Summer of 1939 was spent, once again, mostly in England. After having set sail for Oslo along with the other students, then taking a portkey back to London, they hadn't once looked back eastward towards Scandinavia or Grindelwald Gellert.

Instead there were a couple of long weeks of debriefing back in Konoha, Tobirama-shishou and Lee meeting with the hokage and the jonin-commander to discuss whether Konoha still had the resources to spare for another term of Hogwarts, and then going back to England to do absolutely nothing.

Ren could have been continuing his education in dark jutsus, in alchemy, in all the things he'd learned at Durmstang that hadn't been available to Kakashi but books on dark jutsus were illegal in England and thus could only be found in English clan grimoires and alchemy was near impossible without the guidance of a master.

A master that he had had, could have had again in September, if only Lee would see some sort of reason.

June turned to July, the air became muggy yet still so much colder than Konoha, he would idly look over the advanced books on any and every topic available in England but wishing he was reading or doing something else. His skin almost itched, he felt restless, restless and bitter and disappointed in something he couldn't even really name.

Just like he'd thought Tobirama-shishou hadn't even blinked, hadn't even questioned her, and just like that Ren was enrolled back in Hogwarts in the Fall to suffer quidditch and English peers with Hatake Kakashi.

And Tobirama-shishou knew that Lee was often unreasonable, he complained about it all the time, but she'd just gone up to him, said they were done, and he'd trusted her entirely! Not that, of course, Ren didn't understand that. For all that Lee was Lee there was something about her that…

If it had been about anyone else, anything else, Ren might have also just gone along with it. Just like Tobirama-shishou and Kakashi were doing with none of them stopping to think that maybe Lee was being too paranoid for her own good.

Maybe, just maybe, there was no risk without reward and it was fine if Grindelwald had his own agenda.

Eventually, his restless pacing, bitter moods, constant sighing, and petulant ignoring of Lee had her throwing him out of the townhouse along with Hatake to go and make themselves useful and do something about that goddamn snake in Hogwarts' basement.

So, it was with about halfway through the summer that he and Kakashi were once again back in the underbelly of Hogwarts, only this time, in chunin garb, with a great English fuinjutsu expanded trunk strapped to Ren's back, and without the threat of arrogant upstart English civilians trying to beat the shit out of them in hallways.

"My question though," Kakashi said as he surveyed the uneven stone walls, barely visible in the light from Ren's wand, covered in layers and layers of green and black slime, "Is why the girl's lavatory?"

Ren said nothing, not in the mood to put up with Hatake Kakashi's trademark bullshit. Kakashi, however, didn't seem to mind and kept blathering on as his eyes drifted over their surroundings from the discarded bones of rats, the jagged molding walls, the running water, and the translucent shed skin of the basilisk.

"I mean, of course the idea that someone built this elaborate temple beneath a fortress is also quite odd, but why the girl's lavatory?" Kakashi emphasized, carefully hopping over a thick layer of skin as he spoke, "Honestly, how was anyone supposed to even find this place?"

"I don't know, Hatake," Ren said shortly, "Perhaps it wasn't always a lavatory."

From what he had read before leaving Hogwarts, Slytherin Salazar was rumored to have built the place and stored a monster inside, the basilisk, in his bitterness and despair after having become a nuke nin. This was five-hundred years ago, England's population over the centuries had boomed exponentially. Ren imagined quite easily that whatever room had been housing the entrance to the chamber, left behind for Slytherin's progeny, had been converted into the girl's dungeon bathroom.

However, that was all just idle theories and ultimately, he couldn't truly bring himself to care.

He should, years ago this would have meant the world to him. It meant that Ren was part of an ancient clan, the Slytherin clan, and that his blood limit truly was a blood limit going back centuries. However, lineage alone did not a clan make in Konoha. More, the more recent bitterness of having to return to Hogwarts stung far too much for him to pay attention to his ancestors.

"Sage, you are in a mood," Kakashi muttered, a bit out of character for his normal pretense of obliviousness and earned a withering glare and spike of killing intent from Ren.

"Even compared to your normal moods," Kakashi continued on, giving Ren a rather speculative glance, "You're giving the Uchiha a run for their money."

"I am not giving the Uchiha a run for their money," Ren hissed out, not quite slipping into the noble tongue of snakes, but getting close to it. This, of course, only had Kakashi raising his silver eyebrows higher.

"Oh, you most certainly are," Kakashi said, "Honestly, I survived a year of Hogwarts, half of it on my own mind you after you abandoned me for Norway. You have no room to complain to me."

"That's not the issue," Ren said before sighing, and deciding that if someone was going to be his confessor on this mission then god knew it probably had to be Hatake Kakashi, however much that killed him, "It's just… We just left, just like that, just because Lee decided she didn't like it anymore without any real reason why and Tobirama-shishou just listens because she's a jonin!"

Ren's chunin vest, suddenly, felt far too constricted against his chest. A physical reminder that he was only half-way there, still as far behind as ever, forever outranked.

And Grindelwald had yet to write over the summer, at least, not directly to Ren. Which made it seem that it was not simply leaving Durmstang but perhaps the last time Ren would ever see or speak to him again. Just like that, just because Lee had a bad feeling.

Kakashi said nothing for a few moments, waited and watched as Ren hissed towards the vault door that would open to reveal the great inner altar. The door opened, the eerie scene of eternally lit torches burning above stagnant water, the giant statues of stone serpents hissing in warning, that thin inner walkway, and the great carved face at the end of the hall engraving itself once again in his memory.

Finally, Kakashi said, "You know, nee-san is not…" he paused, thought over his words, then said, "She does not do things without reason."

Ren scoffed as he stepped inside and vaulted down onto the surface of the walkway, Kakashi leaping behind him and landing without noise on the stone.

"It may not be a reason that's always immediately obvious, but there is always a reason," Kakashi said, "If she's pulling out, this quickly…"

"Then what?" Ren asked as they walked closer and closer towards the carved mouth of the great face at the end of the walkway.

"Then there is a very good reason to do so," Kakashi finally finished, "I would not take it lightly."

"How would you know? You weren't there," Ren said but Kakashi only gave him a pointed look, one that caused Ren to flush ever so slightly, as implied beneath it was that Ren was acting like he hadn't been there either.

That as a jonin, one who had been in the field years more than Ren, there were things that Lee would see that he simply could not.

"Hogwarts isn't so bad," Kakashi finally said lamely as he turned his back to the statue, waiting as Ren hissed for it to open and the basilisk to respond, "It's like being boiled alive slowly, the water heats up bit by bit, you get used to it after a while and it just doesn't seem so bad anymore."

"That was a pitiful analogy that helps nothing," Ren commented even as the basilisk hissed in greeting, rumbling up from further into the chamber as Ren slung the trunk off his back and opened it, expanding it with a few English jutsus to be wide enough to fit the snake.

"It's as positive I can get after god only knows how many games of quidditch," Kakashi said with a hapless shrug, tensing as the snake entered the chamber with eyes on Kakashi's back, salivating at the thought of devouring the other chunin, "Oh lord, how I despise quidditch."

