The Hidden Hand

Disclaimer: We don't own Buffy or Naruto characters.

A young blonde woman wanders through the park. The night air makes her shiver and she whimpers pitifully about being out late. A vampire slowly creeps up and grins. "Are you lost?" he asks from behind her.

She turns around and smiles, "Yes, I am. Can you help me?"

"Help you? I will help you," he says as he grabs her wrists. "I'll help you die!" She screams as he pulls her close and bites onto her neck. He sucks in and smoke flows into his mouth instead of blood. The girl smirks and pops into a cloud of smoke.

A blonde boy with whisker marks on his cheeks and a metal protector on his forehead steps out from behind a tree. "That's the fourth one tonight!" he exclaims.

A nearby bush poofs into a twin of the boy and states, "That's right! He fell right into our trap."

The vampire snarls, "Who are you?"

A rock a few feet behind him poofs into yet another identical blonde. "Who? Us?"

A fourth boy jumps out of the tree and says, "We're Andrew Uzumaki! Hey, Jon, do you want him?"

Out from behind a nearby tree steps a dark haired young man wearing shorts, a metal forehead protector, white shorts, and a t-shirt. His legs have weapon holders strapped to them. He stares at the vampire with pupil less eyes. "You can have him. I got the last two."

A dark haired girl crosses her arms and leans against the merry-go-round. "Just kill him already! I'm tired and want to go home." Fishnet clothing covers her body and is barely concealed by a long trench coat.

"Let's get him!" shouts the original Andrew. They all draw a kunai and yell, "Right!" They charge in and throw kunais at him. He is stunned by the number of Andrews and gets stabbed in the shoulders and both knees.

The vampire pulls a kunai from his shoulder and growls at the incoming blondes menacingly. He jabs his elbow into a clone, dispelling it, than twirls around and stabs a second Andrew in the head, making it poof out of existence. A second later, several kunai with wires connected to them flies past him and pins him to a tree. He drops the kunai as he is slammed against the bark. "We have him!" shout the last two Andrews as one poofs into smoke. "Want to know how we did that?" he grins.

Before he can start monologuing in technobabble, the girl walks up to the vampire, pushes Andrew to the side, and a snake lashes out of her sleeves. The snake opens its mouth and a wooden stake sprouts out, flying into the heart of the trapped creature. The vampire explodes into fiery ash.

"Hey, Faith! That was my kill!" whines Andrew.

She twirls to him and glares, "I am tired, we have school tomorrow, and I don't want to listen to another one of your long winded speeches!" He opens his mouth to protest when the snake's hissing warns him to be silent.

"You know, we are ninja. We can get to school on time even if we sleep in," Jonathan points out calmly.

She growls, "Shut up, Hyuga!" He shuts his mouth and she storms past him. The boys glance at each other and shrug before following her.

Sunnydale High, the Next Morning:

Buffy, Xander, and Willow stroll through the hallway on their way to the library. "Hey, is that you, Buffy?" calls a voice from behind them. They each hover their fingertips over their hidden weapons as they turn around.

Buffy's eyes widen. "Ford? Is that you?" They give each other a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was in the neighborhood and thought, I remember that beautiful Buffy Summers. I wonder how she's doing?" Ford says mock seriously. Willow and Xander exchange a look and subtly nod.

Buffy raises an eyebrow, "Ford, Sunnydale is quite a ways from LA."

He sighs dramatically, "Fine! You caught me. My dad transferred from LA to Sunnydale on business reasons and I came with him. So here I am!"

"Are you a student here now?" Willow inquires politely.

"Yes, I am," smiles Ford. "Speaking of which, I had better get to class! I don't know my way around very well yet, and I need to find all my classes. I was actually on the way to the principal's office to get the class schedule."

Xander pipes up, "Before you leave, you two knew each other?" He glances at his friend curiously.

"We went to school together before I moved here," Buffy explains.

Ford grins, "And it's always nice to know someone remembers me. What are your names?"

Buffy points to them as she speaks, "This is my friend Xander and my friend Willow."

He shakes Xander's hand and smiles, "Nice to meet you."

"We were on our way to the library," Willow says calmly. "We need to finish up a last minute project." A chill goes down Ford's back as an ominous feeling washes over him.

Xander takes Willow's hand and her killer intent immediately dissipates. Ford says quickly, "Oh yeah! Classes! I'll see you all later! Maybe we'll have some of the same classes!" He walks down the hallway and disappears around the corner.

Buffy's smile disappears the instant he is gone. "He's hiding something."

"Glad you noticed," Xander remarks casually. "Should we keep an eye on him?"

Buffy shrugs, "I don't think so, but this is Sunnydale after all. You can never be too careful. We'll tell Giles about him." Xander agrees and they continue on their way to the library, letting go of Willow's hand in the process, much to her disappointment.

