“So you guys are leaving already?” Menna happily yelled out stopping the Konoha four from entering the long pass to the Sunagakure gate.
“We’ve received answer from Konoha, Lady Fifth wishes us to further investigate the Box’s location, nothing specific, just check some clues, tie up all loose ends…” Shimo shared surprisingly a lot of details with the Sand team that he didn’t trust previously.
“Oh, so that’s what you were doing in the desert. Did you guys seriously expect to find the Box of Ultimate Bliss in that old wreck of stone?” Tiwul laughed before sticking out her tongue rudely, acting almost like a monkey spewing air and slobber through the mouth just to playfully appear rude.
“Hmph, looking for stupid fairytales instead of training and developing real skills, is that what Konoha has become now?” Tala sarcastically bit the Konoha team as well walking out from behind Menna’s shadow. Even while his personality and the content of his words could’ve been picked up as offensive he had a rather warm if not a little challenging smile suggesting that his bite was more of a toying nature.
“I suppose we’ll see during the Chuunin Exams just which village’s method is actually stronger” Kouta smiled closing his eyes and raising his fist up closer to Menna who smiled and bumped the medical ninja. Mana remained silent throughout the entire exchange but not because she was still sad, she had no right to be.
This entire short exchange of words before the four turned around and moved through the pass heading outside the village was something that the magician wished to preserve in her memory and carve into her heart. The young of old warring villages saying warm farewells after only having met less than a week ago, already having formed some sort of bonds and connections.
That was beautiful, after witnessing that moment Mana wished to experience that day countless times. Moments like this would have made the world closer to the world she wished to see, world without war or suffering. During either of the Great Ninja Wars any Konoha ninja would have been in danger in Sunagakure, there would’ve been endless threats to take their lives and claim on their bounties even if as genin they weren’t worth much.
“Are you OK today, Mana-chan? You seemed to have been quite distressed yesterday” Kouta noted walking up closer to the magician.
“It’s alright, I just… Have you ever felt like your own body would betray you? Not only your body but also your mind, your entire essence does the opposite you wish to do and then you do not understand what you even are anymore…” Mana spoke up, shortly peeking back just to see if Meiko and Shimo weren’t listening in, she didn’t really wish to share with anyone but Kouta who appeared to be dealing with Mana’s problems in a way that seemed most appropriate at the time for the magician.
Meiko was a person who wished to fix everything, punch through everything. She was someone who has heard of legendary heroes wielding mighty swords slashing through injustice and as someone who was looked down on, a reject branch of an elite clan who was a reject even by the standards of rejects, Meiko wished to fix all injustices directly. If she saw a fly stuck in a spider’s web she’d immediately kill that spider and free it, without having a single bit of thought about how sensitive the ecosystem is and what the most correct course of action would be.
Shimo was beginning to appear like a mystery to Mana. An old friend who has been through much and after living through so many experiences changed in ways she couldn’t yet put her finger on. He was a man who merely wished to become Hokage, to make sure that the strong would not oppress the weak by becoming the strong. Then, after realizing what the world was actually like he stopped caring that much, his core objective had become to survive and help survive to all he cared about, while still keeping parts of his old dream somewhere deep inside. And yet… His behavior in the Sand Village appeared so… Odd. Why would a young man who was a survivalist above all else interfere with that terrorist organization’s goals? Was it a sign that old Shimo was breaking free through the rock hard façade of an ex-rogue? The kunoichi couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by Shimo but only because she couldn’t understand him and things she couldn’t understand, or obtain knowledge of, felt intimidating.
“Heh, I got to say all the time…” Kouta rubbed the back of his head with a pleasant smile, he didn’t appear to be acting all too serious about Mana’s question even if his tone and words appeared to be honest. “I mean I’m a medical ninja, I wish to heal everyone all the time, I wish to beat everyone hurting people, punch everyone meaning my friends harm, but sometimes I just can’t do it. I run out of chakra, sometimes I run out of stamina and willpower before I run out of chakra. Sometimes there are wounds I outright cannot heal. My body and the reality around me betrays me all the time but as long as whatever of me that desires those things remains I do not question it, I just take the hit and become stronger”
“You’re doing a pretty good job, before we left you took a while to heal a simple blade cut, now you’ve healed me so many times that you could do it in your sleep…” Mana smiled trying to make her friend feel better, such notions were simpler when she did not have to lie. Kouta has become better in terms of his healing skill, a whole level better. Simple scratches and cuts took him less than a couple of minutes where extensive injuries or internal bleeding took twenty to thirty minutes whereas previously Kouta expressed doubt in dealing with it at all.
Kouta blushed, “To be honest… Well… I’ve gotten used to your body, I’m not sure if I could fix teeth and swellings and facial injuries of a person I’ve just met nearly as well and fast” he said.