After a pause, stepping forward ever so slightly and away from the basilisk, he added, "And giant snakes, I don't think I'm a fan of those either."

Ren just smiled, a dark amused thing, and whispered to the great king of snakes before him, instructing him to enter the trunk in preparation of returning to a great forest far from this one and a feast in its honor.

Slowly, surely, the basilisk entered into the trunk, disappearing entirely inside and no doubt investingating the ridiculous transfiguration work that Tobirama-shishou had performed to create a suitable environment before locking it tight and strapping it to his back once again.

"Why do I feel, every time we meet, that snake gets that much closer to eating me?" Kakashi asked, sparing Ren's trunk a rather dubious look.

"Because it does," Ren responded, certainly, every time it had seen Kakashi thus far it had asked if he was a tasty snack that Ren had brought to sacrifice to the snake. It made Ren think that perhaps he should start bringing it tasty snacks, ideally in the form of people like Moaning Myrtle Warren.

Kakashi just gave a slightly discontent hum before walking with Ren out of the chamber and up towards the hidden staircase that would lead them back into the girl's dungeon lavatory.

"So," Ren said, shifting the straps as he walked, "What exactly did I miss at Hogwarts?"

"Nothing," Kakashi said with a sigh that was almost pitiful, "Quidditch, classes we already should have tested out of months ago, your Slytherin friends trying and failing to avenge their honor…"

"And you think I should be glad to come back to this?" Ren couldn't help but ask.

"Well, no, but it's hardly worth copious amounts of killing intent either," Kakashi said, "Especially when Durmstang doesn't sound that much better."

"Oh, ye of little faith," Ren blocked as they took the stairs two at a time, the staircase one of the few in the castle that had the decency to stay stationary, "It was far better than this cesspool."

Kakashi, entirely unconvinced, asked, "Was there quidditch?"

Well, there had been quidditch, not that Ren had gone to that many of the games but…

"Were there wizards?"

There had been those too, and granted they weren't great, were better than Hogwarts mostly because they couldn't believe Ren was a mudblood at all based on his admission. That and he hadn't bothered to get close to any of them, was at best vague acquaintances, so hadn't spent enough time around them to get that same sheer irritation that the English wizards had bestowed on him.

"Were you bored stiff in most of the classes?"

Well, the classes, yes, but he hadn't…

"It's Hogwarts Two: Electric Boogaloo," Kakashi concluded for him, like they were that comparable and it was that easy, "The only things you liked about it were nee-san and Grindelwald."

That… was not incorrect. Sometimes he forgot that Hatake really wasn't an idiot, was, in fact, eerily intelligent and oddly perceptive when it suited him. Even at the time Ren had thought that, that it had been Grindelwald, Grindelwald and the time spent with Lee, that had added color to Durmstang's landscape.

Still, that did not make him eager to return to Hogwarts in the Fall.

Then again, he thought bleakly as they stepped out into the dungeon bathroom, perhaps they wouldn't. Any day now Tobirama-shishou or Lee could be called back to the front and Kakashi and Ren with them. And England, Hogwarts, Durmstang, they would be like a dream dreamt by no one.

"Is it just me," Kakashi asked as the door to the chamber closed itself behind them, "Or just by standing inside here do you feel suddenly like Jiraiya-sama?"

Kakashi looked around, motioning to the empty stalls almost in reverence, as if they were halfway to becoming Jiraiya-sama the pervert sage, just by being inside of a women's restroom.

"It's just you," Ren responded blithely with a roll of his eyes, stepping forward to start getting out of this place and out of the Hogwarts wards when he stopped in his tracks, Kakashi with him.

"Oh," Kakashi said rather lamely with a bright and cheerful grin, "Hello, Professor, fancy meeting you here."

There, standing there dumbly and looking at them with rather wide eyes and a completely flabbergasted look, was Dumbledore Albus dressed once again in a hideous rainbow that had the indecency to call itself clothing.

Dumbledore blinked, blinked again, his auburn eyebrows raising as he tried to come to terms that his two least favorite, if best, students were loitering inside of the school during the summer after hours, with a giant trunk, dressed in combat gear.

"Now," Hatake continued as if everything was fine and nothing strange was going on at all, "What is a fine gentleman like you doing in a place like this?"

Dumbledore's expression dropped, his eyebrows raised higher, and finally he asked, "I believe, Mr. Hatake, that that is my line."

A truly awkward and stifling silence descended upon the hallway. At once Ren couldn't help but notice how glaringly empty it was, how oddly juxtaposed both he, Hatake, and Dumbledore were from one another with their different ages, different professions, and vastly different fashion choices.

They all looked at each other, waiting for someone, anyone to break down and start talking. Either Ren or Kakashi with some lame excuse of why they had snuck into Hogwarts over the summer, specifically into a girl's lavatory or even what was in the trunk or else Dumbledore with some explanation of why he'd been unfortunate enough to stumble across them at all.

"Right," Ren said slowly, grimacing and willing himself to power through the tension, "Well, if that's all, then Kakashi and I best be going…"

Dumbledore seemed to come to his senses then, his eyes brightened, and he stepped forward, chakra rising inside of him as he asked, "Wait, I would like to talk with the pair of you."

Kakashi grimaced, glanced at Ren, then noted, "Well, Professor, we'd love to but we're out of school right now so even if you're dying to give me yet another detention I'm afraid I…"

Dumbledore laughed, though it was a short, shallow, pained thing, and he shook his head, "No, no, this isn't about school, school or detentions… Just, come to my office, we can discuss more there."

Not school, not detentions, Ren thought idly. That sounded like Dumbledore wanted to speak with shinobi, then, or Kakashi and himself in the capacity of being shinobi except… Except why would someone like Dumbledore Albus ever want to do that?

The walk to his office was somehow even tenser and more uncomfortable than standing outside the restroom had been. Their footsteps echoed on the deserted moving stair cases, they moved at a painfully slow civilian pace, and by the tenseness in Dumbledore's shoulders it was more than clear that he was not comfortable having two shinobi walking behind him.

However, there was also resignation inside him, a dull sinking of chakra, as if he felt that somehow, in some impossible manner, he had no other choice. As if, perhaps, it had always been coming to this, two shinobi standing in his shadow.

His office, just as it had been during the school year, was a cluttered and ridiculous mess of strange silver instruments, what looked like a lava lamp, and twittering clockwork chicks all circling about a greater clockwork hen. Next to this was an overflowing jar of small yellow balls of candy, on reaching his desk Dumbledore motioned to it, "Lemon drops?"

"No thank you," Ren noted before, rather drily, adding, "It's considered rude in our country to so blatantly offer someone food or beverages in such awkward and tense circumstances. It's considered an insultingly blatant attempt at poisoning."

Dumbledore's smile strained at the corners, his face paled, and he looked towards Ren as if to ask if he was truly serious. Ren just smiled back, let Dumbledore get to the point, he thought, and let him not even try to pretend that he didn't know exactly what he and Hatake Kakashi were.

Kakashi, with a sigh, took the seat across from Dumbledore's desk, "I believe what my esteemed colleague Ren is trying to say, Professor, is that we're all professionals here, on our own tight time schedules, and that perhaps it would be best if we came straight to the point."