"We got him holding our hand! Cha!" shouts Inner Willow. Willow blushes and mutters under her breath, "Shut up!"

"Did you say something?" Xander asks idly.

Willow blushes more, "No, nothing!"

They arrive to the library and enter. Giles sits at a table with Faith standing across from him with her teammates on either side of her. The librarian nods to them when they enter and tells Faith, "Please come back later. I would like to run one or two more tests."

"More tests?" Faith says irritably.

Giles cleans his glasses, careful not to break them with his new strength. "If you ever want to find out what happened to give you your strange new abilities, aside from the spell, we need to run another test. I promise this will be the last one."

She sighs and nods, "Fine. But only one more test!" She stalks from the room unhappily with Jonathan and Andrew at her side.

"Buffy, Willow, Xander, what are you doing here?" Giles asks them. Buffy explains the situation with Ford and the other two teenagers give their perspectives and opinions on the topic. Giles goes into what has been known among the Scoobies as "Jiriaya mode", and says gravely, "I'll put Angel on his tail, since his schedule seems to have been freed up now that he's human again."

Xander smirks, "My thoughts exactly. Speaking of which, Angel, get out here! I would call you dead boy, but you had to go and turn yourself human." His sharingan swirls as he stares at a remote corner of the library.

A genjutsu wavers in the corner of the room and reveals a masked Angel. "How did you know I was here?" he inquires curiously.

"Do you honestly think that we could be your students for this long and not notice you being around?" Willow replies.

He shrugs, "Good point. I'll get right on it." His hand reaches for his pocket. When he feels the burning gaze of his girlfriend on his hand, he slowly lowers it back to his side and does the hand sign for shushin. He vanishes in a swirl of leaves.

"Don't you have class today?" Giles asks as he turns back to the teens.

Xander sighs loudly, "Come on! We can pass these classes with flying colors!"

"Than you should have no problem doing so," Giles replies smoothly.

The dark haired boy grunts, "Hm."

"And once again, the universal Uchiha phrase is born," giggles Willow.

Xander crosses his arms and responds playfully, "You aren't helping, Wills!"

"Than I'll help!" says Buffy cheerfully. "You are not nearly as much of a pain in the rear as Sasuke Uchiha was and your personality is an improvement to any Uchiha."

Giles groans and rubs his eyes, "Just go!" The ninja smirk to each other and leave the room.

Sunnydale High Library after School Ends:

Buffy lets out a deep breath with her eyes closed. Both her hands clench the metal fan tightly. She takes in another breath, than starts going through katas with her fan. Xander ignores her as he reads an ancient Chinese book on strategy, written by an old Chinese general. Willow types away at a computer, researching anything she can about Buffy's old acquaintance.

Faith leans over the table and glares at Giles dangerously. "Am I done now?"

"Yes, Faith, you are done," Giles says calmly, not phased by her glare in the least. "You can go now." Faith turns to leave when Giles snaps, "The perimeter seals just went off." Buffy tosses her fan to Xander who catches it with ease and hides it behind a bookshelf, his Sharingan deactivating as he closes his book. Willow continues working on the research.

Faith shrugs and leaves with her two teammates, who are now commonly seen at her side. She pushes the doors open and storms past Ford, who looks surprised. "Hey, Buffy!" waves Ford as he nears her. "I didn't see you in class today."

"I guess we don't have any of the same classes," Buffy replies pleasantly.

Ford scratches his head, "Yeah, It would seem so. Um…I feel sort of stupid for asking this, but do you know any fun places to go around here? I'm new in town, and don't know where everything is."

Buffy scratches her chin and says thoughtfully, "I can't think of anything like that except the Bronze. It's where all the teens in town go to hang out. I could come over to your house and walk you there later."

"No thanks!" he says quickly, hiding a nervous smile, though the ninja can still tell it is there. "I think it would be best if you just gave me directions and I meet you there." Xander's gaze shifts to Willow, who is still typing away. Ford thanks Buffy for her help and leaves.

Giles frowns, "So that's who Ford is. I'm curious as to why he wouldn't let you visit his home."

Buffy grabs her coat from a chair and replies, "That's what I'm going to find out." She exits the library silently after Xander returns her fan.

Several Hours Later:

Buffy had followed Ford back to a hotel instead of a house. She kept her distance and saw through his window that he was talking on the phone with someone, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. He went to the rendezvous point and entered the Bronze. She stares after him for a few seconds before sprinting to a window and sliding in with practiced ease, meeting him inside.

"I'm glad you could make it! I hope I didn't make the directions too confusing," Buffy says cheerfully.

Ford winks at her, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Hey, Buffy," calls Cordelia from across the room as she carefully makes her way towards them. "Who's your friend? I haven't seen him around here before."

Ford shakes her hand, "I'm Ford. I just moved here from LA."

