Mercenaries, Ninja, Martial Artists, and Wizards

Traveling to Meet Friends

The remaining time of the summer holiday passed quickly and the students had their brains fried with the amount of material they learned over the course of the summer. They had to admit the man was a great teacher and was very thorough with any material he taught them but kept things interesting as well so they were rarely bored. Even so with just one week before the new school year was to begin Dumbledore had to excuse himself from the Burrow for some Hogwarts business. At least before he left he made sure all sixteen of them had their tickets for the Hogwarts Express, booked them a few rooms at the Leaky Tavern, and scheduled the Knight Bus to pick them up so they could be in Wizarding London by lunch. Of course he only informed them of this after breakfast before Dissappearating away right in front of them with a swish of his robes. They barely had just over an hour before the Knight Bus stopped in front of the Burrow with a loud BANG! and Stan Shunpike lept out to help them with their luggage, what little they had since they had either stored a large portion of their belongings in scrolls or somehow managed to pack them away in their backpacks.

Once they were seated on the assortment of chairs on the three levels of the bus and Stan had finished stowing their luggage and climbed into his own seat next to Ernie the Knight Bus took off with another deafening BANG! and the occupants were thrown backwards as their chairs slid and tipped over. Once they were moving it was much easier to move around the magical vehicle and adjust their chairs. Hinata had to grab onto Naruto's arm to avoid falling to the floor, Lee and Kiba managed to get a hand hold on the open windows they were sitting next to, Akane had fallen back into Ranma's arms, Tsume simply floated up and let her chair smash into the stair well while Denko fell and rolled to his feet. Shino and Shikamaru didn't react too much to the sudden jolt other than to watch as Ino and Sakura tumbled by with Sasuke dragged between them and Tenten had plunged a kunai into the wall and grabbed Neji's hand. Stan and Ernie had little to no reaction to the acceleration other than Stan's eyes going wide with surprise at Tenten's use of the knife.

The terrifying ride finally ended in front of the Leaky Cauldron that nearly launched all of the buses passengers into the windows if they hadn't already secured themselves to stable surfaces such as a window, a knife driven into the wall, or laying on the floor and hoping the chairs wouldn't hit them. Stan cheerfully thanked them for taking the Knight Bus as he unloaded their belongings, even while he could barely move some of the backpacks due to their weight until their owners picked them up and slung them over their shoulders with relative ease. They were all feeling a little sick from their little trip but that soon passed now that they were all standing on solid ground and silently promised not to take the Knight Bus again if they could help it, ever.

By the time they gathered their belongings Tom the owner of the Leaky Cauldron was waiting at the door with a smile. "Albus told me that you'd be coming, your rooms are prepared and if you need any help just let me know and I'll do what I can."

"Um, thank you sir." Akane says with a bow which was mimicked by nearly all the others, Sasuke merely grunted and looked away while Denko and Ranma bobbed their heads.

Tom lead them all upstairs to their rooms, Ranma, Akane, Denko, and Tsume wound up sharing one room themselves, Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji in another, Shino, Chouji, and Shikamaru shared one as well, leaving Lee, Kiba, and Akamaru to share while Hinata, Tenten Sakura, and Ino took the last room themselves. Apparently there was only one person in the first room on the floor they were on but he was currently out in Diagon Ally, but they didn't pay that any thought as they claimed their beds and dropped their bags before descending the stairs to a table where Tom had a simple meal already prepared for them. Thankfully by then any lingering sickness from the Knight Bus had worn away and they enjoyed their food and drink. The various other patrons in the pub gave them slightly curious looks, though mostly due to the fact they spoke Japanese while they ate, their clothes which may have seemed a bit odd to the Muggles walking outside seemed just as odd to the withes and wizards but seeing as how most of them couldn't even tell the difference between womens and mens Muggle clothes when they tried to blend with the nonmagical population they didn't think anything of them.

They all quickly found that there wasn't any space for them to train in their normal arts and Dumbledore had advised them not to use their wands until they were on the train but study their books instead. So they simply spent the rest of the day reading their school books, meditating, playing card games, or doing simple exercises before bed.

The next day however provided them with some entertainment; Naruto left his room and was walking down the short hallway to join the rest of his friends for breakfast and they wanted to get an early start so they could explore Diagon Alley on their own and without warning the very first door on the floor opened and a black haired boy with round glasses stepped out causing the two of them to crash and due to Naruto's rush they had enough momentum to fall down the stairs in a heap of tangled limbs.

"Ow!" "Itai!" Were the expected cries when they finally came to a stop and those who were witnesses were rewarded for their predictions. "Who are you?" They asked each other at the same time as soon as they managed to untangle themselves from the other.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki" The blond answers.

