"I don't see why we have to come to this place. Since when did we do missions this far out of the country?" The blonde ANBU grumbled, his voice low as he whispered angrily to his pink-haired teammate. She drew a finger to her lips and hissed angrily at him to be quiet and stop shouting blatantly stupid things. Naruto didn't listen to this and instead raised his voice even more. Still quiet enough that nobody but a ninja could hear it, but still distressingly loud when you came form a village where most of the people WERE ninja. "And why would they need ten Jounin, eight ANBU, and the Kazekage?!" He grumbled angrily, glancing around the room as though trying to prove his claim that this place was far too docile to need eighteen high ranked ninja to guard it. It was more than likely that he was just upset about being forced to be a student even though he was an ANBU.

"Naruto! Hush! She's going to start calling names any second now," Sakura hissed, hitting the blonde on the head once more, her eyes narrowed. It didn't matter if he was an ANBU while she was still a jounin; he was being and idiot and she was still more mature then him. Plus it didn't help that he was making sense. The mission was a mockery of their skills. How anyone had agreed to this was beyond her. They must have payed a fortune to get this level of talent at their school for such an easy and lengthy mission. The entire rookie nine plus team Gai and Haku, the sand siblings as well as the team that Sasuke had formed to kill his brother. Probably the most powerful ninja around today now that Akatsuki and Orochimaru were dead.

They were all much older now, aged by time and the life that came with being a shinobi. They had all lived through the battle with Akatsuki, and Sasuke had rejoined his home village. The world of shinobi was living through a time of peace and prosperity. Of course, this hardly excused the fact that they let nearly all the strong young ninja away from the village on one mission. Oh, and not to mention the KAZEKAGE.

At least they were all friends (to a certain extent). There was no one there that really hated another with any sort of ferocity. Most of the shinobi had their quirks, and many were antisocial or annoying, but they were still not going to snap and kill anyone. Well, maybe Juugo, but he had an excuse.

The sudden clearing of a throat made every head turn to the elderly headmaster. Well, it was assumed every head turned as there was not enough of Shino's face to be seen in order to confirm this. The bearded man spoke up, his purple robes annoyingly bright to ninja trained in the art of subterfuge. Not that Naruto could complain.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," he started and the chattering petered into silence. Once it had stopped completely he continued his speech. "As I'm sure you can all see we have a few new exchange students joining us today!" He waited for the smattering of applause to silence. "First I'd like to introduce a few new members of faculty.

"The first of these is Hatake Kakashi!" Naruto whistled loudly from between to fingers, a fox-like grin splitting his face. Of course, said jounin wasn't even paying attention. He raised a single hand in greeting before continuing to read his book. The little orange book was well-loved, with ragged corners and a bent spine; Naruto couldn't guess how many times it had been read. It was sort of creepy.

"Maito Gai!" Was the next name and unlike his 'eternal rival', he stood up tall and assumed his 'nice guy' pose. Rock Lee immediately emulated his hero and flashed his blinding smile back at his mentor. The two did a disturbing ritual of pelvic thrusting and basic beach genjutsu while screaming each others names and crying dramatically. Tenten patted Neji on the back as he sobbed silently while remembering why he had decided to become part of ANBU that specialized in long term missions, and Kakashi, who was sitting beside the older of the two, winced. Dumbledore's magic twinkling eyes were nearly as bad as the pair's teeth.

"Kurenai!" Was the last name to be called and Kiba yelled loudly as she stood up and bowed professionally. Hinata clapped politely, blushing slightly and Shino didn't move. After the final round of applause died down, Dumbledore raised his hand to silence the speculative chatter. Naruto seemed to find the whispered theories about the spells in Kakashi's book incredibly amusing as could be guessed from his snickering.

"If you would all be so kind as to hold off the rumblings of your stomachs for the last of the sorting." There was a smattering of laughter and with a grin Dumbledore nodded at McGonagall. The stern woman returned the nod and unrolled her scroll of names.

In accordance with alphabetical order, the first name to be called was "Aburame Shino." The quiet teen moved with a certain grace to the stool, not making a noise the entire time. He was bundled up so tightly it would have been hard to tell but with the senses of fully trained ninja most of his teammates could tell he was nervous. He sat down and McGonagall hesitated, placing the hat on his head.

"Mister Aburame, if you would be so kind as to remove the hood?" she asked curtly and for a moment of his staring silently at her most of the shinobi were sure he was going to refuse. Finally, after a moment of climax and a battle of wills, he pulled his hood down to reveal spiky brown hair. The entire company of shinobi let out a simultaneous breath as the sorting hat was placed on his head without problem.

