Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor any of the characters, and concepts associated with them.
'words' = thoughts "words" = spoken "words" = spoken by monster, or used for emphasis. "words" = foreign language (e.g. Parseltongue, French or Gobbledygook)
Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor any of the characters, and concepts associated with them.'words' = thoughts "words" = spoken "words" = spoken by monster, or used for emphasis. "words" = foreign language (e.g. Parseltongue, French or Gobbledygook)
Chapter 2, That time again.
"Naruto, get off the damn pond," Misu shouted from the shore as she watched the annoying blonde jogging in place on the largest body of water in Konoha, then moving to jumping jacks, obviously fully enjoying his chakra exercise. "Hurry up or we'll get stuck with another D rank mission again."
"Alright, alright, I'm coming" the boy said as he slowed down and started to walk back."
"Naruto, Watch Out" the startled teammate screamed as she pointed behind him, her face full of alarm.
"Wha..." the boy asked turning quickly, unfortunately the distraction had caused a loss of concentration, and once again the blond dropped into the water, while Misu roled on the ground, laughing on the dry shore.
"That was not funny," the genin said after coming up sputtering to the surface.
"Yes..it..was" she said gasping for breathe.
...
"Naruto why are you soaking wet?" Hamaki asked as he stared at the blond boy, whose presence had been announced by the squelching of his clothes as he jogged up to the Hokage Tower, "and more importantly, you're both late" he said to the two genin who had finally decided to show up.
"Sorry Hamaki-sensei, I lost concentration again when I was practicing water walking," his words once more causing Misu to break out into giggles.
"Naruto you should have that down by now," Hamaki said sternly, causing the boy to blush with embarrassment and start scratching the back of his head, "alright team, It seems like there are a bunch of bandits somewhere between Tanzaku and Yajirushi village. Meet at the gate in an hour, we can get a good start on the road this afternoon, Naruto don't forget to grab some dry clothes before we leave."
"Hai Sensei" all the chorused before rushing off to prepare.
.
...
.
Ok that is far enough for today, let's camp here. " the jonin declared, a statement that met with relief as all three children dropped their packs and immediately went about the regular drill of setting up camp. Makoto started to gather firewood, Misu ran to fill the canteens from a nearby stream, and Naruto got busy setting up the tents. Before Naruto could drive home the first peg though he was stopped by their sensei.
"None of that now, we aren't setting up camp this trip."
"What do you mean sensei" asked a shocked Misu.
"Camping on the side of the road is fine when we are moving in a convoy, and when you were fresh out of the academy and didn't know the difference between a senbon and a kunai. But not any longer. So we'll set up camp properly."
"What do'ya mean properly?"
"We are Ninja, and what are the three trademarks of a good ninja?" the older man asked his pupils, as he lead them through another lesson.
"Stealth Speed, and killing the enemy before they know we're there." the three students replied in a sing song voice that let their teacher know they were bored of this particular mantra.
"Exactly, and camping in a clearing right on the side of the path is damn obvious."
"So we move away from the road, and build bivouacs, using only a grounds sheet and a top sheet covered in local vegetation really close to the ground then," Makoto said remembering some of the different types of shelter they had been shown in the academy.
"Good answer, moving off the road is a must, and setting up a hidden bivouacs, is a good idea, but you need more than one move in your bag of tricks because..."
"... If we know it they know it," the trio singsonged again.
"Exactly," their sensei said with a chuckle, "so for this trip we are eating cold ration bars and sleeping in the trees."
"What do you mean sleeping in trees?" Misu asked in a surprised tone that rose at least an octave.
"What do you mean cold rations?" demanded Naruto going even higher up the scale.
"I mean you go up the tree, find a strong limb and tie your hammocks to it tightly so that there is almost no room between the hammock and tree, get in, and tighten it some more so that the branch just looks a little fatter, then go to sleep. Just remember to eat before you get in the hammock, and to use a knot that you can easily adjust to allow yourself to get in and out easily."
"What?"
"In the summer, you'll hidden by the leaves, in the winter, it will look like a fat limb, and if you're lucky it might snow, further disguising you, and reducing the chance someone looks up... Oh, and make sure to tie yourself to the underside so that if a ninja comes by, tree jumping he might land on one of the two ropes by pure dumb luck, but they are less likely to hit that than a human body, so they may run right over the limb and not even notice you."
"Hold on, what are we going to do about the watch schedule?"
"Once you've got your sensory skills up to snuff, you might be able to keep watch from your hammock, so long as you remember not to fall asleep, otherwise you need to get out of it and patrol, then get back into your hammock. Just take note of where your teammates are so that you know where to go to warn them, or wake them up when your shift is done."