"Harry Potter." The other boy says. Immediately all eyes in the pub were fixed on him just from the mere mentioning of his name, if they weren't watching already due to their entrance.

"Harry Potter? Cool! Ron told us all about you!" Naruto was excited to have been the first to meet the subject of their mission, even if it was highly unconventional.

"You know Ron? Ron Weasley?" Harry asks with surprise written all over his face, after all he hadn't expected to even see his best friend until he was at King's Cross Station and on the Hogwart's Express let alone literally running into a foreigner who knows him.

"Yeah!" Naruto answers with a big grin and scratching the back of his head, the rest of the ninja and four older friends were watching from their table with interest though that didn't stop Chouji, Ranma, and Denko from continuing the snack that was provided by Tom. "We spent most of the summer at his house learning all kinds of things!"

Harry took a quick look around the pub and noticed that most of the few patrons had lost interest in their unexpected and unorthodox entrance and went back to whatever they were doing but the largest group by far was still watching them with varying degrees of interest. They were all obviously foreigners, probably from Asia, and their clothes varied as much as their appearances from the bright orange jumpsuit Naruto was wearing in front of him, to the girl wearing Chinese styled shirt and pants, to the girl wearing a purple outfit that would seem rather risqué if her stomach and upper thighs weren't wrapped in bandages, to the boy with HUGE eyebrows, bowl-cut hair, and a green full body leotard. The rest of them would appear to be normal in terms of clothing except each of them wore a metal plate with what looked like a leaf etched into the metal, a brown pouch attached to their hips, some sort of case strapped to their thighs, and shoes that exposed their toes. And that was only the younger bunch.

The older kids looked to be no more than three or four years older than him but the blond in green was wearing a short sword at his hip, the rather short, plump girl next to him had a pair of daggers on her lower back, the girl with short hair across the table from them could easily be passed over as she had nothing that truly stood out that he could see but the girl next to her had bright red hair, brighter than any Weasley he's ever seen, that was braided in the back to form a short pigtail.

'This is weird, and I thought I was getting used to weird things since I found out I was a wizard two years ago.' Harry thought to himself as he took in the odd group.

"C'mon, I want to introduce you to minna!" Naruto says with what Harry recognized as a fairly heavy accent, though he had to admit he'd heard worse, more unintelligible accents before, particularly when he still attended muggle school and they watched a video about the American's who live in the swamps, before his mind struggled to comprehend what minna meant as he allowed Naruto to drag him over to his friends.

"Hey! This is the guy Ron and the twins were always talking about!" Naruto proclaims to the others in his usual louder than needed voice.

"So you're Harry Potter then? Don't look like much but that just means they were right." The blond with the sword says before popping the last of the muffin he was eating in his mouth.

"Don't be rude Denko!" The chubby girl next to him yells as she slaps him upside the head and causing him to choke on his food before addressing Harry kindly despite the gagging boy beside her. "We heard a lot about you Harry, from the Weasley's that is. My name is Tsume, nice to meet you."

"Er, nice to meet you too… Is he going to be okay?" Harry says pointing to Denko behind her who was still choking and attempted to get a drink but found all the pitchers on the table were empty before dashing to the bar and grabbing the nearest open bottle with something inside and began gulping it down. Almost as soon as the first mouthful hit his stomach his eyes bulged and slammed the now empty bottle onto the bar and swallowed what remained in his mouth right before he belched out a large fireball and now coughed up small bursts of flame for another minute as he fought to regain his composer.

"Here." Tom handed him a large cup of cold water which was quickly downed bringing relief to his bloodshot eyes. "That was Fire Whiskey you know, it's best to dilute it with plenty of water or tea to drink safely."

"I –cough(smoke ring)- noticed." Denko says weakly before taking another cupful of cold water from Tom with a quick thank you before stumbling back to his seat to find nearly everyone laughing at him in some way. "That wasn't funny Tsume, I'm gonna run your ass into the ground during training for this." That comment stopped her loud laughter quickly and replaced it with a small look of fear before that passed to a small smirk.

The rest of the introductions went well enough see as none of them included the act that Tsume and Denko had provided, or anything close to it. The interesting part was seeing Hinata and Neji's eyes, since anyone he'd known to have eyes that looked like that were blind yet they apparently could see quite well. Shino simply gave him the creeps, something that Kiba joked about claiming the boy gave everyone the creeps. At least the dog named Akamaru seemed normal enough though the puppy and Kiba seemed to hold conversations of their own.

"So what would you like to do? We're all Hogwart's students who are staying here until we have to get on the train." Sakura asks Harry.

