Sirius sighed heavily as he woke up that morning. He remembered very clearly the new visitors in his house, the so called guards for Hogwarts.

Dumbledore had told him a little bit about shinobi: that they were very different than wizards, that they were really soldiers, that they worked in teams, could be hired for missions and that some of them, or most of them, could kill with ease. But he had never expected that they would be a bunch of kids. Although, you could hardly call them that. He remembered the girl who had spoken for them, her name was Ryo or Ryu or something? When Dumbledore had asked about her real name, she had suddenly closed up, and the cold undertone in her voice could make him shiver even now. And when he had doubted if a bunch of teenagers could be any good at guarding, the look she had send him then…

But he was most shocked by her statement that she had made her first kill at eleven years old. That they were trained killers. But in a way it was true. All stories he had heard about ninja were about their abilities as assassins, their abilities to enter somewhere without being noticed. They were trained to kill from young age, and they knew it. He shuddered lightly and dressed himself before going down to the kitchen. It was still early, so none of the other occupants of the house, the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, were awake. Sirius sighed heavily once again as he entered the kitchen, only to jump and bite back a scream as a hand fell on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, but I was wondering if we could make our own breakfast." A female voice spoke behind him and Sirius spun around to see who it was. From the light accent he had concluded it was one of the guards, and as he had turned, he looked in the sharp blue-grey eyes of the girl he had been pondering over. She was wearing the same uniform she had worn that night and had her mask hanging on her hip. Sirius studied her for a few moment before he turned back. "Sure. I'll show you where everything is. If you want, you can use your own food or take some from the fridge over there. There are the bowls and stuff for cooking, over there are knives and forks and such. In that cabinet are glasses and cups. That's about it."

She nodded, and looked around once, before looking back at him. "Your name was Sirius Black, right?"

"Yep, but my friends mostly call me Padfoot." Sirius grinned a her. "Your name was Ryu, right? Monotachi Ryu?"

She smiled back a little bit. "Indeed it is. And you don't make the same mistake as many people do by thinking my last name is my first."

Sirius shrugged and went to make his breakfast. "I've had some Japanese friends. It was the same with them, so I thought it would also be like that by you guys. Monotachi sounds a bit weird as first name."

This time she grinned. "Yeah." Then she frowned. "You don't look very happy in here. And you were kind of spaced out when I came down. You seemed to be thinking about something serious, something that doesn't appeal you."

"How do you know that?!" The words had slipped from his mouth before he could do anything about it. Ryu smirked. "We learned how to read body language, Sirius-san. It is our job to know."

Sirius went into silence for a while, curiously watched by Ryu. Suddenly he burst out. "How can you do it?!"

"Do what?"

"Kill people without feeling something?!" Sirius waved his arms to make his point clear. "You know, Dumbledore told me a bit about shinobi. You kill when you're paid. How can you stand killing people, even if they are innocent?! Don't you get sick or something?!"

He stared at Ryu, and her eyes unfocused and became distant. Then she spoke in a detached voice. "You must understand one thing, Sirius-san. Our world is different than yours. There is almost always war going on, and border conflicts are nothing surprising. Shinobi go to a different Academy than civilians. From very young age, we are trained as shinobi. It is drilled in our minds that one day, we will have to kill. In self-defense or as a mission. We don't have a choice." She paused for a second. Sirius stared at her, but kept silent when she spoke again. "The first time is the worst time. When you actually kill, you don't have time to ponder over it. But afterwards, you feel sick. You throw up, have nightmares for weeks, and some can't live with themselves. Most shinobi therefore have to find a way to distract themselves. The most used way is a sort of split personality. During missions you become cold, emotionless, the perfect killer. And in normal life you can be yourself. In that way you can separate the pain and the remorse until you don't feel it anymore. We always regret, but we can't change it." Her eyes focused again and she looked at him, helplessly. "It's the only thing we know, the only thing we can. We have no choice."

Sirius stared at Ryu with wide eyes, unable to say anything. But she went on with a humorless smirk. "But you know, most of the time I find myself enjoying the rush. Fighting is always fun, the adrenaline, the clash with a worthy opponent. It's almost like a dance, but only with your life on the line. And in my battle mode I'm a bit… cruel. It's in the mentality of our village, we're always a bit harsher than the others. They fear us, but, you know, after a while, you enjoy it." She stared in his eyes with her piercing gaze. "I don't think you would like to see me, or any of us, in our battle mode. It can be an… unsettling experience. I am quite cruel, really."

