Disclaimer: I do not own either Harry Potter or Naruto.

The Halfblood Prince: Rise of the Rinnegan

Chapter 3

Normal Days, More or Less

--

'I'm screwed. No, not screwed, more like royally fucked'

Ron mentally groaned out in frustration at his current predicament as he awoke earlier from a chilling nightmare and discovered that his eyes had changed into metallic white less orbs with ever widening circles from the pupil outwards. To make matters worse his best friend had just arrived and knowing Hermione she would fuss and worry over him like his own mother, then find out everything she can about the eyes which would lead to questions pertaining to where he was sneaking off to over the past couple of weeks. Hermione is his best friend but she could be a little overbearing sometimes and he did not want to suffer her questions.

'Alright Ron , how the hell are you going to get out of this mess without Hermione finding out about your creepy new eyes? I can't use a henge to disguise the eyes as it would dispel if something manages a strong hit to land on me. Argh!! What am I going to do?'

With haphazard looks around his room, Ron frantically began searching for something that would help solve his problems. Several seconds had gone by with Ron having no luck, the footsteps of his sister and best friend were becoming louder and louder as each foot climbed every wooden step higher and higher, his time of finding a solution to his current dilemma slipping away as the sounds came ever closer to his room. Striding towards the last unopened drawer, Ron hastily grabbed the brass handle and quickly pulled drawer open and there standing in the drawer between the mess of his Keeper gloves, old letters from his friends and family, and other objects was his solution, his answer, his saviour given in the form of old worn out Quidditch goggles. The goggles themselves were old and worn out as usual much like most of his belongings, nonetheless the goggles would serve to hide his eerie new eyes from his family and especially Hermione as the lenses were tinted black to reduce the harsh glare from the sun. Grabbing the goggles from inside the drawer, Ron struggled haphazardly to put them on as the door burst open with the wooden entry to his room swung violently to the other side from the harsh kick that no doubt came from his sister.

"Wakey wakey Ronniekins, Hermione's here."

Turning around to face the door with the goggles still messily lodged onto the top of his head; there standing before him at the other side of the entrance to his room was an annoying red-headed little sister and his bushy haired best friend.

"Ever heard knocking Gin? You should try it sometime before kicking in people's doors around..." Ron said in exasperation while rustling a hand through his mess of hair.

His sister however just snorted and rolled her eyes as she ignored his jibe glancing towards her companion giving each other an amused look.

"Well I hope it certainly woke you up insensitive git. You weren't even there to greet...Ron what the hell happened to your room? It looks like a herd of hippogriffs stampeded through it, not that your room was in better shape than before."

Ginny said as she and Hermione took in the view of the state of chaos that was called his bedroom.

'Think quickly, think quickly'

"I thought there was spider in the room..." Ron muttered awkwardly faking embarrassment while on the other hand Hermione and Ginny shared a knowing look and were trying very hard not to let their wide grins and giggles transform to full-blown laughter at the mention of Ron's fear.

Knowing that any additional humour on their part would further embarrass Ron, the girls quickly stifled their laughter and sniggers to a minimum; however unbeknownst to them he was assessing their reactions with bewilderment and confusion.

'That's odd; they haven't even begun interrogating me about my eyes yet. With the way they look I'm pretty sure they would have notice them by now...'

"It's nice seeing you again Ron, I've missed you."

Ron was quickly brought out of his reverie by a set of bronze arms wrapping around his torso and head of bushy brown hair obscuring his vision underneath his chin. With the slight shock quickly fading, he thought that they must have looked like a sight, considering that he was about a head and a half taller than Hermione but the feeling of being hugged by her was a pleasant feeling so with a slightly awkward start he slowly embraced his arms around Hermione's smaller frame.

"Hermione... I-I...w-well I just... I missed you too..." Ron muttered softly into her hair as he continued to hold her in his arms.

On the other hand, Ginny was looking amusingly at the pair as they seemed to be hugging the life out of each other. It would have been better if she had a camera to take a picture so that she could probably use it for blackmail later but her stomach silently growled in protest for the lack of food in it. As much as it was cute looking at the two her stomach needed feeding so with a loud cough,

"Ahem."

At those words, Ron and Hermione jumped slightly and broke away from each other with a speed that would rival Harry's firebolt, however in his haste Ron's foot landed on one of his Chuddley Cannon's figurines awkwardly thus resulting in giving Ron another lesson about gravity and mass. However it seemed that gravity would be the loser in this battle as Ron managed the brief time of his backwards freefall, the taijutsu training came into effect as he was able to land on his right hand, then using the momentum from the fall, he pushed off into the air forming into a one handed back flip with his feet coming to land on floor solidly.

