[Fic] "An Ounce of Prevention" chapter 13 -- Naruto/Harry Potter

[edenfalling]

This is part 13 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 13: Don't Judge a Book
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"Killing me?" Sakura repeated blankly.

"It's subtle, and I can't work out the mechanism, but the seal is draining your chakra," Tsunade said. "That's probably why you've seemed tired recently... and I suspect the rate may increase each time you write in the diary."

"That would explain why the genjutsu is so strong," Kakashi added, lowering his forehead protector over his left eye. "The chakra flow splits once it hits the book, and one strand doubles back to your head. The imprint is using your own energy to hypnotize you. I say we destroy the book and triple-classify the mission records."

"But we haven't proved anything about Tomu!" Sakura protested. "We've only proved that the diary is evil, and we already knew that."

Tsunade crossed her arms and frowned. "At this point, I don't care if this Tomu person is innocent or not; he's more trouble than he's worth. On the other hand, I'd really like to know exactly how that book ended up in non-space, and whether we're likely to run into other nasty surprises from this other world. The more we can learn, the better prepared we'll be in the future."

Kakashi coughed. "There's one slight problem. We can't learn anything from the imprint without writing in the book, which is potentially deadly to us... and also stupid, since we don't know what other jutsu the imprint might be able to perform once it gathers enough chakra. Imagine mind-control genjutsu on a grand scale, for example. This is an unnecessary risk."

Sakura stared down at the diary, wondering if Kakashi might be right. Tomu's world did use genjutsu on a grand scale -- illusions strong enough to erase the memories of millions of people. Could he use those jutsu here? Would he?

Anko's harsh laugh broke the tension. "Dumbass!"

"How so?" Kakashi asked, tilting his head.

"Genjutsu!" Anko said, straightening from her slouch against the window frame. "He's already opened a connection to Sakura. Why don't we reverse it and read his mind?" She slapped the table for emphasis.

"Because genjutsu doesn't work like that. You can influence, but you can't see beneath the surface layers of---" Kakashi began.

"Shut up," Tsunade said firmly. "I know regular genjutsu isn't as flexible as people often think, but this Tomu seems to have other talents, and he picked up our language suspiciously fast and fluently. His connection with Sakura might be closer to Yamanaka mind-walking than ordinary genjutsu. The question is how we get Sakura in without tipping him off. Kakashi?"

He ignored her. "Are you sure you want to risk this?" he asked Sakura. "You don't owe the imprint any loyalty."

"That doesn't matter. It's still wrong to kill him without proof," Sakura said, pressing one hand protectively over the diary. "If he's evil, that's one thing, but I'm learning to be a medic-nin. I'm supposed to help people, not murder them."

Tsunade twitched, and then smiled, wry and rueful with just a hint of pride. "You heard my apprentice. Get on with it, Hatake."

"If we do this, I'll take you into an illusion," Kakashi said, pulling out a chair and sitting next to Sakura. "I'll point out the connection the imprint is using to influence you; your conscious mind isn't aware of it, but your subconscious should be able to grasp the thread. From then on, it's up to you."

He raised his forehead-protector. "You threw off Yamanaka Ino's mind trap in your first chuunin exam, which means you have a certain amount of mental strength. Hoard that; it's harder to escape an enemy's mind than to enter. Also, it will help if you're touching the book. Ready?"

Sakura bit her lip. She really didn't remember much of that fight against Ino, and she knew her willpower would never be as strong as, say, Naruto or Sasuke. She was always the weakest link. But she wasn't going to stop trying to improve. She wouldn't ever slow them down again.

This was her mission. Tomu was her responsibility. She had to know the truth, one way or the other.

"You can back out any time, Sakura," Kakashi said, almost gently.

Sakura's head snapped up and she gripped the diary in white-knuckled hands. "No! I'm not going to give up, never again. Do it now!"

She met the whirling red-and-black of Kakashi's left eye, and fell into darkness.

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End of Chapter

Back to Even a Stopped Clock

Continue to Put Your Money

Read the final version on ff.net

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In real life news, I purchased a new mattress. It will be delivered on Saturday. Hurrah for the (hopefully) successful avoidance of back pain!

Comments

[bewize.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh oh oh! What a fantastic chapter. I felt so badly for Sakura and I shared Tsunade's pride in her decision. Sakura is not as weak as she thinks she is.

And I kind of liked Kakashi in this chapter. He's got a decent side in there and he does seem to care about Sakura.

