Loud droplets of water broke the silence of the cave, the entire structure was dead silent which combined with the total darkness illuminated only by stalactites of azure crystal formed an eerie atmosphere. Once in a while gentle clacks of hardened and raised heels of Mana’s sandals joined in, forming a lovely harmony with the aquatic noises. Slowly the girl was making her way through the cave, looking around as if running or being hunted by someone and afraid of being caught. The girl’s actions proved rather fruitless as not a single heartbeat joined her in this search. Just a deadly silence, torn away by water and girl’s sandals once in a while…
Come to think of it, Mana had no idea what she was running from, where she was or what she was looking for, what exactly could her destination have been or other similar details. Could this cave have had something to do with the seemingly endless quest to find the Box of Ultimate Bliss, maybe she was sidetracked once again, looking to save someone dear to her? To say that would’ve been to say that she was sidetracked to save absolutely anyone as the girl had probably the least selective process of finding heroic deeds that required her to push her own needs aside.
Maybe this cave held inside an easier pathway to the Box, perhaps it held salvation for someone Mana wished to save, either way the magician didn’t falter but continued to walk that rocky crystal path. She did not notice how brief claps of red eyes colored the wall beside her differently, the color of hunt, the color of death, the color of danger. Mana called out into the eternal darkness in front but no one answered. There was absolutely no reaction to her voice, it fell silent and dead in fate’s ears.
Eventually more and more eyes joined in the initial red blink, Mana was strangely aware of their existence, almost like they registered in her own mind but she couldn’t see them. She could not hear them nor, sensibly, smell or touch them for they were abstract concepts. Yet she knew of them… The magician thought that maybe, for her own safety, it’d have made reasonable sense to turn around and look at those crimson bloodshot eyes examining her, measuring her limbs and her guts to wear around their necks as accessories. Somehow the magician was aware or at least suspicious of the ill intent of those lurking in the darkness.
As much as Mana ordered her body to turn, it did not, almost like Mana was part of a movie, a movie she was a starlet in. One of those revolutionary plays of moving pictures that Konoha recently received an influx of and Hiro’s Hall was making a profit of, together with Mana’s stage magic, of course. She must’ve had the role of the dumb pampered teen in one of those horror movies, walking inside the typical horror scenario despite having little to no means of protecting herself. For some reason this disability to affect the environment around her or protect herself from these demons lurking in the walls of the cave scared the magician a great deal. Mana could feel her own heart pumping, beating and clawing its way out of her chest, she couldn’t help but command herself to utter a scream but… She was silent. Once again the magician ordered herself to scream, this time as loud as she possibly could, as loud as she would if a madman was trying to butcher her and she was helpless to defend herself but… The kunoichi’s lips were shut tight, not a single sound was made.
Suddenly cold furry fingers wrapped around Mana’s mouth, bent her head backwards uncomfortably bending her body by the back around the creature’s knee. The rodent-like creature shoved its twisted and rotten face right up to Mana’s, despite being scared to the point of death Mana couldn’t wail or scream, couldn’t wave her hands or try to fight this thing off. She remained frozen and helpless in the creature’s arms. The girl commanded herself to fight, summoned all the physical chakra she could’ve mustered up but… She remained helpless in its grasp.
“You killed us…” the thing muttered right to the girl’s ear before opening its mouth to crunch on Mana’s neck. The magician closed her eyes, she could feel slimy taps of the creature’s slobber running down her neck all the way to her chest and below, soaking her clothes. She could feel that putrid smell of dead meat in its mouth as if Mana wasn’t even amongst the first bodies this thing had munched on that day… Or night… It could’ve been either one…
Mana screamed, finally she was able to, not only that her body burnt up, the girl summoned all of the physical chakra she could before realizing that she was feeling hot. Not just hot “ burning. The magician lifted her hand into the air and glared at the flames burning her, her skin blistered, peeled off her flesh in layers revealing crisped and coaly substance below, before only bones remained and then… Only bone dust… It was like she could see herself from the side, her face, her skin peeling off and burning into nothingness.
“Mana! Snap out of it!” the magician heard a loud scream before her head was crushed by the rodent’s teeth. However it wasn’t the jaws of a cave dweller that chomped on her brain, it was Meiko’s large blacksmith’s hand that slapped her face, continuing to do so again and again and again.
Mana shook and shoved the blacksmith aside, feeling blood and swelling in her mouth “ just for how long was she being beaten?
“Wow… That must’ve been one hell of a dream…” Meiko sighed before grinning and giving Mana a thumb up.
Mana didn’t respond, she looked around, Kouta was kneeling nearby and staring at Mana, Shimo wasn’t even looking, he was watching everywhere but at Mana’s general direction. He may have been looking out for assailants but something told the girl that his reasons for avoiding her glare may have been much more personal.
