AN: Ah, vacation was lovely- I hope you are all doing well. This chapter is slightly shorter even though it took longer to write. I can only blame the fever dream I had that burnt an original story idea into my head.

I've never actually been woken from my sleep in a desire to write before, and decided to pursue that post haste before it faded from my mind. For this chapter, I'd love a focus on Ron and Harry's characterization. Are they coming across as authentic? Ron in particular is dastardly to nail down!

X-X-X

It took a heartbeat for Naruto to decide that the castle really was just that pretty. It finally made sense why the Order members talked about their time at Hogwarts wistfully, even though they had graduated from the place years ago. His team was spread out across the grounds that separated the train platform from the castle proper, but Naruto had taken it upon himself to shadow the first years.

While the other students seemed to take winged-horse pulled carriages to the school, the first years were split off from the pack to take small boats across the Black Lake. Their little faces were adorable when they dropped in awe as the full majesty of the gothic stronghold was bared before them. The sun was down, had set awfully early for a September night actually, but the castle was completely visible, as if lit internally, like a lantern.

Naruto trailed them, hidden by the inky blackness of the lake he was walking across and internally marveled at how far he had come since he was their age. What were their dreams, he wondered? Did they even have any yet? After all, they were just beginning their adventures into the world, and at their age, Naruto had already been in school for three years.

All this and more he thought about as they approached the portcullis set in the bedrock underneath the school.

Naruto pressed his hands together and began to weave signs. He would never be a genjutsu master, but you couldn't get very far in a black-ops unit if you couldn't muster even the most basic of B-ranks. He rattled through the five deliberately; Tiger, Boar, Tiger, Horse, Ox. The jutsu name escaped his lips in a whisper, "Magen Hiei."

The effects were immediate, had any of the children been looking at his already cloaked form, they would have seen it being pulled apart like strips of black paper, broken down into the composite darkness of the surrounding area.

As the children disembarked, he disappeared into the recesses and shadows of the passageway that lead from the dock up to the large wooden doors of the "Great Hall." He felt, rather than saw, Sakura appear around the corner, her silhouette completely concealed by a suit of armor. She moved again, too fast for the children to pick up on, and all of a sudden she was in the same alcove he had chosen, completely upside down with her face less than a foot from his own. Of course his genjutsu was no match for her.

"Client was right, comms are down." Naruto's index finger pressed the porcelain segment on the left side of his mask that activated its integrated mic and failed to hear the scratch hiss that should have indicated an open channel. Shit.

"Well, at least the owls make sense now."

Sakura nodded in a distracted manner, it was clear she was listening to the Deputy Headmistriss's speech about the sorting ceremony. Naruto knew that the "Sorting Hat" had already been advised and that the infiltration had been cleared by the client but… he didn't like leaving a key component of the operation up to an unknown player any more than Sakura did.

The heavy doors glided open on wheels of magic, and the procession began. The two columns of frightened eleven year olds made an odd sight, lead by the stately McGonagall and trailing the three older transfer students. Naruto and Sakura followed in crouches and while the collective student body leered at the youngest additions to their ranks, the two climbed the wall and disappeared into the illusion that concealed the rafters from the Hall's occupants.

If the jutsu was considered pretty by an earthbound observer, then Naruto would have to call his view from above breathtaking. It looked like he and Sakura were holding court amongst the clouds, no more a party to the unfolding drama below than a Kami to a peasant. He let the chakra molding for his own disguise unravel and joined Sakura, his closest friend on the mission, in hanging his legs over the rafter. She was talkative tonight.

"What do you think's going through their head?"

"I don't know, but somehow I don't think we'd be able to guess correctly, anyway." Sakura seemed to consider his response before agreeing with him.

"Yea I suppose marital prospects, dreams of revenge and delusions of grandeur are a little beyond them at this point." She snorted then continued; "Actually when you think about it that way, our academy age selves probably had more in common with the sixth years than those kids." She was pointing at the first eleven year old to be called up in front of the crowd.

Poor girl was looking at the Hat and stool like they were Zabuza.

Ino, Hinata, Sai and Tenten were a chattering mess of shadows as they moved from their positions underneath tables and above gargoyles.

