Chapter Five
The students were abuzz at Professor Nakamura's strange magic. No one had seen how she's cast most of these illusions, but the two times they'd seen her do anything was with her hands. No wand in sight. Perhaps that was an illusion as well? No one was sure, rumors and theories ran rampant at Hogwarts
Zetsu and Kisame eyed the boot warily, both nin could feel the thrum of power around it and chose to keep their distance though Zetsu seemed reluctant to leave it and had even circled like a weary shark for several hours during the last two days they'd been here.
"This is where she disappeared." Zetsu finally said.
"What do you mean disappeared?" Kisame asked.
"The earth holds memories, there have been several people coming here and two who have gone there. One of them is Konan."
Kisame snorted. "Zetsu it's a boot. It can't take people anywhere." He said, extending his arm for emphasis.
"The images don't lie." Zetsu argued. "She went there and not even the Iwa nin will touch it."
Kisame scowled, it had been unbearably hot in Earth Country. The Shark nin had gone for ages without seeing anything larger then dwindling creeks and he had become cranky and agitated in this barren wasteland of canyon and desert and wondered if the combination of intense heat and trying to lose Hidan, who was a better then either of them expected, had short-circuited the Kusa ninja's brain.
"Zetsu, it's just a piece of trash left out in the middle of nowhere by some careless merchant. It can't do anything, it can't take anyone anywhere, it can't whisk people away to some unknown land. There's probably a genjutsu around it or something. Let's look somewhere else!"
"I'm telling you it was the damn boot that took her to Scotland!" Zetsu's Darker Half insisted angrily and he grabbed Kisame's hand and put it on the boot.
"Aww fuck!" Hidan snarled as he caught sight of Zetsu and Kisame vanishing into thin air. "I'm gonna have to go after those freaks of nature aren't I?"
Grumbling he hopped down to the ground and after a moment's hesitation, touched the boot. It sucked him down so fast that he didn't even have time to cuss or utter a prayer for his soul.
As confident as Hermione felt, she was still a little nervous and very excited about this new brand of magic. She took a deep breath, eager to see what unique illusions Professor Nakamura was going to show her. She waited and waited, until she became very bored and wondered if perhaps she was somehow immune to these illusions now that she knew what to expect-
"Hermione, you've been sitting there for five minutes, class is over now."
Hermione was startled to find everyone but herself and Harry in the classroom. She got up and walked out the door only to find herself back in the classroom. A sense of realization that she had been caught in not one, but two separate illusions dispelled that strange, indescribable feeling of reality in her mind, as if she had been dreaming a life-like dream only to find that she had not quite woken up yet and was now just beginning too.
Paranoid, she suddenly realized just how easy it was to be forever caught in a waking dream.
The bell rang, signaling that class was over and Harry came to see if she was alright.
"Hermione are you alright?"
"Is class over now Harry?" She asked, rattled.
"You know it is." Said Ron, giving her a strange look. "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine." She snapped as she marched out of the room.
Ron and Harry looked at each other and shrugged.
"I wonder what she saw?" Ron mused.
"Dunno." Harry said, "but it must have really shaken her up."
The next several days were spent attacking the students minds during class when they were supposed to be reading or studying how the basics of illusionists, she had started off with graceless amateur work on them at first and had pushed them a little farther by making it more and more difficult to recognize them.
It was complicated work for their age group and Konan found herself being mildly impressed by some of her students and completely baffled by others. Still. She thought with a slight smirk, what she was doing with them now was nothing like their final test would be like before Professor Lupin returned to work.
Harry and the others were rushing for the DADA class, Professor Nakamura was more unpredictable then they had expected and no one was sure what would happen if they were on a test day. He and the others ran into her class, muttering apologies to the mildly irate woman and ignoring the snickering students who had gotten there before they had and walked over to his desk.
"Look at that. I wonder what he thinks he's doing?" Draco snickered
"Do you think he's -" Crabbe began but was rudely cut off by Draco.
"Shh! I wanna see the look on his face when he realizes what's happening." Draco shushed imperiously.
Harry was shocked to find the empty desk preoccupied and sprung out of it with a shout. The Slytherin girl shot him a look of pure contempt and Harry and the others found themselves in a bemused Professor Flitwick's class who were just finishing up before the bell rang.
Professor Nakamura walked into the classroom and shook her head.
"Come into my classroom now." She said.
They followed with trepidation into the room.
"I'm disappointed in all of you." She said quietly.
"After all this time, you should have been able to recognize the feel of genjutsu."
Draco and several of his friends high fived each other.
"As for the rest of you, you could clearly see that your classmates were caught in an illusion, yet you couldn't be bothered to break them out of it solely for your own selfish amusement. Every one of you failed your final quiz."
