Bab 24: Chapter 28: 1-18: Spar
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.
As the training session wound down, Professor Dumbledore stood from his chair. "A most impressive lesson, Professor Umino, and quite informative. Now, before you dismiss your students, what do you say to giving them a bit of a show?"
Iruka laughed, immediately understanding what his employer was suggesting. "Sounds good to me. You three, head to the entry area; the Headmaster and I will want full use of the room." Turning to Dumbledore, he continued. "I had Professor Flitwick teach me the Ferrumollia Charm earlier this week, and I've made sure to put it on everything I'm carrying today for the sake of safety."
As the Headmaster strode calmly towards the center of the training area, he nodded. "A sensible precaution, given your apparent fondness for edged weapons. For your information, children, the Ferrumollia Charm was created by Beaumont Stuart in the twelfth century. It acts similar to a localized combination of a Stinging Hex and a Cushioning Charm on the edge and point of a blade, and was created to help wizards of the time hone their swordplay in safety despite practicing with actual blades. I am curious though, Professor, how your people handle safety for such things?"
"It depends on the skill level of the people involved," Iruka replied with a shrug. "If they're relatively inexperienced, they use blunt training weapons; getting hit still hurts and bruises, but that acts as incentive to dodge or block. For those at a higher level, they'll sometimes choose to use live blades, trusting that their opponents will be able to adequately protect themselves. That's especially common in more open spars, since many of our forms of attack can cause quite a bit of damage if they get a solid hit in; you still need to practice, so you just have to rely on your sparring partner's skill."
"Not entirely dissimilar from magical dueling, then," commented Dumbledore, who now stood across from Iruka, both men near the center of the room and facing each other at a distance of around ten meters. As he drew his wand, he spoke. "Perhaps, until we have a better grasp of each others' capabilities, we should begin at a minimal level and gradually ramp up?" At Iruka's nod, the elder wizard bowed, his bow returned by the chuunin. Once both men were again upright, and in a ready stance, he cast.
A single bright-red spell leapt from Dumbledore's wand, heading straight at Iruka. At those distances, though, it was absurdly easy for him to simply lean out of the way. He made sure to leave several extra centimeters of clearance, though; it was inefficient to dodge by more than strictly necessary, and many times the smart move was to dodge by so little that an attack still grazed you, but he didn't yet have enough experience to know exactly where the 'edges' of the spell were. Misjudging a dodge and going down to the very first spell would not be the most auspicious start to his magical combat training.
The next attack was a volley of spells, in several different colors. This time, rather than dodge in place, Iruka began running what would trace a wide circle around his opponent. After evading a few more spells, he decided it was time to start fighting back. His first attack was a single shuriken, on a shallowly-curved trajectory, which was knocked aside by an absent flick of the Headmaster's wand. Until he had a better measure of how spells left the wand, their angles and movements and areas, the chuunin felt it better to keep his distance to buy more time to dodge. Of course, this also gave his opponent more time to defend, but for now both were trying to probe each others' defenses and measure their attacks. Besides, powerful wizard or not, Iruka doubted that Albus's 110-year-old bones would be able to withstand even genin-level taijutsu for long.
After twenty or thirty seconds of trading increasing numbers of spells and bladed weapons, Iruka had made his way around to the pool side of the room. He dashed back in a zigzag pattern, weaving seals as he went, before leaping into the pool and completely submerging himself. Using the concealment provided, the chuunin produced a single water clone, then began forming a cloud of mist to obscure the entire area.
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Albus was curious as to why his opponent had retreated into the water, before a mist like that described at the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match began to form over the pool. Hearing another splash, he cast a quick Ventus to disperse the mist and reveal Iruka standing on top of the water. While it was certainly an impressive feat, the question still remained: What had been the point of this move?
The Headmaster's contemplation was broken as the shinobi again began circling him. More of his small blades flew in small groups, but were still easily blocked with shields or wide-area banishing spells. If anything, they seemed somewhat easier to block now than before, and Iruka's speed had dropped fractionally. Perhaps something the man had done was particularly draining or fatiguing?
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Iruka watched, Disillusioned, from where he crouched on the wall. He'd made sure to cast the charm on himself before he and his clone emerged from the water together, and followed up with an immediate Drying Charm on himself, before using the moment when the Headmaster (as he'd expected) used a wind spell to disperse the mist to disguise his leap onto the wall. Now he remained carefully still to minimize his visible presence, and stayed well above the height where spells were striking; it would be fairly pointless to use a decoy only to get hit by an attack that missed said decoy, after all.
Using his connection to his clone, he directed it to continue his previous circling pattern until it was well on the far side of his opponent, though not directly on the opposite side as he still wanted to be able to see Albus's wand hand. Now, he figured, was a good opportunity to see how a wizard would react to someone attempting to close into melee range.
