10 Bridge Scene II

6/18/2008 -- 3558 words

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter (Rowlings) or Naruto (Kishimoto).

AN: -laughs-

Warnings: Minor swearing, bastardization of canon, use of Japanese suffixes. More fight scenes...tell me how these feel would ya? PS - I'll get the chapter numbers right eventually.

Kakashi's shocked gasp heralded the dispersion of the unnatural fog.

"Wha…"

His fist was buried to the wrist in the chest of the annoying braided pest Harii, blood spattered across his face and soaking his chest. Green eyes that reminded him uneasily of the leaves of Konoha's forests at the height of spring, so lush a color now faded and dull. Harii coughed, and he could feel the muscles contract around his hand obscenely as the foamy blood drippled out of Harii's slack lips. No matter how much blood he had shed, it had never felt quite so warm, so slick before and Kakashi knew he'd be suffering screaming nightmares for this.

Harii had appeared from nowhere. One moment he had a clear shot at finishing Zabuza and utilized his original assassination technique, the next moment the pseudo-hunter-nin had appeared before Zabuza by emerging from a mirror of ice. No matter how much time slowed for him at that time, the Chidori was a quick attack that once started was not truly stoppable and he didn't have nearly enough time to divert his attack. However, before he could impale the effeminant child another body appeared before them both, braced and ready for his attack.

The first thing to strike him about his victim after the arcs of lightning dispersed were those brilliant green eyes swimming with pain.

--

Haku swallowed and iron flooded his mouth. A moment later it struck him that it was Harii-kun's blood, Harii-kun who was standing before him impaled on the Leaf-nin's arm. It was Harii-kun's warm blood soaking the front of his kimono, sticking to his skin. His blood sliding down his face in a morbid parody of tears.

He was Zabuza-sama's tool and so was Harii-kun. A person didn't cry when their tool broke, they were expendable, easily replaced. It was the rule he'd lived by since Zabuza-sama saved him so many years ago.

So why couldn't he see clearly anymore?

--

Zabuza watched on, shocked at Harii's actions. Haku he could understand, he knew was loyal to him only and viewed his life as worthless. But Harii…

Harii never viewed himself as worthless. Weak, potentially burdensome, but never worthless. The one time he had suggested to the boy he was worth nothing the brat had summoned his snakes from left, right, and center to corner him. Some of the nastiest varities available in Wave had arrived, just waiting for the command to strike. No, Harii was never worthless.

And when he had explained who he was and how he arrived…Zabuza was certain the boy was mad. It was only speaking with the monstrosity housed inside the fragile boy that convinced him even a little of what Harii said. Now…

Now his face was wet and sticky with his subordinate's blood, who stood impaled on the hand of Sharingan Kakashi, and it looked as if Harii's mission would never be completed.

Except…

--

"Stupid human," a truly beastial voice drawled, "I don't enjoy my host but I won't let you destroy it! I won't let you have what's mine – Shichibi no Youko's!"

Golden slitted eyes glittered with malicious humor as a clawed hand grabbed his forearm and yanked his fist free of the young boy's chest. The squelch and splatter of blood was loud in the sudden silence. Kakashi stepped back and watched in horrified fascination as the bloody hole in the boy's chest knit shut, sealing away the sight of white ribs, burnt muscle, and mangled heart.

"How? How can you--?" the jounin stuttered.

"—Still be alive? Simple fleshling, I won't let my host die by the hand of an ignorant, insignifigant, lightning wielder. I plan on keeping my little vessel alive as long as I can, even if it means I'm stuck with the little martyr-boy for a centuries," the fox spirit explained in a voice like poisoned honey.

Leaning back Shichibi smirked at the gawking Leaf and rubbed where the wound had been, pleased to see the large start burst scar left behind – maybe his host would remember the consequences of martyrdom.

Still grasping the arm of the weak meat bag Shichibi indolently turned his head to look at the ice boy and human demon. A mocking smirk slowly curled his vessel's lip, elongated fang flashing in the light, as he took in the beaten, battered, bloody forms. With his free hand he vaguely pointed to where the bound genin lay. "Watch the small worms, I wish to play with this one," Shichibi cruely twisted Kakashi's arm, "until the weak little ball of fat and flesh arrives."

As Zabuza and Haku moved towards the bound forms, submissive in the face of the intelligent, sadistic demon, Naruto finally stirred from his stupor.

"What do ya think you're doin' ya stupid fox?!"