"Ron...that was amazing! H-How did you do that?"

Hermione stammered as she and Ginny were flabbergasted at the display of acrobatic skill that he had just performed. Ron on the other hand was feeling deep confliction as he silently cursed his new abilities and instincts because it was going to be difficult to explain or rather lie about the show he had just foolishly exhibited in front of two of the most annoyingly inquisitive girls he has ever known.

"Oh...W-well...Honestly, I have no idea how I just did that...I guess all that quiddich exercises I've been doing lately have paid off...hehe"

He chuckled sheepishly while he rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand while he gave the girls nervous if only slightly looks.

'Quidditch exercises?! That was the best you could come up with?!'

Ron's mind mentally shouted at him in fury at the more than slightly obvious lie that managed to dreadfully escape from his lips.

"Whatever. Anyway I'm starving so let's go get some breakfast."

Ginny said irritably as her stomach once again grumbled quietly reiterating the empty void that is her stomach and with a huff she strode out of the room, her footsteps landing on the creaky stairs echoing throughout the upper floor.

Shaking their heads at his sister's display, Ron and Hermione made to move to follow after her for some much needed nourishment as well however Ron stopped in his tracks as he turned towards the bushy-haired brunette with a small smile and said,

"Hermione, you go on ahead and I'll follow you in a bit. I've just gotta go to the loo for a moment. Kay?"

"Alright, I'll save you some food before Ginny and the twins eat it all"

Hermione replied in amusement as she went down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen.

The smile swiftly vanished from Ron's face as he removed the goggles perched oddly on the top of his head and made his way towards the bathroom to figure why Hermione and Ginny weren't blazing up a storm about his eyes. Upon reaching the bathroom he hurriedly locked the door then moved to stand in front of the mirror to examine his eyes and stared in shock at the reflection. A set of azure orbs stared back at him save for one distinct attribute.

They were his eyes or rather they were his normal eyes.

--

"Whew..."

Ron breathed out a sigh of relief seeing that his reflection in the mirror was back to as normal as can be sans the normal Weasley freckles that were liberally spread all over his body. He walked out of the bathroom and climbed down the stairs onwards to the kitchen to join his family for some breakfast. Due to some residual tiredness from having his slumber cut short because of slightly more than horrifying dreams... err...nightmares... on his part; it was a miracle for him that he managed to even move however the scene facing him facing him in the Weasley kitchen certainly shrugged off all that drowsiness.

"...non, non, non, no. You are putting too much salt and pepper in ze eggs, and zis cream ees too 'eavy for them..."

Ron struggled not to laugh as Fleur fussing over making breakfast which made his mother look like she sucked on a lemon with the way her lips were pursed into a thin line in silent fury while Ginny and Hermione were sitting at the table with slight grimaces painted on their faces which would normally have been unnoticeable to most however it was painfully obvious to him. It was a mystery to him why his sister, mother and now his best-friend were giving hostile looks to the French woman.

'I don't think I'll ever understand women...'

In fact, it was a miracle in itself that Fleur was still standing and not a crumpled heap lying on the floor of the kitchen from being hexed by his mum because he knew her well enough that the kitchen was her domain, and Fleur giving suggestions and imposing her style of cooking in said domain was viewed as a threat. Looking at his brother's fiancée in one of his mum's aprons doing a good impression of a graceful hurricane, if it were possible, in the kitchen with the way she prepared and cooked meals that looked expensive, and elegant, Ron knew that in her own way was trying to give a good impression to her future in-laws.

It seemed that the women were too absorbed with what they were doing to notice that he had just entered, a soft amused chuckle escaped from his lips as Ron decided to let his presence be known to the others with a soft grunt,

"Ahem."

Hermione, Ginny, and his mum jumped slightly in surprise while Fleur continued to cook.

"Ron! You're up earlier than usual. I would've thought you would still be asleep." Mrs. Weasley said while setting up the dining table with plates and utensils.

"Well I was but someone was apparently shouting loud enough that the muggles in the village could hear." Ron said nodding his head in his sister's direction with a slight bite of sarcasm.

