The Hidden Countries;
Chapter Twelve,
Well, this is awkward...
Rose glanced back at Ron and Hermione, and then towards the Hokage and the ninja behind him. This was it. She was finally going to kill the snake. To kill Voldemort. Rose just couldn't wait.
"You got your weapon ready?" Anko drawled, sounding incredibly bored.
Hermione started to rummage around her small beaded bag and Rose bit her lips, her eyes darting to Kakashi who stood behind the Hokage. She'd talk to him once everything was all done and over with.
"Aha!" Hermione muttered happily as she pulled the sword of Gryffindor out of her bag, holding it at an awkward angle. Rose tried to ignore the surprised faces of the ninja. Rose had kind of hoped that Hermione wouldn't draw attention to their magic like that – for the simple fact of; the ninja didn't know about it.
Wordlessly Rose held out her hand for the sword and Hermione passed it over without a second thought. Rose was the best at using the damned thing – she was no master but... She was better than those two were.
Anko nodded her head, a large wicked smile covering her face at the sight of the sword. "Nice," she commented before turning slightly serious.
"Thanks," Rose said with a tight smile. Rose twirled the sword slightly. They were so lucky that they didn't lose the sword to Griphook when they invaded the bank. It was Ron's ingenious plan that kept it – really some of his ideas...
"Let's start then, no? Anko?" The Hokage asked, sounding slightly wary.
Anko nodded her head, and Jiraiya of the Sannin leant forward interested. Anko put her hands together in a strange sign with her hands and declared, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
There was a small puff of smoke and amidst that smoke the figure of Voldemort's last horocrux appeared. Rose felt no hesitation; she beheaded the snake with one swing, no bothering to talk to it. That was it.
For something that took so long for her to achieve – it was over so very quickly. Rose felt happy for a second and she could see the calculating eyes of the four ninja, she could see the smiles of her friends.
Then she felt a sudden anger erupt from her head. An all consuming rage, like someone had just been told everything they ever cared about was dead and then Quidditch was banned. Rose brought her left hand up to clutch her forehead.
Voldemort was pissed. Rose brought her hands down to her eyes and she saw some blood on her hands. Her scar was bleeding. That hadn't actually happen when she destroyed one of these before. Maybe because it was the last one?
Rose felt someone jab at her mental shield, over and over. Unrelenting and giving off the sense of immense anger. He wanted into her mind and Rose was sure the only reason he hadn't was because he was too angry to think straight.
"Rose? You're freaking bleeding!" Ron said his eyes wide. "Hermione... why is Rose's scar bleeding!?"
"I don't know!"
"Rose-San? What is wrong?" Jiraiya of the Sannin said, suddenly appearing in front of her, only to push the hair away from her forehead to examine the bleeding scar.
Rose felt another attempt into her mind – his anger seemed to be growing with every minute. Rose winced and Jiraiya seemed to draw back slightly.
"He's angry, Hermione. He's... not controlling his emotions, he's..."
Hermione's eyes widened. "You don't mean… You-Know-Who?" Hermione asked her voice trembling.
Rose just grunted. "Who is, You-Know-Who?" The Hokage asked, his voice sharp.
"Tom Riddle?" Ron said, hesitating slightly.
Rose hissed in pain, and screwed her eyes shut. Just in case she couldn't completely keep Voldemort out, at least he couldn't see what she was seeing.
"Rose! What's happening?" Kakashi seemed to finally break his vow of silence, his voice wavering.
"They have a connection, and when Riddle gets annoyed… Rose can feel it, it happened when Voldemort failed to kill Rose," Hermione tried to explain, but she sounded like she was panicking. "They can usually keep each other out though. I think he's…"
"Trying to see where Rose is?" Ron added not sounding one hundred percent confident.
Rose grit her teeth, just because he couldn't see, didn't mean he couldn't hear. She really only had one option. "Someone, knock me out."
"No, Rose!" Hermione protested before someone knocked Rose out completely.
