TSSD Prequel : A new world, A new chance

by HecateTombe

Harriet Potter was done with the Magical world. Done with the whole world. When she learn that there is a possibility for a new life, in a new world, she takes it - and though she doesn't expect to find happiness, at least she will have freedom. KakashixFemHarry

3. First Week In Konoha

Hello, everyone !

So here's the 3rd chapter. Yay ! I'm ever so happy I never promised to post regularly, because I wouldn't have been able to respect that promise. I like to think I don't break promise easily, see.

I'm in my final exams, so it's busy busy busy – I, in fact, hear my European Institutions lessons calling from me right now, and will only be able to escape going for so long – but I hope you'll enjoy this chapter anyway.

As an answer to some reviews, though : YES, Fumseck is Fawkes. Sorry, but I know the French names, and the English ones aren't as natural for me. I'm used to the names in French, so I don't always realize I didn't use the right ones. It's like 'Drago' & 'Draco' – I don't even know which is which. Heh. Don't hesitate to point my mistakes to me :)

I also hope this chapter will be easier to read than the previous two :-/

In any case, enjoy !

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Hari Potta, newly arrived in Konoha and currently undergoing the one-year trial to officially become a citizen of the village, walked leisurely along the street. She was trying to map Konoha, magically placing invisible landmarks on the walls. She had decided to make something of a Marauder's Map – except, obviously, it wouldn't show Hogwarts, but Konoha.

The fact that she already knew how to create a Map, (the Marauders' Guide had been most helpful) and that Konoha was less tricky than Hogwarts (here the streets had the decency to stay in one place, for which Hari was very grateful), didn't mean it was an easy task. Konoha was big, and large ; and she herself was prone to get lost easily. She had never been that good at the orientation thing – when on the Horcruxes' Hunt, she had heavily relied on the stars, patting herself on the back for taking a liking to Astronomy.

It had been sufficient – more than enough. Magic had done the rest – never underestimate the handiness of a Point-me charm.

Here, the sky was different. She wasn't sure she could tell how – the stars looked like they were the same, but she was almost sure their emplacement was... wrong. And where, in her old world, she had been able to use magic to direct herself, it had been because her magic connected to the Earth's, and thus found the place she was searching for – since Magic was everywhere, then it was obvious that it could guide her, wherever she was and to wherever she wanted to go.

But her magic couldn't connect with this world's chakra, so the Point-me spell was useless if she hadn't been in the place before, thus marking her with her magic (with each step she took, she let the smallest bit of magic seep into the soil, thus creating a map of some sort that she would be able to use later – but not a real map, more of a seventh or eighth sense – she had so many of those...). The spell would still work if she was searching for a person, though, because she had adapted and now searched for a person's soul, and not magic.

Perks of being Mistress of Death.

It was, she had discovered early, much more efficient, since wards could conceal someone's magic – not someone's very soul. But anyway.

She was, for once, thankful that Kakashi had been appointed as her bodyguard. He never got lost in Konoha, and he had helped her countless times. Now, if only he could stop smirking when she was forced to admit that she was lost, and to ask for his help...

Anyway, the Map was coming nicely – very slowly, but nicely. She theoretically knew where some places where, her snakes having told her what to expect of Konoha – but they had never been particularly interested in architecture, what with living on the ground and all. And it had changed quite a bit since Orochimaru's defection, especially considering that the Kyuubi's attack a few years later had destroyed a lot of buildings that had had to be built anew.

And she had been in Konoha for two days shy of a week – making that her twelfth day in the Elemental Nations. You couldn't possibly expect her to suddenly know the village entirely ! She hadn't even been out that often. The first four days she had rested at an inn, watched over by so many persons (ANBUs, plus the suspicious Jonin here and there) that she had considered becoming invisible for a little bit. Sadly, she had recognized the potential problems that would raise, and had instead gritted her teeth silently.

The fifth day – today, a surprisingly warm day of November, 13th – she had found the house she would live in as long as she stayed in Konoha. Apart from visiting the houses that were to buy, that was the first time she was outside of the Village.

She was, right now, at the market, the Jonin trailing next to her, boredom rolling out of him in waves. She supposed she could understand – last week he had been doing high-ranking missions, with a lot of action and danger ; and now he was basically acting as a guide, showing her Konoha, as well as watching her.

Not particularly exciting.

Hari herself was… content. She was not yet missing the excitement some danger would bring her, though she would have liked to wear something more practical. She was wearing a dark blue, silken kimono ; keeping in memory the fact that she was, for all intent and purpose, an Hime. And nothing more.

An Hime whose family had been killed long ago, and who had decided to settle in Konoha. She knew it would appear strange, considering that wealthy people all lived in the Capital, next to the Daimyo.

But the very idea of wasting away in a Court, with balls and niceties, almost made her shudder in horror. She hadn't spent almost twenty years in her own world avoiding this kind of things before saying 'fuck it' and leaving England altogether, only to be stuck doing it there. No. Way.

She hated this. For all she was a Lady – sorry, Hime – she was a warrior before everything else. She wasn't made to sit and pass time peacefully. Not anymore. Maybe once, when she had been a toddler... but that time was long gone. For now she was acclimating herself to the Village, and to the world itself, really – but soon she expected to feel the itch that pushed her to do dangerous things (such as exploring old, forgotten temples, or travelling between worlds).

Right now, she was walking slowly, gracefully – not that she was aware of that fact, since it came with her countless hours of training and was done unconsciously by her now – and regally. That was in her blood.

Her long, shining black hair was swept up in a bun, kept in place by her trusty pins, some bangs falling naturally over her forehead. They covered her scar, as they always did. Vivid green eyes looked around, unconsciously watching her surroundings like an ingrained habit, and looking curiously at the stands.

She was here to buy food, after all.

She had finally found a house, yes. The real estate agent had had a strange and puzzled look on his face, when Hari had asked for a house with the largest garden possible. She hadn't cared for the house itself – though she had rejected one she hadn't liked.

She had finally found her ideal – a nice house, nowhere near as big as her Manors had been, but way bigger than the other houses in the major part of Konoha. It was in a wealthy neighborhood of Konoha, with a lot of space between the houses. She had liked the fine-looking house, with ivy spreading unchecked on the walls.

It did look a bit derelict, but nothing Magic wouldn't rectify quickly. And the garden was large. She hated houses with no garden – and with one, she would be able to train out in the open.

Not that anyone would see her.

When Kakashi had proposed to trap the access to her newly-bought house, she had almost been offended. To suggest that a Ward Mistress wasn't able to protect her own house was a grave insult, in the Wizarding world. But she had realized that Kakashi didn't know that – didn't even know she was a Ward Mistress, much less what it meant – and really thought she had no means of protecting her house.

Oh, the poor man.

She was excellent at wards, way better than the usual Ward Master or Mistress – it came with being a tiny bit paranoid, often on the run, and trusting only herself with her own protection.

(That, and the fact that she found warding fascinating).

(And it's not paranoia when they're really out to kill you, as they say).

Still, even if he didn't mean it as an insult, she had been touched in her pride as a Ward Mistress, and had assured him that she was perfectly capable of protecting herself and her house, thank you very much.

At his skeptical air, she had proceeded to do so immediately.

There had been a small, awkward pause on her part.

She had had to consider which wards she would place – some were more efficient than other, but couldn't be weaved with some very important wards. Some she wouldn't need – she very much doubted she would need Anti-Animagus or Anti-Apparition or Anti-Portkeys wards.

It helped, since those wards were difficult to place with others, though they were basics. They often weakened the whole structure, even if only marginally, so it was good to not have to place them. There was a lot of wards that were vital in the Magical World, that she wouldn't have to cast here. That was quite helpful, even if it did lessen the challenge. Yet it opened a whole new choice of wards that were more rarely used in her old world, and she now was faced with the prospect of creating a warding chain tailored for her new house, and for her needs.

She was already fascinated by all the possibilities, and could scarcely wait to begin.

Well, for now the wards would be only temporary, until such a time she had found the wards she wanted to cast around her property... but she would need to read a few more books on wards before that. The most complex wards, that she had endeavored to learn, where extremely useful... in the Wizarding World. Not so much in the Elemental Nations. So those were useless, and the most basic wards would be very interesting to learn, now.

That would take a bit of time, though.

But for now, came the choice of how to cast those temporary wards.

Before... travelling, she had obviously trained herself in casting spells. Most wizards did so with a wand, an incantation, and a dubious aim.

She didn't need a wand, nor an incantation – but she did need to have a perfect aim. What was the point in casting a spell, only to have it pass three meters from the target ? More importantly, the magic casted was visible : a flash of various colored lights could always be seen leaving the wand, and their courses could be followed until they touched the target, or an object. That wasn't very discreet, she had to admit, but that was how it happened.

Before she had even considered leaving her old world, she still had a beam of light that was, though faster than many others, very slow for a world such as the Elemental Nations.

Ninjas were insanely fast, and visible lights travelling at middle speed ? That wouldn't help her at all. They would probably have laughed at her for a bit, before trying to unsuccessfully kill her. And, though whatever they would have tried wouldn't have killed her, it would have hurt – both her body and her ego.

Immortal didn't mean insensible to pain.

(That sword-through-her-chest stuff had been a one-time thing, okay ?! Adrenaline had muted her pain !)

So she had trained, suppressing the light (which was, in fact, only wasted magic – and it had been hard to learn to control perfectly her insane reserves of magic), and drastically ameliorate her spells' speed. At first, it had been more of an idealistic dream than a reality – but then Death had off-handedly commented that wandless magic was invisible, which meant that the magic was so controlled that there was no excess wasted.

Now, Hari wasn't the smartest woman in the world (not even the oldest, despite her literal immunity to Death), but if wandless magic needed such a perfect control that when used, it couldn't be seen, then so could wand magic. It was logical. There was a precedent !

(Not that she cared about precedents, especially knowing about the narrow-mindedness of the Wizarding world, even concerning Magic ; but it was nice to know that it wasn't a dream anymore).

(Plus, Death's comment had basically been an encouragement – so she couldn't not succeed).

(And have you met her ? She was stubborn).

She now was able to send ten spells in half a second, more if she was chaining them ; and they were invisible and travelling insanely fast and silent. Since ninjas weren't able to feel magic, it would certainly been more than enough. Hopefully.

But what was the point in stupidly stand in her garden, from Kakashi's point of view ? If he wasn't able to see her magic, then he would think that she wasn't doing anything special.

