A deafening wave of applause and a standing audience followed the conclusion of Mana’s stage magic show. The magician bowed as always and waited for a sign from offstage assistants that the mirrors that surrounded her had been removed and she could freely leave. Had she not done so she risked walking right into a mirror screen bumping both her nose and her pride. She made that mistake during practice, turned out Mana was rustier than she’d thought.
It made sense that the public ate her return up. After all, Mana’s sleight of hand improved immeasurably during her time training with the martial artists of Sun Disc arena. Her perception and general motor control was actually multiplied billions of times after training with Meiko and all of those improvements were multiplied incalculably still when Mana’s chakra control returned. The limits of her current abilities still remained untested…
After the worker offstage gave Mana a thumb up the magician carefully and slowly bowed again and again while catching one of multiple roses thrown on the stage and playing with it like a playing card, letting it shift through her fingers. At this point she was just showing off. The girl took a moment to sigh in relief after she left the stage and entered the corridor leading up to the small cabinet she used for prep before the show and trivialities after it.
Mana was glad that the audience ate her show up like never before, while the audience was much smaller compared to the heights of her magician career it was to be expected “ it was her first performance in many months and with events like those happening in ninja world distracting the common villager she was bound to be forgotten until she made an actual lasting legacy.
“Wow, kid, gotta say… Wow!” Hiro “ the owner of the hall where Mana performed clapped for her after letting himself enter the cabin. Normally he’d have risked running into a performer changing but by now he knew that the magician didn’t view her uniform as a stage accessory but actually like a part of her daily attire at times. Mana took her craft seriously, she was a stage magician on the stage, off of it and on the battlefield as a ninja.
“I’m glad you liked it, Hiro-san, how did we do?” she asked with a smile while putting her various still functional stage props into a large duffel. It probably weighed a ton but to Mana it was barely anything. The more her chakra control advanced, the more casual enhancing her body seemed.
“Well the audience was smaller than usual but… It was to be expected from a return performance. If your show today is any indicator “ the whole village will be talking about you pretty soon. Just don’t go missing for such a long time and you’ll be world-famous” Hiro began singing her praise, while some encouragement was usual for people making Hiro money but he didn’t usually praise someone thusly. Mana sensed a speech coming up. She waited for a “but” but it didn’t come, the magician just turned her chair around and crossed her arms on her chest looking curiously at the hall manager.
“Look… Here’s your payment for the show” Hiro scratched the back of his sweaty neck that made his flowery Hawaiian shirt seem like it was submerged underwater for a good minute or two as it ran down lower to the short and chubby man’s body.
“That’s not how we usually do things. I thought you’re paying my mother, not me. She’s managing my funds. Did something change?” Mana curiously asked just looking at the large pile of cash right in front of her face.
“Well… Not really, your mother is a brilliant manager, you’ll know what I mean one day but… You’re really important here, just wanted you to know. I gave you this smelly dark cabin when you started, just a kid in a flowery dress doing silly magic tricks. During this whole time you could’ve left, found a better place where you’d be respected but you didn’t. Now when you got pretty big… You’re kinda my big moneymaker, even when you’re not around people know my place mainly cause of you. I just wanted you to know you’re being appreciated and… That, as stingy as I am, I appreciate loyalty from my entertainers” Hiro uneasily explained just shaking the thick pile of money.
“This isn’t even how much money I actually make, I think it’s like… Eighteen times more. Just pay my mother, just like you two decided to do business. I perform here because I love entertaining people, sure, certain things about this smelly cabin make me feel nostalgic and I do feel a bit loyal towards this hall in specific but… There’s really no need to change things between us, I’m not going anywhere” Mana assured the man smiling to him wholeheartedly and bowing her head respectfully before running off. Hiro wanted to object and say something in return but then he just scratched the back of his head.
“But this is the usual amount…” he just uttered to himself after he realized Mana ran off.
*****
“Nakotsumi Mana?” a firm masculine voice interrupted Mana’s daydreaming as she was planning to leave the hall and head home. She still planned seeing Kouta for their potential first date that day so she wasn’t in any mood to host any of the usual after-show sit downs where she met anyone who came to her show for a nice short chat or answered any questions. Due to those reasons the girl hadn’t expected to be stopped.
“Yes, I suppose if you saw the show you may also…” Mana opened her mouth for a response.
“No, I’m sorry, I am not calling you by your stage name “ I am a firm fan of calling things how they are” the man politely interrupted the magician by shaking his hands in disagreement. His voice was strong and deep, the kind that inspired people but the words that actually came out from his mouth were not overly inspirational for Mana.
“Very well” Mana nodded uncomfortably rubbing her elbow behind her back.
“That was quite a show, young lady, I have to say I was impressed despite not being a fan. For observing something I do not like, I was fairly impressed by your skill of doing that thing” the man continued to send twisted messages as Mana was not sure if she should be defending her craft or respectfully expressing her gratitude for the man’s praise.
“Um… Thank you, I suppose” she decided on the latter.