Honestly, the fact that their presence had yet to be picked up by the students spoke volumes about these people's situational awareness. One by one they assembled on the rafters alongside Naruto, the Buntaichou, and he secretly reveled in the thrill of having a team respond so willingly to his desires.

As the sorting ceremony continued, punctuated frequently by the boisterous clapping of each table as the Hat ruled in their favour, Naruto began to whisper his instructions to the assembled platoon.

Sakura's disapproval was obvious, she all but called him a biter. Which was largely hypocritical in Naruto's opinion, as he intended to steal their entrance from a man that was known internationally as "The Copy Ninja."

Kakashi-sensei has cool moves- kill me. Besides, if you're going to steal, at least steal from the best.

Hinata had just giggled as he explained his plans, and was the first to seal her cloak and unseal her ninjato. Which made him happy. He liked when Hinata was happy, it was much better than when she acted like Neji. She seemed to have forgiven him for the whole Diagon Alley debacle, and had already completed the second, real step of the Rasengan. She had found both the Boogey Balloons and the Back Wind balls to be hilarious, and had taken to popping the flatulent balls in increasingly humorous circumstances.

Which had made them both smile, and that made Naruto the happiest he had been in some time.

As McGonagall wrapped up the conventional sorting and moved on to the exchange students, Naruto refocused on the matter at hand. It was time to see if the Hat had held up its end of the bargain.

As one, the team began to weave hand-signs.

X-X-X

Ron was all different types of curious about these "exchange students." For starters, he wasn't aware that Hogwarts had sent any students to this "Mahoutokoro." Not that his classmates were likely to pick up on that, seeing at the four tables looked emptier this year than Ron had ever seen them.

The Namikaze triplets were an interesting bunch though. The cute looking one with the half-dyed hair was up first, and she was a bit of a hat stall. Ron took a second, like any other self respecting bloke, and gave her the ol' up and down while she carried on a mental conversation with the Hat. He couldn't make out her… assets… because of her robes, but she was nowhere near as runtish as her sister. She had a really pretty face though, clearly from some part of Asia but… not quite like Chang or that Sue Li.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Well, good for Harry then, maybe that'll cheer him up- she's his type.

Her brother, Gamma was up next, and he practically jogged up to the stool. The Sorting Hat had barely touched a spiked hair on the bloke's head when it erupted with the same; "GRYFFINDOR!"

He smiled and Ron thought he seemed awfully pleased with himself, before he joined his sister at their long table.

The last one, who was apparently named O-washi, didn't even wait to be called as she approached the stool.

She settled herself onto the wooden perch like a throne, and looked out into the Great Hall with a stare that Malfoy would eat his heart out to mimic.

Hell, that runt looks like she's the Queen of Sheeba!

The hat opened the mouth-like-stitch above his brim and Ron could have sworn, sworn, that he saw the beginnings of a "Sly-" form there. But the girl immediately fixed the charmed piece of headwear above her with an awful glare, and he noticed her eyes for the first time.

"Bloody Hell, is she blind?" The question was out of his mouth before he thought better of it, and Hermione berated him immediately for it.

"Ronald, how insensitive!" Hermione huffed up, and looked to be on the verge of laying into him, but Ron found himself saved by the interjection of a new friend.

"O-washi's not blind, but her birth was kinda problematic. That's also why she's so short. It doesn't bother her, but we look out for her all the same." The words came from Ron's right hand side, and he leaned forward and looked across Neville to see the half-dyed head of the new exchange student. She was sticking out her hand, and Ron could see that her nails matched the purple in her hair.

"My name's Dorayaki, by the way; and you are?" He returned the shake.

"Ron Weasley, sorry bout that." Dorayaki waived his apology away, then smiled at something over his shoulder.

"Oh Merlin, Gamma- I think she's bullying him."

And indeed, that was exactly what it looked like. O-washi was giving the Hat increasingly heated expressions, alternating between affronted and vindictive, before the Hat finally breathed a sigh of defeat.

"Gryffindor…"

O-washi looked pleased with herself, and doffed the hat in the waiting hands of McGonagall as if she was a lady in waiting, before taking measured, courtly steps over to join her siblings.