Ginny responded by giving him a harsh glare and flipping him the bird, whilst on the other end of the table Hermione rolled her eyes at the slightly childish antics of her friends. Ron walked from the kitchen door towards the table and sat himself down in preparation of gorging himself on whatever Fleur was making.

--

Hermione watched Ron move to the kitchen table, grabbed a chair and sat himself down ready to eat, however as he took his seat she was shocked by his appearance as the sunlight poured in from every window illuminating the Weasley kitchen in a warm glow. Her eyes took in his porcupine spiked hair which was a much darker hue than his family very close to blood red, and skin was a great deal paler than before in addition to being now freckle-free. Her upper teeth bit softly on her lower lip in anxiety as she considered whether to voice out her concerns about his transformation or not. Gathering her resolve she made to question him however it seemed that she was beaten to it by an irritatingly melodious voice belonging none other than to Fleur Delacour,

"Ron, what 'appened to you? You look very different than you were yesterday no?"

"Really? I don't think anything has changed." Ron ignorantly moved his head and gazed down to look at his body and arms to see if there was anything wrong with him, while Hermione mentally rolled her eyes at his usual obliviousness.

'Honestly...how thick can he be? Did he not look at himself in the mirror when he went to the loo?' Hermione thought dryly with a small smile as she watched her idiot of a best friend continue to inspect himself.

'I guess that answers that question. Then again this is Ron...he wouldn't notice if a skrewt was on top of his face until someone pointed it out to him...'

Fleur stretched out a hand and grabbed one of Ron's arms and quickly inspected seemingly as if to ascertain that the numerous freckles that peppered his skin were now gone. A feeling of irritation washed over Hermione as she glared at Fleur touching Ron's arms while his family looked in shock at the revelation as well yet she was mildly surprised and more than slightly smug at the reaction from Ron as she noticed he flinch slightly at the contact and slowly removed his arms away from her grasp. She was not blind to the effects of Fleur's Veela heritage on men especially Ron considering that he himself fell under her spell a few years earlier but this in itself was astonishing.

'That's odd... shouldn't he be a dribbling mass of drool from having a pretty girl like Fleur touch him? Why would he flinch like he was just scalded by hot water? What is going on with you Ronald?'

While Hermione continued to ponder Ron's newfound strangeness, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, and Fleur seemed to be bickering about what to do about the changes done to his body. Surprisingly enough, Ginny was siding with Fleur on whether to send Ron to St. Mungo's to have a Healer examine him for any problems

"He should be sent to St. Mungo's so the Healers' there can figure out what is wrong with my son!"

Mrs. Weasley angrily stated as she grasped Ron's arm firmly and began dragging him by the arm towards the fireplace so that they could Floo to St. Mungo's, but Hermione could clearly see the look of horror on his face as his heels were digging into the floor in futility at attempting to stop his mother's tirade.

"Mum...look I'm...mum c'mon...seriously I fee-...MUM!" Ron cried out fiercely in defiance, ripping out his arm from his mother's grasp as the occupants in the room could only gape in shock at his sudden outburst.

"Mum...look, I know you're worried about what happened to me but I'm fine. I'm not sick or infected with anything...I just look a little different,-" Ron spun around slowly as to show that he was in all appearances perfectly healthy and normal.

"Madam Pomphrey said to me that there would be some residual effects of the brain's attack and that they would soon fade in time, so...please don't worry..." Ron said calmly with a hint of pleading in his voice.

Hermione was stunned to say the least by Ron's response to his mother's overreaction to his physical change in appearance. While she could understand the Weasley matriarch`s concern for her children as she cared for Ron a great deal it was baffling in her eyes as he was never this calm and collected especially when speaking to a frantic Mrs. Weasley. She noted that his response was composed and if she wasn`t watching very closely, subtly calculated as she watched Mrs. Weasley calm down considerably than before.

The brunette was shaken from her musings when Mrs. Weasley gave her son in the mother of all the fiercest hugs, with Ron's face looking like a deer caught in the headlights as he was also stunned by his mother's actions. Hermione's lips quickly formed an amused grin as she saw the youngest Weasley son return the hug albeit very reluctantly and awkwardly. It seemed to her that while he had changed on the outside, Ron still managed to retain his for lack of a better term Ronness and the mystery surrounding his change in appearance was intriguing Hermione by the second and she was not one to pass on solving a mystery.

