Author's Note: Don't expect regular updates after this week for obvious reasons.

Chapter 6

Hermione was by far the most confusing woman Kakashi had ever met. In many ways, she reminded him of Maito Chihiro, who had raised him and Gai almost entirely on her own, as both his father and his uncle had often been out of the village on missions, and later taken him in after his father committed seppuku. Kakashi didn't remember his mother; Hatake Eriko had died of tuberculosis when he was only two years old and after that, Chihiro had been his mother in every way that mattered.

Chihiro had been a strong, independent woman. Indeed, more independent than most kunoichi were. Yet she'd still deferred to her husband or her brother in most instances. Hermione, on the other hand, was as independent as any man Kakashi could think of. Hermione didn't advertise it, but she deferred to him only because she was in an unfamiliar land and was at least somewhat aware of the local views on women, not because she thought it her place. Yet somehow, Hermione was more feminine in her actions and mannerisms than almost any kunoichi he could think of. Perhaps, he supposed, because unlike most of them, she was not playing a part. He knew, on an intellectual level that she came from a society where men and women were equal under the eyes of the law-he remembered that much from what Chihiro had taught him-but knowing and experiencing were two entirely different things.

Kakashi could honestly admit that he didn't mind all that much. A more traditional civilian woman would have driven him insane. Kakashi had never seen the appeal in those weak, simpering creatures called civilian women with all their ideas of what a ninja really was. Unfortunately, there really weren't enough kunoichi to go around. Most of the appropriate kunoichi he knew were either married or in relationships. The rest he'd simply gone on too many missions with to consider anything other than a comrade.

He knew that Gai had purposefully steered the conversation to ensure that both he and Hermione had shared enough about themselves to feel relatively comfortable with each other, just as he knew that Gai had spent the evening subtly questioning to girl. It was not until Gai was safely away on a mission that Kakashi had found out that the man had questioned the Akimichi about Hermione after seeing her in the tea house before speaking first to Chiriku of the Ninja Guardian Twelve and then Chiriku's uncle; Xenophilius Lovegood. Both men had been so distracted by Gai's act-which was modeled after his childhood hero, Bruce Lee-that they'd not realized until after Hermione and Kakashi had married that Gai had been inquiring after her. Whatever they had told him had obviously made an impression if he'd been willing to go through the trouble of marrying the woman off to Kakashi.

Some people might think that Gai was an obsessive idiot, but Kakashi knew that his cousin was just as intelligent as he was, even if he hid it better. At least, Kakashi supposed, he knew that Gai did not wish him harm. For Gai to have essentially arranged this marriage-in an admittedly underhanded and very shinobi like manner-the man must obviously have believed that Hermione would be a good match.

It was because of this that he wasn't insisting on a divorce, Wizarding law be damned. He trusted Gai. He knew that Gai would do right by both Kakashi and the clan-the Maito family being a branch of the Hatake clan thanks to some rather fierce negotiation between Maito Jin and Hatake Sakumo before Jin had married Chihiro-just as he knew that Gai would never have done this to Hermione if he believed that it wasn't in the woman's best interest as well.

Hermione was far more intelligent than she claimed to be. Kakashi would hesitate to call her a genius-that word was thrown about far too easily, but he'd never met a civilian woman-even a civilian with a kekkei genkai, any kekkei genkai-who'd taught themselves to sense chakra before. He'd never met somebody who'd taught themselves to generate balls of fire without previous lessons on using chakra before Hermione either. She was a natural chakra sensor at the very least, when her skill at creating new spells was added to the mix. Only a chakra sensor would be able to modify and create jutsu like Hermione.

Hermione was very skilled with manipulating chakra, even with the handicap of using a wand for the previous five years. In the opinion of Chihiro and his father, wizards used wands partially because they were lazy and partially because the various governments insisted upon it. It was a way to control the Wizarding population. If a person didn't know how to use their magic without channeling it through a wand, they could easily be controlled by taking said wand away.

