The following morning found Juno sitting placidly atop the windmill adjacent to Tazuna's stately two-story home. She was in a meditative pose, legs crossed and her hands in a shuni mudra form - her middle fingers touching her thumbs. It was a pose meant to heighten intuition and provide clarity and insight into your next steps. Unfortunately, she wasn't having much luck on that front.

Juno opened her eyes and lifted her mind from the meditative trance. Listening to the cry of seagulls and the lapping of the waves, she gazed out over the water towards Tazuna's massive bridge and sighed as she continued to ponder her current predicament.

After delivering her unconscious cargo safely inside Tazuna's home and healing his injured hand, Juno had been invited alongside the others to stay for dinner and spend the night. The prospect of eating something besides fish had made Juno tempted to kiss their host, Tsunami, right on the mouth with gratitude. The temptation to sleep somewhere with clean sheets and a soft pillow also proved too difficult to resist.

Besides, it wasn't as though Juno had anywhere to be.

Watching Tsunami prepare their dinner with the strange kitchen implements was an exercise in restraining her curious nature. Instead of a wooden stove, there was a big metal box with heated discs on top to cook over. Juno was burning to know how it worked, but didn't want to make her ignorance so obvious by outright asking.

She had a feeling she was failing miserably on that front. Despite being children, her ninja companions were highly observant. Sasuke in particular watched her like a sparrowhawk all evening. She was sure he noticed when she had hesitated, watching carefully how Sakura operated the water faucet to wash up before dinner, before going to do the same. She hadn't realized that the position you placed the nozzle in affected the temperature of the water, and had proceeded to nearly scald her hands, flinching in surprise. He hadn't said anything to her yet about it, likely not quite sure enough on what to make of her.

Sakura had definitely caught on about her strange behaviour as well. That was mostly due to the fact that Juno had to ask for help on how to operate the 'shower' - which was a miraculous invention and quite frankly almost made the trauma of getting forcefully booted into another world worth it. The look Sakura had given her was one of abject disbelief, like the idea of not knowing how to use a shower was more strange than the bending techniques Juno had used in front of her earlier that afternoon.

Naruto was the only one who seemed ignorant of anything strange about her. He was so loud and rambunctious that Juno would be surprised if he had the ability to notice anything around himself at all. He definitely challenged her preconceptions about what a 'ninja' was supposed to behave like. She liked him though, he had a profound sense of the ridiculous that Juno found highly amusing. He had wanted to prank their teacher while he was unconscious by drawing some pictures on his face, but the other two worked together to convince him not to.

In a way, he seemed like the youngest of the group, maintaining a sense of childhood innocence that Juno was cheered to see. For all that they were supposedly ninjas-in-training, they were still kids. She hadn't had much opportunity to spend time around children since she began her Avatar training, and forgot how fun and cute they could be.

Naruto had turned some pretty lethal seal-puppy eyes on her to ask if Asa could sleep with him once they all settled down to go to bed. She didn't have it in her to deny him such a sweet request. Watching them snuggle together as she had taken the opportunity to check over the state of their teacher once more before bed had put a small smile on her face.

That smile had quickly disappeared once she heard how loudly he could snore, however.

The others said nothing, apparently used to this phenomenon. Either that or they were such sound sleepers that it simply didn't bother them. Juno was only able to fall asleep after gently rolling Naruto over onto his side. Crawling back into her own bedroll, she saw that Sasuke had one eye open, watching her. For all that they didn't get along, it looked like he still cared enough to make sure Juno didn't try anything fishy while Naruto was defenseless.

Now well into the morning, Juno was busy trying to decide what she was going to do. Sakura seemed confident that their teacher would be waking up at some point during the day. Once he was awake, she was sure he would have several pointed questions for her. She had a feeling he would be less likely to accept her hand-wavy answers about who she was and what she was up to than the kids had been the night before.

So, what does she do? She supposed she could simply leave before he awoke. She would likely be able to steal some provisions and a bed roll and leave town without anyone being the wiser.

That option didn't appeal, if she was being honest with herself. For one, Juno would hate to repay the kindness of her hosts by stealing from them and leaving like a thief in the night. For another, it was time to fully enter into this new world. That meant making connections and finding her place.

