Versus

Chapter 3


Kakashi sent Sasuke ahead to get help at the bridge. Sasuke grumbled wondering who could possible be there. His shoulder throbbed and was still trickling blood. To his shock he saw someone lying on the bridge railing as he came out of the tree cover. The man had an orange book held up to read as he lounged. Sasuke couldn't see his from his angle but once he stepped on the bridge it was clear. "Kakashi-sensei?" he asked in confusion. He had just left the man behind him loaded up with Bella and Naruto.

"Hmmm? Oh, you're done then?" Kakashi answered and slipped off the railing. He walked up to Sasuke and looked him over. "Got a little rough?"

"What? Are you a clone?" Sasuke asked.

"Nope," Kakashi answered. He made a few hand seals which lit up his hand in green. He set his palm on Sasuke's wounded shoulder. The boy hissed at the sudden contact but relaxed when he felt the pain being numbed. Kakashi took out a roll of gauze from his equipment pouch and dressed Sasuke's shoulder. "So, did anyone get the bells?"

"Bella did… I already told you, or your clone. Whatever," Sasuke bit off at the end, not wanting to show how confused he was. He didn't know what clone could stand up to the sort of punishment Kakashi's had. And he was beginning to feel irritated that he had apparently been defending Kakashi's clone from being killed.

"Ma, don't worry about it. I'll let him explain." Kakashi gestured with his chin behind Sasuke. Sasuke turned to find the person he thought was the real Kakashi bringing Naruto and Bella. "Looks like we'll be heading to the hospital. Go on ahead while I get my clone's report on how you did."

xXx

When Naruto woke up he saw his possible future sensei staring down at him. The man was dirty, bloody, and smelled of something burnt. Naruto started laughing nervously. "Kakashi-sensei… h-how are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm alright. You didn't do anything a good amputation won't fix," he said in his bored voice and smiled so that his one visible eye closed.

Naruto repeated the words in his head and paled. He looked around wildly for an escape. He saw Bella-chan awake and also staring at Kakashi. For some reason she didn't look as confident as usual. Naruto raised his hand to wave at her. That is, he tried, but his hand met resistance. He looked toward his hand and found it handcuffed to the hospital bed he was lying on. "Oh, no, no, no. I told you it was a bad idea to kill him, Bella-chan!" he yelled.

"We were only following orders. It's in the top ten rules of the Konoha ninja code of conduct to follow your commanding officer's orders to the letter. In fact," here she tossed her hair back and adopted the superior look Naruto knew and loved, "We even dealt with treason from within the ranks."

"And we got the bells!" Naruto added in a hurry, pleading with his eyes at Kakashi. The man seemed unmoved.

"Ma, I seem to remember something about not killing your comrades in the Konoha ninja code." Kakashi stared at Bella and Naruto, letting out his considerable killing intent. Naruto felt something crawling towards his neck and beginning to slowly strangle him. He was terrified. He looked to Bella for help but the girl was thrashing in her bed, trapped by the handcuffs. She was growling something in that language only she and Harry knew. "But," Kakashi said and the killing intent disappeared. Bella and Naruto breathed in relief. "But that might be the bleeding in my brain talking, I will have to check with Hokage-sama."

Naruto stiffened in terror again. "We got the bells, we did exactly what you wanted! You ordered us to come at you with intent to kill!"

"Ah." Kakashi shook his finger at Naruto. "With intent to kill, not to actually kill. Naughty." Kakashi ruffled Naruto's hair. Naruto smiled, it didn't look like Kakashi-sensei was too upset if he was ruffling his hair. He smiled up at the man who returned his smile with a closed-eye one. Then Kakashi pulled back but the hand on Naruto's head stayed there along with the arm it was attached to. There was a sick squelching sound as Kakashi's arm came off at the shoulder and fell on Naruto.

"AGHHHH!" Naruto started screaming at the hand still ruffling his hair and the rest of the arm limply falling across his face and his chest. He jerked this way and that in his bed until the arm rolled off his face and laid at his side. Naruto started hyperventilating. "What the fuck! What the fuck!"

"Oh, that's...not...good," Kakashi said faintly and then fell heavily to the side right on top of Bella. She kicked in the bed trying to get away from the body. But she was tied down and Kakashi was too big.

