Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto. Thank you.

Enjoy,

Chapter 4-

奇妙な事件( kimyou na jiken) Strange Incidents


The big day had finally come. Everyone was every excited, the anticipation was running thick throughout the air, passing like a disease. It was so contaminating that by the end of the day, even Harry himself was thrilled about it that he had poured in an excessive amount of exploding fluid into his exploding potion, and the entire thing had exploded ten seconds later, destroying the entire dungeon and reduced every single occupant in the room, including himself, and Snape, to crisp. Nice, sooty black and smoking like squids that were left on the grill for too long. Surprisingly, no one died.

But who cares? Point being, Harry was so elated that having had a thousand points deducted from Griffindor and ten full weeks of detention did not darken his mood. Everyone was just as excited as him, so no one blamed him. It will soon wear off, and he'll come to regret what he did later, but for the time being, no one could spoil his insanely good mood for the day.

Or so he thought.


" It is officially decided. Harry Potter is a nutcase." Rin declared angrily as she stomped her was down the shinobi's quarters, thundering loudly and wearing an extremely black face as she did so. Only Kakashi was currently in sight.

" Yo, Rin." Kakashi said absently as he flipped the page of the book he was presently reading, which was entitled ' Ridding yourself of fangirls' by Glideroy Lockhart. What a sissy sounding name.

" Don't 'Yo' me!" Rin cried, yanking the book roughly out of a surprised Kakashi's hands and brutally ripping it into two. She glared down at her masked teammate.

After a few minutes and non-stop glaring, Kakashi blinked as though he had just woken up and looked up at her, as if he had just registered that she had just arrived. His hand slowly moved to cover up his nose. " Rin, what happened to your clothes?"

Rin twitched. " What happened to them? I'll tell you what happened to them, you shitty little pipsqueak!" She roared, shaking Kakashi hard by the collar. " It was that brainless twerp which we were assigned to! That pea-sized hebi-brain of his can't seem to function right!"

" I'm sorry? You don't seem to be making much sense, Rin." Kakashi said politely, a hint of his usual monotone was creeping back into his voice now. Just another one of Rin's usual random self-explosions…

Rin, if possible, got redder than she already was. " Look at what he did to me! LOOK AT ME! I'm covered with slime and blisters and burns everywhere! And you still have the nerve to ask me what happened!"

" Oh, there's nothing much to worry about, actually. You just look a bit more ruffled than usual today. And maybe a bit off colour too." Kakashi said, eyeing his teammate up and down warily. Rin looked mutinous. Her clothes were covered with at thick layer of soot, or some parts were permanently black. Her skin too, was red, and her hair was just as black as her clothes. She was giving of a slight odor of burnt flesh. It matched her black face perfectly well, but Kakashi didn't dare to say that. He had a pretty good idea of what had happened to her already.

" Nothing much to worry…?!" Rin said hysterically, shaking Kakashi harder than before with renewed vigor. " I'll slaughter you Kakashi…Of course I'm off colour! I'm waaaay off colour! And it's all entirely his fault! I've had it with him- I quit, Kakashi!"

" Erm…you should probably try to cool down, Rin. You're losing your head over such an insignificant matter." Kakashi said. Rin relaxed her grip on him and took in a deep, shuddering breath, before collapsing onto one of the nearby poofy armchairs.

" Gomen." She said. " But I can't believe that idiot…he blew up his entire cauldron! Including everything in the vacancy! I know the point of it all was creating an exploding potion, but not to use it by denoting it on yourself, or your allies, right?"

" That's why it's called an S-ranked mission." Kakashi said blandly as he picked up the tattered remains of the book Rin had just tore up. He looked at the weary form of his teammate. " Rin, you'd better rest for the time being. Replenish your energies. We're needed at the feast tonight, so we might be skipping dinner. I'll cover for you for the rest of the day."

Rin glanced at Kakashi gratefully. " Thanks."

Just then, the door opened once again to reveal the usual energetic Obito. " Yo, minna-san!" He said cheerfully as he bounded into the room. Kakashi and Rin sighed. The peaceful mood was suddenly spoilt.

Obito carried on as though he didn't know why they were sighing- which he probably doesn't or is too thick-skull to ponder on it anyway." You guys won't believe what I saw today! There was this GIGANTIC squid in the lake downstairs and- hm, what's that smell? Did Tim cook something fried?" He interrupted himself suddenly as he sniffed the air around him. Both his teammates gave an involuntary twitch. Obito caught sight of Rin. " Oh, Rin. Are you done with your patrols? Why are you all burnt? Did you try to cook something today? Are we gonna have barbeque, hmm? What's for dinner?"

" You.…" Rin growled, her previous anger suddenly all coming back to her. She stood up and rolled back her sleeves. "Uchiha…Obitoooo…"

Obito at once knew that he had said something that he shouldn't have. He threw an irritated glance at Kakashi, which silently meant ' why didn't you tell me that Rin was in one of her moods today?'. Kakashi just gave an unsympathetic ' sorry, no time' shrug as a response.

" You want to know why I'm back and black, huh?" Rin drawled out sinisterly, cracking her knuckles.

" W-W-W-Waiiiit! Kakashi!" Obito shrieked. He quickly turned to Kakashi for help, but found out that his teammate was already at the door, suddenly ten meters away from them. That coward…! " Teme! Help me!"