But that left her with deciding what to tell them. Juno desperately wanted to tell the truth. But would they believe her? Would they think she was crazy? If she did decide to lie, would she be able to pull it off convincingly? The fact that they were ninjas made that unlikely, but could she afford to be honest if they rejected her story as too strange to be true?

Juno was still undecided when she leapt down from her perch on the windmill to re-enter the house. She slipped off her tall boots and tucked them into the little alcove built for that purpose.

She decided she would simply have to read the situation when this 'Kakashi' finally woke up. He had seemed virtuous the day before, and clearly cared deeply for his charges. If the three kids were reflections of what she could expect when he awoke, perhaps she would be able to trust him with the truth after all.

She padded barefoot into the house to see that everyone was in the main room, crowded around the now conscious Kakashi. The feeling in the air was tense, and Juno hesitated before turning around the corner.

"...come on, you're overthinking this, aren't you?"

"Encountering suspicion, the ninja prepares quickly. Hesitation leads to disaster. Every shinobi knows this saying." A charcoal grey eye watched her with interest as she came into view. He didn't seem surprised to see her. Perhaps the others had already told him that she had remained.

The group was silent, pondering his words. Then, Tazuna turned to face Juno and grinned at her in greeting.

"Hey there, Juno-chan! I guess it's a good thing you decided to stick around, eh? Seems like that Zabuza bastard might be alive after all."

Juno blinked in surprise. "No kidding."

Well, that changed things a bit. If Juno was still entertaining any thoughts of leaving, the idea that the ruthless assassin she had helped defeat could come back and attack the group put an end to that. It would be unlikely that they would be able to fend him off again, especially considering how tired and pale the kid's teacher looked.

Sakura turned back to face him. "Kakashi-sensei, what should we do? Even with Juno's help, you were just barely able to defeat Zabuza with your sharingan eye, and you won't be able to move for at least a week!"

He laughed. "I can still train you." He paused, and looked over to her. "It's good to see that you're still around. I didn't have a chance to properly thank you for your help."

"Mmm, being unconscious makes that a bit difficult." She teased, then moved to sit with them on the floor. She crossed her arms and tucked them underneath her poncho. "So the plan is to give your students a little more training? Somehow I doubt that'll cut it."

"Yeah, sensei! Are you tryna get us killed?" Hmm, Sakura had a bit of a temper on her.

"You would be surprised. Besides, I know that you all have grown as shinobi in the short time we've been training together. With a little more work, and a lot of teamwork, we'll get the job done."

Beside her, Naruto puffed up at the praise. She smiled slightly to see even Sasuke sit a little straighter.

They were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a little boy. A little, very upset, boy. He was wearing a pair of indigo overalls and a floppy hat. He came in with a shout and flung himself at Tazuna, who greeted him with a joyous hug. It appeared as though this was the grandson Tazuna had told them about over dinner the night before, who had been staying at a neighbour's house while he was away.

Tsunami scolded him for being rude, but Tazuna waved her away.

"Mom, don't you see? These people are going to die! Gato and his men will come back and find them and wipe them out!"

Naruto didn't stand for that. "What did you say, brat? Listen, do you know what a super ninja is? Well that's me only a lot better!"

She lifted an eyebrow at their antics, but then tuned them out. With the distraction, Juno took an opportunity to take a discreet look at the form of their teacher. She could see that he was slouching a bit, but she wasn't sure if that was due to exhaustion or just poor posture. While she healed him the evening prior, Juno had tried to sense for the 'chakra-exhaustion' that Sakura had diagnosed him with. She had sensed a certain lack of vitality within his spirit, but the whole concept was confusing to her. In her world, chakra was the name for the seven pools of energy where chi swirled as it flowed through the body. But the way Sakura spoke about it made her think they used it to describe something different. Was chakra like chi, then? The idea that someone could be 'low' on chi was baffling to her. Bending was powered through the control of chi, but it wasn't consumed by the act. Juno would only run out of chi once she was dead, and it flowed from her body to return to the cosmos. It seemed as though the attacks the men had used the day before were different from her bending in more ways than one.