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The cat-and-mouse game continued until Iruka abruptly changed course, now moving swiftly towards Albus in an erratic zigzag charge. Considering the martial arts routines practiced earlier, and the shinobi's use of bladed weapons, he suspected that letting the man get in close would be particularly ill-advised. That said, many saw the Supreme Mugwump's age and presumed that he was a feeble old man. In an instant, a plan formed.
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The Headmaster continued casting at the clone, but seemed unable to score a hit, until it closed to within striking range. At this point, the older man hesitated. It was only for a split second, but that was a split second too long. The clone swung a kick towards his head, though he intended to pull the blow at the last second to avoid causing injury. To Iruka's surprise, however, Dumbledore smoothly slipped under the kick, which only managed to remove the wizard's tall conical hat. The chuunin realized that he'd been underestimating the physical vitality of the elder man, forgetting how even venerable shinobi often remained far more spry and capable than their appearance would suggest. Still, he had the clone press its attack.
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Ducking beneath the blow, Albus didn't give his assailant time to follow up, instead casting a rope binding spell. At such close range, there was no time to dodge the eagerly seeking ropes that soon had the younger man cocooned from bicep to thigh. That is, until he seemingly collapsed into a puddle of water...
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Seeing the moment of shock and distraction, Iruka took his opportunity to hurl two handfuls of shuriken. The two were sent out to opposite sides on a wide, arcing path, to bracket their target and require him to defend in two directions at once. Dumbledore, it seemed, was up to the challenge, as a golden dome of light briefly sprang into existence and blocked the incoming blades.
Once the dome vanished, a wave of energy from the Grand Sorcerer's wand left Iruka illuminated in an aura of light that clearly marked his shape and position. Moments later, he felt his Disillusionment falling away, apparently canceled by his opponent's spellwork. The chuunin responded by resuming his run, this time along the wall.
Deciding it was time for a bit of an experiment, the Leaf-nin flashed through more handseals, weaving one of his go-to jutsu.
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Albus watched as his opponent ran on the wall - and even knowing he could do that, it was still remarkable to watch - and brought his hands together in a series of strange but clearly well-practiced gestures. He readied his wand, suspecting that these gestures may be the ninja's equivalent of wand motions.
Sure enough, he suddenly felt something trying to worm its way through his Occlumency shields. It was subtle, and he suspected that anyone without significant skill in the Mind Arts wouldn't even notice the apparent attempt to warp his perceptions.
Clearly expecting him to be distracted, Iruka once again threw two handfuls of his stellate projectiles. Albus again countered with a dome shield, but less than a second after he released it he felt a combined sting and impact on his chest. Realizing he must have been somehow successfully struck, he lowered his wand and called out, "I yield!"
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Slowing his movement, the younger Professor dropped smoothly back to the floor, and jogged over with a friendly smile. "I take it that your Occlumency caught my attempt at distracting you?"
Albus chuckled. "Indeed," he replied, "though I dare say that it was subtle enough that many would not have been so fortunate. I am curious both about what its effects would have been otherwise, and especially about how you apparently managed to score a hit against me."
"Well, to answer your second question first, I actually cast two Disillusionment Charms."
Glancing down towards his feet, the Headmaster waved his wand and revealed one of Iruka's kunai lying Disillusioned at his feet. "Quite clever, I must say! My attention was so much on your throwing stars that I didn't notice the hidden knife following behind. You saw my response to your first such volley, and judged the timing of your throws to hit me just after my shield dropped. The shield itself would also have made it even harder to see the knife, as the slight distortion left by a Disillusioned object would have been lost in the distortion caused by looking through the shield."
Iruka nodded. "As far as your other question goes, that was a genjutsu, a hypnotic illusion. The particular one I used is called 'Magen: Jigoku Kooka no Jutsu', which translates roughly as 'Demonic Illusion: Descending Hell Technique'. It creates an illusion of a huge fireball falling from the sky, complete with a feeling of radiated heat. I figured that few things can compel somebody's attention quite like fire, and if the illusion got past your mental defenses your response would tell me about how you'd handle a real fire-based attack."
The Headmaster beamed. "So you decided to probe my defenses in two different ways with one attack; most efficient of you. We'll have to discuss that water golem you used at some point as well - it made for quite the effective diversion. For now, I believe we have students to attend to."
Turning back to said students, Iruka saw all three standing there open-mouthed in amazement. As much as he wished he could manage an innocent look, he knew his smile was more than a little smug. "What, you've never seen a spar before?
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After dismissing a trio of students that were only now beginning to grasp some of what their teachers were truly capable of, the two veteran educators discussed each of the abilities, items, and tactics they'd used during the spar. Both agreed that it would be better to avoid pushing things further until they'd had an opportunity to determine under more controlled conditions how readily various attacks could be defended against. To that end, they arranged to meet back at the Room shortly after the end of term (since both would be much less busy at that point) to demonstrate and test various attacks and defenses.
