Disclaimer: This session of television is interrupted in order to go watch the author announce his excuses live. The screen glitches to a stage with a restless audience glaring at the curtains trying will them to open. And open did the curtains. A figure steps away from the backdrop and calmly walks up to the previously empty podium. His mouth opens and the excuses run the marathon.

"Hey! Now I know you've been wondering where I was all this time. But a fickle thing called Real Life ™ has been messing around with my life. I hope that this breather will last, as I hope most of you will do the same." The author bows quickly, narrowly missing a thrown tomato. "Now on to the disclaimers: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter; they belong to their respective owners. Thank you and now on the show." The author turns sharply and strolls purposely behind the curtains. Or at least he was attempting to when he slipped on previously thrown vegetable.

Chapter 7

A cacophony of silence hung in the atmosphere that morning in the hospital. Nurses and doctors were hurrying hither and thither past the ER hallways minding their own business, not noticing the two genin sitting across from each other. Nor did they notice the red light signifying an operation as they bustle by. If one, however, were to notice them they would shy away from the depressing weight around the door and genin. Yet it was there that the Hokage found Harii and Rikou, heads hung and bodies tensed waiting for the answer.

The light tap-tap of his sandals alerted them to his presence yet it did little to budge them. They were like mountains, he was the wind, and the operation was the snow: eroding and shaping. He stood there in the middle of the hallway staring at the genin, at the door, at the light.

The light soon dimmed as the doctor walked out, his eyes weary from the operation, his hands shaking from exhaustion, his mouth dry containing the answer. He blinked and licked his lips, wetting them. It did little to stir the genin as they continued to grind their gazes against the tiled floor.

The doctor cleared his throat nervously and began his analysis, "The patient will live, however he will be unconscious for a few days. Ahem, when he was scanned for damage we found multiple broken ribs, a severely deep cut on his right arm and massive damage to his entire left arm. Luckily his spine and neck received minor damage, so he is not paralyzed. Ahem, we managed to successfully heal the cut on his right arm; it should be back to normal in a span of a few days. The broken ribs were also successfully healed; again a few days until the pain stops. His left arm on the other hand… Ahem, the boulder seemed to have managed to obliterate the entire bone structure of the arm and destroy parts of the muscle structure. We have healed enough that both structures will be able to recover to below if not at original strength. However the boulder was found to be integrated with chakra, which when impacted would release the stored chakra. On non-living objects it would intensify the brute damage, but with living objects…" the doctor seemed to shiver, "it sought out the nervous system and destroyed the entire sector of nerves in his arm. The patient would be able to use the arm if not for that fact."

The atmosphere seemed to darken immensely at that sentence. The doctor apologized and excused himself. Rikou began to sob as Harii's left hand tensed. The Hokage sighed and sat down near them rubbing his eyes. After a moment to form his words into sentences he opened his mouth to speak.

"What will come of the missing-nin?"

The Hokage looked at Harii as he finished his question, "He will be questioned and returned to his village for Hunter-nins to dispose of him."

Harii's mouth twitched as Rikou's sobbing quieted. The Hokage spoke once more, "I am sorry to place this on you, but you will need to continue the mission tomorrow; regardless of Kinji's current state. You will be assigned to your peers' other team for the meantime." Rikou nodded solemnly and Harii clenched his hands. The Hokage sighed and continued, "Rikou will be assigned to Team 8 while Harii to Team 5."

The Hokage sighed again and stood up, "Rest for now, you will need it for later today." He left in a swirl of cloth.

Harii stared at the Hokage's retreating backside. It was unfair to leave Kinji in a state like this, but, Harii thought, it was the way of the ninja, to be a tool, to be emotionless, to be a powerful weapon. It was the only part of a ninja lifestyle that he hated. Harii's mind fled to Kinji automatically.

He should have been there for Kinji, he could have been at his side helping and protecting him! But no! He was shackled once again, left to see his comrades and close ones hurt and killed! Maybe he could give Kinji his arm, maybe he could… Harii's eyes clouded over but soon cleared as his ears focused on Rikou's sobs. Harii steel himself and walked over to Rikou and held her.

"It's time to go."

She nodded faintly and continued sobbing, although quietly. Harii shook his head lightly; it would not do with her unease. He had to find a place to calm her down first. Raking his brains he vaguely remembered the one place Rikou said she felt calm in. Harii sighed it was a long ways from the hospital.