Juno's contemplation was interrupted when she noticed that Kakashi was silently returning her regard. When she noticed him looking, he arched the brow of his visible eye, as though to ask, can I help you?

Juno shuffled a little on her seat, blushing slightly at being caught staring.

The dramatic confrontation between the kids seemed to be over. With a rather melodramatic exclamation about "going to look out at the ocean", the boy, Inari, left the room through a pair of sliding doors.

Tazuna looked a bit sheepish at his grandson's outburst. "Sorry about that."

Juno barely heard him. Her indecisiveness had reared its ugly head once more. With all of them gathered in the room at once, it would be a perfect time to speak about her situation. She was frozen with a temporary sense of panic. Should she? Shouldn't she?

Across from her, Kakashi seemed to sense her tumultuous thoughts. He was waiting with an air of cautious patience, eye roving across her features.

Naruto was about to stomp away in pursuit of Inari when Juno flung an arm out. "Wait, Naruto."

He paused and turned around to face her "Huh?"

Juno settled back down into her seated position and rearranged her arms beneath her poncho. She gripped her elbows tightly to keep them from trembling. "There's something I need to tell you all. I haven't been quite truthful with you about who I am, or my origins."

That got their attention. Naruto came back to sit on the floor, head cocked curiously at her.

"I know you've noticed some odd things about me. My...basic ignorance about some things you take for granted, or my style of fighting from yesterday." She paused. "I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you from the get go, but I wanted to wait until your teacher was awake to try and explain…"

"Explain what?" Sakura prodded encouragingly. Apparently she had paused for slightly too long there. Juno took a bracing breath. She was nervous.

"Ehh, sorry. It's difficult to know where to start." Looking at the faces around her, she saw encouraging smiles from Naruto and Sakura and open curiosity from Tazuna and Tsunami. Sasuke and Kakashi were more difficult to get a read on, with Sasuke carefully schooling his features into neutrality and Kakashi having most of his face covered. His dark charcoal eye did stare quite intently on her, however. She had a feeling her irregularities hadn't escaped his notice, even during the short time he had been conscious the day before.

"Well, why don't you start with where you're from?" His voice was darkly smooth, and pitched to be soothing.

She laughed a bit, humourlessly. "Well, that's actually the most difficult place to begin. Alright, here it goes. You see, it all started about nine months ago…"

"So let me get this straight." Naruto was pacing across the floor, ticking his fingers off one at a time. "You're from a whole different world, where you're some big-shot called the Avatar. You had to go through another world where some nasty spirit tricked you when you tried to get his help finding a cure for a disease. Then you ended up here because you couldn't go back home?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

Juno was exhausted. They had been talking for at least two hours. If she had been hoping that her audience would patiently wait for her to completely explain her situation before following up with questions, that idea was dashed after the first few minutes. Following her first big revelation about her origins, she was inundated with endless questions. They'd go down tangents before Juno forced them back to the main point, but would quickly get sidetracked again. Naruto wanted to know more about being raised by monks, Sakura wanted to know about all the fancy parties and diplomatic events she had attended. Tazuna was intrigued by the metaphysical implications of multiple worlds, and was drawn into a philosophical discussion with his daughter about it before she hushed him to pay more attention to what Juno was saying.

Kakashi was a great help in that regard. Just when they were getting into the weeds of a unimportant tangent - like Naruto wanting to know the details of Asa's native habitat - he would ask a pointed and articulate question that brought them back to the heart of the matter. What was her duty as the Avatar? What was the nature of her bending abilities? What was the possibility of others travelling into this world from other dimensions?

And finally: "What are you going to do?"

Juno slumped, deflated. "Ah, I'm not sure yet. I want to stay and make sure that Zabuza guy doesn't attack you while you're down, but beyond that, I have no plans."

Tazuna shook his head slowly from side to side. "Well, that's some story. Unbelievable what we don't know about the universe."

Sasuke had been mostly quiet, seemingly content to listen. But no longer. "Unbelievable is right. Sensei, you can't possibly believe this nonsense?"