--

Although Ron felt enormously uncomfortable at the massive bear of a hug his mother had just given him, he was more concerned at the looks Hermione was giving him. He knew without a doubt that she, like his family, were curious about his radical change in appearance and by the expressions that flittered upon her face he recognized that she was mentally listing everything that would be considered abnormal from the usual from him. His reaction to Bill's fiancée suddenly grabbing and inspecting his arm obviously did not help in concealing his secrets as he desperately quashed the urge or rather more like the killer instinct to react when she grasp his arm, which would have resulted in harming Fleur and having unnecessary questions being asked.

"C'mon, get it together Weasley. I need to get this under control or risk exposing my secrets and have someone end up getting hurt because of it."

--

The youngest Weasley son sighed defeatedly at the clutter of belongings decorated his bedroom in an attempt to hurriedly disguise the Rinnegan. Grasping his wand firmly in his right hand, he muttered the cleaning spell that would put everything back in its rightly chaotic place before he had to ruin his orderly chaotic room. After the whole ordeal in the kitchen, breakfast turned out more amicably than he expected nonetheless Ron was grateful for the distraction as he figured that eventually his family would soon be informed of his 'transformation' and he would need to come up with a better explanation to fool Harry in addition to throwing Hermione off his trail. Although the tension during breakfast had subsided it returned in full force as his mum had declared that Harry would be soon coming over during the week. The announcement although lifted his spirits as we was glad that his other best-friend would be coming, he was dreading on hoping to discover a way to keep his friends and family in the dark regarding his nocturnal activities. His musings however were broken as he heard a melodious soft voice belonging to the frazzled brunette standing at the doorway to his room,

"Judging from that sigh you just let out, you're more tired than I thought you were in the kitchen."

Ron turned towards Hermione and took in the sight of his friend; smiling at the signs of ease she displayed her stance including the way in being at the Burrow despite the peril facing the Wizarding World.

"Well, it's just that I woke up a bit earlier than I would have liked to."

She broke her gaze from him slightly before responded with a tiny smile that graced her lips as she said, "I'd hardly call 7:30 am in the morning early Ronald, classes starts at 8:30 and you miraculously show up...yet it seems I keep forgetting that you would prefer to sleep the day away."

Ron couldn't help but grin faintly at her barb reprimanding his sleeping habits as it such a Hermione-ish to do, like expecting him to do homework during the summer holiday.

"Gimme a break Hermione, it is the summer holiday and I'd like to soak up as much as I can before we go back to that work-ridden hell known as Hogwarts"

Hermione looked almost affronted at his description of the learning institute that she loved dearly but frowned slightly at the smug smirk painted across his face that indicated he was just merely teasing. She took a quick glance around his room and noticed that it was noticeably tidier than when she first arrived in the morning, finally resting her gaze back to her red-haired companion.

"Have you heard from Harry lately? The letters he's been writing lately" She queried.

"No and I don't think that we will until he arrives, he's probably been told he can't write letters to us like last year..." Ron trailed off but soon regretted his words as memories of the battle at the Department of Mysteries flooded their minds, how close they were to their deaths and more importantly Sirius' death affecting Harry greatly.

"Do the scars still hurt?" Hermione asked gently as she gave a quick glance at the criss-crossing scarlet welts on Ron's arms that seemed even more prominent with his pale skin and lack of freckles.

"No, they haven't been hurting since we got discharged from Hogwarts although they do itch now and then. What about you? That curse did hurt you pretty badly." Ron softly replied.

"I'm alright for the most part but if I overexert myself I get winded pretty easily and Madame Pomfrey explicitly I should take it easy for the rest of the summer."

"So does this mean that you've finally come to embrace the ways of the slacker now because heaven forbid that Hermione Granger should relax when she's on summer vacation." He teased lightly but received a light punch on his arm upper arm which he rubbed in mock hurt but Hermione merely rolled her eyes at his antics.

"Hardly, and for your information doing homework is very relaxing to me, it's very therapeutic." Hermione said indignantly however Ron made his way to his bed and simply snorted in disbelief and amusement at the sheer thought that doing work on holiday could be anything but relaxing before taking a seat upon the mattress.

She took off her trainers and soon joined him taking the other end of his bed and sat with her legs crossed. On his side of the bed as he was observing Hermione make herself comfortable he was in silent contemplation at the-

"What are you thinking?" Hermione asked abruptly as he locked eyes with her and he was finding it difficult to continue to lie to her.

"It's going to get worse isn't it? The war I mean." Ron whispered quietly, as he broke their gaze and turned his head to stare at the scenery outside his window. Hermione on the other hand kept silent and was seemingly playing with a loose strand on his Chudley Cannons bed sheets.

