Far From Home

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto

they are the property of Rowlings and Kishimoto

Author's Note:

This story is set in the timeline of The Prisoner of Azkaban, but don't expect it to be canon

since the students are going to be having an Akatsuki member as a Japanese teacher.

I hope I'm doing Konan correctly. If anyone thinks she's OOC please let me know.

Chapter One

It was over. Akatsuki was gone, Nagato was gone and for Konan, one of Akatsuki's remaining survivors, her life would soon be gone. The blue-haired kunoichi crawled through the hot, barren Snake River Canyon of Earth County. Though she wondered why she bothered. Iwa's Hunter nin would be catching up to her soon and in her weakened state, she could no longer fight. So why did she keep moving forward? Survival instincts…they were bred into her of course. Nearly all shinobi would cling to life, fight to the death, run away, even while on their last leg.

She grimaced as a loose pebble lodged itself into a particularly deep gash in her side. She was past being on her last leg, she was dying, she could feel it. Perhaps it would be better to give in, let them catch up to her, let them deal the finishing blow, it was ridiculous to keep going in the state her body was in now anyways. Bloodied fingers reached for an old boot and the kunoichi wondered vaguely what the hell an old boot was doing out in the middle of the canyon?

A strange surge of chakra flashed as the boot quivered and she felt a sharp tug behind her navel before she fell into darkness.

Hagrid was making his morning rounds in the forest when he saw a group of centaurs gathered around something on the ground. The centaurs stepped back as Hagrid burst through the ring and stopped to stare at a blue haired woman who was in a really bad way. She was bloodied and bruised and her face was unnaturally pale, indicating that she was very close to death.

"Blimey!" He said as quick, experienced fingers gently probed the wounds. The woman groaned faintly when he reached a particularly nasty wound through her side, like someone had tried to run her through with a sword. Getting out his emergency kit that he kept in case he found injured creatures, he bound her wounds as tightly as he could and put her broken leg into a makeshift splint.

He looked up towards the group of centaurs. He knew they were wary and distrustful of people, but he couldn't imagine them doing anything like this, they believed in a straightforward death, forcing someone to suffer went against their code of honor. He gently picked the woman up and placed her on his coat before swaddling her as delicately as if she were a baby and began walking off towards the school.

"Hagrid." It was the voice of the old centaur leader who went by the name of Orestes. "Do you think it's wise to carry her in that condition?" The old gray haired man asked. Orestes was uncommonly tall, even for a centaur, but his shoulders were stooped with age, he was balding and his strength was beginning to fail him more and more often.

Hagrid hesitated. Centaurs were a testy bunch and easily insulted and he had a bad habit of sticking his foot in his mouth.

"She's dyin' Orestes. I never seen no one look so bad off as her! I gotta get her some medical help quick!"

Orestes frowned. It was the exact same tone Hagrid had used when he had first met the man. He had helped his granddaughter once, injured and frightened and lost in the forest and Hagrid's only thought then had been to help her.

Orestes' wife Leto, a bay centaur with long black hair, streaked with white was dragging a stretcher behind her.

Orestes' youngest son Bane scoffed loudly. "Mother! Surely you do not mean to disgrace yourself by pulling that woman to the castle like a common cart horse!"

Leto shot a warning look at her son, angered by the blatant disrespect in his tone. "Hagrid and I will carry her to the castle my son." She said in Greek, as Hagrid picked up one end and she picked up the other. "Sometimes you must put mercy before pride. That is a lesson you still need to learn."

Stung by the acid tone in his mother's voice, Bane turned his head away as centaur and man carried the young woman through the forest.

"Professor McGonagall! Professor!" Hagrid bellowed as he caught sight of Minerva McGonagall walking into the castle.

Minerva turned around to see a rather distressing sight. Hagrid and a centaur woman were carrying a badly injured woman towards the castle.

"Get Madame Pomfrey quick! She's dyin on us! Hurry!"

