"Neji... wake up..."

Neji burrowed his face in his pillow when someone pulled his ponytail gently.

Ino immediately sensed the attack and ducked as the Hyuuga lunged out at her, attempting to get at least one hit on her. He succeeded in falling out of the bed, clutching his head.

"Boy, you're fast," Ino said teasingly. "I sure am glad you've got a hangover."

"Oh shut up," Neji muttered looking at the clock and staring at it for a moment to remember why on earth it was smashed to pieces. Oh yeah... he destroyed it with his vacuum palm technique days ago. "What time is it?"

"It's only nine," Ino said, going through his belongings.

"...Our first class doesn't start until three in the afternoon..." he complained, sitting on his bed and attempting to sort out the tangles in his hair from when he slept with his hair tied back. Surprisingly enough for Ino, it took only one comb with his fingers to completely sort out his hair, and he was, once again, the perfect looking Hyuuga.

"Whatever," Ino said, continuing to rummage through Neji's desks and drawers. "Ah-hah!" She pulled out several clothes.

"What are you doing...?"

"I am picking out your outfit for class," she said decisively. "You gotta have something to cover up your marks... Oh, and Shikamaru wanted to see you out in the lounge."

Ino paused and grinned giddily. "We have a lounge..." she said with a huge smile. "I can never get used to that..."

Neji sighed and stepped out of his room to see everyone sitting around in the room outside where Ino had directed him, some staring outright at him.

"What?" he said irritably.

"Aren't you going to greet our new guest?" Sakura said suspiciously.

"What's this all about? There's nothing new about him," Neji muttered. They all watched him expectantly, much to his annoyance. "...Fine. 'Hello, Malfoy.' Happy now?" he said irritably, annoyed by the fact that he was forced to treat a person he disliked with respect or, at the very least, with proper manners.

"Our other guest. Actually, guests, as in plural," she said.

"Pale eyes... You must be a Hyuuga," a deep voice said.

Neji looked around wildly. He wasn't hearing things, was he?

"What was that?" Neji demanded.

"I knew it..." Shikamaru said, making a mental note of Neji's inability to see the speaker. Neji jumped slightly, seeing a faint mist appear out of the thin air.

"Hyuuga Neji, meet my ghost friend, Momochi Zabuza, and his invisible friend, Haku!" Naruto said with a huge grin on his face.

"I don't see them," Neji said in a defensive voice.

"It seems that the Byakugan is so good, it can't see incorporeal beings," Sakura said to them. "Naruto and I met them on our first mission that led us out of the Fire Country. Both of them died, and seemed to end up being sent here."

Neji stopped all chakra flow to his eyes completely and squinted in the direction he had heard the voice, seeing a nearly invisible gray mist.

"I almost see..." he said.

"I'm now known as the Bloody Baron..." the voice said.

"Why didn't you just keep the name 'Zabuza'?" Neji asked. "Bloody Baron seems rather... excessive."

"Ever since we both arrived here, everyone has been so scared of him that no one has ever bothered to ask his name," another voice said, sounding much younger and more feminine. It must have been Haku, who was completely invisible to the Byakugan. "That, and for a long while, neither of us could speak English."

"So you know English now?" Naruto asked.

"Of course," Zabuza said huffily. "A few decades here is long enough for even an idiot to figure it out."

"Zabuza-sama was so stubborn to try to rest in peace that he hovered around one of the House common rooms for fourteen years, refusing to listen or speak to a single English word. After a while, Albus just decided to assign him as the ghost of that House after the previous passed on."

"The ghost of a house?"

"Meant to watch over the students and sometimes allow them to confide in him."

Naruto snorted. "I can't imagine anyone confiding in him."

"Me neither," Malfoy muttered from his corner. Ironic. The ghost of his former House was also a friend of some of the people he now feared the most.

"Well, what I'm wondering is why people from... where we're from ended up at Hogwarts," Ino said.

"Almost all the ghosts here died somewhere else and ended up drifting and getting tied to Hogwarts," the only wizard in the room said. "I don't know about any ghost here who actually died here."

"And what about the time jump? Why did Zabuza and Haku, who died less than ten years ago, end up waking up as a ghost exactly fifty-two years ago?" Shikamaru said out loud.

"How should I know?" Malfoy asked, shrugging. "I'm not exactly an expert here."

"Question!" Kiba said suddenly to the two ghosts. "You know, since you're invisible and all... have either of you two ever gone into the girl's bathroom?"

-

Hermione sat in the girls dormitory with her newest book, The Ancient Art of Runes, sitting on her lap. She was currently doing her best to ignore the excited chatter coming from the other side of the room. Her fellow female year-mates were currently discussing the latest gossip that they had managed to gather on the first day of school.

"I heard Professor Hyuuga is a genius!" one of the girls said.

"I heard he's a fake..." another said doubtfully.

"He's a fake genius?"

"A genius fake!"

"A really hot genius fake... Think he's with Miss Yamanaka? I mean, they're both really pretty and they teach Divination together..."

"But you don't really feel much of a connection between them, do you?"

"You guys..." Lavender said to the others, glaring at her friends. "Enough with the gossip!"

The girl's dormitory went completely silent. Even Hermione was staring at Lavender, the queen of senseless gossip in the Gryffindor House. .

"No... gossip?" Parvati asked hesitantly.

"Not this kind," she answered. "The question is: where is Professor Trelawney? She doesn't usually attend the first feast, but why are those two teaching her class?"

No one said anything.

"I didn't think about that..." one of the girls said slowly, an expression of fear growing on her face.

"Do you think You-Know-Who got to her for her powers?"

"Ugh..." Hermione rolled her eyes and snapped her current book shut, leaving the dormitory to study the Ancient Art of Runes out in the common room where it was, at least, a little bit more peaceful.

Already playing chess in front of the fireplace, Harry and Ron looked up to see Hermione huffily tossing her book down onto the table.

"Too noisy?"

"The gossip is going to drive me to the ends of the earth!" Hermione shouted angrily, letting out her pent up rage.

"...I take that as a yes?" Ron said. He glanced nervously at the thick tome in her hand. "...Homework?"

"Finished it. This is extra credit," she mumbled sitting down between Harry and Ron.

"Good. You can play against me too."

"The two of us against you?" Hermione asked, looking at him in surprise.

"Not the two of you against me, but... Harry against me, and you against me. Just at the same time..."

"You've gotten that good?" she asked him, surprised.

"Nope. I reckon I could take you on. Harry's not that good anyway," Ron said, watching his bishop decimate Harry's queen.

"I resent that," Harry muttered.

"Scoot over," Hermione said, pulling out a chess set of her own. "You lost anyway. And Ronald Bilius Weasley, you are on. C'mon, Harry, let's all play."

"Doesn't it feel a bit weird that you and I have to join forces to beat your boyfriend-slash-my best friend?" Harry said.

"Not in a game of chess," Hermione said, putting on her 'game face'... which was actually just a look so full of concentration that she was pretty much glaring at Ron.

"So," Ron said, starting the opening game. "What's got the girls gossiping now?"