In all fairness, Hermione shouldn't need to know how to protect herself without a wand. She was a civilian, after all. But Kakashi understood as most shinobi did that terrible things happened to civilians living in peaceful countries, let alone countries in the middle of civil war as the United Kingdom's Wizarding Enclave was. So he'd agreed to teach her to use wandless magic along with what she would have learned for Defense on a NEWT level. At least this way he knew she'd learn what she needed to know properly. He'd been able to read between the lines well enough to pick up on her lack of adequate self defense training and the erratic defense professors from what she'd said in the bar. He'd prefer it if she were to just stay in Konoha, but understood that she'd never even considered such an action. At least, he supposed, she'd implied to Anko that she believed she'd live in Konoha once the war was over, assuming she survived although her words had been carefully couched in other, more acceptable phrases.

After realizing what Gai had done, he'd come to view Hermione was family, pack. The Hatake's had long held the dog summoning contract along with a minor kekkei genkai that gave them enhanced senses which had combined surprisingly well with the abilities Mary Hitchens, the only surviving offspring of Isla and Bob Hitchens, had brought with her when she'd married into the clan. Although it had enhanced the Hatake pack mentality slightly.

In the break room in Hokage Tower reserved for on duty ANBU he opened the cloth wrapped package containing his lunch, although midnight snack was perhaps more appropriate a term. There were three thermoses, two slightly warm to the touch, the other a little cold. Hermione had packed him soup along with tea and juice to drink. In what had started out as a bento box was a sandwich, along with a small container of peanut butter and a mixture of celery and carrot sticks. There were carefully wrapped cookies she'd called snickerdoodles. Finally there was a package of four oat bars with dried fruit and nuts in it, in case he was hungry or running low on chakra later.

One advantage of letting Hermione put together meals for him it seemed was that even if the food was completely foreign-and it wasn't-each meal so far was carefully designed with an active shinobi who regularly used chakra in mind. Only the restaurants that catered specifically to shinobi could claim to do the same, and even then, those restaurants had no idea how to properly feed somebody with magic. The simple fact of the matter was that wizards needed more sugar in their diet thanks to the way their magic worked than a normal shinobi even consider eating.

"What is that?" asked Yugao, his team's iryo-nin.

"Lunch," he said boredly.

"I can see that," she pointed out. "But what is it?"

"A ham sandwich and chicken noodle soup," he said in English, for the hell of it.

Until the night before he'd not had western food since Chihiro's death. Kakashi had forgotten just how fond of it he was. He'd have to ask Hermione if she knew how to make a soufflé as well.

Kakashi was gone when she awoke the next morning. Hermione shrugged it off and decided to head to the market immediately after breakfast. She was examining a bolt of cotton when a familiar figure walked into her favorite cloth merchant's store.

"Natsumi-san," Hermione called out softly.

"Hermione-san," said the woman. "I thought you would have left the village already."

"No. I'm a citizen now," she explained, walking over to her former employer.

"How did that happen?"

"I got married," she explained sheepishly. "To Hatake Kakashi."

"I'd heard he'd married some foreign woman. This I need to hear."

Hermione blushed. "We were drunk. Anyway, I'll be in the village for about two and a half weeks before I need to head back to my clan and I should be returning next summer. I have responsibilities to my clan I can't get out of."

"So what are you doing here?" asked Natsumi, changing the subject.

"I'm making a new quilt and I thought I'd make two new sets of sheets while I was at it. I don't know how long Kakashi-kun's had his bedding, but it's nearly worn out. What about you, if I might be so bold?"

"My son needs some new clothing for the Academy."

"Ah."

"So what were you thinking about?"

Hermione pulled out the bundle of scrap cloth. "Just something in cotton that matches one or more of these. I'm leaning toward gray or yellow."

The duo spoke of her son, who was in his first year at the academy and her daughter; Moegi, who was visiting with Natsumi's mother that morning before moving on to this new pregnancy. By the time it was roughly nine in the morning, Hermione had the appropriate cotton for the sheets and enough yarn for two blankets. She was thinking a knit blanket in a solid color and a granny square blanket as many colors as she could.

