Song of the Caged Blackbird
Abby Ebon
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Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or 'Naruto'; heck, I don't even own the idea behind this – it is a Challenge from Serpent in the Shadows.
-Note- Sorry, it's "The Lives of Christopher Chant", not "nine lives", although, he does have nine lives…good lord, I have three-hundred reviews and I didn't even notice it (I kind of stopped paying attention at 100, he-he…')…-hugs everyone- Thank You!
On a more personal note – thank you all for understanding about the injury, and for your good wishes – I think they worked too. Doc says it might be healing on its own – no surgery...-sighs with relief- These past few weeks have been hell what with the worrying and the stress of life, not being able to write is a true nightmare for me, as writing is what I love to do – not because I'm constantly seeking to out do myself with reviews, but because it's pure and simple stress relief – I get such a rush of giddiness after finishing a chapter, or story – or simply putting another idea out there. Maybe –one day, I'll settle down and write something "for real".
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In The Wake of Demons
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-Just After Gaara Left the Tower, Dusk-
"No," Gaara answered her abruptly – she seemed to shake with the force of his tone - when Shino frowned at him, he continued more gently, "I will be back." In a whirl of sand Gaara was gone – Temari and Kankuro looked between each other – then to Shino.
"Was that enough time?" Kankuro asked, Shino slowly nodded, and Temari chuckled.
"Well then, what are we waiting for – let's go after him!" Kiba growled, upset that Gaara had shaken Hinata in his haste to leave.
"Are you a fool – or just too brave for your own good?" Kankuro growled at him, and Kiba looked up again, his eyes narrowed and his fangs gleaming. A low growl echoed from Akamaru, Kankuro snorted at the small animal.
"If we follow too soon, Gaara will sense us coming." Temari spoke, before her brother could attempt to swallow his other foot.
"So…we wait." Shino murmured, glancing to each of his fellow teammates – Hinata nodded without prompting, and Kiba, cursing softly under his breath, also –if reluctantly - agreed
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Hinata peered up at the pacing Kiba from beneath her bangs. Kiba, she knew, in some small way cared for Harry, even having been at one point his rival. She too found herself worrying for Harry; she glanced away from Kiba to Shino.
Nervous, she twiddled her thumbs, wondering at how to phase her question to the normally silent boy that stood staring out the window into the forest that surrounded them.
Kankuro and Temari stood together, silent and forbidding.
"A-ah, how much longer do we wait, Shino?" Hinata found herself asking in a hushed whisper, she heard Kiba cease pacing to hear Shino's answer. Shino had literally planted a bug on Gaara, so of all of them, he would know how far away Gaara was, while his siblings would know at what distance to follow him.
"I believe we should set out now." Shino told them, tilting his head toward Kankuro and Temari. Very solemnly, Temari nodded for him to lead the way, in a whirl of leaves and yellow sand, they took off in the direction Shino – through his bugs – sensed where he had gone.
Kiba was just behind Shino as he ran, with Hinata following them - Kankuro and Temari kept pace with her, so there was nothing to, reasonably, slow them down. Yes, all of a sudden, Shino had stopped, frozen where he crouched on a branch. Kiba, who had been speeding up behind him nearly lost his balance on the branch he had gripped, trying to stop before he tumbled into Shino and sent them both to the forest floor.
"What's wrong kid?" Kankuro demanded, his arms folded as he came to a stop, clearly disapproving pausing – nonetheless Temari and he were in defensive stances – Hinata having followed their lead, was summoning up her chakra to activate the Byakuugan.
"I smell blood." Kiba spoke up when Shino merely continued to observe their surroundings. Akamaru, atop Kiba's head, whined softly in worry – shivering, as he did. It was then they knew that someone very powerful was nearby – for Akamaru could sense how strong someone was, and only shivered when he feared them.
Shino was all of a sudden in motion again, ducking down as several shuriken came at his head.
"Who's out there?" Kankuro yelled into the forest, Temari had taken hold of her fan, holding it aloft in front of her – as if a shield - as she waited for their attackers to show a sign of themselves.
"Show yourselves you cowards!" Kiba snarled out – pissed off for Shino's sake. Hinata glanced to Shino as he cautiously touched the top of his head, finding he had been lucky – one of the shuriken had torn a sizable hole in his hood.