He was skeptical enough as it was.

So she had decided to make her magic visible – better that way. Even if he only saw beams of green, blue and red lights (warding magic was only in those colors – and don't even ask her, she had no idea why), at least he would know she was doing something.

He would still be skeptical, yeah, but at least he wouldn't think that she was just waiting stupidly for something to happen.

She had, of course, directly tied him to the wards. It had been a bit tricky, since he didn't have a magical core, nor a magical signature. So she had simply tied his soul signature to the wards – each soul was unique, after all, and none could be imitated. As Mistress of Death, she was very sensitive to every breathing person's soul.

Terribly useful.

(Though she would try to find a way to tie ninjas or civilians another way. To tie someone's soul to a ward meant learning this soul to a certain extent. Which meant that she would feel Kakashi's death when his time has come, and she didn't fancy feeling every soul she had taken the care to know depart this world, when their time was due. Knowing when people she knew and had come to care about to a certain extent died wasn't something she wanted to experience, hence the need to find another way to tie ninjas to her wards)

(But that was for later, since she first needed to cast her final wards, and would probably need to create a small warding ritual just for her house, as well as use physical anchors for her main wards, in the form of warding stones. She would have to prepare the stones, of course – one can't just take some random stones, engrave them with the desired Runes, and hope for the best. No, no, she would have to specifically treat the stones with warding magic, and use some Arithmancy to place them adequately).

(It would be long, of course, and complex. But it was the best way to cast the large, intent-based protecting ward she was already planning to use – and she would not stop until she had succeeded).

And now, after having taken care of her house, three hours ago – stunning Kakashi by taking the furniture out of a trunk that she had taken out of a trunk, than she had taken out of the trunk pending around her neck (he had seemed a bit pained at that) – she was buying everything she didn't have.

That is to say, food.

She hadn't thought to pack food – hadn't seen the need. Really, if push came to shove, she would just hunt, she had thought. And she had indeed done that the first weeks in the Elemental Nations, back when she had been searching for the creepy Orochimaru, and also when she had been walking toward Konoha. Some animals were strange (she didn't know leeches that big could exist, it was an abomination), but she supposed that deer, rabbits, and the like were fair game almost everywhere.

At the very least, it was okay to eat them. She knew for sure they weren't poisonous – though her snakes had warned her to never hunt deer around Konoha. Apparently, a ninja Clan was really protective of their own deer ; and, well, whatever. She wouldn't even try to find a logic to ninjas' way of life. She had tried unsuccessfully with wizards before, and while her snakes had countered that there was a difference between Wizards' stupidity and Ninjas' insanity, she had decided to spare herself the headache.

She had never been fond of deer meat anyway – especially because her father had been a stag Animagus. The very idea of eating deer…

Well, in any case, there was no need for that now ; and buying groceries was a good way to discover a little part of Konoha – though she could have done without the looks.

At least, they weren't looking at her like she was either a Savior, or a Dark Lady In The Making. Just a very, very rich person (if she had managed to have the Copy Nin as her bodyguard, she had to be very important, apparently – she personally thought that she could have done without him, thank you very much), and a very beautiful one with that – hey, she had eyes, she wasn't blind !

She knew she was beautiful !

(It helped that almost every male, in her world, had tried to hit on her when seeing her, even without knowing who she was, after the war. Though she was small – Damn the bloody Dursleys – she had a beautiful body, and the face that went with it. Training and genetics do that for you).

Anyway, she was walking slowly, taking advantage of the fact that her status as an Hime hadn't been announced yet – in fact, there was a Council Meeting about that right now, in the Hokage Tower.

Apparently, having an Hime – or an important person indeed – suddenly settling in your village, was a very big deal. Who knew ?

That didn't stop the awed and staring looks, or the leering smirks (Ugh...), but it was better now than it would be once she was officially announced to Konoha. No doubt, the rumors would spread like fire on oil.

For now they probably thought she was an Hime (the kimono was a dead giveaway, its materials too precious to belong to a commoner) exploring Konoha, or here for a mission. Maybe she was waiting for her escort to be ready before travelling to another country... ?

Whatever they thought, they left her in peace, and that was enough for her.

She vaguely looked up, feeling more than hearing a ninja rushing by, right on the rooftops. Why did they use rooftops, anyway ? Sure, it was much quicker and easier that way ; but not only did that make them easy target, for those that could see them (even though she very much doubted they would be targets inside Konoha, developing habits could get you killed), it must also damage the rooftops quickly.

Well, then again, maybe not. Maybe ninjas were not heavy at all, or maybe the rooftops had been reinforced. She would have to ask, if she ever cared to remember to do so.

A lot of ninjas were rushing by, up there, and some stayed hidden. She could feel the ANBUs that had been appointed to watch her – though why, since she was literally always followed by Kakashi, she wasn't sure – as well as some ninjas in the crowd, around her.

Hey, they did need to eat too, didn't they ?

She had to admit to herself, she wouldn't have known they were here, if she hadn't been... who she was. Not that she was flattering herself, no – she was making reference to her being Mistress of Death.

With the title came a sensitization to not only souls (which was helpful to see where everyone was in a place, even those that were hidden) but also to Death in all of Her forms. And ninjas had the smell of Death clinging to their skin.

It was a given, considering what they did for a living. Even if they washed themselves after every mission, even if they used scentless soap to make the scent of blood disappear – the mark of Death still clung to their very body. They had killed, they were marked.

Their very souls were marked, and Hari would always be able to feel this taint. Being attuned to souls wasn't enough – but coupled with being able to see Death's touch on killers' souls meant that she knew who the civilians were... and who they weren't.

Hari knew these things instinctively – that's how she knew where the ANBUs were in the Hokage's office, during their first meeting. That's how she knew where the shinobis and kunoichis were around her, every time. And that's how she had known that the plant wasn't actually a plant. She would never have guessed, otherwise – she couldn't, for the life of her, detect what they called a genjutsu.

She felt them. Felt the death they carried around. Felt the danger, the blood, everything that made them who they were. Granted, in a Ninja Village, there was a lot of ninjas, obviously ; so she was constantly receiving signals from what could only be described as her seventh sense – her sixth sense being Magic.

(Or maybe it was her first. She would rather be deprived of all her other senses than to lose her magic).

Anyway. Ignoring the world around her as best as she could, (difficult when you're paranoid and always looking around, searching for danger), she managed to buy numerous goods.

Vital ones. Soap, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, since apparently they loved it ; these sort of things. Chocolate. One cannot live without chocolate.

"What do you like ?", she suddenly asked her silent companion.

"... Huh ?", was his intelligent answer. He looked startled at being addressed.

Did he thought she was going to ignore him ? Was that what you did when you had a shinobi bodyguard ?

Well, they were going to live together for one year – maybe more if she was accepted in the ninja forces, since it had a trial of one year too ! Of course she wanted to know more about him – maybe even become friends !

She was going to live with someone else. In her house, and someone that wasn't family. That would be a first. Hermione and Ron had always been family... up until the end of the war.

She had never done that – sharing her privacy with someone. The Dursleys didn't count, they never did ; and living in a dorm was obviously very different. And before they friendship broke, she had never shared with her best friends : what had been hers had been theirs, too. At least, that's how she had felt it.

After leaving Hogwarts, she had lived alone. She was a private person, after all ; and she was even more private, now that she had been betrayed too many times. Ron and Hermione... After a few months in one of her houses (one of the most modest ones, belonging to the Potter line) they had preferred to live in their own house ; an ostentatious, pretentious manor, bought with their newly won money, after the war.

It was good, to be war heroes. For them, at least.

(The house had probably been chosen by Ron. He had always liked flaunting what he had – and for a long time, that had been his friendship with Harriet – and he had always had bad taste).

(Hermione probably didn't care, as long as there was a library large enough in the house).

"I asked if there was something that you liked particularly", she asked again in an annoyed voice.

He stared at her a bit, before shrugging and going back to scanning their surroundings. He did take his job seriously, forced or not. He was too much serious for his own good, she thought. She herself wasn't that bad, and she had had a whole country after her head... (at least, she hoped she wasn't that bad).

"I won't eat with you".

Yeah.

No.

"You sure as hell will !", she snapped, eyes narrowed.

That startled him again, though there was puzzlement as well, now.

(Well, it wasn't easy to tell, since he had an excellent poker face – Hari would hate to ever play poker with ninjas. Maybe they weren't allowed in Casinos ? – as well as, you know, a mask ; but she was cheating and using a little bit of Legilimency. She wasn't looking in his head, of course, but scanning his feelings).

(It was ever-so-helpful, when speaking to a shinobi).

(And ninjas were all about cheating anyway. She was only trying to play by their rules !).

"What ?"

How eloquent.

Then again, now that she was thinking about it, maybe he didn't know. Maybe he hadn't meant to insult her. There was nothing that indicated it in his feeling – and of course he wouldn't know, had she suddenly become stupid ?! How could he possibly know about Wizarding traditions ?!

She breathed deeply, calming herself.

"Where I'm from", she began, prudently keeping every hints of her real story to herself in case they were followed, or someone was eavesdropping on them – they obviously would want to know who she was, and her real past was to stay a secret, but curious ninjas and spies were prone to be listening -, "It is an insult to refuse to feed one's guest. One of our oldest traditions is that of Hospitality.".

He didn't look like he was understanding. Well, she hadn't been very clear.

"It is very disgraceful to host someone, but not feed him or her. I am your host, and I will be so for a year. Being an invited guest in someone else's house invoke a strict code of conduct that stretches back centuries. Refusing to eat with me would be an insult – saying you consider me poorly, and that you don't want to associate yourself with me – and a serious breach of that conduct. What's more, for an host to refuse to take care of his or her guest is shameful. I would be ashamed of myself".

And yes, there was something like an understanding in his eye. And maybe she was exaggerating a bit – she most certainly would not be ashamed of herself, thank you, she knew Pureblood traditions but certainly did not live by them – but she refused to live a year with someone else, yet eat alone and basically be alone, with only a strange shadow always there, but never there.

It would be so awkward.

"So, what is your favorite food ?", she repeated, ignoring the amused looks and feelings of the shinobis around them – who had had no problems listening to them.

Curious little gossipers.

Kakashi was silent for a bit, studying her, before muttering under his breath.

"Miso soup with eggplants".

Hari beamed, privately wondering how the hell she was going to make that.

Though she had lived in Japan for quite a bit, and had eaten about everything they had, it had always been in restaurants. She had never cooked Japanese foods. Well, the basics – sushis and the likes.

