An Intertwined Spiral

Chapter 6

Narut yawned as he scratched the last word of his charms essay. He threw down the quill and stretched. Looking at the clock, he was surprised to see that it was close to midnight.

He wondered if Harry and Ron were done their detentions yet. Toying with the idea of going down to the common room as he put his stuff back into his trunk, he spotted that diary that he saw before.

He pulled it out and flipped though it. All the pages were blank.

"You shouldn't be messing around with that." Kyuubi spoke from his mind, making Naruto jump.

"Don't do that! And why shouldn't I? It's just a book…"

He felt Kyuubi give a mental shrug. "It doesn't feel…right, I guess the word is. It's not a normal book."

Naruto frowned. Not normal? He brought it over to his desk and picked up his quill. The ink blotted the page like a black blood drop.

"Brat! What did I just say!" Kyuubi growled out and phased out of Naruto's mind. "Why can't you do as I say for once-"

"Look."

Kyuubi stopped talking and looked back at the page. The page that just had an ink blot there two seconds ago. As they watched, words started to form.

"Hello. Is anyone there?"

"I think you're right. This isn't a normal book…" Naruto said quietly. Kyuubi gave him a look that said 'No kidding.'

"My dad said never to trust something if you can't see where it's brain is." Naruto stated. He glanced up at the fox.

"Get rid of it then." Kyuubi yawned and curled up on the bed. Naruto nodded and stood up.

"Don't get caught."

Naruto waved a hand at him as he stuffed the book into his pocket. "I'll be back soon."

He managed to sneak out of the castle without anyone seeing him. He looked around the darkened grounds and shivered.

"Let's just get this over with." He quickly ran into the forest and disappeared among the trees.

xXxXx

Luna Lovegood walked barefoot around the Forribidden Forest, humming softly to herself. Papers rustled as she dug an apple out of her book bag.

Bitting into it she looked around and deemed one tree suitible enough. She placed the apple back into the bag and began climbing up the large truck, not seeming to care that the rough bark was scraping against her skin.

Finally settling on a branch, she leaned back and relaxed. She closed her light blue eyes and smiled lightly when the breeze played with her scraggliy blone hair.

It was always nice to leave the school once in a while. Some birds chippered nearby, calling for their mates.

She must have dosed off, for she was startled awake by a strange noise. Luna climbed down her tree and carefully scanned around her.

There was nothing out of place. Then she heard it again. Her eyes widened. "It must be a Botin Sepent! Those are really rare around here. I wonder what it's doing…" Luna muttered to herself as she wandered further into the forest, not noticing that it was steadily growning darker.

After a while of walking, Luna heard the bubbling of a creak nearby. 'Oh good. I am getting quite thirsty.' She thought as she knelt down next to the water.

She cupped her hands and gathered some water. As she drank, she saw something floating in the water.

"Oh? What's this?" She asked the air as it drifted closer. When it got near enough, she reached out and grabbed it.

"A book? But what on earth is this doing out here?"

She carefully opened up the little back book. There, printed on the inside was the words written 'T.M. Riddle' in smudged ink.

"How very strange." She murmured.

xXxXx

A hooded figure walked down the alleyway. The sky above him was pitch black with millions of tiny pinpricks of light luminating his way.

The man paused as when he heard a slight shuffling behind him. Peering out at him was a homeless man, his body packed with layers and layers of ratty clothing.

"Whoz 'ath?" the beggar called out drunkinly squiting at the man infront of him with bloodshot eyes. The man face was completely covered in shadows except for his eyes. Gleaming violet eyes narrowed as the man reached behind him pulling out a scythe on a short handle.

The beggar clumsily scrambled away shrieking in terror. The cloaked man slammed the weapon down on the beggar's back effectivly pinning him down.

"Shut up you heathen!" The man growled as he licked the blood off the scythe. "Prepare the be welcomed by Jashin-sama."

The beggar didn't have time to plead for his life before he felt a huge amount of pain and then nothing.

"Tch." The murderer smirked at his handy work. He strapped the scythe on to his back before continuing down the alley onto the street.