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His eye's were bright red, looking like a snake – he still had no nose, but looked sick. Like he was dying. "Potter, what have you done?" Voldemort sneered.
Rose looked around to see open fields of grass; the only people on the current field was her and Voldemort. Rose wondered if she was sleeping. But then why would she dream of Voldemort?
"Whatever I can to kill you Voldeshorts," Rose replied with her own sneer. "And where are we?"
"Avada Kedavra!"
Rose simply raised an eyebrow as nothing happened. Voldemort didn't look very happy. "Because you asked to knock yourself out, we are stuck here, in the limbo of your mind."
Rose was sure there was a horrified look in her eyes. "Wait, you mean I'm stuck with you?"
Voldemort glared at her. "How did you find out about them?"
Rose grinned. "Wouldn't you like to know, Tom?"
"You dare!?"
"Yes, yes I do. I'm going to kill you, you know? Your mortal now, and you know it." Rose had this I'm-Better-Than-You smile on her face.
Voldemort's eyes narrowed. "You will never be able to beat me, Potter."
Rose rolled her eyes. "I will take everyone you hold dear, and I will kill them all. Let's see what happens then, heh, Girl-Who-Lived."
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There was a loud beeping, loud annoying beeping. Rose opened her green eyes slowly. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the different lighting, wondering about the strange conversation that she had with Voldemort. His promise, to kill everyone that she cared about.
…Rose had to get back, she had to make a plan, and she had to save them all. She just had to. Rose looked around the practically bare hospital room that she was in. Why was she in there?
Had they put her in there after she asked to get knocked out? Rose shrugged her shoulders and sat up, pushing herself off the bed. She found that she was still wearing the same thing that she was wearing when she had killed Voldemort's snake.
Rose stood up and walked towards the door but once she reached said door, she hesitated. Would she be allowed to just leave? Rose had many memories of having to become a stunt doer just to get out of the hospital wing at Hogwarts.
Deciding that she needed to be on the safe side, Rose decided against using the door and walked towards the slightly open window. A normal person would not think to use a window to get out of the hospital, hell, normal people stayed when they were injured. But then again, Rose wasn't really injured.
Rose opened the window fully and climbed out, peering over the edge of the roof to see how far down it was.
"You could use the door, you know that right?"
Rose jumped, and had to grab the windowsill to gain her balance. She turned to see Kakashi leaning against the wall, his small orange book open and rested on his legs. Rose blinked, and paused. "Why are you here?"
"Reading," Kakashi replied with a smile.
"On a hospital roof?" Rose asked with her eyebrow raised, hesitating slightly.
Kakashi shrugged. "Nice view."
"Alright then…"
Rose's eyes flickered to the edge of the roof again, deciding it was probably too far for her to get down without magic
"You might want to go back in and use the door."
Rose nodded her head. "Yeah, I guess."
Rose lifted herself back into the room, soon followed by Kakashi, who had put his book away. Rose looked back at Kakashi, as she approached her door.
"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked, when Rose put her hand on the door. Rose withdrew her hand from the door and turned around to face Kakashi. He seemed to be perfectly indifferent.
"Yeah, it happens sometimes," Rose replied, turning to face the door again but not making a move to open it.
"Hermione told us, that your minds are linked?" Kakashi asked.
Rose looked to the side. "Yes, I don't exactly know how it happened. But when I was a year old, he tried to kill me and it didn't work and he killed himself instead. We've had this connection ever since. I spent a year when I was fifteen learning how to block him out."
Kakashi made this sound of understanding. "That's a very unique situation."
"Welcome to my life," Rose said with a quirky smile as she opened the door and walked out, fully expecting him to follow her.
"It's an interesting life," Kakashi commented, walking up beside her.
Rose gave a wryly smile. "Not one that I want."
"I can understand that."
Rose's eyes flickered to Kakashi, an she ducked around the corner and walked out of the door. "Hm, Hokae-Sama wants to see you, your people arrived yesterday."
Rose's eyebrows farrowed. "How long was I out for?"
