Despite an incredibly difficult and depressing start of her ninja life Mana found the next two weeks to be extremely boring and monotonous. They were filled with one minor errand after the other and only her training allowed the young lady to get some variety, of course there were always her shows to clear out the boredom as those were finally really starting to pick up. Her success with magic shows was so prevalent that Mana was finally moved up to what Mr. Hiro called "prime-time", that wasn't really that much to the magician's liking because while she did get some real attention, after the show and some encores she got back home well past her bed time.
Where initially the girl only feared her life as a magician and her life as a ninja clashing, it was somewhere in the horizon, after those two weeks Mana realized that it was very much a reality. She was commonly found sleepy and tired in her missions from the shows and training taking all of her free time and Hiro always spoke how Mana was not using all of her potential as she could perform multiple times a day or even tour the other countries. Of course he advised to wait until Konoha and Kirigakure settled their recent tension before going to another country.
Mana's suspicion was true, Hokage called for a Kage Summit to be hosted six months later. There was no official reason why it must've happened so late but many people speculated that there were matters where Hokage wanted the three Sannin to look at, gathering enough evidence of Kirigakure's activities so that the Kage Council had no doubt that Mizukage was unstable. Obviously he couldn't be blamed, things like that needed to be done right or not at all. A simple mistake could've ruined a political meeting of such grandeur and it wouldn't have been right. That was one of those reasons why Mana hated politics.
The accident changed father so much, while Guru Ayushi had not yet arrived at the village and had not yet donated his cells for his artificial skin his burns had to be covered with bandages and those had to be changed often. The man tried to appear unchanged but it was obvious that this wasn't even true. Often after trying to lift something heavy or do some house chore the man started grunting in pain and had to sit down. The medical ninja gave him all the painkilling medical herbs but what sort of medicine could ever ease such pain?
On the bright side Mana's training with her chakra was really giving results, the girl found a way to move her chakra levels past that of what a normal genin would have. If every time she used a technique a small fraction of chakra she couldn't properly control was left over in her system she could accelerate that process - every day Mana left to the Training Grounds to fire off her techniques randomly without any target or purpose. She ran out of chakra quickly but the purpose of this training was to gather a lot of leftover chakra in her system, then every week or so the girl just intentionally bombarded the chakra system points that had the masses of chakra lurking in and let the chakra loose. It hurt a little bit and her body acted weird while overflowing with chakra but at some point it learned to adapt and work more intensely, Mana's body was fooled by thinking that this increased level of chakra was actually her natural one and started working overtime to constantly keep this level up. The magician was proud to have invented such an amazing way to train...
Finally one day her exhaustion had caught up with her, while working with sorting out the products into their separate sections at Ichiraku Ramen Mana passed out, just like Shimo had before. From what Sugemi and Shimo told her the next day - Shimo carried her home the whole way and , surprisingly to no one, a lot of time waiting for her to recover. Only when Mana's parents asked him to go home already did he decide to leave. The magician was obviously embarrassed about this event and started acting a bit strange when Shimo was around. At some point his obsession should've started look creepy even for his womanizing ways and for Mana that point was carrying her tired body home and watching her while she's out. Obviously for Sugemi it was a ton of fun, he couldn't help but laugh his butt off every time Mana refused to work at the same room as Shimo did or when she kicked him in the shin when he held door for her or playfully smacked him in the head when he was acting too nice.
"Well... I suppose two weeks of missions are more than enough, you guys each got about forty D rank missions in your record, I suppose giving you something more interesting wouldn't be too bad at this point..." Hokage one day finally got the clue. He passed a single file, Tanshu-sensei didn't look too impressed by it, but then again, he never was. Shimo looked really hyped, "C-Rank?! Hell yeah!" he shouted out loud finally letting the kunoichi read the file. As usual Sugemi never read the files, he was too into his manga. By now the magician had noticed that at times he read the same issues of manga which confused her a bit. Why would he ever read something he's read before?
The mission was quite simple but also pretty difficult for a C rank, it was almost pushing the boundaries of a C-Rank mission. Further from the Training Grounds there was a very special training ground - Forest of Death. It was filled with creatures and dangers that well justified its name. Apparently an archeologist wandering the area once found a hidden archive, he didn't have the proper gear with him to get all the scrolls back home so he just marked the spot on the map, the problem was that he was no explorer so his coordinates were all over the place. The genin squad had to go there and retrieve as many scrolls as possible from the archive before it collapsed, these historic scrolls were pretty useful for the Konohagakure Museum after all!