"And we're right in the middle of it with Harry aren't we?" He continued as the tension in the room grew in intensity.

"We can't know what's going to happen but do the best we can and hope that everything turns out for the better." Hermione replied in a shaky but firm voice as she once again looked into his eyes giving him a small smile in comfort for their impending future as key figures in the war.

Ron's eyes went wide at her response as he was surprised at the determination but even more so at the sliver of hope in her voice. In that moment he knew without a doubt that as long as he had his friends and family, everything would be alright.

--

The days quickly soon passed since his bushy-haired friend, Hermione, arrived at the Burrow. As the date for Harry's arrival drew ever closer, life at the Weasley home seemed more lively which was surprising as the twins were no longer residing in the Burrow, however Fleur more than managed to make up for the lack of excitement. Ron couldn't help but chuckle at the irritation the Weasley women and Hermione have for Bill's fiancée. Granted she was a bit head strong and seemingly oblivious towards the obvious dislike the other women of the house had for her but he knew that Bill loved her completely and that had to count for something. It only got worse when Ginny and Hermione grew irritated with him when he began to be nice to Fleur. Ron pretended to ignore the stern frowns from Ginny or his mother that he received whenever he was chatting animatedly with the French woman or the spine-chilling death glares Hermione had been giving him each time Fleur hugged him or attempted a kiss on the cheek.

'Geez I was only being nice, they didn't have to glower at me. You'd think they'd make an effort to get to know her for Bill's sake but nooo. Why do the women in my life have to be so damn smart and stubborn?'

Exhaling a sigh that could not unfortunately hide his annoyance, Ron took a weary hand, wiped it down his face in an attempt to fend off the weariness that had been accumulating since Fleur, and Hermione's appearance. He was glad that his training had not become cut short due to their presence yet he had to be more cautious with his departures, his family was not hard to fool but it was Hermione that he was concerned with as she unfortunately possessed a brilliant mind. It wasn't soon after that Ron began to, regrettably, change his training schedule so that he had to train during the night to avoid suspicion on his whereabouts during the day, still it did not keep Hermione from badgering him about finishing his homework, he could even still feel the bruise that formed when she smacked him in the head after falling asleep during one of her tirades. Ginny on the other hand wasn't helping his case as she would just bubble up in laughter at his predicament whenever she wasn't writing to her boyfriend Dean.

At that thought Ron shivered as he mentally tried to scrub his mind clean from the terms boyfriend, Dean, and Ginny as it would eventually lead him to associating what boyfriends and girlfriends do when they were together.

'Snogging'

Not that he was against snogging, mind you, it was a little disturbing to picture his little sister kissing some bloke she was dating, granted said bloke has been his roommate for roughly 5 years but that wasn't the point.

Silently clearing his mind of Ginny's relationship with Dean, Ron methodically packed his training gear into a worn out brown single-strap rucksack as he was going to be looking at another long night of training yet he couldn't help but become lost in his thoughts. The dreams have been steadily growing in number as he had them almost every night after each training session and were soon affecting his daily life as he was starting to 'space out' more often than he would've liked as it was starting to become suspicious Hermione. Ron shook his head clearing away the proverbial mist in his head and made his way towards the window in his room with bag in hand, grabbed the coffee coloured edge and lifted the wooden windowpane. The wind swirled around him the moment he jumped from his window as he fell through the air, the feeling of liberation invigorating his mind as the ground seemed closer and closer. Tucking his knees close to his chest, Ron flipped in the air bringing his feet perpendicular to the grass outside the Burrow, and shortly his feet touched the ground with one knee bending facing the earth and one arm steadying his form from the force of gravity. The instant he landed on the ground, he let out a breath of relief that he had not woken anyone up, turned towards the direction of Training Ground 9 and began to run with inhuman speed, his mind, body, and blood flowing eagerly in anticipation.

'Time to get to work.'

--

Training Ground 9

*Pant*

*Pant*

Large breaths of air uneasily escaped Ron's lips as he greedily took in the fresh oxygen to feed his deprived lungs of their sustenance as his limbs once again failed to move as he felt as if several tons of lead had been strapped to them. He was currently kneeling with one knee on the ground and an arm outstretched steadying his shaky form which kept bracing his body from toppling over.

'Well, technically not tons...more like couple hundred pounds. You've gotta stop overdoing it Ron, you're not gonna be of use to anybody if you kill yourself during training.'

