13
Masks and ShadowsDisclaimer: If we owned Naruto, Teams 8 and 10 would have already appeared in the timeskip and would be awesome. As it is…we can only hope.
And if we owned Harry Potter, Squeak says: "Ron and Hermione would be snogging every five seconds but we know that'll happen anyway so I guess we do?"
Authors' Notes: Many thanks to those who reviewed, and especially to Phoenix of Eternity, our wonderful beta, who has steadfastly refused our pleas to let us slide by on ninja!logic. Go read her new story Oracle, it's truly awesome. (We're trying to make it up to Neji in this fic...)
Just so you know—we will not be concentrating on pairings in thisstory but we may introduce a little romance just to amuse ourselves. We chose these four Naruto characters because…we like them. And they amuse us.
Sense the general trend here? We're writing this fic 1) because there are far too few good crossovers, 2) because we get a kick out of it, and 3) because ninja are the most incredible beings out there, and we're going to prove it to the world!
Chapter Two:
In Which Naruto Gets A Stomachache and Shikamaru Gets A Clue
"Just how," Shikamaru said slowly, "is an owl supposed to help us get to England?"
The brown-barred screech owl gave him a dirty look and held out its leg again, balancing with one clawed foot on the branch a few inches away from Shikamaru's nose. He was pretty sure that hoot meant nothing polite.
"Maybe you're supposed to untie the package?" Hinata suggested at his side. She pointed at the lumpy brown-paper parcel tied to the owl's right leg. The owl hooted gratefully and wiggled its toes at her. Shikamaru wondered if it had any idea what the stylized design of her mask was supposed to represent.
He heaved a sigh and reached forward to untie the parcel from the owl's leg. Fingers used to flashing through seals made short work of the knots, and in ten seconds the owl was flapping free, leaving the palm-sized package in Shikamaru's hand. He slid a kunai under the packaging tape and pulled the paper off, ignoring the owl's disparaging hoot as it disappeared into the trees.
There was another letter inside, slightly crumpled from being folded around a blunt shuriken. Shikamaru twirled the shuriken idly on one finger as he unfolded the note. Hinata glanced around for Naruto and Neji—they were still scouting the clearing, undoubtedly looking for a messenger more communicative than the owl that had just flapped down in front of Shikamaru—and then shrugged and peered over Shikamaru's shoulder.
The salutation and the first half of the letter contained little beyond a restatement of what the first letter had said. Shikamaru skipped half-way down the page before he found the new information.
…I have arranged for you to travel to Hogwarts by means of a series of Portkeys. These devices will transport you from Konoha to Scotland in seven stages, with brief stops at relay points. From London, you will travel to Hogsmeade, the village outside of my school, where one of the teachers will meet you. His name is Hagrid, and I trust him implicitly. He will bring you to Hogwarts, where I will explain events in full.
The shuriken enclosed will take you all to the next stage of your journey. It is timed to transport you at 7:37a.m., Konoha time. You must all be in contact with the Portkey at this time, or grave consequences may ensue.
I look forward to making your acquaintance in person.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Shikamaru dug his watch out of his pocket. 7:35. They'd made it just in time. "Oi, Naruto! Neji!" he called. "We're leaving!"
Naruto appeared in a burst of smoke two seconds later, followed by Neji. The blond ANBU had tipped his mask up on his head and was frowning at the woods. "How can we be leaving?" he demanded. "There's no one here to meet us!"
"You missed it," Shikamaru smirked. He held out the shuriken. "Grab hold."
The other two looked dubious, but when Hinata laid a gloved hand on one of the shuriken points, they followed suit. They stood in silence for a moment, waiting. A bird sang somewhere off to Shikamaru's left; an owl hooted in the distance.
"This is stupid," Naruto complained. "What are we waiting—oof!"
His words were cut off as something inserted a hook behind Shikamaru's navel and savagely jerked him forward into a dizzying swirl of color and sound and nothingness.
-
Neji landed with a stagger on the smooth wooden floor of a room that was definitely not part of the forest outside Konoha. He released the shuriken immediately and sprang away, engaging the Byakugan. Hinata had done the same, he noted, and Naruto had snapped his mask down over his face and was peering around with his hand hovering dangerously close to his shuriken holster. "The hell was that?" the blond demanded.
