The skin felt irritated and eerily sensitive as the bandages rubbed against it. Once Mana finally returned to her senses she felt up her bandaged face before letting her hands feel below her neck. As the more painful wounds instantly alerted the magician not to be touchy she quickly pulled her hands away from them. Mana looked around seeing a bunch of red medical pills laying around in a little decorative bowl as well as a couple of cups of water. Seeing how one was in a purple plastic cup decorated with flowery motifs Mana sipped from it barely finding a spot on her bandaged head to do so.
There must not have been much to the Land of Waves’ medical specialists seeing how she was still bandaged and very much in pain. Arguably feeling a lot worse than she did during the actual fight, granted, back then she had the advantage of slowly fading consciousness that didn’t rag her about how much everything hurt and how nauseous she was. Even a small sip of water, arguably one of the worst problems of waking up after a long period of resting sent the girl’s stomach into a full-blown strike mode.
Trying to rub her tummy to please it somehow Mana laid back down. She really didn’t feel like walking around. The magician peeked at the medical pills wandering if she was allowed to take them, that is to say, if they were left there to be taken when Mana woke up, as the water was. Knowing how potent those medical pills were, also the risk of taking too many over too short period of time Mana sort of kept herself from it, despite the pain and unrest. Even if they were the red ones, some of the least potent ones, they still would’ve helped her tremendously.
The door screeched as it opened revealing a curious middle aged man walking in. The man had a curious case of bushy facial hair, very thick glasses and wore a typical light blue medical ninja non-combat uniform.
“Ah, you’re awake… What’s wrong? You didn’t take the food pills…” the man curiously inquired as he made a hand seal bending to the other side of Mana’s head allowing the seals with her medical information to reveal themselves to him.
“I’m… Nauseous. My boyfriend is a medical ninja so I know these aren’t too healthy to have too many of.” Mana replied quietly, hearing how soft and weak her voice was and how slurring her speech came out.
The man smiled and waved his hand indifferently, “Don’t worry, we don’t have the really high risk-high reward kind. Red ones won’t hurt too much even if you take one too many. Your liver and your digestive tract were completely grinded to mulch, healing that took a dozen of medical ninja, sadly we don’t have any higher ranking specialists here so we had to pool our efforts. You’re lucky you’re a Konoha kunoichi, even luckier the Hokage specifically asked to have you treated as a very important patient.”
“He did?” Mana wondered remembering very little after what had transpired in the beach. She was under the impression that the man utterly despised her, even more than the girl was willing to accept as being reasonable. People disliked some other people, it was just the way things were. The Sixth however really looked like he was out to get Mana the last time they met. She had figured that the man would be completely out of his mind after hearing what she had pulled “ going into such a battlefield alone without informing Konoha and all…
“Oh yes, a Konohagakure party came in yesterday and took that Kirigakure gentleman away. All of the Konoha Sannin were here, all ready for a fight! It looked like a scene from an epic novel, I tell you…” the medical ninja smiled after handing Mana a single food pill, being wary of the girl’s concerns of being careful with the medical food pills. The magician softly opened her mouth “ as much as her sore and cracking jaw allowed her and chewed the slimy and chewy red pill that tasted like tomatoes with herbs in some gooey and milky substance. The taste certainly could’ve been improved.
Almost instantly the magician felt some of her pulsing pain hotspots ease up and her thoughts began being more intelligible and came more clearly. That must’ve been a sign of her fever going down. Her sheets smelled relatively fresh but Mana had imagined that she may have been pretty uneasy the last couple of days and sweat her fair share. Brief flashes of pain and uneasiness, the feeling of sluggishness and slipping control of her body as she rolled around the bed feeling heavy and wet… Like a whale out on the beach unable to move or save itself from drying out.