“I must ask, I’d like to know how did you do that rabbit multiplying trick, you didn’t actually use ninjutsu, did you? I believed I’d have noticed a genin using sloppy ninjutsu on stage which surprised me greatly when I did not” the man once again confusingly commended Mana while offending her at the same time. One of the things the magician liked the least was being treated as normal, casual, average. At the very least her craft should’ve been treated as unique, leaving the definitions of good or bad aside.
“No, it was just a mirror trick, the mirrors were edited to hide the rabbits while showing you the stage, almost like see-through glass. I often incorporate ninja techniques into the show but this one was just smoke and mirrors. I popped a light bomb and a smoke bomb from my ninja kit to conceal the actual trick, not that most people would follow my hand movements… It was purely for the visual effect” Mana admitted, while Hiro actually tried suggesting her to stick to the secrecy of how her tricks were done rule, the girl had no intention of making it a consistent rule she lived by. Something also told her she’d better tell this man what he wanted to hear.
“That is… Impressive, for a genin. I mean you are misusing ninja techniques for silly entertainment making fun of the old and respected profession but… You do it in style” the man admitted nodding his head, his cheek bones remained sharply protruded and his chin was almost like a stone sword pointed at Mana. The man didn’t feel like smiling or showing any amount of warmth towards her and appeared rather on the offensive about the subject but it didn’t look like he was looking for trouble.
“Excuse me, is this supposed to be… A review or…” Mana began losing her composure, not because her craft was attacked, more so because her time was being wasted on shifty and unclear messages. She could take criticism, she could take being called a good for nothing loser who brings shame to the ninja profession but she couldn’t take being held up without knowing what this man’s intention was.
“Oh no, just wanted to meet the young lady that attracted the Council’s attention. Those old fools are so quick to forgive and forget such transgressions towards the respected age old traditions of the ninja order, I am not so sure, even after seeing a quite impressive, for a kid, show” the man shrugged slipping out from under a raggedy cloak. He was certainly a well formed and trained individual, his shoulders were probably the broadest and scariest Mana had ever seen. He could probably punch a head off of a bear without even augmenting his abilities.
“Council’s attention? Am I being investigated? I don’t see how my actions during my licence’s suspension are valid for an investigation, even if they are, what am I facing from the Ninja Council? Double suspension?” Mana began forming some spikes, it may have been just her teenage immaturity but to her it felt well justified at that moment.
“No, different kind of attention… They are quite impressed for some reason: busted a crime ring around the small towns surrounding Konoha and Otogakure, brought home Audra shards worth a large town built of solid gold, finished off a Pirate Lord saving the world, travelled to another universe and brought home technology ages ahead of our time as proof. You are like a little five golden star princess in the eyes of the council and I wanted to see such a girl in person” the man explained.
“I didn’t beat Red alone, it clearly states in the report that Kusagoro-san did the actual fighting” Mana found a flaw in the empty and bitter toned flattering that the man began listing.
“True, but that is what a ninja is essentially, isn’t it? Not the one that fights in an open battlefield, the one that slips a knife in-between the weakened enemy’s ribs. I have to say what you did was pretty impressive, even how most of the Council believes your story about… Different universes, omnipotent Gods and… Whatever else, just because you brought a bunch of tech that will spiral us ages ahead in just a couple of months. I know what you are, Nakotsumi Mana, you are no golden child, you are useful. The council loves you because you brought them use, more of it than most bring in their entire lifetimes. You stumble into things that are golden eggs for the Council, that is your sole talent” the man began bitterly speak and the magician started to doubt she was even supposed to be the target of his monologue.
“Well, I’m glad you have it all figured out, Sir. If you forgive me, I have some matters to attend to” Mana tried politely excusing herself.
“By all means, I wouldn’t like keeping you away from your date…” the man crossed his vehicle sized muscular hands around his chest before flicking a string of hair that began falling in his eyes.
Mana did her best to conceal the fear and surprise that the man knew all about her plans. She suspected that he even knew about Kouta in particular, who he was and just what his relationship with Mana was like. Just how much research has this man done on her? Suddenly the girl began remembering the crazy mumblings of Shimo’s old rogue teacher about mysterious man being very interested in Mana. Could this have been it? Maybe he was just assuming she was heading to a date? After all, most girls Mana’s age were already well into the scene… Such an odd and mysterious man!
The upcoming meeting with Kouta went just about as bad as it could “ the two just uneasily stared at each other and exchanged awkward and cliche phrases before settling down in silence. They spoke of weather, of every single building or tipsy gent wandering off around them. Hundreds of times the two told each other how their day went. This meeting was just about as far from a date as dates got. Mana had that scary and strange man in her mind this entire time and fear and suspicion of his hidden agenda or what he may know or do made her mind be somewhere else.
*****
With her long awaited date getting ruined and supposedly postponed to another day Mana decided to go and let her steam out the next morning with training. It’s been a while since she trained alone in the training grounds, maybe that time with Meiko when she was absorbed into the universal anomaly that made her slip into Naruto and Sasuke’s universe? It was tough to say… Crazy events like that made remembering the simple things quite difficult.