But she had no idea how to make a miso soup, with eggplants of all things.

She wasn't fond of the plant. She didn't dislike it either, but there were few dishes that used it, in England.

She was a good cook – a great cook, indeed. She had always liked cooking, even at the Dursleys'. Back then, she had been able to take food when cooking. She just used more ingredients than needed, and quickly eat the surplus when they weren't looking.

It was often half-cooked, but it was enough.

(They never realized she was doing it, because they wouldn't know the usual quantities used for dishes. They bought more than needed, and Harriet ate the leftover).

(And when she had finally been able to eat what she had cooked herself, it had been glorious).

But everything she knew how to cook were English dishes, and French ones. Fleur had taught her the French ones. There was a lot of them – France was the country of gastronomy – but it wasn't Japanese food.

No matter. He would eat occidental food – and he would like it. She was quite confident in her skills.

And maybe she would buy some cooking books, and make him his miso-soup-with-eggplants dish. If he was good.

She narrowly avoided colliding in a civilian, swerving to the right, before looking for a stand selling eggplant. Damn her small stature, she couldn't see anything !

And she couldn't even use magic, since it was to be kept secret at all cost. At least, until she joined the forces, since after that ninjas were prone to discover it. What with going on missions with them, you know.

(God, it was going to be a boring year, if she didn't find anything to do. Then again, she had a lot of books to read, and magic to master, and physical training to do ; so she very much doubted she would be that bored).

Finally finding the much-searched-for eggplant, (and she had not used Legilimency, you have no proof anyway, and no one could suspect anything so it was okay) and totally ignoring the snicker coming from her metaphorical shadow, she purchased five of them. She could always make a gratin with them, if it came down to that.

She then fumbled with her purse, searching for the right amount of money.

She had been given a crash course by the Hokage during their first meeting, considering that their currency was different from her own. After having paid for her admission in Konoha, she had also exchanged a bit of gold for their money.

Apparently, gold was a very rare metal to find on this planet, rarer than in her original one, where Goblins and Nifflers basically lived to find some. Which coincidentally meant that its value was way higher than it had been in her old world. It also meant that she was now even richer than she had been before, if such a thing was even possible.

When she had been told the equivalent for a galleon, she almost couldn't believe it. There was no way she would be able to exchange all of her wizarding money – she very much doubted there was enough Ryos in the world for that !

Ryos, what a strange name for money. Even in Japan, it hadn't been that. That clearly was one of the differences between this world and Japan. They were, otherwise, surprisingly alike – culturally speaking.

(Then again, she supposed she couldn't judge, what with sickles, galleons, noises, or even pounds, yens, deutschmarks... At least, there was only one currency in this world, and it was the Ryos. Points for them, they had avoided the violent headaches she had suffered when learning all the equivalences in the different countries she had visited).

But she didn't say anything – it wasn't in her interest, she wasn't stingy but she had learned that money was power, and that it was better to have too much of it than not enough – and let them give her what they thought was an appropriate sum of money in exchange for a few galleons. She almost felt bad, but decided it didn't matter anyway. They wouldn't believe her – though they did seem really interested by the fact that the gold was enchanted.

It wouldn't chip, wouldn't break, and wouldn't tarnish. It was magical gold they were speaking of, treated with magic. Additionally, since the Goblin's enchantments on them had dissolved when leaving Earth (since they couldn't exist in this world, no Goblins having ever been there), they now could be melted into something else, if they so desired.

Seeing her struggle with the purse, Kakashi thankfully helped her (as he had done each of the precedent times), half-gloved fingers picking the necessary amount of money and giving it to the seller.

She mumbled her thanks, taking the bag given in exchange, and went on her way.

She posed some new landmarks in some streets she had never been in, without doing any movement of course (she didn't want someone to think she was doing something suspicious) before acknowledging Kakashi's restlessness, and deciding to go back home – no, not home, not yet.

Maybe one day.

She decided to go back to the house.

She would cook something simple for today, and send Kakashi to train in the garden in the meanwhile. After having been on extremely demanding missions so often, it was obvious that he needed to exert himself now that he couldn't do missions anymore – couldn't even train as long and as intensively as he wanted. His primary mission was to watch her, after all, and be with her as often as possible.

Walking slowly next to her in the streets wouldn't help him expend energy at all – he needed to train. And he couldn't do that if he had to follow her everywhere in Konoha.

The obvious solution was to let him train in the garden.

She fumbled with her bags, trying to open the gates of her garden. She couldn't use magic, since she was followed even now by ANBUs, and they hadn't been informed of her... Kekkai Genkai. Finding a stand which sell eggplants with magic was discreet, a door opening by itself or a bag suddenly becoming surprisingly light (ANBUs were trained to repere that sort of things, probably by scrutinizing muscles movements or something like that – she wasn't taking any risk, those guys were professionals) simply wasn't.

And Kakashi, that damn bastard, wasn't even trying to help her ! She was holding all the bags, and here he was – trained shinobi and all – hands in his pockets. The bags were heavy, damn it all, and numerous, and she couldn't use magic to suppress their weight, or to shrink them before putting them in her pocket.

He could, at the very least, have the decency to help her. But no, it was too much to ask. But he would see – oh yes, she wasn't a Marauder's child for nothing. Vengeance was best served cold.

She entered the garden, and walked briskly toward the house. It was quite a small trek – nothing like the one she had to do at her Manors when she wasn't apparating, far from it, but a bit of a walk anyway. She let Kakashi close the gates – he could at least do that.

Finally arriving at her door – she wasn't used to carrying so much without the help of magic, and she had a lot of stuff – she magically opened it, stepping inside the inviting house.

Feeling the disapprobation radiating in her back, she thought quickly about what she could have done, before rolling her eyes.

"Calm down, they haven't seen anything".

"And how would you know ?", was the drawled answer, the Jonin quickly closing the house's door behind him. His tone let her know how stupid he thought she was being, to think that ANBUs weren't able to see her. Well, he obviously didn't know about magic.

To be fair, he did know about it – she had proven its existence well enough – but he didn't know the faintest thing about what it could do. And who could blame him ? Hari herself thought that magic was pretty amazing every now and then, and she had known about it for 128 years already !

"Because we're behind the wards. They can't see what's happening behind them. No one can see what happens in the garden, or the house for that matter".

She sighed in satisfaction, magically floating the bags to the kitchen. She was thankful of the fact that the house already had furniture when she bought it, even if she had had to repair some a bit – and for once, she was even glad to have a muggle upbringing, since she already knew what a fridge was.

She put the food in it while speaking to her metaphorical shadow.

"What do you mean ?"

"Did you really think I was sending pretty lights for fun, last week ?" she saw his half-skeptical, half-carefully-neutral look, and quickly continued. "Don't answer".

She breathed – she had already explained all of this last time ! He just was skeptical, and he would have to test it before being sure she was saying the truth. Well, him training in the garden would do that, she supposed. It would serve as a test.

"I put wards. Protections. Barriers. I'm not done, there's still some I have to add – Runes, mostly, think Fuinjutsu – but for now, no one can see nor hear what's happening here, or in the garden. And no one can enter without me knowing it. Soon, when I'm done, no one with nefarious intention will be able to enter, period. Understood ?"

He didn't look like he understood, but he beamed nonetheless.

"Of course"

She didn't look convinced, but let it go.

"Well don't stay here like an idiot. Out of my kitchen ! I'm sure you have a lot of interesting things to do – doing reports, lazing around, whatever".

When he didn't looked like he wouldn't move, still beaming at her, she rolled her eyes.

"Go train in the garden, if you want. You can even test it – try calling some ninja passing by, and you'll see", she shooed him out of her kitchen, already preparing plates and utensils while talking.

She needed a bit of alone-time. She hadn't had a watcher in God knows how long, and wasn't used to having a person always hovering in her immediate vicinity. It could become quite stressful, and she just needed to be alone for a moment. Or, at least, to not have such an obvious and obnoxious guard for a bit.

"Oh, and don't be afraid to destroy the garden", she added as an afterthought. "I'll just repair it".

She turned sharply towards him, a somewhat forced smile on her lips, as she gave him a thumbs-up.

"Go wild !"

The Jonin raised a skeptical eyebrow, but did as he was told. Just as he was out in the garden, after having opened the glass veranda that was one of the kitchen's walls – it certainly helped make the kitchen sunny, though it was very bad for protection purpose, and had been, in his point of view, an enormous flaw of the house's – he quickly created a shadow clone.

The clone nodded, already knowing its orders, before disappearing in the shadows, up on the ceiling, discreetly as to not be caught by the Hime – because, for all she was from another world, she was an Hime. Heiress to several very important and illustrious Families, she had revealed.

(She obviously didn't understand why it was a big deal, but shinobis knew better. Money and blood were important, even in this world – though not as much for blood than it had been in her world. Crazy, the lot of them).

As for the clone, well, it was obvious he didn't fancy getting poisoned. She had already managed to make him eat with her, and eat what she had prepared – ninjas don't eat what others have made, with the sole exception of restaurants held by retreated ninjas, friends (very good friends), or ninjas whose specialty was cooking. Such as, the Akimichis, for example.

Or, also, the food prepared by the ANBUs' cook. For ANBUs only. It wasn't terrible, but it had everything needed.

So for the woman to manage to make him promise to eat with her... And he knew he would, because insult towards her or not, he didn't feel like refusing to do so. It felt like the right thing to do.

(When was the last time he had eaten homemade food ? Oh, he knew how to cook – but what was the point to do so, only to eat it in silence, and alone ? Food tasted like ashes, and he was a good cook. So he preferred, like a lot of ninjas, to eat out – often alone, but always with others around him. Sound. Lives. Energy).

Still, he couldn't eat anything just like that. It went against every one of his instincts, even if he knew she wouldn't try to kill him. Hence the clone.

He really didn't think that she would try to poison him – she wasn't the type, somehow. She was more of a fighter than a manipulator. She would prefer weapon over poison – or, at least, would use magic. Still, it wasn't that he didn't trust her, but he didn't trust her.

He would be a fool, if he did.

Assured that the meal wouldn't contain poison – if she had wanted to poison them, she would have done so in the Hokage office, when offering water, but one couldn't be too cautious – he stepped in the open. Immediately, he repaired the ANBU team charged to follow Hari-Hime when she was out, in case she managed to lose him.

Somehow.

(He didn't see how that could happen, but then again, magic apparently could do everything. He would wait to see it, before accepting that).