"Oh, just how pretty some 'Professor Hyuuga' was," Hermione said, pursing her lips as she planned out her strategy. Or maybe it was the thought of those girls fawning over yet another teacher. "I think he's the new Divination teacher or something. The one passed out on the table yesterday, you know? Anyway, Lavender's in a bad mood, since she doesn't know what happened to Professor Trelawney."

"That should worry us," Harry said idly, "but for some reason, it just doesn't..."

"Mm, I think I heard some of the third-years talking about the Divination teachers, actually," Ron said. "Apparently, there are two of them. The first teacher is some Asian guy with sunglasses and a hat and the second is a lady who looks like a Mal—"

"Wait, what?" Hermione said. Why hadn't she seen it before? She didn't give his appearance a second thought that night, being rather disgusted by the man's lack of table manners (or consciousness) at dinner, but it was so obvious thinking about it now!

"She looks like a Malf—"

"No, not that," she said, shaking her head. "The Asian man with the sunglasses and the hat!"

"What about him?" Ron and Harry asked.

"Honestly, you two!" she said. "Who have we met this summer that is Asian and covers himself up?"

Harry's eyes widened. "Neji..."

"Exactly! His whole name must be Neji Hyuuga! From the Order!" she said. "Trelawney's probably been laid off or something. This means Dumbledore's really taking action now! He's actually placing Order members inside Hogwarts for more protection!"

"I don't know about him taking action or not, but I guess this is good news," Harry said. "But who's the other lady?"

"Her name is Yamanaka or something," Hermione said, taking a brief moment to remember the blond woman's name. "She must have a little bit of Japanese in her, or something. It sounds that way..."

"But is it just Neji?" Ron asked. "I mean, what happened to Kiba and Sai then? And is that woman in the Order too?"

"Maybe..." Hermione said. "Harry, why don't you ask Dumbledore about it later?"

"I don't know..." he said. "I don't want to bother him about something like this when there are those You-Know-What's to study about. Plus, Dumbledore has something new in plan for me. Lessons start in a month. I wonder what it is that he's going to teach me...?"

"Well, if you don't ask Dumbledore about the teachers, then we might as well find out about them ourselves," Ron said with a growing grin on his face, already looking forward to this year's newest adventure.

-

"So," Shikamaru said, rummaging through the newly organized books in the library. "How was class?"

"Fine," Ino said. "Why are we staying up in the middle of the night in the library of all places? And Sakura's going to kill you. She just organized this shelf by some kind of decimal system."

"Fascinating," he said sarcastically. "It's like I wasn't here when she forced us both to clean up the place..."

"You know... I find it a bit funny that you're working in the library of all places," Ino said, suspiciously. "Even more so that you're doing extra work while everyone else is asleep."

Shikamaru looked up in surprise.

"They're sleeping?" he said. He looked at the clock on the wall and then at his own watch—which wasn't working. He silently cursed the anti-electronics school... He looked back up at the clock again. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'. It's midnight. We could all be sleeping right now," Ino urged, tugging on his arm slightly. She was surprised when he resisted her tug.

"You don't have to stay here with me," Shikamaru muttered, pushing her arm off his own. "Ah..." He pulled out a thick leather-bound volume, and without even glancing at it, he removed a second that was only a few books down on the row.

"What is it?"

"It's none of your business," he said, shrugging.

"Well, you're my boyfriend," she said teasingly. "That makes everything that's your business my business too!"

"Well then maybe we shouldn't go out," he replied casually.

"WHAT?!"

Shikamaru jumped at the sudden volume of her voice.

"It was a joke!" he hissed, covering her mouth. He may have been a librarian, but he had no real excuse to be sneaking around in the middle of the night looking at books.

Ino glared at him but she didn't say anything. Shikamaru frowned and made a face, seeing that even though she was angry, she still wasn't leaving. He mumbled something under his breath.

"...Hey! Did you just call me a nosy bitch?!" she shouted.

"If that's what you think, then maybe I did," he shot back, looking at her square in the eyes. He didn't, actually, but he was getting rather frustrated with the way things had been going for him recently.

Moments later, Shikamaru found himself crouching on the floor, wincing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose where his face had hit the edge of one of the bookshelf.

He watched Ino through the shelves as she furiously stomped out of the library with the only lamp he had brought with him in hand. When he heard the door slam shut, Shikamaru sighed, putting the two books in his hands back on the shelf and pulling out all of the books that were between them.

'One o'clock...' he reminded himself. He had seven hours to read, translate, and copy down as much information from the books as he possibly could before Sakura would return to the library to start cleaning up again.

And of course, he'd probably have to get rid of all evidence of his tampering.

Shikamaru rubbed his eyes and prepared himself for a long night.

-

Lavender, Parvati, and several other students climbed the ladder up to the divination classroom nervously, unsure of what was going to happen this day. The third years claimed that the class was fascinating. Ordinarily, the majority of the classes disliked Divination because it seemed, according to them, 'too fake and stupid'.

What was the difference between Professor Sibyll Trelawney—descendant of the famous Cassandra Trelawney—and these two new teachers? What could be more realistic than the real thing?

'Apparently, a fake,' Lavender thought, pursing her lips in annoyance at the young woman who stood in front of the classroom with a bright smile on her face. She couldn't be much older than the students themselves!

Lavender and Parvati glanced around the classroom. Professor Trelawney's former habitat had been transformed from a comfortable, slightly cluttered round room to a... to an office.

Sure, it wasn't full of paperwork or any such thing, but the squashy arm chairs, little pouffes, and small round tables were arranged like an ordinary classroom with extra low furniture. The cards, tea cups, crystal balls, and various divination equipment were gone, no longer lining the wall. The strong, sweet-smelling fumes were replaced by the faint trace of incense, and the fireplace was void of any warmth and flame.

"Good afternoon, students!" the blond woman said to the class once everyone had found a seat. The guys taking the class were particularly responsive.

"Professor," Lavender Brown said, raising her hand.

"Yes, Miss...?"

"Lavender Brown, ma'am."

"Ah, Miss Brown," she said. "What is it?"

"I just have a few questions..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the teacher said. "Not yet, dear. Introductions must be made first. Has everyone signed the roster? Where's the parchment? Oh, thank you, Mister Pritchard."

"How did you know my name?" Graham Pritchard asked, looking alert.

"That's what I'm going to be teaching you," the woman said with a smile. "Later. However, introductions are due. I am Miss... Prof... uh... you may just call me Yamanaka. I am Professor Hyuuga's partner. I have been working with him for about a year now, though not in this course. This is our first year teaching, so please be kind to us both. We're not great with huge groups, and if you're particularly rude, we'll fail you." She paused. "This is the seventh year Divination class. Towards the end of May, you will be taking your NEWTs exam, am I right?"

"Doesn't take a genius to figure that out," Lavender muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Lavender Brown," Yamanaka said, enunciating every syllable of her name. "Why do feel you need to say that?"

"Well, because it's obvious," Lavender said, feeling annoyed that she was being picked out of the group.

