3

Disclaimer: Unsurprisingly, I own nothing. Naruto and Harry Potter belong to their respective creators.

Note: While stuff that I mention here isn't described in the Manga or the Anime, it's only logical in my mind. If you have a real issue with it, then feel free to voice your concerns.

Flashback: T minus 1 month: Konoha

Sakura walked up to the Hokage's office, the message held tightly in her hand. She knocked twice, then entered. The Godaime Hokage, one of the legendary Sannins, was head down on her desk, drooling into a stack of paperwork, mouth open in a gentle snore. Sakura coughed once, then turned around, to spare her teacher the embarrassment of being caught napping like an old woman. Which, if you think about it, she is, the inner Sakura cut in. Smiling slightly at the thought, she waited for Tsunade's voice.

"Yes, Sakura? What is it?"

Sakura wordlessly presented the message. The Legendary Sucker took it, glanced at it, then looked back at her apprentice. "I'll need you to leave. This is coded specially. Wait outside till I call."

Sakura left the room. As soon as the door closed, Tsunade moved to the south wall, and pushed three small depressions in it. A patch of wall slid open. Taking out a stack of books, she found the one she needed and replaced the rest. Moving back to her desk, she looked for a pencil and some blank paper. There was none. Sighing, she took a report of a recent D-rank mission. Flipping to the last page, she found a blank patch. She looked at the message. The paper was blank. Channelling her chakra into the paper, she saw the challenge. Taking the pencil, she wrote down her response beneath it, and channelled chakra into the paper again. The paper went blank. Then, a stream of numbers appeared. The message was revealed. It began: 14 11 46 37. Tsunade frowned, then opened the codebook at the centre. Channeling chakra to the paper, the wrote in her personal authorisation code, waited for the paper to go blank, then wrote the initial code. The decryption key appeared. Looking at the message again, she began the laborious process of decoding it. The work took her back to her academy days, and Daigo-Sensei's lessons. "The one-time pad is one-hundred per cent secure. Without the decryption key, the meaning cannot be discovered from the message itself. There is no pattern to analyse, no repetitions, no points of comparison. It has perfect secrecy; however, it is also enormously difficult to accomplish. Firstly, the key must be random. Secondly, both keys must be kept perfectly secure, and destroyed straight after use. Lastly, there must be a way to ensure the message can be authenticated. The one-time pad is only useful as for direct agent-to-handler communication with no third party involvement. As long as all three conditions can be ensured, there is no possibility of enemy interception and decryption." The memory made her smile. Daigo-sensei had been a harsh master, but he had been the finest codebreaker in the history of the Leaf. His death had been a real blow, but at least it had been peaceful

Finishing the job, she wrote in the destroy code in the codebook. The book flashed once, twice, then went blank. The discovery of paper that could channel chakra had had many boons, the greatest of which was a new way of ensuring message security. Looking at the message, she called out to Sakura.

Sakura entered. "Find Shizune, and send her to me. I'm sorry, Sakura, but I won't be able to teach you today." Sakura nodded, hiding her disappointment. The inner Sakura, however, was worried. This must be big. The old woman looks serious. Sakura left the room, frowning all the time.

Tsunade re-read the message, and frowned again. This is going to be tricky, she thought. Of all the news I would least want to hear, this must be at the top. Well, maybe excepting an attack by the Kyuubi, Akatsuki, Orochimaru AND the bodies of the first four Hokage's. Or a Gala Casino opening near the Konoha treasury. The thought made her smile slightly. She hadn't placed a single bet since assuming her new role, and, truth be told, it was starting to grate. She longed for the thrill of cho-han, the heady joys of blackjack, the even the transient pleasure of slots. Still, that was the price she had to pay. A Hokage cannot be seen gambling like a common farmer. That would just NOT do.

Shizune entered the room. Tsunade looked up, crumpling the message. "We need to assemble a team for an S-class mission. An emergency S-class mission. Which Jounin are currently unassigned?"

Shizune looked surprised. "Umm, Tsunade-sama? We've already assigned missions to all the Jounin. The only ones still in the village are those who have just received a mission and are yet to depart…"

"Shit." Tsunade considered the situation. "Well, which Jounin are still in the village?"

Shizune pondered the question. "Well, Kakashi is due to leave tonight on a B-class mission… I think that Toshi and Jiro haven't left yet, but they're due to accompany the delegation to Hidden Sand tomorrow morning. Gai might be here, but he was due to leave at noon, so unless he was late, I'd imagine he's gone... Umm... The only other person of that level would be Genzo, but he's retired from active duty. He's due to start teaching at the academy tommorrow"

Tsunade frowned. "Right. Genzo will have to postpone his retirement. Find someone else to teach. Take Toshi and Jiro off the Sand delegation and assign any available chuunins instead. Shikamaru would be a good choice; he seems to get on with the Sand siblings. And take Kakashi off the B-rank mission. We'll give him a holiday after this is settled. Give his mission to Iruka."

