AN: Hello again! I had hoped to have this up before Christmas, but I was sort of in the middle of the countryside of Tennessee and completely without internet. It did give me lots of time to type up more chapters, however. Because of that, I'm posting two today!

And since someone asked, I will be going day by day for at least a little while yet. What can I say, it's been a VERY busy day for poor Harry. Though this is turning into a much bigger fic than I had originally envisioned a year ago.

In the next few chapters we see the return of Kakashi-sensei and the dreaded language issue. I apologize in advance if my treatment of the latter is not satisfactory. It was all I could think of that was both practical and somewhat believable.

When they said village, Harry had been expecting something similar to Hogsmeade. Something quaint and old fashion the way all wizarding villages seemed to be. These people might not be wizards, but they definitely knew something about magic. So it stood to reason they'd have other things in common.

The towering walls of Konoha came as a surprise.

"Whoa."

The blond, Naruto, grinned wildly from beside him. "Awesome, isn't it?"

Harry just nodded. It was something alright. The doors looked like something out of King Kong. But were they supposed to keep something out or something in? Harry craned his neck back to see the men pacing silently above. Those were definitely guards. It reminded Harry of the year dementors were stationed outside of Hogwarts. What kind of village had guards stationed outside all the time? Harry's fingers tightened once more around his wand hidden safely in his pocket. He suddenly didn't feel so sure about this. He shouldn't be here. This was not good.

"Ramen! Ramen! Ramen!" Naruto chanted as they walked along.

Without a plan, however, Harry doubted that he'd manage to escape. The sheer speed he'd witnessed earlier still made his eyes ache in memory of trying to follow all of it. Harry was fast, but not that fast. And so while he was confident that a couple of well placed spells would disable his companions, it wouldn't do him any good if they moved faster than he could aim. If they had been Death Eaters he would have taken the chance and hope to defeat at least one of them. But Sakura-chan said that they were trying to help him, and Naruto was hard to dislike.

Harry wanted to trust them. He really did, even though he logically knew he shouldn't. Constant vigilance, and all that. But they hadn't done anything to threaten him and may have perhaps even saved him.

Naruto danced a few steps ahead of the rest of them. "Come on!" he cried impatiently. "Ramen!"

Sakura sighed and followed after him. "We have to report in first, Naruto."

The blond scowled. "Then let's hurry up and see the old hag – then we get ramen! Harry hasn't had Ichiraku's before!"

The two of them drifted closer to those looming walls as Harry's pace slowed. His somewhat flimsy plan of playing along for now was about to be severely tested. Once he followed them in, he suspected he'd never have such a good chance to escape as he did now. And while he wanted to know what the bloody hell was going on, getting home was also pretty important.

"Keep walking."

Harry flinched and darted his eyes over to stare at the final member of this little group. Sakura had introduced him as Sasuke. The boy with red eyes. Except now they weren't. Now his eyes were dark and emotionless. It wasn't that much of an improvement. Everything about the other boy screamed Slytherin and dark wizard to Harry. The subtle intimidation was enough to make Harry stubborn.

He held the other teen's gaze with determination until Sasuke shifted his eyes away. "It's not safe out here," he said so quietly that Harry barely heard him. There was nothing soft about his tone, however. The order hidden beneath it was still quiet clear.

So much for any change of plans. Harry sighed and turned to follow the others. He really, really hoped he wasn't going to regret this.

"Oi! Harry!" Naruto exclaimed, suddenly appearing at Harry's side. "Do you like ramen? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Harry managed not to finch back in surprise. Maybe he was getting used to it already. "Ramen?" Harry was familiar with the stuff. If the Dursley's went out to eat, Ramen was all he was allowed to eat. The cheap instant noodles weren't terrible, but he didn't think he'd ever been as excited about them as Naruto appeared to be. "It's fine," he replied carefully.

Naruto actually pouted. "Ramen isn't just fine! Ramen is great! And Ichiraku's ramen is the best!"

Harry smiled a little and shook his head. "Isn't all ramen essentially the same? I mean, I know they make different flavors and everything, but it all tastes the same to me." Harry glanced over to see that Naruto was no longer walking beside him but had stopped in the middle of the road. "What is it?"

"All ramen…the same?" Naruto repeated back in a shaking voice. "Impossible. Impossible!" Naruto darted forward and grabbed Harry's hand. "We need to get you to Ichiraku's right away!" He turned to Sakura. "Ne? Please? I mean, this is an emergency!"

"Naruto!" Sakura snapped back. "Ramen does not count as an emergency!"

"But - "

"No!" She stomped one foot and the ground beneath them trembled ominously.

Harry smiled and slowly laughed a little. It was so reminiscent of Hermonie, he couldn't help it. If only Ron obeyed her word as well as Naruto did Sakura's.

Sakura glanced over at him and smiled tentatively.

"Come on," Sasuke interrupted. He moved passed the three of them. He led the way down the dirt road. Inside the towering walls, the buildings resembled more of what Harry had expected. They were small and stacked close together. Some had potted plants out front. Others had open balconies with clothes hung out to dry. Other than the wires running crisscross overhead, there was a noticeable lack of technology everywhere he looked.

It was odd, but that tight nervous tension deep in his gut seemed to almost loosen a little.

"The Hokage tower is just a little farther this way," Sakura informed him as they walked along behind Sasuke.

"Hokage?" Harry asked.

Sakura smiled at him. "The leader of out village."

"And the strongest ninja in the whole village!" Naruto added.

"Oh," Harry replied. "And he gets his own tower?"

Naruto found something he said entertaining and started to snicker. "Something like that," he replied mysteriously.