Minerva ran.

"Thank ye Leto I couldn't a got her here as quick without ya!" Hagrid said hurriedly as the centaur woman gracefully walked away.

Madame Pomfrey was there in a flash and she began checking over her wounds. Shaking her head grimly she turned towards Minerva. "You have to contact St. Mungo's right away. The extent of her injuries are beyond me."

Minerva once hurried towards the council, casting a handful of Floo powder she stuck her head inside the fireplace. A healer who was in the emergency office noticed her.

"You need to come quickly to Hogwarts!" Minerva said. Her head disappeared as McGonagall performed the Emergency Lifting Spell. It would allow the medical team from St. Mungo's to Aparate on Hogwarts and Aparate back again.

The team was there in a heartbeat, following the grim-faced woman out towards the lake. They began working on stabilizing her, cleansing and disinfecting her wounds, dumping antibiotics and blood replenishing potions down her throat, mending her broken ribs so that they would not pierce her vital organs, at one point they had had to kick start her heart. The Head Witch finally nodded, indicating that the woman was now stable enough to be transported. In a flash they were gone.

Professor Dumbledore had felt a great disturbance in Hogwarts defense system, it felt as though a hole had been opened out towards the main gates and Dumbledore moved quickly. When he got out on the western grounds he found a bloodstained Madame Pomfrey, a worried looking Hagrid and a badly shaken Minerva there.

"What has happened? He asked. "I felt the Emergency Lifting Spell being performed."

"Hagrid found an injured woman near death in The Forbidden Forest Headmaster. Her injuries were beyond my abilities, she had to be transported to St. Mungo's right away." Madame Pomfrey explained.

"Ah. I see and do you have any idea who she might be?" Albus asked.

The three of them shook their heads.

"Mmm. I trust you should like to look in on her later?" He asked.

The look in their eyes confirmed it. Whatever shape the woman had been in, must have been really bad to be able to shake up Minerva and Poppy. "Very well then. I will ask Dilys to look in on her and let us know how she's doing. "

Konan slowly opened her eyes to see a white ceiling above her. Her body ached and throbbed which meant that she was still alive and being healed. But why? She wondered. Then scoffed at herself. She knew why. Interrogation. The remaining members of the organization were being hunted down like dogs. Zetsu, Kisame, Madara…which meant that some of them at least were alive. These damn Iwa nin believed that she knew her colleagues whereabouts. Well. They were certainly in for a disappointment. Her eyes closed again and she began to drift off to that sweet black oblivion.

One of the healers frowned, never had she seen anyone in such a bad way before. The good news was that by magical standards the mystery woman's wounds had been relatively simple to deal with. Broken bones, stab wounds, bruises, serious concussion, internal bleeding. The bad news was that all of her injuries combined had been fatal, they had nearly lost her before they had even gotten to St. Mungo's and none of the healers believed that she would make it through the night. But she had, though the question now was would she ever wake up? She had been asleep for three days in the ICW. Iris placed her fingers on the patient's wrist so she could check her vitals and was shocked when her wrist was caught in a punishing grip. Blue eyes stared warily into Iris' vivid green ones.

Konan paused. There was a great deal of chakra in this woman's body, though the woman in question was clearly not a shinobi. She could tell by the way the woman moved and acted, after a long moment of scrutiny, the kunoichi let go.

"Do you know what your name is? Do you know where you live? Do you know what date it is? Do you know how old you are?" Iris asked slowly, as she rubbed her bruised wrist. Merlin's Beard! That woman had a strong grip. She frowned and tucked a stray wisp of red hair out of her face, it was clear by the faintly puzzled look in her eyes that the woman didn't know a lick of English. She tried again, this time in her native Gaelic. Again there was no response. She then proceeded to try Spanish, then German and finally Chinese. Nothing.

