AN: I'm shy and bad at responding but I just really wanted to thank people who left comments. That was really nice. :)

AvexedAuthor: First comment! And thank you so much!

Warehouse1: You took the words out of future Hermione's mouth. O.O

K1ng Of H34rts: A genius idea I admit I hadn't thought of! Brings a whole new dimension to "fat ginger baby."

James Birdsong: Thank you :))

Ginny's fingers were pressed flat against the tan rock of the mountain top, her hands glowing blue. The light spread from her fingertips, sinking into the rock and pushing it inwards, creating a spacious cave. She smiled. The Doton Tamuro was way more convenient than searching London weekly for a new flat.

She had not thought to see if the same "cave" technique had been used on the other side of the broad stone peak, however. How could Ginny know the popularity of this particular mountain with a duo of bounty hunters?

"Looky here," a gruff voice purred behind her. Ginny jumped back, having to stop herself from crouching into her brawling stance. Instead she adopted her new facade: harmless little girl who definitely has no interest in impaling you on her rock fist.

The man was not particularly tall (though everyone was tall right now compared to Ginny), but he was wide, like a Beater. His arms were criss-crossed with long pink and white scars that seemed to extend from his knuckles, and he wore a red bandana over greasy green hair.

"A dirty little redhead. Hair that bright… think it's one of them Uzumakis? Heard there're still some hiding."

She would have been offended at being described as a ginger again, but unfortunately Ginny still wasn't as proficient in Japanese as Hermione had hoped. She hadn't understood a single word.

Ginny backed away, turning her head down but keeping a keen eye trained on the man. She gave a short bow as an apology. The man didn't sound angry, but he didn't look kind.

The bounty hunter laughed.

"What are you, a wild animal with manners? Can you even talk?"

The man leaned toward her, reaching a rough hand to snatch her choppy red hair. Ginny's response was pure instinct.

Supplying chakra to her quads and shoulders, she backspringed away, landing one foot — coated with chakra — flat on the man's chest and forcing him back, adding momentum to her flip.

It wasn't an offensive move, merely pushing him a few stumbling steps away, but it was a warning. One she hadn't meant to give.

Shit. She thought, landing in a steady crouch. 'Mione's going to kill me.

Not only had she just started their first fight. It had been because she still couldn't speak the bloody language.

She hoped Hermione and Luna would return from the village soon and help clear everything up.

The man's eyes widened as he rubbed his chest. Instead of attacking, however, he yelled over Ginny to someone out of sight.

"Oi! Riko! I think it is an Uzumaki! It looks like a baby but it's got way too much chakra!"

A second man stepped out from behind Ginny; this one had a pointy jaw line and long, pale yellow hair. He wore a headband with a metal piece. There was an engraving of an hourglass with a ragged slash through it.

"Grab it. Maybe we can sell it when we get to Grass. I hear someone's looking for kids like that. Even if she's just a clanless mutt, we can probably get a good price for her."

The green-haired man reached for Ginny once more, pulling out a kunai. It looked much sharper than the school ones Hermione had stolen for her.

Shit, shit, shit.

She flipped back again, only for her feet to crack against a new rock wall that rose quickly from the dirt. She couldn't see the yellow-haired bounty hunter behind it, his hands slammed to the ground.

She did know, however, they were definitely caging her in. Now she faced the green-haired bounty hunter with nowhere else to run.

Though a flutter of fear shook her ribcage, she couldn't help a small smile.

Hermione couldn't get mad at her for fighting now. Plus, she had wanted to test out her new skills in a real battle.

It had been such a long time since Ginny had really fought. That had become her home, and it's welcoming rush of adrenalin thrummed through her veins like a hit from a long-kicked habit.

"About bloody time."

The men didn't react to the little girl's smile, nor her gibberish. The big ugly one just stepped closer, thrusting the knife to her throat, piercing it only enough for a drop of blood to roll down.

"Don't move, brat. You're coming with us."

In a daze of memories, Ginny didn't see his scars nor his green hair. Instead she saw a winding snake tattoo and wild, black witchy curls.

