Born of Water 2

[avocado_love]

Title: Born of Water 2
Crossover: Temeraire/Naruto
Rating: G
Characters: Kakashi and Iruka
Notes: 2nd of this cracky crossover series (it shouldn't be this easy to crossover two fandoms which have nothing to do with one another). The first is called Born of Water. The language in here is a bit... weird. I tried to copy the same style as the Temeraire books. Finally, I'm aware there's no Japanese villages/slums in 1790's England, but I'm also mostly sure there were no dragons either. :D
*****


Iruka flicked out his tongue to smell the stone. The whole thing was oddly shaped as buildings went; completely open to the elements but for a flat, stone floor and a roof supported by four thick columns. He had never seen the like.

There was a rumble of greeting behind him and Iruka turned to see a large black dragon melt out of the shadows.

“Hello,” the black dragon said, curiously. “What are you doing at my pavilion?”

“Oh? Is that what this is?” Iruka pressed a webbed paw to the flooring. It was pleasantly warm, like the courtyards of Loch Laggan. He could image it would be very nice to sleep on – perhaps he could convince Kakashi to purchase one, after they won some prizes in battle.

Well, no matter. He had not come here for pavilions. Iruka turned fully to greet the other dragon, giving a bob of his head.

“I’m Iruka,” he said. “My captain is Kakashi Hatake and we’ve been just released from training at Loch Laggan. We are to join your wing.”

The black dragon’s rill went up in surprise. “Oh! Well! I’m Temeraire and my caption is Laurence, over there.” He nodded off to the side where the two humans stood, exchanging greetings of their own. “You’re the Japanese Siu Rui, then?”

“Yes.” Iruka bobbed his head. “And you are a Chinese Celestial?”

The two dragons spent the next few moments not-so-subtly taking the measure of one another. The only two oriental dragons in an entire corps of British breeds. Iruka did not have a rill extending from the back of his head, and he was a little disappointed to see that Temeraire stood taller as well. But the tendrils on each side of Iruka’s snout were longer, nearly reaching to the ground, so he supposed that counted for something.

(And, while the Devine Wind did sound very auspicious, Iruka could cripple a target at 400 feet with his Water Spout technique.)

“Do… you like to swim?” Temeraire asked at last, almost tentatively.

Iruka perked. “I do, though I’ve only swum in the lake at the training field so far.” He looked out over the other dragon, across to the nearby bay. “Is the ocean so much different?”

“I think it to be better; the salt cleans the scales, though there is not many large fish to eat in this harbor.” Temeraire turned towards the captains and called, “Pray, might we go swimming, Laurence? I am all over soot from flying over the city today.”

The man looked a little wary. “Perhaps later, my dear. There are ships about and they… may be alarmed.”

“We’ll be most careful,” Iruka promised. He looked out again, judging the ships and the size of the harbor. “And ships look easy to avoid. I can swim under them, if it comes to that.”

Temeraire’s captain still looked dubious, but Kakashi simply shrugged and smiled up at Iruka – the special smile he had only for him, the one with just his eye. “I see no problem, but try only not to swamp too many ships or people.”

Temeraire’s captain managed to look even more scandalized at that. But he still nodded and said, “Very well.”

*****

Sunset was only an hour or so away, so the dragons quickly made their way to the shoreline.

“Laurence normally has our cadets dry me off with spare linen after a swim,” Temeraire explained. “So I do not catch a chill – it does get cold at night here.”

Iruka sighed. “That is good for you, but I have no cadets of my own. Kakashi tested them all, and there were none he approved of.”

“Tested?” Temeraire questioned.

“Hmm, yes. Something to do with bells, I believe.”

Iruka had come to the water’s edge and stepped in. It was ever so much warmer than the snowmelt in Scotland. And the water itself had an odd, bitter flavor under the taste of salt, but still sat easy when Iruka experimentally swallowed some in his water-bladder for later use.

As for the ships, Iruka found that once he and Temeraire went out a-ways, they were left much alone. Indeed, the men aboard seemed to take extra care to give wide berth to the two dragons, which was very pleasant of them.

Temeraire was a good swimmer, even though he lacked webbed feet and could not dive under the waves as Iruka could. However, he was good companionship and seemed to enjoy ducking under as much as his own natural buoyancy would allow.

