I meant to work on at least one of my Harry Potter fics, but lately I've been captivated by the awsomeness that is Naruto. This fic has been kind of floating around in my head for a while now, and hopefully by writing it out I can get back to other important things, like my school work (although whether writing or school is more important has always been up for debate). Sadly, in writing this, I've caught another idea for a Naruto ficlet, but we'll see how this one turns out first. Most chapters are a bit shorter than I normally write, and I'm switching between viewpoints a lot, but I think it's easier to tell the story that way, since it's a bit like how the anime is presented. Also in this one, you get a sampling of the kind of music I listen to (at least, while I'm writing). For simplicity's sake, I've decide to name each chapter after the song written (at least in part) at the beginning of it. Obviously, these songs aren't mine, and if I don't put down the original writer correctly, I'm sorry, but everyone should know that I adore and appreciate their work.

Girl's Not Grey

I'll lay me down tonight,
Much further down.
Swim in the calm tonight.
This art does drown.
What follows me as the whitest lace of light,
Will swallow whole just begs to be imbrued?
What follows has lad me to this place where I belong all erased?
What follows?

AFI

It was a late summer day, and it was raining in Konoha. By the standards of, for instance, the Water Country, it was only a light drizzle, but here in the Fire Country it was more likely to be considered a torrential downpour. Anyone outside for more than a minute would be soaked to the bone, and there was an unseasonable chill to the air which promised a cold for anyone who did not soon go inside to dry off.

The rain hadn't stopped Maito Gai and Rock Lee, though. They were running around the village one thousand times with big bags of rocks. If they didn't, Gai had decreed, they must do five thousand pushups. Tenten and Neji, Lee's long suffering teammates, had gone to the Hyuuga house to train shortly before the rain started.

Now, despite the rain, Gai and Lee were on their final lap. Lee was starting to pull ahead of his teacher. "This is the springtime of youth!" he crowed happily, and was answered by an encouraging shout from Gai. A few seconds later he stopped, however, when he caught up to a third figure on the otherwise empty road. He couldn't remember having seen anyone on any of his previous laps, so this person must just have arrived in front of the village.

If he had been asked to describe the person in front of him, Lee couldn't have done it. The figure wasn't overly tall - somewhere between his own height and Gai-sensei's - but even that was hard to tell with the large farmer's hat that covered their head and obscured their face. The rest of the person, except for a pair of feet in non-descript brown boots that looked like they had be worn a very long time, was covered in a large brown coat, so that Lee couldn't even be sure if the person he addressed was a man or a woman. The figure carried a pack, which might once have been the kind of bag favored by the Konoha shinobi, or might have been any other brown bag.

"Good morning," he greeted the person as courteously as he could. Gai-sensei had always stressed the importance of good manners when you were a wonderful ninja. "Welcome to Konoha. Is there something I can help you find?"

He had the sensation of being scrutinized by a pair of unseen eyes. "Where might I find the Hokage, please?"