Harii guided her away from the door and out the hospital towards the Hokage monument. Harii wanted to get her home fast, but the only viable solution was to carry her; something crossing his line of comfort. Thus he was forcibly slowed down by Rikou's numb steps. He mentally sighed, pushing away his sarcastic self and continued at the slower rate.

Finally Harii reached the Avian Reserves, the sanctuary for all birds. The complex consisted of several towers that housed specialized birds along with a civilian observatory. Harii sighed; the tower Rikou favored was on the opposite side of the complex and had an unreasonable amount of stairs. He mentally rolled his eyes, "Great, just great."

As Harii stepped onto the tallest civilian tower Rikou visibly calmed and her breath came in shaky but peaceful repetitions. After several minutes, a serene Rikou separated from Harii and motioned to accompany her home. As they walked at a less tedious speed, a large uncomfortable silence wedged itself between them.

Rikou looked up when they reached the house; she hugged Harii and smiled in gratitude. She nodded at him and turned towards the door. She paused and quickly turned to kiss Harii on the cheek; she hurried inside and closed the door.

Harii touched the place where she kissed him and promptly blushed.

Later that day one would find Rikou and Harii in the tapestry room once again as they waited for their new team to arrive. The door opened and in walked Team 8, Team Lucky. They were talking amongst themselves, waiting for their new shift when they stopped to notice Harii and Rikou.

Harii was entirely focused on looking everywhere but Rikou, while she was keenly gazing at him. Megami pouted and sauntered over to Harii.

"Hi there, I'm not sure we've met, but I'm Benzaiten Megami."

Harii's eyes turned to Megami, "Nice to meet you."

Megami, annoyed by the flatness of the response, tried again, "I was wondering where Kinji is, do you know?" Megami fluttered her eyelashes.

Harii either took no notice of the flirting or didn't care as he uttered, "Hospital."

Megami's eyes widened dramatically and asked him why. Harii simply replied, "Injured."

Megami soon gave up on him as she felt he wasn't attracted to her and turned to Rikou, who was tittering at the conversation. "Why, hello Torigoya, I didn't see you there."

Rikou's humor died as she addressed Megami, "Of course you didn't; your big ego is always in the way."

Megami turned red, "Whatever Torigoya; go and play with your baby chicken."

"He's a falcon! A falcon!"

"Right…"

"Just go home Benzaiten!"

"Why and let you take them? I think not!"

"Take them? They aren't trophies!"

"Right, which just shows that I'm better than you."

"You little…"

The two girls continued to bicker in a manner not quite unlike Rikou with Kinji. Harii rolled his eyes, pushed up his glasses, and engaged the other two members of Team Lucky.

"I haven't had the chance to meet you guys properly."

The chubby genin chuckled cheerfully and stuck out a hand, "Well let's start then! My name's Yare Hotei! This here slim guy next to me's Uwaa Bisha."

The slim one next to Hotei nodded and Harii returned the gesture. Harii turned back to Hotei and grabbed his hand, "My name is Tougeika Harii."

Hotei nodded, "I've heard of you Harii, I was surprised to hear that you guys took a C-mission last, I mean with Kinji on the team and all." Hotei winced, "Sorry, my mouth runs amok at times."

Harii shook his head, "Its okay," his voice seemed a little forced.

Harii turned his attention to Bisha. "Hello."

Bisha nodded in reply and continued to daydream. Hotei noticed Harii's puzzled face and explained, "I'm sorry about Bisha, ever since he fell on that mission his brains has been a little scrambled. We're all worried that he has some permanent damage, but doctors say that this daydreaming is no sign of such a thing."

Bisha seemed to snap out of his trance and spoke to Harii, "Sorry about that, I'm sure Hotei told you all about me right? Well it's really nice getting to know you; I hope we can work together on missions in the future." Bisha nodded off once again.

A pregnant pause ensued, only interrupted by the biting remarks from the female duo behind them. Hotei shook his head, "I swear all of that bickering is just an outlet for their undying friendship between them."