Konan could only stare at the woman babbling at her in other languages. None of them sounded like any of the local dialects she knew and the accents were vastly different from anything she'd ever heard. One was guttural; the other sharp and rolling, one was like a rapid staccato, one lilting, almost musical. The woman stopped for a moment to think and then seemed to have an idea. The woman pointed at her, making Konan tense a little, then she pointed at what was apparently a nametag and said. "Iris O' Brien."

Now she understood. She wanted to know her name. She frowned, mind working to come up with a good cover name. She believed that she was somehow far away from the Shinobi Lands and that for now she would be safe, but she also had to remain unrecognized and wary. Names began flashing through her head until she settled on one, it was a combination of her mother's maiden name and her favorite doll.

"Nakamura Shiori." She said pointing to herself.

Iris now had to consider how she would go about asking about her age. Then she brightened again. She pointed to herself, held up ten fingers, then held up another ten then she held up two and pointed at Konan.

Konan understood, this Iris Obrien woman was saying that she was twenty-two and she was asking for her age now. She now finally recognized that she was being asked to check to see if her memory was intact. No reason not to shave a decade off. The thirty year old thought wryly.

Two sets of ten told Iris that Nakamura Shiori was twenty years old. She gently took her wrist and pressed her fingers against it, watching as the woman's calm blue eyes turned fierce and wary again. She turned around and began scribbling on a clipboard. Konan glanced around the room, surprised to see that her standard kunoichi clothes, Akatsuki cloak and ring and Amegakure headband looked as good as new. Interesting. No enemy nin would have bothered with something like that and she had long ago deduced that she was not caught in a high level genjutsu. It only served to reinforce her belief that she was far from enemy territory.

"Iris Obrien?" Konan said. She was thirsty.

"Just call me Iris." The woman said smiling, her voice had that same lilting, musical quality, it was actually quite pretty.

Konan pointed weakly to the jug of water. Iris understood. She poured a cup of water and Konan drank deeply. Her stomach growled.

Iris chuckled and pointed the wand at Konan. She was shocked, when in a blur her wand was grabbed and snapped in half.

At that point, a man had entered the room, he grimaced a little and with a flick of his wand and another strange word he mended Iris' wand as if it were as good as new.

Iris frowned, unable to make sense of the situation. The woman didn't feel like a muggle, in fact she seemed to contain a lot of magical energy, more then most people she felt, yet there had been no indication of any lasting magical attacks on her.

"Do we have any information on her Iris?" The man asked.

"Well I've got her name and her age, but she snapped my wand in half before I could cast the Translation spell Dr. Harrison"

"What is her name Iris?" Dr. Harrison asked.

"Nakamura Shiori." She replied.

Konan watched as he spoke her name into his wand as if it were a microphone and he was making a speech. She felt a surge of chakra and the man turned towards her and began speaking perfect Japanese. Konan's eyes narrowed, she had certainly never heard of a Translation Jutsu before.

"Nakamura-san, my name is Dr. Harrison. You are in a place called St. Mungo's Hospital. You were found fatally injured at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dr. Harrison began. He knew better then to ask what happened, the patient would need more time to recover mentally from the ordeal then physically. He asked. "Is there anyone you would like us to contact for you?"

Konan took a deep breath to steel her emotions when he asked her that question. The moment he had asked, she had wanted to laugh and cry all at once. "No. There is no one you can contact."

"No family? No friends?" Dr. Harrison prodded.

Konan decided to end this painful conversation, she sank into her pillow in exhaustion, indicating that she wanted to sleep.

But he wasn't done yet. "Nakamura-san, can you please speak into my wand?"

Konan looked at him. It would be much easier to be able to fit in if she spoke the local language, she knew. The man had spoken her name into the "wand" as he called it and could speak Japanese. She leaned forward, she must act as though she were competent enough to do these sorts of jutsus if she wanted to survive. Later, she could learn the language on her own. "Dr. Harrison." She said, stumbling on the name a little. She felt chakra flowing around her face and throat and she had to restrain herself from killing the man instinctively.

