Well, here's the next chapter. I write quickly, so you all can probably expect the updates to come every few days. Please vote on the pairing for Sakura, and thank you imafish. Because you voted first, yours counts twice.

Votes:

Itachi: 2

"Regrettably, I must depart," Dumbledore announced as they walked through a train station. They all looked at him in shock. Well, Kisame and Deidara did, while Sakura and Itachi simply raised an eyebrow.

The four Akatsuki member had already changed into strange black robes in the restrooms of a pub called The Leaky Cauldron. While there, they had stored all their ninja items and attire inside summoning scrolls. Sakura had suggested that they use henges to seem younger.

"If we show up there the way we look now, we'll look like sensei," she had said.

They had used her idea.

Now, Sakura and Deidara could pass as thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds, but they still had their looks. Itachi seemed to be fourteen or maybe fifteen. For Kisame, however, fifteen was pushing it. He looked more like a sixteen-year-old.

Now the four were stopped in a train station - a rather large one - with long carts, that Dumbledore had given them, piled with their luggage.

"These are the train tickets you four will need in order to board the Hogwarts Express," he explained, handing them four identical tickets. "The train is on platform Nine and Three-Quarters." Deidara raised an eyebrow at this. "The platform is located behind the pillar between platforms Nine and Ten."

"Behind the pillar?" Kisame asked in confusion. "If it's behind a pillar, wouldn't everyone be able to see it?" Dumbledore smiled.

"On the contrary, dear boy, there is a spell cast over the pillar," Dumbledore replied. "You have to run through the pillar in order to reach a separate place in which the train is located." They were all quiet.

"So…in other words, we run at the pillar between platforms Nine and Ten and we'll reach where we need to board our train?" Sakura asked, summing it up. Dumbledore smiled again.

"Exactly, my dear," he said warmly. "You best be on your way, and do make sure that no muggles witness your departure." At the questioning looks on their faces, he added, "Non-magical humans."

Civilians.

They nodded and Dumbledore rummaged around in his robes for something.

"Do you…have something for us, Dumbledore-sama?" Sakura asked. Her answer was Dumbledore pulling out a scroll. Dumbledore gave them a slightly confused smile and handed the scroll to Itachi.

"Mr. Madara requested that I record the details of all that is wished of you inside this scroll," Dumbledore said, his voice holding the majestic edge of a natural-born leader. "Does this happen to mean anything to the four of you?"

"Yes sir," Sakura replied for all of them as Itachi began unbinding the scroll. Mission spec. "And thank you; for buying our supplies and giving us a tour." Dumbledore smiled.

"Of course."

And with that, he disappeared. Itachi rolled the scroll open, picking up a moving photograph that fell out, and read it to them quietly in Japanese as the four walked towards where their train was located, pushing their newly-bought supplies-filled trunks on trolleys.

Sakura frowned slightly, still looking ahead.

"This Harry Potter boy sounds like quite a bit of trouble," she murmured in Japanese, her eyes thoughtful as she glanced down at the picture. He had black hair and green eyes sheathed in round, thin glasses. A lightning bolt-shaped scar was visible on his forehead, slightly hidden by his dark hair. She absentmindedly petted her cat, who happened to be asleep on one of her bags. Deidara had his owl in a cage on top of his luggage. It was awake, but was too busy whirling its head in every direction and observing its surroundings to make a sound. It squawked quietly every now and then, though. Itachi's cat was curled up on top of his bags as well, but was wide awake.

"Great, yeah," Deidara grumbled. "If the little brat runs off somewhere, I'm not gonna chase him, yeah."

"Just think what Leader-sama and Madara-sama would say if they heard that, Deidara," Kisame snickered, grinning widely. Deidara scowled at him, huffing indignantly.

So immature. Sakura thought, rolling her eyes.

Ditto. her Inner agreed.

"I've never seen a train before, yeah," Deidara said quietly. "I've heard of them, but I've never actually seen one, yeah."

