Ninja Guarding the Triwizard Tournament

-At the ministry-

The meeting room was currently occupied by Albus Dumbledore, Igor Karkaroff, Olympe Maxime, the principals of the three schools was joined by the rest of the judge board members of the triwizard tournament, Bartemius Crouch, Cornelius Fudge, Olivia Jackson and Ludo Bagman.

‘We can now start this meeting, where hopefully we will be able to finalise all the preparations for the triwizard tournament’, said Ludo Bagman. ‘First and foremost, I believe that we must discuss the protection request that we have already made’, said Crouch, jumping in before Ludo even finished speaking.

‘Yes, yes, that is the most problematic after all’, minister Fudge also agreed.

‘How many here have made any form of acquaintance with shinobi?’ Crouch asked.

‘I do not know if my cousin counts, as she herself is not a shinobi’, said Minerva. It seemed like nobody else other than Crouch and she had ever made any form of acquaintance. ‘That counts, as you are the one and only person in the entire wizarding world, who has been in contact with them over the past few years. That being said, I am sure, even if you have never met them personally, you know who they are or at least have heard of who they are, I believe’. Everybody agreed with this.

‘The shinobi are from a very different culture from ours. They have a very militaristic culture. They are extremely powerful. I have heard that a very young and inexperienced shinobi is capable of defeating 20 of our most skilled wizards. I wish that I could say otherwise. However, I cannot. It has always been a tradition for us to ask for their protection, whenever we hold the Triwizard Tournament. This was the only reason I agreed with us requesting their protection. Since it was better than unknowingly offending them, and making them our enemies’.

‘That being said, we have made the request, and they have agreed to send three teams of 4 members each and 2 more for the judge board. However, nothing has yet been confirmed by them. They have requested all of us to go there and confirm the details. Before that, however, Minerva, I believe that you have gotten an invitation to visit your cousin?’

‘Yes, I have gotten an invitation for me and one other person. Well, the other person is Dumbledore, to be honest’, explained Minerva.

‘Does it say exactly, because we would rather have someone else go with you’, Fudge objected.

‘Minister Fudge, they have said ‘my work colleague’. Also, I believe, as the Chief Warlock, Dumbledore has the authority to go with me’.

‘Minerva, but how exactly did this come to pass-by. You seem to have a closer contact with these shinobi than anybody actually’, asked Karkaroff, snarkily.

‘Professor Karkaroff, my japanese cousin Shikari Hamate was a very skilled auror in the Japanese Ministry of Magic. She was on many missions with the shinobi. However, roughly 20 years ago she died in one of them. Her entire family, except for her squib sister, Yoshina Hamate, were killed by some of her enemies. So, for her protection, she was taken into the custody of the shinobi, and she has been living with them all this time. I personally got to know this only 5/6 years ago. From what I hear, she is now married and has a kid also. I did not know until the Japanese Minister a couple months back, said that the communication between the two of us, was the only form of communication there had been between our two worlds for the past few years. I don’t know exactly how, but I was told that she was able to get permission to have me and Professor Dumbledore for a couple of days’.

‘Minerva, are you sure with what Crouch said, they seem to be extremely dangerous people’, said Madame Maxime. She had at one time, secretly asked for a protection mission from the shinobi. The British minister did not know about it. Neither did anyone here. She was in reality afraid of the shinobi. At that time a group of 4, one adult of about 25-30 years of age and 3 kids of about 12/13 yrs had come for the mission. One of those kids, who had red-hair, actually killed a full-grown giant right in front of her, by crushing him to death, with sand from a gourd he carried in his gourd. She watched in horror, as this massive giant, who was said to be one of the strongest warriors, was engulfed by the sand. The boy also seemed like the youngest of the 4 that had come. She was super scared of it, but thought of not mentioning it, considering the amount of explanations that would have needed to take place, for everything to be alright.

‘To be honest, from what I heard from Shikari back then, they aren’t that scary. She said that they are definitely more powerful, but if you think about it, they are very similar to wizards in personality. I remember, she saying, she personally liked working with them, rather than with wizards. According to her, the only thing we have to be careful with is that they are crazy loyal to their respective villages. I can’t exactly remember, but she said she always worked with this ‘Hidden Leaf Village’. Also, Yoshina and her family themselves are not shinobi, but she has friends who are. Even she says that they are very good people’.

‘Why isn’t she or her family shinobi?’ asked Crouch.

‘I once actually asked, she said she was too old to start to train to be a shinobi, by the time she was taken into their custody. She didn’t say anything about her family though’.

‘I see, okay then, when exactly did she say that you could visit her?’ asked Crouch.

‘I was told that I could visit 5 days before the meeting could take place. So, once we can confirm the meeting date, I can confirm the date that I can leave’, she explained. ‘Okay then, are there any other questions about this?’ asked Ludo, thankful, that they were able to move on.

‘Yes actually, since we are bringing in several magical creatures, and since we are hoping to get their help in securing and handling them, we will need to request for shinobi, who are capable of handling these creatures’, said Dumbledore.

‘That’s true, but we also have our own handlers for that’, said Ludo.

‘Either way, we are to give them a detailed description of all three tasks. So, then they will be able to determine what sort of shinobi are required’.

The meeting with the shinobi was scheduled for a week from now, and Minerva was to leave for Japan with Dumbledore the next day.

-Shikamaru’s POV-

After the end of the war, Tsunade made Kakashi the hokage and left to travel the world. A mission council was established by delegates from all 5 villages, where they would discuss the day-to-day activities and any other common problems. When his mother told him about this mission, he discussed it with Kakashi and agreed that it would be a good idea if all 5 villages did it as a joint mission. The only problem was the special request that Kakashi had mentioned. Nevertheless, he brought it up in the meeting that evening.

'So what villages should send the teams and what villages should send the judges?' asked Temari.

'Well, I thought of going to Hogwarts, because my aunt is teaching in it', suggested Shikamaru.

'That is fair', everybody agreed.

'The sand village had done a previous mission with the principal of Beauxbatons. She had trouble with one of her relatives, the giants. She wanted our protection. That was I think a year after she became the principal, about 4 years ago, I think. The 3 of us, with Baki sensei went for the mission. Gaara will like it if we can leave a better expression on them, than the previous one', explained Temari.

‘Was this before the chunin exam fiasco?’ asked Shikamaru.

‘Mm’, agreed Temari.

'I see, okay then, what about the others?’

'I do not think that the stone village has ever worked with any wizards that are from beyond Japan. But I think we can send a judge,' said Kurotsuchi.

'It is the same with the Mist village. We also can send a judge' said Chojuro.

'Hmm, that leaves us to send a team for the other school, right? We can send in a team', said Darui. 'Okay, now we have to check this plan with the kage of each of our villages and confirm it', said Temari.

'Okay that aside, let’s move on to the next thing on the agenda'.

By the time the official mission request was delivered, the mission was accepted by the five kage and the details were all finalised. It was also finalised that they would use the village constructed and used by the leaf village to communicate with the wizards. Two of them, Shikamaru's aunt and the principal of the school will be coming 5 days earlier and will be staying in a house built there. Yoshina had also agreed to live there for those five days.