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Chapter 4: Unforgivable Curses

The next morning, the five who slept met Gaara downstairs for breakfast. Throughout the entire meal Ron was talking nonstop about how excited he was for Moody's class.

"Fred and George say he's really something! They say he does stuff that no other teacher has done before," he said as they tried to eat their meal in peace. "We'll probably learn stuff that only an Auror knows!"

"What's an 'Arer'?" Naruto asked.

"They are elite wizards who capture Dark Wizards and bring them to be judged and sent to Azkaban, the wizard prison," Harry said.

"Oh. We've got something like that too, only we call them ANBU and—"

"Maybe we'll learn something cool enough to use against Malfoy," Ron continued, too caught up in his excitement to hear. The blond stuck out his lower lip and pouted as he finished his meal.

I don't think he seems like a big deal, he thought. They take the dark wizards and bring them to a court of some sort and then they're sent to jail? The ANBU track them down and kill them except for special cases. These wizards are too soft.

And so it was with skepticism that Naruto entered the DADA classroom with his four friends. Everyone was eerily quiet and seemed as excited as Ron for their teacher to arrive. When he thought he couldn't bear the silence anymore, the strange wizard entered the room with his wooden leg clanking against the floor and his mechanical eye swirling.

Naruto cringed slightly. He had to hand it to the wizard, that eye of his was creepy; even creepier than the Sharingan and the Byakugan.

The crippled wizard began by taking roll, naming off animals that they had previously learned about (all of which Naruto had never heard of before), and then about curses. The blond was inclined to believe that this "Auror" was a little too fond of curses by the way he described how dangerous and powerful they were. There was an edge of awe and almost gentle caress in his voice.

Completely bored, Naruto took out his wand and began playing with it, tuning out the weird professor. It was a skill he honed after many lessons in the Academy with Iruka-sensei.

" . . . to be alert and watchful. You need to put away your wand when I'm talking, Mr. Uzumaki!" At the mention of his name Naruto jumped slightly in his chair and dropped the wand. Apparently, the mechanical eye could see through solid objects just like the Byakugan could.

As Ron named one of the Unforgivable Curses, Naruto decided it was in his best interest to pay attention. He watched as Moody withdrew a glass jar with three spiders inside and held one in the palm of his hand. For some reason, Ron slid back into his seat as far as he could.

"Imperio!" The whole class laughed as the spider performed a series of acrobatic moves, but Moody did not.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" Everyone shut up.

"Total control," Moody said softly as he made the spider roll around on the desk. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats . . . "

Both shinobi shuddered. They had way too much experience with being forced to do things by an outside, or rather, inside force. Naruto decided that he didn't like that curse very much.

"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, causing everyone to jump.

Naruto turned to Gaara and gave him a grim smirk that didn't reach his eyes, as if saying, Well, we already know how to do that! Gaara gave a small nod to show he understood and focused his attention back to the discussion just in time to hear the boy that summoned him there say, "There's one—the Cruciatus Curse."

"Your name's Longbottom?" The boy nodded nervously and Moody got a strange look in his eye, but didn't say anything else. He grabbed a different spider and enlarged it.

"Crucio!" The spider immediately began to contort in obvious pain. Without meaning to, Gaara gripped the side of the desk he was sitting at so hard that his knuckles were white and he grit his teeth. The spider reminded him of all the lonely nights he spent wrestling with the demon within him, crying out and rolling on the ground in uncontrollable pain. Naruto noticed his friend's distress and was about to tell the professor to stop when Hermione beat him to it.

"Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him?" For an instant Naruto thought she was referring to Gaara, but he followed her gaze and noticed it was Neville she was glancing at, who looked exactly like his shinobi friend. Mad-Eye broke off the curse and put away the spider slowly.

"Pain," he said. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse . . . "

Or know how to merge an innocent child with a demon, Gaara thought dryly, unable to stop himself.

The professor called on Hermione to pronounce the final curse. "Avada Kedavra," she whispered.

"Ah, yes. The last and worst . . . the Killing Curse." As the two shinobi looked up in alarm, Moody procured the final spider and pointed his wand at it.