Hermione really only knew a handful of people in the village and had no idea who to speak to or who would welcome her presence since Natsumi had duties of her own to take care of, so she spent her day with only Crookshanks for company. It was actually rather nice to be able to practice her recorder and other instruments in peace while the various needles sewed cloth as appropriate. She had managed to cut out and pin one set of sheets, including a top sheet, a bottom sheet, and four pillow cases in a soft, pale gray and set two needles to sew the various hems before she went back to the quilt, finishing up the forest and then adding appliqué flowers and stems in various shades along with perhaps a dozen embroidered flowers. She decided to leave the quilt there and worry about what animals to add the next day.

Around noon, she put everything away except for the pillow cases, which she was only beginning to hem and went to look up what she needed to do to make healing potions for Kakashi and Gai. They needed to be as perfect as she could make them. In all fairness, Kakashi and Gai probably didn't need them, but it was the only thing she could really do to help either man stay alive while she was at school. She had managed to make a list of needed ingredients by the end of the day, although she thought some of it might not be native to the area. At least she had most of what she needed.

After supper that evening Kakashi keyed her in to the apartment's wards with a bit of her blood and taught her how to control them mentally in case she needed to. The entire ward scheme was rather disturbing and Hermione found herself understanding rather well why it had so impressed Luna. Apparently only Kakashi, Gai, Kakashi's ninken-whatever those were-and now Hermione were permitted to enter the apartment at all unless given permission to enter through the front door. If a person attempted to break in, the wards knocked them unconscious. If they attempted to force their way into the apartment a second time, the wards would disable the person's chakra network for a week as well. If that same person attempted to force their way into the apartment a third time, the wards would react with lethal force. And that was at a normal setting. If the ward scheme was set to high alert, it would take any attempt at entering the apartment as an attack and react lethally to anybody other than those keyed into it or already within the apartment with permission. It was almost identical to the wards on Grimauld place, although with no Muggle repelers or fidelus charm.

He didn't bother with wandless magic that night, instead explaining the basics of silent, motionless casting. Apparently there wasn't enough time to practice wandless magic before he went to bed and he thought it too dangerous for her to learn without supervision. Hermione would have objected, but the year she'd spent as a prefect had shown her quite well the consequences of dilettantes playing with forces they didn't understand. It was always stressful keeping the first years from accidentally killing themselves by attempting to brew a potion too advanced for them or when they lost control of their spells. At least silent, motionless casting wouldn't do anything unexpected to her spell casting, even if she botched the spell.

When Hermione awoke the next morning, Kakashi was already gone, as was normal. She cleaned the apartment and then sat down to finish the quilt. Hermione set the needle to embroider the animals she'd chosen onto the top of the quilt. When that was done around noon, she put aside her cittern to pin the appliqué animals in place and then sew them down, which took a surprisingly short amount of time. Finally she pinned the top, the batting, and the bottom layer of the quilt together and got out the almost invisible thread. She set the needle to sew through all three layers in a simple pattern of vertical lines that ran from the top of the quilt to the bottom. When that was done, she trimmed the edges and then everything was put together before she took five centimeter wide lengths of soft yellow cloth and pinned and wrapped it around the edges of the quilt before sewing it into place. She examined the quilt for imperfections before remaking the bed with her new set of sheets and the new quilt.

When the bed was made, Hermione checked on supper, which was a Lancashire hotpot slowly cooking over the course of the day in the oven before looking in on the lemon meringue pie in the fridge. Hermione wouldn't have bothered to make pie, but she did so love lemon flavored deserts, particularly during that time of the month. While she busied herself in the kitchen, the golden yellow cloth for the second set of sheets faithfully sewed its own hems shut. Hermione didn't want to leave something such as that undone while Kakashi was supposed to sleep during the day for the next couple days.

