Disclaimer: Being neither British nor Japanese, it should therefore come as no surprise that I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor anything from their respective franchises.
A/N: Sorry this chapter is a little late - I have no idea how I forgot to post it yesterday!
Lord Voldemort, in spite of what lesser wizards and witches might claim, feared nothing and no one. He was, however, concerned.
The reason for His concern was twofold: First, there had been a raid on Tom Riddle's old workplace at Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley, with a substantial amount of merchandise seized. This was not an uncommon occurrence, as even during peacetime the shop would generally be raided at least once or twice a year, with both the frequency of raids and whether they were announced dependant upon a number of factors including the DMLE's current publicity needs and whether suitable sums of money had been transferred to certain Ministry personnel with sufficient regularity. Only one element of the raid was noteworthy, and even then only to a scant few individuals - among the items seized was a certain Vanishing Cabinet.
Said Vanishing Cabinet's seizure was made relevant by the second cause for concern, that being the abrupt loss of contact with Draco Malfoy and his two minders at Hogwarts. Severus had reported that all three young wizards had not been seen by anyone in the past several days, and that he was presently trying to locate them. Lord Voldemort knew of the Malfoy scion's plan to repair a damaged Vanishing Cabinet inside Hogwarts to permit His followers an unobstructed route into the castle in order to provide him with an opportunity to complete his mission; He had even shared with the boy the location of a hidden room forgotten by the masses so that he could do his work in secrecy. It was actually a far more competent and sensible plan than He would have credited the teen with the intelligence to create; the other two laughably inept attempts with the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead were much more the boy's speed.
Draco Malfoy's sudden disappearance at around the same time that the counterpart to the Cabinet he was repairing clearly indicated that the boy had, unsurprisingly, failed and gotten himself and his accomplices caught. Lord Voldemort had already made His displeasure known to the adult Malfoys, but would withhold expressing it fully until He could retrieve young Draco. After all, this was the kind of thing best experienced as a family.
Lord Voldemort's concern was obviously not for the fate of a boy who would soon face the consequences of both his and his father's failures, but rather for whether His adversaries could make use of the Vanishing Cabinet pair in a way that might be... problematic.
While Iruka Umino's mental defenses had been sufficient to keep Him from readily accessing the secrets of his strange abilities, they had done so at the expense of other secrets. Lord Voldemort had seen that Umino, though able to face all but the most capable of His Death Eaters, was but a small fish in a vast ocean in his homeland. The power of some of those whom the foreigner had encountered was immense, enough so that even a handful of such individuals entering the present conflict could dominate all but the likes of Lord Voldemort himself.
That incident at the Choosing of the Champions showed that a link had been established between Umino and his home. Records accessed by Lord Voldemort's agents indicated that these talking toads were used to carry messages, like some bizarre ersatz owl. Thoughts that He'd glimpsed in Umino's mind suggested that this link was limited, only allowing small items to be carried to Britain, but that the intent had been to carry Umino himself back until the fool had chosen to remain and fight rather than leave and escape Lord Voldemort's wrath. If they could carry a person, then it might be possible that they could also carry an object the size of a Vanishing Cabinet.
There were thus three conditions to be met: The toads must be able to carry a Vanishing Cabinet back to Umino's homeland, the paired Cabinets must be able to operate over that distance, and someone on Dumbledore's side must realize this possibility. While Dumbledore was a fool in many ways, Lord Voldemort credited him with at least the competence necessary to grasp the potential in recruiting allies from Umino's home. It was certainly possible, even likely, that the seizure of the Cabinet from Borgin and Burkes was done simply to deny any future possibility of using it to sneak past Hogwarts' defenses and possibly provide one of Dumbledore's lackeys with a means of escape. That possibility was not enough to mitigate the very real danger that Dumbledore might soon obtain allies that could devastate Lord Voldemort's followers or possibly even challenge the Dark Lord Himself.
This could not be permitted. Lord Voldemort had to act. Gathering the full strength of His forces would take a few days, but there was no reason that He had to commit to a full assault immediately. Perhaps a subtler approach as an opening gambit...
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Iruka was shaken awake by a worried-looking Dobby on Friday night - or possibly Saturday morning. "Professor Headmaster Sir is needing Professor Umino Sir to come to the Entrance Hall right away! There is bad wizards coming!" The chuunin noted as he rose somewhat blearily and began gearing up that even elves could sometimes look worn out: While Dobby was dressed nicely, with a deep red velvet jacket with tan leather elbow patches slung over a plaid waistcoat and tweed trousers, his whole ensemble looked decidedly rumpled, particularly the big felt hat hanging over one of his large ears. Unlike most of his outfits to date, whose origins Iruka still wondered about, the colorful striped scarf Dobby was wearing was clearly not sized for a house-elf, being wrapped several times around his neck and shoulders with the ends still trailing low enough in front that he probably kicked them as he walked.
