So....even though I updated last week, this is technically your regular update, cause it's been two weeks since my last regular one....that makes sense....right?

And....I really hate being sick....or at least, others being sick. Cause half my school district is....and just the cough I've caught made this a bitch to write, cause if a friend said something funny, I'd laugh...then I'd cough, then I couldn't breathe, so I had to stop writing for five minutes....about....20 times. Thats a lot of wasted time...

but...I am NOT sick

Anyways....

Thanks to my AMAZING reviewers:Kyokoaurora, xXxJaycee81196xXx, FallenHope-Angel, genderless-but straight, CleverBast, Thrae, mangamaniacgurl, TrenchcoatMan, sandninjanaru, Sora Hoshi and NimeLee

I so wanted to update earlier...but....I can't pop out more than one a week....and....like I said....coughing isn't fun

And remember....

I don't own Harry Potter or Naruto.

ON WITH THE CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

thoughts

japanese

'silent communication'

Shino sighed to himself, agitated beyond belief, although it didn't show on his features in the slightest. To anyone, even another shinobi, his teammates excluded, he'd appear calm, as if it was an ordinary day, though it was rather dreary. The reality was far from it.

To start off, whatever mystery he suspected he'd found last night had only gotten steadily more complex in the passing hours. He'd managed to fall asleep fairly easily, convincing himself he'd need his energy and the Kikai would alert him to any threats. And as expected, they did as much. But he still had no idea what to make of the changes.

From what they Kikai had been able to gather, Lexi had woken up far earlier than anyone else in the house, 4:43 to be exact. But it was what happened after that was a mystery. She was meditating, it was easy to recognize the inward flow of energy after working with Hinata for so long. But the Kikai had sensed more than just magic flowing. There had been chakra, and that alone had sent up red flags.

No one else in the school possessed chakra as far as Shino knew, no one but Naruto, Sasuke and himself. He'd checked every RavenClaw after that, and was working through the others, no other chakra had been found. But they'd felt it on Lexi, chakra moving with magic, merging, becoming one substance. It went against everything else he'd expected and it worried him. Who or what was she that she could manipulate chakra, even to the slightest extent. And more importantly, how could he find out without drawing suspicions to himself and the others?

As it was, he needed to speak to Naruto and Sasuke, and he needed to do it now. Clones could cover them for the day, they needed to meet in the Room. Unfortunately, even that wasn't to happen. The Uchiha had mentioned headaches when he got small hints of his past, the slightest of guesses. When Naruto had made his slip, he'd had a fit of sorts. The only thing that had prevented worse the night before had likely been shock, or the mild bloodlust Naruto had radiated for the night. Apparently that had ended around midnight.

Harry and Ginny had found Shino and Lexi on the way to breakfast, a thin boy with bleach blond Shino had yet to speak with trailing behind them. According to them, last night Sasuke had gotten sick. The other boys had woken up, apparently someone had gotten Professor Lupin, and Sasuke had been taken to the hospital wing, Naruto following with him. Naruto, being as stubborn and loyal as ever, had refused to leave his friend's side, and was still with him, apparently trying to help Madam Pomfrey. They'd tried to get him to go to classes with Harry or even without anyone, but the blond had stubbornly replied that he'd been with Sasuke the most and he just couldn't leave him alone. For some demented reason, the teachers had agreed, for a day at least.

Had they been in Konoha, Naruto would have most likely been punished for skipping classes and a lack of discipline. Part of Shino missed that, many students here lacked much discipline and focus. It seemed that after the war, they had retreated to some lala land, where nothing could happen.

He was, however, grateful for Lexi's apparently healer training, because she was instantly rattling off a series of questions, in obvious hopes she'd be able to help the Uchiha. However, the trio knew very little, only that it began with headaches, and that Madam Pomfrey had mentioned the possiblity of needing to restrain Sasuke so he wouldn't hurt himself. Shino wanted to beat the teens for their lack of information, though it still did't show. They'd been through a war, yet they were unable to gather the simplest amount of information. They placed far to much trust in their medics with no thought to it. No Aburame did that, Kikai were to much of a variable, to big of a part of their systems to be worked around, but also an inconvience for more complex exams.

