The Wizards Go to Japan
Dumbledore was pacing up and down in his chambers, thinking about the schedule for the next academic year. The next year was going to be a special occasion for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as they were going to be the hosts for the Triwizard tournament. However, that also meant that there were a whole lot of preparations to be done.
Although right now, it was none of these things that was running through Dumbledore’s head. It was the fact that the hosting of the Triwizard Tournament also included one other case. That was the traditional protection, which was hired for the protection of the participants, observers and everybody within the school premises for the entirety of the tournament.
He agreed with the fact that Hogwarts could do with an increased protection. I mean after all, though not actually a criminal, Sirius had actually managed to sneak into the castle, without anyone knowing. If he can, it is practical to believe that others are also capable. Not only that, just the previous year, one of the kids almost died. He is responsible for the protection of the students after all. That is what is meant to be a principal.
The problem, however, lay with the kind of the guards that he was about to hire as protection for the Triwizard Tournament. He had heard that they were hired mercenaries, who were known for their savage behaviours. It is true that he had agreed with the others in the organising committee, as it was according to tradition, and he also agreed with the fact that it would offend them if they did not request for it, and that could end up in a much worse situation.
However, that was only because he wanted to prevent the dementors from entering the school once again. Yet he was not sure if the dementors would actually have been better than these shinobis. Even though shinobi had been present in other Triwizard tournaments also, the number of deaths of the Triwizard Tournament had not been reduced. At the same time there are the records that had been kept since Godric Gryffindor about them being merciless killers. Further, Olympe had shared confidentially how they were able to kill a fully grown warrior giant, who had been a trouble to aurors for many years, within a matter of seconds.
However, he had also heard about their loyalty towards their respective villages, and that they would do the best they could (even putting their lives in danger), to ensure that the mission was completed.
He was going on this trip with Professor McGonagall, as she has a distant cousin, in Japan, where the wizards are in close relations with the ninja. Once she arrived in the office, they were going to teleport themselves to Japan, to meet up with her cousin, who then was going to take them to meet up with the shinobi, as they call themselves.
Dumbledore was even more nervous as this meeting was the first out of hopefully a lot more that the European ministry of magic was asking for a mission. At the same time, the Japanese Ministry of Magic’s requests have also been denied in the past 3yrs time. This was the 1st mission that they have accepted, in roughly 3 years’ time. Nobody really knew the reason, as to why they would not accept any mission. He wondered if it was one of the wizards' problems or was it one of their personal problems. Either way, what actually made them agree this time to accept the mission was a mistake mystery.
What was even more puzzling was the fact that the mission had not only been accepted by one village, as was the usual case, but it was supposed to be a joint mission between all the major shinobi villages.
While it is true that they still have not confirmed the mission, the fact that they were meeting, hopefully means that they will accept it. They had already sent all the mission details to them.
Dumbledore had very little knowledge of their world (not for the lack of trying, of course). He had tried to get as much information from the letters that were sent to Minerva from her cousin. However, he felt the letters were carefully crafted so as to not include anything about their world. From what he had from the Japanese Minister of Magic, they knew about the wizard culture, maybe even more than they themselves knew.
There was supposed to be a village controlled by the hidden leaf village (which was the main village, who were known to have the closest relationship with the wizards), which was close to the woods, in which the Japanese Ministry believed the hidden leaf village was located. Only people from the shinobi world were allowed to live in this village. Wizards were only allowed to visit this village, when there was a mission to be discussed with the shinobi. In the past there were 5 such villages in various clearings of this forest, similarly monitored and entirely under the control of the shinobi, by other hidden villages, as they were called.
However, all villages were completely blocked and abandoned roughly 3 years ago. The only village that had opened up was the one that was controlled by the Hidden Leaf Village. This was also just over a few couple months ago, according to the Japanese Ministry of Magic.
Dumbledore was pondering on all these points when Minerva entered the office.
-Yoshina’s POV-
After years of exchanging letters, today she was finally going to meet her cousin. She was coming with one of her colleagues, the principal of the school that she was teaching and also the school that was hosting the competition that they had requested protection for. They were supposed to meet with them in the ‘communication village’ as it was called, because of its role. They will be living in a house in that village for a few days, until a few things are sorted. She will hopefully be allowed to invite at least only Minerva to stay with them for some time.
That day after finally managing to wake up Shikamaru, they went to the village. Not more than a minute passed before she heard the familiar ‘pop’ sound that she always heard whenever her sister came. It felt nostalgic, it had been so long that she had heard it.
-Dumbledore’s POV-
They teleported just outside a restaurant that sold dumplings. This was apparently the only place, which was not blocked off for apparating in the entire village.
Surprisingly, the village seemed to be bustling with business. It was filled with people of different types. There were people wearing jerseys, jumpsuits, masks, people in wheelchairs (who weirdly were also wearing jumpsuits), people walking their dogs (the guy was actually riding the dog, like a horse), and a lot more. From the way that the Japanese Minister had explained, Dumbledore expected it to be more deserted.
