Team Gai entered the tower. Neji Hyuga activated his Byakugan and surveyed the entrance hall suspiciously. Tenten supported Lee, who was much better, but still hurt. Neji caught sight of four figures hunched in a corner.
"Harry Potter," he acknowledged.
Harry put his finger to his lips. He had cast a disillusionment charm (the one at the beginning of Book 5 that Moody uses) on all of them, and they had been there for nearly twenty minutes without anyone noticing. It apparently did not work on Neji, though.
"Yes! We're here!" another team bounded into the tower. It was Kiba, Shino, Ed and Hinata. Al followed shortly after, carrying Hermione on his back.
Neji saw them, and gave a sneer surpassing Slytherin. "So you're alive. Hinata-sama."
Hinata paled, and looked down at her feet. "Ohayô, Neji-Nii-San."
"I'm… here. Thanks… for waiting… you… gits." Ron finally caught up with his friends.
"Hey, Ron." Kiba greeted. "You're really slow!"
Ron glowered. They had spent the last 16 hours trekking on endlessly. They'd only stopped once, to camp for the night at Hermione's suggestion. Kiba, the self-proclaimed leader, had taken a liking to her. He had treated her like loyalty, including but not limited to commanding the "talking robot" to be her steed. Ed had insisted on fighting every ninja they came across because they all insulted his height. As a result, they had all lost their scrolls and/or a few limbs and organs. Consequently, Ed and Kiba were very chipper, the cause of their happy mood being the sackfull of scrolls Ed carried. (He transmuted the sack from a bunch of leaves, btw).
"Hermione! Ron! You're here!" a voice from the corner called. The disillusionment charm was lifted, and the Golden Trio reunited.
"I'm so happy we're all here!" Hermione had leaped forward and hugged everyone, including Riza and B.H.
Meanwhile, Team Gai and Kurenai had figured out the scroll on the wall and summoned up a brown-haired man with a scar on his nose and a black-haired woman wearing a white coat.
"Congratulations on passing the second exam!" the man beamed at them.
"But who are you?" the woman turned to our reunited heroes.
"Oh, they're friends." Kiba told her.
"We can't be sure of that," the woman said. "You six go with Iruka Umino. You seven. Come with me."
"So you see? It's all a big, huge mistake." Hermione explained to the old man in the white hat. He was the Hokage, the leader of Konoha.
They were in what looked like the surveillance room of the tower. There were monitors all over the room. Hermione had told their tale to the Hokage, but changed a few details to make it seem like they used the spell just for the heck of it. She also made it sound like Ed, Al, Riza and B.H. had been with them all along. The dark-haired woman, Anko Mitarashi, had been alongside the Hokage the whole time. Five or six Jounin had entered the room part way into her story, and stopped to listen. One of them, a sickly man with bags under his eyes, had been coughing the whole time, which annoyed Ed and Ron quite a bit.
"So you're from a place called England and you drew a big circle to see if you can teleport? And you just randomly got here? Here, in the forest of death? Now of all times, during the exam?" Hokage repeated sceptically. "It all seems rather hard to believe."
"You've got 'spy' written all over you," Anko added.
"The story's true!" Ed had kept silent until then, realizing that Hermione had his and Al's best interests in mind, too. "Why else would we barge into your dumb little test? Which we passed, by the way!" he threw his sackfull of scrolls at her. Anko caught it, and started looking through it.
"Well, even if it is true…" said the Hokage. He turned to Riza. "You! You look like you're at least eighteen! Why didn't you stop them? You should be the responsible adult. You should know better than to let teenagers mess around with this dangerous 'magic alchemy'! You should have been paying attention to them instead of… playing with your little dog!"
There was silence as Hermione struggled to think of an excuse. Riza glared at him with a look that said 'If we weren't surrounded by Konoha's best ninja, you'd be dead!' The man with the circles under his eyes coughed very loudly.
"It so happens that we had already cast the spell when Riza and Black Hayate entered the room. She realized what we did right away, and tried to counter the spell. But it was too late, and we were all sucked in." Luna calmly lied. Her friends looked at her in surprise. She glanced over at the coughing man. "Perhaps you would like some cough medicine." Luna conjured a mug with the liquid inside, and floated it over to the man. She set it tapping against his head (like Dumbledore did in the 6th book) until he took it. The man eyed it suspiciously, and after a show of sniffing it and other tests, decided it was safe to drink.
