He had learned quite a bit from the ninja, he found that he was rather good at protecting himself from attacks, which he was still refusing to tell any of them how he learned them. He was also getting better about going on the offensive, though he still froze up from time to time. Raven said it was only natural but they were going to do every thing they could to break him of the habit, because, as they all quoted so often. "Hesitating could mean life or death..." Harry muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Ron asked as he pulled open the doors.
"Nothing, just talking to my self. Come on, let's find Nick." Harry said. As they made their way into the room, they saw hundreds of ghost floating about, chatting amongst them selves. Ron spotted a table with food on it and he pulled Harry along toward it, but when they got there, the food was so rotten Harry doubted even some one starving to death would eat it.
"I would not eat that if I were you, or I am afraid you might become more like the other guest then you would care to be." An amazed voice warned behind them, scaring Ron half out of his skin.
"P-Professor Hatake! W-what are you doing here? I thought t-teachers were at the f-feast?" Ron stammered out. Harry glanced around the room not spotting what he was looking for and then back at the sudden appearance of the teacher.
"Well, I'm not one for big crowds of people, this is more... homely, but that doesn't seem to be the right way to describe it." 'Professor Hatake' said, putting his fingers on his chin in mock contemplating.
"More quiet." Harry pretended to offer, going along with the flow.
"More quiet, yes that would describe it better. Now if you will excuse me, I see a rather young and attractive looking ghost over there." 'Professor Hatake' said, pointing in a random direction and taking off that way.
"Man I'm starting to think Professor Hatake is a closet pervert or something, I mean, what's with that book he's always reading? And he's always complementing the girls. It's creepy." Ron groaned out. Harry shrugged and turned when he heard Sir Nicholas greet them.
Harry and Ron decided to leave about half way through the Deathday Party so they could hopefully get something to eat from the feast. On the way Harry heard a whispering voice, threatening to kill. He dashed down the hall only to collide with a swirling mass of blond hair, Ron nearly crashed into the two of them but managed to stop in time.
"Naruto! What are you doing here? And Harry why did you take off like that?!" Ron shouted, but Harry and Naruto didn't seem to hear him, their heads were turned to the hall wall. Ron looked to where the attention was transfixed and gasped, there hung Mrs. Norris by her tail and on the wall was written
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
Before any of them could speak, Malfoy and some other students showed up, Hermione made her way through the crowed to her friends. Malfoy looked at the trio not even noticing Naruto.
"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next Mudbloods!" Malfoy said. At this Naruto stood and glared at Malfoy, he was about to make a remark but was interrupted.
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Filched demanded as he pushed through the crowed. He spotted Mrs. Norris.
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"My Cat! My Cat! What has happened to Mrs. Norris?" He screamed, then he spotted the four students standing just beside her.
"You! You've killed my cat! You murdered her, you monster! Filth, I'll kill you! I'll kill-!" Filch face twisted into outrage at being interrupted mid sentence. It took a few seconds to register in Naruto's mind that it wasn't him Filch was yelling at, but Harry.
"Argus!"Dumbledore had shouted, him and several other teachers made their way to the group in front of the wall, the crowed parting to let them through. Dumbledore moved and detached Mrs. Norris.
"Come with me Argus to my office, you four as well please." Dumbledore ordered calmly, Gilderoy offered his office down the hall and Dumbledore agreed.
Dumbledore walked into Gilderoy's classroom, set Mrs. Norris on Gilderoy's desk and began examining her. All the while Gilderoy explained that they probably tortured Mrs. Norris with a curse until she died and that he knew the perfect counter curse. Dumbledore explained she wasn't dead, but Petrified.
Filch accused Harry doing it for revenge, because he found out that he was a Squib, Harry then said he didn't do it and that he didn't know what a Squib was. Filch called him a lair and a murder and that he deserved justice for the cruel act committed against his cat. Naruto could tell Harry really didn't know what a Squib was or that he committed the act, but it was his word against Filches and seeing as it was Filch he would be trying to convince, it was pointless to even try.
Snape brought up that they may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but then added that there was a string of suspicious circumstances and that he doubted that was the case. He then questioned why they all were not at the feast.