Speaking of, the wards. Apparently, shooting colored lights had a purpose. He had doubted for a bit – and had been at a loss as to what report to the Hokage.

"Potta-san shot multiple colored beams of light, while standing in her garden. She assured me they were protecting wards. I'm, as of now, still unsure of what it was, what it did, if it even did anything".

Yeah. No.

He quickly signed the correct signal to the ANBU team, waiting for the appropriate answer. He was in visible sight, so bar the so-called wards, nothing could prevent the team to see him.

Except, he received no response.

Moving a bit, silently walking until he was in the approximate center of the garden – right in front of one of the ANBUs – he reiterated the signal. A simple flick of the finger, nothing obvious. But they were ANBUs, and they knew where to look.

Still no answer. In fact, their eyes weren't, as far as he could tell, looking at him. They seemed to be looking at the house. Except, if he was standing right under their noses – or, well, at least right in front of them, if not close in distance – and Hari-Hime was in the kitchen, perfectly visible through the glass wall... Then they were looking at nothing.

He was quite certain nothing of interest was happening near the gates – he would know, he could perfectly see them – so why would they look at them as if there was something fascinating ? Hell, they looked at the gates as if it was their target – and it wasn't, it was a gate.

And Hari-Hime was perfectly visible from where he was, so she wasn't somehow at two places in the same time – as if that was possible.

Nevermind.

Trying again, he sent a pulse of chakra around, feeling it go away towards the team before – before being stopped neatly at something.

Huh.

He pushed his itai-ate up, looking around with both eyes, searching for what had stopped his chakra. Indeed, there was nothing at all, not even some sort of energy. Magic was becoming more and more puzzling.

He tried again, looking intently at the wave of his chakra as it moved rapidly... but it disappeared all the same, without warning. One moment it was there, the other it had been... What ?

He wasn't sure.

It still was very interesting. Hokage-sama would be delighted at the news. Something that allowed someone to go perfectly unnoticed... And, this time, he would have something to say in his report.

Feeling like an idiot, he did a last test.

"Hey !", he shouted, jumping a bit.

Why did he jump ? He himself wasn't sure. Don't ask.

This whole week had been strange. Magical woman coming from another world, having won a war and done more than a lot of veteran ninjas... And him having to babysit her.

He shuddered slightly. His instincts, well-honed, were telling him that he shouldn't let her know that he was considering his current job as babysitting.

Well, no reaction from the ANBUs. He would have to tell the Hokage that it wasn't useful to let a team in front of the house, since it served absolutely no purpose. He smirked softly. Squirrel and Sparrow were going to be so upset and flustered when he would tell them they had spent the time looking at nothing when he was training in the garden !

One should not underestimate the importance of teasing one's kouhais, though he would never be obvious about it. He had a reputation to maintain.

He stretched a bit. It was too late to do some real training, and he didn't want to go overboard anyway, so he wasn't going to give it his all. He wanted to test something she had said.

"I'll just repair it".

Repair the garden ? How ?

Only one way to know.

Destroy it.

Well, maybe not – they would be really bad, if it so happened that she, in fact, couldn't repair it. He didn't fancy having to repair it himself, even if he did have some experience in this.

(It may or may not come from some, utterly unjust, punitions ; delivered after he had destroyed one too many training grounds. But really, it was training, they weren't expecting him to only do light training, were they ?)

So he trained like this for maybe half an hour, before being – rudely, if he did say so himself – interrupted by some nonsense shout.

"A table !"

He mouthed the words silently, frowning perplexingly.

"Ata ableu ? What does that even mean ?"

Then there was the Hime's head poking out of the veranda, looking right at him with an annoyed look. Had he missed something ?

"Dinner's ready"

And oh, okay. Must have been some code. Or something like that. She must have been used to speak in code, if she was out of a war. That made him think, she had never told them how many years had passed since the end of the war.

He nodded – it explained it all – and walked toward the woman. He stopped in front of her, feeling stupidly smug as she looked over what had become the previously clean and proper garden.

Holes in the earth, traces of explosions, fallen branches scattered across the ground, one tree burning merrily in the background, and several kunais embedded in various part of the nature around. Light training.

He looked curiously at the petite woman next to him, waiting for her to react. When she didn't, except for a little smirk, he decided to speak.

"Will you repair it ?"

And yeah, there may have been a vaguely daring tone in his voice. He only received a raised eyebrow, a widened smirk, and a wave of her hand. Was that a sign for something else – wait.

What ?

The holes filled themselves and disappeared, fallen branches reattached themselves to their trees, the fire extinguished and the tree went back to its former state. Grass and earth were normal again, no signs of explosion anywhere, and his kunai were floating in front of him, neatly organized in a line. Waiting for him to take them.

He did, purely out of habit.

The garden looked as if nothing had ever happened to it.

And, okay, that was impressing.

No words, no energy, nothing – and yet she did repair the damages. With a wave of her hand.

Huh. Magic was something else.

He would definitely have something of interest to report to his Hokage, now. He looked back at the deceptively delicate woman next to him. Still her raised eyebrow. Still her annoying smirk.

Her green eyes were fascinating, though. As if the nature around them had tried to replicate this exact shade, but never quite succeeded. He had never seen such a captivating green, and he had been everywhere – on this world, at least. He shook himself out of his daze.

It wouldn't do for him to stupidly stay here, gazing into her eyes, no matter how pretty they were.

(How powerful and scary and hollow and defiant and wild and fierce and -).

He raised his own eyebrow.

"Dinner, is it ?"

Her smirk became a smile, and she motioned for him to follow. Once here, he dispelled his shadow clone, not caring about the sudden puff of smoke in the kitchen. From Hari-Hime's clearly surprised expression, she hadn't known it was there. And now he was surprised.

She had seemed to always know who was around her, and approximately where – yet she hadn't known about the clone ?

She had known about the ANBUs in the Hokage's office, and the henge-ed spy in the room. They hadn't know about him, hence it was purely logical that she had to be a very good sensor. So how could it have gone past her ?

"Everything's okay ?", he asked her mildly, not planning to give her any information about the clones – if she wasn't able to feel them, then he had an advantage on her. A much-needed one, considering that she had, for all intents and purposes, a lot more of advantages on them all.

"Yeah", she nodded quickly, still sending some puzzled looks at the emplacement the clone had just vacated in a cloud of smoke. "It's just... I felt I was being watched, but I thought it was just my paranoia speaking, you know ? It wouldn't have been the first time... But I truly didn't feel whoever was there".

Then she sent him a strange, unreadable look – and somehow, it looked as if a lot depended on his answer to her question, as stupid as her question was.

"Does non-killing ninjas exist ?"

He stared at her, trying to understand her question. Really ? Non-killing ninjas ? Well, some of the genins, the recent ones, hadn't killed – yet. But every ninja had at least killed once, if they were lucky as hell. But killing what was they did for a living, among other things, so her question truly was stupid.

She seemed to realize that, for she frowned slightly, while the smallest blush reddened her cheeks. She sent another glance at the place his clone had occupied.

"Forget it, it was a stupid question. Whether someone kill a man or an ant, it would mark them all the same", she said, to herself more than to him.

He had no idea what she was talking about.

She busied herself placing the food on the table, deep in thought. He chose not to ask questions.

"But then... ?", she mumbled lowly, not meaning to be heard, but it wasn't hard at all for him to heard her.

"Then ?", he beamed at her, and privately admitted that it was good, somehow, to see her uncertain, for once. Even if he, himself, had no idea of what she was muttering about.

Since she had come to Konoha, even when she had just been at the gates, she had been sure of herself. She had known what was happening, she had known, roughly, what could possibly happen ; all in all she had been the one with the information about the situation. They had been the ones scrambling to follow with her, and with what she was telling them – shattering their visions of the world.

(Other worlds ? Magic, insane people, magic, travels across worlds, magic ?)

She shook her head to clear it, sent him a last curious look, and shrugged. "No matter. Must not be a threat if you don't react. Come, let's eat"

And he could see a deflection when he saw one – she wasn't even trying – but he decided to let it go. He could always learn more latter. Though he noted that she looked much tenser than before, now that she knew some people could spy on her without her knowing where or who they were.

He sat down slowly, trying to determine what was in his plate. There was pasta, and tomatoes, and some meat – but he had never seen anything like that before.

"What is it ?"

"Mmh ? Oh, Spaghetti Bolognaise", she smiled gently. "It's delicious, don't hesitate to add cheese".

"... Cheese ?"

"Yes, here, look", she added some to his plate without even asking him first. Rude.

"Bon appétit".

"... What ?".

Cue another roll of her pretty eyes – no, of her eyes, no adjectives.

"Itadakimasu"

"Itadakimasu", he repeated, before taking his chopsticks out of one of his special scrolls out of habit (you simply don't eat with unknown chopsticks, no ninja worth their kunai did that, it was way too easy to tamper with), awkwardly hovering them over his plate.

How was he supposed to take those long pasta with his chopsticks ? Looking up, he saw the Hime, fork in hand, looking at him fixedly. Right. He had heard of some really wealthy men eating with silvery cutlery, such as forks and knives, but it was the first time for him.

Then again, from another world or not, she was an Hime.

Posing his chopstick, he beamed at her, eye closed, while taking the fork that was innocently posed just on the left of his plate. It was strange, heavier than chopsticks, but he was used to handling different weapons – a fork wasn't that different.

Truly, it looked more like a torture instrument to him – but who was he to judge ?

Putting it in his plate, he turned it as he had seen Hari-Hime do, and was rewarded with what he estimated was a correct mouthful of pasta on his fork. That would do, he decided. And he hadn't even needed to use the Sharingan – though he would have been deeply embarrassed to use it only for that.

He looked up again, only to see Hari still looking straight at him. What was she waiting for ? Did he have to do something ? He raised a brow questioningly, and she nodded towards his plate.

"You're not eating ?"

"You're not either", he shot back, smiling happily, head tilted on one side.

She didn't look impressed, before he saw a flash of tentative realization pass in her eyes, and she looked down at her own plate.

"Tell me how you find it", was all she said, before she began eating her own part.

Huh.

Strange. He didn't think she would understand, and certainly not that quickly. Not many did, and those who knew that he never showed his face always tried to see him without his mask, when he was eating, for example. And here was the woman, allowing him his space as if everything was perfectly normal.

Well, he supposed she had been through similar things, what with her being an icon in her other world. No doubt, she understood the value of privacy. It was nice, he inwardly admitted.