Iris and Dr. Harrison backed away quickly, startled by the murderous look that had flashed in her eyes momentarily.

Dr. Harrison asked again, this time a little nervously. "Do you have any place to go Ms. Nakamura?"

Konan thought for a moment, eyes sliding over to her ninja headband. Even the gash that now marked her as a missing nin had disappeared overnight.

"No Dr. Harrison." Not anymore. Konan thought.

"That's quite alright Dr. Harrison, you may send the young lady's bills to me." Came a cheerful voice from the doorway

"Ah. Professor Dumbledore." Said Dr. Harrison.

Konan turned to observe the new people in the room. The two men and the woman wore the most outlandish outfits Konan had ever seen. One man was old. He wore his beard long and had midnight blue robes covered in silver crescent moons, his blue eyes were sharp and lively, covered by half-spectacles. The other man was simply enormous! He would have easily towered over Kakuzu and Kisame in comparison. The man had a shaggy mane of brown hair and a beard. The woman was old and stern looking, her robes were dark green, outlined in a soft tan, with a plaid sash across her breast. Why would these strangers offer to pay her medical bills? Surely they must want something in return? Konan was immediately suspicious. She had already grasped that she must make a new life here in this strange place.

She could not go back to the Shinobi Lands if she wanted to survive, though this rankled her pride as a kunoichi. She felt like a coward! No…she was a coward! She thought in disgust. Her eyes caressed the Akatsuki cloak. Could she honestly continue to wear that while she was hiding like a coward in a far away land? Did she deserve to don Akatsuki's colors and everything it had stood for? She bit her lip and thought about it. Even the most dangerous missing nin had to run and hide. What she was doing was no different and somehow, she felt now that to discard her cloak and headband would be dishonoring Nagato's memory…and Akatsuki's.

Albus watched the young woman who seemed to be thinking hard about things. The emotions in her eyes appeared and reappeared quickly. Sorrow, confusion, suspicion, realization, disgust, resignation, love and lastly pride, before she turned towards him.

"Thank you." She said, "I will repay you as soon as I can find work." She meant this earnestly. She was sure that she could find work as a bodyguard or a spy in order to repay the money she now owed, even if she had to work as a waitress and here she felt disgusted yet again. But she needed to work, so that she could have a place to live and food to eat.

Dumbledore could not help but feel a strong urge to help this woman. It was as Fudge had once put it, his inability to turn away strays.

"If you have no objections my dear, you may come and stay at Hogwarts until you are on your feet-once the healers have given you a clean bill of health of course."

Konan frowned, should she? She again looked at her cloak as though it had the answer. Akatsuki were bold, sometimes even reckless. Though it had never been in her nature to do so. No, she was analytical and logical. She seldom threw caution to the wind and always came up with a good plan and a back-up plan before she took action. She thought of Deidara and Hidan.

Look where they had ended up! One dead, one blown to pieces and buried deep in the ground in Konoha. She smashed the reckless feeling as soon as it had emerged. Now more then ever, she could not afford to be reckless, it would be better, once she was discharged to slip into the forest and simply disappear for a while, though the doctor had mentioned before that this Hogwarts was a school. She would have access to the library there and learn to read and write in the local language and she was sure she'd find a map. She also needed a place to recover and so, Konan politely accepted.

"Now, I believe that introductions are in order. I am Albus Dumbledore. This is Rubeus Hagrid, he was the one who found you in the forest and this is Minerva McGonagall."

Konan nodded politely and then a nurse came in with food. Konan painfully pushed herself to an upright sitting position, ignoring the nurse's protests to lie back down and reached for a biscuit.

"Well Ms. Nakamura we shall be going then." Said Albus as he ushered the other two out of the office.

"Albus I'm not sure if it's wise to be bringing a stranger into Hogwarts before school starts." Minerva said.

"You are of course correct Minerva, however you know I believe in giving everyone a chance."