Harry and Ron said they were on their way to the dorms after the Deathday party, when they bumped into Hermione. Snape then questioned why they didn't go to the feast, which the countered with the fact they weren't hungry. Snape then turned to Naruto with a quarked eye brow.
"And what about you? Your dorms aren't in that direction." Snape asked and Kakashi Sensei shot him a look for questioning Naruto in front 'civillians'. Naruto figured Kakashi was hoping Naruto had a good enough explanation, and not that he was just doing his job.
"I heard a scratching noise, it sounded like it was coming from the wall, so I was followed it, I thought maybe it was a rat or something, thought if I found out where it's nest is I could tell a teacher and they could dispose of the infestation. I would rather think this school being filled full of supposedly competent, if not famous wizards would be able to dispose of something as common as filthy rodents, though I must say, I seem to never hear them in the dungeon, which is kept pleasantly clean and rodent free." Naruto added a sneer to Gilderoy and the other teachers apart from Snape and Kakashi Sensei, he was only practically lying after all, it did sound like a rodent, a large one, but he would keep that part to himself, no use getting on Snape's bad side.
His cover story seemed to work because Professor McGonagall was miffed that Naruto would even suggest that Dumbledore or any other staff member, her giving a quick glance to her left said Gilderoy was excluded from that, was incompetent. Snape on the other hand let a sneer of satisfaction creep across his face. Naruto didn't hate Snape, but when that man was staring some one down, he could give Ibiki Morino a run for his money.
Naruto thought things couldn't get worse for poor Harry, until Snape started talking about taking Harry off the Quidditch team, luckily McGonagall stepped in. Gilderoy said something about whipping up a mandrake potion in his sleep to cure Mrs. Norris, causing Naruto to nearly bust out laughing when Snape put him in his place saying it was HIS job as potions master to make the potion.
After what seemed like for ever, Naruto and the other three were finally allowed to head back to their dorms. Which Naruto was grateful for, teachers sure liked to round on students in this school as much as Iruka Sensei did, only it's multiplied by ten considering there were more teachers.
Over the next few days made Naruto want to bash in Filches head. He was parading around the school giving detention to kids for breathing too loud, or smiling. Not only that, now he was paying more attention, which was making the ninja's nightly rounds harder. The staff apart from Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape didn't know there secret, so it made sneaking around nearly impossible... for the others anyway. Sai seemed to manage, but Sakura had been caught twice already, she had gotten out of trouble with cover story that she couldn't sleep and was just taking a quick walk to tire herself out.
Sunday before the first Quidditch match, Naruto was on his rounds when noticed that spiders were crawling strangely, he brushed it off as he made his way to the field to check everything was in order. When he arrived Sakura and Sai were already standing there.
"Ohiyo Sakura-chan, you two find anything here or is everything good to go?" He asked the two. Sakura sighed and looked around.
"We couldn't find anything, but it's hard to tell, none of us know dark magic detection spells, it's not even something you can learn in the library, you either have to buy the books or become an Auror." She sighed out in frustration. Sai was smiling like usually and turned toward the tall stands where they, and the rest of the school, would be watching the games.
Naruto entered underneath the cloth covering, there were winding stairs up to the platforms where the Slytherin benches were. Naruto was at the top faster then the eye could see after a quick sires of leaps, he exited and walked over to the edge of the stand to get a front row seat. The stands filled quickly when the game was about to start, Naruto noticed Sai and Sakura had taken seats toward the back on the Gryffindor side, but it didn't matter.
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It didn't take long for Harry to notice that something was wrong with one of the bludgers. He had been hovering to one side of the field watching for the snitch when a rouge bludger came hurling at him. Most people would think he had narrowly missed it by luck when he started after the snitch, but Harry hadn't seen the snitch until he was already dodging the bludger.
Harry shoved Draco out of the way to grab for the snitch, but the bludger nearly took the both of them out, Harry had to drop and hang off his broom in order to dodge. Just as Harry was about to swing back up onto his broom the bludger came back around. He let go with the hand closest to the back of the broom letting the bludger whistle by, then twisted back using the momentum to swing himself up onto the broom again.