"That," said the short, dark-haired man in the doorway, "was a Portkey. As you should have known, had you bothered to read Dumbledore-san's letter."
Neji transferred his glare from the stranger (was that a kimono he was wearing? Where were they?) to Shikamaru. The pony-tailed ANBU folded his arms over his chest. "We ran out of time," he said in a bored voice. "And I assume we're on a schedule here, too?"
The short man nodded, producing a closed fan from the sleeve of his kimono. He tapped it with a long, thin piece of wood that looked suspiciously like a polished chopstick, muttered something under his breath, and held it out. "You have thirty seconds."
"Hey, wait," Naruto argued. "I'm not touching anything till I know—"
"Naruto-kun," Hinata's quiet voice broke in, "we'll explain it later. We have to hurry now." Without hesitation, she reached out and took the fan.
Neji really wished she wouldn't do that. Sure, she was his comrade and his equal (in rank, at least), but she was still his cousin, still, in some back part of his brain, Hinata-sama. Even if she was no longer the heir, even if by now her medical skills had saved his life almost as many times at he'd saved hers, he still felt that old impulse to protect her…which was probably a better idea than the other impulse that had led him to nearly kill her.
Not for the first time, Neji reflected that his family life probably reflected his name. Screwed up.
He released the Byakugan and wrapped his fingers around the other end of the fan. Shikamaru laid a casual palm on the center, and after a moment more of jittering, Naruto reluctantly touched his gloved fingers to the fan as well.
Just in time, because two heart-beats after all four of them touched the Portkey, the hook behind Neji's navel wrenched him away.
-
Six 'Portkeys' later, Naruto wasn't sure whether he wanted to be sick all over the floor or punch someone's (preferably Shikamaru's, for not having warned him) face in. He managed to stay upright by dint of staggering against one of the walls of the small, dingy room they'd arrived in. "I am never," he hissed as soon as he'd gotten his breath back, "using one of those again. Don't care if we have to walk back to Konoha!"
Shikamaru sighed. "Konoha's half a world away," he pointed out. "And anyway, we're here now." He dropped the last Portkey—an old leather shoe—on the ground and strode to the door. It was the first place they'd arrived without someone already waiting to meet them; that alone was enough to tell Naruto they'd reached their destination. He tipped his mask back long enough to take several deep breaths, trying to regain his equilibrium. Gods, he hated those things.
"Naruto-kun?" Hinata paused with one hand on the door, painted mask turned back to him. "Are you all right?"
"'m fine," he assured her, tugging the mask back down. Neji and Shikamaru were already gone; he could hear them heading down what sounded like some very creaky stairs. "Gonna tell Tsunade-baachan to try those by herself next time before she trusts her shinobi to 'em, though!" He offered her a cheeky grin—never mind that she couldn't see it beneath the mask, unless she was using the Byakugan—and gestured grandly towards the door. "Better make sure Neji n' Shikamaru haven't run into anything they can't handle!"
Hinata's laugh was soft and warm. Naruto couldn't help smiling again as he followed her down the stairs.
Shikamaru and Neji were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, in a dim, dirty hallway with a single open door at the end. The room beyond was only a little lighter than the hallway. It was obviously a bar, and an extremely dingy one at that. And…was that goats Naruto smelled?
He took a few wary steps forward, right hand hovering next to his shuriken holster. The bar seemed unusually quiet. Only a few cloaked and hooded figures huddled over their unwashed glasses at dusty tables. A tall, thin bartender with stringy grey hair and beard was rubbing a filthy rag over the counter to little effect, unless it was to smear the grime even more. Naruto wrinkled his nose and glanced back at his teammates. "You sure this is it?" he asked doubtfully.
"Dunno where else it could be," Shikamaru said with a shrug. "You could ask the bartender."
"The man in the corner's watching us," Neji said abruptly.
Naruto stuck a gloved finger into his shuriken holster, slightly comforted by the familiar sharp-edged hardness of the steel after so many strange things. He glanced in the direction Neji had indicated. Sure enough, the black-haired man squished behind an absurdly small table in the corner was staring at the four Konoha ninja with eyes that glittered like tiny black beetles above his wild beard.
