The day for departure finally came. Everyone was on time (for once) and was now standing in the Hokage office holding their trunks.
"Is everyone ready to go?" The Hokage asked as she pulled a sheet of paper out a drawer.
"Hai" was the answer everyone gave.
"Well then, link arms with each other and hold your trunks tightly. On the count of three, Naruto, I want you to grab a hold of the letter on the desk. Alright, 1…2…3!"
Everything went black as the five leaf nin were sucked through a portal by what felt like their belly-buttons. Seconds later they found themselves inside an almost empty hotel type thing.
They looked around the room, trying to see if they could spot the Order members. Sadly, they hadn't been given a description of the people who were supposed to meet them.
"That's them." Rachel said pointing at a red head and a big black dog.
"But there's only one." Kakashi stated. "The letter implied at least two."
"What are you, an idiot? There are clearly two." Rachel then walked up to the man and the dog. "You must be Mr. Weasely." She said shaking the mans hand. She then turned to scratch the dog behind the ear. "And this little cutie must be Padfoot."
"I didn't know Dumbledore told you who was coming--I especially didn't think he'd tell you about Padfoot. But according to the description he gave us, you two must be Mr. Uchiha and Mr. Uzumaki." Mr. Weasely said reaching out to shake Sasuke and Naruto's hands. A loud popping sound came from the other side of the room. "And you must be Mr. Gaara."
Everyone then made there way across the room to greet the Sand Sibs when they arrived. Rachel gave each of the Sibs a hug, and then gave Gaara a peck on the cheek.
"Nice to see the three of you again. Kankuro, Temari…Gaara." Kakashi said scowling (though...you couldn't really tell he was doing it (mask)) at Gaara, who had his arm wrapped around Rachel.
Surprisingly, Gaara was the first of the Sand nin to speak.
"We, the Sand Village, are deeply sorry for the trouble we caused the Leaf. It was a mistake on our part. We had no idea Orochimaru was behind the mission request. He had murdered my father, the Kazekage, shortly before the exams and made invasion preparations while posing as our leader."
"I'm sorry for intruding in on this conversation", Mr. Weasely cut in, "but who is this Orochimaru character."
"He's the 'Dark Lord' of our country." Rachel answered. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that Orochimaru was You-know-Who in a long, black wig. I mean, they're both snake obsessed, power seeking, extremely pale, slit-pupiled bastards on the verge of immortality. Death Eaters are similar to Oro's Sound nin and they both have their eyes on a teenage boy with black hair." The last similarity was directed at Sasuke more than anyone else.
"How do you know so much about You-Know-Who? You haven't seen him, have you?" Mr. Weasely asked in concerned tone.
"N-no...! I haven't..."
"Smooth." Sasuke smirked.
"Shut up."
"Anyways…" Mr. Weasely continued, still slightly suspicious. "For the next two nights you will all be staying here at the Leaky Caldron. Padfoot will be here in case you have any questions." The dog gave a nod and began walking up the stairs as soon as Mr. Weasely apparated away.
The ninja followed Padfoot up stairs, down the hallway, and into a room. As the dog walked through the door, he slowly began to morph into a human form. When everyone was inside, he closed the door and started to talk.
"Hello everyone, my name is Mr. Black. But you can call me Sirius."
"Sirius-ly?" Someone said.
"No, and please--don't say that again." Black snapped then continued. "Harry is fifteen, making him one or two years older than most of you from what I hear. According to Dumbledore, you will all be entering into Hogwarts as fifth years along with him. In order to do this, seven of you will be given a second bracelet. The bracelet will magically morph you into a fifteen year old version of yourself."
"Couldn't we just use a transformation jutsu?" Sakura asked Sirius, who was clearly confused at the use of an unfamiliar word. 'Jutsu?'
"It would use up too much energy." Kakashi explained in a bored tone as Sirius passed everyone, other than Temari who was already fifteen, a bracelet. They each put on their bracelet, grew a few inches (except Kakashi, he shrunk), then walked over to a full body mirror on the other end of the room to study their altered appearances.
'All those years of waiting for my growth spurt to finally come. It just seems like wasted time now.' Kakashi mentally whined while looking at his super short teenage self.
"Is this really what I'll look like in two years?" Asked a slightly disappointed Sakura.
"Yep. Not much of a change, huh?"
"Well. Now that that's out of the way, why don't we go buy your school robes." Sirius said as he morphed back into dog form. The ninja followed him out of the Caldron and into a robes store where the new students were measured for their uniforms. After Sasuke was fitted, he asked the shop keeper if she could put a small fan on the back of his collar.
"Do have to have that symbol on everything you wear?" Kankuro asked.
"It's my family crest. Clothes aren't worth wearing if they don't have it on them." (No, the mental images of non-crested underwear!)
"Rachel, why don't you do that?" Temari asked.
"Girls didn't really do that sort of thing" (that, and I'm not actually a part of the family...).
The clothes were bought on a Hogwarts tab and they all left the shop with at least 5 robes each. They didn't need to buy books because Dumbledore had supposedly already taken care of that.
After being given a tour of Diagon Alley, Padfoot showed them to their rooms in the Leaky Caldron. The Sibs had one room; Rachel and Sakura, another; and Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto, the last. It was getting late so they all decided to go to bed (except for Gaara, for obvious reasons).
The next day, Sirius told them that they were free to do as they pleased since all the required things were done on the previous day. For most, this meant shopping. For others, it meant preparing for tomorrows departure. Rachel and Sasuke both decided to read the textbooks that they were given. About an hour later Sasuke got up.
"I'm done. I'm going to go find Naruto." He said while stretching.
"You're done? You must have used your sharinghan."
"Hn."
"Whatever, cheater, go have fun with your boyfriend."
"Shut up." And with that, he was gone.
Another hour passed and Rachel started to doze off. Her eyes were almost completely closed when she was suddenly shocked by a river of sand covering her. It lifted her from the bed she was reading on and sat her down on Gaara, who was in a chair in the next room.
"What--I was sleeping."
"I need to talk to you."
Rachel shifted so that she was sitting up straight in his lap. "So talk."
"It's been a month since the last time I saw you."
"Yeah, and now we get to spend the next year together."
"But what about after that. I don't think I can take a long distance relationship."
"We can worry about that when the time comes. But not now."
Just then, the door that had been closed slammed open. In walked a furious looking masked man.
"Gaara, Rachel, just the people I wanted to see." The grey haired jounin said as he entered the room. "Since this is a mission, you two will need to behave. This means: no kissing, no hugging, no poking, no staring, no arguing, and no touching. Starting…NOW!" At those words, Kakashi scooped the girl up and out of Gaara's lap and then bolted out of the door with Rachel still in his arms.