"I'm here I'm here I'm here!" Mutsuko shouted as she ran towards the masked anbu so fast that she'd barely stopped herself from slamming into the Academy building. "I'm sorry I'm late!" She clapped her hands together and hung her head in shame.

"No need." The man glanced at a nearby clock. She followed his gaze just in time to see the hour hand slide to the number one. "You're on time." It only took a second for her to crumple in relief.

"Oh thank goodness." She breathed, a hand over her heart.

"Anyways, we should get going. You have a cultural orientation class next." He stated, turning and beginning to walk away.

"Wait for me!" Mutsuko yelled, leaping up and dashing after him.

"No way that lady was an actual teacher." Mutsuko crossed her arms, shamelessly venting to the silent shinobi. "You guys all have the same weapons? Seriously?! And you work in teams? She was kidding right?" She exclaimed, arms flying everywhere. The man next to her, on the other hand, was as level headed as can be.

"No, it's true." He said simply. It didn't help.

"What?! I mean, I knew some people here used the same type of dagger but I thought they were all different! They're really all have the same? How can you tell which ones are yours? What happens if you lose one?!" She was on the verge of a meltdown and her companion seemed rather unsure what to do about it.

"I'm sure you'll grow to accept it." He offered, only further infuriating the fuming girl.

"Hmph!" Mutsuko restrained herself, glaring at the ground and pressing her lips together.

A minute of silence passed between the two as they continued on their path.

"Do samurai have custom weapons?" The girl looked up, surprised at the sudden question. That was the first one he'd asked her all day.

"Of course! Our swords are made by our blacksmiths and they're all different. Anyone who can afford to do it will get a sword made, and I even know some people who have five or six of them." Her eyes gleamed as she remembered how beautiful the blades looked with their silver plated scabbards and jewel embedded guards.

"Do you have a sword?" He continued. Though his tone didn't show it, he was undoubtedly curious. Mutsuko grinned; she was always happy to talk about her precious katana.

"Yep! I call him Atoyamai, I got him from old man Mifune after I finished my apprenticeship and he's really a great sword." She smiled, completely forgetting her anger from just a minute ago. "He should be getting here soon. I hope he's alright." She turned to gaze at the dimming sky.

All of a sudden, the anbu stopped walking. She looked over to him questioningly before glancing in front of them. It was her apartment building.

"Oh, we're here already." She thought aloud. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, it was nice talking to you!" She bowed lightly.

"Good night." He returned the gesture before disappearing.

A cold wind blew behind her as she turned towards the gleaming black building. It wasn't quite time for bed and there was still plenty to explore... why not take a walk?

The village was almost more beautiful in the evening than it was in daylight; insects made a symphony of chirps, lamps gave off their soft light, and people seemed to roam the streets without a care in the world.

What a nice city.

Soon, Mutsuko came across a bench by a small garden and decided to sit for a while. This was a noticeably quieter part of town, she was the only one in the garden and there were very few people passing by. A bit of silence never hurt anyone.

Just as she was settling down, a voice broke the quiet.

"Why are you here?" The cold tone dampened her mood a little.

"It's pretty." She responded briefly, turning to glance at the person. It was the blue haired boy from Iruka-sensei's class. "Am I bothering you?" She asked out of sheer politeness. He scoffed and hardened his glare.

"We don't need samurai in a shinobi village." He stated bluntly.

'Bold words for a kid.'

"I'm sorry if you don't want me here but it wasn't my decision." Her tone was patient; she couldn't get angry at someone younger than her.

"Sasuke!" Someone called, causing them both to glance in behind them. A young man waved as he drew closer. "I've been looking for you." Stepping next to the boy, he put a hand on his shoulder.

Mutsuko recognized him, he was the one that she'd seen in the training field earlier that day. They really did look alike. What was his name again?

"Was my brother bothering you?" The voice snapped her out of her daze and she was suddenly aware that he was looking at her.

"Oh, of course not!" She shook her head, smiling pleasantly.

'I'll let him off easy this time.'

"That's good. Let's go Sasuke, father needs to speak with you." He said to the younger boy before glancing back at her. "Apologies for the intrusion." He nodded curtly and turned around, walking away with his brother by his side.

Mutsuko's eyes trailed after the two for a moment, the same thought from before lingering in her mind.

'I swear I've seen him before.'

The next day came all too quickly for Mutsuko.

Light streamed through the window, dancing straight into the girl's eyes. She squinted and rolled onto her other side, pulling the covers over her head.