Just as she suspected, there was an instant uproar.
"That's ridiculous! How were we supposed to know?" Demanded a furious Hufflepuff.
"You can't fail me! Do you have any idea who my father is?" Threatened Draco.
"How could we have failed? You didn't tell us when the test would be. It's not fair!"
"Be quiet." Konan said, while the class stared at her.
"Can anyone remember what I told you the other day?" She asked.
For a moment there was a rebellious silence, which Konan ignored then a teary, Hermione Granger raised her hand.
"You said that an illusionist could attack any time and that you had to be aware at all times." She said.
"Correct." Konan confirmed, "You knew that you were having a test today. A master of illusory arts can subtly weave together their vision with reality, making indistinguishable the obvious and inconspicuous to the unobservant. "
The portion of the class that understood that she had issued a warning beforehand yesterday was dumbfounded by the subtle simplicity of her deception today.
But while most Academy Students and Genin would have vowed to work harder, or at least feel a little ashamed, the spoiled brats either sulked or grumbled about the unfair treatment. Konan shook her head in disgust, feeling glad that by tomorrow morning the DADA class would be out of her hair.
The next morning, a bemused Remus called her to his office. She waited patiently while he looked over at the stack of papers in front of him. Observing that he was wan and weak.
"So." He said at long last. "I see you somehow failed the entire class yesterday." He had been truly surprised to see that, seeing how it was not even something Severus Snape would have done. He glanced over at her face, expecting to see disgust or smug amusement.
There was no expression whatsoever as she answered softly.
"Yes."
"Care to tell me why?" He wondered.
"They failed to meet the requirements, some even doing so willfully, the full report of their work with me is on your desk Professor Lupin."
Remus looked at her mouth agape then shut it again, unsure what to say as she returned to her own class. He picked up her report and began reading.
As the days went by Konan was both relishing these new opportunities and at the same time feeling restless, edgy. Sometimes it was nothing more then a mild annoyance, at other times it was a rage as rabid as any of her former temper-tantrum throwing colleagues. It made her head pound and her heart thump, she felt hot and irritable and paranoid and her hand spasmodically clutched the hilt of the kunai she kept under her cloak. Meditation did nothing for it and sparring relieved it temporarily.
She kept it under wraps during class to the best of her ability but on her worst days the students could feel it, as palpable and invisible as the wind and they became uneasy around her. Though she never lashed out at student or staff member, it continued to fester inside her and it wasn't long before one person unleashed her unnamed agitation and her wrath with it.
She had come to the Staff Room during lunch feeling claustrophobic and aggressive, her offensive aura was keeping away her fellow teachers but one had elected to sit next to her, causing her head to turn towards him in a way that resembled a wary animal.
The moment their eyes locked images flooded his mind,
A little girl ran into the arms of a tall, slender blue-haired who picked her up and swung her around in his arms, while she babbled and tugged happily on his sleek locks as though almost unable to believe he was here.
He moved through that particular childhood memory a little and was forced to stop at the next one-
He saw that same little girl, face streaked with tears as she stepped around the bodies of the same blue-haired man and a woman who was too young to be her mother, but perhaps was old enough to be her sister or perhaps an aunt or a cousin.
The smell of smoke and heat filled his nostrils as she slipped down the back alleyway, trying desperately to muffle her choking sobs in a large moldering, city that was erupting into violence all around her-
He moved on again, and he saw a young, long-haired blonde man who was lying naked next to her in bed, lips in a sultry pout as he whispered something in the shell of her ear, making her quiver in anticipation-
Moving forward again, he saw a group of nine men, the air in the room radiating with raw power and fierce malevolence that would have cowed Lord Voldemort himself.
He moved on again, watching as she drew back her fist-
At that moment pain bloomed in his jaw and before Severus could comprehend what had happened, let alone react to it, she kneed him hard in the gut and promptly flung him over the table and he winced as he felt the cool cobblestone floor scraping his back before she pounced on him, hand clutching his throat. He had expected to see fear, or at least fury, not mild annoyance…and yet something told him that if he dared to even breathe wrong she would and could murder him if she chose.
"I don't know how you managed to infiltrate my mind but I guarantee that if you do it again, you will be made to regret it." She said, icy venom radiating through her voice.
"Why?" Severus managed to growl. "Do you have secrets you wish to hide?"
"Of course. We all do." She answered and if you are wise, you will not attempt to discover my secrets."
With that she got off and walked away as though nothing at all had happened.
But something had happened, Severus Snape had opened the gates to her tightly held emotions and Konan was making a dignified retreat to her room before anyone could see it.
Author:
Sorry for the short chapter peeps.
We'll get back to this drama-filled scene next chap.
Perhaps Konan was just a little harsh on them huh?
Stay tuned.