Noji remained standing in total awe, looking at the giant gap in the throat of his opponent and her body weightlessly slamming the ground. The young man didn’t move, nothing more but an occasional twitch of a facial muscle. Why would this girl do that? Was she so desperate and finally willing to admit her loss? If she was driven by honor that’d explain why she’d take her own life before letting Noji do it, no, she was too nice to do something like that. The Inuzuka looked at his partner.
“Tell me you saw this too, buddy” he mumbled out to which the dog only howled and nodded his head a couple of times.
“Shit… I’ll just never get used to people dying, good people…” Noji quietly started talking to himself under his nose. He looked at the static corpse of his opponent and then back at his beloved dog. He was at a conflict, was all of this worth it? Obviously Noji was willing to go to any extremes to save Sunomaru “ the dog was his soulmate after all, however for how long can he kill? For how long will he be able to justify his actions with necessity? How many dead bodies of children like this girl have to stack until Noji would finally have enough?
Noji’s tirade of self-pity was broken by a loud thud followed by a loud whiny howl of Sunomaru. Much to his horror the young man turned at his white large canine friend only to witness the magician’s sandal slamming on top of the dog’s head and driving it to the ground. With a gentle backflip Mana regained and repurposed her balance for a direct assault and lunged at Noji punching him right in the jaw, then again from upwards down and then with a vertical kick launching the man up into the air. The magician dashed back and prepared a counterattack. Her corpse had disappeared from where it fell, almost like the action of suicide had never transpired at all.
“No one dies today. Not on my watch.” Mana firmly stated gripping her kunai tighter. Noji stood up wiping blood off of his lip and spitting some to the side, he looked at Sunomaru who appeared to be alright after Mana’s attack. He was just knocked out but still breathing heavily, the dog’s giant back was lifting up and down repeatedly while the dog was taking large breaths.
“What was that?” Noji asked still trying to regain his balance since while the magician’s punches were pretty puny, her kick really made his vision blur and almost crushed his jaw, the force of it alone was enough to toss him around like a ragdoll.
“A genjutsu technique, I told you I’m a stage magician remember? The smell card?” Mana smiled slightly through her serious expression. She felt that Noji’s voice was warm and almost friendly, it was almost like he felt thankful for something. Like he didn’t really want Mana to die and the realization that she was alive was liberating to him somehow.
“Oh, right… Those handseals you made before and nothing came out, so it was back then that I fell for the illusion… You had a perfect opening to kill me or Sunomaru yet you chose to knock Suno out. You held nothing back, came at me until it was no longer safe to keep going without being countered. You fight with all your strength yet you don’t wish to kill… Thanks for not hurting Suno more than you had to.” Noji nodded with a warm look. Mana did feel a little conflicted about all of this. She wasn’t about to make the mistake of holding back but she felt really bad about fighting these two.
“I told you “ no one dies today if I can help it” the magician firmly repeated. That painful journey through the forest, looking back on her past, her greatest mistakes and her losses made her grow like she’s never grown before. In just those couple of hours she matured more than the girl had matured ever before. She still felt hesitant inside, still wanted no part of this violence but she felt like honoring her opponent by giving them the fight they asked for “ fighting was not her will, not her decision but if her opponent wished it, they’d have brought it on themselves.
Mana’s body twitched, all of her muscles kicked into overdrive and the girl leaned forward with her legs thrusting her forward as fast as she could go without augmenting her body needlessly. Noji tried to grab her, counter her straightforward attack but Mana’s body just disappeared, she boosted her speed using chakra augmentation just for a brief moment, let it all flow out but only for one insignificant second. The magician’s body blurred leaving only an afterimage which the Inuzuka fell for while the real Mana moved right past and behind him.
The young man collapsed on his knees after Mana’s kick hit him on the soft spot and the back of his legs. Noji took time to stand back up and turn around and Mana made sure to capitalize, he gave her time to wind up and prepare another combination of kicks. She had to go all out, kick him so hard that he passed out, give him all the punishment she could and not stop because this was a precious opening, one he’d not provide in the future. If Noji regained his footing and started dictating his advantage again he’d kill the girl for sure this time. Mana had to keep herself from giving him the chance.
A crushing kick connected to the side of Noji’s jaw. An entire combination of precise kicks collided with his chest, Mana leapt into the air activating her Mystical Wings Jutsu to push her forward, a gust of wind pushed her body diagonally down with a sharp kick to the man’s gut grinding him to the floor, bending steel where he was sent down again.
Mana dashed back, she completed her attack, she could’ve attacked more, pressed forward but it would’ve been risky “ she was getting winded and without a doubt Noji would’ve regained his balance and breath at any time soon. At least the magician was making the Inuzuka work for it a little, the fight stopped being an absolute stomp once the girl took the dog out of the equation.
