The Hidden Countries

Chapter Sixteen

Crash Course

Rose tried to open the door as quietly as possible; she wasn't sure why she was trying to be quite when she was going into a coma patient's room. It didn't make much sense but then again, Rose did never make much sense.

"You need to work on your stealth, it's terrible."

Rose jumped her eyes wide, turning to face the direction of the voice. Rose saw something she hadn't expected to see. Kakashi was wide awake, his small orange book in hand, looking as lazy as ever.

It was almost like he had been awake for days, but that couldn't make sense because Rose just left with the new Hogake about three hours before. Rose stared at him speechless, before she smiled widely, run up to him and hugged him. Kakashi made a small sound of surprise. "Rose?"

Rose buried her head in the junction near his shoulder. "I told them you'd be okay."

Kakashi chuckled slightly. "It takes a bit more than that to get rid of me."

Realising exactly what she was doing, Rose backed away, but she didn't lose her smile. "So I see, how are you feeling?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, and Rose wondered if he was smiling – it certainly seemed like he was. "I've felt better."

Rose had to not wince. "At least you're not dead."

Kakashi nodded his head cheerfully. "There is that at least."

Rose couldn't help but laugh a little; only Kakashi would be able to make it sound like nothing. They had said that he might not actually survive. That was when the door swung open, and Tsunade walked in, looking slightly annoyed.

Rose felt like backing up and then jumping out the window, and running as fast as she could to avoid her. She just seemed to be that annoyed. The blonde woman paused assessing the room, before continuing to the doctor's clipboard. "You're awake."

Kakashi nodded his head. "Yes, Tsunade-Sama."

Rose stood their feeling awkward, and she wondered if the Hokage had come to Kakashi's room to check on him – which she doubted considering she had seen to him not three hours ago; or, to find and talk to her – about that 'team' that she wanted to send with Rose.

Rose didn't want a team, sure, she loved to have help – she wasn't arrogant enough to think that she could do it all alone, but a team of ninja she could do without. To start with she would have to go to all the trouble of informing them all about the wizarding world and its customs so that they didn't stand out, and that would take forever. Then she would have to explain to everyone why she had ninja on her side.

Rose really couldn't be bothered going through all that hassle, it was too difficult. But, the Hokage seemed to be a very, very determined person, and she really didn't seem to want to take no as a good enough answer. Rose had tried – oh how Rose had tried to convince the Hokage that she really didn't need any help. And how she had failed miserably would forever be branded into her mind.

She was such a failure.

"I should have expected to see you here Rose."

Rose snapped out of her musings and looked at the Hokage sheepishly. "You expected me somewhere else?"

Tsunade tiled her head to the side and sighed. "I guess not," she replied sounding resigned. Like it was something she couldn't control but wished she could. "Now you, I would say stay here, but, I know you'll most likely jump out of the window. So, you're free to go."

Kakashi smiled using his only visible eye, snapping his book shut. "You know me so well, Tsunade-Sama."

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You ninja are all the same."

Kakashi just shrugged his shoulders, never losing his smile. Tsunade turned to Rose, as Kakashi stretched his arms, in preparation of getting out of bed. "You, I have your team, I'll send them to your house around seven and you can brief them properly."

Rose sighed. "Fine."

"Team? What team?"

Rose and Tsunade looked over at Kakashi at the same time. Rose then looked at Tsuande and glared at her, she however didn't seem to be very phased. "She's going home, and I'm making sure she won't get hurt."

There was silence for a few brief moments, Kakashi seemed to be taking in the information, Rose was glaring at the Hokage for disregarding what she wanted, and the Hokage was waiting for something.

"I want to go," Kakashi replied, without a second hesitation.

"No," Tsunade replied, gaining a hard look in her amber eyes.

Kakashi paused for a second, like he wasn't expecting to be told no. "Why not?"

"You just got out of hospital, which you've been in for a month."

Rose couldn't argue, it sounded reasonable. Rose knew Kakashi really couldn't argue either – that helped the fact that Rose was sure that Kakashi really shouldn't come either, she was glad that Tsunade at least thought this part though. Kakashi just got out of the hospital – he couldn't come.