"Of course it's obvious, sweetheart," Yamanaka said, as if the student was a young child learning to talk. "And isn't it also obvious that a divinist doesn't need to make an effort to see a little thing? Tell me, child, were you thinking that I was using my 'magical powers' to see the future or something? No, no, that's not what I do!"

Yamanaka laughed. "This class definitely needs to get back to the basics. You are very lucky we are here... Divination is an extremely misunderstood field. Tell me... Miss Patil!"

Parvati jumped slightly at this sudden shift of focus. She wondered vaguely how the teacher knew her name. "...Yes, Miss Yamanaka?"

"It's just Yamanaka. Tell me, what does divination do exactly?"

"It... predicts the future?" she tried uncertainly.

Yamanaka's eyes lit up gleefully at this.

The entire class felt almost scared of this woman at this point.

"Yes, yes! It certainly is meant to do just that! But successful divination does not predict the definite future. No, divination actually predicts a future based on events that are currently happening outside of the wizard or witch's direct knowledge, yet based on what they know!"

Scratch that. They were definitely scared. Definitely really scared. But at least they were quiet.

"Ino..." a voice said from the back of the room. Students turned around quickly to see a dark-haired man, dressed astonishingly similarly to a Muggle, standing in the back of the room.

"Who are you?" Lavender said breathlessly, staring at this mysterious man in amazement.

Ino frowned at the dazed appearance of the female students. "Class," she said firmly. "This is Professor Hyuuga, one of the best... readers in our generation."

The man wore dark sunglasses, dragon hide gloves, and a low brim Muggle bucket hat. After shifting his hat slightly, he walked past the students to the front of the class. A girl sighed.

"What Yamanaka is attempting to tell you is that direct actions do not work in Divination. For example, let's say... someone named Andrew is going to be killed by a mob of angry people next week on Tuesday—"

"Really?" Parvati said loudly. If they hadn't already been sitting on the floor, Lavender would have kicked her.

"No," Professor Hyuuga said. "That prediction would not work alone. Andrew getting beaten to death by a mob is one thing. An enemy of Andrew's planning to kill him is another. See the difference? The latter was the real prediction. The first was just an ordinary statement based on what you think will happenDivination is actually a form of sensory perception that is seeing something going on that, if continued through to it's natural conclusion, will have an impact on someone or something in the future but may possibly not come to past."

"Exactly," Yamanaka said. "It is not looking into the future, seeing something happen, coming back to the present, and reporting on it. No one knows the future."

"But Professor Trelawney told us—!" Lavender was about to argue.

"Professor Trelawney made accurate assumptions because they just so happened to happen," the blond woman said, shaking her head.

Hyuuga nodded. "She found predictable things and chose to share that information with you. A true divinist does not depend on magic to foresee the possible outcomes. It uses logic. And that is one of the main reasons why so many wizards are unable to grasp this concept."

"I don't get it..." a Slytherin said.

"Then you are doomed to fail your NEWTs, and thus are excused from this classroom," the man said, nodding slightly. "The trapdoor and ladder are right behind you."

No one moved. The student stayed.

"How do we know you're the real thing?" Lavender said suspiciously. The professor looked at her for a minute then leaned forward with a small smile, only inches away on her face. Her eyes widened, having caught a glimpse of his astonishingly pale eyes.

"...Green is not a good color on you, Miss Brown," he said with a mocking smirk on his face. "And I'm not talking about envy."

Lavender made a small noise, turning bright red and crossing her arms protectively in front of her chest, feeling rather violated by the mere statement. She heard Ino laughing at the front of the classroom.

"What did he mean by that?" Parvati asked.

"N-none of your business!" she said to her best friend, watching Professor Hyuuga return to the front of the classroom. Halfway there, he froze.

"Ino..."

The blond woman stepped forward and held his hand as they both took a seat at the desk. Both guys and girls sighed sadly.

Damn.

Lavender, on the other hand, eyed the 'couple' suspiciously. It didn't look as if they had any sort of romantic attachment or relationship between them. In fact, it looked more like Yamanaka was leading him back to the desk!

"The first step in our type of Divination," Ino said, returning to the front to the classroom, "is sitting down and assessing the 'customer'. I want you all to turn to the person next to you and find clues as to what he or she is feeling based on how they act..."

-

The rooms that the shinobi were supplied at Hogwarts were nothing short of homely and comfortable. As reluctant as everyone was to stay at the school, the castle itself was completely willing to do whatever it could to suit their needs.

Every room they had suited the resident's preferences. At first, they had all been puzzled by the one-room quarters they had been given, but the shinobi were pleasantly surprised when they found that they could request additional rooms whose doors magically appeared when needed.

Naruto was currently sitting in the 'living room' in front of the fireplace with a rather bored expression on his face as he counted the stones in the ceiling. He heard the creaking of the door as it opened and shut, but no footsteps, which meant it was one of his friends.

"Naruto," the newest arrival said.

Hearing his name, Naruto lifted his head slightly to see Kiba and Akamaru in the doorway.

"Hey," the Inuzuka said. A sofa appeared before him and he collapsed on top of it casually, though the intense stare he had on Naruto was anything but.

"...Yeah?"

Kiba's eyes darted around the room. Naruto looked around to see Akamaru sniffing about the room, as if searching for possible bugs or listening devices.

Was something wrong?

"You finished patrolling early?" Kiba asked him. His voice had no trace of fear or caution, though his eyes remained narrow and focused.

"Not really," Naruto said. "My kage bunshin are in the halls. If something happens, they'll go poof. Then I'll know that something is going on."

Kiba nodded. "I see." Akamaru barked loudly, wagging his tail, and jumped onto the couch with Kiba, who scratched him in his favorite spot behind the ears. "Thanks," he said to Akamaru. He turned back to Naruto. "Since you seem a bit bored, maybe you could help me."

"I'm guessing it's safe to talk now?" Naruto asked.

"Akamaru didn't smell anyone in here," he answered. "Or anything out of place either. Yeah, it's safe."

"Great, what do you need?"

Kiba pulled down his collar to show Naruto the large jagged scars that ran down his neck. "The werewolf bite," he said. "You remember, right?"

"You nearly gave us all heart attacks. I definitely won't forget," Naruto retorted. "What about it?"

"Werewolves are supposed to be infectious. I think I'm a werewolf now."

Naruto stared at him blankly. "Oh. Okay. ...Refresh my memory here: what's a werewolf, again?"

"Like a magical wolf. Only it's not some kind of normal disease. It's some sort of a cursed disease," Kiba said with a frown, pulling up his collar.

"And you think you're a cursed wolf now?" he asked. "Why?"

"My sense of smell is getting stronger," he said, pulling up his collar. "A lot stronger."

"Maybe you're bloodline is just turning into a real bloodline," Naruto reasoned. "Like puberty... or something."

"Maybe..." Kiba said, scratching his head and still looking unconvinced. "...My hair's a bit thicker too."

"You haven't cut it properly in years," the blond said skeptically. "I, for one, don't notice any big difference."

"That's probably true," Kiba admitted. "...I've also been bitten by a werewolf."

Blunt but to the point. He did have a point.

"...Now that is some solid evidence," Naruto said. "So? What's the problem?"