A few days later and much to Dr. Harrison's surprise, Konan was walking (and unbeknownst to them managed to get some very light training exercises in). By the end of the week, Konan had regained enough strength to check herself out. The doctors insisted that she was not well enough, but Konan was a shinobi. She knew her body's limits better then they did and she simply could not stand to be inactive for longer then she must.

Plus the longer she was here, the better the chances of any shinobi in the surrounding area (she could never be too careful) had of finding out about her presence and finishing what Iwa's Hunter nin had started. She got dressed, making sure to slash the symbol that marked her as a kunoichi of Amegakure. She tied it around her thigh before shrugging on the heavy Akatsuki cloak and for the first time since Akatsuki's downfall, she felt like herself again.

Hagrid had chosen that moment to come see if she was ready. He backpedaled quickly when he caught sight of her…revealing…outfit.

"Sorry, sorry I didn't know you was umm…" he stammered, blushing fiercely.

She fastened the cloak, strapped her shuriken pouch and kunai holster to her hips and walked out, Hagrid offered his arm to her to help her support her weight, but was forced after a moment to withdraw his arm when he realized that she was too prideful to take it. She was a tiny little thing and a real beauty. Hagrid noted. Bloody proud and quiet. Her face was impassive and Hagrid scratched his head as he stumbled around for something to say.

"So umm…Shiori is it?"

She looked up at him.

"Err…that's a right pretty name. Prettier then mine anyways, though mens' names aren't sposed to be pretty I guess…umm…"

The woman cocked her head slightly, allowing the slightest flicker of amusement to show in her eyes. A loud bang caused Konan to start and her hand went to grab a kunai.

Fred and George Weasley had appeared, faces blackened and holding a strange smoking object in front of them. They grinned at the pretty lady Hagrid was escorting.

"Hello Hagrid." Said George.

"Didn't know you had a date?" Said Fred winking at her.

"She's not my date." Grumbled Hagrid rolling his eyes, "I'm escortin' her to Hogwarts cause Professor Dumbledore asked me too.

"Ooh. Is she going to be the new teacher?" Asked the twins in unison.

"Cause she'd be a lot prettier to look at then all our other teachers put together." Fred's eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Fred! George!" An annoyed female voice called.

"Well, that's our cue to leave!" Called George.

"See ya Hagrid!" Smirked Fred.

"Blimey! Those two are nuff to drive ya to drink!" Chuckled Hagrid good naturedly.

Konan rolled her eyes. She had had to learn to survive with some of the most insane shinobi on earth. Hidan alone was enough to drive you to drink. So to speak.

"So are you hungry? I know hospital food isn't exactly the best."

Konan shrugged mentally. She'd eaten worse. She turned to survey her surroundings. This place was as crowded and that made her paranoid.

"Dumbledore said that you could pick out some clothes, since you didn't seem to have much with ya anyways." Hagrid was saying.

"I thank you both for your kindness to me." She said finally.

Since they were in London, she found several civilian stores and bought clothes that were as close to her own as she could get. Dark, plain, loose enough to be able to fight in. Hagrid seemed a bit surprised at her choice, but Konan would not, could not force herself to wear what wizards and witches were wearing, they were impractical for the type of movement she was used too. T-shirts, tank tops, several long-sleeved shirts, loose black pants, sensible running shoes,(as the civilians called them) material for several mesh tops and she was ready to go.

They sat down to eat, Konan taking the lead and sitting in a place in the back, against the wall where she had a good view of the restaurant.

Hagrid began babbling about Hogwarts in order to fill the silence and Konan paid rapt attention to him, her keen mind absorbing every bit of information he was willingly giving her and making mental maps in her head of the school grounds.