"I don't care." The two ninja seemed to stare at each other, like a match, trying to see which one would remain superior. Tsunade hissed.

"I'm your new Hokage, you know that right?" Tsunade pressed, annoyance seeping out of her in waves. "Don't think for a second you can disrespect me again, Jonin."

Kakashi blinked, but then smiled. "Of course, Hokage-Sama."

Tsunade sighed. "You better go and get ready-"

"No!" Rose said in disbelief. Tsunade sighed. "He's still injured!"

Tsunade looked at her with a deadpan expression. "You are a very stubborn girl."

Rose blinked looking confused as she disappeared from the room. With her mouth hanging open she turned to glare at Kakashi who had disappeared as well.

Rose screamed; "God damn ninjas!"

***~~~%%%66666%%%~~~***

"Rose-Sama… Hokage-Sama has given me a mission."

Rose closed her eyes, before opening them and staring at Haku, who was standing in front of her holding a big bowl of rice. Rose frowned and Haku passed over the bowl, with a pair of chopsticks. Rose's eye twitched – when she came back from London she was bringing knives and forks, with Mrs Weasley's cookbook.

Rose was sick of rice.

Rose smiled and took the bowl. "Thank you Haku, and uh, what's your mission?"

Rose had a feeling she wasn't going to like this… Haku looked around nervously. "Hokage-Sama approached me about going with you to your home village."

Rose sighed, of course she had, and of course she had. Rose snapped her chopsticks apart and started to eat. Rose briefly looked up at Haku's nervous ace and realised that he might not be very happy with that. "You don't have to go Haku."

Haku's eyes widened. "No, no, I want to go Rose-Sama! I don't want you to be displeased that I would go as well, as Rose-Sama has previously said."

Rose was finally starting to understand and she smiled softly at the boy. "Haku, your probably the only one on this team that I actually want going."

Haku beamed at her, when there was a knocking at the door, and Rose sighed. She didn't want to explain everything. This wasn't going to end well, and they all knew that! Rose stuffed her face with some more rice, when Haku went to answer the door.

Rose was hungry and she wasn't going to let people get in the way of her food. Gosh, she sounded like Ron. Rose's eyes followed Haku as he re-entered the room followed by Kakashi and Jiraiya. Rose snorted – of course.

"Can I get you anything?" Haku asked politely. He received two nos. Before Rose finished her mouthful of rice and looked at Haku.

"We might need tea; this is going to take a while to explain."

Haku nodded his head. "Of course, Rose-Sama."

Rose sighed – she really wished he would stop calling her that. Rose shoved another mouthful of rice into her mouth. She looked up at the two older ninja, and gestured for them to sit down. Jiraiya did, but with great amusement.

"Why is the couch neon green?"

Rose shrugged her shoulders, realising there was no rice left and huffed. "Ask Haku."

"Rose, what is it that needs explaining?" Kakashi asked, sitting on the couch like there was nothing wrong in the world and he was really just there for a cup of tea.

"Well," Rose paused. "You remember when I told you about Tom and everything?"

Kakashi and Jiraiya nodded their head, and Rose bit her lip – wondering when Haku would get back – he needed to hear this as well.

"Well, I didn't exactly tell you everything you would need to know about him, and where I live in order to fit in. Where I come from, it's quite a different place."

Jiraiya raised his eyebrow as Haku walked back into the room, sitting down and starting to pour everyone tea. "What do you mean by different?"

"Well to start with we speak another language," Rose said noncommittally. The reactions of surprise and shock were actually much unexpected on Rose's part. "I can fix that though, with a seal thingy that Hermione taught me, it's actually how I'm speaking Japanese right now."

"I would love to see this seal," Jiraiya added with growing interest, Rose looked at him warily.

Rose shrugged her shoulders. "Alright, back home we call Tom, You-Know-Who…"

"You call him… You-Know-Who? Why?" Kakashi asked with disbelief in his voice. Rose winced, taking a sip of the tea that Haku had prepared for her, before settling next to Rose.

"Well, you see, there's kind of a ban on saying the name – and uh, people are really scared of him," Rose tried to explain. "Just call him You-Know-Who, okay?"

