[Fic] "An Ounce of Prevention" chapter 19 -- Naruto/Harry Potter
This is part 19 of An Ounce of Prevention, a Naruto/Harry Potter crossover that I started as a giftfic for askerian.
Technically, it's an insertion of one HP character/plot device into the Naruto world, but that does count as a crossover of sorts. "An Ounce of Prevention" will not affect canon in either series; that is, it takes place during the Naruto timeskip, and significantly before CoS in HP. (Which gives away at least part of the ending, but whatever. *grin*)
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Chapter 19: Once Burned
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"Do you need a minute?" Kakashi asked as Sakura collapsed to the floor of her mind, hung her head down between her knees, and tried not to vomit.
Sakura glared at her feet. "No. I'm going to feel awful in here or out there. I might as well try to do something useful. Just... how do I make sure the door stays locked? I can't keep Tomu out by wishing."
"Yes you can. How else would you lock a door made of thoughts?" Kakashi crouched down and offered her a hand. "Imagine a lock -- imagine a hundred locks, if you want -- and don't let your concentration slip for a second."
Sakura let him help her up and stared at the door. Two rings and a padlock seemed to grow out of the wood. Then iron brackets and a steel bar. Then two deadbolts, one high and one low; they turned with audible clicks.
"That's all I can remember at once," she said. "How do we wake up?"
Kakashi's eyes crinkled up into a smile. "Like this." He snapped his fingers.
Black and red winds whirled her in a maddening spiral until Sakura closed her eyes against the force of the air. Instantly, the spinning stopped.
After a moment, she opened her eyes.
Kakashi finished slipping his forehead protector back down over his face and stepped back, tilting his head. "And here we are, awake from the dream. Unless, of course, we're all really butterflies--"
"--dreaming that we're human, right," said Anko, somewhere off to the right. "Enough of that shit. What's your status, and what did you learn about our resident mystery man?"
Sakura realized she was still clutching the diary, and dropped it onto the table. She wanted as little contact with Tomu as possible, in case he had the mental equivalent of a lock-pick.
She raised her head and turned to face Anko and Tsunade across the table -- Tsunade sitting stern and upright with her hands curved around a lumpy gray teacup, and Anko lounging bonelessly in her chair with far too much cleavage on display and a ring of glittering steel flashing through the air in front of her.
"You're juggling kunai," she said, her equilibrium still not quite recovered.
Anko rolled her eyes and made a rude noise. "Congratulations, you can see the obvious. Snap out of it and tell us all of Hanjimono's dirty secrets. And Kakashi, put the book down. You can fink out of your responsibilities later."
Pages rustled behind Sakura. She resolutely refused to look.
"Hanjimono Tomu is the replica of a person who killed an innocent civilian girl as part of an immortality spell," she said, meeting Tsunade's assessing gaze. "This Tomu wants to drain someone's life in order to create a new body for himself. I'm not sure how that would work, but he admitted his plan to me when he thought I was helpless. He's a threat." Gingerly, she nudged the diary into the center of the table.
Tsunade took a long drink from her cup and glared at the book. "I hate scum like that. But, to cover all the options, is there any way we could turn the diary into a weapon? Would it be possible to learn and adapt any of Hanjimono's techniques to work with chakra instead of his magic? And if so, would the risk be worth the gain?"
"There are some people I'd kill to see wither away," Anko mused, catching her knives in one hand and tapping them thoughtfully against her other palm. "But then we'd have to deal with Hanjimono in person -- it'd be trading a rattlesnake for a cobra."
"Any study is potentially life-threatening," Kakashi added, walking around the table to lean against the window frame. "What if the imprint's genjutsu is more successful on the next researcher? What if it's stolen? Can you imagine what might happen if Akatsuki acquired dozens of unknown techniques, or if Orochimaru found a more reliable path to immortality?"
Sakura shuddered. If Akatsuki found more ways to kill Naruto, or if Orochimaru decided Sasuke was useless...
