I didn't think anyone would be interested in this, but apparently I was wrong.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto.

Ch.1

Shion lived in a world full of green, and she hated it. She hated the leaves on the trees that seemed to never lose sight of her, the grass that blanketed the parks and every other bit of ground that wasn't a road, the signs and building walls of eateries and other businesses, the vests of the ninja that she encountered daily. There was green everywhere, and it was all a constant reminder that she was in a place that wasn't her home.

She hated it all, but most of all, she hated how this place had made her despise something that she used to hold so dear to her heart. As Daphne, green used to mean home. It had meant the color of her mother's eyes, late nights bonding over sweets, gossip, and talks of crushes with Tracy, Millie, and Pansy in the Slytherin dorms. Green had meant persevering through hardship, and the first signs of new life after a long winter. As Daphne, green meant family, meant home.

But that was the problem, she wasn't Daphne anymore.

She was Shion now, and that changed everything. Daphne had been raised by loving parents who had raised her and her younger sister to be polite and elegant society ladies. Shion was under the care of a young uncle who didn't know much of anything about raising a child. Daphne had been sent to school at eleven years of age to learn spells and other magical techniques that would be needed to find a job in society after finishing her seven years of schooling. Shion was currently going to school at seven years old to learn how to be a killer and was expected to graduate within the next two years if not sooner.

Except, no, they weren't called killers here. They were called shinobi, and shinobi were revered as protectors and heroes by the people in this village. Shion knew better. She knew that shinobi –or kunoichi as the girls were called– were nothing better than glorified assassins for hire. She knew that they were all nothing more than a tool to be used by those in charge as a show of power over others.

However, Shion also knew that if she wanted to survive in this world, she would have to become a kunoichi. She'd be much too vulnerable without the training provided to those wishing to become ninja, and vulnerability is something she would not tolerate. She would not allow herself to be weak. Not if she could help it. That's why -as much as she despised it- she was here at the Academy learning how to throw shuriken with speed and accuracy.

The exercise was relatively easy. She'd learned most of this from her uncle, Eiji, some months earlier. Her father's brother may not know how to care for a child, but he knew how to train a ninja. After taking her in due to the death of her father, he'd started training her immediately. At first, it was just a way to distract the two of them from the death of a loved one, but it soon turned into something Shion looked forward to. She liked to be ahead of the class as much as she possibly could.

Shion flicked her fingers and three shuriken went flying into the wooden target, landing with a thwack in a perfect vertical line down the center.

"Wow, Shi-chan! That was awesome!"

Shion glanced at the owner of the high-pitched chirpy voice that she was slowly becoming accustomed to. Hino Suzume was a little girl who two weeks ago –for some reason that Shion would probably never understand– decided that she was going to be Uchiha Shion's best friend. Shion didn't particularly like Suzume. She was clingy, pushy, and below average in the class standings. In short, Hino Suzume was an annoying little pest who was much too loud for her own good, but Shion had to admit that it was nice to not be alone all the time anymore.

"Hn. It's your turn now," Shion said as she stepped out of the way to let Suzume take her turn in the exercise, but before Suzume could go their instructor, Tadao-sensei came by to inspect their work.

The man looked from the target to Shion and wrote something down in his notebook. "Uchiha Shion, see me after class," he said curtly and continued on to view the progress of other students.

Shion stared at Tadao-sensei's back and grit her teeth before turning back to the target with a blank expression.

"What do you think Tadao-sensei wants Shi-chan? I hope you're not in trouble! You did a good job today!"

Shion knew what their sensei wanted. He'd been pestering her about it for months now. No matter how many times she told him no, he still pushed her, but she just couldn't do it. She didn't want to graduate early. Her time spent in the Academy classroom lectures gave her time to work on her fuinjutsu projects. Her goal was to figure out how to incorporate defensive runes into her basic barrier seals before she graduated. She had almost figured it out, but she still needed more time. She couldn't graduate yet.

