Year 1

My Path that Loops (Naruto) x Harry Potter

Really random I know.

But this has always been a thought experiment I go to when I want to know how Toki Nakamaru would react in certain situations in the future. I plan how Toki should act in certain situations and then piece together what changes made him go through it. This allows me to map out a logical growth. Now this doesn't always make sense plot wise, as there are several plot holes in My Path that Loops. But, I'd like to think that Toki's character growth is strong and I have allowed an interesting character to grow. I really think characters and their personalities shine in crossovers.

I always loved crossovers. My many failed attempts over the years to write a novel have always been based on 'crossing' many ideas together. Almost always they end up in smoke and cinder, but this particular story always stuck in my head.

To be honest, I'm scared to write more of My Path That loops. It has been my safety net to go back and write. A comfortable place where I know the character, been through the story, and yet it acts like a cage. Whenever I start getting deeper into a novel, especially after the first few chapters, my mind drifts back to it. I get side tracked and lose interest in my Novel and then the spiral goes all over again. I tell myself to focus on the novel, leave fanfic behind because you've outgrown it. But have I?

Now I'm not going to do anything insane and swear off fanfic or delete my account, as that is more petty than helpful. But, I think I'll try my hand at more crazier stories that I kept to myself. Because, I always thought to myself:

"What if Toki, after the Great War, became a Professor at Hogwarts to hide away from the aftermath?"

Here we go!

I

The room smelled of freshly brewed tea and dry ink. As Harry walked through the row of desks, he could see numerous scrolls on the wall written in a foreign language. The usual chalkboard and large oak desk, found in every classroom, rested at the front of the class. Outside, one could see the great lake and the light poured in through the large glass windows.

Harry sat next to his new best friend, Ron, in the middle row of the classroom. They had just finished their introduction with the Potion Master, Snape. After being belittled by the Slytherin Head, Harry rushed off to his newest class, Seals.

Ron yawned loudly as he set his bag and books down on the desk. "Man, that Snape is a right git isn't he?" Ron said, in hopes of comforting his friend.

Harry gave Ron a wry smile and nod. "Yeah, I can see why all the Gryffindors hate him."

Ron gave a half nod back while rubbing his eyes. "So this is Seals. Dad talked about this class being brought to Hogwarts."

"Brought?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged. "I don't know. Yeah. He was talking to Percy and said something that this class was from Maho-" Ron stumbled. "Maho- umm."

"Mahoutokoro" A voice interjected from in front of them.

The two boys turned to the bushy haired girl at the front. Hermoine, turned slightly in her seat, looked back at them with a slight disdain in her eye. "Mahoutokoro is one of the great wizarding schools in Japan." She continued. "They use seals as a replacement in addition to wands as a way to conduct magic as well. The fact that it's being brought to Hogwarts is a huge deal."

Ron rolled his eyes at the know it all and turned back to Harry. "Well. I say it's not as cool as Flying Class right? We can finally get to ride real broomsticks."

Harry was about to reply but a new voice entered the room.

"I wouldn't say seals aren't cool though." A cool voice rang out. Ron turned beet red as the class turned to the front of the class. At the top of the stairs to the Professor's office was Professor Nakamaru.

Harry had seen the man at the banquet but didn't get a good look at him. He was a short man with pale white hair and dark red eyes. He wore dark blue robes with yellow trimmings. His hair was tied in a tight ponytail with an orange band holding it together. Harry noted that his fingertips were stained black. Also, as Harry looked closer, he noted several scars on the man's hands.

"Greetings everyone, I am Professor Toki Nakamaru. I am your Seals Teacher." Professor Nakamura said as he walked down the steps. Reaching into his robe, he took his wand and waved it at a nearby cabinet. The cabinet silently swung open and a tea set flew out and set itself on his desk. The tea set was a simple white with a few chips on the pot itself and cup. As it landed, a hollow sound rang out followed by the sound of water being poured in. After a few moments, the water inside the pot boiled and poured itself into an awaiting teacup.

