The familiar sound of breaking waves hitting the shores greeted Mana’s ears together with the salty sea smell. This beach however had no fishing settlement or port town on it, just a couple of separate shipping establishments selling or renting boats together with rowers. The beach appeared to begin suddenly, at some point the endless horde of trees just stopped and a fist sized extension of grassy plains extended bit further before running into a rough sandy beach.
“So do you have money to rent out a boat?” Yanagi wondered looking at Mana suggesting that he was broke.
“I don’t feel like rowing, maybe we should pay a rower?” Sugemi complained stretching out. He must’ve been getting soft in the prison as early mornings hit him right below the belt.
“We can’t afford to waste time. We’re already a couple of days behind the Imarizu. We need to travel to the other side instantly “ as fast as we can. That way we’ll save one and a half day and possibly still be in time to interrupt the marriage.” Mana firmly stated looking at the misty and calm surface of water extending into the horizon. The thick mist made the sea look almost infinite but most people living in the Fire Country knew that the voyage to the Land of the Waves would’ve taken a bit less than two days.
“I can do it…” Sugemi smiled smugly looking at his companions with some arrogance and condescension. “Can you though, without running into stupid filler shenanigans?”
Yanagi nodded, he was a bit intimidated by the challenge but his face besides a shade of seriousness didn’t betray any shade of fear. Just the healthy bit of respect for the challenge.
“Won’t even break sweat…” Mana closed her eyes before stretching out her legs and cracking her fingers.
“We will. I hope you’ve taken it into consideration “ we’ll spend a lot of chakra pulling something like this. We’ll be at a disadvantage during the fight, I doubt the Imarizu would’ve pulled something like this.” Yanagi looked at Mana questioningly but the kunoichi didn’t answer his gaze.
The magician leaped up into the air allowing her hands to flash through a bunch of hand seals in a mere moment. A chilly breeze blew the team’s way leaving Mana suspended in mid-air.
“Mystical Wings Jutsu.” she chanted out before leaning forward and supercharging her jutsu, the imbalanced super-powered wind current launched Mana shooting like a sky soaring arrow through the ocean. Crossing the entire distance in a bit less than a couple of seconds.
Once the magician’s feet firmly landed on the ground on the other side she breathed out uneasily. Mana had to admit that supercharging and struggling to maintain her technique cost her more chakra than she had wished it to, then again, it was still better than trying to leap over the sea just using simple chakra augmentation. The young woman stretched out her numb and aching muscles and closed her eyes trying to calm down her erratic chakra network and her rushing heart.
A powerful blast shook the ground beneath Mana’s feet raising a wave of sand so immense that the magician had to leap sideways to avoid it. Sugemi was smiling in his showy landing pose in a giant crater of sand blasted away from under his feet, his skin was swollen red, blood vessels shot out and pulsing as they struggled to sate his slowly dying muscles with oxygen. A moment later the gates that Sugemi had opened closed down relieving his tense muscles and returning some cheerfulness into his cheeks. The young Nara’s gate mastery appeared to have increased, it came off much more casually to him now. He must’ve still been training in prison, pretty hard from the look of it. It was good to know “ they’d need all the skill they can get pretty soon.
Seconds passed by before a darker image appeared in the fog and then closed in “ Yanagi was riding a cloud of large insects. These weren’t the usual Aburame parasitic insects, these were a whole another breed. Where the usual parasitic insects looked somewhat like black small beetles, these massive ones reminded Mana more of locusts or grass hoppers with large buzzing wings. While she was genuinely creeped out by the display she did her best to hide it as while she was not a fan of creepy crawlies she didn’t want to offend her companion. Somehow the impression hit her that the Aburame bonded with their symbiotic crawling friends which would’ve made expressing disgust really offensive.
After Yanagi leaped off the massive cloud of insects and landed on the messed up beach allowing the insects to disappear into his sleeves and behind his collar like they were never there he just fixed his raggedy coat.
“I’ve had my insects eat some of my own chakra to get them fast enough… It’s clear that none of us are at full strength. Do you really think it smart to look for a fight now?” Yanagi voiced his impression.
“It doesn’t matter. It was not a fight I fully intended to win anyways, as long as Kiyomi doesn’t get married I’ll be fine with whatever happens.” Mana looked at a small settlement in the distance.
Land of Waves had no hidden villages and no ninja to protect them. It relied solely on the mercy of other ninja villages and there used to be a big struggle between Konoha and Kirigakure as to who will grant the island the most favors. Influence here was well desired and, frankly, that made little sense. Mana was sure that it was mostly fueled by rivalry and not actual economic or military benefit. Land of Waves had little to no military power other than its settlers, none of them were really soldiers either. If anything, it was sort of useful as a comfortable communication tower location “ the signal from here would’ve covered all the way to Archipelago and Konoha. Still it hardly was worth the massive conflicts and hidden spy warfare that transpired in this poor peaceful island.
