Hello, again!
Now I'll be bringing Fudge and the other idiots from the Ministry back. It's not like they would be that smart in learning their lesson from the last time. So they'll need to learn it again. Not sure if I'll get rid of Umbridge yet or not, though.
Bold and Italicized is in a different language to the main language.
Don't own Harry Potter or Naruto.
The Space between Spaces (Not the Void)
It was pretty well obvious that things were never going to be the same at the dorm, let alone around Hogwarts.
Ron was an outcast amongst most of the Gryffindors, and Naruto was starting to crack down a bit on both the training of Harry and Co., but also himself. He didn't want to take any chances, but the blond also didn't want to risk their health too much to make it do more harm than good. Thankfully, for him, he did have access to tips on how to do that through Hinata. He just couldn't do all that much until could get their proper examinations over to Tsunade to get an actual doctor prescribed schedule.
Just then, a fireball passed by, coming from a nearby sparring match between Harry and Ginny, while Luna and Hermione were out on the lake's surface jogging.
"I thought I said 'No jutsu?'" called Naruto.
"Sorry!" Harry called back, being the one that sent the fireball, while ducking under Ginny's next punch.
Naruto sighed. Harry and Ginny, especially while doing something like sparring, had a tendency to let a little too loose. And that had nothing to do with Harry being able to spend time in his female form, either.
I think it might have something to do with the fact that both of them are fire-aligned, thought Naruto, Luna and Hermione are not like that at all.
"We'd have to agree with you on that account, Naruto." quipped Ino, "At least they are a whole lot better than Sasuke was."
Naruto chuckled quietly, agreeing with Ino. Sasuke was no only emo for a while, but when he let loose, he didn't quite wait to release things like fireballs in comparison to Harry and Ginny all that much. In more recent months, he has gotten better, but the Uchiha can still be hot-headed at times. Although he hoped that relatively stayed the same after they managed to get Sasuke back from Orochimaru.
At any rate, it wasn't long after that Naruto called them back and sent them to freshen up for the day, he himself not too far behind them, lost in more random thoughts for the moment.
"Hey, Naruto." said Hinata teasingly, "Out of Jade, Hermione, and Luna, who's butt looks better right now?"
Naruto stumbled, face reddening in both frustration and embarrassment at Hinata's question. Thankfully, for him, none of his Hogwarts friends (at least direct friends) noticed.
"Hinata!" whined Naruto.
Hinata giggled. "Aw, come on, Naruto. It isn't like I sent you possible pictures like them in possible bikinis or adults."
Naruto begrudgingly agreed to that.
"Unless, of course, you subconsciously think Ginny's is better." said Hinata, laughing as Naruto fully fell at that, "Sorry about all that, but it was ripe for a teasing."
Naruto merely grumbled, face still red, as he got ready for another day in class. He couldn't really do much about Hinata's teasing in the first place, anyways.
Harry went down to breakfast that morning, carrying his Firebolt thanks to the upcoming match, with the boys of his year thinking it deserved a sort of guard of honor. As Harry entered the Great Hall, heads turned in the direction of the Firebolt, and there was a good deal of excited muttering. Harry saw, with mild satisfaction, that the Slytherin team were all looking thunder-struck.
While I like getting one over on Malfoy, he thought, seeing Malfoy's face, I'd prefer if it wasn't dealing with something like Quidditch.
Among the students of Gryffindor House, Wood in particular was basking in the reflected glory of the Firebolt. By then, Harry was honestly having some trouble not being visibly creeped out by the older boy's seeming obsession.
"Put it here, Harry," he said, laying the broom in the middle of the table and carefully turning it so that its name faced upward. Harry's mood worsened as people from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were soon coming over to look. Cedric Diggory came over to congratulate Harry on having acquired such a superb replacement for his Nimbus, and Percy's Ravenclaw girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, asked if she could actually hold the Firebolt.
"Okay, seriously. Back off!" cried Harry after a bit, startling everyone around him, "I get that my broom is a big deal, but that's no excuse to bloody well obsess over it!"
