Mercenaries, Ninjas, Martial Artists, and Wizards
First Encounters
Tsume lay in the shade of a tree near their tent, covered in sweat and panting hard and flat on her back. Denko was nearby bringing a bottle of water and a fresh cup of ramen to the tired girl. Sitting next to her he held the bottle over her head and shook it.
"Thirsty?" he grins.
Tsume cracked her eyes open enough to glare at the blond, though her arm moved quick enough to surprise her tormentor and grabbed the bottle. Within seconds the bottle was drained and the cup of ramen dissapeared from his other hand and soon it's contents were devoured, and she never even moved more than one arm.
Looking down at her, Denko couldn't help but smirk at the girl next to him, almost no matter how tired she seemed to always have energy to eat. Even after the workout that he had just put her through and did the exercizes with her he had energy to burn, a testiment to the training that the Elders had put him through when he was younger and still continued to try to find ways to enhance the training himself since he left the temple. As for Tsume... he had begun her training a few months ago and despite her being able to put normal people to shame and the same to others who practice martial arts, soldiers, and a few assassins that they've come across. He was actually quite proud of her, not that he really let it show much. Now if only he could get her dad off his back and keep him out of his head...
His thoughts were interupted when he noticed they weren't alone anymore and apparently Tsume noticed as well because she sat up and was looking in the same direction as he was. Though as the people crested the hill Denko began to wonder if she had felt they earth shaking under her rather than the newcomers actual presence since the man in question was twice as tall and easily thrice as wide as the two who accompanied him. The huge man had long wild hair and matching beard so little more than his nose and eyes were visible and he wore a jacket that seemed large even fo him. The two with him were obviously locals unlike the giant who was western but the girl had short hair and wore a simple yellow long sleeved shirt and jean shorts and a pair of sneakers and the boy had hair pulled back into a braid at his neck and wore a red sleeveless chinese shirt and black pants and slip on shoes finished his outfit. Both of them were carrying large backpacks, each of which were full and large enough to hold themselves yet they were walking with ease.
'Obviously these two aren't normal people out for a casual hike, they must be quite skilled in the martial arts...' Denko thought to himself. Tsume had other thoughts, 'That guy is huge! I bet he could eat as much as me and Denko together!'
"Hello there!" The giant man calls out to them in rough Japanese. "Yer must be the other two Dumbledore's got. The names Rubeus Hagrid but yer can just call me Hagrid, everybody does." He introduces himself and shakes their arms, his hands were so large.
"Well Dumbledore did say he'd send someone we'd recognize anywhere and you fit the bill alright." Denko smirks up at Hagrid. "My name is Denko."
"I'm Tsume."
"Ranma Saotome." the boy says.
"I'm Akane Ten-uh- Saotome" The girl introduces herself with a slight blush at her slip up, though Ranma developed a blush at the same time.
"We'll just have to wait for the others to get here." Hagrid says bringing attention back to himself, how the four of them managed to forget he was standing right next to them all was beyond them, but he did little other than look at a watch he pulled from one of his many coat pockets. "Should be arrivin' any second now." He put the pocket watch back and looked around the field.
"Um, who are we waiting for Hagrid?" Akane asks, vocalizing the question everyone else had on their minds. Apparently Dumbledore had left out more than a few details when he had visited Denko and Tsume after their last job and convinced them to take his offer.
"Oh yea, you lot don't know but there's a few more who'll be comin' here. You two better get packed up yerselves since we'll all be leavin' soon ourselves." Hagrid explains.
Denko and Tsume walked over to the tent and began packing... well Tsume was packing since Denko rarely pulled anything out of his pack if he wasn't going to use it so all he had was the tent which he had dumped out Tsume's things from (much to her ire) and had it packed in two minutes. Tsume finished soon after and no sooner than she had closed the snaps on her pack than one of the oddest things that any of the people in the field had ever seen, except Hagrid; twelve children with backpacks came spinning down out of the sky holding onto a loop of rope and landed on the ground in a heap, though Ranma, Akane, Denko, and Tsume noted that they slowed drasticly a few feet off the ground.
