Happy very belated New Year

Sorry for the delay (over a months I know), exam revision and stuff, I can finally do Natural logs without having to look it up. I still have two more exams to go but I had most of this written up.

For anyone who cares I have a picture of my idea of Max linked on my profile, near the bottom. If anyone else wants to draw any of my OC's then feel free and send me a link.

Anyway here's the chapter:

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Max was suspicious. The alcohol had nothing to do with it, she hadn't touched the stuff for a week. She was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling like she had all day. She wanted to read a book, but the only series in the house was Jiraiya's abomin-creations. It was too late for any of the shops to be open.

She hadn't been annoyed in the past twelve hours, which for her was unusual, normally someone checked in on her every so often, she supposed to make sure she hadn't left without saying goodbye. But despite that they were all away working or on missions. First peace in days though, she had been helping Naruto with gun katas for most of the time after the scorched race. She would never forgive herself if he did something stupid with the gun.

Tsunade refused to give her a mission, not actively, but every time she went to ask for one Tsunade was seemingly too drunk to actually do anything except drink more. How the others got missions was something she would have to eventually find out. When she bothered to get up anyway, the empty house was kind of nice.

No wait, she could smell food, someone was here. She sniffed testily, it was not too spicy, so not Laura then. It wasn't smothered in barbeque sauce imported from Earth so not Louise either. She felt someone move down the hallway towards her room, somehow managing to not trigger any of the traps. It had to be someone of high level, or someone who knew were her traps were, she would redesign it again soon.

The door opened and the scent increased tenfold. In the doorway holding two takeaway boxes was Itachi. She tilted her head to face him and raised an eyebrow.

"You haven't left the house all day and I know that there's no food in the kitchen." He set the containers on the bedside table and lay next to her on the bed, pulling her into the warmth of his arms. "What are you thinking about today?"

"Whether it was really sensible to let Naruto loose with a gun"

"How come he has one and I don't." Max could hear the pout in his voice.

"He went and got it of his own free will, I just taught him how to not shoot me with it. Would you prefer he accidentally shot someone?"

"I suppose I don't want to see you with more bullet wounds." His fingers grazed over her stomach and his breath hitched.

"I thought you had only been shot once"

"Someone else felt the need to shoot me. He's dead though, nothing to worry about." Max squirmed a bit as he poked the healing skin before taking hold of his hands to stop it.

Itachi shifted around so he was breathing next to her ear. "Would I find any other bullet holes in you if I looked?" he whispered. Max was silent as she tried to figure out how to answer that without giving him an outright invitation to check, she had heard the sultry undertones in his voice. She decided to have some fun.

"That depends entirely on whether I would be allowed to check your injuries," she replied, her fingers moving to trace where she knew scars marred his skin. She heard him chuckle and felt him shift his weight, before she could figure out what he was doing he had already moved, now straddling her legs, leaning forward until their faces were inches apart, his hands either side of her head.

The bedroom door was flung open and the occupants of the bed could see the blond hair that belonged to Naruto as he called down the hall. "I'm telling you they aren't he-"

"Ahem," a voice interrupted. Max and Itachi could see Sasuke standing in front of Naruto looking of the blonds shoulder at them. Naruto turned around looking sheepishly at the pair who hadn't moved.

"Oh, they are here. Well, this is a bit awkward"

"It would be less awkward if you bothered to knock before entering a room," Itachi growled. "And if you leave now then you may escape uninjured"

"Uh, wait, we came here for a reason." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I can't remember why"

"Then shut the door as you leave." They saw Naruto get nudged by Sasuke and noticed Sasuke was holding a few colourful boxes.

"Oh! Yeah, Itachi, we have your birthday presents, they're also from Laura, Louise and Anko but they're all working still."

"Just let me dump this stuff and then leave them to what ever they were planning on doing. I don't want honey in my shampoo again," Sasuke muttered. Max couldn't help but grin, she wouldn't ever repeat it, she did pride herself in never repeating pranks. Next on her list was jam in all his pockets. If it ever got that far. Hopefully Sasuke had learnt his lesson.

She was distracted from her thoughts as lips explored her neck. 'Today is going to be a good day', Max thought as she pulled Itachi in for a kiss, her thought mirrored by the man above her.

-

Meanwhile a recent Hogwarts graduate was getting her very first tour of the Stargate complex in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. She wouldn't be staying long, she would be off to Atlantis soon, by way of the halfway point as the ninja planet was often referred to as.

As it happened, another person who had been to Hogwarts was also there. Laura was acting as a consultant for something when Hermione was shown into the infirmary.

"Miss Granger, this is the infirmary, thankfully it's not so busy at the moment, whether that's because the rest of SG1 are getting better at dodging Dr Lamb or they're still on a mission is debatable," the person Laura recognised as Dr Jackson joked. The nurse she had been talking to made a quiet excuse before leaving.

"Hermione Granger?" Laura asked turning to face the two.

"Laura?"

"You two know each other?" Jackson asked looking between them.

"School"

"Well actually it was a mission," Laura said sheepishly.

"I assume it was because of Harry- wait, you were still there even once he transferred," Hermione looked puzzled. Laura decided to put her out of her misery.

"The mission varied from year to year"

"I can see you have catching up to do, if you could escort her to the briefing room once you're done," Dr Jackson requested. The two girls nodded before starting to chat.

"So Max was actually the leader of the mission? She never acted like it, she turned up drunk on multiple occasions"

"She was the highest ranking person there, and a Slytherin, she was cunning enough to make everyone second guess her house placement"

"But what about the masked people there, weren't they higher ranking?"

