As the two friends continued to walk the same path on and on Mana was beginning to get really riled up about the lack of a stop in sight. There were supposed to be small inns or just vendors selling junk and supplies everywhere. Maybe the world was just bigger than Mana had imagined it and where she expected these vendors and stops to be everywhere, placed as tightly to one another as they were drawn on the map, there must’ve been a really long walk between each of them. As someone who took such a brief time returning to the village after leaving the ship the magician had to admit to herself having forgotten what simply moving at a casual pace felt like.
“Hmmm… You’re being really silent. That’s really not like you” Kiyomi pouted still looking to be in a playful mood and completely unaffected by the fact that someone put a bounty on her head and someone wishing to claim it could’ve been right around the corner.
“I’m just being careful. You appear to be completely unaffected by the whole damn world wishing to kill you so I must be watchful for the both of us” Mana replied still tense and doing her best to perceive and properly analyse their environment. Just being careful took the better part of her available effort, being social on top of that would’ve been impossible.
“We can talk like this…” the cheerful Yamanaka winked at Mana after establishing the mental link between the two.
“I’d rather not. Talking, while really distracting, is easier than filtering my thoughts and struggling to hide what I don’t want you to see” Mana sighed before realizing that her friend would simply not relent and begin properly evaluating the danger to her life.
“Oh? There’s something you don’t want me to see? Now you’re making me even more excited!” Kiyomi grinned like a little monkey having seen a simple bait and switch magic trick and questioning its primitive understanding of reality.
“Personal things, both embarrassing and painful” Mana answered trying to hint at painful memories she didn’t wish to be brought up. Kiyomi somewhat settled down having gotten the hint.
“So… That mission you left on, wandering the world completely powerless, were you looking to get yourself killed? Right now your pinchy munchling cheeks are all covered in scratches and your eye is tearing up constantly like you’ve been making an onion cake or somthing, what happened? I’m just being so needy for being social because you offer none of it” Kiyomi asked with a bit more seriousness.
“It’s nothing. I’ve regained my chakra control and got my licence working again. Now my only worry is to not lose another friend, I’ve already had a run-in with a bunch of bounty hunters looking for you” Mana explained.
“Wow, a bunch of vultures did these scratches? What did they throw at you, a colossal chainsaw wouldn’t leave a scratch on a ninja worth their mettle…” Kiyomi shrugged.
“It was trees, they were pretty fast so I flew up and I think I did it too fast and carelessly, the branches scratched me up, one even hit my eye making it itchy” Mana recounted because she knew that her friend wouldn’t back up if she didn’t. To the magician it seemed like a career in the interrogation division was pretty much guaranteed for the Yamanaka heiress. After all “ she could extract information even without using her clan techniques.
Kiyomi began cackling in a childish laughter. “Branches did this to you!?” she grabbed her abdomen in actual physical pain that laughing herself off to no end brought.
“I’m glad you find my pain hilarious” Mana couldn’t help but smile, her warm and friendly feelings for the blonde broke through the worry for Kiyomi’s well-being.
“Well yeah! People are learning to control their punches and fireballs so that they don’t blow up the world their whole life and the great and mighty Konoha’s Sorceress gets scratched up by some branches! I’ve not had a laugh like this in years!” Kiyomi kept on laughing.
“I’ve already lost my chakra control once, I don’t want to strain my network to save me some nuisance level pain. If a world-breaker power ninja punches me I’ll be sure to clench myself, I won’t risk losing it all again for a bunch of trees” Mana explained why some fledgling wood managed to leave scratches on her.
Kiyomi’s face straightened out, the blonde must’ve remembered how broken and desperate Mana was back when she still had her network torn. All of the hilarity and fun gone in a poof but the magician knew that it was only because her friend could somewhat empathize with the pain that Mana felt and understand her almost paranoid wish to never go through that again.
“You know, if it was your life that was in danger you’d not be overly worried either, I know you better than to believe otherwise” Kiyomi gave Mana a sweet and subtle arc of her lips in the shape of a smile.
“If it was my life that was in danger I’d move as far away from the village as possible “ I’d wish to confront my killer alone, with no one to be caught in the crossfire” Mana admitted seriously.
“Well, in a way, that’s what we’re doing right now. You’re just too considerate to leave me to face it alone. Truth be told, my stay in the Yamanaka resort will be that much better with you there with me. Plus once we reach it it’ll be full of some of the most powerful mental annihilators in the village “ no bounty hunter will dare mess with us” the blonde nodded subtly.
A little bit after the sky had already turned dark an establishment came into view not too far away. Despite the fact that the two kunoichi were in no rush, with Mana being worried that if they moved at full speed they’d easily get ambushed and be unable to react in time, the magician had expected to reach the Yamanaka resort that Kiyomi spoke of sooner. Staying in an inn was far from her idea of hiding from a possible bounty hunter attack of choice.