Professor Nakamura made his way in front of the class and clasped his hands in front of them. "Now, I hope you all aren't too tired from your adventures in the dungeon with Professor Snape."

There were a few chuckles from the Gryffindor students.

Nakamura smiled. "Good. Unfortunately, I do have to do the whole introduction and explain to you this course."

Another flick of the wand and a piece of chalk flew up towards the chalkboard. It started writing the professor's name on the board.

"So, I've been teaching at this school for about five years, taking over for the previous teacher who was sent here by Mahoutokoro after he retired." The professor nodded to Hermoine who beamed back. As he dictated, the chalk spelt out 'Mahoutokoro' on the board.

"However," He continued. "My experience extends far past that. And I am considered one of the Onmyoji."

Harry looked at the board and copied the word 'Onmyoji' down as the chalk wrote it.

"Does anyone here know what that is?"

Surprisingly, Neville raised his hand, though Hermoine's shot up as well. "Mr Longbottom?" the Professor queried.

"One of the masters of Seals recognized by all of Japan Magic society." Neville said.

With a nod, the professor continued. "Correct. Now the official record or verification for that matter, isn't open to the public. I could just 'claim' to be one. However, to be an Onmyoji isn't just getting a cut and dry certification. There must be an advancement in the art. And that has a signature attached. So, I can direct you to my work later though we won't be getting into any of the deeper theories until your fifth year."

The Professor took a sip of tea. The Chalk on the board started writing 'loud slurping'.

The class chuckled at the writing and Nakamura turned to the board. "Bah, this damn thing always betrays me."

The chalk did a merry dance and drew a smiling face on the board. Harry smiled as the class laughed at the bit.

Nakamura turned back to the class as he set his tea down. "Now. What we will cover in your first year, is the main concepts of sealing, Yin and Yang energy, how this relates to Magic, and the basic sealing language, Nenryo." The chalk furiously wrote the words on the board.

Nakamaru waved his hands to the scrolls hanging from the surrounding walls. "Each of these are the names of the Sealing languages I have mastery over. These are the ones I will be teaching you."

Hermoine stuck her hand in the air.

The professor pointed to her with his tea cup. "Miss Granger."

"When you say you have mastery over, are there many languages for sealing? Aren't spells common from latin?"

The Seal master gave a small clap. "Very good observation, Miss Granger. 5 Points to Gryffindor for reading between the lines."

Hermoine smiled with a small flush.

"Yes, like Magic there are predominant languages for sealing. Most spells as you know are derived from latin and other forms. Which is why American and European spells are very similar. However, Japan and Egypt have different variations or entirely different roots for spells." The professor held up his hands in a placating manner. "But that is entirely too much to get into and delves into theory way too much."

"All seals, at the end of the day, are formulas that when energy is put through them, create a structure." Straightening his back, Professor Nakamaru stood up and grasped a scroll on the table. "Let's show you something practical."

He unfurled the scroll on the table and placed his now empty tea cup on it. "This is what your first exam will be on in three months."

There was a small groan through the class.

"Yes, the dreaded exams. Never too early to start complaining about them." the professor said with a wink. He turned his eyes down to the scroll.

Harry stood up slightly, as most of the class looked at what was on the inner part of the scroll. Inside was an intricate pattern that Harry couldn't make heads or tails of. The lines seemed to start at random places and meld into each other. It looked more like a painting than some structure or formula. Though the scroll had an empty circle in the middle.

The room seemed to still and Harry felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. The professor's hand glowed a faint blue. "Fuiin" He murmured.

With a puff of smoke the cup disappeared. Nakamura looked up and the class broke into whispers.

"Did he do a vanishing spell?" Ron asked Harry. "George says that teachers could do that to anything that got in their way."

"What I did." the professor's voice silenced the side talk. "Store the cup inside this scroll." The professor raised up the scroll and now the circle was filled with characters that Harry didn't know.

