEASE!"

A magic circle and a casual twirl on his fingers later, Harry raised the Sealing wand above his head. "I am the Card Captor, and I order you to return to your true form! CREATE CARD!"

Harry swung the wand down and the usual light show happened, but…

"HEY! What gives?" Harry/Haru said, annoyed. There was no Card under the tip of his Wand.

"There goes Sealing it," Lee said dryly.

"We must be in it's area of effect or something," Kero/Sephiroth mused. "Like when you were inside The Maze Card."

"So we get out," Lee said. "How?"

All four of them settled into thinking poses, musing on the question.

Winter/Yuki suddenly snapped her fingers. "The story!" she exclaimed.

The other three looked at each other. "What about the story?" Kero/Sephiroth asked.

"From what these two said, they couldn't Seal The Maze until they could get out of it," Winter/Yuki said, looking like she'd had an epiphany. "That meant going through the maze. Maybe, if we go through the story all the way to the ending, The Create Card will let us out! I mean, there must be a reason we're like this!"

The three looked at each other again. Kero/Sephiroth shrugged. "It's as good an idea as any," he said.

Fei sighed, rubbing her temples. Idly, she wondered if her cousin would have had these problems if he'd found the Clow Cards. "All right. So… what's the story?"

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"Chuunin exam," Potter muttered, sighing as the three of them walked towards the Academy. "If it's not the beginning, the Wave Country Arc, the Tsunade Search or the Sasuke Retrieval mission, it's the chuunin exam."

"What do you expect, Potter?" Fei sneered, looking past Yuki to direct the expression at the dark-haired boy. "It's not like Ranma or Sailor Moon or Wheel of Time. There are only so many places a writer can start changing things without completely destroying canon to bits. Right, Tsukino?"

Yuki, however, was staring at Potter in wonder and awe. Still. "I swear, Haru-kun, that thing's got to weigh a ton! At least!"

Potter shrugged, the movement jarring the oversized water bottle slung over his back. "It feels okay, really. My SI is pretty strong."

"I'll say!"

Fei sighed. She'd been going on about Potter's glorified thermos since he'd effortlessly picked it up in one hand back at the clearing they'd found themselves in, when they'd decided to head out. Sephiroth– she refused to call the plushy 'sensei'!– had gone off somewhere, probably to his house in this fic. And they were about to try to pass themselves off as three Leaf-nin on their way to the chuunin exam.

For a moment, she missed Hong Kong. Crazy things never happened there! Well, except for how her female cousins acted when they saw something they called cute, anyway. But she'd always suspected Syaoran got all the brain cells in that brood.

"So, where do you guys want to have lunch?" Yuki said. "Exam's not 'til four, and we know how that's supposed to go, so we might as well burn time."

"Ichiraku?" Potter suggested. "I've always wanted to know what the big deal with that place is."

"It's where Naruto eats, and where the owner will let him eat," Fei said dryly. "There's no mystery beyond that."

"Well, let's go anyway!" Yuki said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and spot Naruto!"

"Don't fangirl him, he'd get a heart attack," Potter said wryly.

The three made their way to Ichiraku Ramen, somehow finding their way through a town they'd never been to or seen in their lives. Yuki and Potter kept exchanging pleasantries, with Fei inserting a dry comment every now and them. She stood slightly apart from the other two, even though she wanted nothing better than to stand between Potter and Yuki. That would look suspicious, after all.

Along the way, she overheard some comments from passing teens and genin who weren't taking the exam that made her raise her eyebrows. From what she could gather, Yuki was somehow a kind of female equivalent of Uchiha Sasuke. Fei couldn't help but chuckle at that. Well, it did make sense, but still…!

They turned the corner into the street where they knew– somehow– Ichiraku ramen was located. Yuki pouted in disappointment when she saw the titular character of their present world was nowhere in evidence.

"Tough luck, Tsukino," Fei drawled as they close in on the stand. "Maybe their ramen is decent, at least."

"It is," Yuki said. "We've eaten here before."

And they had, Fei realized. At least, that's what the false memories of her SI persona said. And if she remembered correctly, her usual was…

The old man behind the counter took one look at them and smiled, saying, "One beef, one wanton and one triple beef, triple wanton, coming right up!"

… yup, beef.

When the food arrived (Fei looked in askance and not a little disgust as she watched Potter consume the double triple) the three ate in… well, not exactly companionable, since she and Potter would never be, but a comfortable silence. For the first time since they got sucked into this… world? Pocket dimension? Dream? Fantasy? For the first time, she was actually starting to relax. As much as she let herself relax, anyway.

"Tsukino," Fei said as she finished her bowl.