Shizune had taken out a notebook and was furiously writing all this information down. Confident she had the details correctly, she put the notebook away, and went to the door, then stopped and turned towards her master. "Hokage-sama, may I ask what is so urgent that we need to do all this?"

The question took Tsunade by surprise. "I've had a message from Jiraiya. More than that, I can't say for now."

Shizune nodded, and left.

I'm sorry, Shizune. But the fewer people to know about this, the less chance it'll go wrong.

Kakashi knocked once, then entered. Tsunade was standing in the centre of the room, alongside three other jounins. He knew them, though not well. Toshi and Jiro were recent promotions from chuunin, whereas Genzo had been an ANBU member for nearly thirty years before stepping down. This looks bad, he thought. Four jounins, and we're already stretched to breaking.

"You're late."

Uncharacteristically serious, Kakashi bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. I left for the mission early." Tsunade merely nodded. This must be bad, if she won't even scold me. Taking a position alongside Genzo, Kakashi stood at ease. Tsunade looked at the jounins assembled before her. Toshi, tall and lanky, contrasted with Jiro, short and slender. Genzo, grizzled, his beard streaked with grey and lines on his face, looked almost like the father of the young, white-haired ninja to his right. They were all professional, disciplined and deadly, though not equally so. She sighed. There was no way she could send a medic with them. Sakura was still learning, Hinata was too inexperienced, Shizune was indispensable. The rest were simply not good enough. I guess this'll have to do.

"I'm reassigning you to an S-class mission." Good, she thought. No one looks shocked or nervous.

Kakashi narrowed his eye. "Who commissioned it?"

Tsunade smiled ruefully. "Sadly, this is not a commission. This is for the security of the village." Now they look shocked, she thought. She continued. "I received a message from Jiraiya today. During the course of training Naruto, he's been following a couple of leads about Akatsuki and Orochimaru. As you should all be aware, Akatsuki's objective is to capture and control the tailed beasts. To do this, they had to create a device capable of extracting and controlling them. As you can imagine, such a device would be immensely difficult to build, so Akatsuki sought help. They went outside the Five Nations, and travelled west, where they met a powerful wizard called Voldemort."

Kakashi cut in. "This would be the same Voldemort who attempted a takeover of a Western kingdom some twenty years ago? Britain, wasn't it? Wasn't he supposed to be dead?"

Tsunade smiled dryly. "Apparently not. He seems to have returned. Our dealings with the West are limited, but that, at least, we know for certain. In any case, Akatsuki obtained the help they desired from Voldemort, and have begun work on their device."

Genzo frowned. "Pardon me, Tsunade-sama. Are you telling us our mission is to attack the device that Akatsuki are building?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Sadly, no. Your mission is more serious than that. From the intel that Jiraiya assmbled, it appears that the device will take some months to complete. We have no intel on its location, so we can't make a move against it as yet. The problem here is far worse. Jiraiya's message was about a meeting between Orochimaru's servants and followers of Voldemort."

Kakashi's eye widened. "You don't mean… Impossible!"

Tsunade looked grave. "Yes. Orochimaru may be trying to build his own machine to harness the power of tailed beasts. Or he has sought out Voldemort's wisdom for another, equally dangerous purpose. We weren't able to stop Akatsuki from meeting this scholar, but I'll be damned if we let Orochimaru gain more power!" Breathing deeply, she calmed herself down. "Your mission is to travel to the west, discover the purpose of Orochimaru's dealings with Voldemort and then eliminate the wizard. I've prepared a briefing file on the area you will travel to. I want you each to take a copy. Some of our information may be inaccurate, but you'll have a chance to update it."

The jounins nodded. In turn, they went to the desk and took a file. Kakashi glanced through his, then looked back at Tsunade. "What's the plan, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade waited for the rest of the team to finish. "Kakashi, you're team leader. First objective is to meet an agent of Jiraiya at the border of Fire Country. The agent is a wizard. He'll be able to transport you all the Britain, and fill you in on the situation there. Once you reach Britain, you must do everything possible to locate and eliminate the target. Understood?"

The jounins replied in unison. "Yes, Hokage-sama.!"

"Good. You have two hours. Take everything you need."

The team filed out. Tsunade watched them leave. Good luck, boys. You'll need it.