“Where are you going?” Kiyomi’s voice reached Mana forcing the magician to stop and backtrack a little, closing half a kilometre in a couple of graceful leaps and landing nearby her stopped friend.
“We need to keep moving. We can’t stop here, if any bounty hunters are still looking they’ll check the inns first and this place doesn’t look even remotely secure” Mana tried pleading to her friend’s sense of reason but judging from Kiyomi’s face she wasn’t very successful.
“Yeah but we do need sleep. We can take turns watching like the old times” the blonde smiled.
Mana squinted angrily at her friend “ the Yamanaka knew perfectly that the two could stay without sleep much longer than normal humans could. Food, water and other necessary supplies were less necessary to a ninja. The two girls could certainly make it to the resort before their bodies actually begin demanding food or water or sleep.
“We must move, by staying here we’ll endanger other people” Mana turned around and tried to move slowly making her friend follow her but then she noticed that Kiyomi was standing still. Angry after realizing the fact that Kiyomi didn’t need Mana and it was the other way around she turned around and returned to her smart-face wearing friend.
“Forgot something?” Kiyomi grinned making fun of Mana.
“Come on, this isn’t a game! Staying here isn’t smart…” Mana tried pleading one more time.
“I thought you said you are supressing your ninja metabolism and supernatural physique. That means you need to eat, drink and sleep right. Staying here isn’t smart, that’s why most bounty hunters won’t expect us do it” Kiyomi smiled and ran up to Mana grabbing the magician’s hand and dragging her inside the inn.
Mana closed her eyes doing her best to maintain composure. Why was her friend in such a rush to get killed? Why did she view this supposed forced field trip as something to make fun on instead of actual danger to her life? The worried magician observed Kiyomi fool around in front of the inn keeper and pay him with a clearly oversized wallet.
“You’re carrying this much ryo with you? It’s like you’re asking to get attacked” Mana rubbed her tense and pulsing temples.
“It’s fine, you can take this chance to stretch your legs out and rest, also you can examine your wounds” Kiyomi clapped her hands before rushing to the second floor and finding the room she paid for. Mana hesitantly followed.
Upon entering the room the Yamanaka future heiress just fell on a bed and stretched out yawning and scratching some uncomfortable and itchy spots before settling down like she was ready to go to sleep.
“Kiyomi. Do you know what sort of dangerous game you’re playing?” Mana was getting tired to sing the same song but she had finally realized what her friend was doing. She finally understood why Kiyomi purposefully made every mistake to get herself killed in the middle of the night.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, now… Did Hanasaku-sensei approach you with the offer to join the team yet? I must’ve really gotten annoying to her with all my nagging that she quit her post and decided to lead our team herself. I just really wanted to rank-up, you know? I feel like I’m ready to become a chuunin already!” the blonde deflected the question.
“You’re trying to lure the bounty hunters out. Whoever is after you “ you’re trying to make them actually try to kill you so you can beat them out in the open. Do you know who is coming for you? Do you have grievances with that person? Why are you acting so reckless?” Mana revealed Kiyomi’s plan and that she finally caught up to it. Honestly she should’ve gotten on the same page sooner but the plan was something so silly that the magician just didn’t expect her friend to go for it.
“No idea. All I know is that they’re criminals. Criminals deserve to die so when those bastards come after me I’ll kill them. Figured after I kill a couple of them the others will reconsider their life choices.” Kiyomi replied with seriousness and little emotion past her greatly diminished fun.
“You know I won’t let you do that? You must’ve known all along, so why would you have me join you in this?” Mana asked as that particular detail didn’t make sense to her.
“Yeah… I knew. I guess if you get in my way “ that’s fine. I just really wanted to have some fun and see you after all this time, even if you insist on imprisoning those scumbags instead of killing them. This is still just like old times.” Kiyomi admitted. This was perhaps the most truthful she sounded and looked this whole time. It meant a great deal to Mana that her friend was both completely truthful with her and ready to change her approach to justice temporarily just because her friend didn’t agree with it.
“Yeah. Hokage-sensei did approach me, I even recommended the third member to her. She seemed serious to start training for the Chuunin Exams soon…” Mana replied leaving the topic behind and trusting Kiyomi to handle this. The magician didn’t know if Kiyomi was looking to meet someone specific in here or if she just wished to slay criminals as was always her way of life. Trust brimmed in Mana’s heart, trust and the decision to support her friend and future teammate.
“So…” Kiyomi smiled again, “Who’s this third one you’ve recommended? Is it a boy? Is he cute?”
“You should just wait for a while, I’m sure you’ll mend things with Eiju again. The third one is another kunoichi I’ve met on my last mission” Mana laughed out sitting down on her bed and crossing her legs and assuming the meditative position. She’d be pretty wise to try and use her increased perception and awareness while meditating to help Kiyomi avoid getting herself killed over her bloody sense of justice.