"There was a train in my old home," Sakura replied, smart enough to realize that the 'muggles' wouldn't know what a hidden village was. "Back when I lived in Yukigakure, I mean,"

"Here's Platform Nine," Itachi murmured, speaking in English so as not to raise suspicion among the 'muggles'.

"And there's Platform Ten," Sakura agreed, nodding her head across the pathway.

They all four stared at the pillar for a moment.

"…I suppose we should go through it?" Sakura suggested. Then, she suddenly paused. "Itachi, activate your Sharingan." His eyes flickered towards her. "I can sense chakra around here, but it's a bit…I'm not sure. It's chakra but it's…also not chakra…"

With a quick glance to confirm that no one was watching, Itachi's eyes bled crimson and narrowed slightly.

"Hn. I see a large amount of chakra surrounding the pillar," he murmured quietly. "Though, you are right, Sakura-san. It is different."

"Different how, yeah?" Deidara asked, jumping in before Kisame could speak.

Itachi was silent for a moment, but they all expected it. The stoic Uchiha wasn't one to talk much.

"I suppose you could give a color to chakra," he said after a moment. "Normal chakra is blue. Medical chakra is green. Demon chakra is red. Cursed chakra is black. And rarely, some chakra presents itself as white. This, however,…is almost golden in color." They thought about this for a minute.

"Can you sense anything off about it?" Sakura questioned, musing over their new discovery. "Anything at all? Like I did?"

"Hn." The three Akatsuki took this to mean 'Hai'.

He continued after another quiet moment.

"It is weaker. Much weaker that normal chakra, but still dangerous," he mumbled. "I do not believe this 'magic' will be able to harm us."

"At least not seriously," Sakura added.

"Hn."

"…so, does that mean that the pillar has…a sort of genjutsu around it?" Kisame guessed.

Both Itachi and Sakura nodded. Deidara moved his bangs out of the way and opened his usually-hidden left eye. He blinked.

"I see it, yeah," he agreed. "It's a lot like genjutsu, yeah."

With another blink, wincing slightly as the light hurt his sensitive eye, he let his bangs cover his left eye again. Deidara's scope was, conveniently, hidden in a summoning scroll.

The four S-ranked shinobi stood for a moment in silence, contemplating whether to run at it or not. Just as Sakura opened her mouth to speak, the sunshine pouring in through multiple windows reflected off of something silver and momentarily blinded her. She blinked, holding her left hand up to block to glare. She squeezed her eyes shut and blinked again, grateful when the reflection was off her face. It was now, however, on her throat. Sakura discovered the source of the flash and grimaced at what she knew she had to say.

"We have to get rid of our headbands."

Deidara's head reeled around to stare at her, while Kisame looked at her in shock and Itachi's eyebrows shot up.

"What, yeah?" the blond choked. "We can't get rid of our headbands, yeah!"

Even though the four Akatsuki members had scratched out their headbands and defected from their home villages, they weren't about to give up their headbands. Their forehead protectors were the only true symbol that marked them as shinobi.

"We can't wear them around the school," Sakura explained, frowning. "They can't know about shinobi and the hidden villages. We can just keep them in our bags."

The other three were quiet for a few minutes. After a while, they all reluctantly conceded. Sakura reached up slowly and untied her white-clothed headband, tilting her head forward slightly and letting in fall into her hand. She stared at the headband for a moment. She mentally traced its design. Three circles in a downward diagonal line with a fourth circle to the left of the bottom one. A long slash crossed through the middle circle. Sakura folded the cloth carefully and slid it into one of her bags. The kunoichi glanced over at her comrades and a look of surprise crossed her features.

Both Itachi and Deidara looked noticeably younger without their shinobi brand, and Sakura was a little tickled to see that Kisame did in fact possess ears. The four stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do, and Deidara sighed.

"…we should go, yeah," he mumbled.

With a quick nod from each Akatsuki member, they took turns walking to the pillar. Deidara went first. He strolled up to the pillar and, with a second of hesitation, stepped forward. His foot - now in a strange black shoe - connected with the stone…

…and sent him hopping on one foot and crying "ITAI!"