Not many people there knew Shino very well as he tended to be very private, but the sorting hat took a good minute of silent contemplation before it reached a decision. The silence was tangible, as the ever-quiet Shino waited to be sorted. It was startling when the hat yelled "Hufflepuff!" at the top of its lungs.

Or, it would have if it hadn't been a hat and had owned any lungs. As it was the magical charm it was under allowed it to project the word loudly so it seemed that it was using all the force in its inexistent lungs.

A polite clapping from the Hufflepuff table guided the shinobi to his seat. He sat down and pulled up his hood and like a trigger this simple action of Shino's started the sorting in full swing.

Chouji was next, to be sorted into Hufflepuff. Following after, the always-attractive Sakura received many cheers when the hat declared her to be a Ravenclaw and Suigetsu was proudly declared a Slytherin to the silent school. The fact he was still carrying around both Zabuza and Kisame's swords might had quelled some of the whisperings about him. It was hard to take away deadly weapons from someone who could turn themselves into a liquid and since he wasn't actually part of Konoha the Hokage couldn't do much.

After the swordsman the two Hyuuga were sorted. The hat was quick to declare that both the shy, easily-flustered Hinata and the arrogant-but-permanently-scarred-by-his-teammate-and-sensei Neji were Ravenclaw material. Kiba caused a ruckus by the fact that he insisted - much to the tight-lipped fury of McGonagall - that Akamaru be sorted as well. This typical Inuzuka display ended up lasting ten minutes as the dog ninja argued with the entire great hall that Akamaru was a person too.

In the end, with Naruto yelling in agreement, Inner Sakura screaming at both of them, Akamaru barking, Kiba yelling, Juugo bordering on snapping, both Rock Lee and Gai announcing their very shiny teeth and Sunset-like feelings on the matter, McGonagall's tight-lipped fury added to the refusal to sort a dog by the hat it was nearly twenty minutes before an agreement was reached. With both Kiba and his dog sitting proudly at the Gryffindor table and the Ravenclaw table mended while Sakura apologized profoundly the sorting moved on. Naruto was still out cold and Tenten had to calm Neji down after Lee and Gai gave him another breakdown, but all was well and Naruto was going to be sorted last anyways.

Clearing her throat and trying the break the chattering of the students, McGonagall called the next name on the list. Juugo walked calmly towards the hat and placed it tranquilly on his head. It was quick to declare him in Hufflepuff. It was lucky or perhaps just the looming presence of Sasuke that resulted in him calmly moving to his house table. Kankurou was next, sorting into Slytherin under his brother's watchful eye and Karin after him to the same house. So far there were two out of three of snake in the house of snakes and none in the house of the hawk. It was almost poetic.

When Haku was called to be sorted the cat calls he received from most of the boys was met with a smile to hide his discontent. He had learned many years ago not to bother with listening to what men thought of him. He was well aware that he was attractive in a very feminine way. When he was sorted into Gryffindor, arguably the manliest of the four houses, he just knew he would have a fun time telling everyone that he was male. He could practically see the looks of shock of the two clapping twins and the one drooling who could only be their little brother. The smirk was decidedly evil. Zabuza would be proud.

Shikamaru was next and was hardly as enthused to be sorted; he couldn't imagine why it was necessary. He really didn't see why they weren't sorted into strategically sound groups. Anyways, he would be in Ravenclaw without a doubt. It was just troublesome to go through it all. Walking forwards, he rested the hat on his head for only a moment before he walked to the Ravenclaw table, not even paying attention to the hat. Really, where else would he go? Sitting at the table his head sunk onto his arms and he settled in for a nap.

Rock Lee was sorted next and even the Hogwarts students had caught on. Everyone in the great hall had paled. Some looked ready to bolt. Even the great Albus Dumbledore was paling in fear. It was of course natural. Even someone like Itachi would fear the Green Beast of Konoha and Sasuke certainly did. These fears were realized when after McGonagall said his name he followed with 'nice guy' pose numbers 8, 43 and 65 followed by three pelvic thrusts and a quick flash from his teeth. Blinded, no one saw him place the hat in his head - not even Gai who was crying tears of joy. It is said, however, that the level of fear the sorting hat showed was like nothing before and that the sobs of horror coming from the Gryffindor table could be heard in Mongolia. No one would ever speak of the event and three students are said to have post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Compared to the eye-browed wonder that was Rock Lee, the sorting of the blood-soaked Sabaku no Gaara was normal. Or course, this was the man who carried a gourd of sand that smelt of blood on his back, had the word loved scared into his forehead, and for the first twelve years of his life couldn't sleep. This was also the Kazekage and the only man known to have been a host for a demon and was still alive without it. Not to mention he was just plain frightening. It was a given that when he was sorted into Gryffindor his mind was a welcome comfort after that of Rock Lee and the hat was practically sighing with relief to sort him.