Well done! And yay! I love your new plan to finish one thing at a time. :D

[edenfalling]

Thank you!

I'm having a lot of fun with my new plan. It makes me feel ten times more productive -- I'm not actually writing all that many more words, but I have a lot more finished and postable pieces, so I feel as though I'm getting somewhere instead of succumbing to futility. :-)

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Still a big yay for the way ninjas Get Things Done. Kakashi and Tsunade are really cool here. Nice chapter!

[edenfalling]

Thank you!

[askerian]

Mmm, shop talk. *___*

(I liked it when Anko called Kakashi dumbass. That might be the kind of reaction to his awesome coolness he needs. XD)

[edenfalling]

I think the shop talk needs a little tweaking. It's a pain trying to find the right balance between clarity and over-explaining, and genjutsu is already so vague and broad compared to legilimency or memory charms, and jutsu and spells never overlap quite the way I'd like, and... Yeah. *sigh*

Also, Anko and Kakashi switched their roles without bothering to ask me first -- Anko was supposed to be all "Destruction now!" while Kakashi was supposed to think of reading Tomu's mind -- but it seems to flow better this way, since Kakashi has been carefully refusing to humanize 'the memory imprint' the way the other three are doing. It surprised me, but they got to the right place at the end of the chapter, so I'm not going to argue!

[(Anonymous)]

So, they have a book that is draining Sakura's chakra away (makes me wonder if chakra would power Tom like magic does, turning the 'imprint' real, or if it would do something else. Ninja!Voldemort, maybe?), and she decides it's a good idea to strengthen the connection by diving into its mind. Well, she's certainly approaching Naruto and Sasuke in the 'This is a brilliant plan no really' department, if not in strength. Kakashi, too, come to think of it (Mr. "Let's teach the unstable 13-year-old a grade-A assassination technique" himself).

-- Guile

[edenfalling]

Ah, see, I knew I wasn't explaining clearly enough!

...You know, I had this long explanation of how the diary works, which I copied and pasted into a Word document so I'd be able to reuse it, and then I forgot to save the file. *sigh*

Basically, the diary does four things. 1, it's a Horcrux. 2, it preserves a memory imprint of Tom Riddle. 3, it drains energy from anyone who writes in the diary. 4, it establishes a legilimantic connection between the memory imprint and any writers. This connection is strengthened by the amount of trust the writer places in the imprint, which in turn allows the imprint to make the writer trust him more; it's a positive feedback cycle.

The energy drain doesn't work unless a person is writing in the diary... until the imprint has gathered enough energy, and has established a deep enough connection, that it can bypass its normal limits. (This is what happened to Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets.) So what the ninja are doing is trying to detangle the mental link from the energy drain, in hopes that if the diary isn't opened, Tomu won't notice that Sakura is trying to sneak into his mind through the back door, as it were.

...

I'm still explaining this very badly. I'll try again tomorrow, when I revise the chapter.

[hoshi-ryo.livejournal.com]

Actually, it makes sense...

...and I would like to note that Naruto's plans actually work. (Is it me, or has the ninja world never grasped the military maxim, "If it's stupid but it works...it isn't stupid"?)

Sasuke's plans...actually never are stupid. It's just that he keeps forgetting he's a ninja...and ought to be, well, ninja-y. (It seems like he's being emo instead, and being all emo-y. The results...are not the same.)

[edenfalling]

The thing about Naruto's plans, though, is that for anyone else (anyone who isn't the hero of the story, that is!), they probably wouldn't work. And it's not a good idea to rely on luck -- by definition, it's a chancy sort of thing. :-)

[hoshi-ryo.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you have to rely on luck -- the enemy is not inclined to go along with your plans. It's part of why they're the enemy... ( And when they do knowingly go along with your plans, it's time to worry. )

[(Anonymous)]

"Sasuke's plans...actually never are stupid."

Well, there was that plan where he threw away the village that raised him to go with the very scary S-rank criminal who wanted to possess him, subsume his ego, and use his body like a puppet.

I guess it ended up working out okay, what with him being all super-powered and whatnot post-timeskip, but usually going into the woods with a sick, twisted murderer is a bad idea.

-- Guile

[hoshi-ryo.livejournal.com]

I consider that particular plan as being neither smart nor stupid -- just plain bloody insane.

[(Anonymous)]

That works for me =)

-- Guile