Early in the morning, right after finishing the appropriate morning routine, Mana headed out for the Konohagakure hospital. Normally only visiting the blacksmith was in mind for that day – she needed to know from a professional if the specific miniature gear-work mechanism that she and her father were working on was possible. Even if it was possible it was unlikely that Mana could make it, even with father’s guidance. Father was incredibly crafty, he was known for his skill in tinkering acquired over a lifetime. Skill of that magnitude couldn’t be picked up in just a couple of years.
After entering the hospital, and some time before, Mana had to deal with people wishing to greet her or talk to her, ask her when the next show would be. By then it had become the girl’s normal routine so it wasn’t a big deal. Just a minor hindrance, in terms of how long it took compared to the simple idea of it that Mana had. It was supposed to be just a short visit, in and out after a brief talk. After hearing how Hisako was hurt Mana wanted to see her friend by herself.
“Hey… You’re Konoha’s Sorceress right?” the lady in the medical ninja uniform sitting by the table at the reception smiled, looking excited to see Mana visiting the hospital.
“Ummm… Yeah. I just… I’m not sure if I can even do that but my friend’s been brought from Kumogakure, pretty banged up from what I heard, could I see her by any chance?” Mana struggled out to ask this of the lady. Usually it wasn’t like anyone could just waltz in and see people, especially the people who were in really bad condition.
“Oh… You speak of the Yoruma girl? Sorry, normally you could do that once her condition is stable but… I’m afraid she just slipped out from the hospital, we’ve been informed that she checked into the Administration as “in active duty”. You’ll probably find her at home at this moment, or drinking from the early morning before getting into a fight, as Yoruma are known to do, Sorceress-chan…” the nurse looked really willing to help Mana out, whether it was because of her job description or particular fondness of Mana’s craft as a stage magician remained unknown.
A little saddened that this sidequest of hers ended up being prolonged even more Mana left the hospital building. She probably could’ve went to see Eiju but… She wasn’t sure that she wanted or even could see him. She wasn’t angry at him, what she told Kiyomi was true and if the Yamanaka, whom Mana considered a friend, decided to start a silly rebellious relationship with the newly appointed medical ninja she’d support her friend all the way, if that was what would’ve made her happy.
“Oy, well you’re someone I didn’t expect to see today!” Eiju’s voice made cold sweat run down Mana’s neck and down her back.
“Hey…” she greeted him half-heartedly.
“So… You willing to check yourself at last? You know they won’t let you out on a mission unless I tell them you’ve been examined and you’ve skipped hell knows how many of those examinations already… It’s time to decide, whether you want a shot at going back or not?” Eiju popped a pill. Mana looked surprised to see that he was still popping something after his regenerative tissue was removed by using Mana as a living tool for it…
“Didn’t the tissue die? What do you still need poison for?” Mana glanced at him slightly but only out of curiosity.
“People sometimes drink even if they’re not alcoholics, lovely, you were right – my tissue died but my sickness came back. It’s no worry, there’s still a couple of years till it’ll flip me over…” Eiju laughed out.
“If you want to poison yourself may as well pick up drinking or smoking, bad habits of normal people. For all the slack you can’t seem to cut me for my indecisiveness, you can’t decide if you want to live or die yourself…” Mana snapped back at him angrily, she turned back to face the young man she used to hate so much. She started to dominate the conversation, she noticed his stance faltering so the magician closed her distance and stood on her toes to somewhat close the distance between her face and his.
“I don’t hate you anymore, I’m not mad at you anymore. You saved your life without asking anyone else at my expense, may as well own it and not make the loss of my gift for nothing. If you die of taking poison I’ll bring you back and kill you again. My gift is running down your veins, you’re the only person I managed to help throughout my entire life, the only one whom I really helped all the way. You will NOT die on me!” Mana cracked down on the medical ninja angrily.
“Alright…” Eiju sighed, he leaned over as if he was about to throw up but he managed to keep the contents of his stomach in.
“How have you been holding up? Heard you became a medical ninja and sold your cheap butt off to Hanada-san?” Mana calmed down a bit and asked Eiju as if he was her friend.