"If I'm cursed, I should know a bit about my... 'condition', right?" he said, looking uncertain as to what to call it. "The ly...lyc... I don't know how to say it."

"Well, it's a magical condition thing, right?" Naruto said. "Look in the 'magical library' that Sakura and Shikamaru work in now..."

"I did," Kiba said darkly. "I looked at the catalog. I sat and actually read English. And now I've got a huge headache too... But that's not the point I'm trying to make here. During some wedding that Neji, Sai, and I dropped by, there was this guy I met for a moment who was a werewolf."

"And you want to ask him about it?"

"Exactly."

"How would you know how to find him?" Naruto asked him. "He could be somewhere across the country by now. I don't think your nose has gotten that much better..."

"I can find out."

Naruto met Kiba's eyes once again and found, much to his surprise, that there was none of that usual brotherly humor. He was completely serious, about how much he believed his scent had improved to track a man all over Europe, as well as running away from the rest of the group.

"...You really mean business, don't you?" Naruto asked, smiling to hide the dread he was starting to feel in the pits of his stomach. "You're sure that the curse thing didn't affect your brain?"

"I'm completely serious, Naruto," he said. "Akamaru and I plan to leave."

"What, do you want me to come with you or something?" Naruto said sarcastically, with his worst fears confirmed. "Just tell Shikamaru and go. Or I could if you wan—"

"Don't," Kiba said.

"Huh?"

"I don't want Shikamaru knowing that we're going to leave," he said.

"We're all supposed to be friends," Naruto said, looking annoyed. "Friends tell each other when they're going to run away and ditch the rest! You can't just sneak out and run out on us like that."

"Friends also don't hide important information from each other either," Kiba spat angrily.

"I'm not hiding anything anymore!" Naruto said angrily. "You all know about the Kyu—"

"I'm not saying that you are," he said, shaking his head. "I'm saying that it's Shikamaru. He's hiding stuff from us. Big stuff."

"But—you—he...ugh," Naruto scratched his head at the risks they were about to take with the unity of their surrogate family. "Why can't you just look in the damn library?"

"All of the information was gone," Kiba said. "It's been removed."

"Huh?"

"I asked Sakura for access to the records, so she let me look at all of the... I looked in the thing that helps you look for books. The catalog. Yeah. There's no information there on werewolves."

"Doesn't mean it was removed," Naruto said. "Maybe they just don't have it."

"During the students' lunch, I met some girl earlier today in the library," Kiba said.

"Was she cute?"

"Stop it, Naruto," he said.

Naruto stared at his friend. Crap, Kiba really was worried about this, wasn't he...

"Anyway, this girl... she practically lives in the library. She knew where every single book in there is and . And she knew that there was a missing book. So then I got Sakura to let me look at a few more records, and it turns out... there weren't any records. None of the books that girl and I were looking for were ever in the library."

"So that means they didn't exist," Naruto said. "The library never ordered them and that girl was wrong."

"No. In the her third year, she wrote two rolls of parchment on werewolves and she had an eight inch piece of parchment worth of citations and bibliography," Kiba said.

"She might've been lyin—"

Kiba showed him three sheaves of parchment.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Kiba said. He untied the pinkish red string from the parchment and unrolled the parchment to read. "It's really long and detailed and has a lot of information," he said. "And the citations claim that she got this information from... The Theories of Lycanthropy, The Origins of the Werewolf, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and a lot more. These books are all gone."

"You know..." Naruto said, taking the papers and shifting them around to skim the longer than necessary English words. "You could always use this to find whatever it is that you're looking for."

"It doesn't have it. I've already looked through it. It's not there..."

"And what is 'it', exactly?"

"The specific details that only another werewolf knows. I want to know that if I transform, when would it happen? The actual time of the month is common knowledge. According to this report, a werewolf always transforms under the full moon, but if you take a Wolfsbane potion on a regular basis prior to transformations, then the time spent as a werewolf is a bit shorter. It wouldn't take full effect until a certain time if you take the potion regularly and stay out of the moonlight, or something like that.

"But when I was bitten, the night wasn't over yet. I was bitten by a werewolf, and it was a full moon. I didn't transform. I might be a werewolf and I don't know how long it'll be before my transformations might start. I don't have any Wolfsbane Potion."

Naruto frowned. "What does the potion do, exactly?"

"Apparently, in the form of the werewolf, you attack anything that moves. I wouldn't be able to control myself, and if I manage to bite you guys, you'll get infected too," Kiba said. "The potion helps me keep my conscious mind in control, rather than the werewolf's instincts."

The blond frowned. This could be a huge problem... The whole mess they were in was a problem.

"Why do you think that Shikamaru is our 'enemy', or whatever?" Naruto asked.

"The shelf where the books were supposed to be... they had his scent. He was there the night before, and I think he leaned his head against the shelf or something. Ino might have been there too, but I can't tell. Her perfume is all over the place and it irritated my nose too much to track down the actual scent."

Naruto frowned. "...How long do you think it would take for you to find this other werewolf?"

Kiba's eyes brightened. "A month, tops!" he said with a grin. "I promise."

"Well then... you have two weeks."

"What?"

"You can leave whenever time you want, I'll have a kage bunshin imitating you and Akamaru for two weeks, and if you don't come back within that time, I'll tell Shikamaru."

"This feels unfair," Kiba protested.

"The fact that these two years of close teamwork—living and working only with each other—don't seem to mean anything to one of us here..." Naruto said. "...that feels unfair." He shook his head. "If we do this... We could be in deep shit with the others, you know?"

"With Shikamaru?" the Inuzuka asked. "What's he going to do, hit us? Pfft..."

"Kiba, you've done a shit load of stuff. Shikamaru told us not to be nosy and look in too much on this magic stuff, not to make any kind of excessive contact with anyone outside of our group, and not to leave the school grounds," Naruto said.

He paused, with his list of Shikamaru's orders helping them both understand how many rules they were starting to break. On the other hand, it also helped them both realize how well Shikamaru was dictating their group without them even giving his orders a second thought, using his leadership skills and their respect for him as a strategist as leverage when it came to persuading them to follow his every word.

"Two days after the arrival of the students at Hogwarts and we are already conspiring amongst ourselves. We're all split up. You versus Shikamaru and Dumbledore. Mutiny, man. It sucks," Naruto said. "...You have a month to get back before I tell Shikamaru."

"I thought it was two weeks?" Kiba said.

"What, do you want two weeks or a month?" Naruto asked irritably.

"A month," he answered quickly with a feeling of relief.

"Then you had better leave now."

He nodded quickly. "Right."

Naruto closed his eyes as Kiba started to leave the room, brows furrowed and with a frown on his face.

He was probably going to regret this.

"Naruto," Kiba said in the doorway, about to leave, with Akamaru standing by his side.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. Really, I mean it," he said, when Naruto didn't respond, either annoyed or worried. "I owe you."

"Stuff it," Naruto said, not moving from his seat to acknowledge Kiba. "We're like brothers, I think. And this is what brothers are for, right?"

"...Thanks."