Ron felt his eyes widen in disbelief in realization that his own mind was berating him for taking his training too far which subsequently had taken its toll on his body, resulting in a number of bruises and scars predominantly marking his form. He glanced down and took in the sight of his arms; the bandages covering his hands right up to the forearm were in tatters, discoloured to a dull grey from being covered in dirt and soaked in sweat and blood, belying the strength and power hidden within. He attempted to bring himself standing, but his legs had another idea as a wave of pain flashed through his lower appendages in objection at his decision. On his second attempt to raise himself, Ron heard movement in the woods south of his position; the being moved with very subtle yet purposeful strides, drawing closer to where he was. If whoever was hadn't made a mistake resulting in announcing their location they would've snuck up right next to him which indicated that whoever was approaching could very well be a potential threat and Ron knew without a doubt that for all his training and improvements in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and chakra training, they were completely useless to him right now as he was exhausted from said training.

'Alright, gotta rely on good ol' magic to get me through this then...no worries...no worries'

Ron reached into his trouser pockets to grab his wand only to find them vacant. He quickly looked in the direction where his rucksack lying a few feet away from him and silently cursed as he realized that he had left his wand in the bag.

'Not good, not good at all...no wand, no magic...guess that leaves taijutsu and ninjutsu...'

Ignoring the blinding pain in his limbs, Ron fought to move himself to an upright position furthermore shifted his body into a steady but loose taijutsu stance, prepared to face the oncoming menace.

'Okay Ron, don't panic...remember your training and you'll do just fine...just fine...'

Taking a few moments to relax, he willed his breathing to a calm and steady rythym, the air repeatedly filling and escaping his lungs as seconds passed with anxiety no longer enveloping his mind, instead Ron felt composed save for the anticipation in his body, a hunger to obliterate the opposition. In that instant, Ron's muscles coiled, ready to kill the danger as felt the presence of a being enter his stomping grounds and yet... silence

Silence.

Nothing but silence greeted him as time seemed to slow to a standstill and yet the danger had not passed. Ron had almost let his guard down as there appeared to be no threat in the vicinity however a shift in the winds swept over the clearing rustling the trees, grass, in addition to other structures of nature and that was when he heard it. He would have missed the sound if he wasn't keenly aware of his surroundings but he heard it if only barely.

The rustling of clothing. Robes to be exact.

35 degrees north-west of his position, and roughly about a kilometre in distance, Ron's hands flashed with inhuman speed, his fingers and palms twisting and combining themselves into the necessary handseals, channelling the chakra quickly through his coils, his mouth forming into a pucker as he sucked in all the air he could possibly fill his lungs with. He brought his right hand close to his mouth creating an O shape before finally releasing the air into the hole, which reacted with the chakra contained in his palm transforming the escaping air into a giant mass of fire, compacted into a flaming ball in the direction of the unknown entity.

'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu' He mentally chanted in his mind as he watched the massive fire ball scorch the grass beneath it as it quickly flew towards the disguised wizard.

Ron couldn't help but grin in satisfaction as the Katon jutsu hit its target but his elation was swiftly dashed as he gaped in shock as the invisible mysterious witch or wizard summoned a torrent of water from a swish of their wand that completely quenched his jutsu, steam rising mid-air. The figure swished their wand again and the Disillusionment or some kind of invisible spell was dispelled from their body and the unknown being finally came into view. A tall, thin man wearing a waist-length beard garbed in with a long black traveling cloak and pointed hat with half-moon spectacles resting upon his crooked nose.

"Judging by your look of stunned disbelief, you did not expect me to appear before you, Mr. Weasley." Said Dumbledore pleasantly looks of eternal amusement dancing in his blue-eyes.

Ron's eyes narrowed in doubt as he once again took to his taijutsu stance ready at any given moment to attack or flee should the need arise.

'What's the Professor doing here, and how did he find me?' He mentally queried, as he continued to eye the aging wizard, all the while said professor was calmly standing with a serene smile on his face.

"How do I know you're the real Dumbledore?" Ron demanded firmly, his hands, feet and body still holding his stance should the Dumbledore before him turn out to be a Death Eater in disguise.

"During your first year at Hogwarts, Harry had shown you the mirror of Erised, and my favourite flavour of jam is raspberry. Is there anything else you would like to question me about as to ascertain the validity of my being?" Dumbledore said brightly like the proverbial kid in a candy store.