" Duty calls." Kakashi said smugly as he pushed open the door and exited the room. " I'm taking over Rin after all, and I have to return this book." He lifted the remains of the poor book, its pages drooping out sadly. Hmm, the librarian will probably kill him for this, right? Oh well, a little genjutsu here and there and she won't be realizing a thing. Until he's safely out of her reach and releases it, that is.

" The trio should be in the common room by now. They got half the day off after all." Rin informed Kakashi, who nodded in response. As Kakashi wordlessly left the room, closing the door with a snap and also sealing away Obito's escape route, Rin turned her attention back on Obito, who vowed to kill Kakashi the next time he saw him. "Now, where were we, Obito- kun?"

Obito gulped. " Gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai!" He said, bowing rapidly before his enraged teammate.

Kakashi closed the door and walked away satisfyingly as his poor teammate's screams echoed through the desolated corridors. Ahh…peace at last…


The feast had gone without any incidents. All that were required for the four shinobis were just to stand at attention and remain like that for two whole hours until the feast had ended. It was definitely very difficult, especially for Obito, to keep up with that pose. After all, this is a feast, and since it was a salutation for the school's most recent guests, today's menu had a wide range of delicious looking exotic dishes and drinks. It took almost all of Obito's will power and Kakashi's glaring power to stop Obito from drooling or dropping his required stance. Kakashi could see Minato and Rin, who were stationed at the other end of the hall, throwing worried glances at Obito, apparently bothered by the same thing. Kakashi even caught Dumbledore staring amusedly in their direction once or twice. This was so embarrassing…why was he, of all people, paired up with this nitwit?

The shinobis had of course attracted a lot of attention from the curious diners. Besides the newly arrived Beauxbatons and Drumstrang students, the entire Hogwarts assembly did not glimpse them at all since the last meeting, so they had invited a lot of inquisitive scrutinizing. Their sensei Minato, had received the most however- he was rather unfortunate, to be stationed where the Slytherin's tables were located, where he had been endorsed with a lot of cooing from the girls there. The Shinobis had ignored everyone, and only stared stonily ahead, making people wonder if they were hit by a pre-casted stunning spell upon entering (the shinobis were already at their spots when the students came in).

Kakashi inwardly snorted as he overheard the conversation the Weasel boy was saying to Potty. Sounded something similar to what a fan boy would be saying. Don't get the wrong idea, he wasn't ears dropping or anything- its just that Ron didn't know how to control his volume and that Kakashi's keen ears just wasn't helping much. And also of course, he and Obito had positioned themselves, discreetly as it may seem, right in front of Harry, so that they will be ready to defend him at any given moment. So too bad, Ron. But its not like he was interested in the topic in the first place…bunch of junk. Who cares if some celebrity has entered the school? Not him.

Apparently, from Kakashi's most recent observations, Ron and Harry seemed to have 'Jiraiya' like tendencies, gaping at girls like gorillas isolated from their bananas for too long and showed other displays of abnormal behavior- like befriending an overgrown man who evidently chews his own fingers off. In fact, every Hogwarts student has strange thinking and a large lack of respect- laughing when the Beauxbatons students rose to greet their headmaster? What was wrong with that? Dumbledore's behavior must be rubbing off on everyone in the entire school, Kakashi decided.

Finally, as the Shinobis endured those painful moments of watching those foods getting devoured by… demonic punks, and trying to restrain their stomachs from growling out loudly, Dumbledore decided to end their pain by bringing out the casket, but not before creating an air of eagerness and exhilaration for the entire school. 'Casket'? Was the impartial 'judge' a dead corpse or something? Maybe he was a vampire Apparently, Harry had the same thoughts as Kakashi, as the scrawny boy gaped at the casket in horror of whatever that might come out of it.

They were both wrong. The famed judge turned out not to be something from the world of the undead, but measly, old, worn out 'cup'. Kakashi sighed. They were supposed to guard this 'cup' too? Harry too, looked at bit crestfallen at that fact. No matter, it's still a judge, right? A rather immobile one, though. Hmm…thinking about it now, that would make it 'unprejudiced' to a certain extend, right…?

Dumbledore droned on and on about the rules and regulations about the tournament, which the Shinobis already knew about, before releasing the school, though they remained unfalteringly at their assigned posts. Some people threw anxious or apprehensive glances at the shinobis as they made their way out. Others looked rather doubtfully as they did nothing, even when the oh-so-famous Harry Potter got into a small tiff with the Drumstrang Headmaster at the entranceway, something that the boy apparently got a knack for. One might think it was an inborn ability, a kind of Kekkei Genkai that lets everyone get attracted to the user like bees to honey. Weren't they supposed to be guards, to protect this school, especially their star, Harry Potter, from outsiders? Then why are they still standing there impassively?

Finally, once the entire blustering students had left, and Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime had returned after tucking their students in, Dumbledore beckoned the Shinobis to come to the teachers' platform. They did so obligingly, appearing there instantly, bowed down on one knee. Karkaroff and Maxime, as well as the other teachers, looked surprised and rather amazed at that small 'stunt'.

" But what is the meaning of this, Albus?" Bartemius Crouch demanded." The tournament rules decrees that under no circumstances will any help be given to a particular champion, handicapped or not-"

" Aha! Dumbledore!" Karkaroff exclaimed loudly and triumphantly, interrupting Crouch. " So that was what you were planning on, eh? Hiring foreign support like these! No wonder Hogwarts agreed to this nonsense tournament so easily, I knew there was something strange about it all along!"

