I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter.

"Trying to act natural around cops even if you did nothing wrong"

Hermione woke up the next day in a foul mood and it took her a couple of seconds to find out why. It seemed that her transfiguration of the pebble had ended some time in the night and she had slept on the hard ground with the pebble poking her shoulder blade irritatingly.

Rolling over she sat up and stretched her sore body, her eyes briefly checking the sky before blinking in shock. The sun was bright and set high up in the sky indicating that it was way past morning.

She was late! Swearing rather colorfully, Hermione leapt up, quickly reinforced the muggle-repelling wards (just in case, one could never be to sure in a world such as this one) and began power-walking at such a spectacular speed that onlookers in the shopping district watched in surprise as seemingly civilian woman practically run very fast in her hurry. Usually only ninja were in that much of hurry.

As she manned the counter of her grandfather's shop, TenTen glanced at the door every so often. Mione-nee-san was twenty minutes late which not only made a bad impression but also painted TenTen in a bad light as well if her Grandfather came in and Mione-san still wasn't here.

As a ninja in training, the 10 year old had been trained in the art of reading people, amongst other things. She was taught to read simple things; the expressions of people, eyes, facial twitches, inconsistencies of a potential enemy's story or the rapid switch between emotions such as talking to someone who was initially nervous but gradually became calm.

TenTen, in particular, was rather adept at this sort of thing. Almost as good as a Yamanaka student and that particular clan were literally all psychology masters and experts. If it weren't for her profound skill and love for all things weaponry, TenTen had the niggling feeling that she would have ended up working in the T&I facilities.

Because of her prowess at reading people, those who knew her tended to trust her judgment of people. So when she'd talked Mione-san during the short time her grandfather had been in the back, TenTen had concluded that Mione-san was harmless at least to TenTen and her Grandfather (there was something about her that definitely didn't shout defenseless). The woman mostly seemed rather sad and distracted in a confused sort of way.

TenTen deduced that the poor woman had lost someone close to her recently and had still not taken it all in.

Perhaps a lover or maybe a-

SLAM! The door burst open and a disheveled Hermione ran in. "I'm so sorry I'm late! I woke up absurdly late for some reason… Perhaps because of the trip here… It may have taken a lot from me…"

The last part had been mumbled quietly and Hermione-san seemed to be thinking pensively of something (TenTen made sure to file this small tidbit away in her mind) before Hermione shook her head and grinned somewhat sheepishly.

"I'm not fired am I?"

The young girl shook her head. "No, you're lucky you came before Grandfather came. Though I do recommend you not coming in so late again. Grandfather is rather strict and won't like it.

Hermione nodded. That was a reasonable reason.

With that over and done with TenTen, without warning, began to smile maliciously, an evil gleam in her eye.

How a 10 year old managed both to smile like that and still look rather innocent, Hermione didn't know. She didn't think she wanted to know.

Handing the older girl a cleanser spray and rag, TenTen cheerfully pointed towards the closed door in the back of the store.

"Grandfather told me to tell you to begin cleaning the weapons in the storage room and the n bring them out to hang on the display areas."

Hermione nodded and dismissed the unease she felt at seeing TenTen's gleeful smile.

It couldn't that bad, it simply couldn't.

Hermione opened the door… and then proceeded to gape at the dust covered room. She felt faint just looking at it.

Could she really do this without magic?

"Good luck Mione-san! I've been putting of cleaning that place for a long, long time now. It's going to be difficult to clean!"

Hermione knew this would be a long day.

By the times she was done with the weapons storage, It was already dark out and she found herself wishing for the millionth time that she'd invested her time in becoming a master at wandless magic rather than a master at ancient runes and warding.

Wandless magic would have gone a long in cleaning the dusty menace the now sparkling storage room used to be.

As it was, the curly-haired young woman was covered in dust and was very ready to head home.

Emerging from the now empty and clean storage room, Hermione dusted herself off as well she could and waved at Sanosuke-san who was the only in the store as TenTen had headed to bed early for school the next day.

"Good bye Oji-san, See you tomorrow."

The old man looked up from inspecting the new package of kunai that'd arrived earlier that day.

"Good night, Her-mi-ni-san. You did well today. I actually didn't expect you finish today."

Hermione grinned. "Ah, it wasn't a problem. I just happen to have a very strong work ethic."

He waved a hand at her in agreement. "Anyway you'll receive your paycheck at the end of the week. If you keep up the good work, you'll have a place of you own in no time"

The young Gryffindor blinked in surprise, her hand on the doorknob.