Kakashi's body crumbled in chunks of flesh, blood, and gore when it hit Bella. "Ugh! Get it off, get it off!" Bella screamed. A flash of light burst from her and the handcuffs came off. She jumped off the bed with the blood and flesh sliding off her. "Wait… that doesn't smell like blood. What?" she brought up her hand covered in Kakashi's innards to her face. "It smells like dirt."

"Ah, glad you finally noticed," Kakashi's voice interrupted their fright.

Naruto saw the man sitting crosslegged on a chair against the wall between his and Bella's bed. He had his book up to his face and wasn't even looking at them. "Wha-, how! You're on me!" Naruto yelled. "How can you be there with both arms?"

Kakashi snapped his fingers and the bones, flesh, blood on Naruto and Bella turned to mud and muddy water. "My mud clone wanted to have a few last words with you."

"You bastard!" Bella snapped. She had her feet apart and her hands clenched in fists as if she were about to launch herself at the man. "You had us fighting your clone?!"

"Hmm, did you say something, Kumori-chan?" Kakashi said while turning a page in his book.

Naruto saw Bella-chan about to roast Kakashi. He couldn't go through a repeat of what had just happened. He was still terrified from the mud clone's arm flopping on his face. "No, Bella-chan! It was a test!"

"Fine. So we passed. I got the bells off your clone and I gave one to Naruto. We worked together and tried to get Uchiha to work with us despite your test forcing us to fight each other. We also followed your orders to the letter," Bella finished smugly. "Even after Uchiha betrayed us we stayed true to you."

Hearing that explanation, Kakashi couldn't help but fix the girl with a searching look. Was she really convinced of what she was saying or was she just trying to bullshit him? He stood up to give her a piece of his mind regardless of her twisted sense of loyalty.

The door opened behind him and a nurse entered. The clipboard in her hand fell when she saw the condition of the room. Mud was everywhere. It was covering her two patients, on the floor, and slowly dripping from the edges of the bed. "What the Hell is going on here?!" she demanded, glaring at Kakashi.

"Ah! I just remembered," he said in an upbeat tone. "My little lambs, your first mission is to clean your hospital room. Oh? Is that the Hokage calling me, I think it is." In a swirl of leaves caused by his body-flicker, Kakashi disappeared from the room.

The nurse saw the leaves sticking to the mud on the floor and turned her glare on the two genin. "Fix this or it comes out of your pay."

"Who's going to let me out of the handcuffs now?" Naruto whined.

"You're a ninja, figure it out," Bella snapped.

xXx

10 years prior, Harry and Bella age 3

"Hurry up now, Anko," Inoichi said.

Anko glared at him through the precariously balanced boxes of files she was holding. "Screw you, Inoichi," she muttered under her breath. She was being punished for knocking out a fellow Chuunin in the Torture and Interrogation department, and being treated as no more than a lowly genin. She was forced into menial tasks such as follow Inoichi home and carry all his case files for him. It wasn't even her fault, that bastard had it coming after he felt up her ass on "accident".

Inoichi didn't pause in his stride but turned his head sideways and asked, "What was that?"

Anko gritted her teeth and replied, "Yes, Inoichi-senpai."

Inoichi smiled a bit and returned his attention to the road.

"He felt me up, ya know!" Anko said grouchily.

The Yamanaka clan head just snorted and said, "Yeah, but you knocked out a tooth and broke his nose."

"... and?"

"It's called excessive force," Inoichi said, rolling his eyes. "As an interrogation specialist you need to learn to control yourself, otherwise you may kill a prisoner without getting information from them."

Anko growled but didn't offer an objection.

"Next time, just report him, hmm?"

Anko started to reply but a shout interrupted her.

"Hey, look out!"

The warning came too late however. She stepped on a rock that hadn't been there previously and stumbled. She quickly regained her footing, but the boxes in her hand fell and file folders scattered everywhere. She looked angrily around for the voice and saw a young woman and her child walking quickly towards them.

"Oh no, I am so sorry. Harry-chan wasn't looking where he was kicking that rock!" apologized the woman when she reached her. Anko twitched and was about to snap at the brat but Inoichi interrupted her.