It was quite apparent that Kakashi was just as skilled at sensing magic, and indeed chakra, as Hermione was, if not more so. Hermione had developed the skill as a survival technique after Sally's death. It had shown her that old prejudices were not forgotten and that she needed to be prepared to defend herself. Kakashi had been a shinobi for a good fifteen years. It was likely that he'd been developing the skill the entire time. Hermione had no trouble believing that Kakashi would sense her using magic in his sleep and that it would keep him awake, or at least subconsciously on alert. Hermione always had trouble sleeping if somebody used magic within about fifty meters of where she was trying to sleep, although she could mostly tune it out if she knew the person well until the magic got within ten meters of her. At least the apartment's wards shielded her, so that she felt safe sleeping there, even with shinobi leaping from roof to roof on a regular basis.

Kakashi looked exhausted after his shower so she served him his supper quietly. What little she'd felt of his magic had Hermione serving him twice what was a normal meal size for a wizard. He was on the verge of magical exhaustion. Part of Hermione wondered what had happened, but she knew enough to know that she shouldn't ask. Kakashi wouldn't be able to tell her what he did while on duty anyway. He blinked a little at her actions, but seemed to shrug it off.

Finally, he broke the silence, "Uchiha Shisui was murdered yesterday. His body was found this morning."

She searched her memory for a moment, only to freeze. "The police officer? He was your friend, wasn't he?"

"His brother was on my Genin team," supplied Kakashi. "Obito died eight years ago."

"I'm so sorry. Do they know who did it yet?"

A short shake of the head was Kakashi's reply. He concentrated on his food for several minutes. "There are signs it was a shinobi. I'll be leaving one of my ninken with you until the Military Police know who did it."

"Ninken? Is that like Inuzuka Hana's little puppies?" she asked.

"A dog summons."

"Oh," she said, wide eyed. "Thank you."

He was serious about protecting her and far more worried about whatever had happened to Shisui than he'd said. She'd only met a couple summons so far, but from what she understood, they were incredibly useful supernatural creatures from other worlds and just as intelligent as any human. She did wonder where he'd found the dog summoning contract, but didn't ask. Now wasn't a good time.

They were silent until she put away the food and pulled out the pie and a pair of forks she'd transfigured earlier in the day. She cut a generous slice for him and a slightly smaller one for herself. He needed the sugars and the calories from the pie. Low blood sugar was a very common side effect from magical exhaustion and people had been known to die from it according to Madam Pomfrey.

"Here, you need to eat this with a fork, not chopsticks." She paused in consideration. "I'm not sure what the custom is here. Should I bring Uchiha-san's family a casserole? It's what we do back home when somebody dies." She bit her lip unsurely.

He shook his head. "It would be inappropriate. Neither you nor I will be attending the funeral. There is… bad blood between the Uchiha and I and I won't force my presence upon them. Shisui-kun was the only one left who still treated me as he would any other."

"Alright," she agreed.

She wasn't sure what that bad blood was, but could guess it had to do with that black and red eye he kept covered. She'd only discovered it was a sharingan that had somehow been transplanted into Kakashi by accident. Hermione wondered if it had anything to do with when Obito died, but chose not to ask. It seemed like it was a touchy subject.

After supper, Kakashi took her out to training ground 12, which was little more than a field surrounded by trees on all sides. She wasn't normally permitted on the training grounds, but according to Anko, if her husband took her to one to practice jutsu, it was technically permitted as it was a clan matter. She'd asked after Anko's talk about shinobi life. The woman had been a little surprised when Hermione had explained that he was just teaching her an advanced fire jutsu, but Hermione wasn't sure why.

Kakashi lounged on a boulder, his copy of the newest Icha Icha out, and explained wandless transfiguration after having her demonstrate her progress in wordless, motionless casting with a simple lumos spell. Once she'd managed a couple first year level spells, he drilled her on casting stunners and protegos wandlessly until she actually managed to perform each three times in a row. Judging by what he was concentrating on, Hermione was inclined to believe that he was far more worried than she'd thought.

By the time the sun had set completely, Kakashi's magic was at least partially recovered, although Hermione intended to make him eat another meal before he went to sleep. He handed her a canteen of water he'd had hidden on his person and told her to rest before standing. He cut the tip of his thumb and formed a series of hand seals.

Hermione stopped short, canteen at her lips as a poof of smoke formed. She forced herself to take a sip of water before putting the cap back on. The smoke cleared in a moment, revealing a mid sized tan and brown dog of indeterminate breed.