“Heh, I’m much faster and stronger than you, as a close range Chakra Absorption user I also perfectly counter your long range abilities, even with your long and strong legs in mind… Still, you have a mind of an exceptional ninja, you’re tricky, unpredictable, making strategies on the fly each more deep and advanced than the other “ that’s where you would make your mark on the ninja world if you left this basement…” Noji laughed coughing blood up from his torn and busted stomach. He must’ve used some sort of chakra augmentation, Mana kicked him to kill knowing full well that he’d do that. If she held back he’d have just tanked that attack and then swatted her aside not giving her a chance to counter “ he’d have killed her.
“That’s what my sensei taught me, that’s the only thing that makes me unique. I have no clans, no bloodlines, no special abilities beyond just what makes me Konoha’s Sorceress “ a crafty stage magician who is also a ninja.” Mana replied retaining her seriousness. What was this attempt to talk to her? Was he just trying to play the emotional game? After all, big talking was just as effective in a battle when one dominated their opponent, everytime Noji reminded Mana how much stronger and faster he was it terrified her a little, just the reminder of how badly this fight could go if Mana ever lost control of it for just one moment.
“Heh, you know… This kinda makes me dream like a fool, want for both of us to survive this day so that one day I can perhaps return to Konoha and see your show. Seeing how you improvise I dread the excitement of seeing your scripted performance.” Noji laughed out as if this battle wasn’t a matter of life and death. This young man was so different from how Mana imagined a rogue ninja, so different from what she imagined a “bad guy” to be. No, Noji was not a “bad guy” per se. His interest just clashed with hers, he was ordered to take care of her so that his soulmate could live another day. Knowing that situation made Mana sort of feel sorry for the young man.
How could he have fought this battle? His mind couldn’t have been all in this, not after seeing Mana “kill herself” and stressing out. He must’ve told himself a thousand times that he was ready but in reality seeing a young girl die because of his actions woke something up inside of him. Hesitation perhaps, questioning of his actions and his motives. He was tearing himself up from inside, that was why genjutsu sometimes were more effective than given credit for. A right vision may have completely broken an opponent, that being said, Mana had no idea it’d do that, she just needed an opening.
“I keep having optimistic thoughts like that every time, people make fun of me a lot because of it. If both of us make it out, please come see it sometime, I’ll make sure to reserve a seat for you…” Mana replied with a brief smile, for a moment her own eyes faltered, Noji saw it “ he knew that the girl realized his internal struggle and somehow that knowledge made it all different. The hands of the young man went through a couple of handseals and the blue transparent flame lit up around his arms. “Chakra Absorption Technique!” Noji chanted out taking his fighting stance.
The Inuzuka leaned back and then dived forward. “Tunneling Fang!” he shouted as his body started rotating like a drill, the blue flames of pure chakra around his arms dyed this whole impressive horizontal vortex of claws light blue. Noji unleashed himself flying at Mana with his ferocious spinning attack. “Combination Technique: Life Shaving Fang!” a loud howling voice came out from the vortex as it shot right at the magician with blinding speed.
The girl couldn’t even dream of having the speed and agility needed to avoid the technique, it may have moved instantly for all she knew. Having no knowledge of the technique coming Mana just let it hit her, just barely managing to augment her lower body so that he didn’t drill a hole right through the girl. It was like her chakra was torn out of her, the technique combined the offensive speed of Inuzuka clan technique and the chakra draining of the Chakra Absorption technique, even more, the technique absorbed not only the chakra it’d have normally sapped but that which the user spent on augmentation “ augmenting one’s body to survive the attack only made the technique more effective.
The tunneling vortex of blue claws pushed Mana back and slammed her into a wall. The Inuzuka dashed to her body right as it bounced off of the steel structure and started punching, his punches were weak, he pulled them back but not because he felt sorry “ he wanted to drain more chakra out of her. Full powered punches may have damaged organs, broken bones and that’d have reduced her chakra greatly. Now Mana barely felt each individual punch but the total combination left plenty scratches and internal blunt traumas and drained so much chakra too.
With an elbow strike Noji let the combination end and then he leaped back, his Chakra Absorption technique timed out and the flames around his arms faded. Striking so ferociously and with such speed must’ve worn him out since the young man couldn’t even move or lift his arm to stay in his fighting position. Mana coughed some blood up and jumped back on her feet “ her chakra took a huge dip into nothingness but she had to keep going.
