Mission: Hoguwatsu
A Naruto & Harry Potter Crossover
By: GoldenDragonClouds

Chapter 3: Phoenix Tail

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, nor do I own Harry Potter

Previously in Mission: Hoguwatsu

"So, see you tomorrow? I'll meet you at the training grounds- I can start reading afterwards. I'll help you get started on your training, even if I won't be here for the actual exam."

"Sure." Neji said simply, and Tenten grinned widely.

"Bye then!" she called out, waving, and turned to start running home. So of course she didn't see Neji raise his hand to wave back at her. She had other things on her mind.

Someone knocked on Tenten's front door, causing her to yelp as she slammed shut the book she was reading on her fingertips. She stalked over to her door and yanked it open, glaring at whomever or whatever might have been outside. How dare they disturb her precious research time!

"What do you want?" She snapped.

White eyes stared back at her.

"Oh! H... hi, Neji."

Neji kept looking at her.

"Oh!" Tenten stepped away from her doorway to let him in. "Why're you here?"

Neji held up a plastic bag. "I brought you some take out. You need to eat something other than instant ramen before a large mission."

Tenten accepted the bag, eyeing Neji. He took off his shoes and stepped in, surveying the scene before him. Tenten glanced down at the bag in her hand then back up at Neji.

"And how would you know I..." Neji cut her off.

"Your neighbors told me you haven't been out since yesterday noon. It's lunchtime now."

Tenten laughed nervously. "Just because I've been holed up after training doesn't mean..."

Neji only raised an eyebrow at her, tilting his head at her kitchenette table. It was covered with empty cups of instant ramen.

Tenten flushed with embarrassment.

"S...so?" She countered. "I was studying for my mission! And besides! We've all gone few days with nothing but nutrition bars before!"

"That was when Lee decided to cook during our mission, and ramen hardly counts as nutritious."

Tenten huffed, placing her right hand on her hip.

"Same thing. Now go away and let me get back to reading."

"No, I'm going to stay and make sure you eat."

Tenten sighed, placing the plastic bag on the low table she had been studying at. The tiny kitchen table was too cluttered to even try to clean. There was little space on the low table either, so she had to put a few books down on the floor to make room for them to eat.

She opened the package, looked at it, and looked back up at Neji.

"Neji, did you really have to get herring soba? Again?"

Neji only shrugged. "It's good." He said, taking out the second package from the bag and opening it himself. "Itadakimasu."

Tenten rolled her eyes at her teammate's antics, but dug into her food anyway. Neji was right; the herring soba was good.

Early next day found Tenten in Tsunade's office, laden with two large storage scrolls; one of which that held all her weapons and one that held her belongings. She also had a large pack on her back, filled with the books and scrolls she had been studying in the past two and a half days. But for the first time in a long while, she was wearing civilian clothes in the Hokage's office. Her forehead protector was nowhere to be seen and there wasn't a weapon in sight.

"You may also want to put your hair down." Tsunade was telling her, still rubbing her eyes. "That way you have less of a chance in being recognized."

"Are there any other correspondences with the Elemental Nations in Britain?" Tenten questioned, nevertheless reaching for her hair ties.

"I'm not sure, but we can never be too careful." Tsunade said dismissively. She sleepily eyed Tenten's lengthy hair. "Why don't you just keep it down?"

"I work with weapons." Tenten said, shrugging. "And hair is easily cut by sharp things. When is Dumbudoru-sensei coming?"

"Soon." Said Tsunade. She yawned and reached for the sake bottle in her drawer, obviously peeved at being woken up so early. "Why is it that Arubusu-sensei always picks up someone at dawn or late at night?"

There was a flash of fire, and suddenly Dumbledore was standing behind Tenten, a large red and gold bird perched on his shoulder.

"I can assure you, Tsunade, that I am a very busy man indeed." said Dumbledore, smiling with a twinkle in his eye. "Ah, good morning Tenten."

"Morning?" Tsunade grumbled. "It's barely past the fifth hour."

Tenten blinked. Tsunade had always kept a professional look in front of the other clients, but perhaps Dumbledore-sensei knew Tsunade too well.

