Konoha was just about reaching the point where it was at its peak of activity. That was mainly why Mana tried avoiding the big streets in her rush for the village gate. Too many people would’ve recognized her if she ever appeared in the main central districts, an entertainer appearing on the entertainment districts where people went to relax would’ve made the magician never leave that place unscathed. Sure she could just deny all requests and questions but she was way too nice for that. Mana knew that if someone asked her something or to do something she’d most likely do it, it was just the kind of person she was.
A couple of weeks after Mana brought all the things Shikamaru gave her to bring home from another universe the intelligence division of the village devised a new device. Similar in many ways to the clumsy and large devices used to take pictures but much smaller, dozens of times lighter and naturally some tech shop obtained the license to sell it for commercial use. People recently were almost demanding Mana to take pictures with them which while entertaining to see and do would’ve taken too much time.
The magician stopped suddenly and moved into an alleyway between two living blocks, closing her eyes and focusing. Maybe if she could just filter out all this noise, all those talking people… She was fast enough to have stopped and moved faster than they could track, something she was painfully familiar of having her currently troubles in mind. There was no one close enough to disturb her but a part of trouble of being ninja was the higher degree of perception.
Finally Mana achieved total clarity, after a slightly longer than usual pause the magician managed to successfully convince herself that the noise of the active and pulsing with life village was just as usual as the silence and comfort of her own room. The magician couldn’t sense anything, she wasn’t sure what exactly she was looking for. Maybe Kiyomi would’ve spoken up to someone, maybe she had a particular Yamanaka garden smell to her? A smell of those strange autumnal blooming flowers. Nothing.
Mana dashed off once again disappearing from the eyes of the villagers. Avoiding bumping into anyone took the most of her concentration at that speed. It was like speeding through a forest at dozens of thousands of kilometers per hour with trees and rocks coming in from every side but Mana was nimble and graceful, also desperate and in a hurry. Had it not been for Kouta’s training in evasion and Meiko’s training in perception she’d have never been able to successfully cover most of the village in such a short amount of time.
Mana stopped right by the gate to see if she was stopped, moving at her breakneck speed would’ve been a detriment to her goals. After all the guard ninja were of higher rank than she was which meant they were most likely stronger, faster and could perceive and react to much faster things than Mana. They’d have stopped her and she’d have been in too much trouble to even bother speeding out the gate for. In the middle of the day people weren’t stopped from leaving the village. Maybe that was why there were so many nukenin wandering the outside walls? The village hardly tried keeping ninja in, what worried Konoha the most was keeping those they feared of out.
In a casual and slow step Mana left the gate and looked around. She remembered being told that Kiyomi headed the Ceylon road to the east. It was troublesome having only one exit from the village, only one gate. The magician sighed and began heading forward right up until the cross. Mana rushed it, her pace was unsteady and her breath was chasing but her newly reacquired ninja stamina held it. She could’ve fought at her peak for hours before running out of breath…
Mana stopped by the cross sign examining the signs directing at the different roads: Rooibos, Roiyaru, Ceylon, Pu-her, Oolong and others. Just as the magician decided to take the Ceylon road her foot stopped “ something was wrong. With a quick backdash sliding across the sandy surface of the forest road Mana avoided a long streak of shuriken flying at her from the bushes. It was ballsy for bandits to lurk so close to the village walls, they must’ve been inexperienced or very desperate. Mana could’ve taken on anyone who had so little experience so she calmed her racing heartbeat and listened in.
“Shit, the fuck did you do that for? I told you this wasn’t the Yamanaka girl! Are you fucking mad? She looks NOTHING like her!” a voice came from the bushes as no bandit came out to claim their prey or their belongings as their own. Mana’s eyebrow rose up in confusion. These guys were really bad at this whole robbing people thing.
“What the fuck do I know how that Yamanaka brat looks?” another voice replied the first one’s question completely ignoring Mana’s confused stare into the void, despite looking at a bunch of leaves the magician could clearly tell where her assailants lurked.
“You wouldn’t just carry on, by any chance? We’re waiting for someone else…” a third voice finally addressed Mana finally returning the entire matter to humanity.
Their aim was fairly decent, the ninja tools cut through quite deep “ they were a bit more competent physically and skill-wise than they were mentally. Maybe it was a bad move to take these bandits on alone but Mana realized that they may have been talking about Kiyomi.
“I’m looking for Yamanaka Kiyomi, do you know anything about her? I get the feeling she hasn’t passed here yet…” Mana elevated her voice to reach the three gents lurking in the bushes. There was a fourth one, much less skilled scaling the tree and aiming to drop on Mana from above. He was as quiet as a non-ninja could be but to Mana he was as clear as a drumming loudmouth chimp.