No, Naruto realized after a moment, it wasn't that the table was so small—it was that the man was so big, the size of an Akimichi under Baika no Jutsu. He'd heard that the English were a tall people, but this…
With relief he saw that none of the others in the bar were anywhere near as big as the bearded man. The relief turned to apprehension when the man shoved himself away from the table (his chair creaked alarmingly in protest) and strode towards them. Naruto and Neji automatically stepped in front of the other two. Naruto's right hand came up with shuriken glinting from between each gloved knuckle. Neji's hands were empty, but his threat was equally plain.
The bearded man stopped, glancing from one to the other of them with a bewildered expression. "Rubeus Hagrid," he offered after a moment. His voice was gruff and heavy, and his English was so rough that Naruto barely understood a word. Something about "Keeper" and "Hogwarts," and was that "Teacher?" The big man puffed up proudly at that word, whatever it was, and continued with his mangled speech. Naruto caught "Dumbledore"—at least, he thought it was the same name he'd read as Dumburudouru—and "asked me" and "meet."
It seemed as though the past two days he'd spent cramming that stupid English for Idiots book had done absolutely no good.
A touch of anxiety entered the Englishman's eyes when the ANBU only exchanged silent, confused glances with each other. He spouted off another line of gibberish, of which the blond ninja only caught "sent" and the rising intonation that probably meant a question.
Naruto glanced back at Shikamaru and Hinata. "Can you tell what he's saying?" he asked plaintively.
-
Hinata was fairly sure that the wild-bearded Hagrid-san didn't speak English—at least, not the precise, formal English she'd learned. But somehow, despite her persistent shyness with strangers, she found herself promoted to unofficial spokeswoman, because the three young men were…themselves. Neji, probably affronted at his inability to understand Hagrid's thick accent, had withdrawn into silent mode; Shikamaru seemed to be asleep on his feet, and Naruto's two days of cramming English lessons seemed to have done him no good at all.
Ah, well. At least her mask prevented any of them from seeing her blush when she mangled a conjugation or stumbled over a word.
Hagrid didn't seem to mind, though; he strode unconcernedly down the dark main street of the village he'd named Hogsmeade, waving his gigantic arms as he pointed out shops and sights. All the shops were closed, unfortunately; they might have left Konoha at dawn, but it was nearly midnight here in England. The four ANBU followed at a fast walk, hard-pressed to keep up with his long legs without breaking their own pace. Neji and Shikamaru didn't bother looking around, but Naruto's head swiveled constantly from side to side. Hinata didn't need the Byakugan to imagine his grin when they passed the place Hagrid identified as Zonko's Joke Shop.
He'd changed since their genin days, and it wasn't just the extra foot of height—he was a little quieter, a little more mature, a little less abrasive. But she was irrationally glad to see that the prankster in him had never died. Naruto was still Naruto, even after years and wars and the wreckage of dreams. She could still see that feckless blond hellion when she looked at him, and she hoped that would never change.
Perhaps it was ironic that out of their genin year, she was the one who'd changed the most. She'd started medical training soon after Naruto had left on his own three-year training mission with Jiraiya, and although she was nowhere near Tsunade-sama or Sakura-san's abilities, she was still good enough that ANBU had recruited her as a medic-nin for a four-man team. Specializing in something she was good at had given her the confidence she'd always lacked—and at the last, a little more than a year ago, she'd had enough confidence to step down from her position as Hyuuga heir and allow gifted, determined Hanabi to take her place. She'd told the clan that it was for their good; maybe they believed her. But, freed of those constraints of position and expectations, Hinata had found herself blossoming as she'd never expected.
Her way of opening the cage and flying free had been a little different than Neji's, perhaps. But it was his decision to change himself that had finally given her the confidence to start changing herself…and once more, she supposed, it all went back to Naruto. The boy who changed others without realizing or even really trying. He was a force of nature, unpredictable, unstoppable—
And currently entirely unimpressed with Hogsmeade's selection of restaurants. "Ne, Hinata," he whispered. "D'you think they even know what ramen is?"
Hinata stifled a giggle. "You could ask," she pointed out.