"The point," Dumbledore said with a somewhat bitter laugh as he sunk into his plus seat behind his desk, "Ah, yes, the point…"

He trailed off, looked away from the pair of them, of Ren lowering the trunk to the floor and taking a seat next to Kakashi, and instead towards the window and the Hogwarts grounds painted in twilight below.

"Mr. Hatake, here, informed me during last schoolyear that you, Mr. Riddle, and your older friend Miss Eru attended Durmstang for the Spring semester," Dumbledore said, but there wasn't a hint of doubt in it, this all simply prelude to whatever it was he truly wanted to say. He paused, looked both of them in the eye, and then said, "Though Mr. Hatake did not say, and though I did not ask, I suspect that a Gellert Grindelwald sponsored you. Am I correct?"

Ren stiffened ever so slightly, suddenly remembering Grindelwald's odd smattering of comments concerning a shared past with Dumbledore Albus many years ago, and an irrevocable estrangement between the pair of them.

It was Kakashi who answered, "Yes, that would be correct."

Dumbledore closed his eyes, brought his hands up to his forehead, and let out a long, deep, and weary sigh.

"I know it seems an odd and personal thing to ask, but I have… History, with Gellert."

"Yes," Ren cut in, "He said as much."

Dumbledore looked up, eyes flashing, searching Ren's face as if by it alone he could see exactly what details Grindelwald had given to Ren. However, eventually, this look faded and that resigned look returned once again.

"We were very good friends once, over the course of a summer when he briefly lived in England following his expulsion from Durmstang, but… In the end, I think I simply could not truly stomach him."

Stomach him, Ren thought blinking, what an odd thing to say. Not that he couldn't handle the man, but that he couldn't stomach him. As if there was something so vile and wrong with Grindelwald Gellert that it required suppressing one's gag reflex indefinitely.

It was not the description Ren would use for the suave and sophisticated man that Ren had come to know in the past half-year.

"I suppose I should get to the point," Dumbledore said, lacing his fingers together and jarring Ren from his own thoughts, "I would like to make use of your services as shinobi of Konohagakure, whatever that might entail."

Kakashi's mouth opened, closed, opened again, and he leaned forward and asked, "Professor, are you… I know I've mentioned what it is we do, what I do, have done, and am capable of doing, and how much money that sort of thing costs…"

The man continued, lips twitching upwards in amusement, "Money I have, and if not I can certainly borrow, one can say it pays to have been the apprentice of Nicholas Flamel. Money is not an issue, Mr. Hatake. Nor is… Nor is my distaste for what you have found yourself caught up in. Though, preferably, I would like to hire your older comrades, Tobirama Senju and Lee Eru."

"Hire for what?" Ren cut in sharply, wondering what a man like this could possibly want with ninja. It must be something truly desperate or heinous, that he would forsake his own moral superiority to get it done.

Dumbledore reached into his desk and pulled out a worn and faded book, the title, "Tales of Beedle the Bard" written across on the cover. There he flipped it open to where a bookmark rested, to the beginning of a chapter titled, "The Tale of the Three Brothers"

As Ren and Kakashi leaned over to get a better look of the text as well as the illustration of three men, three brothers presumably, a raging river, a bridge, and a hooded skeletal figure in twilight, the professor spoke, "I would like for you to gather intelligence on Gellert, specifically if he is preparing for war, both to stoke the muggles into another war to end all wars and our own people as well. Any details you can find on this, where he's going, who he's meeting, what he's planning… It would be of immense help."

Preparing for war, he said it with such certainty Ren couldn't help but think. As if he knew Grindelwald was preparing for war, he just wasn't sure what form it would take and didn't know when it would strike. Which… Lee had said war would come in the Fall, with the invasion of Poland by muggle Nazi Germany, but he hadn't stopped to think if Grindelwald Gellert was preparing for war.

Something about that thought, about Grindelwald and war, niggled at the back of his thoughts uncomfortably.

"And the children's story?" Kakashi asked, nodding towards the book.

Dumbledore flipped a page, pointing to three separate etchings, each displaying a separate brother receiving a gift from the English Shinigami. The first, a wand made of the branches of a tree beside the river, the second, a ring with a river stone, and the third the shinigami's weathered cloak.

"Should Gellert possess any of these three items, a wand of unspeakable power, a ring that can summon the souls of the dead, or else a cloak of invisibility, especially if he possesses more than one, then you must steal them at any cost."

His words were not simply stoic and somber, but said with gravitas, as if this, above all else was important. That if they failed in everything else they must accomplish this one task. Ren's eyes lingered on the Shinigami in the drawings, thinking, oddly, of Eru Lee who would so often declare herself as death, the destroyer of worlds.

Dumbledore, however, did not explain how these items had come into existence, why they were in what looked like a children's story, and why they must be stolen at any cost. Not even given back to Dumbledore, Ren thought with wide eyes, simply taken away from Grindelwald Gellert.

Dumbledore sighed, leaned back in his chair, and slowly explained to his stunned audience. No, it wasn't an explanation, it was almost a confession, a guilty tirade and reason why he was hiring children for war against a man who he clearly didn't intend to confront himself, "I fear for what Gellert intends with our world. With each year passing us by he seems to collect more and more power and influence, ever since the last war, he's been like a star streaking across the sky at a rate that simply cannot be stopped. This is the moment that he can accomplish anything in the world, all we once ever dreamed of and I now shudder at, and if something isn't done now then we will all suffer for it."

He smiled then, again, and shook his head, "The law has tried and failed to contend with him, as Durmstang once tried and failed to contend with him, and now the law has changed and, on the continent,, he has all but become it. He whispers in the ears of ministers and when they open their mouths it's his voice that comes out. All while England sticks its head in the sand, no, simply lies back and thinks of England while he prepares to destroy everything he touches. And I…"

He trailed off and looked down at his own hands, without callouses and scars, "I am an academic, a man suited for books and libraries and dust, not the battlefield," he grimaced then turned his attention back to Ren and Kakashi, focusing in on them with piercing bright eyes,"So, I'm afraid, Mr. Hatake, Mr. Riddle, that shinobi are all I have left to turn to. And I choose, here and now, to have faith in what you might accomplish where no one else can seem to accomplish anything at all."

For a moment none of them said anything, instead the strange silver toys on Dumbledore's desk whirred, buzzed, and ticked to mark the seconds between words. Insult, anger, and a hint of fear coiled in Ren's stomach as the reality of the situation pressed down on him.

Finally, Ren let out a slow, bitterly amused laugh and looking Dumbledore straight in the eye he bluntly asked, "Why should we help the English?"

"The English," Ren added, lips curling around the words, feeling them leave his throat like heavy fumes of smoke rising upwards at an unstoppable rate, "Have never been all that inclined to help me, have they? They would have let me rot in that orphanage for eleven years, no, seventeen years! And when I do get here, when I'm allowed into their private little world, they make it a point to spit in my unworthy, foreign, dirty face. And you, what about you? You, who from the very beginning looked at Lee bleeding out with distaste and fear rather than even a hint of concern. You, who calls upon ninja as a last resort because he knows full well that everyone else will fail, and yet will certainly disavow us when everything is said and done, returning to the safe and easy role of condescending civilian professor. So, tell me, Professor, why should I help you?"