With much grumbling the three got their hammocks out. They normally only carried them because they were part of the standard equipment list, with the potential to double as nets in case they ever need to use them for a trap, in fact this would be Misu's first time sleeping in one since that one time she had tried it out in her backyard soon after buying it, however eventually with a bit of help from Makoto and Naruto she was ready, and the three genin had their night's accommodations arranged. Naruto, winner of this missions rock, paper, scissors tournament, had taken first watch, and so was tasked with laying the traps, giving him an opportunity to explore the surrounding forest.
The next morning, after a breakfast of ration bars, the team took off again, once more bounding from limb to limb as they moved through the trees.
Around noon they had arrived to within 5 miles of the area where the bandits were known to work. The squad stopped for lunch, and changed modes, now moving silently and carefully through the area, stalking their prey. The bad guys were somewhere out here, now they just had to find them.
by 8 o'clock that night, as the sun was starting to set, Misu finally found something, a trail was clearly visible where the bandits had left this side road, and moved with their loot into the forest. 20 minutes later she was back at the meeting spot the team had designated, waiting to see what else the team had come up with, taking the time to set up her hammock, getting ready for the night.
When the rest of the squad showed up Misu enjoyed the slight feeling of superiority that came with being the only one with something to report. It meant they were most likely only dealing with one camp, or at least the camps were in the same area. Either way they would find out tomorrow, it was too late to search tonight, the light wasn't good enough to move without running the risk of setting off any booby traps.
Day three came bright and early, after another cold meal of ration bars, by Kami Naruto could not wait for some ramen, the team took off to the tracks Misu found, and spent the next three hours carefully and quietly following them back to the bandit camp. The criminals had set up shop in a large clearing, with no obvious rhyme or reason behind the laying out of the camp, outside of the bare minimum. Sixteen tents littered the area, the only clear ground being in the south east corner, which if the smell was anything to go by was being used as the camp latrine. Team 14 had been on these missions a time or two before, and so Makoto and Misu quickly took first watch, setting up on different sides of the camp to keep an eye on the raiders, while Hamaki and Naruto made sure no one snuck up on them, trading out jobs with their opposite number every hour to make sure no one got bored and missed anything.
The outlaws were obviously celebrating something, they drank all day as they sat around a large, unlit, fire pit, members getting up every now and then to either use the south east corner, feed themselves from the goat that was roasting on a separate smaller fire, or refilling one of the communal jugs from a pot that sat next to the still set up off to the side.
These guys obviously had some high tolerance level, because 11 O'Clock saw several of them still drinking and carrying on, while team 14 met to discuss their plans. "Jeez those people stink," Naruto said as he dropped out of the tree next to the rest of his squad."
"Well at least this is gonna be a breeze, those guys are so drunk, even if one wakes up tonight, they wont be able to put up much of a fight," Makoto replied, twirling a kunai around his middle finger. Hamaki frowned at that, these genin were getting a little cocky. Being comfortable in your abilities was one thing, but overconfidence led to mistakes, of course the problem was that they hadn't really run into anything they couldn't handle yet, mainly thanks to proper planning, and taking their time, just like they had done today.
The plan was simple, the trio would approach from the north east, the idea being that anyone who woke up would be going to the bathroom, and so would be facing away from them. They would then go tent by tent, through the camp doing what needed to be done, as silently as possible.
It wasn't a fun job, but you steeled your stomach, and just got it done as quickly as possible, one throat, then the next. You tried not to think about the last one, just on the job at hand, and double checking to make sure no one had forgotten anyone. Hand over the mouth, blade across the throat, remove hand, and move onto the next one... Yeah it wasn't fun, but it was better than the alternative, so far the team had only suffered some broken bones from encounters but of the 5 teams from his class that had passed their genin test, Naruto was one of 2 that was still active in their entirety, with one team wiped out completely, and the two others combining into one after a run of bad luck.
Fortunately for the genin, the one thing that had been drilled into them incessantly since being taken on by Hamaki-sensei was stealth, the number of nights they had spent creeping through woods trying to remain undetected seemed uncountable at this stage, the afternoons learning how to supress their chakra signature, something that surprisingly came easy to Naruto even though his control was horrible, were almost as numerous. All this meant that twenty five minutes later they were all done, meeting back up at the rally point with all three kids dealing with the shakes as the adrenalin left their system.
...
