The three kids were panting, Mana was just barely on her feet, bent over and breathing heavily, still wondering how her feet held her mostly upright. Shimo was sitting by a wall and his head has sunken down, he could’ve passed out from all the pressure for all everyone else knew and Sugemi was just down on a small chair. The team had just finished their last chore of a mission. By the time the kids were done with cleaning the dishes they were already exhausted so it was pretty good that most other jobs were filing or sorting jobs.
“Did I win? What were we competing for anyway?” Sugemi softly let out still trying to sit up straight in the chair. “Well, you did clean most of the dishes, I don’t remember much else of what we did…” Mana replied still huffing and struggling for air. She was yet to make her decision about which was worse: a mission that threatened her life or bunch of simple and non-dangerous missions like this that just drained her life essence completely. Sensei was the only person who looked like he was in any way ready for a walk home.
“You did good today, I’ll do you guys a favor and report to Howoku without you, go hit the beds.” Tanshu-sensei spoke, his voice was a bit different from the usual tone. He still sounded strict and his requests sounded like orders but this time he somehow seemed softer. Maybe watching the guys work on filing and doing the dishes helped him remember something from his past? His own old days? Well if all the rumors were to be believed it was unlikely that sensei was ever on a team, he was supposed to have been a nukenin, his progression through the ranks may have differed from the normal one.
Mana finally could stand up straight, she looked at Sugemi with a begging look and nodded at Shimo who looked like he had passed out. “Can you help me with this?” the kid squirmed for a little but then he helped the magician pick their friend up and walked out of the Police Force building with him. One Police Force lady was really concerned over Shimo but after she checked his condition quickly she said that he’d be OK and let the kids go. “Where does he live anyways?” Sugemi wondered and it was a fair point, neither of the three were too familiar with each other yet anyways. “Let’s bring him to his father’s workplace, maybe there’ll be someone that’ll know.” Mana replied and the two started making their way through the village with their passed out friend.
Konoha was beautiful at night, so quiet but bright, there were several stages of nocturnal Konoha: one was from late evening to early night, when all the lights and lanterns were glowing brightly and people were all over the village, there were plenty of gambling houses and various entertainments for to occupy their free time, but then there was this other stage that started really late at night, one that has not yet come when the village is completely quiet and there’s not a soul to be seen. Night really was an astounding time of day to be outside in Konohagakure. Several times Mana did stay a little bit up late after the shows having to leave the stage as she found it after it and always being the last person leaving the hall.
As usual, people recognized Mana on the streets, they ran up and said hello, they asked questions about what happened with the boy and when they heard that he was OK but he needed rest they left her be. Talking with the villagers was fun, the young genin wished that she had more time for it because she loved her village and its people, she will have to go home right after taking Shimo back and parting with Sugemi, it was getting pretty late. Sensei looked happy about their performance, finishing all the mission in one day was not a necessity but it was the optimal way to do things and they did it, they performed the best that was expected of them. That made all the training worthwhile even if Mana didn’t even get to make a single handseal filing those sheets of paper and washing the dishes.
“This guy… He’s pretty heavy…” Sugemi complained, Shimo was not chubby and while being the tallest of the three, not much taller than the others so it didn’t really make much sense for him to be that heavy. It must’ve been just the tired friend complaining, an elderly man with grey hair was passing by the workplace of Shimo’s father, the place was pretty well known around the village due to how successful it was so it was no surprise that both Mana and Sugemi knew where it was. The man waved at them after noticing Shimo passed out and ran up to them. “Wow, you guys worked hard, Shimo passed out, he’ll be really ashamed…”
Mana smiled and looked at her peaceful friend, handing him to his father. “No surprise, he tried to keep up with Sugemi-kun at washing the most dishes, despite Sugemi-kun being an idiot!” she looked at him trying to get a reaction. She was right to be a little bit angry at him, the boy really took the thing way too seriously and by being so into the dishes he made Shimo try even harder and forced both boys to overexert themselves. Mana wasn’t that physically strong and durable, despite her training so she got tired even doing it at her casual pace. She did catch up to the boys in the end though, after they got tired their pace really slowed down and started crawling, letting Mana who was going at a more stable pace to catch up.