Dumbledore peered down at Tenten through his half-moon glasses. "Well, am I correct in the assumption that you have already read the books and scrolls I gave you?"

Tenten nodded.

"Yes," she said confidently in English. She at least knew this word. She was very grateful for that Japanese-English-Japanese dictionary and the English Phrase Book. It had taken her the full extent of two and a half days to manage to translate and read the textbooks and she doubted that she actually understood them all, but at least she had read them.

The Yondaime Hokage's mission reports were the most interesting, however. It seemed that he had a lot of fun at the school and Tenten was now rather looking forward to the mission.

"Excellent, excellent." said Dumbledore in English. "And how far have you studied your English?"

Tenten stared for a moment before frowning in concentration. "Have I studied English read dictionary and book all."

"You mean to say; I have read all of the dictionary and the books?"

"Yes." Tenten said sheepishly. She hadn't understood all of what he said, but she could sense that he was correcting her. Well, it was better than not being able to understand at all.

"You will be going, then?" Tsunade asked, raising her eyebrows at them.

"Yes." Dumbledore said simply. "We shall."

"How we..." Tenten searched her brain for the right word. "Transport to Hoguwatsu?"

Dumbledore smiled at her. "How are we going to Hogwarts?"

Tenten nodded cautiously, noting the way he ordered the words. "Yes. How are... we... going to Hoguwatsu?" (1)

Dumbledore nodded in approval and Tenten felt accomplished.

"You will have to hold on to my arm." Dumbledore said slowly, in English, looking straight at Tenten and gesturing to his right arm. "Tightly. Fawkes will be taking us to Hogwarts."

Tenten eyed the large bird on his shoulder. "How... bird? Take going..."

"Fawkes is a Pheonix." said Dumbledore simply. He gave no other explanations, and Tenten resolved to look up what a feenicks was later.

"Wait," she said suddenly, in Japanese, when Dumbledore started to reach up to his bird. "How am I supposed to send back in-mission reports if I'm in... Suukotsutorando(2)?"

"We'll figure something out." Tsunade said dismissively. She looked as if ready to fall asleep immediately.

"Ready, Tenten?" Dumbledore asked, peering down at her.

Tenten nodded, one arm grasping the straps of her scroll holders and the other with a tight hold on Dumbledore's left arm.

The bird, Fawkes, took off from Dumbledore's right shoulder, beating its wings once, twice, until Dumbledore reached up with his right hand to grasp its' long golden tail.

There was a flash of fire, and Dumbledore and Tenten disappeared from the Hokage's office.

They landed in a whirl of flames inside another rather circular office. It was smaller than the Hokage's office but held a greater variety of items, including a glass ball, some weird looking microscope, and many, many bookshelves. There were four other people assembled in the room; a short and squat yet kind looking woman, a tiny yet old man that didn't look quite human, and a tall, strict looking woman with her hair pulled back in a tight bun, who was currently glaring at a tall black haired man, who was also glaring back at her.

Judging by their flushed faces and strained necks, they had been arguing up till the moment Dumbledore and Tenten had landed in the room. Also judging from Dumbledore's expression, this was a usual occurrence. He was smiling at the four of them.

"Ponoma, Filius, Minerva, Severus. Forgive me for calling you up at this hour." Dumbledore said, inclining his head towards them.

They all nodded at him, not bothering to hide their curious gazes towards Tenten.

"This is Miss Tenten Long. She will be joining us as... an exchange student, from the Konoha Institute of Magic, in Japan." said Dumbledore.

The woman with her hair in a tight bun snapped her eyes back at Dumbledore. Dumbledore only nodded absently, turning to face Tenten.

"Tenten, these are some of the teachers you will be having during the next school year. Professors Ponoma Sprout..." The short and squat woman smiled and gave her a little wave, and Tenten bowed slightly to her.

"Filius Flitwick..." The small man grinned and gave her a little bow, and Tenten, smiling, returned it.

"Minerva McGonagall..." Tenten bowed at the strict looking woman, who only nodded at her with a smile.

"... and Severus Snape." The tall, black haired man nodded once, and sharply, at her, and Tenten bowed again, slightly frowning. She quickly schooled her expression quickly to form a pleasant smile.