Still, he quickly put his mask down, put the pasta in his mouth, and put the mask back up ; eyeing her warily. He wouldn't put it past anyone to suddenly look up, trying to see his face. Hell, even people he considered as almost friends did it – everyone did it at least once, even the Hokage.

The Hokage. Oh, he never would outright demand him to show his face – he would never demand something so important from him, he knew what it meant to Hatakes – but he had tried to spy him when eating, once or twice.

It was part of the game, as tiring as it was...

But she didn't.

And during the whole meal, she never once looked up. She was calmly eating her own plate, letting him do it however he liked. Strange. It was the first time he didn't have to rush in order to finish his plate (which wasn't poisoned, by the way). It would have been hard to hurry, with those long pasta. He wouldn't have liked the no doubt inevitable tomato stains all over his face.

Instead, he was able to somewhat savor this strange dish – and she had been right, cheese somehow worked well with it – all the while staring at her in case she suddenly looked up.

The silence was a bit strange, a bit tense, and a bit awkward – but what would you expect of a first meal between two perfect strangers ? Though, to be honest, he was more a stranger than she was ; since he knew what had happened to her in her world.

She didn't have that luxury. He didn't intend to rectify that.

Not for now anyway. Probably not ever.

When all was said and done, she asked a question, without looking up.

"Done ?"

"Yeah".

Only then did she look up, right in his eye.

"So ?"

"So what ?". Did he have something to say ? Kami, he would have to ask her if there was a book on her world's customs, he never knew if he was doing something bad – or if he was doing something bad by doing nothing.

Or saying. Whichever.

(Why did he care already ?)

But she only shot him an annoyed look – she did that a lot, he thought.

"How was it ?"

He said nothing for a few seconds, having the strange impression she meant more than just the meal. But for the life of him, he couldn't figure what. Her magic repairing the garden ? The fact that she had been right about the wards ? That she had let him eat in peace ? That the cheese was good ? That she hadn't tried to poison him ? The whole day, maybe ?

Well, the answer to all of those questions could be the same.

"It was good".

And he was rewarded by an honest, bright, beaming smile.

Huh.

There was a strange feeling in his body. Too much unspent energy and adrenaline, probably. He needed to train more. But that was for later.

Right now, he watched with undisguised fascination as the plates and cutlery floated in the air, straight to the sink, and began to wash themselves. Now that was handy ! It was as if they were dancing, hovering way above the ground, and a sponge washed them one after the other when they came upon the sink.

Water flowed on its own, soap bubbled merrily, and all in all in was a very pleasant affair – and how very much useful ! He knew a lot of kunoichis, and shinobis too for that matter, who would love to be able to do that.

He wouldn't admit it out loud, but magic was amazing...

Well, he had seen nothing that proved it was useful in battle, but since she had won a war... Huh, you get it.

He stayed a bit in the kitchen, ignoring Hari's small, amused laugh when she walked past him, to go into the living room.

Only after did he join her on the couch in front of the one she was sitting in, reading peacefully a book. While not rare, ninjas preferred scrolls.

And it was the first time he was seeing such a book – heavy, ancient, and large.

Trying to peek a bit, by passing behind her swiftly before going to sit on the sofa in front of her, only separated by a small, low coffee table, he was dumbfounded. Strange little squiggles, that looked nothing like any katakana, kanji, or hiragana he knew of. It was the first time he ever saw such things – what had to be a written language, since the Hime was actually reading it. There was also a certain sense, pattern, to the strange drawings on the page – it hadn't been put randomly together. Which meant it was from her other world – but who invented a whole new alphabet only for a code ?!

It never came to his mind that it wasn't a code, but rather an actual language. Since everyone in the Elemental Nations spoke the same language, though admittedly with some differences depending on the region ; he didn't realize that some worlds had different languages, coming from different cultures, with their own alphabets for some.

Well, in any case, he couldn't read this incomprehensible gibberish. That was a bit problematic, since he didn't know what the book was about (she had told him it was about wards, but what that meant exactly, and if she was saying the truth, he knew not), and it was the sort of things he needed to discover for his Hokage. He didn't think it was the case, but maybe the book was dangerous.

It sounded preposterous, and even ridiculous – that she would simply sit down after a good meal to read a dangerous book on how to kill one's enemies – but so was the idea of space within space, also known as 'Kami-there's-so-much-place-in-this-trunk-how-is-that-even-possible-where's-the-trick'. Or, more simply, the idea of someone coming from Another World, also known as 'What-the-fuck'.

And it wasn't as if he could just ask – but maybe he could try and pry some information from her. He was quite confident in his interrogation skills (even without torture), and from what he had gathered – from what they had all gathered – in her explanations, during the first day of the Hime in Konoha... her people weren't a warrior nation.

Not like ninjas were.

Meaning, she had not been trained to conceal and hide information, not to the point where she would resist his skills.

Well, it couldn't hurt to try, could it ?

"What is this ?", he drawled lazily, the picture of boredom.

His arms were displayed on the couch's back, on each side of himself, and his legs were extended in front of him. He didn't put his feet on the coffee table that separated their two couches – he wasn't that rude, or at ease – but he certainly looked as if all was well in his world ; and not at all as if he was trying to extract informations.

"A book on wards", came the surprisingly easy response. Well, that was a first... But it wasn't very informative. Maybe more precise, perhaps.

"Yeah, but what is it written in ?"

She looked up with surprised eyes, before remembering that here, they only knew Japanese. Oh, Kakashi was practically vibrating with curiosity !

Well, to be honest, no, he wasn't ; he was perfectly calm in appearance. But his emotions were pouring out of him, whether he wanted it or not. She would really have to tone down her passive Legilimency, she realized.

Since she had learned it, she had always let it passively on – not actively looking in anybody's head, but feeling the emotions of people around her. It certainly helped avoid a lot of problems, when you can feel when someone's ready to do something stupid.

She had endeavored to avoid those persons like Hell. She had had enough problems for a lifetime, thank you. And coming here in the Ninja World had nothing to do with a problem – since it was the first time she went looking for adventure, and not the other way around.

She could live with that, as long as it was her own choices.

"Russian. They're pretty good with wards, though not to the level of the Incas. But I'll read those later".

"Ruchian ?", mouthed Kakashi, trying to make sense of the world.

No such luck.

Thankfully, Hari seemed to see his incomprehension.

"It's a language. On this world you all speak Japanese, but on my old world, there's a lot of different languages, with even different alphabets sometimes".

She snapped her fingers (and he noted that she didn't use a wand, like she had when making glass and water appear, in the Hokage's office. Meaning, she didn't need one. Then why did she use one for her Unbreakable Vow ? And for putting her wards ? He ignored the question for now, keeping it in a corner of his head), and a book came flying out of an open trunk, inconspicuously posed next to the couch.

He looked at the trunk suspiciously. He knew how much space was available inside it... and the incongruous idea of having to check inside every trunk he would see from now on crossed his mind. He sighed – great, he had managed to become even more paranoid than before.

"Come here", she asked, waving him over distractedly with one hand, and putting her first book on the coffee table with the other. She didn't close it – obviously intending to resume its lecture later.

He sat down next to her, awkwardly (that was the closest he had ever been to someone in a long time, out of A- and S- rank assassination missions, or simply one-night stands) and very unsure of himself. He was tense, expecting an attack anytime now – well, his body was expecting one, though his mind knew logically that there was no risk there.

He knew it, could feel it, but stayed on guard nevertheless.

Then she opened the still floating book, and showed him its contents.

Strange little drawings. What was that ? Another code – no, language ? It did look different than whatever 'Ruchian' was.

"That's English. Roman alphabet", she explained, turning several pages. "Now that's French, same alphabet, but different words, pronunciation, syntax, everything. The alphabet's the same, but save for some words, that's all they have in common".

She turned several other pages, with strange inky designs. He interrupted her before she could say more.

"I'm sorry, but what's this book ?"

"Hmm ? Oh, it's just a book gathering almost every language in the world – my world, I mean".

'Just', he thought faintly. 'Just'. From the book's thickness, he guessed that there was a lot of different languages – meaning, from what she had said, a lot of different cultures. He couldn't even imagine such a world.

It had to be excruciatingly difficult, complex, with a lot of misunderstandings between countries. And everyone knew everyone's language. How could they all live together ?

Here they all had only one language, one culture – but they fought plenty still ! He couldn't imagine what this world was like.

Yet this book offered a lot of interesting possibilities. Sure, they would have to actually learn the languages, but once it was done, they would have a code without precedent – one with a completely different alphabet, one no enemy would ever be able to decipher, since it had absolutely no link whatsoever with their own language.

"Go on", he invited, looking at the book with renewed interest.

"Er... Yes, as I was saying", was all that Hari said, though she did shoot him a odd look. "This one's Arabic. Then there's Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, German. Then there are different African dialects, since Africa is fractioned into a lot of countries. Of course, there are Latin and Greek, two very important languages to know for wizards, even though they're technically dead languages for non-magical people. And hieroglyphs, old Egyptian. There's a lot more, but those are the main languages. Then there's different Runic alphabets, each country generally has its own, in addition of their 'normal' language, if you will. And the magical languages - Gobbledegook, Parseltongue – though that one, I doubt anyone in this world will be able to learn it, it's a gift. You have it or not, that's all ; but also Merspeak, the Mermen's language, and a lot more".

Kakashi perked up at 'Chinese' and 'Japanese', since he thought he had recognized some of the letters – he was pretty sure he had understood some of the words, though some didn't make sense at all for the 'Chinese', but he had definitely recognized the 'Japanese' – hell, it was his Japanese ! – but decided that would have to wait for later.

The others... the others he wanted to ignore for a bit longer (Mermen ?!)

"That's... a lot..."

"Yes, I guess we do have a lot of languages", she chuckled gently. "And though almost everyone know at least two or three languages, few are the people who bother to learn them all".

"I – how many do you know ?", he was pretty curious as to the answer.

She didn't look like an academic person, rather a fighter – a woman of action and danger. But she did have a soft, calm vibe to her. One that spoke of calm activities, peaceful tendencies. One that could very well go with the Hime calmly curled on a couch, fireplace warmly lightening the place with orange hues, while snow softly fell outside ; and those green eyes would be looking down at an old, withered book with wonder and interest.

He vaguely wondered why his mind supplied such an image, but let it go.