" I'm afraid you got me wrong, Barty, Karkaroff." Dumbledore said pleasantly before Maxime had a chance to get something else out of her mouth, which was already half opened. " These guards are not for the benefit of my school alone, they are hired for the both of you as well."

" And 'ow, may I ask, are you going to be proposing zis?" Madame Maxime said distrustfully, though looking interested as well.

" Well, firstly, they will be here to supervise the champions during the three tournaments-without verbally or directly helping each individual, of course," Dumbledore added as Crouch began to open his mouth. " When I say supervise, I just meant watching from the sidelines for anything unexpected to happen to the champions themselves. Not only for the Hogwarts champions, but the others as well. We have no problems with that, I presume? After all, the one paying for them is I."

" What an excellent idea, Dumbledore. How very innovative and sporting of you!" Bagman boomed, clapping his hands. Crouch however, seemed to think otherwise.

" Are you implying," the usual stiff man said, narrowing his eyes at Dumbledore, " that the securities provided by the Ministry is not sufficient enough? I seem to recall that you were the one who arranged them yourself, Albus."

" Not at all, my good man." Dumbledore said cheerfully. " Just take it that an old man such as me have too many worries on his mind, and doing this lets me be in a much more comfortable state of mind, thank you. They will also be protecting the audiences as well. The first task is dragons, as I recall. Magnificent but also terrifyingly dangerous beasts, they are."

" Very well." Crouch said arduously. " I will report this to the authorities when I get back and inform Weatherby. Any other complains will be filed to you, got it?"

" Of course." Dumbledore nodded pleasantly. " Now that this meeting is over, who wants a hot cup of cocoa?" He looked around. "No one?"

" I 'ave to go, my students are waiting…" Madame Maxime said ruefully as she made her way out. " Anuzzer time, Dumbly-dorr."

" Same here. After such a long and tedious trip and all… " Karkaroff said, looking subtlety disappointed that he could not 'frame' the Hogwarts headmaster. He too, turned to follow the tall Beauxbatons headmaster. " But we can have it another time, maybe tomorrow, Dumbledore. I'll be here till the end of the year after all."

" Oh, but I can stay!" Bagman said brightly. " In fact, I think you could too, Crouch!"

" No. Thank. You." Crouch said impatiently. " We both have insanely high amounts of paperwork at the office, in case you had forgotten, Bagman. You are coming back with me to finish them off."

" Aww…man." Bagman whined. He could not continue on any further, as Crouch had a firm grip on him and had somehow managed to cast a levitation charm on the energetic man, hauling him out of the hall, and instantly silencing others' excuses and complains he might have. Crouch was apparently determined not to let Bagman escape from his paperwork. They exited in that peculiar manner.

Finally, everyone one left, including the teachers, leaving only team Minato, who were all still in the same position as before, and Dumbledore behind. Dumbledore considered them for a moment.

" If it isn't too much, then I would like at least one of you all the time to be on guard with the Goblet- I'll draw the age line tomorrow. Catch any suspicious looking person who is loitering around this area, especially if they have intentions to do something to the Goblet. The students shouldn't be out of bed at this hour, so don't go easy on them, no matter which school they are from. You may remain hidden if you wish. I shall see you again tomorrow."

" Understood." Came four carefully controlled voices.

" Good, then I bade you goodnight." Saying so, Dumbledore swept out of the room, his long starry robes flowing after him, leaving the shinobis on guard behind. Without a sound, all four stood up, before melting seamlessly into the shadows of the Great Hall.


" Ahhh…" Dumbledore said knowingly as he entered the Great Hall the following morning, accompanied by Professors Snape and McGonagall. They both looked shocked at the scene before their eyes, though the former did a pretty good job of covering it up.

" Headmaster!" McGonagall said, sounding appalled and immediately rounding up on Dumbledore. " What is the meaning of this?"

" Forgive me, Minerva. Perhaps I should have been a bit more careful with my choices of words last night…" Dumbledore said contritely, though contradictory to his tone, his face showed not regret, but the usual bemusement it always held, and his eyes were twinkling. But of course, what took place before them was not what you would usually see every single day. Not in the entire Hogwarts history, at least.

" No talking back! And stop your pansy girlish fidgeting! Are you a man or not?!" Obito was barking at a fourth year Griffindor boy. Who was dangling dangerously four feet up, having been somehow suspended by thick ropes, which were bound tightly to his left ankle, and the other end tied to some makeshift poles, which were firmly supported by the tall ceilings of the Great Hall. In fact, if you took a good look around, everyone whom the Shinobis had caught were in the same, bizarre position the boy was.

So this spiky black haired boy is one of the four guards Dumbledore had hired? McGonagall did trust the old man, but somehow or other, she have doubts on whomever he had picked all the time. But his decisions always turn out for the better; she'll just try to tolerate it this time. Their entrance speech wasn't very impressive, but they possessed a strong aura of power- at least, the leader does. She has a slight feeling that she'll loose if she ever took them on.

She squinted- the guard had stopped in front of someone who looked vaguely familiar…and to her astonishment, the person turned out to be none other than the school's very own caretaker, the ever so grouchy Filch himself, suspended in the same fashion as everyone was, and still in his full mouldy old tail coat glory. The guard was currently antagonizing him, waggling a finger and making funny smug looking faces at him. Acting like a ten-year-old…wait, he did look young enough to be passed as a ten year old, McGonagall thought. How old exactly were they anyway? The masks had hidden the features and age properly. Apparently, beside her, McGonagall could tell that Snape was thinking the same thing too, frowning slightly, though he was probably much more sickened by the display of icky childishness before him.

