Mana kept tapping her foot impatiently at the ground. She was informed that Guru would arrive early that morning, now there was this weird mood in the air where one knew that the moment they were waiting for was just around the corner yet it didn’t come. Almost like waking up five minutes before one’s alarm clock went off, one knew that going back to sleep was useless but also they wanted to savor those last moments of peace and tranquility before the day began therefore staying in bed. Weirdest thoughts and metaphors of the sort ran through the girl’s head as she impatiently waited for the great Guru to arrive.
She’s been waiting for this man for so long, ever since her father’s injury Mana kept scratching days off of a calendar with the chances of the man’s arrival getting greater and greater every day he did not arrive. Guru Ayushi had no schedule, he wandered the world coming into a village he considered needing his help and support the most and left it when he deemed it no longer necessary. He was a man with all the time and freedom in the world. He was an ideal for all who desired freedom and wisdom at the same time.
Yet it wasn’t entirely true that Mana was only so hyped about the Guru’s arrival because of his legendary cells and healing prowess. The girl had read so much about him and heard about his words of wisdom in the Academy, he was like the spiritual leader of the entire world and that said a lot about a man when the world had no religion to blindly follow. Some deemed it too murderous and hopeless for a religion to sprout, others said that it was because your average schoolgirl could spit fire therefore no mysticism existed to base religions off of. It took an extraordinary miracle to be named as such when there were people strong enough to move the world itself on this planet. Witnessing a man so wise and legendary that every nation and every man and woman alive had nothing but love and adoration for him was a reward all by itself.
And then just like that the figure appeared out of the forest clearing, pushing the immense and thick cover of brushes aside, moving past the thickness of the Fire Country forests and heading towards Konoha. What an impressive man Guru Ayushi was: he was relatively tall for a grown man, at least twice taller than Mana was though the girl was a rather short and slim one even for her age, he was bulky and muscular and appeared to be in his mid-forties judging by his appearance alone. He wore the simple raggedy monk attire that consisted of absolutely bare feet, baggy white pants and a strange orange cloth wrapped around one side of his body while the left side remained exposed. The appearance of the famous Guru Ayushi truly left the magician stumped.
He looked so powerful and young and amazing, his long black beard shined as the early and puny rays of light reflected off of some drops of water lost in it from when the man washed his face that morning. His chest and muscles looked in prime condition and perfectly toned for a man who had abandoned the path of violence and combat, one would say that bandits would’ve thrived in an environment outside Konohagakure walls however no bandit in their right mind would have attacked Guru Ayushi. How could this have been? Wasn’t this man supposed to be really old!? Mana didn’t know how old exactly, some people claimed Ayushi was at least sixty when he retired, that’d have made him at the very least over a hundred years old.
Some claims and legends around the man were just straight out insane. Mana was a girl who excelled and loved reading about history after her encounter with the legend about princess Satsuhimasa back in the Forest of Death. She sometimes ventured into the Konohagakure archives to read all about history and myths and all kinds of stories, obviously when she found some time being both a ninja who often did chore missions with her now dissolved team and a stage magician who kept performing on the stage showing off a craft one couldn’t have seen anywhere else in the world as some of her fans claimed. There were people who claimed that Guru Ayushi may have been there during the First Great Ninja war or even War of the Moon and the Earth. It was tough to know for certain what they meant as some wars throughout history had different names depending on who named them.
The very first great war that the history spoke of was the Original Great Ninja War, sometimes also called First Ninja World War or War of the Clans, as the name suggests it was the centuries long war before villages were built between all clans. It was often confused with the conflict that transpired almost a century ago also called First Great Ninja War, that was the first time after the villages were built that the entire world devolved into conflict but instead of clans being at war trying to contend as to which of their bloodlines were superior it was now between villages and countries. In this time of conflict when the world kept having these worldwide conflicts it was tough to list all the world covering wars that happened but those two were the most often confused. After the Original Great Ninja War there was another First Ninja World War, also called War of the Moon and the Earth to distinguish it. From Mana’s guesses that was the war where Princess Satsuhimasa destroyed the Moon, recreating it using her immense skill and power not too long after. If Guru Ayushi was actually placed in any of those “First Great Ninja Wars” he would’ve been well over several hundred years old which was impossible even to ninja.
Usually ninja had the potential to live quite long, chakra manipulation granted them perfect mastery over their bodies allowing them to live well over a hundred years. The problem was the violent world they lived in. With the kind of conflicts that came with each mission ninja died even during their teen years, even a simple mission to catch a village prankster claimed lives recently when the prankster accidentally blew up a large gas canister using his amateur attempt at ninjutsu. That accident claimed two lives of young ninja, the deaths soon became so frequent that people stopped granting them so much significance. They became just statistic for that week.
