Mana playfully swung her arms around and over her head directing them to her top hat allowing the invisible extra thin steel strings direct all of the floating in mid-air and bent over spoons to disappear into a storage seal inside her hat. She heard a bunch of applause from random passersby inhabiting a small settlement region. A quiet little town east of the Yamanaka Resort and Aporius’ farm. Judging from the looks of things they were all people with things to hide or run away from, just allowing themselves a brief subtle stop to admire the magic tricks of a young girl on a cardboard box.
To the magician girl it was just like it all had started “ she performed without a stage, with no preparation or assistance. Just her own ninja tools, quick thinking and a little bit of healthy magician’s improvisation. She was one of the first to perform magic, judging from what she had heard, after her thing in Konoha had taken off there were plenty of people picking up the craft but most of them didn’t really threaten her secondary job or her success.
The kunoichi had gathered a fair amount of money and after a couple of polite bows to her audience the message was out that the show was over and the passersby continued to float away like disturbed spirits on a quiet November night. A single chain of clapping did not cease however. Mana looked at the audience member who didn’t try and fade away with some curiosity, this was either a man who lived and quite enjoyed his time in this small murky town or someone who had no particular place to go.
Either way, that meant that he was beyond the typical understanding of a law abiding citizen. Mana was no romantic fool “ she was well aware that for this grey and muddy urbanistic setting adoring settlement to thrive the majority of its providing activities must’ve been less than legal. To be a successful settler in such an environment was to be a criminal in some way, maybe to have dealings with weapon and illegal supply traders and smugglers or to cut some throats for coin. If this man had no shame and no desire to walk away and hide his face he was a man to be feared.
“Now why would you take money from struggling and starving settlers when you can just make it using magic. Did you not pull a bill from a fellow’s ear, all folded and mangled, just now?” the man curiously inquired. Judging from his tone he was just messing around, having fun. It was a twisted feature in its own way that he managed to still have inspiration for fun after returning to the gritty and murky reality of the settlement around him. Mana did her best to distract the settlers from what was around them but she was no miracle maker…
“It’s a trick. There’s no such thing as magic “ I need to make my bread somehow and I don’t feel like dealing with smugglers” Mana smiled putting the hat her father had given her and covering her brightly colored eyes. While she did not do the best job at concealing her face most of the time she had no need of being identified as Konoha’s Sorceress in here. She was lucky no one had even identified her up to now.
“And yet you just put your hat back on like it’s nobody’s business, that same hat you just shoved a handful of bent utensils into…” the raggedy man didn’t back down and followed Mana a bit further after she had stepped down the improvised cardboard and tin stage she had found for her show, just something to make some money.
“It’s an efficient way of proving someone wrong “ agree with them yet show them something that denies them at the same time. It’s a form of aggressive sarcasm, some would say “ offensive…” Mana replied beginning to feel a bit annoyed that the fan decided to tag along with her. She usually displayed no ill feelings towards fans, even when they got overly excited but this time she was in a rush. She needed that money and she made it the only dignified way she knew how, fighting and magic was all she knew and her magic show was already over.
“Oh, well I’m not that easily offended, mind if I tag along, Konoha’s Sorceress?” the young man asked Mana, before he mentioned her stage name the magician was almost fed up to the point of more aggressively asking him to back off but after being noticed she just stood there with her mouth halfway open to yell out something ever cruder.
“That’s right, plenty of folks around here know who you are. Have to say, I’m kind of a fan… You inspired me to pick up your thing too. I’m a magician as well, nothing like you, obviously “ street level. Just a hobby.” Mana’s fan pulled out a bunch of cards and played around with them showing off his quite fast fingers and relatively impressive wrist control. His sleight of hand was beyond that of a normal human so he had a certain degree of chakra manipulation which troubled the magician.
“While I could use some help, I’m not sure I want to pull you into what I’m getting into…” Mana replied with her tone having softened. She had no idea if she had any right to ask this rough looking street rat to join her seeing how she little to no understanding of the level of his abilities.
“It’s fine. I’m a Konohagakure ninja, also not unlike you. I’m working in the Eden prison complex, it’s sort of my internship towards getting to work in the actual village protection service.” The ragged youth calmed Mana down somewhat as if quickly having caught on to her fears.
“Explains why you know me…” Mana smiled with her right cheek realizing that it wasn’t her fame that allowed this man to recognize her. His job was to gather rumors and prevent possible attacks and breakouts from the Eden prison complex. That meant that he must’ve known about Mana’s relation to one particular prisoner still detained inside. After all, she was a possible threat to that prisoner’s detainment if she ever showed up so close to the prison.
“You’re visiting this place?” the undercover Eden guard wondered after seeing Mana enter a small book store. “Could this be what you were gathering money for today?” the man wondered out loud.