"Hey Sensei, do you think I should start learning kenjutsu?" Naruto asked as he waved around a sword from the pile of equipment the two had made while they were disposing of the bodies, a lengthy process which involved first checking to see if any were recognized as someone with a bounty, while stripping them of their possessions, then disposing of the bodies, which due to the temperate climate they were in meant burying them.
"I would hope you had already started" Hamaki said as he finished the doton jutsu, taking care of the last of the remains, "How are you going to defend yourself properly against someone with a weapon if you aren't familiar with the ways to use it. Also you never know when you might need to use it yourself, I mean there is a reason that ANBU normally carry a tanto or a kodachi."
"Wow" the boy thought, as he quickly started to seal the equipment away, intending to go through it when he got back to Konoha, 'always more to learn' Naruto thought as that truism hit him once again, and he realized how little he really knew.
..
..
The letter had finally arrived the day after his birthday. 'About bloody time!'' the boy thought as he opened the envelope, 'school starts in a damn month.' From what George Thornby the manager of Flourish and Blotts had said they always waited this long. No reason why, in fact according to a discussion he had had with some of the portraits the syllabus hadn't changed since the educational reforms of 1538, in fact the only thing that had happened was that there were now less subjects being taught. Neither the standards nor the requirements had increased, kids now just had more time to go over the same material that used to make up, for the average Owl student, 2/3rds of the classes available.
Harry's mental diatribe came to an abrupt stop as his eyes focused on the book requirements for DADA. He had gone to the bookstore at the beginning of the summer, and asked what the standards books were for 2nd year so that he could read a page or two, or even a chapter or so whenever he wanted something new to study besides the stuff for his GCSEs, the same way he took his science books to Hogwarts. But someone had decided to completely redo the Defense Against Dark Arts material, using that vain clot, Gildroy Lockhart. Harry had asked about them when he came across the books in the Defenses section of the bookstore. George, a committed bibliophile had said there was something fishy about them, and had wanted to put them in Fiction, except he had no concrete proof, and one of his female assistants had thrown a fit for daring to impugne her Gilly's honour. 'What kind of buffoon wants us to read this?' Harry thought, 'Damn it must be the complete set! Well while I'm back there I should at least see if I can find anything for Naruto's birthday,' Harry thought as looked over the rest of the 2nd year shopping list, making a note of what else he needed to pick up.
.
...
.
That Saturday Harry got off the knight bus wearing jeans and a navy blue hoodie turned up to hide his scar, to find the alley was packed. All the students descended like a plague, or, from the shops point of view, like a thunderstorm in the dessert. The nice sunny day, mixed with the recent send out of everyone's school letter meant that there was a line to get into the alley from the Pub side, and once he got there, he encountered an even bigger throng. There wasn't a table free at Fortescue's, the crowd in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies was already 4 deep. Watching as everyone pressed his and her nose against the glass to take in the new Nimbus 2001, 'Damn that reminds me, Rupert wants me to try out for quidditch this year. Well I guess it's decision time.'
Harry found a quiet corner to duck into and no matter what logical arguments he came up with the decision came down to two factors, Rupert who had always been there for him wanted the boy to try out, and flying is just so cool'.
Inside he found a well lit shop, the walls behind the counter covered with Cleansweeps, Comets and Nimbuses, the shelves were stuffed full with the different pads necessary to play the rough game, racks had jerseys for every professional team in the British isles, and in the corner stood the trunks holding all the balls necessary for the game. The store was packed as children grabbed the jersey of their favorite player and ran around begging their father to buy them, and hopeful kids tried to convince their mother that they needed a full set of the most expensive keeper pads, "'cause this is my year mum, I just know it."
Finally after looking around, examining the different things a young man in a standard black robe, with the store logo emblazoned on the pocket walked up to him, "Good morning, are you being served".
"Thanks, hello, I need a new broom and the standard quidditch equipment."
"Not a problem, what position do you play?"
"Well I'm hoping for seeker or chaser."
"all right then let's see what we can do for you."
the man paused, suddenly taking a half step back as he recognized the young customer, and a small gleam appeared in his eye, "well for brooms we of course have the new top of the line Nimbus 2001. Fastest broom on the market, perfect for dashing across the fields after a snitch, or for shooting past the competition with the quaffle," the man said as he led the boy over to the in store display of Nimbus' newest creation, complete with a broom hovering against a background that seemed to whiz by.
"How does it handle?"
"Well in order to move that quickly, you have to sacrifice a little handling, but anytime you lose taking a corner, you can make up for in straight flying."
"But it still has a really wide turning radius," Harry said thinking back to some of the discussions he had overheard the other boys at the salle having about motor racing.
