The Christmas holidays were upon them in what seemed like no time at all. Everywhere one looked excited teens were lugging heavy trunks and chatting to friends. Occasionally you would come across the smart student who had bewitched their trunk in size or weight but they were few and far between. It was the Christmas holidays starting today and everyone was too hyper to really think about what they were doing.
The night way back when, when they had returned to the common room everything had been rather electric in a silent sort of way. McGonagall had come in to inform the students that it was just a false alarm otherwise Naruto would have expected at least Harry to have his wand pointed at him as he walked in. With the current company it wouldn't have mattered much but it was still the thought that counted. The only people left were Harry's friends and followers; making up equal numbers to those returning.
It had been rather relieving to see everyone get along almost instantly. No one wanted to go to bed, despite it being past midnight so socialising was the past time of choice for now. It was as if someone had gone and sorted everyone like beans as they all parted to talk to someone new.
Almost instantly Hermione and Ginny swooped in to take Sakura and Hinata over to the fire and began to talk about nothing in particular. Obviously Ron had been passing the time with a rather one-sided game of chess with Harry and that seemed to attract Shikamaru like a bug to flame. It didn't take long for Ron to teach him the rules and the resulting three hour game ended in a tie much to Ron's chagrin. They had almost begun a new game before Hermione realised what the time was and sent everyone to bed.
Lee had stayed with Naruto and Harry trying and failing to be quite, but the oddest and very much least expected pairing was Neville and Neji. They'd been the first to head to a corner and had spent the entire time conversing in hushed tones about goodness knew what. What they could possibly have to talk about was overshadowed by the fact that Neji was talking so much in the first place.
Naruto couldn't really remember much about that night. He'd spent the four hours until going to bed (finding extra beds already in place) in a sort of wonderful trance. In all honesty he hadn't really expected to see his friends again anytime soon. The icing on the cake was Mizu flying in around 2am and landing on his shoulder. He petted her until she flew away, although he couldn't remember how long it took her to get bored of the attention. He would have to buy her some extra good owl treats, or catch something tasty in the dungeons.
"I still don't see why you can't come stay with us." Ron complained again as he sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast before leaving for the train. Hermione had already settled herself down next to Sakura, both of whom had their noses in big books. The five new Shinobi had not been inducted into classes as Naruto had been but they were given full access to the library. They were not going to stay as long and none really had any real drive to learn how to use this new brand of Chakra. It was a totally different thing to research it and so they had all spent most their free time in the library. Dumbledore had given them patrol duties and while they all sat at the Gryffindor table, they'd been split up at night time into separate common rooms. It was safer that way.
With his friends here all the negative emotions sent his way just seemed like background noise. Naruto couldn't even remember what home sickness felt like and he guessed that it was them he had missed, rather than home itself. 'Home is where the heart is' or whatever Hermione had told him. There was a nagging worry in the back of his head, however, that had him constantly on edge. Everyone here knew about Kyubi - his friends did not. At least the rumours and whispers had died down. One couldn't hide something like rumours from a trained Shinobi.
"Dumbledore doesn't want to put your family in danger." Sakura answered instead of Harry. She sounded distinctly distracted by her book but that didn't stop her listening to everything else. Ninja had to be able to have multiple focuses and it had saved their lives more times than Naruto could count.
The blonde caught the grimace on Harry's face before he turned it into a smile. Everyone had marked the similarities between Sakura and Hermione. Evidently one bossy bookworm was enough for anyone.
"It's ok; it's not like I'm alone here." Harry added to smooth things over. Ron wasn't going to be pacified though, he was much to set in his opinion.
"Honestly Ronald, he's survived being here without us before." It was Hermione this time. She was obviously starting to get exasperated by all this. "It's safer for all concerned if he and Naruto's friends just stay at school. It's not like we'll never see him again." But there was something in her voice that belayed her confidence. It was only very tiny and the wizards probably didn't pick it up. The tension of nothing happening all year was getting to everyone.
Lee was on his feet in a second, one propped up onto his seat and an arm outstretched, pointing at Hermione and Ron. "I promise that I will protect your friend Harry with my life! There is nothing to fear!" He moved into the goodguy pose and his teeth flashed. Neji yanked him back down into his seat; they'd developed an audience in the rest of the room.
