Robin looked around the apartment that the Hokage had offered her to use until she could find a way back home. He'd shown her where Naruto's apartment was, in case she needed someone to show where things in town were. He'd also mentioned that he thought it would be good for her to talk to the boy about the information concerning her life that she'd provided the night before, meager as it had been. He'd also happily reminded her to come to the Hokage Tower in the morning to get started on her temporary job, mentioning that, as the Academy was right next to the Tower, Naruto could show her where it was.

Sneaky old man.

Robin understood what he was trying to do. She understood all too well. However, she also agreed with him. Naruto, while he may have had a happy-go-lucky façade on most of the time, was a victim of circumstances well beyond his control and the target of hatred, fear, and disdain, much as she was at his age. Sarutobi, as Robin could see, was trying to have an adult influence in Naruto's life that understood what he went through. Sure, the teacher they'd mentioned, Iruka, could sympathize with him when it came to being an orphan, but Robin understood the other problems that Naruto suffered through as well. The Hokage was a smart man; he knew that they both understood what he'd done: she knew what he was doing; he knew that she knew; and she knew that he was aware that she did.

And both were perfectly okay with the situation.

Robin, like a certain green-haired crewmate one might name, was generally seen by people as cold and somewhat removed most of the time. Sure, she'd chuckle at her crewmates' antics and spent most of her time smiling in an amused and irritatingly knowing manner, but she was also the least likely of the crew to show any extreme levels of emotion, and the one that carried the most secrets, or so they'd assumed, before the incident at Enies Lobby, though she later began to suspect that the captain, through no fault of his own, was holding in a large number of secrets without even meaning to or realizing. But, just like that certain green-haired crewmate mentioned earlier, she had a very large soft spot for children and small animals, especially if they'd been through experiences similar to her own, which Naruto had been.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked around the sparsely furnished room. It was five in the afternoon, and she'd been released from the hospital earlier that morning. At least the light coming in from the window made the room look somewhat warm. She needed to get some books, learn the history of this world, and find if something like this had happened before. A piano would be nice, even though it would be a while before she managed to earn enough money for one. But first…

Her stomach grumbled.

… She needed to get some coffee. And maybe some cake too. Better not be too sweet, though...

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto looked up as he heard the knocking on the door. He put down the Academy scroll he'd been trying to memorize and walked over to look through the peephole. A grin, not completely faked, plastered itself onto his face. He threw the door open wide.

"Robin-san!" Naruto didn't really understand why he felt so respectful about Robin, but it was odd. He called the Hokage Jii-san, and everyone ripped on him for it, but for all he tried, he couldn't find it in himself to call this odd woman that fell from the sky anything that didn't include an honorific. Even in his head, he kept referring to the woman as Robin-san or Nico-san. Something about the woman, no matter how nice she was, somehow demanded respect even more than the Hokage did.

"Hello, Uzumaki-kun." She smiled down at him, as if amused at some joke only she could see. "Might I ask a favor of you?"

Naruto scuffed his foot on the floor, bottom lip pouting out a bit. "What kind of favor?"

"I simply need someone to show me where the market is. I have no food or drink stocked up in my temporary residence, so I need to go buy some."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Okay." He held up a finger, suddenly acting like his normally exuberant self, despite the tone of warning in his voice. "But I won't go into the stores with you."

"Oh?" Robin raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"'Cause if I do, they might make you pay more like when I go in." Naruto said promptly said.

"Ah." Robin said, slightly perturbed. "Very well then. Do you mind carrying my groceries?"

Naruto took a second to think. "Okay, but then you gotta finish telling me what you were telling us yesterday, about the world you come from. "

Robin chuckled. "Alright, then. I can do that. In return, you can show me where the Hokage Tower is on your way to school tomorrow."

Naruto nodded. "Okay. Let me put my shoes on. Or, you know, find them. I couldn't, earlier." He scampered away from the door, leaving it open, a clear indicator for Robin to wait inside.

As she walked in, Robin noticed that the room, though somewhat run down, was surprisingly clean and well-kept considering that it belonged to an eleven, almost twelve, year old boy. Still, it was messy by her standards, so why not clean up for the little orphan?

Hands sprung up from the floor as Robin pointed here, there, and everywhere, scooping away some rumpled clothing and scattered scrolls. At least the boy kept the kitchen area clear; she wouldn't have to clean up anything wet or sticky. The counters were, oddly enough, wiped completely clean of spills, and the garbage wasn't overflowing like most little kids', either. The contents of the garbage, on the other hand, worried her, lacking variety as they were, but she could probably convince him to buy some food for himself as well; considering what he'd just mentioned concerning his pricing by the villagers, she could probably persuade him to let her buy some for him.