"Now this character" The professor traced the circle with his finger. "Is in my native tongue, as that is my default categorization or perception of the object. For you it will be in English or whatever language you like or even in code, if you so choose." He put the scroll on the table once more. Placing his hand on the scroll, his hand tinged blue once more and the cup appeared with a puff of smoke.

"Now." The professor reached over and poured the tea back into the cup. "We will be discussing the mechanics of this, limitations, how it works, and other applications. What is important here is not the action, but the idea that formula requires energy to form a structure. That structure then performs the action. OK class?"

"Understood, Professor Nakamura." The class said in unison. "Good. Now, does everyone have their assigned books and brush set? It should have been in the required list. I want everyone to start practicing drawing straight lines tonight. Then we can go over the syllabus and talk about what you need to cover."

Nakamura continued to drone on as Harry reached in his bag to pull out his book. He wondered what that hint of blue was on his hand. He couldn't have been the only one to notice it right?

II

Harry groaned over his homework as he tried to rewrite the seal for the seventh time. "I can never get this line straight, it always bleeds in."

Ron nodded. "Yeah. I swear my ink likes to spill all over the place when I'm trying to finish up. Ruins the whole bit."

They were sitting in the Gryffindor's common room at one of the spare tables finishing up their assignments for Seals. They had spent the majority of the time recovering from the mess at Halloween. Though, Harry was even more tired as he now had quidditch practice to contend with. Still enjoyed being in the sky, it was a freedom he never knew he could have.

"It's your hand and wrist alignment," Hermoine said. She demonstrated by pulling back on her robe and showing how her wrist and hand were straight and steady. "You're holding it like a quill. Professor Nakamura, always pulls his sleeve back and draws like top down."

Harry started to stack his piles of books and scrolls together. He never knew how convenient scrolls were when it came to storage. Ron, on the other hand, had his items open and strewn across the table. Hermoine had to rescue open books from his ink splatter with Scrougrify several times. With his station clear, Harry raised his brush, pulled back his sleeve, and started on the painting the line. It did seem to draw a cleaner line.

"That's it Harry. Try it Ron." Hermoine said.

Harry nodded and continued to practice. Ever since the Hallloween incident, Hermoine started to hang out with them. Though she still spouted knowledge constantly, she did help them out on numerus homework assignments.

Ron grumbled and tried to draw but the brush wobbled in his hand, smearing the scroll once more. "Blast. I'll get this eventually."

"What you doing there, tadpole?" A friendly voice came from the side.

Harry looked to the side and found George smirking on one side of Ron.

"Ah looks like he's doing seals there, George," Fred said in a sing-song voice. "Too bad he can't draw straight lines to save his life."

"Ah don't be like that Fred, he can't write straight with a quill either." George cackled.

"Bugger off," Ron grumbled.

"Still" George looked down at their scroll. "You guys are just starting the good stuff too. These are locks right?"

Hermoine nodded. "Yes. Can you tell from their scrolls?"

Fred snorted. "Not from these chicken scratches. A wet fish flopping on the scroll would be better than Ron's artistic painting here." Fred gave a fake oof, as Ron elbowed his stomach.

George pointed to the lines on Hermoine's scroll. "It's a feeling when you start doing wandless seals."

"Wandless?" Hermoine rose out of her seat slightly. "Like how Professor Nakamura was doing?"

Harry blinked. "Is that what he's doing when his hand glows blue?"

Fred and George nodded in unison. "Tricky part that bit. We spent a full month trying to do it, and the Professor blocked out 2 whole months for us to learn how to do it." Fred said.

George continued. "Said it was super hard and had to be started earlier if we wanted more control, like in your single digits. That's why most westerners use wands to conduct Magic into the seals. Weaker results but easier on us."

"How's it done?" Hermoine asked excitedly.

In sync, the brothers crossed their arms in an 'x'. "No can do." They said together. "Professor gave us strict orders to never try to teach this stuff to anyone without guidance."

George shook his head. "Made us aware if people tried this stuff without proper training."

"Blew up a hole in the forest, he did. Just to prove a point." Fred said with wonder in his voice.