The small feeling of relief that Kiba was starting to feel was immediately doused by the muttered comment that Naruto probably didn't expect Kiba to hear through the closed door.

"For using them for your own needs, Kiba, you asshole."

It then occurred to Kiba how being considered a brother—or any other part of a family on occasion—often wasn't a compliment in Konoha.

-

The Golden Trio looked up at one another with a small fleshy-colored bead in their ear. The 'wireless' connection from Fred and George's 'Extendable Ears' was a prototype. They hadn't introduced the newer version of the Extendable Ears to the public yet, but Harry, Hermione, and Ron were the first to be able to use it, with its "wireless connection" and the feature that allowed it to record sounds.

"...I didn't understand a single word they said," Ron said, completely bewildered by the Japanese conversation.

Having not foreseen this unexpected obstacle, Hermione hit her forehead in frustration.

-

"We haven't seen you smile like that in a long time," Ino commented, taking a seat on a cushion next to Neji. They were both in the Divination tower, drinking tea. The last class of the day was over, but Ino had kept Neji up in the tower so she could complain about 'how cold Shikamaru was being to her' recently. "I'm glad I was the first to see it."

"You're making fun of me," Neji said, definitely not smiling.

"No, I'm not," she insisted. "But just out of curiosity, was it because Miss Brown's green lingerie had something silly written on it or because you're just a pervert?"

Neji turned his head to look at her and then looked, resisting the urge to make a scathing remark about the lack of personal attention Shikamaru had been showering her with. Instead, he made a comment on a subject that had been bothering him.

"Naruto and Kiba are up to something..." Neji said to her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I only got half of their conversation, and sometimes they mumbled so I couldn't really read their lips, but... from the looks of it, Kiba's bailing out on us."

"Bailing out?" Ino repeated incredulously. "As in, like, leaving?"

"Not right now," Neji said. "He's in his room. But yes, it seems that he is planning on leaving us."

Ino didn't say anything.

"First Tenten and now Kiba and Akamaru," the Hyuuga said contemplatively. "By the time we get back home, we're going to be out of shinobi."

"Neji, Tenten didn't bail out on us," Ino said.

"Well I don't believe she's dead either," Neji muttered.

"I don't want to argue about it," she said, immediately brushing over Neji's damnably persistent theory. "Any more arguments, and the tension will give me a heart attack."

"And then I suppose we'll have lost our fourth member."

"I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. Let's not talk about it. What do we do about Kiba?"

"Well," Neji said, looking at the sparrows that they had bought from the pet store in Diagon Alley. "We don't need all seven of these just for messages if one of us are going to leave." He reached over and unlatched the wire door, allowing one of the sparrows to fly out.

"Baki... (1)" he said to the sparrow that perched on his fingers. "If Kiba leaves, follow him."

-

Hermione replayed the conversation for the last time, taking notes with the library's Japanese dictionary set out in front of her. It had taken several frustrating hours, but she finally finished translating it into rough but understandable English.

She was hoping that the conversation was worth the effort she put into it.

Luckily, it was.

"Okay, there are two of them in the room. One is Kiba from Bill's wedding, and the other is named Naruto," she said, reading her information out loud. "Kiba and someone named 'Akamaru' are going to leave."

"'Akamaru'... That's a funny name..." Ron said thoughtfully.

"So is 'Shikamaru'," she said with a shrug. "Maybe their brothers or something... Anyway, Kiba and Akamaru are patrolling the school. I'm assuming that they're guards that Professor Dumbledore hired to keep a low profile and guard the school. It would make sense. Kiba's guarding the school, Neji's taking position as a teacher in Trelawney's tower to watch over, and Sai's probably somewhere inside the school too!"

"And so far, we know that there is Kiba, Neji, Sai, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Akamaru in this school who are involved with Dumbledore for sure," Harry said.

"And Yamanaka," Hermione said. "Someone mentioned how a lady named Yamanaka told them she had worked with Neji before. She's probably in the group too."

"Whatever. I still think that Kiba might have been the person who attacked Hogwarts..." Ron mumbled.

"Why would he if they're protecting Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Wait a minute..." Hermione said. "Akamaru's not a person. I think he's a dog. Kiba said 'Akamaru didn't smell anyone in here'."

"Kiba also said that his sense of smell was getting a lot stronger than usual. They might have a strong sense of smell already," he said.

"Kiba said his nose was stronger, not Akamaru's," she corrected. "Plus, that might be a side effect of him becoming a werewolf..."

They didn't say anything. "That... really sucks," Ron muttered. "Aside from the fact that he may have nearly killed us and Dumbledore, I kinda liked him."

"It's not as if he's dead," Harry said defensively. "Professor Lupin is just fine—"

"That's it!" Hermione said suddenly.

"What's it?" he and Ron asked.

"He's talking about Remus Lupin! He's going to Professor Lupin. They must have met face-to-face after Bill's wedding. Kiba knows that Remus is a werewolf, so he's going to find him!"

"He doesn't need to go running all over Europe looking for Remus," Ron said. "We could find him before he leaves and tell him that we can get a message directly to him! We'll take the Invisibility Cloak!"

Harry frowned. "No offense, but I don't think all three of us will fit under there too well anymore," he said. "I'll go."

-

"Studying, Mr. Nara?"

Found, once again, under the sky in the Great Hall, Shikamaru hastily folded up the map, stuffed it into his pocket, and hid his cigarette. There was a small hissing sound and smell of burnt wood as he smothered the lit cigarette end on the dinner table decorated with green and silver.

He knew it was Dumbledore walking into the Great Hall the moment the old man stepped through the doors.

By now, he knew that Dumbledore was some sort of walking lie detector, possibly even more powerful than Ino with her own near-telekinetic abilities. Unfortunately, he still didn't know how to directly counteract this.

Ino's mental barrier had either come naturally or it had come to her with the technique that her father had passed down to her. Either way, the odds that Shikamaru could learn it very quickly at this age was low. He had been raised to use the shadows like a Nara, and he would continue to use shadow-manipulation like a Nara.

But he would use his brain like the genius he was to overcome his other shortcomings. So far, he had gathered that Dumbledore could only look through his mind if he had direct face-to-face or eye-to-eye contact. Staring at the ground was a disgustingly obvious way to overcome this technique, but it was still somewhat effective.

"What do you want?" Shikamaru asked, annoyed by this man's mere presence.

"I'm just wondering how you and your companions are finding this castle," he said.

"It's fine," he said.

Unable to look at him face-to-face, Shikamaru suspiciously watched the old man's every movement through his skin. The headmaster's shadow rubbed his chin. "I've been wondering...have you found a solution to your werewolf dilemma?"

The genius almost looked up, but he caught himself, forcing himself to stare at the shadows. "I'm still thinking..."

"I have noticed that you directed Sakura to organize the potions section," Dumbledore said.

"It pleased her," the shinobi muttered. "She's a medic. She'd probably enjoy looking through the potions ingredients for things like the blood replenishing potion. Even if the potions are sometimes made up of things like roach feces and the such. She finds the ingredient indexes amusing, actually."