Ron huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine, but I still don't have to like it. Mum'll be disappointed too but at least she can still send you her home knitted jumper and over the top care package." Naruto snorted at the joke, he'd seen Harry's collection of said jumpers.
By this time breakfast was ending and people were already starting to leave for the Thestral drawn carriages with their trunks. Hermione and Ron stood up now too and Harry with them to see them off. The six shinobi let them go to the entrance hall alone for now. They could all sense any danger should it occur and they'd be able to get there before it escalated. Besides, there were teachers out there.
"They're really close…" Hinata whispered. She had a small smile on her lips and actually looked up at everyone as she spoke. They all nodded in return. It was a little heart warming to see such a friendship and it reminded Naruto of his own three man team…well before Sasuke left and after he'd stopped being a complete arse. A small pang of… something, he couldn't quite tell, shot through his heart.
They were almost alone in the great hall when Harry came back. He'd probably waited until the carriages had left before coming back. Naruto had probably just glimpsed the surface of those three's true devotion to each other and it was rather good to know that at least one hated little orphan boy had overcome that completely and made such permanent friends. Then again it probably helped that Harry only had three people around him as a child who really hated his guts.
Naruto glanced over at Sakura, who was closing her book and taking a last spoonful of her now cold porridge. She stood up and stretched out her back with an audible pop. "Well I don't know about you lot but I need to go out and exercise. All these blizzards keeping us inside have really been making me antsy." Ah yes; outside had been a dream for five days now as the snow had blocked the doors (not that that was the real problem) and hadn't really stopping their rather vicious attack on any exposed skin because of the wind. After the first fifty people coming back inside with scratches on their faces they had all been banned from leaving the school. At least it had stopped last night and all the snow cleared from the path leading down to Hogsmeade.
It wasn't until it had been expressed out loud that Naruto really felt how jumpy his legs were. He had never ever been confined like this in the cold and dark for such a long amount of time. His hospital stays had always been in a brightly lit room, with Konoha's almost permanent green and a gentle breeze just a few steps away. He healed fast anyway and usually he was out of it for most the time. He'd had to alleviate his boredom by playing more than one prank on that poncy blonde Slytherin git that the golden trio seemed particularly spiteful towards. The guy still had pink hair Naruto had seen when he'd passed by to get to the carriages. He wondered, as he stood, if he still had pink nails. Man he loved that spell.
They were outside before they'd decided what exactly their exercise was going to be. Harry was looking at them like they were insane because the only item of warm clothing they were wearing was the cloaks that billowed out in the wind.
"Ne! NE! How about a strategic snow ball fight!" Naruto was hit by inspiration. It wasn't something they had done yet and they were never in the snow without there being a mission. This was something he wanted to share with his fellow ninja folk but with their own twist. "Snowballs instead of Kunai and Shuriken; five hits and you're dead."
"How about we sweeten the deal?" Sakura was excited. He could tell from the way she was smirking. "Protect the 'king'. We can use Harry and Naruto's team can have one of his clones." She turned her head to the other green eyed member of their little party. "No offence but even if Naruto is starting to train you, you can't keep up with a bunch of Chuunin and Jounin and this won't be half as fun if we can't perform to our maximum potential." It looked like Harry was about to protest but one glance at the eager and somewhat maniacal expressions on some of their faces and he rethought his involvement. Naruto knew a snowball thrown by a shinobi had to hurt at least ten times as much as usual.
"So five hits you're out, the aim is to protect your 'king' while trying to kidnap the other team's, and no real weapons or jutsu." There, that sounded like a good game turned exercise. It sounded like this was going to be one long day but also fun like he hadn't had in a while. God he'd missed team exercises where no lives were at stake. It had been far too long. For the first time since his friends had found him he felt a small pang of home sickness. Konoha would always be where he belonged but for now he had to stay here.
They divided into teams, Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru on one side and Sakura, Neji and Lee on the other. There had almost been a skirmish when Naruto had summoned his clone in Sexy-no-jutsu form, Sakura outraged and Naruto claiming it was a tactic but they had ended up compromising with Naruto just giving her clothes. It was way better then getting punched in the face by an angry Sakura and now they could tell the difference between which Naruto they could hit and which they couldn't.