Dumbledore said nothing for a moment, and bitterly, Ren wondered if he would bring up the money. That Konoha was a mercenary state, wasn't it? Didn't they just accept every dirty job that walked along so long as it had the right price tag attached?

Ren almost wanted him to say it, was waiting avidly for the man to come out and say it, and something in his mind burned and told him that someone had said it very recently to Ren in a situation where he had not been expecting it.

Said it softly, casually, and that Ren was still feeling the bitter wound of its aftermath.

"We will discuss it with our superiors."

Ren turned, gaped, and felt almost betrayed as Kakashi looked across at Dumbledore with an out of character sobriety, as if he intended to think on this and possibly act on it. Kakashi, for his own part, did not even look at Ren but just kept staring at Dumbledore.

"If we accept we will need further details, about security, a time frame, everything you can about this man and what we should expect from this sort of a mission. Particularly, you will need to estimate the risks involved and be prepared to tell us honestly no matter the price."

Dumbledore nodded, swiftly, a great sigh going out of him as if he realized that this meant he was more than on his way, terribly close to getting what he wanted, "Yes, of course, I will be here all summer and you can contact me by floo or owl."

"Hatake," Ren cut in, anger coloring his voice and making it coarse, switching to Kakashi's mother tongue, "What are you doing? You can't seriously think we'd risk negotiations with Grindelwald for…"

Kakashi cut him off, glanced at him with dark, cold, eyes, "It would not be prudent, Ren, to dismiss him out of hand. Particularly when neither of us is leading this mission."

"Thank you," Dumbledore said, a truly heartfelt sentiment, a cheerier smile returning to his face now that he had gotten a hint of what he wanted, "Although, I must comment, that even though I'm somehow not surprised, Mr. Hatake, to find you out of anyone frequenting the girl's restroom in the middle of summer but I'm still a touch curious and perhaps a bit concerned."

"Ah, but, Professor," Kakashi exclaimed, easily slipping back into his usual role of the village idiot, "How else could I properly emulate the great and revered pervert sage or help raise Ren's lethal army of oversized snakes?"

Dumbledore laughed, popped a lemon drop into his mouth, and noted with twinkling eyes, "You are very lucky, Mr. Hatake, that school is not in session or that would be five detentions right there."

"Yes, but they would be very memorable detentions," Kakashi said with an adorable smile, as if to convey that he knew Dumbledore secretly loved him even though he could kill grown men with his bare hands.

Ren, silently thinking of Grindelwald, of war, and of missions, sat in his plush seat and seethed.

It was Christmas in July, Ren thought with some wry bitter humor, as once again he, Kakashi, Lee, and Tobirama-shishou sat around the table in the purchased townhouse, bickering and discussing just what they were going to do about Grindelwald Gellert as if they hadn't done the same thing six months before.

They were even, Ren thought with some amusement, sitting in the exact same seats as last time. Tobirama-shishou closest to the window with tea perpetually in hand, Lee sitting with her chair facing backwards, slumping over it and drumming her fingers on the table impatiently, Hatake sitting with his legs crossed and watching the proceedings with lazy gray eyes, and Ren biting down on his tongue and wishing that for once someone would listen to him.

The only addition was the basilisk stored inside Ren's giant renovated trunk that, after they'd made up their goddamn minds already, would be shipped back to Konoha and dumped on someone else, likely Orochimaru-sama courtesy of his having the snake contract already, to deal with until Ren returned.

"I think we should do it," Lee said, for the umpteenth time since Ren and Kakashi had returned from the castle, "He has the money, even for something on this level, and he's clearly more than willing to pay it. I say we go for it."

"To what end though?" Tobirama-shishou asked, also for the umpteenth time, "A single mission, yes, but we already have far closer ties with Grindelwald's people than we do the English and Dumbledore. Why risk all of that, lose all of that, for this one mission that will get us nothing at all?"

"There are bounties for him in America," Lee cut in, "Extraordinarily large bounties, and it's not assassination but information gathering, we can leave the killing to Dumbledore if he's so inclined."

Tobirmama-shishou held up his free hand to cut off her tirade, "None the less…"

"More, Grindelwald won't last, he's too ambitious," Lee said, and her tone was something dark and almost anticipatory as she repeated words Dumbledore Albus had said earlier, "He's a comet, nidaime-sama, he burns so brightly and brilliantly only because he is crashing through the heavens at such a fast rate."

Glancing at Ren, causing him to shift in his seat, she added with upturned lips, "He will not last through this war of his, I guarantee it."

Ren flushed, looked away, wondering why his heart was racing and why it had felt as if Lee had just stared through to the trembling soul beneath his skin. He couldn't look back until finally, after far too long, her attention turned from him and back to the nidaime.

Lee, he thought, had believed every word Kakashi had said, what Dumbledore had said, without hesitation. No, like she'd known it the whole time and had just been waiting for someone else to clue in and say it to her face.

Ren wanted to scoff at that, as it was he slumped further into his chair, saying nothing. His eyes drifted over the kitchen, oddly devoid of books. Everything had been packed, most had already been shipped back to Konoha, everything prepared for immediate extraction and travel to the front. The war back home seemed suddenly present even in England where there wasn't a shinobi in sight.

There was no guarantee, Ren thought, that they'd even be here long enough to complete the mission anyway.

Finally, Ren broke his silence, "But why? Why betray Grindelwald's confidence? Why break that trust when he's done nothing but…"

"That man has most certainly not done nothing," Lee interjected harshly, again giving Ren a rather pointed look, like there was something specific that Ren himself was missing in this. Ren gritted his teeth and glared back, feeling for the first time that same helpless rage he'd felt when he first met her, when she'd stood there glorious and untouchable and such a disappointment compared to all the images of his imaginary father dancing inside his head.

"And he certainly doesn't plan to do nothing either," Lee added, "He will stab us all in the back at the first opportunity, not just Dumbledore Albus."

"In that case," Kakashi interjected, far too casually given the sudden tension between Ren and Lee, "I believe it's not against our interest to gather information. More, is very much in our interests to find out who he is, what he really wants, and what he wants from us. Stealing a few overtly powerful objects, if he possesses them, can just be a bonus."

"A bonus," Ren said, voice dripping with distaste and contempt.

Tobirma-shishou was seriously considering it, nearly swayed by Lee and Kakashi, with Ren as the only sole remaining dissident of this giant waste of time, resources, and whatever trust Grindelwald had put into all of them.

Still, Ren acknowledged grudgingly, at least the man wasn't gung-ho about as Lee was. At least there was that, but still, looking up at his master, Ren couldn't help but think that the man was considering this all entirely too seriously.

Finally, with a sigh, the man said, "I suppose we'd best meet Dumbledore ourselves."

They ended up meeting in the Hogsmeade pub The Three Broomsticks, located just outside the Hogwarts castle. It was a strange parallel to their meeting with Grindelwald, only, everything had been inverted.

