AN: Hello all my wonderful fantastically fantastic reviewers! Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for all the reviews and favs and alerts and C2 adds!

♥

But unfortunately I have some terrible news...

I'm afraid I wont be able to update for quite awhile.

Oh no, its not because I lost all inspiration for this fic or that I want to discontinue it. I love this fic, and I love writing it, and I promise I wont ever discontinue it. But my laptop has been taken away and all computer access, as well as the phone, TV, and yes, even the toaster. I'm sorry, but it looks as if I wont be updating, watching, or toasting anything in the near future.

I will give proper special thanks and review replies as soon as I get my privileges back. As well as a very special chapter dedication to Sakura Perfume (formally know as Yuume Li) in celebration of her birthday on the 22nd of November!

The best I can do is give you the first part of the eleventh chapter

x

Harry woke up and found himself blinking blearily at the ceiling.

Where the hell was he, and what was he doing there? Where was Naruto and the other ninja? What happened to the dementors? Did Dumbledore know that Harry and his body guards took a secret (mostly reluctant on his part) tour of the forest? Was he going to get expelled? Did anyone die? Where were his glasses? Why did he only have ONE pillow?

Harry knew the look and smell of the infirmary now, so that question had been answered. And he was there because he couldn't fend the dementors off of himself and the useless ninja at the same time. One look from the dark creatures had them collapsed and shivering in a heap. Sasuke went down first, then Naruto, then Lee, Sakura mostly stayed conscious with Harry, trying her best to ward off the evil beings with daggers, and mostly being successful.

Just as Naruto and Sasuke went out like lights, hitting the ground and landing softly in a sand pile that hadn't been there before, Harry had dispersed an impressive amount of dementors that had gathered around them with a strong Patronus. But he was too late to do anything about Lee, at least four tall, skeleton thin figures circled around him, slowly sipping his soul like some kind of delicious cocktail.

The rest though, was a blur. Harry remembered the collective sound of what could have been grain hitting the ground, and before he could make sense of it, the dementors around Lee disappeared with a haze of sand. Two of them were, as the best way to describe it, hit with an octopus tentacle made of earth. Another was cocooned, crushed savagely and dying with an unearthly screech. The last was met with a shower of daggers, curtsey of Sakura, and retreated into the darkness of the forest.

A small, red headed figure took that moment to materialize before the perplexed wizard and the one conscious, pink haired ninja. Harry would have gotten a good look at him if the black, hooded heads of a several dementors hadn't suddenly charged at him in a chorus of shriek shrills.

That was when he had fainted. No. Passed out. Fainted didn't sound nearly heroic enough.

Harry rubbed his eyes and yawned, reaching for his glasses and adjusting his (ONE) pillow. He dazedly searched for a flash of gold, and grabbed it when he set his now focused eyes on the familiar, delicious chocolate. He had already taken a few chunks out of it when the distinct sound of a door opening and closing, and the bickering of Hermione and Ron invaded his ears.

"'Warble' is not spelled with three b's, Ron!"

"Fred and George said it was!"

Harry sighed.

"Oi! Shut the hell up! People are trying to recover in here!" yelled a voice from the sick bed on his left. Harry tensed, and reached over to pull the thin, white tapestry to the side, getting a full view of prone, bed ridden Naruto eating chocolate.

"Hey, Harry!" he greeted cheerfully.

"Naruto, what are you-"

"Doing in bed? I don't know I was gonna jump out the window when I woke up but I found all this great chocolate and I didn't wanna get up any more 'cause I wanna eat the chocolate I like chocolate do you like chocolate Harry? I wander if Sasuke likes chocolate DO YOU LIKE CHOCOLATE SASUKE?" rambled the blonde hyperly. Harry, who was convinced that at least half of those words weren't even in English, had heard a 'Shut up, dobe' grumbled from a sleepy Sasuke a moment later. The ornery ninja's bed was just one over from his chocolate devouring companion.

"Ah, Harry!" greeted Ron when he finally made it through all the beds to the one Harry was lying in, "Tell Hermione how to spell 'warble'!"

"Never mind that, Harry, what on earth happened?" interjected the bushy haired witch. "First you go off outside during lunch, and the next thing we know, some strange boy drags you back to the Great Hall in the most peculiar way."

"What do you mean, 'drag'?"

"Well, actually, you were floating… on a cloud of sand. He didn't speak any English, but he had a wand and asked for Professor Dumbledore."

"Where is he now?"

"Talking with the headmaster. Do you know who he is Harry? He really was a strange boy, wore make-up, had a tattoo, carried a gourd on his back…"

"Oh yeah, that's Gaara!" piped up Naruto through a mouthful of chocolate. "And its not make-up… he's just like that. But don't get the wrong idea, he's really a good guy!" Sasuke snorted somewhere in the background at the last statement.

