Hey guys! I will be updating Paper Dolls a lot more than Replacement Teachers. The reason is I'm currently stuck on the story and I need your help for it. I already have most of Paper Dolls planned out which is why I will be adding chapters more often. Please give me suggestions for Replacement Teachers otherwise the updates will be even slower and I don't want the story to suck or anything.
So post in your suggestions for Ino's lesson! I will definitely give you credit for your ideas!
Thank you to all my kind reviewers! I would give a list but you all know by now that I'm a lazy ass. -.-
If you still need to refer to the characters' code names, they're in the first chapter.
Lessons Learned
The man skidded to a halt, slipping slightly in the mud. He collapsed to his knees, a black cloak strewn with blood and dirt pooled at his feet, breathing heavily and gripping a bloody stump that was all that now remained of his left hand. He gave a hacking cough and his remaining hand immediately leapt to his mouth where blood had begun to spurt out. Rain beat mercilessly on his wretched form, mixing in with the dirt and sending small rivers down his back. A crack from a stray twig somewhere behind him, snapped him to his senses and he whirled around, slightly tinged red rain dripping steadily from his shaven chin, his blue eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights. A person, dressed completely in an ankle length, black cloak had appeared. A narrow hood covered most of the top of his head and what little was shown from beneath the depths were covered by a porcelain mask of some kind of bird.
'Ah, tired already? It's been what? Twenty minutes? Tut-tut, so out of shape,' the masked man said, his voice slightly mocking as he stepped slowly towards the man, taking a lot of unnecessary to make his presence even more foreboding, 'oh well, you did ten minutes better than your companion.' What little colour that had remained in the man's face drained completely as the faint light gleamed dully off the silver sword, where a fresh stain had formed halfway up from the tip.
'Y-You killed Walters?' the man stammered, his terrified eyes glued to the blood stained sword which was still steadily dripping scarlet droplets. The silence that followed spoke more than any answer as the hooded figure closed in on him until they were barely a metre apart, towering over his helpless prey.
'I am feeling surprisingly kind today so I will give you a chance,' he replied a deadly venomous voice, 'you may come with me quietly or you may struggle. Either way, there is no chance of escape for you. Wizards have grown too reliant on their puny sticks for far too long and now that I have severed your dominant hand, you cannot even do that annoying little apparating trick anymore. I will leave those options to you.'
There was a pause where the man doubled over, a second round of blood clogging up his throat and another stream of blood sprayed the splotchy mud. He raised his head, eyes suddenly defiant and laughed. The laughter was hardly humorous and sounded somewhat wild and deranged. When he finally spoke, his voice was weak and hoarse; merely forcing words from his damaged throat was excruciatingly painful. 'Kid, I'll give you a credit for being able to kill Walters but you've got nothing on the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord's wrath is a hundred times more frightening than yours! Don't be so cocky, brat!' he spat, 'you're getting ahead of yourself; if it's my death you wish for than take my head right here and now! I would rather die at the hands of an enemy than face the wrath of the Dark L-'
He was knocked short as a gloved fist smashed into his jaw, snapping his head sideways. The Death Eater collapsed completely, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, now completely out cold. 'Pity,' the hooded man said coldly, 'it looks like you chose the difficult way. If you had only chosen to come quietly then I would have one less extra weight to carry.' Giving the fallen Death Eater one last kick, he bent down and swung the limp body over his shoulders and began heading back into the fir trees. 'Oh, and by the way,' he added, the sword slashed through the air with extraordinary speed so that the thick trunk of a nearby fir tree snapped in half, 'I know you're there.'
Two strangled yelps issued from behind the tree as two more hooded figures emerged, 'Oi! Watch where you're swinging your weapons! Are you trying to kill all your comrades too?'
'Have you disposed of the other Death Eater, Fox?' the first cloaked figure said, as if he had not almost killed two of his teammates. The man known as Fox pouted.
'Getting straight to the point, huh? I guess that's just like you,' Fox said, sounding a little offended at his teammate's lack of concern for his well being, 'yeah, we burned him. So what took you so long? Slug, here was starting to get worried and insisted on following you.'
'I-I did not!' the last hooded figure said, sounding slightly flustered, 'I had complete faith in you, Raven.' Her voice was the highest so far, suggesting that she was female.
