Into chappie 4 …

Oh, and as a reply to an anonymous review, Damien, the Marauders are in the beginning of SIXTH year, and Lily was ARGUING with James, trying to convince him to stop the Boggart "attacks", K?

Dumbledore had been warned. The professors had been warned. Even the ghosts had been warned; the students, however, were not.

All the Gryffindors were jittery and jumpy the next morning, and the rest of the school were beginning to tense up for the sake of the tension in the air. They had good reason to be tense; they were waiting for the inevitable.

When the last of the students came into the Great Hall, and everyone was attending, Dumbledore stood up. There were no special events coming soon, but James had a gut feeling to what the Headmaster was to say.

"Students!" everyone looked up, "Your attention, please. I have an announcement to make." Heads were whispering with each other, and some were speculating that Dumbledore had decided to plant another Whomping Willow.

Sirius was actually relieved. If Dumbledore was announcing to "clear off" from the guards, then the pain would be much, much smaller than if the guards were giving the speech.

His stomach seemed to fall off at the next words though; "Or rather, a good couple of people you may or may now know, would like to make an announcement"

There was a scream from the Hufflepuff table as a body fell from the ceiling. It twisted and curled until it landed on two feet. The person wore a white mask with a fox face painted on it. He landed in the middle of the stage, meters in front of where Dumbledore was standing.

Three more people "poof"ed next to him, flanking him like guards.

Huh, a guards who had guards, ironic.

The male guard with a rat face visibly slouched over, and seemed to want to fall asleep. He instantly lost his air of superiority.

Six people fell from the ceiling, and landed on top of the house tables with small thuds. They seemed to be deadly incarnate.

The door swung open with an amazing "BANG!" and the rest of the protectors stood in the doorway. They were terror incarnate. Peter shrunk in between his friends, hiding himself from their view. No one blamed him, the guards were scary.

Very professional-like, the assumed Head-guard lifted up his head, and called out "OI!"

Synchronised heads turned from the door to Fox, and the guilty ones were trying to look away from him, but something about Fox made them unable to turn away. It was either a strange power, or their guilty consciences.

Fox actually had an idea; he thought it spectacular, and he needed some sort of entertainment anyway. He also knew the other ANBU were probably going to hate him for the rest of his life.

"As far as I know, all of you are … 'aware' that monsters are attacking the school…" here, snickers were heard, "but I, like you, know that is complete bullshit." Everyone shut up then.

"I, a fellow prankster, can tell when a joke is happening, so I will let whatever-the-heck happened slide." During his whole speech, he gestured appropriately.

"But!" he yelled out, and everyone jumped from the noise, "After I had reported these incidents to my leader, I have received intelligence of an ongoing bet; if all the guard's fears can be identified. So, I will let you have your fun, but I doubt any of you can find all of our fears, so you may as well give up now" oh, there was no better psychology than reverse psychology.

"Oh, and if you win, you will be rewarded, but it's a surprise" he stretched out the word and his voice went high-pitched. Many students were agitated, just bursting to rise up to the challenge, and even a few of the guards were noticeable trembling.

No one could tell with what emotion they were trembling from; fear, laughter, hate?

It was anger. They all saw the letter Tsunade sent them, letting them know of a bet she made with Hogwarts when she was guarding it many, many years ago, and after Naruto heard the contents, he ran back to his post, cackling all the way. He hadn't explained a thing; he just ordered them to be at the Great Hall when he was, and to be "very scary", were his actual words.

And now, Fox was doing one of the most stupid acts possible. There was no way in hell the guards were going to forget what he was doing. He clearly wasn't thinking, for how else he would have challenged the student to set Shape-shifters on them that could turn into their worst fears, and not think that maybe a few Tailed Beasts would make an appearance or two. Idiot.

"You have until our contract with the Headmaster expires and if you lose … well, it's going to be very painful." He giggled to himself, and some of the student's faces paled, while others were already plotting.

"So, on that happy thought … enjoy your meal!" he clapped, and the guards on the table were the first to go in puffs of smoke, then the ANBU near the door just walked away casually. Rat leaned over to Fox, and whispered loudly,

"You do know that you'll be murdered in your sleep?" then he vanished. The other two nodded their agreement before following.

As always, Fox took the fancy and flashy way out; he jumped up on the ceiling and ran on the rafters upside down and out the door.

( … )

Naruto was hiding. He was hiding from all the guards, but not the students. The students would see him before he looked around wildly, started screaming, before vanishing in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the students were terrified to discover lots of knives, pointy stars and even the occasional sword imbedded in the stone where he was standing.