"I suppose it is nice for a healer," Dumbledore said, nodding. "And I suppose that means you want Sakura to like you so she can 'put in a good word' to Ino, right?"

Shikamaru's head shot up, and he immediately regretted doing so, as his plan to completely avoid Dumbledore's eyes was ruined. He swore silently.

"Language, Shikamaru," he said with a smile. The blue twinkling eyes seemed to move through Shikamaru like an X-ray. "Now, it was obvious from our negotiations that you value Ino's life over the others' freedom and therefore Ino over them, and the two girls seem to be close friends. Therefore, you wanted Sakura to get you on Ino's good side."

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly. He brought his eyes back down to his feet with a stony expression on his face. "Ah, you caught me, Dumbledore," he spat. "Ino's mad at me, and you know it. What other old news do you want to throw at me? What are you going to tell me next? This is a school of magic? We have nowhere to go? Kiba's in deep shit, as well as the rest of us?"

"Ah, how about the fact that Kiba plans to take a small vacation?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah, that was next on the list," Shikamaru muttered.

"You should—"

"You know," he said, loudly, "three years ago, I was at home. I was staring at the clouds, having a nice time doing absolutely nothing. One year ago, I was stressed out, but still able to relax, have a smoke, and stare at the sky in my spare time. Now, however, I'm finding difficulty trying to keep my friends together from panicking and getting arrested by the Ministry for attempted murder and harboring an unregistered werewolf. Or in Kiba's case, being the unregistered werewolf. And even if you have absolutely no intention of turning us in, there's still the problem that if you are no longer there to hide us, we are dead meat."

"You and I are alike," Dumbledore mused. "Don't worry about what happens when I die. I have a successor to continue my work."

"Oh joy," Shikamaru said. "In other words, 'don't worry, when I die, I'll appoint someone new to lord over you', is that right?"

"In a way," Dumbledore said. "Though I hardly doubt that he would abuse his authority over—"

"You know, next time, don't say 'don't worry' like you're trying to help us," he snapped.

The old man sighed. "I know when I'm not wanted. I'll leave you be."

'Then why didn't you just leave us alone before?' Shikamaru wondered. 'We didn't want you before either. Things were going well for us then...'

The headmaster got up and left the Great Hall. Shikamaru lit a new cigarette and pulled the map out of his pocket. He stared at the tiny figures on the map and spotted Kiba leaving their rooms, which he found rather odd, considering the fact that he was still supposed to be on patrol.

Shikamaru paused, suddenly remembering Dumbledore's previous statement.

"...Ah, how about the fact that Kiba plans to take a small vacation?" he had asked.

Oh crap, Dumbledore was trying to tell him something.

Kiba was jumping ship.

And Shikamaru needed to stop him before it happened. He had forgotten to tell the others why they couldn't leave the normal way. Shikamaru got up to his feet. He put two fingers to his lips and whistled four short consecutive times. A few moments later, one of the sparrows flew to him.

"Rakusa, get this to Sakura," he said, scribbling a quick note and tying it to the bird as he ran out into the hallway and, before leaving out the Entrance Hall.

The Inuzuka was already making his way outside. According to the map, Sakura was already quickly making her way towards Shikamaru. He turned around and saw a familiar pink head in the distance, as well as Sai, who must have been in the library with her as well.

"Sakura! Sai!" he said.

"What is it?" Sakura asked as she and Sai ran alongside Shikamaru.

"Kiba and Akamaru are trying to leave," he muttered as they ran to intercept their possibly first 'missing-nin' of the group.

And, with everything that was going on, finding the closest available shinobi, Shikamaru didn't have any time to register the small figure on the map that was already moving to intercept Kiba.

-

Ron and Hermione were watching him from the window Gryffindor tower, ready to call for a teacher if needed. Of course, they didn't really see him under the Invisibility Cloak, but it was added insurance that they could probably call a teacher or something if it seemed things were getting too wild for an invisible man to deal with..

Harry prided himself on his ability to sneak around in the darkness. After living with the Dursley's for so long, Harry had gained the ability to move quietly, yet at a steady pace. This talent was most useful at times when he was sneaking out to grab a bit to eat or when Dudley and his friends were chasing him around.

Now, at seventeen, he had mastered the art of running in complete silence.

Then again, Harry was amazed by Kiba's speed.

He had seen the man leave the castle. Harry had already been waiting outside, prepared to cut him off, but Kiba came from a different exit, so Harry was forced to run and catch up.

Harry had the head start, but the man was already much further ahead, and it seemed that he was moving just as quietly with a huge lumbering dog by his side.

All of a sudden, dozens of large creatures ran past Harry without a single sound.

Was he deaf or something?

So many of them moving in absolute silence!

How could they move so quickly without a single sound?-!

'Wait a minute,' Harry thought to himself, pausing slightly in his pursuit, only to continue at a greater speed. '...What the hell were those things anyway?'

From behind, they looked almost like swirly ink paintings, only they were moving. After almost seven complete years (though technically just six) of living in the wizarding world, Harry was no stranger to moving pictures, but moving pictures that weren't even pictures?

This was getting confusing.

Harry saw a flash of pink amongst the creatures that were pursuing Kiba, and he realized that there were actually three people amongst the stampede of ink creatures.

"Kiba!" a woman cried.

The brown-haired man turned his head slightly, saw the army of inky creatures, and ran faster.

From the crowd of ink creatures rose a dark-haired man riding on some sort of monstrous animal that resembled the lion-dragons that 'guarded' Buddhist temples. With a scroll in one hand, he seemed to scribble something across the page, and a countless number of small black objects swooped down and swarmed Kiba and his dog.

After a moment of fruitlessly fending off the creatures with his arms, the man shouted. "Tsūga ("Piercing Fang")!"

Harry's eye's widened when both Kiba and the dog suddenly spun around towards his pursuers and spun like a blurred tornado, directly towards the group.

What the hell was this?

The next thing Harry knew, the three pursuers were jumping back to their feet with large puddles of ink staining the grass.

They were all shouting at each other. From afar, he recognized Sai as well.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura said to the other man, the one with the pony-tail. They were all talking in Japanese, and Harry didn't understand a word they said.

Then they started fighting, and Harry still didn't understand what was going on.

-

"What a waste..." Sai said thoughtfully, toeing the ink-stained grass at his feet.

"It's just ink," Sakura said to him.

"I'm not talking about the ink," Sai said, looking up at Kiba with a stare so strong, he might as well have been pointing at the Inuzuka.

"I heard that!" Kiba said, pointing accusingly at Sai. "Bastard!"

"Mutt."

Kiba growled in response to that, though that probably only served to prove Sai's point.

"Kiba!" Sakura shouted. "Why are you doing this?" she said.

"It's not what it looks like!" he said quickly.

"It looks like you're running away," Sai said thoughtfully.

"...Okay, it's sort of what it looks like!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm getting help!" he said.

"He doesn't know what he's saying," Shikamaru muttered.

"You don't know what you're saying!" Sakura relayed to Kiba.

"He's hiding something huge that I need to know!" the Inuzuka shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru," Sakura said. "Is this true?"