"Yes, that is one of the sacrifices one has to make for the sake of speed," the man agreed slowly coming to realize he wasn't going to make the sale and deciding to change tactics, "if your looking for something better for things like the Wronski feint, nothing beets a Comet, that Horton-Keitch Braking Charm is still the best one in the business, and they came out with their response to the Nimbus 2000 this year with the Comet 300. It doesn't have the top speed though of the Nimbus 2001 or the 2000"
"But on a quidditch pitch do I really have the space to get up to the 75 MPH that the 2001 is claiming?" Harry asked looking at the display.
"Well I suppose not at the school level no," the clerk replied a little sheepishly, "but that isn't the only time to be on a broom, sometimes it is good just to fly around, feel the wind pushing against you as you hit the faster speeds."
"Sorry I live in the muggle world most of the time, I don't have the space to fly at home."
"Fair enough" the man said as he realized that he wasn't going to sell his most expensive broom to this customer.
"So I think I will take the Comet 300, and now a general set of pads."
"Right, do you have a color preference between the brown or the black leather?"
"I suppose the brown would be better"
"well then you'll need wrist guards, and a chest protector" the man said as he handed the boy the different pieces of equipment, taking a second to size the boy up as he held up a chest piece against the boy, before grabbing a few of the shoulder pads that buckled onto the chest piece."
"I'd also like one of those helmets," Harry said pointing to the leather scrum caps that were stacked on another shelf. Harry had seen that only about a third of the players at school wore one, mainly the girls, but why lose brain cells when you didn't have to?
"All right."
Twenty minutes later, after trying on a few minutes of trying on different things to make sure they fit Harry heading out the door. The process had taken a little longer than he would have liked, but, in between the decency of the clerk not announcing his presence, and the his salesmanship the man had up-sold Harry a broom cleaning and oiling kit, and a maintenance kit before he shrunk the boy's purchases and walked him to the door. With his new broom and quidditch supplies now stored away into the pocket of his hoodie Harry moved onto the next thing on the agenda, picking up those stupid books from George's.
Flourish and Blotts was even more packed than Harry had expected, 'doesn't look like I'll be able to browse at all,' He thought as he joined the line of other prospective buyers waiting to even enter the establishment. The reason for all this soon became clear as a poster advertising the clot was doing a signing today, 'of all the days why today?' Harry questioned as he pulled his hood up and hoped he could get through the whole thing unnoticed.
Upon entering the establishment the scene was even worse. The place was packed, between the adoring fans, the children getting ready for school, and for some reason the press one could hardly move. One member of staff was permanently running the register, the second was standing around an overdressed ponce whose face adorned posters all around the outside of the bookshop, Gildroy Lockhart apparently required his own gofer around him in case he needed a cup of tea, after all he couldn't be expected to leave his adoring fans. Luckily George hadn't gotten sucked into that himself, however he was the only person available to help people find the books they might need. Looking around the store Potter also took note of the number of people he recognized, from school moving around the shop, the Weasley twins were standing with the rest of the their family, their mother's eyes glazed over as she stared at the fop signing autographs. Across from her though was Hermione Granger, sporting the exact same expression, something he hadn't expected to see. Around the rest of the shop was a mix of other students, from all four houses, but none of his friends or close acquaintances.
"Hello Mr. Thornby," the muggle dressed boy said to the aging shopkeeper.
"Harry!" the old man said enthusiastically correctly identifying the voice under the hood, "what can I do for you today?"
"I just need those Lockhart books, I'm guessing you know they are now required reading at school."
"Yup, you know they say that DADA position is cursed, I think Dumbledore just likes to hire idiots, even the first years have to buy the complete set."
"He had them all put in the display cases around him, wanted a chance to greet all his fans."
"Great, you don't happen to have a couple in the back do you? Or is it possible for you to owl me the set later?"
"I'd be happy to Harry, but you'd have to take down your mail wards."
"My what?"
"Your mail wards."
"What's that?"
"You mean they never told you about them?"
"Someone put a ward on you to stop mail finding you, that's why whenever someone tries to send you anything the owl always comes back with the letter it left with."
"But what about my Hogwarts letter, or the letters I received from people over the summer?"
"I guess someone must have altered them then."
'Dumbledore" Harry thought as he put all the pieces together, "Oh well, I'll send Hedwig, she always seems to find me," he said thinking of his snowy owl, who liked to rest near him, "can I pay for the books now?"
"Sure Harry, just go to the till and tell Jennifer to make a note of it, and send your owl with a note on Monday and we'll load her up."
"Thanks" Harry said, receiving a smile and a nod in response for the old man, on his way to get in line to pay.