Temari was next sorted into the welcoming ranks of Ravenclaw and Tenten into Hufflepuff. All that was left to be sorted was Naruto and Sasuke. Possibly the two strongest ninja in the world, bitter rivals and best friends. Of course, Sasuke stood proud and handsome while Naruto was slumped like a fool against the wall just under the Uzumaki-shaped dent in the wall.

Glancing between the two the deputy headmistress called Uchiha Sasuke to be sorted. Placing the hat on his head with all the grace and disinterest of a true Uchiha he was made the third member of snake to be placed into Slytherin after the longest time of them all waiting with the hat covering his very well styled hair. The girls cheered and clapped, Karin right along with them and Sasuke ignored them with his hard-earned skills from the Konoha fangirls. Sitting beside Suigetsu the other ninja gave him a grin and the school fixed their eyes on Naruto.

The Kyuubi vessel was asleep, snoring away against the wall and giggles erupted amongst the school. Sasuke actually showed emotion in the form of an eye twitch, Sakura clenched her fist so angrily that a few of her housemates inched away and Kakashi buried himself further in Icha Icha.

"Uzumaki Naruto," came the tense voice of McGonagall and there was but a stirring in the mass of Halloween colors that was Naruto. The air was thick and silent save for the occasional giggle, and the entire school heard it when Sakura spoke.

"Hey, Naruto. Did you hear Ichiraku is holding a sale on miso ramen?" she asked, a little too loudly. Naruto had his eyes open wide within seconds and was looking around wildly for the source of the ramen he loved so very much. The entire great hall snickered and Dumbledore cleared his throat, clearly amused.

Embarrassed, Naruto chuckled, his arm behind his head as he tried to downplay what had happened. Of course, his meager attempts just made the transfiguration professor more annoyed as she gestured to the stool with a pointed cough.

"OH!" Naruto eventually caught on and mumbled as he moved towards to stool and sat down, directly on the sorting hat. The entire hall burst into laugher as he yelped and shot into the air when the muffled sound of it talking came from where he was sitting.

McGonagall cradled her head in her hand and nearly drew her wand on the boy but restrained herself by snatching the hat from its rather squished spot and smoothing it out. Finally managing to get it on a sheepish Naruto, the hat was silent for a moment before announcing "Gryffindor", in a slightly miffed voice. Naruto beamed and reached to pull off the hat but just as he could, "Slytherin" burst from the rip in its brim. The hall paused and quieted. They didn't understand. The clapping that had only just started stopped and the select few who knew Naruto's secret paled. It just had to sort Kyuubi too. The blond boy looked from face to face for help before Dumbledore smiled and stood up.

"Now that was certainly an interesting sorting. Naruto, if you might sit down with your fellow Gryffindor...?" Smiling Naruto sat down beside Kiba, Gaara and Haku while pointedly ignoring Lee after tossing the hat to McGonagall. The shinobi all sat in more or less quiet as the elderly wizard started his speech, anticipating an interesting year ahead.

--

Aburame Shino- Hufflepuff

Akimichi Choji- Hufflepuff

Haruno Sakura- Ravenclaw

Hozuki Suigetsu- Slytherin

Hyuga Hinata- Ravenclaw

Hyuga Neji- Ravenclaw

Inuzuka Kiba- Gryffindor

Juugo- Hufflepuff

Kankuro- Slytherin

Karin-Slytherin

Momochi Haku- Gryffindor

Nara Shikamaru- Ravenclaw

Rock Lee- Gryffindor

Sabaku no Gaara- Gryffindor

Temari- Ravenclaw

Tenten- Hufflepuff

Uchiha Sasuke- Slytherin

Uzumaki Naruto- Gryffindor

Kyuubi- Slytherin

Anyone has any arguments then well, I really don't care. Feel free to tell me but I rather likely won't listen.

Anyways if you want to ask anything about any of the chapters, want to make a suggestion for an anime to do next, just want to chat or you actually want to review then feel free. I'd really appreciate it. I'm happy with this chapter. I wish Kabuto was in it but... Well at least this one was actually beta-ed. My beta was even kind enough to send me a list of the worst words. I'm going to share them with you:

subgerfuide, aplasuse, imideatly, Kurunie, skinobi, simultaniuse, premanatly, tramtic, cleghed.

I'm actually that bad at spelling. Thank you Kaneko. You are a god. I owe you a thousand pictures of Kankuro.

Anyways, I'll see you all next time. The next one will probably be Ouran. Keep your eyes peeled!