Calmly the magician walked up to the desk and smiled to the clerk before gently asking him to stack all the classic essentials of manga he would recommend to a begginer she could buy for the money she had assembled with her street magic. After she had bought the manga and sealed them inside her hat the young kunoichi headed for the door. What she saw outside slightly surprised her.
The undercover ninja she had just met was standing surrounded by a bunch of children showing them smalltime magic tricks. He wasn’t overly impressive “ just simple card tricks and elementary sleight of hand illusions but there was some charm in his simplistic approach, also it appeared to better appeal to his crowd.
“How long have you been standing there?” the man asked after the kids scattered and the magician approached him with a happy grin.
“Couldn’t interrupt your little magical moment.” Mana replied before pointing at the man’s deck. “Are those steel tipped?”
“Why would they be? Isn’t it a health hazard?” he wondered.
Mana pulled out one of her multiple steel tipped and elementary chakra storage seal and explosive or storage seal covered cards and showed them to the street magician.
“Nah, I keep my hobbies out of my ninja life. These look neat but they also look like a load of work…” he shook his head after admiring the magician’s tools for a moment. While Mana used to use the typical genin ninja kit she had long since changed most of it for different steel tipped cards with several of them having elementary sealing techniques placed on them.
“Wait. You waited around for me. Does that mean you’re gonna let me tag along with you?” the man smiled.
“I’m a bit confused as to why you’d do that but… I don’t think I could stop you without feeling bad afterwards.” Mana shrugged.
“Well… You went in there to buy manga, didn’t you? That means that you’re actually going in there to see him. I assume you’ll want to free him, no? While Eden prisoners are not dangerous to society and are mostly detained for their own protection, you’ll need an officer’s permission and company to allow him to just waltz out of there.” Mana was surprised by how perceptive the man was and how quickly he got the general grasp of things.
“You’re right. I’ll need his help and help of anyone else I can get. I am acting as the first response squad and I need to intercept an event that the Hokage would without a doubt wish to interrupt but there’d be no time. I need to stop a marriage from happening, one that would grant a Yamanaka from Kirigakure unlimited influence over the other villages.” Mana explained. She knew quite well that first response action usually was covered by a very tight grip of rules surrounding it, rules that she did not entirely follow and so much would’ve been clear. It was clear, the magician knew it from her companion’s eyes and his smug and confident grin.
“Aburame Yanagi, pleased to meet you, Sorceress…” was all that the street rat replied.
*****
Mana was reading through the various manga she was handed. Analyzing the tropes, storylines and characters. She had to prepare meeting him again, the last time their paths parted it didn’t happen on the kindest of conditions. It was quite likely that her friend would be hostile towards her, even more so after she tells him about Shimo. The two actually had respect towards one another, unlike him and Mana. Odds were that he hated Mana’s guts. She’d need something more than just nostalgic memories and promises of freedom and a good fight to get him to help.
“Okay, I’ll bite. Why are you reading all of those? I thought they’d be for him, not for you…” Yanagi wondered finally taking off his black tinted diving googles and stroking his blonde beard out of curiosity.
“No. He’s an otaku, these are essentials “ classic manga, he undoubtedly already has them in his collection so gifting them would be useless. I need to know how he thinks, I need to talk to him on the same level he once was on, I need to understand his ramblings of plot clichés and character tropes. Once I thought he was quirky if bordering a bit crazy, I need to be less lazy than that to get him to help me.” Mana explained temporarily pulling her attention away from the story of damsels in distress and young teens beating each other up. Seeing these simplistic yet appealing to feelings of various specters stories made the magician better relate to how Sugemi and Shimo acted before. She wasn’t relating to them or justifying their actions but she now thought she knew why they did what they did.
Boys were expected a certain degree of manners, strength and gallantry. It was almost demanded of them to act a certain way and such expectations were seeded within the very cultural roots of the society around them. That was why Shimo and Sugemi could relate and understand the Demon from Kirigakure and why they could perfectly express their feelings through their fists. Violence never expressed any other feelings than anger or hatred but having a rich cultural background these two were able to obtain more from their violent confrontations than anyone else could have.
“What about you? You clearly know that I have broken several rules of a proper first response. As of now I have not informed the village of the situation and I do not plan to do so. I am also, most likely, criminally underqualified to enter that battlefield. A group called the Imarizu is involved, they have easily beaten me before as well as a whole bunch of more skilled Yamanaka ninja. Why haven’t you apprehended me yet, why are you encouraging my quest to self-destruction?” Mana spoke while still calmly reading the colorless pages.
“Because I myself have an agenda. That is something that makes everyone trust each other around these parts “ knowing that the person they just met has their own stakes in something. I wish to work in the village protective service but I am stuck doing the dirty work here. I’ve been doing what I’m doing for years, saving the world for once is my chance to be noticed, to be the wheat in between a bunch of chaff. Is that not enough to trust me?” Yanagi asked looking at Mana hopefully.