"Avada Kedavra!" There was a blinding flash of green light and a rushing sound similar to the sound of wings. Naruto fearfully glanced at the spider, which was on its back unmoving.

He shifted his gaze to Gaara and wondered if his ultimate defense could hold up against something like that. In fact, he wondered if the sand defense would hold up against any curse, seeing as how they weren't necessarily solid objects, just beams of energy.

Turning to the spider, Naruto couldn't help but feel that the Killing Curse wasn't all that bad. There was no blood, no mess, no suffering on the victim's part. They just died. However, it was eerie how something as simple as that could kill a person. The blond was grateful no one knew that curse in his world, because it really wasn't a . . . cool way to die. Sure, a person dying was no laughing matter, but Naruto had sometimes envisioned himself dying in an epic battle while protecting his precious people.

" . . . and there's no counter curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." The two shinobi snapped their attention to Harry, who instantly became incredibly uncomfortable.

He survived that curse? Naruto thought in wonder. What does he have inside of him that protects him? Does he have a demon like us? Naruto decided he would have to ask Harry about it later.

They took notes the rest of the period.

Later on that day they were in the common room, doing their homework. Naruto was just about to ask Harry about what happened in DADA, when Hermione came down the stairs and announced she was finished with something. When asked what it was, she proclaimed that it was about spew.

"What's it for?" Naruto asked.

"To protect house-elf rights and—"

"What's a house-elf?" Hermione stared at him in amazement.

"They are magical creatures who are unfairly and unjustly used to work for wizards. This club will work to secure house-elves wages and working conditions and maybe even set some free!" she said with an excited gleam in her eye.

Gaara frowned and looked at Ron who shook his head frantically, pointed to Hermione, and mouthed, No.

Naruto however, did not see Ron, and happily shouted, "I want to join!" Hermione beamed at him approvingly and began furiously discussing how they could achieve their goals while Naruto just nodded along and smiled. He didn't really understand what was going on, but if it meant helping others, he was all for it.

Suddenly the three wizards' attention was focused on some bird that appeared at the window and they abandoned the two shinobi, opting to go over and talk in whispers about someone who was "serious."

Just then Kakashi entered the common room and sat down on the couch next to Gaara, his clothes dirty and it appeared as if his sleeves were slightly singed.

"Where have you been, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto scolded. The jounin yawned lazily.

"Scouting out the grounds of this castle. I ran into Hagrid, and he invited me over to his house. Apparently he is a teacher here and he is in charge of a class called Care of Magical Creatures."

"We have that class tomorrow," Gaara recalled.

Kakashi nodded. "I asked to see what kind of creatures he took care of, and he told me all about them." He said this with a hint of excitement and Naruto understood why. His sensei always had a soft spot for animals, seeing as how he had a whole ninja dog squad, and he undoubtedly missed them. Naruto recalled what they had discussed last night after Gaara had left.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto whispered, sitting up in his bed. The jounin sighed.

"What is it, Naruto?"

"Couldn't you summon Pakkun or something so he could tell baachan where we are? Or I could summon Gamakichi. . . "

Kakashi smiled. "I'm proud of you for using your head Naruto, but I've already thought about that, and it is probably best that we don't." At his student's bewildered expression he explained, "I have no idea where we are. That boy may have summoned us to another dimension or across time. Summoning Pakkun might work, but it could put him in danger and he might be lost forever in some dimensional vortex." Naruto couldn't help but notice his sensei said this sadly.

"Dumbledore-sama promised that he would find a way back, and I can tell that he is a trustworthy person. We'll just have to wait."

Slightly dejected, Naruto nodded his understanding and went to bed.

"The creatures here are amazing, and you will get to see some very interesting ones tomorrow." Judging by his clothes, Naruto guessed that the animal could breathe fire. "I've also found a perfect place to practice sparring," the jounin continued.

"Really? Where?" Naruto was intrigued by this new world, but he wasn't about to get rusty. After all, he was going to become Hokage one day.

"It's this forest right outside the grounds and by Hagrid's house . . . "

That night Gaara sat down in his favorite chair, only to be joined by Crookshanks a few minutes later. He was glad for the company, because he felt even lonelier at night than he ever felt before. He didn't have his siblings nearby, or his sand, and he was in a completely new place that he didn't know much about.