"Ah…" Naruto glanced up at the enormous man, scratched the back of his head, and visibly nerved himself up. "Here goes," he announced to the world at large, and switched to one of the few English phrases he'd already known. "Ne, Rubeus-san. Where's the ramen?"
Hagrid blinked down at him. Then he glanced at Hinata.
"Wha' language was that?"
-
Shikamaru had never particularly liked the ANBU masks. They were hot and sweaty and rather silly-looking, and it was a constant pain to maintain the thin film of chakra that kept the mask secured to his face. But, he decided as the four shinobi followed Hagrid through the corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, past moving portraits and coats of armor whose helmets turned to watch them as they passed, the masks had one definite advantage.
They prevented anyone from seeing four adult ANBU, Konoha's elite, gaping like idiots.
Even Naruto handled himself fairly well, with only a few startled exclamations and one attempt to maim a suit of armor that hefted its double-headed axe meaningfully in his direction. Shikamaru immobilized Naruto with the Kagemane no Jutsu before Hagrid turned to see what the commotion was, and after a quick exchange of insults (from Naruto) and sighs (from Shikamaru) they continued on their way through the deserted halls. Shikamaru hoped no one noticed the deep kunai-scratches on the armor or the sizable dent in its breast-plate.
They stopped again on the second floor, in front of a stone statue that resembled a cross between one of Naruto's summoning toads and an extremely unfortunate cat. "Now, wha' was that password again?" Hagrid muttered, scratching his tangled beard. "Ah, yeah. Dango," he announced to the statue.
Hinata squeaked. Neji twitched. Naruto went for a kunai. Shikamaru just folded his arms and stared as the statue sprang to life and hopped to the side, revealing a growing crack in the wall behind it. The crack widened to reveal a stone staircase that actually moved as it spiraled smoothly upwards. Hagrid stepped unconcernedly onto the first stair. Naruto and Shikamaru traded glances. The blond ANBU's back stiffened, and he jumped onto the staircase behind the enormous man. His three teammates followed more slowly, wary eyes sweeping around the curving staircase and hands hovering perilously close to shuriken holsters. Shikamaru was sure that Neji at least had activated the Byakugan.
The staircase moved up, and up, and up, until at last Shikamaru was beginning to wonder if he could stretch out on the stairs and catch a few minutes' sleep. But finally it froze, and Hagrid flung open a gleaming oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of an animal half-eagle, half-cat. The room beyond was large and circular, furnished with an enormous, claw-footed desk surrounded by tiny spindle-legged tables covered with strange silver instruments. The walls were covered with portraits of old men and women in rich robes, and an equally old man sat behind the desk, stroking the head of a beautiful scarlet-and-gold bird on a golden perch beside him.
"Good morning," the old man said in perfect Japanese.
Shikamaru sighed in relief as he stepped past Hagrid and into the room. Naruto was a little more vocal.
"Why'd Tsunade-baachan make me spend two days studying that stupid book if no one here even speaks English?"
The old man's chuckle was deep and rich. He pushed his chair back and stood, smoothing his long silver beard over his chest and peering at the four shinobi with blue eyes twinkling over his half-moon spectacles. "Thank you, Hagrid," he said in English. The giant man grunted a reply none of the shinobi understood and headed out, shutting the door behind him as the man behind the desk switched back to Japanese. "Oh, I assure you, we all speak English. I am Dumbledore-sensei, the headmaster of this school, and I daresay the only one with any command of your language. And you are—?"
Shikamaru glanced at the others, suppressed another sigh, and ducked in a casual bow. "Nara Shikamaru," he said. "Team captain. Of sorts."
Neji identified himself in a cool, clipped voice, and Hinata followed suit in a slightly more subdued tone. She added in English, "We are pleased to meet you, Mr. Dumbledore."
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Hinata-san," Dumbledore said formally, but his eyes were still dancing as they moved on to Naruto. "And you—?"
"Uzumaki Naruto," the blond said cheerfully, already recovered from his early annoyance. "I'm the powerhouse of the outfit. And the, uh, specialist. Inside information, you could say!"
Shikamaru could just imagine the wide grin beneath Naruto's mask. He groaned, both at the pun—Naruto's puns were always atrocious—and at the unnecessary release of information. Was the Kyuubi's vessel going to announce it from the rooftops now?