Kakashi was fidgeting with the metal plate on the back of his fingerless gloves, lost in thought. "Well, the existence of multiple dimensions is a confirmed phenomenon by many well-respected theorists. There have even been some recorded instances of powerful shinobi interacting with alternate space-time dimensions, as well as pocket dimensions." He shrugged, rather nonchalant considering the kind of conversation they were having. "It's not outside the realm of possibility that alternate worlds exist inhabited by other humans. As for the rest," he looked at Sasuke, "you saw the way she fought just as I did, can you explain the elemental attacks she employed?

"It could have been a genjutsu, used to trick us, or it could have been some kind of bloodline limit we haven't heard of."

But Kakashi was shaking his head. "You know the sharingan can see through genjutsu. It can also see chakra." He paused. "Watching Juno's 'bending' attacks yesterday, I could see that the energy flowing inside her is different from any other I've seen."

Juno cocked her head, intrigued. "In what way?"

"Chakra flows through the body in extremely predictable ways. Many shinobi specialize in combat techniques meant to exploit and alter the chakra pathways as we know them to exist within humans. From what I've seen, you have an entirely unique network of energy flowing inside you, pooling and swirling in pathways different to the humans in our world." He shrugged. "I can't tell you more until I've recovered enough to use my sharingan again."

They were all silent as they digested this information. It was clear that Juno had a lot to learn about the differences between their worlds.

But Juno felt cautiously optimistic. It felt incredibly cathartic to reveal the entirety of her situation to someone. It seemed as though she had gotten lucky in this world; there were enough similarities to communicate concepts that were fundamental to her experiences. Chaka and chi, bending and jutsu. Perhaps she could build a life here that would stay in line with the expectations she had for her life in the old world?

Finally, the conversation Juno had been dreading was over before it had seemed to begin. As Tsunami doled out prepared lunches amongst her guests in preparation for their training session in the woods, Asa came in from his early morning wanderings. He greeted the children enthusiastically; jumping atop Naruto's head and tugging at Sakura's long pink locks. Kakashi extended a hand politely for Asa to sniff, then patiently waited as he carefully examined the fabric of his gloves and sleeves of his shirt. Juno had a sense that Kakashi was familiar with small, inquisitive animals.

Soon, the group was ready to head out. Juno inquired if she could accompany them on their training session; mostly out of boredom, also out of a sense of curiosity. Their earlier conversation had begun to highlight the differences between chakra and chi, and Juno was eager to learn more while she could.

Kakashi brought them to a grove of trees not far from Tazuna's property. The walk was slow, due to accommodating his crutches, but Juno revelled in the sedate pace. She felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. No matter how ephemerally and temporarily this group of people had been brought together, she was glad that someone, somewhere, knew the truth about her. On the walk, she finally took the opportunity to question her new acquaintances about some things she had been wondering about.

"So, you've said that you are ninja? What exactly does that mean? Where I'm from, ninja would be warriors specialized in... sneaking? Eh, like infiltration and assassination and such."

Kakashi nodded from where he was hobbling around by her side. "It is much the same here. A ninja, or shinobi, is an elite warrior who specializes in many forms of combat. Some are infiltration and assassination specialists, although our missions often encompass many kinds of directives. This mission, for example. Tazuna ordered a protection detail from our village to escort him from the Land of Fire to the Land of Waves." He smiled wryly, or at least Juno thought he did from beneath the mask. "Obviously, that has changed a bit with the present circumstances, but the point still stands."

They stopped once they had made their way into the grove of trees enough that the surrounding houses had become obstructed by the foliage. Juno hung back as Kakashi stepped into a lecturing mode, though he seemed to be content with Sakura explaining the finer details of the theory they were discussing. The young girl obviously excelled in book smarts, and took the opportunity to show off her knowledge.

Juno listened attentively. From what she had learned, chakra seemed to be a little more all purpose than the chi she was used to. It could be moulded and shaped into producing all sorts of outcomes, including the miraculous gravity-defying tree-walking that Kakashi demonstrated for them. On the other hand, it looked like there were some draw-backs. The major one that she could tell was the fact that the use of chakra depleted the finite reserves of the person using it. Juno could use her bending up until the point that her physical body became tired of the motions necessary to channel her chi. It seemed as though her friends could only use chakra until it was all used up, then wait until it replenished to continue using more.