"Me ?", and Hari actually looked surprised, before looking back down at the book, smiling. And though it was an honest and gentle smile – the first one she had since he had met her that wasn't bitter – he couldn't help but see the hidden pain and loneliness in it. "I know them all".

And he didn't say anything – didn't ask how it was that she did ; why she had absorbed herself in studies instead of fun and friends ; why she had had so much time on her hands, and nothing else to do ; why she looked sad at the simple fact that she had learned all of those languages, instead of – .

He didn't say anything, because though as a ninja he saw a lot more than any other person, as a ninja, he also knew when to say nothing.

---

Hari Potta went down the stairs, feeling the smooth wood under her shoeless feet – she was in her own house, she could do as she wanted – and hearing it creak ever so slightly under her weight. The air was cool against her skin (she liked to sleep in the warmth, probably came from her serpent animagus, and her Phoenix one too, come to think of it – so it meant heating charms on her sheets, and quite the temperature shock once she was out of bed), but not unwelcome.

It helped her to wake up.

5 a.m was way too early to be awake, but she didn't think she could go back to sleep. She had spent some hours dozing off, turning in her bed, unable to really fall into Morpheus' arms.

It was not that she was tired – truth be told, she felt quite rested. Her preparations for coming to the Elemental Nations had taken a lot out of her, with intense physical training, magical training, preparing the Ritual, organizing her possessions, and the overall stress that came from preparing herself to step into the unknown – maybe trading one Hell for another. And the fact that she had had to live through her memories again – something she had previously promised herself, once her Occlumency had finally been mastered and perfected, never to do again – to explain her situation to the Hokage had been quite trying as well.

All in all, it had been some very difficult times for her, but she found that such was not the case anymore.

No, ever since she had come to the Elemental Nations, she had had the opportunity to unwind a bit. And while she wasn't completely at ease, or at home ; she still felt reasonably relaxed for having spent only one whole week in Konoha – her second week, all in all, in this world.

She didn't trust any of them, not yet, but she was calm around Kakashi, and no one could enter her home without her knowing so – and she didn't even have to fear for her life, since she couldn't lose it... so that took a lot of stress out of her.

She could have felt better, and she had no doubt that she would, in time... once she was accustomed to her new life.

Everything was still so new. That was why she was still wary and nervous, and why she felt a bit out of it. Hell, the house itself was still very, very new (she felt more at home in her tents)... but it was coming around.

She was determined to make it work.

She softly padded into the kitchen, decades of life having made her as silent as one could be without magic or ninja training, and stopped. Looking through the glass wall, she could see Kakashi standing just on the other side, back to her, apparently taking a break from his training. Damn, the man was crazy to be up as early as it was ! He had to have been at it since a few moments already, considering he was sweating up and that wouldn't be the case if he had just begun. But ninjas were crazy, she knew that...

For all that she could and would go up as early as possible if needed, and be perfectly wide-awake at that ; she admitted to herself that she would never do it if she didn't have to do it. She really liked sleeping in if she could. She hadn't had many opportunities to do it until she became immortal, and then it had somehow lost of its appeal. She wasn't sure why... She just didn't feel like it anymore. Maybe when you have all the time in the world, literally, wasting it away snuggling in bed was somehow uninteresting.

She had only wanted to travel, and discover new places, or forgotten ones, and learn magic, and do something with her... life. Maybe it was to prove herself that she was still alive, that being immortal didn't mean that she would calcify and watch Time pass by, without feeling concerned by it, without wanting to do anything. So she had done everything she wanted, everything she could think of, taking few pauses here and there when she felt like it.

(Or maybe it was because she had just ended the war and could do what she wanted, for once ; and was too jittery to relax at home with a good book. She wouldn't have been able to appreciate it, and she still couldn't do it now, not really – but at Hogwarts', before everything had really gone to shit, she had loved to curl up in an armchair near the fireplaces in the Common Room, and read for a bit, at night, alone and in silence).

(Or maybe it was all of that, together).

Whatever the reason, she was up earlier than she would have, had she had the choice. But she was still getting used to being here, in this world and in this house, so sleep had eluded her. She hadn't felt like staying in bed either – too many thoughts, not enough noise to show life, and she had never really liked music of any kind and thus couldn't put some – so down she had gone, thinking she would make some coffee then read a bit on wards.

She wanted to put the best wards she could, after all. She was determined to have the single most protected house in this world. But Kakashi was out there, training (he was always up before her, but it was the first time she realized how early he awoke). And she, herself, was quite behind her planning in physical training.

She hadn't trained physically since coming to the Elemental Nations, in fact. Hey, she had been busy discovering a new world, avidly looking the differences and similarities she could see ; busy assimilating that she had done it, that she had left her old world behind forever, that she was free of them ; busy with tracking Orochimaru down, taking care of him, and having some words with Manda ; busy reading wards books, because while she was a Ward Mistress, some major wards in her old world were totally useless in this one, which allowed her to put some new, rarer ones, without weakening the global structure, and it was very interesting and took a lot of time...

Busy.

So yes, training physically hadn't been her priority, and no one could blame her. Her situation was quite unique, in every way, and she would hurt the first person that tried to judge or blame her.

Manually preparing coffee using her brand-new machine (it took longer that way, but tasted a lot better), she waited for it to be ready, studying Kakashi in the meantime. He didn't look like he knew she was there, but she couldn't be sure. Once the coffee was ready, she poured herself a cup, and joined the Jonin outside.

From his lack of reaction, she would say that he had known she had been standing in the kitchen in the past twenty minutes or so ; but he was a ninja and that meant he could be simply hiding his surprise. She was trying to reign in her Legilimency, because it could be quite overwhelming when living in a Village as busy as Konoha was, but upon concentrating she could still feel others' emotions. And Kakashi's distinctly lacked any surprise.

So he had known, then.

She took a sip, taking in the slowly lightening sky, the still cold and humid air, the destroyed garden. Kakashi had made good use of her permission to train in it, no matter the mess he made ; and she had repaired it every day so far. It wasn't a bother, of course not. She was even a bit satisfied and, dare she say it, smug, when feeling his reluctant awe when she was using her magic.

She distantly thought that it had been a great idea to magically silence the bedrooms – he couldn't hear what was happening in hers, she couldn't hear what was happening in his, and they both couldn't hear what was happening outside of their door... though Kakashi apparently was disturbed by that fact and slept with the door the slightest bit open, the silencing ward coming into effect only when the door was completely closed.

She understood, of course. She too would feel uneasy if she had to sleep in absolute silence, unable to tell if someone was approaching her door in the night. She, herself, had no problem in this situation now, because the basic wards she had put around her house would wake her up immediately should someone cross them uninvited, and she had absolute faith in her own magic. It had never failed her.

Kakashi didn't have this faith. For him, the silence surrounding him when the door was closed was a liability and a danger. Hence the fact that he never closed his door, thus nullifying the silencing ward.

It had still prevented her from being awoken at ungodly hours (as she would have been today, for example, if not for the silencing ward), or had prevented Kakashi from hearing her nightmares. She was quiet during those – had learned not to make a sound, even asleep and in distress – but she knew he would hear her all the same if both their doors were open. She didn't want that.

She had only had one nightmare ever since coming to Konoha, but she guessed it was because she was settling in, and a lot was happening at the same time. She had no doubt the nightmares would come back with time. They always did.

"Down here for some training ?", Kakashi interrupted her musings.

She almost startled, so lost in her thoughts as she was, but managed to hide her reaction by taking another sip of her cooling coffee. A quick heating charm corrected that flaw.

She had a feeling that he wasn't fooled.

"Training ?", she asked dumbly – but for her defense, she was just waking up. There was no emergency, she was thus allowed to take her time.

"Yes", he confirmed without even looking down at her, lone eye still looking over the garden. "If you want to become a ninja in a year's time, then you will have to be in the expected physical condition".

And, well. Yes. She didn't feel like it, not really, but then again she wasn't feeling like much today. So, why not ?

"Hmm...", she said nothing, breathing in her coffee's aroma, eyes closing by a strange habit, before answering reluctantly. "I guess I will do some. I do need it, after all... after I'm done with my coffee. And I need to eat a bit".

Silence fell once she was done, and Kakashi let her drink her coffee slowly, as slowly as she could, dragging the moment. She side-eyed him.

"Have you eaten ?"

"Not yet", he hummed softly, still not looking at her.

She found that she wasn't annoyed by that. She herself was pretty fine looking ahead at nothing, too. Even destroyed as it was, it was a beautiful garden. Hari had never seen plants as luxurious as those in Fire Country were. There was something with the huge trees surrounding the Village...

Once the cup was almost empty, she sighed, resigning herself to her fate. But before that...

"Come, then", she said, waving to him to follow her, as she came back into the kitchen. "I'll cook a quick breakfast before I get to it, and you get back to it".

He followed wordlessly, eye sharply following her every movement, face blank. Honestly, she was surprised that he had accepted to eat what she was cooking, but she guessed that he simply didn't want to be suspicious of her every action. She was here to last, if everything went good, and him endlessly doubting her would not do for a sane working relationship... especially if they were to live together for a whole year – maybe more. She wasn't sure about the last part.

After the year of trial as a civilian, she would be allowed to pass the test to become a kunoichi – and would then have to undertake another year of trial as a ninja. Would he still be the one watching her ? Would she still be watched, at all ? Surely they would have a small amount of trust in her by that time. Plus, Kakashi was too good a ninja to be kept away from real missions too long, in these precarious times for Konoha.

Still, right now, he had to do some leap of faith, just like she had done when sharing her past. She could have been much more evasive, could have kept a lot more secrets, or memories... as long as she didn't lie, then the Unbreakable Vow wouldn't have reacted. But each party keeping to itself wouldn't have amounted to anything, so she took the risk, and it appeared that the silver-haired ninja was doing the same.

To be fair, if she had wanted to kill him, then she would have had a lot of occasions already, and she wouldn't have needed to create such a past for herself. That is, if she had lied. Considering that she had done nothing when she could have killed the Hokage himself, or at least tried (you can't come much closer to kill the man than when you're in his own office, no matter how many ANBUs are here as well – not if you're prepared), then chances were low that she would try anything now.

As such, there was no real risk to eat what she cooked, but the Jonin could have chosen to be a bastard about it, and refrain. Maybe she ought to change the nickname she had given him...

She realized that it would be the first time she would cook breakfast for him. Usually, he was always up before her, and she had always thought that he had already eaten – he never said anything when she was eating herself. So she didn't know what he liked in the morning – did he even drink coffee ?