Really, it was too bad Dumbledore spoke their language. Naruto's mouth would be much easier to handle if he was surrounded entirely by incomprehensible English-speakers.
Dumbledore, however, didn't seem disturbed, although Shikamaru was sure he hadn't missed the flicker of recognition in the old man's eyes when Naruto spoke. "Your Hokage wrote to tell me she was sending you," he said, flicking one long fine-boned finger against a letter on his desk. "She asked that I debrief you as thoroughly as possible. She also told me," he added in a slightly different tone, "that I had her permission to ask to see your faces."
Yes, that was definitely amusement in his face and his voice. "She did not, however, indicate whether you might agree."
Neji stiffened—hell, when did Neji not stiffen?—but Shikamaru shrugged and removed his own mask. The cool air of the study felt good against his over-heated face. He stepped out of his robes as well and slung them over the back of a chair before taking his seat in the same chair, black-gloved hands spread wide on black-clad thighs. "So. The debriefing?"
Dumbledore seated himself behind his desk again, fingers tented and face a little more solemn. He waited as the remaining three ANBU stripped out of their robes and masks—Neji looking stubbornly determined that he was only doing this because Shikamaru had done it first, Hinata looking relieved, and Naruto simply looking…Naruto-ish—before leaning back in his chair and gazing at all four of them over his spectacles.
"You know, of course," he began without preamble, "that this is not an ordinary school."
"We kinda guessed that when the armor started attacking, yeah," Naruto muttered. Shikamaru shot him a Look. Dumbledore, however, just laughed.
"Yes, those suits can be a little belligerent at times. There is far more to our world, however, than mobile chunks of metal or painted canvases. We are just as secretive as you shinobi, if a little more wide-spread, and indeed we share the same source of power. You call it chakra, and its users ninja; we call it magic, and its users wizards and witches. Oh, the way we use it is vastly different," he added at Shikamaru's skeptical look, "but it's true that in raw, unmolded form, your chakra is nearly identical to our magic. Take a look," he invited.
"Neji?" Shikamaru asked, without moving his eyes from the old man's wrinkled face. He heard Neji's harsh whisper of Byakugan! and felt the tiny surge in chakra as the Hyuuga activated his eyes, and he knew when Neji held the Byakugan long enough to glance around the room before he released the doujutsu.
"It's about as much like our chakra systems as Naruto's is," Neji said grudgingly. "The similarity's there—but the tenketsu are almost all blocked, except at the hands and a little around the face. He's got more open than that Hagurido man had, though."
Shikamaru wasn't surprised that Neji had snuck in a use or two of the Byakugan while hidden behind his mask. Apparently Dumbledore wasn't either. "Hagrid is among the best of men," he said calmly, "but he does have his weaknesses as a wizard. As a point of fact, however, I would be nearly as blocked as Hagrid or any other wizard if my wide travels in the past had not given me the advantage of working with several shinobi. When shinobi use chakra, they mold it inside themselves and focus it through the use of hand seals. A wizard's magic, however, is pure, unmolded spiritual energy, and it is focused through his wand and his use of specific incantations." He quirked a bushy white eyebrow. "Technically, all four of you could be wizards."
"So what?" Naruto burst out, leaning forward out of his chair. "We're here for a mission, not a lecture. What's going on here, jiichan?"
Dumbledore didn't seem insulted by Naruto's rudeness; the other eyebrow came up, but the corners of his mouth lifted as well in what Shikamaru could only describe as an amused smile. "I was getting to that," the old wizard said. "But it looks as if I should move faster." He leaned forward as well, blue eyes once more solemn over his spectacles. "Fifteen years ago," he began, "the wizarding world lived in fear of a man called Voldemort…"
As Dumbledore spoke, an uneasy sense of familiarity began to steal over Shikamaru. This Voldemort sounded a lot like Orochimaru, a threat Konoha had yet to destroy. Since Sasuke's apparent defection from the Snake Sannin three years ago, Orochimaru had stayed mostly quiet, but all of Konoha knew they would have to deal with him again sooner or later. And although he had lost his prospective vessel, Konoha hadn't gained it back—the Uchiha had gone on the run, and for two and a half years there hadn't even been rumors of Sasuke's whereabouts. Good riddance, Shikamaru had always thought, but now…
He glanced over at Naruto, wondering if the blond boy had picked up on those clues, wondering if the Kyuubi's vessel had any idea what Shikamaru was thinking.