Looking at the telephone box that was supposedly the entrance to the ministy the man snorted. There was no way in hell he was going in that. He made a strange sign with his hand and instantly disappeared only to reappear inside the underground building of the Ministry of Magic.

"Put your wand where I can see it!"

The man turned to see a woman pointing a stick at him. He grinned at her.

"Which way is the Department of Mysteries?" He asked politely. "There is something I need from there."

xXxXx

October had rolled around and with it a heavy chill had settled on the grounds. Kyuubi of course didn't care and still made Naruto and Sasuke continue their training. They were progressing fairly well and were starting on water walking exercises.

Naruto winced as he walked down the Great Hall. Stupid tree root… he hadn't see it and ended up tripping over it and bruised his shin on a rock during their morning exercises. Sasuke and Kyuubi were not going to let him forget about it anytime soon.

'Well, if you hadn't chased that frog then you wouldn't have triped.' Sasuke muttered through their mindlink.

Naruto mentally stuck his tongue out at his friend. 'It was a toad! And it reminded me of Gamakichi.' He missed his summons. They were irritating at times when they refused to do what he asked but he did miss them.

'Hn. Whatever dope.' Naruto didn't even bother with a response. He dropped down in his seat. Sasuke had been told off by Snape for sitting at the Gryffindor table so he wasn't able to join them anymore.

Breakfast was normal until the owl post arrived. Hermione paid the owl a knut and shook out the Daily Prophet.

"Huh.. that's odd." She remarked looking at the front page. "There was a break in at the Ministry."

Harry leaned over to read. "Last month there was a break in the Department of Mysteries. The security guard had been killed by muggle means using a sharp weapon. "The murder was very strange indeed," states a nervous looking Auror. "The body was in the middle of a circle with a triangle in the center of it. The whole thing was drawing in blood." The Ministry is not releasing what was stolen but rumor suggest it was something of extremely high value.."

Harry looked up and noticed that Naruto had paled, staring at the paper his food forgotten. "I-is there a picture?" He asked shakily.

They looked at him oddly as he snatched the paper from Hermione. His eyes widened at the sight of a woman laying in the middle of the bloody circle like the article depicted.

"No."

Instantly memory of a silver haired immortal Akatsuki member flashed in his mind. Sasuke looked up from across the room when he caught a glimpse of the memory and the feeling of Naruto panicking.

'No, no, no, no! This can't be happening!' Naruto didn't even notice Sasuke trying to get his attention, only paying attention to the other when Sasuke gave him a mental slap.

'What's going on?' The brunette asked.

Naruto shook his head, 'Look at the paper and talk to me later. We have big problems.'

"Hey! Naruto, what's wrong?" Harry was waving his hand in front of Naruto's face.

"I know who did this." He murmured to them standing up and heading out of Great Hall. He knew that they would follow him out and saw Sasuke coming towards him. Naruto gave him a grim look as he caught a snippet of Sasuke's colourful vocabulary in their mindlink.

Once the chattering coming from the Hall was just a dull murmur, his older friends began to demand what he meant.

"He means that our past is coming back to bite us in the ass." Sasuke said, his eyes dark.

"The murder is a guy called Hidan. He was a criminal from back then." Naruto paused before continuing. "He was part of a dangerous gang. I'm not sure of this means all of them are back or if its just him."

Ron scruched up his face. "But how is he here?"

"Yeah, did he get reborn too?" Hermione wanted to know.

Naruto shrugged. "He's immortal. Our friend Shikamaru had buried Hidan in a hole since none of us could kill him. He might have just crawled out now."

The blonde saw that they were staring at him with wide eyes.

"Immortal? Seriously?" Harry breathed, his face troubled.

"How?" Ron asked eagerly.

Sasuke shook his head. "Dunno how he did it. He's completely insane though. He preforms rituals and sacrifices people to his god."

They looked vaguely sick at that. The bell began to toll and they turned to go to their respective classes.

Sasuke pulled Naruto back as the other went ahead. "I'm wondering what Hidan stole."

Naruto sighed, "Whatever is was it can't be good. Maybe he didn't steal anything. He doesn't know we're here."

"Hopefully." Sasuke added. "But maybe he had help getting free." Both looked at each other not liking what that could mean.