Kakashi looked at her, he seemed to be completely upset for a moment but that moment was gone too fast and Rose wondered if she was just imagining it. "Four days."
Rose's eyes widened drastically. "For that long?"
Kakashi nodded his head. "Everyone was quite worried."
Rose gaped, and they remained mostly silent until they reached the Hokage tower. Then a thought struck Rose. "Who came?"
"You don't know?" Kakashi asked, sounding surprised and alert.
Rose just shook her head. "It's hard to know who gets your message when everyone's spread and in hiding."
Kakashi nodded his head in understanding. "Two red-haired boys, which I believe are Ron's brothers and an older male."
Rose huffed and glared at Kakashi slightly, causing him to chuckle. Rose smiled to herself as the teen girl behind the front desk let them go up to the Hokage's office. "Your being very unhelpful you know that?"
"Yes."
"Your doing it on purpose, aren't you?" Rose asked dryly.
"Yep."
Rose sighed, but had a smile on her face. The door to the room opened and Rose saw the Hokage, sitting behind his desk. There was Jiraiya standing behind him, and there was Remus Lupin and the Weasley Twins standing in front of the desk.
Fred and George looked dead bored, and Remus looked like he was having a serious conversation. Jiraiya looked up and when he saw Rose and Kakashi, his voice broke out into a grin. "Hey, it's good to see you two away from the hospital."
Rose looked at Kakashi, only to see the tops of his ears turn slightly red. Rose decided not to comment on that, but there was a small smile on her face that she couldn't seem to get rid of.
"It's Rosie!"
"Our special-"
"Little chosen one!"
Rose's smile widened. "Fred, George, how many times must I tell you… My name is Rose."
"At least-"
"Another ten times," George finished. They both had these large smiles on their faces, leaving no doubt in Rose's mind that these were the real two Weasley twins.
"How's it been guys?" Rose asked in a chipper voice.
"Business is good," Fred replied.
Remus rolled his eyes but had a small smile on his face. "You can catch up later. Alright, what was the first thing that Rosemary Potter told me when we first met?"
Rose smiled, ignoring the amused faces of the ninja. "The names Rose, not Rosemary you old man."
Remus suddenly grinned very wide. "I'm glad you're alive, Rose."
Rose faked a huff. "Now what did you expect, Moony?"
"Something amazing, like always."
The Hokage coughed slightly, causing all of the magic users to refocus on the Leader. "Can we save the reunion for later?"
"Of course, Hokage-Sama," Rose answered without hesitation.
"Have you thought on our deal, Potter-San?" The Hokage asked, gaining confused looks from the other Wizards in the room.
"Of course, Fred and George here will be perfect for making sure that Naruto stays out of trouble, when he gets out of the second task," Rose answered, gaining two indignant looks from the red-haired wizards.
"Hey!" They both started at the same time.
"Shut up," Rose said not bothering to look at them. Fred put his hand over George's mouth and hushed him.
The Hokage eyed them warily. "Are you sure that they are up to the task? Naruto is an escape artist."
"Are we up to the task?"
"Are we up to the task, Forge?"
"The Twins have written the book on the art escape, pranks and being general nuisances," Rose scoffed, ignoring the twins again. The twins huffed and then puffed in pride.
The Hokage seemed to smile. "Then that is settled, I would like to know the full story to what happened when you killed that snake."
"Ah," Rose said tensing slightly. "You see… That um, happens sometimes. Tom and I have this connection, which allows us to see each other's memories and helps us feel what the other feels. We can usually tune each other out though."
"Like when you saved my dads life?" George asked.
"We always wondered how you knew that," Fred added.
"Yeah," Rose added. "That was before I could control what I could see and feel."
The Hokage nodded his head. "I see. Kakashi will tell you when the guarding of Naruto will commence. Dismissed."
"Yes Sir," Rose replied, bowing her head slightly before gesturing for the twins and Remus to follow her from the room. Rose smiled at Kakahsi at the way out, receiving a smile in return.