Of course, having his best (and only) friend, Naruto, there with him made it easier. It was nice to be around a person that understood how he felt and what he's gone through. Having the jounin Kakashi was helpful as well, but Gaara really didn't know him that much. He didn't have the same bond that existed between Kakashi and Naruto, which was almost like a fatherly relationship. Or at least, what Gaara thought a father-son relationship was supposed to be. He didn't really have much experience in that matter.

He and Baki were getting along better now, his sensei not having to worry that he'd explode and go on a killing rampage whenever he felt like it anymore. Still, it just wasn't the same.

"Yo." Gaara spun around so fast that Crookshanks fell from his lap onto the floor. The cat hissed at him and bounded away with its shaggy tail held high. The jounin Kakashi was standing by the couch, his hand up in a greeting. Gaara noted with awe that he wasn't able to detect his presence, which was saying something. Gaara had become very adept at sensing people so he could stop assassination attempts before they really even started. He supposed this jounin wasn't known as one of Konoha's finest for nothing.

"How are you?" Kakashi asked. Gaara just shrugged, not really one for words. The jounin smiled.

"Today I learned a new spell, one that I think you'd be interested in knowing." When he was assured he had Gaara's full attention, Kakashi pointed at the floor in front of Gaara and chanted, "Arenous." Gaara's eyes widened in amazement as a pile of sand appeared in front of him, just like Dumbledore had done.

When it was about a foot high Kakashi ceased the spell. "Would you like to learn it? I think it would be useful if you ever needed more." Gaara nodded and the next fifteen minutes was spent learning how to complete the spell and by the end he had produced an ample amount of sand.

"Now," Kakashi began, "I think that carrying around a gourd might stand out a little too much in this world, and using too much sand for your armor would drain you of your chakra, so I've invented a the man had in store.

A few minutes later Kakashi had successfully sewn pockets with magic on the inside of Gaara's robes, and then used a long string of wizard words on each one once they were finished. "Now all you need to do," he said, "is put as much sand into these pockets as you want. The pockets will barely grow in size, and it won't add any extra weight. The last spell I used was an Undetectable Extension Charm. It was a little tricky, but I think I got it down."

Gaara could only stare. Kakashi undoubtedly had to research about all three previous spells and then practice them! The jounin was truly amazing to be able to perform those spells on their third day there.

"Th-Thank you," he said awkwardly. That was the correct response, right? No one had ever given Gaara a present or done something like this before. He had no idea what to do in return. Should he give him a present? A hug? What should he do? As he stood there, struggling to find a way to show his gratitude, Kakashi just smiled and put his hand on Gaara's head, ruffling up his a hair a little.

"I'll leave you to mold your chakra into the sand," he said, handing over the robe before going upstairs. A smile tugged at the corners of Kakashi's concealed mouth. He knew Gaara appreciated what he did for him; the kid just didn't know what to do with kindness. The fact that Gaara didn't even know how to really respond to a gift like that was heartbreaking, and Kakashi cursed the existence of demons like he did all those years ago in that fateful battle. He wished he could take them away from all the poor Jinchuuriki.

Though he acted oblivious and disinterested, Kakashi could see the pain that was in Naruto's eyes every day when he trained him, and that pain was evident in Gaara's eyes as well. The best he could do was try to make their lives a little easier and make them happy.

Gaara just couldn't believe how well the spell worked! He had just spent the last hour or so molding his chakra with the sand. He'd take a break every so often to regain the chakra he lost, then conjure up some more sand using the first spell he learned from Kakashi, and finally filled the pockets with as much sand as was in his gourd and then some. The pockets were a little bulkier, but not much, and Gaara didn't feel the weight of the sand at all, allowing him to move freely.

As he sat down again in the armchair to rest, Gaara felt more at peace. He now was fully armed with sand in case anything happened, and for some reason, his chest felt . . . lighter. He couldn't really explain it more than that.

Pleased with this new feeling, Gaara resumed staring into the fire, twiddling his wand as he did so and waited for morning to come.

