Mana's slower pace did not reduce that feeling of ground shifting beneath her feet. Such feelings were natural after such an event, every time a great clash between two sides occurred there was to be a great aftereffect of that encounter. People crying and lamenting the deaths of their beloved, children left without homes and families, entire settlements and villages thinking how things would be now that their leaders had passed away. It is just human nature when all is perfectly well to expect that this would never change. Such was the case when the Star of Hope became Hokage. People just took that bliss of having such a competent and powerful iconic leader for granted expecting that this state would never change.
This time on her way back Mana noticed a significant change in people's moods. Women had teary eyes everywhere, the men looked like they've been told the worst news. Mana assumed that the news had already reached the public. After all, if the councilman thought bunch of kids should know it already that meant it was already on the papers that day. What some people couldn't find out about from the news, they heard about through hearsay or from their neighbors, nothing spreads quite like crushing news like those. In one violent swoop of history Konoha lost two of their Sannin and a Hokage with no known replacements for the Sannin lost and a very questionable choice for a Hokage.
Mana thought back on seeing that woman in the Administration, her brown hair… She must've been Chestnut Hanasaku, after all, as secretive as the council tried to be with their meeting to elect the new Hokage, their choice was made for them. There was really no one else there to choose. It was either choose Chestnut Hanasaku, the only surviving Sannin, or wait until a more appropriate candidate rises up to the occasion. It all depended on the situation the village was in and by seeing how rushed the decision to select the new Kage was Mana was starting to feel uneasy. Were things so bad that they needed the succeeding Kage right after the last one died? It was fruitless to think too hard about it without knowing much more, she was just a kid after all and didn't get much information about the more intricate village affairs.
Right after returning home Mana realized that her parents had already found out about the news. Father approached Mana and wanted to comfort her as he was comforting mother who was crying her heart out but he saw that his daughter was in a much calmer state. Mana was not crying or shaking or displaying any signs of losing her mind but… Father knew she was suffering inside, in fact, the invisible sadness was often the most dangerous. It was obvious that the man didn't really know how to help his kid. He just reached out and gently tapped her shoulder then drew Mana in for a hug.
"So you've heard, huh?" he asked.
"Yeah, the councilman told us…" was all that Mana could reply, her voice was deep but silent, her tone sounded so distant.
"Well they're really rushing this thing, they're having the funeral this evening and then the Fifth is going to be nominated tomorrow. Doesn't really help that they're rushing it so much…" father started babbling, trying to find a note that would open Mana up a bit so that she could let her feelings go and stop sealing them away. Having lived for so long as a ninja and lost many comrades father must've known that it wasn't really healthy to deal with it the way in which Mana was doing it.
"I'm… I'm probably gonna go to bed early today, I've got a mission tomorrow, it's nothing too big." Mana replied trying to free herself from father's arms. While she successfully escaped his embrace his hands held her by her arms quite firmly, having father's injury in mind.
"You should go to the funeral, death is something you want let out of your system and deal with immediately. Death is like an infestation of darkness, if you let it stick around for too long it'll grow out of control until no one will be able to tell the moss from the stone. You might not want to say goodbye just yet but… You'll feel better later if you do it now." Father explained letting go of the little magician right afterwards. Mana quietly stumbled back to her room, walking upstairs with a cane was a great pain in the butt.
Father was right, she kept telling herself internally that if she never saw Tanshu-sensei's body and never confronted the problem it just wouldn't exist anymore. Sure she'd never see or hear about Tanshu-sensei again but at least she'd never have to deal with the problem. For all the talk about being a hero and a savior and one who'd change the world, being an icon of hope for others to draw courage from she was a big coward. Slowly and having to force her body to move every inch Mana stood up from the bed and crept to the wardrobe pulling out her black dress. It was safe to say that neither Mana nor her parents ever hoped that the girl would ever have to wear that, it'd have been for the best if the girl just grew out of it and tossed it away without ever getting to put it on. Such was the case with most clothes meant specifically to be worn during a funeral.