Mana began just fighting the standing dummies, the first couple of attacks she forgot to place the seals on them that protected them from physical harm so she busted a couple of them up into small shatters. Feeling ashamed and just all around bad the magician placed the protective seals onto another dummy, while it was no big deal and things like this happened, somehow it affected her more than it should’ve.
It couldn’t have been breaking the actual dummies itself, nor could it have been the fact that she forgot to place the protective sealing tags she bought on them. It was everything added up: the audience of her shows not being what it used to be before Mana left, meeting that shady tall man and how that whole conversation with him went, how awkward and stupid she was in her date with Kouta. She should’ve suggested that they’d do something, she shouldn’t just have phased out…
Things felt so optimistic before “ even if dealing with Shimo’s death was difficult, Mana had reawakened her chakra control, she’d saved the entire world by stopping Francho and giving him enough of a beating to feel better about Shimo’s death making it somehow not feel completely unresolved. Then she even was thrown into a whole other universe expanding her understanding of what the world around her was, she met all those amazing ninja of another universe and helped save it. She brought technology from that place that’d help patients in Konoha Hospital, one that’ll improve the primitive computing technology and propel the village ages into the future…
And yet… Here it was again, things beginning to rot, slowly, creepily the pale fingers of wights under dark cloaks began creeping up Mana’s neck. She could almost sense it “ something bad was about to happen, things never just stayed the way they were. She’s been getting the good hand in this card game for far too long…
“Hey!” a strangely familiar voice reached Mana, the magician hadn’t noticed that after throwing a powerful punch she leaned forward and slipped into trance. Somehow she managed to slip into a deep meditative state in an uncomfortable fighting stance which made Mana’s muscles feel numb after she recovered from it. Hearing that voice sounded odd, not because of who it belonged to but where Mana heard it “ in the training grounds!
“Good morning, Lady Hokage!” Mana bowed having turned around and faced the most powerful and important ninja having approached her from behind. What could this woman have possibly wanted from Mana? Maybe it was about this whole ninja council thing?
“Oh, no need to use that title, I quit the office today!” Chestnut Hanasaku and ex-Fifth Hokage smiled with a full smile so eerily reminding of the monkey-like way Meiko used to smile all the time.
“W-What?” Mana shook her head and rubbed her tired eyes with her swollen knuckles.
“Yeah, I was always supposed to be just a place holder anyways… I feel like the council forgot that after all this time. The big chair was never meant for a numbskull like me” Hanasaku laughed out loud as if it was something to be taken proud of.
“Well, you are wrong, in that case. The title of Hokage is still used even if the Hokage is not in office. You will be called “the Fifth Hokage” the whole way through and even after your passing” Mana’s facial expression somehow softened up when she informed the woman more than twenty years older than her of this fact.
“Whaaaaat?” Hanasaku’s jaw dropped, it was clear that the woman didn’t have a clue that the title of Hokage would follow her long after her short stay in the big chair would be concluded.
Mana couldn’t keep a chuckle in but when her companion shared a laugh the two women laughed at each other’s laughter before Hanasaku raised her arm and clenched it into a fist.
“I never took you for a puncher, your hands just looked too cute and fragile to punch invincible dummies” the woman smiled pointing at the protected with chakra dummies. Slowly Hanasaku crept up to them and flicked the thing barely even touching it with her finger. The protective chakra coating burst like a popped balloon and the dummy exploded into a vortex of barely visibly sized sawdust.
Mana’s face shifted in disbelief, the seals were supposed to use a perpetually fuelled protective coating of chakra that was supposed to render those small inanimate objects completely invincible to physical force, even augmented with chakra. It didn’t look like Hanasaku put any effort whatsoever in her punch but she destroyed infinite and self-sustaining chakra coating with a single flick of her finger. She barely even scraped the thing with her fingernail!
“I’m not really…” Mana managed to get herself together and express her thoughts in an actual reply. “I just had a lot of pent up feelings inside that needed to be let go, can’t say I like punching things though, I guess I’ll need to keep looking for a better way. Your punch though…”
“Don’t ask me how, my strength defies logic” Hanasaku laughed out shyly stroking her messy chestnut coloured hair stack. “Then again, I suppose I should’ve taught you something with this, I do plan of teaching you after all…” the woman then twisted her lips pouting them and pressing her thinking finger to them.
“Teaching me?” Mana leaned her head sideways in total confusion like a puppy does when he sees a new concept too big for his little cute puppy head to wrap around.
“Sure, now that I’m no longer the Hokage I’ll be putting a team of genin together. Seeing how you’re the student who was so precious for Tanshu, I was really hurt to not be able to teach you sooner. Now I can finally fix that mistake “ you’re the first pick for Team Hokage!” Hanasaku shyly rubbed her nose like wiping a mean sniffle, “Do you like the name, I came up with it myself, now that I know the title will stick with me it’s even more fitting” she giggled.
Mana was wrong, things won’t be getting hard or dark again, they would however get inexplicably weirder!
[Reviews - 0]Chapter or Story
Table of Contents
- Text Size +