“You had to be woken up, your body flared up with physical chakra, Meiko couldn’t even hold you on her back as the pressure was that strong. I checked your heartbeat because your chest was literally twitching… Sorry ‘bout that…” Kouta blushed after revealing that he touched Mana’s chest. Naturally this whole situation with the team’s medical ninja was bound to bring its own fair share of awkwardness… It was hard to postpone a romance when he had to touch Mana once every couple of days and his life essence ran through her body in the form of chakra every time he healed her. The two shared a much deeper connection than most medical ninja shared with their teammates especially due to how often Kouta had to tend to her wounds.
“Your heart could’ve stopped, your chakra network could’ve torn itself apart. You have the problems of a veteran ninja, Mana, and you aren’t even old enough to drink yet…” Kouta tried to tell her something but Mana placed her hand on his lips. She wanted to hear none of it. If he had the guts to look at her and tell her that she had to quit then he misunderstood what this whole thing was all about.
Why would she quit, what was the point of this mission if she was ever to quit? What was the point of looking for the damned Box if she was to quit right after getting her chakra control back? She was a ninja stage magician, to be any of those two without the other was to live half a life and living half a life was worse than dying to Mana. She’d have rather perished than lived as anything less than what she wanted to be. As a child the magician continued to hear stories about people losing their limbs and their senses in battle and always thought to herself that she’d rather die than live like that. Needless to say her current disability was much more personal and emotional but to her it was the same regardless of the kind of loss she suffered. Either she lived up to what she wished to be, to the ideal she strived to become or to hell with it all…
Mana stood up and bowed her head to Meiko, the magician looked around and noticed that the four were no longer even in Takigakure “ she must’ve been carried around unconscious for more than three days if they already reached the no man’s zone known as the Mountain’s Graveyard. The place where the Tower of Bones once stood, the place where a criminal named God-Eyes once gathered an army of criminals to take over the world because in his eyes possessing a godly bloodline of the Rinnegan eyes granted him the right to the world’s throne. The fact that such a chair did not exist did not make the man any less determined, he merely decided to find such a chair or have one built for him once the world leaders kneeled in front of him. Mana had studied that story extensively in the archives, she read it more and more after Tanshu-sensei had passed away, or rather was killed in battle.
Once the Mountain’s Graveyard was a deadland, a land of sludge as well as hardened magma that when taken one step cut one’s feet open and made one bleed all over the rocky surface or swallowed one whole. Now the bones of all the animals and people claimed by the place emerged once more, forming a much more organic pass, much more grotesque, unfortunately, as well. Bones of wild beast and men littered the place as they have emerged from the ground and their minerals interacted with the ruined ground forming a black coal-like mass which was no longer so difficult to pass through but still stunk enough to invite one to vomit whenever they took the liberty of thinking about what they were smelling exactly.
“The Takigakure ninja wished us good luck and left us right after saving us. The fat one carried this large scroll with a jutsu that summoned soil and trees, they regrew that part immediately and the goatee guy filled it with water in seconds. I’ve never seen terraforming of such degree. It was like the battle had never happened, like magma never flowed in geysers reaching the sky…” Meiko began trying to explain what happened while she was out to Mana.
“We slowed down a little, even if you’re completely healed, dipping in magma after being weakened in battle before really wears down on you… They say that the surface of the Sun is as hot as the hottest magma so I guess if we could survive a trip to the Sun we could one day land there…” Kouta laughed out awkwardly. Seeing how Mana had not yet uttered a word the two were worried about her well-being. Shimo continued walking without offering any words. The boy’s top was completely singed off and he appeared to have no spares so he was walking with half singed top, half bare-chested. However not a single burn appeared to be left on him, his hair did appear a little bit shorter but whether it was from the boy giving himself a field haircut using a kunai blade or magma managing to singe some off when his chakra augmentations faltered remained to be known. Not that Mana cared… She liked Kouta, maybe some other day she’d have really cared, maybe some other day she’d have spent some time glancing at his strong well-built for his age chest and new more orderly haircut but…
“The dwellers all died, didn’t they?” Mana uttered quietly killing all the light mood of her friends. Shimo faltered and stopped for a moment before resuming his step, it was clear - that he wished to say something, perhaps scold her for bringing it up, maybe apologize for what he had done to her but he didn’t say a word.
“Yeah… Most likely, it is possible that a few escaped but… The cave blew up shortly before you were knocked out, if you had entered you’d have had maybe milliseconds before the whole thing went up into the sky…” Kouta spoke.
