Harry, Hermione and Ron made their way back to the Groffindor common room a short while after.

"This was the longest first-day back to school, ever!" whined Ron, running a hand through his hair.

"It wasn't that bad." said Hermione, crawling through the portrait hole.

"Of course not! Draco nearly died." snickered Harry, crawling through the portrait hole after Hermione.

As the three of them walked taward the spiral staircases to get into their nice, comfy, warm beds, they heard soft mumbling coming from near the fire.

Naruto was huddled next to the fire, curled up into a ball on his side, muttering softly in japanese to himself. Naruto's arms were wrapped around his knees and his face hidden against them. From the sound of his voice, he was distraught.

Hermione looked at Harry and Ron, then took out her wand, pointing it at her ear and muttering something about understanding a different language.

Harry and Ron glanced at each other, then looked at Naruto.

Hermione could now understand Naruto's mumbling and she looked down at him. All they could see was a shock of blond hair and a robed, curled back.

"They... Can't know... He's hurting me... Why me... Why does it always have to be... Me... It hurts... Why..."

"... Naruto...?"

It happened in a flash. Naruto had sat up and scrambled backwards away from Hermione of whom had taken a step forward and spoken to Naruto.

Ron stared at Naruto's silhouette which was shimmering against the crackling fire behind the exchange student.

"Y-you can speak japanese!" Naruto squeaked, staring at Hermione.

"No." Hermione said, shaking her head. "It's a spell. I can only understand you for a little while... What's wrong? Who's hurting you?" Hermione asked, hoping she doesn't come off nosy.

Naruto stared at Hermione silently, his eyes wide. The shimmering scarlet flames making the tears in the blond's eyes glimmer.

"... It's nothing... It's just... I have... I..." Naruto struggled to find the right words, then one of his hands slowly moved up and clutched his stomach.

"Oh! Was it the food? Did you eat too much?" Hermione asked. Then she remembered that Naruto hardly ate anything at the feast. "Didn't you eat anything?"

Naruto shook his head. "I... itai..."

Hermione frowned. The spell must have worn off. "n... Naruto? The spell wore off. Can you tell me what's wrong?" Hermione asked, looking hopefully at the blonde boy in front of her.

Naruto took a moment, then slowly raised the bottom hem of his shirt. Hermione saw a sliver of something like an exotic tattoo around Naruto's belly-button, but it seems Naruto thought better of showing her a quarter way thorough pulling up his shirt. he quickly pushed his shirt back down and shakily got up, pushing past the three of them and walking up to the boy's dormitory without saying a word.

Harry watched Naruto walk up the spiral staircase, then looked back at Hermione.

"What's wrong with him?" Asked Ron.

Hermione shrugged. "Something's hurting him. I saw something like a tattoo on his stomach, but i doubt that's what's hurting. He said that 'he's' hurting him. But he didn't tell me who 'he' is."

"Do you think it could be Voldemort?" asked Harry, thinking about if there could be a dark-mark tattoo thing on Naruto's stomach.

"I doubt it. He doesn't seem like the kind who likes to kill or is in the same league as the Malfoys." Said Ron, flinching as he heard Harry say the name of the Dark Lord.

"I agree with Ron. He's too nice to be a Death-Eater." Hermione nodded, she too had flinched when Harry said Voldemort's name.

The three of them sank into their favorite comfy chairs around the fire, no longer feeling tired or sleepy. Trying to figure out what was upsetting Naruto so badly.

After what felt like a couple of hours, everyone had gone to bed and Harry, Hermione and Ron were still sitting in their chairs and still hadn't come up with a logical explanation for Naruto's sudden pain.

Harry sighed at the silence that had materialized around the three of them. "How about we sleep on it?"

Ron and Hermione nodded in turn, standing up from their warm, comfy chairs and walking into their dormitories.

Ron and Harry walked into the boys dormitory to see Seamus lying on his bed, covered in blood and twitching, Nevil sitting on his own bed, his face scarlet, and Naruto, sitting on his bed, grinning like a lunatic.

"... What happened here?" Ron finally asked, running over to Seamus and shaking him by the shoulders, noticing the blood hadn't come from a wound, but from his nose.

"U...um..." came Nevil's shaky voice.

Ron let Seamus fall back onto the bed with a dull thud and he looked over at Nevil.

Nevil looked around to see both Harry and Ron looking at him, then he seemed to loose his voice, just pointing at Naruto.

Harry and Ron looked at Naruto, of whom seemed to be over his pain, and was now grinning like a lunatic at them. His teeth were almost blindingly white.

"What did you do to him?" Harry asked politely, pointing at Seamus, of whom was still bloody, unconscious and twitching.

"Henge no jitsu." Naruto said, nodding.

"... What the fuck is 'Henge no Jitsu'?" asked Ron before he could stop himself.

Naruto grinned and slipped off his bed, standing at the end of it and put his hands together in a weird hand-position.

"NO!" shreiked Nevil, flinging his arms out and covering his eyes with them just as there was a huge puff of white smoke where Naruto was standing.

Harry stared as the beautiful white smoke filled the room and slowly started to clear.

"Oh... My... Fucking... Gawd..." came Ron's voice beside him.

Harry was about to ask what he meant, but just then; he found out.

((TBC. sorry nothing interesting happens in this chap. it'll be more interesting in the next chap! i promise!))