Mana just laid back down and kept looking through the window at the Sun as it circled through the sky, hiding behind the dark clouds that were starting to accumulate. Autumn was a season of rain, while it wasn't really uncommon for it to rain during this time of the year, the girl wanted to believe that it was the Universe itself that was gifting this expression of sadness as if it was an apology of the sort. That was being hopeful, that's how Mana was ever since she was a kid, believing in nonsense like that… As the Sun finally started to set the girl changed into her dress, it felt so cold and uncomfortable, must've just been her mind associating the soft fabric with what it symbolized that made it so. Looking through the window Mana then took a black sweater with her in case if it started to rain. Mana loved the rain but she just wasn't in the mood to enjoy it now, she wasn't in the mood to enjoy anything really. While it sounded stupid for the girl, she felt like she'd never be able to enjoy anything ever again.
Mana looked around, pretty much everyone had gathered around the Hokage's grave. She was too far to see if there was even a body in the coffin. There was something of the sort, perhaps whoever was in the Summit managed to get Tanshu-sensei's and Fourth's bodies sealed and then sent the scroll to Konoha. There were just so many bodies piling up in these times that by now moving them was quite a simple deal, there must've been entire industries around it, people who specialized in sealing dead bodies. Mana turned at father, seeing her sad eyes father's arm wrapped around her shoulder as the head of the family gently hugged both Mana and mother.
"Dad, is there a special kind of ninja that deal with sealing bodies?" she asked.
"Yeah, several specializations actually. There are the ninja called "Shinigami", those guys seal the bodies into scrolls and have multitude of techniques related to protecting those scrolls and quickly transferring them. Bodies are a treasured thing for a village for a multitude of reasons so "Shinigami" are usually quite potent ninja capable of protecting them. Then there are "Sin Eaters", usually the bodies of a ninja contain various traces of how they died, sometimes seals that work like traps when allied ninja recover the body, it's the job of a "Sin Eater" to remove those or recover all they can about the death of a ninja. They're both investigators for hidden messages and signs but also supportive ninja, while both are quite powerful ordinary ninja don't really like them."
"Why not?" Mana asked slightly confused.
"Because of what they represent, they deal with dead bodies which means that they always follow death. It's not really their fault but… It can't be helped. That's why their kind is quite rare and not many younger ninja know about them, people tend not to talk about them too much except during occasions like this…" father replied trying to silence his voice a bit to the point where those around the family couldn't hear them.
"This is horrible… Howoku was the one who gave me the permission to stay in the village. He also was one of the only opponents of the council's decision to assassinate my tribe…" mother wept. Mana wanted to hear more about that but she figured that this may not have been the best occasion to do so. She'd have to just keep that in her mind and ask about it some other time. The girl's eyes unintentionally slipped onto Sugemi and Shimo, these two were standing on separate corners of the crowd, Shimo was surrounded by his family as well but Sugemi was standing further away from his. Also their emotions couldn't have differed more, Shimo was sad beyond comprehension – the Fourth was his hero, whereas Sugemi was… Angry. Mana couldn't really understand what her teammate was so furious about, maybe he still blamed himself for what happened, maybe he blamed someone else. Blame often sparks anger.
Mana slowly slipped out from her father's arm and then crept carefully to the young Nara. She tried to talk to him, greet him and ask if there was something on his mind but her teammate stayed quiet.
"You know, I wasn't originally going to come here, I thought to run away from it all and deal with it alone, or better yet not deal with it at all. If you have something weighing you down it'd be best if you shared it" she said trying to open her friend up a bit. Sugemi clenched his fists.
"They're all just crying, acting like this is no one's fault. We have the guy in our cells, we've got that "Demon", that Kirigakure scumbag. He should get the shit beaten out of him every day, I should've been there when you two fought him and beaten the shit out of him to begin with. Now I'm one beating behind schedule!" Sugemi shouted out, the surrounding people looked at the two youngsters and started slowly moving back forming a small circle around them. Mana slowly breathed in and out, this was a dangerous mindset that her friend had, he was about to do something stupid and she had to stop that. It was her responsibility as a friend.
"It's not "Demon's" fault, he didn't even see Tanshu or the Fourth, the three never even met for a moment. You're just pointing arrows because you're feeling dark and sad inside. I know that feeling because I have it in my heart as well, I don't know the good way to deal with it yet but… I know that yours is wrong." Mana scolded herself almost instantly after finishing her reply, she came off too hard on him. She should've said something else but… How was she supposed to react, her teammate was itching to hurt someone completely innocent just because he came from a country responsible for taking a life of their treasured teacher.
