Long tongues of smoke broke through the cracks of a seemingly well concealed bunker that appeared most like just another large rock etched into the desert sand, not unlike countless others under which one could’ve found various crawlies looking for a cheap sting or a bypassing prey. Usually rocks such as the smoking one provided ample shade and cover and ironically enough while the rock was a fake one, it actually did serve some very similar purposes to the people concealed inside. Concealed was perhaps a very strong word to use in this particular situation as the relentless streaks of dark green smoke continuously broke through the cracks in the rock and loud yells and laughs could’ve been heard if one crept up close enough.
The hole, inhabitants of which called it a “bunker”, was similarly filled with clouds of dark green gas that appeared to come from some weird crunchy snacks that the people inside have been munching on. It was a bright yellowish sort of chip-like cracker covered with flower and appearing like a waffle chip that upon being eaten happened to emit some sort of smoke from it, likely from a contact with saliva or some other substance present in the mouth. The spreading smoke ventilated and travelled through the consumer’s system and left through their ears and nose, often through the mouth after the consumer coughed.
There were only three people inside of the bunker which would have appeared quite odd as the walls of the place were covered with weapons, shields and armor, the place was meant to be a sanctuary when darkness caught one unprepared or when preparation was needed or perhaps a refill of supplies for the organization of terrorists that built it there. It did not appear that the inhabitants were using it for that purpose however. They were just crunching on the snacks and drinking molten sherbets that were likely a little stronger than the casual sherbet deserts enjoyed by richer people in the Land of Wind.
“I’ve had, like… An idea…” one of the trio, a man, spoke up. He sat in a relaxed position and tipped his ice cream up of molten sherbet before flipping it up letting some spill down on his hairy bare chest. Despite the fact that the man wore strange denim trousers and a vest and an incredibly raggy t-shirt that approached very close to being validly categorized as that belonging to a hobo, his chest remained exposed and was covered in bright blonde hair, matching the long hair on his head and a very rich beard that he wore which was also a little soaked in ice cream and covered with smoking crunch crumps.
“Hi hi, I think it’s just the Hat’ash you’ve done talking…” a girl who had the man’s arm wrapped around her like she was the last support pole, keeping the man from tumbling down into an abyss. Her appearance was not in any way special, besides her above average physical appearance and shape and her clothes were too few to earn a description.
“Hush, my friend is talking. What idea graced you this… Morning, day… Whatever, haven’t looked outside for a good while” another man who appeared like an ordinary desert traveler silenced the woman by pressing his index finger to her sultry and plump lips and exclaimed his respect and desire to hear what his hairy friend had to say.
“Like… We should like… Have a deal… Or something” the hairy one said letting his head weigh backwards as he exhaled the dark green gas from his mouth in a controlled stream so much that the colorful bandana fell off his head and finally revealed the oasis picture sewn into it in its full.
“Aw, that would be quite cool! What kind of a deal should we make?” the other male spoke up, the attention of the woman in between of them continued to shift from one male to another as they exchanged words in between. His words came at a dreamy and tipsy slur that suggested the man may have wanted to refrain from making deals in his current condition.
“Like… Dude… I came up with the idea that we should make a deal, how ‘bout you twist your head a little and come up with the deal, I dunno, like… Sometimes I think… Do you even respect me, man?” the blonde man replied shaking and throwing his hands and his feet around angrily, had the woman close to him not been sprawling and slipping asleep she’d have quite likely been accidentally hit by him warranting and instant end to their attempted negotiations.
“How dare you!? We met only yesterday yet I love you like my own brother! But how am I supposed to know what kind of a deal we should make, I mean I don’t know what you have, I’m not really sure what I even need at the moment either… Besides a good pair of pants” the man sitting close to the blond haired hobo-like man replied genuinely looking guilty that he was completely unaware of the situation he was in nor could he suggest terms to this supposed deal they’d make.
“Aw man… You like… Killed my deal-making mood, man… Like, I wish we could like… I dunno, make a deal or something and you’d give me a way to talk to like hawks and all that… Sometimes I just want to… Like… Really know how to communicate with those birds, man” the blond man picked his bandana back up from where it had fallen and tied it on his scalp again slightly helping his crazy hair situation that he wore on top of his head.
“Shit, sorry, man… I just… You can’t really go at a guy like that, you know? Gotta ease me into it. Don’t just say, “hey, let’s make a deal” and not know what sort of deal you’re making” the man shook his hands around and shrugged wildly a couple of times trying to explain it to his friend yet feeling far too drunk on the sherbet and a little dizzy from the Hat’ash they’ve crunched through the night to be able to successfully do so.