Hagrid had never had someone listen to him so intently before and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. At first he thought that she was shy, or maybe just tired, he now decided that she was simply a quiet person. He was also surprised at how much she ate, since women like her was always makin a fuss bout watchin their figures and such. After lunch Hagrid called the Knight Bus, momentarily forgetting about Shiori's injuries. He didn't remember till the bus had started. Panicked he looked around for Shiori and was surprised to see how easily she kept her balance after the first initial jolt.

Konan had been surprised by the violence of the bus's movements, but she applied chakra to her feet and somehow managed to keep her balance all the way to Hogwarts. She could not say the same for her escort who was stumbling back and forth and trying to keep from falling on the less then pleased passengers. She was relieved that it was a short trip and walked out, feeling a bit wobbly and silently swearing never to get on another bus as long as she lived.

"Err…sorry bout that, I kinda wasn't thinking about yer injuries." Hagrid apologized. "Yer not hurt are ya?" He asked anxiously.

Konan checked herself. Her muscles were sore and cramped after straining to keep her balance but otherwise she was fine. "I am alright." She acknowledged, eyes taking in the grand castle. This was a school? There must have been more then a thousand students here.

"Just in time to see the students arriving!" Hagrid said happily as they walked towards the carriage.

Instantly Konan went stiff when she saw the strange skeletal horse demons waiting patiently for the students to arrive.

Following the direction of her gaze, Hagrid realized that she could see the Thestrals. "Oh you can see em can ye?" He asked.

"I fail to see how anyone could not." Konan replied dryly.

"Well see-interestin thing bout Thestrals is that you can only see em is if ye've seen someone die. Otherwise they're invisible. They won't harm ye though if that's what yer worried bout."

"Ah." Konan said as she got in.

"Now Professor McGonagall will meet ya up there! I gotta get the kids across to the school. I'll be seein ya later."

Konan nodded, hefted her bags over her shoulder and got into the carriage, eyeing the strange creatures that pulled them in disgust. During her time as Akatsuki and as a ninja she had encountered plenty of terrifying and strange creatures but then she knew about the local monsters, here she knew none at all and felt inclined to be wary. She rubbed her ring fondly, a habit she had picked up in the hospital. Suddenly she frowned, the ring acted differently today…in an act of recklessness she sent a current of chakra through it, heedless of whether she was giving her whereabouts away to friend or foe. The rings had served several purposes. They let them know where the others were, they activated the statue and they were also keys to their various bases.

"Akatsuki is no more." She told herself. "It's foolish too think that any of them might still be ali-" She was surprised when Zetsu's chakra, strong and earthy trickled through in response. He was hiding in Lightning Country, no doubt a place where he'd feel right at home. She could also sense his confusion concerning her whereabouts. No matter, she doubted he could reach her and they couldn't communicate telepathically without Nagato's jutsu in place. She sent another surge, there was no sign of Kisame or Madara but she could feel Hidan's. Perhaps she should find a way to return and dig him up?

Zetsu always more sensitive to these things then the others had been, had had a fleeting vision of Hidan in Konan's head. While none of them really liked the mad priest, it had never sat well with her to leave the immortal there. As for Konan, she had been one of the first people to treat him as a person and while they had never been particularly close, Zetsu for all his independent nature was also very-attached to her in his own way.

"We should go dig Hidan up and find Konan."

"Why? Konan is too far out of our range. We can't cross the ocean! And I hate Hidan! He's an asshole!"

"Yes I hate Hidan too, but Konan treated us well and it might be better to stick close to one another, better chance of survival that way."

"Tch! We made a bigger target that way!"

"You make a good point but we're still going to find them both."

And so in a rare display of mulishness, Zetsu's lighter half got his way. He'd already found Madara's body two weeks ago, though even Zetsu had been loathe to eat it, the old man was tough and stringy and hadn't made for good eating at all but a meal was a meal and so Zetsu endured it with much disgust and complaining from his darker half. Kisame was living it up as a hired fighter in some daimyo's court so Zetsu figured that there was no point in disturbing him. The Kiri nin was always happiest in a fight.