Chapter 12

It was a rather peaceful morning in Konoha to those that lived there, however to an outsider it could have looked chaotic. Merchants were just opening their stores and shinobi were slowly leaving their homes to report for missions. Sarada, Mitsuki, and Boruto were chasing a Tora 2.0 down the street catching the cat for the Fire Daiyamo's granddaughter. This, of course, was causing crashing, and loud cat meows and a few wizards found themselves on the street wondering what the fuss was about.

"Ah, you must be those wizard youngsters, better get used to this, for right now you are experiencing the calm Konoha. Enjoy it while it lasts." A merchant remarked.

The wizards a bit unsettled went back inside to try to go back to sleep and not wake up until well into the morning. It was Saturday after all.

The only wizard up was a pale blond who went by the name of Draco Malfoy. Wizards wouldn't be too concerned with his skittish behavior that morning, but a certain snake kunoichi did find it suspicious that a kid would be sneaking around and sweating buckets about something.

So she did what any curious critter would do and followed the Malfoy boy. Draco, on the other hand, snuck into an alleyway and began to curse himself. The Dark Lord himself had assigned the boy a mission. He was supposed to assassinate Dumbledore and gather intel on the boy-who-lived. Lucius Malfoy had assured Draco that this was an absolute honor, that his son of all people got chosen. Draco didn't have the same thought process. The idea of helping that snake guy was not his cup of tea. But his father didn't see it that way. Draco could only hope that his mother was holding up okay. She was the one that kept him sane. As of right now, Draco had little success. Originally, he was supposed to use the room of requirements to get what he needed, Konoha last he knew didn't have a room of requirements. The blonde-haired boy barely knew anything about Konoha, and it was this little fact that made him completely unaware of the Dango loving woman discreetly following him.

"Oi, Pasty kid, what are you doing in the alleyway at 5 am?"

Draco paled and turned around to see a plump looking woman with dark purple hair and a stick of some sort of pastry in her hand. He recognized her as one of the "Sensei". The one who did the corpse lab. Honestly, Draco felt like he could respect the Konoha teachers. They didn't pick favorites; punishments were handed out based on action. So anyone that did receive detention would receive it. No one would be able to get out of it even if they were "Harry Frickin Potter".

This, of course, meant that he was ready to be interrogated and rightfully so.

"Yes sensei?"

"What are you doing in the alleyway?" She repeated.

Draco hung his head and shook.

Anko squirmed from the kid nearly crying, she didn't know how to deal with that kind of shit.

Instead, she grabbed Draco by the collar and dragged him in the direction of the Hokage office.

Once they arrived Anko shoved him in front of the desk of the Hokage. Naruto had almost fallen asleep over the ever-growing pile of paperwork but quickly came to his senses.

"Anko, what exactly is going on this early. Why is a Hogwarts student on my floor?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I found this little Gaki in an alleyway snooping around and looking panicked. I can smell snake on him, and it isn't a powerful one or one of Orochimaru's."

Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"You suspect it had to do with the wizarding world's Voldemort?"

Anko crunched her knuckles. "Exactly."

Naruto sighed and stood up.

"ANBU please grab Ino Yamanaka from T&I in case it is needed. I need to have a word with the little squirt."

Draco hadn't stopped shaking.

"Alright kiddo, so you heard what you are being suspected of, I don't think Anko is making stuff up so spill. Oh, and anything you say hear remains in the office, so you don't have to worry about anyone including Voldemort finding out. Konoha has silencing seals for a reason."

Draco calmed down a bit.

"Sorry, Lord Hokage. You're right about it being Voldemort related! He threatened to kill my mother if I didn't do it! My father wouldn't take no for an answer either! He supports Voldemort at 100%." Draco sputtered out a rapid-fire pace.

"Hold on … calm down. What were you told to do exactly?" Naruto asked gently. Draco could see genuine compassion in the Hokage's face unlike most professors and Voldemort's followers.

"He... He told me to kill Dumbledore and get the death eaters close to Harry Potter."

"He has an interest in Harry Potter? Seems like most of your wizarding community takes interest in him."

Shikamaru who had been discreetly listening decided to take a moment to voice his thoughts.

"From what I understand during my time at Hogwarts, there was prophecy before Harry was born about a boy born at the end of July who has the power to vanquish the dark lord. This could have been Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom. Voldemort chose Harry as a threat and tried to kill him. However, a protective spell made created by a veil of love from his mother protected Harry from the killing curse. This caused it to rebound on him. Dumbledore knew that one day Voldemort would return and decided to prepare Harry for the duty of being the chosen one and destroying the dark lord. This included endangering the boy every single year."