“Whatever… No one writes manga about dish-washers anyway, I’ll try harder tomorrow, maybe we’ll get actual assignments.” the Nara boy shrugged as he walked away after fulfilling his obligation to help his teammate. To be honest, Mana was impressed that he agreed to help, over his obsession with manga one couldn’t have been sure that he’ll really help. Mana watched her teammate and a father carrying her other teammate fade away into the darkness of the night and then turned home herself. This was a tough day and it was just one day of countless more…
After getting home the girl sighed, she was so tired, the kunoichi slowly opened the door and went inside gently flicking the light on. It was strange that it was off, or that no one was home. Usually at this time at least mother is back from her job, father often went on missions for a couple of days but after those harder missions he stayed home longer. Maybe it was just one of those missions and mother was working overtime because it ended up being a busy day… It was still weird, no day was usually this busy, it was way past mother’s working hours. Mana saw a note on the table, it must’ve had an explanation in it why her home was so empty…
After letting her eyes skim through the contents of the note they shot open in shock, Mana would’ve normally been impressed by her body managing to actually be shocked at such a moment, usually being afraid and surprised required a certain amount of energy which currently the magician doubted she had. In a rush the girl ran out again, running towards the western district of the village and finding the Konohagakure Hospital building, usually at this time the patients were given rest but now the building had some lights and the whole ground floor was buzzing.
It didn’t took too long to rush up to the fourth floor and find mother resting in the waiting room. The woman was one of the most energetic people Mana had ever met but was currently completely wrecked by what had happened. When she saw the girl enter she slowly walked up and hugged Mana, the girl could feel her mother’s tears falling down on her head and on her back making her feel uneasy but reminding her that this was no dream. “What happened?” Mana asked knowing well that she’d hate the answer.
“Your father’s squad got ambushed, they say those were Kirigakure ninja but they were acting inside Fire Country. Everyone’s really shaken and the families of everyone in Tsukumo’s squad are here… Out of everyone your father was hurt the least, everyone else are struggling with their lives which is why this gloomy mood is around, your father was just injured on his arms.” as the two sat down in the waiting room and started waiting to hear about how father was doing mother told Mana all about what happened.
Father’s squad was on a mission, there was a small struggle between nukenin and Konohagakure ninja. They say that a squad carrying an important scroll with information was paid off to betray their village by Kirigakure but they were stopped by an early response squad of Konoha. After the fight only corpses remained but the sensitive information within the scroll needed to be brought back to the village, secondary objective was to identify the traitors and attempt to find any proof of Kirigakure’s involvement. That would’ve made it easy to proof that Mizukage was unstable, threatened peace and needed to be removed in a Summit.
Sadly Kirigakure ninja got to the corpses at the same time, they were likely to have already be positioned near the borders to lead the traitors back home, after hearing the news of them being intercepted they dared to enter the Fire Country territory and they clashed with Konoha ninja. Fire Country was Konohagakure’s jurisdiction and foreign ninja could not do their missions here without Hokage’s permission. Because they knew that they were in the wrong the Kirigakure ninja attempted to kill all witnesses and recover the scroll for themselves and another battle ensued. The Kirigakure ninja were all killed but there were a lot of casualties and even more injured on Konoha’s side as well.
Mana really failed to comprehend the meaning of all of those events, this incident may as well have started a war between Konoha and Kirigakure. So many deaths for a piece of information… It was yet to be seen how badly her father was injured. What if another war starts? It will be Mana’s responsibility to stop it as one that has placed the responsibility of protecting innocent lives and changing the world but… What could she do? She was still weak… Mother couldn’t understand the way that her child was feeling, she hugged Mana again and tried to calm her down telling her that it will all be OK, that father will definitely live but that was just a part of the girl’s problems.
She just started out, her team just finished their first missions today and to be involved in a war would be… Not an ideal start for a ninja career and most likely a swift end. There were countless tales of past wars and how many children not unlike Mana and her team died in those wars doing simple dirty work. She couldn’t die trying to dig a trench for a bunker for the intelligence unit to settle in! She had to be strong to stop such wars from happening! Her ninja career had just begun and she was already failing at her nindo. What if father is rendered unable to work as a ninja after all of this? It’d be crushing to see father crippled.
A medical ninja walked out of the ward and gestured for the two females that he could give them some information. The brief opening of the ward allowed smell of burning come out, just what was the extent of father’s injuries? “First of all, we just saved the life of a hero – his device shielded his squad from a huge combined Lightning Release technique. But… His arms are severely burnt, we’ll be able to somewhat salvage them, we’ll heal his arms and we have a plan about getting him a new skin for his arms, he’ll be mostly the same but… It’s really unlikely that he’ll ever be able to work as a ninja, he was called Konoha’s Great Trapster for his precision and amazing tools built to trap his enemies and surprise them, capture them alive. He won’t have any precision with his arms and he’ll be in pain if he strains them. Burns are painful, you may want to consider that we remove his arms just to save him from the pain, you must understand Kei-san, pain changes people.”