It took less than a minute from the moment his feet hit the floor for Iruka to be fully dressed and geared up for battle. Since he also no longer needed to hide his abilities nearly as much, he didn't bother holding himself to civilian speeds as he headed for the Entrance Hall. Upon reaching the Grand Staircase, the chuunin didn't bother with actual stairs, instead simply hopping over the railing and dropping the six or eight meters to the ground floor.
Albus was already waiting for him and, being well aware of Iruka's capabilities, was completely unfazed. Minerva, who'd been hustling down the Grand Staircase herself, was now gaping in shock at her unassuming middle-aged colleague casually dropping three stories onto a stone floor only to land with a softness her Animagus form would be hard-pressed to match. While she, like most of the Order, had participated in at least a few training sessions with him, he'd never had cause to actually showcase his abilities or fighting style in front of them.
As amusing as the stern, unflappable Deputy Headmistress's response was, Iruka was a professional and he carried himself as one. "What's the situation?" he asked the Headmaster.
"I've kept a rotation of house-elves watching an expanded copy of the Staff Map," the elder wizard explained, "and just received a report that a large number of wizards are attempting to reach the school through the Forbidden Forest."
"You realize this means that Voldemort has probably realized the implications?" Dumbledore nodded grimly. "How many," Iruka asked, "and are any of them particularly dangerous?"
"Thirteen," Albus replied, "though the only notable names are Walden Macnair and Quentin Travers. Both are known Death Eaters, and Macnair in particular you've encountered twice before: Based on the memories you've shown me, he was the one to organize his fellows against you in the graveyard, and also co-led the group sent against you in Hogsmeade. The rest are mostly younger, probably newer recruits." He pulled a sheet of parchment from his robes, unfolding and enlarging it to show a Staff Map that extended much further from the castle than the other copies. Both Iruka and Minerva could clearly see the cluster of dots huddled deep in the Forbidden Forest. As they watched, the dots broke into two groups; Macnair headed seven others moving straight towards the castle while Travers and the other four went off at a bit of an angle.
A smirk found its way onto Iruka's face, slowly growing into a broad grin. "You two stay here," he said, "just in case any of them slip through. I'll take care of them."
"Iruka!" Minerva gasped, "Surely you can't mean to take on so many wizards by yourself?"
"You already know I was a sort of soldier back home," he replied, "but more specifically, I was a shinobi. We're strong fighters, but for most of us our greatest strength is our ability to use stealth, surprise, deceit, and misdirection. Also, recall the meaning of 'Konohagakure'," he said, pointing at the emblem on his hitai-ate.
The twinkle returned to Albus's eyes. "The Village Hidden in the Leaves."
"Exactly. Like most things in war, stealth and guerrilla tactics are always strongest against opponents that haven't been trained to counter them, and so far the Death Eaters haven't really seen what a ninja can do in that arena. Throw in the fact that it'll be in the type of terrain I know best and, well..."
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Having borrowed the wide-area Staff Map from Albus (and noting that they ought to upgrade the other copies to be able to show the full grounds at some point), Iruka slipped out the front doors of the castle and became a shadow among shadows. It was only a couple of days past the new moon, so only the barest sliver of moonlight added to the light of the stars - enough for Iruka to see by once he'd let his eyes adjust, but he doubted it'd be any help to the Death Eaters. As he passed Hagrid's hut he noted that the curtains were parted just slightly, leaving him to picture the normally kind and gentle groundskeeper warily watching the grounds, his massive crossbow loaded and ready to hand.
There was something relaxing, Iruka thought, about leaping branch to branch through a forest again after years away from home. It was comfortable, familiar, and conveniently enough also brought his shinobi mindset into sharp focus from where it had been languishing half-buried in the wizarding lifestyle. Yes, he might have magic and he might use spells and a wand, but at his core he was a ninja, and it was his ninja skills that were about to make this a very bad night for those seeking to harm his students.