“You’d have made some of the distance…” Shimo’s voice killed it. Kouta and Meiko looked at the young swordsman who slowly continued to tread forward. The Yuki didn’t turn around, he didn’t try to give Mana any looks or appear to be that troubled by his recognition.
“You were fast enough, your whole body was flowing with physical chakra, you’d have went in, saved some and saw the cave slowly exploding before you’d have carried them out. By the time you’d have noticed the explosion having begun you’d have made it out…” Shimo explained still walking on. Every couple of steps someone stepped on a brittle and long lost bone that cracked beneath their feet, it sounded a bit awkward having the topic of the conversation in mind.
“Then why…” Mana uttered, tears started to accumulate in her eyes but she desperately raced to swat her despair and sadness away. She shouldn’t cry, she shouldn’t… But could she ever get rid of the nightmares? Could any of them? Was Shimo even at all troubled by what he did!?
“Because you’d have suffered for it…” Shimo’s head sunk down, his longer hair flowed freely over the young man’s face covering it completely, his glasses kept on slipping off forcing the young man to fix them. “You’d have never saved all of them without killing yourself, you’re not perfect, I’m not perfect… Even the Takigakure jounin who were billions of times faster and stronger than us and… It’s not even a hyperbole… Even they acknowledged it was too dangerous to go in. As few as you have saved, you’d have hated yourself for failing to save everyone, in the process you’d have crippled yourself for life. I could allow neither of those things to happen”
Mana covered her eyes, she removed her hat from the bag and tossed it onto her head, forcing the tip of it to cover up her eyes. She didn’t want to be seen crying. That was not the person she wanted to be, she couldn’t be so… Weak… So human. She wanted to be someone who saved everyone, someone who was this amazing hero who inspired people to change themselves and change the cruel world around them.
“You had no right…” Mana said, she raced forward, widening the reach of her step, gracefully bouncing over the skulls and ribcages around the place before she overtook the Yuki and raced up right in front of him. She stopped right then and there forcing the swordsman to bump at her. The boy’s head lowered so that their eyes could meet. Mana was quite a bit shorter than her friend so their stare-down would’ve looked quite strange and uneven.
“I had all the right in the world. What gives you the right to save whomever you want to save, to do all you do and sidetrack every chance you get to interfere with the affairs of other countries? Our behavior will probably be reported to Konoha soon and Fifth won’t be grateful for it. If you have the right to throw stones at a Wind Country terrorist, annoying him to break out of control, if you have the stones to let loose a Tailed Beast of all things, if you dare attack a band of Justicars despite high public approval of those guys from most settlers and villagers, I had the right to stop my friend before she made a mistake she’d regret” Shimo coldly exclaimed right in Mana’s face, the young man didn’t even flinch, there was no regret in his face.
“Regret? What makes you think I’d have regretted it!?” Mana shouted out in her friend’s face, he must’ve seen this quarrel coming, he must’ve known that if he stopped the magician from saving someone she’d blow up right in her face.
“Isn’t this what’s happening here? Regret? Don’t you regret picking a fight with an opponent you couldn’t beat? Bargaining your own life so you could win? Aren’t you looking for the Box because you regret the decision you made? You said it, not me, you want the Box because you hope to get your chakra control back, you lost it because no one stopped you from committing utter stupidity. Because you had no friends by your side capable of standing your way and saying enough… Don’t you regret overtraining and breaking your own body, rendering yourself weak and unable to stop Sugemi from…” Shimo stopped, finally he noticed that he was crossing a line. Mana slapped him angrily and began walking forward. She wanted to leave them, she wanted to just storm off her own separate way but that had already happened before and nothing good came of it.
She couldn’t believe it! How could he claim that she was regretting a single action she made? Had it not been to those injuries that prevented her from stopping Sugemi she’d have not been as strong as she was after all those years, had it not been for her stepping in front of Hisako she’d have not saved a life of a young man, a misguided young man who wanted to be a criminal genius but because of her had his whole future to change his ways. She saved people because she’s as stupid as she was. That was why she saved all those people, because she did things that to other people looked stupid. Her own friends didn’t even believe in her…
How was she supposed to become this amazing hero who inspired change in people if she couldn’t even convince her friends? The people who trusted her words, who should’ve trusted her at the very least didn’t believe in her power to change anything. No one believed in her anymore, not even Shimo, not even the man she spent so much time training and growing with, not even her childhood friend… She was all alone, just the way she started it all. All those years and nothing changed, she grew stronger but people still mistrusted her, people still kept her from trying to do what she wanted to do. People still didn’t believe that she was a hero who could save people instead of letting this cruel world claim them.
How could she stop people like the person who did it to those settlers if she had both the evil ones and her own closest friends to fight over it?
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