I would just like to say a quick sorry. FanFiction was being really stupid and wouldn't allow me to upload my file and I tried like twenty times. Then I tired the copy paste method but that turned it into an unreadable mess. So if you got a notification for this chapter and then it didn't work, I am sorry.
Hermione was sitting at the kitchen table in what would be her home for the year. The apartment was nice but not too fancy with a bedroom, living room, and kitchen and a small dinning area. But Hermione liked it that way. She was never one for huge extravagance and enjoyed the simple life style that she was expected to live in this new place. Hermione was roused from her thinking by a knock at the door. Opening it she was greeted by the smiling face of her guide for the day, Iruka Umino.
"Good morning Granger-san. I hope you had a pleasant sleep."
"I did thank you. Now let's get going, I want to see as much of the village as I can today." Iruka smiled and gestured for Hermione to lead the way. Grabbing her purse and locking the door behind her she followed Iruka down the stairs to the main lobby and then out into the sunny June day. Iruka quickly guided Hermione to the market square where all the stands were already full of wears and food.
"This is the market square where you can find almost anything you need. There are some supermarkets sprinkled around the village however most prefer to come here." Hermione and Iruka walked by the stands as people yelled prices and shoved products in their faces trying to sell them.
"I still find it interesting that this is referred to as a village. I was expecting something much smaller, not a city." Hermione remarked to her guide as she examined a cart that was selling fresh fruit.
"Well Konoha and all the other villages did start as just that, villages. Some are still rather small, however the major ones have grown quite large. I guess that it's just been called a village for so long that to try and change it now would just be too troublesome." Iruka groaned and smacked his forehead in irritation.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked worriedly trying to find out what was wrong. Iruka waved away her concern and they continued on their walk through the market.
"I'm fine, I just realized how Shikamaru like that last sentence sounded." Hermione scrunched her brow in confusion. Was it some cultural joke that she did not understand?
"Shikamaru?"
"Nara Shikamaru, who you met yesterday, is well known for saying troublesome for pretty much everything. It's a bit of a running joke around the village." The name jogged a memory and suddenly Hermione remembered the face of a young man with spiky, pineapple like hair from the day before.
"He's one of the Hokage's advisors isn't he?"
"Yes he is. It's strange to see him working so hard now when it was nearly impossible to even make him do his homework."
"What do you mean his homework?"
"Oh, well you see I'm a teacher at the academy. I'm taking the year off to work as a representative but I was the teacher for many of the younger generation. Nara Shikamaru was one of my students, as was the Hokage." The British witch was shocked. The man who was to be her guide had taught some of the current heads of the village.
"You taught the Hokage! You must be an incredible teacher." Iruka laughed and shook his head at the gob smacked look on Hermione's face.
"Well I only taught them at the academy, which is rudimentary stuff. After the students graduate they move on to four man teams where they do most of their learning. I believe that once you have lived here for a while the Hokage is planning for you to tour the academy."
"That sounds wonderful. It must be interesting for you to see children that you taught grow up to be powerful leaders."
"Well I always knew that Naruto would be an incredible Hokage. It was always his wish and he would yell at anyone who would listen that he was going to be the future Hokage." Hermione thought about the new information as she stopped to examine another stand. His description of the Hokage seemed different than the calm and serious man that she had seen the day before. But then again people change a lot when they grow up, and she hadn't been living in the village long enough to really get to know what the Hokage was like.
"Well he had the support of a great teacher to help him. " Iruka simply laughed.
"Well I didn't teach him all that much. Besides-"
"COMING THROUGH!" Iruka was cut off as a yell echoed through the market. Turning to see what was going on Hermione was shocked as a massive dog the size of a horse come bounding through the market. The immense canine was chasing after a brown cat with a red bow and a very determined look in its eyes. The British witch froze as the cat shot towards her and landed in her arms, trying to hide from its chaser.
"KIBA STOP!" Iruka jumped in front of Hermione and grabbed the dog's head bringing it to a halt.
"Sorry about that Iruka-sensei. We almost had the damn thing when it decided to cut through the market." Now that things had come to a stop Hermione realized that a man was astride the large dog. The man was incredibly wild looking with his long brown hair, a scruffy beard and large canine teeth. The red triangle tattoos on his face only served to help his Wildman look. Iruka just sighed as the dog pushed its massive snout against his chest asking for forgiveness.
"Yes Akamaru I know you're sorry. Why are you two even doing the Tora mission?"
"Revenge. I babysat for Ino the other week cause she was desperate and the brat and I accidentally ruined this new dress she bought. She called in a couple favors and blackmails and managed to get me stuck on D's for a week." Iruka just hung his head at the mischief that his former student still managed to get into. The sound of meowing brought his attention back to the fact Hermione was currently holding the demon cat of Konoha in her arms. Kiba followed his view and was quite shocked that someone was actually holding Tora, and the cat wasn't clawing his or her eyes out. In fact the cat seemed to be enjoying itself as Hermione rubbed behind her ears. Iruka thought he was hearing stuff when he heard a soft purring sound coming from the devil feline.