The Deputy Headmistress's pursed lips looked as if you'd need a knife to pry them open.

"Yes, yes another year at Hogwarts is about to begin." Dumbledore's stately address brought the focus of attention to him, and he stood up, behind the high table.

"Although I wish I could direct you to our feast, I must make the house elfs wait a little longer to show off for you all. You see, I can not pretend that this will be an academic year like any other, or that we aren't sitting here bereft the full company of students that we ended with last year."

He gestured out into the crowd, and Ron was proud to see that nearly every member of the D.A. from last year had returned.

Which was when he noticed Malfoy, who was alternating between gazing at the headmaster and shooting furtive glances over to the Gryffindor table.

Git, probably upset all three new students went to us.

"Your parents have trusted in me your safety and security this year. Their trust deserves to be rewarded, and with that in mind I have exceeded the welcome addition to our security provided by the Ministry, and reached out to a private convent of wizards for your protection. The hit-wizards they have provided are direct students of one of my dearest friends, and I can assure you, Hogwarts will not have been safer since it was inhabited by the Founders themselves. I ask you, therefore, to welcome the Shinobi!" Dumbledore finished his address with a gesture that would have looked at home on the ringmaster of the muggle circus Ron's father had taken their family to as children, and then it began.

It started softly, through the doors on either end of the Great Hall. Leaves, still green owing to the date, streamed in like rivers through the air, carried by gusts that tugged at the hair of the girls it passed. The leaves began to wrap in a series of cyclones on the dais the sorting stool had previously occupied. With a final, frankly understated poof, they dispersed to reveal the six Shinobi.

Had Ron not already met them, he knew he'd be a gaping wreck of a wizard. As it was, he was reduced to nodding his head in appreciation.

What. An. Entrance.

And what an entrance it was. The dancing leaves fell in loose canopies to reveal the six, who had forgone their cloaks and donned their swords. The masks. The weapons. The tattoos! The hall was spellbound, far surpassing the appreciation of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons's entrance from years prior.

Their blond leader stepped out from the middle of the formation, and broke the silence with an introduction.

"Good evening, thank you for the invitation, Professor! My name is Captain Kitsune, and I'll be heading up this security detail for the remainder of the academic year. These are my Shinobi..." His cheerful voice projected perfectly across the hall, and Ron wondered how it wasn't muffled at all by the mask he wore.

Nevertheless, Kitsune had broken the spell over the assembled students and they began to murmur as he made his introductions from left to right. First in conjecture, then in outright appraisal of the new guards. By the time he had moved all the way down the line and introduced Ryuu, the idle conversation in Ron's immediate vicinity had veered in the inevitable direction that all groups of young men were prone to when presented with such… fine examples of the female form.

"Would you look at the legs on her…" Seamus's Irish brogue was the first to reach Ron's ear and it frustrated Ron to wonder which he was referring to. Apparently Dean was similarly curious.

"Which one mate, wouldn't mind a single one of them wrapp- OOOFH!" Ron sunk into a savage glee, putting his sister's vindictive expression and Dean's unseen clutching together as viewed from the corner of his eye.

Ginny might have been the master of the Bat Bogey hex, but she was a fair hand at the Reductor curse and Stinging hex as well. Ron's sentiments ran away with themselves.

"Serves you right, are you really going to ogle the witches that are here to protect our sorry arses while we finish our schooling?" The incredulous set of Seamus and Dean's faces were to be expected; but the height of Hermione's eyebrows spoke volumes as they disappeared into her curls.
Ron was as surprised as they were by his own hypocrisy. He needed a distraction… best to start an argument.

"Hey, Hermione- I thought you said you can't apparate inside of Hogwarts?" Perfect.

"You can't, in fact I don't think that was what they did- although I can't wait to find out…" The bushy headed brainiac trailed off and refocused on the team, as if she could interrogate them by sight alone. Ron considered her warily for a moment, but the dog had well and truly found a bone; and he knew she'd already forgotten his slip up in favor of unraveling the mystery of a new spell.

Feeling quite pleased with himself, he addressed his new classmates and pointedly ignored the Shinobi on the dais.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, the home of the brave and the bold."