Mana blinked a couple of times looking at the boy with surprise, “Really? There’s a difference? As subtle as the person you heal?”
“Oh yes, it matters quite a lot actually, it’s like navigating a map. Imagine having to locate and mark several points of a map without the names of the locations. If you have never before seen the map you may wish to scan it very well before marking the locations so that you do not waste time and ink. Once you’ve drawn a certain map that many times you actually could do the task in your sleep. Each person has subtle differences like chakra network quirks, previous injuries that may not have been properly healed, hidden genetic or physical anomalies, all of these things matter to a medical ninja and influence the healing process.
“Well, now that you put it like that it really seems difficult…” Mana looked away a little bit embarrassed by the notion that Kouta may have scanned and delved through her body so many times that he knows it extensively.
“If it weren’t everyone would be doing it, Konoha High receives a lot of new applications of hopeful recruits wishing to learn the craft. Not that many pass the selection process, the chakra control ability of the person needs to be absolutely without a flaw and even then not many pass to the internship stage in the Konoha Hospital” Kouta proudly explained rubbing his red nose as all the supposed boasting made him feel a little embarrassed.
“You think… You could ever… Teach me healing ninjutsu?” Mana asked mumbling quietly and feeling a little down about the whole thing. “My chakra control is not without a flaw but it is sufficient enough to dabble in genjutsu. I keep talking so much about changing the world but all I do is fight and invite more fighting, becoming a medical ninja would help me change all that, finally actually do something positive without causing pain or suffering to anyone, do absolute good”
Kouta squinted, it appeared that his mind was very shifting and jumping from one thought to another. “It is true that your knowledge of genjutsu suggests hope in the craft, illusions are some of the most demanding form of ninja techniques and one of the least rewarding. Still, healing ninjutsu is… Complicated. A person who learns not from the official Konoha High and Konoha Hospital course is called a “Quack”, do you really wish that mark on your resume? It’s slightly more tolerable version of “rogue”, after all”
Mana blushed and jumped up waving her hands wildly in refusal, “Oh, no! Sorry! I do not wish to dishonor you or bring you any bad rep in any way, if it’s like that then I wouldn’t dream of ever harming your reputation. I don’t imagine teaching Quacks is very looked up on in the field either… I just… Wished to help someone, in some way”
Kouta did not answer, he merely continued to awkwardly walk by Mana’s side, his face looked strange, it looked almost like he felt really bad about refusing to do something that’d dishonor him, almost like he actually suffered internally about refusing such an elementary thing which really confused the magician. Why would he care that much about what she wanted? Why would her foolish ponders really matter to him that badly?
“Mana! Mana! Look, I took notes yesterday about what I felt of my surroundings!” Meiko declared out loud rushing up to the magician and handing her notes full of sloppy handwriting. Mana peeked into it and felt really stupid for stopping training with Meiko, it wasn’t like the blacksmith was bad at it but she lacked concentration, she lacked precision. She quickly lost focus and shifted around. She didn’t delve into the temperature, the humidity, she merely acknowledged that it had one property or another.
“It’s a very decent effort, we’ll work on it together tonight” Mana smiled trying to break the news down to her friend as gently as possible. It wasn’t that Meiko was bad, it was just that she was not much better than anyone else would reasonably be and that wouldn’t have necessarily have been enough. Meiko wasn’t patient enough or perceptive enough to identify her surroundings properly, to analyze them, she appeared to grow bored and move on to another property far too quickly.
Was that how Kouta must’ve felt towards her? Did he see that she was not meant for such training and that was the main reason why he had to refuse? After all, while when she was in her prime Mana’s chakra control was certainly superior to most of her peers, currently her chakra control was non-existent which the main problem was. That was why the four of them were roaming these lands looking for a legendary wish fulfilling object in the first place.
*****
The journey away from Sunagakure heading east towards Takigakure was more of the same desert that the four were beginning to get sick of. The gracious and merciful change was the lack of any mercenaries or raiders attacking them. Whether it was because of the official use of the roads they were travelling on by Sunagakure and merchants going in and out of the village or some other reason remained a mystery. Either way, each night was spent training, now since Meiko was engaged with Mana’s genjutsu defense course she had no time to tutor Mana.
There was a solution to it “ Kouta informed the magician that an incredibly important part of the official medical ninja training was evasive taijutsu course. Medical ninja were trained to avoid danger in battle, best medical ninja didn’t get as much as a scratch while fighting in week-long battles and even entire wars as they had to reserve all of their chakra for the wounded. Chakra wasted healing themselves was basically paying for sloppiness with someone’s life. Naturally medical ninja were tutored at evasion by some of the best taijutsu and martial arts experts: mercenaries and ninja alike.