The next day around lunchtime, the Gryffindors gathered outside near Hagrid's hut where they would (unfortunately) be joined by the Slytherins. Hagrid was standing next to a bunch of wooden crates which were rattling in a rather odd way. Kakashi was on the other side of the large man, scratching Fang lazily behind the ears.

"Mornin'!" Hagrid said. "Kakashi has volunteered ter help with the lesson today. We'll be workin' with Blast-Ended Skrewts!"

"Come again?" Ron asked as horrible visions of what they could be ran through his mind. Their professor pointed at the crates and several people jumped backwards in disgust and fright after they caught a glance at them.

Naruto and Gaara were the only ones who got closer. Naruto found them to be fascinating creatures, all pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in random places, and appeared to be headless. When sparks erupted from one end of a skrewt, causing it to be propelled several inches, Naruto laughed at them.

"On'y jus' hatched," said Hagrid proudly, clearly pleased at Naruto's approval, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it."

"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice. Everyone turned around to notice Malfoy and the other Slytherins approach. Naruto was instantly reminded of Sasuke; the same look on his face like he was better than everyone else, he noted with a twinge of sorrow. Maybe he could help this boy not end up like Sasuke! He could do that.

"It'll be fun!" Naruto proclaimed enthusiastically. The first step was to become friends.

Draco looked at him with disgust, taking in all his eccentric features. "So, you're the newcomers?" he said looking at each shinobi in turn. Naruto grinned and nodded. Malfoy smirked. "Figures you'd be in Gryffindor! That's where all the freaks go."

All the Gryffindors narrowed their eyes and Harry and Ron slowly inched their hands closer to their wands. Naruto, however, tried again, undeterred.

"Everyone in Gryffindor is really nice! What's Slytherin like?" he asked, trying to be friendly.

"What are you, some type of mutant cat?" Malfoy chided, ignoring the attempts at kindness. "What's with those marks on your face?" He glanced at all three of them in turn. "I knew you were weird, but I didn't realize how much! Perhaps you're just a potion experiment gone wrong, because there's no way—"

"Shut up!" Naruto was fed up with trying to be his friend for the moment. Now Draco was going to pay. The shinobi dug his hand into the weapon pouch he had concealed inside his robe (using a spell Kakashi had taught him the night before) and was about to throw a couple kunai at the slimeball when his arm was surrounded in sand.

He growled at Gaara, who shook his head. Pouting he replaced the weapons and instead glared at Draco, whose eyes were wide in fright as he saw Gaara perform wandless magic, not even noticing the concealed weapons.

"He's not worth it, for now," Gaara said . As he summoned his sand around Naruto's arm back, the Gryffindors watched in amazement as the sand near Malfoy's feet untied his shoelaces and tied them together, which went unnoticed by the Slytherins who were too focused on the redhead. Harry and Ron suppressed a smirk.

"Well—" Malfoy began, but then quickly regained his composure. "Well, I'll have you know that my father is a very powerful person! If you harm me, you'll regret—" At this point he attempted to walk forward but tripped over his shoelaces and fell flat on his face. The whole Gryffindor class erupted in laughter as Draco spat out dirt and rolled over onto his back.

All the Slytherins were fussing over him and helping untie his shoelaces while the Gryffindors cracked up and began slapping Gaara on his back. It was all he could do to stop the sand from reaching out to protect him. Gaara had to keep telling himself that no, he wasn't being attacked so there was no reason to kill or seriously injure the other students. That would probably not go over well with Dumbledore-sama, and Gaara rather preferred to keep his . . . condition a secret.

Unable to prove who did it, Malfoy spent the rest of the lesson giving the shinobi angry glares as they fed the strange creatures lettuce. They looked to be on good terms with Potter, Malfoy noted with glee. Now there were more people to torment.

In the next Defense Against the Dark Arts, Mad-Eye announced that he would be practicing the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn so they could learn how to resist it. Hermione instantly protested, but after being told to leave if she wanted to by Moody she declined the offer.

One by one students had the Imperius curse cast upon them and none were able to fight the curse, except for Harry who half resisted, half complied, resulting in him crashing face first into the desk. Moody was delighted and proceeded to use it on him until he fought it completely, much to Harry's disappointment. When he was finished he limped over to Ron and Hermione.

