Okay... so it's been a long wait for you all. Sorry. I know I apologize every chapter but I really mean it every time. My daughter decided after her first few steps that she liked walking and she's now running. I kid you not. She's been getting everywhere and into everything. Also, I've been playing Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2... awesome games. I also apologize for the format of last chapter. For some reason the formatting didn't transfer with the file and I tried many, MANY ways to upload it. I ended up having to edit it on the site itself and put spaces between all the paragraphs and it still didn't keep my page breaks... so I was rather annoyed and that was another reason I haven't written for a while... I think we can all say the main reason was my laziness. Yes. We'll go with that. Oh, and Otafest in Calgary kept me pretty busy. I went as Tsunade, my boyfriend as Jiraiya, my sister as Orochimaru, and my daughter as Baby Naruto. God... so many pictures taken of us. Check out my DA account (DuetMaoim) for some of the pictures.

Chapter 12

Harry, Ron and Hermione huddled together as tight as they could and still walk under the invisibility cloak. There were toes stepped on and elbows in ribs the whole trip. They tried to be as silent as possible of course, especially when they noticed Naruto wandering the halls. So far they'd encountered Naruto, Deer-san and another masked man that they'd yet to be introduced to. The transfer student and the masked men hadn't seemed to notice them but you could never be sure with their new friends. The blond had seemed to be everywhere they went, always crossing their path no matter where in the castle they were. They'd stopped to listen to the men talking in one corridor but gave up quickly because all they could hear was a rather quick Asian dialect.

Once outside on the school grounds and halfway to Hagrid's new cabin Harry removed the cloak and carefully stuffed it into his shirt.

"I think they were speaking Japanese..." Hermione revealed. "Before I found out that I was a witch I'd wanted to go into several language courses at school. Japanese was one of them."

The boys nodded, used to her frantic search for knowledge by now.

"Let's hurry and go see Hagrid." Harry said quietly lest he alert anyone who might also be outside.

Hogwarts' Golden Trio had taken less than three steps when a sharp clang was heard and a flash of sparks lit up the night in front of them. Hermione tried to stifle a scream.

Their blond friend had his back to them and a strange looking knife in his hand blocking the short sword that a cloaked figure was hold in both hands. The figure discarded the sword as he jumped back and pulled out a wand.

Naruto turned to the three and yelled at them. "Get out of here!" As he was turning back to the immediate threat a jet of green light hit him square in the chest.

"Naruto!" Harry bellowed as he took aim with his wand. He'd pulled it out the moment he'd heard the clang from the knife and sword hitting. "Stupify!"

The blond fell onto his back and was still. Hermione started casting hexes through her tears and Ron set about shielding his friends. The three wove in and out of the colored streams of magic that were just barely missing them. Finally Hermione managed to hit the figure with a tongue swelling hex that had them grabbing at their face and choking. Ron and Harry were about to jump the figure when Deer-san and another man in a mask that they had not met appeared. Deer was crouched with his hands in a symbol unfamiliar to the witch and wizards. Suddenly the figure they'd been fighting was in the same position still making choking sounds but no longer fighting them.

"Shadow Bind success." Deer murmured from beneath his mask. He motioned for the other masked man to secure their target. After poking the figure a few times in quick succession Shikamaru straightened up and looked like he was brushing hair back behind his ears. The trio looked confused as the figure also made the gesture and in doing so removed their hood revealing a slightly blue face and wide scared eyes.

"Why is he turning blue?" Deer turned to the three who were now huddled around Naruto's body.

"I hit him with a tongue swelling hex..." Hermione said quietly. They waited for Deer to notice his comrade on the ground but instead he put his hands on his hips impatiently. The cloaked man mimicked him again.

"Remove it. I need him to talk."

The woman's eyebrows hit her hair line as Ron protested with an enraged shout. "That guy just killed Naruto! You want us to be nice to him?"

There was a sigh from the other masked man as he walked quickly to the blond's side. He kicked the prone body and it disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Bloody HELL!" Ron roared, unsure of what to do now.

"Naruto is fine." The man said. "Remove the spell."

Hermione twisted her wand to and fro in a complicated pattern and the man's face slowly returned to normal. The look of shock was frozen on her face.

"How is he okay? He was hit with the Killing Curse! One of the Unforgivables!" She cried.

A hand clasped gently on her shoulder and she gasped as she turned.

"Naruto!"

"Hey guys, sorry for worrying you. That wasn't really me."

At their confused looks he chuckled as he formed a few signs that they had learned in class.

"Kagebunshin no Jutsu!" He smirked when their eyes seemed to literally pop out of their heads. The twenty Naruto's that he'd conjured up were all waving at them. Some were arguing with each other and starting fights. After a few of them 'popped' each other he just released the jutsu with a "Kai!"

"How on earth did you do that?"

Naruto just shrugged. "You might just get to learn in class with Iruka-sensei."

An annoyed voice floated over to them. "If you're done now? I suggest we take the prisoner in and interrogate him."

"Yeah good idea Dove-san." Naruto nodded. "You guys really shouldn't have been out here anyway... what were you doing sneaking around the castle? How did you guys do it invisibly?"