*****
A large white owl rested on a branch of a tall oak outside the inn. The well fed and groomed bird was scratching an itchy spot beneath its wing and continuously scanning its environment. It had already successfully caught a little mouse that day, the owl was looking for something larger but it would’ve been pretty fine with what it had. It was just sheer primal greed and the animalistic urge to live and eat better than one already was.
A quiet and lightning fast kunai blade whizzed right past the beak of the majestic bird making the poor thing fly away in terror for its own life. The godly white beauty had assumed that it was quite lucky having a hunter miss his or her mark which would lead to them going to bed hungry that night. The truth was that the hunter did not miss. Instead the blade was aimed at someone further away from the bird “ a second floor wall of the inn in which two girls were settling down in.
The hunter was prowling on another branch parallel to the one where the magnificent bird was residing in previously. Despite his rather heavy chest armour and a sophisticated helmet with various hi-tech, constantly switching, visors, telling him things ranging from temperature to X-ray vision and similar sight aids, the man made no sound as he moved through the trees. His pitch perfect smell could pick up the smell of blood in the veins of the blonde he was after and there was no way that any of the two were expecting his attack. They couldn’t possibly have seen him coming.
The whizzing blade got stuck in the wooden wall making the bounty hunter go through a collection of hand seals launching a blaze of fire nature chakra to run down the steel wire tied to the other end of the kunai which accumulated speed and size by absorbing the air around it and making it fuel the flame further. Once the fireball reached the inn’s wall it made the top of the building explode like the top of an erupting sealed volcano.
This wasn’t how he was trained, how he was told to kill and it crossed every principle of a stealthy assassin. He usually hit swiftly and left no trace of his attack, he was a true hitman, he was faster and more graceful than a big cat, he was stealthier than a ghost and he never missed his mark. This however, this job was personal, it invited feelings of angst and rage into the hunter’s heart which would’ve made him normally refuse such a job. Truth be told he wasn’t even doing it for the money “ he just wanted the Yamanaka girl dead.
Looking at the debris flying around the hunter noticed the two girls. He knew both of them but he had hoped that his attack would kill one of them. He had no idea about how powerful this strangely dressed darker skinned girl was, she looked frail enough to be killed by his diversion attack. He must’ve miscalculated.
“What the hell was that? Couldn’t you have warned me?” Kiyomi yelled out as the blast had thrown her through the wooden wall and slammed her into the Ceylon road leaving a good fifty meters spanning trail.
“I did… We were too slow” Mana grunted in pain as she forced her body off the ground. The blast had deafened her ears and would’ve torn her body to pieces if she hadn’t used augmentation. The attacker was insanely stealthy “ the magician couldn’t sense him or her moving, even in her meditation she was completely caught unprepared “ it was only once his kunai hit the wooden wall and alerted her that Mana yelled out for Kiyomi to move. The following explosion caught both of them but barely left any lasting damage.
This was just the scenario Mana had feared this whole time. Being caught unprepared, being unable to know that they were being attacked. Luckily enough they managed to survive this diversion attack and it didn’t appear to do anything but blast off the second floor of an almost empty inn. The owner ran off into the woods covering his head, jumping out of the first floor window.
“This isn’t a game, this bounty hunter has killed people just to piss you off” Mana grumped out. She was beginning to get really riled up and hate this stealthy killer’s guts.
“Yeah, and he’ll pay for it. He’d have killed many more if I don’t lure him out and kill him here and now” Kiyomi replied, it was clear that the blonde was regretting staying in a more public place than a random camp in the forest. She wasn’t really to blame for any people who may have died in this attack, not as much as the bounty hunter himself, but she still felt bad.
“So how about you find that guy? I thought your meditation was supposed to help with that?” Kiyomi grunted as she was really getting annoyed by the fact that the bounty hunter had clear and open sight of them whereas the two of the girls had no idea where the killer was.
“I’m trying “ he’s too quiet” Mana was feeling more and more desperate as with each passing moment the probability of being attacked by a stealthy opponent increased.
A loud snapping sound scared the magician half to death, she must’ve stepped into something as a loop tied around her foot and dragged up, leaving her hanging upside down with her leg tied to a large oaken branch. Mana saw her ninja tools fall out from her open ninja kit, she heard a whizzing sound she feared the most, steel tipped cards shot from under sleeve and in a swift motion Mana deflected several bladed discs aimed right at her neck. Their trajectories were very deceptive as they twisted and turned, travelled in an arc but Kouta taught her better than to get decapitated like that.
Mana felt taps at her back before strong chakra coated steel wires tied around her restraining her from the shoulders to her thigs. The hunter had moved in behind her during the time she took to protect herself from getting beheaded. The man landed on a weaker branch right besides Mana and grabbed her by the hair, pulling the girl’s face in closer to his helmet. He must’ve been checking on who Mana was and if she was the prey he was hunting.
“Stay put” Mana heard grungy and raspy voice of the man inside. Then with a louder roar he disappeared in the shadows of the night, circling around and looking to score a cheap and swift kill on Kiyomi.
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