"Kiba may I introduce Granger Hermione, the envoy from Britain." Iruka had to hold back a groan when he realized that his former student almost trampled the envoy. Wouldn't that be fun to explain to the British ministry, that their representative had been trampled to death by a massive dog and its hotheaded owner. This outing was supposed to be simple and show some of the sights of the village. They were making a horrible first impression.
"Hi there, I'm Inuzuka Kiba and this is my partner Akamaru. Sorry about all the commotion, things got a little out of hand. You aren't hurt are you?" Kiba scratched the back of his neck in nervousness not only because of his blunder but the power he was feeling. He was used to the feeling of chakra but the foreign woman seemed to buzz with an unfamiliar energy. And on top of that his former teacher was giving him a death glare. It didn't matter how old you were, everyone knew of the infamous Iruka glares. It was much safer to stay on the academy teacher's good side.
"It's no trouble, and no I'm not hurt."
"Well I'm glad to hear that. Now I will be needing that cat and then I will be on my way." Hermione smiled and tried to hand the cat over but Tora dug her claws in and wouldn't let go. Hermione slowly unhooked the cat from her body and handed her over. However just as Kiba was about to grab the pesky feline, Tora leapt away and took to the rooftops.
"Damn cat! I got to go, see you around." Kiba leaned forward and Akamaru shot off following the trail of the demon cat. Hermione laughed and waved at their backs before turning back to Iruka who had a look of annoyance on his face.
"I'm sure to never be bored around here if that's a daily occurrence." Iruka sighed and felt a bit of pressure leave his shoulders. He was in charge of making sure that negotiations went well and that Hermione felt comfortable within the village. Thank goodness it seemed that she hadn't been to bothered by the mess that had just happened.
"Almost once a week you see a poor team of rookie shinobi chasing after Tora. Everyone has to go through it and we all swear that it's demon cat. She has to be cause that damned cat must be pushing almost 30 now and still has way too much energy. I'm actually shocked you managed to hold Tora, usually doesn't let anyone touch her."
"Cats seem to like me. I used to have a cat and he didn't let anyone touch him but me. Maybe it's a gift." Iruka smiled and Hermione smiled back as the two of them continued on their venture down the market. The venders had barely paused in selling their wares, used to the craziness that came with living in a shinobi village. Hermione stopped at a few vendors and purchased some fresh food that she would need for the week. Luckily her purse had an expansion charm on it so she could fit all her groceries. She greatly enjoyed seeing Iruka's shocked face as she placed massive bags of food into her tiny purse and lifted it without any trouble.
"I haven't seen much of what your people are capable of, but from what I have seen this little bag seems pretty basic."
"Well we do have a system of scrolls that we use to store stuff in but your bag seems much more simple. Is it a seal of some sort or a dimensional pocket?"
"It's magic." Hermione smiled and couldn't help but laugh at the slightly annoyed look on Iruka's face as he took in her sarcasm.
"Very funny Granger-san." Hermione smirked at him in good fun and Iruka just shook his head.
"Well I'm thinking that since we are going to be spending a lot of time working together we should know a bit about one another." Iruka didn't let it show but Hermione noticed from his face that he wasn't very happy with the idea.
"I'm sorry if I offended you Umino-san." Hermione felt guilty as she realized that people around here were probably not jumping at the chance to share information with someone from a completely different continent.
"No you didn't offed me, I just don't really know what to say." The young woman breathed a sigh of relief when Iruka didn't outright deny giving any information. He was simply being cautious, and maybe a bit shy, when it came to sharing information about himself.
"Well I guess I can start. My name is Granger Hermione and I am a 25-year-old witch from Britain. I love reading and learning new things and I can't stand bad table manners or leaving things until the last minute. You don't have to tell me your life story but give it a go." Iruka had a flashback to the academy days when he had first been on a team and his sensei had made everyone do a similar thing. He was slightly weary of giving information to a woman who was practically a stranger. However, Naruto had told him to make her feel welcome and he wanted Hermione to feel comfortable within the village. To do so she had to create relationships within the village and he was going to be her main link for information and guidance.
"Alright well my name is Umino Iruka and I am a 34 year old chunin from Konoha. I love teaching and learning new things and I don't like laziness and bullies." It wasn't until he had finished his introduction that he realized it was almost a carbon copy of what Hermione had said.
"Well it's nice to meet you Umino-san, it sounds like we have a lot in common. I sure that we will get along well and make this transfer flourish. So have you lived in Konoha your whole life?" Hermione didn't know what to think about what her guide had said. He may have simply said similar things to her because it was easy. However, if they really did have such similar traits than hopefully this transfer would work out well. With similar personalities they were less likely to bump heads and really try to make their situation work.
"Yes I have. I have made frequent trips to the various villages on the continent, sometimes for long periods of time, but Konoha is always home for me."