"Uh, hello," she said unsurely. She was relatively sure the dog could speak.

"Who's that?"

"That's Hermione-chan. She's a member of the pack. It's your mission to guard her," he explained. "Hermione-chan, this is Bisuke."

"It's nice to meet you," she said, barely remembering her manners.

The dog trotted over and began to sniff her skirts and then crotch. It was all she could do not to push Bisuke away. It seemed that dogs were still dogs, no matter how smart or magical they were. He sat down next to her after a moment.

"You Kakashi's mate?" asked Bisuke.

"I'm his wife," she explained.

"Civilian?"

"Aa. She's a witch."

That seemed to satisfy the dog. "What am I looking for?"

"A shinobi killed Uchiha Shisui," explained Kakashi. There was no emotion in his voice at all and Hermione couldn't quite stop the shiver that went down her spine. "We believe it was one of our own. There's no sign an enemy shinobi was or is in the village." He turned to Hermione. "Stay under the wards as much as possible."

"Alright." The situation was far more serious than she'd originally assumed.

The group headed back into the village. Although Kakashi meandered along, his head in a book, he navigated the crowds with ease. He wasn't emitting killing intent-and really, killing intent was a sign of lack of control, not skill, no matter what these shinobi might think-but there was something about him that seemed to discourage one or two people who looked like they might have otherwise wanted to speak to the man.

Back at the apartment, Hermione managed to convince Kakashi to have an apple and a second slice of pie before she went to bed. A moment after she lay down, Crookshanks hopped onto the windowsill to sleep and Bisuke stretched out against her side, cold nose pressed into her armpit. Kakashi had said something about staying up late because he intended to sleep until a couple hours before he went on duty.

When Hermione awoke, she was once more between Kakashi and the wall. She crawled out of the bed and took care of her morning ablutions before heading to the kitchen, Bisuke faithfully trotting after her.

"Do you want some of the kibble?" she asked as she put together some oatmeal for herself. At his affirmative sound, Hermione set out a bowl of dog food.

Deciding she might as well ask, Hermione said, "Bisuke, do you know why Kakashi-kun keeps moving me so I'm against the wall when we sleep?"

"Kakashi's a good alpha," explained the dog. "Guess you wouldn't understand. Cats don't have packs. He puts himself between you and any danger from the window or the door when you're both asleep and vulnerable."

"Oh," she said. "I didn't know that. Uh, could you keep the cat thing quiet? There're only a handful of people who know I'm an animagus and I'm trying to keep it that way. I don't mind if you tell the rest of the pack, I think they'd know anyway."

"Got it."

"Thank you."

Being an animagus was only really useful if it wasn't public knowledge. It allowed her an easy escape and a way to discreetly spy on others if need be. Not to mention that Luna would be put out if she learned that a dog figured out what sort of animagus Hermione was before she did. Although Hermione was beginning to wonder if Luna's wild guesses were just made for the hell of it.

"So, I'm going to be making medical potions most of the day," explained Hermione. Kakashi had told her of a shop which should have everything she needed for the potions that wasn't already in her kit. "But I need to run an errand before I can do that."

Once breakfast was done, Hermione and Bisuke went to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. It was simple to gather a couple bundles of flowering herbs before she had to go over to the counter. Hermione gave the blonde man behind the counter a shy smile as he glanced at Bisuke and then up at her.

"Can I help you, Hatake-san?" asked the man.

"Yes, thank you. I have most of the things on my list," she explained. She wasn't sure why she'd been sent here rather than to an apothecary, but trusted that Kakashi knew what he was talking about. "But I still need asphodel root, scurvy-grass, sneezewort, monkshood, and knotgrass. Kakashi-kun said that I should be able to find those here."

"Medical grade?"

She gave a short nod.

"How much of each?"

Hermione gave a rough estimate of what she needed and then waited patiently while he went to the back of the shop. A couple minutes later, he returned with what she'd asked for. Hermione took the time to examine the plants before nodding.

"Thank you, Yamanaka-san," she said. "This should be it."