“Man, like… Whatever… I’m bored, wish we could like… Blow up or something…” the bearded blonde replied pulling his finger out from his nose which he was picking at the time and flicked his finger allowing a small booger size white ball of clay to leap off his fingernails as if it actually had sentience. The dust size booger of clay stopped in mid-air and screeched for a brief moment covering the entire bunker in a blinding flash of light.
BOOM
Light footsteps through the desert approached the bunker location and walked up to their wasted friend, his clothes were damaged but they were such to begin with. It appeared that his t-shirt and his denim attire was singed and blown up so many times that it had built some sort of a tolerance to it already. The man’s long hair was singed-up as well and also significantly shorter and his beard was still in the process of singing appearing almost like blond tobacco in a rolled up cigarette in mid burning.
“You imbecile, you’ve blown up our bunker!” the blind marksman yelled at the just barely conscious friend of his who just shrugged with a friendly “what can you do” type smile and stood up with significant effort from his part.
“Also, where’s Iyasha?” Poncho Assassin placed his hand on the hilt of his sword preparing to strike his wasted friend down where he stood, or to be more exact - laid.
“Like… I thought she’d augment herself using chakra, like I did and… I guess she’s dead… Like… One of life’s mysteries, you know? You get to know a gal, like really communicate with her and… She, like… Blows up” the blond hobo shrugged again and stumbled around looking at the gapping crater still being filled with flowing torrents of sand which he was lucky to have landed beyond the range from.
“He killed Iyasha and he destroyed one of Shaphac’s bunkers, remind me why we’re not only keeping him around but taking him with us?” Poncho Assassin looked at his blind and googled friend who took a cowboy hat to hide himself from the blazing Sun.
“Well, we couldn’t have taken Iyasha with us anyways, people in Agbarah Sheikhate are way too stingy with women, even accompanied by men, we’d have attracted too much attention. Her loss however is an unfortunate one, she was one of few different and exotic ninja in Sunagakure, her Bloom Release would’ve been an asset to us later on” the blind marksman tipped his hat lower and fired a couple of sharp kunai-like sharpened bolts that just disappeared deep into the sand after the impact as if sand offered no resistance to them at all. The tipsy explosive specialist tried to dance his feet comically to avoid the bolts but he just fell backwards like a sack of potatoes just barely avoiding being skewered by them.
“Like… Cut it out, Denton, I’ll like… I dunno, make it up to you guys… Somehow… Like, make some rice cakes or blow up a meat loaf again to make it like extra soft, or something” the barely conscious man complained.
“Whatever, we need this idiot with us, he is a monkey-brain with explosive power to blow a chunk of this planet off, we need him if we are to do what we were told to” the blind marksman called Denton angrily fixed the tip of his hat and carefully tapped the fallen comrade around until he found the belt on his jeans, grabbing hold of it and dragging his tipsy friend through the sand.
“We could retreat the package without him, you know, less people means less chances of being seen…” Poncho Assassin casually remarked smiling a little at the hilarious sight of his friend being dragged face first on the sand by his annoyed comrade.
“We’re not just going to extract the package, we’re going to pop the knee caps of those Konoha scum and make them beg for death, then we’re going to pop them in the head and leave them for the coyotes to feast on their ribs, isn’t that what the Shaphac stands for? Isn’t that what we’re doing this all for? Acts of war? If we kill a bunch of kids on a peaceful exploration mission, Konoha is sure to declare war on Sunagakure” Denton huffed out as dragging his friend appeared to be more of a struggle than he counted on it being.
“Huh… But weren’t you ordered to only fight and kill the Konoha ninja if they move into the Agbarah Sheikhate?” Poncho asked him.
“Yeah, which is why we need an explosive diversion to lure them there, we’ll kill the little women, then we’ll have this shitbrain blow the guys’ corpses up, we’ll say we never saw ‘em…” the man finally had enough and let go of his trigger-happy friend who without uttering a word just stood up and followed his friends.
“You’re a pretty sneaky bastard, Denton…” Poncho laughed out. “Playing the Kazekage is also pretty dumb…”
“Whether we succeed or fail, whether the Shaphac will get destroyed or not, death to these kids will bring war, which means that the Shaphac will achieve their goals to some extent anyways” the blind marksman finished his train of thought.