"I'll tell you the whole truth when I can get the whole truth," Shikamaru muttered.

"I'm a werewolf, aren't I?" Kiba demanded.

"We don't know for sure," he replied. "Just calm down, stay here, and we'll figure things out."

"I'm—I'm rabid! You guys are going to, going to put me down or something?"

"Do we look like idiots to you?" Sai asked logically. "A werewolf sounds a lot better than a dog. If you're stronger, you're useful, and if you're useful, we're not going to do something stupid like 'putting you down'. Unless we're stupid, that is. ...Thinking about that now, it's entirely possible that we may put you down."

"Don't you try to logic yourself out of this one, Sai!" Kiba said, giving him with an accusing glare.

"You're not making any sense," he shrugged.

"And if you're not trying to screw me over, then why'd you attack me?" Kiba said angrily.

"We, uh, wanted to get your attention!" Sakura said.

"Well you could've said 'Hey, Kiba, listen to us and wait a second!' You didn't have to throw a freaking huge mob of ink monsters at me!"

"This... coming from the guy who nearly killed us after a mission when you thought we were leaving you behind..." Sai commented casually, referring to an earlier episode in which the group was making their getaway in a high speed police chase...

...when out of bloody nowhere, Kiba hit their ride (a stolen vehicle with the shinobi and their stolen valuables for their client inside) with a Gatsuuga, thinking that the others were ditching him.

"Oh, shut up, Sai! Anyway, if Shikamaru can't figure out whatever it is he's trying to figure out and is going aroundstopping us from trying to help him by hiding information, then I'll go and find it myself!"

"Just so you know," Shikamaru said, taking a deep breath to calm himself, "you can not just leave as simply as that."

"Tsūga!" Kiba used his rotating attack once again and everyone dove out of the way.

On terms of raw power, Kiba was the strongest, and no one was willing to try to take on the spinning technique.

Of course, Sakura slowly began to realize, it wasn't as if Kiba was trying to hurt them. The first attack had destroyed only the ink clones, and even now, he hadn't used the Shikyaku no Jutsu (Beast Mimicry: Four Legs Technique) or the Jūjin Bunshin (Beast Human Clone). Instead of causing direct injury with claws and teeth, Kiba was resorting to fighting barehanded, risking only bruises and, at most, broken bones.

Then again, Kiba may not have been willing to seriously injure his friends, but Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sai weren't willing to fight back at full power either.

Well, Sakura and Shikamaru weren't.

Sai was crazy, so he would probably actually do something incredibly heartless or something like that.

"You can't leave!" Sakura shouted as Kiba continued to attack.

"Of course not! Not until you guys stop following me!"

"Sakura's right, even if she doesn't understand why," Shikamaru said, making no move to counterattack. Kiba stopped.

"What do you mean?"

"Just don't move. You're right on the border of Hogwarts, and if you cross the invisible line, you will sorely regret the consequences," he said seriously. "Now come... back... slowly..."

Kiba glared at Shikamaru again. "You're lying. There's nothing over here to be afraid of! My smell has gotten even stronger, and there's nothing here! Akamaru!"

Both Kiba and Akamaru turned to make a break for it.

"...You both are idiots! You can't smell mag—!" Shikamaru said, hastily making a handseal. A shadow shot across the ground towards Kiba, but it reached him a split second too late, managing to establish the shadow connection between Shikamaru and Kiba, but unable to prevent him from crossing the invisible line that prevented enemies from invading the castle and Hogwarts residents from leaving it.

Kiba jolted, twitching as if he were being shocked, and hit the ground. Akamaru, who hadn't hit the invisible barrier at full force, let out a sharp yelp and whined.

Shikamaru, who had been forced on the ground when Kiba had (via his shadow copying technique), released his shadow the moment he had recovered from the sudden impact with the ground as well. Sakura and Sai ran forward to see their friend.

"Kiba! Are you alright?" Sakura asked. Her hand glowed green and she held it over Kiba. "He's been shocked."

"...It's like an electric fence," Sai said thoughtfully.

"That's not funny!"

Shikamaru rubbed his head and knelt by Sakura and Kiba.

"Dumbledore warned me not to let anyone off the grounds, but he didn't say it would do that," he muttered. "I think that the further you pass the line, the more of a shock you'll get. Is he alright?"

"He'll be fine. Probably twitchy for a few hours after he wakes up," Sakura said, removing her hand. "We've been through worse, so Kiba'll definitely make it."

"He's a rash idiot," Sai said with a frown.

"Well, he was probably freaking out. I mean, he did mention being worried a week ago," Sakura said. "And now, the moment he's determined enough to accept the possibility of werewolf contamination and learn out more about it, he doesn't find any information at all. I guess with a mixture of panic and logic, he figured that it would help to find a real werewolf and question him. Which, according to what he mentioned, he might have actually known a real one... By the way, did you really hide the books in the library, Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"I want to make a solid plan before letting anyone else start making half-formed wild guesses as to what we need to do..."

"Do about what?"

"I'll tell you later."

Sakura frowned, but didn't say anything. "So long as you don't get any more of us killed, we're not going to revolt, you know." Shikamaru looked at her, and Sakura turned red. "Any... of us... I mean," she muttered, looking at Kiba's unconscious body.

Ooh, how she wanted to kick the foolish boy for making everyone go on edge! Their whole situation was depressing enough with Shikamaru striking some secret deal with Dumbledore to keep them out of the old man's hands...and then Kiba just had to make the situation worse, panicking and causing everyone else to panic!

The nerve of him! ...Or lack thereof.

But even Sakura had to admit that Kiba had a perfectly reasonable excuse for attempting to leave. If he was that big of a danger to the group, who knew what would happen?

Shikamaru sighed. "After this is all over, I plan on taking a long vacation," he said almost wistfully, pulling out the map in his pocket out of curiosity, looking to see where Dumbledore was.

He paused.

According to the map, someone was standing right behind him.

"Something wrong, Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"No. Nothing." But all of a sudden, twisting his upper body, he spun around and threw a knife directly behind him. It flew far until it hit a distant tree.

"...What was that for?" Sai asked.

"..." Shikamaru frowned, looking back at the map, where it said that someone was still standing by him. He thrust his hand out and batted at the air, as if feeling for an invisible enemy.

Sakura looked at him, concern etched into her eyes. "...Shikamaru?"

"Eh, it's nothing," he muttered, stuffing the map back in the pocket of his vest. "Let's go. Bring Kiba back to his room. I guess I'll talk with him and clear things up. Just... we'll never bring any of this up again, alright?"

Sakura and Sai nodded. "Right."

-

Harry stood there, stunned and speechless as the strange group left.

So many things... happening at once...

Down on the ground, there were huge track marks where Kiba had torn through the ground as he attacked his friends.

There were large ink marks staining the ground.

The person known as Shikamaru had nearly killed him, throwing a knife right past his head.

And luckily, Harry ducked a split second before the man blindly swiped at his head, as if confused by the lack of Harry's presence.

And, of course, when Harry ducked, he got a good look at the suspiciously familiar piece of parchment in his hand.