"I'm rea- Woah!" Naruto came in from his bedroom, only to stop and gape in amazement at the multitude of hands that were everywhere. There were only a dozen or so, but to the young boy, it was absolutely amazing.

"How are you doing that?" He asked, pointing exaggeratedly at the hands that were, one by one, disappearing in flurries of sakura petals.

Robin simply raised a hand, growing a second arm from her shoulder, a second forearm from her elbow, and a second hand from her wrist. Then she let them disperse. "It's my special power, one that I got from a Devil Fruit."

Naruto frowned. "So it's like a Kekkei Genkai?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Remember, Uzumaki-kun, I am not from the Elemental Countries. I don't know what a Kekkei Genkai is."

Naruto nodded slowly, and said. "There are some families that have weird powers because of which family their born in. Like the Hyuuga. They look like they're blind, 'cause they have no pupils and their eyes are really pale, but they can actually see everything. Even stuff that's behind them, or through walls and stuff. It looks kind of weird when they use them; they get these really weird veins and stuff coming out around their eyes."

Robin though it over for a minute. "I understand. I believe it's the same as what Hokage-sama mentioned yesterday as strange powers that were genetically transferred. In answer to your question, my power is not genetic, no. I actually have it because I ate a magic fruit."

Naruto stared at her. "A magic fruit?"

Robin nodded, enjoying his look of surprise. "It's called a Devil Fruit. The power is called a Devil Fruit ability, and I am a Devil Fruit user. My Devil Fruit is called the Hana Hana no mi, because I can bloom parts of my body like flowers from any surface."

Naruto's eyes bugged. "Really? How many people can use this kind of stuff? Could I get one?"

Robin chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Anyone that eats a Devil Fruit can, though you can't eat a second one if you already have one."

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

"If you do, you explode."

Naruto paled, and Robin continued. "And no, you couldn't get one unless I was to find a way to go back home, and even then, Devil Fruits are notoriously rare. Now, would you like to go shopping?"

She gestured at the door, and Naruto hesitated for a second, and then walked out. Robin shut the door behind them, and they headed to the market.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto struggled with the bags he'd been told to hold onto. Robin had insisted on helping him buy some good food, and he had to carry that and her food, like he'd promised. She'd explained more about her world to him as they'd walked, explaining about the Red Line and the Grand Line, about Devil Fruits, though not their weaknesses, about the Sky Islands thousands of meters above the sea, and Fishman Island, thousands of meters below. He asked what she meant by the weaknesses of a Devil Fruit, but Robin simply said that if no one knew what hurt her, she would be safer. When he countered, asking how he would be able to react to her being in trouble if he didn't know she was in trouble in the first place, she simply chuckled and ruffled his hair, replying that if she fell into trouble, he'd know and be able to help her.

He'd pouted.

Robin was in a bookstore right now, looking at what she could. The Hokage had given her a small amount of money on loan, and she'd had just enough left to buy a few books that she felt she would need. She'd said things about buying history books, as well as a few on chakra control, chakra manipulation, and simple jutsu after Naruto had told her about his academy classes.

Naruto was standing by the door, bored. He looked around, trying to find something interesting, when he heard The Call.

"Sasuke-ku~n!" Some rough pattering of two pairs of feet were coming towards him. "Why are you running from me?"

Mild cursing followed, sounding as if the speaker was trying to mutter it under his breath but was incapable of doing so do to lack of said breath.

Naruto's face soured quite a bit. That stuck up Sasuke was coming by, being chased by one of his fangirls again by the sounds of it. Naruto waited until the boy was running by him, then quickly reached out and grabbed him, pushing him into the small gap between buildings, and stood directly in front of him. Hopefully the stalker hadn't seen what he'd done.

"Sasuke-kun? Where did you go?" She was looking everywhere; Naruto recognized her as one of the girls that had dropped out of the Academy a few years earlier after the physical requirements got to be too much for her. The girl barely glanced at him, and then ran off, looking for her oh-so-precious Uchiha. Naruto waited a few more seconds before speaking.

"You so owe me one."

"Hn." The young Uchiha pulled himself out from between the buildings and looked Naruto up and down. "What are you doing standing outside a bookshop of all places, Usuratonkachi?"

Naruto glared at him. "A woman moved into the apartment next to mine, and she's new in town and doesn't know where anything is. She's really nice, so when she asked me to show her where the market and stuff were, I said okay, as long as she told more cool stuff about where she came from."