"Scared those Slytherins shitless I might say." George nudged Ron. "But you guys aren't ready yet. Can't even draw a straight line."

Fred snickered. "The professor only draws straight lines. Well," he paused. "He has been looking ragged lately. Said something about a big project."

George shrugged. "Wonder what he's working on. Must be something complicated."

"Oh well. Leave you tadpoles alone. Get to drawing eh?" Fred smacked Ron again, shaking the boy's hand and smearing the scroll once more. Ron sighed in defeat as the twins laughed walking away.

Harry turned to Hermoine. "Something big? Do you think?"

Hermoine nodded. "It has to be something behind whatever that Dog is guarding. Whatever is tied to Nicholas Flamel and Dumbledore."

Ron, who had rejoined their conversation, "Should we ask him about it? I don't think he'll slip up like Hagrid."

Harry shrugged. He felt bad for badgering information out of Hagrid.

"If Snape is after Harry or after whatever that guard is guarding, then we have to know." Hermoine said. "We can get to class early tomorrow. It's the last class of the day and it's after our free period."

"Bugger." Ron grumbled. "I wanted to go to the quidditch pitch to see if I could throw the ball through the quidditch hoops with George and Fred."

Harry shrugged, as he had also been invited. "Well, this is too important."

Hermoine nodded as they turned back to their assignments. Ron continued to curse as he kept mixing the lines on his scroll. Harry finished his after a few more attempts and placed an empty cup on the scroll after the ink had dried. While Professor Nakamura had shown them the wandless version, he did spend a week with them on how to do it with their wands, or conduits as he called them.

Harry placed his wand at a specific shape near the edge of the scroll, an entry point specifically designed to receive magic from their wands. He focused and casted the spell that they had practiced in class. "Fuiin." He stumbled over the words but the spell seemed to work. He felt a rush as if something was rushing through him and into the wand. The Seal glowed a tint of blue and a small poof with smoke, just like the Professor's.

With a wave of his hand, Harry dissipated the smoke and the cup was gone. Instead, the word 'cup' was printed neatly in the middle of the seal.

"Well done, Harry" Hermoine beamed.

Ron coughed as he caught some of the smoke. "Why does it always do that, spells don't do that?" Ron looked expectantly at Hermione.

She brushed her hair back with obvious frustration on her face. "I've read through many scrolls and nothing is explained about the smoke or why it's there."

Harry looked back down at his scroll with a smile on his face. "Let's be the professor tomorrow. It'd be a good excuse to talk to him anyways."

III

Harry found Hermoine and Ron waiting at him down the hall as they had finally finished their last class in the dungeons. Today would be a double book day where they would share classes with Slytherin. Snape had been especially vicious today, using the Slytherin class as 'upstanding students'. Harry took the brunt of it and kept his head down. He was just glad to get out of the class and away from it all.

"You got all your things?" Ron asked as he shifted his pack on his shoulder.

"Yeah." Harry said, tightening the strap on his.

Hermoine shook her head in disgust. "It's not right how Professor Snape degrades you in front of the class."

"It's fine, Hermoine" Harry cut her off. "Let's hurry to Seals."

With an agreement, they all made their way down to the Seals class. It was at the edge of the classroom on the second floor. It was in the corner, facing the lake and bridge. Harry liked walking to Seals. It was a breath of fresh air to walk through the gardens to get to class and get out of the stuffy hallways filled with candles and students.

They arrived at the classroom with plenty of time to spare and knocked on the door.

"Is he in?" Harry asked out loud.

"I think he is?" Hermoine mused. "When I come into class early, he's usually there drinking tea."

"Let's go in, can't hurt to wait for him if he's not there." Ron said.

Harry nodded and entered the class. The classroom was more open than most of the rooms, except for transfiguration. The reason for the open space was due to the amount of tables needed to spread scrolls across to do sealing. Because of the double booked class with the Slytherins, more tables were set out. The smell of fresh tea was still there, yet Harry's eyes were drawn to the large windows on the left side of the class.