Harii turned a questioning gaze to Hotei, as he explained, "Well back during the Academy, Rikou and Megami used to be the best of friends, as both were close neighbors. It used to be that Megami would protect Rikou from her bullies as Rikou would do the same for her. It was not until Megami moved away to the center of the town to open a store did complications began. It was there that Megami began pushing her studies harder as she had less time to play with Rikou. (I mean really, working in a store is tiring work) Rikou became jealous and pushed herself further. This began the whole, I'm-doing-better-than-you dilemma, which soon escalated to verbal fights, as proof of it here."

Harii felt an eyebrow rise as he returned his gaze to the two fighting kunoichi. He shook his head, well at least this time she's not mad at us… Harii shuddered at the remembrance. He shifted his attention back to Hotei as he continued.

"So Harii, I had this huge weight of curiosity when I saw you in assigning room. I mean I never saw you in class when I went, so predictably I would be curious right? Anyways I was wondering when did you take the test and how come you weren't seen in class?"

Harii's eyes clouded over and responded lightly, "My schooling was interrupted; I took it after everyone else."

Hotei seemed to be confused for a second before his eyes lit up again, "Oh really! Wow I had thought you were home-schooled and took the test before us, but wow. I know this guy who knows this guy who was home-schooled…"

Hotei's words seemed to fade out as Harii became lost in fond memories. Only Bisha noticed the slight smile and faraway eyes on Harii's face.

Finally after what had seemed an eternity to one observing, Hotei's cultivation of words slowed, "… and that's how we finished our C-rank mission. Oh! Well look, the Hokage is here."

Harii's eyes faded back to reality and responded, "Hmm? Oh, yes so it seems."

Harii looked around, massaging his neck and noticed the faintly snickering Rikou next to him, the pouting Megami next to Bisha, Team 5 sneering from across the room, and the entering Hokage.

The Hokage walked to a desk in front of the room and sat down. He coughed and spoke, "As you may know, Hyuuga Kinji was hospitalized early today after his mission, after an attack by two upper-chuunin ranked missing-nin. As such Team 4 will be separated and assigned to the two remaining teams for today. Torigoya Rikou will be with Team 8 patrolling residential areas one through ten, while Tougeika Harii will be with Team 5 patrolling the commerce district. Your mission starts now, and be careful out there."

Harii had to admit though he was quite comfortable with them as they ignored him. It was like he had gone back in time to when he was alone: no friends, all loneliness. He habitually fell back into what he had dubbed his "Overly Silent, Overly Sarcastic Persona" or Kamu Kahi Jin for short. He had many bouts of laughter from that. So here he was walking a respectable distance from them, observing the surroundings.

People were hustling and bustling from stand to stall to store as they made their daily/weekly/whatever frequent shopping sprees. Harii mentally reminded himself to go and restock his supplies, they were really getting low. A bark of laughter caught his attention, and he flicked his eyes to the other team members. As he had thought, they were frankly arrogant in their duties: smirking, laughing, and in general condescending in every aspect.

Harii pushed up his glasses and rolled his eyes; Rikou was lucky to be assigned to Team 8, with only Megami to deal with. Four faint tolls of the market clock, alerted Team 5 for the arrogant air around them dissipated and was replaced by one commonly found with troublemakers.

Suisama glanced over to Harii and turned back to his teammates whispering. Harii rolled his eyes, it was not like he couldn't hear them; from the few snatches he caught it was safe, or rather unsafe, assume that the others had something they wanted to do.

"…we should go now, the old man's going on shift today…"

"…about Sharp-Nose?"

"…worry. He won't follow…"

"Alright… go…"

Harii noticed as Suisama neared him with a certain smug swagger. Oh for the chance to knock him out, thought Harii.

"We're taking a break; you'll be in charge for a little while. Don't mess up Sharp-Nose."

Suisama sneered at him and returned to his teammates and they rushed over to a particular store. Harii sighed and pushed up his glasses as he headed for the other side of the street and positioned himself to observe the other's venture into the alternate material section of the store. Harii smirked as he bought a fresh apple; this was going to be fun.

Sure enough within a few minutes a large crash could be heard as one of the staff found the lurking trio. Harii could see the tops of various shelves tip as the lurkers were pursued. The commotion was loud enough that the entire street paused to stare. Suddenly everything went silent and as everyone thought to return to their previous actions, an exclaimed "Aha!" held their attention once again. A smack accompanied by a squeal was heard as trampling feet raced to the exit. More swings along with more fleshy smacks, were heard as the trio escaped. A red faced man soon appeared at the door, shaking his broom at their fleeing behinds yelling incoherent threats.