The Uchiha raised a brow. "And she has you carrying her groceries for her?"

Naruto was about to answer him, but a voice interrupted him from behind.

"Uzumaki-kun is very helpful when you offer him the information he finds interesting. I simply told him information anyone from home would know."

Naruto grumbled. "Except for the weaknesses of that weird fruit."

"Fruit?" Sasuke asked, trying not to sound too interested. Naruto waved him off, though inside he was dancing with glee over having information that his classmate did not.

"It would take too long to explain." Naruto said.

Robin chuckled behind her free hand, the other holding a bag with several books. "Well then, why not invite your friend over for tea at my new apartment? I'm sure he'd love to."

Sasuke looked on his guard, ready for yet another person that would try to take advantage of his status as an Uchiha. Naruto looked horror-struck.

"No way! This b-" he then said a word that made Robin look at him sharply, but he kept going, even though he shrank a bit under her gaze. "Is always showing off in class and stealing Sakura-chan and being all emo and making fun of me!"

"It's not showing off; I'm just that good. I don't actually want any of the girls that are after me, so you can keep that little pinkette to yourself for all I care. I'm not emo. And if you didn't want me to mock you, you should have studied more and done better in class when you sparred me. Hn." Sasuke retorted stiffly. Naruto stuck out a tongue at him and pulled down an eyelid, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Now, now, I think that's enough, boys." Robin said, smiling innocently. Naruto twitched a little, while Sasuke felt a shiver crawl down his spine.

"Hai, Robin-san."

"Now, how about you two pick up the bags that Uzumaki-kun left on the ground and come with me. By the way, young boy, what is your name?"

Robin was looking directly at Sasuke, and he felt himself being forced to answer, and worked to keep himself from looking away guiltily. "Uchiha Sasuke."

He waited for the recognition, the pitying or greedy looks, but none came. The woman, earlier named as Robin-san, simply nodded. "Alright then, Uchiha-kun. Let's follow Naruto to the apartment complex."

Sasuke simply picked up a few of the bags that Naruto had left and followed numbly. Why did this woman seem so dangerous?

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto brought his own groceries over to the counter before leaving his own apartment in favor of going over to Robin's. He thought it looked pretty empty, but she'd just moved in and had almost nothing to call her own, so it was understandable. He sat down on a chair in the almost empty kitchen, and tried to ignore the Uchiha next to him. Robin was standing at the counter, humming a jaunty tune to herself as she put a kettle on to boil.

As they waited for the water to heat up, Robin read a book while the boys looked on uncomfortably. Robin looked up at them at one point, and smiled at them, amused. "You could talk, you know."

"Hn."

"About what? All he ever says to me is that I'm some idiot that's never going to make Hokage or even be a shinobi!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke, who leaned away from the finger that came uncomfortably close to his head.

"You go to the same school and are in the same class, right? So talk about school." The boys simply looked at her, one looking overly incredulous, though it was nothing compared to what she'd seen in her crew, and the other doing his best to look apathetic, though he failed when his annoyance became somewhat pronounced.

"You are training to be shinobi. So practice. I don't mind if you spar in here so long as you don't break anything or get it dirty, so no weapons or jumping off the walls. Just follow those rules, and I'll watch and stop you if I think you've gone too far." She motioned at them to get a move on, and shooed them away from the table, glancing at the stove as she did so. The two boys glanced at one another for a second before moving to go the nearly empty living room. They took their stances, preparing to fight, when-

"Uzumaki-kun, your leg is too close to your body, and your hands are placed wrong. Uchiha-kun, your stance seems rather rigid and your knees are too straight; you won't be able to move very quickly all at once." Robin's voice called out.

Naruto blinked as he stood straight. "You know how to fight, Robin-san?"

Robin nodded, a smile playing on her lips. "I have many crewmembers with styles completely unique to themselves, and I have seen them fight both other people and among themselves many times. Furthermore, I have been hunted by people much more powerful than myself since I was only eight years old. I could not just rely on my Devil Fruit ability to survive, though I prefer weapons when not using my ability."

Sasuke frowned. This woman was so… odd. "What is this ability you keep mentioning?"

Naruto poked him in the shoulder, somewhat painfully. "Haven't you been listening? She ate a magic fruit, a Devil Fruit!"

Sasuke glared at him. "Excuse me if I find that hard to believe."

He heard a feminine chuckle from behind him and spun around to glare at the woman. "Actually, he is telling the truth. I ate a Devil Fruit called the Hana Hana no mi and gained its powers when I was six years old."