Harry couldn't really believe what he had gotten himself into. Lee had enthusiastically build them a fort that could have been considered art as well as being practical and the other two had set about collecting snow balls and stashing them to the side, behind their new wall. Across the field he could see Naruto's team had done the same thing, only the Naruto clone had built herself a little thrown that he could just see before the other wall became too high. Naruto would always be Naruto he guessed.
It wasn't until the battle had begun that he really began to be impressed. He'd thought that maybe he could be of some help in this battle but now he knew he'd just been very, very naive to put himself in even the same ballpark as this lot. What he had been taught would help him in battle with other wizards but up against a ninja he was like a baby. He chuckled to himself at that thought, remembering just what he'd supposedly done as a baby.
They all moved so fast he could barely see them most of the time. The pile of snowballs that had seemed impossibly large at the beginning had shrunk to half its size in just half an hour. All the shinobi kept trying to sneak over to the other side but retreated eventually when they were almost hit (or rarely were), by opposing fire. It was like watching one of Dudley's action cartoons but in real life. No way could any live action film capture this sort of action with such detail; it would end up looking like a crappy superman rip off set in Japan.
"Thank you for looking after Naruto these last few months." The sudden voice startled him, so focused he was on the battle. Sakura sat down next to him, letting out a loud sigh. She set about making more snowballs. "He's an idiot, but he's our idiot and it wouldn't do to have him going and getting himself killed."
"Er…You're welcome." Harry replied, figuring he should at least say that. Of all the shinobi who had come here she was the most normal. The only thing strange about her was her pink hair.
"The only thing he ever concentrates on are fighting and missions, well that and chasing Sasuke in his spare time. Baka…" She scowled but there was something undefinable under the surface. "Anyway, I'm glad he made friends over here. Then again he's never had trouble with that. The fool is far too likeable for his own good."
Harry had to laugh at that; it was certainly true. "He transformed into the playboy centrefold in front of my least favourite teacher the day we met. Something like that would get anyone into my good books."
She rolled her eyes. "Typical." Glancing down Harry saw that the pile of snowballs had already grown substantially in the time they'd been talking. "I do hope he hasn't caused too much trouble here. I suppose any substantial pranks on his end would have been relayed to us already so I shouldn't worry."
"Well there was the mess with the Kyuubi a while ba-" Harry cut himself off horrified. He'd completely forgotten Naruto's friends didn't know he carried a demon and now he'd gone and blurted the one thing he wasn't supposed to.
He bit his lip, not looking at the kunoichi for fear of seeing her reaction. She didn't say anything, which could have been interpreted either way. Merlin he was a right stupid git!
Snow and ice exploded everywhere and if it hadn't been for the expression on Sakura's face he would have assumed it was just a part of the game. The sharpness in her eyes, however, instantly put him on edge. Before he knew what was happening she had pushed his head down even further and crouched in front of him, holding one hand up in a seal. If he'd had any doubts about this not being part of the game they were erased; jutsu were against the rules.
Thoughts of his slip up were instantly shoved to the back of his mind in favour of battle tactics and spells. His wand was already in his hand and he couldn't even remember drawing it. Getting up into a crouch himself, Harry looked through his peephole in the wall trying to see into the forest.
Another second later he was in the air, having been scooped up and whisked away. Thankfully his hand had clenched rather than relaxed and he hadn't lost his wand in the move. Managing to look around he noticed that it was Lee carrying him and that they were headed towards the school.
Magical alarms were going off when they got inside. Harry was set down and only had time to orientate himself before teachers were running down the stairs asking for an assessment of the situation.
Dumbledore was the first to reach the entrance hall. He stopped before them with a very serious expression on his face. "What are we facing?" He asked in an equally serious voice.
Harry, just as eager to know himself, turned to face the three Ninja who had moved inside. His heart was nearly in his stomach. He knew they wouldn't look like that if it wasn't bad.
"Well." Said Lee, watching Sakura run through a long series of seals and muttering under her breath as she in turn stared at the door. "There seems to be an army out there."
If it was at all possible Harry's heart fell further into his stomach.
"An army of both shinobi and wizards."