" Now…let's see how you're going to fight back with me, hmmm?" Obito grinned sadistically from behind his mask. His words were heavily accented, but they were clearly understandable. If anything, the tone he was speaking in should at least get his point across.

Obito glared. This guy…this particular guy had just whizzed into the hall during his duty and demanding that he'd better go back to bed least he'll receive a spanking. No random stranger talks to Uchiha Obito in that tone, not a single one. He might look like a goof-off, but he still was part of the Uchiha clan, the one most famed for their haughtiness and rocketing high self-esteems. Of course, he'll have to inherit a few traits as well, right? Thus, Obito had given the spanking to this foul mothball smelling creature instead.

" You'd better let me go, or I'll whip you so hard, you'll be begging for mercy, brat!" Filch snarled, wriggling and trying to break free of his bonds.

Obito raised an eyebrow. " Oh, really? But how are you going to do that? These ropes can't be cut easily without a knife, you know. Especially for a squib like you…" He taunted. It was easy to tell that his guy is a squib, since he had no wand on him when the shinobis had frisked him. And wizards never leave or go anywhere without their wands. Well, smart wizards, at least. If he's not a squib, then he must've been an unintelligent wizard.

" Its morning already, brat! People are coming in for breakfast, and then you'll get it from me, once I threaten a random little monster to release me!" Filch laughed, delighted and anticipating the probable outcome of Obito if he ever got free. That funny sounding brat will eat his whip!

" Oh, I don't think you'll be doing that." Obito smirked. " Unless you want me to skin her alive…" Saying so, he turned around and somehow managed to conjure a mangled and scrawny cat out from the shadows of the walls.

Filch face turned from anger to shock, and then to aghast in the fastest possible record time. "Mrs. Norris!" He cried. " No no no no, anything, please, anything but her!"

" I don't know..." Obito said, looking thoughtfully at the cat he was holding by its scruff. " A bit tattered, but it'll probably make a good hat…for camouflaging purposes…its coat is ugly enough for others to mistake it for a wild cat, I think."

" No, my daarhling!" Filch yelled, squirming harder then ever with his bonds now.

" Believe me, this miserable thing is better off dead." Obito said, shaking poor Mrs. Norris hard, as though expecting her to cough out gold coins at any moment. Filch antagonizing wails could be heard from far away.

" Mina-chan." Dumbledore said. The called shinobi immediately appeared before him, crouched down low on the usual one knee position. " Hai."

Dumbledore blinked, not expecting his call to be received so quickly, especially when being called by his nickname. " I take it that these are those people who wandered in into the area?" He asked, without missing a beat.

Minato blinked, and then started to recite the mission description." Yes, of course. We took shifts and stood guard over the Goblet as ordered. At one thirty, Alderton-san entered the great hall, transfigured by a spell, but clearly underage and was heading towards the goblet. Then, fifteen minutes later, Belby Marcus-san decided to lead a small group of four of his fellow Ravenclaws. They were cleverly disguised, but we managed to catch them just in time when they released the spell after finding out that the age line has not been drawn yet. At two o three, Bulstrode Millicent- san entered, not disguised at all and making a pathetic beeline for the Goblet. I caught her, of course. Brocklehurst Mandy- san entered at two forty, during Kakashi's watch. Apparently from what he told me, she was looking for somebody in Belby- san's group. Finnigan Seamus- san wandered in shortly after at two fifty. He actually attacked Kakashi when he spotted him, and thus, had to be tightly binded even after we stripped him off his items. Apperantly, he thought that Kakashi was the restiction you placed for the Goblet. Kyodai Creevey Colin and Dennis- san sneaked in during Rin's watch at three twenty seven, and-"

" Okay Mina-chan, that is enough. I trust you, so I'll take your word for it." Dumbledore said. Minato looked shocked that someone had inturrupted his 'grand and brilliantly detailed' mission report, but managed to stop his face from showing it and gave a tight nod. Dumbledore carried on. "I couldn't stop myself for asking, but why is our caretaker, Mr. Filch, here?"

Minato jerked his head up slightly before lowering it back to its original position and reciting, " Filch Argus- san entered at four fifty six, during Obito's watch. He caused quite a bit of a ruckus and refused to quieten down, no matter how we tried to pacify him. Afraid that he will wake other students up and disturb our work, we had no other choice but to bind him up as well."

" Yes, he usually tends to…overreact at some times." Dumbledore said, looking thoughtful for a moment. He turned back to Minato. " You had them disarmed, of course?"

Minato nodded. " After being tied up and having their particullars extracted, we also had every single one throughly frisked, their wands, together with several…weapons they carry."

" May I see them?"

Minato gave another nod, and withdrew a small scroll from one of the scroll compartments in his jonin vest. In one swift and single movement, he untied the scroll, bit his finger, drawing blood (to the shock of both Snape and McGonagall), and swiped the bitten finger across the scroll. Once that was done, a load of items immediately appeared with a poof of smoke, falling pell mell onto the floor and clustered around the professor's feet.

Some of the junks were revealers, poisonous candles, and even stupider ones like exploding snap packs. At least the students were creative enough to throw exploding cards at the shinobis. Dumbledore's eyeborws rose slightly as he caught a few dungbombs and stink pellets, and even the newly restricted fanged frisbees and ever-bashing boomerangs, which were all sliced cleanly into half, making them pretty much useless and immobile. He had a good idea of what had happened to them. Minato handed him a separate bag, which had all the wands inside, each of them neatly labelled with the user's particullars. Impressive.