Sasuke stared at her.

"Now spar, and I'll watch and help you when I see a mistake." Her voice was kind, but hid a steely tone underneath.

"Hai, Robin-san." Both boys said, and Sasuke had no time to wonder on the fact that he'd actually used an honorific, which he never did, as he immediately had to dodge an attack from Naruto, albeit an admittedly sloppy one.

Naruto felt Robin watching, even though the glances he managed to catch between moves showed that she was still engrossed in her book. He tried to fight Sasuke as best he could, though he was still losing, and see how Robin reacted. She had been nice to him, was a good and powerful pirate, and told really cool stories, so if he did well in the fight, she might tell him more. Too bad it wasn't working out that well for him. Sasuke was doing a lot better in the spar than Naruto was.

A high pitched whistle blew through the air, and the boys broke apart, panting heavily with a few bruises-to-be on each of them, to look over at Robin who had set down her book and turned to the tea pot.

"Well, come and sit down, will you?" Robin chuckled and the battered boys walked over to the table and sat down.

"Aren't you going to get the tea? Or send one of us to get it instead?" Sasuke asked. Robin just grinned at him, an entertained sparkle dancing in her eyes.

"You're right. I suppose I should."

Sasuke waited a few seconds, then, feeling rather stupid, finally asked. "Why aren't you, then?"

Naruto snickered from beside him. "But she is."

Sasuke turned to look at first Naruto, then Robin, and then slowly turned to the stove behind him.

"Hn." No emotion was on his face.

Naruto pouted. "Aw. C'mon, teme, you can't act like you're not surprised! It's no fun that way."

"Hn."

"Do you think he's in shock or something?" Naruto questioned Robin.

"It's possible, I suppose." She smiled as a pair of hands passed her tea to her. Another pair of hands each passed some tea to rest in front of Naruto and Sasuke.

"Oi, wake up." Naruto snapped his fingers in front of Sasuke's face. "Hey, Robin, can I slap him to get him awake?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me? I'm not your teacher or some government official or anything."

Naruto shrugged. "It's your apartment. Iruka-sensei says that if you ever visit someone in their own home, to follow the rules unless they make no sense, make you lose large amounts of pride, dignity, or health, or make you really uncomfortable. Hitting someone might fall under some rules, so I gotta ask permission."

Robin nodded slowly. "I understand. For now, just leave him. If his tea starts getting cold, you can slap him lightly. Very lightly, alright?"

"Hai, Robin-san." Naruto nodded and started to sip his tea. The two sat in silence, enjoying their warm drinks, and waited for the third person in the room to start showing signs of life again. They were rewarded after a few minutes with faint stirrings from the Uchiha.

"How?" His voice cracked a bit, almost with longing for a power like that, to Robin's ears. Actually, she was pretty sure she could see something power-hungry in his eyes.

Robin smiled at him from over her tea cup. "Calm down a bit first. Drink some tea." She motioned to the cup in front of him, which he took up and slowly sipped, his eyes not leaving hers as he, the way it seemed to Robin, analyzed the threat in front of him. He set the cup down in front of him again, took a deep breath with his eyes closed, and then looked back up at Robin again.

"How?"

Robin smiled at him, eyes closed. "As Uzumaki-kun said, I ate a Devil Fruit when I was six, and gained these powers from it as a result. Of course, there is a rather large weakness that is well known among the people of my world, but so long as I don't tell anyone here, I shouldn't be too badly off. I got lucky, you know. Many Devil Fruits either seem downright useless and the owner never figures out how to use it, or they actually are. I got one that's actually rather self-explanatory and proves its usefulness from the beginning. Simply grow a pair of hands out of a person's back and snap their neck, and there, they're dead." She smiled innocently and sipped at her tea. "Mmm, nice, but I'd prefer some coffee."

Sasuke blinked slowly. "The way you say it, it's as if anyone could eat one." There was that glint in his eye, but Robin ignored it.

"Theoretically, yes, most people could eat one. But, as I said, there is a rather important weakness in a Devil Fruit, which leads many to not eating them. On top of that, you don't always know what you'll get, so it's a bit of a gamble when you eat one. Moreover, they're extremely rare, and show up randomly from the sea. I got mine by accident, just found it on the beach one day when I was really hungry; it tasted rather horrible. Lastly, if a person's already eaten one, then they'll explode if the eat a second. If you get a dud, you don't have a second chance for a more powerful one. You're stuck with what you've got."

