Summary: Right after making chūnin, Haruno Sakura is assigned a long-term mission to be an assistant nurse to a certain Hogwarts healer in preparation for a certain tri-school tournament. The job seems easy enough—that is, too easy. Who knew that wizards could be such weak pansies? Shānnarō!

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

Note: Not beta'd. Any and all mistakes will be corrected later on.

Wizards are Pansies, Shānnarō!

Prodigal-san

Chapter Four

A month had passed since Sakura first arrived at Hogwarts, and she thought that she was adapting pretty well. She learned a new language, memorized hundreds of student medical profiles, and experienced doing things the "wizard" way. There were still a few things that confused her, like why some words didn't follow the same grammar rules and wizarding culture in general, but she realized that the best way to get used to those would be prolonged exposure and further study.

If Sakura wanted to be honest, however, the language and culture of the locals weren't what she was interested in studying right now.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, putting distance between her and the book she was currently investing her time on. It was an intermediate textbook on magic theory, used primarily by those interested to experiment with spells or even make their own. Sakura had no interest in making spells, but she did want to cast them.

It seemed like a faraway dream, though, since no wand was even willing to bond with her.

Sakura closed the book on magic theory and reached out for a thinner tome on wandlore. She turned the pages to where the book explained wand cores. The book explained that the magical core of the wand is inserted into carved wand-quality wood via magic, enhancing whatever magical properties the wood already possessed if it ever had any. Magical cores are harvested from live creatures that possess some form of magical ability, like dragons, unicorns and phoenixes. The book mentioned that some wands have cores collected from sentient creatures too, like Veela.

It made her think: can a magical core be made from a human being? She cringed at the thought of someone harvesting cores from a human to create a wand. Only someone insane would do that, surely!

But then again...

The kunoichi looked down at her hand again and frowned thoughtfully. She looked back on her first day at Hogwarts, when Severus Snape got rid of the soot on her body using a spell. She theorized that magic was chakra without the physical energy, so a medium was necessary in order to bring it out. Sakura had trained both her spiritual and physical energies together, so in a way, both her core and body possessed some form of magical potential.

Like a wand.

She waved her finger the same way she observed Snape would when vanishing unsatisfactory potions from his cauldrons. The pink-haired girl furrowed her brows in deep thought—say her theory was sound, how was she going to test it? And speaking of the grumpy Potions Master, she wondered if the grumpy man wanted more help with his potions—

She was interrupted by someone rapping on her door. The kunoichi put the book back among the tall stacks on her desk before bounding for the door.

"Coming!" She turned the knob and peeked through the gap. She blinked. "Professor McGonagall?"

The stern-looking professor smiled thinly before nodding. "Good morning, Ms. Haruno. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?"

"Oh, not at all!" Sakura smiled sheepishly, opening the door wider so that the woman could see the large piles of books on her desk. If McGonagall was shocked, she didn't show it. "I was just doing a bit of light reading. A lot of concepts involving magic are very intriguing, and they might help me understand your world a bit more."

At that, McGonagall couldn't help but smile approvingly. "It's good that you're taking your work seriously, Ms. Haruno. I daresay that I didn't expect such maturity from someone your age, but I can see now that I was mistaken. Please keep up the good work."

"O-Oh, yeah. I'll do my best! Hah, hah!" The kunoichi laughed somewhat forcefully. Her sudden interest in magic theory sprung from more selfish reasons, but McGonagall didn't need to know that. If the Transfigurations professor thought she was researching wizarding medical techniques, who was Sakura to contradict her? "Did you need any help, professor? I'm assuming you visited me for a reason."

"Ah, yes." And just like that, McGonagall's professionalism reared its stern head again. Sakura tried not to grin. "Professor Dumbledore would like me to inform you that your former instructor is here to collect your monthly report."

"Huh?" The girl's humor left almost immediately, and she blinked owlishly at the older woman. Then her eyes lit up as realization dawned. "Ah, yes! Professor Dumbledore told me last week. I can't believe I forgot about it!"