Knock knock

She groaned and glanced up at the clock on the opposite wall. 7:16. Resisting the temptation to simply ignore the knocks and stay in bed, she swung her feet out and onto the floor, rubbing her eyes while trying to remember why in the world someone would be at her door this early. Throwing on her old yukata, she ran a hand through her hair before cracking the door open, again squinting at the brightness outside.

"Good morning, Shiromori-san." It was the anbu from yesterday, mask and all.

"Oh. Right." The memories of yesterday's classes came to mind as she blinked slowly. "Um, one minute." She closed the door and quickly got herself ready: washing her face, fixing her yukata, and giving herself a brief pep talk in the mirror. Giving her left hip a pat, she reopened the door and stepped out. "Let's go."

On the short walk to the academy, the two settled into a comfortable silence. There were a surprising number of people out already; many shops were open and people were merrily heading to where they needed to be. Mornings in Konoha were much busier than mornings back home; it was so always cold that there were never any signs of life until about 10 o'clock. Of all the great things about this village, Mutsuko would definitely have to say the weather was her favorite. She closed her eyes and breathed in the warm morning air, a small smile settling in her lips.

"I presume you remember where to go?" The man asked abruptly. She looked up to see the academy building and quickly tried to recall the way to the classroom.

"Um, yea! I remember!" She said with a wry grin.

"I will return when the lecture ends." And with that, he was gone.

At this point, many other children, all of whom seemed to be younger than her, were walking into the school building so she followed, deducing that classes would be starting soon.

Glancing at the doors on both sides, Mutsuko slowly passed through the halls in search of the right one.

"201... 203... 205..." She couldn't seem to remember what the room number was...

"Shiromori-san." Startled, she whipped around and saw the old professor from yesterday. His single visible eye seemed to pierce through her. "Class will begin soon; you would do well to hurry." He said, brushing past her without a second glance.

Hesitantly, Mutsuko followed the man and soon arrived at the right door. Slipping to the back of the room, she took a seat and just as the lecture began.

Today, the topic was early chakra users and developments in jutsus and hand seals. Unable to keep herself engaged with the droning, Mutsuko drifted off into her own thoughts: imagining what was happening back home, thinking of how the other samurai children were training while she was stuck here. She wondered how long she would be staying in Konoha and whether or not her friends back home would write to her. Surely there was no rule against that, right? She wondered if they would get better and leave her in the dust, but then she thought of the new abilities she would learn here and how she could show off once she got back. That eased her mind a little.

Fortunately, all her daydreaming made the class go by incredibly quickly and before she knew it, they had all been dismissed.

Stepping out of the build, Mutsuko took in a breath of fresh air and sighed; she glanced around for her anbu friend and soon spotted him leaning against a light post not far away.

"Hey, let's go." She grinned once she reached him.

"You seem to be happier with the lecture today." He commented as the two started towards her next lesson.

"I guess so." She chuckled, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

"Hello, Mutsuko-chan!" Iruka-sensei greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning." She waved and took her spot in the third row.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, we'll start class." His voice echoed in the training field. "Once again, we'll begin with some basic ninjutsu, the first one will be the Body Flicker Technique. It's derived from the substitution jutsu we learned yesterday and lets the user teleport from one place to another. Only one hand seal is required which makes it all the more simple." He clasped his hands together, leaving both index and middle fingers pointed up, and disappeared.

"You must focus on where you want to reappear or it won't work very well." The class turned around to see Iruka standing just behind them. Most of the students seemed giddy to learn the technique, they'd grown up seeing everyone around them doing it and now they'd finally get to join in on the fun. "Alright, everyone give it a try. Concentrate on a spot past those dummies over there." He pointed at a ring of wooden training dummies about twenty feet away. Everyone formed the seal he had demonstrated and focused on the area behind the dummies, willing themselves to appear there.

One by one, students began disappearing, and while many successfully reappeared near their target area, others were not so fortunate. The pinkette landed about five feet shy of the dummies while a short brunette boy somehow managed to get himself stuck in a tree, a redhead stumbled as she reappeared on the side of a large boulder and Naruto had barely covered three feet before falling flat on his face. Even these attempts, however, ended up better than Mutsuko's.

"It's not working." She mumbled, pressing her hands closer together and trying to direct chakra through them.

"What seems to be the problem?" Iruka asked, approaching the girl.

"Nothing's happening." She could feel her chakra flowing through her fingertips but it didn't seem to be doing anything. The other students seemed oblivious to her struggle, however, all of them being preoccupied with teleporting again and again, seeing who was the fastest.