“A fellow lady of luck, huh? Well your luck isn’t doing that well right now, ever since the bounty on the lady’s head was put every scumbag tall and short is after her. Go away, this is our spot!” the bush shook as those lurking within were growing uneasy. Finally the fourth one decided to drop on Mana, kunai in his right hand aiming to stab at her shoulder “ a fair try, had he successfully hit her with enough force he’d have maybe hit an artery. Luckily enough Mana raised her right leg up with her foot digging deep into the man’s gut while her wrists stopped the blade wielding wrist of the assailant, with a quick throw with her leg the magician flipped the man over her head and down on the ground.
So there was a bounty on Kiyomi’s head? That was news to Mana, she’d have wished to normally find out all about that, who put it there and who exactly was after the bounty but now she had no time. Mana wanted to meet up with Kiyomi before the Yamanaka reached the resort, a place where Mana was unlikely to be allowed to be in without a Yamanaka friend. All higher ranking ninja normally had bounties but this reeked different, more… Personal.
“You’re through!” one of the bandits declared as the group jumped out from the bush. They were pretty swift, moving in a blur “ Mana wasn’t ready for them to be that fast. The spotted scarves and face rags suggested that they were from Kirigakure, or at least dressed like people from those parts. One of them wore goggles that were meant to help one see through thick mist. Something inside Mana flared up, she wanted to beat these people without caring if she let Kiyomi get farther away.
At this point it wasn’t quite clear if these men just missed Kiyomi passing by or if the blonde still hasn’t reached this place. Odds were that these guys were just dumb and missed her. After all, Mana would’ve noticed Kiyomi going up to this place.
Their knives thrown for a cover up were pretty fast, Mana’s hands flashed through a couple of handseals as she activated her Mystical Wings technique moving her out of the way just in time. The girl covered up her head as she put up her technique so hastily that she was thrown up and through a cover of branches that scratched her up shallowly. Her chakra didn’t even bother protecting Mana from something as trivial as branches, the magician on a deeper level feared losing her chakra again making her very hesitant at using chakra augmentation where it wasn’t needed.
The rustling leaves suggested that her enemies were following her, the magician took a moment to look at the side only seeing a badly camouflaged body flash by. Mana canceled the technique and redirected her legs upwards so she drove them into a charge of a diving bandit. The guy was pretty quick for his size, he could’ve been a good two times Mana’s size but the magician allowed the force of impact flow through her legs redirecting it into a leap back and down on a stronger branch.
Just like that the bounty hunters were gone again. Mana had underestimated them at first. Each one of them would’ve posed a decent challenge to a weaker genin so they weren’t completely hopeless, still, they were far too weak to be bounty hunters. They were either new or the vulture kind “ chasing weakened or just young prey. Not all bounty hunters wished to be famous, to be legendary assassins taking out high ranking ninja. Some just liked killing little important kids or taking out the sickly or wounded.
Mana’s ears desperately tried to pick up at least a smallest hint, her lips slightly smiled at the left after she realized what to do. A feint tap at the wooden upper branches alerted her of an upcoming attack, the magician’s hands went through a collection of hand seals.
“Lightning Style: Magical Shock Jutsu!” she chanted out extending a long beam of concentrated lightning at where the sound came from but it only set a strong branch ablaze and hit no one. It was a fairly weak technique so even if it hit Mana was hoping for a painful shock and a temporary stun which would’ve made the others flee and given her a chance to move in on the unfortunate fellow she hit.
Two bandits moved in from the side, Mana flipped back launching herself off of the branch and onto another allowing the two to miss her. She did her best to keep these two goofballs in her eyesight, now that they moved out she won’t let them disappear again. Mana’s hand moved out from her inner jacket pocket launching a large amount of floating explosive tags in the air. The kunoichi’s hands went through two hand seals launching the whole flock of seals at her opponent.
“Friendly Gust Jutsu!” she chanted as the wind gust carried the explosive notes at the general direction of her opponents. A deafening explosion echoed followed by loud screams. Mana jumped up and followed her falling enemies allowing her steel wire to tie up in loops around a bunch of tree branches before she swung over a lower branch and let her unconscious enemies hit it. It probably left some internal injuries but it was better than hitting the ground in their speed. Mana looked at the complicated web of steel wire she made and the duo stuck on it, lamenting the loss of her entire steel string from her kit but it was worth it, human life was always worth using all of her wire for…
The magician turned behind her. She could hear the last remaining bounty hunter painfully grunting and trying to figure out if attacking Mana was even worth it. It was a pretty wise question, having in mind how easily she dispatched of his friends. Truth be told the moment right after the explosion was some of the most fear that the magician had “ she figured that these hunters may not have dodged her attack sufficiently to survive it which would’ve really ruined her day. They took it all head-on and only got knocked out and badly burnt. That was better than dying…
“That explosion alerted the village guard. You have very slim chances of outrunning me with those injuries. You had pretty decent ones before “ I’m not too physically fast or too strong but you wasted your chance. Tell me what you know about Yamanaka Kiyomi, where is she, who else is after her?” Mana yelled out but the Kirigakure bounty hunter began running. The magician’s foot twitched to give chase but then she stopped and looked at the unconscious enemies hanging on the steel wire.
