Summary: Right after making chūnin, Haruno Sakura is assigned a year-long mission to be an assistant nurse to a certain Hogwarts healer for a certain tri-school tournament. The job seems easy enough—that is, too easy. Who knew that wizards could be such weak pansies? Shānnarō!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and Harry Potter.

Wizards are Pansies, Shānnarō!

Prodigal-san

Chapter One

When Sakura received a summons from the Hokage just a day after her promotion to chūnin, warning bells rang in her head. What could her master want? Did she want to train her a bit more? Did she—Kami forbid—want to take back her promotion? Could that even happen? Sakura pondered this as she followed the ANBU that was sent to get her. She looked at the masked shinobi and wondered, for a moment, if she was being arrested.

She... wasn't, right?

Before she knew it, there was a door in front of her, and it was being opened. She blinked at Shizune's smiling face, almost missing Tonton's greeting snort. She then turned her attention to the Hokage sitting at her desk. She didn't bother looking up from the papers in her hands as she spoke.

"Ah, Sakura. You're here." Tsunade began. "Come in."

Sakura walked in, not bothering to hide the confusion on her face as she stared at her teacher. She walked closer to the desk before asking, "You called for me, Hokage-sama?"

"Indeed." The Hokage finally looked up from her papers. "I know this is a bit sudden, but I am assigning you on a mission."

Sakura blinked. Well, it wasn't as if she didn't expect to be assigned a mission eventually after her promotion to chūnin. It's just, well. Hadn't she just been promoted yesterday?

But despite her thoughts, the pink-haired kunoichi didn't want to seem like she was being wishy-washy. The old Sakura might have acted out, but the Sakura now knew how to act and when. She postured herself properly and nodded. "Understood, Hokage-sama. What do I need to do?"

The busty Hokage suddenly sighed, and it made Sakura stiffen. Okay, that never meant anything good. She was about to say something when Tsunade beat her to it, "Before we get to that, I just want to inform you that this going to be a long-term mission. It will take nine months, ten at most. Are you still willing to take it?"

She actually had a choice? Sakura thought about this carefully. The Hokage wouldn't have summoned her specifically if it was a mission that she could easily decline. Most likely, her master thought that she was the most suitable kunoichi for the job. As flattering as that was, she just wasn't sure if she was ready. And nine, ten months? Could she handle being away from the village, her family for that long?

But Sakura squashed those insecure thoughts and berated herself, the same way Tsunade would whenever the older woman caught her saying such pathetic things. She was a kunoichi—a shinobi of Konoha. She wasn't going to back down so easily. She was reliable, strong. She wasn't weak.

Not useless.

"Shisho," She began, gazing into the Hokage's brown eyes determinedly. "Please tell me what I have to do."

There was a slight twitch at the side of the Hokage's painted lips. She nodded at Sakura and grabbed a folder. She handed the newly-appointed chūnin the folder, but before Sakura could open it, Tsunade started speaking.

"Bring in the client, Shizune."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Sakura watched as Shizune left the office with Tonton, obviously off to fetch whomever had requested the mission. She looked back to her master when Tsunade started speaking again.

"This mission is going to be a special C-rank; very low chance of combat, and even then confrontation with another shinobi is unlikely. It's also going to be a long one, and its location is very far—far from the Elemental Countries." She began to explain. At Sakura's frown, she expounded, "What do you know of wizards, Sakura?"

That made the girl blink. Okay? "Well, all I know is that they're people who mostly rely on their spiritual energies to use as tools or weapons. If I remember correctly, they called it magic. Since they forego cultivating their physical energies, most cannot channel this spiritual energy properly without using a medium, like an object." She answered at the top of her head, vaguely remembering what she read in a scroll in the library one day. She had been bored then, so she read up on all kinds of people. Wizards, included.

'Though there really wasn't much information about them,' She thought.

The Hokage seemed satisfied with her answer. "You're familiar with the way they work, then. That's good. It'll help you on this mission. However, information on wizards isn't what you need. It's your intelligence and healing abilities that are needed, and that is exactly why I chose you for this mission."

Before Sakura could ask what she meant, the door opened to reveal Shizune, a stern-looking brunet and... an old, bearded man.

"Please come in, Dumbledore-san, Snape-san." Shizune bowed slightly, gesturing for him to walk inside.

"Why, thank you." Came the old man's reply, though it was said strangely. Were these men from outside the Elemental Countries?

Something at the back of her mind berated her—well, duh.

"Good morning, Dumbledore-san, Snape-san. This is Haruno Sakura, and she's going to be the one to take your long-term C-rank mission." Tsunade greeted, nodding at the robed men. She turned her gaze back to Sakura and gestured towards the old man, "Sakura, this gentleman here is Albus Dumbledore, your client. He's the headmaster of a school that's apparently going to host a tri-school tournament, and he has reached out to us to ask for healing assistance for said event. Your skills in healing, as well as your fast learning ability, make you perfect for this role."