Sasuke nodded along, his head spinning with the influx of extremely odd information. If he could get ahold of one of the powerful ones, he'd have a better chance of killing his brother, right? Though he'd have to find out what this weakness was first…

"You forgot to mention that there aren't any here." Naruto piped up. Sasuke's head snapped over to look at his blonde classmate and barely-friend. Sort-of friend. Not really.

He helped him out with getting away from fangirls from time to time.

"Yes, I suppose I did. However, I hope you don't make a habit of mentioning where I'm from to everyone we meet, Uzumaki-kun. I may not mind very much, but Hokage-sama may."

Naruto looked down. "Sorry, Robin-san."

"It's alright. In any case, he's too curious to ignore, now, so why don't you tell him?" Robin suggested.

Naruto nodded vigorously before turning to the boy next to him. He grinned, and Sasuke suddenly felt a feeling of dread form in the pit of his stomach, screaming run away, run away, you'll never unhear this, it'll just lead you to a pit of insanity! INSANITY, I TELL YOU!

"Robin-san's from a different world entirely."

THUMP.

"Robin-san, I think he's gone into shock again."

o.o.o.o.o

A/N: I hope I didn't have you guys waiting too long! I was actually going to update on Impossible first, but this got such a good response that I just couldn't hold back. In any case I have a few comments I'd like to make in response to some comments I got.

The Mobbing Cliché: This annoys me too. I know it's seen everywhere in Naruto fanfiction, and it's annoying when it's ridiculously overdone, which I why I, very clearly, had Sarutobi stress that this was an extremely rare occurrence when Robin questioned him about it.

Chakra vs. Haki: I actually got into a really fun discussion with a reviewer about this. I don't usually have anywhere to debate imaginary concepts crossing dimensions or anywhere to debate fictional concepts in general, so I had a ridiculous amount of fun just debating with this guy. So here's the response that I typed up for him (or her, I'm not quite sure).

First Reply:

Actually, I have an explanation for those.

As for being from a different world: the rules of Naruto say that everything has its own chakra: plants, animals, people, you name it. I don't think being from a different world would change anything. Besides, I don't think I've ever actually seen anything in Naruto regarding foreign worlds.

Learning chakra has to be done as a child? The way I see it, chakra control can be learned at any age, it's just that the chakra pools have to be unlocked early in life. And Sarutobi, as stated in the story, felt her chakra "twist" when she used her devil fruit powers, even though none was actually expended, right?

Don't you just love author's license?

Second Reply:

Haki and chakra are different. The way I see it, the worlds are different enough that, while the equivalent powers exist, no one has ever bothered to find out how to use them. In other words, chakra and Haki both exist in both worlds, but people in One Piece have superior weaponry, Devil Fruits, and Haki, so no ever needed to figure out how to use chakra, nor had any incentive to figure out how something that they weren't even aware of existing. Same with Haki in the ninja world: there are demons made of chakra and such, so they learned how to use it and where it came from through observation. Since chakra could be used to enhance killing intent, certain doujutsu could predict minds, some jutsu (like the Yamanaka clan's) can be used to read thoughts, and earth chakra techniques can be used to shield the body in a way similar to Haki, the need for Haki never came up, and someone unlocking it would be attributed to a fluke or a dormant bloodline or something.

As for descriptors?

Haki, it's a force of willpower. That is exactly how it's described in the series. Chakra, on the other hand, is a mixture of physical and spiritual energy. I'm trying to focus in on the Devil Fruits (and even though it's just superstition, some people in One Piece still say they have demons in them. Still, just a superstition) somehow locking in on the spiritual energy and using it to kickstart the Devil Fruit powers. People naturally have physical power, but spiritual is rarely used, so the devil fruit unlocks the spiritual aspect, and it mixes naturally from there. You rarely see a Devil Fruit user that isn't physically fit, since most are pirates or marines, so the physical aspect is enhanced there as the spiritual aspect grows with their usage of their fruit.

There are no "rules of fanfiction" for something like this. There is a reason it's called fanfiction after all. It's not as if Kishi and Oda got together one day and just made some rules for crossovers between the worlds. Besides, I never meant for her to learn more than dispelling a genjutsu (for defensive reasons), MAYBE henge (and that is a very big maybe), and some sealing, and that's just to carry things more easily; some chakra control techniques like tree walking (useful) and water walking (totally gamebreaking right there) will be included. She'll learn chakra theory and stuff, but she'll only use that to figure out how to better manipulate her fruit. Most of what she chooses to learn in the ninja world is their history after all, not their techniques.