Chapter 17: The Second Task

It is now a few hours before the second task begins, but both Naruto and Harry don't know how they will manage with this task. Heck Naruto had been reading a book along with some of his family's beastieries on aquatic creatures that he will have to face for this task. But even those won't help as he needed something to help him breathe for an hour. The group was researching some methods for the task in the library, though it was proving to be rather stressful. Just then Moody arrives with a message, "McGonagall would like to see you two in her office, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger. Go. NOW!" he commanded. "Longbottom! Why don't you help Potter put his books back?" Neville did just that as both Harry and Naruto went their separate ways.

Naruto decided to go to Jiraiya's cabin to ask for some advice regarding this task. He enters the cabin to see Jiraiya working with some ink and scrolls. "Hey sensei, what are you doing?" Naruto asked. "Oh hey Naruto, I'm just working on some fuinjutsu," Jiraiya explained as he continued with what he was doing. Naruto was intrigued, but decided to ask, "Hey sensei, is there a way I can breathe in water for about an hour or so, for the second task?" Jiraiya thinks for a moment, "There isn't a jutsu for that, but I could make you a seal that will allow you to do what you asked," he stated. "Can you make this seal for me?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya nodded, "Alright then, take off your shirt as I'm going to apply the seal to you," he explained. Naruto nodded and did as Jiraiya instructed, as Jiraiya applied the seal.

Soon the time for the second task arrived as the spectators were on the stands watching the event unfold, while the champions were standing on the platform, waiting for the announcement. "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!" The whistle was blown as the champions dived in the water to take back what was taken from them. Naruto was in the water and what he saw amazed him. The water was rather murky and it was hard to see given that the day was gloomy of course. Anyways, thanks to the fuinjutsu seal Jiraiya applied on him, Naruto could breathe in the water well as if he were Aquaman, and so he began to swim as fast as he could to find what was taken from him.

He swam through the thick amount of seaweed and vegetation, as it was rather hard to see clearly. 'Note to self, should've worn some goggles,' Naruto thought to himself as he kept swimming.

Luckily he had his wand so he activated the lumos spell to see where he was heading. The water was cold, but thanks to the Nine Tails chakra helping him, it kept him warm enough. As he swam he saw many things from fishes to other aquatic critters. Thankfully this was a lake not an ocean so there weren't any sea predators such as sharks, though there is that giant squid that resides here. For about a few minutes, he kept swimming, still trying to find what or rather who he was looking for in the water. But soon he heard the merpeople's song, "I swear to god, this song just creeps me out." Focusing on the task at hand, Naruto swam as fast as he could to find his target.

It felt like twenty minutes had passed since the start of the task, but this isn't getting him anywhere. But soon he found the merpeople and let's just say that they were hideous. The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They spotted him, but luckily Naruto swam fast before they could do anything to him with their spears. Luckily Naruto found Harry and the two decided to work together on this task. They swam until they found a rather strange sight. A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Five people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

The two found Daphne tied between Hermione and Cho. Now Ron was also tied up along with some girl Krum went with during the Yule Ball. From what it looks like, they were in a really deep sleep. Their heads were rolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths. Harry was about to go in, but Naruto stopped him, "Careful Harry, this could be a trap." Soon Cedric swooped in, narrowly avoiding the merpeople as they were about to attack him, and he managed to get Cho to safety. Then Viktor swam by and got his person to safety. Naruto and Harry expected Fleur to come by and save Ron, but there was no sign of her. Soon the two swam to their respective people they wanted to save, as Naruto used his dagger and applied some chakra to cut the rope that was holding Hermione, while Harry used his wand to cut the rope that held Daphne. But Ron was left, and they couldn't just leave him to die. "Go Harry, go get Daphne out of here," Naruto said, shocking Harry. "What?! I'm not just gonna leave you-"

"This is a task…survival's your responsibility," Naruto said as he assured his friend that he will be fine. "Goddamn it…" Harry said before doing as told as he got Daphne out of the water. The two finally arrived at the surface as they saw the other champions with whoever they got, but there was no sign of Naruto, Hermione, and Ron. "Where are they?!" Daphne said worriedly as she was worried for their safety. "Don't worry…Naruto will get them out…I hope," Harry said, sounding pretty worried. Everybody else was sounding pretty worried as they knew time was running out as it was almost close to an hour. "Come on Naruto… you can do this," Jiraiya said as he along with Tsunade were pretty anxious over this.