"You make your own medicines?" he asked, wrapping the various plants in paper.

She nodded. "My cousin's an apprentice Healer. She made sure I knew how to run a proper stillroom." She chose to use the old term for a distillery attached to a home, rather than reference something more modern. He probably wouldn't know anything about Wizarding potions and even if he did, she couldn't speak to him about potion labs.

"Healer?"

"She's learning to use chakra to heal, but has no combat training."

The man nodded. "Tough skill set."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "I couldn't do it. I don't know how she manages. Do you mind if I seal this all up into a scroll here?"

"Go ahead."

"Thanks." She pulled out a scroll and a quill and quickly wrote out the rune array. "Have a good day, Yamanaka-san."

Hermione paid and left before heading to the market to do some grocery shopping while she was out. It was mid morning by the time she got back to the apartment. After putting the food away, Hermione began the process of making potions.

Her days settled into a relatively predicable pattern. After breakfast she made potions-considering how many were on her list, she'd be lucky if she managed to finish it all in a week; a local ten day week at that-before settling in to knit or crochet while Kakashi slept. Hermione took regular breaks to make meals with enough left over so that Kakashi had proper meals ready and waiting in the kitchen. While he was on night shift, Hermione ate supper with Kakashi at six, although it was breakfast for him. After that he spent about an hour working on her wandless magic with her before heading in to work. It was only after he left that Hermione practiced her instruments, understanding that it would be unfair of her to practice while he was trying to rest. When she awoke, he was already asleep, leaving her almost no time to spend with the man.

On the last day Kakashi was on night shift that week, Hermione was waiting patiently for when he awoke. After supper, she approached him.

"Uh, Kakashi-kun, I need your help," she said nervously.

He tilted his head to look at her over his book.

"You know I was hit by that curse about two months ago? It's time for my stitches to come out, but I can't do it to myself." It was a bit embarrassing to ask this of Kakashi, but Luna wasn't there, and neither was Penny. It was either him, or doing it herself, and Hermione simply couldn't force herself to do so. "I don't know why, but trying to take my own stitches out makes me nauseous."

Kakashi put down the book. "Do you have scissors?"

She handed the proper equipment to the man, trying to ignore the thought that maybe Kakashi took his own stitches out with household scissors, and turned around. She undid the buttons of her shirt and took off her bra, before pulling the shirt back into place so that it at least covered her breasts, even if it was completely open. Hermione turned back around. She allowed Kakashi to push her so she lay down on the floor.

He began with the stitches along her shoulder, carefully cutting them before picking the stitches out. Each stitch had been tied separately so that Hermione could transform into her animagus form if she'd no other choice. Penny hadn't been happy about that, but had understood why Hermione had insisted. It was uncomfortable, but it didn't hurt to have the stitches removed with how gentle he was.

"How long until your ribs heal?" he asked absently.

"Another week and they should be healed completely." Every time Kakashi had moved her into a different place in the bed he'd been careful of her ribs. It might not have seemed like it, given the times he'd flipped them so that Hermione was next to the wall, but Kakashi had been very careful to ensure that her ribs weren't jostled. "I finished my potions regimen a couple days ago-except for the pain killers and calcium supplements. I'm on those for two more days."

She fought the urge to blush as he removed the stitches between her breasts.

"Have you thought about children?" he asked absently.

Hermione fought the urge to hit Kakashi with a stinging hex. The bastard had waited until she was in a vulnerable position to ask that. She still didn't know if he wanted children. Hermione was honestly afraid that if she said she did, he might say that he didn't just to be contrary. Hermione might be the cat animagus, but Kakashi was the one who acted like a cat half the time with those mind games he played.

"I have. I just haven't made a decision yet," she hedged.

"You want a baby," he commented, removing the last stitch, from just bellow her left breast, his finger running along the scar.

Hermione's eyes narrowed. She said nothing as he put what needed to be sterilized next to the sink and threw away the pieces of the sutures which had been removed. She sat up as Kakashi came back over to retrieve his book.

"I have returned, my youthful companions," announced a far too familiar voice.