Gryffindor cheered Harry on when he, once again, was side by side with Malfoy for the snitch, the crowed gasped in shock when Harry was just about to clasp his hand around the snitch and the bludger collided with his arm, knocking him off his broom. Naruto was on his feet doing a flash of handseals so fast that the other students wouldn't be able to see his hands move, even if they were looking. Naruto cast a notice-me-not charm on the newly formed shadow clone before it launched it's self off the railing toward the plummeting Harry.
The clone wrapped it's self around Harry turning so that Harry was facing up as they hit the ground. A large cloud of smoke exploded around Harry when they hit, his fall mostly broken by the clone. Harry sat up and held up his good arm up with the snitch firmly in his grasp and cheers erupted from the crowed as the smoke cleared.
To Harry's dismay Gilderoy was the first one on the scene and ended up turning his broken arm into a jelly arm with no bones. Lucky for Harry, Madam Pomfrey had a potion called Skele-Gro that would regrow his bone, much to the fascination of Sai. The shinobi had shown up shortly after Ron and Hermione left.
"You know I could cut Malfoy's spine out and see if Madam Pomfrey could regrow that, what do you think smighty clumsyton?" Sai suggested. Harry would have retorted about the insulting 'nickname' but a sharp twinge in his arm made him grit his teeth, he really hated Sai some times, but at least smighty clumsyton, in reference to his not so graceful fighting skills, was a lot better then dickless wonder or banshee.
"Yeah, and you could call him spineless chicken, but seriously I don't think he was the one who cursed the bludger, it was too smart of an idea for him. Besides, we won, that's all that matters." The shinobi left so Harry could get some rest and report that Harry was okay to the others.
After he was released from the hospital wing he rushed off to find Ron and Hermione to tell them about what happened that night. When he did find them he told them about what Dobby said and that Colin Creevey had been Petrified. Then Hermione told them that the Polyjuice Potion would be ready in two weeks, just in time for Christmas break.
Hermione and Ron still had their doubts about the new students and teachers but Harry assured them that they really weren't that bad. Ron wasn't convinced and Hermione looked only slightly less doubtful.
A week later they were on their way to dinner when they noticed a small group of people around a notice. Seamus motioned excitedly for them to come over.
"They're starting a Dueling Club!" He exclaimed. Continuing on to the Great Hall for dinner, the three of them agreed to join the dueling club.
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That evening at roughly eight, Naruto and Sakura made their way down to the great hall where the dueling club would be taking place. He caught a glimpse of Raven on the ceiling hidden behind the fake sky when he entered, the great hall had been completely transformed. In the center stood a long plat form where he assumed the duels would take place, he also guessed it would be a wizarding duel because that wasn't enough room for a practical defense fight, so that ruled Kakashi Sensei, Itachi and Kisame out for teaching this class, he hoped to kami that it wasn't...
"Good evening every one! If you would so kindly gather around, we're ready to start." Gilderoy announce as he strode in, Snape seething behind him, obviously he didn't volunteer to help out.
It amused Naruto to no end watching Gilderoy get thrown off the stage with Snape's spell, unfortunately the baka got right back up and passed it off as showing the students what it would be like to get hit with a spell. Che, as if the dobe would know how to block a spell, even if it were drilled into his head with a hundred years of training.
'You'll never beat me, dobe...' Naruto let out a sigh. He wondered if Sasuke saw him like that, as he was now looking at Gilderoy, maybe he shouldn't underestimate him. Who knows, maybe the pansy persona is just an act, a mask? Naruto paused in his thinking. Who was he kidding, this guy wasn't faking, even if he was... there's no way their act could be that perfect, hell, even his own wasn't perfect.
Naruto shook his head and looked to the stage as Draco and Harry were called up, he really needed to pay more attention, it vaguely registered that they were requesting volunteers. He watched as Gilderoy pretended to drop his wand while showing Harry a blocking spell. He smirked in satisfaction when Harry dodged the spell Draco sent one second before the proper time to attack. He was even slightly proud that Draco managed to dodge the returning spell, it seemed Kakashi Sensei was managing to actually teach some of them something.
Though most were no where near improving, they just went through the motions of the class so that they wont get failed... well, any less then they already are. Even though they're grade will be failing for the whole class, there is that, just barely failing mark. That Youngest Weasley boy Draco's always complaining about is probably the worst at the class, he doesn't even hardly try. He's kind of like another shinobi Naruto knew, maybe the kid is smarter then he looks, cause he sure as hell isn't stronger then he looks.
