Mana threw a stone allowing it to splash further away, as far as her normal strength allowed her to throw it. Kiyomi followed Mana’s example but hers flew beyond view, far away into the distance to where neither of the girls could pick up the stone anymore.
“You could’ve done better than that…” Kiyomi teased Mana.
“I didn’t throw it to fly, I threw it to disturb the water” Mana replied observing the uneasy waves washing away at the resort’s sandy beach surface.
“This may not have been the best time to visit the beach.” Kiyomi admitted and in a way she was right “ the beach was closed and it even if it wasn’t there’d be absolutely no allure in swimming around in such cold waters.
“Depends on what you are seeking to gain out of it. A beach is a great place for reflection any time of the day.” Mana calmly replied.
“Still, we should visit some warmer time, take that third teammate with us too.” Kiyomi shrugged and tossed another stone, trying to make it skip but the stone sunk like a brick after hitting the wavy surface.
“Yeah, Meiko would love the beach, she’s a lover in general, loves most things actually…” Mana nodded her head with a restrained smile before picking up another stone, tossing it around in her hand and then letting it fall back down as she didn’t want to throw it. The magician turned around and just began to walk across the beachside.
“You still haven’t spoken to me about what you wanted to speak with me yesterday. We’ll be heading home whenever we get news that this whole bounty business is over and we’ll be absorbed into our training and missions and all that stuff so… What are you waiting for?” Kiyomi asked following after Mana.
“It’s just… I’m not sure I need that question answered anymore.” Mana shrugged.
“Did you find out the answer yourself?” Kiyomi didn’t let it go, strutting behind Mana.
“Well… Kind of. I figured out I don’t need that question answered.” Mana looked down uneasily, remembering her talk with Eiju after she came back.
“So it was just about hanging out with me, training and all that? You won’t ask what you wanted to ask me?” Kiyomi looked up at Mana curiously.
“Well… I just met this young man, Kouta, in the mission I was in. We like each other but now that I’ve got my chakra control back I just… I don’t know where things fit in anymore. I do stage magic, I’m a ninja… Can I really be a girlfriend too?” Mana finally admitted what she wanted to talk to Kiyomi about originally. Talking to Eiju sort of cleared it up for Mana but Kiyomi was in a much closer position to Mana’s so it sort of made more sense to talk to her about it.
After all the blonde was a future possible clan heiress, a bride of another elite clan member, a ninja as well. It was quite possible that she had more on her plate to deal with than Mana. Eiju’s answer was inspiring but Eiju was well… Eiju. He did things without thinking, future consequences may as well have been a tale to scare kids away from drinking. He couldn’t have cared that much about balancing the many things he was, he acted out of pure impulse, all he was looking for was pleasure and feeling happy. It didn’t matter if such desires were within his grasp or if what he was doing would even grant those goals, doing, moving ahead was what mattered with him.
“Yeah, that sounds like something that’d trouble you…” Kiyomi lowered her own eyes, she was probably hoping for another question which intrigued Mana a bit more than what she herself was going through.
“What’s wrong?” Mana asked turning around at Kiyomi.
“It’s just…” Kiyomi began speaking but then cut it off.
“What?”
“I just thought you’d ask of something different but I guess you’re… You.” Kiyomi smiled.
“Oh… Well…That’s the only person I know how to be…” Mana tried talking, speaking anything instead of nothing just to kill the awkwardness between the two but then she shook her head and just stopped trying to talk when nothing came up.
“No it’s… It’s a question I never really asked myself.” Kiyomi admitted. “I mean, I’ve always had plenty weight to juggle myself “ when I was dating Eiju my clan was pissed beyond explanation. I was supposed to be the clan heiress, I was supposed to marry some big cheese suitor from like… Inuzuka clan or something.” Kiyomi scratched the back of her head.
“Really? That whole princess forced to marry thing? That sounds pretty cliché” Mana smiled.
“Nah, it’s not like I mind. Those Inuzuka guys were always pretty hot so it’s not like I care if I have to marry one of them. After spending some time around Eiju I pretty much stopped believing in love, that guy just makes romance seem so… Down to Earth” Kiyomi took a stone and angrily hurled it past the horizon, speeding ahead like a bullet. “Before it looked to me like some magical thing but he treats it so casual. I don’t really get intimidated by arranged marriages anymore after seeing that.”