Where the restaurant with Grindewald had been an elegant and artful array of crystal, wine, and fine dining this place clearly catered to the local civilian populace and was a hop skip and a jump away from being The Leaky Cauldron. There on the walls were winking posters of professional quidditch teams, everything was wooden, and there was a hearty and homey feel to the place with its frothing butterbeer and piles of strange chakra enfused English wizarding finger food.

Dumbledore, today sporting fuschia and a truly uncomfortable expression, fit right bloody in.

Dumbledore, in his crisp clear English, was in the midst of morosely and nostalgically describing Grindelwald's personality traits, all those tiny details that Kakashi had demanded inside of Dumbledore's office when this all started.

"I'm sure you've noticed, but Gellert has always had an overwhelming charisma," Dumbledore said, finger circling the edge of his glass, staring down into the yellow liquid as if he could see his memories playing out in the muddled reflection, "It's a kind of charm, not polite by any means, but a charm that has you overlook all the odd details and warning sign that should have caught your interest. He doesn't seem innocent though, no, there is always that hint of danger underneath his façade, but it does not ward you off, instead it draws you in and compels…"

Ren tried not to stare at the man too closely, tried to school his thoughts into contempt and wonder if perhaps Dumbledore might have once been Grindelwald's young lover, but his stomach rolled in nauseous recognition of everything the Transfiguration professor was saying.

So that Ren could almost feel himself, against his will and better judgement, paling ever so slightly while his fingers began to shake.

"Even when he is so clearly dangerous and makes no pretense at hiding it," Dumbledore continued with a small mirthful and self-deprecating smile, "Even in the beginning, when I first met him, he had already been expelled from Durmstang, that in and of itself quite the accomplishment. Yet, I did not care in the slightest, did not think to question that perhaps there had been a legitimate reason, other than imagined vanity and jealousy over Gellert's eccentric genius, that he had been thrown out. Despite knowing he was dangerous, seeing how dangerous he was, I somehow did not know he was dangerous. That, I'm afraid, is Gellert's great talent."

"That's all very good," Lee said, taking a sip of her butterbeer, somehow so casual in the face of Dumbledore's almost eerie reminiscing, "But what exactly is it that you think we should be looking for, and why the wand, the ring, and the cloak?"

"The elder wand, the resurrection stone, and Death's cloak are relics of an old wizard's fable called 'The Tale of Three Brothers'," Dumbledore said, and as he did so his eyes roved the room and a barely perceptible genjutsu grew around them to ward off the eyes and ears of interested eavesdroppers, "In the story, Death provides these three cursed gifts to the brothers, and all but the last die in tragic circumstances due to their hubris. However, stories have basis in reality, it is believed by more than a few that the three brothers were the brothers Peverell, that they possessed at one point three artifacts of great power and ties to death itself, and that these objects still exist somewhere in Europe and quite possibly in England itself."

Lee suddenly looked extremely interested, leaning forward, eyes gleaming as she asked, "Are you saying that these brothers Peverell met and bargained with the Shinigami, the god of death?"

Dumbledore paused, gave her a sort of funny look, as if realizing that Lee more than believed such a god existed and would fully believe that three brothers were capable of summoning and bargaining with such a creature. Wizards, Ren had learned, were by and large stout athiests who did not even have time for ancient pagan pantheons. Dumbledore did not believe in a Shinigami, but that Lee did, and with such conviction, seemed to give him pause.

Finally, he said, "It is a theory, certainly, though I have always believed that, through great magic and ingenuity, they fashioned the wand, the stone, and the cloak themselves."

He tried to smile, a worn, almost terrified thing, "I suppose, not having seen any of the three myself, I will simply never know."

"But you believe Grindelwald has gathered them?" Tobirama-shishou asked, hands now laced together as he looked Dumbledore directly in the eye.

"Oh, not all of them, certainly not but he would only need one," Dumbledore said, then paused, thinking over his words. As he did so the muted sounds of the pub ran over them, strangely domestic and inane in comparison to the conversation, "Gellert, Gellert and myself when I was very young and very… misguided, once had grand and terrible ambitions. I make… few excuses for myself, there are excuses to be had, but they would not interest you. In my own way, I was desperately naïve, and I paid for it dearly. However, we once dreamed that we would gather the deathly hallows for ourselves and declare ourselves masters of death, that we would then use this power to build a new world order, to break the statute of secrecy and enslave the muggles to serve an elite world order of wizards and witches. I… I woke up to this dream and the terrible utopia it promised, Gellert never did."

Suddenly, Ren remembered that Grindelwald had said something about that at several points. He'd utterly been fascinated with Konoha's rejection, no, complete lack of understanding of the statue of secrecy. He'd also been more than a little bitter about the wizarding world's handling or Ren and Lee's situation and the muggles in general, had said that the governments were kowtowing to these oblivious civilians who had no idea of their place in the world.

That unsteady rolling of Ren's stomach became a bit stronger.

Dumbledore sighed, divorcing himself from his memories and his guilt, and said, "I don't have the power, or perhaps I simply lack the will, to confront and defeat Gellert myself. However much I should, however much he is the ghost of my past, I am… I would not win, and he would use my corpse as a banner. However, you, your people, perhaps you can in my place."

No one said anything for a moment, instead letting Grindelwald's ambitions, his goals, the shadow of his presence linger like a miasma over their table.

Finally, Tobirama asked that same question he had asked Lee, the one Ren had asked Dumbledore, "But what, Mr. Dumbledore, will this do for Konohagakure?"

For a moment Dumbledore seemed at a complete loss of what to say, just sat there, blinking, looking down at his hands as if they could tell him the words he needed. The chattering of the other customers, about quidditch and the next Hogwarts term and Witch Weekly seemed unbearably loud.

"Because, I believe, that no matter our differences, no matter our vastly different cultures, the blood on your hands, the blood on mine, that you have that moral spark that drives you to do what is right rather than what is easy or convenient. Perhaps more of one than any other people I have ever met, if only because you know what war truly tastes like from your earliest childhood memories. This is not about the benefit of nation states but about the future of a people, of our world and everyone who lives in it, and a chance for a true and lasting peace that does not rely on fear, violence, and despair."

Dumbledore's voice grew stronger, and as it did Ren swore he could almost see the shadow of Senju Hashirama lingering over him, as he had put forth an idea of peace that not one man from any clan had believed was possible.

"Perhaps there is a road to demolishing the statute of secrecy, to aiding muggleborns, squibs, and righting all the many wrongs of this country. Perhaps Gellert has a point and has always had a point, but this is not the way to do it, and this road he's paved for us is built on bricks of carnage. The path to peace, to hope, is not in direction Gellert so dearly wishes for us to travel."

Tobirama-shishou for a moment said nothing, simply looked at Dumbledore Albus, and Ren wondered if the man saw what Ren himself had only a few seconds before. Ren thought he did, if only because even before the nidaime opened his mouth, Ren knew that he had already accepted.

"We will take your mission, Professor Dumbledore," Tobirama said, reaching over with a pale hand to shake Dumbledore's, who sagged with relief.

Ren felt something inside him wilt, as if the sun that had been shining overhead was now hidden behind a wall of impenetrable clouds.

Lee however, just grinned, drummed her fingers on the table, and said cheerily, "Oh, this is just going to be so much fun."