That question was answered when the man poured himself a cup of coffee from the machine she had done before going out to see him, with just a small questioning look in her direction to make sure it was alright. She had of course nodded. It was still hot – preserving charms were something she did without even thinking about it anymore. That left the question of the food.

"Do you mind toasts and marmalade ? I can make some croissants too", she offered, looking curiously at the tall man in her kitchen.

She had always known that she wasn't particularly tall, but standing near the man really shoved that fact in her face.

"That's what you eat for breakfast ?", asked Kakashi, a puzzled look in his eye, before adding. "What's a croissant ?"

And, right. Japanese didn't eat English breakfast. Very true. But she had never liked Japanese breakfasts, or Chinese's, for that matter. She liked Occidental breakfasts, and that was that.

"Yes, but I guess I can try to cook something else for you...", she tried awkwardly, realizing that she maybe should have learned to cook Japanese dishes, if she was to blend in the Elemental Nations. Sadly, the thought hadn't come to her. Hindsight... Then she hopefully added. "But maybe you could try ?"

Kakashi hesitated for so short a moment Hari didn't even seen it, before shrugging in acceptation. They would get nowhere if he didn't show small moments of trust, or if he kept refusing everything she proposed.

Half-an-hour later, Kakashi decided that he most definitely didn't regret his choice, and that he never wanted to go through a breakfast without one of those croissants if he could help it. There were delicious.

He may have eaten more of them than was strictly reasonable, but thought that it was quite alright. He was going to train right after, after all, and ninjas had extremely high metabolisms anyway. There was no risk of him ever going fat, no matter what all those would-be kunoichi thought to justify their dieting, and he could do with a bit more food in any case. He wasn't underfed – he knew the importance of a good diet and would never endanger his own performance – but he had kept his food intakes on a strictly necessary amount. Never more – he never saw the point.

He ate to live and do missions, not because he liked it or was hungry. It was a necessity. He had never felt the need to eat something because he wanted to eat it – though he did sometimes make an exception for miso soup with eggplants. Exceptions should always be done for that dish.

But now that they had both finished – no matter how much the Hime had tried to slow the whole process – they could go to what was, in Kakashi's humble opinion, the best part : the training.

"Let's train", he chirped brightly, internally vaguely amused at the Hime's obvious reluctance.

She obviously wasn't a fan of physical training, though he didn't think she was one to slack off either.

She groaned, but did follow him out. He watched with disguised fascination as her clothes changed with a snap of her fingers, becoming something more adequate for training : sport shorts and a tank top. Strange shoes covered her previously naked feet, looking nothing like the sandals ninjas used, and she had put her hair up in a tail. He noted the numerous scars on her arms, not as much as a ninja would have, but a lot more than civilians. There was some on her legs, too, though they were very subtle, and very few. He had a feeling there was more of them, that he couldn't see because of the clothes.

"What do you usually do ?", he asked, surprised to find himself actually curious.

Did the people in that other world train differently ? Did they have their own techniques ?

"Well, first of all, please remember that no one in my old world ever trained to the extent that you do – not physically at the very least", she huffed, obviously prepared to him not being impressed by her training regime. "Our bodies are much more limited in their strength – your chakra strengthen your bodies, but there is none of that in my old world, not even in the Magical one".

Kakashi tilted his head on the side, slightly, considering what that meant. He decided that the equivalent were the Samourais, who fought with their bodies and not with chakra. A very skilled ninja could kill a hundred samourais without even trying – they were slow and their reflexes weren't that good, compared to a ninja's speed. Chakra did make them much stronger in every aspect compared to a samourai.

Which meant that everyone in her old world – as she constantly referred to it – was... weak.

Well, he corrected himself, they were physically weak. Some of them apparently had magic, and that must mean that they were stronger than the others – even if not physically. But considering that the Hime had a sort of protection around herself that stopped everyone and everything from entering (though he wanted to test if breathable poisons would pass... but that was for another time), and that she had done something that had somehow petrified the mole (and the ramification implied with having a mole in the Hokage's office wasn't something he wanted to think about now – still, they had to ask her to stop whatever she had done to the spy, for nothing they had done had been successful in awakening the man)… Considering all of that, she wasn't defenseless.

No matter how much weaker than him she was physically. What good his strength would be if he couldn't even touch her ? But he would watch her magical training later. For now, he wanted to see how she trained physically.

"Go on", he encouraged.

She shrugged, looking around in the garden – that had already been repaired, he noted.

"I run for as long as I can, alternating between points of speed and endurance. I do twenty push-ups or so, then some sits up, and I usually do some yoga, since it's good for the flexibility... I'm not really focused on strength, more on speed and flexibility. It's what will work better with me", she explained, and he had to agree with her.

She didn't have what it takes to be a heavy hitter.

"Show me", he asked, and she shot him a disgruntled glare.

"I know that it's probably pitiful compared to what you do – Hell, even compared to what your genins do – but keep in mind that it's quite the performance for one such as me", she said primly, doing stretches.

Points for her, thought Kakashi. At least she knew what she was doing.

"I don't need to have a lot of strength. I need endurance, speed and flexibility, but I don't really need to learn what you call Taijutsu – not if I can keep everyone away from me with magic".

"What happens when you have exhausted your magic ?", he wondered out loud.

From her explanations the first day, in the Hokage's office, Magic was relatively similar to Chakra, bar the obvious differences. They were both energies. But he didn't think that... Wizards, had a limitless core of Magic – somehow, that looked way too easy. And she wouldn't have needed to train, and they wouldn't have needed a school for their children : if Magic had been limitless, then the... wizards (it was still weird for him to think that they weren't a fairy tale) would have learned it more easily, and with their own families.

Plus, every energy had a limit. That was the way of life.

(At least, he hoped it was, even in that other world).

But Hari-Hime gave him an amused glance.

"That is a situation that will never happen", she said, a tad smugly. "I have more magic than everyone else in my old world, and then some. My case is somewhat of a... particularity".

She frowned, carefully warming her wrists and ankles.

"Let's just say that I have a lot of magic at my disposal, and that spells and the likes do not take a lot out of me. I stand by my point : me exhausting my magic will never happen".

Okay, it was clear that she didn't want to talk about that, and wasn't about to be forthcoming with information. That was okay. That was why Kakashi was here, after all : to discover as much as he could on the Hime and her magic. That wasn't going to happen in a day – they had lived together for a week only. He had time.

He had a whole year... minus a week.

Plenty of time.

"Why do you train, then ?", he asked, for if she only needed her magic, then she didn't need to train her body.

"First of all, doing magic takes a toll on the body. It's like a strenuous activity – magic is a muscle. The more of it you have, the easier using it is, but doing magic is tiring nonetheless", she explained slowly. It was as if she was searching her words – as if she had never had to explain that to anyone.

Considering that that must be general knowledge, that wouldn't surprise Kakashi.

"Then it is always a good idea to be fit. There are very few fat wizards – fewer than you may think, and all of them have low magical cores – so everyone is more or less in a good physical condition. Doing magic is similar to exercising. So to be in a better condition than them, to be faster and stronger than them, is quite the advantage, I've found, especially in a war".

Ah, yes. Of course she would want to have more stamina than others – especially enemies.

But that gave him a new question.

"If you admit that you are slow, compared to us ; and that you will not progress, then how are you going to use magic against ninjas ? You can protect yourself, as you have showed us, but what about attack ?"

Not that having her as protection wouldn't be enough – it would be very good, in fact, few ninjas had impenetrable defenses, and they could take care of the offence while she had their backs – but he would like to know what she had to say to that. How could she attack if everyone else was faster than her ? Would she even be able to see her targets ?

She began to jog lightly around the garden, following the line of trees that marked the end of her property. He followed easily, pushing chakra in his weight seals so that the workout would actually be of some interest for him.

"I can attack with magic as well – I will have to show you, one day – and my magic is way faster than I am. There is no problem about that", she affirmed easily, dismissing his half-hearted concern.

"You shouldn't speak when running", he reproached mildly.

That wasn't good for the body, since it messed with the respiration. Civilians were already slow, (though she was faster than them, having managed to keep a good rhythm over the roofs) but if they talked when running, then their stamina diminished by half. Never a good idea.

"I'm just warming up", the Hime reassured lightly. "When I'm training, I won't speak... I'll be too busy gasping for breath"

She smirked at her own joke, even if it was at her own expense. At least, she wasn't overestimating herself, he guessed. That was a flaw a lot of Ninjas shared – and let's not even talk about civilians.

"How do you train ?", she asked him, looking at him at the corner of her eyes, but never stopping her light jogging. "Physically speaking, I mean".

He smiled sweetly – not that she could see it – but turned his by now famous upturned U-eye smile toward her.

"What do you say you try and keep up with me ?", he dared.

If he had read her right, she was proud. She wasn't the type to step down, give up, or avoid a fight. She was the kind of person that went head first into battle, and had learned cunning and planning only because she had been forced to admit that it saved her life. Prudence, for her, had come from experience, not by nature.

Which meant that she wouldn't back down, and instead would try to do as he did – pushing her own limits doing so. He wanted to see how far she could go, even in impossible tasks, against impossible odds, when there was no way for her to win. He wasn't stupid, knew she had trained and could probably handle herself... against genins.

But her body wasn't trained for heavy, physical fights. She was silent – disturbingly so, even for ninjas – but fragile. Not frail, her body was fit... for a civilian, that is. But it wasn't strenghtened by chakra. Its possibilities were much more limited. So he wanted to see how far she could push herself.

"You're on", she simply smirked at him, toothily – and he saw the defeat in her eyes before they had even began, but also a defiant light, a stubborn spark, and her whole posture showed her ready to fight.

He had to stop himself from smiling – a small, true smile – and only nodded back at her.

They would see.

Two hours later, the sun was shining brightly in the blue sky – the bluest sky Hari had ever seen – and it was a surprisingly warm and sunny for a day of November. Truly, everything was peaceful, and many a civilian were enjoying themselves.

Hari Potta would have done the same. She would have, had the circumstances been different.

As it was, she didn't see the sky, never realized that she had never seen that particular shade of blue before – at least, not when looking up at the sky. She didn't hear the birds, didn't feel the warmth of the sunrays gently caressing her skin.

No, after two hours, Hari Potta reluctantly crawled onto her terrace, limbs trembling madly, heaving gasps, before sprawling on the hard wood and deciding to not move until such a time she didn't feel like she was dying.