"Kiba…?" From the forest foliage, Tenten unexpectedly emerged with Neji; both looked somewhat guilty – although it had clearly been Tenten who had thrown the shuriken, for she was the best thrower of the two of them. Recognizing them, Kiba, Hinata – and even Shino seemed to relax, though Kankuro and Temari remained tense.
"Why did you throw those shuriken? Are you trying to kill Shino?" Kiba yelled then, getting over his relief to remember that for all that they might be from the same village – they were still competing against each other. Tenten opened her mouth to answer – when Neji interrupted her.
"Do not be a fool; we merely did not realize it was you. Tenten was only trying to disable whomever we thought had killed this man." Hinata would have recognized Lee anywhere – but it was quite a stretch to see his familiar features from beneath the bloody – somehow blue skinned – man over his shoulder. It clearly did not strain him, for all that it looked to be.
"Who the hell is he?" Kankuro demanded, somehow having expected the trio to know, for all that they had only found his body. Lee shrugged from beneath the literal dead weight.
"I think I know – he might be Kisame, a former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Temari murmured softly, Kankuro turned to her – slightly concerned with the dire tone she had used – she looked spooked. Neji looked troubled, and that was enough for Hinata to know for certain that they were in very real danger.
"We need to tell someone…" Hinata choked out, but knowing that they didn't have time Gaara might be in very real danger. Or perhaps Naruto and his team – or even Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji. Whoever had killed Kisame had done so quickly, clearly they had been in a hurry – Shino shifted his weight, glancing in the distance and back to the gathered group.
"Gaara is out there somewhere – we need to get him." Temari had followed Hinata's line of thought and voiced it. Kankuro was clearly in reluctant agreement with his elder sister – though Kiba looked torn between his desire to get Akamaru away from the area and the body of Kisame – as one of the two was scaring him.
"What can this Gaara do? Protect us?" Neji asked bitingly, Hinata bit her lip, looking aside.
"No – but he and the others from your village are in danger, and it is very likely they are together. Some of us need to sneak out and put the body where the adults will notice." Temari spoke up, ignoring Neji – which clearly annoyed the darker haired boy.
"We'll do that – we were on our way anyway." Tenten insisted, Lee nodded, through his thoughts were clearly on getting back in time to 'save' Sakura. Just as they were about to part, Hinata haltingly walked foreword to stand near Neji, although looking as if she'd rather be anywhere else. She bit her lip, and then – much to Neji's amazement – got on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear.
"Get Blackbird's sword – it's at Kurenai's place," she looked aside worriedly – not knowing that Shino and Kiba were staring at the two, tensed and ready for a fight. While Tenten and Lee stood aside, knowing the two would have to handle whatever had happened on their own, for a moment Neji looked solemn and reluctant, "please…" Hinata begged in a whisper – her eyes worried and urgent when they met Neji's – finally he nodded.
"Thank you." Hinata breathed out relieved.
"I'm not doing this for you, Hinata-sama, but for Blackbird." Neji spoke quite rudely – Kiba's hands fisted, his lip raising up of his teeth in a half snarl – but Neji took no notice making some unspoken signal – Neji, Tenten, and Lee raised off at a blur, for all that the weight of the body upon Lee's shoulders should have slowed him down.
"We've got to go." Shino spoke suddenly, and when Kiba turned to him, he saw quite plainly that he was shaken – but before Kiba could determine what had frightened his friend, Shino leapt to the next branch, leaving the rest of them will little choice but to follow.
They did – and when it got dark enough to make them wary in leaping from limb to limb on the giant trees, they were glad for the full moon above them.
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The first sign that something was terribly wrong – that his "mental escape" had not just been a strange dream – was a fluttering lurch within his chest. It was as if his heart had stuttered to a stop – Harry woke to that impression – to thinking he was going to die.
By the end of the change – he almost wished he had.
Pain hit first – it was worse then all the pain he had ever experienced before – it scalded his spirit like Miyabita Shi had burnt his hands, it cut him open and poured acid on his bones alike to the snake demons of the Sand.
It bent his spine – and he was screaming, he could not stop - though he did not remember starting to scream. In an absent minded way, he saw Gaara and Itachi hovering over him helplessly.
Harry knew Naruto was near – his fingers dug into the ground, nails lengthened into claws that tore into the ground, shredded the hard packed earth and dug in deeper, trying to hold onto something – anything – to hold onto his sanity while the pain and changes washed over his broken body like waves.
