The next month and a bit were much of the same, though at least after the first week things had settled down a tad and Naruto had utilized his 'game' to work out just who to avoid and who he could still talk to. Despite what everyone had always said about him he was good at what he did, and was damn well capable of sussing out a situation like this without anyone's help.
Currently they sat in potions on a Wednesday, working on their latest assignments rather than brewing something today. They had to wait for their last one to congeal and age before moving on.
Naruto stared down at his parchment, reading back on his last sentence and realizing it didn't make a wit of sense. He glanced over at Harry's and while that was a little better, he couldn't really understand that either. Time for the spell again, he admitted with a sigh as he picked up his wand and pointed it at himself. While he was getting better with his English, he was still almost hopelessly floundering with the writing part, not all that good at it in his own language either…and English was a good deal harder then Japanese.
"Mr. Uzumaki," Came Snape's awful drawl just as he was about to whisper the charm. "may I inquire as to why you have your wand out; and pointing it at yourself as well"
Naruto rolled his eyes. The obnoxious Potions master was trying to goad him, he presumed, as he probably knew exactly what Naruto was going to do. Unless he thought he had broken and was going to hex himself. He knew quite a few by now. Then again he didn't usually cast this charm in class. It lasted a great deal longer when it was only for writing.
"I need to re-do the charm that allows me to read." He answered, sounding as bored with this as he felt right now.
"And you didn't have the foresight to do this before my class because..?" Snape continued, raising one eyebrow ever so slightly in one of his effortless condescending looks. Naruto wondered if he could just do those because he could or if he had perfected them in front of the mirror.
This was starting to get annoying, and his temper hadn't been all that good since his secret had been outed…then again he'd never really been good at keeping it down when someone was goading him, or making him look stupid. Snape had fallen under the 'Foe' category still, though he knew the greasy man would.
He took a deep, calming breath this time. "I didn't know it would wear out in the middle of class." He kept forgetting to end his sentences with 'sir' in this class. He'd never been fond of Snape, enough to hope he'd do something to physically hurt Harry so Naruto could do something horrid to him, and respect to his elders had never been something he'd put in high priority. Look at how he addressed his own Hokage, 'Tsunade-baba', how rude.
"One would think you'd know the cycles of a spell you've been using since the start of the school year, Mr. Uzumaki." Maybe this was just how Snape got his kicks. Really if he'd just let it slide then there wouldn't be any need for this pointless display.
"I forgot, then." He said a little too snappy for his own good. Couldn't that man just let it go? Everyone was staring at them; probably afraid Naruto would snap and go on some sort of rampage involving loss of limbs or life to any unfortunate enough to get in his way.
"Temper, Mr. Uzumaki. Ten points from Gryffindor"
"Because you couldn't just let me cast my spell and get on with my work without you interrupting the whole class?" Naruto retorted, glaring quite obviously at the potions master. This hadn't been the first time Snape had done something like this in the last few weeks.
"I believe that I must enquire if it looks like one of my students (AN: hehe, almost wrote 'stupids') is about to cast a spell on themselves during a theory lesson. Particularly if said student is a little unbalanced at the moment." He'd added the last sentence in a way that couldn't help but get Naruto's blood boiling. Unbalanced? What an infuriatingly delicate way to describe him at the moment. "Maybe a detention is in order to help you realize I am only doing my job in asking such things and to not talk back in such a disrespectful manner"
Naruto was halfway out of his seat before he decided it wasn't worth it and flopped back down. Had this been anyone else's class there would have been a buzz of hushed conversation but Snape had always been able to keep his classes silent.
The rest of period he didn't get much more done, not bothering to do the spell that had gotten him into trouble after all that. He'd mainly doodled on a separate parchment. The anger had quelled now, he just couldn't be bothered to keep it up. Even at the end of the lesson when they'd been leaving and Snape had told him his detention was at seven that night.
Despite his mission he wouldn't be taking Harry. There were plenty of trustworthy Gryffindors in the common room to help if one went rogue and they hadn't really been apart for months. They could both do with a bit of a break. Speaking of breaks, he sighed in relief as he realized Harry and he had one now. They could just go up to the common room, as they'd tended to since this whole mess had begun. Naruto needed a nap though. He didn't much care for his grades, and keeping up to date was quite enough for him. He wasn't going to live in this world anyway so what was the point in perfecting anything that he wasn't going to use in real life, like essay writing. Sure this was a very interesting and useful experience but home was somewhere he wanted to be right now, more than almost anything.