“I trust people quite easily. All I need to trust you is you telling me you’re tagging along.” Mana replied calmly without pulling her eyes away from the manga. By that moment the candle inside the lantern used to illuminate their little forest camp was beginning to run out and setting a bigger fire up would’ve been a bit like asking for trouble.
“Although I am a bit curious why exactly you are doing what you’re doing. Why go after the Imarizu, why bother about all that political stuff, I remember myself as a genin, I was more bothered by doing the dishes at Ichiraku Ramen properly…” the Aburame wondered. His tone was not suspicious in the slightest but it did appear like he genuinely wanted to know Mana a bit better.
“My friend was taken. She said she doesn’t mind being forced into a marriage but I won’t let her get married to a man who placed a bounty on her head and is only marrying her because killing her didn’t work. I can’t let the village know because I’ve sworn to never take a life, to me all life is sacred and I know that if the village got a wind of this they’d aim to slaughter everyone, people would be lost on both sides. I cannot allow that.” Mana replied closing her eyes and pulling the manga away from them. Slowly the girl began feeling real sleepy which wasn’t that odd as she hadn’t had a proper sleep in a while after waking up from her injuries.
“That is odd “ a ninja trying to preserve life. At some point you’ll be sent on an assassination mission. Your beliefs will be put into question and on the stage of the higher rank missions failing would be equal to treason. I pity you for the dilemma you’ll have to face.” Yanagi replied crossing his own arms around his chest and settling down to a tree, the man stopped playing around with his cards and placed them inside his inner jacket pocket.
Mana smiled with her eyes still closed and her consciousness still fading. To her it was quite amusing when her companion thought she’d actually live long enough to make it to the high ranks. That was a rarity all by itself. While her Academy teacher didn’t really hate Mana or think she was a bad student per se, the man did believe that unless her beliefs changed quickly she’s headed for a quick death on the battlefield. Suddenly her eyes opened up and she looked at her sleepy looking companion.
“Wait, do you know about the Imarizu?” Mana asked curiously as the man appeared to mention their name casually without really wondering what that group was about.
“Yeah, they’re a sort of a hit squad. More like casual Black Ops. They can operate with the Raikage’s permission without a bunch of paperwork and they aren’t too worried about the rules, most of them are just impressive criminals trained to fight by the village.” Yanagi replied slurring a little bit as it was clear he was getting sleepy.
“Did you say Raikage?” Mana asked to clarify.
“Yeah, the Imarizu are from Kumogakure exclusively. There’s nothing like them in any other villages and they are almost public knowledge to anyone into recent politics. In fact, the formation and the constant use of the Imarizu services is one of the scandals that added up to the downfall of the Fourth Raikage.” The Aburame explained.
Mana sat up and crossed her arms around her chest in frustration. This was some pretty important information. How exactly could Kumogakure have been involved into all of this? Did the Raikage even know of what the Imarizu was doing? Judging from what Mana had read about the Fifth Raikage, the woman was not really a manipulative or that malicious of a leader. On the contrary she was quite honor bound and very old fashioned. Could the reality truly differ so greatly from the stories and reports?
Mana went to sleep with a highly uneasy heart. There were still a good one day of travelling before they reached Eden. Truth be told, if they used all of their inhumanly speed the duo could have reached the prison complex much faster but Mana wanted one more day to be devoted to training while calmly progressing on the road. After all, she needed all the time she could get to maximize the hopes of learning that blasted genjutsu technique.
There was a certain blunder in Mana’s sight. She had figured out how to make the technique work while she was processing it in her thoughts. The realization came after the magician had wondered if she was left to use the Substitution Jutsu while her replacement was still in the works. All of a sudden the kunoichi realized that the same principles behind the Substitution Jutsu could’ve been used to transfer the illusion much faster right into the necessary brain centers without any hand seals being made. However the Substitution Jutsu was a slightly limited technique in its use. First it needed something to replace the object one was to use it on, second “ it probably would never work on pure chakra like the genjutsu technique… That meant that Mana would have to replace the object with something and it was quite likely that there were no suitable targets for replacement in her opponent’s brain.
While this idea was a step in the right direction in Mana’s quest to master her new illusion “ it was far from the decisive one. After all, if the Substitution Jutsu worked like that no one would bother simply fighting, everyone would just replace their opponent’s brain with something else effectively murdering them. The Substitution Jutsu was a technique on a physical level used on objects within one’s reach, in a way it was a simple bypassing of the primitive space laws and speed limitations. Mana’s plan on the other hand was of a more mental manipulation, directly transferring a mass of molded chakra straight into her opponent’s mind.
It was becoming more and more clear to the magician before sleep finally claimed her that she was too far from completing her training and that it was quite likely she’d be facing the Imarizu unprepared and needing to rely on her companions. Just like the old man Aporius taught her…
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