Lee, spread out on the sofa inside their town house, was laid on her stomach, legs lazily kicking back and forth in the air, while in front of her she was in ballpoint pen writing out a letter to Grindelwald Gellert as if he was her long-lost pen-pal. Tobirama-shishou and Hatake were nowhere in sight, both having gone back to Konoha to debrief yet again and also hand off the basilisk to Orochimaru, leaving Lee to do what was needed to get Grindelwald on board with this.

This being her and Ren spying on him, given that they had the most pretext out of any of them to actually be in Grindelwald Gellert's company.

Ren, standing above Lee's shoulder, glared down at the parchment and Lee's blunt English handwriting on it, specifically her casual mention that she and Ren would be ever so delighted to join Gellert on his summer tour of central Europe.

Beneath this, a mysterious and infuriating line, "You see, after a bit of time, I've given what you said to me a bit of thought…"

Ren, tapping Lee on the shoulder then pointing at the line in question, asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Lee glanced over her shoulder at him, eyes wide and deep and so terribly green, and said casually, "It's nothing."

It didn't look like nothing, Ren thought, granted he had no idea what it was supposed to mean except that just as he and Grindelwald had talked so apparently had Grindelwald and Lee when Ren wasn't looking. Something in him didn't like that idea, for all that he wished they weren't doing this, he also really didn't like the reminder that Lee and Grindelwald had been alone quite often.

And that Ren had no idea what they had gotten up to.

"You know," Lee continued with clear amusement, apparently not realizing that Ren's attention had drifted, "For someone who believes himself so terribly sly and clever, Grindelwald Gellert is unbelievably gauche."

Something in that itched at him, in annoying nagging sort of way, like he had forgotten something important or set something down somewhere in the apartment and had no bloody idea where it had gotten off to.

So instead he just hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing about why Grindelwald would be gauche of all things, and then said, "You know, this mission is stupid and needlessly dangerous."

Lee said nothing to this, just smiled and continued writing, now detailing about all the places she hoped that she and Ren might see with Grindelwald playing informative tour guide over the summer. That and that apparently she liked piña coladas, getting caught in the rain, and was not into health food, yoga, but was into champagne.

Ren gritted his teeth, forcing his annoyance to go someplace else and stop bothering him already, and asked, "Why do you want to betray his trust so badly when he's done nothing? When he's done much more for us than Dumbledore or anyone else has?"

"Betrayal of trust is a fighting term, Ren," Lee mused, "If he honestly expected us not to gather intelligence on him, spy on him, then he's a fool and deserves anything he gets."

Ren was about to respond to this, opened his mouth to retort, but then cut himself off. Lee looked tired, he thought, oddly solemn even beneath this forced casual attitude she was wearing along with civilian clothing and oversized socks, as if even writing this letter alone she was already preparing for the hypothetical war Dumbledore had given Grindelwald.

"All I ask, Ren," Lee said, finishing by signing her name elegantly at the bottom of the letter, beneath a somehow meaningful "sincerely", "is that you remember who and what you are."

"Who I am?" Ren asked, wondering when he was supposed to have forgotten.

But Lee, folding the letter now and placing it into an envelope with Grindelwald's name and mailing address on the front, looked deathly serious, "You are a chunin of Konohagakure, you took your exam and earned your headband and your vest along with all the bitter responsibilities and paranoia that comes with it. You are a soldier, a spy, a warrior, and an assassin, and anything more civilian, blind faith in the gifts and flattery of foreigners, was lost to you the moment you took my hand in the orphanage."

Then, looking him in the eye, leaving him no room to look anywhere else, Lee added, "And Grindelwald Gellert, above all else, is foreign."

They met in Berlin, at the edge of the muggle world and the city's magical district. Grindelwald stood there in the direct sunlight, golden hair almost glowing, and as they ported in Ren couldn't help but think the man looked something like a Greek god, there was a majesty and beauty about him that seemed almost dangerous to mortal eyes, a promise of swift retribution in his shadow beneath his golden visage.

He smiled, teeth white, at the pair of them and he spoke to them as if they had never left his side, "Lee, Ren, it is so good to see you again."

He walked up towards them, first towards Lee, embraced her lightly, face lingering beside her ear for a second too long, before pulling back and shaking Ren's hand in typical European custom. Lee's smile, Ren could help but notice, seemed almost darkly amused by this.

Ren let his attention wander instead to the city, taking in the grandeur of it. Lee spoke quite a bit about Nazis and the Third Reich, mostly she spoke of the war and the atrocities they committed, she hadn't spoken about their cities and the architecture, how grandiose it all seemed. Like it really was Rome rebuilt here in Germany.

"Yes, quite impressive, isn't it?" Gellert asked, looking with Ren at great marble buildings, "The Nazis are quite ambitious and wish the world to know it. Which, I'm sure it will in short order."

"Enough of that though," Grindelwald said with a smile towards them both, "Come, bring your things, we should get you checked into my hotel, my room I'm afraid what with your last-minute arrival. Either way we have a lot to do today, a lot of very important wizards to meet and places to see, and absolutely no time in the world to do it in."

Ren was caught again thinking on what Dumbledore had said, on his own musings of Grindelwald, that the man really was just exceedingly charming. It was different, in a way, than Minato's charm. Minato had a similar charisma to him that drew you in, but there was something more genuine in it, like the light of his soul was so bright that you couldn't help but want to be close to it.

Even when you loathed him for it.

Grindelwald's wasn't like that, there were none of the complicated feelings he had with Namikaze Minato, just that strange compulsion to walk beside him and stand near him and hang on every word he said.

"Ah, diplomacy," Lee said, blanching ever so slightly, almost convincingly, "You know, when I said take me and Ren on a whirligig tour of Europe while romancing me, acting as a diplomat at your exceedingly boring dinner parties was not what I had in mind."

Romancing?!

Ren's eyes flew open, his mouth opened but only gagging spluttering noises came out, but Grindelwald just laughed in good cheer, "Oh, but Lee, those dull dinner parties can be quite entertaining. Especially when they break out the champagne, you would not believe some of the things I've seen when the magical aristocracy starts to let loose."

Champagne, Ren thought, a sort of dull sinking horror settling into his stomach. Lee's letter had mentioned champagne, had very specifically mentioned champagne, and Ren couldn't help but think it wasn't a coincidence that Grindelwald had mentioned that instead of wine.

"If they start shaking what their mother gave them then I cannot be held responsible for my actions," Lee said, raising up a hand as if already to swear to her own defense.

Grindelwald laughed, he clearly didn't get the joke, couldn't understand the joke, but he laughed all the same like it was the wittiest goddamn thing he'd ever heard in his life. His hand, Ren noticed, rested on the small of Lee's back, the other on Ren's shoulder, and Ren felt a shudder run through him.

Soon enough they were checking into the hotel room, throwing their things into Grindelwald's room which with the double beds and a sofa bed was just large enough for the three of them, and then sure enough they were off and watching Grindelwald meet with this duke, that duchess, that lord, and even the magical kaiser.