Sirius leaned back in his chair, then smirked. "I think I can understand that. Well, for the rush then. I've been in battle a few times, and you get indeed a rush from it. I imagine that you come to enjoy it. Although I don't understand how you can become cruel…"

An evil smirk played on Ryu's lips. "You don't want to know, believe me."

Sirius started to laugh. "I like you! If you had been a witch, you would have been a perfect Marauder."

"Thank you, but I'm already taken. And what in Kami's name is a Marauder?" Ryu raised an eyebrow, and Sirius started explaining the entire story. Time passed as they told each other stories in the kitchen, eating breakfast and drinking tea. Suddenly Sirius blinked. "Where are the others, actually? You're rather early."

Ryu shrugged. "Still asleep. Shinobi learn to sleep whenever possible, for you may miss sleep the other day. I couldn't sleep though. Nightmare."

Sirius nodded. "I understand. Nasty little things, nightmares. Always come at the moments that you don't need them."

Ryu nodded, but then stiffened, her head cocked. Sirius raised one eyebrow, and she waved at him. "Someone is coming. More people. I'll be going now. It was great talking to you, maybe we can do it more often?"

Sirius smiled and nodded. Although he had had his doubts about the guards at first, he actually liked exchanging stories with this in most situations laid back shinobi. Then he too heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and voices talking. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were coming down. As he turned back to Ryu, she had already slipped on her mask, and was slowly retreating into the shadows. She waved at him and he could almost feel her grin under her mask, then she slipped completely in the shadows and he lost track of her. He silently shook his head. If the Death Eaters would have been able to do that, or they, then the war could have been ended years ago. His thoughts were cut short when Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny entered the kitchen, laughing and talking. Harry smiled at Sirius as they came in, but frowned at the distant expression his godfather wore. "Sirius? Are you alright?"

With a shock Sirius looked up, then smiled. "Yeah, I just had an interesting conversation a few minutes ago."

"With who?" Hermione looked curiously at him. "There is no one here."

Sirius grinned as he spotted a flash of a blue with white mask in the shadows behind them before it disappeared. "No. But there was someone here. A friend."

"Who was down here? Who is that friend?" Harry sounded very interested, and Sirius just smirked. "Just a friend. Not someone you know."

With that he turned around and put away the teacups and the plates, and left the kitchen.

Harry turned to the others with confused eyes. "Does anyone else find it strange what just happened?"

They looked at him with the same confusion, then shrugged. "We'll look at it some other time. Sirius will tell us, or else we'll interrogate him."

They left their thoughts about Sirius to concentrate on a more important thing. Breakfast.

Ryu snickered as she had entered her room. She shared it with Shikamaru, and he was still asleep, lying sprawled over his bed. He was snoring lightly, not caring about anything in the world. Ryu softly sneaked over next to him, and tapped on his head, causing him to open his eyes blearily. "Hey Shika. I think it's about breakfast time now. Get out of bed, you lazy ass."

Shikamaru stared at her for a moment, then unexpectedly grabbed her arm and pulled her on his bed with him, hugging her close to him and burying his face in her hair. "Good morning to you too, Ryu-chan."

She giggled, hugging him back. "Yeah, yeah, Shika-kun. But you really should get out of bed you know."

"Where were you then, actually?" Shikamaru looked up, and Ryu stretched. "Went down to get some breakfast, and I met Sirius Black again. He is quite nice, actually." She mused over it for some time. "I also think he and Naruto are two of a kind. They both like pranking, maybe I should introduce them to each other?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Rather not. Naruto is enough of a pain in the ass without support. I think that we should better keep them as far away from each other as possible."

Ryu sighed deeply as Shikamaru started to chuckle. After some time in which they dozed of again, Shikamaru decided to get dressed, and find something to eat. Before he left, he gave Ryu some orders to assemble everybody in their room, to discuss some rules for the time they would be staying in the house.

Two weeks had passed since the guards had arrived at Grimmauld Place. Plans and rosters had been made for guarding Hogwarts, and Sirius had become friends with a few more shinobi. Although friends was maybe not the good term for that as shinobi had a hard time trusting someone right of the bat, but they were at least friendly with each other, and could have great conversations. Especially Naruto and Sirius had great times together, just like Ryu had thought. It was now evening, and they were ready to leave to Hogwarts. They would be leaving together with Dumbledore, and he would meet them in the hall.

Harry stood next to Ron and Hermione waiting for Dumbledore. Dumbledore would be leaving for Hogwarts that evening, and they had come to see him off. As they arrived in the hall, Dumbledore and Sirius were already waiting. Hermione frowned. "Why are you still here, professor, if you are already ready?"

Dumbledore smiled pleasantly with twinkling eyes. "I am waiting for a few people who will be coming with me to Hogwarts."