His heart beat – once – throbbing in his ears – burning the edges of his ears, reshaping them to be pointed, and it seemed to boil his blood in his veins. He could hear Itachi, Naruto – and even Gaara pleading with him to open the links, to share the pain, they feared he would not live by being burdened with it alone.
Though he could hear them, it was as if he was a great distance away – he could hear their hearts beating in their anxiety for him – not pain, and was reassured that the pain was only happening to him.
Out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed his hair turning silver – it was like watching himself growing from a teenager to being an elder in mere moments. He inhaled sharply as his heart beat again, he jerked as it spread the burning blood that somehow strengthened him as much as it hurt him.
Harry jerked again this time in surprise – for all that the screaming had faded to growling, Itachi had stuffed fabric in his mouth to stop him from closing his mouth. Though he did not precisely know why, he suspected it was because he could taste his own blood in his mouth.
Vaguely – as if life were the dream - he remembered cutting his lips, gums, and tongue on the sharp fang like teeth that were now pressed against the cloth.
Gaara was talking – but Harry's attention was elsewhere, his face was burning like his blood – sharpening everything, he felt his heart throb – and the pain faded enough to let him know…know that Hinata was close, for he could smell her on the wind.
Kiba – Shino, Kankuro, and Temari – all five of them were close, but a good distance away from him still. He could smell them. Then Harry realized that the pain came only because his senses had sharpened to unnatural – no, demonic, preciseness.
Even as Harry shut his eyes he saw the texture of skin – the brightness of the night stars burning, it was no wonder that demons chose to dwell in the dark if this was the agony they faced during the day.
Harry did not know if he could burden it – though he adamantly refused the whisper that told him he could 'give' this pain to the others, share it. He would not abuse them – Harry did not even know if he could summon the energy to send the sensations through the links. It was with that last thought that he drifted to sleep.
Finally – finally, though it felt like it had been forever, the pain was not so acute, it felt as if, instead, that it was a healing wound – as if the pain was trying to apologize for dumping an entirely different set of sensations upon him.
Slowly, he opened his eyes – letting the soft brush of his lashes lay against his cheeks as he peered out cautiously. It was day – the sun high in the sky, he breathed in everyone was nearby – sleeping, he realized hearing the next moment a soft sniffle, he knew that assumption to be wrong.
Harry stirred, wriggling as he tried to move – to get to the one who was crying - it was then he realized he was wrapped in Itachi's cloak – and Naruto and Gaara were laying on either side of him, holding him to them.
Harry sighed softly, the air stirring – he actually smelt it as it mixed with the rest of the scents surrounding him. His cheek lay on soft cloth, a firm pillow he summarized, though when the 'pillow' shifted he flushed, realizing that his head lay in Itachi's lap.
Itachi had been so quite, that Harry had not realized he was awake – fingers, long and soft touched his forehead running down to brush against his cheek. Harry, realizing there really was no point in pretending to sleep when Itachi so obviously realized he was awake, snapped his eyes open to peer up at Itachi's bloody and black gaze.
"I would not suggest entering the village." Itachi spoke quite plainly then, when Harry was still at a loss as to what to say.
"Why?" Harry asked in turn, laying still as his eyes flickered around, finding himself reassured to be beneath one of the great trees as he had guessed.
"You…you don't look human…" Naruto, who had had his head nestled against Harry's chest, had flicked his eyes up to look Harry in the eye. Beside him, Gaara snorted softly shifting to sit up, though he made no move to flee.
"Sakura - your mirror?" Harry was momentarily surprised Gaara had bothered to learn the pink haired girl's name. Sakura moved into sight, eyes looking red and watery– Harry stared at her, unable to look away, realizing she had been the one who had been sniffling. She held up a mirror. A stranger met his gaze.
Harry swallowed – so did the stranger – for all that he had known he had changed, he had not thought it would be so bluntly physical – nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.
What he saw was clouded green eyes – green peeked out of the clouds like looking down at a forest from a great height, the purple was almost too small to notice – a tiny slit, as if overwhelmed by light and emotion.
He was older too, or looked it – he judged himself to look about Itachi's age, though rough looking with a rogue-like look. His hair was like salt and black pepper, though there was far more silver then black. His hair spilled over his shoulders, tumbling into his lap like a black-and-white waterfall.
