A/N: So here's chapter two. Thanks to EggrollPerson for the review It inspired me to actually finish this chapter. I'll be the first to admit that it is a little slow, but I feel like I have to get these things out the way in order to go onto the parts of the story I want to get to. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions to help out 

Chapter Two: The Council

"Hime-Sama, how is the ride going so far?" Kakashi asked the girl after she opened the carriage door in response to his knock.

"Fine, thank you. However, I would love it if I could walk outside for a while, if you think it's alright. I really need to stretch my legs some."

"Of course, Hime-Sama. I think it's safe for that. We are already in the borders of Fire Country, though there are still another eight hours of travel before we reach Konoha. Would you like for us to stop at the next village to get something to eat?"

"Stop whenever you need to. Don't worry about me. And please, stop calling me Hime-Sama. It makes me very uncomfortable. Consider it an order, if that will make you stop," the girl commented softly and slowly as she jumped lightly from the carriage, shutting the door behind her.

She pulled her mp3 player out of her pocket and adjusted her headphones into her ears before selecting Three Days Grace from her music library and turning the volume up high. She knew none of the shinobi would be interested in conversing with her anyways.

She walked alongside the carriage, taking in the scenery as they travelled. She'd been riding in the carriage for a little over 6 hours and it was wonderful to stretch her legs a little. Always a dreamer, her mind quickly wandered away with the ,usic as her body walked on auto-pilot next to the carriage.

The four recently promoted Jounin remained behind the carriage as Kakashi halted the mini-caravan and spoke with the princess, watching silently as she exited the carriage and pulled some odd object from her pocket.

"What's that thing?" Naruto whispered to Sakura as he heard weird sounds begin to come from it.

"How the hell am I supposed to know? It's obviously something from the other side."

"Go ask her," Naruto prodded his pink-haired teammate.

"Why me? You're the one who wants to know so bad."

"Aww. Sakura-chan. But she hates me already, I can tell."

"Maybe that's because the first words out of your mouth were rude."

"Like you disagree. Now pleaseeeeeeeee, Sakura-chan!"

"Oh Kami, SHUT UP!!!!!" Sasuke bit at his teammates, stalking forward to the girl in front of them and tapping her on the shoulder. He rolled his eyes as she jumped, obviously startled. This girl was going to have to be constantly supervised or she wouldn't last two minutes in their world.

Kiri pulled the headphones out of her ears, letting them dangle from the cord that was coming from under her shirt, the music still blaring from them, as she turned to see who had tapped her. She was slightly surprised to see it was Sasuke, not that she had really been expecting any of them to approach.

"Did you need something, Sasuke?"

"The Dobe wants to know what that is," he replied, gesturing to the device in her hand.

"The 'Dobe' is the blonde one, right?" she asked, amusement evident.

"Aa."

Kiri quickly turned around and begin to walk backwards beside Sasuke as she addressed Naruto, "It's called an mp3 player. You can download music and movies and pictures onto it so you can access them whenever you want."

"How?"

"Good technology. How much do you know about the other side of the portal?"

Naruto shrugged at the question as he answered, "Not much I guess. Just what little bit they teach us in the academy. There are no shinobi on the other side, right?"

"Slower please, Naruto. I can't understand like half of what you're saying."

Naruto rolled his eyes and repeated himself, slowing his speech further than necessary.

Kiri chose to ignore his over-exageration of speech and replied, "Right, not like you guys anyways. People from my world can't access chakra like you can, and so we are very limited in what we can do."

"Sounds like your world sucks. Why would anyone want to live there?"

"We may not have your personal abilities, but we have far greater technology in our everyday lives than you. Here, I'll show you an example," Kiri offered, turning forward again as she began flipping through the menu on her Sony walkman.

Kiriyana spent the next hour and a half of travel showing the shinobi different pictures and videos and trying to explain what life was like on the other side, only occasionally struggling over translations and what words to use best. Even Kakashi had hopped off the roof of the carriage and strolled behind his students to get a better look at the tiny device in the girl's hand. The shinobi seemed to forget their hate for the girl and what she represented, for the moment at least.

The Next Day…….

The group had left the carriage at the last village. It was only another two hours to Konoha and Kiri was more than happy to walk more after an awkward night's sleep and two hours already spent in the carriage. They had finally made it though, and Kiri was staring up at the giant gates to Konoha for the first time.

"Here we are, Hime-Sama. This is your village now," Kakashi intoned to her as he headed towards the gatehouse to gain them entry.

A figure dropped down from the trees behind them and strolled confidently to the group. "Welcome to Konoha, Hime-Sama," he greeted cordially, bowing as required.

"Hello again, Weasel," Kiri greeted the masked ANBU before her. "Are you just returning to the village as well?"

"No. I have come to inform you that the Elder Council wants to meet with you immediately. I am to take you straight to the tower, and you can get settled afterwards."

"Well, I guess it's best to do what the Council says," Kiri agreed demurely as she turned to follow Itachi into the village. Cell 7 simply shared a defeated look at her words. It seemed that their spineless princess was already playing into the council's hands before she even met them.

After a moment they followed after, as their mission parameters stated that they were still responsible for the princess until she was in the tower.

"Weasel, are you familiar with Cell7?" Kiri asked her first contact to the shinobi world as he walked beside her.

"Aa." Kiri only nodded at his monosyllabic response, having already gotten used to them during his short stay when he delivered her summons. Kiri remained quiet after that and thoughtfully took stock of her surroundings.

It was obvious even to her the difference between the shinobi class and the common supporting villagers, and she could see how much Konoha revolved around the former. As she walked, Kiri kept her opinions to herself and carefully filed them away for later analysis.