" Oh, and another thing…not that I minded much about it, but why this particular method of punishment?" Dumbledore asked mildly.

" I'll give you an example. Obito!" Minato ordered. The Uchiha gave a nod at once and turned back to the wriggling Filch.

" You heard the coach! Twenty-five dangling sit ups now, and don't do it like a sissy!" Obito barked loudly to a bewildered Filch. Seeing the reluctant look on the old caretaker's face Obito leaned in closer and whispered. " If you don't do it, I'm sure I could earn quite a small fortune by selling your cat to a butcher…and I know quite a few who pays generously, you know…"

At the threat, Filch's eyes widen in horror, and were threatening to pop out of their sockets at any moment. " Yes, sir! I'm on it, sir!" Saying so, he began a series of furious but sloppy sit ups. " One! Two! Threee! Four..!"

Obito looked shocked at the ugly display that Filch was showing- that guy was already panting at eight! Even those students in the academy could give a much more better quality work. He could only turn and gave a cheesy but somewhat apologetic smile to his teacher and client.

" This is a basic method of pumishment for our academy students in Konoha. Apparently, it also serves as a method of training the ninja's stamina, so we make them do this rather that writing lines." Minato explained, trying to cover up the not-so-refined way the method was displayed. What kind of model did Obito pick? Of all the freaking people in the entire hall, he had to choose the most unfit of them all. Behind him, Filch's gasps and wheezes were now clearly audible and echoed loudly in the Great Hall, waking students who were snoozing off despite of the akward position they were in.

Minato inwardly cursed. The little horrors would have a good view the shinobis at their current positions now, especially when daylight is sweeping into the castles' windows. He already saw Obito discretly sliding into the dark shadows at the corners of the hall at the corner of his eye, leaving Filch to unknowingly continue on with his 'sit ups'.(" Eleven…pant…pant…pant…Tweee…lvee…pant…pant…pant…Thiiiir….teeeen…")

" Ah. I see. Very well. Students will probably be heading down soon. If it's not too much to ask, would you release them from their bonds and return these wands to their proper owners?" Dumbledore said, handing the bag back to the Jonin. Students had already realized that their Headmaster was there, and though some had the decency to look abashed by being caught, others were avidly watching the converstation and craning their necks to get a better view of the shinobis.

" Understood." Minato said, standing up. " You heard him, Obito, Kakashi, Rin."

Three figures slid smoothly out from the shadows, two immediately flickered, disappearing and reappearing at opposite ends of the hall's tall celing where the poles were located, and lowering them slightly, so that everyone's upper body was touching the floor. Again, they flickered and reappeared at the two ends of the poles.

The last figure, one of a girl, lazily tossed two sharp looking projectiles at both strings. They sliced through them cleanly, the two boys catching one each and then pocketing them. Everyone suddenly found themselves free, as the boys went up again to raise the poles back to their original positions, and also cutting off the excess ropes and knots which were still dangling on it. Manually. Come to think of it, they were all caught and binded manually too…were these people muggles?! Utterly unbelievable.

Eveyone rubbed their ankles and heads to get their blood circulating properly and also, getting used to having their feet back on the ground, and Filch immediately went to wrap his dear Mrs. Norris in a 'lovingly'tight and painful embrace (one of the guards twitched slightly after seeing that particular scene). Dumbledore, followed closely by McGonagall and Snape, headed to the teacher's table. The first of the food were already starting to appear as the house elfs started cooking breakfast. Noises could already be heard from outside the hall- early birds were probably wondering why the large doors aren't open at this hour yet. Dumbledore called for attention.

" As I am running short of time now, I'll make it straight to the point then. I have already warned you that underage students are clearly prohibitted from entering the tournament. Everyone here is all clearly underage. What is worse is that most of you even tried to don on a disguise to enter yourself. Furthermore, the school rules has clearly stated that no one is allowed to leave their common room after eleven, ten for the first and second years. You have already been warned, and also, punished accordingly. I will not do anything more, as I believed that the punishement you have received by our guards are more than enough, do you agree?" He finished lightly, looking at all the sleepy faces around him.

A chorus of sullen and weary 'Yes' rang out. Dumbledore beamed. " Good! You may leave as soon as you reclaim your wands from Minato, who is standing at the side over there. You remember him, I'm sure?"

A few more scattered 'yes' were heard as the bedraggled group dragged themselves to were Minato was located. He simply pointed to the bag sitting at the Griffindor table and the clustered around there, searching for their wands. Afterwards, some chose to head directly over to their respective tables for breakfast, while others went to the doors, hoping to get a few winks before class starts. Dumbledore himself was concentrating on drawing the age line around the Goblet, and McGonagall was marching briskly down the asle to open the doors, flicking her wand as she went, adding artistic Hallowe'en decorations such as live bats and carved pumpkins with every flick.

Minato sighed, and after giving a short bow to Dumbledore, he vanished with a puff of smoke just before the large double doors swung open, letting in the morning crowd.


" Good job, everyone.Dumbledore looked pleased with you all." Minato smiled as he looked at the sleepy chuunins, who were all lying, pooped out on the couches in their quarters. Each of them gave weary smiles back in return.

" Tea, sire?" Tim asked helpfully as he placed several bowls of hot, freshly boiled rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables, a broiled fish dish and a plate of tamagoyaki (omelette roll)- a typical Japanese breakfast requested by Minato- who claimed that healthy shinobis needed a good substantial breakfast, much to the chagrin of Obito.

