Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2006-12-24 09:33 pm
edenfalling) wrote2006-12-24 09:33 pm
[Fic] "An Ounce of Prevention" chapter 4 -- Naruto/Harry Potter
This is part 4 of An Ounce of Prevention, which is 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 element of HP into the Naruto world, but that does count as a crossover of sorts, and the HP element will be playing a larger role as time goes on. This story will not affect canon in either series; that is, it takes place during the Naruto timeskip, and significantly before CoS in HP.
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Chapter 4: Birds of a Feather
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By the end of her morning training with Tsunade, Sakura was dripping with sweat and panting despite her best efforts at breath control. It was hard trying to dodge her sensei with her inner coils misaligned to simulate injury, and it was even harder trying to 'heal' herself in the middle of a fight.
"Someday you'll have to do this for real," Tsunade said mercilessly when Sakura collapsed for the third time, "and if you have to figure it out then, the odds are nearly one hundred percent against you. And don't say anything about me and gambling -- missions are no place for luck, just skill and planning and preparation. Get up and try again."
Sakura obeyed.
Finally she managed to unblock herself enough to strike a nasty blow against Tsunade's shoulder. Anyone else would have been sent flying across the clearing; Tsunade, of course, had another trick up her sleeve, and somehow dissipated the chakra as Sakura's fist made contact with her skin.
Sakura gaped. "What on earth...?"
"That's a lesson for next month, if you do well," Tsunade said with a smile like a satisfied cat. "We're done for today -- come here so I can unscramble your coils. Your new guard should be waiting for you in my office, and," -- her smile faded into a grimace -- "Shizune almost certainly has paperwork waiting for me. I should never have agreed to take this job. Stupid kid and his stupid challenges."
"Naruto gets to you like that," Sakura said, trying to hide her own smile.
"No backtalk," Tsunade said, and started realigning Sakura's chakra system. It got much easier to catch her breath after that.
Sakura followed Tsunade back to the Hokage's tower, where her new guard was theoretically waiting. This mission needed at least a chuunin, for security clearance if nothing else, but a jounin would probably be overkill -- anyone could sit around and watch her write in a diary, after all. The main guard would probably be spelled by others who'd just watch from a distance to make sure she didn't sneak in any more unscheduled conversations with Tomu, and that job could definitely be done by genin.
Shizune ambushed them in the corridor outside Tsunade's office and shoved a stack of papers into the Fifth Hokage's hands. Tsunade groaned. "I wanted to review today's lesson, but it looks like that will have to wait for tomorrow," she told Sakura. "I want a full explanation of why your final effort succeeded while the others failed, and some thoughts on what you could have done better. And I want a preliminary report on that book -- your guard should be waiting at the mission center."
Sakura bowed and ducked out a nearby window before Shizune could lecture her about the importance of making sure her lessons didn't run overtime and cut into the rest of Tsunade's schedule. She liked Shizune, and she understood how busy Tsunade was -- running the business end of a hidden village wasn't nearly as easy as Naruto had always made it sound -- but she thought Shizune was always on the edge of exploding from sheer frustration, and she didn't want to be around when the woman finally blew.
It was a beautiful spring day -- warm sunshine, clear blue skies, a hint of cool breeze to keep the air fresh -- and Sakura leaped from roof to roof, reveling in the illusion of flight, the pleasant burn of exertion, and the smooth flow of chakra through her body. Civilians never knew what they were missing, she thought, glancing down as she soared over a street -- never knew the freedom or the bonds only shinobi teams could forge. There was a heavy price for being ninja, true, but she'd pay it again in a heartbeat.
She dropped to the earth in front of the mission center, straightened her dress, and walked inside in search of her new guard -- her new mission partner, that was. Temporary partners weren't the same as a team, but even if Tomu proved to be a completely liability, she might gain a friend from this situation.
Iruka-sensei was manning the desk today. She smiled brightly at him. He smiled back, tentatively, and then looked down at a sheaf of papers in his hands. "Haruno Sakura, B-class intelligence mission, details classified. Your partner..." Iruka-sensei flushed a brilliant red across his nose, and Sakura's heart sank.
"If you say Kakashi, I'm going to hurt Tsunade-sensei. I don't care if she is Hokage and one of the legendary Sannin!"
"Um, no, it's not Kakashi-san," Iruka-sensei said. "Um. Your partner--"
"--is me," a woman finished, her hands falling on either side of Sakura's neck and squeezing her shoulders.