Naruto was busy trying to get Hermione and Ron out to safety as he had to face off against a horde of killer merpeople. He was fending them off using whatever he could do from spells to jutsu. They were close to clawing Naruto, almost injuring him, but he didn't care as he needed to get his friends to safety, even if it killed him in the process. Time was running out and Naruto needed to go get those two back to the surface. But the merpeople were dragging him to depths and were close to cutting him up as they tackled and scratched him. He was feeling the pain and it reminded him so much of what the villagers did to him before he came to this world. He kept seeing those memories as what was currently happening reminded him of that nightmare. It scares him, but at the same angers him as he can't allow his friends to die just because he failed this task. Unknowingly all the pain and anger that was building up was mixing with his chakra, and using that he let out a roar. "Aghhhhh!" Naruto roared as he freed himself using a dangerous combination of chakra and magic, as the merpeople that surrounded him were all wiped away through an explosion. Over at the surface, everybody felt that pressure, "What the hell was that?!" Harry exclaimed as everybody wanted to know what it was. The waters waved violently due to that pressure, as everyone at the platforms held on for dear life. But over on the stands, Gaara was smiling crazily, 'Yes! Yes! More power! Show me that power!' he thought.

Under the water, Naruto was disoriented from what just happened as he woke up and noticed that some of the merpeople swam away in fear. That's when Naruto remembered, "Right got to to get these two up to the surface!" he stated before he grabbed hold of the two. "Hold on tight guys!" he exclaimed as he boosted his chakra, and swam up. Soon the three were blasted from the water and landed on the platform. Naruto was coughing out water from his lungs, after all he was in the water for about an hour or so. Dumbledore ran over to him to check if the boy was ok, shielding him from everyone. Seamus placed a towel around Naruto's neck, as Naruto thanked him for that. "GET HIM ANOTHER TOWEL!" Seamus ordered over the cheers and cries.

Fleur came over to Naruto and thanked him for saving Ron, as she went to Ron and apologized to him for not saving him. Naruto was surprised that he survived, but he ended up last. "Naruto!" a voice called out and it was Hermione. She was checking on her boyfriend and to her shock, she saw all those cuts and bruises he endured in this challenge. His friends all came to check up on him to see if he was alright. Soon Jiraiya and Tsunade came, and Tsunade healed Naruto quickly, making him alright. After that was over, Dumbledore announced that Cedric was given first place, and to Naruto's surprise, he was given second place, with Krum being third, Harry being fourth, and Fleur being fifth. When that was over, they announced that the third and final task was on June 24th, so they have time to get ready, but for now they should relax.

Night Time

The Gryffindor common room was celebrating both Naruto and Harry's victory. They celebrated until everybody was tired, but Naruto decided to sit at the couch as he looked at the fireplace, contemplating what just happened. Just then Hermione came by, as he looked at her and smiled. "Hey Hermione," he said as motions for her to sit down with him. She greets him and the two sit by the fireplace. She noticed that something was wrong with Naruto, "Are you ok?" she asked. Naruto sighed, "I'm fine, it's just that… I was worried that I was going to lose both you and Ron." Naruto explained everything including what he did to get rid of those merpeople. Needless to say she was surprised by everything he had to do in order to save them. Naruto was silent as he couldn't even look his girlfriend in the eye. "Naruto…Look at me," she said, though Naruto didn't budge. She eventually got him to budge as the two looked at each other, right before Hermione gave Naruto a hug, as he really needed one after what he had to do. "Thank you," she whispered, as Naruto was glad that she was by his side. The two decided to talk until they felt tired, but instead of going to their respective dorms, they decided to fall asleep on the couch, cuddling each other.

Note: Hey guys so now that I covered the second task, we're kind of close to the end of this volume as I have only have a few more chapters left to write for this volume before I move to Order of The Phoenix. So yes eventually Naruto and Gaara will fight as I have sort of teased it in this chapter, and I wanted to do it with something similar to what was shown in the anime, except I want to change it up. Also that power Naruto showed off in the underwater task when he was surrounded by the merpeople, it was inspired by something that was shown in a trailer for Star Wars Force Unleashed 2, and I wanted to pay a homage to it. Anyways hope you like this chapter and feel free to review