In the dark you are the one I see 18

Laughter and joyful loud voices could be heard from the great hall that evening, along with the sweet scent of pumpkins, sugar and sweets. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, even the three friends at the Gryffindor table, who were still impatiently waiting for their fourth and final companion.

Sakura had gone to the library in order to read a scroll she had gotten right before the feast, which of course were some final instructions about her next mission back in her own world. The trio had saved a seat for her, thinking that she would be finished with her "last minute studying" at least before dessert. However, with pumpkins, tarts, candy and chocolate covering all five tables in the great hall Sakura was still nowhere to be found. Thinking that she simply forgot the time, two of the friends did not seem to think much of the subject any longer. Though, one just couldn't get it out of his mind that something might have happened to her.

"Oh get off it Harry! She's probably sitting somewhere studying for our transfiguration test that's due tomorrow." Ron said, while taking another piece of pumpkin pie.

"Ron's right Harry, she'll be running in here any moment now, just you wait."

"Yeah… Maybe you're right." Harry said, though still not really convinced. She had looked a little odd these last few days, it just wasn't like her at all. Hermione and Ron seemed not to notice, but what did they notice besides their constant fights with each other. At least they were pretty quiet and normal today.

"Atchoo!" Sakura was sitting alone in the, more than usually, silent library. She was going trough her next mission while waiting for Itachi to come back from the Akatsuki meeting he was attending to. Her sneeze that had broken her own silence irritated her, the thought of someone talking about her without her being there was much too unpleasant for her. Even though she knew it just could be the others back at the Akatsuki meeting-thingy saying something about her. Or how someone who's child, or wife, or lover… or all, she had killed that was cursing her, waiting for an opportunity to kill her merciless and cruel.

"Freaking scary people, invading my privacy…" She sat in silence a while, thinking. "I wonder if they're having fun at the Halloween feast." She wondered out loud. She had decided not to go, what was the point of spending her last time of her mission with someone she was soon to kill? It didn't match up at all… "I bet they're having lots of fun, especially Harry, living his last day to the fullest..."

Her eyes widened, why was she hoping he would have a good last day?! She didn't care, she was going to kill him soon, what's the point of living his day to the fullest when he was anyway going to die?

Ron and Hermione… Luna, Neville, Ginny, Ron's parents who were having Harry over for Christmas… Everyone close to Harry, they're going to hate me to no end…If course, these things don't bother me at all! I'm used to being hated, I know that no one but me and Itachi can stand out with me, I don't have any other friends! …Not one.

Sakura looked over at the clock on the wall, the feast should be over soon…

Every Halloween something around Harry would happen, something bad… it was almost as he was waiting for just that something to soon happen, he just wanted to have it over with. He wouldn't be this anxious if Sakura simply was late for any random dinner, but today was Halloween, something was bound to happen, if not to him then to someone close to him. He had just made up with her too, he wanted to celebrate this day together with all his friends, and that defiantly includes Sakura. That Sakura and Hermione where actually able to talk pretty normally together now was a big step forward. This year would probably be fun if everyone got along, it didn't matter if Sakura was engaged to someone else as long as he could be near her as a friend.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted as Dumbledore was standing up, waiting for the hall the fall in silence. When everyone had noticed that the headmaster was waiting to make probably some kind of speech, maybe not only by seeing him but also by noticing how so suddenly everything in the great hall quieted down, Dumbledore started.

"Once again Halloween has arrived, it's a time for fun and games, even though some of you even have tests that's due tomorrow as I've overheard in complains." There was a short pause as there was heard growns from a few people while the rest have light laughs. "Though I hope that, despite tests and other possible unhappy events, this day will be a good day for all of you that we all will remember.

"How much I ever would like to tell you all that I have finished my speech and that you all could continue eating, I must admit that I have more important things to declare today compared to other speeches I have given on these dark days. However, it is long from bad news much to my delight.

"The most wonderful news is that we're going to have some very special guests coming here tonight and they are to stay for quite some time so I hope you all will get along well. They should be here any minute now-" Dumbledore couldn't end his sentence before a large cloud emerged right in front of him, leaving the whole room gasping. Some people, as well as Harry, Ron and Hermione stood up in surprise as well as fear that something terrible could have happened when they weren't able to see their headmaster.

"Whaa-! It's so big in here! Look up at the ceiling! Hey, are you listening to me?" A boy shouted out at another person who seemed to be at the same age as him.