"Hmm?" girl said, looking up from where she was drinking back the soup.

Fei managed to keep any expressions from coming over her face. She didn't know whether to be disgusted or amused. "What were you thinking when you said you would have made this a lemon?"

Potter, unfortunately for him, snarfed his soup, the liquid coming out his nose. Fei chuckled as Yuki started pounding on his back, handing him a tissue…

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"Whoa!" Yuki said as Haru and Lee helped her get through the window. "That was FUN!"

She turned around, sticking her head through her entrance and marveling at how she just gotten to the third floor of a building by climbing up the wall. The feeling had been amazing! She could actually feel the chakra coursing through her body as she climbed up, and it was all she could do to keep herself from doing all sorts of things with it.

"Calm down, Tsukino," Lee said dryly as she pulled her away from the window and started walking away, expecting her and Haru to follow her. "If we don't hurry, we'll end up coming in with Team Seven, and I really don't want to be anywhere near Yakushi Kabuto!"

"But Kabuto-sama is so hot!" Yuki gushed.

"Hmph," was all Lee responded with.

Yuki rolled her eyes. "She does a great 'Uchiha Sasuke' act," she said to Haru sotto voce.

"I HEARD THAT!"

Chuckling along with Haru, Yuki hurried over to catch up with the long-striding Lee, crying, "Hey, wait up, Lee-san!"

Shaking his head in mixed amusement and annoyance, Haru adjusted his glasses as he followed.

They managed to enter room 301 with incident, doing their best to try and blend in with the crowd on ninja already there. This was a bit hard for Haru, since he had a glorified water bottle on his back. But then he wasn't the only one carrying something big. A cursory sweep showed the ever-lovable Sabaku no Gaara with his gourd of sand and a bunch of Rain ninja who seemed to be carry tanks on their backs. Some seemed to be carrying umbrellas, and of course there was Temari and her fan, not to mention Kankuro's puppets.

Finally, the three members of Team Sephiroth (Winter hadn't bothered giving them a number) settled down, Haru taking off his load so he could sit down without collapsing the chair.

"Just out of curiosity," Haru said, casually flicking open his bracer-holster and going over his Clow Cards, "do we keep 'ole aconite from making a good impression on Team 7 or what? Just to mess with canon."

"I'd say we try to take his place and be nice to them but…" Yuki shot a glance at Lee.

Lee crossed her arms. "I don't do 'nice'," she said.

Yuki slumped. "Well, I guess that's out. Oh well, we can always meet them in the Forest."

"Why wait?" Haru said. "The two of us are nice. No reason why we can't meet the team, just the two of us. Heck, Lee-san here can come along as long as she's moderately polite."

"Hmm…" Yuki said as she thought it over. "Sure, why not? I want to see Uchiha Sasuke face to face!"

The door opened, and the three of them, like everyone else in the room, turned to look. "Oh, it's just Team Ten," Haru said.

"That means Team Seven's on the way," Yuki said. she stood. "Come on! I want to catch them before Kabuto-sama!"

Haru sighed, picking up his water and slinging it on his back as he followed in Yuki's wake. Behind them, Lee shrugged and decided to go along as well. Haru turned to Lee. "Why do people think Kabuto is any good? I mean, he's a villain, for crying out loud!"

Lee shrugged. "How would I know? And why are you talking to me?"

Haru scowled, and turned away.

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Haru sighed again as he recalled how the meeting with Team Seven went, wishing he could dare take a drink from the honkin' big container of water standing next to him, but he knew that aside being full of the blood plasma of dead people, it also contained potent snake toxins. He really didn't feel like using any on his shots of antidote on himself just because he was feeling like a drink.

Naruto and Sakura had been easy to win over. The pink-haired girl and the silver-haired girl had instantly hit it off. So had he and Naruto. Jokers attract jokers, and wasn't exactly in the league of the twins, he did do his share of pranks every now and then. Sasuke had been apathetic to it all, merely sizing them up and seeing what kind of threat they possessed.

Then he'd set eyes on Lee, and suddenly, killing intent was filling the air.

"Lee," he sneered, and Haru's eyebrows rose, internal alarms going off. He knew that tone. It was the same one he used for Lee whenever Yuki wasn't around to hear it, the same one she used on him when Yuki wasn't in earshot.

His alarms grew louder as Lee pulled her face back in a familiar sneer, one he thought once reserved for him. "Uchiha," she said, her voice dripping with frost, acid and malice.

"I'm surprised to see you here," Sasuke said, still sneering. "Shouldn't you be out eating dogs somewhere?"