"They were Max, most of the time, sometimes her partner was there as one of them"

"Her partner wouldn't happen to be the hot guy who turned up during our third year," Hermione's eyes lit up. Laura shook her head, neither Max nor Itachi had bothered to find his fan club at Hogwarts, they both knew it had existed, but not that pretty much every girl and a few guys were part of it.

"He's taken." Hermione pouted. The discussion moved on to why they both were there. Hermione was surprised to find out they were from a different planet but it did explain things. Being a muggleborn witch did allow her to accept the unusual, which was one of the reasons she was chosen for the expedition.

They eventually headed to the briefing room. Many of the guards were watching Laura cautiously.

"Why are they looking at us suspiciously?" Hermione asked quietly.

"When Max is here she can, and has, raised hell, so they're a bit weary of anyone who may have been influenced by her, so anyone from Konoha. You'd have though Max was a full St Trinian"

"My parents almost sent me there. My mum went when she was younger and said it was great for real world preparation"

"Well that's one way to put it. It's like Hogwarts but for muggle girls only a lot more violence, scams and trouble making, we fit right in."

Laura showed Hermione to the briefing room before heading to the gate room herself, she was due to be heading home about now. She had attended the medical forensic conference, as was the reason she was on Earth to begin with. She wondered if Itachi liked his birthday present.

-

One week later saw everything fall to pieces.

It started as a day like any other, very humid as summer drew in. Max was just returning from a mission having opted to travel during the night while it was cool. She felt two bursts of chakra flash past her as she passed the gates, she recognised both, Itachi and Naruto. At the speed they were going, their mission seemed really important and she doubted Naruto had noticed her, he would have gotten distracted. She leapt up to the rooftops to reduce her contact with people, the heat was really getting to her. She sighed in bliss when she got to the air conditioned Hokage's office.

She was slightly worried about the worried look on Tsunade's face.

"What are you doing here?" Tsunade demanded.

"Reporting in, mission went fine, no unusual hitches"

"Itachi said he got a panicked note from you saying you needed back up, he took Naruto with him to go help you, they figured if you were in trouble they would need all the power they could get"

"They ran passed me, Itachi should have noticed me. Besides I didn't send any note, Itachi would know if it was fake"

"Then what's going on?"

"I don't know, I'm going to follow them and find out though"

"Report to me afterwards then," Tsunade said only to notice Max had already left.

Max had left the second she had finished speaking and had already reached the gates by the time Tsunade had noticed. It wasn't hard to retrace her steps, assuming the two hadn't deviated she would hopefully catch up with them. Itachi had to stick to Naruto's speed, Max was faster that him.

They had about a ten minute head start and it would probably take another quarter hour to catch up. Max spent this time wondering what was going on. Surely if they thought she was truly in trouble, they would have sent more people, she had passed Sasuke and Sai on her way to see Tsunade.

There was always the possibility this was a trap and that Itachi and Naruto were fakes, luring her away into an ambush. She tried not to think about that too much, if she even got the faintest hint it was a trap she would go in all guns blazing, literally. Her Desert Eagle was in easy reach and fully loaded.

She finally drew level with them catching their attention casing them all to stop. A quick flash of FA confirmed there were the real people.

"Max, you're ok!" Naruto exclaimed hugging her.

"I'm fine, I never was in trouble, which brings me to my first question," Max said turning to face Itachi properly, " How did you not see what ever note I supposedly sent as a fake?"

"Because there was no note, I lied." Max and Naruto looked at him in confusion, neither liked the look he was giving them.

"And why did you lie?" Max asked, her tone screamed dangerous. If she didn't get a good reason then people were going to get hurt.

"I had a job to do, I didn't expect you to get here so quickly though, I'll have to keep you occupied until my back up arrives"

The implication from his words did not sound good. The only sound conclusion Max could come up with was one she didn't want to consider.

"Figured it out then Max? The thing about long term missions is there is always a chance the person will begin to agree with the people they're spying on"

"Max what's going on?" Naruto asked, he was completely mission the point.

"I believe Itachi's saying he's defected to the Akastuki." Itachi's smirk widened. "It's probably why he only took you with him to 'rescue' me, now he has two demon carriers. If he can keep us that is. Don't look at his eyes and work using you other senses if possible. Run if you can," Max muttered to Naruto. She reached for her gun, she really didn't want to shoot him but Naruto came first, she had made her promises long ago.

She shoved all of her feelings behind a mental barrier, the last thing she wanted was for it to affect her performance. She would deal with them later.

"What did happen when Konoha was invaded by the Go'auld?" Itachi asked almost solemnly, Max could hear the taunt in his words.

"It doesn't matter, what ever happened then is not going to happen now." Max swiftly drew her gun and fired, she had purposely not aimed to kill. The bullet skimmed his arm slicing open the skin in a ruler straight line. She was aiming to disable and cause pain. That had been a free shot but now Itachi knew she was playing dirty and was going to react in kind.

Max had moved between Naruto and Itachi blocking the line of sight hoping Naruto would get the hint and run but he hadn't. Instead he had powered up his Rasengan. Max moved out of his way as he charged towards Itachi. His wrist was grabbed inches from Itachi's stomach and Max used this to her advantage and launched a kick over Naruto's head. It connected solidly with Itachi's chest sending him stumbling back having released Naruto's wrist in the surprise.

She would have shot him again instead of the kick but she couldn't take the chance of him using Naruto as a shield. While Itachi had stumbled back from the kick Naruto had added a sweeping kick to send him to the floor.

"You don't seem to be doing well today Itachi," Max stated mockily.

"I have all day to do this, one of your friends may not." The pause after that allowed Itachi to regain his balance and lash out, sending Naruto flying into a tree and an arm crushing his windpipe.

"And now Max you get to chose. Save Naruto here, or save your red haired Kazekage friend who should have reached the hide out about now"

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