The piercing glare of Hisako tried to kill her teammate before she could get her swords to do that. The assassin was infuriated that her kill was interrupted. Before that happened Hisako didn't care much about killing the boy, but now that Mana challenged her decision by attacking her and cutting her and disarming her temporarily it was personal. Seeing that unconscious boy now made Hisako fired up to kill him, not because he was worth it, but because Mana didn't want her to. That bitch dared challenge her decision and interrupt her battle and that gave the boy's death some sick rebellious meaning.
"The fuck you did that for, idol-bitch?" Hisako grunted out angrily at Mana, her tone was calm and cold, not the likes of which are used when addressing one's friend, much more that used in addressing someone you're about to murder. "Just cause you won your battle doesn't mean you have the right to butt into mine. I beat him fair and square, his life is in my hands and he's just too much of a dick to leave his throat uncut."
"I stopped you from making a mistake, I stopped you from making yourself the monster that the people around you think you to be. The monster I know you're not" Mana replied in an equally serious tone. She didn't know if she could take Hisako on, usually if both of them would be at top shape, Mana would've stood a chance in her mind. The magician saw Hisako fight, knew how her skills worked and while she missed a couple of her more recent fights the one against her and Kiyomi gave her enough to work with. Now with her hidden mechanisms all exposed and her uniform with all of its hidden pockets burnt up and torn, with her chakra drained up and her body burnt, battered and bruised… This could've been problematic.
Even if Mana saw Hisako fight, even if she predicted that the assassin would become a problem at one point, foreseeing that exact scenario since they set Hisako free from her binds – the assassin wanting to kill someone on Mana's watch, even so this fight wouldn't be pretty and the magician wanted to avoid it. While Mana knew how to fight her assassin friend that didn't make it alright, she'd still be hurting her friend.
Hisako kicked Yellow aside. Mana's hand twitched and a card appeared in her grasp almost instantly. Luckily enough for her the strings firing off cards and placing them in her hands still worked. The magician thought that Hisako would try and murder Yellow but the assassin just kicked him further away making space for the inevitable clash that the genin tried to avoid.
"Humor me…" Hisako grunted in a murderous tone, clashing her own swords against each other. Shaking bunch of blood off of them as well as a flurry of sparks. The assassin's blades were dyed rusty yellow, they weren't like that before – must've been a reaction to some nutrients in blood, something meant to intimidate and opponent. These weren't normal swords, they must've had quite a history behind them and it was unclear how Hisako got her hands on them, nor did it matter.
"This whole time I never viewed you as a monster, as a senseless killer. You were always just a ninja who wanted to do the right thing, just went about it differently. You go about things in usual ways, classic ninja mindset. You have no shame killing or offering your body if that gets the job done and those are the ninja values we've been told to work with. Even while you killed and cursed inventing new way to express your rude thoughts through combinations of curses I never knew to be possible, you've always done the right thing. You wanted the same things we did, you just had your ways of going about it." Mana replied.
Hisako swung her swords at her lazily, Mana flicked her hands up shooting a bunch of cards and then another switch that hardened the string behind them, making an improvised blade of cards stuck together that clashed with Hisako's, the woman forced her swords forward, grabbing and tearing the device off of Mana's arm with her bare hands and crushing it without much effort. Only her cold murderous stare right into the magician's eyes.
"I attacked you two bitches in the forest. Was that also "for the right thing"?" the assassin asked sarcastically. "I mean I certainly see your dead disemboweled body as being for the better but it may not fit your sense of justice…"
"You were testing us. Missions beyond the wall of the village are brutal and you wanted to see if we could be trusted, if we were able to handle it. If the two of us couldn't best you, more so going easy on us, restraining yourself so that we don't get killed, we had no place in this mission. After all Fifth is known for her lack of maturity and evaluation of risk, she may have as well sent two newbies into such an assignment…" Mana replied. That much was apparent, judging from the likes of enemies that Hisako managed to slaughter later on, the assassin must've held back significantly during that brawl, both Mana and Kiyomi did hold back as well and it would've made no sense for someone of the level of Hisako back then to beat a whole group of mercenaries without even getting injured.
"Even more, later on you made sure that we don't get killed, you risked the integrity and shame of your own body to make sure that we get the aid we need. You did everything in your power to make sure the deal with Hachi goes through and when it didn't you killed every bastard threatening us" the magician added taking her hat off and making a handseal. Bright purple light lit up the basement room as the girl pulled out a wand the length of a short sword or a lengthy knife. It had a bright greenish blue gem on the end, something she acquired during the time spent training after Team Oak split up. It didn't have much things special about it, it was quite sturdy and looked magical enough to be used during Mana's performance. The gem on the end could've been used to bludgeon someone but such use was not fitting for the magician's character.