"Yeah, let's not go there," Anko said. "I vote we kill the bastard. Sakura? What's your choice? You know him best."
Sakura looked down at her hands, thinking about friends and consequences and the pale, staring face of a foreign girl who'd died for no reason, just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She thought about the dead, echoing emptiness in Tomu's eyes, the complete disregard for anyone but himself. She thought about ways to channel chakra from a group of people, enough to power massive jutsu without any need for death, and how Tomu had never even thought to ask for help. He just took, and never counted the cost.
"Execution," she said, after a long moment.
She'd never killed anyone before. She wished she'd tried snapping Tomu's neck, back inside the diary -- maybe it wouldn't have worked, but at least that would have been self-defense, in the heat of battle. This choice, this rational weighing of risks and consequences, was somehow worse. Colder. Less human.
More like him.
"I assume you still want to destroy the diary, Kakashi?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes," he said.
Tsunade grimaced. "That makes us unanimous. A pity -- contact with another world could have been fascinating, and so much more useful. But there's no point holding off on the cure. Kakashi? You're best with fire."
"Sure. Toss it in the air so I won't hit the table as well."
Tsunade leaned forward, grabbed the diary, and lobbed it in an easy, underhand arc toward the window. Kakashi slashed his hand through the air, trailing a shimmer of heat that intercepted the book two feet from the floor.
Blue-white flames engulfed the diary.
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End of Chapter
Back to He Who Laughs Last
Continue to Three Can Keep a Secret
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
And we're up to a 23-chapter outline. *headdesk*
I despise plot mechanics. I know exactly where I'm trying to go, but the trouble with attempting to keep the fundamentally loopy premise as logical as possible -- and keep the Leaf-nin acting both IC and, you know, like ninjas -- is that it's taking twice as long to reach the ending as I thought it would.
Also, it's hard to write when it's too hot to think... which is why I'm posting this past midnight. I have to stay up this late in order to have any chance of stringing words together in a vaguely coherent fashion.
*prays for a cold front*
Technically, it's an insertion of one HP character/plot device into the Naruto world, but that does count as a crossover of sorts. "An Ounce of Prevention" will not affect canon in either series; that is, it takes place during the Naruto timeskip, and significantly before CoS in HP. (Which gives away at least part of the ending, but whatever. *grin*)
---------------------------------------------
Chapter 19: Once Burned
---------------------------------------------
"Do you need a minute?" Kakashi asked as Sakura collapsed to the floor of her mind, hung her head down between her knees, and tried not to vomit.
Sakura glared at her feet. "No. I'm going to feel awful in here or out there. I might as well try to do something useful. Just... how do I make sure the door stays locked? I can't keep Tomu out by wishing."
"Yes you can. How else would you lock a door made of thoughts?" Kakashi crouched down and offered her a hand. "Imagine a lock -- imagine a hundred locks, if you want -- and don't let your concentration slip for a second."
Sakura let him help her up and stared at the door. Two rings and a padlock seemed to grow out of the wood. Then iron brackets and a steel bar. Then two deadbolts, one high and one low; they turned with audible clicks.
"That's all I can remember at once," she said. "How do we wake up?"
Kakashi's eyes crinkled up into a smile. "Like this." He snapped his fingers.
Black and red winds whirled her in a maddening spiral until Sakura closed her eyes against the force of the air. Instantly, the spinning stopped.
After a moment, she opened her eyes.
Kakashi finished slipping his forehead protector back down over his face and stepped back, tilting his head. "And here we are, awake from the dream. Unless, of course, we're all really butterflies--"
"--dreaming that we're human, right," said Anko, somewhere off to the right. "Enough of that shit. What's your status, and what did you learn about our resident mystery man?"
Sakura realized she was still clutching the diary, and dropped it onto the table. She wanted as little contact with Tomu as possible, in case he had the mental equivalent of a lock-pick.