There were many people who saw him apparate, he was wondering if he should inform the minister or not about it. Afterall, it would put the wizarding world at risk, if they were to be discovered by muggles.
Before he could do any of that he noticed an elderly woman, and a boy of about 16/17 yrs. walking towards them. The elderly woman was normal enough, however the son’s hair seemed to defying gravity, and was shaped like a pineapple. The woman was dressed in a plain, pale-yellow-coloured simple kimono, while the boy was dressed wearing a long jacket. That was also a similar shade of yellow. Beneath it he was wearing a white T-shirt (at least that was what it looked like). On his back, there was a weird symbol, which looked like 2 waves inside a circle.
McGonagall also seemed to be surprised and excited, and she was currently searching for her cousin, when she noticed the two coming.
‘Yoshina is that you? ’ asked Minerva.
‘Minerva-Chan, it is so good to see you ,’ said the woman, and the 2 women hugged each other tightly, ‘ this is my son, Shikamaru ’.
At this the guy who was beside the woman, who seemed to be talking to someone behind Dumbledore, came and bowed his head, which he recognized as the Japanese greeting method, ‘ Hii, Minerva-obasan ’. Curious to see who he was looking at, Dumbledore looked behind him. There was no one there, which made him think that he was mistaken.
'Hi, Shikamaru-kun. This is Professor Dumbledore. He is one of my closest friends and the principal of the school that I teach ', Minerva introduced Dumbledore.
Dumbledore also bowed. Yoshina invited the wizards to the dumpling shop, which was empty except for a couple, even though the streets were packed. The girl had long blond hair and was wearing a purple two piece, while the guy had black hair and was wearing all black, save for 2 red stripes along the front. It seemed to be a nice day to enjoy themselves. Feeling his eyes on themselves, they looked at him and smiled, which I returned very generously.
The two women were quickly catching each other up, with Dumbledore or Shikamaru joining in at various instances.
McGonagall suddenly remembered that Yoshina had promised that she would show her, her husband asked, ‘umm Yoshina, you said you would show me your husband, when we got here didn’t you? ’
The atmosphere suddenly turned very gloomy. Yoshina and Shikamaru were looking down.
Slowly Shikamaru raised his head and said, ‘sorry obasan, he died a few months ago .’
Shikamaru after what seemed like several minutes had passed, asked, ‘anyway, I heard from my mother, that you were actually here to meet the shinobi, for a mission request’, clearly wanting to change the subject, as if he did not want to talk about his father. It was believable considering that he had just died. However for some reason, it just did not seem like that was the only reason to Dumbledore.
It made Dumbledore curious to ask about his father, however he allowed the change of subject. He already suspected that Yoshina knew a shinobi, considering the fact that the mission was accepted almost immediately.
-Shikamaru's POV-
'It is just as per the information that we had gathered. Dumbledore was not a person that can be taken lightly. I am pretty sure he has suspected something', thought Shikamaru.
' Yes, actually we were. We, however, do not know where or what time we would be able to meet them. We just know that we will be able to meet them within 5 days' time ,’ explained Dumbledore.
Shikamaru shrugged, ‘ yeah, that is just about the way it usually works. The wizards are told the location, just half-an-hour before the meeting.’
‘Yeah, most of the time, even I do not know when or where the meetings are ,’ explained Yoshina.
'Yoshina-chan, will you be there in the meeting?' asked Minerva.
'Nope, only the wizards and the shinobi are allowed to those meetings', explained Yoshina.
'Yoshina-san, do you know who the shinobi are that will be present for the meeting?' , Dumbledore asked. He tried to do legilimency also on her to try to know the actual truth. However, he could not even try to enter her mind.
The blond woman who was seated at the counter at that moment, brought in their order of dumplings. Dumbledore initially thought they were customers. However it seems like they are actually the waiters.
'I believe this is your order. The shop lady finished making them, and was about to call you. But I thought of bringing it to you, as it seemed like you were in a deep conversation', she smiled and placed the plates on our table.
Dumbledore was not sure what he noticed was the girl locked eyes with Shikamaru or not. It was very brief that made Dumbledore question if he just imagined it.
-Ino's POV-
Dumbledore according to our intel was a proficient at legilimency, what they called as reading minds. That was the reason she was here providing backup with Sai to Shikamaru. The moment she noticed Dumbledore trying to access their minds, she blocked it easily, but also signalled Shikamaru by giving the prepared dumplings.
'Thank you, so much ', said Yoshina-san, while Shikamaru gave a hard nod.
‘Shikamaru's mind had already been trained to evade legilimency (all the shinobi minds were). Shikamaru was given extra protection when they were training together before and even after they became team ten. Yoshina-san's mind at the moment was being protected by me. Afterwards for the next 5 days, shinobi from the Yamanaka clan will be taking shifts in protecting it from Dumbledore.’
-Dumbledore’s POV-
After having tea, they went into their apartment, where they were supposed to stay for the next couple of days. On the way there, Dumbledore had the feeling of being followed, and looked back several times, but failed to notice anyone.