McGonagall blinked. "You forgot about it?"

"Yeah," She groused. Her research on magical theory had distracted her, and she was a bit ashamed that she let herself get carried away. "I finished the report, but I completely forgot that my sensei was arriving today. Hold on—"

"He is at the library," McGonagall began as Sakura went back inside her room and sorted through discarded papers for her report. The old woman stepped in the room and crinkled her nose at the disheveled state of the girl's quarters. "Professor Snape was the one who fetched him this morning to meet the headmaster. Professor Dumbledore offered to give your teacher a brief tour, but he declined and said he would wait for you at the library."

"At the library? That's weird." Sakura commented. She found the scroll she was looking for and beamed, waving it briefly in victory. Tucking it in one of her pockets, the girl walked over to McGonagall. "Okay, I got it. Thank you for waiting, professor!"

"...It was no trouble," the old woman said. She nodded curtly before walking out of Sakura's room. "I have to prepare for the school year, so I best be on my way. I trust you can find your former instructor by yourself?"

"Of course! I'm sure you're very busy, Professor McGonagall." Sakura smiled and bowed her head once. She trotted out of her room and waved at the older woman. "Thanks again, professor!"

Frowning contemplatively, McGonagall watched as the pink-haired girl turned at the corner. She shook her head and went down the opposite end towards her office. As much as she wanted to treat her temporary coworker fairly, it was difficult to do so when she showed her age like that.

'Children should be children,' she thought sullenly. Her thoughts then centered on a certain Gryffindor who attracted trouble no matter where he went, and she sighed.

McGonagall vanished all thoughts on the pink-haired girl as she entered her office. There were letters to sort through.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

The white-haired jōnin didn't have to look up from Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century to know who it was that called out to him. He closed the book and adjusted his headband before turning to smile at the pink-haired girl bounding over to him.

"Sakura," he greeted with a fond lilt to his voice. "It's good to see you. I take it that you're adjusting well to this place?"

"Yes, sensei. I'm doing pretty good. I've learned quite a lot of things over the past few weeks! It's incredible." she said, gushing a bit.

Kakashi noticed her good mood and smiled behind his mask, his visible eye closing. "I'm glad. If anyone's suited for this mission, it's you. You've come a long way since your first Chūnin Exam, and I'm very proud of you."

"Ah, sensei, what's with all the embarrassing words?!"

"Hey now, what's so embarrassing about the truth?"

"It's embarrassing when you say it like that, Kakashi-sensei!"

"You wound me, Sakura. I'm starting to think you're not happy to see me."

"Shut up!" She grinned. Admittedly, she was just happy to see someone from Konoha again, so she didn't contradict her sensei. She hadn't been able to say goodbye to him either, so she was feeling pretty happy today. "It's good to see you, Kakashi-sensei. Actually, I kinda forgot that you were supposed to be arriving today."

That caught his interest. "Oh? Were you busy doing something?"

"Something like that." she replied vaguely, smiling. Then she perked up suddenly and fished a scroll out of her pocket. "Oh, here! My first report. I don't want to keep you here longer than you need to be."

"It's no problem, Sakura." Kakashi took the scroll and pocketed it. He looked around the library and said, "But my, my, what an impressive library, eh? You must have had a seizure when you saw it."

"Isn't it?!" The kunoichi grinned and spread her arms wide. "I've learned a lot of fascinating things, sensei! Magic is something else, even though it's a weaker form of chakra. I'm actually interested in learning some of it. They might come in handy someday."

The jōnin blinked before looking skeptical. "I understand that it's different, but you can't possibly think it's more useful than jutsu? From what little I've read while waiting for you, most magic spells seem engineered to perform a specific task. And shinobi value versatility."

"That's true," Sakura conceded, looking at her hands. She clenched them and looked at her former instructor in determination. "But I think it's still fascinating! And there are versatile spells, sensei. You just weren't looking hard enough!"