"Don't you have a brother to kill?" Lee shot back. "Oh, that's right, you're a pathetic weakling, so you don't have a chance in hell. Silly me for forgetting."

Sasuke's face contorted with rage, and he took a step towards Lee, who made no move to back off. Suddenly, there was a blur behind the girl, and Haru stood there, water and all.

"While I can understand how annoying my teammate could be, the killing intent seems to be all out of proportion for her presence," Haru said easily, making no threatening moves, just standing there behind Lee.

Sasuke glared at him. "Back off. This doesn't concern you."

Haru raised an eyebrow, adjusting his glasses ever-so-casually, in case there was a fight. "She's my teammate. This concerns me. Besides," he smiled slightly and he hissed around Lee in such a way that Yuki wouldn't be able to hear, "I was here first, darn it! Find someone else to loathe!"

The container of water on his back shook threateningly, as if to emphasize his words.

"I'm so grateful for your concern," Lee said dryly.

"Just staking my claim," Haru said.

Sasuke-relations had been strained since then.

Lee had probably already finished copying the answers from people with that bloodline limit of hers, and Yuki was supposed to be the smartest girl in their class, equivalent to Sakura. That left him, and he was taking the Naruto route to passing this exam: not writing anything and waiting for the last question…

When Mitarashi Anko came bursting into the room in a shower of glass, Haru was finally able to get the answer to something that had always bothered him about this series: Anko really was topless!

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After being shown the Forest of Death, the three headed off towards Yuki's apartment, where they knew Sephiroth would be waiting. How they knew where the apartment was when they'd never been there before was best left along.

They found Sephiroth, sans his ten-foot sword (which was leaning against the wall next to him), lounging around on Yuki's couch, reading a manga. The apartment itself was practically otaku paradise. Every inch of wall was covered with shelves, and if the shelves didn't contain shuriken of various forms and sizes, they contained manga, anime statuettes or DVDs. The pasts of the wall left bare and every inch of the ceiling was covered with posters, banners, printouts and laminates of anime characters.

"This is what you did with the entire clan fortune?" Lee said incredulously.

Yuki shrugged. "What else was I supposed to do? Put on a bat suit and try to avenge my clan?"

"She has a point," Haru said, trying not to salivate at the sight before him.

"Hey guys," Sephiroth said, not looking up from his manga. "How'd the exam go?"

"Aced it," Yuk said, heading for the kitchen while Haru took of his water bottle and set it down next to him as she sat on the floor. Lee took off her shades, knowing when it was too dark and a stupid idea to wear them indoors.

Sephiroth looked at her. "Weird eyes," he said.

"Blame the writer," she replied, jerking her thumb towards the kitchen.

"I heard that," Yuki said. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Right now, let's talk jutsus."

Haru raised an eyebrow. "What about them?"

Yuki sat down on the floor next to them. "You guys wouldn't happen to have memorized any of the hand-seal sequences from the anime, would you?"

"Why do you ask?" Lee said warily.

Yuki grinned. "Well, I sort of memorized the sequence for Raikiri…"

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"I'm starting to miss Hogwarts," Haru said, looking down at the form he held in his hands. "At least there, we didn't have to sign waivers concerning our deaths!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby," Yuki said as she signed hers with a flourish. "We'll be fine!"

"Easy for you to say," Lee said, signing hers at a more sedate pace. "You're the anti-Jinchuriki. We're just garden variety humans with Kekkei genkai."

She thrust her form into Haru's hands and after a moment, Yuki followed suit.

"Hey!" Haru said. "How come I have to hand in the papers?"

"You're the token muse," Lee said dryly. Yuki giggled.

Haru scowled, unsure how to respond to that. Instead, he signed his form and muttered off towards the tempt where the chuunin were handing out the scrolls. A few minutes later, Heaven scroll in hand, the three of them were bounding through the treetops.

"Anyone around, Lee-san?" Yuki asked.

Lee's eyes were completely hidden under her mirror shades. She didn't so much as turn her head as she said. "Coast is completely clear."

"Good," Haru said, pulling the Clow Key from around his neck and turning it into the Sealing Wand. he flicked his wrist in what had almost become a natural motion and plucked out two Cards. "Clow Cards, show me your true power! DASH CARD! JUMP CARD!"

The branch below him glowed as the magic circle materialized under his feet and the combined abilities of The Jump Card and Dash Card settled over him.

Lee unsheathed her jian from her back, pulling out a Card she'd tucked in her thigh holster. "FLY CARD!"