Each laughed at Grindelwald's wit, smiled at his charm, and drank his champagne and toasted to his health and his plans which seemed more reasonable to them with every sip of alcohol passing through their lips.

Then there were great galas, dancing in formal robes, toasts of champagne, hushed discussion with ministers and bureaucrats, and then packed suitcases and a destination of Munich, Prague, Venice, Rome, Florence, and so on and so forth all through Europe while in the streets the Nazis held grand parades with torches, red banners, and burned Jewish books in the streets.

There was hardly time for dark jutsus or alchemy, hardly time for anything at all other than moving, waiting, watching and trying to keep his head together. Sometimes he and Ren would sit together, during one of these parties, and the man would look at him and Ren would feel himself squirm and attempt to show nothing about the fact that he was spying on him or that he wasn't going back to Durmstang in the Fall.

Except Grindelwald had smiled at that last bit, and had simply said that he understood and there were no hard feelings. He knew, he said, that it had not been Ren's decision to return to Hogwarts.

Except, somehow, Ren had thought that was an insult. As if Grindelwald's golden eyes were laughing at him somehow as he said it, even as his lips were curved into a genuine and sympathetic smile.

The scent of war was everywhere, sweet and sickening, a bitter aftertaste in every glass of champagne. And always, in its afterimage, was Grindelwald's polite and charming smile, or his eyes lingering for a second too long on Lee's pale neck.

And Ren, standing to the side by the buffet, didn't know what to think anymore.

Lee was much less conflicted.

She started, within the first day, to start reading through all of Grindelwald's private correspondence. She easily undid whatever security and encryption jutsus he had placed on it and would, slumped on the couch, flick through one after the other.

Ren would stand behind her, sometimes listening to her read some of them out loud, and found he didn't have much to say at all.

According to his letters, it was clear that Grindelwald Gellert was very much orchestrating the beginnings of a major conflict, an invasion both to the west and the east, muggle and magical. There was only the barest of hints of this in person, the slight dancing around the edges of the topic, hardly noticeable at all, but in letters it was so straightforward and so blunt.

Poland would be invaded in September, which would bring England and France into war.

Only the wand, the ring, and the cloak, the three deathly hallows, remained a mystery unspoken of in any letter.

Suddenly, Grindelwald's ambitions seemed much larger than Ren had ever guessed and no longer benign enough to be ignored. More, everything seemed to have a purpose, everyone was a piece on the chess board.

Which meant that Ren, standing over Lee's shoulder in Rome, couldn't help but ask, "What does he want with you and me, Lee?"

It was the first time he'd asked it, the first time he'd dared to, but Lee just laughed, a light, amused, tinkling sound as if Ren had just asked the darndest thing. Outside the window, Rome was spread before them, the shadow of the great empire still visible in the remains of the palace on Palatine hill as well as the colosseum, always hanging over the more modern city.

"Please, Ren, it's obvious," Lee said, setting the letter aside to give him a rather frank look, "The man wants power and shinobi."

Yet, that wasn't obvious to Ren, never had been. He felt like it should have been, like Lee and even Tobirama-shishou and Kakashi had been aware of it the whole time, but somehow Ren hadn't known at all.

"You know he's been seducing you to his side, don't you?"

Ren spluttered, paled, then asked, "Seducing?!"

"Well, not in the romantic sense, not yet at least, if you were a few years older I wouldn't put it past him to add in that missing sexual element," Lee said, again as if it was obvious, as if Ren should have seen it from the beginning, should have remembered his ego and his place and thought that it was unnatural that Grindelwald would give him so much attention, would focus on him and praise him and…

Ren's eyes sharpened, he reached out desperately towards Lee, hands falling onto her shoulders and asking, "What about you, Lee? Has he done that with you?"

Lee just gave him a look, didn't even answer, just raised her eyebrows and made it perfectly clear that of course the man had. And that with Lee, sixteen years old now, he had certainly not been holding back that missing sexual element.

And then that nagging in his head, that itch, was suddenly all too clear and Ren remembered a dance at Durmstang, the sight of Eru Lee and Grindelwald Gellert dancing in each other's arms, a bitter confrontation in the gardens, and the bitter humiliation and terror as a wand had pointed down towards his head.

Ren sprinted into the bathroom, flung himself over the bowl of the toilet, and vomited.

But they weren't done yet, they were so far from being done, suddenly the weeks left of the summer seemed unbearably long and the expanse of Europe unbearably wide. Ren sat still and shuddered and tried to play at his assumed role of hopeless naiveite in a way he could no longer quite manage.

And how easily he'd fallen into too.

It had been simple, the man in a matter of moments had found Ren's weaknesses, the ones desperately inherited from the English civilian orphan Tom Marvolo Riddle. Pride, pride and hubris, and a desperate need for recognition.

Lee had told him in the beginning, Minato had repeated it, then Hatake Kakashi had done so after them. Always, every single time, it was that pride and that need to be praised and seen as the glorious thing that he was that destroyed him.

He underestimated others, preened under flattery and not recognizing when it was undeserved, and became a fool if only to be seen as something terrible and great rather than something that could one day be terrible and great.

A tendril of self-loathing, a curl of dark smoke in his soul, coiled like a snake around his heart. It whispered in his ear every second of every day, reminding him that it had come to this, but only for Ren as Lee, Kakashi, and Tobirama-shishou had all seen and marked it for whatit was, but never Ren.

And he wanted nothing more now than to kill Grindelwald Gellert.

It was in the little things, the way those golden hands would curl into Lee's unbound hair, the way he'd dip his arm and show her into a room, how close he would sit to her inside of the various hotel rooms offering her champagne in front of the fire.

It was all subtle, to a point, but only to a point and now that Ren had seen it for what it was the images burned every time he closed his eyes. Like they had etched themselves on the inside of his eyelids so that he would never forget them.

It was in the bubbles of the champagne, the slight hint of intoxication that would loosen his posture and threaten to loosen Lee's, in the shadows of his eyes as they would trace her form from her neck to her legs, as he'd lean forward against her back with his hands lightly resting on her hips to keep her in place. It was everywhere.

And Ren wanted to murder him as he had never wanted to murder anyone before.

Murder him for Lee, for the garden, for his pitiful failure…

Only Dumbledore's own words resounded through his head, that this was a fight Dumbledore could not win, and it was a fight that Ren had already lost once before. They were here for intelligence, for objects, not an unnecessary assassination.

Still, Ren thought as he watched the man laugh again and again and again, that didn't mean he wanted to murder him any less.

Lee, one night, was out somewhere. Stepped out to purchase late night snacks or late-night wine, leaving Grindelwald and Ren alone for the first time in a room. Outside the moon was almost full and a strange dull yellow color, there were no stars, but instead the streetlamps shone brightly.

Beside them the fireplace crackled pleasantly, and Grindelwald, perfectly at ease, poured himself and Ren the last of the rosé.

Ren, dully, with a small nod of thanks, took the glass from the man's hand. Their fingers brushed, and Ren could not help but think that Grindelwald's fingers were entirely too warm, like fire instead of blood was running through his veins.

Grindelwald smiled, a wolfish expression, and watched as Ren swirled the win in a slow circular motion.

Finally, Grindelwald said, "You know, Ren, I know you've remembered the dance."