Mana laughed out loud, at first restrained, then her fit grew stronger and stronger still until the magician had to stop walking and bend over because her laugh actually began hurting her cheeks and make her run short of breath.
“It’s just what Eiju told me…” Mana replied, “He made me realize the same thing he made you realize, he told me to not care and just go for it “ if it didn’t work just break it off.”
Kiyomi smiled lyrically looking at the horizon and the setting Sun.
“You’re a big girl, Mana. You can handle juggling those responsibilities and if you see you can’t, you’re the only person to accurately judge that. You’re also the only one capable of recognizing if it’s better to end a relationship. I think Eiju’s a big asshole but in this case he’s kind of right” Kiyomi shrugged.
“Yeah, it’s pretty much what I figured you might say. I didn’t expect you to say the same things that Eiju told me but… I figured that chasing after you wanting to ask you about it was pretty stupid.” Mana admitted picking up a stone and hurling it beyond the horizon just as Kiyomi had done before. She was a bit angered by having to admit that it was stupid, this time she wanted the stone to fly and keep flying. It was also certain kind of training of control. Spending just a little bit of chakra to augment her strength and teach her control as well as proper self-control.
“It’s not stupid, honestly, I feel honored you decided to ask me that. There’s nothing wrong in asking someone for advice or for help. You know, I was pretty pissed when I heard you left on a mission without asking me if I wanted to come!” Kiyomi lightened up the mood after the two kunoichi turned around and walked towards a stone staircase that lead outside the beach and back to the resort.
“Well, we needed specifically a medical ninja, the rest of the roster just sort of… Built itself up” Mana shrugged.
The two spent some time wandering the resort districts, admiring the classical architecture, the busy streets and the pretty sights. All the lights and glowing signs. The stone paved streets, the classic buildings of wood, silk and only the most basic material and craftsmanship instead of modern technology. According to Kiyomi some of these buildings had not a single nail in them and used very few tools to build. None of them used more advanced tools like those more modern laser measurement tools used in building those taller buildings that were beginning to pop up in handfuls in pretty much every bigger village.
A ninja in standard Konoha uniform and headband landed right in front of Kiyomi kneeling in front of her. It startled both of the girls but only because of how calm, peaceful and safe they felt in the resort. There was only one person the kunoichi saw sneaking inside of it and even that one person was allowed to enter. Obviously it didn’t have complicated tracking and protective seals like Konoha but its sensory protection may have just been more advanced.
“Lady Heiress, the deed is done. The black market dealer that was to pay the bounty was convinced to pay it up to us and has cancelled the deal. It is now completely safe for you to go back to the village whenever you wish to leave.” the Yamanaka ninja reported.
“Do we know who put the bounty in the first place? Was it Yamanaka Tenma?” Kiyomi asked the man.
“The dealer said he didn’t know. We read his mind and interrogated him thoroughly there was no memories of the man, it is possible that his mind was altered by a high ranking Yamanaka ninja. No other clan can mess with one’s memories and wipe one’s mind like that.” The man answered without showing any reaction.
“So the only thing we know for sure is that someone wants you off the picture, someone who is a Yamanaka.” Mana looked at Kiyomi.
“Yeah, at this point I pretty much got over the fact that my own blood wants me dead.” Kiyomi clenched her fists and shook in anger before calming herself down with a deep sigh.
“It’s a rogue, there is a reason why this scoundrel acted in secrecy, it’s because his ambition is not shared, that much is sure, Lady Heiress! We won’t stop looking into it until we find that man, be he from Kirigakure or Konoha we’ll find him and make him face justice.” the ninja rushed to assure Kiyomi.
“Oh well, I’m sure you guys will figure it out. Let’s go back, Mana, we’ve no more business here plus I’m sure that Hanasaku-sensei will be gathering us all together soon. We’ve overstayed our welcome here, not literally.” The blonde encouraged Mana while adding the last part to calm down the ninja who jumped up to butt in and assure the Yamanaka that she was very much welcome to stay for however long she wanted to.