A four minute wait in line at the till was all it took in the crammed shop, and he was free, quickly exiting the building, he headed to the potion shop. He had hardly walked more than a few feet before literally bumping into Leanne, followed by a mound of packages, that he assumed hid her parents.
"Harry!" the girl squealed, as he tried to apologise to her, something that was completely ignored as she threw her arms around him, "Mum, Dad, I want you to meet a school friend, this is Harry Potter.
"Mrs. Church, Mr. Churc.."
the boy started to say, until, "Oh My God Harry what did you do to your hair?" the girl asked as she stared at his head, as the hood had fallen off. Causing the raven haired boy to blush as he ran his hands through, or really over, what little hair he had left.
"New look, decided to go with a High and Tight, why, do you think it looks good?"
"No!" she said very firmly, "and why would you do it?"
"Less to clean," Harry replied, as he put his hood back up, the haircut had happened about two weeks ago after Mr. Burroughs had been showing him take down techniques, and hair pulling was a damned effective way to expose the throat!
Before he knew it the two badgers started catching up as Leanne launched into her summer tales about her parents taking her on a trip to the coast, touring the Royal Pavilion, and the Palace Pier in Brighton.
The two carried on for a few minutes before suddenly the sounds of a fight could be heard inside the bookshop, and five minutes later the Weasleys walked out, the Matriarch of the family loudly berating her husband.
"By the way I wouldn't go in there if I were you, Gildroy Lockhart is doing a signing, and the place is packed," Harry said eventually when the father took advantage in the break in the conversation to point out that they needed to get a move on. However the statement seemed to have the completely opposite effect than he had thought, as the girl's eyes widened noticeably, and she immediately left him, without so much as a wave, let alone a goodbye to dive into the shop. With a shake of his head the boy headed off to finish his shopping.
..
..
A knock on the door pulled the old man's attention away from the mountains of scrolls that littered his large desk, as a dainty woman called from the door that was now partially open. "Hokage-sama the four jonins you asked for are here."
"Ah, thank you Hiroko-chan, send them in please."
Ah, Hamaki-san, Yasuo-san, Naboru-san, Fumi-san, thank you for coming over so quickly," he said getting up and moving around the desk and pointing the jonin to the chairs set up to make a small lounge section of the office. "Something has come up, and your teams are going to be needed for a special assignment."
"Sir you have only to order," Yasuo said solemnly (he was the youngest of the group).
"Although I have to wonder what four teams of genin can do that your ANBU or even a couple of squads of chunin couldn't," Makoto added with a small chuckle at the other jonin.
"Well the Council are sticking their noses into things again," Sarutobi said as the secretary came in wheeling a tea tray, "As you know the newest batch of genin graduated from the academy today."
"So that's why all the bunting was put up," Naboru said in fake surprise as he took the proffered cup of tea.
"Just so, just so," the old man said lighting his pipe while his own tea cooled beside him. "However unlike normal, this one is special. Not only does it contain the last Uchiha, but also the heirs of the clan heads of the Yamanaka, the Nara, the Akimichi, the Hyuga and the Aburame, and it also contains the youngest child of Inuzuka Tsume."
"Wow, almost every Ninja clan in Konoha seems to be represented. I pity their Jonin instructors, with all the crap they'll have to deal with."
"Exactly, and because of that every wealthy civilian family, or member of the civilian council who has a child their age sent them to the academy so they could hobnob with the future elites of the village. All this has in turn meant that I am getting a lot of pressure in the team assignments, and that the council wanted to make sure that their precious little miracle wont get too badly hurt while they are off 'playing hero'.''
at this statement a quick mirrored flash of anger appeared on the faces of all five shinobi as the thing they had given most of their lives to was once again characterized so cheaply.
.
...
.
At their regular training ground three kids were sweating as they moved through sword forms while they waited for their sensei. Upon their return from the bandit mission the genin of team 14 had banded together and hired Hayate Gekko, one of the better swordsmen in Konoha to start teaching them the basics for 3 hours a day, twice a week. It was damned expensive, but special training from skilled craftsman always is, and the man had given them a great deal by only charge them 1 day's worth of a B rank mission per month. The only annoying thing from the genin's point of view though was that they weren't allowed to use real swords. Gekko-sensei had insisted that until he said they were ready they could only use bokken, and weren't allowed to take swords with them on missions until he or Hamaki-sensei told them otherwise.
"Switch," Yelled out Misu as all three started again from the beginning with the swords now in their other hands.
