Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

Naruko never treated Hari any differently from before, but she certainly never forgot that extremely odd interaction.

It wasn't like Hari was dangerous or anything, although she did sometimes get this strange feeling around him when he thought no one was there. His face would revert back to its blank mask but his eyes were so expressive. Always seeing something that wasn't there.

Of course, whenever he realised someone was there he would give them a small smile and whatever happened would be easily forgotten. It reminded Naruko of when Kakashi-sensei would shove his face in an Icha Icha book. Now that she started to look for the signs, Hari was remarkably good at deflecting.

There was this one time a customer asked Hari where he was from, and somehow the conversation ended with the man giving him a discount at his tea shop.

Another time, Kiba commented on how Hari looked like a noble with his features, and it somehow ended in Hari giving him advice on how to win over that cute cat-girl. Even Shikamaru got slightly distracted when Hari included Temari, and hardly anything gets past that pineapple-head.

Of course, Naruko only realised this when she went over the events of those days before bed. Nothing ever seemed out of the ordinary whenever she was with Hari, and honestly, even though Naruko should be alarmed at this development, she was reluctantly impressed at Hari's skill with misdirection. That man would have been a terrifying shinobi.

Meh. She'll figure it out one day.

…

There was this one time during their walks (and no Sakura-chan, it wasn't a date, stop looking at me like that-) where they ran into someone walking her dog. It was quite big, with a thick black coat, but it looked quite friendly with bright eyes and a constantly wagging tail. Naruko sort of wanted to pet it, but she knew better with Kurama in her gut. She was about to comment about it to Hari, but she suddenly saw his stillness and his very grey face when looking at the dog.

Immediately, she grabbed his hand and led him away from the duo, not stopping until she arrived at a nearby clearing.

"Hari?", she called his name softly.

He didn't respond. Now that she was taking a closer look, he was shaking, he was breathing very fast and his eyes were flicking about rapidly.

Blue eyes widened in slight panic. Oh my God, is he having a flashback?!

Low-key panicking, Naruko wracked her brain for anything that she could do.

Lightly grasping his elbow, Naruko lowered Hari to the ground and began to ramble.

"Hey Hari, right now you're sitting on the grass next to me in the clearing, and honestly, don't you love the feeling of grass? A lot of the times, I end up lying on the ground you know, it's an occupational hazard kinda thing, but if you ask Sakura-chan, she'd probably say I'm a knucklehead with no sense of self-preservation, but honestly that just her being unfair-"

She started rubbing his back, tentatively at first, but becoming more firm when Hari seemed to lean on her desperately.

"-and you know, I was ignored a lot as a kid and I'm sure everyone in Konoha knows this, but I loved pranking, pranking was literally the only way I could have some fun. Let me tell you about this one time I awesomely pranked the old man- it was a great night actually, it's when I became genin! So basically, the old man was a huge pervert, and I made this awesome technique called the Sexy-no-Jutsu and-"

It looked like his eyes were clearing up slightly. Inwardly sighing in relief, Naruko continued talking about anything she could think of.

"-man, sometimes I wish I could just do village-wide pranks again, cuz I'm soooo bored right now. It'd be even better if there was a prank war of some sort, cuz honestly, there's not a lot of people who can beat me in a spar and holding back is so boring, and I just wanna be challenged again."

"I can do that."

Naruko snapped out of her surprisingly heartfelt thoughts when she heard the slightly hoarse voice. She still had her hand on his back and was holding his hand, but he wasn't moving away.

"What can you do?" she asked steadily.

"I can beat you in a prank war."

Naruko's jaw dropped at the blatant challenge. Although Hari still looked a bit frazzled, he was staring at her with a smirk on his face.

"You did not just say that." He did not just say that.

The widening smirk said otherwise. "I thought you wanted a challenge. Now that I've answered, you're running away?" He taunted her.

Her eyes blazed at the challenge. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it's backing down and running. It was the most un-Naruko thing ever. For Hari to even suggest this outrageous notion-

"You're so on!"

Before she knew it, Naruko was standing up, pointing her finger at Hari dramatically.

Hari looked up at her languidly. "You have no idea what you're getting into, Naruko."

"Excuse you, I've been pranking this village since before I even entered the academy!"

Hari stood up, arms crossed over his chest.

"Really now? My father and his friends were legendary pranksters, my friends and I were chronic rule-breakers and my friend's brothers were also pranksters. You have no idea who you're messing with."

Naruko gave a shark-like grin. "Workplaces are forbidden, nothing that causes harm or damage to anyone, and most importantly, it should make people laugh."

Hari stuck out his hand. "Deal."

Naruko grasped it with her own. "Deal."

Oh, this was going to be so fun.

…

That night when Naruko stepped out of the shower to find that her hair had turned swamp-green, she admitted to herself that she may have underestimated her opponent.