Of course, the students snickered about it later. Sometimes, even the guards would snicker about it later. It was unusual to here laughter in a corridor you happened to be passing through.

Dog was wedged up in the ceiling, out of sight, in the Entrance Hall, and Akamaru sitting next to him in the shadows, just as observant as his partner. Both ANBU and dog returned to their post after the "incident", he put mildly, and he was the first one to try to murder Fox as he came out of the hall. The Kunai were still imbedded in the wall above the door, exactly where fox came out.

Dog had calmed down now, and he was observing the students with boredom. He tried to make his job more comfortable and enjoyable by listening to the gossip passed around by the students, and one piece of conversation caught his sharp ears;

"There (ACHOO!) must be a dog around here (ACHOO!) somewhere…"

"Why'd you think that?"

"I'm allergic to dogs, and I can't stop (ACHOO!) sneezing, duh!"

"Well, maybe it's one of the guards, I'm pretty sure one of them was riding a dog just now…"

"Ah, just brilliant-" the conversation went on, but Akamaru whined behind Dog. They'd been busted unintentionally. Dog slunk around the cobblestone, Akamaru tailing him. He climbed out of sight in the ceiling, but Akamaru was having trouble walking on the rafters; the stone gave way, and Akamaru fell face first onto the Entrance Hall floor.

"Akamaru!" Dog leapt down, reaching out to Akamaru, and caught him before he face-planted. It was bizarre to see the Dog and his dog hugging briefly, before Dog placed Akamaru on the ground.

"You be careful next time, alright?" Kiba soothed out, and Akamaru whined.

"I will, Dog. You shouldn't worry about me" Akamaru replied, speaking Doggese. The students had no clue what they said next, but Dog straightened up and stretched. He gestured around good naturally.

"Nothing to see here, folks. Beat it" Dog was just about to leap up back to the ceiling, when he started sneezing violently. Akamaru was growling at the direction of the door into the Great Hall, hackles raised.

The door edged open eerily, creaking slightly. The students' subconscious seemed to sense the danger as they backed away from the door. Dog crouched down into his clans fighting stance, preparing for whatever came through that door.

Time slowed down as Dog felt the shivers crawl up his spine; adrenalin coursed through his body. His eyes widened and shrunk at the same time as it came out.

His mortal enemy.

A giant "His mortal enemy".

First, it was the nose. A small, moist nose on the end of a black furry muzzle. It hovered halfway up the door as it peered out; it was the size of a large apple, but compared to the rest of its body, the nose was truly small.

The wet nose jerked several times as it absorbed the surrounding aromas, and as it sighed, more of its muzzle inched out of the door, and fangs were producing through the slippery and grotesque snarl. A deep growl emerged from its chest.

Then came the paws; two tufts of black fur with equally dark stubby claws plodded through the door, and the growls turned into snarls.

Dog knew what it was as soon as he saw the nose. He had avoided smaller versions of it since childhood, ever since that day…

It didn't matter anymore, because Dog was a freaking ANBU, for Jashin's sake! It was his duty, and currently his duty alone to protect the students of the school from harm, and it would most definitely harm to the students.

It was then Dog embraced his fear, and tackled it head on.

Literally.

As the small, black, beady eyes finally emerged from the corner, Dog leapt in the air, Akamaru following suit, and head-butted the giant beast, shattering his ANBU mask.

The force sent it back into the (thankfully) empty Great Hall, and Kiba chased after it without a second thought.

As he burst into the Great Hall, he skidded to a halt, kunai in hand and dog at heels.

It towered over Kiba it all its glory, beady black eyes leering from above, and it shifted backwards. Ever step it waddled back shook the ground. It had an extremely rotund behind, but Kiba was not fooled; that was its strongest defence and offence in its body. Its giant, black and bushy tail flicked sideways as its head was lowered to Kiba's eye level.

It pounced, swiping Kiba with its paw and missed as Kiba back-tracked. Kiba's face scrunched up in an animalistic snarl that rivalled it, and he brought his hands together.

The sudden appearance of smoke startled the giant beast, for its fear was fire, and as it clumsily landed on its rear, it was once again startled; a beast equal of its height had sunk low into a crouch, ready to pounce. The new beast could be easiest to describe as a white, two headed dog that slobbered and snarled at the mouth; both heads had eyes locked on the target and an oddly calculating look was behind it, betraying his intelligence.

The dog reared on its hind legs, and as he let out a deep, booming bark, he pounced on it, one head biting the neck, the other the shoulder. The dog kept its jaws locked as it howled in pain, and it's stubby hind legs starting kicking out, and the rest of its body twisted and convulsed.