That she had been able to go up until the terrace at all was a small miracle in and of itself. She felt no one could ask more of her, especially not now, not today, and maybe not all week. She reasonably believed that she had done enough for... let's say, a month. Doing more would be unneeded, insane, and useless. No, the wood was quite comfortable, and her body was rebelling against her anyway (that ungrateful body of hers ! Sure, it had suffered through great difficulties ever since her birth, but come on – she had never done anything to harm it ! On the contrary, she had done her best to protect it, against herculean odds ! Couldn't it be a bit more grateful, and back her up in this difficult times ?), and she felt like a nap.

A shadow appeared above her, and she would have growled had she had any breath to spare. As it was, she didn't even whine – all her energy concentrated on trying to send much needed oxygen to her deprived, screaming lungs.

She privately decided there and then (for the thousandth time since the beginning of the training) that she would never, ever, ever train with Kakashi, ever again. Then thinking became a bit too hard, and she closed her eyes and let her brain think whatever it wanted to think about.

That is to say, cold water. She could kill for some cold water right about now. And yes, she was a witch, but her entire body was exhausted (more exhausted than she had thought possible), and the simple idea of using her magic right now was even more exhausting, if such a thing was possible.

Wait lying on the floor it was.

She thought she heard a voice, but her blood rushing through her veins made it quite difficult to hear anything. She had known that Ninjas took physical training to a whole new level, had known that she wouldn't be able to best Kakashi – she had known that.

But damn, that was simply ridiculous.

And now she wanted a swimming pool full of frozen water, so that she could submerge her burning body in it, and drink as much as she wanted while she was at it. But she didn't want to move – she never wanted to move again. She briefly considered turning herself into a small, nice little flower, so that she was sure she would never have to suffer through this again ; but decided it was not worth the expense of energy.

Sandaled feet appeared in the corner of her vision, a shadow looming over her. Even turning her eyes in his direction seemed too exhausting a task, so she kept on looking blankly at the sky, grateful that the sun was not yet at its peak, and was thus unable to blind her. Turning her head away would have been a bother.

That thrice-damned bastard, Kakashi, crouched next to her, still speaking nonsense. Well, what sounded like nonsense to her, at least. She was sure that he was pronouncing actual words, but all her remaining energy was focused on breathing, and so she didn't have time to spare to translate those sounds into actual words.

A few minutes later, and the dark spots dancing in her vision disappeared, the blood pounding in her ears tuned down to an acceptable level, and her breath slowed. Also, her heart went back to an appropriate rhythm, so all in all she decided she was in a better state. She willed a tall glass of water to appear next to her head, a straw conveniently waiting in front of her lips. She would have to stop breathing for a few seconds the time to aspire water, so she dedicated all of her attention to this difficult task.

She didn't want to stop breathing.

Still, she succeeded, and once the glass was empty, she felt much better. Good enough to understand what that… that insufferable prat was telling her, at least.

"- and of course you need to have a good grasp on Raiton-natured chakra, for it to work, and a good chakra-control, as well as large reserves –"

What was he babbling on about ?, she wondered grimly, scowling weakly in his direction.

"Ah, you're back ?", he had the nerve to smile, as if everything was perfectly fine.

She decided that that didn't deserve an answer.

"What were you saying ?", she panted, going back to stare at the blue sky.

She still was a bit surprised at the purity of the sky, here. She had never realized how… how polluted, the sky had been in her old world. Here, nothing obscured it, and there was no pollution in the air. The intensity of the blue was breathtaking – she had never seen a sky this blue before.

She realized she was making eulogies to a sky, and firmly told herself to stop.

"I was explaining you how to make my signature jutsu", mildly explained the Jonin, still crouched on the ball of his feet.

Hari thought about that for a few seconds, before scowling again.

"Why would you do that ?", she snapped – her mood wasn't the best – still intent on imitating a starfish on the wood of her terrace. "I don't have chakra".

"So what ?", he calmly asked, humming softly under his breath and his mask. The end result was quite muffled.

"So I don't care about how a jutsu is done, since I can't do any", she groused, inwardly cheering when she managed to raise a few fingers without being in pain.

"Yes, I know", he nodded sagely. "If you could, I wouldn't have told you how to do Raikiri".

Right. Right – she took everything good thing she had ever thought about him back.

"You", she said with finality, doing the extra-effort of letting her head fall on the side so that she could look at him, "are a bastard. I hope you know that".

The sudden beaming he did let her believe that he did know, in fact, that he was one.

"Well, you did good", he changed the subject, finally coming to the reason why he had baited her in the first time. "You did better than I expected, and though you're not chunin level, you're mid-genin, I think".

She bravely fought the urge to cry – children were better and stronger than her, in this world ! If she didn't have her magic, she would be downed by a mere child before even blinking ! That… did no good to her ego. Still, she had her magic, so she fiercely remembered herself that she was so much stronger than anyone on this planet, it wasn't even funny.

That did some good.

"That good enough ?", she asked him, sighing softly when feeling the wind cooling down her sweaty skin. "For the ninja test ?"

Kakashi made a sound at hearing the mandatory examen to integrate the Ninja Corps being called 'the ninja test', but didn't comment. He simply answered her question – which was good, since she didn't feel like bantering right now.

She filled her glass with cold water again, and sipped leisurely from the straw.

"Yeah, it should", he hummed, stopping his crouched position and instead sitting on the floor. He deftly stole her drink, letting her with a useless straw hanging from her lips, and drank it through his mask.

That man was so weird, she thought, frowning at him. He had stolen her water. Bastard.

"You probably will never make Jonin, but Tokubetsu Jonin is assured", he chirped happily, putting the empty glass down.

Resolutely telling herself that she wouldn't transform him into some fish so that he could spend days drinking water, since he so loved stealing other people's precious drink ; she softened her scowling and asked what was the difference between the two ranks. Eloquently.

"What's that ?"

"Hmm ?", Kakashi tried to look innocent, but she wasn't fooled.

She glared at him, and usually her glares were terrifying indeed – something to do, she had been told, with how her eyes gained an eerie green glow – but right now she had the feeling that he saw her as as menacing as a kitten was. Which admittedly wasn't much.

"Don't mess with me", she threatened, still panting ever-so-softly. "I will turn your precious hair bright pink and never turn it back".

He glowered at her, but did answer, so that was a win.

"Roughly, Jonins are good at everything, Tokubetsu are specialized", he sighed, leaning back and supporting himself on his hands, so that he could watch the puffy white clouds floating in the sky.

She blinked at him.

"Right. Specialized ?"

He sighed again, and let his head roll towards her so that he could give her an annoyed look. Bastard.

"Yes, specialize", he drawled. "I'm a Jonin, I'm good at everything. You'll probably be a Tokubetsu, meaning you will be good with your magic, which will be the equivalent of Ninjutsu, but not with Taijutsu. Since you'll be lacking in the physical area, you will be a Tokubetsu – good enough to not be a Chuunin, not good enough to be a full-fledged Jonin".

She let a few moments pass after his explanation, wondering – and willfully ignoring the fact that that arrogant brat thought he was good at everything, the nerve ! – before saying in a puzzled tone.

"I don't know how I fell about not being 'good enough'", she said, a mild 'huh' in her voice. "I've always been the best – or I always did everything to become the best".

"But everything won't be enough in that case", completed the silver-haired man, understanding her uncertainty.

"Yeah. Kids will be stronger than me, here, and no matter what I do, that won't change", she said softly, looking straight at the sky.

The sun was almost at its peak, so she had to squint her eyes a bit so as to not be blinded. She grimaced – she was sweaty and sticky. She wanted a shower, but that would mean that she had to get up and move, so she decided that she would wait a bit.

"Doesn't matter", dismissed the Jonin with barely a shrug. "Their strength will mean nothing against you if they can't beat you. So in a way, as long as you win, and as long as you don't lose yourself, you'll be stronger than them".

"That's comforting. I think", she nodded slowly, losing the staring contest with the sky and closing her eyes to protect them against the sun's rays.

"You will still need to train regularly during the year, so as to not lose your muscles and stamina – but I don't think you should do anything more today", he said pensively, and she barely contained a snort of disdain at the idea of doing anything tiring today. "I will go back to training, though, because that was – err, I mean that I can go a bit longer".

She gave him a good point for not completing his first idea – she knew he had meant to say that what she had done was nothing for him, thank you – and decided that she kind of liked him. A bit. When he wasn't baiting her to see how far she would push herself.

"I'll take a bath", she decided, because in a shower she would have to stand, and that simply wouldn't do. Ninja training was crazy. "As soon as I can get up".

He hummed, not moving, and she finally managed to lean back up, supporting herself on shaky and sore arms.

"Don't mind me", she told him. "You go back to training, I'll… crawl my way into the house, or something".

"Isn't there magic for that ?", and what was that – was he teasing her ? It sure sounded like it.

"There is", she countered, stretching her upper body as best as she could, and thinking of apparition. "But it's not all that comfortable, and I feel too tired anyway".

She had never really liked Magical travels – the Floo always spat her out, she had a deep distrust of Portkays, and Apparition squeezed her in a way that displeased her – and didn't feel like apparating right now, not even to her bathroom.

"Oh ? And isn't there some magic for when you're tired, too ?", he pushed, as if wanting her to admit that Magic couldn't do everything.

But well, he would be disappointed – she had yet to find something Magic couldn't do – bar creating food, but who needed that when they could summon it from someplace else, or use magic to multiply what already exist or accelerate the growth of a plant in order to eat its fruits ?

"There is", she simply said, finally heaving herself up and stumbling on trembling legs until she was inside the house. "But it's a potion and potions, as a rule, taste disgusting – so I try to only use them when it is necessary. Feeling better after training isn't an appropriate use of them".

And with that, snickering internally at the shocked turn of his feelings, she left his presence altogether, promising to herself that she would do some much necessary stretches before taking a much deserved, blissfully hot bath.

She was impatiently waiting the questions about potions and what they could do. They thought Magic was confusing ? Let them learn about what putting weird ingredients into a big cauldron could do.

---

And... Done for today !

I already know what the next chapter will be about, so it shouldn't take me too long. I swear I will finish this story, no matter how long it will take. :)

Thanks for the reviews, and the encouragements, everyone :D I do hope you liked this chapter.

Ah, yeah : "A table" is French, and simply means that it's time to eat ; while "Bon Appétit", well, I guess you already know, but it means enjoy your meal. I think that's everything, so bye !

Have a nice day/night/week ^_^