As the Guru Ayushi approached the gate and spoke to the guards Mana approached him hesitantly and bowed respectfully, lowering her entire body above the waist instead of just her head as was usually the custom when speaking to respected individuals. This implied a great deal of respect, there was only one greater way of bowing which was used to suggest subordination. The Guru looked quite confused by such a gesture of respect. He looked at the girl examining her strange attire and looking around her.
“Guru Ayushi-san, my name is Nakotsumi Mana, I am the Konohagakure genin who was tasked with aiding you throughout your stay in our village. I will protect you with my life and you may ask me about anything you desire for comfort. It is a great pleasure to meet you and have you visiting our village.”
The Guru kept looking behind Mana, expecting to see someone else, he then leaned back and scratched his beard.
“Strange, usually genin work in teams, I always told the Kage that such was an excessive gesture of respect when matters concern my protection. No one ever wishes me harm, has the Fifth finally listened to what I’ve been telling his predecessors?”
Mana smiled with a lovely smile and shook her head.
“It’s “her”, Chestnut Hanasaku was appointed as the Fifth Hokage after…” her pleasant smile soon disappeared as she remembered the events as they were continuously told and retold at the Kage Summit. Whoever asked whomever, each villager had a different version of the events as most thought that the official version was heavily edited to make the Fourth and Tanshu look more heroic. Mana had never seen the Fourth fight but she believed that Tanshu-sensei was every bit as heroic as he was described in the official version.
“Yes… So I’ve heard… You said your name was… Nakotsumi Mana? What a coincidence, I would have wished to stop by your place and two other individuals: Yuki Shimo and Sugemi Nara. This only reduces the amount of work I’ll have to do here before settling down to prepare for my seminar tomorrow. I have some words with the three of you”
Mana’s eyes shot wide open, she then got even sadder and gently stroke her elbow using her other arm from behind, it was a peculiar gesture she did when she felt depressed about something.
“Sorry, Shimo and Sugemi were involved in a… Situation. They were my teammates but I was the only one of my team who was allowed to keep my ninja status. Shimo was temporarily suspended, he intended to leave on a journey to discover himself again, Sugemi is to be held in one of the island facilities of containment in Fire Country. If you wish to tell them something it will not be easy…”
Ayushi smiled, his beard stretched in a very funny way when he did so. It made his smile look that much more comic and cartoonish.
“I am a man who fought in multiple “First” Ninja Wars who were always supposed to be also “the Last”, only for another “First and the Last” to follow as generations shifted. I’ll handle some bureaucracy just fine, young lady.”
Mana would’ve really been surprised by the man’s incredible youthful appearance if he had fought in multiple “First” Ninja Wars. After all the timeframe between the most recent of the “Firsts” and the one before that was hundred and fifty years at the very least. If Guru actually fought in both of those conflicts during his days as a ninja he must’ve been at least two hundred years old! Still, the situation with her teammates being detained or leaving the village on a journey of self-discovery and her sensei dying was too depressing to think about those things too much.
“Well at the very least I am here, I was tasked to make your stay as comfortable as it can be. The last time you visited I don’t believe I was even born yet so I’ll do my best to make you wish to visit more often. If need be I’ll get you to Sugemi and Shimo.”
Guru smiled and nodded, the two moved past the guard outpost watching the gate and started moving further into the village.
“Young lady, you’d rather I’d not come any time during your lifetime, I visit a village only after a significant tragedy strikes or a war is imminent with wishes to help people deal with it or avoid it. It may seem a bit tragic of a fate to trap oneself in but it is the burden of being who I am. That being said… I’d rather keep the words I have for you, Nakotsumi Mana, for the last as I believe they are the most important. Plus if they affect you too heavily you might be unable to aid me in delivering the other messages.”
Mana nodded. She didn’t really understood what was the point of those mysterious “words” he had with her or Shimo and Sugemi. Truth be told she was a bit afraid to see them after last night again. Guru must’ve noticed that hesitance in her sad eyes.
“Young lady, are you not excited to see your ex-teammates? They must’ve been contained and locked up for so long, or what seems so long to a young one like you. I am one who had experienced the treasured days of working in a team of genin. Girls your age spend so much time around their friends that they usually fall in love with one of their teammates. In my experience I can say that most families of ninja involve people who had been in a team at one point or the other, so powerful are the bonds of people who fight alongside each other, save each other’s lives and do chores of the village together, yet you look sad, why?”