"Follow me and I'll explain everything," Rose said before anyone could make a single comment.
The entire trip to Haku's apartment was silent, with Fred and George messing with each other and shooting random things they've never seen before with interested looks.
Finally, they reached Haku's apartment, and Rose walked in, only wondering for a minute why the door was unlocked. "Welcome to where I've been for the last few months," Rose said with a smile.
Rose watched the Twins fascination with all of Haku's odd choices in furniture. "Anyone home?" Rose called, only to get Hermione and Ron's heads popping in from in the kitchen.
"Rose, your okay!" Hermione yelled her voice full of joy as she ran and gave Rose a massive hug that almost made her fall over.
Rose laughed. "What did you expect?"
"You were out for four days!" Hermione said with her eyes wide.
"Wait, wait, wait, she was out for four days?" Remus asked, his voice hard.
"Hehehe, well you see…"
"Rosemary Lillian Potter! What did you do?"
Rose pouted. "Nothing bad, but, we can now officially kill Tom Riddle soon?" Rose said, but it ended up sounding like a question.
Remus smiled, but then looked stern. "Rose…."
"Moony…"
"Forge…"
"Gred…"
"Shut up," Rose and Remus said at the exact same time.
Fred and George pouted. "Oh woe is me!"
"Woe is our life!"
"I said shut up!"
"She has gotten meaner Fordge."
"Yes, yes, she has, Gred."
Rose rolled her eyes again.
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"It's nice here," Fred commented as he and Rose walked down the shopping street together. More people equalled more food needed; needless to say, they needed more food already.
"Yeah, I really like it here," Rose said with a wide smile. She looked at Fred, Fred the person that she had always loved and thought she would always love. But… She didn't feel like she did. She did of course still love him, but it didn't feel the same.
It scared Rose.
"So," Fred said, pausing awkwardly. Rose could feel it, something she never thought would happen. This was awkward. "Tell me about this Naruto kid?"
Suddenly like a floodgate was open, Rose came out with all these little stories about her time spent with Naruto. And she added the times with his team, his fighting with Sasuke, his crush on Sakura and his habitually late Sensei.
Fred just listened with a growing smile on his face, as Rose got more and more animated. Eventually after they had finished shopping and were on their way back, Rose slowed down – starting to feel slightly embarrassed.
"Sorry, I talked for a bit, yeah?" Rose said with a sheepish grin on her face.
"Na, I missed that, you're blubbering."
With a smile, and great difficulty, Rose huffed. Fred burst out laughing, most likely scaring the wits out of everyone around them.
"AH! Look at this youth! I will fight you for the love of this youthful flower!"
"Oh dear god no," Rose muttered. Fred looked confused and looked around before he got knocked down. "Er, Fred?"
"I'm good," Came his weak reply.
"My youthful flower! How is you day?"
Rose hung her head, but looked at Gai. "It's alright."
"Who are you?" Fred asked quite rudely, pushing himself up from the ground.
"I am Might Gai! The green beast of Konoha, come to win the love of my flower!"
Fred looked at him with surprise. "Hey, Gai, Kakashi's looking for you?" Rose asked.
Suddenly there was a fire in his eyes. "I will go and challenge my eternal rival for the love of my flower!"
Then he was off and running down the street, only leaving a cloud of dust smoke behind. "That guys a little insane," Fred said.
"Like you can talk?" Rose scoffed.
"Eh," Fred answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "Different type of insanity Ro."
"There's more type than one?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course," Fred scoffed like she was an idiot for even considering it.
"Of course," Rose muttered.
Rose wondered where things would go from here. She wondered if she was going to leave soon, now that her job was done, and over with. She cold just leave and kill Voldemort so that Naruto wouldn't be in danger and she could go back to her happy little life and live it.
Her job would be done, and Haku would have a place to stay here anyway, everything would be fine. Except, Rose didn't want to go, she wanted to stay. Rose knew that she couldn't stay of course it wouldn't be very bright, but she did wish for it all the same.