(Some where in Konoha.... Shikamaru's playing shogi with Azuma Sensei when he sneezes accidently messing up the bored. "Awe man, mendokuse, now we have to start all over again.")
(Mendokuse- What a drag /or/ How troublesome)
Naruto rolled his eyes as he heard gasps of terror when Draco conjured a cobra, didn't they know there's anti venom for those kinds of bites and it's rare that any one dies these days from a bite? Loose an arm, leg, toe or finger yeah, but no one hardly ever dies anymore. Gilderoy tried to get rid of it, key word being tried, but only managed to shoot the snake into the air, agitating the thing more then it already was. It reeled it's head back about to strike when Harry began to speak to it, or rather that's what he thought any way.
Harry had no effect, the thing was pissed, it was striking, Naruto wouldn't make it in time to stop it just as it was going to sink it's fangs into the fear paralyzed student, but it's fangs sank into the arm of some one else. Raven stood there in front of the student body, in his Anbu glory, with a snake attached to his arm. Raven made what sounded like a tsk'ing noise at the snake before removing it from his arm.
The snake's head sank as if to apologies, then wound it's self around his arm and rested his head on the back of Raven's hand like a bracelet. Just like Harry, Raven spoke to the snake, then to Harry, who nodded and smiled to the snake, then, Raven was gone in a cloud of smoke.
"Sasuke." Sakura breathed out just loud enough Naruto just barely heard it as an eruption of screams filled the hall. Sakura looked at Naruto before taking off in the direction Raven she thought Raven had went, Naruto glanced at Harry before quickly catching up with her. No one noticed as Harry bent down to pick something up before Hermione and Ron could drag him out of the hall.
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A/N Okay I would like to point out that the part where Harry is following the voice and Naruto runs into him from the other direction because he hears the scratching noise is not a mistake, remember ninja can highten their sense, like hearing, so even though it was pretty far away Naruto heard it anyway... that last part ryhmed... -_-" why do I ryhm when I'm not trying but cann't when I am?
Ron: "Because you're Mental."
Author: "You might have a point there.... considering the voice of Ron, in my head, just told me so..."
I would like to apologise for the LONG wait, I was so excited to get close to a part of this fan fiction that I REALLY want to write, but then all of the sudden I had a writters block on how to get there. T-T I tried to make this chapter farly long to make up for the long wait! Also I just moved so that made the wait even longeer! I've had this done and ready to go for about two weeks or so. T-T But I couldn't get to a computer to upload it.
I'd say sorry for the cliff hanger... but I'd be lieing. :3
Also, for those of you who are wondering, yes Sasuke is mention and will be in this story, and yes Orochimaru is still alive. ^_^
Reviews modivate me!
*Sulks.* I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter. Maybe that's the cause for my writters block, humm? What do ya think about that? huh? huh? yeah well feel guilty!
*Chuckles.* I'm only kidding, it's not your fault! honestly! I just be goofy!
Author: "Wait don't sue! I don't mean Diseny's Gooffy! I just meant I was acting goofy!!! *Cries.* I don't own Gooffy! I swear it! Or any thing else related to this fic!" Continues ranting and explaining.
Ron: "Great, she's gone mental again... and on a tangent." Sigh. "Her name should have been Dorie, like that stupid fish." Lawers start moving in. "Don't look at me, I did not mention any movie titles and you don't personally own the name Dorie, I could have been talking about my pet for all you know. attack her she's the stupid one saying copy writted stuff."
Naruto: "I knew he was smarter then he looks!"
Author: "Wait, aren't you bother currently a figment of my emagination that a derrived from fictional stories that I have alter to fit my own fanfiction needs?"
Ron&Naruto: "Yeah..."
Author: "Then why the hell am I reffuring to my 'self' in the second person and to the second person in second (or is it third) person as I'm saying I'm smarter then I really am, while I'm calling my self retarded at the same time?"
Ron: "How are we-"
Naruto: "-suposed to know? It's your-"
Ron: "-head after all."
Author: "And this, ladies and gentelmen, is why I'm never bored in side of my own head." Sighs and beats head on computer desk.
Ron: "Like I said, she's mental."
Naruto: "Dattabayo!" (Believe it!)