His lips were plump enough, swollen by bite marks – Harry opened his mouth, his teeth were sharp, noticeably sharp- yet still somehow human sized. Orochimaru's bite mark at the base of his throat stood out against his pale skin, it looked like he had spent his entire life indoors, for all that he remembered tanning in Sand.
His nails – hands and feet, were claws, and Harry saw in the mirror the holes he had dug into the hard packed dirt. His eyes jerked in the direction of them, as if to be sure. It was then he caught sight of his ears in the mirror. His ears were not pointed – and by far, not normal – they had been hidden by the spill of hair, or Harry's mind had simply been overwhelmed and chosen not to see them until forced to.
They looked like silver puppy ears.
Itachi grunted from behind him, as if trying to draw him back to reality.
In the mirror, something dark flicked on Gaara's thigh, Harry slowly looked to the red haired boy – and saw for himself that the…tail, that had snaked around Gaara's waist was…his.
"They don't disfigure you – in fact, I think they're kind of cute." Having seen that he had noticed, Naruto spoke up and Harry turned to him, and, sure enough there was a second tail. Both were midnight black like his hair used to be with cream tufts at the end – they were like fox tails, but he knew them to be a dogs.
"They are Houkou's two remaining tails – that of wind and fire." Itachi spoke, it dawned on Harry then, the irony that the wind and fire tails were wrapped around the boys who lived in the country that was their namesakes.
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The Very Long Note, in Which the Choices Are Laid Out Plainly – Do Not Read If You Dislike Hints to Future Happenings
In "Song of the Caged Blackbird", would you like to read about the 'Itachi/Harry Adventure' – as Itachi said in this chapter, Harry can not remain as he is and go back to the village - phase at length - this covers three or four years until Harry turns 18/19 - where Harry collects Houkou's soul shards, taking them from the Midnight-Blue Cloaks (remember way back in chapter eight?) at age 16.
Shortly after that they find Sasuke and convince him to "get stronger" by training with them rather then with aid Orochimaru – Harry's growing feral nature; "discovering physical pleasure" phase when they turn 17. A few ominous run-ins with Orochimaru and other demons; then finally, where the "dreams" between the boys (Naruto, Gaara, Harry) get more intense and they (Sasuke, Itachi, Harry) go back to Konoha.
Demon "mating season" hits hard, which affects all five (Itachi, Harry, Sasuke, Gaara, Naruto) differently (thus where I pull all the rest of the 'pack' together). Then the deal with Vanki (the blacksmith girl wayyy back in chapter five) who introduces them to the magical world, not to mention what happens to Hiashi when, after the mating season, they find Harry and Neji are free.
So – the short version would be flashbacks for all of these events – the long version; I can almost guarantee would be over fifteen chapters (the best hope is that for each chapter takes place during the major events of one of the four seasons).
Now – you have two choices, one you can tell me in a review which you would prefer, and why, or vote on the poll on my bio. Quite frankly, I'd rather go into detail, but I don't want to get bored, which is a possibility – however, this has been 25 chapters and I do have plans for more, not even considering the next step after all of this, which is the magical world.
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The voter's poll…
In "Song of the Caged Blackbird", would you like to read the long version, or the short flashback version of the 'Itachi/Harry Adventures'? Choices are explained in "Awakening of Blackbird", chapter 25.
1 The long version, with details that span over three years in fifteen (or more) chapters!
2 The short flashback(s) version; where Harry, after leaving Konoha, comes back a chapter later with shocking results!
3 A combination of both, where some things in the long version happen, but there are flashbacks to likely explain some minor details.
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So, what say you? I promise to take your votes and words into consideration; you merely need to speak up. Also, I'm sorry for spoiling some of the "main events" (I did warn you, but at least now you know there is a plan for the future).
Also, because I know someone will ask – demonic chakra effectively cancels out magic, so to answer why Harry can't go back to hiding in plain sight. He doesn't know how to, he has never been taught, the magic he possesses was rather… stained, at making sure he was kept alive. Though Harry is undoubtedly very powerful, the magic will – like Houkou once did, remain mostly "asleep" unless he is in dire need.
Besides, Miyabita Shi is an overprotective magical weapon of mass destruction – as well as a shield, if it so wills. Yet it does not know how teach magic, bummer that.