"I heard that, Sasuke!"

"He tried to kill you, idiot. Twice."

"So? He's different now! You can't judge someone just 'cause they tried to kill you… twice."

Harry twitched. Honestly, what people actually had this conversation, and were clinically sane at the same time? None too many.

"So you know this boy, Naruto?"

"Duh, I said he's Gaara! He's a Suna Nin, our allies. He was psychotic before but now he's fine. I'm sure he won't try to kill anyone anymore, and really, he's a great guy! You'll love him!"

For some reason, the three wizards doubted that.

x

Jade green eyes surveyed the (eccentric) room, scanning over the strange, tinkering silver instruments sitting on some shelves, rested briefly on the majestic red bird perched in a corner, and took in whatever oddities it had to offer. Which was a lot, seeing as how the room was just generally 'odd.' Even by a shinobi's standards.

Gaara had been ushered politely into the room just minutes before by a (eccentric) man with an insanely tall and pointy hat, the kind of hat that could have never served for any practicality besides looking ridiculous. Even by shinobi standards.

The small Sand Nin, who was sitting in a chair so soft and comfortable that it actually bordered on being uncomfortable, batted not an eye lash as he heard rushed foot steps hurry towards him. He, instead, lightly loosened the cork keeping the sand in his gourd at bay.

After the little incident involving a certain blonde Leaf Nin, he couldn't afford to be too careful.

x

Harry wasn't sure of how long he had been in the hospital, but he was sure it was too late to attend the last two classes of the day. The sun had already set, casting eerie shadows all about the castle, a sure sign that education of any sort would not be tolerated by all students. Except Hermione.

The Boy Who Lived sauntered out the infirmary doors, with one bouncing and one ill tempered ninja in tow, sporting a slight migraine. Ugh, head aches and fatigue, the physical after effects of a dementor attack.

Lee, the shinobi who wore green spandex under his robes and insisted on revealing the gaudy garb whenever he thought necessary, (which was never in Harry's opinion), was left behind in a lonely infirmary accompanied only by a still (pathetically) unconscious Draco Malfoy. The usually sunny, enthusiastic boy lay in bed pale and quiet. Harry could honestly admit that he preferred him loud and exclaiming youth.

"Poor Lee," Naruto sympathized through a mouthful of chocolate as the three navigated through the halls, "And he just got out of the hospital, too."

The last line had sparked an interest in Harry, causing the bespeckled boy to ask the inevitable question of "what happened?"

"He survived surgery a little while ago and just got back to light training. He was so happy…"

"What put him in the hospital?"

"More like 'who?'," quipped the previously (and still) brooding Sasuke.

"Gaara," Naruto confessed. It seemed the chocolate had slightly disoriented the blonde, for he answered in a way that he would have sugar-coated with defense had he been sober. The spark of curiosity, kindled and growing, nagged for more than just a one word answer.

"So, what happened?" Harry urged.

"It was a fight, Harry, duh," scoffed Naruto, "Gaara went straight up psycho and tried to squeeze the youth outta Lee. Twice." The blonde demonstrated by crushing the wrapper of his devoured chocolate bar in a tanned fist. Harry thought Lee was annoying, obnoxious at worst, but not to an extent that deserved death.

"Bloody hell, what'd Lee do?" gaped Harry.

"Well, nothing. You see, we hold an exam every six months in our village tha-"

The blonde was cut off from his explanation when a pale hand materialized out of nowhere, and cuffed him in the head with an audible 'smack.' A few paintings, witnessing the assault, reprimanded the dark haired ninja with gasps of 'oh, I never!'s.

"What was that for, teme!"

"Don't go spouting unnecessary things, dobe," chastised the other boy, hand still raised from the attack.

As Naruto harrumphed and crossed his arms in miffed silence, Harry felt himself fall into a curiosity that now burned so intensity it threatened to engulf him. But a look from Sasuke killed all questions lingering at the back of his throat.

There was no talking now, just a sluggish silence filling the hall ways they trudged through, until Sasuke took a different turn, muttering something about going to his own house. Naruto waved (yelled) a cheery good bye at the other boy's retreating back before following Harry up some enchanted stairs.

After mumbling the password to the portrait entrance, the wizard boy did nothing more than crawl into bed and throw a muffled 'good night' to a barely conscious Ron, but though he was tired as all hell, he couldn't bring himself to sleep. He needed information.

Who was that red headed boy, really? Why did Sasuke not want Naruto to talk about it? Harry needed to know.

A quick look at the enchanted clock on his night stand told him it was ten-thirty.

Harry promised himself that at eleven-o-clock, he would put his invisibility cloak to use.

x