Cordelia catches Buffy's warning glance and smiles, "I see. Well, I got to go talk to the groupies. See you two later!" She heads off towards the waiting group of guys that she left behind.

Buffy looks around and spots Willow and Xander chatting at a table. Her gaze continues searching and she notices Oz playing in the band, his gourd leaning against a speaker on stage. She raises an eyebrow at Larry dancing across the floor with a beautiful young woman, who coincidentally has no chakra, the same hair color and body structure of his puppet, and is dancing in perfect sync with him.

She makes her way over to her friends' table with Ford. "How's the soda?" she asks them while she sits down.

Xander frowns teasingly, "I have to say, it is alittle on the fizzy side. They never get these drinks down perfectly!"

"Xander, you're drinking from a soda can," Willow points out.

"And?!" Xander says indignantly. Ford looks at him weird while the two girls just sigh and shake their heads. Inner Willow is laughing hysterically.

Buffy looks over at Ford, "Do you want anything?"

He nods, "I think I'll have a Sprite." Buffy leaves the table and goes to the soda bar. She jumps when Angel steps next to her.

"Anything interesting happening tonight, love?" he mutters in her ear.

Buffy scowls at him, "Don't startle me like that!"

He smirks, "You're a shinobi. Detect me." She notices that both eyes are normal and uncovered.

"Are you wearing a genjutsu?" she inquires.

He nods, "Yeah, and most people won't detect it. It's very handy. Why were you following Ford? I thought I was assigned to him."

"Not now, Angel," she says, looking over her shoulder at Ford. She waits for the soda to arrive. Ford sees her look at him and takes it as a signal to come over. "Angel, this is Ford. Ford, Angel," she introduces them.

The young man takes Angel's hand and shakes it. There is an audible crunch. "Nice grip you got there," winces Ford.

Angel smirks like Kakashi would, only without his mask, "I know."

Ford pulls his hand back, shaking it slightly. "Buffy, I didn't know you were into older guys," he remarks.

She blushes, "Ford!"

"So you're not into older guys?" Angel asks playfully.

She glares at both of them. "Conspiring against me is not very nice!"

Ford and Angel exchange glances. Ford asks, "Did you ever claim to be nice?"

Angel shakes his head, "Nope. Did you?"

Ford shakes his head slowly, "Not that I can remember." They both look back at Buffy. "Sorry, Buffy, but nice just isn't in the job description."

"There's a job description?" Buffy says with a quirked eyebrow. They nod simultaneously with matching smirks. "What's the job?"

Ford leans in close to her, "Can you keep a secret?" She nods quickly. He whispers, "So can I." She punches his shoulder irritably. "Ouch!" he exclaims.

She glares darkly at both of them again. "Not. Nice." He rubs his aching shoulder. She grunts and grabs the drinks, heading back to the table.

Angel and Ford look at each other. "Did we do something wrong?" Ford inquires.

Angel sighs, "Beats me! I've never understood girls." They both walk back to the table.

Once they get back to the table, Ford begins telling embarrassing stories about Buffy from school. "And then there was the beauty pageant—" Ford says.

"That's enough, Ford!" she exclaims with her face beet red.

Xander smirks, "Ah, come on, Buffy. He was just getting to the good part!"

"I'm putting my foot down," Buffy states crossly. She glances at her watch, "I'm going to start heading home. It's getting late."

Willow and Xander both nod. "Yeah," Willow replies. "I think I'm going to go home too." Xander agrees.

"Nice seeing you all again," Ford says amiably. The group goes their separate ways, Buffy walking home with Ford, Buffy insisting on seeing him home.

Buffy senses three vampires in an alley that they are passing. She tells Ford, "Stay here. I'll be right back." She runs around the street corner and jumps onto the roof. The ninja sprints across the roof and drops into the alley between the vampires. "Why are you guys still in town?" she asks idly. "Haven't you heard that Sunnydale isn't safe at night?"

"It's the Slayer!" growls a vampire.

A second vampire snarls, "Kill her!" Two vampires charge from the front while the last one attacks from the back. She side kicks him in midair, sending him flying against the wall. She spins around and turns the first vampire's fist to the side. She grips his fist, pulling him forward and pulls a stake from her coat, staking him in the back. He explodes into fiery dust as she jabs the stake into the second vampire's heart that was coming strait at her. She turns back to the one that is slowly getting up. The former Slayer spins the stake between her fingers with expert ease and sends it sailing into his heart, pinning him to the ground. The ash settles to the ground to reveal Ford watching from the alley's entrance.

"What did you just do?" he asks curiously.

She looks around at her surroundings, "Uh…I just scared away some alley cats! They really should be at animal shelters."

"Really? It looked to me like you were killing a few vampires," he says casually. Ford sees her panicked look and smiles, "It's okay, Buffy! I know that you're the Vampire Slayer."

She stares at him for a few seconds before snapping out of her daze. "How on earth did you know that?"

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