After a couple of slight course-corrections (using the Map, which admittedly did require a bit of wand-light to read) Iruka looked down from his hidden perch among the branches on the larger group of intruders. Only one - the man confidently leading the others towards the castle - was wearing the mask of a Death Eater, though all were garbed entirely in black with hoods pulled up. Robes, the chuunin reflected, were ill-suited to sneaking through dense forests: While Macnair's seemed to be of a cut and material that helped him minimize snags from underbrush and protruding roots and branches, the wizards following behind him weren't so lucky, and twice during the brief time Iruka was watching one of them would get caught or tripped up, making enough noise for Macnair to turn and hiss angry reminders that they were supposed to be stealthy.
The disgraced Ministry executioner thought this was stealthy? One semi-quiet man and seven noisy amateurs navigating a darkened forest by dim wandlight? How quaint.
Once the group were all facing forward again after the second scolding, Iruka dropped down behind the column. He slipped up to the wizard bringing up the rear and grabbed him, making sure to cover the man's mouth, and leapt up and away back into the trees. One carefully-moderated blow to the head later and he was laying the unconscious intruder over the base of the branch. A couple minutes later, he'd repeated the process with the next wizard up the line.
As the chuunin was readying himself for a third takedown, the fourth man from the front tripped loudly over a root, prompting another angry rebuke from Macnair, who froze upon looking back. "Where the hell are Jakobs and Fields? Don't shout for them!" he hissed hurriedly, leaving more than one of his remaining subordinates to look sheepish.
The group clumped up and backtracked a little ways, finding no sign of either of their missing compatriots nor any hint as to what had happened (it wasn't like Iruka had never done something like this before, after all). When they spread out slightly to search the area, one strayed far enough from his distracted fellows to make snatching him easy. Macnair immediately noticed this new absence when they all reconvened to share their lack of success. "Dammit, now Roose is gone! This isn't just imbeciles getting lost, there's something out there. Circle up, back to back! If you see anything move, curse it!"
Hmm... now that was a bit of a problem. While Iruka could probably take all five of his remaining targets down if he dropped into the center of their little circle, he'd learned the hard way in the Department of Mysteries that some people could be very quick with their wands. With all five armed and alert, it was just too much of a risk. On the other hand, they'd started advancing again, slowly now as they were splitting their attention between their footing and their surroundings and the game trail they'd been following wasn't really wide enough to accommodate their new formation, but Iruka couldn't really afford to simply wait and hope they went back to relaxed single-file with another group still in play.
Settling on a plan, he reached into his pouch and pulled out what he'd need, before circling wide towards the path ahead of the intruders. On his way, he deliberately allowed himself to scuff one of his footsteps a bit, just enough to be barely audible. Sure enough, Macnair's attention snapped to the general direction of where the noise had been made, his eyes narrowing. "Supersensory Charms!" he hissed.
All five black-clad figures doused their wandlights as they cast the charm to dramatically enhance their senses. Their superhuman hearing meant that they all heard the whistle of a kunai in flight, and with peripheral vision second only to the Byakugan only the two in back even needed to turn to see the knife. It was the vastly increased sensitivity to light that would prove their undoing, however, thanks to the flash bomb tied to the knife's pommel. Iruka grinned viciously at the quintuple cry of pain, shock, fear, and rage as he leapt down and swiftly knocked out all five wizards with a mix of blunt force and Stunning Hexes. Be careful when using a jutsu, he thought, or it might be used against you. I hope Ginny won't be too mad that I did, in fact, find a situation even more perfectly-suited for a flash bomb. Now, to deal with that other group...
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"Bloody wanker, thinks he's so clever," Qentin Travers grumbled as he led his four recruits on their mission to Hogwarts, "I'll show him. Time he gets out of this Forest, I'll have already got rid of those Cabinets, and any mudblood or blood-traitor fool enough to get in my way. Maybe I'll even pay a visit by that miserable old squib; getting him out the castle would clean it more'n he ever did."
After half an hour of trekking through the Forbidden Forest, Quentin had grown tired of Macnair constantly snipping at him every time his robes brushed a bush. They were in a forest, for Merlin's sake, and in the middle of the bloody night no less! Of course they'd catch their sleeves or trip over roots, that's why civilized places got rid of all this nonsense for flat, open fields or paved it over with cobbles.
And to top it all off, for all his supposed skills in the wild that had the Dark Lord assign him to this mission, Macnair couldn't even lead them in a straight line! Sure, he said he was avoiding some creature's den or following easier ground, but it was obvious he was just lost and wandering about.