"No. You're the wrong one, that's what Tanshu-sensei kept telling you, even after his death you can't respect his will. Even after his death you keep on disappointing him. People like you always confuse everyone else with their stupid speeches, "It's not that guy's fault, it's nobody's fault". Nobody's fault my ass. It's Kirigakure's fault, we've been warring for years and Fourth was a fool to think for a moment that those deaths were forgotten, that this violence could ever be left behind. The Mizukage wanted war, well we should give him that."
"Sugemi, it's not Kirigakure or Kumogakure or whatever, it's a person that killed the Fourth and it's a completely another person who killed Tanshu-sensei. Didn't you hear it? Tanshu-sensei was killed by Misu-san – a Konohagakure Sannin. You can't just lash out and start beating up and killing people from another country because they hurt you, it wasn't Kirigakure's will this happened, it was the Mizukage's." Mana almost started shouting, the circle around the two grew wider with each passing moment.
Sugemi turned around and started walking away, bumping into Mana's shoulder. The girl moaned in pain and almost collapsed, just barely did she manage to keep on one knee when gripping her cane with all of her strength. "That's what I thought, you keep trying to make it more difficult than it actually is. We are allies, they are enemies. It's as simple as that. To them we are enemies as well so they'd do the same to us as they did to sensei and Hokage without blinking twice. I thought of you as a friend, Mana, I still do. I'll walk away before you tarnish that belief of mine by siding with them."
Some people came to help Mana get back on her feet, they kept cursing at Sugemi and his words but some actually agreed with him. There were too many voices for Mana to hear them all but… Some of them really did want war with Kirigakure, probably the majority of people around her wanted to start that cursed circle of violence all over again. Father helped Mana up and examined her. "Is everything OK? What happened?"
Mana forced a fake smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, just got dirt all over my dress. I uh, I felt a bit weak there for a moment and fell…" Mana heard Shimo behind her. She looked back and saw that same emotion in his eyes – rage. He must've seen everything that happened, he probably heard some of it. This wasn't good, right when Mana started dealing with one loss her life was starting to spiral down even more threatening to shake the balance of her team even more. With all of her speed that the girl could muster up she walked up to Shimo trying to catch up to him, he was slowly leaving the crowd.
"That bastard, I'm gonna kick his ass hard! He's got no right to act like a fucking drama queen here, we're all suffering!" Shimo was cursing really badly, Mana shouted for him to wait and her teammate listened stopping for a moment and waiting for her to catch up to him.
"Stop, it wasn't his fault, he always was the weird one and… It just hit him harder than everyone else. Although I do think he's about to pull something really stupid." Mana said.
"He knew that you would stand by your beliefs, he knew that people around him were easy to sway to the violent side. He made fun of you and publically mocked you. I'm gonna kick that fucker's ass, no matter what he decided to pull here!" Shimo shouted, he wasn't going to be reasoned with. Mana knew that the two were looking for an excuse to jump at each other for quite some time.
"Shimo, there's no time for your rivalry and stupid macho nonsense! I think Sugemi is going to break into the Police Force HQ and try to kill the "Demon". If he's caught we'll all be in trouble. We owe it to him to stop him as his friends." She explained. Shimo nodded.
"Fine but I won't do it softly, I'm still gonna kick his ass when we stop him." He pouted. "I think he went to his home, if he's going for it like you think he is, he'll need to gear up. I'm heading home as fast as I can and I'll pick up my blade and my tools, you go change too. Hopefully you won't need to jump in but… At least be there to stop me from beating him too hard."
After clearing things up and putting the plan together the two split and head back home. Sugemi was never the overly subtle one so if he decided to break into the Police Force building he'd either be found out or he'd leave way too many clues to suggest a break in. Mana tried to desperately race home, she was moving at a turtle's pace and her thighs hurt with each step more and more. A couple of times the girl almost fell down from her muscles just giving in and feeling weak almost making the entire leg give in. Luckily Mana managed to make it home and to the second floor where she changed into her uniform and filled all the hidden pockets with kunai and shuriken and her sleeves with knives. For some using a magician's uniform during battle would've sounded like a bad idea, truth was Mana knew that outfit inside out, she knew every hidden pocket and could slip knives out of her sleeve effortlessly and faster than even her peers that specialized in weaponry. That beat feeling slightly uncomfortably during sudden movements.