At the window was an unfamiliar woman resting in the window sill. She had on a blue robe with white trimmings. Her light blonde hair flowed down onto her shoulders. Her knees were pulled onto the ledge and yet she was perfectly balanced on the small window ledge. The sun bore down on her. Though, she seemed to be enjoying the sun as her eyes were closed and was humming a small tune. Harry noted that her hands were calloused and she seemed to have a lot of muscle as her robes seemed to bulge around her arms.

Her eyes opened slowly as she turned her head to them. Her eyes seemed to narrow in on them instantly even from across the room.

"Umm." Hermoine stuttered out.

"Hello." Harry took a step forward. "We're looking for Professor Nakamura."

One of the woman's eyebrows raised a hair and a small smile appeared on her lips. She looked upwards to the back of the room. In a soft voice, she called out. "Toki. Anata." Then she said something that Harry couldn't quite catch. It sounded like a foreign language.

After a few moments, the Professor exited from his office, looking as Fred had mentioned, a bit haggard. His eyes had bags under them but he strode confidently down the stairs.

"Ah, Mister Potter, Mister Weasley, and Miss Granger." He called out to each of them. "You're here quite early. Are you here for office hours?"

Harry nodded slowly. "Yes. We are. We had a couple of questions. Sorry if we were intruding." He turned politely to the woman.

The woman let out a small giggle that almost sounded like a cat purring.

"Yugito." Nakamura called out. He then said something in a different language.

The woman rolled her eyes and pointed at the cup on the table. The professor rolled his eyes and waved his wand at the cup. It lazily soared towards the woman's hand. Turning back to the students, Professor Nakamura gave a wry smile. "You weren't interrupting anything. I was merely writing a couple letters to go back home. This here." he waved to the woman. "Is Yugito Nakamura."

Harry quickly connected the dots. "Oh. I- it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Nakamura."

Yugito gave a quick snort and leaned forward with the cup clasped in both hands. She said something to the professor who shook his head in annoyance.

"No. Yugito. They are not my new squad." Nakamura turned back to Harry once more. "So, come sit, please." With a quick wave of his wand a table was whisked forward and three chairs neatly stacked next to each other. "What can I do for you?"

"Well," Harry started as they all sat down.

"We wanted to know why smoke comes from the seals when we use it?" Hermoine piped up quickly.

"Ah." Their teacher raised an eyebrow. "That's curious. Well there's a complex answer, one not found in any of your courses. Here or in Mahoutokoro."

Hermoine leaned forward. "Really? Is it an after effect or something dangerous."

The seal's master waved his hand. "No, no. It's just such a minor reason that western schools hardly bother trying to tackle it. Even Mahoutokoro don't bother trying to reduce the excess discharge of magic because it simply does nothing. I'll give you the simple explanation." He paused. "It's like making a clay sculpture and there being excess. It's a byproduct. You can eliminate it, but you all are not in the business of needing to have perfect balance."

"Perfect balance?" Ron asked. "Like footwork."

The professor gave a small chuckle. "Something like that. It's more of how much magic is needed for each seal. Like a cup for example." A cup flew from the cabinet and onto the desk with a clatter. "Your objective is to fill this cup, right?" The teapot, on queue, flew up to fill the cup.

"Too little, you won't complete your task but too much?" The cup stopped just before overflowing the cup. "And then you get excess."

Hermione gasped. "So, the puff of smoke is excess magic. It takes a physical form?"

"Energy" Nakamura corrected. "But yes the concept is the same. Your wands won't be able to measure out the proper amount, that takes years of training. Though," The professor's face turned thoughtful. "Dumbledore was able to do it in one try and that was really surprising."

Ron interjected. "So like in a big project, would it balance be important? Have you worked on one recently then."

The professor turned to Ron with sharp eyes. Harry felt his stomach turn as the tone in the room suddenly shifted.

"Did you hear that from your brothers?" The professor queried.