After they backed up enough, Harry calmed down and started his own breakfast. Hermione, Ginny, and Luna stayed silent, knowing that speaking would help much at all. Didn't mean they weren't concerned, though.
Naruto, when he arrived, had no such problem. But then again, he arrived as Malfoy and his two hanger ons, Crabbe and Goyle, came up to Harry.
"Sure you can handle that broom, Potter." the boy drawled.
"A lot better than you can handle three twigs," retorted Naruto, interrupting Harry, "even with your companions' twigs being bigger than yours."
While it was mostly the muggle-borns and muggle-raised that figured out what Naruto said, their were a few purebloods as well that laughed at Naruto's word. Malfoy just reddened at the laughter, having no idea just what he meant, before leaving for the Slytherin table with Crabbe and Goyle.
Naruto turned to Harry, expressing his concern to the raven-haired kid, and getting a look of partial regret in return.
"Sorry, Naruto," said Harry, "I shouldn't have let it affect me so easily."
Naruto didn't reply, instead placing his hand on Harry's shoulder, letting Harry know exactly how Naruto felt. Although the blond did give a slight glare over to where Ron was standing up to come over, forcing him to sit back down.
I'm not about to deal with two idiots in a row if I can help it. Thought Naruto, sitting down to eat himself, But it looks like Harry needs some more work in keep himself in check. Not real helpful for much of anyone to just fall off the bandwagon like that, myself included.
At a quarter to eleven, the Gryffindor team set off for the locker rooms. As they had seen earlier, the weather couldn't have been more different from their match against Hufflepuff. It was a clear, cool day with a very light breeze; there would be no visibility problems this time, and Harry was starting to feel at least some of the excitement only a Quidditch match brought him before. He idly noted that even without what had happened during the last match, he was starting to lose some interest in Quidditch, but didn't let it bother him. The team could hear the rest of the school moving into the stadium beyond. Harry took off his black school robes, removed his wand from his pocket, and stuck it inside the T-shirt he was going to wear under his Quidditch robes. One of Naruto's biggest lessons was 'never leave yourself open.' He wasn't about to ignore that, even if he hoped he wouldn't need it.
"You know what we've got to do," said Wood as they prepared to leave the locker rooms. "If we lose this match, we're out of the running. Just – just fly like you did in practice yesterday, and we'll be okay!"
"Wood." warned Harry, "It is just a game. It'll be helpful if you actually accept potential defeat."
They walked out onto the field to tumultuous applause. The Ravenclaw team, dressed in blue, were already standing in the middle of the field. Their Seeker, Cho Chang, was the only girl on their team. She was shorter than Harry by a few inches, Harry having gained a couple of inches from all the training. He did admit that she was extremely pretty as well, but wasn't all to concerned about it. She smiled at Harry as the teams faced each other behind their captains, and he smiled back, showing sportsmanship to her.
"Wood, Davies, shake hands," Madam Hooch said briskly, and Wood shook hands with the Ravenclaw Captain.
"Mount your brooms...on my whistle...three – two – one-"
As the match was getting set up, Naruto ended up sitting near enough to notice a few of the Ministry authorities here as well, but couldn't quite see what they were possibly doing here. Thankfully, Amelia sat down with him.
"Amelia." said Naruto, "What are you and the others doing here, might I ask?"
"Naruto," acknowledged Amelia before getting to his question, "I don't really know myself, but at least according to them, we're just here to surprise-watch the match. Personally, I don't think so, since Fudge and Umbridge were rather eager for this."
Naruto narrowed his eyes at that, before turning back to the field while broadening his senses, keeping a look out for the slightest abnormality.
Even if it's just connected to them, I highly doubt it'll be anything good. Thought Naruto.
As the game got underway, one thing showed up in Naruto's senses: a few students moving off towards a a couple of brooms while carrying bigger than normal black cloaks. Excusing himself, Naruto went after them. When he got close enough, he saw the full story.
Malfoy, and a few other students, were on orders from Umbridge to cause a distraction during the match for her to place a curse on Harry and himself.