"Is that so?" Kakashi hummed and stroked his mask-covered chin.

"That's right!" Sakura nodded confidently. Her eyes lit up suddenly. "Hey! Do you want a tour of the castle? That is, if you're not supposed to report back to Hokage-sama?"

Kakashi blinked before smiling down at his former student. "I'm not very interested in the castle, but I'm curious about that village I appeared in after using that strange teleportation device. I never got to look around because of that unfriendly man your employer sent to get me."

"Ah, that must be Snape!" Sakura scrunched up her nose. "He's really grumpy and mean, though I guess he's okay if he's too busy brewing to insult you. That strange teleportation device you mentioned is called a Portkey, and it's interesting how..."

Kakashi listened as his former student started rambling. He smiled and realized that the girl must have felt lonely if she was being so talkative, so he didn't say anything about it. Sakura didn't even notice him signal to his right, and a small, four-legged blur passed behind them. He casually pocketed the scroll that had been deposited in his hand, all the while nodding to everything the pink-haired kunoichi said.

"...and no wand wanted to bond with me! It was really embarrassing; I must have tried all the wands in that store!" Sakura said, pointing at the Ollivander's shop that she had visited a few weeks ago. "I still haven't received word about it, though I think it's because they're all busy with new students coming in and all."

"That is interesting," Kakashi commented, making a waving motion with his hand, as if he himself was holding a wand. "So in order to make use of their magical cores without training their physical bodies, wizards use mediums to channel the energy instead. But it's curious that these mediums would have their own cores, too."

The pink-haired girl blinked up at the jōnin. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he began. "That wizards need a medium with its own magical core to harness the power of their own. Don't you think that's strange? Why would they need a conduit with its own core if they have a perfectly good one already? That strongly suggests that their spiritual energies aren't developed enough to be used with just an empty medium."

Sakura's eyes widened. "That makes sense, I suppose. And if someone had a magical core that was too developed—"

"It might clash with the wand's developed core, and the wand will reject it. It's like expecting a wand to bond to another wand."

"I see." Sakura couldn't help but be relieved. She may have been right about her body being similar to a wand all along, and hearing her sensei make a similar conclusion gave her a bit of hope. "So you think that's what happened to me? Why a wand didn't want to bond with me?"

"Perhaps," Kakashi replied vaguely before shrugging with his hands in the air. "Well, it doesn't really matter what the truth is. It's all just theory. And magic seems more troublesome than it is useful."

Sakura thought that her sensei looked very much like a Nara in that moment. "Really? How come?"

"Well, from what I've observed, wizards have become used to the idea of depending on a medium to harness their own potential. If you take that medium away from them in a fight, they're done for." Kakashi pointed out. "It's what happens to most shinobi who are too specialized and rely too much on one kind of style. The only exceptions are those who are extremely skilled at that style, like your friend Lee, but even he had a close call during your first exam. It's always better to have a diverse skill set. It ensures higher chances of survival."

The pink-haired girl nodded begrudgingly at that. While she was fascinated with the thought of magic, the wizards' reliance on wands was more of a disadvantage than anything else. True, the spells she had read up would be extremely useful in battle, like protection spells and hexes, but most wizards needed wands to do any of those. Take those wands away, and they're almost as powerless as civilians.

...Sakura still wanted to learn magic, though. It wouldn't hurt to be able to use chakra and wizard magic, after all. It would give Konoha an edge, she was sure!

Kakashi sensed the girl's stubbornness and smiled wryly. Trust Sakura to obsess over something so passionately, even it was something as inconsequential as magic. She had that large crush on Sasuke, after all. The thought of the last Uchiha sobered him completely, and he sighed.

That crush hindered Sakura's ability to concentrate, too. He hoped that the girl wouldn't make the same mistake this time around.