“Yeah, usually there’s a pretty messy procedure involved with medical students becoming medical ninja, since I was a Quack and wanted to legitimize I could apply for the spot with just a single exam. One might say legitimization into a village ninja from being a rogue itself was the hard part – lots of questions and lots of talks with a lotta blokes…”
“I’m sure Hanada-san made it very easy for you, friendly advice, since you’re actually somewhat dear to Kiyomi we brought you back because we wanted you to move past your old life. Don’t you dare return to being Hanada-san’s personal slave medical ninja…” Mana threw somewhat rudely at Eiju before deciding that she wasted enough time and may as well have moved on.
“I’ll have that in mind, lovely, thanks… So you think blondie still thinks I’m hot?” Eiju asked playfully.
“Ever heard of this guy named Shikio?” Mana asked coldly after turning around and facing Eiju again.
“Shikio? Can’t say I did? Wait, wasn’t he that heroic legend guy? The one in all the movies and plays? Chicks keep inviting me to them… Or they would theoretically if I knew anything about any “chicks”…” the medical ninja pulled a quite frankly pathetic save of his own ass, as he was known to do.
“Yeah… He’s tall, muscular and strong, brave and heroic, really lovely beard. Thing is – every girl of ages ten and above had a poster of him around their room at some point. They knew it’d never happen, there were a million reasons why they would’ve never became the brides of Shiki, the fact that he wasn’t even real being but one of them. Still, they obsessed over him, they checked him out and dreamed about him because he was just a dreamy guy. Point is… When I see her and the topic turns to you – you’re her Shikio. It’s not that she finds you attractive or sees you as the love of her life, you’re her dream of rebellion against her clan rules, a living embodiment of it.” Mana explained before starting to walk away again.
Last she saw of Eiju the man kept standing by the hospital back door pathetically, desperately trying to keep the contents of his stomach inside. So he wasn’t a complete dickbag? He had guilt over what he had done plaguing him from inside, the guilt that worked in combination with his lethal terminal sickness which’d claim his life before too long. Those two combined made him engage in self-destructive behavior. Mana sighed. She didn’t want to admit but him and Kiyomi getting together and striving to impress each other would be healthier for the two of them: Eiju would stop trying to kill himself and at least make an effort to look as good as he could with his natural born handsomeness, Kiyomi would finally embrace her dreams of rebelling and they’d stop burning her up from inside…
Love life was complicated, what could Mana ever know being just a fourteen year old stage magician who had more attempts at her life than boys showing any interest in her…
Walking around the Yoruma district was really dangerous, Yoruma were quite violent people. Hisako wasn’t too far off from what a normal Yoruma was like. Normally it wouldn’t be too correct to try and generalize people by their clans, even if people shared their clan they weren’t all just the same as the common traits amongst their clan members. That being said, Yoruma were more alike than some other clans. If clan members weren’t all like their common traits, how come Hisako was exactly like that? No. Mana knew better than that, her Yoruma traits were just a façade. Something to make the girl look worse than she actually is, something to distance herself from the rest of the world. Mana walked into a small inn, an inn in the Yoruma district no less.
The idea was to ask around, see if any of those drunkard brawlers knew anything about Hisako but the moment the girl entered the inn hall she instantly regretted the decision. It was filled with the worst looking sort of ninja one could find. Despite all of them having Konoha forehead protectors none of them looked like ninja, all of them looked like killers and most definitely all of them displayed a similar killing intent feeling to them like Tanshu-sensei used to have, except much weaker.
“Oy! What’s a little girl doing in a fucking inn!? She doesn’t look like one of ours!”
Similar yells started coming from each side of the inn. Mana shook in her shoes, she was afraid, she had a good reason to be. Yoruma were the worst kind of people one could meet: brutal, always angry and looking for a fight. They were just as likely to drink you under the table as they were to kill you on first sight. Just for the kicks of it.