Hedwig was tapping at the window when they got to the common room and Harry rushed over to let her in, abet a little confused as to why she was here now. Naruto felt a small pang at the sight of her though. Mizu was still missing…had been since the night he'd got her. Weren't owls supposed to be loyal?
Harry took the small note from her and smiled at it. "It's from Remus, just keeping in touch. He must be in the area if Hedwig found him." Harry then frowned, pocketing it. "Bloody rotten Snape. He's probably just taking out his frustration at having no love life."
Naruto managed a smile, he'd been doing so less and less out of public. He knew it didn't matter what Harry thought about it and he wasn't in Konoha right now. "The man needs to get laid more than Tsunade-baa-chan."
Harry chuckled at this; he'd heard plenty of stories about Tsunade.
XXOO
Naruto was standing with a start when sirens started going off in what sounded like the entire school. It was so loud no one could possibly sleep through it and by now a lot of the students would no doubt be panicking. He'd been here for three hours, doing whatever Snape thought up on a whim. Great, he thought as he was instantly out the door and heading as fast as he could towards the Gryffindor dorms, this always happens when you let your guard down. And indeed that's what he'd done, figured it was safe to leave Harry for a few hours.
These sirens meant that someone had crossed onto Hogwarts land uninvited. The new ward had been set up at the start of the school year, to prevent anyone from sleeping through a raid and getting themselves killed that way. There were drills that the prefects and Head boy and girl knew, that the teachers knew, if a case like this arose and they would be set into motion within minutes so he had to hurry if he wanted to get there in time to reunite with Harry.
"Shiiiit!" He yelled, skidding on a wet patch of ground while turning a corner at high speeds. Peeves was almost definitely responsible for this stunt and he would have laughed at it had it been anyone else skidding in it, or at any other time. He jumped, pivoted off the wall and continued on as perfectly as a ninja of his class was expected to and in no time he was running up the last flight of stairs.
He'd been told that students were to stay in their common rooms in such an event as this, since no one could get in without the password. What he wasn't sure of was where they'd want him. He was skilled in a fighting style that their enemy was not and therefore an advantage to their side in the event that this was actually an attack. Then again, if they came by air through the windows then students were in danger and they'd need someone there to help with that.
He gave the password to the Fat Lady and she swung open quickly, letting him in and then instantly closing again. Students of all year levels were cramped into the common room, because it was safer in numbers. Professor McGonagall was looking tight lipped as she conversed quietly with the head boy. Catching a glimpse of him however, she bustled over, looking relieved as was possible in the current situation. She had been one of the few who hadn't been fazed by his little 'problem'.
"Mr. Uzumaki, thank goodness you're alright, although I'm afraid the headmaster has requested you're presence on the field." She sounded for all the world like she was only telling him this because she'd been threatened on some grounds if she didn't. "Mr. Potter will be perfectly fine without you for now, what with me and everyone else around in this secure area." Her lips were a thinner line than usual, and she looked away quickly before adding, "Well, off with you. We're under siege. They're not going to wait until we have all our pieces in place"
Naruto was off like a flash again then, though he didn't want to risk opening the portrait hole again so, much to the horror of the few people who managed to see, jumped out the window using chacra to run down the wall (since he wasn't very good at landing freefall, even if he did get up and walk away afterwards…most times).
Teachers were assembled just outside the front door, milling around and looking just a little lost. At least they were handling it better than some professionals he'd seem. Then again these kinda were professionals in stuff like this, what with the war and protecting the students and all.
He landed next to Dumbledore, said man not even flinching, just turning to give him a strained smile. "Ah, good man Mr. Uzumaki. We can't see anyone yet but there are at least five of them and they're most likely lurking at the edge of the forest." He paused here. Everyone seemed very much overly worried about him. He could understand though, he was as old as some of their students after all.
He looked up at the Headmaster expectantly when his pause lasted just a little too long. "Unfortunately we need you to go scout out what we're dealing with exactly." He finished, looking grim. Naruto knew he was their best bet with that. With his speed there wasn't much likelihood that he'd be caught by Death Eaters if that's who was out there. It was certainly someone with ill intent the way they stayed hidden like that, waiting for the right time to move.