'You thought I'd be killed by such a low ranking Death Eater? I'm offended,' Raven droned blandly.
'Of course not,' Slug said, 'so where do we go now?'
'We're heading back to Grimmauld Place immediately to start with the interrogation.'
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Cleaning out Grimmauld Place was a difficult job even for Harry who was used to cleaning up after the Dursleys. Hermione took it rather well, although Fred, George, Ginny and Ron who were used to their mother doing most of the house cleaning eventually fell into grumpy, soggy moods. However, even on the worst days, they were still much better off than Sirius who spent most of his time in Buckbeak's room. Harry had never seen him more restless before. He had always seen his godfather as a good natured man on most occasions but that impression had quickly transformed into a fire breathing dragon, ready to snap and destroy everything in existence. The fact that the three ninjas continued to live under the same roof did not help matters either. Harry knew since the moment he'd stepped into Number 12 Grimmauld place that his godfather disliked- no, hated the ninjas probably almost as much as he hated Snape. Though the Weasleys, Tonks and Lupin hid it well, Harry could almost feel the temperature drop by twenty degrees whenever the ninjas entered the room and the tension increase by a scale of 100. Moody was particularly cautious, although this was hardly a new trait due to his almost paranoid personality, Harry could not help but feel there was a certain amount of fear that the wizards had for the ninjas.
Deciding to confirm his hypothesis, Harry decided to go to Hermione who was as good as a human library. He found her clearing out a closet of strange looking, possibly illegal objects contaminated with Dark Magic into a sack, aided by Ron who was clutching a swollen finger where the biting teapot had attacked him. 'Oh, Harry- you're finally here,' Hermione said, struggling with little success in opening a heavy golden locket, 'can you give me a hand with this?'
Harry took the locket from her and gripped both sides of it, heaving with all his might. He searched around it for some sort of switch but found none and instead tossed it into the fat sack of Dark objects, 'Hermione, why does everyone hate the ninjas so much?'
'Maybe because they're uptight, scary looking blokes,' Ron said, looking disgusted.
'No, that's not it, Ron,' Hermione said, attempting to stuff a pair of old glasses and a toga into the already full sack, 'haven't you heard about the crisis with the Hidden Continent?'
'Err-no,' Ron said cluelessly.
'About a hundred years ago,' Hermione said, abandoning her attempt to fill the sack and opened up a new one, 'the Hidden Continent was conjoined with Feudal Japan which is why they carry a lot of Japanese customs and even speak the same language. This made Japan have some of the best military strength in the entire world. Ninjas are Muggles, meaning they can't do any magic. Instead they use what they call chakra- a combination of spiritual and physical energy to comb-.'
'This isn't a history lesson, Hermione,' Ron said bluntly, 'I think I've heard enough from old Binns anyway.'
Hermione shot him a glare and Harry quickly said, 'Please continue.'
'Anyway, as I was saying- the ninjas used a different system- a system that every muggle and wizard carries, a chakra system. Although chakra is very different from magic because everyone has one to keep their bodies operating whereas only a few selected people are gifted with magic.'
'Then why are they so powerful when we have one extra system to rely on?' Ron said curiously, absent mindedly shoving an old, moldy tea towel into the sack. It gave a shriek of protest and leapt onto Ron's face. As Ron struggled with the tea towel, Hermione began to look a little uneasy.
'The chakra system is extremely difficult to manipulate- well so I've heard. To do so is going against nature itself. Not much is known about them, though- ever since the war, they've been keeping to themselves. Ninjas were trained ever since birth to carry out missions in return for money which they must carry out even to their deaths. They've been known to rob and even kill people in exchange for money- that's why it's a little intimidating to live around them…'
But Harry was not listening; a sick, uneasy feeling had started in the bottom of his stomach. In his mind, his face flashed from the overenthusiastic Turtle to the gentle Panda and finally stopping at Hawk. How could they act so happy and carefree, knowing that they could die at any moment, knowing that their hands were drenched in blood? It made him feel angry and sick that Dumbledore would hire murderous assassins to guard him. What had he been thinking?
'Harry?' Hermione said, looking a little worried at his blank, far-away expression.
