The tower was more of a small multi-storied building. It was painted with bright colors and had a large Japanese style symbol displayed near the top.
Harry's three "tower guides" led him through the front door. Several people in gray uniforms or green army vests were in the hallways and a couple of them called out cheerful greetings to Sakura-chan. Several others seemed to be avoiding both Naruto and Sasuke. Many of them stared at Harry. Several stairways latter, they arrived at a set of double doors flanked by two more men in gray uniforms.

One of them grinned at them. The man greeted them but none of it was in any language Harry could understand. Naruto replied back enthusiastically. Harry listened in a daze. He let his eyes wander about the hallway as he waited. There wasn't much to look at even though everything was painted bold red or other strong colors. He shifted to look around some more as Sakura-chan exchanged her greetings and found Sasuke staring at him. Again.

What did he think Harry was going to try to run away now?

"What?" Harry asked sharply. The conversation around him suddenly stopped as everyone turned to stare at him, then at Sasuke.

"Ah," Sakura-chan interjected quickly. "We ought to go on in, Potter-san," she announced in English. She nodded to the guards before gently pushing open one of the double doors. "Hokage-sama?" she called out as they followed her in.

The room was a spacious office, in the same colors as the hallway. It was probably the biggest office he had ever seen. The professors; offices back home were often cluttered with ancient heavy tomes and curious magical artifacts. While there were some bookshelves and a couple of plush red sofas pushed against the walls, he large center of the room was empty.
Across the room, before panoramic open windows, was a large wooden desk covered in scrolls and papers. That was a little more familiar. The blond, scowling woman behind the desk wasn't. Harry stared in shock then blushed immediately. Did she have to dress like that? It was way too distracting. Could that even be natural? He blushed even more and looked away quickly.

Someone started chuckling.

Harry risked glancing up briefly. He hadn't even noticed the man standing beside the desk. He'd been so distracted by the woman's…. but there was someone else there, staring at him and clearly laughing at him even though more than half of the man's face was covered.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried out happily before pointing at him accusingly. "Where the hell have you been?"

The man was covered in dirt and what Harry feared was blood. The orange book in his hand, however, was spotless. He turned one page slowly. "Mah, I was trying to get this cat out of this tree but it didn't want to go and it scratched -"

"Liar!" both Sakura-chan and Naruto shouted, violently startling Harry. He stared at the three of them wide eyed before looking to Sasuke. Somebody here had to be sane, right? But Sasuke was staring at the silver haired man with an intensity that was anything but.

"Settle down!" the woman ordered sharply in English. Everyone's eyes snapped to her, even Harry's before he blushed again. The woman glared at all of them before leaning back in her chair. "Hatake!" she barked out. "Take the boy and get this language thing worked out." She scowled. "I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain this in English."

Kakashi-sensei straightened up, and without putting his book away or giving any other indication of having heard her, strode towards Harry.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Yes, yes, this way, poor little confused walking-practice," the man replied, eyes never leaving his book. Without further explanation, he grabbed the back of Harry's collar and tugged him to the door. Harry immediately tried to twist free. No matter how much he tried to pull away, however, the large man's grip never loosened. Within seconds he found himself once more out in the hallway. Naruto's chipper "See ya latter, Harry!" ringing in his ears.

"This way, this way!" Kakashi-sensei called out cheerfully before yanking Harry along once more.

Harry scowled as he tried not to trip. Being jerked around by his collar wasn't making that easy. He reached up awkwardly and tried to pry himself free. "I can walk on my own, you know. You don't have to drag me along," he growled out.

The tall man chuckled. "Oh no, we wouldn't want you to accidentally wander off, now would we? Sasuke-kun would be very unhappy with me if I let something like that happened. No, no, much better to keep you close at hand, no?"

Harry frowned in confusion. "Huh?" Why would Sasuke care?

"Oh, look! We're here!" Kakashi-sensei announced before yanking Harry into a dark room.

Harry blinked rapidly at the sudden change. There were no windows in here, only four candles lit and arranged in a circle. The rest of the room was lost in darkness except for that circle. After blinking several times, he could see lines and symbols drawn within that circle. Harry suddenly felt the blood drain from his face. Harry didn't need to know anything about ancient runes to recognize a ritual when he saw one. He'd seen enough of them to know one when he did. Nothing good ever came of rituals. Harry backed away quickly, reaching behind him blindly for the door.

Kakashi-sensei grabbed him by the arm firmly, but surprisingly without hurting him. "Calm down," Kakashi-sensei said quietly, without any of the silliness of before. "I'm sure Sakura-chan explained that we are not going to hurt you. It's for a language jutsu. I copied it from Jiraiya performed it on my team before we left to get you. It's hardly perfect, but you have my word that it will not harm you. Do you understand?"

Standing in near darkness, only able to hear the man's voice, but not see him – it should have been more disturbing. But it wasn't. "A language what?" Harry asked faintly.

The hand slipped away from Harry's arm and Kakashi-sensei drifted away from him and into the soft glow. "A language jutsu. It's a very complicated piece of chakra control with long-term effects. The results are not uniform and it will give you a headache," Kakashi-sensei said with a preposterous grin. "Just until you start to adjust more naturally. I'm sure that Sakura-chan will be more than willing to fix that for you. The affects are typically enough to trick your perceptions into understanding the basics of the spoken language. You'll have to learn the rest the normal way."

It was a lot to take in. Harry frowned as he tried to work through all of it. It didn't sound harmful. The headaches, he suspected, would not be fun, but they were probably unavoidable. "Your English is very good," he complimented absently.

The man's eye was crinkled as if he was smiling broadly. Not that Harry could tell. The man looked like he was wearing a sock over the lower half of his face. "Jiraiya-sama demonstrated this jutsu on myself and my cute little team."

Grown men shouldn't call things cute. Especially when they were dressed like commandos. Harry glanced at the circle then back at the man. "What do I have to do?"

The man clapped happily then pointed at the center of the circle. "You stand there and I do the rest. It's a variation of genjutsu. As long as you don't use a kai, it ought to remain in place."

Harry was stepping carefully around the lines and funny looking symbols written on the floor. "What does genjutsu mean?" he asked, stumbling over the word. "And what the heck is a kai?"

"Nothing, nothing. Nothing at all," the man cheerfully dismissed his concerns. He clasped his hands together in front of him, his fingers folded intricately into what looked like nothing more than a painfully looking knot. "Now just stand still…" he cackled.