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edenfallingThis is part 15 of An Ounce of Prevention, a Naruto/Harry Potter crossover that I started as a giftfic for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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 15: Curiosity Killed
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Corridors, stairwells, and cavernous rooms flashed by as Sakura ran. First she thought the screamer was a girl, then a man, then several children in ragged chorus, and then back to the single girl. At least five people, being tortured.
How had Tomu ended up in a diary? What had his captors done to him first? Who had they killed to fuel the seal? If he lived with this in his mind, endlessly repeated if he so much as opened the wrong door, no wonder he hadn't talked about his past.
The girl screamed again. Sakura ran faster.
Her feet thumped against the stone tiles, wind whipped past her face, her blood roared, her heart pounded, her breath hissed through her teeth, and then she realized everything else had gone silent. Or very nearly so -- now the girl was crying, soft, broken sobs echoing off the walls, oddly directionless.
Stealth and caution, Sakura reminded herself, slowing. Barging straight in might work for Naruto, who had enough stamina and luck to get away with seat-of-his-pants tactics, but her strengths were planning and control. She couldn't afford to let Tomu know she was here.
No cover. No sense using genjutsu against a master of the art, but she could always... Wait, would genjutsu even work inside the diary, inside Tomu's mind? Did she have chakra to shape?
Sakura rested one hand against the wall, reached inside, and pulled. Yes. The chakra felt odd as she molded it -- maybe she was only imagining it, since this body was only an extension of her mind -- but if everything here came down to thought and will, she could handle that just fine.
Sakura raised her other hand to the wall and began to climb. She didn't need to get fancy. Tomu wasn't a ninja, and civilians almost never thought to look up.
She'd have to apologize to Kakashi once she got back, Sakura thought as she pinned herself to the ceiling and inched forward. Chakra-climbing was one of the most useful techniques she'd ever learned.
She peered around the corner. The new corridor widened into an open, vaulted passageway long enough to hold three doors on each side; then it narrowed back to the standard shape and turned off the the right. A tall, slender boy stood in front of the most distant door on the right, his hand resting on the latch. His hair was dark, his skin was pale, and he wore long black robes in an unfamiliar cut. In his left hand, he held a thin wooden rod -- probably the wand he used to control his magic.
Hello, Hanjimono Tomu, how nice to see you at last. Now what was he doing here amidst memories of torture? And how long would he stay?
"I've put the others back to sleep," Tomu said, tapping his wand against the glass window in the door. "If you'd stop fighting, you wouldn't have to keep going through this. For once, be a good girl and listen to me. You know what happens if you don't."
Behind the door, the girl continued to sob.
Tomu flung his hands out in annoyance. "Be that way! Just don't wake the others, or you'll regret it." He turned, leaned against the door, and raked his free hand through his hair -- his posture screamed irritation and exhaustion. Sakura studied him, adding this body to her picture of his personality. His eyes were blue, his mouth thin, his nose oddly narrow. The whole set of his face was subtly strange -- as exotic in its way as the dark skin of the people across the eastern ocean.
After a minute, Tomu straightened, drew a mask of calm over his face, and strode off down the far corridor. Sakura waited until his footfalls faded into silence, and then another minute to be sure. Then she dropped to the floor and headed toward the sobbing girl's door.
The window was frosted and uneven, unlike the other memory rooms she'd seen; Sakura pressed her nose to the glass, trying to see through the distortions. Porcelain sinks lined one wall, across from a row of small cubicles with flimsy bolts on their doors -- the furthest one was shut and locked, probably hiding the crying girl. Two tall, dingy windows took up the center of the far wall, and a handful of wall sconces shed light and soot in roughly equal amounts. A shallow puddle glistened under the nearest sink.
A bathroom, the utilitarian sort you found in a barracks, an office building, or a school. Judging by the lack of urinals, this was a women's bathroom -- why was it so important to Tomu? Who was the crying girl?
Sakura checked over her shoulder, confirming Tomu's absence, and knocked on the door. "Hello? Can you understand me?"
The girl continued to sob, giving no acknowledgement.
Sakura knocked again, pressing her ear to the door, straining to hear any change within the room. "Hello? I'm Hana -- who are you? Do you need help?"
A strange, creaking groan echoed through the door, as if the walls were vibrating hard and fast enough to make audible noise. Sakura stretched up on tiptoe and squinted through the wavery glass, trying to find the source.
Tomu had slipped into the room. Sakura tensed, reached for a kunai -- but no, that wasn't Tomu -- there were no other entrances to the room, no way for him to slip past her. He had to be a memory. Just a ghost.
The memory Tomu stood beside the furthest sink with his wand held ready, almost like a sword. Slowly, grindingly, the sink lowered into the floor, exposing a giant pipe, more than wide enough for a human to slide through.
The girl stopped crying. Behind Tomu, the cubicle lock turned and the door swung open.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter
Back to Put Your Money
Continue to Fool Me Once
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
As you can see, I've thus far managed to elide around the issue of Myrtle's name. :-)
In real life news, my landlords (Mr. and Mrs. B) have a third son! He was born yesterday morning, weighs about 10 pounds, and is 21 inches long. His name is Vaughn. We expect him and Mrs. B home sometime today, barring complications.