'It's nothing,' he said and proceeded to clean out the closet. When the whole room had been cleaned of everything undesirable, five full sacks of objects lay at their feet, each bag standing up to Harry's waist. They collapsed, exhausted onto the dusty floor, their chests rising and falling rapidly.
'Potter-kun?' a voice said somewhere above Harry. His eyes flew open and found himself face to face with Turtle who had bent down over him. Harry shot up, almost banging faces with the ninja but due to his quick reflexes, they were fortunately able to avoid a painful head clash. Now that Harry was fully aware of the fact that he was only inches away from a murdering assassin, even if Turtle didn't exactly act like a bloodthirsty killer his reactions had become increasingly jumpy and paranoid.
'What do you want?' he said abruptly.
'My, my- what's with those un-youthful attitudes?' Turtle said brightly, observing the scowls of Harry and Ron's faces and Hermione's tentative expression.
'You didn't tell us that you killed people,' Ron said coldly.
Turtle's cheerful expression immediately melted into a dangerous frown and although they could not see it, the sun beams previously surrounding the ninja were immediately dulled by a dangerous looking storm cloud. 'Who told you that?'
Although they did not reply, Hermione stared at her toes, trying and failing to hide her guilty face. Their tense silence was as good an answer as a spoken one and Turtle immediately took it for his answer. 'You're a smart girl,' he started, indicating Hermione although his words were hardly praise, 'to know so much information. You're very fortunate that I do not consider you enemies or I would have to slit your throat right here and now. Your knowledge could prove quite a threat had you been a ninja.'
Harry never thought he would see the day where the enthusiastic Turtle would act like Hawk, who was his polar opposite. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as they shook in their shoes, unable to move. Then the cloud suddenly moved away and the bright sun came into view.
'Oops! Sorry, I got a bit carried away there- ha-ha,' Turtle laughed sheepishly, which only made them feel even more uneasy. The three were stunned into silence, not really listening as Turtle mumbled apologies about his "un-youthful" attitude. Harry recovered first.
'You still haven't answered my question,' he said.
'Which one?' Turtle replied.
'What do you want?' Harry repeated.
'Oh… we just recently got a report from our client, Dumbledore-sama,' Turtle said, 'apparently, we will be giving Harry special self defence lessons on behalf of his own protection.'
'Special self defence lessons?' Harry said, raising an eyebrow, 'why would Dumbledore want me to learn self defence? ' He had always carried his wand around with him most of the time and Hermione had even complimented him at being the best in their grade at DADA so he could safely say that he was quite good at using it too.
'Potter-kun, say what would you do if you lost your wand in a bat- I mean- duel?' Turtle asked.
'I've never let go of my wand before,' Harry said stubbornly, though he couldn't help but think back to the Disarming Charm which had always been a useful spell he often used on his opponents, even saving him from Voldemort's Killing Curse last June. However, had the spell had been used on him; Harry did not find the outcome all that inviting.
'You never know, Potter-kun,' Turtle shrugged, 'besides, instructions from the client must always be obeyed so we have to teach you regardless of whether you agree to it or not.'
Harry considered for a moment. He did the find the prospect of being in the mercy of a bunch of deadly assassins all that attractive, he admitted that self defence lessons wouldn't hurt and could even prove useful. 'Fine,' he said reluctantly.
'Um- if you don't mind,' Hermione said nervously, 'is it alright is we can take these lessons alongside Harry?' Harry could not help but feel grateful by her words. At least he wouldn't be along in the presence of the guards.
'I don't see the harm in it,' Turtle said.
'Also-err-who will be teaching us?' Hermione said tentatively; the three of them mentally crossing their fingers that it wasn't Hawk.
'Panda and I,' Turtle said, smiling a little, as if guessing what they were thinking. Harry, Ron and Hermione suppressed sighs of relief.
'When will we start the lessons?' Hermione continued a little more confidently.
'Well, straight away, of course.'
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After the whole incident with the smashed wall, Mrs. Weasley refused to let them do any "violent acts" whilst inside the house so they were forced to use the backyard which she magically expanded for their self defence training area. The garden was full overgrown weeds, the grass wild and unruly and reaching roughly past Harry's kneecaps, making it difficult to walk. What was possibly a vegetable patch twenty years ago was now a spot of muddy dirt covered with weeds. Every now and then a lucky potato or carrot had managed to survive and poked through the small forest of foxglove and rabbit grass. They had all changed into old, Muggle shorts and t-shirts as Turtle had instructed.