The poor dog's eyes, all four of them, began to water from the smell coming off it. This was the main reason why Kiba and Akamaru kept away from these beasts; granted, they were almost always smaller than the one they were facing, but all were as deadly as each other. From the position Kiba's head had on it, he could clearly see the white stripes down it back down to the tip of its tail…

That began lifting up.

'Oh, shit!' both heads thought as one, and the Kiba/Akamaru immediately began backing away clumsily, and as their hinds legs stumbled over each other, they collapsed. The head that belonged to Kiba looked up at it at the exactly wrong (or right) moment, and that was when it happened … not for the first time, either.

The ten meter tall skunk sprayed its juices straight into Kiba's eyes.

( … )

Rooster hadn't had much to do in this mission; she was a part of the squadron assigned to patrol the corridors of the castle. In the shift that was immediately after Fox's little challenge to the kiddies (which he was so going to pay for, Rooster decided. She was probably going to do something extremely horrible to his ramen or something) Rooster was sharing a rotation with Dog for the first three floors inside the castle. She was hiding underneath one of the marble staircases (no one would think to look for someone there, would they?) when two normally deep and intimidating voices let out an extremely high pitched noise (was it a scream or a squeal? Rooster couldn't tell. Either way, they both lasted for five whole seconds).

By the time Rooster had madly dashed to the Entrance Hall, and stealthily and cautiously entered the Great Hall, she had built up a high level of adrenalin. And to add weight on her poor, stressed out mind, it was that time of the month, so her body was raging with hormones.

The end result was not pleasant, to say the least; the giant skunk had taken a good couple of kunai, shuriken and giant-ass windmill shuriken to the head before morphing back into a million other shapes before cowering in a dark corner, far, far away for whatever monstrosity Rooster had dwelling deep in her hear.

Rooster was now actually towering over two trembling and convulsing forms; with a stony expression, Rooster sneered down upon Akamaru and Kiba; the pathetic large white dog that looked like he was having a seizure in his sleep, and Kiba had tears streaming down his clan tattoos as his hands were clawing down his nose.

Kiba was shuddering violently as he rolled over continuously on the floor, and he was uttering out strangled yelps, and occasionally began dragging his tongue on the floor.

The sight Kiba was making in front of the PMS-ing ANBU who was extremely proud of her rank was, in one word, pathetic.

At the moment, pathetic-ness wasn't tolerated for Rooster, so she literally grabbed both dog and man (though he didn't deserve to be called a man, Rooster thought) and dragged them on their hindquarters, backtracked from the Hall and out stomped through the courtyard outside

As a peeved Rooster stomped out onto the grounds, a small group of brave students followed after her. They were also curious, and most of them had seen the giant skunk, so naturally, devoted spectators had wanted to see this through the end. All of them remembered the feeling of dread that had surfaced into their minds as Rooster stormed out of the room, and they had, and still did, wanted to know the incapacitated guards punishment.

The mask Rooster wore was an interesting one, to say the least; it was no doubt a rooster, with the yellow outline of a beak visible and an outline of a red comb was on the right side of the mask. What was the most interesting was the engraving of feathers on the white mask that depicted feathers. The feathers were jagged and they all pointed down the cheek; they enhanced the look of the eyes.

And boy, did those chocolate brown eyes spark fires; they were sharper than a razors edge when they left the Entrance Hall, opposed to the concentrating look she wore when she entered.

And as Rooster walked down the grounds, those same eyes grew sharper and sharper, even getting colder. Kiba wasn't even noticing the ground was getting rockier and sandier as he kept clawing at his own face.

The students tailing Rooster halted when she did, and that was when she was at the edge of the lake. They watched as Rooster shift her grip on Akamaru's scruff when she dragged him back a bit. She kept shuffling around her captives, as if dusting the floor with them. Then–

"You STINK!" she leant back to an impossible angle, and hurled Akamaru and a dazed Kiba into the water … more than fifty meters away.

While Kiba and Akamaru were yelping (they were doing that a lot today), Rooster craned her neck slowly to the gathered witnesses, and tilted her head slightly. "What do you want?" her voice was smooth, silky and deadly; at least three of the younger students bolted right there and then, before Rooster released her frustrations from Kiba onto them.

And back up in the castle, in one of the towers, the Headmaster of the school chuckled good-naturally when he witnessed Kiba getting face-planted into the water. He reminisced about the bet he had made with a young woman he once met many years ago, and what would happen should the (new) guardians of Hogwarts lose the bet; either way, this year would be one of the many exciting ones he ever had (or will have).