The twelve of them slowly staggared to their feet and almost immediately the boy with red markings on his face hurled up the contents of his stomach as did the puppy in his jacket that stuck its head out the collar of his jacket. The girl with pink hair ran to the nearest bush to reieve her stomach of it's contents quickly followed by the blond girl. A boy who's dark hair resembled a chickens butt stumbled toward a tree where he too relieved his stomach. The girl with short dark hair immediately fainted in the arms of a blond boy while the last remaining girl was using the boy with long hair in a loose ponytail to remain standing. The plump boy walked a short distance before sitting down holding his stomach and pulling something to eat from the pouch at his waist.
Eventually the newcomers got over their sickness and dizzyness to regather where the first five were watching them since they arrived. "Hey there! Hurry up and gather round! Sorry about yer first time with that Portkey, did the same the firs' coupa' times I used them." Seeing the confused looks of all sixteen of the much younger people standing in front of him he pulled out his watch again and checked the time. "Hurry, hurry! We have no time ta lose! Grab onto me coat 'cause we just got thirty seconds!" He yelled at them all who quickly adjusted their packs and grabbed a handful of his coat which gave them all plenty to take hold of with as large as it was. "Me coat's a Portkey ter where yer'll be stayin' fer the summer. Here we go!"
For thirteen of them this wasn't a new experience, though twelve of them they immediately regreted traveling by Portkey again. The other four in the party were completely new to the sensation of spinning through the air while their hands were stuck to the coat. Those of them who kept their eyes open saw the blur that surrounded them changed within seconds the ground was rushing up at them. A few of them including Hagrid, Denko, and Ranma managed on land on their feet, though this time all twelve of them lost their lunches after this second trip with a Portkey while the older four required the assistance of eachother to remain standing.
Soon enough though they all got over the various ill effects from the Portkey and began to take notice of their surroundings, they were standing in a large open field of long grasses surrounded by tall trees and in the middle of it all was a house that obviously had several renovations since it was first built as it was several stories tall and looked like a single strong gust of wind could send the house crashing to the ground, as if it was held up by magic. Behind the house were two tents set up as well as a long table under a canopy with dishes and chairs were ready. Standing at the door of the house was a family of red heads, a tall balding man, a shorter plump woman, a tall boy with curly hair and glasses, two tall boys who were obviously twins, a slightly shorter boy with his arm around the only girl who was also rather tall herself.
"Everyone! Meet the Weasleys!" Hagrid called out to the young group around him. The Weasley family didn't understand what Hagrid had said since he spoke in Japanese but they did catch their family name so they began walking up to the large group.
"This is a larger group than I thought there'd be Hagrid." Mr. Weasley stated the obvious as he looked over the foriegn children.
"A few more than I expected too Arthor but they are here on Dumbledore's invitation." Hagrid switched to English to speak to the Weasley's.
"Of course, Dumbledore himself told us not too long ago. But the old codger came through and gave us a heap of gold to help us get them ready for Hogwarts and convinced the Minister to give me a raise." Arthor laughs.
"Alright ya lot! How many of yer can speak English?" Hagrid called out to the small crowd.
The Wesleys were surprised when nearly half of them raised their hands. The chubby girl with the odd clothes stepped forward.
"Sorry but even though some of us can speak English we are pretty rough with it. But we can help translate for the others." she says, but like she said her english was rather rough and had a strong accent to the words and she had to think about what she was saying to make sure she was speaking correctly.
"That's alright, dad tells us we're supposed to help you kids learn anything you need to know." one of the twins says throwing an arm around the shoulders of the blond in green clothes.
"Anything and everything we know we'll help you with." the other twin grins throwing his own arm around shoulders of the boy with the braid.
The two boys were a bit shocked at the friendliness of the twins but understood them, with some difficulty. Eventually they were saved by Hagid.