"Yes." Harry confirmed. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"They didn't show you anything about wandless seals, correct?"

Hermione shook her head. "They were very adamant about not teaching us."

Professor Nakamura nodded with a satisfied look. "I worked very hard to instill safeties in this course. But, I will not sugar coat it. There are seals, just like spells, that can kill. Someone else or the user itself. Those I will never look to teach here."

"But you know them?" Ron asked.

The teacher leaned against the table. "Yes. You do not get to my level without knowing the darker side to things. But it is important that you understand balance."

"Measuring the amount properly?" Hermoine asked.

With a shake of his head, the professor produced and unfurled a blank scroll onto the table. "Balance is far more important than just measuring amounts. It is the basis of Human nature. The Measurement of which we stand to reason our social interactions." He paused. "Let me go get my brush. I don't see it here." With that he stood up and walked up the stairs to his office to go find his brush set.

There was a ruffle of clothings and the trio turned their heads to the window sill as Yugito stood up from her seat. With a flick of her wrist, a familiar brush appeared in her hands. She gave them a wink, and each of them hid their laughter.

With a lazy gait, she approached the table and the empty scroll. Pulling back on her sleeve, she wrote on the scroll three characters side by side. The shape and lines were ones that Harry recognized as their Professor's native tongue.

"Yin." She pointed to the leftmost symbol.

"Yang" She pointed to the symbol on the other side.

"Balance" She pointed to the one in the middle. Her voice was heavily accented but still clear enough for them to understand. "Order and chaos. Not good and evil. What is good for you but doesn't hurt others too much. Nothing comes without a cost. Emotion. Physical. Balance is utmost."

Ron nodded sagely. "It's like Quidditch. Cant have Chasers without a keeper."

Hermoine looked at him incredulously. "That's what you relate that to?"

Harry shrugged. The analogy worked. "Thank you for telling us." He said with a nod.

Yugito smiled brightly as she set the brush down on the table. "Be careful little ones." Her voice was low.

Harry felt his shoulders tighten. Hermoine and Ron stopped their bickering to stare at their professor's wife.

"If you plan, be prepared to follow through." Yugito nodded once and shuffled away back to her window sill.

With that, the professor exited the room and looked at the table. "Oh. Yugito you hid my brush." With a long sigh, the professor went back to the table, all while Yugito laughed in the corner.

He said something to his wife and pointed back to his office. Yugito merely nodded and went back up the stairs and closed the office door behind her. "Ok it looks like she explained what I was going to say." He looked down at the lines and traced the lines above with his hand. "You saw how she wrote it right?"

The trio nodded.

"Good practice it and make sure you can write it perfectly?"

"What more homework?" Ron groaned.

The professor merely laughed. "Yes more homework. If you can perfectly write it and explain to me what it means by the end of the year, I'll give you some House points."

Ron groaned. "I can't even draw a straight line."

Putting a hand on Ron's shoulder, the professor gave a sympathetic smile. "Mister Weasley, I'm sure that if it's important to you and you put your mind to it, you can surely do it."

With that, they rolled up the scroll and stored it away. Students started pouring into the classroom ready for the last period of the day.

IV

After getting the Devil's snare, Harry had to wipe the slime off his clothes. Ron was recovering from being dropped unceremoniously as Hermoine had to save him.

"You alright, Ron?" Hermoine asked, stowing her wand away.

Ron groaned slightly and stood up, holding his head. "Bloody plant almost crushed my throat."

"We told you to relax, Ronald." Hermione glowered.

Ron shot her a glare but slowly turned into a pout. "You try relaxing with a man eating plant around your neck."

"We did." Harry countered. "Come on. We've got to keep going. Snape could already be at the Stone."

The trio set forth through the door at the end of the hallway. They smelt a familiar smell waft to them as they opened the door.

"That is a lot of ink." Ron said with wonder.

"And paper." Hermione followed.

Harry nodded in agreement as his eyes roamed through the room. Every square inch of the room was covered in paper and seals. He saw intricate lines dancing every which way. He didn't know where one started and ended. It looked nothing like the simple structures they did in class. It was like an abstract painting.