"Uzumaki, you're next."

Naruto eagerly stepped towards Moody with his hands behind his head.

"Imperio!"

What now? Naruto thought.

Show me some of your power . . . your strongest attack . . . everyone will respect you . . .

So this is the curse? Some stupid suggestion?

SHOW IT TO ME! When Naruto did nothing a sharp jolt of pain coursed through his body and he winced. He had handled much worse though. The problem at hand though was to figure out what to do. Wait until Moody was done and realized his attempts were futile? No—he had something better in mind.

The whole class was amazed at how calm Naruto was; in fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself, while Moody appeared to be having some difficulty with the curse. The shinobi yawned dramatically, then instantly appeared behind Mad-Eye. Not as fast as Rock Lee or Kakashi, but fast enough so that the untrained wizard eyes could barely catch up.

"Is that the best you can do?" Naruto taunted as he withdrew a kunai.

Moody spun around, released the curse, and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" To the shinobi's surprise the weapon was yanked out of his hand and landed a couple feet away.

Everyone was silent for a moment then began whispering at the impressive performance.

"Very good, Naruto!" Moody said, surprisingly cheerful. "You and Harry so far have been the only people able to resist the Imperio curse!" He turned to Gaara. "Your turn kid."

Gaara shook his head. He already had enough experience being told what to do by Shukaku and he was doing his best to avoid situations like that from now on.

"I decline from the exercise."

Moody frowned at his for a second, then turned to Ron. "Your turn, Weasley." Ron cringed and waited for whatever Moody would do to him. "Imperio!"

However, at the last second, Mad-Eye flicked his wrist in Gaara's direction, sending the curse towards him. Everyone held their breath in fear and anticipation as they waited to see how Gaara held up with the curse.

His sand rose up in front of him, sensing danger. However, as soon as the beam of energy collided with his sand it was pushed out of the way and Gaara flew backwards into a pile of desks, clearly not expecting it.

Everyone gasped as the sand dropped to the floor and the shinobi lay there motionless, not even breathing.

Give us a song, a sweet voice pleaded. Just a small song . . . give us a song, we'd all like to hear one.

Gaara got up and vaguely tried to remember a song to sing, but then he caught himself. Why should I?

Just a small song . . . give us a song . . .

Actually, I really don't want to, Gaara thought stubbornly. If that teacher thought he could make him do anything, then he was wrong.

What's this? Someone trying to tell me what to do?

This is MY body, Gaara sighed. How many times do I have to tell you?

Shukaku didn't seem to hear him. Let me out, he said sweetly. Let me out and this person will never bother you again.

Gaara just rolled his eyes. I'm not the weak little 12-year-old anymore. I don't have to listen to you.

Sing! NOW! Suddenly Gaara felt like he had a large headache, as if someone was pounding on his skull to force him to sing. However, Shukaku had given him worse headaches, so he didn't register it.

The demon tried once more, but soon gave up, eager to give his container what was coming to him on the next full moon.

SING!

"Shut up!" Gaara shouted, forcing his sand to charge toward Mad-Eye, who quickly dropped the curse to protect himself.

"Protego!" Gaara's sand collided with a shield of energy and spurted off in random directions before coming back to Gaara. He put the sand back in their appropriate places.

The class was in shock as well as Moody, who still hadn't released his Shield Charm. "Very good," he said, before turning his attention to Ron and dropping the charm. "Now it's really your turn Weasley."

As Gaara calmed down he couldn't help but notice a shadow of a smirk on Mad-Eye's face, as if he were pleased with what happened. He found himself puzzled by the strange reaction. What could it mean?

This is just the beginning of the problems between our favorite shinobi and Malfoy! In later chapters they are really going to have some intense fights between them.

I must admit I normally find it irritating when people the demons talk to their containers, but I feel like it was necessary in this situation. From what we've been told, Shukaku talks to Gaara quite a lot. It's how he was able to warp the redhead's mind and get Gaara to call him "Mother." His seal isn't as powerful as the Kyuubi's, so I feel like he occasionally does what he can to get free, though I feel that after meeting Naruto, Gaara became better able to drown out the demon.