She looked up just in time to see Maito Gai walk into the apartment, the door bouncing off the wall. With a growl she willed a stinging hex in his direction only to be flabbergasted when her magic actually responded.

Gai neatly side stepped the hex, letting it bounce off the wall. He blinked at them before giving them what might be considered a knowing grin. Hermione blinked as some strange sunset and sandy beach formed behind him.

"My apologies for interrupting your glorious expression of love." He gave them a thumbs up and winked theatrically at Kakashi. "I shall return in the morning."

"Stop right there," ordered Hermione as she frantically buttoned up her shirt. She settled in leaving the top three buttons undone before getting to her feet, doing her best to ignore how visible her hardened nipples likely were through the shirt. Kakashi's deep voice and soft touch shouldn't have been that arousing. "I want to talk to you."

Her magic slammed the door closed and locked it even as Kakashi edged sideways, so that he'd be out of the line of fire.

"Wouldn't you rather return to what you were doing with Kakashi?"

"The mood is ruined," she snapped. This should take care of Kakashi's little confrontation. "In fact, I feel a headache coming on. I think it might last all month long."

Her lecture-well, rant really-about how drunk people shouldn't speak of things like marriage had gone relatively well. And using Gai for target practice for her wandless magic had been rather stress relieving. Although she didn't actually manage to hit the man with any of her hexes or jinxes. At least Bisuke had nipped Gai's ankle for her.

It was Kakashi's day off and thankfully for Hermione's sanity, he'd decided to take her out of the apartment. Hermione had been willing to stay in the apartment, but she was starting to go stir crazy in such a small space. It had reminded her almost uncomfortably of her stay at number twelve Grimauld Place. The duo had had lunch with some of Kakashi's friends; a kunoichi named Uzuki Yugao, that boy Tenzou, and Namiashi Raido before heading out to a training field.

Kakashi had practiced some sort of lightning spell with wolves made of electricity while Hermione practiced controlling fire wandlessly. Kakashi gave Hermione the occasional suggestion, but was content to let her manipulate the element as she would. She moved on to basic transfiguration using rocks after that before borrowing Kakashi's Icha Icha-it was the fourth volume-and leaning against a tree to read with Bisuke leaning against her side lazily. They took a break a couple hours in for a picnic supper Hermione had made before going back to their tasks.

When the sun began to set, Hermione returned the book and sat down a couple yards from Kakashi. She absently created a ball of fire the size of her hand and began to play with it. The fire licked her hands and twirled around her fingers as though it were not potentially deadly. She gathered a bit of water-it was far more difficult than fire-and then made it circle her hands and then join the fire in a dance.

Through long practice she showed no reaction when she felt a chakra signature approach. Tenzou, from the feel of it. Hermione tried to memorize the magical-or chakra, as the case may be-signature of everybody she came into contact with. It was easier at Hogwarts, as there was only two hundred and twenty seven students, but she was familiar with the signatures of a good number of Konoha's shinobi. She added an extra bit of zing to her fire and water, to impress the man.

Tenzou landed in the clearing, dressed in an ANBU uniform complete with a porcelain cat mask. He spared a glance for Hermione, who let the water disperse and the fire go out. This was too serious for games.

"The Hokage has summoned you, Hatake-san," he explained.

"May I ask what's going on? Or if I should expect my husband back anytime soon?" Her questions were bold, but it wasn't as if they would answer if they didn't want to.

Tenzou paused for a moment as if considering whether or not to speak before saying, "The Uchiha Clan is dead. It is believed Uchiha Itachi has killed them. As for your second question, I do not know."

Kakashi summoned a pale brown and white dog before handing Hermione his wallet and saying, "This should hold you over until I return. Bisuke, take Hermione-chan back to the apartment and guard her. Urushi, help Bisuke. Hermione, turn the wards as high as they go and keep them that way until either I or Gai arrive."

"I-be careful. As careful as you can be."

Ending Notes: So we finally reach the Uchiha Massacre. I'd been planning it this way for a couple chapters. Question; was Kakashi's POV in character or not? And should I do another scene in his POV or not?