Sakura slapped a hand onto her face and a comical look came over Kisame's face. Itachi grunted.

"ITAI! ITAI! ITAI!" Deidara screamed, drawing the attention of many 'muggles'. "ITAI! ITAI! ITA-"

The blond was cut off as Sakura slapped a hand over his mouth.

"You're attracting attention," she hissed in his ear. "Shut up, and I'll heal it in a minute."

He nodded, his eyes watering, and Sakura removed her hand. His poor owl, Taki, was now squawking, his cage laying sideways on the ground.

"You have to be careful," Sakura continued a little louder so everyone staring could hear. "You have to watch where you're going, or you'll run into things like you did now."

Hearing that, most of the observers continued on with bored expressions. A few other, however, sent them strange looks.

"What was that?" Kisame asked, scratching his head and gazing in confusion at the pillar as Deidara shushed his owl. "Aren't you supposed to go through it?"

"Hn," Itachi mumbled. "I believe you are supposed to run through it."

Sakura glanced at him in surprise.

"I bet you're right," she agreed. "Deidara, get your cart. We have to run through the pillar."

"No freaking way, yeah!" he whined. "That hurt like hell, yeah!"

"Pansy," Kisame muttered. A vein popped out on the blond's forehead and he whipped around.

Sakura covered his mouth again before he could start yelling. Both her and Itachi's thoughts were nearly the same, involving the words 'fool' and 'quiet'.

Sakura took a quick look around to make sure that no one was still watching them. When she was satisfied, the rosette released Deidara and grabbed her cart. She ran forward in a slight jog and phased right through the pillar, cart and all. Deidara blinked. Itachi went though next, followed closely by a hesitant Deidara. Kisame, not wanting to be left behind, ran through the pillar and found himself beside the others.

Deidara stared in awe at the huge red train before them. In read 'Hogwarts Express' on the side in bold black letters. A small sign caught Sakura's attention.

Platform 9¾

She snorted.

"Whoa, yeah," Deidara whispered, wide blue eyes locked on the gigantic locomotive. "I've never seen a train like this, yeah."

"It's huge," Sakura agreed. "The one back home is big, but not this big. And it's unused."

"I've seen a couple, myself, but this one…damn," Kisame added.

Itachi grunted. Again.

"Come on," Sakura said, redeeming herself quickly. "We need to board."

Their carts were left in the station and their baggage was loaded onto the train. Sakura, Itachi, and Deidara's pet were put in the animal car of the train. Apparently only rats and toads - when the owner is sure that he or she can hold onto them, seeing as a boy from two years prior lost his toad on the train - are allowed to be kept with the student. The four ninja stubbornly kept their headbands hidden in their 'robe's.

Sakura, Itachi, Deidara, and Kisame climbed onto the train and glanced around before walking down the aisle. Sakura looked back and forth to different cars, using her chakra to sense how many were in each. So far, all of them were very full. She cursed inwardly.

This is taking too long, her Inner grumbled.

Shh.

Sakura continued to 'feel' for an empty car when she found one with only three people. She paused and the other three stopped as well. They looked at her and she stood in front of an open compartment door. Just as she thought, their were only three students inside. One had dark hair and green eyes, the second had brown hair and brown, and the third…

…had slicked-back white-blond hair.

Damn. Harry-san isn't here.

They all three looked up.

Sakura plastered a smile to her face - which was very hard to do - and began speaking.

"Hello. Could we possibly sit here?" she asked with a fake kind voice. "All the other compartments are full."

The one with pale-colored hair in a Hidan style eyed her up and down. Sakura was tempting to sucker-punch him in the face, but she figured it wouldn't make a good impression. Besides, they had to keep a low profile.

Deidara, on the other hand, twitched. The only reason he didn't blow up the brat was because all his clay was in a summoning scroll in his bags. Otherwise, the kid would be as good as gone. Deidara was very…protective of his friend.

Not to mention that he liked her.

The pale-haired boy opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off as someone crashed into Sakura. Whoever it was bounced off of her as if she were a brick wall. Sakura didn't even twitch.