While swimming particularly deep, Iruka found the wreckage of what looked like a ship lying sideways upon the sea floor. He explored for some minutes, poking a claw into the jagged teeth of what remained of a porthole and accidentally stirring up silt all over when he lifted a rotten beam over what may have been a sail.

When he surfaced to tell Temeraire of it, he found the other dragon looking over to the shore to the other side of the bay.

“There is a queer noise coming from over there,” Temeraire said.

Iruka cocked his head to listen, but either the sound had already stopped or Temeraire’s hearing was keener. Iruka glanced back towards his captain; Kakashi was sitting upon the furthest pier, his trousers rolled up and legs stuck in the water – reading. Temeraire’s captain stood stiffly some distance away. The two wholly ignoring each other.

“My captain is reading, and he would not be if he thought there was mischief.” Iruka said.

Temeraire shook his head. “I do not think they can hear it – it is quiet distant, although it is getting louder.”

Iruka felt his heartbeat quicken. He could not still hear anything odd, but perhaps Temeraire was hearing the first of an oncoming battle? Maybe the French, set about invading again?

“Then, perhaps we should look?” he suggested, determindly not glancing back to his captain in guilt. “I’m sure Kakashi would not mind, if we were quick about it.”

Actually, Iruka was privately of the thought that Kakashi would rather mind if he went off by himself – and dearly – but consoled himself by remembering that his captain had seen many battles already in service before he even hatched, and perhaps would be glad if Iruka had gained experience as well.

Temeraire agreed and led the way; he sat higher in the water than Iruka and small fishing vessels and ships of all shapes and sizes hastened to scramble out of their path as they swam across the bay.

And as they drew nearer, Iruka picked up on the noise, as well: The shouting of men and women. This side of the bay was littered with small dwellings, up and down the shoreline – most of them so small Iruka wasn’t sure if they were meant for storage or not, and some leaned oddly against one another. The air to this side was stagnant and thick as well – downwind some of the great factories in the city.

A great large crowd had formed up at the edge of the crusty shoreline, all surrounding something neither dragon could see. But whatever the yelling was about, it so involved the group that no one noticed two dragons until they had nearly reached the shore.

One woman looked up and let out a shriek. Several people broke and ran at once, but to Iruka’s surprise, the vast majority of the crowd stopped what it was they were doing, gasped, and bowed.

“Oh, they are not afraid of us at all,” Temeraire said, in obvious pleasure. Then, aside to Iruka. “They bow to dragons in China, too.”

That seemed to be a more sensible way to go about things to him, rather than all of the yelling and fear. But to Iruka’s pleasure, some of the men in the group started speaking – and he understood them.

“Why, they’re Japanese!” he exclaimed, and then switched to that language, demanding, “What is going on? Why are you all yelling?”

Several people spoke up at once, and backed away to reveal a child, crouched and held to his knees by two large men in the midst of the crowd – so splattered with mud and dirty sand that Iruka could not immediately even tell the gender.

“They’re saying this child is bad luck, and they are casting him away,” Iruka translated for Temeraire’s benefit, his voice low.

Temeraire’s ruff went straight up. “Oh! That is not very nice at all. I think they are making it unlucky, themselves, covering it with dirt like that.”

The crowd flinched back at Iruka’s growl of agreement.

“Honored dragon, this boy is demon-touched!” one of the men exclaimed. He sank down to his knees in front of Iruka, as if in a plea.

The child took the opportunity to struggle away from its captors and stand; ignoring the dragons completely to shake a fist at the other villagers.

“Hey! You know what? I don’t need any of you!” The child yelled. “It doesn’t matter, ‘cause one day I’m going to grow up and I’ll be strong and… and famous!” the child jerked his thumb to its chest, “And one day you’ll all know my name. Believe it!”

“Well, unlucky or not, you still you ought not treat anyone you don’t like that way,” Iruka told the man, primly. “Especially a hatchling.”

“We tried to take care of him, but he returns our favor with pranks and disobedience. Every one of our fishing seasons has been worse than the last!”

“One thing has nothing to do with the other, I’m sure,” Iruka said. Then, an idea struck him. “But if you don’t want him, I’m in need of a cadet for my crew. He is the right age… I think.” Iruka stretched out his neck to sniff at the boy. He was hard to see under all the mud, but still smelled healthy – a little like fox.

The boy turned, blinking up at him in surprise, as if he had been so intent on the villagers, he had not noticed Iruka at all. Yet he did not flinch back as Iruka’s large head loomed above him– fully twice as big as himself.