"My, she is quite young." The stern-looking man suddenly said, drawing their attention. His tone was bordering on skepticism. "You are certain that this young... lady is skilled enough to assist our healer? She looks barely out of school." The man eyed the kunoichi distastefully, more specifically the pinkness of her hair.

Sakura resisted the urge to clench her fist and punch him all the way to Suna.

'What's with this asshole?' She growled in her head.

Tsunade also didn't seem to appreciate the man belittling her apprentice, but she managed to hide her annoyance well. "Sakura here is my apprentice. My own skills in the medical arts are unmatched, and Sakura has shown great potential in becoming a truly formidable medic nin. She's very intelligent and can learn your herbalism techniques easily."

The dark-haired man scowled, but he didn't say anything more. Sakura was a little disappointed; she would have wanted a reason to bash his greasy head.

"Now, now, Severus, there's no need to be so snippy. I'm sure Ms. Haruno is skilled and well-trained enough for this mission." Said the old man good-naturedly to his companion. His eyes turned to her, and Sakura guessed he seemed friendly, enough. The twinkling eyes made her look anywhere other than his eyes, though. Can't be too sure if he was capable of genjutsu or something similar.

"Since this mission is going to take place in a very far location, I'm going to require you to send me a report every month. I've assigned Hatake Kakashi to retrieve your reports, seeing as he had been your instructor and you'd be more comfortable with him. In case that he is unavailable, I will send my ANBU." Tsunade said, resting her chin on her intertwined fingers.

Sakura turned to face her and nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Tsunade nodded back. "You'll leave with our clients in a few hours. I suggest you pack whatever you might need, though I am told that everything else should be provided by Dumbledore-san." She eyed the old man, as if daring him to refute her statement.

If he was bothered by her slight glare, Dumbledore didn't show it. Instead, he beamed, "Of course. Ms. Haruno is in good hands! Whatever she might need, Hogwarts will take care of it."

"As long as it's not for silly, trivial reasons." Added the sour-faced brunet. He gave Sakura another side-glance, as if silently implying that she was silly and trivial.

Sakura really wanted to punch him.

"Nine months?" Haruno Mebuki repeated, eyebrows furrowing as she watched her daughter put on her sandals by the door. "Isn't that a really long time?"

"Yes, but long-term missions happen every now and then, mom." Sakura said to reassure her worrywart mother. She stood up and dusted her skirt before facing her mother. "I'll keep in touch every month. Hokage-sama asked me to write reports, so I'll write to you and dad, too."

The promise of communication eased the woman's worries a bit, but her eyes still harbored concern for her daughter. "I'm sure you'll do fine—no, great, Sakura. But, really, nine months—"

"Mom, please." Sakura begged, looking a bit exasperated. "I'll be fine. It's just an assistant nurse job. I hardly doubt that I'll get into trouble there. Wizards are different, but they're not more threatening than shinobi."

Mebuki didn't look too sure. Sakura sighed.

"Mom, I promise you that it's going to be all right. I'll be back in no time." She put on her backpack, fat and filled with scrolls, weapons, medical tools and other shinobi equipment, and walked towards the door. But before stepping out the opened door, she turned her head over her shoulder to give her mom a thumbs up.

"I'll be sure to send some really cool stuff and snacks from there! Shānnarō!"

Sakura was almost at the gate when she heard a voice calling out to her—

"Hey, Forehead!"

She turned and saw Ino running towards her. She tilted her head as she watched the girl pant and catch her breath in front of her. "Ino-pig? What are you doing?"

"Saying goodbye, you good-for-nothing forehead!" She clenched her fists and glared at her friend. "How dare you leave without saying goodbye! You're going to be gone for months and you just leave?"

Sakura grinned sheepishly and scratched her chin. "Ahh, sorry, it slipped my mind. I'm kind of in a hurry because my clients are supposed to get back to their country soon."

"And what a country it is," Ino began, crossing her arms over her ample chest. She hummed. "The outside, huh? I don't know anybody who's ever been there. Not even daddy's gone. I don't know if you're lucky or really unfortunate, Forehead."

Ino's mocking laugh made Sakura's eye twitch. She forced a grin on her face. "Well, at least I won't be stuck doing absolutely nothing while waiting for customers to drop by. That is, if they even bother shopping at your shop in the first place."

The jab at her family's flower shop made Ino snarl. "What's that, Forehead?! You mocking my family's source of income?!"

"With an attitude like that, it'll be your only source of income! No-missions Ino-pig!"