She glanced down at the boy now sitting on his butt, stunned. He wasn't Harry Potter, either.

"Er…I'm sorry," he apologized with a thick, strange accent.

Sakura reached a hand down, yanking him up quickly when he took it. The boy stumbled, surprised that she was so strong.

"I didn't mean-oh," he muttered, suddenly scowling at the pale-haired boy as soon as he saw him. Sakura merely raised an eyebrow. "Are you looking for a place to sit?" Sakura nodded for the four of them. "Well, you won't find luck here," he said, now engaged in a glaring contest with the other three wizards. "Malfoy'd rather bite you then let you sit here. We have room in our car if you want."

Sakura sent him a fake smile and nodded while the one named Malfoy scowled.

"Here," the boy said. "My compartment's just across here."

He led them across the aisle to a car with a closed see-through door.

Strange. We've seen rice paper doors and wooden doors, but never glass doors like these. Inner Sakura commented.

They aren't glass. Sakura corrected. They're almost like plastic.

"I hate these doors," the young wizard said frowning at the door as he attempted to open it. "They should have been made with real glass instead of this damn Plexiglas."

What the hell's Plexiglas?

Dunno.

"But if they were made with glass," he continued, yanking the door with all his might, "then stinking cockroaches like Malfoy'd break 'em all." A girl inside the compartment got up and slid the door open for him. "Name's Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley."

What the hell kind of name is 'Ron'?

I have no idea. What kind of name is 'Dumbledore'?

Good point.

Sakura glanced at the inhabitants of the compartment. First, there was the Ron boy. Then there was the girl that had opened the door. She had thick brown hair and brown eyes. A man was wrapped up in a black cloak and sleeping in the corner, and the last…

…was Harry Potter.

The four Akatsuki members had a mutual understanding, and had no need to look at one another to confirm that he was their client.

"Who are these, Ron?" the girl asked. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"And I'm Harry Potter," the black-haired boy spoke up, standing at his seat.

They all nodded, except Itachi. He simply grunted. Harry was mildly surprised that they didn't react to his name, but was grateful that they didn't gasp or start ogling.

"My name is Sakura Haruno," Sakura greeted, still unused to saying her first name first. Surprise flickered in their expressions.

"Deidara Katsu, yeah." He had to came up with a last name, so why not use the word that makes his bombs blow up?

"I'm Kisame Hoshigaki." The shark-nin grinned.

"Itachi Uchiha."

"Those are…interesting names," Hermione faltered. "Um…are you first years?"

"No," Sakura replied smoothly, recalling their conversation with Dumbledore on their way to the train station. "Deidara, Itachi, and I are third years. Kisame is a fourth year."

The trio's shock was evident on their faces.

"What?" was Hermione's dumbfounded answered. "But…but you're new here! You have to be first years! It's the rules!"

So annoying, yeah. Deidara though, eyebrow twitching.

Jeez. A bit pushy, ne? Sakura inwardly muttered.

"How?" the brunette sputtered.

"We're exchange students from a Witchcraft and Wizardry school in Japan," Sakura said, although having no clue where Japan was.

"Then how come I haven't read anything about it?" That witch was getting very annoying.

"Because our school is 'prestigious' and didn't want to risk muggles finding out about it," Sakura murmured, spitting the word 'prestigious' like it was a disease. Hermione was still skeptical, but didn't ask any more questions. "You can ask Dumbledore-sama if you don't believe us."

" 'sama'," Harry repeated in confusion, pronouncing the word very badly. "What does that mean?"

"It's pronounced 'sama', Harry-san," Sakura mumbled, sighing. "And it's a suffix that is added to someone's name, usually someone older, to show respect."

"…oh," Harry said, slightly embarrassed. "Then, uh, what does 'san' mean?"

"It's 'san', yeah. Another suffix for someone who is relatively equal, yeah." Even though this brat's way off from equal, yeah.

"Why do you say that?" Ron asked.