"I don't know why you're so against graduating early. You clearly know more than what's necessary to start as a genin already," Tadao-sensei said. He was growing more and more frustrated with her. He didn't understand why she wouldn't take his advice and graduate already. He knew she was more than capable and doubted that fear was a factor in her hesitancy. He had seen her take down opponents swiftly and without mercy in taijutsu lessons. There was no fear there, so why did Uchiha Shion keep refusing early graduation? Perhaps he should get in contact with Uchiha Fugaku. Surely her clan head could make her see reason. He really didn't want to, but he just couldn't understand why–

"I need more time."

Tadao raised an eyebrow and looked at her with interest. This is the first time Shion had given any sort of reasoning for not wanting to start on her ninja career already.

"Time? Time for what?"

Shion frowned, inwardly debating whether she should tell him any more of her project. She looked at Tadao-sensei and sighed, giving in as the possible benefits outweighed the cons.

"I'm working on a project. The time allotted for lectures allows me time to work on it. If I start on my ninja career now, I won't have as much time to work out the last few issues."

"Can I ask what kind of project you're working on?" Tadao asked curiously. Shion's refusal to graduate suddenly made much more sense now. He knew how busy life as a new genin would be, and if she was close to completing whatever this project of hers is like she said, she'd want to get this completed before throwing herself into something so time consuming as the start of her ninja career.

"You can ask, Tadao-sensei, but I wouldn't expect an answer." Shion lifted her chin and crossed her arms over her chest. She wouldn't be moved on this.

Tadao sighed. He wasn't really expecting her to answer him. He knew Shion was a very private person, but he couldn't help but ask on the off chance she did feel like being forthcoming today.

"Very well. I'll stop pushing the subject, but if you finish your project and decide you want to get an early start on your ninja career let me know."

Shion nodded and quickly left the classroom. She was glad Tadao-sensei had finally decided to stop pushing her to graduate. Now, if she could only get her runes and seals to merge everything would be perfect.

Shion hurried home after speaking with Tadao-sensei. The Uchiha compound was all the way on the other side of the village and she wanted to try and get some training in before it got too dark.

As Shion raced through the streets heading towards the Uchiha compound everything went wrong. She turned the corner and smacked face-first into someone. To make things worse, the strap of her bag snapped, and her books and notes went tumbling to the ground.

"Damn it," Shion mumbled as she rubbed her now sore cheek and went to pick up her things.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going. Here, let me help you," an older feminine voice said.

Shion looked up and was met with a sea of bright red hair. She'd never seen hair this red, as Shion or as Daphne. The Weasley's ginger held nothing to the scarlet locks of this woman. She watched on as the older girl picked up her books and notes. Shion only realized she was staring when the person she had bumped into spoke.

"Hey, these are pretty good. Did you come up with this yourself?" The red-headed lady asked as she held up a slightly crumpled sheet of paper that had some of Shion's fuinjutsu notes and experiment results on it.

"Yes," Shion said slowly. Did this lady know fuinjutsu? Fuinjutsu wasn't exactly a popular specialization in Konohagakure. Most ninja didn't know any at all let alone enough to be able to judge her work at a glance like that. It would be a stroke of immense luck if she had run into someone that did know about seals.

At her confirmation, the red-head began to shuffle through the rest of Shion's notes that she held in her hands. "You've got a good basis going here. Where did you learn? Did someone teach you? Did you teach yourself? Huh, I've never seen these symbols before. What do they mean? What are you using them for?"

Shion was beginning to get a little overwhelmed. It was clear that this lady knew fuinjutsu, but her non-stop rapidfire questions were becoming a little too much for her. Shion didn't even know her name.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Shion asked, hoping to at least be able to learn who this fuinjustu-knowing red-haired woman was.

"Huh? Oh! I'm Uzumaki Kushina! Nice to meet you -ttebane!"

A little short but I figured this was a good stopping point for now. Hope y'all enjoyed this! Thanks for reading! - S.F.E.