"Mio-chan?"

"Inoichi-kun!" Mio exclaimed, "I didn't see you there! How are you?" She gave him a quick hug and peck on the cheek.

"Fine, fine," grinned Inoichi, "This is a chuunin I work with, Mitarashi Anko. Anko, this is a clan member, Yamanaka Mio." He gestured towards the ticked off chuunin lazily.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Anko-san." said Mio, giving her a smile.

Anko saw the look Inoichi shot her and sighed, taking control of her anger. "Likewise, Yamanaka-san." She gave the red-haired woman a short nod.

"Anko, be a dear and pick these files up, would you?" Inoichi said, shooting her a smirk. She gave him a deadpan stare and muttered obscenities under her breath and bent down to pick them up.

"Harry, go help her," ordered Mio. Her son shrugged and went to work as Mio started up a conversation with her clan head.

Anko glared at him and muttered softly, "Fucking stupid kid, giving me more work to do." She saw him wince. He wasn't supposed to have heard that, but she was too irritated to care.

He shyly said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Next time," she replied growling, "Look where you're kicking the damn rock!"

He stiffened and flicked a file at her. "Aren't you supposed to be a ninja? Is a little rock that much trouble for you?"

She scowled at him. "Well aren't you a little cocksure little brat," she said, "Since when can a baby speak in full sentences, anyways?"

Harry scowled right back at her and said testily, "I'm not a baby, Clumsy, I'm already 3!"

"Like I said, baby," stated Anko, waving her hand flippantly, stacking more files into a box. The wind picked up suddenly and a stray paper from a file flew away. Anko spat out a curse as more papers flew in every direction.

"Those are confidential documents, Anko, don't lose any!" Inoichi called out, not looking away from his conversation with Mio.

Anko growled and kicked up dust as she put on speed to catch every last loose paper. She skidded to a halt next to the kid who had jogged a little ways away to get the last piece.

"Boy, you really aren't that good of a ninja are ya?" mocked Harry, handing over the file to her, "My mom would never lose important files like these!"

Anko twisted her mouth in disdain and replied, "Yeah, if some stupid fucking baby didn't kick a rock under my foot, I wouldn't have dropped anything!"

"A real ninja would have noticed the rock and stepped out of the way," sneered Harry, glaring up at her. "You must be some stupid administrative ninja, you probably don't even know any techniques!"

The brat wants some fucking jutsu? I'll show him some fucking jutsu, she angrily thought, furiously biting her thumb and slamming her hand on the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" hissed Anko. Seals spread out from her fingers and in a burst of smoke, two small snakes appeared. She saw the brat freeze up and grinned. She whispered so only her summons could hear her, "Go towards the boy and scare him, don't harm him."

The snakes nodded, being too young to be able to speak to her. They slithered towards the gaping boy slowly, hissing menacingly. To Anko's surprise the boy dropped to the ground, not in fear, but in excitement. Her eyebrows rose as he started hissing back at her summons.

The summons paused and then reared their heads back in surprise. One of them hissed back at the boy. The boy grinned and nodded and hissed again.

"What the hell?!" Anko exclaimed, interrupting their conversation Her earlier irritation with the kid was replaced with complete befuddlement. "You can talk to snakes?"

The brat looked up at her and said, "Yeah! You can create snakes?!"

"Er, no, I summon them," answered Anko.

The brat looked at her confused.

"I have a contract with them," she tried to explain, "In return for chakra I can summon them for help." The kid still looked confused but he shrugged and nodded. He started hissing again at the snakes. They hissed back and slithered their way over to him. He extended his arms to them and let them crawl up to his shoulders. He giggled when they hissed into his ears. Anko could only scratch her head in disbelief.

"You are the freakiest three year old I know, brat," she said bemusedly, shaking her head. "But anyone who can talk to snakes is alright in my eyes." The Yamanaka shot her a grin and she gave him a little smirk.

"Harry-chan!"

Anko paled and thought, Oh shit, he is going to kill me.

Harry's mother ran frantically towards him and cried, "Harry-chan! Don't play with those, get them off right now!"