"Try not to get sidetracked, Sakura." he began after a moment of silence. At the girl's questioning gaze, he added, "I understand that magic is new and fascinating, but don't let it distract you. This is your first mission as a chūnin—one that the Hokage herself entrusted to you. It would reflect badly on the village if something went wrong because you weren't taking your mission seriously."

Sakura felt a bit indignant at the accusation. "I am taking it seriously, sensei, and I know what's at stake. There aren't students yet anyway, so I thought—"

"I'm not criticizing your desire to gather information. That's a good idea, and one of the first things a shinobi should do in any situation." Kakashi interjected gently, but firmly. "But you're here to heal the wounded, not lose yourself in possibilities. I'm sure whatever you bring back to Konoha will be useful, but that's not your mission. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sensei." Sakura nodded, still a bit miffed. The jōnin had a very good point, but she knew what she was doing. She just had a bit of free time before the start of the school year next week, so she thought she could do a little research. Perhaps she had let herself get carried away.

She gasped when her hair was suddenly ruffled, and she blinked at Kakashi before scowling. "Sensei—"

"Good luck, Sakura. I know you can do it." he said, smiling down at her. "You've come a long way since you first started training under the Godaime, and as your former teacher, I'm very proud of you. I only wish I could have done something for you while you were still under my tutelage."

"Sensei," Sakura began, uncomfortable with the sad look Kakashi was giving her. It didn't feel right, seeing him that way.

"I know, I know. Past is past." He drew his hand back, opening one of the pockets in his vest. He pulled out a thin scroll and handed it to his former student. "Here. It's a scroll with a special seal inside. If you're ever in trouble, just put a bit of chakra onto the seal. It'll alert me and the Hokage through another seal, and I'll come as quickly as I can."

She blinked at the scroll in her hand, then looked up at the jōnin curiously. "You think I'm going to need this?"

"It won't hurt to be prepared. And the Hokage wants to ensure that you're not entirely alone out here, even though this is technically a solo mission." The way he said it made Sakura believe that there was more to it than that. "A shinobi must always put the mission first, but if the mission isn't what it seems, we have the right to revoke the contract. I don't have to remind you why we're taking extra precautions this time around."

Sakura nodded. Her team's first mission to the Land of Waves became rather famous (or infamous), and because of that clients hiring shinobi for work outside the village were held under more scrutiny than before. Dumbledore didn't seem like the type to keep important secrets that would endanger her, but then again, old man Tazuna gave off the same vibe too.

"I understand." Sakura nodded seriously at her former instructor, showing that she took his words seriously. Then she beamed at him and made a victory pose. "Don't worry, sensei! You can count on me! I won't let you down."

Kakashi smiled at Sakura and nodded, ruffling her hair one last time. "I know you won't."

"That Kakashi fellow was your former teacher, was he?"

Sakura smiled at Professor Flitwick and nodded, swallowing her food before replying. "Yes. He was assigned to lead my team after we graduated from the Academy. He supplemented what we already knew with more techniques and skills, as well as lessons in tactics."

"My, techniques and tactics! That's rather heavy for children to be learning."

"Not at all. His lessons came in handy for a lot of our missions. He even saved our lives more than once."

"Goodness! Are the Elemental Countries really that dangerous?"

"I still can't believe you let children become soldiers. You should be worried about exams and relationships, not survival!"

The pink-haired girl just smiled at the Astronomy professor, careful not to betray anything. She had already decided not to change their views on her "barbaric" culture, but that didn't mean she was no longer annoyed by it. Finishing her meal and wiping her mouth with a napkin, she pushed her chair back and stood up. "Thank you for the meal, but I should get back to my studies. I need to learn as much as I can before the school year starts."

"You've been studying non-stop since you got here, Ms. Haruno," McGonagall noted, raising an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure you're not overworking yourself?"

"It's her job to be as efficient and knowledgeable as possible, Minerva." A drawl to her right made Sakura stiffen slightly. "That is, if she wants to do a good job and get paid."