Said Obito was currently stuffing his face as he gobbled down his rice, apparently too hungry too complain, partially because of skipping dinner last night. The other two only ate quietly, as they had no strength left to concentrate properly on what they were doing, absentmindedly wondering how Obito managed to have so much extra energy left in him.

Once everyone were done with the meal, they looked inquiringly at their sensei, who was still taking his own sweet time to eat, reading yet another fantasy novel as he did. Sheesh, how childish of him!

Sensing their gazes, Minato looked up. " What?" He asked artlessly. The three chuunins continued staring. Half sighing but half smiling at the same time, Minato got up, closing the book as he did so. He was rather proud of his students' conduct for the past few days, especially considering that this was their first time doing a S-ranked mission. " We are supposed to carry on guard duty for the rest of the day, and later, we will be needed at the evening feast again. Since you did a great job last night, I'll take over you for your morning duty, so you have up to eleven thirty to replenish your energies, alright?"

" Hai." They said listlessly, and headed to their respective bedrooms, hoping for a fruitful nap.

" So cute." Minato sighed as he sat down and picked up his chopsticks again. " Hmm…that potty guy should be having breakfast in the hall right now…so that means I'll still have some time to rest, considering how slow that kid takes to move around…now, where did I put that book…?"


" Stupid of them to think that they could outsmart Dumbledore's magic." Hermione said, shaking her head, watching bemusedly as Fred and George Weasely left the hall, blowing kisses to everyone on the way and pretending to hobble idiotically, though they looked rather mortified at their failure as well. " Oh look, there's Dean and Seamus over there, shall we go join them?"

Harry gave a shrug, but followed Hermione over to where the other two Griffindor fourth years were seated, apparently discussing about Hogwarts students of seventeen or over who might be entering.

" There's a rumor going round, that Warrington got up early and put his name in," Dean told Harry. " That big bloke from Slytherin who looks like a sloth."

Before Harry could give a reply, however, Seamus, who looked much more haggard then usual, cut in suddenly. " Him? Nah. He couldn't have."

" How d'you know?" Ron asked, helping himself to some French toasts. " Though I'd hate to have a Slytherin champion, he's of age, isn't he? Why can't he not?"

" Because," Seamus said impatiently, waving his spoon around to accentuate his point. " I was there wasn't I? In the Hall at night…dangling…"

" What did you say?" Hermione asked sharply. Seamus blushed and then he explained to the group about his little 'adventure' last night. Everyone stared in disbelief at him in silence after he had finished. As one, they bombarded him with loads of questions.

" You attacked the guard?!"

" They caught you, disarmed you, and hanged you in two minutes flat?!"

" They're muggles?!"

Seamus nodded solemnly. " I got tied up tighter then all the others because I attacked the guard directly. I mistook him for the protection Dumbledore was talking about. It was a good try though. So I dangled there all the way until sunrise, when Dumbledore came to release us. But my point being, Warrington couldn't have come in early, or put his name in for that matter, as I was here the entire time."

There was a brief silence as everyone continues to stare at Seamus, making the boy squirm uncomfortably. Then, " Why didn't you invite us?!" Ron cried. " That was so damn cool! We missed the action, Harry!"

" You said that they were muggles, but how did they capture you in two minutes when you were throwing exploding cards and jinxes at them?" Hermione asked as she bit her toast, pondering on that Seamus had told her. No doubt about it now, Dumbledore wasn't as foolhardy enough as he seemed to hire these bizarre guards.

Seamus shrugged. " I was dark, I couldn't see well, but you should've seen them- they're like- wow! Millicent was already dangling there, whining all the way when I entered- so is a few other Ravenclaw. They caught Marcus too-"

Hermione's eyebrows raised a notch higher. " That's almost impossible! Marcus Belby and his gang? They have a high reputation of planning out efficient and almost fool-proof strategies, you know."

Seamus shrugged. " You can ask him later, though he'll probably not be happy discussing about it. He's the type that hates failure. He's not here right now, he headed to the common room as soon as we were released."

Everyone dived into their breakfast, and made small chat. Angelina Johnson apparently decided to join, and the Griffindors applauded her for that. Finally, Harry, Ron and Hermione left, wanting to pay a visit to Hagrid.

Hopefully, his fingers were still intact.


Minato crept into the hall, hair much more disheveled than usual. Hmm…now, where's the potty brat? He absently scanned the tables. Dumbledore had already left the hall, and was doubtlessly in his office. Most students were crowding around the Goblet, which had an age line around it already, so Minato didn't worry about it too much. With a pang of alarm and terror, the jonin realized that the tweedy looking boy, together with his two friends, weren't there. Well, crap.

Minato immediately shushin over to the Griffindor dormitories. Maybe, just maybe, the boy will be inside. The portrait of the fat lady looked down at him. " Password?"

Double crap. " Oh, not you again…" Minato looked at her frustratingly. " Erm…Open sesame?"

" Haha. Very funny, boy." She said, smiling roguishly. " Well, you know what to do if you want entry."

Minato glared at her, but knowing very well that he had no time to be arguing, looked around to check if anyone was within the vicinity, and then dropped down on his knees like in prayer, stared up at her with big, pleading eyes, and cried out his own personalized 'password' as dramatically as possible. "Oh lovely maiden from my dreams. Will you grant access to this humble man, unworthy of your presence? I beseech you to take mercy on me, my fate lies in your hands."