There were a few aspects of chakra that seemed confusing to Juno, like the fact that there were two kinds, and how hand signals worked, but she was satisfied with the basic working information that she had been shown. Though they may be different, it was obvious that some concepts, like balance, control, and experience, crossed borders.

She thought it was interesting watching Kakashi as a teacher. He seemed a bit lazy in her opinion, or perhaps 'hands-off' was a more generous descriptor. He clearly preferred letting Sakura explain technical concepts and then pitting the boy's competitive natures against each other to motivate them, but she could see how it would be effective. Juno had had many excellent teachers in her life. Some, better than others. She had not been trained in a group since she began her Avatar training, however, and was chuffed to see how they all worked together to push each other further than one alone could do.

At the first attempt, it became apparent that there was a bit of a discrepancy between the three children. Naruto had fallen almost immediately after his ascent up the tree, Sasuke had made it a moderate height before falling off, and Sakura excelled effortlessly, perching on a high branch on her first try. Asa found the whole exercise hilarious, and darted up and down the trees with his nimble fingers, as if to say What? Is this hard?

Juno held back, watching their progress with interest. She was reminded of the airbending drills she and the other girls at the Western Air Temple had practiced ceaselessly. They had a training session similar to this one, where they had learned how to harness compressed bursts of airbending in order to propel their bodies in sustained anti-gravity wall-runs. The memory tugged at her heartstrings, and a bittersweet surge of homesickness welled up.

To distract herself, Juno took an opportunity to stretch her arms over her head, spine popping. She saw Kakashi glance over in her direction and she turned to face him with a grin. "It's interesting, how different, yet how similar our styles are." She shrugged. "But I think I prefer bending."

"Hmm, yes it is interesting...but I'm not sure if you should be so confident." He slouched, leaning heavily on his crutches. "When I've recovered, we'll see which is the superior art."

Juno smiled, wide. "You're on."

They watched the boys for a little longer. When it became clear that it would be some time before they could complete the exercise, Juno, Kakashi, and Sakura decided to return to the house. It had been many hours since they had entered the grove, and the lunches Tsunami had packed them had long since been consumed. The trio walked back slowly, Kakashi still obviously struggling with the lethargy his chakra exhaustion had induced, though he did much to hide that fact from the others. Juno and Sakura chatted brightly on the walk home about how long they thought the boys would take before getting the hang of things.

"Sasuke-kun will take no time at all, for sure! He's awesome!"

Juno sensed teenage infatuation from a mile wide. "Ah, you really admire him?"

"Oh yes! Sasuke is the best shinobi from our class. And he's so...so perfect, he'll beat Naruto by a long shot." Sakura nodded definitively, then stared wistfully in the distance.

Juno exchanged a glance with Kakashi, who looked at her despairingly. She struggled to stifle a snicker.

"Hmm, if you say so. Seems to me like Naruto has enough determination to trump Sasuke's talent though. He seems too stubborn to let someone get the leg up on him." She paused, and felt a little wistful herself. "He reminds me of an old friend of mine."

She felt the curious stares of her companions, and elaborated. "He was the son of the earthbender who trained me. He couldn't bend himself, which he was always resentful of. But that stubbornness and lack of talent ended up working in his favour. As we got older, he managed to persevere and push through his weaknesses. He always had to work hard, and nothing came easy for him. But he managed to become one of the strongest warriors that I knew." She grinned. "He even ended up working for the elite guard of the Earth King. One of the few non-benders to ever achieve that position. And he remained a faithful friend, even after I left the Earth Kingdom Capital." Juno stopped there, thoughts of Benji filling her with a strong sense of sadness and regret.

It was late before Naruto and Sasuke returned to the house. The rest of the group was enjoying a quiet moment with their after dinner tea. The two comrades were dirty and starving from their exertions, with even Asa gobbling down food like a demon. As everyone started to settle down for the night, Juno found herself sitting cross-legged outside on the docks overlooking the water once more.

She couldn't help but feel miles away from where she had just hours before. With a belly full of food and a day full of company and valuable insight into her new home, Juno felt optimistic about her prospects for the first time since she had crossed over. Though the future was still far from certain, she could now imagine that things would maybe, just maybe, turn out alright.