"Now that the pleasant introductions are done, we may move into more serious topics." said Dumbledore, his eyes loosing their twinkle. "You may remember the other exchange student, who graduated twenty years ago, also from the Konoha Institute of Magic. His name was Minato Namikaze?"

"Ah, yes! I remember him." The short man, Flitwick, squeaked. "How could I not? Head boy in his day."

The short woman, Sprout, who wasn't as nearly as short as Flitwick, nodded in agreement.

"Many students looked up to him." Sprout said, eyeing the black haired man, Snape. "Including young Severus here."

Snape scowled at Sprout.

"Oh don't deny it, it was plainly Lily and your ambitions to become like him." Sprout said innocently. The other teachers did not even resist the urge to chuckle.

The black haired man said nothing, still scowling.

Dumbledore held up his hand, and the laughs fell silent. "I doubt, however, that you remember why he was here. Even before Mr. Namikaze there had been other exchange students from the same, school, for say, and all were during times of conflict. Miss Long as well, is not just here for her studies. She will be protecting the Hogwarts champion during the Triwizard Tournament."

There was silence in the room as the four teachers surveyed Tenten. Tenten said nothing but gazed back at them, trying to keep her face stern. So far, she was losing her own battle.

Finally, Snape sneered at her. "This... girl, is supposed to protect a student over seventeen in one of the most dangerous tournaments in the magical world?"

So she still couldn't understand much, but even the body language was enough to show that this man was belittling her.

"I assure you, Severus, that Tenten is very well trained in combat situations."

"But will she be able to prevent deaths?" This time it was Flitwick that asked, his voice giving into a squeak at deaths.

Tenten decided it was time for her to speak up. "I is not best, and I is not learn magic. But I is Konoha kunoichi. I kill, I protect. I do I mission."

At the word kill, all four teachers' eyes grew wide. Their jaws tightened, and they stared at Tenten with expressions of varying degrees of horror.

The silence in the room was broken by Dumbledore this time. "Just as she told you, Tenten has not learnt anything about magic. I will entrust her to you for the next month before the start of term. As she is fifteen years of age, she will be joining the fifth-years."

Dumbledore snapped his fingers, and some small humanoid being popped into existence. Tenten's eyes bugged. What was that thing? A summon?

"Yes, sir, Dumbledore, sir!" the being squeaked, "You is wanting Fanny sir?"

The thing oddly sounded a lot like Lee, except with Flitwick's voice.

"Fanny, escort Miss Long to her temporary room. I believe it is in accordance to give her some dinner before sleep. And a small..."

"Sleep?" Tenten asked, bewildered. She switched to Japanese. "As in sleep? It's barely after the fifth hour in the morning!"

Dumbledore chuckled, before smiling down at her. "Tenten," He said in Japanese. "While it may be the thirty minutes after the fifth hour in Konoha, it is thirty minutes after the twenty-first hour here in Scotland. On the fifth day of the eighth month."

He straightened, and turned to the creature, Fanny, again. "And a small bottle of mead for the five of us. Good night, Tenten." he said with a twinkle in his eye.

As Tenten was ushered out of the door by Fanny, she couldn't help but listen to what the teachers were saying about her. It seemed that the Snape man was demanding to know why exactly she was here. A small laugh bubbled up in her throat and she grinned to herself. Judging from the horrified faces of the teachers from before, this mission would be fun.

(1) I don't really want to misspell every word Tenten's saying, as it might just cause confusion. I'll just input funny pronunciations for names and important terms.
(2) Scotland

Author's Note:

Thank yous go to: Cali-Bunny, Little Kunai, Shana, Rigoudon3, illneverletugo, (an anonymous person who is obviously my sister), and IceButterflyXIII.
Special thanks to A.C.Y.P., who corrected my "Japanese"... if you can even call it that. I have corrected the pronunciation in the previous chapters.
Also, to my darling sister... I appreciate your review but... Thanks. Sarcasm intended. :)
Now let's play a little game of guess-which-house-Minato-was-in! (hint hint ^^)
Thanks for stopping by!

Ja Ne,

~Golden