Harii smacked his face as his body shivered with mirth. It took all of his control to keep himself from falling to the floor laughing his head off. Harii eventually calmed down and followed the others; he wanted to be there when they do something stupid again.

After walking many blocks, Harii found them shopping for some fruits, trying to bargain the already low-priced items. Harii rolled his eyes and grabbed the forgotten apple from before and proceeded to eat it. As he watched them aggravate the merchant. Harii's mind wandered and started to wonder about Rikou, certainly she would have a better time with Team 8.

Rikou was not having a good time with Team 8. Oh sure she could handle the annoying self chattering of Hotei and the cloudy countenance of Bisha. No, what she couldn't handle was the annoyance's constant glaring, which was of course reciprocated quite refreshingly. So far residential areas 1 through 3 were clean, for they consisted of the elderly and the richer housing of the middle class. The same was for areas 7 though 10, as they had humble farmers and workers. When they reached areas 4-6 however, did things went from awkward to bad. It was here that most of the crimes were committed, though they were mostly harmless teenage pranks. They were able to stop any crimes that day though, as many of the troublemakers had taken interest in one Benzaiten Megami. It was then that Rikou's day cascaded as after every attempt of attention did that hag smirk at her. But of course some did come onto her, though she dismissed them curtly with one of her award-worthy glares, she did her team proud.

Just as she thought the torture reach a crescendo though, noon was before them and the children came out to play as the teenagers went off to eat. The children ran up to them and literally bounced at the new guests in the area.

The witch smiled and crouched down to pick up one of them and told them a story as the guys stood back eating their simple lunch. Rikou found her lips starting to curve upwards at the scene and turned away as the ha-Megami turned in her general direction. Rikou felt an old feeling, she thought she'd buried long ago. Sighing, she gazed up into the sky, idly noting the cloud formations. Maybe this mission wouldn't be such a torturous concoction of twisted fate.

Harii pushed up his glasses; having a mission with the arrogance-in-a-bottle team was turning into one of laughs and sighs. So far he watched the threesome stir up trouble with merchants, chased by the local alley animals, and repeatedly being smacked around by ah… mature women. Truthfully, he was sick of it. Well at least not the slapping part, those were stored under never forget.

A crash echoed in a nearby alley as a yelp of pain rattled the china nearby. Harii winced, he had a bad feeling that the arrogant ignorant posse was heading straight ahead to trouble, no pun intended. Harii brushed his clothes and strolled innocently towards the alley.

He was right; they were in trouble or had at least brought trouble to an innocent bystander. They had knocked off a crate and a kitten had fallen from the top of the crate. The team had crowded around the kitten, observing it moan. Just as Harii stepped into the alley, Fu took the kitten in her hands and motioned the others to follow as she rushed past Harii to the nearest vet. Harii stepped out of the shadows and watched the hurrying backs of Team 5. Maybe, he thought, just maybe there is a normal bone inside of that arrogant skeleton…

Harii sighed; he had just got off duty and neared his family grounds. It was becoming akin to a second home to him. Of course all of his stuff was at his apartment, but it was one of those things that made him feel that he had a connection to the rest of the world, or at least his family. Harii walked pass the courtyard and to an overhang of earth, hovering over a serene lake. He laid down upon the soft grass and gazed upwards into the sky. It was a beautiful night, a beautiful way to end a mostly peaceful day. Harii soon fell asleep under the stars near his family grounds; his back resting against the grass, arms cushioning his head, and legs crossed a few meters from the edge of the ledge.

Yet across the village, emerging from the gates were the battered and bleeding teams of chuunin as they headed for the hospital, following the dim starlit streets.

A/N: Ah! Sorry readers! Thanks a lot to Morier, my beta for such a timely beta. Hope your troublemaker gets caught! Not much action, not much advancing plot, but eh that's what fillers are for eh? Anyway next chapter should pick up on the plot and maybe a teeny weeny bit of the action. We'll just have to see .

Traslations: (Not much but eh)
Kamu Kahi Jin – To bite a servant girl's temple (funny how the shortened version is also a symbolic version .)

Well Until The Next Kunai Is Thrown,

AibohphobiA