" Oh, you're still so charming after all these years, boy." The fat lady laughed girlishly at the shinobi before swinging herself open just a little bit for Minato to slid through undetected. He looked revolted at himself for actually saying what he had just said a few moments ago, slightly green in the face. ' Kushina is going to kill me when I get home…or worse, torture me before finishing me off…'

Immediately shushin –ing up to the fourth year dormitories, taking note to be as quiet as possible, despite his hastiness. There was no need for that, as the room was completely devoid of any occupants. No Harry Potter either, not under the sheets, inside the chest, between the grill, within the books, nowhere! Gone!

" Goddamit!" Minato shrieked, clutching his hair, panicking before he shushin off, heading back to the Great Hall.


Seamus, Dean, Lavender and Parvati were chatting quietly within themselves before one of the guard suddenly appeared beside them with a small poof of smoke, startling all four. Thank goodness everyone else was all too focused on the Goblet that no one realized what had just happened.

"Finnigan –san, was it?" He said, a bit quietly, obviously not wanting to attract other attention. His voice was a bit deep but had a kind edge in it.

Seamus stared at the guard, wide eyed. As did all the others. Seamus suddenly gave a shout. " Hey! I know you! You're the one who ordered for me to have double bindings- mrrrppfh!!"

" Shh!" The guard cried out, clamping the boy's mouth shut with his hand. " Do you want to let everyone know that I'm here?"

Dean blinked. " ..Are you supposed to be…elsewhere?"

" …Something like that." The blonde guard grunted. " Rather than that, does any of you know where Harry Potter went?"

" Hagrid's hut, why?" Parvati said, looking at the guard curiously. Her eyes widened in horror. " ..You're…you're not going to assisinate him, are you?"

" Of course not!" The guard said, looking appealed. Or at least, that's what it looked like to the others, the facemask was blocking the view. " Who'd ever want to kill off someone as useless as that? Hagrid's hut you say? Ok, thanks." With that, he vanished with a puff of smoke. The four of them stared at the spot where he had just vanished.

" I must be dreaming." Seamus finally said, looking shocked.


To Minato's great relief, the gaki and his three friends were indeed there, inside the hut with what Minato recognized as the gargantuan gatekeeper of the school during his time here. Potty decided to make friends with him, huh? Strange kid.

Reassured now that the boy was located and appeared to still be in one piece, Minato hid his presence as he leant against the hard wooden walls of the hut, next to one of the windows, which gave him a nice view of the situation going on inside. The three of them were apparently eating something the giant cooked, which vaguely resembled a dead carcass of a vulture. Somehow, the giant had it grilled and managed to pass it on to the children as 'beef'. Which all of them ate, unknowingly.

" Sensei." Came a voice behind him, making Minato jump a bit, before realizing that it was only Kakashi, who came to take over for duty. Damnit, that kid always manages to find him, even when he was hidden. But then, Minato wasn't that adapt at hiding himself.

After taking a quick glance up at the sky, Minato realized that it was already twelve in the afternoon. " You're late." He said, trying to sound irritated. " And it's starting to rain."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. The first few drops of rain were starting to fall lightly from the sky, true to what Minato said. " Obito was supposed to take over for duty, but he overslept. I took over him instead. And I had trouble locating you- didn't know that you were out of the school grounds. Besides, you didn't realized it until I arrived, so don't complain. And, I had my waterproof uniform on."

" Fine." The jonin grumbled, going back to watching Harry.

" You don't want to retire?" Kakashi asked, masking his presence like his teacher and leaning onto the other side of the window. " I can handle this."

" Nah. Don't want to go inside the dingy castle." Minato said, enjoying the light rain. " I think I'm getting a little homesick..."

Kakashi looked at his teacher oddly before turning his attention back on the conversation inside. The wizards were apparently done with their meal, and were chatting idly within themselves. But it was the particular topic the were on that caught Kakashi's attention. House-elves. Kakashi glanced at the jonin. Minato looked just as absorbed in the conversation, but he had on a look of revulsion on his face.

It seems that the bushy haired girl wanted the giant to join in some ridiculous organization called S.P.E.W or something, shaking a tin at the giant, looking both determined and aggravated at the same time. Somehow, she reminded Kakashi of Rin. " But don't you pity them at all?" she was saying indigently. Minato twitched. "For countless of years they have been serving us humans without any complains, and yet we treat them for granted and yell at them, or punish them if they do something wrong… we should learn how to appreciate their hard work and give them pay, or reward them some times!"

" …The only reward I'll ever give to these baldheads are their coffins… who, in their right mind, would even give a damn about them?" Minato muttered. Kakashi mentally noted to never put Minato in Hermione's presence when she is having one of her house-elves rants.

" It'd be doin' ' em an unkindness, Hermione," the giant oaf named Hagrid said. " It's in their nature ter look after humans, that's what they like, see? Yeh 'd be makin' 'em unhappy ter take away their work, an' insultin'' em if yeh tried ter pay 'em."

At that, Minato nodded sagely. " That girl is definitely a muggle born…siding with house-elves…crackpot…"

He continued on like that, muttering to himself, as the shinobis watched Hermione throwing a little tantrum as the giant flat out refused to buy himself a badge. Kakashi's ears pricked slightly as he sensed a presence nearby. Minato, too absorbed in his little house-elf ranting, didn't seem to notice.