Eventually they reached the tallest building located in what she would guess was the village's center, and Kiri could only assume that this was the tower they mentioned. She followed behind Weasel as he led her up several flights of stairs and finally to stand outside to large doors.

"The council is waiting in the conference room on the other side of these doors. They have requested a private audience with you. I will wait here until your meeting is done and then show you where you will be staying."

Kiri nodded to the ANBU in response and turned to Cell 7 before entering, "Thanks for getting me here safe. I think that if we had met under different circumstances, you might have actually been able to like me," she smiled softly for a moment before her face turned more serious, "but I understand that you have loyalties to keep. I could only hope to such devotion to my own leadership. I would ask that you keep an open mind though. When I was being trained about the shinobi lifestyle as a child, I was always told that things here are never as they seem."

Without waiting for response, Kiri turned, took a deep breath, and passed through the doors.

"Our village is doomed," Naruto grumbled as soon as the doors had clicked shut again.

"For once, I agree," Sakura nodded sagely. "She seems like a nice girl, and after talking with her, I don't despise her so much. I can understand it's not her fault, but that doesn't change anything. This is totally beyond her, and the council knows that. It's why they picked her."

"Don't be so sure, Sakura," the ANBU commented, not moving from his relaxed position leaning against the wall. He didn't bother to elaborate.

"It's not like I want her to fail, but really. What are the chances of a sixteen year old princess who probably hasn't worked a day in her life and who was raised in an entirely different lifestyle actually succeeding?" she asked in response, glaring slightly in his direction.

"Less than .0268%," Sai said mechanically from the side, straight face giving nothing away to the sarcasm of the comment.

Before anyone could respond, the room next to them exploded in commotion, and the shinobi could easily hear the strangled yell of "WHAT?" coming from one of the Elders. Not moments after the uproar started, the doors to the room opened and Kiri exited.

"What did you do?" Naruto asked, noises from the other room still present but not discernable.

"I dismissed the Elder Council. I told them I didn't feel that their knowledge would assist me in the running of Konoha and that their time as village leaders has passed," she responded.

"Can you do that?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

Kiri shrugged, "I don't know. I think so. I'm in charge right? My word is the final law and all that. The council answers to me, so I can dismiss them just like they dismissed the Hokage, right?"

"So what, you're just going to lead this country with no help or instruction? Just running in blindly?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"Wow, I really can't do anything to please you, huh? I thought you were supposed to be smart. Of course I'm not going to do that. But I'm also not stupid enough to think that they really wanted my help. They just wanted to use me to accomplish their own goals, I know that, and I don't need that. So, I'm going to get a council that will actually do a good job."

Naruto scoffed, "And who's going to do that."

"I have absolutely no idea. I don't know anyone yet. Do you have any suggestions?"

"This can be discussed at a later time," Weasel intoned from the side. "Let us get you settled first. There is a room at the top of the tower that will house you for now. All of your things that were shipped ahead are already present. Come."

Kiri nodded and began to follow the ANBU down the hall. Cell 7 paused for a moment before Naruto began to stride after their princess. "Hey, you can't just walk away in the middle of dropping a huge bombshell like dismissing the council. I want to know what's gonna happen next!"

Kiri paused and turned around for a moment, "The council's five minutes is up and they are still in the building. Think for a moment of what they did to Tsunade and your village. I give you permission to do whatever you deem fit. You may come up to my suite after that if you wish. Of course, if you are not up to the task, I will ask someone else to do it."

"Oh no, we'll take care of it," Naruto responded, smirking as his short attention span turned completely to what lay ahead.

Kiri smiled and jogged a little to her ANBU lead who hadn't bothered to wait.

She walked silently behind him, taking in other parts of the building she hadn't gotten to see on the way in. After a few minutes and another three flights of stairs, her ANBU escort opened a pair of double doors and stepped aside to allow her to pass into the room before following her in and closing the door behind them.

"Pretty nice place," Kiri commented as she walked further in. The doors led into a very short hallway with entry closet that opened up into a large living area. A small kitchen was off in a corner, a wall with an open pass separating the two rooms. She followed another hallway down to a half bath, and then into a bedroom with a full sized bathroom attached. A large four poster bed stood proudly in the room, black curtains encasing it from the bars.

"Your father had the bed sent ahead of you. He said that you would appreciate it and would be better for you than our traditional bedding. He also sent a contractor and an appropriate amount of money to have the bathroom remolded to be more what you are accustomed to. Will you be alright now?"

"Hai. Everything is wonderful, thank you very much. Are you going to leave now?"

"Not yet. I expect my otouto and his cell will be arriving shortly to continue to harass you. Also, a guard has not yet been assigned to you, so if I leave there will be no one to guard properly."

"Who assigns that?"

"You do now. The council has dismissed most of the previous staff in anticipation of restructuring more to their liking. However, they did not get a chance to yet make any official hires, so for now, it is all on you," Weasel told her, his voice its usual monotony and only slightly slower so that he knew she could understand.

"Great, no pressure. By the way, what does 'otouto' mean? I'm not familiar with that word.

"It is a more endearing term one uses for their little brother."

"Oh. Who?"

Weasel reached up and removed his mask, hooking on his belt and looking at the girl across from him.

"Well, it's definently not Naruto, unless he was adopted."

"No, Sasuke is my otouto."

"Ah. So, does this mean you trust me now?" Kiri asked with a grin, commenting on the removal of his mask.

"I am impressed that you followed through with what we discussed. You are also my superior, and I might as well get used to some exposure."

"Are you always so bland?"

"Aa."