Without looking directly at Severus Snape, Sakura bowed her head in his direction. "Yes, I do. Good night, everyone!"

She exited the Great Hall, ignoring the gazes following her. She felt two particular gazes the most, and she did her best not to react until she was out of sight. Sakura looked over her shoulder before quickly heading towards her room, thinking about her meeting with Kakashi-sensei all the while.

Before her sensei's timed portkey took him back to Fire Country, Kakashi told her something that made her uneasy.

"Sakura," Kakashi began as they neared the near-empty pub where he appeared.

"Yes, sensei?" she prompted, clasping her hands behind her back as she kicked some stones.

"Before I go, I just want to ask," He paused, looking around the area. There were wizards and witches out doing some shopping, but none of them paid the two shinobi any attention. When they reached a secluded part of the village, he continued, "Did you notice anything strange about your employer and your coworker?"

"You mean Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape?" she queried. At his nod, she furrowed her brows as she pondered the question. "Well, I guess the old man is a bit weird. He's got a huge sweet tooth, and he speaks vaguely sometimes. Snape is just a huge jerk!"

Kakashi smiled briefly at her answer before saying, "Aside from that, did you sense anything amiss?"

"Well," Sakura scratched her cheek as she thought about it more. She looked up at her former instructor uncertainly. "I get this really strange vibe from the headmaster. Like he's... hiding something. And also, from the first time we met, his eyes have weirded me out. They twinkle and they... feel something similar to genjutsu."

"Very good." Kakashi praised, and she preened a bit at that. She sobered immediately when she realized that the jōnin looked rather grave. "I sensed it from this Snape when I first met him, too. This strange genjutsu technique they share was why I declined the tour Dumbledore-san offered. I didn't want to be anywhere near a technique like that without being able to study it first."

"Did you find out anything?" Sakura asked.

"Not much. All I know is that their technique can only work if you look into their eyes. Be careful."

Kakashi left after that, and since then Sakura felt both lonely and uneasy. She missed her old teacher more than she had realized, and now he left giving her something to be paranoid about. Oh, well. She supposed she just had to be more careful.

She was about to turn a corner when she almost bumped into... a large eyeball? She screamed and launched back, crouched and hand hovering above her kunai holster. When she realized who it was, she relaxed, though she still kept a wary eye on the limping man.

"Professor Moody," she greeted politely.

"Daft girl! What do you think you're doing, screaming in my face like that?" the ex-Auror barked before taking a quick swig from his flask. Whatever he drank, it must have been awful, because he shook his head and shuddered.

Sakura barely managed to stop herself from scrunching her nose. "I apologize, sir. I admit I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings, so you took me by surprise."

"Not an excuse, girl! There's no telling what's lurking beyond every corner. Constant vigilance!" he barked again, pointing at his eye and invading the pink-haired girl's space.

She forced a smile on her face and nodded. "Uh, yeah, sure. I apologize. I'll be more... vigilant next time. Constantly."

He scowled at her, and his magical eye rolled around. Sakura smiled once more before side-stepping the man and walking away, intent on getting away from the ex-Auror as quickly as possible. She frowned as she felt his eyes (or was it just that magical one?) on her, and she suppressed a shudder.

Constant vigilance. Yeah, that sounded like good advice... even if it came from a weirdo like Alastor Moody.

End of Chapter Four

A/N: Omg, does anyone even remember this story? Because even I forgot about this at some point lol. /dodges rotten tomatoes

So a little announcement: it's very possible that I'm going to stop updating here on FFN, but updates will still continue on my AO3. I find that I'm more used to the layout there, and FFN is starting to turn me off. I don't exactly understand why, but it may have contributed to my long absence. If you want to keep following this story, just search for it on AO3 under the same name :)

Thank you for still following this story if you are, and do take note that I still don't have anything epic planned for it (despite previous attempts to take it seriously)! I'm doing this primarily for my own enjoyment, so as long as I keep having fun, you'll have something to read to pass the time, hehe.