“Crime is a massive problem in Land of Waves…” Yanagi noted, it didn’t really sound like a warning or like anything of great meaning behind it. Must’ve just been a simple observation without anything the Aburame wanted to say with it.
“Yeah. But the criminals here reign unchallenged. Without challenge they never evolve. Their MOs are ancient and outdated, they are weak and no threat to anyone but a peaceful settler. I don’t think we have anything to worry about…” Sugemi shrugged. “I don’t think they are even worth mentioning in my manga. They’d not be strong enough to serve any role “ too weak to be a surprise twist villain, not even strong enough to be filler fodder.”
“It’s strange, isn’t it? How numbed we are to criminals “ as long as they pose no threat to us as a military unit ninja tend to ignore them. That’s what leads to them thriving and leeching off of poor peaceful people that want nothing more but continue their lives without having to deal with criminals.” Mana closed her eyes sinking deep in thought. Something about this ghastly poor settlement reminded her of all the locations she had visited affected by the Syndicate. The magician wanted to do something about all this but it wasn’t why she came there, unlike when she was looking for the Box, this time she was racing with time.
“So you know the threat, right?” Yanagi asked Mana directly.
“I’ve faced the Imarizu before. I lost.” Mana replied directly.
“Well, now you won’t be alone, it’ll be fine…” Sugemi arrogantly waved his hand at her.
“I wonder about that… I was training a special technique which I was sure would’ve granted me victory over them. They are exclusively physical combatants “ fast, strong, their punching focused style is brutal and tough to defend against. Even a single Imarizu would give me trouble, I remember barely being fast and slippery enough to evade two of them.” Mana wondered.
“So why did you stop training? If you finished your training maybe you’d have stood a better chance?” Sugemi asked, “I mean, I get it “ unfinished training builds up tension before the big battle. It establishes a real threat and if you just mastered a perfect counter technique to the enemy’s abilities it’d be way too convenient to allow sufficient tension. Still “ it would be a handy tool and a new technique always mixes up the boring repetition of a shounen manga.” The Nara shrugged.
“I don’t see myself as a character of a manga, Sugemi. Nor would I see myself as the main character. I belong to no clan, there’s nothing special about me and I don’t like fighting that much, I only do it out of necessity. I like to be ready “ challenge doesn’t excite me. I’m in no way different from any of my peers. I want to be a hero but I don’t assume I’m anything special like being the main character of my own story…” Mana looked at the wet and sludgy mush of mud beneath her feet.
Yanagi wanted to speak up, say something encouraging but he stopped halfway, the raggedy young man saw a little dirty kid playing on the street and walked up to her. The little girl looked in no way scared of a stranger which just looked so sad. Almost like the kid accepted the inevitability of death and didn’t care if the people talking to her were malicious or good people.
“I’m sorry, young girl. You wouldn’t by any chance know about a wedding that has to happen here, would you?” the Aburame inquired trying to make his face as kid-friendly as possible. Still, it would’ve been impossible to make a face of an Aburame with those silly black swimming googles not look suspicious. The hilarious expression on the kid’s face almost made Mana cheer up a bit right after facing her failure.
“Oh yeah… It’ll happen tomorrow in the northern beach at thirteen ‘o clock. The whole arrival of the groom will happen in the morning, it’ll be a big celebration. We don’t see much of those…” the dirty cheeked kid looked down.
“Wow, Mana. You’re gonna be good to go as the villain when you crash that wedding. Ruining your friend’s wedding, ruining a celebration for the whole island.” Sugemi whistled with his attempt to tease Mana.
“I’m fine being the villain. As long as I do what is right.” Mana cut down. “I kind of expected to get into a fight today though. I don’t want those Imarizu holding Kiyomi hostage any longer than they have to, I know Kumogakure’s history well enough to know it’s not a great idea to leave them with a foreigner for too long…”
Sugemi chuckled.
Yanagi shook his head. “No, this is good. We’ll have some time to rest a little bit. None of us are fresh and we’ll need to be in our best possible state to win this.”
“I’ll have some time to practice my technique…” Mana sighed.
“You still haven’t explained to me what you’re exactly trying to do. Maybe I can help you out?” Sugemi shrugged, “I’m trying to score points for the next popularity poll and the unlikely antihero savior scores pretty good with the target demographic.”
“It’s a genjutsu, cast as fast as possible, a couple of hand seals most. The target is to make a superior faster Substitution Jutsu replacement.” Mana explained.
“What’s wrong with Substitution? It’s a pretty good bail out from writing yourself into a corner…” Sugemi shrugged. “It also makes for a decent fake-out tool if you want to freak your audience out with a fake death.”
“It’s too slow and clunky. It needs me to focus on what’s around me, on things to replace myself with. It is also an easily learned universal technique meaning my opponent can pursue me with it or use it against me. I want something faster, more confusing, something that’d buy me time to lock my enemy into a chain of illusions.” Mana explained.
