AN: Holy Cow I updated! I am sooo sorry I disappeared for so long. Real life was giving me trouble. On top of that, I kind of ran head first into writer's block. Updates might be more sporadic from now on, but I've still got a lot of ideas for this fic and am really excited about it! School just doesn't leave me much time to devote to it.

To make up for my absence, I give you two chapters! The second one is the one I struggled with a lot, but hopefully it came out okay.

Please keep the comments coming! They've been really helpful both thematically and as great motivation to keep writing. ^^ Thank you so much! You all rock.

The masked man was absolutely correct about the funny language jutsu-spell-thingie making Harry's head hurt. His eyes were burning like he'd been chopping a particularly potent onion for the Dursely's dinner, or some similarly foul mysterious potions ingredient for class. Rubbing at them only seemed to make it worse. He blinked rapidly and tried to brush away any errant tears before the older man could see them. The ache didn't stop there but radiated back. Something just behind his eyebrows throbbed painfully in time with the stinging in his eyes. Harry rubbed his temples carefully. "How long is the headache supposed to last?" he asked in English.

"Not long," Kakashi-sensei replied, not in English.

Harry forgot about the pain and blinked up at the older man. Weird. He was sure whatever he had just heard was not English, but he still understood it. He knew what it meant. Carefully, Harry repeated the words. He had to think about it for a moment, but the words he wanted came to mind. It was a little like trying to remember somebody's name. If he thought about it hard enough, the answer just kind of popped up in his mind.

"How long?" he asked. It was easy to mimic back a variation of what Kakashi-sensei had said. The words came easily. As if having heard it once, he wouldn't forget it any time soon.

"Good job," Kakashi-sensei replied. He stepped over to the wall and flipped on an overhead light.

Harry flinched back from the sudden brightness and covered his eyes. That hurt! The burning in his eyes had just died down some, but the sudden brightness had him blinking painfully once more.

"Come along. So many things to do, so little time!" Kakashi-sensei announced. He was still standing by the wall. His face (what Harry could see of it) was crinkled up seemingly into a happy smile as his one visible eyes watched Harry. There was something slightly maniacal about that one eye that had Harry expecting him to start shouting "Constant Vigilance!" That or offer him a lemon drop. It was mildly disturbing.

Harry glanced away from him and looked about the room quickly. The candles were still burning, pointlessly in the overwhelming florescent light. The circle of symbols around him looked like spilt ink on the shiny wooden floor. There were three toilet stalls to the left and a sink to the right.

"We're in a bathroom?" Harry yelped.

The older man slipped out a small orange book and appeared to flip it open to a random page. "You see? As long as you stick to simple sentences, you shouldn't have any trouble. The genjutsu will translate it for you."

"Why are we in a bathroom? Harry demanded.

"Only nearby room with hard wood floors. We wouldn't want to go drawing symbols on the Hokage's nice antique carpets, now would we?"

That – made sense. As terrifying a thought as that was. But still! There had to be some place better than a bathroom for performing a kind of complicated jutsu-spell-thingie. Harry flushed in embarrassment. "Please tell me this is at least not the girl's bathroom," he muttered.

Kakashi-sensei glanced at him slowly over his book. "Oh? Never been peeping in the girl's bathroom before?"

"No!" Harry exclaimed as he blushed even more. Peeping! Who would actually go peeping! And in a girl's bathroom, of all places. He'd never – well, he couldn't exactly say that he'd never been in a girl's bathroom before… but Moaning Myrtle's didn't count! Harry glared back at the man and tried not to think about dingy bathrooms, toxic potion fumes and Moaning Myrtle spying on him in the Perfect's bathroom.

"Oh?" Kakashi-sensei replied before chucking quietly. "Maybe you have been up to something interesting, Harry-kun. You'll have to tell me all about it some time."

Harry paled. "I'd never - "

Kakashi-sensei waved him off before he could even defend himself. "Right now, however, we have a meeting with the Hokage to return to."

"But I didn't - "

"Come along, Harry-kun. Tsunade-sama's a very busy woman. She doesn't like to be kept waiting," Kakashi-sensei said before slipping out the door.

Harry had no choice but to hurry along after him. They left their mess behind, and Harry couldn't imagine what the next person to enter into that bathroom would make of the ink and candles left burning in the center of the room.

Following along behind the tall commando dressed man in front of him, Harry was beginning to realize how tired he was. Thankfully, the nausea from the first spell he'd been put through had faded. The painful throbbing behind his eyes was dulling to a mild ache. But somehow, Harry knew things were far from over.