The snakes hissed menacingly at her as she drew near, causing her to come to a stop a few feet away from Harry, not wanting to make them bite her child in agitation. Anko groaned and slapped her palm to her forehead when Inoichi also came running up and glared at her. "Did you just sic snakes on a child, Anko?!" he seethed.

Anko laughed nervously and quickly ran through excuses in her head, trying to find one that wouldn't get her killed by an angry clan head. She dispelled the snakes to buy herself time, causing Harry to pout and his mother to cry out in relief. Mio ran to her child and looked him over for bite marks, crushing him in a hug when she couldn't find any.

"Anko!"

"Um…"

"Oji! Oji! Did you see the cool snakes!" Harry had escaped his mother's clutches and was bouncing excitedly in front of Inoichi.

Inoichi shot Anko one last glare before his expression softened as he looked at Harry. He knelt and put his hand on the boy's shoulders and said, "I sure did, Harry-chan. They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"Nope!" Harry replied cheerfully, "Anko-san summoned them for me to play with, she's really nice!" His mother gasped and narrowed her eyes at Anko, only now realizing what had happened.

Anko was gobsmacked. The brat is saving my ass! She thought. She schooled her expression when she noticed Inoichi turning his attention to her. She shrugged at him, not wanting to speak in case she gave herself away.

He raised an eyebrow and turned towards Harry and said, "That she is, kid." Anko saw him glance at Mio, who was now glaring venomously at Anko. "Er, perhaps you better go home, Mio-chan. We can get the rest of the files."

Mio picked Harry up and said, "Of course, Inoichi-kun. I will see you at your home later." She walked away quickly. Harry waved and shouted, "Bye, Oji! Bye Anko-san!"

The two ninja watched them leave. Inoichi turned to Anko and said apologetically, "Sorry for jumping to conclusions there, Anko, I know you wouldn't have hurt a child."

Anko grinned nervously and scratched the back of her head.

"It's nice to see that he got along with you," Inoichi said thoughtfully, "His only real friend right now is Ino-chan. I'm touched that you took the time to reach out to him."

Anko groaned mentally but plastered a pleased smile on her face. This is going to blow up in my face, I just know it.

"In fact, why don't you come over someday and babysit Harry and Ino? I'm sure they'd be thrilled."

Fuck my life.

xXx

A couple of days after the playground incident

Harry sighed when he overheard his parents start arguing AGAIN about him. He silently walked to the kitchen door where he saw his father waving his arms in the air like a mad man at his mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table.

"Mio, he's a freakin' prodigy, he could be the next Hatake Kakashi!" his father exclaimed, "He has to go to the Academy now!" His dad was a tall, muscular fellow who focused more on taijutsu than he did the Yamanaka mind-arts. His yellow hair was cut short

HIs mother growled and shoved a finger in her husband's chest. "My son is only going to be a ninja if he wants to be, and he won't make that decision until he's eight! I will not have him going on missions when the rest of his age-group is just starting the academy!"

Yamanaka Isshin threw his hands in the air in frustration and paced for a bit before saying, "Look, Mio, we talked about this when we realized he was incredibly smart, and I agreed with you then… but he just destroyed a playground! He hasn't even learnt how to use chakra yet, he did it naturally! Don't you think he needs to learn how to control it? Look, I can talk to Inoichi, I'm sure Hokage-sama will give an exception and let Harry-chan enter early."

Harry watched his mother clench her fists and tightly say, "He hasn't shown signs of using chakra since then! We are both trained ninja, if he starts causing earthquakes we can teach him ourselves how to control it, we don't need the academy for that."

"You're holding him back!"

"I am NOT. You just want him to be better than Ino-chan!"

"Why are you so scared of greatness, Mio?!"

"My child is already great!"

"He's my son too, Mio, not just yours!" his father exploded and pointed a finger at his wife. "I have every right to make choices regarding him just as much as you do!"

"Screw you, if you loved him then you wouldn't even want him to be a ninja!" she snapped back. Her face paled, immediately regretting her words. Harry watched his father shake with a mix of emotions and felt a crushing guilt because he was the cause of the fight. Isshin snarled at his wife and swiftly walked out the kitchen, never noticing Harry standing at the other entrance.