"ARGH! Your forehead is annoying me more than usual! I'm happy that I'm not going to have to see it for nine months!"

"And I'm going to be able to actually see things beyond your piggyness!"

"Just leave already, talking forehead!"

"I will, fatty pig!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

They huffed and turned away from each other at the same time, stomping away in opposite directions. It was only when Sakura was about a few yards away did she turn around to watch Ino stomp away wistfully.

'I'm going to miss you, Ino-pig.'

Ino kept going, and only to make sure that Sakura wouldn't notice her shoulders shaking.

'Be careful out there, Forehead.'

"You ready to go, Ms. Haruno?" The old man, Dumbledore-san, asked her once she arrived by the gate. The other man—Snape-san, she believed—just huffed about how typical it was for her to take long in getting ready.

Sakura ignored the other man and smiled congenially at her client, bowing. "Yes, Dumbledore-san. And please, call me Sakura. I'm not very comfortable being addressed that way," She admitted sheepishly.

The old man's eyes twinkled, and Sakura remembered something about genjutsu again, so she focused her eyes on his nose instead. That was so odd, why did she kept sensing something about his eyes?

"Then we shall depart for Hogwarts." Dumbledore said, and Sakura nodded obediently. From the more detailed report in the folder, she found out that the school she was going to be working for was called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a famous school for wizards. It was like the Academy in Konoha, but she was curious why students there started studying so late. Didn't they need to cultivate their spiritual energies early?

She shrugged. Who was she to judge how other schools worked?

Sakura gave the guards by the gate a form and letter from the Hokage, and they nodded at her and let them pass. She had just pocketed the form when Dumbledore started speaking again.

"We'll be walking for about a mile before using the portkey to get to Hogwarts. I'm not sure why, but it's not usable this close to your village."

"Portkey?" She asked before stopping herself. The greasy-haired man snorted, and she sent the back of his head a glare.

"It's a device that lets us travel great distances in a small amount of time. One device can take you to and back from a specific destination. It's what Severus and I used to travel here to Konoha, though we had to walk quite a bit since we were curiously not able to be transported into the village itself."

Sakura hummed, impressed by the village's security. Perhaps the village had seals that didn't permit them to directly appear within the walls, so this "portkey" transported them to the nearest available area.

'Fascinating.' She thought to herself. Maybe she could learn a thing or two from these wizards, as well. A shinobi should be able to utilize whatever new tool they find, after all.

They reached a clearing a little more than a mile away from the village. Sakura looked over her shoulder longingly. She was going on a nine to ten month-long mission away from her village, her master, her friends and her family. She was going to spend a long time with strangers, helping out at a clinic and learning foreign healing methods. It excited her, but it also frightened her a little bit.

Weak.

She shook her head.

"I can feel the portkey's magic again. This is a good spot to use it now." Dumbledore said, pulling her out of her thoughts. She stared as he pulled out... a stick? He turned and asked aloud, "Now, where did we hide it, Severus?"

Sakura blinked. They hid it? So he never had it on him in the first place?

Snape sighed and pulled out his own stick. Just as he mumbled something unintelligible to Sakura, the pink-haired kunoichi sensed some form of chakra from it. She watched in fascination as he pointed it at a bush. And then, a box floated out, and then out of it came out a... shinobi sandal?

"Now, Ms. Sakura, this portkey is activated by touch. We couldn't bring it because touching it would bring us back to Hogwarts. So that's why we had to hide it." He explained briefly. She knew there was probably more to that, but she supposed that they didn't have time to talk about the details. She just nodded and approached the sandal.

"Are you ready, Ms. Sakura?"

She met the gaze of her client, though her mind berated her for doing so. She nodded determinedly. "Yes, Dumbledore-san."

"Very well. Now, on the count of three, we touch the sandal. And no matter what happens, do not let go of the portkey. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

Dumbledore counted, and Sakura counted, too. But instead of numbers, images of her precious people's faces flashed in her head. The sandal felt oddly smooth under her exposed fingers—

Then, it was gone. And so was she.

End of Chapter One

A/N: Okay, I'm not an avid Sakura fan, but I like her well enough to entertain this random plot bunny of mine. This is absolutely not meant to be serious or epic in any way, so it might be best for you guys not to expect much. Or at all. Hah, hah. I don't even know if I'm going to continue this, but I think there isn't a NAR/HP crossover like this. Do correct me if I'm wrong, though!

So please tell me what you think! I have a few stuff planned, but other than that I'm just gonna go with whatever feels good to me at the time :)) Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

About the portkey: there are portkeys that are triggered to function at a certain time, and there are portkeys that are activated by human touch. I didn't see how I could fit the first type into this portkey, so used the latter. Just... accept it. Hah, hah.