"I just made sure the mission goes through, all I needed from you two was to make sure that the mission is completed!" Hisako shouted out lunging forward and swinging her swords at Mana's face, the magician leaned back successfully avoiding the swing but Hisako's swing continued as the assassin picked up speed using the momentum to boost her force. The girl thrust her wand forward blocking the second strike, her lungs started getting short on air and she wanted to avoid being caught exhausted and winded. A loud clang echoed through the room with the sparks lighting up the angry and determined faces of both young women facing off.
Mana would've stood no chance just fighting the assassin off using her wand, Hisako was buying time, she was using the talking time to get her breath back together acting like she's trying to kill Mana when in reality she was just playing around to make it look like Hisako is fighting for real.
"You saved us after we took on Hachi, you kept on helping us out throughout the rest of the mission even going as far as to save a young man from his life as a slave! You gave him hope for a better life, don't you get that!?" Mana lost her cool throwing cards left and right, those were just simple blade tipped cards, Hisako rolled to the side, blocked some more but two of them dug into the girl's body. The Yoruma grunted and cursed rolling behind a pipe. Mana furiously pressed the advantage on, unsealing a whole deck of explosive cards from the pocket space inside her hat and throwing them at the pipe. As the cards cut through steel leaving holes powerful streams of heated steam made Hisako yell in pain and move away from the pipeline.
"I know the kind of person that you are, the real you. You're a kind soul who has been oppressed and called inhuman filth for your entire life who just wants to rebel against everyone who calls you that. You have much love, much care, hurt and pain inside you yet no one sees that and it angers you. So you lash out, try to become an anti-social monster they take you for to fit their expectations, to make them at the very least love this twisted version of you instead!" Mana continued to attack Hisako with blade tipped cards, wearing the woman down from long range. The assassin tried to leap in and strike the magician down but a card stopped her from gaining momentum. Speed was not something instantly acquired, it required chakra control and body augmentation but even more – it required time and space to pick up. A speedster like Hisako needed to move, to pick speed up blitzing all over the room before she moved in at unimaginable speed to strike her opponent down before they have time to react, by intercepting that space and time with a well-placed projectile Mana denied the assassin her speed. The magician predicted this encounter long ago, she had plenty of time to think this through.
"That may be true, it may be all lies. Either way – I want to kill this rogue, so does that high and mighty Yamanaka bitch. Either I'll kill you and then him, or the two of us will beat you for that kill either way and while the blondy is busy with the boy I'll slip a knife between your ribs. Ninja who protect a life of a rogue are rogues themselves, a rogue has no right to live, the life of a criminal is that of an inhuman filth who only wastes everyone else's air!" Hisako roared out. That was one thing Mana tried to avoid, getting the woman angry. Anger and hate were Hisako's steroids. It made her ignore injury, it made her force through any odds to kill her enemy.
Hisako lunged forward, a simple steel tipped card wouldn't have done it now, Mana threw an explosive card, Hisako formed an X shaped block with her blades and augmented her body. The explosive force made the assassin shoot out from the smoke sliding back, doubling the distance between the two. Mana was in no worry to run out of cards, she had a couple of decks in that hat of hers and while unsealing them would've cost her some chakra that wasn't the main worry – it was time. Once the magician ran out of cards she'd need a moment to refill, would Hisako give that moment to her? Probably not…
Hisako roared forming a handseal and flipping her hand, five throwing knives flashed in her palm and then got launched at Mana. The magician threw a bunch of cards at the knives intercepting them in mid-air. Hisako's twisted smile colored her face in the emotional shades of absolutely terrifying. The girl's fingers twitched, "Yoruma Hijutsu: Shot Bladeworks!" she grunted as the small sources of light enlightened the wires tied around her fingers that sent the knives back directed at Mana.
The magician slammed her arms together. "Mystical Bubble Jutsu!" she yelled out shoving her arms to the side forming a protective bubble of wind chakra around her that deflected the knives. After the exchange of blows the two young women just continued to stand and huff at each other, each saw the weakness and exhaustion of another but none of them were confident enough to capitalize on it. Mana weaved some handseals, looking Hisako straight in the eyes with most sad look, she wished none of this fight between friends. This fight caused major callbacks to when Shimo was fighting Sugemi, back then Mana was hesitant to involve herself, she may have been injured but she shouldn't have let that get in her way, had she been less afraid of her own power she may have resolved the fight earlier, somehow prevented the downfall of Team Oak.