He couldn't let them see him go so he shadow cloned himself, leaving it where he'd been standing and teleporting over into a tree at the edge of the forbidden forest, out of sight. From there he made his way a little deeper, combing the immediate area for any of the intruders. Though he didn't find any right away. He wondered if he should use his wand, or just jutsu. Since the latter was much more his style he decide on them for now, though his wand was in an easy access place in his sleeve. He'd taken to keeping it there with chakra as a training exercise.
He caught a whiff of something rather distinct in the air and a grin spread over his features as he followed it to its source. He got into position on the tree branch, let himself swing backwards, his kunai pulled into place at the person's neck and he abruptly dropped the weapon and then himself to the forest floor.
"Sakura?" He exclaimed, looking up at her own bewildered expression, no doubt mimicking his own.
"Naruto..?" She asked, a little weakly.
"What the hell are you doing here? Voldemort didn't hire us did he? Hell, I'll have to kill Tsunade-baba if we are-" Here he paused, because Sakura was giving him the oddest look of confusion and it took him maybe longer then it should have to realize why. Rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment he muttered a small "sorry." switching to Japanese. He couldn't really believe he'd done that.
Before he could think about it further though, he found himself with an arm full of Sakura. She was sobbing into his school robes almost hysterically. It took a few moments for her to calm down enough to step back and when she did she, most unexpectedly, slapped him - hard.
"You kept going out for days on end looking for him and goodness knows that has me worried enough. Then you don't come home and for about a week I'm wondering if you've found something but it turns into months and still no sign of you. Then some bird shows up with a figurine of you and we all assume you're in some sort of mortal peril"
"Wait, a bird?" Naruto interrupted, just as much wanting answers as wanting to shut up her lecture. His cheek really hurt.
She sniffed, still half heartedly glaring at him. "An owl. At first we thought you were the toy since it was moving and all but there wasn't anything to prove that theory after testing."
"Mizu…" Naruto's grin returned as the full implications of what just exactly was happening. "Who else is here?" He asked, getting himself into an excited tizzy. "Dumbledore said the ward counted five people. Call everyone in, you have to meet all the teachers and I have to say you're not here to attack them." He took her by the hand, totally ignoring any protests she may have had, and dragged her out into the open, waving at the huddled teachers all the way across the grounds once they'd gotten close enough to be seen.
"Professors!" He called, mindful of which language he was speaking right now. "Crisis averted! They're friends!" Most of the teachers still looked very worried about the prospect of more people like him but he didn't pay them any heed, instead going straight to the headmaster and finally letting go of the girl's hand.
Sakura, to her credit, looked calm and collected in this new situation as Naruto introduced her and they waited for the rest of her team to meet up with them after she'd activated her call in jutsu (since the radio didn't work here being mechanical and all).
It turned out Shikamaru was leading the search and rescue, along with Hinata, Neji and Lee, the latter of which glomped him to the ground upon visual.
It was a mix of emotions, with Shikamaru's nonchalance, Neji's detached greeting, Hinata's shy but enthusiastic exclamation that she was glad he was alright, and of course, Lee's blatant joy at his friend being perfectly fine.
"What is this place?" Sakura asked at last, once everything had settled down a bit "and are you wearing a dress"
That last comment made Naruto blush, "No! They're robes. And you'll never believe this but it's a school for wizards to learn magic! I've learnt all this cool stuff, have a look-see!" And he promptly got out his wand and levitated a rock, wrote kanji in the air and made them shift and change and then turned Shikamaru's hair pink (much to said teen's discomfort).
By the end of it none of them could deny that wizards, or magic existed, though it was probably a bit easier to swallow with them being able to meld chakra.
"Now, now." They all turned to look at Dumbledore, who had been the one to interrupt their little reunion. "I'm sure you're very happy to see your friends but I'm also sure your new ones must be worried sick and I would very much like to have a word with you all before I send you off to bed." He gestured for them to follow. "Translator spells, hot chocolate and a short explanation before sleep though." He added, winking at Naruto over his shoulder.
Naruto couldn't help but be the happiest he had been since his birthday as they made their way up Dumbledore's office, the five other Konoha Shinobi just as fascinated as any muggle born would be at the sights the castle had to offer new eyes.