Konoha was… an interesting place, Nanoha summarized.
It was quite an odd feeling to think that there was nobody who thought that her and Fate walking around was nothing out of the ordinary. In Japan, at this time of the day, she'd have truancy officers chasing her for skipping school. Uminari took education very, VERY seriously. That, and just about everyone knew who the darling youngest daughter of the couple that owned the Midori-ya was. Mostly because it was very, very popular in the area.
There were also lots of fun sights to see. While they were, officially, looking for the Wolkenritter or their master, it was clear that the best way to find them would be to just walk around the city.
And if it just so happened to be that her patrol was with Fate, and they happened to take the more interesting, scenic route, well… that was just good business, some would say. There were quite a few things to see in Konoha, though Nanoha pouted when told that one of the biggest sights the city had to see was the Hokage Monument. Mostly because the once massive monument was now nothing but a great pile of rubble.
There was also the fact that, well, there were quite a few other obvious signs of the war that had taken place. Most of the more… horrifying parts of it had already been cleared out, but there were a few sections of the village that were blocked off, where there only seemed to be those people with headbands, ninja they called themselves.
If she were to be quite honest, Nanoha would admit that these ninja offended her own sensibilities a little. While nowhere near as bad as the idea that all ninja wore stage hand costumes, the fact that all of the ninja here were clearly marked and made themselves highly visible… plus, there was the fact that they had to use magic in a weird way to achieve what they did.
No, for someone descended from an actual ninja clan, who used nothing but their own bodies and skill, Nanoha could accurately say that the people around her were just using the name for its coolness factor.
Bizzarre though it was, given the fact that these people had never interacted with earth, and yet had developed a culture very similar in certain respects to Japan's.
But if the Master of the book was hidden here, it was most definitely as a ninja. Mostly because hiding magic that way would be loads easier, if everyone already did it.
"What do you think, Fate-chan?"
Fate shook her head. "While it's easy to hide a needle in a haystack, it might be even easier if the needle isn't in the haystack in the first place, and is hidden somewhere else," she remarked.
Nanoha tilted her head. "What do you mean? Unless the Master isn't a mage at all, which would be… odd."
It would kind of be. The master of the Book of Darkness was almost always a powerful mage. Even if they weren't before the book, having access to it already provided access to a variety of spells, and it could be utilized as an intelligent device even before it was fully activated. Even to those who weren't combat inclined, it served as a massive empowering tool.
But Fate had a point. If the Master wanted to hide… why not avoid being in the public eye at all? Admittedly, that'd make the task of finding him or her a whole lot harder, but… That didn't mean Nanoha would give up. After all, she was hardly one to give up just because the climb up suddenly became a lot steeper. No, Nanoha was the kind to relish the challenges which others would find excessive.
"It's a possibility," Fate concluded, shrugging.
"Well… Then we should better search more thoroughly, then," Nanoha said, nodding her head.
"Naruko! What are you doing here? I thought you were in the hospital!"
***
Hopefully, anyway.
Even worse than the war and her promotion being shot to hell, though, was something else she learned. Now, Sakura couldn't claim to be Naruko's best friend or most ardent admirer. Far from her, actually, as she was quite envious and jealous of the girl, and at the same time, pitied her. After all, Sakura imagined that it'd be quite horrible to want nothing more than to be a ninja, only to have a weak and fragile body that couldn't keep up, coupled with an inability to use chakra.
At one point, Sakura had wanted nothing more than to strangle the civilian, but… she supposed that her feelings on the girl calmed after Sasuke turned out to be not so great a catch. Ultimately, though, that wasn't what was important.
What was important was that one of Sakura's teachers and someone who she considered very important to herself was utterly and absolutely devastated by the fact that Naruko had been in a hospital, in a damned coma, for the past week, for injuries she received during the war. It was that which soured Sakura's mood the worst. While Sakura was, at best, friendly and at worst neutral to her, to Shamal Naruko was the light of her life, which meant that the usually attentive medic that Sakura had taken to be a role model for her had been upset.
And 'upset' was an understatement like few others.
She was just done with part of the reconstruction efforts that were going on about the village, which went much faster with her strength, agility and mobility as a Shinobi, when she saw something quite unexpected.
She thought she might've just seen something that wasn't there, a simple mirage, the first time she saw it, but… there it was again. Twintails of blonde hair… the clothes were a bit weird, Naruko rarely wore such… subdued clothing, but Sakura supposed that in the wake of a tragedy with so many dead, even the perpetually cheerful blonde would show a little respect for the fallen.
Sakura smiled nonetheless, knowing that now that Naruko was out of the hospital, everything would improve there. Shamal would get out of her funk and get back to work, and they'd start getting the wounded out at the blistering pace she usually worked.
"Naruko!" Sakura shouted, though the girl didn't turn around. Sakura sighed, with the constant sounds of the reconstruction everywhere, it wasn't that unlikely that Naruko might be wearing earplugs. So instead, she approached her. She was walking with a brown haired girl, also wearing twin tails, though hers were much shorter. "Hey! Naruko! What are you doing here? I thought you were in the hospital!" Sakura remarked.
And then the girl turned around and everything was all wrong.
She didn't turn around and grin or smile when greeting her. She just looked kinda confused. More importantly, though, was the fact that her eyes were red. Naruko's eyes were a very bright shade of blue, unmistakable, and as such, it was obvious that despite the physical resemblance, this girl was not Naruko.
"Uhm… do we know you?" the blonde asked.
"Ah… no, I'm sorry. I just saw you from behind, and I thought you were someone else," Sakura explained, her face flushing. "You happen to look nearly identical to one of my friends," she said, apologetically.
The blonde winced, but the brown haired girl giggled. "Well this is awkward," she said once she'd stopped laughing.
"Yeah, it's pretty bad," Sakura agreed. "Hey, I haven't seen you two around before… and I'd know if there was someone who looked just like Naruko running around," Sakura noted, frowning a little.
"Ah, yes, we are… tourists," the brown haired one said, though her pause could've been attributed to the awkwardness of the situation.
"The village is in a bit of a fix, right now, what with the invasion, but… I guess I can apologize to you two for disturbing your date by taking you two out to see some of the sights on this village that still remain in place! Oh, but I should introduce myself first, I'm Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you!"
"My name's Takamachi Nanoha," the one with brown hair said, smiling and nodding. "And that sounds good!"
The blonde nodded. "My name is Fa-… Testarossa Fate," she corrected herself.
Sakura expertly kept herself from twitching. A fake name, maybe? It certainly wasn't like any other she'd ever hear. It sounded faked, at the very least. The fact that she seemed to have stumbled when saying it only added credence. Maybe she was a criminal? But she couldn't be more than a genin, at best, not if she was even younger than Sakura herself… Unless she was one of those super genin that were sometimes spoken about in hushed whispers.
Oh, well, she'd deal with that as it came. She didn't plan on taking them to see any place with sensitive info, anyway!
"Well, I'm sure you two are hungry, huh?" Sakura said, noting it was nearly lunch hour. "I know a few good places to eat that were untouched, what do you say? My treat," Sakura said, smiling widely.
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and potential spies so close you can smell what they ate last week. Anko's words.