“Your chakra…” Noji kept breathing and looking at the girl strangely. Mana’s hands froze in their handseal forming position. “People’s chakra feels different. That of most people is colorless, it has that bland transparent light blue color to it and feels the same as anyone else’s. However some people are different. The chakra of incredibly evil people or people who have witnessed a lot of darkness in their lives is as black as tar, the chakra of people defined by their desire of vengeance and their rage is blood red. Yours is azure blue… You have something inside you that defines you, makes your chakra feel unique. It really feels good to absorb it, I told you I take no pleasure in taking it but… For a moment there I seemed to have lost myself. You should discover what that means if you live through this day. It might serve as a very interesting and helping you know yourself better discovery”
So that was it? Noji didn’t make a mistake by overextending his attack and leaving himself at a shortage of breath, he lost himself in the strange feeling of Mana’s chakra. What he said was interesting, some emotion defined by the color of azure blue defined her, it made her chakra feel different and pleasant to feast on for those that absorb chakra. That was strange, there was nothing special about her chakra besides its color, Mana had known if it had some innate abilities inside of it. Maybe it just told the world just how determined and defined the magician was by that trait that defined her?
The girl completed her handseals, reaching for her pouch. She pulled out a small explosive marble-shaped package and threw it right at Noji, the boy leaned back and let it fly far to the other side of the room. His attention was distracted by the tiny package and while his eyes were focused on avoiding the explosive package which didn’t even detonate yet, the remaining arm of Mana’s completed the handseals. Her arms lit up with crackling lightning chakra and she shot her hands forward. “Combination Technique: Explosive Lightning Combo!” she shouted firing off the barrage of small lightning spheres at her opponent.
Noji covered up his face and his eyes, having winded himself after getting lost in absorbing Mana’s chakra pool and taking in too much at one time. Chakra Absorption technique was still a C-Rank technique and while its absorption effect was dangerous and lethal, it had this strange “overfeeding” effect when taking in too much chakra at once. The force and shock behind Mana’s lightning spheres bounced and dissolved once reaching Noji, the youth shouted out in pain and struggled to stay still, stumbling back more and more, right into where the package was situated. Mana stopped her technique with one arm and detonated the package close to where Noji was “ she didn’t want to kill him so she didn’t drive him back far enough for it to be torn up by the explosion but she lead him close enough for it to really hurt him even with chakra augmentation in mind.
A deafening explosion echoed throwing even Mana off of her feet. Noji’s torn up and burnt, also bleeding profusely frame dived out of the cloud of smoke with his arms lit up with the Chakra Absorption technique. His punches once again overwhelmed Mana, she was down and unable to use her kicks to hold the man at bay. Noji continued to strike again and again, one of his arms grabbed Mana and lifted her up by the rags of what used to be her uniform before, tossing her up slightly into the air and then unleashing an agonizing combination of draining punches into her lower body. Mana struggled not to pass out, staying conscious hurt too much, her eyes whited out for just a moment. Then a powerful grip around her neck forced the magician to return to reality.
Noji held her slightly lifted up in the air so that only Mana’s toes could barely reach the steel floor. His arm was choking her out and the draining technique around his hand made it impossible for the magician to escape it since her chakra was being sapped with each second the two made contact. Supply of air was becoming short, Noji made sure to pound her gut enough to take all of it out before starting his finishing choking move. Everything was fading to black, Mana couldn’t believe how difficult just twitching her fingers was while her chakra was being drained. A full grip was nearly impossible to escape from without augmenting one’s chakra and Mana was too tired at that moment for that.
Suddenly the blue flame faded “ that was just the opening Mana needed, using the last of her will and her fading mind the magician swung both of her legs forward into Noji’s stomach and then when she was let go and fell on her toes briefly augmented her chakra to perform a backflip to send Noji flying off his feet as the magician’s feet collided with his chin, cracking something that sounded very painful in there. The Inuzuka youth’s body lifted up all the way to the steel ceiling and just barely didn’t bash into it before falling down.
Mana grasped for air, she was tired, she still had some chakra to finish this fight up but her exhaustion made using that last ounce of chakra close to impossible. She needed to finish that fast. The magician took off Eiju’s coat and tossed it aside, flicking the small hidden mechanisms that she still wore and revealing them on her body, when she wore her uniform it helped conceal them, it also fit very well into her tight choice of clothes and held it firmly, now the bumped and beaten up devices were letting off some weird noises and just barely functioning. It won’t be as comfortable as when she still had her uniform but at least the coat won’t get in the way.
Suddenly the girl’s heart froze “ she heard a loud bark from the side of Noji’s dog who alerted his beaten and spitting blood and his own teeth from his mouth master that the pooch had woken up from being knocked out before. The Inuzuka smiled, the bodies of the two lit up with chakra and the dog transformed into a clone of Noji, the clone leaped on top of Noji’s back, who in terms leaned closer to the ground forming his back into a more comfortable and horizontal platform for his soulmate. “Let’s go, Suno, sorry, Mana. It seems luck just wasn’t on your side. I’ll make sure you’ll get buried with care and respect, you earned it! Ultimate Combination Technique: Life Shaver Fang Over Fang!” Noji shouted orders for his hound, the two leaped forward and started spinning changing into those dreadful spinning horizontal hurricanes of claws. The two lunged at Mana determined to tear her apart.