The trio continued to walk on until they disappeared off of a hill into the slowly setting desert Sun.
*****
It finally got so deep into the night that the temperatures started approaching the freezing point. Mana was glad to have bought something resembling her uniform where she could hide her emergency tools that she couldn’t pull out of her kit in the heat of the battle. She also brought some sheets along with her, having experienced the freezing desert nights prior. When it got as cold and as dark as it got at that moment, the team always stopped walking and hunkered down, there was absolutely nothing positive to gain from traversing the place during the night, that one time of day when all the predators are out lurking and hunting and the temperatures match Konoha at its coldest time of year.
With a little struggle the team managed to light a fire, Mana didn’t want to use her custom cards, one of which had a kunai dispenser modification sealed into it that basically exploded with flammable liquid and sparked upon being fired. The magician sort of felt bad about not having a kunai dispenser with her, she had already discovered that with a little effort they could’ve been reworked to fire not just kunai but other small objects like bolts, arrows or even cards at the speed approaching the speed of sound. When she was still a ninja she may have slung projectiles at such speed with her hands alone when needed but now she could only toss them as fast as a teenage girl with a lifetime of intense training could.
Kouta started making some of the quickly heated food packs that he bought from Sunagakure. They were quite odd things and Mana could briefly remember seeing similar things in Konohagakure shops. They were small bags, size of a hand, that when heated extended into the size and shape of an actual dish. Some had to be treated with care as Kouta bought plenty of ramen packs that just bloated with hot soup and noodles and needed a separate bowl to be eaten. After the team settled down to have their one meal per day that could’ve both kept them from dying and warmed them up it appeared like the day was about to end peacefully.
“Say, Mana-chan, what kind of food do you like?” Kouta asked with a smile. “I bought some ingredients sealed inside paper tags which we could use when we leave the desert, maybe I can make something you like one day?”
“Hm?” one of Shimo’s closed eyes opened and looked curiously at Kouta before closing with a smile on the young man’s face.
“Hey? Why don’t you ever suggest making something I like? Then again, I suppose I’ll eat anything so that question is sort of redundant…” Meiko answered her own question right after rushing up to Kouta and leaning over the fire angrily. Mana could only slightly chuckle every time she saw a similar episode play out, seeing Meiko be Meiko improved her mood a lot.
“I have to say your question does sound a little weird, Kouta-kun” Mana smiled, “While I do have to eat much more often than all of you because of my normal human metabolism I still fail to see the need to pamper me”
“It’s because you’re the VIP, you’re the client” Shimo sarcastically answered the question with a smile after seeing Kouta blush and lose himself in trying to find an answer to the simple question. “Your morale is the most important to be kept up, you’re constantly in danger yet we are directly responsible for your well-being and your stress levels. This is why not many clients are allowed to leave together with the ninja. It’s something meant for stress management and a morale boost”
Mana looked at the starry sky and laughed a little, the desert was beautiful at night and yet just as deadly as it was during the day, if it wasn’t for her friends helping her out and her doing all she could do in her current condition they would’ve died so many times over and yet together they made this insane mission work. Living in the moment helped the magician to appreciate the beauty of the natural wonder located around her and the company of her friends, despite streaks of depression over her loss of identity popping in and out her morale was not a problem to be worried about.
“I like gyoza, it’s my favorite dish. Since I don’t eat much nor do I need much to feel sated I am not overly fond of fatty and overly strong foods” Mana replied. Kouta smiled gently but then couldn’t help but feel a little confused.
“Gyoza is a rather simplistic dish… I’d have imagined an artist like Mana-chan to love something really specific and sophisticated but everyone knows how to make gyoza and it’s accessible to everyone, it’s hardly a lord’s dish. I mean I love rice wine chicken which isn’t a dish I see on the table everyday” Kouta scratched his head.
“That is exactly why I like it. It is simple, it has nothing special about it, just like me. And yet a fantastic and skilled chef might make something special of it, be it something with the dough or something with the vegetable and meat filling inside. It’s a simple and unimpressive, rather bland dish that under experienced and amazing hands can become a food that is more exquisite than any other” Mana replied with her happiness suddenly becoming more lyrical than the absolute glee she felt before.
