::01::

"Explain." Kakashi demanded sternly.

Tsunade didn't flinch from the gaze of Kakashi's sole eye. "The barrier is one that I've seen before. And it is one that Orochimaru is quite familiar with."

She began opening the drawers of her desk, looking around for something when finally, she pulled a small glass vile out. She held it up to Kakashi who leaned in closer for a better view. It wasn't labeled and inside, it was filled with a mysterious multi-colored powder.

"A pinch of this…and I seriously mean a pinch," Warned Tsunade, "Contains enough of a magical punch to rip open a hole between our universe…and the next."

Realization began to dawn on Kakashi. "You don't mean…"

"I should have destroyed it as soon as I found it in sensei's desk…" Tsunade trailed off and shook her head. "Well I guess it will come in handy now." She said, thrusting it into Kakashi's hands.

Kakashi took the vile reluctantly, staring at it wordlessly as Tsunade began tearing through her desk again. "Months ago…I received a letter."

She found what she was looking for and Kakashi noted that it was on a short piece of parchment. Tsunade offered it to him and Kakashi took it reluctantly after stowing the vile away in his tactical vest. He began reading the letter, his eye widening.

"No…"

Naruto felt nauseated as he sped through the portal, only to be chucked straight into a stone wall. "Ow…" Naruto grumbled, rubbing his jaw as he slowly pushed off the wall, only to get slammed back into the wall as Sai crashed into him.

"Sorry…" Sai said as Naruto growled and elbowed Sai in the side.

Naruto froze as Sai took a couple of steps away from Naruto to reestablish personal space and to straighten out his clothes. "What did you say?" Naruto asked, only to clasp his hands over his mouth when the words that came out of his mouth weren't the ones he was used to.

Sai stared at him, recognition dawning on his face. "Look." He said, pointing toward the stone wall that they had previously crashed into.

Naruto looked up, following Sai's finger when he saw the old newspaper article that was nailed to the wall. 'HE'S BACK' the article headline read while a shell shocked Harry Potter stared at them from underneath the caption, fresh from his battle at the Ministry only two years prior. Someone had drawn an X over Harry's face.

Naruto snatched the article off the wall and stared down at it in disbelief. "Shit!" He cursed.

Sai ignored Naruto's outburst. He quickly tore the article from Naruto's hands and threw it to the ground before dragging him away from the wall by his forearm.

The air was warm, but the dark shadows of wherever they were made Naruto shiver with cold. They appeared to be in some sort of alley and Sai quickly led them out. Once out on the proper street, they passed storefronts, many of which seemed to be closed for the night. A few dark hooded figures passed by them, leering at them from underneath their hoods. Naruto snarled back at them. From down the street, someone gave what could be considered an evil cackle which only made Sai walk faster. This was not a place that should be visited at night.

They passed a sign that read 'Knockturn Alley' and it was then that Sai let go of Naruto.

"Sai…" Naruto complained, but Sai cut him off by reaching up and ripping the forehead protector off of his head.

"Hey!" Naruto complained.

"Quiet." Sai said as he removed his own and shoved both within his pack. "What good do you think it will do us if people find out we are ninja?"

Naruto had no response to that. His breathing had become heavy. "Do you…Do you really think Sakura could be here? Of all the places…"

"Our best bet is to find Harry Potter." Said Sai. "Or Professor Dumbledore."

He stared at Naruto, waiting for Naruto to agree which he finally did with a slow nod of his head.

With some quick navigating on Sai's part, they quickly returned to Diagon Alley and then were through the Leaky Cauldron and out into the Muggle world. They quickly mingled with the late night summer crowd as they walked away from the Leaky Cauldron and down Charing Cross Road.

Naruto felt something prickle against the back of his neck, but when he turned around, there was nothing there. Intuition told him to drag his eyes upward and he stared at the black night sky for a few minutes before he finally saw it.

"Sai!" Said Naruto sharply, gripping the Ne ninja's shoulder. He pointed upward toward the sky and Sai followed his gaze as they both ignored the angry Muggles who pushed past them on the sidewalk.