“Ey! The little bitch ain’t talking to us! Wait a sec! I think… Yeah, she’s that magician girl ain’t she? What, did you come to perform here!? Alright then, dance for us!” some idiot yelled out tossing a knife right where Mana’s foot was, had the man not been so idiotically smashed he’d have stuck his hunting knife right into the girl’s foot, now she just barely managed to track his hand moving. Her eyes, her reaction time was so horrible! She’ll find her death in a place like this…
A shorter looking fellow stood up, he was toying around with a knife he still had some cheese on. He was older than most, maybe in his early sixties, one of his eye was completely white and judging from the scars it may have been due to a slash. The other one was pretty dimmed out as well, he must’ve been completely blind at this point.
“It’s alright, girl, if that’s your job, perform for those old fuckers, if you’re here for a drink you’ve come to the wrong damned place…” he slithered out in such petrifying and shallow husk of a voice that Mana’s heart froze just hearing it. Even if this man spoke of toast, one would’ve been afraid for their life. How many could this man have killed? Hundreds? Thousands? No. This must’ve been the effect of his killing intent… Mana’s lack of appropriate chakra control made it really hard to deal with that pressure in the air.
“What’s wrong, why are you silent? Are you mocking us?” the man asked silently, so quietly that Mana could barely make out what he was saying and yet that somehow just made his acknowledgment of her existence that much more scary.
“Just gut her already, we’ve gutted kids for less… Nothing runs back home to mommy faster than a gutted kid!” some drunkard yelled out from the side.
“I’m looking for someone…” Mana finally managed to break the immense pressure on her chest and say something. The sheer collection of killing intents in that place scared her to Hell. Just what kind of an inn would be full of drunkards in the early morning!?
“Well… I sure as hell hope it’s death, because that’s all I can give you” the old man husked out. “If you say one more word, I will. Leave. Now”
Mana wanted to leave, she was worried about Hisako though, her friend left without recovering, she was wandering around a region like this. A dangerous and a really nasty district. It may have been smaller than a couple of streets but it was still the scariest place to be in Konoha.
“It’s…” Mana tried to say something but she heard that horrifying buzz in the air – that sound of steel whizzing right before the inevitable sensation of pain followed. One that was to shock the one on the receiving end so much that it froze their entire body for a moment, almost like they were shocked. Her body felt so stiff, it was like she was in a body of an old woman’s, without her chakra control the magician couldn’t have possibly dodged a fast attack like that.
A loud thud made Mana break out of her shock. A slightly taller feminine figure stood in front of her. The woman who saved the magician was covered in bandages and plasters on her head, the entire upper part had bandages tightly wrapped and one of the eyes of the young woman was covered with a large chunk of compress as if the eye was really injured. Strangely enough the raven haired woman also wore a poncho of sorts that covered the bandages of her lower body.
Even in her severely battered state Hisako managed to catch the dagger coming straight at Mana’s chest by just catching it in her hand by the blade. She managed to focus her chakra control and augment her body so precisely that it surpassed the strength and speed of the assailant and let her hand remain uncut. Mana nodded in gratitude for her friend but the addition of Hisako’s killing intent pressed against her chest even more.
“You old bag of dicks, the magician bitch can’t talk because of all of your fucking killing intents. Stop being such a creepy old fuck and let the girl go home…” the raven haired Yoruma hissed out angrily. Hisako’s voice was thicker, perhaps more masculine as if her throat had great pressure applied to it recently. It just added to her intimidation factor though.
“I sense weakness in you… I could take you right here, fill you with holes this moment. When a Yoruma’s blade is stopped we must fight, you know the code!” the old man yelled out angrily, spitting some slobber up on himself from his blind rage.
“I’d gladly fight you if you weren’t such a blind cuntslammer, you’ll poke your own eye with the elk trophy in the corner if we go at it and yet somehow you’ll probably see better if you do!” Hisako angrily yelled out and back at the old man.
“You’re worried for my safety, hatchling? Look at your…” before the man could finish his sentence Hisako punched him out with a single strong thrust of her fist right into the man’s teeth, her hand got so deep into it that for a moment Mana thought that Hisako would punch a hole through the old man’s head.