So he'd told Macnair straight out that they were going wrong, and when the fool refused to see reason Travers decided to split off and go his own way. Only four of the recruits with them were smart enough to see sense, and Macnair actually laughed at him. Laughed! As if it was some great bloody joke that he'd been leading them everywhere but where they were supposed to be going!
It'd been over an hour since then, so they had to be getting close even accounting for Macnair's idiocy. After all, the Dark Lord hadn't gainsaid the executioner when he'd said the trip through the forest would take about two hours back when they were planning this mission. At least once they got to the castle proper things would go more smoothly; among the Death Eaters, only Pettigrew could possibly match Travers's knowledge of shortcuts and secret ways inside Hogwarts, and that coward would probably just try and hide somewhere like the rat he was the moment the Dark Lord let him out of his sight.
The five of them were much quieter than the full group of thirteen had been, but that was turning out to be a bit of a mixed bag. They were obviously much stealthier this way, but the quiet and the late hour also brought forward memories of all the tales Quentin had heard as a student about the horrible monsters lurking in the depths of the Forbidden Forest. He wasn't the only one getting unsettled, either - the recruits were looking increasingly nervous. Hearing what sounded like a human scream in the distance a little while ago hadn't helped.
Suddenly, there was a slight rustling a few yards into the bushes off to their left. Travers froze, then turned to his recruits. "Any of you hear- where's Coleman?!"
The three recruits started, obviously not having noticed that Coleman had wandered off - or at least, Quentin hoped the man had just wandered off... "Look around, quickly, he can't be far!"
A brief search didn't manage to find the missing Coleman, but it did manage to lose Winters. "What the bloody- Winters! Coleman!" Throwing caution and stealth to the wind in his growing fear, Travers shouted for the two missing recruits.
No reply.
A twig snapped behind him. He whirled around, wand up and ready to curse the first thing he saw. As he scanned the forest ahead, he heard Mathers cry out in shock. Turning again, he found Mathers to be alone, looking in horror at the empty spot where Jamison had just been standing moments before. "Bugger this for a lark," his last recruit snapped, and before Travers could reprimand him or curse him for his cowardice - and for abandoning him - the younger wizard disappeared into the gloom and the underbrush. Seconds later, Mathers's scream sounded through the forest before suddenly cutting off.
Quentin ran. He no longer cared about Macnair, or the mission, or the Dark Lord; all he cared about at this moment was getting away from whatever monster just took all four of his recruits, getting out of this damned forest and never setting foot in a wild place again.
Though he didn't know it yet, his latter wish was about to be answered, in a way. He'd just paused to catch his breath when what sounded like a man's voice, dripping with amusement, whispered into his ear from behind.
"Boo."
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Iruka looked down at the last of the intruders he'd just knocked out. Perhaps it had been a bit mean of him to deliberately toy with this group, but it wasn't like these were just enemy shinobi fighting for their home village - these were terrorists, murderers, sadists, and genocidal bigots. At least some of them probably deserved far worse than a little scare. It was just a little harmless fun, really.
Now, however, came the tough part. Stronger than the average wizard he might be, but no way could Iruka carry thirteen adult men by himself, and the idea of him trying to levitate them all was even more absurd. "Dobby!"
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Minerva watched wide-eyed as Albus, Hagrid, and Iruka stepped in through the castle doors. Hagrid was carrying two unconscious men under each arm, while Iruka had one over his shoulder and one levitated and Albus levitated another seven. Some time after her foreign-born colleague had departed to what she was certain was his untimely death, he'd sent them a message by house-elf that he would need help bringing back all the captured intruders before one of the more unsavory denizens of the Forbidden Forest stumbled across them. Albus had promptly set out, planning to use the extended Staff Map that Iruka sent back with the oddly-dressed elf to locate the wizards he was going to retrieve. Apparently he'd also picked up Hagrid along the way, presumably as both guide and aid - levitating seven wizards such a distance was no mean feat, but eleven might have taxed even the powerful Headmaster's abilities. She herself had remained behind just in case someone had slipped the net somehow.
Now, she took over levitating two of Albus's load as they all trooped down to the castle's dungeons. While they hadn't seen real use in many centuries (unless certain tales of Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black were to be believed) there were actual cells for prisoners. They weren't anywhere near the areas used today, of course, though Minerva had no doubt that the more adventurous students were well aware of them.
As they thoroughly searched each of the unconscious wizards and secured them in separate cells, Minerva pondered her colleague of the past six years. It had come as quite a shock when the kind, quiet Sealing teacher had revealed to the Order that he was actually a career soldier and trainer of such. Then again, it certainly explained why Albus had chosen Iruka of all people to accompany him to rescue Harry Potter two years prior, and shed new light on the startling shift in the man's behavior during the troll incident his first Halloween at the school. In some ways, she reflected, he was reminiscent of Albus as she remembered her mentor back when he was her Transfiguration teacher.