It took another few moments, but suddenly a couple of multicolored streams of light lit of up the sky, exploding against yet un-seeable figures in the sky.

Sai shook his head. "You think…"

"I do." Said Naruto fiercely.

He dragged Sai through the crowd and off the main road. They stopped inside an alley in the shadows of a small bookstore. Naruto put his hands on his hips. "Your bird thing." He said. "I've seen you do it before, draw it." He demanded.

Sai didn't protest; he quickly pulled the brush and scroll from his belt and within seconds he had summoned an ink bird. Without any preamble, he jumped atop and pulled Naruto with him before they soared into the sky.

The wind was closed as it rushed against their faces. A green spell roared past them and Sai swerved just in time, almost causing Naruto to tumble off. Naruto steadied himself as he and Sai scanned the night sky for any trace of the wizards who were fighting up here.

"There!" Naruto and Sai pronounced at the same time. Only there were pointing in two different directions. Naruto looked to where Sai was pointing and found Harry Potter sitting on the back of a broom with a witch with brightly colored hair. But that didn't make any sense! Naruto turned back to where he had been pointing and sure enough, there was another Harry Potter sitting on a broom behind a man who looked like Arthur Weasley.

As far as Naruto knew, Harry didn't have a twin.

Sai looked between the two Harrys. "We'll have to split up and find the real Harry." Said Sai.

"Yeah." Said Naruto standing up. He saw a dark figure darting toward them and with a salute, he jumped off the bird.

For a minute, Naruto was freefalling through the air and actual fear seeped into his heart. But then he collided with another body, sending the person off spiraling into the air with a sharp shriek and he grabbed onto the broom, the wood biting into his palms. It took him a moment before he found the momentum to swing back onto the broom properly. Naruto gritted his teeth before readjusting his weight on the broom. He wobbled a bit; after all it had been a year since he was last on the flying object.

'It wasn't so bad flying last time.' Naruto thought to himself.

Of course, he hadn't been subjected to doing much more than lifting off the ground and hovering in front of the goal post. After some experimentation, Naruto found that in distributing his chakra evenly, he could maneuver fairly well. Sakura would be proud.

Ignoring the pang in his heart, Naruto turned the broom around. He hadn't gotten a good look at the man whose broom he hijacked, but if he had to take a guess, Naruto would guess it was a Death Eater. Usually where Death Eaters were, Harry Potter wasn't far behind. Naruto rotated around on his broom, looking for Harry. Naruto could now see dozens of figures battling it out in the sky for miles away – their brightly colored spells illuminating them for a brief second.

Then Naruto spotted an explosion in the distance, briefly giving view to a monstrous man sitting in a motorcycle and a teenaged boy with glasses and unruly hair.

He had found Harry Potter.

Sai took off toward Harry Potter and the bright haired witch as they sped along toward the south on their broom. Sai pulled up right alongside them, almost startling the witch off the broom as she pointed her wand at them.

"Harry Potter?" Sai asked.

"Blimey!" Harry shouted, utter shock on his face. "No it can't be! Sai, is that you? What the bloody hell are you doing out here?"

Sai frowned. He didn't recall Harry speaking in such a way…

Harry shook his head "Don't tell me you're here to –"

Before he could finish, more Death Eaters started flying toward them. Sai pulled out his brush.

"We're nearly there, Harry, We've nearly made it!" A gruff voice shouted in the distance.

"Harry!" Naruto yelled. "Harry Potter!"

He precariously took his hand off the broom and waved it, hoping to attract some attention to himself, but with no avail.

Cursing, Naruto kicked off with a new burst of speed as he tried to catch up to Harry. He had almost reached him when a jet of green light stopped him in his path, propelling Naruto to reel backwards, almost falling off his broom again. A Death Eater was charging toward Naruto as another sped off toward Harry.