His greeting was punctuated by a culinary explosion as the silver dishware blossomed with food between them. Gamma and O-washi reeled back in shock, but Dorayaki just looked on, fondly. Which was suspicious. But he dropped it, because he was hungry and there was food.

X-X-X

Harry also noticed that Dorayaki was not surprised at all to see the Hogwarts Feast appear on the long tables, and had no intention of dropping it.

But he didn't quite know how to pursue it, so he mentally filed it away for later. Just like he filed away the looks Malfoy was shooting at Hermione all night. And the fact that Snape was taking over his favorite subject.

Later on, on the sixth floor of the Gryffindor male dormitory, which protruded proudly from the seventh floor of the castle, Harry unpacked these files and rummaged through them.

The fact that Hogwarts had exchange students in the same year as him was suspicious at best. The fact that all three were Gryffindors was outright alarm raising. Dorayaki's familiarity with the Opening Feast's spread would have been innocuous otherwise…

He turned from his spot in the windowsill of his dorm to the newest addition to their room. Across the potbelly stove was Gamma, who was talking amicably with Neville Longbottom.

It had been a half decade of Ron and Harry, Seamus and Dean, Neville and… well, Neville. Harry wanted to be happy for his friend, who had always seemed to be left the odd man out.

But as the two sat next to each other and Gamma produced a toad from somewhere in his trunk to introduce to Trevor, Harry's eyes could only narrow in suspicion. How bloody likely?

He felt that scratch between his shoulder blades. It was the same scratch that had popped up periodically over the years. It had started the first time Hagrid had told him about how he had traded for Norbert The Dragon and hadn't died down yet.

Tonks called it his "investigative instincts," and it was her healthy appreciation for them that compelled him to pour his questions into a scrap of parchment in his lap. He'd have to remember to go to the owlery tomorrow and send it off with Hedwig to Tonks.

Properly out of emotions to decipher, he felt the clarity of mind that had escaped him all of last year. If Snape had been a bit more understanding, Harry might have learned Occlumency the year before. Sirius would be alive. The thought filled him with anger, but it was so, so easy to dismiss it now. To let it flow out from the center of the spiral, out and away.

Harry put down his letter and summoned the water balloon that was poking out of the pocket of his hung robes.

He held his breathing rate steady, and refused to let the spiral leave his mind's eye.

Let's try this once more before bed.

Harry pressed the holly wand tip against the rubber apex and the water inside instantly began to churn in the same direction as the spiral. But still not enough. He tried his hardest not to be frustrated.

'...you need to get the water spinning in more than one direction if you're going to get the balloon to pop…'

But what did Komainu mean by that? Or rather, how was Harry to go about that?

"You fought off Death Eaters by yourself, just you six!?" Gamma's question pulled Harry's frustrated stare up from his latex nemesis and towards the conversation, which had been joined by Ron as well.

"Nah, we held em' off until the Order of The Phoenix showed up though." His red headed best friend had somehow managed to puff out his chest from a fully seated position, and Harry didn't fight the grin from his face. They had done well then, and again in Diagon Alley. Tonks had even said so.

Gamma was nodding at all the appropriate times, and had looked back to Neville to confirm. The blond wizard just shrugged off the inquiry, as if it was something of an every day occurrence for their lot.

It was nice to see Neville in high spirits, proud of himself. The confidence was a good look on the formerly shy young man, but he wore it like he had been this comfortable in his own skin his entire life. He was even spinning his new wand between his fingers, first one way, then the other.

Wait a second. First one way, then another…

Harry refocused on the water balloon as the idea rattled around his skull. Which was itself a new idea. He steadied his breathing and pictured the spiral. The water jumped at the command of his wand at once, but he never let the image of the spiral waver in his mind's eye. Rather, his wand tip began to bounce, first on the left side of the balloon, then the right, then back again.

The balloon surface boiled between his fingers as Harry's heart surged with the elation of progress. What if he added another position to the rotation…?

It exploded like a giant's sneeze, (a similarity he doubted was lost on Ron either) and the balloon sent boogey projectiles across the room like a dozen of Ginny's hexes.

"That's worse than the Mimbulus mimbletonia, mate."