Not on my watch. Thought Naruto before charging at them.
However, something rather strange happened once Naruto was close enough to throw a punch. His body suddenly 'exploded,' unleashing a wave of dark energy that completely covered him and the other students. When they could see again, they all could easily tell they were no longer at Hogwarts, or even anywhere on Earth.
Outside of a plot of land that they were on, pretty much everywhere else
"Where the bloody hell are we?!" demanded Malfoy, only to get an answer in the strangest way possible.
"The Space between Spaces." A echoing female voice called out, "Different from the infinite Void."
"Void Heart?" asked Naruto, only to get a mental shrug from Void Heart.
"I'm surprised you were able to get at least this far in such a quick amount of time." said the voice, "But it'll at least let me tell you of a few things you might need, so pay attention. While Void Heart, as you call him, does gain power from the Void, but he also draws power from here. You'll learn just how that works once he become Dark instead of Void."
Naruto was confused by what the voice was saying, but wasn't about to say anything.
"Your counterpart will be able to do similar with Time and Light, but-" Just then, a strange pressure went through, cutting the voice off, "I'm sorry, but I don't have anymore time. He's coming. Just please, be careful, and find the five generals."
With that, a bright light flashed in their eyes, bringing them back to the Quidditch pitch. Naruto was the first to recover, allowing him to deal with the students before they could really do anything except blink.
After tying them up, Naruto created three clones, one to stand guard, one to get Professor McGonagall, and one to get Amelia. He himself went after Umbridge and Fudge. He was minutely surprised when he found all of them in the middle of the pitch.
"Umbritch! Sludge!" called Naruto, his two clones pinning Umbridge and Fudge, "Your trick has failed from the start."
"Get off of us, you filthy creature!" demanded Umbridge, only for the clone pinning her to punch her in the face.
"If I'm a 'filthy creature,' then the two of you are specks of dust." said Naruto, "You tried to get Malfoy and his cronies to play 'dementor attack' and distract all of us long enough for you to curse Harry and I."
"What?!" cried Amelia, while everyone else gasped.
Naruto created another clone, then said, "This clone with lead you to them, Professor McGonagall." when they were gone, he continued, "I learned about this once I was close enough to the students. And for the record, the curse would've ultimately caused a heart attack on the target. They were planning on killing us."
Amelia was incredibly angry at that, and asked, "Would you mind holding onto these two until I can get people to take them away?"
At Naruto's nod, the red-haired woman went off to call for back up. In the meantime, both of the high-raking politicians that Naruto had pinned were trying to shake his clones off, but weren't able to do anything. Naruto was just too strong for them. Even if a few others tried to help, Naruto's aura kept them back.
Once Amelia returned, she had with her Tonks and a black-skinned man, as well as a few others.
"Even if they had managed to escape before, cursing a known hero and a foreign diplomat should put them in for sure." said Amelia, "Take them away, Kingsley. Tonks, with me."
The man nodded before doing just that, taking Umbridge and Fudge's wands from them as well. After his group left, Amelia and Tonks turned towards Naruto.
"Think you mind giving us a brief report about all this?" asked Amelia.
"I'll have to leave a part out, but otherwise I'm good." answered Naruto, "You wouldn't believe me if I did tell you. Even I don't quite understand."
"Understand wh-" said Sakura, showing up but then noticing said incident in Naruto's mind, "Never mind. That's weird. I'll alert the others."
"Thanks, Sakura." replied Naruto before turning back to his real world conversation.
While Amelia was a bit skeptical, but held her tongue. Naruto has so far been one of the best assets she's ever had in her job. He's helped with some major cases that were either swept under the rug or left unsolved. So it'd be more beneficial to her to keep on his good side.
"Understood." she agreed.
Okay, scratch what I said about Umbridge before. If needed, I'll bring her back, but otherwise she's gone for now.
As for the little supernatural experience Naruto underwent, still need to give a few clues for him and the others to note for later.
Until next time. Please let me know what you think.