Mana sighed.
“Well… When I last saw them I incapacitated both of them after they started fighting each other. That fight meant a lot to them because they’ve been butting heads with each other for some time now. Sugemi always wanted to be the best, to stand out so that he was acknowledged and had his efforts recorded, at some point Shimo acknowledged Sugemi’s desire to be the best and started a friendly rivalry with him to push his friend higher than he could ever go without such a rivalry. Sadly it got too serious. Short version is “ I’m afraid that after I got in their way they’ll hate me for it and won’t want to see me.”
Guru scratched his beard and looked into the sky locking his hands behind his bald head. He kept observing the passing clouds for quite a while before glancing over at Mana.
“Well, if that’s the case it’ll be better if you hear it from them and be done with it. Even if they do hate you for something, at least you’ll know it for certain and won’t have to bother your head with such thoughts. Kids your age shouldn’t worry about that kind of stuff, when I was your age all I cared about was impressing a girl, I didn’t really have to think about if my friends hated me or not because most of the time I didn’t care. You think far differently from a child your age. I suppose that’s what ninja life does to a blossoming teen.”
Mana’s chest started aching, she suddenly realized that well before Ayushi’s departure she had to ask him about offering his cells for the Konohagakure Hospital. Those cells could’ve healed her father’s arms and stopped his pain, he would no longer be irritated and would no longer have to suffer just to perform daily chores. Mother and Mana would never have to think about how father used to be in comparison to how he was then, he could tinker by himself again instead of doing so using Mana as his “hands”. The magician was not the best tinkerer and father often got a bit too mad at her for anyone’s comfort when she failed at some simple task, eventually she got better but father never expressed being proud of her improvement, to him it was her advancing to an “acceptable” or “passable” stage of his craft.
The girl kept trying to devise ways to weave the conversation so that she could arrive at the point of suggesting doing that for the hospital, she tried to somehow find a more delicate and sensitive way of asking for Guru’s help. She didn’t want to make it too personal because she needed to get it done soon but she didn’t want to make the visit too awkward if Ayushi refused her plead to help. Only one possible version of the conversation made sense so the girl decided to give it a shot.
“Ummm… I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about it but… Why did you start doing what you do? I mean… We’ve read and heard all about the kind of ninja you were, you were and are still considered the very best medical ninja in existence, you’ve brought recently deceased people back to life in dozens, you’ve healed injuries that seemed impossible to heal. Our teacher in the Academy kept telling stories like that time you regrew a person from just his arm, we thought it was just a tale but even if one tenth of those stories were true you’d still be able to save many lives.”
Guru’s face didn’t change, he didn’t smile but he didn’t really look offended or that sensitive about the topic, he must’ve really been asked that a lot. The man scratched his beard and then locked his arms on his massive half bare chest.
“Well… Yes, that is true, I did once regenerate a man from just his de-attached limb when the rest of his body was incinerated. I don’t know up to now if that man was the same man or just a mad insanity, an abomination of chakra I’ve conjured and a crime against nature. At one point I was so good at it that I found myself able to end and create life at will but at no point it felt very right. I am no God nor do I wish to do God’s work. Ninja are tools of war, ninjutsu is an art of murder or support of murder. Even the core essence of medical ninjutsu is to keep murderers alive long enough that they kill enough people to make them “efficient” to feed for a village. That was not the world I wanted to be a part of, I’ve long since paid my dues so I just retired at well over the age at which ninja usually retire. Many ninja these days retire in their thirties and that’s understandable, the life expectancy of a ninja doesn’t go too far over twenty. I was a force of good before, at least I hope I was, I just chose to be a different kind of good.”
Mana sighed, just as the stories went Guru Ayushi didn’t quite fancy life as a ninja. He was possibly even a bigger pacifist than Mana was and he didn’t believe in fighting for the sake of peace. Asking such a person to devote his craft and return to his life as a ninja again would be to go against his own beliefs. Mana almost broke into tears from the pressure on her chest, on the one hand there was father who was in pain, on the other was his doctor who expected Mana to get those cells, then there was Ayushi who had abandoned and severed all his ties to the world of violence and would’ve never returned to it. Ayushi looked at her strange.
“What’s wrong? It looks like you’re about to burst into tears and one thing I hate in this world is children crying. Did I somehow make you sad? I’ll pound myself pretty hard if I did!” Guru spoke with that strange warm tone, it was like he was a part of Mana’s friend circle already even though they only spoke for a brief while.