Mana met up with Shimo who was now wielding a katana, having finally acquired the skill to switch from a wakizashi to a longer blade, custom made no doubt. His family could definitely afford a custom order from one of the several blacksmith clans of the village. The magician nodded gesturing that she was ready and the two set out. Truth be told Mana felt really bad inside. Her friend was spiraling into madness and she couldn't help him. She'd probably mess things up even at her full strength and here she was injured and unable to move around fast. She'd just get in Shimo's way. Still, as a friend she owed it to Sugemi to be there, to try and talk him down from committing a professional suicide. If he was found sneaking into the Police Force it'd be Ninja Tribunal for him, if he gave up the part during torture where he intended to kill a treasured prisoner, a source of information he could be accused of treason even. That would mean crushed dreams of ever being a ninja or having his own manga, maybe even death. This was no longer a game or a joke.
The two stopped before the Police Force building. Shimo peeked from the corner. "The two guards are taken out. This is bad" he whispered. Mana couldn't believe it, "Wait, how did Sugemi took two Police Force guards out?"
Shimo grunted and shook in his hiding spot uncomfortably. "All the good ones must've left to the funeral, it's the really influential and powerful ones that knew Tanshu-sensei and the Fourth the best. They left the youngsters in charge for just one evening… Still, these might be genin level ninja, each and every one of them would be troublesome to face directly. Let's try to be sneaky, even Sugemi thought he should sneak around which means while he is a dick, he's not insane"
Mana and Shimo snuck up to the entry, the lock was still there, for some reason it wasn't a seal lock that needed injection of the right kind of chakra to be unlocked, it was just a good old steel lock. Mana bent over almost crying out in pain from her legs and pulled a pin from her hair letting it loose. She bent the pin and worked the lock. Shimo looked amazed. "Holy shit, where did you learn that? More so that fast!?" Mana blinked, trying to smile but unsuccessfully due to the severity of the situation. "I'm a stage magician, remember. I break locks before the coffin fills with water for fun. I could've broken it five different ways with no tools on me, it'd have taken me longer though."
"And everyone says being a famous magician is a bad career choice for a ninja…" Shimo smiled as the two snuck in leaving the door unlocked. They may need to quickly escape and hide, even if such was unlikely for Mana. If shit hit the fan she'd probably be captured as she was unable to move around too fast. Shimo looked around, the two could hear footsteps all around – Sugemi somehow snuck through these floors without alerting or taking out any guards. Mana took off her hat and made a hand seal, she then pushed her cane into her hat and it disappeared in a bright glow as the magician sealed the cane into the hat. It took some amount of chakra but finally Mana became skilled enough to use her father's seal.
"It'd make too much noise if I walked around with that…" the girl explained in whisper, weaving some more hand seals and using a small vortex of wind to elevate her several feet into the air. "Mystical Wings Jutsu" she whispered again as the air managed to hold her, she'd not be completely invisible with the gusts setting off dust but it's still more silent than cursing in pain with every step. Shimo nodded and started leading the way, Mana wasn't the best in ways of stealth so her friend had to guide her, tell her when to move and when to stop. Her technique improved from being just a gust of wind to propel her upwards though, still it wasn't by any means fast or efficient, this situation was just exceptional enough to make it look useful. Sneaking was a painful and scary process, it seemed as if it took the two hours to get to the third level where the "Demon" was kept. There it was… Traces with lying knocked out guards and a guard standing near a cell looking at the young man inside.
"Sugemi!" Mana shouted out, the "guard's" concentration broke and the transformation jutsu ended revealing Sugemi standing at the end of the hall. The boy looked even more furious than before, "Don't get in my way you two! I'm gonna kill this bastard for what his kind did to Tanshu-sensei." It was safe to say that things could no longer be taken under control.
"We'll take too much time trying to talk this drama queen down. I'll just quickly cut him down and we'll get him out of here where we can kick his butt for being such an idiot and talk him over. I'm sorry, Mana-chan" Shimo quickly mumbled out and leaped forward drawing his sword and trying to cut Sugemi down but the Nara just rolled over Shimo's shoulder and kicked off his back making the Yuki swordsman lose balance and fall on his knees. Sugemi then lunged at Mana but stopped at the final step with his fist right at her face. Having realized that Mana wasn't fighting him but just here to try and control the situation Sugemi stepped back and looked her in the eyes. His eyes weren't angry or sad or… There wasn't anything in them, his stare was just blank and emotionless. Sugemi then turned back at Shimo who was standing up looking pretty angry and ready to beat his friend down senseless.
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