While medical ninja’s perception as well as chakra enhanced speedy evasion was honed, significant importance was placed on evasion skills that use no chakra due to importance of chakra of a medical ninja. If a medical ninja evaded all injury by enhancing their abilities with chakra augmentation they’d have ruined their networks making them effectively useless. Kouta was all shining with glee having found his purpose to Mana which continued to baffle the girl. He was quite adamant to train her during times when Meiko was training with Mana’s assignments.
Kouta’s evasion training was very merciful, perhaps overly so. The boy purposefully moved slower, pulled as many punches as he could as if he thought of Mana as a fragile object he had to preserve. That part of the training felt really pointless but Kouta has taught Mana a lot of very useful things. He taught her about the principles of evasion, about how her eyes and her body had to move to waste the least possible amounts of movement and about proper breathing. About the openings and possibilities of counterattacks. It appeared that all of them had something to teach each other…
One evening Mana grew a little frustrated by Kouta’s obsession over holding back against her. If he didn’t come at her with full intention to kill how could she properly learn actual evasive skills? She suggested change. It was something that was bothering Mana’s mind for a while “ part of Tanshu-sensei’s final will. Despite Kouta’s objections and lack of fondness over the general idea she involved Shimo into the training sessions. She proposed a deal to the boy that he would come at her with precise enough chakra control that she could evade his blows, while still augmenting his abilities. That way he’d always have to fight at fraction of a percent of his abilities and such refined control wouldn’t come easy.
“If I slip up for a moment I’ll cut you down instantly…” Shimo said, it wasn’t like he was against the idea. Based on his tone he thought that Mana had not considered such a turn of events.
“That means Kouta-kun will have to try extra hard at teaching me to evade, if he doesn’t do it right “ I’ll die” Mana smiled as if she didn’t just sign her death sentence by her long time friend’s hand which she very well may have done. Kouta’s face was absolutely pale and he opposed the idea completely.
“Very well then, I suppose I shall go without training then…” Mana smiled playfully teasing Kouta who almost completely lost his mind. The medical ninja had not held a single ounce of his strength back, he never pulled a single punch much to Mana’s “enjoyment”. She started to get beaten again, beaten and cut down because she had to evade a skilled swordsman and a medical ninja trying to scare her enough to get serious. Once again broken ribs and bone deep gashes became a part of her routine.
At any rate “ that way everyone was training, everyone was doing their best. Meiko was slowly becoming more perceptive, more capable of identifying changes in temperature or animals that may not have been very native to that land or not supposed to be seen unless one was looking really carefully. She became able to spot hidden lurking predators like snakes burrowed in the sand or scorpions under a rock just by correct guessing and perception alone. Most even the smallest signs of sand being moved around and something being burrowed inside did not evade her. There could’ve been no question about it “ Meiko grew stronger without stretching a single muscle. She became a bit more attentive and analytical instead of fighting by instinct. That sort of mind Mana could work with in terms of further defensive genjutsu training.
Kouta became more skilled at taijutsu by seeing Mana evade and adapting to it, his strikes became less inventive, he feinted attacks much more often and started inventing new combinations, new ways of attack or deceive his opponent. He wanted to truly prepare Mana for the combined assault of him and Shimo, he wanted all the best for her and the best was not being cut down. Even if Mana did get injured from time to time, it was because the combined forces of Shimo and Kouta were almost impossible to evade to her, it was only a question of time when Shimo would cut her deep enough to take her out or when Kouta would break one bone too many for the magician to continue. Needless to say black bags of exhaustion also once again became Kouta’s routine as he had to continue healing Mana day after day.
Shimo’s chakra control truly improved. Just by fighting while augmenting his abilities and responding to Mana’s level of skill actually helped him adapt to using impossibly small fractions of his power, as the kunoichi had seen later on, the boy was capable of multiplying his experiences and fight at much more subtle levels than before. While initially such training would appear useless it helped Shimo preserve air in his lungs as well as spend less on his ninjutsu techniques. He became stronger by learning to fight weaker. Outlasting Shimo with his quickly improving chakra control became tougher and tougher every day. Not to mention that finally at least partially Tanshu-sensei’s will was honored.
Mana became near impossible to hit without being experienced with chakra augmentation and simply outspeeding her in battle. One had to be stronger and faster than Mana, to absolutely dominate her in battle to land a blow. The girl even went as far as to successfully evade kunai dispenser fire up close, she listened on Kouta’s breathing, listened on his tensing muscles rubbing his clothes or his finger tensing on the dispenser’s trigger. That way Mana managed to evade being made a pin cushion even when the dispenser was shoved all the way in her face. Slowly the magician was becoming as strong as her impaired body allowed her to be. Not even the greatest taijutsu masters fighting at the human level would have been able to defeat her combination of redirection and evasion techniques. Soon training would’ve become meaningless as she was slowly approaching a wall that her body could not overcome.
The closer to that wall Mana got, the greater was her pain.
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