Mana hesitantly followed Kiyomi back to the large building the two spent days at. It was a hotel-like establishment built to guest only the rich or the more elite visitors. It had countless Yamanaka ninja whizzing around non-stop. The two girls had decided to hit the showers as they had been training pretty intensely that morning, they made their way down to the dressing chambers, Mana was glad to hear that her friend was just as willing to engage in small-talk as she usually was.
“Look, I know my music taste isn’t very popular one but…” Kiyomi shrugged.
“Not popular? What’s wrong with Konoha-Pop?” Mana stopped undressing for a moment just to peek at her friend.
“Wait, you like K-Pop? I thought you’d be more of a… You know, classical girl?” Kiyomi laughed out.
“Just because I take my magician act way too seriously doesn’t mean I like classy things all the time. For your information I like my popcorn smelling of only the most putrid butter whenever I go to the movies!” Mana shared a laugh with her friend.
“Can we stop agreeing on everything? Can you tell me that you at the very least hate Waru Kashisetsu, give me an excuse to claw your eyes out for once!” Kiyomi waited around for Mana to finish getting undressed.
“Sorry… If I did I’d drop dead and make my Tori-Chichi poster disown me.” Mana made a guilty expression and followed her friend into the steamy shower room and the two entered into the nearby shower cabins. Both gender shower rooms were split by large oaken walls separating them.
Mana began sniggering when Kiyomi suddenly broke down in a song in the middle of showering.
“Is this a test? I do know my Tori-Chichi!” Mana shouted out before joining in.
Right after the second chorus ended and the song was supposed to go sad Kiyomi’s voice didn’t join in. Mana chuckled at her victory outlasting her friend and knowing the lyrics better but then the deafening silence began feeling eerie. The magician peeked from her cabin and looked into the shower vapor that was all over the place. The shower rooms had specific seal marks on the ground that accumulated water vapor from hot showers much faster, it was one mean of combatting peeps.
Mana squinted her eyes looking into a specific floaty shape in the fog before she realized it was far too large to be in the female showering rooms. Quickly the magician swiped her towel and tied it on her. She suspected something really fishy. Mana took a leap on and looked into Kiyomi’s showering cabin seeing nothing but a small blood stain being slowly washed away. The magician rushed out to the dressing room and quickly got halfway dressed, barely stopping for a second, before rushing off, following the feint trail of water that Kiyomi must’ve left behind.
Right after the magician opened the door leading out of the showering complex a fist greet her. Large and dark one but not fast enough to catch her off guard, the magician leaned to the right letting it slip and just barely scratch the pin that held her hair together letting it loose. Standing right in front of her was a tall and muscular man with peculiar red and gold gauntlets that had blade tips at the knuckles. A weapon like that obviously used chakra to keep those tips from breaking off and used shock absorbing seals to protect the man’s own knuckles from those hard impacts.
Having found herself diagonally below the man’s extended punch and right up in his face Mana launched her own counterattack smacking him right in his mask which looked like made of some sort of steel micro-chain alloy. Sort of like chainmail but the links were so small that they were like threads. Mana’s chakra augmented palm strike tore a small section of the man’s impressive and undoubtedly expensive mask off exposing the lower part of his face “ namely his jaw.
The man had dark skin, much darker than even Mana’s exotic tan making the magician stop for a moment. This skin tone was native mostly for people north to the Snow Country “ the Land of Lightning and the Kumogakure. Why would a bounty hunter come here to kill someone without a bounty on their head, or did this guy just not get the memo?
Having landed the first strike and successfully cracked the man’s lip open making his lower jaw bleed profusely Mana felt confident in her ability to save her friend but… She wasn’t here. That realization made Mana’s moves stiffen up “ this man wasn’t the sole assailant. Someone could’ve been carrying Kiyomi away this very moment but why? Why kidnap her instead of killing her there and now if they were associated with the bounty that was placed? There was something about this attack that didn’t quite add up and that terrified Mana “ she was in the absolute dark.