As he reached for her, Ginny lunged, using his momentum against him.

They struck; his hand collided with her rock-coated palm. She snapped his smallest wrist bone with a knowing push.

She'd done the same to Daphne Greengrass' wand-hand during the Grimmauld Place siege.

Before the man could shout, Ginny had jumped two feet in the air, her other fist smashing into his chin in an uppercut. She felt a bolt of chakra ripple through her as she forced it up into the punch, willing it with her fury.

It felt just like throwing a particularly vicious Reducto.

When she landed on her feet, the man fell on his back, skidding across the gravel, nose and mouth bleeding in a trail behind him.

"You get her?" A muffled voice sounded behind the wall.

But Ginny didn't wait. There were no reactions in battle, only action.

And, in the haze of adrenaline, the sandy gravel of the mountain became the rubble of Grimmauld Place. She could practically feel the spells zinging just short of her.

She ran, funneling chakra to her legs as she leapt against the rock wall and vaulted it — over the shinobi still crouched behind it.

As she passed over him, their eyes connected.

His eyes were icy blue. She could imagine another boy with blonde hair and blue eyes.

He'd killed her oldest brother.

The shinobi saw the vicious twist in Ginny's face, but he had not seen what she had done to his partner. Could not know she wasn't an ordinary child. So it wasn't a slight on his character that he responded a second too late.

Ginny flipped in the air, forming three hand seals, then hit the ground with both feet, slamming a hand in front of her. Where the blond stood was now a blood-spattered rock spike, twice as wide as the man who now hung from the tip, pierced through his chest. A row of spikes rose behind it, born of pure rage.

"Riko!"

Ginny heard the gruff voice as if underwater.

Something was wrong. Her head spun. Her arms moved in slow motion. Adrenalin fled her body that was now failing, somehow.

Shit, bloody fucking hell in a—

As she tried to stand, darkness claimed her. Ginny collapsed face-first into the dirt.

She did not hear the approaching forms of two girls who had seen everything.

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The battle had ended with Hermione and Luna racing up behind the scarred bounty hunter.

He was stooped down, howling in rage with an unconscious Ginny's head yanked up at a grotesque angle. He had a kunai pressed to her neck with intent to kill.

In a flash, Luna "became a boggart" and forced the man to see his worst fears, distracting him, while Hermione ripped a page from her journal and activated a rune seal with the only chakra she could spare.

She slapped it to his neck from behind.

A quick clean slash appeared, severing his head from his body. It was inspired by Sectumsempra and was the most painless way she knew how to kill someone with her limited skills.

His head rolled cleanly off the mountain and his body sagged, releasing the girl.

Luna and Hermione snatched Ginny up, pulling her swiftly from the aftermath and scouring her for injuries.

There was a slash across her neck. It wasn't too deep, and Luna had just enough knowledge of healing that she could stem the blood. She wouldn't be able to knit the skin back together, however, and it would surely scar.

Other than that.

"Looks like chakra exhaustion, again," Luna sighed.

As she did, Hermione also collapsed.

Oh for Merlin's sake, Luna thought while dragging the girls into the cave that Ginny had carved moments before the fight.

Luna had been planning to read a healing scroll, but she had to make two soldier pills instead.

She shrugged, at least she would be practicing real medicine.

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When Hermione woke, she wondered why she was eating poop.

"Poop?" She heaved through the wad of whatever-it-was that she had just spat out.

"Why, Hermione, I would never feed you something as foul as excrement. It's just a soldier pill."

Hermione blearily looked up at Luna noting that whatever she had ingested was probably no better than poop but it had woken her up.

Maybe Luna did know what she was doing.

Terrifying.

Luna updated Hermione. Evening had fallen since the scuffle. The sky was streaked blood red, now, but Luna had scrubbed the mountainside of any sign of the fight — save for the rock wall and spikes that she couldn't remove. She showed Hermione a small stash of goods she'd scavenged from the scene, notably a couple of pouches of sharp kunai, a small bag of money, and "Bingo Books" from each of the major villages.