"Try imagining yourself disappearing and reappearing." So she closed her eyes and did just that. Again, nothing. Her frown deepened. "Don't worry, everyone learns at a different pace. No one does it perfectly the first time." He patted her head comfortingly. "We'll move onto some other jutsus, alright?" He smiled and called for everyone to return to their spots.

Next, they learned the paralysis jutsu: a technique that freezes the target momentarily, a technique that Mutsuko was unable to do. Then came the transformation jutsu, used to change one's appearance. Another one she couldn't manage. Next was water walking, more of a skill than a jutsu, that Mutsuko was surprisingly able to master on her first try.

"See? I knew you'd be fine, you're doing great!" Iruka gave her a thumbs up before her shock had even worn off. Before she could respond, multiple loud splashes sounded as people fell flat on the water, Naruto among them.

"Hey! No fair! How are you doing it?" The blonde whined. She smiled and helped him up, trying to talk him through it.

"Just expand the chakra in your feet so that it's kind of flat and spread out. I'm not too good at explaining but give it try." She smiled encouragingly.

"Ok..." He rested a foot on the surface of the water tentatively. "So focus on the- AH!" He fell before he could even get the other foot up.

"Are you ok?" Mutsuko asked, stifling a laugh.

Maybe her day was getting better.

The taijutsu session that followed proved to be more kind to her than those jutsus had been. Today, Mutsuko had been paired up with a pretty blonde girl who had long hair and bright eyes. She didn't quite remember who the girl had fought yesterday nor what her abilities were, but judging from her near perfect jutsu performance, she was fairly skilled.

One by one, Iruka-sensei called pairs up to spar with each spar lasting about the same length as yesterdays. By the time it was Mutsuko's turn, all but two pairs had already went.

"Ino and Mutsuko, come up please." The girls stepped to the front of the class and faced each other. The blonde girl, Ino, offered her hand and a smile.

"Let's give them a good fight." She offered confidently. Mutsuko, despite finding it odd, shook her hand and nodded in agreement.

"Alright, begin in three, two, one!" Ino swung her leg the moment Iruka-sensei leapt away. Mutsuko leaned back, letting the kick pass just an inch in front of her nose. She dodged a follow-up punch and grabbed the offending arm, pulling it sharply to make her stumble.

Ino quickly regained her balance and whipped around with a strong fist aimed at the other girl's stomach, only to have her hand blocked and twisted. She managed to pull away but winced and grit her teeth as her wrist throbbed. She jumped, landed behind the brunette, and swept a leg under her all in one swift motion, but she still wasn't fast enough as Mutsuko easily slid out of the way. Ino lunged with an arm pulled back but made no contact as the brunette again slid out of range. She quickly turned around with another attack ready only to be thrown off course by a kick to the ribs.

Having fallen a few feet to the left, Ino regained her footing and dashed forward once again, though she was quickly met by Mutsuko who had done the same. When the two were just an inch away from each other, the brunette, with unforeseen speed, brought her leg up and landed a kick straight in the jaw, sending the other girl flying.

"Finish!" Iruka-sensei shouted, suddenly appearing on the battlefield. "The winner is Mutsuko!" He announced. He then immediately went to tend to Ino, asking if she was ok and if she needed a medic. The blonde denied and pushed herself off the ground. She stepped in front of Mutsuko and shook hands with her, as was customary at the end of a spar. Her grip seemed a little too tight.

"Hey Mutsuko-chan!" A voice called from behind. The girl turned to see a smiling Naruto running towards her.

"Are you alright?" She frowned worriedly. "You got hit pretty bad." Naruto's match, which had been last, ended in his opponent landing a solid punch to the boy's chest.

"Nah, that was nothing! I'll just train harder and beat him next time!" He grinned, confident as always. "Anyways," He took a seat on the rock she was resting on. "You know some of our classmates were talking about you." Mutsuko frowned; that usually didn't mean anything good.

"What did they say?" She inquired curiously. Naruto rested a hand under his chin and hummed.

"I think it was something about how you fight weird." He recalled.

"What? Really?" She was surprised; she didn't fight any different than the rest of them, right? "Do I fight weird?" She questioned. Naruto tilted his head at the question.

"Yea! You didn't notice?" He blinked. "I'm not sure what it is, but you kind of glide around when you're sparing. It might just be how we were trained but us shinobi have stronger jumps and stuff when we fight!" He explained enthusiastically.