Half way through their drill a kunai flew in from outside, a slight hissing sound giving away the tag wrapped around it, causing all three to immediately take cover, either by kawarimi, or by simply running and diving behind the nearest tree. Half a second later the tag went off with a blinding light and a loud bang but no other real damage, and Hamaki was standing right where the makeshift flash-bang had gone off.
"Sensei, what the hell," Naruto asked as he stood up, dusted himself off, and came out from behind the tree that had provided his cover.
"Just keeping you on your toes, and Naruto, diving behind the nearest cover without looking may save you from the explosive tag, but a good ninja might have backup waiting there, give me five laps for moving blindly," the old man said, earning a grumble from his blonde haired student as he broke into a sprint.
a few minutes later Naruto joined the group again, "done sensei."
"Good, now catch," he said throwing a small bundle to each student.
The bundles turned out to be black cotton balaclavas.
"What's this for Hamaki-sensei?"
"What a teacher can't buy his students a gift?" the older ninja asked, his voice filled with fake hurt, "I can't just be proud of my team and want to give them a present on their anniversary?"
"What are you talking about Sensei?"
"Why don't you know?" the jonin asked, a smile betraying the enjoyment he was getting out of the situation as all three of his students shook their heads. "One year ago today, all three of you passed you Genin exams."
"Wha...It can't be," Naruto said.
"No, he's right, and a week from today will be the anniversary of becoming a team," Makoto declared with a smile at the realization.
"So you got us these?" the boy asked holding up what turned out to be cotton balaclavas, obviously not impressed by the gift.
"What, you don't like it?" their sensei asked, his voice once again seemingly filled with fake misery.
"Sensei why did you give them to us," Makoto asked, hoping to move things along.
"Why? Because they're stylish and cool, they are multipurpose awesome garments, they can be used to cover the head and face, like a mask, and other times you can fold it up and use it as a hat," Hamaki said, waiving at the three students to try them on. "Listen," he said after thirty seconds, his voice turning serious, "You kids are getting better and we are taking tougher and tougher missions, and coming home alive and with all our limbs, and that is down to two reasons, your skills, and a lot of luck. Now your skills are going to continue to improve, especially if you keep up this training in your spare time, but your luck isn't always going to be there. But what we can do is increase our chances," the man said, taking a moment to let his words sink in.
"One of the ways we've gotten lucky so far is that the intelligence we had when going on a mission turned out to be fairly true, make no mistake, this is a rarity that wont always be the case, in fact if anything it means that we are due for some bad luck soon. Also if we start taking tougher missions we are more likely to get noticed by informants for other villages, and that means ending up in Bingo books. So I got you the balaclavas. These are only to be worn outside the village, when on missions, except escort missions, inside the village you keep them hidden and out of sight.
"Why's that sensei?"
"Bingo book entries are only useful if they can match a specific ninja with a set of skills. If on a mission, everyone looks sort of the same as far as clothes, and your faces are always covered then how do they know which ninja has which skills. And so long as you wear different clothes at home, the spies inside the village cant match a group of ninja with a mission."
"Spies inside the village?"
"You've got to be kidding sensei!"
"You don't think we have spies in Suna, or Kumo or Iwa? What do you think the intelligence department is for?"
"Sure sensei, we have , but were better than those guys," Naruto stated with a sense of civic pride.
The remark though only earned him a quick smack on the head, "don't be an idiot Naruto!"
"Is the balaclava and changing our clothes going to be enough to disguise us, and why not on escort missions?" Misu asked as another bit of innocence was stripped away, and another factor of life as a shinobi was unveiled, with the realization that even in Konoha they might not be 100% safe.
"Well actually it is a step that most ninja don't even bother with, so it might be a bit over the top, but better safe than sorry, and on escort missions, the people we are guarding need to know who we are, it also helps throw off the informants if they can identify us on some missions and not others, that way they know what they should be looking for so those guys in masks can't be us, right!"
"Is it safe to train here sensei?" Makoto asked, now looking around, trying to spot any would be spies in the trees.
"That's just one of those risks we have to take, although it is also why so many ninja clans have their own training grounds inside their compounds, it's also why the training grounds are kept separate from the rest of the village. Any civilian found in this area is automatically escorted out by the ANBU responsible for this sector."
"ANBU, I haven't seen any ANBU!"
"You're not meant to!" The jonin replied with a small chuckle, "Remember you guys are good at moving quietly and spotting hidden traps, for genin a year out of the academy. ANBU are all chunin or higher who excel in moving stealthily and not beeing seen. However, there is good news, you're going to get better."
"More stealth training this week sensei?"