Mother tried to walk Mana away from the conversation but the girl slipped out of her grip quickly and looked at mother angrily. The woman wiped her hair off her face and looked with an empty stare at the wall thinking for just a moment before giving an answer. “Save his arms, Tsukumo can handle pain, he lives in the same household as I do and I’ve never seen him complain once about getting hit with a pan for refusing to wash the dishes. If there’s one man that can handle it, it’s my husband!” Mana had never seen mother speak in that firm and strong tone. She was usually easygoing and vibrant, always making jokes and bullying the two around the house with heavy or sharp objects but all for good fun. This Nakotsumi Kei was determined and strong. Mana wanted to be like that some day, to speak in such a tone and look so strong in the face of disaster.
“Very well, it is not a wrong choice by any means, just had to let you know. Now about our plan. Guru Ayushi is coming for his yearly lecture in Konohagakure, you may not know but Ayushi-sama was once a great ninja from the Senju clan, his longevity is a testament of that and his medical skills and the techniques he carries inside that body of his might prove to be the thing that saves your husband’s arms. If we can ask Ayushi-sama to give us a tiny bit of his cells, we can cultivate self-regenerating tissue and apply it on Tsukumo-san’s arms making them look and work just like any other arms, the muscles however will still be damaged so his arms will not be the same, in other words, he’ll have enough functionality to go by in day to day life and perform simple tasks but straining them or trying to be too precise will make the pain return temporarily.”
Mana has heard of this Guru Ayushi person before. Was he really that amazing that only a bit of his cells could actually cure her father’s arms? Well, to some extent at least… Even his cells couldn’t make her father be like he was before. In moments like this childhood ends. When the child realizes that things changed for the worse and that they will never be the same again, no matter how hard you cry. Those moments were the worst, having just experienced one Mana could tell. Mother cracked a knuckle, “The old geezer will give us the cells, I’ll make him bleed if I’ll have to!” Sometimes mother scared Mana…
Finally father’s condition stabilized and the mother and her child were sent home to have some rest. Mana had to get some sleep for the busy and just as tough day coming up tomorrow. Maybe the next day after completing so many chores the Hokage will actually give them a chance at an actual mission. With the color of the sky turning back into its morning colors Mana’s first day as a ninja was ending and what a day it has been: shadows of war, her father’s injury… It was an overwhelming thing to have in one’s life, much more so when one knew that things were only supposed to get harder from this point on.
Despite her genuine efforts Mana had trouble sleeping, she couldn’t get over the things that happened, what if there actually will be a war? How the hell does that work? No. The Fourth was a peaceful man, some of his deeds always were inspiring for Mana as someone who also craved only peace and well-being for everyone, but Hokage was always just and rightful. What if his sense of justice demands for those responsible to pay, Hokage was a man of justice, despite his wish to preserve peace he would go to war if that meant putting those responsible for injustice to right.
The girl also could not stop thinking about what the medical ninja said of her father, that he was a hero. Father was always a notable but average ninja, everyone knew who he was around the ninja circles because he has been working for a long time but he was never quite impactful enough to be promoted to Jounin. He was the best of the average. Now after his heroic deed everyone in the hospital wanted to promote him to Jounin for the heroic deed just symbolically even if he won’t be there to work as a Jounin. Mana decided – people gather around heroes, the only way for her to change the world, to make it a world where life is appreciated and preserved and where there is less violence is by becoming a hero.
That was Mana’s new goal – to become a hero so that people gathered behind her and that her ideals are no longer a joke that older ninja laugh at. When the magician becomes a hero like her father no one will laugh and say that she’ll “grow out of such foolishness” but they will follow her and appreciate life. There will be no violence. Though ultimately… One could not succeed at such a goal, if Mana keeps up such pace of fulfilling this goal she’ll die before it becomes a reality. No! She wanted to face death, only by defying death and laughing it in the face, only by saving everyone from it can she become a hero!
Mana will train even harder, she’ll push her body until it can no longer be pushed, she’ll do all the chores, she’ll gain Hokage’s trust for actual missions. She had no time to rise in ranks together with Sugemi and Shimo, if she was to become a hero and stop this war, if she was to fulfill her nindo she had to blow them away and leave them behind. The girl got out of bed and sat in a meditating position, she had to train her chakra, try that thing she thought of earlier, concentrate and increase her chakra levels. She can sleep all she wants when she fails in her goal and dies, until then – she’ll be training her butt off!
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