Sakura jerked loose and whirled to face the intruder, hands dropping reflexively to her kunai holster before her conscious mind reigned in her adrenaline. After a second, the woman's face and skintight fishnet clothes matched up to a name and a history. Sakura dropped her kunai. "Oh fuck."
"That's no way to start our partnership! You're way too uptight. But I've worked with worse -- don't worry, by the time we're done, I'll have you all straightened out." Mitarashi Anko raised a half-empty sake bottle, and grinned.
In the background, Iruka-sensei covered his face with his papers.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter
Back to Imitation Is
Continue to Assumptions Make
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
Laundry is done, but still needs folding. Brownies are baked and cut. Relatives have visited and gone. The evening church service was nice, though whoever was playing Santa at the end really should have aimed his bad humor at the kids instead of trying to be a more adult-level stand up comic.
Also, I think that as a point of ethics, when UUs change the words of hymns and Christmas carols, there should be a notation in the hymnal that the words are not the original version written by the original author. To leave the changes unnoted is deeply misleading, and bothers me on a level I can't quite articulate.
askerian.Technically, it's an insertion of one element of HP into the Naruto world, but that does count as a crossover of sorts, and the HP element will be playing a larger role as time goes on. This story will not affect canon in either series; that is, it takes place during the Naruto timeskip, and significantly before CoS in HP.
---------------------------------------------
Chapter 4: Birds of a Feather
---------------------------------------------
By the end of her morning training with Tsunade, Sakura was dripping with sweat and panting despite her best efforts at breath control. It was hard trying to dodge her sensei with her inner coils misaligned to simulate injury, and it was even harder trying to 'heal' herself in the middle of a fight.
"Someday you'll have to do this for real," Tsunade said mercilessly when Sakura collapsed for the third time, "and if you have to figure it out then, the odds are nearly one hundred percent against you. And don't say anything about me and gambling -- missions are no place for luck, just skill and planning and preparation. Get up and try again."
Sakura obeyed.
Finally she managed to unblock herself enough to strike a nasty blow against Tsunade's shoulder. Anyone else would have been sent flying across the clearing; Tsunade, of course, had another trick up her sleeve, and somehow dissipated the chakra as Sakura's fist made contact with her skin.
Sakura gaped. "What on earth...?"
"That's a lesson for next month, if you do well," Tsunade said with a smile like a satisfied cat. "We're done for today -- come here so I can unscramble your coils. Your new guard should be waiting for you in my office, and," -- her smile faded into a grimace -- "Shizune almost certainly has paperwork waiting for me. I should never have agreed to take this job. Stupid kid and his stupid challenges."
"Naruto gets to you like that," Sakura said, trying to hide her own smile.
"No backtalk," Tsunade said, and started realigning Sakura's chakra system. It got much easier to catch her breath after that.
Sakura followed Tsunade back to the Hokage's tower, where her new guard was theoretically waiting. This mission needed at least a chuunin, for security clearance if nothing else, but a jounin would probably be overkill -- anyone could sit around and watch her write in a diary, after all. The main guard would probably be spelled by others who'd just watch from a distance to make sure she didn't sneak in any more unscheduled conversations with Tomu, and that job could definitely be done by genin.
Shizune ambushed them in the corridor outside Tsunade's office and shoved a stack of papers into the Fifth Hokage's hands. Tsunade groaned. "I wanted to review today's lesson, but it looks like that will have to wait for tomorrow," she told Sakura. "I want a full explanation of why your final effort succeeded while the others failed, and some thoughts on what you could have done better. And I want a preliminary report on that book -- your guard should be waiting at the mission center."
Sakura bowed and ducked out a nearby window before Shizune could lecture her about the importance of making sure her lessons didn't run overtime and cut into the rest of Tsunade's schedule. She liked Shizune, and she understood how busy Tsunade was -- running the business end of a hidden village wasn't nearly as easy as Naruto had always made it sound -- but she thought Shizune was always on the edge of exploding from sheer frustration, and she didn't want to be around when the woman finally blew.
It was a beautiful spring day -- warm sunshine, clear blue skies, a hint of cool breeze to keep the air fresh -- and Sakura leaped from roof to roof, reveling in the illusion of flight, the pleasant burn of exertion, and the smooth flow of chakra through her body. Civilians never knew what they were missing, she thought, glancing down as she soared over a street -- never knew the freedom or the bonds only shinobi teams could forge. There was a heavy price for being ninja, true, but she'd pay it again in a heartbeat.