Mana grunted, instead of giving chase she ran up the tree using the Art of Tree Climbing technique and hung on top of the branch where the steel wire was attached to. Knowing she’d regret it Mana removed the ointment from her pouch meant to treat chakra burns and rubbed it on the more severe burns on the bounty hunters’ faces and chests, their arms also.
The magician looked up and noticed guards moving in. She could only notice the signs their environment left as they passed by and not the guards themselves.
“You okay?” one of the guards remarked before noticing the webs of strings Mana had weaved to prevent the unconscious bounty hunters from getting killed of a long fall.
“We almost missed you “ Dojiro kept telling me about his aunt and how she’s seeing aliens looking through her windows and ghosts in the cemetary. Good work here, you beat them so quickly!” the other guard complimented Mana.
“Shut up, auntie Tonture is a saint! Anyways, maybe these guys are the guys making civilians disappear. I guess they attacked you without knowing you’re also a ninja, you were lucky, Sorceress…” the first guard smacked his friend at the back of his head before smiling at Mana while trying to calm her down.
“No, they’re bounty hunters. They spoke about Yamanaka Kiyomi. I was actually looking for her too when I ran into them” Mana explained.
“They look like they’re from Kirigakure… Just when that pisshole started talking of autonomy!” one of the guards crossed his arms on his chest before tying both of the men up and placing seals on the ropes that made the ropes use chakra from the seal to stay strong and not just be a rope restraining a strongman.
“Every place has bounty hunters, I doubt anyone will make much of a fuss over this. We need to inform the village, Yamanaka Kiyomi needs to return home and stay inside the village walls under our protection” the first guard looked up.
“You guys need to go back and keep watching the village gate, I’m going after Kiyomi, you can send someone after us too but I can chase after her now. I know where she’s going. Once the village puts a team together they can come to our aid” Mana suggested.
“True, village gate is our priority!” the second guard nodded.
“Good luck, Sorceress” the first one nodded in agreement and the two disappeared faster than Mana’s eyes could even fully track them. They were just two green blurs blending into the forest green perfectly.
Mana looked onwards at the sign and began rushing onwards across the Ceylon road. She had to reach Kiyomi in time, she still didn’t know where Kiyomi was but when Mana reached the first small bar or resting place she could ask the locals if they had seen her, if not that meant Kiyomi hadn’t passed through there. The blonde was tough to miss. In that case the guards had likely encountered Kiyomi on their way back and told her to return. Then Mana could head back while carefully looking for her lagging friend. It was much more likely that Kiyomi was yet ahead, Mana was already behind her friend and now she gained an even larger lead after the young kunoichi was inconvenienced with this battle.
The magician continued to run onwards until her thighs began aching. Mana’s main fighting style was kicking so her legs were strong and durable so the fact that even the magician’s legs were beginning to hurt alarmed her. How much longer could it have been since the next stop?
“Holy shit! Mana, is that you!?” Kiyomi’s shrieking voice came from the bushes. The magician looked aside and saw her friend all messy with her skirt lazily pulled up and her hair messy.
“Were you peeing?” Mana asked in confusion, all questions of assassins and bounty hunters just left her childish mind.
“Well… I couldn’t take it, the next stop was nowhere to be seen! Peeing in a forest for a girl is such a hassle!” Kiyomi complained.
“Whatever… We need to go back “ there’s a bounty on your head” Mana began explaining before Kiyomi jumped up and hugged Mana. The magician’s worried face shifted to a friendly smile and the magician’s hands wrapped around her friend as well.
“It’s been a while” Kiyomi exclaimed vibrantly after pinching Mana’s cheek after letting go of her. “Your cheeks are still soft and chewy like the innards of a cucumber!” she declared.
“Look, we really need to head back, we can catch up after you’re safe…” Mana got worried again.
“No way! We’re heading to the Yamanaka resort “ at this point it’s just about as far away as the village and it’s much safer there, also more fun!” Kiyomi objected.
“It’s gonna get dark in a couple of hours, we need to go back” Mana stood her ground.
“I’m older than you and I was genin two years longer than you!” Kiyomi playfully pouted her lips into a duck-like beak. She was clearly not taking this seriously.
“Look… It’s better to keep moving onwards, as long as we’re moving. We can’t stop, we’re just sitting ducks then” Mana relented for Kiyomi’s great glee.
“Yay, we’re going on a vacation trip!” she smiled.
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