The magician threw a bunch of cards at Hisako, the woman easily turned the blunt side of her sword and deflected the three projectiles lunging at Mana and slashing at her chest. A gash opened up and blood splashed out all over Hisako's face. Mana's scared face twisted as her frame collapsed on the ground. Sadistic urges took over the mad Yoruma assassin, she continued to hack and slash at the collapsed teammate again and again, cutting off her limbs and cutting deeper into the already dead corpse of her teammate. A couple of cards whizzed through the air digging themselves deep into Hisako's back, the assassin woman leaned forward as the injuries of that day stacked up to bring her down.
"It seems that this illusion is fairly effective on the more sadistic opponents. It made you completely unaware of anything around you…" Mana's voice echoed as the girl glared angrily at her partner who was down on one knee huffing and coughing up blood. The magician once again used her "Scary Trick Jutsu" to slip into a state unseen to her opponent, leaving only her copy behind, an illusionary clone that appeared to get killed when in reality it was just a phantom. Just a figment of her opponent's imagination. Hisako fell for her illusion perfectly. That injury must've slowed her down, the cards left pretty deep wounds, they were thin and cut quite deep. Hisako didn't even augment her body, she may have been warned by her instincts but purposefully didn't trust them because she saw her dead friend right in front of her, she chose to get more kicks out of slaughtering the fake Mana some more and paid the price.
"You're fucking annoying, like a fucking branch of a chili tree stuck up my irritated ass with the pepper burning it from inside!" Hisako shouted out, turning at Mana, getting back on her feet through the sheer force of will and firing that disgusting fire of a maniac desperate to kill his prey before going down. There may have been no besting Hisako as long as Mana was drawing breath, the only way to knock her down so that she didn't stand up again may have been the permanent one…
The assassin jumped forward, no, she simply disappeared, reappearing instantly right up close to Mana, accelerating from her slowed down state to near instantaneous movement within mere fractions of a second. She must've poured chakra into that augmentation, Hisako raised her blades to an upwards slash, Mana had no time to block or dodge, her reaction time simply couldn't comprehend that attack, she never even realized what could've happened however her body worked without the approval of her brain augmenting her body with a powerful burst of chakra, the blades slid through the girl's body like they cut into rock, the bursting chakra of Mana's elevated chakra level formed somewhat of a forcefield on the girl's skin, Hisako's swords would've killed the girl with one cut but now they only left shallow scratches. That was how the bodies of a ninja dealt with faster than their reflexes blows, as long as they had the right amount of chakra, the body could've augmented the endurance even at instantaneous rate however if the chakra wasn't enough it would've amounted to nothing.
Mana's body was thrown down onto the floor, the magician finally realized what happened and tried to roll back, Hisako leaped forward again trying to raise her blades upwards and impaling the girl on them, lifting her body off the floor. Mana leaned back avoiding it, after using such a mad burst of chakra Mana was sure that her opponent wouldn't risk ruining their chakra network with another augmentation, she just avoided the upwards thrust by leaning back and dashing backwards. Hisako's kick drew air out of Mana's lungs, momentarily whiting the girl's eyes out and drawing blood to burst from her injured stomach. Mana slammed into the wall leaving a small dent. Her body shook in a creepy twitch as it hit the ground. Her will kicked in.
"Get up and fight, she'll kill you if you won't!" the magician's mind ordered herself. Her body refused to move however, what chances did she have against a Chuunin, more so, one on the higher tier of Chuunin? One who had killed everyone in her way to the top? Mana lifted her head up, she felt blood coming up from somewhere internally, she must've almost gotten killed from that one kick alone. Her long hair got in the way of her vision but her tired eyes with blood running down on them still saw the blurred sight of Hisako holding her sword above the boy's back.
"Oh? Have you passed out yet? Had enough? Well then, allow me to do my job then bitch, now that you've been reminded who's in the right…" Hisako shouted in a cold and emotionless tone. "Just sit still and admit you've been wrong and maybe I won't execute you for protecting a rogue. He may not be a rogue ninja because he's not a ninja, but he's a criminal, he's dangerous to the village and to himself."