Harry started to move forward when Hermoine grasped his robe and pulled back sharply.

"Are you mad, Harry?!" Hermione yelped. "Don't you remember what Professor Nakamura said? Field Seals."

Harry blinked rapidly. "The ones that are applied as soon as something enters?"

"Or someone," Hermione answered. "I read about them, but this is…" her voice trailed off.

"Well, we have to do something," Ron said as his eyes continued to roam around. He spotted something in the middle. "Hey that's a brush." He took a step forward.

"Ron No!" Harry cried but it was too late.

Ron was thrown into the center of the room as if an invisible rope tugged him forward. He tumbled into the center of the room in an unceremonious heap.

"Oof" Ron cried as he the brush seemed to smack him in the face as he tried to sit up.

The seals swirled and moved like wild animals. The encircled Ron's spot making a giant empty circle in the middle.

"Ron are you alright?" Hermione shouted.

"I'm fine!" Ron groaned loudly as he stood up with the brush in his hand.

Harry tried to walk forward but was met with a force of air, forcing him back. "There's something blocking us."

Hermoine pushed her hand forward, only for it to run smack into an invisible wall.

"You're locked in," Hermoine said.

"You think?" Ron said pressing his own hand against an interior wall, blocking him from leaving the circle he was in.

Harry looked around to see how the seal had changed underneath Ron. He looked at the edges of the seal and gasped. "Ron look!"

Harry directed their eyes to the wall where the black ink was swirling, or rather pooling. Slowly around the edges, the ink was slowly rising and filling the room.

"The room is filling up!" Hermione gasped. "Ron quickly I think you need to draw a seal within the middle? Something to counteract barriers"

Ron grasped his hair in shock. "I don't know what to do? How am I supposed to stop this?"

Harry watched as the ink started to bubble up quickly. It was now at their ankles, though it had yet to pour over Ron's circle.

"We have to try something?" Hermoine said. "Try writing a storage seal maybe you can store the ink if it gets to your spot."

Ron nodded quickly and bent down. He pressed the brush against the paper and started to draw. He was only able to draw two lines before he yelped as a spark zapped his arm.

"It shocked me." Ron cried.

Harry watched as the ink in the circle faded away. However, the ink on the outside started to rise faster.

Hermoine banged against the invisible wall with her fists. "It must be something else. What could be important to him."

Harry felt a rush hit him in the head. "It's the symbols he showed us!" Harry shouted. "Balance!"

Ron swore. "I can't draw that. I couldn't get down the other two symbols at all-"

"This is not a time to complain, Ronald!" Hermione yelled. "Try it at least."

Ron knelt down once more as the ink started to rise to their chests. He started drawing swiftly on the paper, but Harry saw Ron's grip slipped and the brush clatter. Another spark shocked Ron again. Ron held his arm in pain.

"Come on Ron. Try again. You can do this." Harry said. They could barely see Ron now, as they had to stand on their toes.

"Ron come on!" Hermoine said. "Remember to have a straight arm and pull back your sleeves. Focus!"

Ron picked up the brush once more as the ink rose up and blocked their view.

"Ron!" Harry yelled as he banged against the wall.

There was only silence. Hermione pressed her hands against her face. "No Ron."

A hiss erupted from the sides and the ink rapidly dissipated. Harry and Hermoine looked up in wonder as the ink faded away. Ron was kneeling in the center with the brush in his hand, finishing the last brush stroke. There was something different about Ron, however, as his face wasn't panicked or relieved. He looked serene as if he was a statue.

"Ron?" Harry reached out forward. He almost stumbled as the wall had disappeared.

Ron looked up as if he had awoken from a dream. "I did it," Ron said quietly.

"Yeah, you did," Hermoine whispered.

"I did it!" Ron roared and jumped up in joy, causing both Hermoine and Harry to leap in shock.