"You Betcha! Also were going to be doing more missions that require it. Today as I said earlier is your one year aniversary right? Which means that the next graduating class just got their Hitai-ates' today."
"Which means we aren't the youngest genin anymore! Yatta!" shouted Naruto jumping into the air, his right fist pumping in excitement.
"Don't kid yourself Naruto, you might still be the youngest, or at least the most immature," Makoto said laughing at his teammates actions.
"Right, however, unlike you guys this class is full of VIPs, children of members of the council and such."
"VIPs? What VIPs?"
"How about almost every clan heir in Konoha, along with the children of every council member?"
"Oh."
"Exactly, which leads us to the reason why we are going to up our Stealth training. We and a few other genin teams have been tasked with shadowing the new VIPs when they leave the village on missions. Our job is to make sure these people don't get too hurt."
"Too hurt? Well its glad to know that the Hokage cares about some of us. Did we have those minders when we went on our first mission?"
"No, this is a very rare circumstance. Although I'm sure the PR department is over the moon."
"The PR department?"
"Yeah, Remember those questions I asked you the first day?" Hamaki asked, receiving blank looks in reply, "Okay, who is the White Fang?"
"He was a big deal during the second shinobi war," Naruto answered right away, "but I never heard what happened to him after that," he said as he thought back to some of the scrolls he had read in the library, "anyway what does that have to do with this PR department?"
"I'm getting to that, what about Senju Tsunade?"
"You mean Konoha's Slug Princess, she's one of the Sanin," Misu said with stars in her eyes.
"My father calls her the Legendary Sucker," added Makoto, only to receive a punch in the gut from Misu for sullying her idol.
"What about the Gamma Sanin?"
"Sure he's the other Sanin, What's this about Hamaki-sensei?"
"Good, now, those guys were or are all famous ninja, famous all over the elemental countries, mainly because of how good they are, but also because of the Konoha PR department!" Hamaki said, taking a second to see if any of them starting to put things together. "The department is the organization responsible for letting people know how great Konoha is. When ninja who could be seen to be deserving of special recognition show up, either because of their family, or because they are considered prodigies, this organization tells the world that everything these guys does is the best, if they cooked rice in the morning, well would you believe it, it was the best rice in the world, and they did it while fighting a hundred foreign ninja at the same time, and delivering a client's baby, that sort of thing, it's how you build legends."
"What? Sensei that's ridiculous!"
"That's life, we have the Sanin, and Hatake Kakashi, Kiri has the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and so on, and of course you have all the famous ninja clans, each with their own special skills and techniques... All this means, that with the number of VIPs graduating this year, the PR department is going into overdrive, each clan heir is going to be seen as almost the second coming of Kami, that way the clans and the village gain prestige. These kids are going to be given very public missions, where they can be seen to excel, and Konoha can be seen to produce the best ninja the world has ever seen... It also means that the council wants to make sure that their precious people are kept safe, so we're one of the teams who need to act as a safety net, and shadow them."
"What do you mean by shadow them sensei?"
"We have to follow them on missions, and make sure they don't get too hurt, or even worse, dead. Provide back up if things go bad, or if it looks like they're going to run into a group to large for them to handle, to thin out the ranks a bit before they show up, preferably without them knowing were there."
"Why can't they know we're there?"
"A couple of reasons, firstly they're young and dumb and might tell someone, ruining the image, and secondly, part of being a super ninja, is acting like a super ninja, using big flashy jutsus, defeating all comers with the greatest of ease, and having that arrogant assurance of knowing that you're the best... They'll be told eventually, normally when they make chunin, but in the meantime everyone, including themselves, gets to think they walk on water, not because they've mastered water walking, but because water itself is so in awe of their presence that it considers it its duty to support them."
"Sensei, that sucks!"
"Welcome to politics."
"Dum da dee dum..." Harry was humming the tune to Dad's Army as he packed his trunk on his last night before he headed back to Hogwarts. Justin's television addiction had really opened the dark haired boy's eyes to a wealth of great movies and shows. "Let's see, socks, check, underwear, check, shirts, check, quidditch gear... check," he said as he went through his mental checklist to make sure nothing was forgotten, it wasn't like he could trust his relatives to send him anything he forgot.