There was head nodding, and Rose sighed. "People may refer to our abilities as magic as well; that's because we belong to a magical community."

The stares that Rose received made Rose want to laugh and say that she was making this all up. They were looking at her like a crazy person. Rose sighed. "It's rather hard to believe before you actually see it – but if you see something that's not entirely human, don't freak out, it's probably not. We're magical creatures."

There was blinking, and Jiraiya got a interested look on his face. "And you are…?"

"A witch, so is Hermione and Ron is a wizard. But that's not all I mean, Remus is a Werewolf, so…"

"Don't witches have green skin and ride around on brooms?" Kakashi asked dryly.

Rose's eye twitched. "That is insulting, we do not have green skin and… okay, well, we do ride brooms but..."

"Wait, you actually ride brooms?" Kakashi asked leaning forward.

Rose nodded her head and smiled. "Not many of us do, it's quite a talent. We play this sport, which I'm amazing at-"

Jiraiya coughed and Rose leaned back, embarrassed for getting off topic. "Er right, so uh, this dispute that I had been talking about? You-Know-Who wants to kill all other magical creatures but witches and wizards, and he only wants the pure-blood to survive."

"Pure-Blood?" Jiraiya quizzed.

"We have blood purity. So a Pure-Blood has purely wizarding blood in their system, you only get that by well-" Rose trailed off with a slightly disgusted look on her face.

"Inbreeding," Kakashi finished off grimly.

Rose nodded her head. "Yeah, Ron's a Prue-Blood. Then, there's the one's like me, the Half-Blood. Half of our genetic material is from a Prue-Blood and the other half… is from another creature, or a muggle, or muggle-born."

"What a Muggle?" Haku asked for the first time.

"A non-magical person, and that leads to the Muggle-Born like Hermione. Someone with magical powers born to a Muggle, a person with no magical heritage. Many Wizards, don't exactly like Muggle-Borns, because… Well, I'm not actually sure."

"How are you a Half-Blood?" Jiraiya asked. Rose sighed realising this would be a long night.

"My father, James Potter, is from a long line of Pure-Bloods and my mother, Lily Evans, is from a Muggle family as a Muggle-Born."

Kakashi seemed to get more interested in this. "How does a Muggle-Born acquire their powers?"

Rose sighed.

#$%^&*(*&^%$%^&*&^%^&*

Rose glanced back at the three men behind her, all looking fascinated with the seal placed on their palms. Rose rolled her eyes, ninja.

Rose paused for a minute, the potion that would create the portal with simmering dangerously, and Rose felt like this would be a bad idea. She wasn't the best at potions.

"How does this work?" A voice right next to ear asked, and for once Rose had been expecting it.

"Let's call it a short-cut to the world of magical creatures," Rose replied to Kakashi, with a small smirk. "Everyone ready?"

"Yes, I just wanted to know what-" Jiraiya began, before the potion began to simmer and Rose realised that it was starting to take effect.

"No time! Come here!"

$%^&*((*&^%$%^&*()

The floor was cobbled, there were a lot of old buildings, many of the windows were boarded up. There was numerous posters that read; 'Rosemary Potter-Wanted!'

Rose realised where they were, Diagon Ally. They needed to get out of there quickly. That was one thing that they couldn't control about the stupid portal – where they came out. It could be worse; they could have ended up wherever Voldemort was. That wouldn't have been good.

Rose felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she slapped the hand away; she glanced back to see that the three ninja were there and not missing any body parts that she could see. That was a bonus as well.

Rose hushed them, and looked around, there was no one there. They were behind where Rose knew was Madam Malkins. Rose could hear people talking, like there was a large amount of people around, but she couldn't place it.

"Rose-Sama," Haku whispered his voice berley loud enough for her to hear. "From over there."

Rose followed Haku's direction and saw that he was pointing down a small alleyway, without much hesitation she slipped though the two walls. Only stopping when she could see what was going on. Rose glanced back to see the ninja all right behind her.

Rose inched forward a little, but she really didn't want to go any further out in case they saw her. What Rose saw actually made her stomach drop.

