Disclaimer: Nope, don´t own HP nor Naruto. Would you believe that! Shannaro!

A/N: I´m so sorry it took so long to update, but I´ve been pretty busy and even though I started this chapter already about a week ago I couldn´t really get into writing up until today. However I´ve got some free time now, so hopefully the next chapter will follow soon, neh?:D Thanks to all who´ve read, favorite, alerted this story and special thanks to ladyyuuki16, Ice Vixen X, Lightningscar, SilverLunaMoon and SeaweedBrainWon for reviewing :)

CHAPTER V

Kakashi stared at his reflection in the huge lake, water mixed with a little blood dripping down his face and his ANBU uniform, his hitai-ate pushed up and good eye tightly closed, only the crimson red of the Sharingan looking back at him. This is bad, he thought, I´ve gone on without serious training for way too long for such a small workout to wear me out like this as he opened his grey eye and pushed his forehead protector back down to cover his Sharingan. How long has it been since they had left Konoha? It must have been almost a month now, thirty long days without any serious practice, thirty days without a fight, thirty days without shedding blood other than his own when he pushed himself way too hard in training as he had just now. But most importantly thirty long days without visiting the memorial commemorating the shinobi who were killed in action.

"I´m sorry, I couldn´t visit you, Obito….Rin…..Sensei….," he whispered in Japanese.

Still, it doesn´t excuse me for not talking to you, eh Obito? It´s just that this place….well, I don´t know….it´s different than our world…..I´m not sure whether it´s a good or bad thing yet…..but there´s something that has been troubling me for the past few days…I can sense it, almost smell it in the air, but I can´t figure it out and it drives me crazy…..

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud bark: "Oi, Kakashi," Pakkun started: "don´t you have somewhere to be?"

Kakashi sighed and looked at his most trusted ninken: "Sou desu ne?"

"Hurry up, you´re late already," the dog said and when Kakahi just smirked, he continued: "yeah, yeah, right, you´re always late anyway, but you have something or rather somebody pretty nasty to take care of first, ne?"

"Hai, hai, I´m going already," he answered to his ninken as he gave one last look to the lake and the nearby forest. I´ll be damned if I don´t figure out what´s wrong here sooner or later, he thought surprisingly not noticing the small figure standing against one of the trees of the Forbidden Forest.

He wondered whether he should pay a visit to the Gryffindor dorm for a change of clothes as an ANBU uniform might in this world look frightening enough without being half covered by the blood of its owner. He threw the idea aside as it might yet prove to be a very good tool for Itachi´s and his lesson and might help intimidate the annoying gakis.

But first things first, as Pakkun had said he had to take care of one thing before he even arrived at the Room of Requirement.

He rounded the corridor and finally found whom he was looking for. The bloody toad was in what seemed like an innocent conversation with Severus Snape, one of the teachers that was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Kakashi was no fool and therefore he was quick to realize that Snape´s presence at this place at this very moment was no coincidence and that rather it was yet another proof of Dumbledore´s geniality as the man had thought beforehand and had secured that at this very moment professor Umbridge would be lead straight to Kakashi. He approached slowly listening to the conversation from afar and while Umbridge might have thought otherwise he realized that Snape was in full control of the direction the conversation was taking. The young ninja felt slightly uneasy trusting this man as the aura of treachery was all around him, but at the same time he could recognize only loyalty towards the school´s headmaster, yes this man was as loyal to his headmaster as only very few shinobi would be towards their kage.

"Sumimasen…..excuse me….," Kakahsi addressed the two teachers coming closer to them. While Snape made sure that not even his face betrayed any surprise at Kakashi suddenly standing a few paces from them, whether because his hearing was so good that he managed to hear even Kakashi´s soundless footsteps or because he was such a great actor, Kakashi didn´t know. However the other teacher was a completely different story as the shriek she left out almost made his eardrum tear.

He stood motionlessly as he waited for the old toad to calm down, politely not looking at her face and pretending to be very interested in one of the suits of armors standing in the corridor. For a split second he would have sworn that it had actually blinked at him.

Finally, Umbridge managed a return, her face now as cold as stone, betraying no emotions, she turned to Kakashi and spoke: "Ah, Mr. Hatake, what a pleasure…..I have been meaning to talk to you for a while now…..maybe you´d fancy a cup of tea in my office, my dear?"

She shot him the sweetest smile, that kind of smile that only a select few could master and even less people could see through its fakeness. For Kakashi was a genius he could decipher the meaning of this one smile very well, it confirmed all of the feelings and impressions he had had so far of this woman. Yes, Professor Dolores Umbridge, you´re a merciless blood hungry bitch.