"Playing, vessel of my sire. I'm going to play with this little bitty flesh wad until the disgusting worm Gatou arrives for daring to try and strike me down with lightning! No, I'm going to show this miserable human exactly what it means to wield lightning," he chuckled, quickly escalating into mad cackling as Kakashi started screaming from the electricity coursing through his body.

It went on for minutes, one moment the gray haired nin was screaming and drawn taut in pain, the next he was sagging as much as he could with the grip the possessed boy was keeping on his arm, body shaking and writhing in residual pain.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore, watching the creature torture his sensei wearing the skin of one of his precious people. That same, fiery burning sensation filled with hate and bloodlust and the need for pain, pain, pain! surged forward singing in his veins and tinting his world red. His hands flexed, snapping and cracking as the bones elongated and fingernails became claws, his feet and legs breaking and changing as well, forcing him into a crouch. The iron tang of blood filled his mouth as his jaw expanded to fit the larger, sharper fangs. Everything became sharper and suddenly it was just Kakashi-sensei screaming, but the wet gurgle behind the scream of his throat torn and bloody, the sickening scent of cooking meat, and the snapping of bones and joints as he jerked like a fish out of water.

There was no thinking. One moment he was twenty feet behind his sensei, another and his fist slammed into Shichibi-Harii's cheek, bones cracking and blood flying from split lips and nose, head snapping around to an unnatural angle. His fist seemed planted as he swung his leg around into a bone jarring roundhouse to the ribs, before the demon possessed body flew backwards, shock written across the demonic face. Kakashi dropped with a shout, body uncontrollably shaking as Kurenai ran to check on her comrade.

The crack was sharp, sickening, and a little wet as Shichibi slowly righted his head, repairing the snapped bones and torn nerves as he went. He cocked his head to the side, the gesture obscene when compared to the angle it had been, considering the tiny blond vessel. Bloody chakra wrapped the child in a vile blanket of anger and hate, enhancing him past the abilities of the jounin but still below his own control. His vessel was still technically his body, Shichibi knew all the minute details of it while the Kyuubi brat was possessed by something without that minute understanding slowing it down. Maybe when the little vessel was older…

He ducked another fist to his face, jumped over a sweeping kick aimed at his legs, and grasped another kick to his ribs. Shichibi missed the flat footed short kick to the sternum that threatened to break under the sudden pressure. Gripping Naruto's calf hard he pivoted and slammed the boy into the stone railing. It was satisfying watching the impudent brat spew blood from the hit. Smirking, he hauled the boy through the air and into his upraised knee, the pained gasp music to his ears. With speed enhanced by his demonic chakra he repeatedly hammered his knee into the child's chest and abdomen, blood spurting from his mouth and pooling on the bridge floor.

"NO!"

With a single-mindedness reminiscent of his tenant Naruto lashed out with his claws and sank them knuckle deep into the flesh of Shichibi's leg. He wrenched down, ripping the muscles like slippery, wet tissue paper. Shichibi howled and Naruto's fanged smile was a rictus of feral pleasure. Slipping his claws free he jumped back and away, crouching down onto all fours and watching his injured prey.

Sudden clapping jarred both demon possessed children from their bloodlust.

They slowly rose to their feet, turning around to see who dared to interrupt their battle, murder in their inhuman eyes.

--

"It seems you've been beaten badly…You disgust me Harii-san," a short, fat little man with a bandaged arm sneered. His eyes cast over to the side where a bloody, weaponless Zabuza and battered, exhausted Haku stood over the small collection of genin. "And you as well Zabuza."

Zabuza, his facial bandages cut off during his earlier fight, growled. "What do you and your thugs want Gatou?"

Tapping his cane lightly against the stone floor Gatou considered his answer for a moment but with the contigent of mercenaries behind him he felt secure in his standing. "If I hired official ninja it would cost me a lot of money so I hired an exiled ninja like you and your boy instead. Then, the little blind boy arrived and his skills cost me little. But, if you ninja had just killed each other as planned you would have saved me a lot of trouble and money."

Gatou looked over the twitchy Hidden Leaf jounin on the ground with the woman hovering over him. Two girls, nothing particularly threatening, guarded the bridge builder. Another two, boys, were safely bound to the side with a tiny dog unconscious near them. The only other threats were the two boys who had been fighting when he arrived and it was obvious they were in no condition to fight. This would prove too easy.

"You call yourself the Demon of the Bloody Mist? You're just a small devil if you ask me," he mocked the injured nukenin. That massive knife he always held was teetering on the opposite side of the bridge, a stiff wind would send it plunging into the depths of the sea. Zabuza was no threat.