"Hokage Sir!" Anko exclaimed.
"What is it, Anko?"
"The exam is over!" Anko held up Ed's scrolls. "Seven teams have made it back so far, so that means 14 scrolls. These people have 11 scrolls."
Everyone in the room did some quick mental math.
"25 scrolls," nodded the Hokage. "I suppose we should go and meet the contestants." He hot up to leave.
"What about us!" Ed yelled.
"You've passed the second exam." Hokage said. "That means you can fight in the preliminaries for the third. Except you," he pointed at Riza. "It would be an unfair fight, as you are much older than all your opponents. But the rest of you, give your names to Anko and Hayate Gekko. They will bring you to the test." With that, he and the other Jounin left.
"Okay. You start," Hayate the Ninja with the Chronic Cough (not to be confused with Black Hayate, the dog) pointed at Ed. Anko walked over to a computer, and set it up to enter their names. When they were done, Hayate and Anko escorted them out.
"I'm pleased to announce that we have some new entrants for this stage of the exam." Hokage was telling his students when they entered the room.
Twenty-one teenagers were gathered in a gym-like place with railings around it and a sculpture of arms doing a ninja-signal on one end. They all turned to see the people who entered. They already knew most of the kids. Kiba and Naruto yelled and waved enthusiastically, and Ed, Kiba's new best friend, waved enthusiastically back. Hinata, Ino and Sakura also waved while Neji and Sasuke smiled coldly at them. Shikamaru, Chouji and Shino sort of ignored them. They were either a) thinking about how troublesome the exam was b) thinking about FOOD or c) standing there looking… creepy. Tenten pointed out Harry, Luna and Riza to Lee, who decided he wanted Luna to be his new girlfriend. Their reception wasn't all friendly. The Sand and Sound Nins gave them glares that could kill.
Our Heroes (aka Team Riza) then noticed how different they looked from everyone else. Everyone in the gym was, of course, dressed in ninja wear. The Sandnins and Otonin were obviously dressed a little different than the Konoha people, but not as different as Team Riza. Harry, Hermione and Ron were all wearing jeans, T-shirts and running shoes under casual black robes. Ed and Al were in the usual getup, and Riza was wearing her blue army uniform. However, none of them looked as out of place as Luna. She wore tie-dyed robes over a neon green sundress, huge platform flip-flops, and various accessories that earned her the nickname "Loony Lovegood". Everyone started to feel slightly out of place, except for Luna and Black Hayate, who was having the time of his young life.
"I see most of you have already met. They are from a land faraway called England, and will not be fighting with any of the jutsus. Instead, they will be using 'magic alchemy'. I daresay it is just as effective as ninjustsu, genjustsu or taijutsu, as most of you have experienced fist hand." Hokage told everyone. "They already know the rules of the preliminaries, and so do you. Does anyone wish to withdraw?"
A silver-haired boy with glasses raised his hand. Naruto looked shocked, while Sasuke glared at him suspiciously from the corner of his eye.
"Kabuto Yakushi of Konoha?" Hayate consulted his clipboard, and made a note. "Okay you can go."
Kabuto apologized to Naruto, and left them arena.
"Anyone else?" asked Hayate (yes, Luna's medicine is working wonders already :P).
Ron started to raise his hand. Quick as a flash, Hermione reached out and dragged it back down.
"Ron, we have to stay together," she hissed, still holding his hand. "We can't be separated."
"But Hermione…" Ron looked close to tears. Standing in a big circle he'd drawn seemed just fine, but now the danger was all too real.
"I know you'll do terrific." Hermione patted him on the shoulder with her other hand. "You fought all those Death Eaters last year and the year before, remember?"
"You can do it, Ron." Harry encouraged his friend.
"Anyone else? This is your last chance! Going once, going twice…" Anko announced.
Ron sniffed. Hermione gripped his hand harder. He smiled at her.
"Gone." Anko finished. "Now, if you'll turn your attention to the screen…"
A huge monitor lowered onto the wall. Everyone turned towards it, and letters started to flash by madly.
"And your first match is … Misumi Tsurugi versus Alphonse Elric."
Note: Riza Hawkeye is 25 years old.
Things to look forward to in Chapter Six: Al learns a new skill, Neji discovers a secret and Tenten shows off her talents.