Before Kakashi could answer, Snape cleared his throat and told Umbridge: "Dolores, I think you´ll excuse me now….."

Before he could say anymore he was interrupted by Umbdrige´s "oh, yes, of course" in the sweetest one again. For a moment so brief that Kakashi was absolutely positive that the woman could not have known about it, Snape´s eyes and his dark grey one met. No words were said between the two, but the message the older man was sending him was clear. Take care of her.

As Kakashi heard Snape´s footsteps slowly disappear somewhere in the corridor behind him, he locked his gaze with Umbridge and before he gave the chance to speak out once more he pushed his hitai ate up and the ministry employee found herself staring into the three spinning tomoes of Kakashi´s Sharingan. He had to bottle up the desire that he had to cause this woman pain for all the evil that she had already caused and for the dark deeds she would inevitably commit in the future. I have no other way but to follow the wishes of my employer for that is my duty as a shinobi, a hired mercenary. I am but a tool to accomplish this mission he reminded himself. There were only two exceptions that would prevent young Hatake Kakahsi from strictly following this code. Had this woman posed a danger to Konoha or the Land of Fire it would be his duty as an inheritor of the Will of Fire to eliminate her or would she endanger the wellbeing of his comrades he would be ready to strike against him no matter what the cost. He might have been foolish once upon a time and it was impossible to influence or change the outcome of the events caused by his foolishness, but Obito had taught him a very important lesson prior to his death and he considered it his duty to follow by the ideals of Uchiha Obito, the ninja willing to crush the idea of being a shinobi if it meant leaving his comrades behind. Yes, for now, you´re luck, Dolores Umbridge…..but if you continue as you have started you will inevitably overstep and if I´m still here that day I will kill you with my own hands for sure….

For now he had to be content with implanting a few more friendly images into the women´s head as he thought of one of his first missions with Minato-sensei that included looking after a bunch of cats. Surely, this person is a cats person and it would explain part of the resentment I feel towards her, eh?

He watched as Umbridge´s face formed into a smile that no lunatic in the world, or any of them for that matter would be ashamed of and he could see the gleam in her eyes as she said:

"Oh, I´m sorry, what was I saying? I totally forgot I have to feed my cats, yes I must feed the cats in an instant….," she said turning away from Kakashi running down the corridor towards the nearest steps and Kakashi would almost swear that he heard a soft meow escaping her lips. He shook his head thinking that maybe he went a bit overboard as he turned to finally make his way to his destination.

Kakashi walked into the Room of Requirement and searched for his teammate in the dimly lit room until he found him standing against the wall in one of the corners, relaxed and talking to the kids from Grimmauld Place easily.

He noticed Kakahsi sooner before anyone else in the room and scanned him with his eyes rising one of his eyebrows slightly at his seniors rugged and bloody appearance.

"Yare, yare….should I even say it, senpai?" he asked leading all the children in the room to shift their attention from Itachi to Kakashi.

"You´re late, Kakashi," Hermione said instead smiling from Itachi to Kakashi.

"Eh? Etoo…well, you see this huge old toad stood in my way, so I had to eliminate it first…."

"Well, I guess we´re all currently in favor of eliminating toads, don´t you agree, Fred?"

"Oh, yes, of course," the other twin answered.

"You look like hell, mate," Ron told him not minding any manners as per usual.

"Well, I´ve looked worse…..," Kakashi started.

"Can we get this over with," the unmistakable arrogant voice of the tall blond Slytherin Draco Malfoy came from the other corner of the room. "I´m not sure how long I can survive in such a confined space with mudbloods and traitors and weirdos," he said in a mocking voice looking from Hermione to the Weasleys and Harry and to the two shinobi.

In split seconds the Gryffindors has their wands drawn, some of the students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff joining them as well and the ones that didn´t dare to take out their weapon at least came closer to the group creating kind of a wall between them. The few Slytherins stood facing them, outnumbered five to one and looking incredibly weak without Crabbe and Goyle standing in front of their leader Malfoy as the two weren´t between those picked by Kakashi and Itachi to join their lessons.

"," Kakashi started icily his dark grey eye boring deeply into the boys´ light eyes: "I assure you I have no desire to spend my time confined in a room with snaky power hungry brats either, but we´re all here on the headmasters orders. And as long as you´re a student of this school you will obey by the headmasters orders. Wakarimasu ka?"

All the time while they talked they also fought a silent battle with their gazes for as long as Malfoy had no other choice but surrender to the shinobi´s gaze as Kakashi would not blink or look away no matter what as patience had been engraved into him during his training way too deeply.