"Say what, yeah?" Deidara shot back. The four Akatsuki sat down, Sakura between the sleeping man and Itachi. Kisame sat on Itachi's other side, while Deidara took a place opposite of Kisame, the now-closed door on his left.

"Why do you always say 'yeah'?" Ron specified, looking at Deidara from his spot to the right of the blond.

"It's a speech impediment, yeah," he replied, jaw twitching slightly. He hated it when people asked about that. "I was born with it, yeah."

"O-oh…"

An awkward silence filled the compartment for a few moments before Harry spoke up.

"So, um, Sakura, is it?" Sakura forced herself not to flinch at the horrible pronunciation of her name.

"Hai?"

"W-what?" Harry asked in surprise. She mentally rolled her eyes.

"Yes?" Sakura murmured.

"Oh, uh…is that your natural hair color?" Another mental eye roll. Typical question.

"Hai, it is," Sakura replied. " 'Hai' mean 'yes'."

"You were born with pink hair?" Hermione said incredulously.

"Hai, I was," Sakura answered, clenching her jaw slightly. "Pink is my natural hair color, and green is my natural eye color. Kisame's hair color is also natural, and his eyes are as well. Deidara was born with his speech impediment and he is, in fact, a guy. Itachi hardly ever speaks but he is not deaf, dumb, or blind. Does that answer any questions?"

The trio didn't ask any more questions.

Not until after the second awkward silence was over, at least.

"So…you three are wizards and a witch from Japan?" Harry asked. They all nodded except Itachi.

"Hn."

The trio stared at him. Hermione nearly ogled.

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"What does-"

" 'Hn' in just a filler word that all Uchiha's use when they're too damn lazy to actually say something useful," Sakura supplied.

Itachi sent her the infamous Uchiha death glare and Sakura stared him down back with a passive expression.

"Those don't work on me," she deadpanned.

"Hn," he grunted.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Do it. I dare you."

"Hn."

"Oh, really now?"

"Hn."

"Sure."

"Hn."

"Then do it."

Itachi grunted again. "Hn."

"I knew it."

When their little 'argument' was over, Sakura turned back to find the trio staring. Again. Deidara huffed and a rough cough-slash-laugh came from Kisame's throat.

"Itachi threatens people often," Sakura said, plastering a fake smile to her face yet again. "He doesn't scare me, but I'd advise the three of you to watch your backs when you make him angry." The underlying hint of warning sent chills down their spines.

"Right, um, back to my question earlier," Harry continued, surprised that he could remember what he had asked. "So, you're all from Japan…how is it there? What's the school like?"

Sakura paused slightly - so slightly that only a trained shinobi such as Itachi could notice - so the Uchiha spoke up.

"It is very large and rather traditional," he murmured quietly. "Only top-ranking witches and wizards are admitted."

They all looked in surprise at Itachi, while Sakura sent him a grateful glance. She was getting tired of being the spokesperson.

"Really?" Hermione asked. "What's it called?"

Sakura pulled a random name out of her ass. "Meiyo Jujutsu."

The brunette's eyebrows raised. " 'Meiyo Jujutsu'?" The four winced at the butchered pronunciation. "What does that mean?"

"Honor Magic, yeah," Deidara put in, wanting a chance to speak again.

Hermione had a strange look on her face. One that obviously said 'You were accepted to a honors magic academy?'

Sakura had never wanted to squash someone so bad. Hermione was so annoying. The rosette had a strong urge to bash her in the head, simply to shut her up, but had the feeling that it wouldn't end well.

Violent thoughts were circulating in Sakura's mind and a fake smile was molded to her face when the train suddenly came to a jerking halt.

"What the-" Deidara was cut off as he tumbled from his seat and landed flat on the floor or the compartment. Sakura was nearly flung from her seat as well, but she grabbed the bottom of the bench. With a flustered expression, she realized that she left a dent in the bottom, but that was the least of their problems. The trio stumbled and Kisame's head hit the wall.

A crackling sound attracted the shinobis' attention, and they looked up to see the windows freezing over.