Naruto grit his teeth.

"So, that is what all this is about. Who in their right mind would force that responsibility on a child? Sorry to say Draco, but your headmaster is a scheming lying git. Now back on track. Draco you were given the job of killing Dumbledore to stop his scheming of sculpting Harry into a savior. Correct?"

Draco nodded.

"And we foiled your plans. While I can't help but agree about Dumbledore needing to stop his scheming, I think killing is a bit much. So I will personally have a little talk with him. As for the whole chosen boy issue and Voldemort being after him, Konoha will simply have to protect him."

"That would be a shit ton easier if they abided by rules and didn't get themselves into trouble every 5 minutes by snooping around where they shouldn't," Shikamaru interjected.

Naruto sweat dropped at that. "Yes, that may be a problem,"

He then turned to Draco.

"And don't think I have forgotten about you. You will be endangered now as well since you told us about what happened, and I can tell you did not want to do this. So what Konoha can do for you in exchange for your full honesty and valuable information is protected for both you and your mother from Voldemort."

Draco felt his heart drop in relief, and he felt like breaking down crying that very second but held himself together.

'Are... Are you serious Lord Hokage?"

Naruto smiled.

"Yes, I never go back on my word, because that's my Nindo, my Ninja way. I do need a friend of mine to do a quick check on your mind however to make sure you don't have any tags or trackers, and to make sure you are clean. But other than that we can arrange for your safety."

Ino chose that moment to enter.

"Shika, Naruto, Anko you called?"

"Yes thank you for coming on such short notice Ino. I need you to do a quick mind check for truths and make sure there aren't tags or trackers."

Ino nodded.

"Are you ready kid?"

Draco nodded shakily.

…. Le Time skip jutsu…..

After a bit of inspection, it was discovered that Draco had indeed been telling the truth, and luckily unlike Ninja, Wizards didn't have any exploding tags or voice tracking devices that could be placed on the mind.

"I will send a note to your teachers that you won't be coming to class today, I think you need time to calm down, and once your mother is retrieved it is best if you are with her so that she knows you are safe," Shikamaru spoke up.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! You have done more for me in this short stay then anyone had ever done for me. Thank you for believing me and thank you for saving my mother!" Draco yelled out.

"It is what any well-mannered and kind person would have done. As long as you show loyalty, you will be treated with respect and given what you need. Dismissed." Naruto called out.

Anko skipped out of the room toward the teachers' lounge to tell them the piece of information she learned about Dumbledore trying to turn a student into a weapon and endangering him in the process.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore felt a shiver go down his spine and a feeling close to that of doom.

…..

With Neville…

Neville was excited, he was getting an opportunity to meet the Akimichi's like Lady Uchiha had mentioned. Sakura had personally directed him to Ino, who had readily introduced him to Choji. Choji had been very kind and immediately invited Neville to join his family for lunch the next day.

When Neville arrived at the door he gingerly knocked. The door opened to show a dark-skinned woman with caramel-colored hair and a friendly expression.

"You must be Neville? I'm Karui, Choji's wife."

"Nice to meet you Karui-san. Thank you for having me."

"It's pleasure, you seem like you could use a friendly atmosphere. If I had to guess you were raised to harshly for you to be this closed off."

Neville shrugged.

"It's my Gran, she loves me, but she is always critiquing me."

"Ah, so it's the tough love! Well anyway come on in, my daughter Chocho is home and Choji is upstairs getting changed from work, so he should be down any second."

Neville wandered into the living room to see a girl on the couch reading a book series. Chocho noticed Neville enter and smiled cheekily.

"Hi, I'm Chocho, what's your name?" She enthusiastically greeted. Neville couldn't help but smile back.

"Hello Chocho, I'm Neville."

Once Neville met Chocho the two instantly clicked and Neville found himself chatting more than he usually ever did. A start to a good friendship. Choji was great as well. He kept on engaging Neville in conversation asking about his life and of course always encouraging the boy to take another helping of Karui's excellent cooking.

A/N: Alright so the plot is getting mixed with the ideas of Half-Blood Prince, but because it's in Konoha the outcome is going to be different. I did add Dumbledore bash because honestly if you think about it he was attempting to sculpt Harry into the perfect Anti-Voldemort. It's my opinion so if you love Dumbledore please don't flame me. Anyway, Neville needed self-esteem help so I thought the Akimichi could help and I simply wanted a chapter to not focus on the golden trio for once. Anyway, please leave me a comment and let me know watcha think.