Ren stopped, eyes flicking towards the man, catching amusement in his expression at the confirmation. Grindelwald continued, "That's very impressive, almost unheard of for a wizard not practiced in occlumency to break through obliviate. However, your acting, hiding your anger, that could use some work I'm afraid."

Yet, Ren thought, for all his failed pretense Grindelwald didn't seem the slightest bit concerned that Ren had remembered everything. He still saw Ren as a hopeless child, a thing of potential, who not only could not defeat him but would not.

As if the world was Grindelwald Gellert's already, in all but name, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"You know you left me little choice," Grindelwald said, "I hardly wanted to fight but you made it very clear you'd accept nothing less."

"I would rather fight and lose than be your tool," Ren said finally, voice hard and cold and unsuited for the atmosphere, "Your unwitting pawn."

"Oh, Ren," Grindelwald said with a fond sigh, "All men are either pawns or players, and you, my friend, are far too young to be sitting on one side of the board or another."

Ren spared the man a dry and unamused look, finally deciding to be blunt, and asked, "Do you only have the balls to say this because Lee is out of the room?"

The man burst out laughing, truly amused, to the point where he almost spilled his wine. He didn't though, no Grindelwald would never be so foolish and classless as to spill his wine during a fit of hysterics.

"Your friend is intimidating, yes," Grindelwald said, "However she and I have had similar discussions quite often."

"Have you?" Ren asked, but Grindelwald just smiled, as if the trap was almost closing in on both Lee and Ren without either of them having the ability to do anything to stop it.

"It's why you came," Grindelwald said, "Why you left Durmstang, and now, why you came back to see me during the summer."

Ren said nothing, did nothing, did not let Grindelwald see that it was for anything but that. That Lee, long ago, had marked Grindelwald for what he was and dismissed him. Lee, Ren realized, as she would always be above the Tom Marvolo Riddles of the world would always be above the Grindelwald Gellerts as well.

However golden he appeared, Ren thought, with the valience, the nobility, and innate goodness this man was not even close to Namikaze Minato's league. There was nothing in this world or any world that a man like Grindelwald Gellert could offer Eru Lee.

"You have a choice too, of course," Grindelwald said, setting his wine down onto the table and turning to look Ren fully in the eye, "You do not have to be a child soldier, Ren, you do not have to be a pawn for Konoha."

Ren bristled instinctively, eyebrows lowering and mouth opening, but Grindelwald held up a hand before he could even start, "Yours is a bleak future with an early demise, living in a world without morals, without honor, in a land that will always be foreign to you. With me, Ren, you will not have that. You'll have pride, use your prowess as a soldier and a dark wizard, but you will have all those comforts of a civilian life that you thought were lost to you."

Grindelwald's lips curved into a smile, a charming thing that was a warm and sensual as the taste of the wine, "Perhaps you might even become an official diplomat for your people, take the best of both worlds even as you fix this one into the golden empire it could be."

Ren barely held his voice in check, only asked, in a baited softness, "Is that what you think of me? Of my people?"

Gellert brought his hands together, thinking, and in the sleeve of his robe Ren caught a pale wood. Only a flash, but enough to remind of the branches of elder trees, and a wand from legend that was bestowed upon a brother Peverell by death itself.

Before the man could think, before he could answer or shift, Ren asked, "What about Lee? What did you offer her, see in her?"

And just as Ren thought, as always, Lee was enough to distract anyone. His eyes were distant, he thought over her name, her memories, trying to find the words that would convince both Ren and Lee unequivocally into this war he was planning, into his great empire to become his personal assassins.

"Ah, yes, Lee. She is… more stubborn than even Albus," Grindelwald said with a shake of his head, "I could make her a queen but she says she is not interested in such materialistic things as that. When really, I could think of nothing less material."

Ren, carefully, with intense concentration, substituted the liquid Suna poison in a vial in his weapons pouch, the one Grindelwald had never thought to confiscate from him, and substituted it for the same portion of Grindelwald's untouched wine.

The man did not even blink, did not notice, he was already so drunk on power if not wine. He sighed and shook his head with fondness, eyes still filled with the defiant Lee, "I think I have made a mistake, in treating her as if she is a princess, when in truth she is a valiant prince."

"Yes," Ren said, lifting his own cup, raising it in a bitter toast, "After all, she saved me from my dark tower."

So casually too, with such ease and with nothing asked in return, whereas Grindelwald who attempted the same asked everything in return.

Grindelwald picked up his glass, amused by Ren's gesture, "To Lee?"

Ren clinked his glass against the man's, the tink sounding too loud in his ears, too bright against the crackling of the fire, "To Lee, to war, and to my future."

Both tilted their heads back, drank the wine, each a long and too large swallow before looking back at each other.

Suna poisons were vicious things, the bane of Senju Tsunade's existence just as Senju Tsunade had once been the bane of Chiyo of Sunagakure's existence. Some were designed for assassination, for a slow mission where blame was shifted and misdirected, almost impossible to detect or circumvent. Others, used in battles, were oh so noticeable oh so quickly, with only seconds to spare for an antidote if one even existed.

Within seconds, as Grindelwald Gellert's pupils dilated and his skin paled, Ren could see the effects even if Grindelwald could not feel them yet.

So, Ren leaned forward, distracting him further, as he mused, "You'll never have her, you know."

Grindelwald tried to smile, tried to be amused by the comment, but he must be starting to feel that something somewhere had gone terribly wrong, he pitched forward even as Ren continued, "Simply, you do not deserve her, in the bedroom or even the battlefield. Your fight with Lee, at the end of all this, it's not going to happen."

Grindelwald snapped out his wand, it falling from the holster in his sleeve into his hand, a pale thing made of elder, mouth opening, but poison had already slowed him down and he lacked the element of surprise, Ren quickly threw two kunai directly into the man's palms and silenced his voice with an English jutsu.

"I will crush you like a cockroach beneath my heel and you will never even look at her again," Ren hissed, and with that he summoned the wand into his own hand, felt an answering thrum of chakra from the wood, a darker and headier power than even the feeling of his own wand in Ollivanders'.

It was already stained by Grindelwald's dark blood.

Grindelwald looked up at him in terror, even as he wretchedly, silently, tried to pull the kunai out of his mangled bleeding hands, wandlessly and wordlessly attempting to eviscerate Ren right where he stood.

Ren pointed the wand at Grindelwald's head, "Hubris, that's the name of your sin, your great fatal flaw. Not the greed, the ambition, but the hubris that let you think that you had already won months ago in a garden."

Ren smiled, an entirely too pleasant, and too charming grin borrowed from Grindelwald himself, "I don't have hubris, not like you, I lost it a long time ago in Konohagakure. That's why I've won, and how I, a civilian English orphan, will master death."

A swish, a flick, and "Diffindo."

Author's Note: As you can imagine, Lee awkwardly walks in on Grindelwald splattered all over the hotel room like particularly decorative modern art. And Dumbledore may have gotten slightly more than he intended to pay for.

And look at you, Ren, all grown up and being so introspective while also starting down a truly dangerous path to ultimate power.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, reviews are much appreciated.

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