There were many people in the courtyard, many had hoods on so that Rose couldn't see their faces, but it was still unusual for so many people to be out. Rose looked around for a bit more seeing that older Malfoy spawn was standing on a makeshift stage looking quite happy.

Stupid Malfoy and his stupid theatrics. "Silence!" Malfoy yelled. Rose wasn't really sure why he had yelled that, because to be honest there was only small mutterings. But those stopped straight away.

Malfoy opened his arms like he was welcoming them all, and Rose frowned. Her eyes took in that his cane – which was also his wand, was clutched in his right hand. He looked like he was scared, she could see that.

"Welcome, to the public execution of a Blood-Traitor! There is no greater sin to have someone of Pure-Blood and have them… disgrace their rank. Saying this I'm showing you all what happens when you go against the Dark Lord. Here is Neville Longbottom!" Malfoy yelled his voice sounding like it would break any minute.

Rose's eyes widened and all she could think was 'no'. Not Neville, what was happening? Why and what the hell was going on!?

Neville, his face bloody and his posture slumped was dragged onto the small stage, but his eyes held a fire… It was the most confident she had ever seen her friend. Rose shook her head, she couldn't let this happen. Rose needed to do something!

Neville was glaring at Malfoy. "I will never give up. Dumbledore's Army will never stop."

"Silence!" Malfoy yelled slashing his wand at Neville, sewing his mouth shut. "See; see what happens when you are disgraceful to your Blood Status?"

Neville's eyes were wide, and panicked. Rose clenched her fist, as Malfoy pointed his cane at Neville. The crowed was dead quiet, not a person moved. It went in slow motion for Rose; she could see no one doing anything. She heard a quick intake of breath from behind her.

Rose clenched her eyes together and held her arm out – not bothering with the restraining hand on her shoulder. "Expellimarus!"

Malfoy's cane flew out of his grasp and there were many people staring to whisper. "Who! Who was that? Who dares to-!?"

"Me!" Rose declared, feeling like she was an idiot. She walked out of the small crevice between the buildings. Putting her hand behind her in a sign that clearly meant 'don't follow me'.

"Potter," Malfoy said in disbelief. The crowed instantly went quiet. Neville grinned despite the bad situation. "You!? You're an idiot Potter."

Rose walked forward slowly, tilting her head to the side. "We all knew that Mr. Malfoy. But did you know that I'm a brave one?"

Malfoy sneered at Rose. She was now just steps in front of the stage. Malfoy glared at a few people over her shoulder. "Brave you may be Potter, but that doesn't make you any less of an incompetent idiot."

"That was rude," Rose said, her body staying completely relaxed. What the hell was she doing!?

"Rude, Potter? What's rude is not introducing your new friends."

"What?" Rose said, her head snapping to the side, to see the Death Eaters had gone into the Ally and had marched out the three ninja that she was with. Rose smiled and turned back to stare at Malfoy. "I promised that I wouldn't introduce them to spineless cowards."

Malfoy gritted his teeth and glared at Rose. "You are not in the position to be saying things like that, Miss Potter. You're surrounded."

Rose looked to the side to see the Dark Cloaked Death Eaters surrounding the 'event'. Rose sighed, she was screwed, and why the hell had she revealed herself? Oh right – for Neville.

What now? "It wasn't a smart idea to come here, Potter. It's over."

Rose blinked, putting on her best innocent act. "Oh? It is, is it?"

Someone lunged at her from her left and Rose ducked underneath the flying spell he shot as well. Rose berley noticed the ninja breaking free of their restraints.

Rose moved forward and swung herself on the stage, Rose ginned happily. "Over, Mr. Malfoy? Seriously, who do you think I am?"

Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her. "A stupid little-"

Suddenly there was a Senborn flying through the air, piercing Mr Malfoy's neck. This caused him to fall into a dead faint.

Rose turned to face the stunned crowed. "Guess what? Rose Potter is back, and I'm taking this place back."

Then… Then there was applause, and the few Death Eaters that hadn't been knocked out fled. Rose turned to the ninja. "That was awfully fast."

"And they were awfully slow," Kakashi's light, teasing voice somehow put Rose at ease. Even though she had just seen her friend almost get killed.