Carry Our Burdens.
Chapter Nine.
Demonstration of Destruction.
Edit: 06.10.11

[Hell, I'll stop dancing]

Harry and Ron raced down the stairs of the dormitory. They were going to be late. As they bolted through the common room they did not pay attention to the six guards that sat on the carpet in front of the unlit fireplace. They really should have you know…

Harry and Ron tore down the stairs to the Great Hall where everyone was leaving to go to class. Both teenagers grabbed a piece of toast and then bolted to their next class, History of Magic. Once they got there they kind of wished that they had taken longer, anything to postpone the torture for just a few more minutes.

As Professor Binn's voice droned in the background, Hermione passed Harry a scrap of parchment covered in her neat handwriting. He glanced at her in confusion; she never takes her eyes off the teacher during class. What was so important? He unfolded the paper carefully.

Professor Dumbledore announced at breakfast that he was going to ask the guards if they would do a little demonstration of a kind of ability that their groups has. Apparently they are all ANBU, which is similar to Aurors, only not so well known. I think it may have something to do with that wand-less magic that we saw Dove do. He is supposed to tell us their answer by lunch and if they say yes then we get the rest of the classes off. I suppose he is assuming that we will want to ask them questions or they will want to ask us questions.

Harry grinned and looked at his schedule. He was really hoping the guards agreed because then he would get out of double Potions. He passed the paper to Ron who started to bounce up and down in his chair in excitement.

The wizards and witch walked down the hall at a slow pace, dodging fellow students who threatened to run them over if they stopped for too long. It was finally lunchtime and all Ron could think about was food.

"You really don't believe all that about them being similar to Aurors do you?" Harry asked. Hermione shrugged nonchalantly.

"I think that they possess the skills in intelligence that Aurors require. They could probably do an Auror's job with ease if given the chance. They seem to enjoy action." Anything further explanation Hermione had been about to spout off was cut off when she slammed into someone's back. "Sorry," she said, looking up to see who she had hit.

"Hn," the person said, turning around. It was Viper. His white hair fell over his eyes, shadowing them as he looked down at her. His face was expressionless and he was seriously freaking the poor witch out.

"Hey, Viper, don't go scaring the kids. You know what Fox'll do if you get out of hand." Someone put a hand on Viper's shoulder and looked around him at the kids. This time it was Panda. She smiled and waved at Hermione, her teeth flashing white against her dark skin. "Sorry about that, Hermione," she said. Seconds later the place where they had stood was empty and Harry saw Panda tugging Viper through the students towards the Great Hall.

He was about to follow them when he felt someone brush past him quickly. He was about to turn in anger but the person just gave him a slap in the back of the head. He muttered and took out his wand, spinning to see whom it was. Fox grinned at him.

"Something wrong, Harry?" the blue-eyed man asked cheerfully. Dove stood behind him, a frown tightening his face.

"Nothing," Harry said. The two started to stride towards the Great Hall, "Wait!" They stopped and glanced back at him. "Why did you hit me?" he asked. Fox shrugged and smiled at him, waving as they went on their way.

"Look," Ron said, tugging on Harry's sleeve. He pointed to one of the side corridors that came from Dumbledore's office. Slug and Mouse were coming out of it and also making their way to the Great Hall.

"Why are they all going to the Great Hall?" Harry asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"They are going to tell us whether they will spar with each other or not," Hermione said, pulling her two friends along. There was no way she was going to get there late and miss this.

They slipped through the large double doors and took their customary places at the Gryffindor table. The guards all stood behind Dumbledore as he ate at the teachers' table. Hermione stared at them, eating mechanically.

Well, actually, five of the guards were behind Dumbledore, the other one, Fox, was standing beside him. Apparently he was whispering something that the headmaster was nodding enthusiastically at. Hermione had good guess of what it could be and only hoped that she was right.