“It’s just… My father got injured on a mission, now he’s suffering every day and… It’s having an effect on him. The medical ninja…”
Ayushi raised his hand to stop Mana from saying another word. His body was literally shaking, his face looked infuriated and it was almost like all of his blood had centered in the upper area of his body. The blood vessels on his face shot out so immensely that at any moment the magician expected the man’s face to just explode. Unwillingly her hand moved on her chest and she took a couple steps back. Did she mess it up? Did she offend Guru Ayushi to the point where his entire body tensed up, it looked like the man was about to kill someone, it really did. And to be entirely honest after everything that happened, with all the responsibility on her shoulders Mana would’ve accepted that death if she was to blame for his fury if only that’d have helped her mission.
“Those darned vultures!” he spat out an excess of slobber as he raged. “Preying on a child’s hopes and dreams, on something as sacred as child’s love for their parent… I can’t imagine how you felt, hearing about me ditch the life of a ninja yet feeling responsible for acquiring my cells, right?”
Mana looked to the side and nodded so briefly that it was hardly even visible that she did so. Ayushi’s face suddenly shifted into sadness that to match Mana’s own.
“I’m sorry, child, your father cannot be helped. It’s not that such power is beyond my abilities it’s just… It’s not the first time this happens, the village craves my cells thinking it to be a panacea of some sort, thinking it can heal any sickness just because I myself cannot be hurt. They think me immortal and therefore they believe that my cells can grant immortality.”
The man reached over Mana’s pocket and removed a card from it, the girl was impressed that he saw that her attire was filled with hidden pockets full of tools to help her in the time of need. The man then cut deep into his hand making blood wildly squirt out onto the floor. Within mere moments the injury closed up and the blood on the ground evaporated.
“It’s a jutsu I discovered during my days of youth. It’s a technique I no longer have any control over, whatever damage comes to my cells is immediately healed, I do not age, I cannot stay injured. I can die if death strikes me instantly but if there’s a moment’s delay I shall survive. I can also grant this sort of ability to another using my cells.”
Mana was both impressed by that ability but also a bit confused, so far Ayushi had only been confirming the medical ninja theory that his cells could help Mana’s father.
“The problem exists on two levels: ideological and material. Ideologically if I grant the ability for a village to heal any injuries, if I provide as much as a single cell for them to duplicate it’ll completely imbalance the world’s sensitive power balance. It’ll mean invincible, immortal soldiers. Also what message will it send? Instead of dealing with one’s injury and sickness, instead of growing stronger people will just go back and fix it all denying their chance of emotional and spiritual growth. What most do not understand that even terminal diseases make people grow as people, they are obviously a plague to humanity but to some it is a chance to appreciate life for the first time in their lives. To talk to their families for the first time instead being absorbed by their work all the time. Everything in this world happens for a reason and to go back on such events is to spit in the face of said reason. It is at the very least immature.”
Mana just kept staring at the dirt completely embarrassed by herself, she did realize that Ayushi didn’t really blame her for anything but she felt so stupid and immature. She felt so embarrassed that it was almost like she would just burn up at any moment into a pile of ashes.
“The material reason however is far more devastating… The reason why my cells work is because I’m… Well… Me. Every body has a limit as to how many cells can regenerate, if you abuse that limit… Well… Let me finish that story of a man regrown from an appendage. When that limit is passed the cells begin to mutate, they form rushed, sick and twisted, what is born is not a man, it is a pitiful creature of gore, puss and tumors. I would wish that your father was well but I am not willing to risk such abominations of nature, I will not risk putting your father or anyone else through that kind of risk. The regeneration that my conscious cells would provide would completely throw a body out of whack, all injuries would be regenerated in an instant but the cells would mutate and form a sickness like no other. Normal people just cannot deal with it, I’ve told those fools that many times before but they keep coming up with more immoral ways to ask me for my cells each time…”
An atmosphere of silence spread after Ayushi stopped talking. Mana covered her eyes with her sleeve trying to hide the fact that she was crying. So much hope, so much looking forward and hoping that her father would just magically get better with an injection of some cells… All of it for nothing. How immature, how naïve and childish she was for daring to hope that bad things could just be waved at with a magical wand and cured. How naïve indeed…
Mana felt a soft and relaxing tap on her puny shoulder coming from a man twice her size. Ayushi’s humongous arms wrapped around her and pressed her to his own belly harder letting Mana’s tears burst forth into his dirty cloth. It must’ve been a depressing but also touching moment “ Guru Ayushi comforting a crying child. Sadly, people were so insensitive to such events by that time that no one even stopped for a moment to care. Why care that at that moment a child somewhere felt better if that same child’s body will most likely be found in some ditch having perished on a mission.
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