" Sensei…" Kakashi prodded Minato. " Someone's here…"

Minato looked up. " Hm? That's just Obito, most likely lost again. Go find him before he makes a ruckus, I have to go up and meet Dumbledore… to discuss several other mission issues… be sure to come at least five minutes earlier before the feast begins; need to take your positions, you know. Pass that on to your teammates, okay?" Saying so, Minato disappeared with the usual poof of smoke. Kakashi blinked as he tried to locate the other presence. To the right…

" Obito. Obito!" Kakashi called, as soft as possible. Obito blinked, and spotting Kakashi, teleported over.

" Where were you? Teme, I had a hard time finding you, baka!" Obito snarled.

" They left the school grounds. Had to follow." Kakashi said. They kept quiet like this for a while before Kakashi remembered Minato's message. He quickly relayed on to the Uchiha. After seeing Obito's nod of confirmation, he asked. " Where's Rin?"

" Still snoring away, the last I checked." Obito said carelessly. " You'd better go, pass it on…and wake her up."

" Too troublesome." Kakashi said, pricking his finger on one of the sharp nails sticking out of the hut's wood, drawing blood. After a few handseals and a muttered 'kuchiyose no jutsu' later, a small brown dog wearing a blue jacket appeared with a poof of smoke, holding up a paw.

" Yo, what's up?" He said. He looked around in confusion for a moment. " Where are we?"

" Hogwarts." Kakashi answered. " Pakkun, I need you to go inform Rin something…"

Obito watched boringly as Kakashi talked to his dog, looking like a freak, before something, which smelled like a rotting rafflesia entered his nostrils, choking him. He hurriedly looked inside the cabin, hands clamped tightly over his nose, to see what was going on.

" O-Obito, what's w-wrong?" Came the muffled and pained voice of Kakashi.

" Nothing much- the giant decided to spray on some strange liquid he called 'perfume'…" Obito said. He turned around and immediately had to hold back his laughter. Kakashi was green in the face and looked as though someone was suffocating him. The Hatake doubled over the ground when Hagrid came out of the hut, doubling-up the stench. Pakkun looked much more worse, lying flat on the floor, nose buried inside his paws and moaning away, looking as though he might pass out at any given second soon. Poor things.

" P-Pakkun…you'd better go first…it's getting l-late…" Kakashi gasped.

" Obliged to comply with, kid…" Pakkun chocked, before promptly vanishing with a poof, going to relay the message to Rin, and also to escape the stink.

To Kakashi's enormous relief, Hagrid splashed some water over himself, erasing most of the smell, but leaving a few lingering stenches behind. Spotting the Beauxbatons headmaster and her fairy airy students, Hagrid lumbered off to join them, looking simply captivated by the elongated headmaster.

" What a perfect pair…" Obito muttered in morbid fascination. " Nice combo they would make."

Kakashi groaned. " C-Can we go to the feast now…?"

Obito looked at his poor moaning teammate and grinned. " Of course."


Harry was feeling extremely excited. In fact, the whole school was. Perhaps the only ones who were not wetting themselves in anticipation were the Beauxbaton students and the Durmstrang students. Oh, and also the guards, who were exactly in their same position as they were in yesterday, two on each side. And as luck would have had it, the two were standing behind him again, just as they were yesterday.

But never mind about that now. It won't be long now…the Hogwarts champion is next…The Goblet's flames turned red…a piece of parchment shot out of it, Dumbledore deftly catching it…

" The Hogwarts champion," Dumbldore announced dramatically. " Is Cedric Diggory!"

" NOOOO!" Ron immediately cried out in anguish, though loud as it was, it went off unheard, besides Harry, Obito and Kakashi, that is. The entire yellow house were screaming and yelling and laughing away like manics, even the small choruses of 'boos' from the Slytherin's tables did not dampen their mood like the skies with a heavy storm outside.

Dumbledore gave another speech, but the Goblet, which had turned red and shot out yet another piece of parchment, soon interrupted it. The good cheerful mood was suddenly abated. Everyone was silent and awaiting yet again, though it was not a good one this time. Lighting flashed by, and thunder clashed a few seconds later. And Dumbledore called out for the fourth time. As luck would have had it…

" Harry Potter."

" Was this supposed to happen?" Obito muttered to Kakashi, who shrugged.

" I swear, that boy must've had a Kekkei Genkai that attracts unwanted attention. Amazing his ego isn't so high like Fukaku's or Hiashi's yet." Kakashi said.

" This just makes our job harder, doesn't it…" Obito said. Both boys gave a sigh as they saw Dumbledore's signal to follow him into the room; the old man was probably going to increase their workload.


Author's notes:

Chapter done! Took me quite a while, but there you have it! Surprisingly, this chapter is rather long- I was determined to end it at the part when Harry's name came out, so lucky you!

Just a few things you might want to take note of…Firstly, the shinobis can talk English now, though Obito's and Rin's are not that good. Unless their speech is indicated in italics, they talk English to Hogwarts occupations, excluding Dumbledore, and Japanese to themselves.

Secondly, yes, Minato did come to Hogwarts prequel to before this story took place, as mentioned in the earlier chapters. I might write it down sometime…maybe…

Thirdly, as I am sure you can see in the summary, there will absolutely be NO PAIRINGS for this fic, with the exception of Minato x Kushina, which is canon, by the way. So any hints you may find (I don't know how), yaoi or not, no matter how slight, is purely coincidental.

Lastly, thank you for reading this. Hoped you enjoyed the chapter and await the next.

Ja ne!