Mana shook and took a couple of steps back leaving the inn and finally catching some breath from the overwhelming shock of all those killing intents. Hisako left shortly after.
“Don’t worry, that’s just about how all drinking sessions go, that old fart will wake the fuck up, laugh at it and keep drinking because he has no teeth to eat with… Rooster’s raging cock! I opened my wounds…” the woman cursed looking at her bleeding fists. Mana reached into her pouch and removed a medical food pill from it, handing it for the Yoruma.
“Fucking hell! You’ve got one of those? Fuck, how much money do you make for those shows!? Or is it one of your yearly quota? Can’t be, you and the blond-bitch ate two in the forest… Fuck… I can’t take this…” Hisako looked at the black marble in Mana’s hand. The magician quietly shoved her hand closer to the assassin’s chest before Hisako took it and chewed it up. Soon the woman reached for the bandage on her eye and removed it revealing a perfectly healthy eye, she also stretched out as if she had no more pain from the previous fight.
“Thanks… I just wanted to see you, maybe talk about what happened a bit… It’s been though lately, shouldn’t be but it is…” Mana decided that just giving her friend one of the most expensive tools a ninja could carry in their kit was not quite enough for an expression of her gratitude.
“Boo-fucking-woo… You make enough money to hire me as your hitwoman to snuff out all of those old faggots. Your face is known all around the village and some people outside of it. You’re Little Miss Idol here, fucking own it” Hisako angrily stopped Mana’s attempt at letting her feelings out. “I don’t get your problems and I never fucking will, I’m a different person, a worse one? Most likely. A hopeless one? More likely than not. Thing is I’m different, stop wasting your time treating me as your friend and leaning on my shoulder”
“So… What happened in Kumo? Who was that guy?” Mana asked curiously trying to regain some of her friendship with Hisako by at least talking about one thing the Yoruma loved – fighting.
“I’m not sure he was even a man… He was large, like… Really large and brutish but his strength… It wasn’t normal, he wasn’t strong – he grew stronger the more we fought! The more I hit him, the stronger he became and my swords only cut through his skin, it’s like his body absorbed the blows past that point. Fistfighting him was useless…” Hisako lifted her hand up, loud chirping noises came from her arm as lightning chakra formed around her hand.
“I hit him with this, a technique I ripped off from another technique, it was like I hit a brick wall with a toothpick… Around Kumogakure, when they gave me the emergency first aid before moving me to Konoha, they considered him a living legend of some sort, a living myth. Some urban legend who comes and kills people sometimes, completely randomly. He killed my target despite having no reason to, he left me alive despite my most genuine attempts to kill him… He’s the only man in the world I truly fear just because I know nothing about what he is exactly. He’s one of those guys whom when you encounter you just give up on trying to beat and feel lucky you just survived” Hisako stopped talking, Mana was surprised to see so much feeling from her mostly emotionless or just usually enraged friend.
Hisako was really scared, her face was turning around, her muscles were twitching and turning in ways they weren’t used to and she was so close to firing off torrents of tears.
“It was nice seeing you again. Thanks for not letting me butcher that fucking kid, Hokage said I might get promoted soon, that mission was a good boost… Thanks for the pill too, I’m still calling you some kind of “bitch” though… Idol-bitch is growing old so I’ll work with “Magic-bitch” for now…” Hisako changed back to her usual cocky and rude self and turned towards a large but really neglected house.
“I wouldn’t accept anything else…” Mana smiled waving farewells to her friend. Right before the girl turned around and walked away Hisako turned back with an annoyed smile.
“How fucking dicks were those fucking old fucks?” Hisako almost laughed out.
“Real “fucking dicks”. I really like the district of your clan though, it has a nice classical feel to it…” Mana smiled back at Hisako as the two parted ways. The assassin headed to her home to train more now that her bones and her busted body was healed by Mana’s generosity and the magician headed to the best known blacksmith in the village to continue her life as a weakling civilian. At least she closed the old chapter of her life before beginning a new one…
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