The konoha five swept down from hogwarts, through the oak doors and onto the grounds, Kiba and Naruto talked in very fast japanese, following sakura, who had caught upto sasuke, and was trying to perwade him to talk too, neji seeming to glide beside her her.

"Why are you guys here?" grinned Naruto, cuddling Gamakichi to his chest, who was grinning, in turn, at Kiba, too.

"We came to help you guys with the mission!" grinned Kiba, Akamaru making himself comfortable on his head.

"You mean..." Maruto started, scratching behind his ear and frowning, silent for a while before getting the idea, "... Like a back-up?"

Kiba let out a bark of laughter, his large ruby tongue-ring glimmering for a second before he grinned and nodded, Akamaru yipping happily atop his head. "You're slow sometimes, y'know?"

"So, why did you guys take so long to get here?" asked Naruto, totally ignoring Kiba's answer.

"Me and Neji were fine to come with you guys, but the Sand-Man was off on a random assasination mission. We're supposed to go around in groups of three, right? So we had to wait for him." sighed Kiba as they got closer to the giant's cabin.

Naruto grinned evilly as he heard the name Kiba and he used for Gaara. Gaara didn't mind about the name, as long as he didn't have to appear in people's rooms and sing to them, and as long as Kiba and Naruto never sang that song...

Sasuke flinched as Naruto and Kiba sang the Sand-Man song at the tops of their voices, and stopped walking abruptly, Naruto and Kiba banging into him and falling back onto the ground.

"Shall we get on with this?" Sasuke hissed, turning around and slipping the silver snake from around his neck.

Sakura stood beside Sasuke, her hands neatly clasped in front of her, looking around at the three boys, hoping that they won't fight each other just yet, her slug sitting nearly on her shoulder still. Neji sighed, standing next to Sakura, his hands neatly in his pockets, and his eyes still shallow, but observing the surroundings slowly.

"Whatever, hard-ass..." Naruto grumbled, heaving himself up from the ground, dusting himself off as Gamakichi scrambled up his shoulder and onto his head.

Sasuke sent a icy glare at Naruto, who matched it with a very wet raspberry.

Kiba grabbed hold of Naruto's pant-leg, grunting and pulling himself up, Akamaru curled up comfortably in Kiba's hogwarts' robes' hood.

"Come on." Sakura sighed, placing her hands on her hips and glaring sternly at Kiba and Naruto.

"Hai, Sakura-chan!" grinned Naruto, saluting.

The four of them placed their animals on the ground, and to their own accord, as though they knew what their masters' wanted, slithered, oozed, bounced and trotted back up the hogwarts stairs and into the castle to explore.

"You sure he'll be alright?" Naruto sniffed, trying to make fake tears, watching Gamakichi bound up the stairs and disappear.

"Aww. There, there, naru-chan! He'll be fine! He's your big boy, after all!" Kiba cackled.

"You're right! He gets it from me, dosen't he!" snickered naruto.

Kiba and Naruto looked at each other for a moment, then slung an arm around each other's necks and started singing the Sand-Man song again, as loud and as shrill as they could, continuing to walk toward Hagrid's cabin.

Sasuke followed the two singing idiots, glaring ice shuriken into their spines, while Sakura walked along next to him, Neji next to her, glaring ever so slightly at Naruto and Kiba as they sang terribly off-key.

"Mr Sand-Man!" sung naruto.

"Yes?" Kiba sung back

"Bring me a dream!" they sung together, skipping along to the tuneless and off-key music in their heads.

The five of them got to Hagrid's cabin, all the griffindors and slytherins there, Hagrid talking to Harry, Hermione and Ron, leaving Kiba and Naruto to keep singing.

"Make him the cutest that i've ever seen! Give him two lips like roses and--!"

"DIE!"

Kiba and Naruto screamed in unison as sand exploded out of the ground, forming into hands that started to shake and strangle them.

Hagrid and the whole class stared at the sand, then the screaming, flailing and writhing Kiba and Naruto.

"Diiiieeeee..." Gaara hissed from a secluded place at the edge of the class, an evil grin on his face.

Sasuke took this moment to notice Draco's shirt was kinda open, revealing un-needed bandages around his chest; where Sasuke had hit him with Chidori.

"What's wrong, Malfoy? Someone force you to get out of bed? The pain too unbearable?" Sasuke hissed under his breath, so Draco could only hear.

"Shut up, foreigner." Draco hissed back, his steely eyes glacial cold.

"Ouch. now, that hurt." Sasuke smirked sarcastically, looking back at the screaming Kiba and Naruto as Draco moved away from him.

Harry stared at the sand-hands that were strangling and shaking Naruto and Kiba, then looked around to see who was doing it.

Sasuke, Sakura and Neji all had the 'he was asking for it...' look on their face, not bothering to help Naruto or Kiba.

Harry continued looking, to see Draco's drones, Crabbe and Goyle, looking horrified at the sand-hands, and looking down at the sand under their huge feet, as through it was going to sprout fingers and attack them too.

Then Harry saw Gaara.

Gaara had a very sadistic grin on his face and was watching with a sort of blood-lust in his eyes. Harry had seen eyes like that a few times before.

Voldemort's eyes were like that...

"OKAY! O-OKAY! SORRY!" screamed Naruto, slightly blue in the face.

"WE WON'T DO IT AGAIN!" added Kiba, looking slightly purple.

Harry noticed Gaara look just a little disappointed, then Harry looked back at Kiba and Naruto, to see the sand-hands were gone, and Naruto and Kiba were lying on the ground with a dazed look on their face.

"Damn that sand-man..." muttered Kiba under his breath.

"Shh! He'll hear you!" hissed Naruto from his place; face-down in the dirt.

Harry looked back at where Gaara was, but didn't see him.

"Harry?"

Harry looked at Hermione and Ron, who were looking at him curiously, a little pale at the thought that the earth itself could get up and kill them.

"... Something weird is going on..." Harry said slowly, a determined look upon his face.

((TBC. Definitely not my best chapter. No flames, please.))