Deer shook his head and released his jutsu. The man toppled over in confusion. His arms and legs seemed to betray him.

"How did you do that?" Ron countered the blond's question.

"Dove-san blocked his tenketsu points that controlled his arms and legs... kind of like pressure points."

"Oh."

Hermione whipped her wand out again and pointed it at the man. "Incarcerous." Ropes flew to the man and bound him. "Just in case." She said.

The masked man now known as Dove-san shook his head slightly and picked the man up by the ropes binding him. As he slung the man over his shoulder the man emitted a shriek of pain. Dove merely started toward the castle at a slow loping run and the man started crying pitifully. His nearly white hair swung about his tanned face.

"So how and why did you get out here?" Naruto reiterated.

"Oh uh..." Ron looked to Harry. The boy-who-lived rolled his eyes.

"I have an invisibility cloak. We were going to visit our friend Hagrid."

Naruto's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "Can I see it?"

Harry reddened slightly. "Sure, just be careful with it."

The blond accepted the proffered cloak and swung it around himself. He grinned in excitement as his body vanished and left a floating head.

"Cool! This would make missions SO much easier!" He babbled absently. "I wouldn't have to use chakra to blend in with shadows!"

The three students looked to each other and shrugged. They were already used to not understanding much of what the blond said.

"Um... So we're still going to head to Hagrid's cabin..." Hermione spoke up.

"Okay, I'll tag along and make sure no one else tries to kill you." He grinned at the frowns he got from the two men. Hermione only looked relieved.

"Thank you Naruto. I guess you get to meet Hagrid tonight. He's the Care of Magical Creatures professor."

"What?" Naruto exclaimed. "You mean like dragons and unicorns and stuff?"

"Exactly." She smiled. "Only, we don't take care of dragons anymore."

"Aw... bummer."

"No man, believe me... it's a good thing." Ron sighed and proceeded to tell the story of Norbert who later became Norberta.

"Wow!" The blond laughed. "But that doesn't sound so bad... I had to escort a boatload of animals across a sea and protect the people at the same time... I was also only 12 at the time but hey. We only got stupid missions back in those days." He groused.

"What do you mean 'missions'?" Harry inquired. "We've heard you talk about them before."

"Oh. In our village we are adults the moment we become genin... that is the lowest rank, when we pass an exam and earn our headbands and are considered ready to start missions." He pointed his thumb proudly at his forehead protector. "After that there's the chuunin like Iruka-sensei and then jounin like Kakashi-sensei. The very highest is the Hokage."

"What are Deer-san and Dove-san?" Hermione asked the question that they'd all been thinking.

"They're called ANBU. They technically have no rank but are considered the highest and most prestigious... our black ops if you will. They do the dirty work that goes on behind the governments backs and such."

"Really?" Ron asked. "So Deer and Dove are like... The Unspeakables."

"Sounds like it Ron." Harry nodded. "They're Aurors... combat wizards basically. They have a lot of physical training and are extremely good at all subjects we learn here in school. You need to have high marks to even be considered for them."

"Harry and I want to join them." Ron put in. "We're studying harder than ever this year."

Hermione snorted. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Naruto laughed out loud when he saw the witch's look. "You sound just like Sakura when she talks to me and Sasuke."

"Well she's obviously got a lot of common sense hasn't she?" The witch pretended to stick her nose up in the air. The men in the group just sighed, knowing better than to argue; even jokingly.

"So what do you think about the prophecy?" Harry changed the subject and addressed the ninja in their group as they came into sight of Hagrid's cabin.

"I think the old lady is crazy... but if Neji thought it was important then I'll be the first to back him up. We've been friend's since we were genin... well only after he almost killed Hinata and I kicked his ass in the chuunin exams... but that's all history."

Their questions were cut off by the barking of Fang and the door swinging forward to show Hagrid holding the great dog back.

"Harry!" The half giant roared. "It's about time ye got here!" The man pulled him into a hug and dragged the three inside. Naruto followed with a grin. "Who's this now?"

"Naruto Uzumaki at your service. I'm an exchange student from Japan."

"Oh really now?" The man smiled. "I just finished making some biscuits. Would you like to try one?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the frantic pantomiming of 'no!' that the three students were attempting. He just smiled and said, "Sure! I'm always hungry."

The three closed their eyes in horror and trepidation. This could not end well.

Review Replies

Soraya – Sorry to keep confusing you! Hope this chapter helps.

Kari – Thank you! I just think that the memory takes the perspective of the person remembering. If someone else had been there and remembered it, different things would be emphasized and they would have noticed things that Neji did not. As to the seal... muahahahaha.

Doll - Thanks! My daughter is doing much better. Sorry for the lateness of this one!

SilverMoonLuna – Thanks! You definitely helped me catch a little hole in my story.

Kanberry – Thank you!

Animelover – Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this one.

Experiment13 – Ha ha ha I know... I've forgotten about him. All he really did was make a fool of himself. Thanks for the praise and review!

Thanks everyone for sticking around. Sorry for such a short chapter. More soon?