The gyoza dumplings were just like Mana in many cases, just like gyoza Mana was a girl with nothing special about her. She didn’t belong to a clan of amazing ninja just like gyoza were made by even the lowest layers of society, the blandest doughs could’ve been made even from flour and water. Mana didn’t have any fantastic bloodlines inside her just like the gyoza didn’t have anything special in their filling to make up for the bland and tasteless dough. And yet… Gyoza could become so divine, additional ingredients could’ve been added to its dough or its filling making it surpass everyone else and fulfil its goal of sating its consumer just like Mana dreamed of one day fulfilling her goal.
“We’re not alone…” Shimo mumbled and stood up, looking behind him and staring into a blank space on a dark rock which Mana couldn’t even begin to make out in the blinding desert darkness, especially when contrasted with the all devouring flame that was used for warmth and light. While it could’ve attracted attention it was integral for desert survival, it repelled wild animals, it provided enough warmth to survive desert temperatures.
Meiko’s frame blurred and disappeared as she dashed right in front of Mana deflecting a barrage of bolts that flew at her at blinding speed. The barrage was connected by such a short amount of time and fired in such a rapid burst that to the magician it appeared to have let out a single deafening clang while Meiko may have deflected as many as sixty of sharpened bolts. The blacksmith looked at her ruined wristbands and gloves.
“Darn it, they’re very loosely chakra infused, it ruined my armor” the blacksmith cursed as Meiko pulled off her wristbands and gloves and let them crash into the desert ground in a sound that alerted and scared Mana suggesting that Meiko may have carried the weight of a human being just on her single piece of armor. The wristbands weighed so much that they just sunk deep into the sand where Mana could no longer see them as the sand quickly covered the sinkholes.
“Her chakra control isn’t nearly sharp enough to infuse her armor with chakra… Meiko can’t defend well against chakra infused weaponry which puts us in a lot of danger” Mana thought to herself looking at the hills she couldn’t even make out with her ordinary eyes, realizing just how useless and how much of a burden she was to her friends in her current condition.
“Don’t worry, Mana-chan. Don’t split from us, we’ll take care of them for you” Kouta angrily declared and moved in close to Meiko to assist the girl if needed.
A loud howl of the desert wind picked up strands and torrents of sand, Shimo looked around witnessing the very unnatural breeze of wind that slowly started breaking and rotating as twin currents clashed against each other creating a tornado strong enough to make endless sandstorms of itself rotating around it.
Kouta’s firm grip grabbed hold of Mana before the girl felt it loosening. Something was wrong, the medical ninja should’ve been strong enough to maintain a stable hold of her throughout a tornado, she saw him break through his father’s defenses once.
“It’s me he’s worried about, he doesn’t want to crush my arm or to pull it out of its socket” the magician thought to herself as Kouta let go, Mana couldn’t help but scream at her own helplessness as she was taken by the raging winds and carried upwards, she couldn’t see or hear anything but the currents of wind slowly tearing her body apart, she felt tearing force and sand bashing at her face, it was painful, it almost tore her body parts, almost broke her bones and left scratching marks all over.
Mana heard a loud sneeze that forced her to open her mouth. She saw thousands if not more of small white grain-like particles rotating and attaching to the sand.
“On the other hand, run, Mana-chan!” she heard Kouta’s voice from below but she couldn’t help herself, she was already floating in mid-air. Mana tried to somehow overcome the tearing grip and the cutting force of the wind and the sands bashing at her face but she couldn’t even after giving her best. It was when she noticed that those white grains started glowing that Mana felt a tough shoulder shoving her out of the way, the magician heard loud clanging close to her suggesting that it must’ve been Meiko who picked Mana up and tore her from the tornado of these glowing white grains. A loud screech overcame Mana’s ears, she couldn’t even hear the raging winds around her, even nature’s perfect monster was nowhere close to being registered by Mana’s body that was beginning to shut down from being assaulted on so many fronts at once.
A blinding and deafening explosion that could only have been described as destruction itself echoed ripping through the desert. An explosive force so potent that a beam of its controlled explosive power and searing blaze of obliteration streamed straight into space and could’ve been picked up by a curious extraterrestrial visitor if such existed. A hole so deep that no one could’ve even seen its end was made where the tornado filled with miniscule clay bombs detonated, bursts of hot magma danced deep below, providing a brief clue of just how deep and all covering the explosion was. Slowly the sand around the area started pouring back into the destructive blast, the crystalized and molten particles first, those that weren’t molten before became so once they hit the blazing wild tango of the magma streams and torrents below.
It was as if like the God himself has poked the Earth with his mightiest of fingers
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