A magic circle appeared beneath her as well, and a set of pure white wings erupted from her back. The wings became more substantial looking, it's feathers gaining definition as the circle faded beneath her. Lee gestured with her sword. "Team Seven is that way. If I remember correctly, they should be dealing with that guy who posed as Naruto soon. I'm not sure given that they didn't exactly give timestamps on the anime, but Orochimaru is the next event after that."

"Then we'd better get moving," Yuki said, taking off her ridiculously oversized shuriken from her back and handing it to Haru. "Here. You bring this. I might accidentally stab Lee-san if she carries me with it on."

The two blinked. "Huh?" Haru said, staring at the shuriken in his hands. It would not look out of place if used as a small windmill. "Run that by us again."

In answer, Yuki suddenly jumped into Lee's arms, who caught her by instinct, looking stunned at the turn of events. Yuki's oversized sleeves went around Lee's neck. "Lee-san can fly, so it's better if she carries me. We're girls, so we're both light. You, on the other have, have that water bottle of yours, not to mention being restricted to Dash and Jump. It's better if you take the lighter load, and I assure you, my shuriken is lighter than I am."

Haru through up his hands, nearly falling over from the shuriken's momentum. "Fine!"

Yuki nodded. "Good." She turned to Lee, who was about a foot away. "Come on, let's get moving!"

Lee to her credit, wasn't as red as she usually was, although her head looked a bit mechanical as she nodded. Without a word, she lifted off, heading towards the general direction of Team Seven as Haru followed below…

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Some time later, Lee landed on a branch and put Yuki down, signaling a halt.

"What is it?" the silver-haired girl asked as Haru landed next to them and handed her shuriken back to her.

"We're too late," Lee said, her shades reflecting what little light managed to filter down to their level as she stared off into the darkness. "Orochimaru's managed to separate them."

Yuki's lips compressed into a thin line. "So it's started. Alright, one of us has to go help Naruto. The others need to keep Sasuke from getting Cursed Sealed! Or, as I like to call it, getting a snake-hickey."

"Nice name," Haru said dryly. He turned to Lee. "How far away are we?"

"I'll go for Naruto," Lee said. "Uchiha doesn't like me. He might not accept our help if I show up. And besides, Orochimaru might go after me…"

"He shouldn't have any idea about you…" Yuki said, looking concerned.

"Better safe then sorry," the girl in green said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Haru demanded. "Point us in the right direction then go!"

"Head that way," Lee said, point down the line they'd been traveling with her sword. With that, she opened her wings and flew, heading a bit off to the side. Haru and Yuki were already moving, the latter holding the former's hand while she held her shuriken with her other, letting herself get pulled along. Soon, the three lost sight of each other.

"Wish I could be Lee right now," Haru said.

Yuki looked at him curiously. "Why?"

Haru turned to her, a grave look on his face. "You realize we're about to face off with Orochimaru!"

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Fei arrived just in time to see Naruto about to get eaten. Ditching her glasses, she frantically began making the necessary seals, not giving herself time to wonder if this was such a good idea. An instant later, there were twin explosions of smoke as the Kawarimi took place, and Naruto suddenly found himself standing on the branch Lee had been.

Being swallowed was no a pleasant experience. Luckily for Fei, snakes mainly swallowed their pray whole, as they lacked the teeth and jaw for proper chewing. This, it was straight down and in for her. It was past the throat and straight into the esophagus, completely blind. Somehow, she didn't know if that made it better or worse.

Gritting her teeth, Fei activated her eyes…

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Naruto stared in horror as the girl was swallowed in his place, unable to comprehend what had happened. The snake gulped, a bump on it's throat rolling down, before setting it's sight back on Naruto.

Frantically, he raised his hands up, preparing to unleash a round of Kage Bunshin, but before he could, the snake suddenly stopped. If he didn't know better, he would have said the snake had an alarmed look on it's face.

"What the–?" Naruto said, hands coming down as he started at the snake, which had started writhing in intense agony. It thrashed, rubbing itself against a tree– thankfully not Naruto's–as it attempted to relieve itself of it's discomfort, but to no avail.

Suddenly, a part of it's throat seemed to bulge out, before black flames burst out of it's skin. More flames suddenly erupted from it's mouth, touching the branches above it and immediately destroying them. No burn, no wait. Just touch and go. The Black flames quickly spread over it's body until, with a 'poof', the snake disappeared, taking with it a majority of the black flames.

From out of the mass of dark fire and summoning smoke, a figure suddenly began to plummet to the ground, seemingly untouched by the stygian tongues. Naruto dashed towards it, taking care to avoid the black fire that was even then beginning to disappear. He'd seen what those things had done to the trees, and he had no intention of seeing if the same would happen to him!

Catching the falling figure, Naruto immediately bounced up to a higher branch. "Hey! are you alright?" she said, trying to shake the girl awake.