He felt a slight sweat drop glide down the side of his temple at the answer as it was such a Dumbledore answer, and the evidence earlier indicated that he was powerful enough to stop his jutsu. The tension and coil fled from his body as he eased his stance into a more relaxed position.

'Very few wizards could not do what he had done.'

"Err...no...that's fine, I believe you...sorry about attacking you earlier Professor" Ron stated lamely, his right hand rubbing the back of his neck nervous while his face flushed red in embarrassment. He could imagine Hermione and his mother throwing a fit because he threw a fireball at the Headmaster.

"That's quite alright Ronald; you had every right to be cautious, even more so during these troubled times." Dumbledore stated easily as he began to walk towards him taking note of the trail of ash his jutsu scorched along with the other scenes of destruction littered among the field.

"May I ask as to how you performed that spectacular ball of fire earlier and without a wand no less?" The white bearded wizard enquired, his fierce blue gaze meeting his student's cerulean.

Ron on the other hand felt his body stiffen at the question, and merely remained silent as he stared defiantly back at the headmaster.

His secrets were his to protect.

"You have, of course, the right to refu-"

"Why are you here?" Ron cut him off, his patience wearing thin at his teacher.

"I was interested in the presence I had felt along the woods near the Burrow when I dropped of Mr. Potter, Ronald." Dumbledore stated placidly.

"Well then why were you invisible in the first place?" The Weasley progeny demanded furiously, ignoring that Harry was now at the Burrow, as he felt his temper begin to rise betraying an essential shinobi rule he had been diligently working on for the past weeks, control one's emotions firmly and never let them show through.

"I was merely cautious as I had no means to determine whether the presence was friendly or not."

The answer satisfied him although he now regretted slightly losing his temper at the greatest wizard of all time.

"Sorry professor...for snapping at you, it's just that..." Ron started sheepishly,

"It's fine dear boy, we all have our secrets to keep, as I should understand more than others. Do forgive this old man for his sense of idle curiosity seeing that I cannot help but be inquisitive when presented with something I have never seen before."

Once again his embarrassment returned in full force at his earlier outburst; however he managed to reign in it from visibly showing. While Ron was profusely trying to hide his awkwardness, the Hogwarts Headmaster oddly bent his head towards the darkened sky and gazed at the moon for a few seconds before looking once again at him.

"As it is getting quite late, I shall take my leave...as should you Mr. Weasley, I have no doubt that you and Harry have much to talk about." Dumbledore said pleasantly prior to turning around majestically with his robes whirling alongside him and walking off to the edge of the woods.

To say Ron was stunned was an understatement as he had no words or thoughts to describe the awkwardness of the situation, however it seemed that the Hogwarts Professor had not finished his say as he stopped walking and turned back in his direction.

"Before I head off, might I give you suggestion Ronald?" Dumbledore requested.

"Umm...yea, sure..." He replied.

"Should you ever find yourself in Knockturn Alley, I believe there is a shop there beside an old abandoned Apothecary that you might be quite interested in."

"What's the name of the shop professor?" He queried as he now found himself very interested now in what his slightly barmy professor had to say.

"Higurashi Antiques, and once again good night Mr. Weasley" Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes as he flicked his wand, turned on the spot and vanished into thin air before Ron could question him further on the shop.

'Higurashi Antiques...'

Resolving to look up the place when his family and friends were going to Diagon Alley, Ron packed his things into his bag and began on the journey home.

Author's Notes: Whew, finally. Okay, first off let me say that I'm very sorry for the very long update. Exams, school, and my brother being hospitalized has really taken up most of my time these last few months so I haven't had much time to work on this. Good news though is that these won't be an issue anymore except for final exams in several weeks. Bleh. So you guys can expect the next chapter coming soon.

Anyway on to the reviews, I know many of you are wondering how Nagato's brain ended up in the Department of Mysteries, well sorry but you'll just have to find out as it will be later revealed in the story. As for Ron having Nagato's memories but slightly looking like Yahiko (He has only Yahiko's spiky hair), that will also be revealed sometime in the story. I wasn't quite sure if I had wanted Ron to solely look like Nagato because I had also wanted to tie in Yahiko to Ron as well because Nagato was using Yahiko's body for the Deva Path and I felt that that was quite important, reason being that I felt that Ron could relate to both characters as he shared some qualities when they were younger.

Once again thanks to the readers and reviewers for your patience, and please continue to review and critique my work.