The magician felt a little bit curious as to how exactly Konoha was informed. After all, she acted as a less than legal immediate response party. Intercepting the wedding was her primary concern, not informing the village. The prison may have sent a quick note to the Hokage about Sugemi being freed temporarily, still, what would that have mattered to a man overworked from a completely bonkers amount of paperwork? Such a silly meaningless note likely wouldn’t have even been read for days, if at all. It must’ve been something more solid, proof bearing and important.
Maybe the Yamanaka contacted the village? It was certainly a possibility but Mana would’ve called that they would’ve been more likely to send a third party of their own to take care of things. Clans had a certain freedom of inner administration of themselves and they just loved exercising that freedom. Whenever they had a matter of purely internal affairs on their hands they always acted like big and independent organizations, often sending their own assassins or hired guns after the problem…
“How are you feeling?” the medical ninja inquired generally before turning to the door, assuming he would receive the answer before he’d reached it and hear it out before leaving. Surprised that one didn’t come in time and interrupted his quick and efficient rhythm of movement the man froze and turned back at Mana with a curious raised eyebrow.
“Hurt but… Not the first time, probably won’t be the last either.” Mana shrugged before biting her own lip in pain when something really loudly cracked at her shoulder area.
“Well, that’s to be expected. We are a small island and our medical facility is centuries behind that of Konoha. I was told you’re the girl who brought a bunch of technology from… I won’t even be troubled to try and explain “ you know better than me, anyways, we are yet to receive a single screw or bolt from that. We may as well be praying people to be well…” the medical specialist shrugged before leaving.
Mana sighed before feeling the overwhelming amount of bandages wrapped around her head and face. She could see with the other eye again “ that meant that it wasn’t completely destroyed or just the flesh around it had swollen excessively during the fight. Still she wondered about the extent of her longer lasting injuries. Just how much of this would stay to haunt her? Usually skilled medical experts could remove traces of injury, heal it in an out of combat situation quite quickly however a person’s body could only be treated without a trace a limited number of times before it broke down. Before cracks began to show in the constantly re-forged and re-crafted set of armor… It wasn’t that Mana bet about making it to being hundred years old, still, it was just a case of curiosity.
The door screeched again as its hinges begged for attention. A pair of people entered the room “ one of the two people who had entered was quite familiar to Mana, the other one was yet to be introduced. Her own sensei “ Chestnut Hanasaku was being accompanied by another man. A tall and fit middle aged man with darker purplish hair that arced on the outside a bit past his neck. He wore a pretty fancy looking white coat over his ninja uniform and the armored vest on him had some small custom additions to it. Mostly it looked like jewelry but it could’ve been anything. A lot of sealing techniques could’ve been conveniently placed into jewelry if one felt like being overly cliché about their arsenal.
“We were told you are awake. I wanted to talk to you…” Hanasaku uttered sighing uncomfortably before pulling out a chair from under the hospital bed with her foot and sitting down. The woman looked quite tired, then again, maybe she was actually better than she was when she was temporarily taking the seat of Hokage. Her hair was always pretty messy so trying to tell her condition from them was relatively tough.
“Way to ignore me… I waited with you until the girl is awake, splitting from the rest of our group.” the woman’s companion smiled with his complaint.
“That’s because you insisted on coming. I wanted to talk to my… Student and you just…” Hanasaku began voicing some complaints of her own before being interrupted by her friend.
“I was worried you’d be overly passionate with the Sixth’s new pal.” The man shrugged before bending his passive foot and wrapping around his stronger leg, clearly the man had stayed standing around for quite long and wanted to sit down. As his leg moved it allowed a sword hilt to slip out from under his coat. And another one. And a couple more…
“She’s my student. I have all the reasons to be strict with her, I believe all of them are pretty sound!” Hanasaku raised her voice and stood up facing the man. Curiously enough he didn’t flinch or blink when the short she-devil measured up to him, most men would’ve.
“What your sensei meant to say was “ “this is Zairyo Jitensha “ otherwise known as Zairyo of the Wavering Grass, a Konohagakure Sannin”. Now that the pleasant introductions are out of the way, please “ morals away!” the man rested himself down on an empty bed nearby and extended his feet over another chair below the bed he settled himself down on.