The girl moaned, reaching into a her pocket and pulling out… a pair of mirror shades? "You're friends are in trouble…" the girl managed to say as she shakily put the glasses on.

Naruto was confused for a moment, before realizing the girl was talking about Sakura and Sasuke. "They are? Where?"

Something weird seemed to happen to the girl's face, but Naruto couldn't quite put his finger on it. She raised a slightly trembling hand and pointed. "There," she managed to say, her voice sounding weak, like she hadn't had slept in days. "My friends are with them."

Naruto nodded, and was about to bound off when a weak hand took suddenly gripped his pant leg. "Wait…" the girl said, who looked like she was struggling to get up. She raised her head, and even though he couldn't see her eyes, he could tell they were looking into his.

"Take me with you…"

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- To be continued...

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A/N: If this doesn't get me reviews, nothing will…

A reminder. This all happens within the confines of The Create Card, which is kind of like Castle Oblivion in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Anyone care to guess what the three of them (and 'Sephiroth') can do now (Fei's seems obvious, but it's actually not…)? Kero's self-insert as a Sephiroth-clone… –BWAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAAA HAAAAAAAA!–

The deck holsters are either magic or rely on simple mechanisms that don't get messed up by magic, take your pick.

Disclaimer: I don't own, please don't sue

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Omake: Rejected Concepts

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"Why do I have a beak?" Lee said, glaring down at her bright yellow beak. She blinked as a sudden breeze made her aware of something. She looked down and freaked. "WHERE ARE MY PANTS?"

Harry stared at the nose that had taken up forty percent of his field of vision. "You've gotta be kidding me…! I'm the CARD CAPTOR! WHERE"S MY DIGNITY?"

"Shut up, 'Goofy'," Lee growled. "At least you get to wear pants!"

Kero looked down at himself. Big bulbous shoes, coat and tails, top hat, umbrella… "What the heck am I supposed to be?"

Winter just grinned, flipping her Keyblade up in the air and catching it on it's return arc. She posed. "COOL! WATCH OUT HEARTLESS! YOU ARE SO TOAST!"

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"Why do I have long hair?" Lee said, tugging on her ponytail. She paused as she noticed something else. "And why don't I have fingers?"

Harry, meanwhile, was spazzing. "NO! I'M A GIRL!"

Winter was just flying around, giggling in true Bubbles fashion and shooting out occasional eyebeams. "WHEE! This is fun!"

Kero looked down at himself, taking in the white lab coat and pipe. "Well, it could be worse…"

"AND WE'LL BE FIGHTING CRIME, TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD. HERE WE COME JUST IN TIME… THE POWERPUFF GIRLS! POWERPUFF!" Winter belted out.

"I'm a girl…" Harry whimpered.

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Kero looked down at herself. "Okay, I'm green, I'm naked, and I've got these two weird knives stuck in my belt. What am I?"

Lee was seriously considering using the katanas on her back. "Moon…" she growled.

Harry looked down at himself, and sighed. "Well, I guess it could be worse…"

"COOL!" Winter said, spinning her nunchuks around. "I got the great one!"

"Great?" Lee said. "By what criteria?"

"TEENAGED MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, HEROES IN A HALF-SHELL… TURTLE POWER!"

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"AAAHHHHH!" Harry cried. "I'M A GIRL!"

Lee blinked at her appearance, then discreetly patted her… um, his pants. "Why am I a guy? And why are my eyes yellow?"

"AAAHHHHH!" Winter cried, spazzing out and clutching her long hair. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BEAUTIFUL SILVER HAIR?"

Lee looked at her closely. "I don't know… the purple hair and eyes looks good on you."

Kero looked down on himself. "Why haven't I changed?"

"Oy," a tall guy with brown hair said. "Better hurry, Kajuu, or you'll be late."

For some reason, Harry got mad. "I AM NOT A MONSTER, ONII-CHAN!"

Lee and Winter looked at her, blinking. "How is this guy your brother?" Lee said.

Harry blinked. "I… have no idea…"

"Touya," a silver-haired youth said pleasantly, coming behind the other guy and patting his shoulder. "Stop teasing Sakura-chan."

The four looked at each other, and wondered what the heck was going on…

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End

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In the next chap, I'll still be using their aliases, so get used to them. It's not that hard…

Coming soon: Winter versus Kiba! Fei versus Neji! And… GASP! Harry versus GAARA! But first, they have to deal with Orochimaru! Stay tuned!

Please review, C&C welcome. Anyone care to do fanart of the outfits? I'd try, but I suck at drawing without a template.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.