"This mission ain't like the others... You guys better go home and prepare, we'll meet near the village gate leading to the training grounds at sunrise. In the meanwhile read up on the animals and plants living inside the Forest of Death. It won't be your usual dogs and rodents in there." Sensei instructed the three, as the kids headed home, he stopped Mana and asked about how her father was doing. By now the magician almost forgot these two knew each other, Tanshu-sensei never came to visit like father's other friends, never played with her as a kid and never told stories over beer with other friends. Maybe he was just a loner...
"Well he's in pain but mostly OK, we're still waiting for Guru Ayushi to show to ask him for some cells for the artificial skin." Tanshu looked pretty relieved, which was surprising because he showed genuine interest in someone's wellbeing for the first time in a long while. "Well that's OK, I once had a whole muscle grown from Ayushi-san's cells, he really doesn't like giving his cells, says he left his ninja days behind and now helps through ramblings of peace, you two should talk, you'd find a lot in common, both of you are equally crazy..." he smiled at Mana, this was the first time that sensei let her ideals off as a trait and wasn't offended by them. Not knowing what to respond the girl just smiled for the man and nodded, then ran off home.
"Ahhh... Forest of Death... A pretty nasty place..." father said upon being asked about it, after Mana told him of her first C-Rank mission. "Just stay out of the water, trust me, also keep some of the explosive tags ready at all times. Don't get into sight of anyone bigger than you and don't get your guts eaten. Don't worry, Mana, you'll be fine, you've grown a lot and trained hard, you can handle it." Mana smiled and shook her head, "I'm not worried about that, I'm more worried you'll try to open the pickle jar again..." Father looked at her and it wasn't clear if he was angry at her for reminding of that painful time or if he was keeping laughter in. "Well don't worry about your old man, I served my time, now it's your generation's turn..." the man sighed, he looked really sad...
Mana didn't want to sadden father any more, she went upstairs to train and get ready. She had to pack a backpack with the most essential survival stuff and to fill her ninja tool pouch. She barely even used those in all those chores. There was that one time the team had to catch a prankster that was drawing graffiti around Konoha, cutting up people's laundry and all sorts of weird stuff, she did use a kunai to stick the buster to a wall. To be honest, Mana was more scared than the prankster - her aim was horrible so she could've easily poked an eye, even Tanshu-sensei was surprised and complimented her for not blowing it back then...
"I don't need sake, Kei! I need a medical ninja, I need painkillers!" an incredibly loud shout reached Mana from downstairs - father did something that made his arms hurt again. The girl slowly shoved her unpacked backpack and went down. She looked at mother furiously cutting cucumbers in the kitchen and father angrily wrapping his own bandages - anyone that tried to bandage their own arms with injured arms knew how pathetic it looked. The girl's face twisted with sadness. Her family used to be so happy, of course mother was a constant danger to be around with her vitality and energy and dad was complete opposite of her but...
Slowly the young magician walked down the stairs and went up to father trying to help him with his bandages but he pulled his hands from her. "Don't you have things to pack?!" he cut back at her rudely. "Dad... Stop doing this, let me help." She spoke softly but tried to sound a bit colder so that father knew how dumb he was being by closing all this pain in himself. The man sighed and let her take over, the girl gulped as looking at those burns wasn't an easy thing and she was pretty young, she hasn't seen too much messed up stuff even if she was a ninja and was bound to one day.
"What happened..." she asked as she applied the medicine on the bandages and gently rubbed it on his burnt arms letting the medicine seep in before she started bandaging the limbs. "I tried to read a newspaper... A goddamn newspaper!" father yelled out, it was obvious that pain was hurting him. "It's okay, next time I can help you with that, now sit still." Mana replied trying to focus as hard as she could on bandaging. The man sighed, it would've been a welcome change of pace if he calmed down. He obviously already pissed mother off and when she was angry she always let the person know unless it was her family - then she let the vegetables and the fish know.
"You know... Me and mom are always here, this is as much our injury as it is yours, stop bottling it all inside and then spilling it out, just listen to those slashing noises, mother is murdering the dead fish..." Mana said casually. Father's eyes sparked with anger, angered fueled by pain without a doubt but... They calmed down. "It's just... Just all new to me." Mana smiled a little, "It's okay, you'll get used to it." She tried to calm father down but with every word she said he looked more and more angry. Now he tried to move his arms around and shouted out in pain forcing the magician to remind him that she's not done yet.