So it was with a throbbing headache from whatever Lexi was, Sasuke's issues, the stream of information from the Kikai (who were now searching every section of the castle for information) that Shino sat at the RavenClaw table for breakfast. He'd expanded his senses far beyond what he did normally in search of more chakra, only to find his own, and the small hum of Lexi's next to him. He didn't like it, surrounded by so much magic, it was no wonder he'd missed it, such a small amount, consumed by the amount of magic in a five foot radius, it was a wonder he could sense Sasuke and Naruto still. He was hopeful he could tune into the girl easier now, sense any chakra activity she had.

Breakfast went with little incident, until the post owls came that is. He hadn't been expecting anything, really now, why the hell would he? But of course, the Number-One-Hyperactive-Knucklehead-Ninja struck again. And of course, he chose the owl that not only landed in a way that it would nearly knock over his tea, but once relieved of its' letter, moved to a brunette a bit down the table, and promptly began to steal her food, ignoring Shino's mostly emptied plate.

Had he not been in such a bad mood, Shino probably would have laughed, but he had no room for any humor as he opened to rolled up parchment. It was from Naruto, which, considering how few people he knew, wasn't that shocking. The message was written in scrawled japanese, half coded, half not. The translation was easy enough though.

Shino,

Sasuke is definately not in good shape right now. I've got a genjutsu up so the nurse lady thinks everything's good and that Sasuke's just really sick. But we've defiinately got a problem here. He's not in good shape, his chakra's all over the place, I'm pretty sure he's scarred shitless, he looks like he's in mental pain more than phsyical. I don't know though and it's creeping me out. I'm begining to think ALL of his memories are coming back, at once. Meaning I don't know who the hell he's going to be when he wakes up. Or even when the hell he wakes up. Listen man, I could really use your help, but he needs time to hopefully get things a little straighter. Come here, after dinner, or before even. Just after classes are over. Please. I know this is putting the mission in danger, and is probably full of bad things you are completely able to yell at me about, but it's Sasuke. And I can't leave him alone like this. I've worked to hard. So come see us after school....with or without Lexi.....we'll do a genjutsu or something. I just can't let him suffer.

Thanks in advance, I hope.

Naruto

Shino closed his eyes for a long moment, grateful for the sun glasses that hid his eyes, the only feature that had the chance of betraying his emotions. On one hand, he wanted to be furious at Naruto, for endangering the mission and therefore the secrecy that would be what got them home, for being so damn obssessed with the Uchiha. But he knew it would be wrong. Sasuke was a comrade, and that meant they needed to stick together, no matter how frustrating things got. So for now, he'd wait. He would trust himself to be patient and...

"Shino...we're going to be late to class if we don't get moving soon."

The Aburame forced his gaze from the coded letter to Lexi. The girl may have been the source of half of his problems, but she was right. They had to blend in, and that meant learning. He could always figure this out later, when Naruto's determined outlook would snap him out of it as easily as a punch from Kiba.

Shino sighed again, standing.

He really missed his teammates far to much.

The hospital wing was not Naruto's favorite place to be, it was almost as far from it as going to Otogakure. The scent of harsh chemicals he would have gotten at home was gone, but instead, it was replaced with the scent of potions, just as overpowering as chemicals, but in so many more varieties.

Of course, that didn't matter much as he twisted slightly on the hard, straight backed chair he'd been sitting on for more than twelve hours. He drew his knees to his chest and sighed, frustration, worry anger and fear welling up inside of him. Sasuke was his, his teammate, his rival, his friend, his family. As far as he was concerned, their bond, and the territorial tendencies of the Kyuubi meant one thing. Sasuke was his. And the fact he was hurting, was driving Naruto insane. The pain had stopped showing on Sasuke's face several hours ago. He now lay on the bed, wrists and ankles unnessecarily restrained, as he was completely unmoving. Only the sound of his heartbeat and breathing was keeping Naruto sane.

The medic had no clue what was wrong with Sasuke. Naruto had told her Sasuke got headaches when he dealt with something emotionally stressful, that he'd thought that would be all that this was. It was truth enough he knew there would be no issues, even if Sasuke were to be questioned immediately after waking up. He trusted the other not to tell their secrets. The bonus was that after the war, the medic would have no trouble believing it, meaning Sasuke would be safe, for a while.