“Oh, so you’re like Chip Sipper from My Battle Bikini Goddess. You’re looking to stall the plot and annoy both the reader and your opponent.” Sugemi smiled.
Right before the trio reached the inn they decided to stay in Mana wondered why she ever thought that Sugemi could help her. Genjutsu was one of the most sophisticated ninja arts, probably right up there with medical ninjutsu. Sugemi was one of the poorest grades having students, he had little to no genjutsu knowledge. His constant ramblings about manga and tropes that reminded more of madness than something making any semblance of sense.
After just barely managing to scrape together enough money for one room to stay in overnight everyone was so tired that Sugemi and Yanagi hit the beds. There’s been a while since any of them slept in a proper bed, jury was still out on Sugemi’s case as Mana didn’t have any experience with prison beds. However if she proceeded with this tradition of caring more about her own moral principles and well-being of people dear to her than rules she’d soon find out all about it…
The magician closed her eyes and tried to meditate a bit. Try and figure out a solution to her iron wall that prevented all of her progress. She had one night to master the illusion. Still, the very same limitations plagued her: she couldn’t pull off the technique like the one she wanted fast enough, if she could wrap her head around a sufficiently speedy technique it was too weak. That substituting of an illusion formed in her own mind idea she once had was grand, if only it was any closer to reality, not quite there, just far enough she could see it and reach for it…
“Chip Sipper, huh?” Mana wondered to herself after forcefully breaking her trance.
She just couldn’t meditate right “ she was afraid, for both her own life and that of Kiyomi and those of her companions who had agreed to come with her. Too afraid and asking too many questions to either sleep or meditate “ she was such a wreck. When she regained her chakra control and helped beat Akimichi Francho somehow she believed that she could somehow make a difference. Be an efficient ninja instead of a failure she had been for so long and yet… Meditating used to be this thing she was very good at and she couldn’t even do that anymore.
Crawling quietly on her knees the magician got to her puffed up bag and examined its contents. For some reason she still carried around all the manga she had bought. It may not have been all of them but she at least carried around most of them “ who could’ve said, she wasn’t careful enough to guarantee one or two chapters didn’t get lost in the forests she roamed the past couple of days. Slowly Mana’s fingers pulled out a bunch of manga and zipped the bag, as quietly as she could.
A rough sound of Sugemi kicking his cover and flipping around in his bed scared Mana a bit attracting her attention but then the Nara just fell asleep. The magician began running her eyes through the covers and the titles. There were plenty in this pile she still hadn’t read but the name Sugemi had mentioned sounded familiar. Finally the magician’s eyes stopped at a very questionably dressed young lady with a beach ball fighting what seemed like the most oddly dressed clan of ninja, then again, who was Mana to judge the attire of other ninja.
“My Battle Bikini Goddess…” Mana mumbled under her nose almost immediately regretting looking into its contents. She thought she had heard of the name Sugemi mentioned in some huge crossover manga she read when she was researching the crossover subject. This title in specific seemed far too lude for the magician’s interest and she tried to postpone researching ecchi battle manga for as long as possible.
“Kiyomi and Meiko would probably enjoy this…” Mana sighed after finishing the whole volume of some of the weirdest read she had in a while. Apparently as the summary on the back claimed the title in question was a long time classic of the ecchi battle manga genre. While Mana lacked the experience to tell if this manga specifically was the best of anything as she had not properly researched any more ecchi titles nor did she intend to do so in the nearest future, the magician could see some similarities between her and the previously mentioned perv Chip Sipper.
Something was wrong. Mana’s seated frame froze in fear as her chakra flared up, she rolled sideways using her arms as aide to elevate her into a standing position as a black figure burst into her room through the wall. Differently from the all black dressing ninja from My Battle Bikini Goddess who fought exclusively little underdressed girls (who were continuously stated in footnotes to be over the age of eighteen by the author) in hot sandy beaches, this assailant was perfectly blending into the natural darkness of the night outside.
A loud popping sound informed Mana that the light bulb got poppet as she guessed that more of the assailants were gathering. Luckily enough the loud entrance raised her companions. It was clear to Mana from the shining blades on the attacker’s knuckles that the strike was aimed at a vital on the back of her neck “ she was meant to be taken out quick leaving the other two struggling to fend off unknown assailants in the dark right after waking up.
Mana’s hands reached in to weave hand seals but more figures flooded in through the hole blown by the attacker as the rest of the Imarizu flooded the room making it too stuffy for showy evasion or overly destructive techniques. For the second time Mana was caught unprepared, it was more than likely that they sensed the really loud arrival of the three and decided to hit before they were hit. While their initial attempt at Mana’s life was unsuccessful it was now only a matter of time. The room was completely dark making Sugemi’s techniques almost useless as he couldn’t form a shadow in total darkness without leaving outside and looking for a light source there.
This fight for their lives couldn’t have found them at a worse time…
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