Cap 9…

At the Academy they taught that building trust with the employer(s) was important. Sometimes Naruto was too good at that, making friends (and enemies) all over the Hidden Countries. Sasuke mainly had enemies, but he too understood the importance of trust between an employer and a shinobi.

Which is why they stood in the Teacher's Lounge, facing the teachers of Hogwarts. They were a varied bunch, ranging from a petite man to a woman with branches sticking out everywhere. The women were also far from the range the shinobi were used to. A tight-lipped scrawny woman scowled like Sasuke at them, but right next to her stood a woman whom Naruto could plant a 'vacancy' sign on and she wouldn't even notice.

Naruto bowed to them and said: "Daiki Sato, Chuunin of Fire Country, code-name 'Fox'." He bit down in time on the automatic 'future hokage', but he managed to squeeze his rank into his introduction anyhow.

"Hideko Tanaka, Chuunin of Fire Country, code-name 'Crow'," introduced Sasuke himself, also making a small bow towards the assorted teachers.

Dumbledore took over from them and addressed the teachers. "Since the Dementors turned out to be … unsuccessful last year, I hired new guards for Hogwarts."

Most of the speech was lost on Naruto, but he caught the gist of it: that they were shinobi from Konoha, and why he had chosen to hire guards from a hidden country. During the speech his mind wandered to the chosen names. To remain somewhat incognito they had settled on a fake name. They would still be Fox and Crow to the students, but the teachers thought that they'd given their real names. That meant a basis for trust, and trust was important for a mission this long. They'd have to work alongside the teachers, and the sooner they got along, the better.

Naruto hoped he remembered to react to the fake name, or the teachers would find out real quick.

"They will patrol the grounds at night so you won't have to anymore, and I've asked them to teach some duelling classes for any interested students."

Asked? Naruto remembered the mission parameters. More like 'put in there and granny Tsunade was forced to accept because of the incredible sum of money Konoha would receive upon successful completion of this mission, and here's a down payment of two times an A-ranked mission, to coerce you into sending your best shinobi'.

The old man sure knew how a hidden village worked, especially one recovering from an invasion.

"I thank you for your time. I'll see you all at dinner, then."

The old man smiled a dismissive smile and watched as the staff slowly dispersed, some of them talking amongst each other, but the majority openly stared at Sasuke and Naruto, who stood at attention like the trained shinobi that they were. Naruto knew that the teachers must be curious, but they held it back. They might have to deal with that later. Giant Fuzzball approached and nodded at them.

"Morning fellows, I'm your tour guide this morning. If you'll follow me, please…"

To a Konoha-born shinobi, the castle felt dark and huge, made from unnatural stone and lacking in plant life. There were plenty of other things around to look at (such as the moving, talking paintings and the enchanted torches), but they were all man-made. The castle was too square, too impregnated with the order imposed on natural elements that Sasuke didn't feel at home here.

Giant Fuzzball seemed to feel at home though, judging by the way he spoke about the various paintings and showing them secret shortcuts, sometimes with traps built in to capture an inattentive student.

From a shinobi's perspective, the castle contained a lot of openings, but in case of an attack, the castle was easy to defend. Its creators had thought long and hard on the architecture, because from what Sasuke saw, there were at most three ways in and out of the castle. Add to that the various hexes placed on it, and you got a location where Sasuke would gladly hole himself up in.

But it was still too dank.

And it had too many surprises for a shinobi. The suits of armor clanged at them, surprising Sasuke and he darted away a few steps in a decidedly girly fashion, or so Naruto told him. Multiple times.

His teammate got his comeuppance when a see-through ghost drifted through the walls. Naruto gave a shriek (utterly girly in Sasuke's opinion) and Sasuke had to physically restrain him to keep him from running off. The guy who didn't blink at fighting demons was somehow still scared of ghosts. The balding ghost seemed offended by Naruto's shriek and floated closer, wagging his finger at the shinobi.

"I may be dead, but I still have feelings."

"G-g-g-g-," Naruto said, pointing a trembling finger at the ghost. Sasuke noticed the fat man wore a habit.

"Yes, that's a ghost," said Sasuke in a calming voice. "Get over it."

But there was no venom in his voice. Better get this over with than have to deal with tackling Naruto every time a ghost floated past.

"There's nothing to be scared of, young man, we ghosts... chose to stay longer. No harm done," said the ghost in a surprisingly warm voice for a dead creature. He smiled and pointed at himself. "I'm known as the Fat Friar. Welcome to Hogwarts, I hope you have a pleasant stay here. If there's anything you need, I'm your ghost."

"You seen Peeves around, Fat Friar?" asked Giant Fuzzball. Naruto calmed down somewhat, but Sasuke saw that behind his mask he was still wide-eyed. The giant and the ghost started discussing some mutual acquaintance, leaving Sasuke to assess Naruto's mental condition.

"You gonna run off?" he asked, and when Naruto shook his head he slowly let his teammate go. He kept him in arm's reach though. He didn't fancy tracking down a shinobi who didn't want to be found in this mysterious stone maze. Or worse, track down a whole lot of Naruto's if he decided to use Kage Bunshin [1], only to have every one of them go 'poof' in his hands.

"See? They're harmless. Even Giant Fu- Hagrid thinks so."

"Easy for him to say, he's twenty feet tall."

Sasuke bopped Naruto on the head. "Get real. You're a shinobi. That," Sasuke indicated the ghost, "is a jolly fat ghost. We can hear it coming, we can see it coming, better yet; we can sense it coming. So there's nothing to fear."

The Fat Friar was done talking with Hagrid and still smiled up a storm, as if he wanted to put Naruto at ease that way.

"If it makes you feel better, I can't even touch you. So I can't harm you in any way."

Naruto nodded, but his eyes were still too large for his face. For the moment he seemed to accept that at least this ghost wasn't out for his blood. Sasuke hoped that the other ghosts were as harmless as this one, because he didn't want to deal with Naruto in this state more often. Giant Fuzzball ushered the shinobi onward.

"That was the Fat Friar. Thanks for introducing yourself, mr. Friar, we'll be on our way now."

The ghost waved at them and disappeared through a wall. Giant Fuzzball continued the tour, and slowly Naruto calmed down. They didn't encounter any more ghosts, and the tour was immensely helpful. Giant Fuzzball knew his stuff. He told them tidbits of information on pretty much every corridor. And not only that, he was the groundskeeper, so he knew every tree and every rock as if it was his own backyard. Which it actually was.

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