"Alright! How about some introductions before dinner!" he called out and let the translators do their work. "I'm Rubeus Hagrid but yer can call me Hagrid!" he says in english.
"I'm Arthor Weasley and this is my wife Molly." The balding man states and indicates himself and his wife as those in the group who understood him translated for the others.
"I'm Percy Weasley." the oldest boy introduces himself.
"He's Fred." "He's George." the twins say pointing at eachother with big identical grins on their faces.
"I'm Ron and this is my little sister Ginney." the youngest boy says.
Hagrid waves his hand to indicate that it was their turn.
"I'm Shikamaru Nara"
"Chouji Akimichi."
"Ino Yamanaka"
"Kiba Inuzuka"
"Shino Aburame"
"Tenten"
"Neji Hyuga"
"Rock Lee!"
"Sakura Haruno"
"Sasuke Uchiha"
"Naruto Uzumaki!"
"Hinata Hyuga"
"Denko"
"Tsume"
"Ranma Saotome"
"Akane T-Saotome" She cursed herself for her slip again.
"Well then, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny go get the food! It's time to eat. We can talk with our guests while we eat." Molly Ushers her children into the house leaving her husband and Hagrid to get their guests to the table. Within minutes the table was actually groaning under the weight of the food and the Japanese were surprised at the dishes that floated to the table guided along by Mrs. Weasley who was holding a small piece of wood in her hand.
Overall the meal went over quite well and everyone enjoyed themselves. Soon everyone had eaten their fill, even those with the biggest appitites, and they sat around the table nibbling occasionally on whatever was left and talking. They talked about the various things they'd be learning from the Weasleys about the magical world including Hogwarts, Diagon Ally, Hogsmead, and Quidditch. During dinner there was an interesting surprise for everyone when a cup of iced lemonade spilled onto his lap triggering his curse and instantly dropped a few inches in height even though he, no she, was sitting. A further surprise happened at sunset when Denko transformed into a girl as well. Neither of them elaborated on their respective curses but assured everyone that they weren't contagious. The Japanese kids were pleasantly surprised as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley provided a few examples of magic by shooting a stream of water from their wands, turning a chair into a chicken and back again, and shooting a few fireworks into the air. Fred and George finished off the night by lighting the fireworks they had put on the bottom of all the chairs causing a small panic though within a minute Mrs. Weasley was yelling at the twins with Percy adding in his own comments when he could while everybody else was either laughing or cleaning up the mess that was made in their surprise.
After the excitement finally died down it was time for bed since as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had told them they'd be going to Diagon Ally to get their supplies and Hagrid would be coming with them to both act as trnslator and to help keep an eye on them. Mrs. Weasley ushered her children into the house for bed and Hagrid went with them to sleep in their living room. Mr. Weasley led them to the two tents and explained that one was for the boys and the other for girls. There was a small debate about which tent that Denko and Ranma should stay in aspecially since during dinner Hagrid told everyone that Ranma and Akane had gotten married before they left and Tsume claimed that according to her father she and Denko were engaged. But since they were all currently girls with assurances that they wouldn't do anything they finally found themselves in the girls tent. Both the boys and girls were surprised to find that the tents were far larger inside than they could have believed possible from the outside.
"Holy crap it's huge!" Kiba's yell could be heard from the house.
Similar statements could be heard from the more vocal boys and girls in both tents. Such words seemed rather appropriate since each tent were the size of a small house inside complete with several alcoves with buckbeds, a table with chairs in the middle, and even a basic kitchen. Getting over their shock they chose their bunks and dropped their packs and began getting ready to sleep, Ranma and Denko were kind enough to turn their backs and cover their eye's despite currently having all the same anatomical features. There was surprisingly little conversation between any of those in the tents other than saying goodnight; they were all tired from the traveling, the damn Portkeys, the large dinner they had just eaten, and the massive amount of new information in such a short time made them all quite exhausted and before midnight they were all asleep. Each of them had one thought running through their minds before they entered the realm of dreams: What did we get ourselves into?
