Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...I don't even own Harry Potter (cries)

Warning: Slash, swearing, violence, and random occurrences of crack when I feel like it

Hiya again everyone, I know it has been a long time since I updated, but I just can't seem to find the time these days. It's one project after the other, then I also have to think about my other fics, and it's all starting to pile up and give me a headache. Sigh this chapter is short, and to the point, not what most were expecting, although now the story is starting to move forward again. (me so sleepy)

And I've given up on beta readers, they email saying they are free take my chapter and never return them so I'm fed up with all that.

Either way enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 21: Secret

Naruto felt something tickling his face, he tried swatting away whatever was in front of him, but it kept on coming back touching his nose, and lips. Slowly sleepy blue eyes opened to see a blurry pale figure and black hair, now who had black hair that he knew? Naruto was still sleep deprived and had decided to dismiss the whole thing when he heard a soft voice calling his name.

"Naruto..."

He shifted under the covers and changed his position so that he was now lying on his side with his back towards the figure.

"Naruto..."

The blonde in question grumbled but refused to move.

"Dobe..."

Now who called him that?

"Teme...?" he murmured.

"Yes dobe, c'mon now wake up."

"Teme!"Naruto quickly sat up and looked around, he could have sworn that he had heard Sasuke, but he wasn't there. The only person in his room was a young boy who looked at least five years old, but no teme...

Wait! Stop-reverse- what was a boy doing in his room?

Naruto turned to look at the dark haired boy sitting beside him, he was quite small with creamy pale skin, and black hair styled in a familiar duck-butt shape, and even more familiar 'I'm so serious' expression on his face. Naruto blinked a few times trying to regain his bearings, was this really who he thought it was?

"Sasuke?"

"Yea Dobe, get up now, I'm hungry."

"Oh kami you've grown!" he shouted jumping up from his bed, pointing at the boy in surprise.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I thought that would have been obvious by now, now get dressed already! I've been waiting for almost an hour before I woke you up, and I'm hungry!"

Naruto was surprised to hear how whiny Sasuke sounded, but he was too stunned to reply, instead he just nodded dumbly, gathered up his uniform and went inside the bathroom to get changed.

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Three days had passed since Sasuke decided to go exploring (an experiences which left Naruto with a huge headache). The young Uchiha grew up slowly and was given less freedom as the days passed, especially since he decided that he liked going around on his own. But Naruto was getting tired of watching the raven, it turned out the stoic Uchiha was quiet a 'hyper' child.

Yet what Naruto thought was the worst off all was that when ever he saw he young Uchiha he was reminded of the older one. This didn't help his situation, because all it did was make him feel incredibly lonely.

He watched carefully as Sasuke went over to one of the four tables in the Great Hall and sat down to eat, although the students knew about Sasuke's predicament, they were still surprised when seeing him. Then again when ever they did catch sight of the Uchiha he had grown a bit more. Sasuke was starting to lose his cuteness factor, although his still carried some of his baby fat which made his head seem big (coupled with his ego). And he was demanding...just in the past few minutes Naruto had been ordered around so much, he was just about to explode and punch the kid!

Naruto sighed heavily and looked up when he sat the Potions Master standing in front of him. "Snape if this isn't about the potion, then don't bother talking to me. I'm no exactly in a good mood."

He watched as Snape rose an eyebrow questionably and then turned to look at the young Uchiha in understanding. "Then you'll be glad to know that the potion is done and ready to be administered."

"Really?" Snape turned o look back at the blonde and took a step back in surprise. He had come extremely close, blue eyes sparkling with joy and a grin so large formed on his tanned face, that Snape was afraid it would crack.

"Er...yes..." he answered hesitantly.

"Stay away from him!" came a squeaky angry voice.

Snape looked down to see the pint sized boy glaring up at him; he then turned to look back at Naruto who seemed to be doing some sort of elaborate 'happy-dance'.

"Stay away from him, he isn't yours!" the kid said again.

Ah, it seemed like he was the possessive type. Severus smirked down and walked towards Naruto, grabbed his hand, and started dragging him away, with a fuming Uchiha child following in tow.

~*~

Soon the whole group was gathered inside Snape cramped office, all excited in having the old Uchiha back. Yes they were actually happy. Because Sasuke may be a cold bastard when he is older, but he was monster when he was younger. Snape handed young Sasuke a potion instructing him to pour it over his head, before he was ushered behind a medical screen.

They watched the boy walk off and waited, soon a fizzing sound filled the air, and blue smoke filled the room. There was some coughing and the sound of shifting as clothes were being put on, and they all let out sigh in relief as a normal Uchiha stepped out from behind the screen.

"Oh God I'm glad that you're back teme!"

"And I'm glad to be myself again, that was one experience I never want to go through again."

"You ain't the only one..." the Kazekage muttered from the shadows.

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The Owlery wasn't exactly the best place to hide, but it was convenient since not many came up to the dusty old tower. Harry looked down at his bandaged hand; the red haired guard had come a few times after the first time, and had wordlessly cleaned his wound and bandaged him. Draco still didn't know, and Harry didn't want him involved. It was dangerous enough for him to be seen as a Death Eaters son and so feared, but to be seen as the saviours 'lover' would just make him a target for Voldemort.

Maybe...maybe being with Draco wasn't such a good idea...

No even the thought of the made him feel anguish. Harry almost laughed at himself; they hadn't even been together that long and he was already starting to get attached.

He clenched his hand into a fist, the guard's words echoing in his mind, it was true he wasn't alone, yet he wasn't willing to lose another precious person. But he couldn't deny that he also needed help, the question was now how far he was willing to involve the people he cared for.

"You're an idiot Potter."

"Draco?" Harry quickly turned around to meet an angry blonde he hadn't even heard him enter.