"Naruto-kun, Shino-kun, I'm sorry, but the battle ends here. The curtain has finally risen on the final Act of our play with the arrival of our master villain. We no longer have to play this charade of killing Tazuna since our real objective has been met. Zabuza-sama, please allow me the pleasure of rending the little worm limb from limb," the no longer possessed Harry announced. Smirking with glee, even gentle Haku, Zabuza waved his uninjured arm signaling his consent to continue.

"Naruto-kun, my apologies. It seems my own demon was eager to engage another of his kind. Mayhaps one day it will be safe to let our demon's desires reign but for now we must put them on hold. However, tell me Naruto-kun, how does the idea of getting revenge for the people of Wave sound?"

The blond swayed on his feet with the sudden disappearance of the red chakra but it only took a second to reorient himself. Raising his arms above his head and stretching, he hid his face while he smirked at Harii. Green eyes blinked slowly in response as Naruto stretched backwards languidly, cracking the vertebrae in his spine back into place. He didn't have a lot of chakra left because of how much red chakra he used and then the intense healing session he underwent as it withdrew but, it was more than enough to dispatch Gatou's goons. Done, he returned to an upright, loose starting stance, deceptively relaxed as he crossed his hands in his favorite position.

"Multi Shadow Clone Technique!"

--

The loud 'pop' and burst of smoke almost as thick as the Hidden Mist technique heralded the arrival of the mini-army of Narutos. Harry smiled at the expectant gleam in the blue eyes of at least 25 Narutos, not including the original's own somewhat malicious glare. It was heart warming to watch the little maggot Gatou back away in fear at the sudden appearance of a large number of trained ninja all dual-wielding kunai. A few eager little clones had as many as eight kunai in their hands. 'Oh, yes, revenge is sweet.'

"So, Gatou, still feeling safe and secure in your deluded little world of corruption and greed? Of bought power and the fear of a defenseless people? How does it feel, little maggot, when you are no longer the Big Bad Bogeyman but are instead the play toy to said person?" It was delightful watching Gatou and his goons shiver in fear at his honeyed words.

"Aww…are ya afraid of what'll 'appen to ya now Gatou? Ya got two fully trained ninja ready ta kick your ass and the people of Wave aren't gonna cower before ya any longer! Ya got nothin' left here jerk!" the original Naruto mocked, all his clones yelling agreement. The original looked over to Harry who swept his hand forward giving the go ahead.

He looked on proudly as the Naruto army surged forward in ragged formation whooping and hollering. Four clones burst on initial contact with the front line, another three dispersed moments after breaching the front and with that the battle was on. It was amazing little free-for-all , when one clone burst the plume of smoke was larger than normal, providing cover for the rest of the Naruto fighters to attack. It was over in a few more minutes, all the goons either unconscious, bound, or lay dead.

As Gatou turned to flee he was stopped by a wall of twelve angry, kunai wielding, orange ninjas. "Goin' somewhere worm?"

"Yes, Gatou-san. Going somewhere? That's so very rude, considering I'm not done talking with you yet. Please, we have much left to discuss concerning your betrayal of us."

"You think you can stop me? I've got men everywhere, it doesn't matter if you stop me, someone else will just take over where I left off," Gatou yelled desperately.

Harry tilted his head in mock thought, green eyes dancing in ill-humor. A slow smile spread across thin chapped lips. "I know someone will Gatou-san. In fact, Zabuza-sama is going to gain control of all your material assests, liquidate the vast majority of them, return a large sum to the people you've sucked dry, and use the rest to fuel Zabuza-sama's desire to overthrow the Mizukage. And you are going to sign this document here turning over all your worldly possessions to Zabuza-sama. Because…," Harry trailed off coyly, letting the maggot's whirling thoughts sink in and take hold—they were undoubtedly much more imaginative than what he could suggest. "Because, if you don't I will show you exactly what I've learned in one year under the tutelage of the Demon of the Bloody Mist and his Ice Warrior. And believe me," his voice took on a sibilant hiss reminiscent of his snakes, "I learned a lot of creative ways to deal with prey like you."

Shaking like a leaf - 'Harry, Harry, Harry, bad pun, very bad pun. No more.' – Gatou considered his non-existent options: a) get beaten bloody by the orange monster behind him, be forced to sign the papers, and then die painfully, b) tell the miserable little snake talking bastard to go screw himself and die even more slowly and painfully or, c) willingly sign the boy's contract and die swiftly. It wasn't a hard decision to make, he wasn't deluded enough to think he could escape with his life, much less commit suicide before being forced to sign.