One of the Slytherin girls lightly touched the sleeve of Malfoy´s habit: "Draco, maybe we should just leave."

He gave her a short look and then turned back to gaze at Kakahsi and Itachi. "No, we´re staying, " he said. If I am smart enough I might be able to use this as a good opportunity to find out more about those two and then father could report it to the dark lord, which would leave him in an even higher regard. Yes, I will certainly use this in order to obtain power. Be Potter and all the other traitors and mudbloods damned. I will survive a few more hours with them and I will use it to my good. Isn´t that the same things that Snape´s doing as well after all?

Kakashi could clearly see the wheels in the boys´ head turning as he finally spoke out: "No, we´re staying."

All of the Slytherin students looked at him astonished, but decided to follow none the less as if Malfoy´s words were to be considered an order for them. A brief look was exchanged between the two ninja, the meaning clear- let´s keep a look on him, obviously he´s decided to pose as some kind of a spy.

"Yosh," Kakashi called out suddenly smiling, dispersing all the tension in the room. "We should start finally, neh?"

Most of the students were looking at him warily since as warm his demeanor might have been they were still baffled by his rugged appearance and the blood he was covered by.

"Ohh, I´m sorry, you´ll have to excuse my appearance…you see I had a run in with some kind of a strange being…..a blast ended skrewt it was I believe?...very nasty things those…."

Everyone but the Slytherins laughed mildly, but it was only halfhearted as the students who´d been graced with the opportunity to share some time with the skrewts by Hagrid last year knew very well that Kakashi´s injuries didn´t fit with an attack of a skrewt at all.

"Well then, where should I begin…..first things first I guess let´s start with introductions….I guess you all by now know that my name´s Hatake Kakashi. Or Kakashi Hatake as you´d say to be more precise. And that this is Itachi Uchiha. The thing most of you might not know yet….or might not know for sure yet is that Itachi and I are no exchange students. In fact we´re actually shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village from the Fire Country?"

"Shinobi?" "Hidden Leaf?" Fire Country"

Itachi raised his hand to silence the crowd: "I´m sure all your questions will be answered by Kakahsi-senpai or me sooner or later," he smiled.

But as the English kids had little idea about respect they still kept bombarding them with questions.

"Why do you always say sanpay when you talk to or about Kakashi?" Ernie McMillan wanted to know.

"Where we come from we are taught to have a great respect for our seniors from a very young age and it is considered good manners to be polite when you talk to them."

"Hai, hai. Some manage to go overboard with being polite, neh? Like young Itachi here for example, despite the fact that I have told him numerous time that I personally do not put much importance on the whole kohai or senpai stuff , he still insists on referring to me as such. You might not yet realize it, but it does make one feel pretty old sometimes, neh?"

The laughs were more sincere this time. Originally Kakashi and Itachi has feared that the lesson would become boring for most students and that they would be met with demands to showcase and teach jutsus immediately, but surprisingly the young wizards seemed to have a great interest in hearing the way the shinobi world worked for as long as they were allowed the courtesy to be the ones asking the questions.

When all question regarding fighting that the boys had been very eager to hear the answers to were finally answered, Hermione who had be silent for most of the time had finally spoken up.

"Is there some kind of philosophy or religion you believe in…..surely you must when you have all that blood on your hands…..no offense," she added fearing that her words might have hurt their new comrades.

Both only smiled: "Iie, it´s nothing," Kakashi said shaking his head, then he continued: "I believe in Hi no Ishi…"

"Hi no Ishi?" Ginny asked for a translation or explanation and Kakashi could see that he now had the attention of most who had started to silently chatter after Hermione had asked her question finding it boring.

"Ahh, hi no ishi or The Will of Fire….It´s a philosophy that was created by one of the founders of our village and it´s first Hokage, leader Hashirama Senju. It´s a spiritual heritage that is passed down from generation to generation, it´s the belief that love is the key to peace. From what I understand it´s not that different from the beliefs of your headmaster. Though in Konoha the Will of Fire also means the willingness of its shinobi to fight in order to protect the village and make great unimaginable sacrifices and also to ensure that the next generation is protected and the Will of Fire is passed down to the shinobi of that generation. If Konoha shinobi were pieces in a chess game, the next generation would be the king. For example a few years ago there was a grave danger to Konoha and while Itachi was still too young, I was already a high ranking ninja, a jounin, still both I and other shinobi of my age were restrained from fighting against that enemy."

Hermione turned her gaze from Kakashi to Itachi: "And what about you? Do you also believe in the Will of Fire?"