Now, if he hadn't spoken in such a friendly tone, she might've been more offended. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and told herself that he didn't mean anything negative by it.

"I guess so." She hummed, looking up at the cloudy sky.

"Yea. But you're really strong anyways! You beat Ino and she's even better than me!" He nodded. "But one day I'll be stronger than everyone! I'll be the Hokage!" He declared without hesitation or mind for who could hear him.

"So that's your goal? Well I hope I'm around to see it happen." She smiled encouragingly. Just as she looked back towards the far tree line, she spotted her anbu friend. "Oh, I have to go, see you later!" She quickly waved goodbye and began jogging away from the field.

"How was training?" The masked man asked when she reached him.

"Not bad, I won the spar today." She stated with a smile. "Can't seem to get those jutsus down though."

"You learned chakra control differently; it will take time to adjust."

"Still kinda sucks that I can't do it."

"A shinobi sent into the samurai world would have the same problems."

"Heh, I guess you're right."

"You'll get better with time."

"Hopefully."

The two stopped when they reached the edge of the busy market.

"Same as yesterday, you have a half hour break." He stated. "Be outside the academy by one o'clock. Until then." And with that, he disappeared.

Mutsuko sighed at the empty space next to her. 'So he can teleport too...'

Slowly making her way to the small pond she had discovered yesterday, the girl sat at its edge and stared across the water at the forest on the other side. It was quiet enough to hear the bugs humming. Peaceful and scenic. You would never find anything like this back home.

Speaking of home...

"Oh! I've forgotten about my training!" She realized suddenly. "If I don't keep myself focused old man Mifune's gonna kill me!" Her hands cupped her cheeks as it hit her: "I'd better start practicing." Mutsuko jumped to her feet only to remember that she couldn't practice anything without a sword. Then, thinking back to her earliest days of training, she hurriedly began searching for a branch to use in its place.

After a minute of keeping her eyes glued to the forest floor, Mutsuko found a long, thin branch that she deemed usable: it was just a little longer than her arm and was about as thick as a real sword.

Now with a makeshift weapon in hand, she stepped back, about five feet from a small tree, and held it by the thicker end, positioning it by her left hip. She channeled chakra into the branch and turned herself slightly.

In a fraction of a second, she had lunged forward and swung the weapon. Now standing five feet in behind the tree she had been facing, she straightened herself as half of the tree slid off and crashed to the ground. The remaining stump had a nicely diagonal face that, although not quite smooth, was clearly not the work of mother nature.

Mutsuko sighed, slumping slightly. 'I've gotten rusty...' She frowned as she again lowered into an attack stance, eyes turned to another tree.

"You were almost late." The masked anbu mused as an out of breath Mutsuko came running towards him.

"Sorry I... lost track... of time..." She puffed, hand on her chest.

"No need to apologize, we'll make it to your next class in time." He said as turned and started walking

"Wait!" The girl called breathlessly as she rushed to catch up.

"I hate it I hate it I hate it." Mutsuko chanted as she rubbed her temples, an uninterested anbu next to her. "Why are you guys so complicated? Why do I have to know these things? What did I ever do to deserve this?" She wept to the evening sky.

"I suppose the lesson was on village history?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Why me? I'm a good person. I just want to live in peace." She rambled. "I don't want to know about your wars. I don't need it. Why am I being punished?"

"You'll get used to it. After all, you just got here." He said, intending to comfort her. The girl let out a frustrated yell and continued to sulk, arms limp and head hanging. He chuckled audibly at her dramatic behavior while she unabatedly grumbled about her misfortune all the way back to her apartment.

"One day." She sighed, back pressed to the door. "One day I'll understand." But for now, all she wanted to do was lay down and fall asleep. Rolling under the covers, Mutsuko flinched as her joints popped then let out a relieved sigh, melting further into the mattress.

After a few minutes of almost drifting off, she finally worked up the energy to flip over and click the lamp off. Then, after a quick pat of the strap at her waist, the girl drifted into a quiet, dreamless sleep.

Hello dear readers! For those of you who know me, you'll know that I usually update on Sundays so this chapter might be a bit out of the blue. I was feeling pretty sick earlier so I couldn't really do much, I thought why not get to editing a chapter?

Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this new installment of Mutsuko's life in Konoha! Things are only getting started and the action is ready and coming so stay tuned for the next chapter!

I always love seeing reviews so please leave your thoughts and make my day, plus it encourages me to update faster!

Thanks again and I'll see you next time!