"You've been getting detentions again and did tell me!" he shouted and then quickly rushed over to Harry to look at his hand. He sighed out in relief when he saw it bandaged, but didn't let go the raven's hand.

"What are you doing Harry? Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" he said with his eyes downcast.

"I don't want you involved."

"I'm already neck-deep involved you idiot."

"But this is dangerous, if Voldemort finds out-"

"This is a war Harry, of course it's dangerous, and what will old Voldy do when he finds out? He kills most of his followers in the end anyway, it wont matter if that person is with him or not!"

"Now your being the idiot, you could die!" he shouted, pulling his hand out of Draco's grasps. "The more involved you're with me the chances of you dying get higher."

"Stop saying that!"

"No it's true, anyone who is even remotely close to me is targeted!" his body slumped down, it felt like the adrenalin rush from before was waning away and he was starting to feel weak. "My parents, Ron, Hermione...Ginny ..."

Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and brought him into a tight embrace. "Your friends are strong...and you're forgetting who I am Harry, Malfoy's have always been survivors. We're one the oldest Wizarding families in the world. So stop worrying, no ones going to die."

Harry was crying, he wasn't even sure when he started, but that's all he could do. So he gripped onto the Draco like a life-line, finally letting all the burdens out with each tear drop. Neither noticed the bushy haired girl standing outside the Owlery entrance, a letter clutched tightly in her hand, and her face set with a grim expression.

"Oh Harry, what has happened now...?"

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Sasuke went to take a shower to remove any residue of the potion; Naruto was outside in the lounge sitting contently, till Gaara approached him.

"Naruto I have to speak with you." He said, the blonde looked up and nodded. They both walked out of the lounge into Naruto's room. Naruto closed the door behind him, and went to sit down beside Gaara on his bed. "I can guess what this is about Gaara."

"I thought you might have known something." Then again he shouldn't be that surprised, the blonde wasn't as big an idiot as he pretended sometimes.

Naruto gave a dark chuckle, it was true. His kage bushins had already told him everything. "The injuries that Harry has been getting, yes I know about them." He said playing with a stray string on his pillow.

"Then why won't you do something?!" Gaara growled out.

Naruto gritted his teeth together, and retorted back just as harshly. "Don't you think I want to?! But we are powerless this time."

"So you know who the person is?"

"Yes, it's that Ministry official Umbridge..."

"I see..." now Gaara understood, while they had power to intervene against most threats, the Ministry was out of bounds. Unless Harry himself came out and said something against his abuser they could do nothing to prevent it.

"Its part of that treaty bullshit that baabaa had to sign, we can't do anything till he comes to us for help." He slumped back his back hitting the dashboard.

"So what do we do?" Gaara questioned.

The door slowly opened then and in stepped and freshly washed and dressed Sasuke, his dark hair matted against his head with a towel around his neck. "We'll do what we were ordered to do, protect Harry Potter and the rest of the students of Hogwarts." He said with an uncharacteristic smile marring his face.

But Naruto could tell that this wasn't any ordinary smile, it seemed like things were going to be stirred up.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Harry slowly walked towards the common room, it should have been empty since it was currently lunched, instead he saw Ron and Hermione sitting there talking in hushed and hurried tones. He hesitantly walked towards them and sat down on the overstuffed arm-chair drawing their attention to him.

"Aren't you guy's going to go eat?" he asked trying to sound cheerful.

He was watched as Hermione sighed and looked up at him with a sad smile. "Harry we need to talk."

"About what?"

Ron answered. "Hermione said she saw you up in the Owlery, with Malfoy." His expression was plain, which made Harry flinch inwardly.

"Y-you did?!"

"Harry we just want to know what has happened, you been so distant lately, we're just worried, so tell us what is wrong." He could tell the Hermione was being earnest; it was just Ron's expression that he couldn't read. Yet he was expecting this to happen some day, he just didn't think it would be this soon.

He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and the slowly looked at his bandaged hand. His friends watched as he slowly unwound the cloth and gaped when they saw the glaring wound underneath. Hermione instantly sprang up from her seat and ran towards him to inspect his hand, while Ron's skin went pale and his blue eyes widened.

"Oh God Harry." she whispered lightly tracing the scars. "Who did this?"

So Harry slowly retold his friends what had happened for almost three weeks, all about Umbridge and her methods, at how Draco had found him out, to how an odd relationship blossomed, to what was happening now.

"Harry you should have told us!"

"And what could you guys have done? No one wants to believe me, and everyday Voldemort is getting strong."

"That's not the Harry that we know!" said Ron who had been strangely quite throughout the whole of Harry's re-telling. "The Harry we know would have fought of that old bat and shown everyone the truth." He continued.

"Wait a second you're alright with Draco and me being together...?" he asked bewilderedly.

"Tch, he'll always be a ferret so I'm not alright with him being with you." Harry visibly saddened. "But at the same time he seems to be good for you, so as long as he doesn't go hurting ya' it will be alright. Just don't go expecting me to be suddenly nice to him..." he said crossing his arms.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded.

"Okay, okay, I'll be civil." He said quickly dodging her hand. And Harry for the first time in day's felt a huge weight being lifted of his shoulders; he chuckled slightly at their antics.

"But what's important now is what we do about Umbridge." Hermione said, her expression turning instantly serious.

"But what can we do against her, she's sent from the Ministry, and if we complain they'll most likely won't listen to us since we're kids." Ron said quickly.

"That will be a problem but maybe...we wont have to go against the Ministry directly." She said murmuring to herself.

"What are you thinking about Hermione?"

She turned around and grinned at them. "I'll tell you later, but right now I'm starving, so lets' get some lunch!"

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Crafty Hermione, she ain't as sweet as she looks!

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