She dropped to the earth in front of the mission center, straightened her dress, and walked inside in search of her new guard -- her new mission partner, that was. Temporary partners weren't the same as a team, but even if Tomu proved to be a completely liability, she might gain a friend from this situation.
Iruka-sensei was manning the desk today. She smiled brightly at him. He smiled back, tentatively, and then looked down at a sheaf of papers in his hands. "Haruno Sakura, B-class intelligence mission, details classified. Your partner..." Iruka-sensei flushed a brilliant red across his nose, and Sakura's heart sank.
"If you say Kakashi, I'm going to hurt Tsunade-sensei. I don't care if she is Hokage and one of the legendary Sannin!"
"Um, no, it's not Kakashi-san," Iruka-sensei said. "Um. Your partner--"
"--is me," a woman finished, her hands falling on either side of Sakura's neck and squeezing her shoulders.
Sakura jerked loose and whirled to face the intruder, hands dropping reflexively to her kunai holster before her conscious mind reigned in her adrenaline. After a second, the woman's face and skintight fishnet clothes matched up to a name and a history. Sakura dropped her kunai. "Oh fuck."
"That's no way to start our partnership! You're way too uptight. But I've worked with worse -- don't worry, by the time we're done, I'll have you all straightened out." Mitarashi Anko raised a half-empty sake bottle, and grinned.
In the background, Iruka-sensei covered his face with his papers.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter
Back to Imitation Is
Continue to Assumptions Make
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
Laundry is done, but still needs folding. Brownies are baked and cut. Relatives have visited and gone. The evening church service was nice, though whoever was playing Santa at the end really should have aimed his bad humor at the kids instead of trying to be a more adult-level stand up comic.
Also, I think that as a point of ethics, when UUs change the words of hymns and Christmas carols, there should be a notation in the hymnal that the words are not the original version written by the original author. To leave the changes unnoted is deeply misleading, and bothers me on a level I can't quite articulate.
no subject
Loved the tsunade/sakura interaction, quite ic and shiny mm. And anko/saku interaction to come! awesome ♥
... now i sleep. *falls dead* x_x
no subject
no subject
as a writer this bugs me, cause it's appropriating someone else's creation like it's somehow common domain and, like, sprouted from the ground and not from someone's head, not even giving them proper credit, and then altering their stuff without permission and passing it off as the original. even if the second version is better on an artistic and meaningful point of view, it's still just not done. you just don't put words in a writer's story and pretend they were there all along. (unless you're their beta or something XDDD) it almost touches on plagiarism, in a way, though not quite, but nnngh like i said bed. me no can think. merry christmas~
no subject
I understand that singing lines like "Joy to the world, the Savior reigns" can be very uncomfortable for people who have turned away from Christianity in favor of, say, secular humanism or a earth-centric paganism, but the fact remains that those are the original words to the song. To make changes and not admit, in print, that you made them, is dishonest and vaguely slimy-feeling.
What particularly amuses/irritates me is that even the lyrics to It Came Upon a Midnight Clear got tweaked, and that song was written by a Unitarian in the first place! Granted, a Unitarian back a hundred and fifty years, who was therefore more theistic, but still. The irony kills. *sigh*
no subject
Also, I think that as a point of ethics, when UUs change the words of hymns and Christmas carols, there should be a notation in the hymnal that the words are not the original version written by the original author. To leave the changes unnoted is deeply misleading, and bothers me on a level I can't quite articulate.
*twitchtwitch* They're fucking Christmas carols! Obviously, there's gonna be references to God and Jesus in some of them! 'Cause, you know, Christmas is a Christian holiday. Well, Christian with pagan influences, but... you get the idea. Ugh.
I'm agnostic myself, but really, that's just stupid. ...And also annoying for the people who have the originals memorized and get tripped up by the changed lyrics. *rolls her eyes*
no subject
But it does trip up people as we sing -- the ministers have to remind people that the words are often not the traditional ones, so please read the hymnal carefully! -- and it's... not plagiarism, but reverse plagiarism, maybe? Putting your words into somebody else's mouth without referencing the change, which I think is equally as wrong as putting somebody else's words into your own mouth without referencing the source.
...
Sakura and Anko are going to have fun. Yes. And Sakura will doubtless learn things about various high level Leaf-nin that she never in a million years wanted to know. Because writing that will amuse me. :-D