Mio cried out for him and rose to follow before she heard someone knock on the door. She ran her hand through her auburn hair in frustration and went to get it. Harry, on the other hand, rushed to follow his father. He saw him sitting forward on the couch with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together. Harry padded over to him.

"Dad?" softly prodded Harry.

Isshin's eyes snapped towards Harry and softened. "Hey, kid. Sorry, did we bother you with our yelling?" He leaned forward and plucked his son off the ground, setting him in his lap.

Harry gave his dad a hug and said, "I know you love me, Dad, Mom didn't mean what she said." He felt his father stiffen.

"Oh, Harry-chan, you weren't supposed to hear that," sighed his father, "We didn't mean to start yelling."

Harry shrugged and said, "It's OK.." They sat in silence for a few moments before Harry spoke up again. "I'll be great, Dad, even if I start the Academy when I turn eight. You'll see, I'm going to make you real proud of me!"

He felt his father's arms tighten around his body before being lifted up and placed next to his father on the sofa. Isshin looked at him and said seriously, "Harry-chan, never think that I'm not proud of you. You are my blood and you are my son, there's not a day that goes by when I'm not proud to be your father."

Harry felt a rush of emotion and looked away, not knowing how to act in this intimate, family moment. His father gave him another hug but let go when Mio walked into the room, a young teenager following. For whatever reason, Mio's face was strangely closed off, hiding any emotion.

"What's up, brat?" waved Anko, giving Harry a smirk.

"Anko-chan! Hey!" Harry shot her a wide grin and ran up to her after getting out of his father's arms. He gave her hug around her waist, as that's as high as he could reach. She smiled down and ruffled his hair.

"And who might you be?" his father asked, rising from the sofa, towering over the teenager.

"Er, Mitarashi Anko, sir, I'm Inoichi-senpai's chuunin at T&I," replied Anko, craning her head to look him in the eye, not the slightest bit intimidated by the man's size.

Isshin narrowed his eyes, recognizing the name as the traitor's apprentice, but simply nodded and asked, "And how do you know my son?"

Anko answered, "I've babysat for Inoichi-senpai a few times when Harry was there, we met one day when I was helping carry some files to the Yamanaka compound."

"She came to see if Harry wanted to get Dango," said Mio, her face still expressionless. Harry rolled his eyes, his mother was still angry about the whole snake incident and hated that Inoichi had Anko babysit her kid and Ino. She couldn't do anything about it, though, Inoichi was her clan head and had taken a liking to Anko, she wasn't about to forbid Harry from ever playing with the only friend his age that he had.

Isshin shrugged and said, "Sure, why not? If Inoichi vouches for her, I'm fine with it. Go have fun with your friend, kid." Mio flexed her jaw, but otherwise did nothing.

Harry cheered and dragged Anko outside. After they closed the door behind them, Harry said, "Am I glad to get out of there, all they've been doing for the past few days is argue!"

Anko shoved her hands into her pockets and asked curiously, "Why're they fighting?"

"Dad wants me to go to the Academy now, but mom wants to wait," explained Harry, looking up at her as they walked.

The black haired girl scratched her head and said, "Why does he want you to go to the Academy now? You're smart and all, but Sandaime-sama made a law forbidding anyone under eight from entering, it's not like you could join anyways."

"Eh, I got into a fight the other day and kinda destroyed a playground," said Harry flippantly. "Ever since then it's been 'prodigy prodigy prodigy'."

"How the fuck does a three-year-old destroy a playground?" asked a very confused Anko.

"Oh I created a bunch of walls made out of earth and ruined some equipment."

This explanation did not help Anko's confusion. "Whaddya mean, like you ruined the sandbox?"

"No… uh, here, I'll show you!" Anko thought he was going to start building something by hand, she was surprised when he started to concentrate and she felt a small amount of chakra building up in his system. The ground under her started shifting and with a great rumble, shot out of the ground and formed a small wall. Anko did a backflip and gracefully arched in the air before landing on the ground a few feet away. She shook her fist at Harry and shouted, "You little ass! How do you already know Doton manipulation!?"

Harry simply gave her a childish grin and scampered off to the dango shop before Anko could retaliate. Anko chuckled and moved to follow him. She'd get him back later.


Thanks for all the kind words!