"How'd you know I was looking for an apartment?" She asked warily.

He smiled cheerfully. "While your shirt is different, the rest of your ensemble is the same from yesterday. Not to mention yesterday you left a list of potential apartment complexes in the store. I simply put together the clues."

Damn. Even he was incredibly observant. Hermione needed to be much more careful about such things. She'd thought that changing her shirt and hair would throw most off but that sort of sloppy play would only work on civilians.

Realizing Sanosuke-san was still talking, Hermione tuned back in. "-are staying at a shelter, correct? It is too dangerous on the streets at night especially at the red-light district which is rather close by."

Hermione smiled warmly. "Thank you for the worry, Oji-san! I am staying at place were I'm quite safe."

Not to mention a quick stupefy would handle a would-be attacker easily.

The old man smiled slightly as she left. Seemed like TenTen's assessment of the young woman was correct.

After dropping by Ichiraku's for a quick "discount" meal (aka: free pity-food), Hermione was on her way back to her makeshift camp.

She owed Teuchi-san big-time for his "discounts". Without it she probably would have gone hungry.

Perhaps she could help him in some other way. The sign above his shop looked a bit worn and the place could use a new paint job as well. Yes, once she'd gathered enou-"

"There he is!"

"Catch him already!

"Don't let him go!"

Hermione look to her right just before she was nearly knocked to the ground by a small figure. Only her training kept her on her feet.

Looking down bemusedly at the small blonde boy (if TenTen was, well, ten, then Naruto had to be nine. Only he looked too… small to be nine) who was looking back at her fearfully before his expression changed into stubbornness and defiance Hermione recognized as typical Harry-expression.

Three fully grown men came running right behind him and glanced at Hermione before looking at Naruto on the ground.

One of them grinned nastily. "Looks you're caught demon-brat. There's no where for you to go. You're surrounded by of all us."

Hermione raised an eyebrow as the man waved his arm, including her in his group.

To the shock of the men and Naruto, she moved in front of the boy.

"I don't think so. If you believe that I'm going to let you touch this kid, you're all crazy."

An ugly scowl adorned the face of the largest of the trio. "Who the hell do you think you are, you bitch? You realize that this is the demon brat you're siding with."

Hermione shrugged. "Amazingly enough, I really, really don't care"

Enraged the man rushed at Hermione, his fist raised… only to fall flat on the ground as Hermione easily moved herself and the small boy behind her.

"You bitch! Demon-whore!"

The young brunette rolled her eyes. "Oh, how original. Trust me, I've been called much worse."

The other man tried sweeping her legs out from under in an impressive downwards swoop for a civilian (perhaps an academy dropout?) and Hermione jumped over his leg and aimed a hit on his head that knocked him out.

She cracked her neck and turned towards the last man.

Earlier that day:

"Neko-san. are you sure this is where you saw the subject appear?

"Hai, Capitan. It looked normal at first but there seems to bee an incredibly strong genjutsu around the tree."

"Wolf? Anything?"

"We've had our top genjutsu specialist look at it and nothing has been found, Capitan."

"Describe exactly what you saw again, Neko."

"Yes, sir. I was heading toward the training the grounds to let off some steam after a long mission when I felt an odd sensation coming from the park. I went to investigate and saw nothing but a few children and this tree.

As I was about to turn back I felt the rippling sensation again and turned just in time to notice a figure leaping out of the air and running into the busy shopping district.

I went to follow the person but for some reason I could not sense any chakra from the subject and thus couldn't track her."

"You say a figure leapt out of the air?" The incredulity coating the Capitan's tone was very obvious.

Neko flushed under his mask. "It was odd, sir. There was absolutely nothing near the tree and then the figure just appeared into visibility."

Boar snickered. "Someone's clearly gone loopy… even for a ninja." The two new recruits snickered quietly.

Neko valiantly resisted the urge to tear his limbs off.

Capitan sighed. "Did you at least get a physical description?"

Neko shook his head forlornly. "I didn't get a good look but the figure seemed like a female or a very small male and he/she had brown hair.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long, long wait. If you haven't already seen my profile a friend was on my computer and since I didn't log out this friend deleted my stories from my account as a prank. I've put them all back but wasn't really in the mood to write for a while.

Al I can say is thank god for recovery button.

Please Review and tell me your thoughts and ideas of the chapter. Criticism is always welcome as it makes me a better writer but it must make sense.

Thanks.

ShaSha