"I look forward to learning more about this place. Your culture seems so interesting and different from my own. I think it will be an amazing experience to get to know a completely distinctive way of life." And she wasn't lying when she said that. Hermione loved to learn new things and this new village was ripe with information.
"Well I look forward to teaching you about Konoha. I was planning on taking you to the library tomorrow to teach you about some of the main clans that form this village."
"Clans?" In Britain there were some larger families, mainly purebloods, but non-really classified themselves as clans.
"Yes, most of Konoha is made large family clans. I will keep that lesson for tomorrow since today is supposed to be about showing you around." Hermione realized that with all her questions they had gotten a bit sidetracked from her tour.
"Lead the way." Iruka gestured for her to follow as they made their way out of the market to the outer rim of the village. The houses began to thin and more trees became visible until a forest with small clearings came into view.
"These are the training grounds and I suggest that you stay away from them. Many students are taught around here and we don't want you getting hurt due to a stray weapon or stumbling into a trap meant for another."
"I understand, thank you for the warning. I was told that it is a very militaristic society here and I guess training grounds are a good example of that." She hopped to see a demonstration of the fighting style done in Konoha but no one seemed to be in the nearby training grounds. Little did Hermione know that there were a few teams in the area but they were simply hiding and observing the temporary member of their village.
"Our military is very important, it's what keeps Konoha as one of the top villages. To keep everyone in top shape they need placed to practice and those are the training grounds. The grounds within the walls are normally used for beginners and simple sparing matches. The more advance shinobi use the outer ones to avoid destruction of property. Are we so different from you own home?"
"Well I haven't been here very long but things are definitely different. The magical society in Britain is not militaristic in the least. Sadly we were forced to be when a war broke out due to the resurrection of a dark lord. There was a lot of unnecessary death because people were not prepared. But now things have changed. I'm the head of the law enforcement division for my government, and with the help of the new minster we have managed to pass laws so we are better prepared. Our Aurors, our police force, have new training regiments and things are much more strict. I hope I can learn something from your systems here to help my home if a war ever starts again."
"Well for now you will be learning more about our civilian dealings but once you have settled in more and are familiar with the way of life here then Hokage-sama will start allowing you more knowledge to the shinobi side of things. You also need to learn about chakra if you are to understand the way things work when dealing with shinobi. I imagine that it is somewhat similar to your magic."
"Well I'm not sure since I haven't really seen any demonstrations." Iruka paused with a thoughtful look on his face. Then running through some quick hand signs a water ball formed in his hand.
"Right now I am using chakra to pull the water from the air into a ball. It is a handy technique when one is low on water but it can also be used as an offensive technique, if made large enough. Can you do similar things with your magic?" They had learnt about the magic of the outer lands from the Japanese envoy when they had first opened the borders. However, the man had also told them that all the magical societies over the world were slightly different and not to base one on the other. Apparently the British magic society was quite different from the Japanese, which was somewhat similar to the shinobi system.
"Well we have a spell that can conjure water but almost all witches and wizards require a wand to channel their power. Very few can perform magic by simply using their hands."/
"Well I cannot form a water ball out of thin air either. Shinobi use a combination of hand sign to channel chakra and perform the technique."
"Ah I see, so instead of a wand you have hand sings." Iruka nodded in confirmation.
"Some techniques can be performed without hand signs, but only after extensive practice."
"Do you think I could learn to use chakra?" Hermione sincerely hopped that she could learn this foreign ability. It would be one more thing to add to her arsenal if she ever needed it.
"I don't believe you can. When the envoy from Japan was here he asked the same question and we checked his chakra coils. Your coils are like a second set of nerves that allow someone to use chakra. We had him checked and he didn't appear to have any. We discussed things and came to the conclusion that your magic core has replaced your chakra coils in a way. So no you cannot use any of our techniques and we cannot learn magic." Iruka could see the disappointment on the woman's face but soon it was replaced with a new form of determination.
"Well I can learn as much about it as I can even if I cannot perform it." Iruka smiled. She had the same energy in her voice that Naruto had when he got excited about learning something new. Although Naruto would probably die if could only read about something, he loved practical work way too much.
"I believe that Hokage-sama has a lesson planed for you that will be more in depth and detailed than I can give."
"Well I look forward to it. Now let's finish this tour."
Yay it's done! I'm sorry about the long wait but I have been so busy with school and work that I just didn't have a chance to sit down and write. Also I know these opening chapters are kinda boring but Hermione needs to get settled in and than things will start happening. I want to thank all my lovely reviewers and I hope you guys keep it up.
Now on another note I was thinking of getting a beta. I am aware that my grammar could use some work and sometimes its just good to have a second opinion on the matter. I would also like my beta to be able to bounce ideas back and forth with so if anyone is interested please send me a PM. If anyone just has an idea that they would like to see in the story then also send me a PM or leave a review. Until next time Slayer out.