"Should I relax? Just let her kill the boy? Just lay low, admit defeat and maybe live? Do I have the right to live if I let someone die?" Mana thought as she felt her stomach burning up inside of her, she felt blood running down from everywhere, something inside her was crushed, something was wrong. Mana felt badly, felt like dying several times in her life but never like this. Never have she felt her own body burning up from inside. What was crushed? Her spleen? Her liver? Her kidneys? Either way she was dead, it was just how she accepted that death that mattered. "Can I just lay here and die, watching her kill this boy? Kill him before giving him a chance to redeem himself, before he is mature enough to realize what he had done with his own life and those around him? No… No I can't, sorry, body, I can't"
Mana's body flared up with chakra leaking out. Her hands moved by themselves. Hisako looked surprised at her beaten opponent, only for her eyes to white out, suddenly Hisako fell on all-fours and started licking her palm. "Polymorphy Jutsu…" Mana whispered completing her illusion. The magician forced chakra through her body, leaping forward with the strongest kick that her body could muster up. Her body couldn't move anymore, it was moved with chakra alone, what little that she had left. Mana only knew a single low ranked taijutsu technique, it was time that she used that. The magician let her chakra run through her, move her body, she submitted to her flow that moved her forward and guided her, she may have died later on but that didn't matter, only saving this boy's life did. It was never about Mana making it, it was about the conditions of how she passed.
"Spear Kick!" the girl roared, her internally burning with pain body mustered up one breath to yell out the name of her attack proudly to dig her foot from up in the air deep into Hisako's gut, she was thinking of herself as a cat, she didn't augment herself because cats didn't usually manipulate chakra. Her body took all of Mana's strength. Hisako's body got kicked down through the layer of steel, peeling it like it was paper. The body of the assassin hit something that looked like a throne chair and dangled on it, Hisako may have broken her back as her eyes were closed and blood ran down her nose and mouth as well as several other spaces.
Mana's body weightlessly collapsed. The magician lifted her head to look at her friend, Hisako grunted and tried to move but could only slam her body down to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Mana forced her body up, she didn't care if she broke her body's chakra network. She'd die soon with those internal injuries and even Quack couldn't help her, what did it matter if her chakra network burnt out due to abuse of augmentation? Most ninja used it sparingly, once or twice per battle just so they didn't die or landed a technique that really needed to hit. Mana was a bit too much of a novice to use it at all, her higher than usual chakra level may have ensured that she wouldn't burn out but it was still dangerous. Now she had no choice.
Mana approached Hisako looking at her from above, her opponent was down, blood was slowly forming a tiny pool around the woman's head. Suddenly the body flashed, a black blur, like a hurricane. All was resolved in just a moment, victory changed into defeat. Hisako was on her knees and the tip of her sword was inside Mana's gut. The magician's chakra augmentation ensured that the girl's body didn't get completely skewered but she still got an injury, one that made her body helplessly collapse on the ground. The girl's conscience slipped up, switching from here and now to some other time and other place.
"Death… So that's how it feels? I've been nearly killed before but never like this? I was never feeling it happening, crawling up my neck, wrapping its fingers around my throat and suffocating me, looking me in the eyes with joy and pride. Pride of snuffing out the last daughter of the Wandering Ninja…" Mana thought to herself, her eyes opened up, her conscience returned, her first sight was her own hand, covered in her own blood. Then the sight of Hisako climbing up the throne, reaching up for the collapsed floor she fell through. Her body must've been just as broken as Mana's was, what kept the assassin going? Was it her will to kill? Was the will to kill stronger than will to protect? It couldn't have been. Mana's eyes closed, a smile twisted her face into an expression of bliss.
Hisako reached up for the torn shred of steel of the floor on the other level, she pulled her body upwards with just one hand, the throne chair fell down, shaking around and leaving the assassin's body dangling in the air. "Mystical Wings Jutsu!" an annoying whiny and bratty voice of a young girl echoed behind her, Hisako let go and turned around, the last thing she saw was Mana's body, dropkicking her right in the chest using the empowered kicking force of the wind that usually propelled her body from the ground. Hisako's body slammed into the wall and the powerful stream of wind drilled her deeper still. The woman's head bashed mercilessly into solid steel knocking her out instantly. She was lucky to stay alive.
Mana's tired and broken body fell down on her back. The magician clutched the stab wound on her gut, her breathless head weighed down to the right, her eyes closed. She knew she did good, at least as her final act. She fought a vastly superior opponent in every way and managed to protect a young soul, one that was dark and twisted but one with hope for redemption. The girl was a believer in second chances, hell, even third ones if it was possible. Mana was a lot of things, she kind of wanted to be all those things for some longer but her body didn't listen.
"Just close your eyes and go to sleep… You deserved rest" her last thoughts ordered.
OOC: Happy Holidays, I thought long and hard for ideas for a special Christmas Chapter but I couldn't think up of anything so instead I did a 4000 words longer chapter. I was never that good at writing people just celebrating something plus Christmas probably don't really exist in the Ninja World so instead I chose this idea. Hope you'll like it :)
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