It was a good thing he had packed the night before, because the next morning found him sleeping in, at least compared to his regular schedule. Which was how eight fifteen found him summoning the Knight Bus, still damp from the morning shower, only just completing his exercises in time, and starving for breakfast. Unfortunately respite was not going to come fast. It was back to school day, and it seemed like this was apparently the busiest day of the year for the bus, which had to make several stops before dropping a large gang of people off at King's Cross. Then a second stumbling block emerged, it was back to school day, not just for Hogwarts, but, judging by the train station, for every public school in England. The station was packed, not just with people, but with the large heavy luggage (like his own trunk, if it weren't currently shrunken, and placed inside his school bag) that such forays came with. By the time Harry had managed to fight through the crowd to the fast food stall and received his order, he only had fifteen minutes to catch the Hogwart's Express, a time that was down to ten as he jogged and pushed his way towards the barrier...
CRASH...
The portal hadn't let him through. Something had blocked him getting on the train that was now leaving in seven minutes. However this was no longer the focus of Harry's thoughts, as he tried to deal with the pain, and anger, of running full on into a brick wall. His forehead was even bleeding from where it had bashed and then scraped against the brickwork. Harry tried to hold back the tears in his eyes that threatened to drip as he took in his situation. Luckily the Notice-Me-Not charm around the barrier made sure that the event went mostly unnoticed, but there was still a group of people who saw him slumped over, and bleeding from obviously having contact with the pillar.
Harry clutched at his head for a few seconds, trying to deal with the pain, and give himself something to do while the rest of the station returned to whatever it was they had been doing before. Luckily the charms around the pillar did mean that no one came over to check on the bleeding child, which would have been the icing on the cake to this whole experience. After a minute Harry had cleared his head enough, to start tentatively tapping the wall. He tried different parts of it, the middle, the sides, down near the ground, and up as high as he could reach, but everywhere he prodded, he found brick. The portal wasn't there. Harry spent the next fifteen minutes jumping between examining the wall, and waiting for people to exit out of it before giving up. With a deep sigh the boy turned, and with a hanky held up to his scalp to hide the damage, moved outside until he finally found a fairly deserted part of the parking lot, where he could summon the bus.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus..."
"Hy again Stan," the boy replied cutting off the man's opening spiel.
"Harry, you should be on the train, what are you doing here? Your bleeding, what happened?"
"Something went wrong with the barrier, it wouldn't let me through."
"Something wrong with the barrier? Never heard of that happening before."
"Well I guess there's a first time for everything" Harry replied, a tad angrily, while checking the hanky to see how much blood was on it, "anyway, I need a ride to Hogwarts."
"Sure thing, should take about forty five minutes. Are you going to be allright?"
"Yeah Stan, I'll have Madame Pomphrey look at it when I get there."
Stan was as good as his word, and less than an hour later they pulled in front of the castle. Changing into his robes on the bus had been a fun experience, especially with the way Ernie drove, but he had got it done, only falling on his face twice, to further agravate his pounding and bleeding head.
'Thank God for the featherlight spell' the boy thought as he made his way up the steps. The weight of carrying his trunk without it, and the shrinking spell would have been more than annoying, even if it might have been a good work out. The size and shape alone would have made carrying the thing uncomfortable.
Harry had barely stepped inside Hogwarts before a stern looking McGonagall strode into sight.
"Mr. Potter, why are you not on the train?", only to be quickly followed by, "Mr. Potter, what happened to you, you're injured!"
"Couldn't get on the platform professor, there was something wrong with the barrier," the boy replied before jumping into the whole saga.
"Odd, I will let the aurors know, and this better not become a habit, I will also let Madame Pomphrey know that you need her assistance in the hospital wing" she said before heading off to handle affairs.
'Well, heaven forbid I ever get to school early again,' Harry thought staring after her, before he turned in the other direction, heading off to receive medical care.
While waiting for the motherly healer, Harry realized the second problem with arriving early, he didn't know the password for the Sett, so couldn't put his stuff away. So turning to the nearest picture, one of a stern woman who seemed to be trying to force feed a boy a potion, he asked for help"Madam, I need some advice."
"Mr. Potter, glad to have you back with us."
"Thank you, that's very kind, I need some help."
"Help ay, well what do you need?"
"I missed the Hogwart's Express, and beat it here by several hours, and now I have my trunk and bag here, without the password to my house."
"Well, just call an elf."
"Oh," 'I really need to learn about House Elfs,' "Thank you."
Thinking back to Neville's actions last year Harry called out, "Hogwarts Elves."
"Sir requests something?" the toga wearing creature asked from behind him, causing the boy to jump in surprise.
"Ah, yes, I need my trunk taken to the sett," he replied taking it out of his satchel and enlarging it, "I don't know the password, is that something you could help me with?"
"Racky would be happy to help you sir," the house elf replied before silently disappearing.
'Great now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for the next five hours.' the boy thought, just as the resident healer bustled in.