"Hn…"

"Theme-!"

"Naruto! Stop shouting, we're standing in front of the whole school here and you're making youself look more like an idiot than usual." Yet a guy said, though this one was clearly older than the other two. The loud boy named Naruto seemed irritated by the older's way of telling him to be quiet, but didn't set off shouting again.

"I see you got here at last." Dumbledore said at last.

"Oh, I'm sorry we're late, we got a little delayed on our way, nothing too difficult though."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Well then… we could talk about those matters later, if you three could introduce yourselves to everyone and then take a seat of choice while enjoying at least the end of our feast."

"Of course, Headmaster." All three of them faced the crowd of students who where starring at them. "Pleased to meet you all, I am Hatake Kakashi."

"YO! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Uchiha Sasuke…" said the last one, girls started to giggle and whisper as he spoke, though he didn't seem to care at all.

"They're here to keep harm from Hogwarts in these troubled times. We, Hogwarts and the ministry, have especially requested them for this… mission, as they call it. They're shinobi's from a village called Konohagakure no sato, ninjas, as the rest of us should know them." Everyone in the hall started whispering, nothing like this has ever happened in Hogwarts before. Yes, maybe the dementors but those they've heard of and knew existed. But ninjas? Did ninjas really still exist? It just seems too unlikely, was this some kind of trick, some kind of sick joke?

"This is no joke, this is for the safety of the school and I hope you'll understand this as well. However, it will not change our usual school-way or destroy this feast, everything will be as normal."

Ninjas starting protecting Hogwarts and Dumbledore says that everything will be just as normal? It was far from anything near normal! Harry thought as Dumbledore continued with his speech. Everything would probably change from now on, if only Sakura would hurry up and come back here soon. She wasn't as smart as Hermione but the seemed to know more about things we didn't understand than us at least. Sakura could know what was going on, she had even lived in Japan, she should know if they still existed. Even if it was Dumbledore who sent them here, that didn't change the fact that the thing that was going to happen must have something to do with them.

"Oh well, it's probably time for me to go." Sakura mumbled to herself. She looked around the room, this was the last time she was going to be here, sitting and reading a scroll or some magical book she though could be some help in this mission. How stupid that she could have done this mission in less than a couple of minutes if she had known that all she really had to do was to kill Harry, the rest would just fall in place. Also how extremely idiotic it was of her to grow such a strange attachment to this place in such short time. It's only Halloween, to the rest of the students it must feel like the simple start of something big, while for her it was the end of something enormous."Lots of things to do, questions to be answered and hopefully… the answers I seek are the ones I want to hear."

She was going to ask Itachi, and he was going to answer her. There was no other way around this.

"We should leave and take a look around the school." Kakashi mentioned to Dumbledore. People had continued eating, though still giving the three ninjas worried glances, constantly.

"I'm sure that would help you quite some much, though you haven't eaten at all. Should we prepare different food for you?"

"No, it's fine, those two can probably eat anything as long as it gives them enough energy to fight later." Kakashi mentioned and looked over at Naruto and Sasuke who were walking through the great hall, Naruto seemed tempted by the load of food. "They'll eat later, it's best if we don't eat with the others anyway. We don't want it to become a habit of ours, we eat when we have time, not when we should or when we're a bit hungry."

"I see, that's all well. Then you should look around the school grounds a bit before everyone goes to their dormitories to get some sleep. If you have a question about something then someone of the students should be able to answer, if not then the teachers will be more than delighted to answer any of your questions."

"That's very nice of you all, I'm looking forward to work alongside you all." Kakashi said indifferently and started walking towards the great hall's entrance.

"The pleasure's all mine." Dumbledore said before returning to his raspberry cupcake.

Naruto and Sasuke left together with Kakashi, all eyes were on them, even the trio couldn't seem to take their gaze from them. But the strange ninjas didn't seem to care, they simply walked past the long tables, talking to each other in a language no one understood a word of.

A/N: when I started writing this my first reaction was: 'OMFG! It's already Halloween?!'... do you understand what that means? Don't think you do… it means we're getting awfully close to the end of this story! I don't know if your reaction is: 'noooo I want more!' (hopefully not because that would be just scary oO) or 'at last! Gosh, I never thought it would end!' (well, yeah… I'm hoping on something in between actually…)

Please leave a review, it would help me in my thoughts of despair… and if you like it then please stand out with this fanfiction until the end. I don't want to stop writing this one…

With Love
Neko-chan