He stared at the back of the man in front of him. Kakashi-sensei was still reading his book while he walked. By all appearances, he was ignoring Harry completely. The hallway was empty other than the two of them. There were numerous doors and windows throughout. Plenty of places to run or hide. Every instinct he'd ever developed when it came to dealing with adults and authority was insisting that he not ignore such an excellent opportunity….

"Harry-kun!"

Harry startled slightly and jerked his eyes away from studying the hallway and back to the man in front of him. The man who still had his back to Harry and his book out in order to read as he walked.

"What?" Harry replied, trying not to sound guilt and most likely coming across as defensive.

"Just making sure you're still there," Kakashi-sensei replied. "I'd hate to have to send one of my dogs after you. Pakkun has a bad habit of biting strangers."

Harry flinched and shrunk back into himself. He wasn't terribly fond of dogs. Hagarid's Fang was alright, but he had detailed memories of Aunt Marge's dogs – and their bites. He wasn't eager to find out just how big this Pakkun was. He didn't think he'd like it.

"I didn't do anything," Harry responded. He'd just thought about it a little.

"Hmmm."

Soon after that, they once more reached the double doors with the two guards standing out front. They both nodded to Kakashi-sensei before briefly glancing at Harry.

"Um, hi," Harry tried hesitantly. It didn't feel right when his mouth formed the word, but it sounded right somehow in his mind. And both guards smiled back at him quickly and returned the greeting before Kakashi-sensei ushered Harry back into the room.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were all still there. Sakura smiled tentatively at him while Naruto waved energetically. Sasuke just stared unwaveringly at him.

"How'd it go, Harry-kun?" Naruto asked before anyone could say anything else. His voice seemed subtly different, listening to him talk in his native tonnage and not forced to use something foreign. It wasn't as grating, though it was certainly still just as loud and excited as ever. "Kakashi-sensei didn't do anything funny, did he?" Naruto continued as he frowned.

Harry glance between the old man and the blond teenager. He shuffled away from the adult, trying to be somewhat subtle about it. He was beginning to suspect that there was something slightly wrong about Kakashi-sensei.

Apparently, he wasn't as subtle as he thought he was. Naruto busted out laughing. Sakura turned her head aside as if to hide a smile. And even Sasuke seemed to relax and maybe even smile, just a little.

"I take it Jirarya's jutsu worked? The blond woman demanded. When Kakashi-sensei nodded, her eyes shifted over to Harry. "You understand me, boy?"

Harry quickly strangled the urge to fidget as everyone in the room focused their attention on him. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good." She leaned forward in her chair and folded her hands in front of her. "What do you know so far?"

Not a bloody thing, was what Harry wanted to say, but there was something about this office and this woman that made him rethink that response and swallow that reply. He felt like he did the first time he visited the Headmaster's office, a little overwhelmed and suddenly very insignificant.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to think. What did he know? "You knew where I lived. You scared my Aunt – not that that's difficult. But you refused to leave when I told you to." Harry scowled. He wasn't having much trouble with the language, but sorting out the memories of what happened was proving a little more difficult than he would have thought. "That man appeared." Harry's eyes flickered over to Sasuke then away. "He had red eyes. Things after that were kind of a blur. I tried to pull Sakura to safety at one point, but I don't think it worked. Then she did that – thing. What was that?"

"A complication," Tsunade-sama replied quickly. "Nothing for you to be concerned with."

No one said anything to contradict her, but Harry knew there had to more to it than just that. He had enough experience with people lying to him to recognize the signs. Harry glanced over at Sakura-chan. She'd been with him at the time. But she wasn't looking at him. She and Sasuke were sharing some kind of significant look. Definitely hiding something.

But then again, so was he. No one had asked for his wand yet. In fact, no one had even mentioned it. Harry certainly wasn't going to. He hadn't even seen a wand since coming into this village and was starting to think they didn't necessarily know what a wand was.

Which just didn't make any sense. He'd never heard of a wizard without a wand; and these people were certainly not muggles.

Harry turned back to stare at the strange woman behind the desk and scowled. "Why exactly am I here?" he demanded. He'd had enough of playing along. He wanted answers. Now. There were enough secrets in his life. He wasn't going to put up with any more. This people might have helped him once, but that didn't mean he could trust them. They had to give him a reason to have faith in them.

And it was going to have to be something good.