"Um, well I guess I'd do what I normally do since my summer homework is done and wander around Diagon Alley." He replies, after all it couldn't be bad to have some company before school started and he could find out what Ron was up to during the summer before sending Errol with the birthday present and the clipping from the Daily Prophet about his family winning a pile of gold and taking a vacation to Egypt. "Did you want to come along? Or do you have something else to do?"

"Oh we're fine, I've already read all of my school books at least twice so far since we've stayed at this inn so I'm sure everybody could do with something a bit different." Sakura answers with a smile while the others in the group rose from their seats and thanked Tom as he shuffled over to collect the plates they had used.

The group of seventeen left the back of the pub and crossed through the archway in the brick wall revealing Diagon in all of it's glory and they proceeded to wander the street looking through the various shops and stalls to see the merchandise that was offered. Harry, who had been doing this almost daily since his arrival at the Leaky Cauldron didn't see much that he hadn't already seen before but he did take great pride and enjoyment in explaining the various things that the Japanese kids pointed out while vaguely wondering if he wore the same look of shock and awe almost every time he discovered something new in the magical world with especially fond memories of when Hagrid had brought him here to get his school supplies for the first time.

During their wanderings they ran across some of Harry's fellow Gryffindor classmates and introduced most of them to his odd group of friends, skipping by Neville Longbottom who was getting chewed out by his grandmother. Upon that sight Naruto had made a small comment that brought nods to most of the group "She's as scary as Tsunade-baachan."

They spent the next few days simply wandering through Diagon Alley examining the various goods in the numerous shops that lined the street. Excitement ran through more than just the group, it consumed nearly the entire population of Diagon Alley midway through the week, the source was Quality Quidditch Supplies and the reason was the display in the window that always had a large crowd who just wanted to stare at the newest model of racing broom to hit the free market: The Firebolt. Naturally Harry, who was the Seeker for the Gryffindor House Quidditch team and an avid fan of the sport in general, was entranced by the broom but cringed when he saw the 'Price on Request' label under it. He soon found himself explaining to the Japanese teens with him the finer details of the sport he loved, the Nimbus Two Thousand that he currently owns, and blow by blow accounts of the matches he's played… not forgetting to mention that with him as Seeker they have never lost a match yet.

The final day before leaving for Hogwarts arrived and so far there haven't been any signs of the Weasley's or their distinctive red hair anywhere, nor Harry and Ron's other friend Hermione Granger. That didn't keep them from wandering Diagon Alley in small groups to continue their quest to see every square inch of every shop they could gain access to. Denko, Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru, and Ranma were even chased out of a shop at one point because they had unknowingly crossed into a VERY restricted section of a shop when they had somehow wandered into Knockturn Alley, thus leading them to be chased back to Diagon Alley while dodging a dozon or so curses and hexes courtesy of the irate shop owner. That didn't stop them from laughing at the man as he hobbled as fast as he could after them, which was like comparing a cheetah and a snail in a race.

When the entire group met up in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies, which had become something of a meeting point whenever they split up due to most of them wanting at least one more look at the Firebolt, they decided to get some ice cream and soon found themselves face to face with a rather freckly Ron Weasley and a freshly tanned Hermione Granger sitting at one of the tables and upon sight the two had waved Harry and friends over.

It wasn't long before introductions were made and the nineteen of them began to work their way back to the Leaky Cauldron while talking about what they did that summer. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley greeted the Japanese youth warmly and began interrogating them about what they did since they had left them with Dumbledore even as they pushed more than half of the tables and chairs together so the entire group could be together for dinner, which Tom really proved himself as an excellent cook and host despite his age.

After dinner was eaten and cleared away, though there was very little left, the large group ascended the stairs for bed so they could be ready to leave the next day for Hogwarts. In their room Ranma, who had gotten splashed, listened to Percy yelling at Ron through the wall while lying on her bed, backpack already filled but open yet so minimal effort would be needed in the morning, Denko's pack was in similar fashion though instead of lying in bed she was attempting to play checkers against Tsume and Akane at the same time though they were distracted by the yells themselves. In the next room Naruto was trying to read one of his school books while Neji and Sasuke meditated on their beds… well Neji was and Sasuke was staring out the window but not moving giving the illusion of meditation though the twitch in his eyebrow occurred every time Percy's voice would rise enough to be heard clearly through the wall (that was fairly often). The girls, while at first were slightly worried about the yelling soon forgot about the argument down the hall due to an unexpected pillow fight that was started by none other than Hinata who threw her pillow at Ino for an offhand remark about Naruto which quickly turned into a giggling free for all. Shikamaru's room was almost like a morgue, with the exception of the slight sound of breathing as all its occupants had fallen asleep within five minutes oblivious to the noise around them, while in Lee and Kiba's room little was happening other than both of them had their ears tuned to the sounds of the pillow fight next door helped by glasses pressed between said ears and the wall.