As the students entered and most were seated, munching on the food that had appeared on the tables, Dumbledore stood and walked in front of the teachers' table. Fox followed him, blue eyes dancing with what could only be described as mischievous joy.

"Attention students," Dumbledore said, voice booming through the Great Hall. All conversations stopped instantly as they looked expectantly to Fox and the headmaster, "Captain Fox has agreed to give you a demonstration as his and his teammates individual abilities. As they are part of an elite group of wizards they are able to do wand-less magic which they will be performing for you today. In ten minutes please be outside by the lake."

Harry grinned at Ron and Ron grinned at Harry. Hermione paid them no attention as she was too wrapped up in her book explaining why wand-less magic was impossible. Her friends did not listen to her though; they were already standing and getting their coats. The whether outside was cold today and it wouldn't be surprising if there were a light snowfall.

Harry shoved his way to the front of the group with Ron and Hermione, the girl grumbling slightly that there was no such thing as wand-less magic. The boys grinned as they saw the six guards standing out in a group huddle near the lakeshore.

They looked different than the students had seen them. They wore their full ANBU uniform with the exception of the masks. Their physical appearance was the same that the rest of the student body was used to but other than that, they looked like the shinobi that had first appeared at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters.

Fox looked at his teammates. This was a risky thing to do but he was sure they would be able to pull it off without too much of a hitch. They would just have to hope that none of the smarter students would catch on.

"Okay," he whispered in Japanese, "Slug, no using super strength. Mouse and Dove, no full blown Kaiten. Viper, no summoning snakes, they seemed to have a certain fear of them over the entire school. Actually, no summoning for anyone that would seem strange to them. If you get hit with what you know would have been a fatal hit you are considered out. Got it? Good." He pulled away from the group and turned to Professor Dumbledore, whispering something in his ear.

The headmaster nodded and pointed his wand to his throat, "Sonorus," He cleared his throat. "Students!" he said once he got their attention, "Captain Fox and his group will be doing a simple six person spare, every man for himself. He asks that you stand at least one hundred yards back and do not move any closer to them. If they start coming your way he asks that you do not move a muscle. They will not hurt you but if you move they might land on you." Dumbledore looked at Fox and nodded to him. The captain grinned and motioned his group forward.

They stood as if they were the six points of a hexagon. The students watched in anticipation as they fell into comfortable battle stances. What they were about to witness was way more intense than any wizard battle they could have read, or even dreamed, about.

Fox started, his hands going into movements too fast for the students' eyes to follow. If they were going to pull this off as wand-less magic they would have to be fast. Seven clones appeared around him. He prided himself on his ability to finally be able to do a jutsu without calling out the name of it. He sent his clones towards the Hyuugas, who apparently were going to pair up for a while.

The students watched as Dove slipped in and out of the clones, a faint blue glow following his hands as each of the clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. Mouse had started to take some out but Panda flying her way, a kunai in each hand, interrupted her.

The weapons mistress threw about three dozen kunai at the Hyuuga below her. Mouse dodged each one, veins popping around her pale eyes. Thankfully she was too far away from the students for them to notice. The weapons fell on the ground around her. Panda landed a few yards away and, with a collective gasp from their audience, jerked her hands quickly and each weapon came back to her, suspended in the air by chakra strings.

Mouse did a full turn around when she saw someone behind her. She blocked a kick aimed at her head by Slug, but the sheer force of it blew her backwards. She lost her balance and tumbled over. At the last second she shoved herself away from the ground into a back flip, landing neatly on her feet and blocking another one of Slug's attacks.

By that time, Dove had exterminated all the clones and found that none of them were the real Fox. He grinned, it almost seemed like the Chunin exams again. He fell into a relaxed battle stance for the Gentle Fist style and waited. Fox was still an ANBU but he had an impatience that most elite ninja tried to get rid of.