Mana had never heard of this man. The very fact was incredibly curious as there had to be reasons why a Sannin level ninja was completely unknown to her. Usually ninja of that caliber were sort of celebrities which, while defying the very essence and meaning of ninja, could barely be helped. One could only avoid the fame of their own fine work for so long…
“I need to be straight with you “ I’m incredibly disappointed with you.” Hanasaku strictly exclaimed. Mana looked away but then her eyes met with Zairyo who was in her direct line of fleeting eyes.
“Hey, don’t look at me, this is between you two! I will get my own beating for one reason or the other later on…” the man shrugged indifferently as if this was a joking matter of some sort.
Mana looked down, she knew that something like this was coming. Truth be told she knew it all along, ever since the plan first came to her head, these consequences were accepted and taken for certain. Now they just needed to be faced.
Suddenly the atmosphere became heavier, an incredible shortness of breath took Mana over, the likes of which she had never before felt. The girl’s bloodshot eyes wandered onto Hanasaku’s clenched fist which shook in anger.
Out of nowhere Zairyo’s back was in front of Mana and his hand gripping Hanasaku’s shaking fist. The man stood coldly staring at the woman and calming her down with just his eyes. After Hanasaku’s eyes looked down in submission he wandered back to his resting place.
“No need to come with me, you’ll just get in the way, she said…” Zairyo shrugged making fun of the entire thing like it was no laughing matter. Truthfully to Mana it meant a great deal “ one of her most beloved and appreciated icons of the ninja world expressing disappointment. It was just as painful, if not more so, than back when Tanshu-sensei belittled her and treated her as a future failure. “Are you trying to crush this kid’s chest cavity or something, ease up on the killing intent…” he advised more seriously looking at the woman as if actually scolding her.
“You’ve left alone, without letting the village know or formulate a plan, to go after an enemy far beyond your reaches endangering the life of your friend. A person of great importance to me with whom I have a long reaching history.” The Sannin angrily began moralizing Mana. The magician really wanted to look more affected, she wanted to cry or blush or do anything but look at the ground like an idiot but truthfully she had known this was coming all along. She had told all of that to herself already thousands of times and for that reason the actual scolding was infinitely softer compared to what the magician had told herself.
“Had it not been for the old man, the writer you were staying with, informing us of what you’ve done, we’d have never known about what was going on until it was too late. Even with his message we barely managed to smell the ashes of the fire. The Sixth actually thought you showed initiative, he’s impressed with what we’ve been told of your actions. That’s because of his history in the Black Ops “ being a shadow accountable to no one is what he knows and appreciates.” Hanasaku finally answered the question that lingered in Mana’s heart, about how exactly did the village find out about what was going on. It’d have taken a pretty long time for small-time rumors about the wedding to reach the village, just like Hanasaku had concluded it’d have been far too late to do anything about it then.
“I didn’t want anyone to die. If the village went after Inomame they’d have killed him before even trying to subdue him, they’d have killed the Imarizu too, every Kirigakure Demon trainee as well…” Mana replied, she knew that it wasn’t going to fix anything, she knew it was just a pitiful excuse but her mentor was sort of owed at the very least such an elementary courtesy of knowing Mana’s reasons.
“And how did it end up? We’ve found a bunch of bodies sprawled out on the beach, signs that two or three times more just scattered once they woke up. Inomame was picked up, granted “ alive seeing how you’ve already captured him, three out of four Imarizu also died. The fourth is nowhere to be found.” Hanasaku asked before summing up the fallout.
“The kid does have a point though, Yamanaka are too dangerous to be tried and taken alive “ we’d have likely killed the bastard the first chance we got…” Zairyo shrugged before pulling out a donut from the drawer further from the bed he was occupying and digging in after wrapping the damned confectionary out overly loudly.
“I am this close to punching you!” Hanasaku yelled out showing the man her fist with an approximate measurement of the imaginary gesture size system of how close she was to punching the man with the other hand.