Itachi sighed and thought a while before answering, well aware that except for the eyes of all the children Kakashi´s grey eye was also gazing at him deeply, almost through him, obviously expecting what kind of answer he would come up with as Itachi´s heritage, the fact that he was an Uchiha should make Itachi´s beliefs different from Kakashi´s. Itachi could almost see the question in Kakashi´s eyes. Well, which is it- do you believe in hi no ishi or is it nikushimi no noroi? Is it love or hatred? Which one do you choose, Itachi? If you can choose at all, that is. If destiny won´t prevent you from making your own choice.

"Who knows….," he finally started. "I love our village more than almost anything else and I´d give my life to protect it and I´m also willing to undergo sacrifices in order to protect the village and its peace…..but at the same time, I have to think…..this love that protects our village doesn´t it at the same time breed hatred elsewhere?"

There might not be any other shinobi as smart and as skilled as you will be one day, Itachi, Kakashi thought. Still, it is such a shame and such a waste that it will probably only result in some kind of a disaster down the line when he remembered the tension , which had grown between the Uchihas and the rest of the village since the Kyuubi attack. When he woke from his thoughts, he decided it´d be for the best to dismiss the class.

"Yosh, that´s it for today," he smiled brightly at his new students. "Next week, same place same time. And don´t forget that once you´ve signed the paper that you got from Professor Dumbledore with the invitation here you´re bound to be silent about our little meetings. You all knows Dumbledore´s powers fairly well, so you can imagine the consequences if you were to talk. If you decide not to sign, please, just leave this room and you´ll never know that anything happened tonight. You have 10 minutes to decide."

"Well then," he turned to Itachi: "it´s about time to start your training to, isn´t it, Itachi?"

"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow. It looks like you´ve pushed yourself pretty hard tonight, senpai. You don´t want to risk chakra exhortation, do you? You wouldn´t want to end up in the hospital during our first month, neh?"

"Why should I end up in the hospital?" he asked mildly offended.

"Because, Kakashi," Pakkun who had been guarding the room in the shadows suddenly barked out: "in the end you always push yourself way too hard and end up there and this lad and everyone else in Konoha knows that, neh?"

"The d..d..dog….it just talked," a first year Hufflepuff cried out.

"It did just talk, didn´t it?" Kakashi asked turning to Itachi

"Hai, it sure did talk." Itachi answered as both ninja attempted to keep their expressions cool and as the dogs face turned into one of annoyance. Better order him elsewhere before he decides to bite her ass, Kakashi thought.

Itachi and Kakashi stood in a small clearing in the forest facing each other.

"Let´s have a taijutsu fight…..Sharingan allowed," he started pushing his forehead protector up to uncover his eye as Itachi activated it in both of his eyes: "no genjutsu or ninjutsu allowed. There´s no reason for me to train you in genjutsu as your skills already far outreach mine, after all you´ve been taught by the greatest genius of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Shisui. I know you prefer genjutsu….or better said you prefer not to fight at all…and I fully understand….however…..the assassination in ANBU is there for a reason…some days you´ll have no other choice but to kill….."

"Ahh….I know," Itachi answered bowing his head as both positioned themselves to strike.

Two hours and hundreds of kicks and hits later they both stood again worn out breathing harshly.

"That should be enough for today…..," Kakashi trailed off turning towards one of the trees behind him.

"Nan desu ka?" Itachi asked, alert at once.

"Nan demo nai," Kakashi shook his head. "Go back to the caste, Itachi. I´m gonna stay behind for a while."

"But," the younger ninja started to protest.

"It´s an order, Itachi!"

"Hai," Itachi moved at once as it was highly unusual for the Copy Ninja to order him to do something and in the rare case when he did it was better to obey.

When Itachi was far away from the forest, Kakashi hold up his right hand, concentrating as the silence of the cold night was cut by the sound of chirping birds, the moon shining brightly.

"Come out!" he called to the dark figure hiding behind the tree.

The hooded figure appeared before Kakashi in an instant, faster even than his teacher´s shintenshin no jutsu and before the Copy Ninja well known for his speed in the shinobi world could even think about reacting, he found himself falling to his knees all power escaping him. A sharp scream of the young ninja pierced through the night before his head collided with the ground.

A cliffhanger, hehe. What do you think will happen next? And who attacked Kakashi? Can you tell?

LITTLE JAPANESE CORNER

sou desu ne

hai- yes

sumimasen- excuse me

yare yare- my, my

wakarimasu ka?- do you understand?

hi no ishi- the will of fire

nikushimi no noroi- the curse of hatred

nan desu ka?- what is it?

nan demo nai- it´s nothing