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*)
---------------------------------------------
Chapter 15: Curiosity Killed
---------------------------------------------
Corridors, stairwells, and cavernous rooms flashed by as Sakura ran. First she thought the screamer was a girl, then a man, then several children in ragged chorus, and then back to the single girl. At least five people, being tortured.
How had Tomu ended up in a diary? What had his captors done to him first? Who had they killed to fuel the seal? If he lived with this in his mind, endlessly repeated if he so much as opened the wrong door, no wonder he hadn't talked about his past.
The girl screamed again. Sakura ran faster.
Her feet thumped against the stone tiles, wind whipped past her face, her blood roared, her heart pounded, her breath hissed through her teeth, and then she realized everything else had gone silent. Or very nearly so -- now the girl was crying, soft, broken sobs echoing off the walls, oddly directionless.
Stealth and caution, Sakura reminded herself, slowing. Barging straight in might work for Naruto, who had enough stamina and luck to get away with seat-of-his-pants tactics, but her strengths were planning and control. She couldn't afford to let Tomu know she was here.
No cover. No sense using genjutsu against a master of the art, but she could always... Wait, would genjutsu even work inside the diary, inside Tomu's mind? Did she have chakra to shape?
Sakura rested one hand against the wall, reached inside, and pulled. Yes. The chakra felt odd as she molded it -- maybe she was only imagining it, since this body was only an extension of her mind -- but if everything here came down to thought and will, she could handle that just fine.
Sakura raised her other hand to the wall and began to climb. She didn't need to get fancy. Tomu wasn't a ninja, and civilians almost never thought to look up.
She'd have to apologize to Kakashi once she got back, Sakura thought as she pinned herself to the ceiling and inched forward. Chakra-climbing was one of the most useful techniques she'd ever learned.
She peered around the corner. The new corridor widened into an open, vaulted passageway long enough to hold three doors on each side; then it narrowed back to the standard shape and turned off the the right. A tall, slender boy stood in front of the most distant door on the right, his hand resting on the latch. His hair was dark, his skin was pale, and he wore long black robes in an unfamiliar cut. In his left hand, he held a thin wooden rod -- probably the wand he used to control his magic.
Hello, Hanjimono Tomu, how nice to see you at last. Now what was he doing here amidst memories of torture? And how long would he stay?
"I've put the others back to sleep," Tomu said, tapping his wand against the glass window in the door. "If you'd stop fighting, you wouldn't have to keep going through this. For once, be a good girl and listen to me. You know what happens if you don't."
Behind the door, the girl continued to sob.
Tomu flung his hands out in annoyance. "Be that way! Just don't wake the others, or you'll regret it." He turned, leaned against the door, and raked his free hand through his hair -- his posture screamed irritation and exhaustion. Sakura studied him, adding this body to her picture of his personality. His eyes were blue, his mouth thin, his nose oddly narrow. The whole set of his face was subtly strange -- as exotic in its way as the dark skin of the people across the eastern ocean.
After a minute, Tomu straightened, drew a mask of calm over his face, and strode off down the far corridor. Sakura waited until his footfalls faded into silence, and then another minute to be sure. Then she dropped to the floor and headed toward the sobbing girl's door.
The window was frosted and uneven, unlike the other memory rooms she'd seen; Sakura pressed her nose to the glass, trying to see through the distortions. Porcelain sinks lined one wall, across from a row of small cubicles with flimsy bolts on their doors -- the furthest one was shut and locked, probably hiding the crying girl. Two tall, dingy windows took up the center of the far wall, and a handful of wall sconces shed light and soot in roughly equal amounts. A shallow puddle glistened under the nearest sink.
A bathroom, the utilitarian sort you found in a barracks, an office building, or a school. Judging by the lack of urinals, this was a women's bathroom -- why was it so important to Tomu? Who was the crying girl?
Sakura checked over her shoulder, confirming Tomu's absence, and knocked on the door. "Hello? Can you understand me?"
The girl continued to sob, giving no acknowledgement.
Sakura knocked again, pressing her ear to the door, straining to hear any change within the room. "Hello? I'm Hana -- who are you? Do you need help?"
A strange, creaking groan echoed through the door, as if the walls were vibrating hard and fast enough to make audible noise. Sakura stretched up on tiptoe and squinted through the wavery glass, trying to find the source.
Tomu had slipped into the room. Sakura tensed, reached for a kunai -- but no, that wasn't Tomu -- there were no other entrances to the room, no way for him to slip past her. He had to be a memory. Just a ghost.
The memory Tomu stood beside the furthest sink with his wand held ready, almost like a sword. Slowly, grindingly, the sink lowered into the floor, exposing a giant pipe, more than wide enough for a human to slide through.
The girl stopped crying. Behind Tomu, the cubicle lock turned and the door swung open.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter
Back to Put Your Money
Continue to Fool Me Once
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
As you can see, I've thus far managed to elide around the issue of Myrtle's name. :-)
In real life news, my landlords (Mr. and Mrs. B) have a third son! He was born yesterday morning, weighs about 10 pounds, and is 21 inches long. His name is Vaughn. We expect him and Mrs. B home sometime today, barring complications.