While the villagers shrunk back, the boy only grinned and reached out to lay a hand upon Iruka’s nose.

*****

Temeraire and Iruka struck out across the bay again; the boy sitting perched on Iruka’s head where he could hold onto the crest there for purchase. Iruka only ducked under the water once, briefly, to get the worst of the mud off him.

Temeraire cocked his head to peer at the boy closer. “He has not squalled once, yet. They usually do,” he added, “on their first time aboard a dragon. Well, I’m sure if your captain does not want him, he can still join my crew.”

“That’s very kind,” Iruka said, but a bit stiffly. He had already started to think of the boy as one of his own crewmembers and did not like to give him up, even if it was to Temeraire.

To his sorrow, Kakashi had indeed noticed his absence and had ceased reading. He stood at the edge of the pier, visible eye half-lidded and face blank as a mask as always. But there was a tense set to his shoulders and his hair stood up on end more than usual. As if he had run his fingers through it again and again in agitation.

“Yo,” he greeted, deceptively mild, as Temeraire and Iruka came to shore. “Did you two make a pleasant evening out of it?”

“Where did you get to?” Temeraire’s captains’ voice was slightly hoarse, as if he had been calling for them for some time. Then, noticing the boy, “My God, what are you doing with a child?”

“I’m sorry for worrying you, Laurence,” Temeraire replied. “But as for the child, they were driving it away from the village. It seemed only right to take him.”

“”I think he would make a good cadet, Kakashi.” Iruka lifted a paw and the boy scrambled onto it, allowing himself to be put down. “He could help you to dry me off after swimming and fetch messages like Temeraire’s cadets.”

The boy must have taken this as an invitation to speak, for he looked up at Kakashi with interest and announced, “Hey old man! I’m Uzumaki Naruto! Who’re you?” in Japanese.

Kakashi looked down at him for a moment, then up again at Iruka. “He doesn’t seem very smart.”

“Neither were you as a hatchling, I’m sure,” Iruka snorted. “But at the least he can help you with your Japanese. Your grammar is atrocious.”

“You cannot just simply…” Temeraire’s captain started, a little weakly. “I – well, what I mean to say is that the boy must surely have parents, or someone to watch over him?”

“No, I don’t think so,” said Temeraire. “And besides, I’ve already offered him a place on our crew, Laurence, if Captain Hatake will not take him. Excidium’s captain says you’ve done a fine job helping with Emily.”

“Yes, but…” The man sputtered slightly, and then for some reason or another fixed a glare at the book in Kakashi’s hands. Some sort of silent insinuation was being passed between the two captains. Iruka was sure of it, even though he had been out of the shell hardly for nine months. It was something he did not yet understand.

Before he could look to Temeraire, askance, Kakashi only smirked and, turning to the child, spoke in halting Japanese.

“Come… with me. I test you, now.”

*****

It was a few hours before they returned. Iruka laid out in his new clearing, but could only sleep fitfully. He perked up his head at the sound of Kakashi’s distinctive footfalls.

And bouncing along beside him was the child – he was cleaned up now into a small, yellow-haired boy with curious whisker-like scarring on both cheeks.

The boy broke into a run upon seeing Iruka, rushing up to him and holding out his hand. Something glittered within the cup of his palm, flashing in the dying firelight. “I passed! Look! Kakashi-sensei says I can be part of the crew and you’ll be my sensei too and teach me English and… And one day I’m going to be a captain! Believe it!”

“Maa, Naruto,” Kakashi said, ambling up to them. “You added the last part yourself.”

Iruka looked between them, nearly thrumming with pleasure. “Still, it is very good news. You will have to work hard and do your best to be on my crew, Naruto.”

“I am very happy,” Iruka added, aside, as Naruto went on rambling. “Thank you, Kakashi.”

“Maa,” Kakashi drawled again. But he still reached out when Iruka ducked his head, scratching along the underside of his mottled blue jaw just the way Iruka liked it. “If this is all it takes to make you content,” Kakashi’s voice was low, for Iruka only, “then I consider myself a lucky captain.”

******

Note: I know Laurence was a little bit of an a-hole in this, but to his credit he and Kakashi get along like oil and water (there are so many things  Laurence would disapprove of, least of all his porn). And you just know Kakashi was needling him the entire time the dragons were gone. haha.