The man was surprisingly skilled, now that he had adapted to Mana’s counterattack and the battle officially had set its pace he successfully evaded the magician’s attempts to exploit her opening. He also quite persistently covered up her attempts to leave him behind and rush further on, right to where Kiyomi was. This man was insanely skilled at hand to hand, his fighting style was unlike what Mana had seen before “ he solely used his arms and fought with jabs, hooks and uppercuts that hurt the kunoichi from sheer air pressure around them by sucking air right from her lungs. Soon Mana found herself running out of air.
A painful jab right to her shoulder opening up a gash. Why did it hurt so much? Why did she feel so much warm blood running down her shoulder? These men either had such overwhelming chakra condensed and focused into their strikes that they broke through Mana’s chakra augments without them offering much opposition. The blades on the knuckles cut right through her flesh and made her scream as they cracked the bones they touched. The pain completely took her over. Mana tried to adapt, she evaded a couple of quick kidney shots that’d left her bleeding out on the staircase leading to her friend.
Loud steel clanging sounds made fear tear through her chest and out in the open with steel claws, gripping at her throat and making her moves sloppy. She saw a pair of similarly dressed men swing over the staircases from the floor above kicking her down. Their kicks didn’t feel nearly as hard but Mana still got taken down. She was outnumbered. There were three assailants now… Her shirt soaked with her blood began sticking to her skin and it was beginning to make avoiding the combined assaults difficult. The trio didn’t relent, they kept on jabbing at different angles, trying to slip through Mana and get behind her so they could relentlessly beat her down with their bladed knuckles. The magician didn’t let them. She got her thighs and shins sliced wide open a couple of times when she tried restraining the rushing assailants with her kicks.
Mana had to think of something, she had to fake an opening, she had to move ahead because she couldn’t handle the game of attrition. Her heavy bleeding was beginning to cause blurry vision and dizziness. There was no augmenting herself to survive these blades as they sliced through any chakra augmentations. Maybe eventually someone would come to her aid, she needed to make noise! Mana jumped aside lining against the wall and forcing one of the fists to smash up a stack of dressing lockers. There were no clothes there “ no one was here but the two of them at that time. They were too numerous and overwhelming to try and slip an illusion in. Maybe if she was fighting one of them but not all three at once…
Mana felt sharp and crippling pain in her back. She fell on her knees and glanced back. The fourth assailant stood behind her holding Kiyomi on his shoulders. The Yamanaka looked unconscious but she was also injured as her blood was running down the assailant’s steel bodysuit.
Mana decided to go for it, fighting through the pain and feeling blood literally pouring from her backside where she was hit she ran through her hand seals but a strike intervened, it forced her to lean aside. The four surrounded her and didn’t give her any time to do anything else but try to survive. They circled her like vultures and continued to jab and jab and jab at her. Mana moved to the best of her ability, she could possibly avoid one or two of them, now she was surrounded and injured, bleeding out. She couldn’t see the angles of their strikes because her vision was betraying her. Mana couldn’t remember when she stopped fighting back, all she could remember was the stickiness of her own blood all over the floor.
Mana’s eyes wandered off to the back of the assailant who was carrying Kiyomi, she noticed something that breathed life into her. Something that forced her to remove all floodgates and rush chakra through her network, force it just to survive. Mana flipped over on her back and sat up, pointing at the attacker’s back.
“That sword! Where did you get it, it’s my friend’s!” she slurred out with unclear and fading in and out tone. The assassin was clearly interested, he turned back and walked up to Mana.
“Let’s go, we’re too loud, we’ll be spotted and taken out!” one of the others shouted out in a clear Kumogakure accent.
“You wish my blade? Have it…” the mysterious man spoke, his speech dulled and slightly silenced by his bodysuit as he pulled Shimo’s Audra blade and pierced Mana’s chest with it before her failing reflexes could react. Mana fell back, even if she could still feel a cold tear of irony run down her cheek after being cut down by her friend’s blade, she couldn’t feel the blade getting pulled out as her senses were beginning to fade, even her unusually large chakra pool was beginning to run dry having to keep her alive through such extensive injuries.
All Mana’s fading consciousness could make out was footsteps, ninja rushing in and a violent clash. That and one word, screamed out as final words or uttered in fear before the accumulating squads or ninja uttered before being stricken down.
“Imarizu”
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