This Voldemort man sounded a great deal like the type of person Sasuke might have sought out in his vicious quest for the power to defeat his brother…
When Dumbledore moved on to more recent events, Shikamaru was almost relieved. "Harry Potter is currently a student at Hogwarts," the old wizard informed them, "or will be, when the school year starts again. Over the last five years, he has been the target of numerous attacks carried out by Voldemort's minions or by the dark wizard himself. This last attack, however, does not seem to be aimed against Harry, nor even against me. Plainly, Voldemort has found something else in Hogwarts that interests him very much."
"The burglary your letter mentioned," Neji said quietly. "Did you catch the thief?"
Dumbledore shook his head gravely. "The books he attempted to steal from the Restricted Section of the library are specifically enchanted to alarm the entire school when anyone tries to remove them. The burglar fled without taking anything, but he did leave this embedded in the spine of the shrieking book." He pulled a palm-sized four-pointed metal star from a drawer in his desk: a shuriken. Shikamaru's gaze sharpened.
A ninja tried to break into this place?
"One of the paintings in the library also caught sight of the burglar," Dumbledore continued, laying the shuriken on his desk. "She said that he was dressed all in black, and that he moved without sound. Furthermore, she said that he did not seem to use a wand, although it was obvious that he was not a Muggle—a non-magic user. From this, and from other rumors I have heard of Voldemort acquiring new 'allies,' I concluded that our enemies already have hired shinobi of some kind. Thus—" he lifted one age-wrinkled hand, palm up and fingers spread—"you come in."
"Fight fire with fire, eh?" Shikamaru murmured. Naruto blinked at him, visibly dismissed the matter, and turned back to Dumbledore.
"So what about the bijuu?"
The wizard stared at him for a long moment. Naruto met the old man's gaze with eyes equally as blue and direct. Shikamaru wondered how much the Godaime had told Dumbledore about their team. The Kyuubi was still classified information of the highest degree, although over the past few years much of Konoha's violent prejudice against Naruto had begun to dissipate. Did Dumbledore know?
If he did, he'd evidently decided not to let on. "What makes you think it's a tailed demon?" he asked mildly.
Naruto shrugged. "You said it's a strange beast. Guess there are a thousand other things it could be, but our job is to plan for the worst."
Naruto, planning? Shikamaru hid a smirk. The blond was pretty good at coming up with spur-of-the-moment ideas while under fire, but Shikamaru was sure that as soon as they were alone, the burden would be dumped straight into his own lap. Well, perhaps it would prove interesting. Not even Neji could offer the strategic genius a good game of Go, and he'd need some kind of mental exercise while he was here.
"The book the shinobi tried to steal gave us our first hints about it," Dumbledore responded. "There were only fragments of information, but it seems that at the time of the school's founding, a powerful and mysterious beast attacked. The founders managed to imprison the beast somewhere on the school grounds, but we have no indication as to where—only that whoever could free and control the beast could gain unimaginable power." He locked eyes with the four ANBU. "You see why it is so essential that we find this creature before Voldemort does—or before some unsuspecting student stumbles across it."
From the look in his eyes, he was thinking of someone in particular. Shikamaru wondered if this school had a Naruto of its own.
Konoha's Naruto, on the other hand, was frowning, his brow scrunched in thought. "So you want us to guard the school openly," he said at last, "and search for the bijuu secretly. Well, we're good at guarding. And we've got two Hyuuga—if there's anything hidden around here, we'll find it!"
"Naruto-kun," Hinata protested, "it may not be that easy. Even our eyes can't see through seals like that."
Neji grimaced, evidently remembering his humiliating defeat at Naruto's hands in their first Chuunin exam together. "Besides," he added, "we can't exactly search this entire place with the Byakugan. Even in this office, there are places I can't see. Places that…aren't quite there."