She raised her head and turned to face Anko and Tsunade across the table -- Tsunade sitting stern and upright with her hands curved around a lumpy gray teacup, and Anko lounging bonelessly in her chair with far too much cleavage on display and a ring of glittering steel flashing through the air in front of her.
"You're juggling kunai," she said, her equilibrium still not quite recovered.
Anko rolled her eyes and made a rude noise. "Congratulations, you can see the obvious. Snap out of it and tell us all of Hanjimono's dirty secrets. And Kakashi, put the book down. You can fink out of your responsibilities later."
Pages rustled behind Sakura. She resolutely refused to look.
"Hanjimono Tomu is the replica of a person who killed an innocent civilian girl as part of an immortality spell," she said, meeting Tsunade's assessing gaze. "This Tomu wants to drain someone's life in order to create a new body for himself. I'm not sure how that would work, but he admitted his plan to me when he thought I was helpless. He's a threat." Gingerly, she nudged the diary into the center of the table.
Tsunade took a long drink from her cup and glared at the book. "I hate scum like that. But, to cover all the options, is there any way we could turn the diary into a weapon? Would it be possible to learn and adapt any of Hanjimono's techniques to work with chakra instead of his magic? And if so, would the risk be worth the gain?"
"There are some people I'd kill to see wither away," Anko mused, catching her knives in one hand and tapping them thoughtfully against her other palm. "But then we'd have to deal with Hanjimono in person -- it'd be trading a rattlesnake for a cobra."
"Any study is potentially life-threatening," Kakashi added, walking around the table to lean against the window frame. "What if the imprint's genjutsu is more successful on the next researcher? What if it's stolen? Can you imagine what might happen if Akatsuki acquired dozens of unknown techniques, or if Orochimaru found a more reliable path to immortality?"
Sakura shuddered. If Akatsuki found more ways to kill Naruto, or if Orochimaru decided Sasuke was useless...
"Yeah, let's not go there," Anko said. "I vote we kill the bastard. Sakura? What's your choice? You know him best."
Sakura looked down at her hands, thinking about friends and consequences and the pale, staring face of a foreign girl who'd died for no reason, just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She thought about the dead, echoing emptiness in Tomu's eyes, the complete disregard for anyone but himself. She thought about ways to channel chakra from a group of people, enough to power massive jutsu without any need for death, and how Tomu had never even thought to ask for help. He just took, and never counted the cost.
"Execution," she said, after a long moment.
She'd never killed anyone before. She wished she'd tried snapping Tomu's neck, back inside the diary -- maybe it wouldn't have worked, but at least that would have been self-defense, in the heat of battle. This choice, this rational weighing of risks and consequences, was somehow worse. Colder. Less human.
More like him.
"I assume you still want to destroy the diary, Kakashi?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes," he said.
Tsunade grimaced. "That makes us unanimous. A pity -- contact with another world could have been fascinating, and so much more useful. But there's no point holding off on the cure. Kakashi? You're best with fire."
"Sure. Toss it in the air so I won't hit the table as well."
Tsunade leaned forward, grabbed the diary, and lobbed it in an easy, underhand arc toward the window. Kakashi slashed his hand through the air, trailing a shimmer of heat that intercepted the book two feet from the floor.
Blue-white flames engulfed the diary.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter
Back to He Who Laughs Last
Continue to Three Can Keep a Secret
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
And we're up to a 23-chapter outline. *headdesk*
I despise plot mechanics. I know exactly where I'm trying to go, but the trouble with attempting to keep the fundamentally loopy premise as logical as possible -- and keep the Leaf-nin acting both IC and, you know, like ninjas -- is that it's taking twice as long to reach the ending as I thought it would.
Also, it's hard to write when it's too hot to think... which is why I'm posting this past midnight. I have to stay up this late in order to have any chance of stringing words together in a vaguely coherent fashion.
*prays for a cold front*