Luna's favorite prizes, however, were the two headbands she'd relieved from straight off their (now buried) bodies.

"Winner's spoils," she affirmed to Hermione, who had gone pale.

"It's, erm, a bit morbid, though, isn't it?"

Luna looked perplexed. "Morbid? No. They're beautiful."

Hermione simply nodded. She recognized the metal plates with Suna insignia, long jagged slashes through them and scratches peppering the surfaces. The fabric was blue with red splotches, clearly from this fight or another.

"You're right. My apologies."

They then moved on to discussing the fight.

"We were very lucky," Hermione sighed. Had the bounty hunters not underestimated Ginny, had the man not been sloppy in his emotions after the first kill, had he noticed Hermione sneaking up behind him, had there been more than two — pick any one and you'd have dead toddlers on your hands.

"She was foolish to attack two trained adults." Hermione grimaced, brushing bangs out of a sleeping Ginny's eyes. "We're not even close to peak condition yet."

"Maybe she had no choice."

Luna's words were sobering. Because wasn't that true of everything they had done? They had been desperate for years — a whole decade of having to react instead of act.

Hermione was sick and tired of having no choice.

"Alright, Luna. Let's wake Ginny up. It's time we make a real plan."

"Yes, Hermione-sensei." Luna said solemnly with a salute.

"That is not my name." Hermione replied.

Luna did not respond, shoving the second dripping soldier pill into Ginny's mouth instead.

Moments after it hit Ginny's tongue, she sputtered it up, eyes wide.

"W-why… poop?!"

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Hermione made a difficult decision.

They could not waste any more time hoping Harry would just show up. For all they knew, he needed their help.

"So we have to get stronger and we have to reach Konohagakure, the place it all started."

Hermione also knew, however, this would be no easy feat.

From her research she had found Konoha and Iwa were on opposite sides of the battlefield, and both were stratocracies; very unlike the Wizarding and London democracies. It was incredibly unlikely that a military leader would simply accept the arrival of three enemies; even if they were children.

"We will somehow need to pledge our allegiance or earn their trust before defecting to Konoha."

Fortunately, Konoha was described by pitying Iwa-nin throughout the village as the "bleeding heart" nation.

This was firmly juxtaposed by the battle Hermione had witnessed where several Konoha-nin torched Iwa soldiers like suckling pigs. They had breathed fire like dragons.

Hermione had yet to meet a bleeding heart dragon, but she was now crossing her fingers Konoha was the first.

The best way to convince people of anything came down to power and money. At sub-four-years-old, they simply couldn't get enough power fast enough. Money, however, felt like a silly thing when you had magic.

Hermione held up one of the plundered Bingo Books toward her comrades.

"This will be the road map to our fortune."

They would systematically work their way through the weakest to the strongest "wanted" shinobi, hopefully getting strong enough along the way so that they could keep progressing through the books.

They would not be prey anymore. They would become the predators.

"Adorable predators," Luna had added. "Just like Dabberblimps. No one suspects a Dabberblimp."

Hermione and Ginny both nodded. They had no idea what she was talking about.

"Of course, the only ninja we don't attack?" Hermione continued, unperturbed.

Ginny's eyes widened in realization. "Konohagakure."

Hermione nodded, slapping the Konoha Bingo book on the table.

"We help them win the war by taking out their enemies from the shadows."

"Wicked," Ginny grinned.

"First, however, we need to make sure nothing like that," she pointed at the pink line marring Ginny's neck, "happens again."

Ginny rubbed her neck, grumbling, "I'm still figuring out my new stamina."

"And for that," Hermione grinned maniacally back, "I have yet one more plan."

For the following night Hermione worked on her new runic-styled seal. Ginny meditated to try to get more in-touch (or whatever) with her chakra, and Luna practiced medical ninjutsu, trying to make connections to the healing spells she'd learned in another life.

The next morning they would finally leave the mountains of Iwa for the Land of Waterfall where Nakimushi, a young D-rank nuke-nin was making (very small) waves.

Hermione wanted to test their new teamwork. More importantly: she wanted a bounty.