“I know I failed you and disappointed you and messed up in general.” Mana admitted as surprisingly enough her eyes remained dry in one of her saddest moods in a while. Even the immeasurably heavy emotional boulder on her chest couldn’t bring out a single tear, it would’ve easily had made her feel better, after all “ crying was venting. Crying would’ve helped deal with the situation in a way.
“Frankly I did it because it’s just who I am. I know this won’t help but given the chance I’d keep doing it again and again, I’d feel bad about it, I’d regret letting you down every step of the way but it’s just what I’ve sworn to do.” Mana explained.
Hanasaku grinded her teeth before flipping out her hands in the air and walking away to the window. The woman looked through it and observed the people coming and going to and from the little Land of the Waves hospital trying to remain some semblance of composure.
“I really liked you at some point. I liked what I thought I saw in you. Figured that this respect for life and everyone else’s beliefs would’ve made you a fine ninja, one that transcended everyone else. You were an exact opposite of what little bro Tanshu was so I figured I may introduce you to the pack someday, maybe it’d make you a Sage… That’s an amount of hopes I’ve never felt for any other student.” Hanasaku cried out as she placed her forehead to the cold glass in frustration. It was clear that she wasn’t just angry at Mana, this wasn’t like mothers were angry at their children for a couple of minutes before it all passing.
It was clear that where Hanasaku had massive hopes for Mana, the magician shattered all of them with one thought over action which only hurt that much more because of how much greater they were.
Zairyo jumped up and rushed to the woman grabbing her by the shoulder. “Wait, a Sage!? So you mean you know where one can actually become a Sage!?” he shouted out.
Hanasaku remained silent. Zairyo sighed and walked up to Mana before pointing to a sword resting besides her. The magician hadn’t even noticed it being there but it was resting in a very unflattering position, almost like it had fell down from Mana’s bed and wasn’t moved since.
“Would you, by any chance, agree to making a deal about that blade? As a great collector of various artifacts and swords and a traveler I can see great value in this magnificent craftsmanship.” The man’s eyes literally ate the sword alive as he pulled it out halfway examining it and allowing his eyes to run down its edge admiring it like a pervert admired the gorgeous body lines.
“I can’t. I need to bring this sword back to its owner.” Mana firmly cut him down. It didn’t appear like Zairyo was angry or overly disappointed. The man just smiled and sheathed the sword placing it in a more dignified and important position closer to Mana’s cupboard.
“I see…” he sighed before he walked up to the door, “Well, now that you two warmed up to each other, I guess I’ll leave you two to sort this out alone.” He said almost like he’d have done it to himself. Soon the rather sophisticated and strong looking shinobi disappeared leaving Mana and Hanasaku by themselves as he said he would.
Hanasaku finally moved away from the window and was about to leave as well before she turned to Mana.
“I know you need rest. I could heal you a bit better than this, even if I sometimes mess others’ bodies up. If I did, however, you’d not learn your lesson. I would kick you out from my team after such a massive loss of trust. I need to believe at all times that you are there to back me up as the team leader if needed and I simply no longer believe that. I think that you’re a selfish brat who while takes everything into consideration in the ends only acts upon her own beliefs and interests. The only reason you’re still on the team is because I want for Kiyomi to finally get past the Chuunin Exams, she deserved it years ago and there’s simply no time to find a replacement or use in a fresh out of Academy genin to take your place. You’re still on the team but I won’t train you!” Hanasaku thundered out before slamming the door behind her.
Finally Mana broke down into tears… Despite wanting some expression of emotion to finally break out and stop all that guilt and sadness from bottling inside of her it somehow didn’t feel a tiny bit better. It just felt like a woman she had admired for the longest time ever, and still is, had expressed her disappointment and dismissal. It felt like being a disappointment to herself because she was a disappointment to the people she wanted respect and warmth from.
Most of all, it felt like being alone all over again…
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