Fox came flying at Dove from nowhere, a kick aimed at the supposedly unsuspecting ANBU's head. Dove heard him coming and jumped, twisting in the air so that his leading leg knocked Fox's kick out of the way and the other leg followed up by kicking him in the head. Dove landed on his hands since his legs were still in the air and pushed off into a series of flips. Fox skidded along the ground and grinned. Now that they were warmed up they could do jutsus.

Viper took this as his chance to start. He did the quick hand signs from where he stood with his back to the students and held his hand out. Lightning seemed to come from his palm and the sound of chirping birds filled the air. The students behind him, Neville and Luna, took a step back. He turned and looked at them over his shoulder before darting off at a speed that normal people could not acquire.

He decided to go for Dove since he had the near 360 degree vision and would be the best able to dodge the attack. Sure enough, the shinobi saw him coming and waited until the last moment to flip over the oncoming attacker's head and land easily on the other side. Dove took that time to slam a blue surrounded hand into the white haired man's back. Viper stumbled to his knees and his Chidori vanished.

Fox darted past Mouse and brought his fist up to block another one of Slug's attacks. He used Shadow Clones again and created a Rasengan, with way less power than normal, and hit his teammate with it. She hissed and fell to her knees, already healing herself to show off some of her wand-less magic.

Panda immediately attacked Mouse. The older woman pulled out two of her scrolls and was using her dragon technique, spinning in the air with two illusionary dragons following her twirl. Weapons flew out from every angle and, although Mouse was able to see most of them, one went through her blind spot. Panda had a chakra thread attached to it, so it didn't pierce deeply into the skin. Mouse nodded and pulled it out of her shoulder, no blood coming with it. She fell to her knees on the ground.

While Panda was so busy trying to take care of Mouse, both Dove and Fox had come up from either of her sides. Fox hit her lightly with a Rasengan and Dove gently tapped her chakra network. The weapons mistress grinned at them and sat down, silently messaging her sides.

That left Fox and Dove. They stood in the middle of the allotted space and looked at each other for a long moment. They smirked and allowed the tension to grow in the air for a few more seconds until Fox disappeared underground. He came up below Dove but the elder shinobi flipped away, but not before clamping a hand on Fox's wrist and pulling him forcefully along, whipping him over his head and slamming him on the ground behind him.

Fox would not be beaten. He did the necessary hand signs and slammed his hand into the ground. Bars made of earth came from the ground but the Hyuuga saw them and broke them with a Gentle Fist attack before they could complete themselves. Fox tried to leap away but Dove managed to get him with thirty-two of Dove's sixty-four palms.

The captain stumbled away and when he saw that Dove was also breathing hard he held up a hand. The elder smirked but held up a hand as well. They walked towards each other and bowed respectfully and nodded at Dumbledore.

The headmaster opened his mouth to speak and Fox took that moment to Rasengan Dove when the shinobi was unprepared. The redhead fell to his knees and glared up at his superior.

"Cheater," he said. Fox just winked at him. Dumbledore smiled. He knew that none of them had hurt each other, even when Mouse was hit with a kunai. They had been extra careful around each other, even the swirling technique that Fox used hadn't really hurt anyone.

"Thank you, Captain Fox and your team for the demonstration," Dumbledore said. There was silence among the students as they watched all of the teammates get to their feet and walk over to each other, laughing and joking as if they had not just acted like they were going to kill each other. Then there was wild applause.

"Bloody awesome," Ron shouted above the noise to Hermione. But the girl was watching the guards carefully. She already knew they were shinobi but she wanted to know more about them. She had just thought that they would be able to do martial arts or stuff like that and just happened to also be masters of disguise. She tucked this information into the back of her mind for later.

Malfoy watched the guards with growing hatred. They possessed unparalleled speed, strange magical attacks, and a method of martial arts that was different from anything the English boy had seen before. He wondered if he should get one of his many followers to see into it. Upon further speculation (about half a second) he decided that, yes he would.

[Author's Note]

Song lyrics belong to Matchbox 20.