"Hogwarts is almost a living entity," Dumbledore put in. "It changes at will, to aid—or frustrate—its denizens. Even I do not know the full depths of its structure." He tapped the letter on his desk again. "Your Hokage has informed me of your specialties, and it may be that we can find other ways for you to gain information in different guises." He smiled at Hinata. "I'd like to put at least one of you in a position where you can have some contact with the students and teachers—they often know far more than even I do. The Hokage indicated that you have received medical training, Hinata-san. How would you feel about being placed in the school infirmary as an apprentice healer—and unofficial eyes and ears?"
Hinata blushed slightly, and her white eyes slid to her teammates. Neji and Shikamaru both shrugged; Naruto gave her a thumbs-up. "I could do that, Dumbledore-san," she said softly.
"Good." Dumbledore nodded briskly and looked at the others. "I would like to place at least one more of you in some undercover position, possibly as a guest professor. There are a few positions that would not involve the use of wand magic. Astronomy, Arithmancy, Divination—" He suppressed a small smile at the last one.
"What're those?" Naruto inquired.
"Divination's like predicting fate or something, isn't it?" Shikamaru asked.
A muscle twitched in Neji's jaw. Naruto grinned. "Ne, ne, Neji could teach Divination!"
Dumbledore didn't make any effort at all to suppress his smile this time. "Well, you couldn't be worse than any of the Divination professors we've had so far," he murmured. "Would you be willing to do that, Neji-san?"
Neji glared at Naruto, but after a moment he said reluctantly, "Fine."
Naruto grinned even wider. "Okay, so Hinata's gonna be a medic, and Neji's gonna be a sensei. What about Shikamaru and me?"
"We'll patrol the school," Shikamaru cut in. "You can't possibly have less than two full-time guards on a castle of this size. Neji and Hinata will need to take shifts, too, when they're not working." He met Dumbledore's eyes. "If you really want us to provide protection for your students, we can't do any less than that."
The old wizard nodded. "That should work well, Shikamaru-san." He stood, sweeping his rich purple robes around him. "Now, I regret that we must end this meeting; it is nearly an hour past midnight by our time, and we have much to do in the morning. I've had rooms prepared for you in another part of the castle, and the Deputy Headmistress will meet with you in the morning to arrange your schedules and explain more about the workings of the school. For now, do you have any more questions?"
The ANBU exchanged glances. Shikamaru shrugged again, stood, and picked up his mask and robes. "Only one at the moment. I'd like a copy of that book."
Dumbledore's eyes crinkled in a smile. "I hoped you'd ask for that." He pulled a fat leather-bound book from the same drawer that had held the shuriken. Shikamaru took it, idly noting the deep scar across the spine and the aged yellow of the pages. He tucked the book under his arm, fitted his mask to his face, and turned towards the door.
The others followed suit, but Naruto hesitated with mask in hand. "I've got a question too. Where can we get some ramen?"
-
The—house-elf?—that Dumbledore summoned to guide them to their rooms seemed more than happy to answer Naruto's questions about ramen, even if they had to be filtered through Hinata's translation. It disappeared after guiding them to their suite of rooms on the third floor, but reappeared ten minutes later staggering under a platter laden with sandwiches, tea, and a steaming pot of ramen. No one voiced any objections when Naruto fell on the ramen like an Akimichi on…well, anything, really. His teammates were used to his obsession, and they kept their distance.
Neji used the time to explore their quarters, teacup in hand and mask pushed to the side of his head. The rooms were furnished in an odd mixture of Eastern and Western, pairing overstuffed armchairs with traditional ink paintings and low futons. The main room opened onto the corridor, with four bedrooms and a shared bathroom opening off it in turn. Neji chose the smallest room for himself, left his folded robe and mask on the futon, and headed back to the main room for another cup of tea.
Only Shikamaru was there now, lounging in one of the armchairs and staring thoughtfully at the pages of the book in his hands. Neji activated the Byakugan long enough to find Hinata washing her face in the bathroom and Naruto already changing for bed in the room two doors down from Neji's. They were adjusting to the nine hours' time difference, it seemed, but Neji didn't feel tired yet. He took a seat in the chair across from Shikamaru and stared moodily at the fire burning low in the grate.
"What do you think?" he asked at last.
"It's going to be troublesome," Shikamaru sighed.
Neji thoroughly agreed.