Warning: This fic contains spoilers for both the Naruto manga and the most recent Harry Potter book (HBP).
Hatake Kakashi and the Cup of Tears
Chapter 1: An Unusual Predicament
Kakashi gritted his teeth and ignored the sweat dripping down his face. His right eye was squeezed shut, and his left eye was opened wide. Within it, the pinwheel of the Mangekyou Sharingan spun frantically as Kakashi tried to strengthen his jutsu.
During the fight against Deidara, Kakashi had used a Mangekyou technique to pull part of the missing-nin's arm into another dimension. The jutsu was at that time incomplete—only a small amount of matter could be forced through the rip created in the fabric of reality by the Mangekyou's awesome power. For the technique to be useful for killing an enemy, a larger volume of matter needed to be affected. Ideally, one should be able to send the opponent's entire body into the ether—or, failing that, at least his head or heart. To that end, Kakashi struggled to widen the hole that had appeared in midair in front of him. Reality rippled and swirled around it, and Kakashi gritted his teeth harder.
The tiny rip in space and time grew larger, widening to the size of a quarter, then a tennis ball, and then a dinner plate. Kakashi's limbs trembled and he felt light-headed, but he didn't release the jutsu. Now the hole was two feet in diameter, now three feet, now four…
Kakashi was pushing his chakra reserves to their limits, and eventually his body just said "enough". He collapsed to his knees, and his previous light-headedness progressed to full-fledged vertigo. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the vortex of disrupted space advancing towards him.
Consciousness came back slowly, and with it came an array of aches all over his body. Kakashi slowly opened his eyes, and reflexively reached for his kunai pouch when he saw a huge, shaggy figure looming over him. He was most alarmed to discover that the kunai pouch was gone. So was his shuriken pouch and the green vest containing his scrolls. A breeze drifted across the lower half of his face, demonstrating that his mask had been removed as well.
The shaggy figure turned away from him, and as his vision came back into focus, he saw that it was a large man with long black hair and a tangled beard. "It looks like he's coming around, Madam Pomfrey," the man said.
Kakashi frowned. The man had clearly said something, but it was in a language he didn't recognize. During his time in ANBU, Kakashi had become familiar with the dialects spoken in all the major shinobi countries, but this language was completely unfamiliar to him.
A woman bustled over to his bedside. She had a worried expression on her face and was wearing what looked like a nurse's outfit. "You've been injured, but it's all right. We're taking care of you."
Kakashi blinked. The woman's tone of voice was reassuring and comforting. The expression on her face was one of concern. Although the man's large size was disconcerting at first, he shared the woman's concerned expression. Kakashi didn't think that either one meant to harm him, but he still had no idea what they were saying to him. "Konichiwa…?" he said hesitantly.
The man and woman looked at each other in confusion. "Is that your name?" the woman asked. She pointed at him and repeated his greeting. "Konichiwa?"
Kakashi shook his head, then pointed to his chest and said, "Hatake Kakashi."
"Well, Mr. Kakashi, my name is Poppy Pomfrey and this is Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid found you unconscious in the Forbidden Forest and brought you here. I've treated your injuries, and you should be fully recovered within a couple of days. Do you remember anything about how you got here?"
Kakashi frowned again, trying to decipher this strange speech. From the woman's gestures, he figured out that she was called Poppy Pomfrey and her male companion was Rubeus Hagrid, but he couldn't make heads or tails of the rest.
"Oh, this is ridiculous," Madam Pomfrey said in a frustrated tone. "We'll never figure out what's going on if we can't even talk to him." She reached into a pocket and withdrew a polished stick about a foot long. The stick was filled with a powerful chakra, which Kakashi detected immediately. Anticipating an attack, Kakashi leapt from the bed, taking up a basic taijutsu stance.
"What are you doing? You shouldn't be out of bed!" Madam Pomfrey seemed alarmed by his sudden movement, and Hagrid got to his feet as well.
"It's all right," Hagrid said calmly, holding his huge hands spread apart to show that he carried no weapon. "We don't want to hurt you. We just want to talk to you."
Slowly, Madam Pomfrey placed the stick against her throat and muttered, "Locutor." When she next opened her mouth, Kakashi was amazed to hear that she was speaking a perfect Fire Country dialect. "Mr. Kakashi, my name is Poppy Pomfrey, and this is Rubeus Hagrid. About two hours ago, Hagrid found you unconscious in the Forbidden Forest. Your body seems to have suffered a great deal of strain, and you are exhausted. I've treated your injuries, and you should recover fully in a couple of days. I've cast a spell on myself so that I can speak your language. I would like to cast the same spell on you. Will you allow that?"
"Spell"? Is that these people's word for "jutsu"? And what is this "Forbidden Forest" she keeps talking about? And why does she need that stick to use jutsu? Many things remained unclear, but it seemed that the chakra-filled stick was not a weapon, and that these people did not intend to hurt him. In fact, they had treated the injuries he had incurred during his experiment with the Mangekyou. But where am I? They seem to think that "Kakashi" is my clan name—that in itself tells me that I'm a long way from home. In answer to Madam Pomfrey's question, he nodded.
Madam Pomfrey slowly approached him and laid the tip of the stick against his throat. "Locutor."
Kakashi felt foreign chakra entering his body, gathering around his larynx. "My name is Hatake Kakashi—Hatake is my clan name. I'm from Konoha, in the Fire Country. I was experimenting with a…spell…and something seems to have gone wrong. I depleted all of my energy casting the spell, which is why I passed out. I also seem to have been transported to a distant location. I apologize for entering your Forbidden Forest, but I had no control over where the backlash from the spell sent me. Thank you for treating my injuries. Where am I?"
Madam Pomfrey's face softened with relief that she could finally communicate with her patient. "You are in the infirmary at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
A/N: I absolutely love both the Harry Potter and Naruto series, so it was only a matter of time before I did a crossover fic. And it really is about time that I wrote a Kakashi story, since he's my favorite Naruto character.