Before they left, the Headmaster decided to indulge his curiosity and asked Iruka to make another attempt with the same genjutsu. This time, he deliberately allowed it through his Occlumency barriers, and confirmed that it would have indeed been a very compelling distraction.
OMAKE! Okay, not really, just a less-meticulously-researched scene out of chronological order.
Wizard and shinobi were back in the room discussing methods they each could have used during the spar.
"Well," Albus replied, "were I more serious in our little spar I would have begun attempting to restrict your mobility." A lazy flick of his wand created a patch of mirror-smooth ice nearby. "Ice would normally be my first choice for such things, but given the fact that you can stand on water I suspect that you're able to compensate for poor footing?"
Iruka nodded. "It can take a bit more focus, and the level of control required depends on just how compromised the footing is, but in general things like ordinary ice aren't a big problem. Some ninja and ninja animals - I'll explain that later - are able to create chakra-based or chakra-infused lubricants or adhesives, and those often require special techniques or training to deal with."
The Headmaster looked thoughtful. "I know of several potions that could perhaps be similarly effective, but that would require a considerable amount of advance preparation, not to mention being prohibitively expensive to cover any meaningfully large areas. Perhaps... perhaps if I could not make you unable to cross an area I could instead make you simply unwilling to do so..." Another wave of his wand and the ice vanished, before the stone extended upwards into razor-sharp blades that looked almost like dry grass.
The chuunin pondered the sight. "That would be a lot more problematic, yeah. I know some people that could plow right through it, their defenses being strong enough that it wouldn't bother them, but I'd have to either avoid it or deal with it somehow. The easiest way..." A quick series of hand seals later he was directing a blob of water from the pool to settle over the spiked area, deep enough to bury the blades.
Albus watched in fascination. "So those different claspings of your hands serve a similar role to wand movements, I take it?"
This was met with a waggled hand. "Sort of. Hand seals help guide the manipulation of chakra. It's theoretically possible to do jutsu without them, like point-casting, but that's the kind of thing that tends to take decades of practice to pull off; you need to learn exactly how your chakra is molded to create the effect, then train yourself to do it without the aid. Other than a few relatively easy or essential jutsu, almost nobody ever bothers to go that far - usually we just work to cut down on the number of seals needed or increase how quickly we can run through them."
"Anyway," the younger man continued, "let me show you one of the jutsu I'd use if I wanted to go more aggressively on offense. There's a reason that illusion I tried during the spar would be believable back home..."
A/N: First, no, this does not mean that Iruka can beat Dumbledore in a straight fight. It means that in a fight where he knew more about magic than Dumbledore did about ninjutsu, and could combine the two, he was able to catch Dumbledore off-guard while neither of them were fighting seriously.
Second, regarding the Elder Wand: Sorry to disappoint some of you, but Iruka is not its new master. Magic is heavily influenced by intent, and neither participant in this spar was going in with their intent focused on victory; both sought first and foremost to learn, and didn't really care who won. There are countless events that could potentially be argued as a 'defeat', from failing to push through a new law to something as trivial as not getting the prize in a Christmas Cracker, but these do not transfer ownership of the Deathstick. If Iruka had left one of his kunai live, and deliberately used that one as his Disillusioned attack, then he would be able to claim the wand because he was able to trick its current owner into allowing him to kill them. He'd also get it if he and/or Dumbledore had taken the spar more seriously and really cared about winning.
Third, the Ferrumollia Charm is my own creation (though it may have been partially inspired by the Inheritance Cycle and/or robst's "A Different Halloween"), but the genjutsu Iruka tried to use does come from the anime (who'd have thought filler would actually be good for something?).
I've added a snippet of the later meeting as a pseudo-omake. Black Victor Cachat suggested showing a later spar where the two could be freer with their spells/jutsu, but I decided to go this route for a couple reasons. First was that I'm trying to keep as much as possible of the magic/jutsu used in this fic consistent with and supported by canon sources, and quite simply that would be really hard to do with Albus Dumbledore cutting loose. Second, it would feel too similar to this spar, like I was re-treading the same ground, and I'd rather try and keep my action sequences distinct from each other. Third, there really wasn't a good place I could find to slip it into the material I'd already written without seriously disrupting the flow.
Fic Recommendation: "The Assassin Wore White" by apAidan - A short fic that makes it obvious why neither Voldemort nor his followers ever targeted St. Mungo's personnel.
Posted 25 March 2018
Current WIP Chapter: 53/54
Edited 8 April 2018: Added 'Omake'
Current WIP Chapter: 56
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