Before they could say anything else, he looked at the wall on their side with a smile. "I believe they are here."

And to the shock of Harry, Hermione and Ron, eight heavily cloaked people with their faces hidden in shadow seemed to emerge from the wall, walking towards Dumbledore and nodding at him as they stopped. They made no sound at all as they moved, and their moves were graceful and calculated, as if they could burst into motion any moment. Sirius smiled as one of them punched him lightly in the arm, and a few others waved or seemed to whispering something to him. His grin widened by one of the smaller persons, and he laughed as one of the taller spoke to him. Dumbledore made a Portkey, and after a last smile to the three students, he and the strange people disappeared with a flash.

Harry immediately strode forward to Sirius, who was still grinning over something that was said to him, and stopped in front of him. "Sirius, who were those people?"

"Hmm?" Sirius looked up and smiled. "Oh, they're some friends of mine, and they'll be helping the Order out for a couple of years. I think you'll see them again at Hogwarts or on the train."

"Yeah, whatever, but who were they?!" Ron took over the questioning, and Sirius snorted. "Sorry, but that's classified. And they would gut me if I ever told someone."

Hermione looked doubtful.

"I'm serious." Sirius ran his hands absentminded through his hair. "Well, I just hope she keeps her promise to keep tabs."

"Her? One of those people is a girl?!" Harry sounded incredulous. He just couldn't imagine a girl walking as deadly as those people had done. He realized that that was the only good term for it. Deadly.

"Of course!" Sirius snorted. "Why couldn't they be girls?"

Harry fidgeted. "Well, they seemed so… deadly. I just couldn't imagine a girl that deadly."

Sirius stared at him, then grinned. "Oh Harry, don't mind me, but I think that the girls with them are even more dangerous than the boys. Especially the one I was talking about. She can be quite… frightening, and even when half-dead she would be able to kill you, and able to do it without a second thought. They all can. Seriously, you don't want to cross them."

Harry gaped at how serious his godfather sounded. "And what is that girls' name then?"

"Dragon." Sirius looked away with a distant look. "You can call her Dragon."

Said Dragon looked with an open mouth up at Hogwarts, for once happy that she had to wear the mask that hid her face. She had managed to make no sound that would indicate that she was surprised, but Naruto wasn't as lucky.

"Holy shit…"

Ryu snorted. At least they had the point that they spoke not the same language as their client, but after she threw a glance at Dumbledore's face, she saw that despite the difference, he had gotten the message. His eyes twinkled with amusement, with made Ryu sigh. They were ANBU, for Kami's sake, so she decided to scold Naruto. But in a non-scold tone. "Naruto, you baka. Keep your opinion silent. You are an ANBU."

She could feel Naruto flush at her scolding, but Dumbledore didn't gave any indication that he had understood that she had scolded anyone. Shikamaru caught her gaze and signed silent at her in ANBU-sing language. /Nice work./

/Thank you./ Ryu turned back at Dumbledore as he walked towards the castle, and the shinobi followed silently in his footsteps.

As they reached the door, they swung open, revealing an older woman with a sour look. "Albus! Finally, I thought you would never-" Minerva McGonagall cut herself off when she noticed the eight people standing behind Dumbledore, standing in some sort formation that reminded her strangely of soldiers that were ready to defend or attack at moments notice. She studied them as the light from the hall pooled around them, and suddenly one of them looked up and the light hit the face. He, or she for that matter, wore a mask. Minerva's first reaction was instinctive. She reeled back and drew her wand. "Death Eaters!"

When she drew her wand, the person that had looked up vanished, and a second later her wand had disappeared and she was held in a headlock, a knife against her throat. The other persons had also moved, in a more attack like formation. Dumbledore looked startled, then moved quickly. "Minerva, don't move. Tiger, she is no threat, please release her. All of you, stand down."

Minerva looked startled as all the persons froze, not moving an inch, and the person who held her slowly let go. Dumbledore briskly walked forward and looked her in the eyes. "Minerva, are you okay?"

"Who- who are they, Albus?!"

The person who had caught her turned his/her head around to stare at her. Minerva studied the person. The mask was white, with red lines vaguely giving it the shape of a tiger. The person suddenly stuck out his/her hand. A wand was lying in it.

"I believe this is yours." It was a female voice, with a heavy accent. Without a word, Minerva took back her wand, and the woman walked back to her companions. They seemed to converse with each other, then stayed silent. Albus smiled at her, and motioned at the people behind him, cloaked and masked. "These, Minerva, are the schools' protectors. The shinobi that will help us. Meet Deer, Dragon, Hawk, Mouse, Toad, Boar, Raven and Tiger."