With a yell of frustration, Naruto summoned the glowing blue ball of chakra to his hand and then leapt off his broom, toward the charging Death Eater. It was only with a sheer amount of luck that Naruto flew straight at the Death Eater, tackling the man off his broom, the Rasengan pushed into his chest. The man screamed in pain as he fell off with Naruto with him.

Naruto caught onto the tail end of the broom, his feet dangling helplessly a hundred or so feet above the ground. Naruto looked over to where he last saw Harry and saw that the Death Eater pursuing him had fallen back. Why?

Sai ducked, narrowly avoiding a spell to the head.

"Damn!" Cursed Harry. "They are being really aggressive tonight!"

"They are Death Eaters, " Tonks hissed, her hair turning a bright red. "They are out to kill every night."

Sai turned to the sound of flapping wings to see a large, skeletal black horse pull up next to him. A red haired man sat in front with another Harry sitting behind him, arms wrapped around the man's waist. Sai furrowed his eyebrows. How many Harrys were there?

"He's here." Said the red haired man, his eyes frantic with worry. This only seemed to make the Harry behind him furrow his face into the man's back. Sai noted with interest the long scars that marred the man's face.

"Who, Bill?" The first Harry asked, his eyes puzzled.

The man named Bill was about to answer when suddenly he flicked his wand, a shield appearing to deflect a purple spell aimed his way.

"Stupefy!" A gruff voice shouted from the left.

The attacking Death Eater fell of his broom stunned as another Harry and a wild eyed man pulled up on a broom. "This isn't time to be congregatin'!" The man shouted as his one eye spun around in its socket. Sai found the sight rather appalling. "Quit your babberin' and head back to the base!"

"Sorry, Mad Eye." Said Tonks.

"Jesus Bloody Christ! It's 'im!"

Five heads turned to look at the Harry that was sitting behind Mad Eye Moody. His face had turned as white as a sheet and his eyes were as wide as coins as he looked behind him.

Sai turned his head to look at whatever Harry was looking at when he saw him. Voldermort was gliding through the air toward them, no broom or flying device in sight.

"I didn't sign up for this!" The Harry behind Mad Eye yelled.

"You keep your bloody arse on this broom!" Mad Eye shouted as he reached behind him to grip Harry's jacket.

"That's frickin' You Know Who out there!" Harry cried. "Sorry, but if you wanna get killed, fine by me, but I plan to live another day!"

Sai watched as the Harry pulled out his wand and was about to yell for him to stop when the Harry flicked his wand, throwing Mad Eye's arm off of him and catching him off guard when the Harry disappeared from view.

"Bloody little bastard!" Yelled Mad Eye as he straightened out. "I knew I shouldn't have…"

"Mad Eye, watch out!" Shouted Bill. "You Kno-"

Sai spun around and flicked out a shuriken toward Voldermort, but everything seemed to stop in move in slow motion.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Mad Eye turned just in time to see the spell hit him square in the chest. He froze, as if his body just suddenly creased working. Tonks gasped and the Harry sitting behind Bill let out a feminine shriek as Mad Eye's body fell from the broom. The shuriken that Sai flung toward Voldermort had been deflected and lost somewhere to the bright city below. For a brief second, Voldermort smiled at his victory, his mouth twisted upward in some horrible parody of a smile when something seemed to catch his attention and he vanished.

There was silence among the group as the Harry behind Bill silently sobbed into his back.

Naruto finally flipped back onto the broom and he quickly kicked off, once again zooming through the darkness toward Harry. Naruto opened his mouth to call out to the dark haired boy when an eerie feeling crept through his heart. Naruto frowned as his stomach lurched at the feeling.

It almost gave off the feeling of killer intent, yet that wasn't exactly it. It felt as if something cold and dark had entered Naruto's heart and he couldn't quite shake the feeling. As Naruto tried to push the feeling back, it got stronger, and then, Naruto finally realized what it was.

Voldermort was gliding toward Harry from the opposite direction, his wand poised to attack Harry.

Naruto yelled out to Harry, but his yell become strangled as something exploded near the back of his broom, bucking Naruto off and into the darkness.