The dorm room descended into a cacophony of indignant laughter and Harry reveled in private celebration as half the boys reminded eachother to set an alarm for sunrise before they attempted to drift off to sleep.

X-X-X

Dorayaki Namikaze became Nymphadora Tonks, who became the dumpy witch of her last visit, as the portkey dropped her and the two Shinobi off aways away from the Burrow. The reality of the fact that she was serving three masters this year was never lost on her.

The DMLE, the Order and the Shinobi team felt like three individual collars, shackled one on top of each other around her neck.

Best case scenario, she could pass off her patrol schedule as an Auror as her private revision time as a student but… this year still promised to be an exhausting ordeal. And she'd have to make time to attend Order meetings all the while, to stay abreast on the developing minutia of the conflict. She'd have to be Dorayaki for the Shinobi, Tonks for the DMLE and the dumpy witch for the Order… for however long that ruse held off Charlie's inquisitive nature.

At least Kitsune and Suzaku didn't ask her any questions about this persona as they made their way into the Order meeting.

The sight that greeted them made Tonks gasp audibly.

In the magically enlarged kitchen was the entire assembled order, sitting on duplicated chairs that were arranged in a semicircle.

What made her gasp was the figure that they surrounded, which was the floating form of the captured Marcus Flint. Shacklebolt saw them as they came in, and he too, eyed her appearance inquisitively, but did not question her as he explained.

"He has been remanded to the custody of the Auror Department, who have designated to put him in a safe house of my choosing, pending his coming trial."

Tonks looked from the Senior Auror's eyes to Flint's, which were wide and squirrely. For just a moment, she wanted to drop the morph and taunt him with the knowledge that he was in the very presence of one of the Aurors who had taken him into custody.

Kitsune growled a laugh from her side, and she supposed he found the entire situation rather humorous.

"What has he given up so far?" He asked when the laughter had subsided.

Dumbledore answered for Shaklebolt, never taking his eyes or his wand from his levitating, former pupil.

"Nothing, in fact he has resisted both plea bargain and legilimency with remarkable fortitude." The headmaster's voice somehow managed to convey a note of pride in the alumni, despite the immense sorrow at the context of its source.

Shacklebolt filled in the gaps in the conversation naturally; " We're still waiting on the warrant for the Veritaserum, but I think the delay is because the Ministry has almost exhausted its stores. Normally we'd leave him in Azkaban and let the Dementors shake something out but…" He too, trailed off as no employee of the DMLE wanted to talk about the fact that their wardens had effectively deserted them for the other side.

Suzaku ignored the air of frustration that permeated the room and instead stepped into the center of the meeting. She lifted a palm to cup the Death Eater's chin and dragged his beady eyes up until they were peering into the holes above the beak of her mask.

"This can be done one of two ways; there's the quick and painless way, or the protracted painful way- which do you prefer?"

Flint's mouth opened to spit out a soundless retort, stolen by whatever jinx Dumbledore had him under.

"Ah, protracted and painful, huh? Yea you look like the type."

Suzaku shifted her grip to palm his forehead and made a shape with her other hand that Tonks had seen a couple of times now.

Then the wordless screaming began.

It did not, in fact, take a protracted amount of time. Had it taken even an iota longer, someone would have probably admonished the Shinobi for appearing to torture the Death Eater but as it was, the name came from Suzaku and not Marcus.

"Corban Yaxley."

Senior Auror Corban Yaxley?

Fuck.

X-X-X

AN: Also the response I got on Orochimaru's reaction was both overwhelming and highly amusing. I can't wait to return to that rising arc next chapter!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Team Kitsune Composition & Duty Rotation:

Two Range, Two Patrol, Two Rest for 8 Hour Shifts.

Orange Shift:

Naruto(Platoon Leader) Orange Kitsune

Hinata (Tracker) Purple Komainu

Red Shift:

Sai (Squad Leader) Red Nezumi

Ino (Medic) Purple Suzaku

Black Shift:

Tenten (Sapper) Black Ryuu

Sakura (Medic) Green Byakko

Inner Cordon:

Konohamaru (Sapper) Blue Gama

Hanabi (Tracker) Blue O-washi

Tonks (Auror) Attached