The two vortexes collided not with Mana but instead with something dark brown, long and much more like leather “ the magician used Substitution Technique to replace herself with the coat she just tossed aside and rolled aside to avoid the brunt of the technique. She observed in horror when Eiju’s coat was torn to absolute shreds. The two vortexes worked in a ruthless and almost mechanical combination rotating in circles tearing what they thought was Mana apart. The two must not have had much vision while they were spinning around since they only stopped tearing the coat up when they stopped the technique.
“Shit! Suno, again! Good thing we took so much chakra from her, huh, buddy!?” the youth exclaimed energetically as the two once again fired off at Mana, this time however the girl had time for her response. Her handseals went off and she looked into the one vortex that just spoke. The vortex got thrown out of its way right into the other. “Polymorphy Technique!” Mana shouted out the name of her genjutsu illusion. Noji started believing that he was a dog, the illusion also did some weird things with one’s brain, they resembled more what they thought that animal was like which meant that Noji thought he was the alpha of the pack and since Suno was right beside him that made the affected Noji treat the dog as a challenger of his authority.
Noji attacked Suno violently digging into the dog’s neck with his Inuzuka teeth drawing blood. The dog howled in pain and leaped at his master performing the “Tunneling Fang” technique that Noji used previously hitting disabled and delirious friend right in the head and knocking him out. The dog then growled looking at Mana.
“You idiot!” she huffed out, “Look at those boxes, what do you think is stored here!? Perfume! The secret ingredient herb you need is in there, just take it and carry it back to Konoha, have it analyzed and then just ask the hospital to give it to you every day.”
The dog barked back at Mana growling and slowly approaching her.
“Aaaand I’m talking to dogs now, I wish I knew what he barked back at me…” the girl scratched her head angrily. “Look, if the perfume Yellow has can help you that means the perfume that the hostage’s father has can too. I mean why would he just have a bunch of super expensive perfume stored in entire crates and target specifically an heir of a perfume tycoon and then not express any demands? Instead of killing and doing these horrible things for this guy you and Noji could ask Konoha for shelter, legitimize yourselves and after a brief sentence you could live normal lives. You’d live and no one would have to die because of it, you’d get your treatment every day.”
Mana leaned to the side avoiding Sunomaru’s tired leap at her trying to bite her neck out. The dog stood still and barked angrily back at her, it was clearly communicating something to her but the magician just didn’t know what. “Look, I don’t know what you’re telling me but… Don’t you remember how torn Noji was when he saw me die? If you died he’d lose himself but he’s already losing himself even while you live with every horrible thing he is forced to do . There’s no happy ending where you two are right now. Stand down and leave this room with Noji on your back and head to Konoha, take some of the perfume, hell, you’ve been doused in it with those wounds on you so you probably have enough in your blood to last some time already. Once Noji wakes up he’ll explain it all to the hospital staff. You didn’t have that much time to perform that many crimes yet, you can still legitimize if we vouch you were forced to kidnap the kid for the Administration.”
Suno calmed down and walked up to Noji pushing the boy’s bleeding face with his snout, Mana carefully crept up and placed Noji on top of the dog and added a handful of perfume vials from the boxes into Noji’s pouch. The dog then barked something at Mana. His last howl sounded something like “Yellow” but the magician just dismissed it. “Look, I don’t know what you’re telling me, I’m sorry, I’ll handle it from here, I still have some chakra left for one or two jutsu and I think now I can use my cards more efficiently cause that damned coat isn’t in my way. If one of the others won I should have enough to finish them off, I’ll save the kid for sure!”
The dog barked at Mana angrily again, repeating that last yellow-like growl. “It’ll be fine… Look I don’t get what you’re trying to tell me, just go. I’ll handle it.” The dog shook his head and howled as if he was just mad at the magician for not getting his clue. Maybe he really did howl something about “Yellow” knowing well that she didn’t understand his common way of speech, trying desperately to convey something important. Well, at least this ended without any more needless bloodshed, even Noji’s busted jaw could be fixed in half an hour by a skilled medical ninja.
The girl then took a piece of Eiju’s cloth and handed it to the dog’s mouth to hold. “Look, if a young man stops you and tries to kill you, please show him this and don’t fight him, he’ll get the clue” she with a soft tone informed the dog and stroke its head. The dog licked back at Mana and then bumped her head as if it still held a grudge for not understanding him earlier. The white wolf-like dog then started moving on the path leading outside the bunker. Mana sat down to catch her breath and regain some of her stamina and what she could still muster of her chakra. If whatever this dog wanted her to know was this important she may have yet needed it.
The girl looked at the tattered and utterly destroyed Eiju’s coat and sighed. “Eiju-san is going to kill me…”
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