"Fine, I'll sign the damn contract on the condition that I die quick. Got it?"

Harry smirked, pleased at Gatou's words. "Alright Gatou-san, you have a deal. Sign the contract and you'll die quickly." He walked over to stand infront of the little maggot of a man with the contract and a pen extended. Gatou signed the bottom of the papers quickly and tossed the pen back at the arrogant little shit. "Thank you Gatou-san. Naruto-kun, if you would sign right here," he pointed to a line next to Gatou's signature, "then we'll be all set." Shrugging between each other one of the Narutos stepped forward and signed the indicated line.

"Alright Gatou, we're all done here," said mildly, backing away from the little ex-business man and signaled for Naruto to move back to. Gatou, suspicious, looked around to see what caused the nin to retreat but saw nothing. As per the usual of man, he didn't look up and he most certainly didn't look down – he would have seen his death approaching if he had.

He fell with a scream of terror and pain as something sharp bit into his leg. Again and again it struck, leaving a burning sensation behind that became more intense each time. The heat slowly crept through his body leaving pain and shakes in his wake. Gatou was losing control of his body as the heat spread but what was worse was the cold that was taking over his legs now where he'd been bitten.

"W..Wh..Why?" he gasped out. Gatou couldn't see the boy's face but he could hear the evil grin in his answer, "Why, Gatou-san? Simple, you said a quick death, not a painless one. Poison Strike's bite is a quick, if agonizing, death. Do you feel cold yet? You should hope so, that's a sign that the poison is nearing its end -- you'll be dead in another sixty seconds."

--

Harry turned away from the dying man and walked over to Zabuza and Haku. Handing over the contract he swiftly knelt beside Shino and freed him of the bindings. His scarf slithered over Shino's body, up his arm, and returned to its place around his eyes. The darkness was refreshing after the blinding light of the sun. Some light leaked through his wrappings but not much and the sudden transition was very painful.

"Are you alright now Buggy? I hope you heeded my words and your kikai are well."

"Hai, Harii-san. I lost a few scouts but after verifying your words I kept the rest in reserve. How's Kiba?"

"Inuzuka-san is well Aburame-san," Haku announced.

Harry reached around Haku to remove the chakra sealing ofuda from Kiba's body. The young Inuzuka began stirring with the removal of the last one. Akamaru was already up and nuzzling his master's face.

"Haku, help the Copy-Nin."

"Hai, Zabuza-sama." Haku bowed and swiftly moved to the still twitchy Kakashi's side. A quick pressure point knocked the meddlesome red eyed kunoichi out and he immediately started treatment on Kakashi. Although his knowledge on how to treat various degrees of lightning induced injuries was vast, the amount of hands-on experience he had to gain that knowledge was frightening.

Harry retrieved Zabuza's sword, hefting it on his shoulder since Zabuza's main sword arm was too injured to hold his beloved blade. "What now Zabuza-sama?"

"Eh? First, tell the bridge builder that he's safe. Gatou's dead and with him went any contracts on Tazuna's head. Then, we need to find someplace to rest and recover. That thrice damned fox of your's messed the Copy-Nin up bad and he's the one ya need to talk to ta get into Konohagakure. We'll escort you there and then split up if things go according to plan. Otherwise, we'll figure it out then."

The blind nin cocked his head to the side, braids finally chattering with the motion.

"Heh, your beads are talking again brat." Zabuza observed, smirking. It was well known to the other two nuke-nin that Harii's beads fell silent when there was danger present. When they clacked, or talked as Harry called it, everything was well again. Whatever caused the phenomenon wasn't chakra but something els -- Zabuza figured it was whatever energy made his subordinate's chakra naturally heavier than normal.

"Yes, they are aren't they. I'll talk with Tazuna now Zabuza-sama. I suggest you get Haku to look at your arm after he's done with the Leaf, unless you want to give me your sword?"

Harry laughed at the murderous look the Demon of the Mist sent his way as he ran to speak with Tazuna. Personal experience proved baiting demons, while dangerous, was great fun.

Review, review, review! Tell me how this fight scene stands up. Umm...I know someone reviewed early on who was a snake person (herpetologist?). If you are still reading this how does Gatou's death sound to you? Like something snake venom and/or poison could do?

Oh, and if you think the first couple paragraphs of Gatou's dialog sounds familiar I found a Spanish subbed end of ep. 18 and an English subbed start of ep. 19. I took that and mixed it as needed.