Hermione and Harry ran over to him and gave him a quick hug. "How did you write it?" Harry asked as he looked back down at the symbol. It looked perfectly like the one that Miss Nakamura had drawn.

Ron shrugged as he knelt back down and gently put the brush underneath the symbol. "It was all a blur. Or at least when I lost sight of you guys. I felt like I had to try one more time and I might as well take it slow right?" Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, the ink was all rushing me and I didn't know how much time I had. So I might as well try and do it once and I just felt kind of calm. Does that make sense?"

"No" Hermoine breathed out. "Not at all."

Ron shrugged as he stood back up. "Well, I'll talk to the professor after this if we don't get expelled."

Harry gave a breathless laugh and nodded. "Come on, we need to keep going."

They all turned and rushed to the end of the hallway. As they reached the end, Ron took one look back at the brush. There was something else that he noticed about the brush. One that made him calm for some reason. It was an inscription that was faint but still legible in that moment that Ron had.

To my little brother, You can conquer anything.

For some reason, Ron was comforted by that. Shaking his head, Ron turned back to the door and rushed through after his friends. They had to stop Snape of course, couldn't let him get his hands on the Stone.

V

"-We need a little change in decoration." Dumbledore finished and waved his hands to the banners in the hall. They changed from Green Slytherin to Red Gryffindor.

The Gryffindor house roared in approval and Harry beamed at Neville, who looked shell shocked at the awarded points.

Hermoine leaned over to Neville "Thanks for standing up to us Neville."

The boy merely nodded before looking down at his food.

The feast was enjoyable as everyone celebrated the end of the school year. Many tried to ask for stories from Harry and the rest but they all politely declined. Dumbledore had mentioned, in passing, to keep their knowledge quiet and tucked in.

After the awards had been passed out and everyone started to pack in. The trio started down the hallway back to their dorms. As they did so, they saw someone waiting near the start of the staircases, viewing the pictures with an amused smile.

"Professor Nakamura" Harry greeted as they approached him.

Nakamura turned and nodded to them. "Hello all of you. I was enjoying the paintings before the year ends. It's always fascinating to see them move. You could do the same with seals, though it is much harder."

"Oh." Hermoine said. She seemed ready to ask a few more questions to gain more knowledge even as school ended.

However, Ron cut in. "Professor."

The seals master turned to Ron. "Yes, Mr. Weasley?"

"The seal you set for the dungeon." Ron started. "I was able to write the word, balance."

A wide and proud smile spread across the professor's lips as he clasped Ron's shoulder. "Well done Ron. Very well done. I assumed one of you had done it, but I thought the least probable was you." He paused. "I am very happy you proved me wrong."

Ron flushed. "Thanks, Professor. But, umm. I was wondering about the brush."

The professor's hand slipped from the boy's shoulder.

"Yes?" A soft reply.

"It had an inscription on it. Was that your brother's?"

The professor started to speak but closed his mouth. "It is…" Letting out a long sigh, he continued. "It's a complicated story. My little brother." He said with a smile. "Gave it back to me when I left to teach here. Due to circumstances, I can no longer visit him. I am…" he searched for the words. "Cut off from my homelands."

"From Japan?" Harry asked.

Nakamura shook his head. "Not the whole of Japan but a land hidden from muggles' sight just off the coast. It is where I'm from." He paused. "I will not speak more than that." He turned back to the trio. "However, I did promise you points for doing this. But" he gave them a wink. "I'll save it for next year so that you can get an edge."

The trio returned the smile and bid their farewells to the professor as they ran off to pack their things. The professor watched them go. He whispered to himself. "To my little brother…"

And there we go. I hope you all enjoyed it. I tried to keep it just from the "Harry Potter" perspective leaving only hints to the other side. I have taken liberties and made adjustments to the Naruto world and to My Path That loops as a whole.

I just hope you guys find it interesting. Please let me know if you would like to see something from Toki's perspective in Omake or as part of a chapter.

If you have any comments on the writing style, please let me know as it would really help me improve.

Thanks!