"It's not that! It's when I dream I always see my arms being normal, even in my nightmares and then I wake up into an even worse version of my nightmares - my reality is more painful than my worst nightmare." Father grunted out through anger and pain, Mana had to hand it to him, he was quite honest right now, that was what she wanted from him, to share the pain. Mother burst in from the kitchen luckily she didn't have any pans of sharp objects. "So we're just a part of your worst nightmare now!?" she yelled out, father started weeping, at least Mana managed to finish the bandaging before his weeping, if she hadn't he'd be in more pain from all the shaking.
"It's not that... It's just that I don't want to talk to you guys about it, Mana is doing so great, she's pretty famous now and is going to be more famous, she's sweeping one mission after the other... You're gonna beat your old man, kid..." Mana had honestly never seen father crying, he was always her model of masculinity and seeing that model being weak actually made tears gather up in her eyes. "So... I'm to blame for that? Because your pain is growing, because you're bottling it all inside?" she uttered out with her shaking childish voice. Mana felt mother's arms around her neck and then turning her face at mother's, mother's eyes were also teary but strong. She had that certain fire that even tears couldn't remove. "Your father didn't mean it, you know he didn't, he can't think straight with all that pain and once he gets used to it I'm gonna smack him pretty good for what he said."
Father put his hand on Mana's head and stroke her hair gently, his movements were pretty sloppy and limited by what pain let him do, still it meant everything in the world, it was the best hair stroke Mana had ever had. "You know that's not what I meant, it's just that I used to be a ninja, I may not have been that awesome at it but I had fun... Now I'm just a useless loser who has to cheer on you from home, obviously that's not that bad, it's just new for me - feeling useless and broken." Mana stood up and let her father's arm slip from her head, she placed her forehead up to father's and looked him in the eyes.
"You need to find another thing that defines you, you can't live with pain being the new you, it's not who you are, it's just a part of you. You need to find another thing to call your own, something that beats the pain." Father's head started sinking down but Mana tensed her neck to hold the pressure. "And don't say that we are everything you need, that's not even true. You had your family with you this whole time and pain still torments you, you need something else." Father grunted, "I used to tinker pretty damn good... Big fat nothing that's gonna do to me now..." he said. Mana stood up and showed him her arms.
"You still have the brain, I can be your arms. When I get back from the missions you can start tinkering on all sorts of deathtraps and I'll try to escape them on the stage. It'll give you purpose and something to occupy your mind with. It'll also make a... Different part of the show..." Father stood up and hugged Mana, he then gently pushed her away and sat back down, "Alright, now go finish packing your things, you've got a big day tomorrow." Mana didn't need to be told that twice, the girl rushed up the stairs into her room and started packing again. At least for once she acted like a real daughter and helped her father out, of course changing the direction of her shows from using ninjutsu to escaping death traps she herself builds under her father's instructions is going to be weird, maybe she shouldn't change all of it and just use it as a part of her show. After all if she let ninjutsu part slip her magic would lose its point.
Next day came unexpectedly, Mana was woken up by mother gently as the woman was getting ready to go to work herself. Mother was working more hours now that father was injured and won't be working, she just hoped that Mana's double income as well as those few extra customers that visited the café in those extra hours would compensate father's part of the income. Mana didn't really know how well she did, mother kept all of her finances in her own pocket, father always joked how that was for the better - mother's fairytale native tribe was apparently pretty good with the money. That was father's excuse with everything that concerned mother - her heritage.
After the entire tirade of morning activities Mana threw on some simpler clothes, choosing to wear a simple t-shirt and a jacket on top and much more casual jeans, clothes she wasn't afraid to tear or fall in a swamp with but something that allowed her a lot of freedom of movement. The girl rushed out to the gates, luckily there weren't that many people wishing to greet her and cheer on her in the streets yet, that helped the girl get to the gate faster yet still she was the last person to get there. It was quite surprising because this was the first time that Sugemi actually earlier than he had to yet from his appearance it didn't look like he slept at all.
"Wow, all three of you look like you guys are going farming." Tanshu joked as he was wearing the same outfit he always wore. The three finally head out to the Forest of Death - to Team Oak's first C-Rank mission!
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