His gaze moved to the clock and back to Sasuke, classes would be out soon. Hopefully Shino would be here soon. He wouldn't be able to blame the bug user for not coming, he had few loyalties to Sasuke, after all, but he knew he would. Creepy or not, Shino was loyal to the people of the village, and if what he'd done on other missions was an indicator, he regretted being unable to help on the initial search for Sasuke. He'd be here, Naruto just needed to wait.

He rocked back and forth slowly, watching with trained eyes as the medic came by, doing what she could to treat Sasuke. He was annoying her, he knew, as he asked what each potion, spell or any method whatsoever was, what it would do, and, if necessary, she probably guessed he'd deny her.

He began to hum, still rocking, as he worked to ignore the Kyuubi's inner musings. As far as the demon was concerned, the witch had no right to be doing anything to Sasuke. He was in pain yes, but nothing was wrong with him. And even as she did things merely to calm him, the Kyuubi wanted her gone. To long of chasing Sasuke, of harnessing power and merging their chakra to get him back. So much training and work and so many times to nearly die, only to have someone else be able to help? It was wrong. And the demon in his mind was to firm in his mind set to accept another idea.

Ten minutes later, enhanced senses alerted Naruto to Shino's presence drawing nearer, his witch companion near her. He could hear the other's calm voice asking for some time alone with Naruto and Sasuke. Claiming he knew Naruto well enough that if he was that worried, he wouldn't want other's nearby.

The girl agreed at least, much to Naruto's pleasure, the Kyuubi was to close to the surface with Sasuke involved. One intruder was doable, two, not so much.

They entered to room, the girl heading to the medic's office, and Shino heading straight towards Sasuke's cot. This close, and Kyuubi enhanced senses could hear the muted thrum of insects that matched the other shinobi's heart rate. It was beyond creepy, but Naruto had long since gotten used to it, and so it was also normal.

He waited until Shino was seated before begining his questioning, "What do we do, Shino?"

The other held up a hand for a moment, before forming a series of complex seals, chakra washing over them. "That depends, this is because we told him?"

"...Yeah...."

"Then all we can do is wait, Naruto. Uchiha is strong, he'll survive this."

"What if he's not the same when he comes back to us though?"

"He wasn't the same when he got here." The other's voice was descisive, he'd been thinking about this, "The Sasuke of Hogwarts is not the Sasuke of Konoha. If Sasuke is remembering everything, there is no telling what he will be like when he returns, but I can guarentee you, he will survive this."

"What if I'm not here when he wakes up? What if he needs me? They won't let me stay past today...."

"You'll need to deal with it, Naruto. Make a hundred clones, transform them , have one be destroyed every fifteen minutes so you get information. Keep just one transformed into a fly have it destroy itself when something happens. You need to survive until he comes to, Naruto."

"But-"

"Would the Sasuke you knew have been happy if you let yourself go? Would the Sasuke of yesterday be happy to see you suffering? What makes you think he will be that different now?" Despite the sharpness of his tone, there was something kind in his voice as well, "Naruto, you need to stay focused. Sasuke may be your top priority, but you can not afford to have him be your only one. No matter how important he is to you."

"He's hurting though..."

"As are you....but would you want him beating himself up for it?"

The answer was obvious, Naruto would beat the Uchiha if he punished himself for something that happened to him. Damn Shino, being able to make some semblence of sense out of this shit. It was useful, sure, but it was annoying as well.

"More things are happening than what you've been dealing with today, Naruto. I have a feeling things will start to change. And if they do, we need to be ready. There's only so much you can do for Sasuke, don't worry about the rest."

Naruto managed a half-smile. "Stop making sense, Shino."

"Nonsense, they put us together for a reason, I'm here to keep you in line."

So....more reviews...may cause faster updates....meaning you get more to read...and...I get really happy...and the story gets updated faster.

So...what's this mean? Reviews are amazing!!! And, you get cookies and soda!!!! (And right now...reviews are as awesome as coughdrops for me....shh....)

So...hope you enjoyed the story and see you!

Oh....and to those of you who celebrate it...HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN!!! Not sure if I can update next week as a present to anyone....so...just in case...have some candy too!!!!!!

~CP