Harry would never openly admit it but he was curious of what the ninjas had planned to teach him. 'This grass would prove difficult to move in but it doesn't matter since in real life you sometimes have to fight in rough conditions,' Turtle said, he, himself was having little trouble wading through the lawn. 'But for the purpose of today's lesson, it would be hard for you to see what I'm teaching you.' He unsheathed his sword and cut off the nearest patch of grass down to his ankles for a five metre radius, 'this should do it. Come on, step closer.'
There was silence- the calm before the storm before Turtle cried, 'Alright everyone! Get down onto your crouching position! I want you all to give me a thirty!'
'What?' Ron said, looking confused.
'Thirty push-ups!' said Turtle, dropping down before any of them could protest and began doing push-ups at an impossibly fast speed. They couldn't even see his arms move because they were blurred. Their jaws hit the floor and by the time they had come to their senses, Turtle had already finished.
'What are you waiting for?' he said and the three hesitantly dropped into a crouch.
'I can't even do one push up…,' Ron groaned.
Harry barely managed to do one push up and was already exhausted but refused to give in and persevered on determinedly. Hermione and Ron were exhausted too, the former collapsed after her eleventh push up and the latter on his eighteenth. Harry managed to do all the way up to twenty one before accepting the fact that he was so tired that his arms wouldn't even move anymore.
'So un-youthfully out of shape,' Turtle sighed, the ninja had completed a total of 106 push-ups while the three had been moping on the ground and not even one drop of sweat fell from his tanned body. Harry, Ron and Hermione were red-faced and panting, rivers of sweat falling from their faces. 'Now I want twenty laps around the garden.'
'Are you freaking mental!' Ron huffed, gazing at the large outstretch of lawn. Harry could hardly understand how excessively working out had anything to do with self defence and decided to voice his thoughts on the matter.
'Exercise makes you fit and youthful and you last longer in battle,' Turtle replied, 'now, twenty laps, please!' Harry, Ron and Hermione began to jog after Turtle who was zooming around the garden as fast as he completed the push-ups.
'Where does he get so much bloody energy?' Ron said, ogling at the ninja who zoomed past them on his tenth lap before they had even completed one. They managed to successfully run one lap but by the beginning of the third lap, Harry was breathing heavily once more and clutched at a stitch in his side.
After completing all twenty laps, Harry felt as if he would not be able to move his legs ever again and would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. However the torture did not finish there. Turtle made them do fifty squat jumps, thirty sit ups, fifty skip jumps with a rope and finishing up on twenty chin ups on the branch of a nearby tree.
'Well, that's enough for today,' Turtle said cheerfully as Harry, Ron and Hermione dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. 'I went easy on you today because it was your first lesson. Next week we will be even more youthful, in fact we'll be doubling the amount of each exercise.'
Their red, sweaty faces immediately drained of all colour, replaced with an unhealthy shade of white.
'You have got to be kidding me,' Ron panted heavily as they watched Turtle walk away easily, showing no sign of struggle or exhaustion.
The next morning, the after affects of the work out began to kick in. Harry groaned, grabbing onto the bedpost for support. Every muscle in his body was on fire- it even hurt to breathe because it jolted slightly on his wounded stomach muscles.
'I don't want to move…' Ron groaned from the bed. After the horrible experience of shooting straight out of bed, jolting every one of his sore muscles in the process.
'I'm getting up,' Harry said, his grip tightening on the bedpost and he managed to haul himself into a sitting position with some difficulty.
'How many lessons is he giving us every week?' Ron mumbled.
There was a crash as the door slammed open with such force that it was ripped right off its hinges. 'Good morning my youthful wizards! Get up, it's time for your training!' Turtle shouted, 'we'll be starting today with forty laps around the house, come on! We don't have all day!'
Harry stared at the scene in front of him with wide eyes. 'Oh, shit-,' Ron muttered.
Harry slumped back into his stiff pillow and tried his best to make his snores genuine.
So I recently made a new poll regarding which crossover I wrote that you prefer. Of course I am more content with this story and I will continue with it regardless of the result. However I am curious so please check it out on my profile page and vote! Also if you can be bothered, you can PM me or review as to tell me why.