Harry had seen it earlier from a distance, but he hadn't been sure until now.

And now, with the man directly facing him, grabbing at the air above his head, Harry saw the piece of parchment up close.

It was the Marauder's Map.

-

(1) Baki is one of the sparrow's names. It's Kiba's sparrow. For all of them, they just reversed the letters of the name so Kiba is Baki.
Kiba—Baki
Sakura—Rakusa
Naruto—Toruna
Shikamaru—Rumakashi
Sai—Isa
Ino—Noi
Neji—Jine
I can't tell if any of that is actually going to come into play though...

My Thinking Corner

Man, I've been a lot busier than I expected this summer. It's been way too long...

To those of you whom I speak to online, sorry I haven't been on too much recently. I'm just avoiding you. XD Just kidding, just kidding. To tell you the truth, I'm avoiding one person in particular. I finally managed to break up with someone. We went out once, which is, apparently, enough to be considered "an official relationship". I felt really bad.

Summer is usually my time of solitude, where I can get away from everyone and pretend I don't exist anymore. People usually get annoyed because once school gets out, I just stop picking up the phone.

But I haven't been sitting on my ass playing Minesweeper all day long. I've been sitting on my ass playing Minesweeper and writing. I've started my own story. An original thing. I'm not sure if it's called fanfiction or whatever... I've also started several other crossovers. My favorite, after Stranded, would probably be Maelstrom. Then there's the TLOTOOTP, which is currently going over a number of name changes. In other words, to those of you who guessed or tried to guess the name... sorry. It's not the name anymore. But, um... pm me again if you pmed me first. I kinda lost about half the Pms you guys sent me, so... if you want, you can send me your guesses again, and I'll see if it's right or not. Doesn't really matter much to me though.

Anyway, aside from sleeping, watching anime, reading stories, Mapling (level 71!!), and playing uh... Minesweeper and Freecell, I spent half the summer cleaning up dog poo. And pee. And sometimes vomit.

That's right! We've got two dogs! They're puppy huskies (the normal ones, not the malamuts, or however they're spelled). The older one is named Shadow Bandit, the second is White Knight. Knight was the first one to escape the pen. Apparently, if you leave the lower hookie thing unlocked, he can slip out under the door. So then, we started making extra sure that all three hooks were completely secured.

Now, about a week ago, we come home to find they've gotten loose (and caused quite a bit of damage -.-). As it turns out... we've got a bunch of miniature furry escape artists on our hands because you know what?

THEY CAN OPEN DOORS.

My babies are geniuses! ((does a hughes)).

Now, we gotta tie the cage shut so they don't get past the locking hook thing.

Oh, oh, oh, there's also been a leak, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public four days ahead of schedule! Unfortunately, it wasn't in the traditional book way. Someone working at the American Publishing Company (or something like that) managed to sneak a book out or something. He took pictures of every single page in the book and posted it online! At first, I didn't believe this news. And then someone I knew ruined it for me (curse you, you queerdo!). Next thing I knew, I spent the next seven hours in front of said person's laptop reading the Harry Potter book. Now, I'm feeling freaking awesome ((though laden with guilt at having technically stolen a book, but I'm buying it anyway to make up for it)) because the story is almost exactly like my most recent planned crossover "Maelstrom". The only difference is the beginning, the interchangeable person who died (OH GOD BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK AND BLANK DIED!) and the duration of it all. It's the same as mine, only Harry's seventeen in JKR's story! Mine is basically partly the same, only they're a bit older and they meet Naruto... and some people don't die. And stuff happen. Okay, so it's not as close as it sounds, but a whole bunch of stuff I did were right on the mark! I've been giddy for days. Inspiring myself to finally post this chapter (-.-).

Review Responses:

silent reader: Thank you! As for the shinobi... yeah, they're going to try and get back into shape. I mean, Ino can't even run in heels anymore! Harry won't find out much for a while. Um... I actually don't feel like pulling up the calender, but around the end of October or early November... I can't really remember. And no, I don't think Malfoy's going to be returning to school any time soon.

dark672: Haha, alright, alright, I just wasn't sure and stuff. Besides, it's nice and short and I usually only spend less than a minute responding (which really does save a lot of time, compared to the amount of time I usually end up spending on other reviews).

IshtarFish: Thanks! Though I have a hard time believing that Dumbledore was always a nice old man. After all, he had to have been young sometime, right? Anyway, things aren't all as they seem.

Emi: Yep. Neji was the guy drunk off butterbeer in the Great Hall. It's out of character, but I couldn't help it. Standing joke. Er... running joke? I'm not quite sure which is which.

Peter Kim: To tell you the truth, there is another player on the field that has yet to been introduced (their time will come at the last few chapters). Anyway, you should remember that Zabini only played on Malfoy's side for a brief moment. To keep Voldemort from reading his mind, Zabini had Malfoy Obliviate him, remember? Now, Zabini (as well as Crabbe and Goyle) works solely for Voldemort.

Miako: I live down in Texas. ...And no, I do not talk with an accent (though a while back, someone did say I had some sort of an English accent... weird). Thanks for reviewing! Oh, and thank you for your concern in the second review. As you can see from my thinking corner, I've been having a pretty busy summer so far. I've also been having a few personal and/or familial issues.

anonymous: Thank you! The Akatsuki will always be villains in my heart (bows head slightly). Anyway, it's not only Tobi and Deidara. The members present in this world will slowly be (re)introduced in the story. However, I can assure one thing for certain: it will not have Itachi. I don't mean to offend anyone, but he's just... he's everywhere! Is there ever an Akatsuki story that does not have him? He's like the thing that wouldn't go away. Or a roach. Anyway, after the Akatsuki find out that Malfoy is with the Konoha-nin, they pretty much don't care about him anymore. It's like losing a rock and finding a jewel. One that you're going to dispose of, anyway.

celtic-pride: I'm glad you liked it. Sorry about how it was confusing. I'll probably try to tie the chapters together better next time. Anyway, I've actually screwed up my sleeping schedule. Biological clock? No that's not the word... um... started with a C. Cicada rhythms? ...Heck no. Meh, I'll think of it later.

Liz: I can't believe I keep missing that! Aaaaah! You're not the first person to have told me of this (no offense), but I still keep on forgetting to fix that!

nightDREAMERms: Well, the thing is that I see Kiba and Sakura as the more... familiar members of the group. Kiba seems like a brotherly guy, and Sakura as the sisterly girl. ...That sound weird? And no... I'm really glad you pointed that out. (falls over) Gotta fix that now... Oh, and I can believe you're saying that. I like this story more than my other crossover as well. As for the anime laws... no offense, but that seems vaguely inappropriate... (shudders) If there are two things I can't stand in the world, it's vomit and babies. Mainly because I've been cleaning up dog vomit for a while (Knight's got a weak stomach -.-), and babies are... well, to tell you the truth, they kinda scare me... (scratches head).

And there you have it, folks. I started writing review responses at seven. It is now 1:24 AM. Thank you for the ridiculously huge amount of reviews. (it's a joke, but I'm not being sarcastic: I do love the reviews!)