Both men showed near-infinite patience with their students, always so caring and nurturing. They treasured the children they taught, taking comfort in their innocence after witnessing the horrors of war and in building and helping people after having taken up arms against their fellow man. Threaten those children, however, and the gentle teacher would peel back to reveal the battle-tempered warrior underneath. Perhaps this was why Albus had so readily connected with the younger man - consciously or not, he recognized that kinship of spirit.
Once the prisoners were all secured, the four Professors departed, Albus sealing up the passageway behind them. As with the three student prisoners, this group would be fed by house-elves until they were released or transferred into other custody. While they could have called the Aurors in to take the men, it wasn't like the Ministry had anywhere secure to hold them. Besides, it was the middle of the night and they all had important plans for the following day that they'd want to be well-rested for.
She tried to push aside the disquiet she felt at Albus and Iruka's cryptic exchange about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and "implications".
Omake?
"-and that's the plan," Sirius explained.
Molly looked aghast. "Surely you can't be serious!"
His eyes widened as a look of manic, unbridled glee spread across his face-
"Don't even think about it." Hermione's cold tone cut across the moment as harshly as a straight razor.
Perhaps his canine Animagus form explained how thoroughly he'd perfected the 'hang-dog' look.
Omake by Sniper0sniping:
"I told Sauske about your fangirl problem," Naruto (or at least one of his Shadow Clones) said over the mirrors durring an S.E.N. meeting. "He sends his sympathies." Naruto then sighed, "apparently he has something to help."
Harry looked between the two.
Naurto lifted a box into view. "He then gave me this to send to you." In his hands was a box with a clear top displaying a long Naruto-blond wig, a pair of colored contact lenses, and a set of false buck teeth. "An ancient Uchiha disguise kit. Rumors are that even Madara used it."
A/N: Voldie saw examples of powerful shinobi, but without context he still doesn't grasp just how utterly out of his league many of them are. Then again, he wouldn't be able to accept it if he did.
I've been planning the sequence where Iruka dealt with a group of Death Eaters sneaking through the Forbidden Forest at night for literally a couple of years as of writing this chapter. So glad to finally get it written! The Death Eaters split up because I had two ideas of how to handle Iruka's takedown of the group, and couldn't decide between them. The second group was the first idea I'd had, aiming for an almost horror-movie-style vibe, but then I got the idea to have the DEs get wise after the first few disappeared and try using Supersensory Charms to try and locate their attacker only for Iruka to blind them with a flash bomb. If Macnair lives through the war, he's going to be blinking spots out of his eyes for the rest of his life - this is the second flash bomb he's been hit with while looking straight at it in the dark.
I used "Quentin" as the first name for the Death Eater called simply "Travers" in the canon in homage to another franchise. Both Quentin Traverses are scumbags that think they're the good guys.
It was when writing this chapter that I realized that many of the scenes I've most enjoyed writing were those from perspectives other than Iruka's. This is probably for a few reasons, the biggest of which would be that the "voice" I have for Iruka is fairly bland, mostly just narration. Other characters tend to show a lot more personality in their POV segments. On top of that, the scenes done from other POVs are generally more important or thoroughly-planned, so I'm not just moving the plot along to move the plot along.
Did anybody else mentally hear Iruka's "How quaint" in James Doohan's voice?
In case you're wondering (you're not), I did in fact look up what phase the moon was in on May 9th 1997.
Before you complain, I am aware that the Fantastic Beasts films decided to have McGonagall teaching at Hogwarts when Newt Scamander was a student. While this puts her age more in line with that of Dame Maggie Smith, who played her so brilliantly on screen, it doesn't track with the black-haired witch described in the books. I've chosen to ignore that bit from Fantastic Beasts and instead say that she's closer to Hagrid's age or a bit younger, so that she either wasn't a student at the same time as Riddle or at least didn't interact with him at all if she was.
I'd been meaning to include my semi-omake for a while. It baffles me that I've never seen a fic make the Airplane! reference.
Fic Recommendation: "Food Scandal" by Malicean - An ordinary lab tech on the SSD Executor gets some worrying results from a routine test; Lord Vader is Not Pleased by what these results imply, and recruits her help in expressing his displeasure.
Posted 2 March 2020
